#tzneetch

Book 1: "The Reclamation Wars: The Fall of the Greater Good"

To start, we have the T'au Core World's, including the T'au home world. Commander Shadowsun observes the Fire Warriors in their latest simulations training on one of the world's on the edge of Core Space. But she notices there are rumors and discontent going through her soldiers.

The "Purists of the Empire", a rising sub faction in the T'au Empire, don't seem to like the sub races all the much. And it's becoming a stressful situation. Last week it had come to blows between a Kroot and a T'au. Shadowsun intervened with no major injuries to any party, but she fears it will escalate. She only hopes they remain in whispers.

There is hope, though. "The Solar Congregation" has been gaining influence throughout the empire. Another sub faction that seems to not only accept the foreign life, they welcome them wholesale. Shadowsun has seen it flourish. Why, even a few moments ago, she saw a human woman and a T'au... woman... making out behind the shed.

A novel concept. Two woman, she thinks to herself.

Then it goes to a different perspective.

Just as Farsight is rumored to be tainted by a little bit of Khorne, would it make sense for the "Purists of the Empire" being influenced by an agent of Tzeentch and "The Solar Congregation" being influenced by a Slaneesh agent?

An agent known only as "The Changeling" comes to the Tau home world, and poses as an Ethereal. He starts gaining a name in the Purist circles. Using his vast experience in statecraft, acting, and infiltration to make a following, getting cozy next to the lead members of the Purists.

He starts showing them Chaos Magic, tricking them into thinking it's "Ethereal Magic", one only they can use. The Purists are already into the whole "T'au Superiority" idea, but now it's really cemented in their minds. They go out and start recruiting more, and more members. This new magic gives the Purists the ability to show the T'au they are superior. Eventually, the have entire legions following the Purist ideals.

And with a little nudge, the Purists take it one step further. With their rising influence, they take their beliefs to the front lines. Citizens of worlds conquered by the T'au are sterilized completely, never to reproduce. Only to serve the Greater Good and it's Champion Race. More and more, the Purists perform these actions, in their perceived interest of the Greater Good.

Meanwhile, a Slaneesh agent follows the Changeling, one by the name Nikiri. She slips into a form of a T'au, an Pilot of a Ghostkeel Suit. As she starts slipping into gatherings, parties, even the odd crowd, the influence of Slaneesh follows. She rises in rank with her knowledge of persuasion, emotional manipulation, and the odd seduction of an Ethereal. Eventually, she start hosting her own parties. Some of them spicier than others, turning into raunchy orgies.

Vanilla in her taste, but the T'au were young. They had time to learn to the darker pleasures later. The native T'au she's around begin to let down their prejudices about the foreign races. Some more than others, especially in private.

Word gets around, movements start occuring. "Equal Rights For All." "We All Bleed For The Greater Good." "Kroots, Vespers, Humans, We're All In This Together." The Solar Congregation gets a lot of supporters, due to their goals aligning. The Ethereal's and leaders of this faction begin to consider giving the citizens of the T'au Empire, Native or Not, Equal Rights. This would be, in their perspective, for the Greater Good.

But an incident occurs. After being reprimanded for sterilizing all the humans on a newly conquered planet from the Imperium, an Etheral Admiral, part of the Purists, decides to take it up a notch.

They go to the planet Shadowsun is on. And the Etheral's fleet begins to round up all Non-Natives and take them to camps. There, they surgically sterilize as many as they can. Shadowsun, appalled, orders them to stop. The Admiral says to keep going. An argument breaks out at the gate of the compound they're standing at.

The Admiral is shot in the head, his body flops to the ground. Shadowsun sees it's the T'au who was making out with a human woman. The same human woman who lay dead in her arms, killed for resisting arrest. The Purists open fire on her, Shadowsun's forces fire back in reflex when the woman is gunned down. And at this moment, Tzneetch is laughing.

The Civil War of the Greater Good has begun.

But we're not even done with the first book.

For halfway into the first book, one of the Changelings underlings is captured by some weird Bug thing with a strong mind. The minor demon tries to resist, but it's mind is swallowed and eaten by the Tyranid hive mind. And the location of the T'au Core System is revealed.

The Tyranids have been searching for the perfect spot to strike the T'au. An Empire almost as annoying as the Necrons. At least the Imperium had the courage to engage in melee combat. The T'au would shoot a Carnifex from 3 miles away. And if it did get close, only robots awaited the swarm.

But now the stubborn blue people were found, and they would become the next meal. A hive fleet is dispatched to assault the Core Worlds, and destroy the pillars that hold up the T'au Empire.

And as luck would have it, the blue people are busy shooting each other to think to do anything about the Tyranids.

The Purists of the Empire and the Solar Congregation are busy figuring out who's on whose side. The world's are almost split doesn't the middle. And for the world's that are declaring themselves for the Purists of the Empire, all foreign races are being sterilized. Right in the middle of T'au space.

The Solar Congregation couldn't abide by such hate, an arrogance produced by self serving lies. And the Purists of the Empire couldn't understand the debauchery of their opponents, seeing lust in the forms of xenos.

But in the fog of war, their doom came. The Tyranids descended upon all the T'au Core worlds as they were distracted. Suddenly, the trench lines were blurred into nothing, and fighting was everywhere. Unfortunately for the T'au, it was perfect for the Tyranids.

Shadowsun lead an extensive operation to evacuate the worlds, protecting all life behind from the endless hunger before her. She takes command of the T'au fleet, not caring what side of the civil war it's on, and escapes with as many people and warriors as she could save.

One by one, the T'au Empire was driven away from their home, forced into the colonies and space.

Book 2: "The Reclamation Wars: Shadowsun's Longshot"

After regrouping at on a T'au colony world, Shadowsun converses with her Council of War. A great discussion breaks out, a debate over whether or not to face the monstrous Tyranid Swarm.

Shadowsun could see that if they didn't retake the plundered worlds, the T'au Empire would cease to exist in a matter of years. The Greater Good was in danger.

She elected to retake the Core Worlds.

"With what army?", many in the Council ask. Shadowsun offers a suggestion. The Farsight Enclave.

Commander Farsight was an expert in the ways of war, and his forces could be the key to retaking the Core Worlds. Many object, but many agree. He may be a rebel, but he would answer the call of the Greater Good.

Commander Farsight is contacted and informed of the news. He jumps at the chance of rescuing the Empire. His forces consolidate with the T'au Empires fleet, and prepare for the Reclamation.

But not all is well in the ranks of the T'au warriors. Shadowsun was becoming the de facto leader of the Solar Congregation. The Purists of the Empire see that the Farsight Enclave is getting cozy with the Solar Congregation, Farsight and Shadowsun becoming good friends. Although the Civil War was put on "officially" put on hold, the feeling still smoldered.

Shadowsun has put different sides of the Civil War on different ships, and split them into different battle groups, supplemented by the Farsight Enclave. A few battle groups couldn't spare the luxury of being "completely" one sided and set off for war.

The their surprise, there were holdouts of the T'au forces that weren't able to escape. Multiple Crisis Suit squadrons, platoons, and battalions were holding the line as thousands of squads of Pathfinders and Strike teams blasted away at the Tyranid Swarm. But not without cost.

By the time the Reclamation fleet had returned, the Tyranids covered more than half of the first planet they arrived at. But they would have their day.

The forces of the T'au landed and attacked. The Tyranids counter attacked in force. A grisly meat grinder of war ensued. Battalions of snipers set up where they could to support breacher teams moving to clear the streets and fields of the world's. Pilots took suits to clear the interior of buildings, ones too important to level completely. Kroots ate Tyranids to adapt their DNA to better combat the menace.

The Tyranids raged as the T'au dared to resist. Carnifexs were dropped from the sky into T'au formations. Zoenthropes waged psychic war against the Ethereal's. Hordes of minions thrown at the Fire Warriors, for what is shooting good for if you're shooting at an ocean?

And the effects of the Civil War still persists. Orbital strikes are ignored if the requester wasn't from the same faction. Rearmaments are denied, excuses such as "conservation of ammo" and "already requested by someone else". Reinforcement requests being accepted, but never carried out. The cases were few and far between, but it was enough to see it happen.

And after the first world was taken, the Tyranids pushed back, the need for separating the two factions grew.

And the Changeling, still hidden, convinced Shadowsun to allow the Purists of the Empire to head to the next world in the east while Shadowsun moved north to the world in that direction.

Another battle, another conquest. Cleaner than last time, due to orders being carried out. One by one, the world's were retaken. Until finally, the Home World awaited.

And lying in wait was the Hive Fleets Flagship.

Book 3: "The Reclamation Wars: To Save the Greater Good"

The Home world had been 60% evacuated by the time the Tyranids landed. The Purists of the Empire were a week behind schedule. The Reclamation Fleet, the total forces of the Farsight Enclave and the Solar Congregation, arrived outside the planetary system. And what they saw was pure horror.

Not a single transmission was displayed. No beacons, no distress calls like they had been seeing from survivors. Nothing. Scans showed not even the wildlife remained. The Tyranid Swarm had devoured everything.

Why are they still there then? They should have left. They usually do. But there they were.

Observing the Flagship, Farsight saw it. A scar running through the center of the Flagship. Even worse, the flesh of Tyranids was often red, but the scar was blue flesh, hills and valleys in the vast surface area made to look like a T'au face.

Someone had taken command of the experimental Fire Lance, a weapon based off of the Imperiums Plasma Orbital Gun, modified for T'au tastes. Guided by an one of the last Ethereal's on the planet, the shot landed dead center on the beast.

It ripped a hole right through the monster. The Hive Fleet bled and suffered the burning sensation in it's gut, enhanced by the Ethereal, their hatred magnified by magic taught to him by the Changeling. The pain was so intense, the Hive Mind felt it throughout the Galaxy. A new, burning hatred of the T'au Empire was born in the hearts of the Tyranids.

It rebuilt its gut with the bodies and biomass of the eaten T'au citizens, almost brand new. And it waited for more, as it knew the T'au Empire would return. And made it's scar look like that, specifically to anger the T'au.

Looking on in horror, Shadowsun and Farsight knew it had to die. This beast would not leave or retreat. And the abomination must be killed for the morale of the troops. And for the Greater Good.

The forces of the Reclamation Fleet descended one more time, fighting to reclaim their lost home.

Weeks of fighting, clearing out the enemy, sustaining losses, but knowing victory was at hand. The fleets were wary of each other, not committing to a total engagement, hiding on each side of the planet, using it for cover. A peek there, a graze here, a pot shot a few times.

And the Purists were still late, saying their last world was giving them trouble.

This went on until one day, the Hive Fleet decided it was time to strike, seeing their forces on the ground getting pushed back. Assembling pieces of a city from the surface, it used the creation as a shield as the Tyranids Flagship charged at it's foes formation, followed by it's escort ships.

The T'au fired furiously, and blasting away the shield was a success, but it was close quarters fighting now as the dogfight began. The battle had intensified.

Then when it looked like the end was nigh, the battle in the favor of the Reclamation Fleet, the Purists of the Empire arrived.

And they wasted no time in their assault of the Reclamation Fleet, sparkling the Civil War anew.

And the Tyranid Hive Fleet blew up, the warheads destroying every last bit of it.

Farsight knew the scales were broken, and needed rebalancing. He took the entirety of his old weapons stash, pilfered from the Imperium. 3 Cyclonic Torpedo Warheads. He took a team and teleported in, planting them in strategic places.

Nakiri assisted the boarding team, playing her chips to save the T'au. She and several of her Slaneesh agents that were piloting crisis suits plowed into the Tyranid protectors inside the Flagship, giving Farsight the time he needed.

Once the bombs were planted, the hive mind made it impossible to teleport out. So they blasted a hole in the side and flew out towards their ships at high speed.

The Changeling didn't expect that in his advisory of the Purists early betrayal strategy. But they still had their numbers, and their position at the edge of the solar system. They had largely used auxiliary forces, reinforcements they had gotten from colony worlds, to recapture and garrison the world's they had been sent to liberate.

Their lives were cheap to the Purists after all. Now the final battle was here, the Purists main force almost untouched by battle.

Unfortunately for them, the Solar Congregation was now hardened by the Tyranids. Seeing they were under assault from their enemies, Shadowsun orders a tactical retreat to the far side of the planet.

Then she orders dead ships evacuated. Then the dead ships strapped together. And set to the front of the bulk of their fleet, like a shield.

The Purists approach the planet, intent on pursuing their enemies. Setting their weapons to better benefit them at close range, the Solar Congregation and the Farsight Enclave charged, using the shield to get close.

Befuddled by the tactic, the Purists blast away the shield, only to be caught in a hail of pulse fire by enemy ships.

They're forced to retreat as the losses start to mount. The Changeling, seeing his work was done, takes this opportunity to slip away, leaving some minions to keep influencing the Purists of the Empire as they evacuate from T'au space. Their Civil War was not over, but their time in home space was, for now. They would set up their Empire elsewhere, intent on making the T'au the dominant species of the Galaxy.

The Solar Congregation and the Farsight Enclave had an unsteady alliance due to the remaining Ethereal cast in the Solar Congregation and Farsight's hatred of them. But now he left the T'au in the hands of the Solar Congregation, intent on returning to his worlds, taking what he learned with him. Shadowsun and Farsight bid farewell.

Nakiri was ecstatic. The T'au reclaimed their home, and their love for the auxiliary forces was growing. The Kroot, the Vespers, the Humans, and more. They had been integral of the Reclamation. After the T'au Empire reestablished it's control of the sector, they gave the foreign species equal rights to the T'au, including reproductive rights. Nakiri had a lot of work ahead of her, seeing as the T'au worlds needed some "repopulation".

The world's that had been liberated by the Purists auxiliary forces submitted to the authority of the Solar Congregation. Although they were set through an intense inspection and investigation because of their previous officers, projections show favorable reintegration.

Now the T'au Empire had been through its baptism of fire, and made it through. Scarred, divided, but undeterred, the Greater Good rang true. And in this uncertain galaxy, two things were undeniable.

The Greater Good would persevere, with the T'au Empire leading the way.