Chapter 2: This Machine Kills XenosThe city of Axios was home to two million souls; human, xenos, and traitor alike. Today its urban streets would be the stage for a great drama; a titanic clash between the will of humanity and the sedition of the alien mind. That was, if the leader of the Axios cell, one Ignatio Cassiel had anything to do with it. He was dressed much like his cell members, in dark street clothes and some webbing underneath his jacket that held the ammo for the autogun in his hands and its underslung grenade launcher.
"Eagle four reporting in position." A voice chirped in his ear overlayed with static. The voice seemed to echo in the empty confines of hab room he was standing in. From the window he was currently standing at he could peer across the street and see their target; this sector's enforcer headquarters. It was a three story building that took up most of one corner of the T junction where the two streets in front of them intersected. Outside Cassiel could hear the hustle and rustle of city life; groundcars driving this way and that on the road, the sound of a few raised voices in the distance and the noises of city construction vehicles on the wind, and the sound of the breeze as it funneled between buildings.
"Eagle one copies all." Cassiel responded into his comm bead. "Standby for the signal."
"You think Jak ran into trouble in there?" The cell member sitting next to Cassiel asked. The young man had two belts of stub rounds wrapped around his shoulder and was checking the feed of a heavy stubber in his hands as he prepared to aim it at their target.
"We'll know in a few minutes." The cell leader responded as he checked his own weapon. He looked back out of the window down to the front of the enforcer station; a three story building of white brickwork with a staircase carved from concrete leading up to its double door entrance. Hooded windows overlooked the street outside on each floor and banners bearing the device of the ruling government as well as the Tau cadre on flagpoles jutted from the masonry. Enforcers in tan armor walked in and out of the building in small groups and likewise painted armored vehicles drove past. Cassiel gave it a good long look, trying to imagine what the building would look like in flames; with any luck in a few minutes it would be.
"So what happens when Jak doesn't come back out?" The voice chirped in Cassiel's ear again. It was a female voice and sounded rather sardonic.
"Have a little faith, Adina." Cassiel replied. "And stay off comms unless you have something useful to report."
"Aye, captain." The voice concluded.
"Five crowns says he has to kill his way out." Another voice said on the comms
"I'll take that bet."
"Enough!" Cassiel implored. "He just walked out the front, look sharp Eagles and wait for my mark."
A man in a long black coat exited the doors of the enforcer station. He stopped for a moment to stand in front of the garbage bin that stood off to the side of one of the doors and drew something out of one of the coat pockets, tossing it in the can before turning and walking down the staircase to street level.
"Eagle five here." The man said through the team's comms. "We're all set...wait...looks like we couldn't have asked for better timing."
Cassiel watched the man stand by the side of the street, he was looking at something further down the road. Cassiel traced the man's gaze down to the T junction and saw an armored vehicle rolling down towards the station. It stopped in front of the building and several armored figures disembarked from the rear door of the vehicle and headed towards the front door.
"Looks like they're going in the front Eagle one." The voice of the man down at the street side insisted.
"I can see that." Cassiel said coolly. "If we start this now you'll be real close to the action, your call."
The group of armored enforcers, about half a dozen of them, neared the doors of the station.
"I like close." The man responded. Then the bomb went off.
The explosive he'd placed in the garbage bin exploded violently sending its deadly shrapnel of nails and other metal bits flying at high speeds into the flesh of those around it. The six men walking into the enforcer station were consumed in a fiery cloud. Men and women walking on the street sides screamed in horror but their cries were drowned out by the whoosh of a rocket launcher being launched a full second later. From the open windows of the buildings across the street, an RPG jinked and shot, leaving a smoke trail behind it as it flew unerringly into a window on the bottom floor of the station, shattering the glass and exploding inside. A second RPG did the same to a window on the second floor, both explosives blowing out the windows on their floors in a rain of shattered glass.
Jakovez, the man the others had called Jak, was now the only one standing on his side of the street. Everyone else had either been caught in the explosions or thrown themselves flat and were now running away screaming. He threw off his coat, revealing a long blade strapped to his side and another at the small of his back. The driver of the armored vehicle in front of the station had gotten out and was now racing around the side of it when he saw the man in front of him drawing his two blades. The two looked into each others' eyes and in a flash, the enforcer had drawn his shock maul and came at Jak swinging. The blademaster easily swatted aside the crackling maul with one blade and extended the other through the man's unarmored neck. He gurgled for a moment before slumping to the ground, holding his ruined neck.
Elsewhere the fire picked up. Enforcers came stumbling out of the front doors of the building in a daze, hands on weapons as they tried to defend themselves. The sound of a heavy stubber opening up heralded their demise on the front stairs just as the enforcers who had fallen to the bomb had. A figure appeared in a third story window, a long arm clutched in his hands as he tried to aim in down at his attackers. A single streak of red las hit him square in the chest, sending him tumbling backwards and out of sight. A couple autoguns from the ambushers' side opened up on the remaining windows for good measure. Cassiel watched as two enforcers raced around the corner of the T junction with weapons in hand, having heard the commotion from down the street. He flipped up the sights on his autogun and took careful aim, then fired the secondary trigger on his weapon. The grenade launcher coughed once and the ground between the two running enforcers exploded, sending both of them to the ground. Somewhere nearby a siren blared.
"Alright Eagles, we're done here. I want everyone at the rendezvous point in sixty seconds. Go!"
Cassiel tapped the man next to him with the stubber on the shoulder and then made for the exit and the building's staircase, taking them two at a time. He didn't need to look back to know that his comrade was following him, the sounds of quick bootfalls were enough.
"Think that will be enough of a distraction for Talon team?" The female voice asked over the comms.
"Trust me Adina." Cassiel said as he ran down a hallway towards the hab block's back door. "In another two minutes every enforcer in this half of the city will be here. That's why we need to move. Jak! You've got thirty seconds, where are you?"
"Putting on the finishing touches, boss." There was another explosion from outside.
"What have you got against vehicles Eagle five?" One of the voices on the comms asked.
"Its not vehicles I don't like." Jak insisted as Eagle team faded into the urban sprawl of the cityscape. "I just really hate the color these bastards painted them."
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The inside of the bunker was dimly lit but there was hardly time for Lesec to allow his vision to adjust. Stopping in the doorway he was once again reminded of the reason why he was here as the muzzle of the commissar's bolt pistol was thrust into the small of his back. She wouldn't allow him to turn to look at her either. He'd only glimpsed her once just before the weapon had been smashed into his head. He was sure she had a pretty face but it seemed that anything else notable about her was all packed into that black stormcoat and pair of combat boots she was wearing. Lesec wondered where she was from for a fleeting moment, she had an accent of a kind he'd never heard.
They passed through small rooms and hallways within the bunker complex. Each had more of the rebels he had seen outside within them; some uniformed in the seemingly standard black fatigues and carrying weapons and some not. Some carried papers with them hurriedly down hallways while others were hunched over documents sitting on desks under the bright light of table lamps. A few of them even sat at what looked to be vox stations as evidenced by the headphones they wore. Each one gave Lesec a long stare as he passed through their work stations. Some looked on with interest, some with unhidden derision, and others expressed nothing at all, simply giving him one moment of their attention and then going back to work.
The two finally found the end of a long hallway where a single armed guard stood to the side of a wrought iron door of solid bars that appeared to be the entrance to a lift. A rebel holding a lasrifle was standing guard at the lift. Lesec stopped in front of him. He had a thin face and well groomed hair and his expression seemed to be permanently set to some sort of attempt at suaveness but ended up looking snide. The man nodded to the Commissar as the two came to a halt in front of him.
"Ah, Commissar." The man said smoothly. "I see you brought the dear Colonel another gift. Though you ought to know he prefers ones with more meat on their bones."
"Trooper Trolluc." The Commissar said with something Lesec though might have been a sigh. "Be that as it may, our commander has asked to see this one personally. If you would be so kind."
The rebel made a sweeping gesture with one hand and bowed slightly at the waist as if he was some sort of showman. "Of course, Commissar. Who am I to argue with the man himself over what sorts he likes?"
He then turned and took a key from his belt which was on a chain. The chain had small, fluffy white things hanging off of it which Lesec realized were some sort of bird feathers. The rebel put the key into a slot on a panel on the wall and suddenly movement could be heard beyond the bars in the lift shaft. The sound got louder as the lift slowly came down from the floor above them.
"Your chariot, madam." Trolluc said with another flourish as he opened the barred door. The commissar shoved Lesec inside and followed him.
"What, no tip?" Trolluc seemed to complain. His face seemed to indicate mischief, however.
"Fresh out of coin I'm afraid." The Commissar said, finding a smile of her own that Lesec found disturbing. "Though I could double your guard duty seeing as you seem to enjoy it so much." That did it.
"Right, I'll just put it on the tab then shall I?"
"As you were, trooper."
Trolluc closed the door and turned the key again. The lift cranked back on and started to ascend. The bottom floor disappeared from sight as it did. With nothing but the sound of the lift to disturb his thoughts, Lesec briefly wondered who this leader the rebels had been referring to was. Was he criminally insane? Would he have Lesec tortured for information? His stomach fell into his feet at the thought of enduring such pain. Was he some sort of tactical and strategic genius? He had to have been to hide this army out here in the woods without his superiors being aware of them. Lesec's imagination ran wild in those few moments. His knees were shaking by the time the lift came to a stop. The door opened. The observation and control deck outside was just as dimly lit as the floors beneath them...
A small shape jumped off a shelf mounted on the wall next to the lift entrance. It sat in front of Lesec, blocking his path.
"Meow." blared the cat, its lazy eyes regarding Lesec with disdain. Lesec's brow furrowed at the surprise intrusion. Before he could speak he heard the ringing of a bell. The cat's head snapped around at the sound and it swiftly bounded off and leaped onto a large table that sat in the middle of the room. The windows along the walls let light from outside spill in and backlit a smart looking figured sitting in a chair next to the table. the figure put down the bell he had rung as the cat sauntered over and began to eat the food it had been summoned for out of a dish on the table's top. The figure's hand stroked the cat slightly before standing to its feet.
"Is this the one I requested then?" The figure said, stepping into the light. Lesec saw a man in high black boots; polished immaculately. In fact, immaculate was a good word to describe the man. He wore some sort of dress uniform of rich dark blue which was lined with a similarly dark green frogging. As clean as it was, it was not burnished or gilded in any unnecessary way as the nobles seemed to favor wearing. The only things that shined on the man's clothes were the buttons of his jacket and the silver aquila pendant upon his officer's cap. With one hand the man drew off the cap and with the other he took off a pair of glasses he had been wearing and set them on the table.
"This is the traitor we captured in the ambush, sir." Harrab reported, nudging Lesec out of the lift again and shutting the door behind them.
"Good. Not too damaged, I hope."
"He can walk, sir." Harrab replied as if that were some sort of shame.
"Can he speak?"
"I wouldn't be escorting him otherwise." The Commissar said, shooting a quick glare into the back of Lesec's head. Lesec stood silently, observing his surroundings. He kept his fear at bay by telling himself that he needed to remember as many details as possible to relay to his superiors when he escaped or was rescued.
"Excellent. You may return to your duties, Commissar." The man said, turning to a shelf on a wall next to him. Lesec noted that the top floor of the bunker was all one room that seemed to be speparated into different sections. In this section there were vox stations, the large conference table, several chairs and the wide shuttered windows that gave a view to the outside. Another section seemed to be a kitchen where it appeared an orderly was preparing a tray of something over a stovetop. The last section was a large bed and several book cases filled with heavy bound tomes along with more shelves covered with vases, bottles of different types of alcohol and other expensive looking knick knacks. The Commissar saluted her leader and made to leave.
"One last thing, actually." The Commissar halted. "Unshackle him."
Harrab looked at Lesec. He looked at her.
"Do you really feel that wise, Sir?" She asked, hesitating.
The man picked a bottle off the shelf along with some glasses. "Please, Commissar. The man is standing in a room where the only weapons are being held by me, you, and Captain Warrender's lot over there in the corner." He pointed out half sarcastically
Lesec looked to the indicated corner and sure enough he saw a group of men all clad in black carapace armor hunched over a vox where one of them was writing down a message. One of the men standing next to the vox station turned at the sound of his mention. Lesec saw he was wearing a red beret with a golden badge shaped like a skull and dagger pinned to it. The man puffed on a wooden pipe and regarded Lesec with dark eyes, a hellgun clutched in his hands. Lesec shivered as the man's gaze passed through him...as if he were nothing.
"As you wish, sir." The Commissar said, shrugging. She dutifully unlocked the shackles from Lesec's hands with a key and took them with her as she left in the lift. Lesec breathed a sigh of relief as the lift disappeared.
"Now then." The man in the dress uniform said, setting the glasses on the table and filling them with what looked to be amasec. "I usually fancy a shot of the good stuff at this hour. Keeps me lucid on the long days. Care to join me?"
Lesec stammered. After the welcome he had received earlier, this man's warmth was off-putting. He stepped forwards and took the glass that had been offered to him, regarding the liquid inside as if it were venom. He looked back up at the man, dark haired and young faced as he was and saw none of the hate he had seen earlier.
"Ah, where are my manners?" The man said, apparently interpreting Lesec's expression of confusion. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Joshua Darkonius. I lead this little rabble here, no offense to present company of course." He took a sip from his glass before continuing. "What about you my good man? You must have a name."
Lesec swallowed before answering, not at all trusting the man's amiable disposition. "Lesec. Lieutenant. Serial seven six four-"
"Oh come now, this isn't an interrogation." Darko said, cutting him off with a chuckle.
"It's not?" Lesec blurted.
"Not yet. Unless you want it to be. Right now you and I are having a friendly conversation. I realize the path you had getting here wasn't pleasant but I assure you none of it was unnecessary. You are my guest after all. We don't get to many of those out here. Now let's try again."
"Very well." Lesec said shakily. "My name is Lesec. I hold the rank of Lieutenant in the planetary defense forces."
Darko smiled. "There now that wasn't so hard was it?" He took another sip of his drink. Lesec hadn't touched his.
"If I may pose a question, sir, are you by chance the Colonel I've been hearing about?"
"I am indeed. Though the title is purely informal I assure you. My lads and lasses call me that as a mark of respect to my forbearers."
"You're forebearers...sir?" Darko's lip curled in a pleased smile as the question was asked.
"Let me show you something, Lesec." He said as he walked over to one of the large windows on the deck. Lesec timidly followed still aware that he was barefoot by the chill of the metal floor under his feet.
The two came to the window's port. Outside the small settlement could be plainly seen from the height where they now stood. Lesec saw it all before him; the simple life of these people without the interruption of an enemy prisoner to distract them. People walked this way and that. Children ran along the paths leading dogs who chased after them. Workers wheelbarrowed all sorts of things around the small buildings that had been built under the tree tops. Groups of militants, the kind that had ambushed Lesec and his convoy, clad in their black fatigues and gear sat at tables in the clearing yard below the bunker and exchanged stories and news with their weapons strapped around their shoulders or propped up on the table next to them. Lesec realized it was a scene cut out of any little village or town all across the world; an entire settlement tucked away and hidden, unknown to anyone but the people who lived there.
"You see those men down there? All those people, those juvies, those women, those soldiers? They've all been here longer than any one of us can remember." Darko began to explain. Lesec looked at it all for a moment more and could only think of one question.
"Why?" He asked. "Why hide out here in the middle of nowhere? Why raid your own people and kill your own soldiers? Why hold on to the way things were in the old days before the war?"
"We're all remnants of that war you know." Darko said with a snort. "You and me and every man, woman, and child on this planet. A hundred years ago when the Tau claimed this world there were winners and there were losers." He looked at Lesec with a raised eyebrow. "Guess which ones we were?"
"You're imperials?" He asked. It wasn't unheard of for there to be Imperials on the planet. Some still traded with the Tau after all.
"Do you think the Imperium went quietly when the Tau came?" Darko asked. Lesec racked his brain, trying to bring up the old history lessons he had learned in the scholam. "Who do you think were the last to hold the line?"
"I remember learning about how the fire caste fought the soldiers of the imperial guard." Darko nodded slightly. He pointed towards the window with one hand.
"See that man down there?" Lesec looked and saw the fighter with the red bandana the rebels had called Wark sitting at the table. He seemed to be in the middle of telling a story about a fight by the way he was gesturing with his hands. "His grandfather was a man from the Catachan regiments. That one there sitting next to him?" Darko shifted his finger to the slimmer man who had been called Neptus who was sharpening his big, crooked knife. "His great uncle was a man from the world of Tallarn. Each and every one of the men down there who follow my orders are descended from the imperial men who came here a hundred years ago to keep the Tau from conquering this planet. Each of the men, women, and children living in that little village over there are the sons and daughters of those who decided to stay upon the one true path."
"There is only one true path." Lesec answered dutifully as he finally took a sip of his drink. He struggled for a moment as the device buckled around his neck impeded him from swallowing too fast. "I was always taught to fight the good fight. For the greater good."
A few heads in the room snapped around as he intoned those words. He noted the glares in those faces but he did not care. Lesec might have been a prisoner, he might have been lower than scum to these people, but he would not be cowed by the enemy. He was a proud soldier of the greater Tau forces defending his homeworld and he would not deny it. He expected some sort of negative reaction from Darko but the man just laughed softly. Lesec set his nearly empty glass on the table behind him.
"If we are done with the history lesson, Colonel, perhaps you can tell me what this dreadful thing is." He said, tapping the device on his neck.
"That would be a bomb collar." Darko said plainly. Lesec's eyes widened. "Don't worry, it wont go off unless you try to break it off or you go too far away from this camp. Can't have you scurrying off to tell your xeno friends all about our little operation now can we?" He remarked with no small amount of satisfaction. Lesec deflated internally. He had been thinking of ways to escape ever since he had entered the bunker but now it seemed even if he did escape it would mean he would meet a very violent end. It seemed he would have to bide his time.
"Colonel Darko, sir." The two turned to see that the orderly that had been in the kitchen was now standing next to the table and setting a tray down upon it in front of the Colonel's chair. The man set a porcelain cup upon a dish on the table and poured something into it from a kettle. Smoke gently rose from the cup.
"Tea is served. You also might like to know that master Coolman has returned from the field with his report. He insisted it needed to be brought to you at once."
"Good man." Darko said, nodding. He went over to the table, setting the glass he had been holding aside and picking up the dish and cup in its place. Lesec once again followed, knowing one misstep could see him in some severe hurt. He watched as the Colonel took a single sip of the tea and then nodded to the orderly. "Let him in."
A minute later the door was being closed behind another figure in black fatigues who had come in from the lift. He was a compact man, broad in the shoulders and light skinned with dark, close cropped hair; a very military appearance and aura surrounded him. The man was wearing a helmetwith some sort of field scope attached onto a visor atop it. He took that off and set it on the conference table in front of him. Next, the man unslung the long las from his shoulder and leaned it against the table as well. Lesec saw that its long chrome barrel was covered by a thin cloth sleeve patterened in woodland camoflauge pattern. The rebel militant did all this wordlessly and when he was finally unburdened by his equipment, he came to stand in front of the Colonel and snapped to attention in the most rigid pose Lesec had seen outside of the parade grounds.
"Trooper Coolman reporting, sir." He said throwing a salute so sharp it could cut glass. Darko made a decent attempt at returning it with his free hand.
"As you were, trooper." He said, nodding and taking another sip of his tea.
"Sir, I was making my reconnaissance runs with my spotter as we were ordered. At 02.00 hours the vox net we had set up in the area of the ambush picked up some chatter that I think might interest you."
"Oh?" Darko said, perking up at the news. "May we listen to it?"
Trooper Coolman dug into one of his tunic's pockets and produced a disk which he then set on the table. Captain Warrender had materialized from his spot in the corner and picked up the disc before moving over to a port under the table and inserting it. After a few moments the in built speakers in the table gurgled to life. Everyone on the deck was silent as they listened. There were lots of background noises; far away voices barking orders, the hum of hover engines, and of course the static of vox interference all filled the room as its occupants craned to hear what was being said.
"Sho'kor's squad has completed their sweep, Shas'ui." A voice finally said. "They are returning to the rally point as we speak."
"I suppose they didn't find anything either?" A second voice asked. Both had a heavy accent.
"No, Shas'ui, they found no evidence of either the convoy or its assailants. Do you think this will affect the honored one's visit?"
"Probably. But I do not think he will shy away from the public because of it. Shas'O Vek is sure to order all our forces to standby until after his envoy leaves."
"I hope that is so. We haven't been honored with the presence of the Aun in many a year."
The conversation continued but none of it was more pertinent than what had already been said. The recording eventually ended and silence once again reigned in the room.
"That confirms our intelligence at least." Captain Warrender said, speaking for the first time. "An official Tau envoy is to come planetside soon, and it sounds like it will be sooner than we had anticipated."
"It does indeed." Darko replied, his eyes transfixed as if in deep thought. "Very well. Coolman, you have done well by bringing this to me. Please take Mister Lesec here to his quarters and then go get yourself a good meal."
The stalwart trooper who had stood in place the entire time without so much as twitching nodded once and saluted with a quick "Sir!" Before gathering his things.
"Captain Warrender, summon the team leaders, we have a large task ahead of us and not much time to do it in." He turned to Lesec just as Coolman had come over to escort him out. "And Lesec. Make the most of your time here. I am sure your stay will be quite lengthy."
With that, Coolman marched Lesec back to the lift and he was left to ponder how he would get a warning out to his superiors before it was too late.
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In another part of Axios while Eagle team was busy making a commotion for all within the city to hear, in the commercial district another team of shadowy figures skirted the outer wall of the downtown broadcast station from an alley next to the building. The figures hid their faces in wraps of black cloth that hid all but their eyes from the world outside. In their hands they held autoguns and pistols all with long cylindrical silencers attached to their muzzles. The figures deftly helped each of their number over the brick wall that cordoned off the station's vehicle yard from the buildings around it. The figures, six in all, crept through the yard in broad daylight. Nobody was around besides one lonely mechanic who was busy working under the hood of one of the parked groundcars within the yard. It was a simple task for the six to overpower him and render him unconscious. The six worked as a well trained team; three kept watch while the others bound and gagged him wordlessly, setting his limp body to lean against the side of the car he had been working on.
The six made their way over to the garage door which lead into the main building above them. A relay mast shot into the air above the building with dishes and antennae near the top. One of the figures punched the code into the panel next to the garage door and it opened with loud cranking and whirring. From there it was just a few doors away until they were in the building.
A security guard came down a staircase to their far right as they entered the building. He looked up, recaf mug still in hand, confusion and surprise written all over his face.
"What-" He managed. Two of the figures raised their weapons and fired. The room was filled with a sharp coughing noise like a small car backfiring as they unloaded several rounds into him. The guard fell back, spilling recaf all over his body as well as the staircase.
It took two minutes and twenty three seconds for the six man cell to clear all the building's floors. They encountered five more security guards and fourteen station staff. All were surprised by the sudden and silent appearance of their assailants. They never had a chance to pose any resistance. Within three minutes, the broadcast station was effectively in their control. In the main broadcast room at the top floor, one of the figures took his mask off as he entered, revealing a human face. He walked over to the wall of holo display screens where another of the team, similarly unmasked, worked furiously over the broadcast controls.
"We're running out of time, Drax." The roguish trooper said. "Give me some good news."
"Just need a few more seconds. Eagle did a good job, if the enforcers weren't busy on the other side of the city, we'd have never pulled this off."
"So buy them drinks when we get back to the safehouse. Now tell me we're done here."
"Patience, Rapton. Its bad enough I have to deal with trying to input these codes perfectly without you breathing down my neck."
"Maybe it would be easier if the enforcers and the entire Tau expeditionary force were all over us. Because that's what's going to happen if you don't speed this up."
Drax half turned and snorted. "Its done, Sir impatience. Give me the disc."
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Miles away near the city center was the so called "Plaza of Peace." The traditional center where the manufactorum, commercial, and business districts met. Enormous holo display screens were mounted on the sides of buildings meters in the air above the bustling boulevards below. Masses of citizenry walked this way and that along the urban sidewalks, some groups congealing to one side or the other and dispensing news or other pleasantries before going on their way. The plaza was a host to thousands of people crossing it by foot or groundcars per day and in the center of it all was a fountain spraying clear water into the air for the sun to dazzle into. It had been built when the Tau, the new masters of the planet had taken over governance of the city as a sign of goodwill between man and alien.
One one of the plaza corners stood a building unlike the rest. While most of the city was undoubtedly Imperial in make with strong buttresses and acute, practical angles, a few newer buildings had more flowing shapes, less rigid design, and more finesse in construction. One of these was the Tau embassy of Axios. While the Tau were in total control of the planet, their doctrine allowed the humans to govern themselves for the most part, but that did not mean that the people did not have a way to address the governing Tau body directly. The embassy was not actually one building but in fact was made up of the large main building that was visible for blocks around as well as several smaller ones within walking distance upon the premises. The entire block was penned by a high fence with razorwire surrounding it. Fire warriors were posted along the fence at checkpoints and at each entrance. The humans and Tau might have had quite an amiable relationship but that did not mean they were exempt from the threat of more extreme ideologies.
On one of the upper balconies of the main embassy building an imposing figure stood. The alien form was clad in alabaster white armor that covered him from head to toe. He was joined by two smaller figures, both fire cast warriors in their own armor. None of the alien warriors carried weapons but looked out upon the plaza with all seeing eyes.
"This security threat is unacceptable." The white armored giant said tersely. "We will have no choice but to address it before the arrival of Aun'Astor."
"Units from Corzica and Buges are already en route, Shas'O." One of the smaller figures in tan armor replied. "They should be arriving within two days time."
"Very well, we shall begin by...what is going on down there?" The Shas'O said as he noted strange activity in the plaza below. All of the holo displays switched off at once and were replaced by a single transmission.
three figures suddenly appeared on the screen. All of them were very dimly backlit deliberately so as to cast the figures in shadow. Two figures stood on either side of a third who sat in a large chair in the center of the room that was now on the screen. the figure in the center sat with steepled fingers. The figure to the right of the chair wore a long black coat and wore a peaked cap embossed with a grinning skull, the figure to the left was clad like a soldier and held a huge stubber in his muscle corded arms. All three glared at the viewers in the plaza who were now slowly stopping in place to watch the screens above them.
"Citizens of the world of Pentosia." The central figure in the chair began. He wore an officer's hat with a sigil that nobody in the crowd was familiar with. The Tau were certainly familiar with the Imperial aquila, however. "My name is Darkonius, I lead the Imperial Liberation Front. Many of you may not be familiar with our group but I assure you that you will become very well acquainted with us in the coming days."
A hush had fallen over the plaza as thousands of people looked up in horrid fascination at the screens. The broadcast was playing on every screen in the city. Shas'O Vek was far from silent, conversing furiously in his helmet with someone on the other end.
"What is going on?...Well find out! I want a report in the next two minutes or I swear someone will face severe consequences..."
"Let me just say that for many years the citizens of this great world have been content to live in the shadow of their xenos masters." The figure on the holo screen continued. "That lazy peace ends today. To the each man and woman young and old, especially those who have stayed true to the Great Emeporor who watches over us from his Golden Throne; have no fear. Rejoice, for your freedom is finally at hand after more than a century of foreign rule. To the xenos masters who are now viewing this and hearing my voice I have only this to say...your days are now numbered. Ave Imperator."
The transmission ended...the screens cut to static and after a few moments went back to their normal broadcasts. Shas'O Vek turned to one the soldiers standing next to him.
"Contact the forces coming from the other bases. Tell them a state of emergency is now declared in Axios..." He was interrupted by a fire warrior squad, weapons in hand, rushing out onto the balcony from within the building.
"Shas'O!" The squad's Shas'ui shouted hastily without observing any of the normal obeisances to officers. "I've been sent to ensure your safety! We must leave the embassy now! A transport will be here in the next few minutes to take you to a safe location elsewhere!"
"I am not leaving until I've been given a report!" The Shas'O barked.
"Several explosions have already ripped through our other compounds in the city, sir. The Earth Caste center was attacked two minutes ago. We have to go now!"
The Shas'O was hurried from the balcony by the fire warrior squad but not before imparting a final order to his subordinates.
"Make that call, Shas'ui! This situation must be contained!"