Tau consolidate position

With Vallerander lost commander Starfire himself, Shadowstrike's right hand and overall commander of the Tyndareous campaign, decided to personally lead the attack on Burbeck Bay. His attacking force made up of veteran cadres who had fought on Tarsis and Melberg, and they were well used to Imperial tactics and capabilities. The Zadocians however, were unfamiliar with the Tau, the Imperium having destroyed their only units which had significant experience fighting them.

Starfire's forces stormed into the city, anihilating the Zadoc regiments defending the perimeter with well practiced precision and minimal casualties. The survivors of this assault fell back into Burbeck and to their credit mounted a fierce guerilla resistance. Starfire's cadre then had to fight from street to street, eventually securing the city and port after many days rooting out the last remnants.

Whilst this was happening, further south and east, mechanised cadres pushed through to capture Rainier Pass and air mobile cadres were deployed into the hills surrounding the Tyndareous Base while pathfinders periodically launched seeker missiles into it making imperial operations hazardous. Stealth suit infiltrations and drone patrols began ambushing any Imperial forces that attempted to leave the base to track down the pathfinders. The tau now had a massive strategic advantage and the Imperial forces on the planet had been widely scattered, their supply lines cut.

Meanwhile wider Tau strategy saw them returning to the Rim worlds, still dominated by the Catechism. For now the Tau were simply there to observe. They needed to know what the chaos forces were doing, what they were likely to do and what forces they had available to them if they were going to ramp up their campaign against the Imperium. The last thing the Tau needed was an opportunistic attack by the Catechism from an undefended flank.

The Tau pathfinder teams landed on Aornis, but the Catechism air force soon responded in force, and the tau air caste was forced to deploy defensive baracuda screens. After several dogfights the results were inconclusive, and the pathfinders were withdrawn as a precaution. The Tau were satisfied that the Catechism had no imminent plans to attack outside their own domain, but were none-the-less concerned with the strength the chaos forces still had at their disposal in the Rim Worlds.