What is despair?
Despair is the stealth technology that the Tau Empire takes pride in, being discovered by humans hundreds of miles away.
Then, watching with one's own eyes as a human Transport, braving the fire of one's own battleship, swaggered and slammed headfirst into the hold.
Inside the Tau Empire bridge.
The Fire Caste Commander had fallen into complete silence, while on the other side, the Earth Caste scientist, with the despair of having his beliefs destroyed, sat slumped completely on the floor.
At the same time, his whole body trembled as he nodded, unable to stop himself from murmuring:
"Is my cannon's power not enough?"
"Or is the demon technology on the other side too advanced?"
Subsequently, amidst such constant self-questioning, the footage of the breach in the bridge finally came through.
Seeing that those jumping down in the footage were just a group of 'ordinary' humans wearing black, fully enclosed combat suits, the Fire Caste members, who were already somewhat despairing, breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"Fortunately, the ones who came aren't those humans called Astartes."
The Commander was about to order the fleet to retreat while eliminating the group of ordinary humans who had boarded, but his gaze, which had just moved away from the corridor footage, was forcibly pulled back by the next scene.
Then, with the flickering firelight and blue glow reflected from the screen onto his face, the Commander's eyes slowly widened in infinite horror!
Although the average unit combat power of the Tau Empire was mostly slightly lower than that of human units of the same level.
But the power gap was not so exaggerated as to be a complete slaughter.
If it could be said that when they first entered the galaxy, it was like a 'father beating a son' between them and the humans.
But now, after so many years of development and several wars, at least in terms of basic combat power alone, they would no longer be completely crushed in a one-sided manner.
A Tau Empire infantry regiment and a human infantry regiment could also fight back and forth.
But now in the corridor footage, looking at those black-clad humans who looked perfectly normal no matter how one looked at them, the Fire Caste only saw a one-sided massacre!
Even seeing these 'ordinary' humans actually firing while walking, always managing to eliminate swaths of Tau Empire soldiers before their own side could fire, the Fire Caste felt as if the other party was on vacation.
This battle was merely a shooting mini-game during their vacation.
Especially as the Fire Caste gritted their teeth and repeatedly counted the number of humans in the footage, discovering that only fifty 'ordinary people' had actually come aboard.
With a face that could no longer hold its composure, he suddenly slumped down along with the Earth Caste member beside him.
The first time I went out, I was pinned to the ground and beaten by you.
The second time I went out, I was pinned to the ground and beaten by you again.
Now, after finally doing quite well the third time, in the blink of an eye, I'm watching a group of ordinary humans farming us like they're using cheats in a Dynasty Warriors game.
Then doesn't my hundreds of years of development mean I've been standing still as far as humans are concerned?!
Not to mention the Fire Caste Commander, even all the Tau who saw this footage and learned of this news were somewhat weakened by the shock of the underlying meaning.
At the same time, in their eyes, these humans were no different from the humans before; they were as unreasonable as ever toward the Tau Empire.
If there was one minor difference, it was that this group of humans seemed to respect them more; they hadn't blown their battleship to pieces yet, and the killed Tau were all left with intact corpses.
Until the Blackwatch escorted Sith all the way to the Tau Empire bridge, facing the door blasted open by a burst of Sith's psychic power and the dumbfounded, terrified Tau behind it, the first person to muster courage was a Water Caste representative member responsible for ideology and diplomacy on the ship.
The elegantly dressed Water Caste representative member stood up, trying his best to stabilize his mindset, and spoke gently to Sith:
"My Lord, please listen to the the greater good..."
Before he could finish, Sith merely frowned slightly, and the Blackwatch behind him shot this Water Caste representative member, who was fluent in human High Gothic, in the head.
After confirming that the other party still had an intact corpse, Sith only lowered his eyes after the person died:
"You and your the greater good can talk slowly with my starch collector later."
starch collector?!
The other Tau further back looked dazed, and then looking at their own troops in the footage whose corpses were being preserved as much as possible, the Fire Caste finally reacted.
This wasn't any kind of respect; this was a deep fear that if they were blown to pieces, the starch collector would lack raw materials!
Then, in the eyes of the Tau who were even more terrified after understanding their fate, the cold hardness of armored boots trampling the deck gradually approached them.
Shadows were cast by the figure blocking the light. The Tau, trembling in fear, slowly looked up. Sith, his entire body shrouded in darkness, coldly spat out the words:
"Take me to your homeworld."
"Now!"
"Immediately!!"
...
The Tau Empire lacked technology related to the Warp, so the Tau Empire's fleet was far inferior to other powers in the galaxy in long-distance navigation.
Whenever a Tau Empire fleet appeared, there was bound to be an Enclave established by the Tau Empire not far away.
As a Tau Empire with extremely superior living conditions, every one of their Enclaves might have certain differences in military strength, but in terms of resources, they could all be described as having mountains of supplies.
For the current Sith, this could simply no longer be described as mere 'fatty meat'!
Sith didn't want the Empire's future records of his first expedition to be about him leading hundreds of millions of humans and thousands of ships, only to starve to death halfway!
So when orac led the massive fleet and suddenly appeared above the Tau Empire Enclave world, less than a month had passed since he sent out the fleet to assassinate Sith.
On the other side, the Harlequin Host, who were still bitterly advising the Tau Empire to take things seriously, discovered Sith's flagship appearing overhead. They could only curse the Tau Empire for being beyond help while hurriedly running toward their evacuation ships with a terror far exceeding that of the Tau.
After all, if a Tau died, they were truly dead, but for the Eldar, dying at Sith's hands was even worse than suicide!
In the Enclave world, within the Ethereal's residence.
The Ethereals stared blankly at the exaggerated fleet overhead. After being stunned for a long while, they only then buried their heads in shock, wanting to find the Eldar to ask what was going on.
It was just that after the Ethereals looked around and found no one, and then sent people to search, the news they received made the Ethereals freeze on the spot:
"What do you mean the Eldar didn't take the front door and crawled through the sewers to escape?!"
The Ethereals digested this truly unacceptable news, and then facing the terrified Tau around them, they finally gritted their teeth to offer comfort:
"We have deployed a large number of giant anti-orbital batteries. Everyone, don't be afraid. In terms of a shootout, the humans can't outgun us!"
The Ethereals weren't actually talking nonsense. As the capital for the Tau Empire to stand tall in the galaxy, the Tau Empire's long-range firepower was indeed something even humans were somewhat amazed by.
But the problem was, when Sith in orbit discovered that the Tau Commander on the ground not only didn't surrender but even dared to set up orbital firepower.
He could only wave his hand with a cold laugh, letting the fleet move back.
And then...
orac opened the broadside Macro Cannon arrays!
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