Battles erupt on Tyranteous Minoris

The chaos tau "alliance" on Tyranteous was never likely to hold for very long, and Lorek knew full well that as soon as the tau, particularly commander Shadowstrike, sensed the moment was optimal, they would launch a surprise attack on his forces with the aim of total dominance over Tyranteous and the expulsion of chaos forces. This much was obvious, so in mid 03.013M42 Lorek struck first.

The tau may have been expecting such an attack, but not so soon, while the chaos and tau zones on Tyranteous were still small and vulnerable to an imperial counter attack. However, Lorek outwitted the tau. Instead of launching a conventional assault on the ground, Lorek instead summoned a force of daemons by secretly infiltrating small bands of cultists onto the moon base on Tyranteous Minoris.

Tyranteous Minoris represented the major logistics site for the tau invasion of the imperial world. With (thus far) total dominance in space, the base, although defended, did not expect outside attack and was not held by front line hunter cadres. In the end the attack came from within.

Shocked by the appearance of daemonic hosts the tau fell back, surrendering many areas of the base before the line was straightened and the tau began to vigorously fight back. Lorek then landed conventional troops - hardened veterans of previous campaigns both cultist and astartes, into the breaches made by the daemonic host. After two days of destruction the daemons vanished, sucked back into the warp, but their task was done. Lorek's forces now had a foothold on the minor world, preventing the tau from effectively using their logistics base and forcing them to deploy troops badly needed on the surface to the base just to prevent it from being overrun by chaos. The forces of chaos now had the upper hand on Tyranteous.

Soon after this shock came another, even more bruising blow to the tau in the Zadoc subsector. Just days after the chaos attack, a force of dark eldar raiders identified as belonging to the Shattered Silence kabal appeared without warning on Tyranteous Minoris and systematically ransacked much of the rest of the base. Tau forces responded but found it difficult to pin down the fast moving aliens or understand their objective. This became clear when to the horror of the tau they found their ethereal, visiting the base that same day, had been captured. The dark eldar force then conducted a skillful withdrawal leaving the tau in total shock in the ruins of their installation.

The shock soon turned to anger, and the tau vowed to rescue their revered ethereal. This event also seriously strained the alliance between the tau and eldar forces in the Perseus Deeps, where the eldar were told the tau would not accept the Shattered Silence faction as allies any longer, and that their presence, even if sent as an ally, would be fiercely resisted. They also asked for an explanation for the act, but the eldar, short of explaining that there were "unfortunate elements with undesirable tendencies" in their race, were unwilling to explain the full story behind the differences between the various eldar forces - themselves held in tenuous alliance by the power of the Rillietan. The tau were assured however that "everything possible" would be done by the eldar to return their ethereal and this "rogue faction" would be dealt with.