Eldar pursue sector wide agenda

While the alliance continued to fight on Zadoc, the eldar were in action across the sector in a series of encounters which baffled the Imperium. Inquistor Huron of the Ordo Xenos took it upon himself to investigate the aliens and their actions, thus taking the opportunity to avoid the conflict which was brewing between his peers over Libria.

Huron recieved a number of reports of recent eldar activity and tried to make some sense of them. During 03.014M42 the eldar had made two significant raids not centred on any alliance objective. Eldar forces had attacked Aethor in strength, caused serious damage to the Apocalypse Riders, then melted away into the uninhabited hinterlands which dominated the world. Meanwhile on Garbriel's World, another forec of the aliens had been encountered, and defeated, by a company of Crimson Fists. To the untrained eye it would seem as if the eldar were either attacking at random, or planning a masasive attack on the imperium. Huron, being exceptionally trained, knew this wasn't the case.

Huron used vid picts and other evidence to analyse the recent actions. Far from a unified race acting with one mind, the eldar were divided into factions. Those in action on Aethor matched those implicated in the loss of Ares, and were present on Sentinel. These eldar were almost certainly from the craftworld of Iyanden, and in the Aleph sector they had never been seen outside the Perseus Deeps. They clearly had an agenda and were aided on occasions by the Rillietan and others, but Huron believed - at least for the time being - this eldar force would remain operating in the Deeps.

The eldar defeated at Gabriel's World were different again. These eldar, employing a large number of Wraithlords, were certainly the Disciples of Ynnead, a little known group of eldar which could loosely be described as a religious cult. They believe that when the Infinity Circuits hold all the spirits of their race, all of the Craftworlds will unite into one Infinity Circuit, and the collective spirits of the Eldar will join to form a new Power in the Warp that will battle and subdue Slaanesh, so that Eldar spirits may once more be able to merge with it and form a single, balanced entity.

Whatever their beliefs, Huron doubted they were acting in concert with Iyanden, although their reason for assaulting a world of little value in the Vastrid sector remained unkown. The Disciples had often been seen in action with Corsair eldar, and both of these factions had in the recent past aided the forces of Iyanden, most recently on the imperial world of Corticant, where they had suffered defeat to the Librian Guard and Carcharadons. The Disciples and Corsairs had also been associated with attrocities and raids by the dark eldar kabal the Shattered Silence, although the relationship between the eldar and their dark kin remained confusing.

Huron then looked at the alliance. Only one group of eldar had been seen acting in close cooperation with the tau, and always in the presence of commander Windgather. Whether this amounted to a special importance of the tau commander remained unknown to the imperial lord inquisitor. The Rillietan themselves had fought with the tau during the early stages of the Zadoc campaign, but in the critical battles even the corsairs and the dark eldar had made their presence felt against the imperium.

As 03.014M42 drew to a close Huron was far from uncovering anything close to the true nature of the eldar actions in the Aleph sector, but it was certainly clear they were not a united force. This view was confirmed when the inquisitor uncovered evidence that on at least two occasions the tau-eldar alliance force of commander windgather had itself been attacked by eldar forces, and he had reasonable confidence that the attackers were the forces of Iyanden and Ynnead. Did this mean the alliance was split? The Rillietan - or to Huron the "glue" which held the tau-eldar alliance together - had not been encountered for quite some time. Huron had more questions and continued to watch and wait, realising the folly of attempting to second guess the mind of the alien.