Chapter 4 Part 4

Chapter 4: Strange alliances

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Part 4

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Tau Military HQ

Kronus

The little blue aliens attempted to impress Taldeer with their military might, that was her best guess about the parade formation that greeted the Farseer and her honour guard.

Rolls upon rolls of hover-tanks and gunships flanked the only free path leading to the command post. In front of every single vehicle stood a squad of infantry armed with pulse rifles backed up by large armoured suits complete with built in over-sized railguns.

The primitives, their barbaric Kroot auxiliaries and the Vespid insects buzzing around certainly lacked the proper deference and respect for their betters, that much the Eldar could sense from the gathered troops without even trying. The same was true for her warriors – a cadre of Banshees and Aspect Warriors striding proudly behind her, displaying their perfectly crafted arms and armour, which unfortunately failed to properly awe the aliens. That fact naturally put Taldeer's guards on edge, and their slowly boiling emotions spilled over her too, forcing her to work even harder to keep her composure.

This right there was a prime example of how far her people had fallen! Once upon a time, when the Aeldari reigned upon the galaxy, no one would have dared show such lack of respect for their betters! The Farseer bottled down her emotions and sent a wave of reassurance to her comrades. There was one useful benefit of this cute display of martial 'might' the Tau put forth – it was now obvious that while crude, their weapons and vehicle weren't as crude as those of the Mon-Keigh. They were going to be useful tools for the Eldar, and while it wouldn't be as satisfying to see the upstarts die at the hands of the Mon-Keigh, as it would be for the Eldar to put them in their place personally, die they will.

Taldeer schooled her features, smiled beautifully and slowly and deliberately removed her helmet once she stood face to face with the Tau leaders. Their military commander towered above her clad in his combat suit, which was almost impressive for something build by such a primitive species. Beside him stood the so called Ethereal, the representative of the civilian leadership of the Tau, who was in fact ruling over his clueless subjects thanks to liberal application of pheromones. The single interesting thing about that was the fact that said chemicals apparently worked on a wide range of aliens, which all things considered wasn't particularly common.

Naturally, said pheromones had no effect on the superior Eldar physiology.

Taldeer cradled her helmet in the crook of her arm, leaned on her spear-staff and relished at the reactions her psychically touched appearance had on the Tau. Now she had everyone's undivided attention, which was a good thing, even though she didn't appreciate beings little above common beasts drooling over her in their enclosed helmets. The primary downside was that with her own helmet off, the Farseer could very much smell the Ethereal's pheromones and frankly, they stank worse than a pile of burning Orks.

It was a close call, however Taldeer managed to keep her beaming expression on without showing even a flicker, not that it would have mattered in the short term. The Ethereal was all but smitten with her already, though the Tau military commander was apparently made from a sterner stuff, which got him a very tiny and very grudgingly given grain of respect. Still, that was certainly damning him with faint praise, as it was proper.

"Greetings, Tau. I am Farseer Taldeer." The Eldar sang, keeping the sneer she felt far away from her voice. "It is a pleasure to make you an acquaintance." Keeping a civil tone with these beings was one of the hardest thing she had ever done to date, still duty called.

"The pleasure is mine, my Lady!" The Ethereal at least bowed, even if the display was crude and graceless as expected. "I am Aun'El Shi'Ores and this is Commander Shas'O Kais."

The Commander merely gave her a sharp nod, which merely underscore the unease he radiated. He was struggling with the emotions her appearance stirred within him, which was both amusing and infuriating.

An exchange of empty and false platitudes, at least on Taldeer's side followed, before finally the Ethereal invited her and her party to enter the command center. At least, inside the Tau had proper climate control and the place was almost clean enough to pass muster. The command and control instruments were actually close to adequate as well, at least for species blind to the tides of the great ocean.

"Both of you are important, busy people, Commander, Ethereal." Taldeer sang, layering her words with strands of power. "I won't presume to waste your time and will come straight to the point. We, Tau and Eldar alike have a common problem and cause, here on Kronus. This pleasant world now suffers under the dual infestations of Mon-Keigh, their insane cultists and feral Orks."

"Sadly, many humans, especially among their leadership persist in resisting the Greater Good." The Ethereal uttered sadly.

"It is a tragic state of affairs, truly." Taldeer nodded in commiseration, valiantly resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "We're here to address this tragic turn of events, are we not?" She smiled charmingly. "I propose an alliance. Together, our people can do great things, we can put to rest the threats plaguing this world. For the Greater Good, of course." For the greater good of the Eldar species anyway.

"I'm heartened to hear you say this, my Lady Taldeer." The Tau grinned at her and in its glee sprayed even more pheromones into the enclosed space of the command center. Doing so, he came a heart-beat away from being incinerated from the inside out, while Taldeer struggled not to choke on the stench.

"I am overjoyed you approve of my suggestion, my dear Aun'El!" Taldeer gushed. "Shall we discuss the details of our new arrangement?"

An hour later, Commander Kais struggled to figure out how exactly he ended up agreeing to spearhead an offensive straight into the teeth of the human defenses in order to reduce them once and for all. The plan was solid, if expensive. Eldar strike teams would move in behind the front-line, disrupt enemy command and control, hunt down artillery and either neutralize or slow down their reserves. That in turn would allow the Tau to pierce the defensive lines, use their infantry to annihilate them once cut off, while their more mobile units would move through the breaches, exploit them and crush any and all reserve formations. Once that was done, they would strike in concern at Victory Bay and erase the Imperial Guard presence from the planet, cut off and contain the Space Marines stronghold as well. Phase three would be to dispatch the insane cultists while leaving strong enough force to fix the human super-soldiers in place. Dealing with them for good and finally hunting down all the feral Orks on Kronus would be the capping stone of the whole campaign.

The plan was deceptively simple in outline. Now Kais had to flesh it up into something his soldiers could put to actual use. While he still felt some unease about the alliance, it had the Water Caste's mark of approval, in fact it had Shi'Ores gleeful and full support, which was enough for the Commander. As usual, the Ethereals knew what they were doing.