Rillietan raid Tau on Tyndareous

The war on Tyndareous, which had fallen into sporadic fighting during 10.011M42, took a bizarre twist on 2110.011M42, when the main Tau base between Cranburg and Vallerander, came under unexpected attack from the Rillietan faction of the eldar.

Led by the avatar of the laughing god, backed up by eldar skimmer vehicles, the Rillietan appeared from nowehere and moved swiftly towards the Tau positions. They had already done significant damage to the Tau installation before the Tau responded, and when Fastblades Cadre deployed to counter the eldar attackers, the situation didn't really improve.

Despite the Tau being armed with broadsides and plenty of Hammerhead gunships, the Tau faired badly against their enemy. Eldar Fire Prisms took their toll on the broadsides, and inaccurate railgun fire didn't help. Fastblade was forced to give ground, allowing the Eldar to sabotage more of their equipment, and a last ditch effort by deep striking crisis suits was little more than a disaster. The leader of the Cadre, inexperienced at dropping from Orca, missed his drop zone by a wide margin, and then proceeded to fire wildly at the Eldar, doing little damage. He then fled the harlequins who attempted to engage him and his bodyguard in close combat, before being obliterated by the Eldar farseer himself.

The Tau now had nothing left to throw at the Eldar and were forced to abandon much of their base and withdraw to the safety of the inner compound. After several hours of wanton and apparently meaningless destruction, the Rillietan withdrew, leaving the Tau baffled as to the purpose of the attack. Why would they interfere on the side of the Imperium, and why were they interfering at all? The questions remained unanswerable, and Shadowstrike was urged to return to re-organise the Tau war on Tyndareous, which was fast becoming a fiasco.