Taros Campaign - Operation Deathblow: By a miracle the Emperor had delivered the location of the Tau supreme headquarters into Van Horcic's hands. Now he planned to launch a strike that might change the outcome of the war in one blow. For the mission he would need the aid of Lord Commander Gustavus, Colonel Scheja and theOfficio Assassinorum, a servant of the Eversor Temple. The attack would a suicidal assault. The agent was not expected to survive, neither were the Tau.Armed with the location of the headquarters, Scheja planned his mission. It would involve two strike teams. Red team would be the assassin dropped into the desert and then moving to the location on foot, before breaking in and destroying anything or anybody inside the headquarters. Blue team would be a hand-picked platoon of Storm Troopers from the 2378th Storm Trooper Company. They would be flown in Valkyries to launch a diversionary attack. Under the cover of the attack, Red team would get close to its targets. The Storm Troopers would all be volunteers, because deep in enemy territory and attacking such a sensitive target was likely to be a one-way trip. Colonel Scheja asked to lead the Blue team himself. Even the aircraft crewmen from the 71st Tactical Wing would be volunteers, because to reach the target area meant there would not be enough fuel for a return trip. Instead, the Valkyries would have to be ditched in the desert. The crews would destroy their aircraft before striking out on foot. Each crewman would be issued a survival kit to get them back to Imperial lines, but it was still likely that Tau patrols would find them and pick them up. Operation Deathblow would begin as soon as Red team arrived and could be prepared, programmed with target information and then deployed. Meanwhile, Scheja visited the 2378th Storm Trooper Company and gathered thirty volunteers.At 684998.M41, as part of a fresh supply convoy, the transport Son of Jucha successfully avoided the Tau blockade and delivered its cargo of war materiel, fuel, and a special container, attended by four Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priests, to the Righteous Power. It was a bio-stasis tank inside which, suspended in amniotic fluids, was one of the most dangerous weapons in the Imperium’s massive arsenal: an Eversor Assassin – a psychopathic, one-man killing machine. Once awoke, the drug-induced killer would hunt its target remorselessly. Preparations began immediately. The Eversor was programmed via hypno-suggestion, detailing its mission, the location and its targets. Once programming was complete, the still-slumbering Eversor was equipped with its weaponry: a Power Sword, Neuro Gauntlet and an Executioner Pistol with its poisonous needles. A new poison had been developed by the Eversor temple specifically to affect the Tau’s nervous system; it killed in seconds. Finally, the self-destruct mechanism surgically implanted into the assassin’s chest was armed. Should the assassin’s bio-readouts drop below a certain level, then it would detonate, killing the assassin and anybody close by. Even in death the Eversor was lethal. All systems checked out, and with a final litany from the Tech-priest attendants the bio-stasis tank was carefully inserted into a Drop Pod and launched into the deserts of Taros.The Drop Pod made secret planetfall about 60 kms from the target. Whilst still in mid-air unseen lights inside the stasis pod winked into life. The life-support systems began to breathe life into the Eversor trapped within. Slowly a neuro-gauntleted hand flexed into a fist. Crashing undetected into the desert sands the Drop Pod cracked open. Fluids drained from the bio-tank, which then opened with a sudden hiss as remote restraining bolts exploded. Umbilical cords and sensor needles retracted from the figure within. As if animated from death, the assassin carefully stepped out into the sunlight. Pausing only to survey the surroundings for threats, the Eversor set off across the sand, moving lithely at a cautious trot, keeping low to the ground with his pistol always at the ready. Red team was closing on the target as planned, and by nightfall he would have arrived.That night, Colonel Scheja's Storm Troopers were winging their way over the dark deserts, three Valkyries flying low, all lights blacked out. The men within had orders to attack the target with everything they could, and keep pressing the attack for as long as possible. They were unaware that the real assault would be coming in the dark form of the Eversor assassin. Skimming over the desert in darkness, the Valkyries had escaped notice, until a Drone controlled early warning sounded in the Tau headquarters. The surprised security teams rushed to man the defences. The threeValkyries swooped down, flared and hovered briefly as Storm Trooper squads leapt clear, one trooper after another falling three or four metres before hitting the sand and rolling clear. Spotting their attackers in the darkness the Tau opened fire. Storm Troopers returned fire. The darkness was illuminated by the vivid flashes of pulse rounds and tracers. Crouching low and pressing forwards, the Storm Troopers braved the bullet-whipped ground, faced by searing fire from Pulse Rifles as the defenders fought desperately to protect their leaders. The Valkyries blasted away, circled and swooped back down, multi-lasers blazing a trail of lights across the darkness, soaring overhead, engines roaring. Colonel Scheja led his squad towards the buildings, dodging through Pulse Rifle fire to find cover behind the first one. There he pulled a grenade from his harness, armed it, and flung it through an open window. He followed up the explosion with a burst of Plasma Pistol fire. His men surged in through the doors, capturing the building. Outside confusion, noise and a black-clad terror reigned in the night.Passing like a black shadow, an unseen figure slipped quietly towards the compound, dispatching any defenders in its way as it made for the target’s entrance. As the battle raged about it, the Eversor placed a melta-charge on the doorway, set the timer and stepped back. As the charge detonated, the assassin burst into a sudden sprint, slamming through the flaming, ruined doorway and springing down the ladder within. Inside, the Tau were taken completely unawares. A sustained burst of Needle Pistol fire stitched two of the surprised aliens against the far wall, where they slumped dead in an instant from the toxins coursing through their blood. The assassin rolled forwards, under the hasty return shots, and rose firing again. A third and fourth Tau crashed to the ground dead. Its magazine now empty, the Eversor discarded his pistol. Moving along the low corridors two desperate defenders rushed the black-clad figure, who ducked low under their fire to sweep the first off his feet. It lunged forwards to impale the sixth through the stomach with its gleaming power-blade which had suddenly appeared in its hand as if by teleportation. The Eversor’s attack was an orgy of swift destruction. Leaving its slaughtered victims gurgling wetly on the floor, the Eversor stepped through the next door into the Tau command centre. Within stood the slim-robed figure of the Ethereal and his two bodyguards. The Eversor sprang forwards, and for the Tau there was nowhere to run and no chance to escape. Without hesitating the assassin struck. Whip-fast the neuro-gauntlet slashed forwards and then back, cutting the bodyguards down in dreadful pain. Just the Ethereal remained, he backed away from his gore-splattered assailant.At that instant more bodyguards burst into the control centre to rescue their revered leader. In a blaze of pulse fire the Eversor was hit, and knocked sprawling sideways by the impact. But the assassin only had eyes for his target. It reached out its deadly gloved hand to grab the Ethereal as he tried to dodge away. Tripped by the attack, the Ethereal cried out and fell. The wounded Eversor sprang onto him, pinning the Ethereal to the floor like a great cat going for the jugular. The bodyguards rushed in and fired again, striking the Eversor square through the chest and spraying blood across the walls and floor. The deathly skull mask gave a howl of pain and anguish as the Eversor’s lifeblood pumped away, but with grim, hate-filled determination it hung onto the shrieking Ethereal. With its last rattling breath the Eversor almost seemed to be laughing.The compound was rocked by a sudden explosion from within the control centre. From his position outside Colonel Scheja felt the heat of the fireball rising from the door, then he ducked into cover as debris rained down about his men. The Tau paused the look back in horror and dismay. The command centre was an inferno of gouting flames and smoke; everybody inside had to be dead.Colonel Scheja and his Storm Troopers fought on, but Tau reinforcements were on the way and the fight did not last until dawn. Fighting hard to the last, the Colonel and his men were all killed – this time the attackers were offered no mercy by the vengeful Tau. Operation Deathblow had been a suicide mission, and it had almost worked. The Ethereal, Aun’Vre, was dead, but Shas'O R'myr had survived. When the Eversor struck, he had already been outside personally leading his bodyguard squad against the Storm Troopers. Commander ‘Longknife’ had been wounded in the fighting, but he had not been inside the control room when the Eversor self-destructed. For the Tau this was only a small mercy in a night of terrible horror. The loss of their precious Ethereal sent the entire Taros Coalition force into shock and grief. For many days Hunter Cadres were stunned into inactivity by their loss. After the grief came a growing feeling of rage against the men who had plotted the heinous attack. It was an anger that swelled inside each Tau warrior into a vengeful wrath that the humans would soon fell the full weight of. There was to be no mercy now, only vengeance. The new Tau battle cry was not “For the Greater Good”, it was “For Aun’Vre”