The mines of Kel'tyr [Fan Fiction] (originally posted by me over at ATT)

C&C very much welcome, I am looking to improve my skills as an author as much as I can!

“Prepare to fire on my word! We hold them here, for the Greater Good!”
Shas’ui’Sa’cea’Cal’Doran’s words went largely unheard amongst the deafening pounding on the shrine doors, the horrific shriek of metal being torn apart under monstrous forces.

The survivors of fire warrior teams Vre’Var and B’Kak, arrayed in a neat firing line behind Cal’Doran, flinched with each reverberating clang. Fingers tensed on triggers in uneasy anticipation.

As Cal’Doran checked his ammo gage for the third time, a particularly vicious blow tore off one of the massive vault door’s hinges, leaving it askew. Natural light broke into the shrine, along with the foul stench of the be’gel’mont’he.

For the first time, doubt entered his mind. How could eleven fire warriors hold the eastern approach? He regained his composure quickly, the iron discipline of the Sa’cean fire caste more than adequate to sweep these thoughts aside.

Finally, the massive door fell in with a groan of protesting metal. The greenskin brutes swarmed in, trampling those too slow to keep up, not even taking time to remove their ram from where it was unceremoniously dropped.

“Deploy photon grenades on my mark!” called Cal’Doran, waiting for the longest handful of heartbeats in his entire life.
“Mark! Deploy grenades and dim visors!” His shout was met with the whoosh of grenades being launched from carbines, followed shortly after by the fizz-crack of their detonations.

“Shas’la of Vre’Var and B’kak, fire at will, for the Tau’va!” yelled Cal’Doran, opening up with his pulse carbine on full auto. The front rank of orks was decimated, washed away in a sea of electric blue plasma pulse, the smell of charred flesh, muscle and fat offensive in it’s potency.

But it would not last. As potent as the tau’s weaponry was, the orks were tougher, and more numerous. As the fire warriors clips ran dry, one by one, the powerful barrage slowly became something more piecemeal, struggling to fit the fresh cartridges in quick enough to revive the volley.

By the time the firing line was ready again, it was too late. The greenskins were barely a dozen paces away, and even fully automatic pulse fire wasn’t going to save them.

“Five of you fall back and lay down suppressing fire, we’ll cover you for now!” barked Cal’Doran. He leapt out of the way of the nearest orks’ cleaver, calmly side-stepping and drawing his pistol in one fluid motion, ending the wretched creature.

“No”, called a calm, powerful voice behind him “we will hold them here. There is no alternative”. And with that Aun’shi, seemingly materializing from nowhere, stepped up to the line and thrust his blade forward, impaling the nearest greenskin through the throat, leaving it’s head clinging to it’s body by little more than limp flesh.

“I thought you were leading the defence of the western entry, is it not so, your ethereal majesty?” queried Cal’Doran, frantically ducking a blow that would have bisected him quite handily.

“The greenskin menace was repelled and extinguished on that front, respected shas” replied Aun’shi, as he twirled his blade faster than the eye could follow, removing the legs of the greenskin the dared attack him.

“This is good at least. What reinforcements of my caste do you bring from that gate?” Cal’Doran asked breathlessly, noticing the rapidly dwindling number of warriors under his command, and slipping his last pulse cartridge into his pistol.

A sudden melancholy seemed to pass over Aun’shi as he replied “I am the lone survivor, I held the penultimate assault without support”. As he spoke these words, a massive greenskin, easily identifiable as the leader of this assault, reach the tau lines. A single massive sweep of it’s club claimed the lives of two fire warriors, pulping the skull of the first and pulverising the entire torso of the second.

Aun’shi advanced towards the beast, cutting down the three greenskins who stood in his way. As he reached the great beast, the other orks seemed to lose interest in him, perhaps realizing that to interfere with the personal combat would draw the wrath of their leader.

The warboss grinned and threw his club at the ethereal, who narrowly avoid it, ducking only just in time. When he regained his stance, the charging warboss filled his vision, intending to gore him on it’s massive tusks. Aun’shi planted his feet, and when the warboss was in striking distance, he thrust the honour blade with all the strength he could muster into the greenskin’s leg.

The beast charged on, barely seeming to notice the twelve inches of steel that penetrated its leg. Aun’shi was forced into a clumsy dive to avoid the charge, drawing his symbols of office in an incongruously calm movement once he’d stood back up.

The ork bellowed in rage at being denied it’s kill and turned around, furiously searching for the ethereal. Finally locating him, it walked ponderously towards him, blade still impaling its leg. The puddles of blood spread across the stone floor from the ongoing battle rippled with each step it took, such was it’s mass.

Stealing the initiative, Aun’shi charged his opponent despite being outweighed twelve to one. Leaping at the last second, Aun’shi landed on the shaft of the honour blade protruding from the monster’s leg and thrust both his hand weapons into the beast’s barrel chest, sliding them in up to the hilt.
The beast, however, was almost indifferent. With a snort that could have been a chuckle, it swatted Aun’shi from his perch, one of the two hand weapons remaining embedded in it’s flesh. Now armed with only the one short blade, he knew he’d have to make his next moves count.

Again taking to the offensive, Aun’shi ran at the creature, rolling between it’s legs as he closed with it. Coming up from his roll, he struck out, blindingly fast, and cut the beast’s left hamstring at it’s midpoint. With a terrible roar of rage, the beast collapsed to a knee. Aun’shi moved around to the front, to look his bested opponent in the eye before executing it.

“I am Shas’Aun’Shi, ethereal of the tau empire, friend to the fire ca-” suddenly he found him self lifted off the ground by the massive hands of this primitive creature. Arms pinned against his side, he could feel the life being crushed from him. He resolved to die an honourable death, not screaming or crying as many gue’la seem inclined to do.

Just as suddenly as it came, the hand retracted. Wondering why the creature chose to spare him, Aun’shi quickly realized that it wasn’t because of some sense of mercy embedded in the creature, but rather because it was distracted. Leaving what remained of his cobbled together squad, Cal’Doran had shot the creature numerous times in the flanks, prompting it to turn as best it could. The bold sergeant was now pressing the attack with his bonding knife drawn, though Aun’shi could tell that close combat was not something the sergeant was practiced in.

The beast reached out with a meaty paw towards the stubborn Shas’ui, but he impaled it’s hand with his bonding knife. Withdrawing its hand, and the bonding knife with it, the creature reached out with its other hand, hauling Cal’Doran into the air. With an air of infinite rage it crushed his right leg to a pulp and tossed him across the chamber, thankfully behind the 4 remaining firewarriors rather than into a mass of orks.

Capitalising on the brave squad leader’s bold attack, Aun’shi ran at the beast and wrenched the honour blade from its leg. Now properly armed, the ethereal swung his blade in a wide arc, leaving the warboss’s good leg in a state of ruination with a strike precisely aimed at what appeared to be the foul be'gel's artery.

Now down on both knees, the beast was eye-level with the ethereal. Aun’shi went about the complete deconstructing of his foe with his characteristic calmness, removing first the monster’s good arm with a flurry of strikes that were powerful enough to cut through even thick orkish musculature, next the removal of its tusks, and finally a piercing slice deep into the chest.

Now thoroughly crippled, the ork let loose a defiant yell, and more than a little spittle, in the ethereal’s direction. “I am Shas’Aun’Shi, ethereal of the Tau Empire, friend to the Fire Caste, and I will be your end”. With that, the ethereal thrust his blade up under the creature’s chin and into it’s brain, instantly extinguishing it’s life.

Finished with his duel, Aun’shi calmly removed his blade from the gargantuan corpse of the one ton be’gel, and rejoined the pair of shas’la who remained alive, protecting the now comatose form of their shas’ui. Blade moving faster should be possible, he calmly removed the arm of the greenskin who dared attempt to bar his way.

The situation, however, was dire. The shas’la were out of ammo and had resorted to bludgeoning the greenskins with their carbines, which was not working out well against fighters so well versed in the art of the brawl. Even worse, every time a be’gel went down, two took it’s place. They couldn’t hold out.

The two shas’la went down in quick succession, as the orks were eager to prove themselves the ‘ardest in battle and fill their late leader’s vacant position. Aun’shi was left alone next to the prone form of the scarred veteran, desperately fending off dozens of blows. He could only hope the other three approaches would hold.

One blow got through his defences and clipped his leg, but he would not cry out. He would bear the pain stoically, for the Greater Good. Instead, his only reaction was to strike out at the offending be’gel, slicing along the length of it’s belly, spilling it’s entrails out across the cold stone floor.

Attempting to sidestep a heavy blow that would otherwise mean his death, he slipped in the blood, now covering his ankles. He fell onto his back, accepting that his death was at hand. The shadow of his killer-to-be loomed large over him, casting a dark shadow across him, massive cleaver held high, ready to strike.

Suddenly, a score of be’gel exploded, including his would-be killer, followed a second later by a deafening whip-crack. Aun’shi seized the opportunity and sprang to his feet, letting his blade swing out and lacerate the nearest enemy he could find in a dozen places.

Hearing two metallic thuds behind to him, Aun’shi turned about to see the unmistakable, towering forms of two crisis suits land next to him. They both inclined their ‘heads’ to him, before opening up with their burst cannons and plasma rifles, sawing through the mass of orks. On the sides of the cavern, stealth suits de-cloaked and started tearing into the horde with their own burst cannons as well as with fusion weaponry.

Another whip-crack sounded and seeing it’s deadly results, Aun’shi noticed broadsides standing in the shrine doorway, and could hear the distinctive hum of hammerhead anti-grav platforms outside. Knowing the battle against the feral orks was as good as over, the warrior ethereal turned towards the prone form of the crippled Shas’ui. Speaking into his comm.-link, Aun’shi called for a medic drone and attempted to staunch the bleeding, fashioning a tourniquet of his outer robe.

“Live, brave Shas’ui, for the Tau’va” implored the battered and wearied ethereal. “Kel’tyr has held”.

***************

“Assembled Shas of Sa’cea, hear me. This day, our most despised enemy, the be’gel, redeploys from their current stronghold to march on the gue’vesa city of Hope’s End. We cannot let this happen. We have an arrangement worked out with the humans, and so they must be protected. We will strike them at the mid-way point between their fortifications and their destination. We bring with us battlesuits of terrible power, tanks as swift as the dawn and discipline forged of iron, but do not underestimate the brutes. They are fierce and they are tough. We deploy in 5 decs, I suggest you prepare yourselves now”

And with that, Shas’El’Sa’cea’Cal’Doran’Lar turned and walked away, mechanical leg clanking slightly on the Gal’leath’s tiled floor.

Note: All tau terminology is authentic
http://forums.tauonline.org/tau/37435-definitive-tau-xenolexicon.html (source for tau terms)