Cleansing of Dos'van

The Tau and Necrons prepare for an utterly merciless battle

The **Cleansing of Dos'van** is a planetary war which has recently broken out on the eastern border of the Tau Empire.

## History

### Initial Settlement

A frontier colony, Dos'van is largely self-sufficient, with a small Fire Caste presence to protect against raiding aliens. Settled by the tau in late M41, it is a fertile, Earth-like planet which easily allowed an agriculture-supported colony. It was intended to be a staging area for fleets heading north and eastward towards what is now the Great Rift in a future expansion sphere or perhaps developed into a fully-established sept of its own. The expansion fleet sent a message ship back to the homeworld encouraging a follow-up fleet to expand the colony and exploit local resources. Due to the primary focus of previous expansion spheres being towards the empire's western borders, this was never actioned.

Days after the ruling Ethereal Aun'Xi had toured them, contact was lost with all excavation sites near the mountains. The Fire Caste forces sent in to assess and secure the nearest site to the city never returned.

### The Awakening

#### First Contact

A minor necron tomb lying beneath the foothills of a mountain range near Dos'van City was the first to awaken. Necrons of the Nekthyst Dynasty levelled the nearby excavation site and killed all the Earth Caste workers there before disappearing back underground. Fire warrior & pathfinder teams mobilised to investigate the site's sudden lack of contact came under attack when they triggered the tomb complex's perimeter sensors. Under the guidance of a cryptek the necrons managed to wipe out the encroaching tau before they could call for help or retreat. As they are operating on automated protocols they have remained to defend the entrance while the cryptek sees to the awakening of his fellows in the catacombs below.

#### Discovering The Threat

A second scout force sent to investigate another excavation site also fell out of contact. However a single recon drone managed to escape and transmit battlefield telemetry. The data gathered by pathfinder teams confirmed that the entire force were killed by necrons. There is a glimmer of hope as the drone's telemetry clearly showed fire warriors downing necron constructs with well-placed shots and disciplined volleys.

#### Full Mobilisation

Now aware of the danger and fully briefed by the ethereal governor, shas'o K'yen ordered a complete activation of all Fire Caste assets. All bases were put on alert and pathfinder teams were mobilised to locate and observe concentrations of necron forces. The next major engagement saw a planned offensive led by K'yen himself. Drones detected an energy surge underground which warranted further investigation. Fire warriors entered a vast cavern filled with dormant pylons, encountering Rasputekh who had tasked his cryptek with reactivating the pylons. Uncertain of their exact purpose, but knowing it could mean nothing good for them, the tau decided escalated to area denial and engaged the ancient constructs. Though initially gaining ground, they were surprised by the emergence of Flayed Ones and an increasing destroyer presence. Though this battle was the first to see K'yen's direct involvement, it was not enough to secure a tau victory. K'yen and his bodyguards were forced to retreat under a furious assault by Rasputekh and his destroyer cult servants. K'yen learned that rail and fusion technologies were effective at dealing traumatic levels of damage that not even the necrons' self-repair systems could reliably counter.

Through successful defence of the underground pylons, the cryptek serving Rasputekh was able to channel power to the dormant tomb complexes and begin activating them. New necron soldiers now march out from most, though some seem to have sustained damage or suffered system failures in the last sixty million years.

#### A Grave Loss and Renewed Hope

With more and more systems reactivating, Rasputekh returned to his crypts to oversee the process. He sent one of his newly awakened lords out with a destroyer cult force to locate and destroy Dos'van City. Probing attacks were blunted by fierce fire caste resistance. Hoping to weaken the organics' resolve, the necrons dispatched assassins to take out the newly-identified ethereal. The main army served to distract the fire warriors while assassin units emerged, hoping to locate the well-hidden ethereal. Eventually it was a Technomancer who slew the tau leader, though Aun'Xi's bodyguards made the necrons pay a heavy price for his death. Gathering the body of his friend in the arms of his heavily-damaged battlesuit, shas'o K'yen ordered a retreat to the east.

The Unity spaceport was heavily fortified against attack by land - and by air thanks to the Air Caste. New fire warrior recruits - most of whom had yet to go through their first 'trial by fire' were ordered to take up arms. An initial overwhelming attack on the spaceport is repulsed by Blazing Star battlesuits. Their timely arrival has restored morale and given the colonists a glimmer of hope. Now the combined tau forces must strengthen the defences and wait to counterattack.

## Factions

### Tau Empire

The tau of Dos'van have discovered the necron presence. Shas'o K'yen is establishing a battle-net and mobilising military assets across the region. His first strikes have failed to destroy the necrons or hinder their awakening. Tragically, K'yen has compounded his earlier failures by allowing Aun'Xi to perish. All he can do now is hope the arriving Blazing Star Coalition can help him save the colony's civilian population and regain his honour.

### Tomb World Dos'van

The necron of Dos'van have begun to emerge from the Great Sleep. They are led by a Skorpekh Lord who is a member of the insidious Destroyer Cult.

Rasputekh's servants have managed to restore power flow to more stasis tombs. As more of his retinue step forth from their resting places, they are being given tasks within the catacombs. Most are responsible for assisting various canoptek units as they usher other necrons into an activated state, repairing damage where they can. Others are responsible for directing these constructs as they clear blocked passages and for mapping the full extent of the underground catacombs The all-important task of rewriting the dynastic command protocols of all necrons on the planet - activated or not - has fallen to the first of their number to awaken.

As a result of this activity, Rasputekh now commands a small army of mindless necron warriors and immortals. He finally has enough forces to launch attacks on tau territory to the east while adequately defending the tombs. Rasputekh's first attack on the tau city was a major success: the planet's ethereal is dead and the tau were left reeling. That is, until their reinforcements arrived.

## Acknowledgements

This conflict is a narrative campaign I have created to play with a friend. Expect to see information change as games are finished.