Chapter Text
Por’ui Vioroh was riding in a devilfish transport with 10 fire warriors on her security detail. Normally, a water-caste diplomat would not be riding in a devilfish, but the Gue’la had been much too aggressive on this jungle world. Their anti-air defenses had shot nearly every diplomatic envoy the Tsar’li sept had sent by air, and roadblocks and checkpoints had stopped any coming by land. Therefore, she was in a devilish.
In reality, Vioroh was only a distraction. A different envoy had been sent down each of the main roads to the largest city on the planet. Only one of them held Por’el Nela who was the diplomat truly tasked with speaking to the planetary governor. She was a distraction, but that did not mean she had no responsibilities on this mission. Her job was to capture and/or reprogram any Gue’la she could.
Nova crouched behind the roadblock's fortifications. She wasn’t sure what was happening, but she knew it wasn’t good. The tau had weaponry that she didn’t want to face.
She heard Sergeant Keller yelling, “The Lieutenant has just informed me a devilfish troop transport is heading towards us. Constat, Lenkos, and Salasi move to the second line of defense, Drake and Agechov move forward. Nova moved back to the second defense line and watched as two troopers with meltaguns ran to the front, ready to fire at the transport.
As the transport rounded the corner Nova waited, she wasn’t to fire until the sergeant said so. As it got close enough he yelled, “Fire! Drake, Agechov, now!”.
BVEUM, BVEUM. The two meltaguns blasted chunks of the vehicle to slag and Nova opened fire. The Devilfish opened fire in return and stopped as it’s troops got out. A Las shot from Nova’s left hit one of the disembarking tau. A heavy weapon shot from one of the tau pierced straight through the first defense line killing Drake. Nova aimed to find Drake’s killer, a tau was crouched down with a Railgun in hand. She fired two shots, one bounced off the tau’s helmet and the other killed it. The rest of the tau fired pulse shots over the Cadians’ heads.
Cadians were falling all around her and Nova realized one tau with a drone floating behind it. The xeno kept dodging out from behind the devilfish and wherever it was looking was where most of the tau would shoot with startling accuracy. Some tau had fallen but more cadians had and Nova concocted a plan. She slipped into the jungle hoping the sergeant hadn’t noticed. She stalked through the leaves and branches listening to pulse blasts and las shots firing to her left. She peaked out every few yards to see where she was, soon she was near the back of the devilfish. She peaked out and none of the tau seemed aware of her, she made her move.
Nova shot three las shots at the tau with the drone, but none of them pierced the armor of the fire warrior. She saw the tau look at her and as some of the others turned to her, she ran for the tau with the drone. She had heard the tau don’t like melee combat so she would force this one into it. She dropped her lasgun and drew her las pistol and combat knife. As she jumped for the tau she heard Sergeant Keller yell, “Supporting fire! Don’t let them kill Constat!”
She heard more pulse blasts and las shots flying back and forth as she hit the tau and fell to the ground. She was about to bring down her knife on the gap in the tau’s neck armor when it drew a knife to block her attack. The knife seemed to be almost ornamental, with many embellishments in it’s design, but it did the job.
She watched as the tau’s right hand reached for a pistol on it’s hip, but she was stronger, she forced her knife down toward the tau’s throat and it had to support it’s left hand with it’s right. She decided to try a similar move, she tried to angle her laspistol towards the tau’s face but it made a sudden slash with it’s knife throwing her aim off and she shot into the jungle. The tau grabbed her wrist and twisted her knife out of her hand. Then grabbed it’s pistol and aimed it at her head, it was only then that she realized the sounds of war around them had stopped, she looked around and noticed 4 pulse carbines aimed at her.
It was then that a different kind of tau disembarked from the devilfish. This tau was wearing a long white dress with a pink symbol on the left of the breast, and light gray hair was draped over the shoulders. This tau spoke in perfect gothic, “You are surrounded Gue’la, you will come with us for we are to return home. I have just gotten word the Por’El is in talks with your governor. Get in.”
“And why should I do that?” Nova asked, the xeno’s voice was strangely enticing.
“Because, Gue’la, you will die if you do not.”
“Death is nothing to me, we have always been taught to die for the Emporer.”
“And yet I see in your eyes, you are afraid of it.”
Nova said nothing and looked into the magenta eyes of this new kind of tau. The xeno’s skin was smooth and a much more appealing shade of blue, in Nova’s opinion, than that of those she fought. And the alien’s voice, the voice was soft and high. Almost calming, despite it coming from an enemy. She stood and the fire warriors took all her weapons. The new tau showed Nova into the transport.
Nova sat silently with the five fire warriors and the new tau for a long while, just listening to the hover engines of the devilfish. Eventually, she said, “You’re different from them,” to the unarmored tau, gesturing at the fire warriors, “Are you a female or something?”
The tau chuckled and smiled, “I am female, but that is not what makes me different from them,” she said, “Shas’ui Y’lor is also female,” she gestured to the tau whose throat Nova had tried to slit, “Do you notice any similarities?”
“Your noses, they’re shaped the same”. The new tau nodded.
The new kind of tau exchanged some words with Y’lor in their language, Nova noticed a few utterances of a specific word “Gue’la”, and Y’lor scowled at her. The other tau looked at Nova, “Do not mind her, she thinks we should have killed you.”
“You should have,” Nova replied, “But you never answered my question, if you are female but so is she, why are you so different from them?”
“My name is Por’ui Tsar’li Vioroh,” she said, “I am of the water caste, por, they are of the fire caste, shas. Our society is split into five castes, earth, fire, water, air, and ethereal. Earth caste, Fio, are our scientists, technicians, engineers. Fire caste, shas, are our warriors. Water caste, por, are our diplomats and public speakers. Air caste, kor are our pilots.”
“So that is why you are so good at making me calm even though I should hate you, you’re just really good at talking.”
“If you would like to see it that way, yes,” said Vioroh, “Now that I have introduced myself, could you tell me your name?”
Nova just sat there silently for a while and thought. This alien woman was being nice to her, she had always been told xenos were dangerous and vile. And while there was still a possibility of that being the case, she felt safe, as safe as she could feel with five warriors who had just tried to kill her in the same cramped space.
“Nova,” she said
“What?” asked the alien woman.
“It’s my name,” Nova replied, “Nova Constat.”
Eventually, Vioroh spoke up again, “Well, Nova, you should take your armor off, we are in for a long journey, it will be uncomfortable”.
“I’m fine,” Nova replied, “I’m trained to stay in this uniform for months or years if I need to.”
“I know, but would it not be more comfortable to simply take it off?”
Nova stayed silent, Vioroh was being nice to her, but she still didn’t trust her or the fire warriors. She would not take off her armor. Even though she would be dead already if they wanted her to be.
The devilfish suddenly angled slightly like they were going up a hill and then flattened out again a minute or so later. Nova’s eyes widened slightly, “Where are you taking me?”
“I believe we have just made it to our destination, a great Tsar’li sept transport ship, you will soon be placed in a cell and a water caste member will talk to you and see if you are fit for integration without re-education.”
“Re-education?”
“If I know humans, and I think I do, most of you will not need it. Considering you have accepted your fate and come with us peacefully, I think you will not need it.”
That is exactly what happened. Nova was escorted out of the devilfish, down long bright hallways, and into a cell block. She walked past many humans in cells until finally she was put inside one. The cell was simple, obviously not meant for long journeys as there was only a cushioned slab in the corner, a makeshift bed, she supposed. The wall facing the hallway was made almost entirely out of armor-glass.
She sat there for about an hour before she saw multiple tau walking past, every few seconds, another walked past. Soon a tau walked up to her cell and she walked up to the armor-glass wall. This tau had a straight slit down it’s face, it must be a male, she thought. He looked smooth and tidy in his robes just like the tau woman that had brought her here, but not nearly as attractive.
As the tau looked ready to open the door, another tau in a white dress walked up to him and said something in tau. When the tau responded he said a single word, Por’ui, and made a sign with his hands.
The other tau, Por’ui Vioroh, entered Nova’s cell and the other tau walked away. Nova looked at the tau woman, “So, what now?”
“We talk,” Vioroh replied, “and I see if you are fit for integration.”
“What do we talk about?” Nova asked.
“Well, tell me. Why have you been so docile with us?”
“At first it was because I was in danger and now it’s because I am not in danger.”
“Is it not your Imperium’s stance that you are to eliminate all aliens?”
“It is, but my family has always been a bit different.”
“Oh? Tell me what you mean?”
“I’m Cadian, but I wasn’t raised that way, not at first,” Nova started, “My parents were deserters, they raised me on a forgeworld. And considering some of the forgeworlds I’ve seen since, it wasn’t that bad, they were given brakes at least. The first eight years of my life I was taught I could do anything and that all people were people, poor, rich, dark-skinned, light-skinned, abhuman, base-line human, all of it. Then the Leviathan invaded,” Nova’s voice raised steadily, “Imagine being rescued from an alien abomination as a child and then being told for the next twenty years that aliens are evil and then finding out that some of them can be kind. That you’re just people, like me, like the abhuman desert people of Divinata, like everyone!”
“I see,” was all that Vioroh said for a while, her face held a sympathetic look, “Would you like some time to think about it more?”
“No,” she said, “and don’t give me that look. Whether you’re making it because I shouldn’t be feeling this, you feel bad my training has made me like this, or because you think it will make me feel better or more comfortable. I don’t care”. Nova turned away and stared into the corner.
Vioroh slipped her fingers around Nova’s right wrist, “I am sorry you have to deal with such turmoil because of what your Imperium has done to you.”
While Nova had heard what the tau had said, none of it had registered. All she could think about was how lightly the woman was touching her. Her hand had been wrapped around Nova’s wrist but it hadn’t been to wrench her away, or to drag her along while she was running. The last time she had felt a touch like that, she had been eight years old, “Yeah,” she said quietly.
“If it makes you feel better, I think you are fit for integration after a small period of isolation, we’ve got plenty more space on Tsar’li for anyone who wishes to move there.”
“And what will I be doing in this period of isolation?”
“You will be given a habitat and will be set to live there for a small amount of time alone only interacting with your water caste handler, for you that will be me, until they deem you fit to enter whichever city you were distributed to. This will be supervised at first and then you will be allowed to roam free and as you like.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because, compared to other members of the water caste and those of other septs, Tsar’li values honesty and cooperation over all else. In most of Tsar’li sept’s territory, the only exception being the sept capital city, the number of humans outweighs the number of Tau one hundred to one. This requires us to be upfront with humans and tell them what they are in for. Compared to most, this coalition will be much kinder to you.”
“I wouldn’t know, I didn’t even know you existed until this battle, we were briefed on possible weaponry we’d encounter and left to die or, apparently, be captured.”
“We try not to kill any more than we need to.”
“You killed everyone else back there.”
“That is true, an unfortunate fact. But, unlike with you, we did not have a chance to stop the fighting with them.”
“So, is this interview over?”
“If you would like it to be. I believe you are sympathetic enough to us to be up for integration into our great empire,” Vioroh turned to leave.
“Wait,” said Nova, not entirely understanding why, “Can you stay? It’s lonely in here.”
“For a short while, then I must go, and you must sleep.”
Vioroh sat on the cushion in the corner of the room and Nova sat to her left. They sat there for a while in silence. Nova closed her eyes just a little too long and she felt her head fall to her right, hitting something that was both hard and soft, and she was asleep.