Here's an intro by me: (NOTE, I'm not experienced in writing in English, so please point out my mistakes. I'm very open to suggestions and criticism!)

Overall Introduction

In the year 5861, standard T

I carefully oversaw the beasts who were pushing my six new basilisks into the cargo-area of my captured Firestorm Class Frigate. If they merely scratched one of my playthings, I would immediately take their heads. Accordingly, every-one of those fine-crafted artillery pieces was worth more than a sorcerer. Since I

And so it begins, with a mighty horn the Kroot, vespid and others auxiliaries were summoned to enter inside their shuttles. We entered under the sounds of a great orchestra playing marching sounds, boosting our morale with each step we took in unison towards the shutles all in full armour, people of the city nearby quickly rushed to see our exit and saw a sight that they would never forget again.

Inside the shuttles of the Air caste we waited, every once in a while one of the large slender members of the Air Caste would come in to chek up on us, to see if we did not need anything more then was offered. Each time not a sole spoke.

Although that was the only time anyone really kept his mouth shut. Many tales were told of their last incounter with the Imperial guard and the dreaded space marines. And each time their name was said Kratuk and Oburuk would hold their mass drivers up to show that this time their units shall not falther. Even though mass drivers were still not in mass production several of them were given to each squad that had proven its worth in battle. And now it is time to test these weapons and our curage.

I'm not sure where we are going to, all we have is a set of maps of the planets that we study, intensivly, that might be one of the few breaks we take from the talking, to study.

My frigate had reached the eastern border of the Imperium. Although the frontier was heavily guarded by both Guard and Astartes, the planets laying inside that defensive circle were much weaker. Of course this was to my advantage, since I needed to loot and pillage unprotected planets until I had gathered the supplies needed to head back to the main Iron Warriors legion.

Intel, obtained thru Alpha Legions

"Captain! A Tau Fleet has entered the system! The bulk of our ships are engaged, but the Apothecary gave all available ships to deploy to the surface, it seems Tau landing craft have already entered the atmosphere." A Templar said as he burst into Tyrael's quarters.

"Get the Company ready, we don't have time to send down shuttles. Prepare for drop pod entry." Tyrael said and gathered his weapons. He ran down the corridor and met his squad leaders in the drop pod hangar. "You all know the drill, break into squads and head to the surface. Remember, the Guard forces are under strength and it is possible that most of them will be slaughtered in the opening engagement. Therefore, we are not landing in the battlefield; we are landing on a ridge between the Tau landing area and the city. Move out."

He felt a heavy thud and the door blasted open. Tyrael jumped out and looked around. It was dark, but he could see fires raging in the valley that used to hold an Imperial Guard base. Now it held a Tau ship and hundreds of Tau soldiers, Kroot and Vespids. He looked over the other side of the ridge and saw the city; he could see fighters and shuttles above it, as well as artillery being placed on top of buildings. He was distracted from that as the rest of his Company's drop pods landed along the ridge. He spoke to his men, as they gathered around, eager for blood shed.

"Dig in along the ridge, put in machine guns and rocket nests. I do not think the Tau would be foolish enough to attack at night, for it would lead to hand-to-hand combat... and their doom. They will most likely wait out the night, and come dawn, they will see what awaits them. Come dawn, we shall fight."

Sunlight spilled into the valley containing the Tau landing force. Many of the soldiers were just rising from sleep, some ventured out from the various rubble, barricades, trenches and fox holes the Tau had built during the night. Fighter combat and artillery duels had filled the night and the Tau were worried. They had sent out four patrols of Kroot over the ridge, yet none had returned. Rumors ran around the encampment, during the night, that a great army of Imperial Guard had arrived and killed them, yet others whispered about Space Marines in the city. No one knew for sure what would happen until Kas'La'Nokram'Vi, a warrior of the Light Caste, screamed out.

He came running away from a bush where he had gone to go to the bathroom and everyone around turned to look at him. He was mere feet away from the next Tau warrior when a bullet blew through his torso and his body dropped like a stone. A semi-circle of Templars emerged from the bushes and trees that covered the slope up the ridge. Tau soldiers were too stunned to react at first. The Templar opened fire and charged into the Tau front line. Dozens of Tau fell while they scrambled to get weapons and armor ready for combat. A small group of Tau made a stand with a pack of Kroot and a pair of Vespids.

"There!" Tyrael shouted and pointed at them. He aimed his Bolter pistol at the first Kroot, blowing its head off, then he charged into the group with his chain sword. Alien blood covered his armor and faceplate when he rose from the pile of bodies. All around him, Tau, Kroot and Vespids lay dead; he felt pangs of sorrow as he noticed a handful of Templar bodies among them.

Three hours later, the Tau had been forced almost all the way back to their ship, but the Templars retreated back to where there was more cover and obstacles, more chances to ambush Tau squads and get to hand-to-hand fighting.

"Hundreds of Tau and their Auxiliaries lay dead, Brother Captain." A Sergeant told Tyrael.

"And our loses?" Tyrael asked, a pang of sorrow gripped his hearts when the Sergeant replied.

"We have lost Forty-one Templars... out of our hundred and seven, that leaves us with sixty-six Templars ready to fight to the last man against the Xenos." The Sergeant reported grimly.

"Very well, we will stay here, where we have the best chances of getting them in close combat, for there they are the weakest. If we cannot draw them into close quarters fighting, we shall retreat to the ridge and force them to come up the trees, through the minefield and traps. We must, at all costs, keep them out of the city until it can be fully evacuated by the Holy Fleet. Keep the men ready, Sergeant." Tyrael said and gave him a grim smile, then sunk down behind the wrecked Leman Russ battle tank and waited... ever patient, for the Tau.

From the view port of the fast-diving Thunderhawk, I could see the camp getting closer. Satellite scans from my frigate had shown the encampment was nearly abandoned, so I had ordered a daring Thunderhawk landing in the middle of the Tau camp. Suddenly, my troop transporters started shaking and shuddering violently. An immense heat washed over us and we saw big plasma-beams searing over us, reaching for the Tau camp. It was the orbital bombardment I had ordered my frigate to carry out at this time. Excellent, now there wouldn

These remnants of a Tau base, surrounded by wreckage and debris of a Guard camp, make a surprisingly well-defendable base, I thought to myself. There must be a significant Guard force surrounding us on the ridges, not to mention the Templars. Especially those indoctrinated marines should hate me enough to have launched a blind attack on my fortifications by now. This lack of resistance could only mean two things: or they feared me as much as they should, or the Tau posed such a threat they needed to keep their forces together and were forced to retreat into the city. However, I hadn

Ui

He saw the frightened look on his comrade's face and knew they thought the same: A terrible battle flooded straight to them and there was no way they could predict how it would rage, let alone knowing if they would survive it...

His comrade now offered him the bottle with strong liquor, but quickly hid it again under his flak-jacket. The Commissar, from which both men knew he had executed many of their fellow guardsmen, came strolling behind them.
"Have you boys cleaned your autocannon?", the severe Commissar asked with authority.
"Yes sir!", he shouted in response while saluting.
"Good, carry on."
While they watched the Commissar continuing his walk on the wall, the autocannon-gunner and his ammo-aider exchanged yet another thoughtfull look.

They looked once again over their cannons barrel, and witnessed a sight of which they knew it could be their last.
Through the barren wasteland in front of the city, a group of Astartes in black armour came running towards the city at superhuman speed. On the left side, they could see a convoy driving in a big dust cloud; that must be the Tau. Dotted accross the terrain, vehicles of their own Guard regiment were also heading for the city, alone or in small groups.

Moments ago, four aircrafts had seared over the moving forces, shooting at both Imperial and Tau troops. Off course, the Guard had taken the blunt of the punishment, as usual, he thought grimly. Luckily, one of those planes had been shot down and now let a smoke-plume rise from behind the Astartes. A second plane had been hit by the Tau and had dissapeared on the far left. There were also other smoke-plumes rising from the wasteland: exploded vehicles of the Tau and Guard, which had been blasted apart by the aircraft.

His ammo-aid awoke him from his thoughts by padding him on his arm. His comrade handed over his binoculars and pointed his finger to the big smoke-plume of the downed plane. Through the amplifying lenses, he could see some infantry appear on the horizon. After zooming in, he saw, to his fear, Chaos marines and cultists march in a line. Behind them, vehicles followed them and a lot of aircraft hovered above them.
"Take the radio and call HQ!", he yelled. "Besides the Tau, there are also Chaos forces coming in this direction!"

Now the Templar Crusade fleet had fled, all Tau battleships suddenly turned their attention to the lone Chaos Firestorm Frigate. At that moment, the Frigate was in orbit right above the city, so all in the vicinity could witness the lightning flashes of the space battle above their heads.

The Frigate was completely deserted, not one person was aboard. However, the ship was possessed by a Daemon who could control the engines and the electronics in the same way like a machine spirit, and the hull and gun-batteries like a body of a living being. It could even move the bottom-hull like humanoids used their abdominal muscles.

The Frigate started glowing crimson red now many Tau ships engaged it. It was clearly the Daemon was enraged. Then, sparkling energies and twisting clouds formed across the hull, completely surrounding it. The Daemon within the ship had used its malice to create a mini warpstorm around it. It proved an excellent protection: most of the enemy fire was thrown off course once it came in the storm. As such, the Frigate was kept from harm.

The Tau fire was, however, so intense that the Daemon had no choice but to fled. While it bended its ship so it could turn without even using the engines, it released a terrible barrage from both the port and starboard batteries. About twenty Tau barges were shredded as the Frigate speeded past them. It even almost escaped.

When it had breached the Tau blockade and speeded to open space, a strong plasma beam hit the warpengines in the back. It caused a chain reaction and tore the Frigate apart in a series of  explosions.

Now its host had been destroyed, the Daemon drifted in open space like a big gas cloud. It started glowing again and quickly turned around. While it speeded back down in the direction of the planet, the terrified Tau recognised vague animal-like features in the gas Daemon. It proved to be even more volatile than gas: the Daemon seemed more like a ghost. Projectiles and beams simply flew through it, inflicting no damage.

To their shock, the Daemon suddenly flew inside a Tau ship and came back out from the back of the cruiser. Then the cruiser exploded violently. The Daemon must have triggered the new warpengines of the Tau to explode somehow, finally turning their advanced technology against them. The Daemon headed for the city on the planet dead on, letting all Tau ships in its path explode in the same way, claiming another ten victims.

Ulrics Thunderhawk reached its destination. It had pushed its jet-engines to their limits and now the small strike force had a head start. When the marines came out of the cave wherein their transport lay hidden, a spectacular sight unfolded.

Slightly diagonally, bright yellow hazes dived from the skies and grinded the city walls to rubble. At the same time, a huge purple ghost with horns and fangs floated straight downwards toward the tallest tower of the city.