Tau retake Federal base

With the war on Hexis grinding back and forth the Alliance found themselves being pushed inexorably back, even as the armies of Chaos threatened to surround the centre of Praxis. If the situation were not stabilised, and quickly, the Alliance forces would be cut in two spelling the end of their hopes on Hexis. With grim knowledge of the importance of their mission an elite special forces cadre left Camp Blacksands under cover of darkness and made its way to the flank of the Chaos salient. Attacking at dawn under the cloak of the morning mists they would be able to take the forces of Chaos by surprise an maximise their chance of victory.

Ignoring the rabbles of cultists the Iron Warriors employed to guard their backline areas the Tau went straight for the heavy armour protecting the supply convoys. With a brilliant flash a defiler went up in a plume of fire and battle was joined. The remaining walkers guarding the flanks of the convoy immediately rounded on the approaching Tau and surged forwards with unnatural speed, even as a mighty daemon prince spotted the billowing smoke plume and soared down from above to repel the Tau's encroachment.

The Tau readied themselves to lay fire into the rapidly approaching war engines, but they had miscalculated. A large ruined hab block that they had scanned and determined to be empty suddenly vomited out an endless tide of cultists that poured into the Tau firebase. The ordered firing lines of the Fire Warriors were overwhelmed in moments as confusion reigned.

Despite the unexpected setback the Tau battlesuites stuck to the principles of Kauyon, laying down a hail of fusion blaster fire into the attacking armour before their formation expertly broke apart to attack their enemy from all directions, focusing down the mighty war engines in rapid succession.

With the heavy units dealt with Fireblade Ko'vash Shi, the sole survivor of the debacle in the Tau's rear lines, managed to pull in enough surviving fire warriors from the outlaying areas to put down the last of the cultists running rampant.

As their positions were re-enforced by heavier mechanised formations the weary victors morale was further lifted by surprising news. The device hidden in the centre of Praxis had been activated and opened a stabled route through the Cicatrix to the Tau Empire! They had no idea how this had happened as no Alliance force was known to have penetrated beyond the suburbs of Praxis but it was widely speculated that their ever resourceful and cunning Eldar allies must have found a way to trigger the device, although if they had they weren't saying. Regardless of the how, it meant that soon re-enforcements would begin to arrive directly from the Tau Empire without having to take the long detour through the Federacy and the Foramen Ancilla.