Crusade arrive at Dnatha

The  next move for the Tau was to the neighbouring system of Dnatha. Once again the tau scouting force had identified a world ripe for colonisation. Similar to Echo reach the world was sparesly populated by nomadic primitive human tribes who roamed across the spongy terrain of moss that carpeted much of the world. Once again however the augur returns of the messenger class vessels sent to investigate found intriguing signs of alien energy signatures, pointing once more to a valuable find of alien technology.

By this time however the Crusade, having completed the pacification of Hussaria and Arawath, had fanned out, with the Grey Knights encountering the Tau as they explored the terrestrial planet of Dnartha. Finding the xenos, the Grey Knights launched a strike against the small Tau scout group, and despite suffering heavy losses, were able to disrupt Tau communications enough to prevent the xenos from overwhelming them.

Frustrated, the Tau withdrew, before realising they had actually done a great deal of harm to the astartes. The fire caste urged for a counter attack, but the opportunity had been missed. As the rest of the Crusade fleet arrived in system, the Tau fell back to Echo Reach, leaving Dnartha and its valuable archeotech to the Crusade.