While members of all Castes can be pretty extreme, the Fire Caste has the unique disposition that their elite members are a few very stressful deployments away from becoming "Doom Guy".
By the Light of Blazing Stars: Commander Torchstar
One billion, trillion stars ran in a great swath that crossed from one side the ship’s observation deck to the other. Beneath its starry canopy stood a solitary figure, a mere shadow against the mass of burning light. Alone the fire caste commander stood with her eyes focused on the mass of burning light. She pulled out the mont’myr knife at her waist, the blade glittering in the starlight as she drew it from its scabbard. Casting her eyes upon the knife, it seemed strange to her, not like any she had carried in the T’au Empire. This mont’myr was curved with a single edge, like the ancient blades carried by Tau equestrians before the mont’au. The commander held the blade up to her face, its mirrored surface reflecting the primordial the light of the galaxy her people called, the T'ten'grii'koreth, or the Celestial Stampede. And turning the blade over and over in her hand, she contemplated the act of lhas'rhen'na or shattered jade.
The word failure reverberated over and over in her mind; as a feeling of profound shame came over her. So taking the blade firmly in her had, first she set the it to her stomach, then to her breast, and finally to her throat. She closed her eyes, but then wavered on her hooves. So taking a moment to steady herself, she then pressed the knife to her throat with both hands whispered to herself, ‘Shas’O’Shovah I have failed you. I have failed those who sent me. I have failed Vior’los. And I have failed the Tau’va. Please forgive me….’
And closing her her eyes to the ancient star light, she pressing the knife to her throat and said aloud, ‘Shas’O’Shovah I have failed you. And I have failed those who sent me. I have failed Vior’los. I have failed the Tau’va. Please forgive me. Please, please forgive me…’
‘Granddaughter, why do I need to forgive you?’ said a deep voice from behind her. Then a warm hand enclosed the hand that held the mont’myr, and pulled it away from her throat.
Shas’O’Shovah the Supreme Commander of Vior’los, stood there looking at her in his ornate terracotta uniform. His long Vior’lan face was framed by two braids that hung from each of his temples, and a silver and black beard. A long queue of black flecked with silver hung to below his waist; while on his forehead, just above his nasal slit, was a single tuff of black hair. Farsight looked at Torchstar with his piercing sapphire eyes and she trembled. A quizzical look crossed his face, as he reached around to take the scabbard from her belt. Then re-sheathing her mont’myr blade, he tucked it back into her belt.
Farsight then fixed his eyes on the stars of the galaxy, and spoke quietly as he scanned its starry brilliance.
‘Do you know why the galaxy is called the T'ten'grii'koreth? Because our ancestors believed the each star was a rat’laa’erra or spirit horse, that carried the soul of a dead person to the heavens. And so, the great mass of stars that make up the body of the galaxy were thought to be a stampede of these spirit horses, as they carried the souls of the dead to the next world. But, there was a catch. The rat’laa’erra couldn’t carry a soul to the heavens, without kinsmen to pray for the soul. For without the prayers of their kinsmen, a dead person’s spirit was left to wander for eternity between the land of living, and the land of the dead. Such was the belief of our ancestors.’
Farsight turned his eyes towards Torchstar, but she made no comment on his lesson in Tau folklore. And so with a gentle smile, and a twinkle in his eyes, he asked, ‘And just what was it did you do again, that I need to forgive you for?’
Torchstar couldn’t answer him, for the wall holding back her emotions suddenly broke inside her, and the eur’ii moisture gushed from her eyes. Farsight now took her in his arms and held her close, as the eur’ii moisture fell and her body trembled and shook. And all the while she cried, he stroked and patted her auburn queue, like a loving grandfather.
‘I-I failed you. I failed Viro’los, I failed those…’ she sobbed softly.
‘Now what makes you think you’ve failed me ach’oxin?’ he asked releasing her to then take her by the chin, and look in her in the eye.
But Torchstar still couldn’t answer him, because hearing Farsight call her granddaughter again; turned her silent sobbing audible. And so now wept out loud as he continued to hold her in his arms.
‘You do know Yi’gi we’ve been over this before?’ he said calling her by her given name.
Too overcome by emotion to protest such unwarranted familiarity with one so unworthy as herself. Torchstar could only shake her head in agreement.
‘Yi’gi you know you’re still recovering form the effects of the cryostasis don’t you? And that disruption to your equilibrium is to be expected? Well, at least that’s what the por’faan physicians have told me anyway. So, don’t be so hard on yourself is all. What you’re experiencing is all part of the recovery after regaining consciousness.’
Torchstar mumbled something and again shook her head; and so seeing she had somewhat regained her composure, Fasight let go of her. He now stood besides her, as the two of them both looked out at the wonders of the T'ten'grii'koreth galaxy.
At last Torchstar turned to Farsight and said, ‘Commander it turns out neither the weapon prototypes, nor the weapon designs files I brought from the T’au Empire, were of any use to you. There wasn’t a weapon system that your fio engineers hadn’t already developed on their own; or your intelligence service hadn’t already stolen the designs for. So, all the while I was adrift in space and frozen cryostatsis, you already had everything!’
‘Well, that’s not entirely true…’ answered Farsight turning back around to her; but then paused when he saw her standing there with her face in her hands. So putting a hand on her shoulder he said, ‘I’m sorry commander, but there was no way that you, or your associates, could have known we already had much of that intelligence. And none of you even knew of the existence of our intelligence network. Furthermore, we weren’t aware of the existence of your group of sympathizers, or that they was working on our behalf. Our intelligence network didn’t even make contact with them, until long after your ship left imperial T’au space. That we already had much of the intelligence that you brought with you... well that wasn’t your fault. The fact is our intelligence network was well established in the T’au Empire, long before you were even born commander. Fate it seems was stacked against your effort, but in the end it was still a success!’
‘How could that be “still a success”? You even had design files for the XV-104 Battlesuit!’ complained Torchstar.
‘True, true…and eventually we had all of the battlesuit variants, including the XV107 R'varna and the XV109 Y'vahra as well. But to be fair, we did have to do a lot of redesign work on those designs.’
‘Why is that?’
‘Well the knees.’
‘The knees?’
‘Well of course the knees! You know that thing with the knees pointing backwards? T’eh, you know, the way they’re reversed from how a Tau knee works. More like the way knees go on the hind legs of say...a clone beast! Consequently our firewarrior test pilots all had terrible stability issues when flying prototype. And that’s even after they were total repeatedly, “Be careful the knees bend the wrong way!”. But every time a pilot tried to take a knee, they’d loose balance, and whole the snae’ta thing would topple over. One of our pilots panicked and ejected from her XV104 prematurely; only to then came after the poor fio technicians conducting the testing. Claimed they were trying to kill her!’
Torchstar gave a little chuckle but then said, ‘Your kor’faan liaison officer told me your air caste pilots absolutely refused to fly either the AX-3 or AX-39 advanced fighter bombers!’
‘That’s because, as I have been told numerous times by my air caste staff, that the AX-3 chassis has the aerodynamics of a brick, and the flight characteristics to match. Our pilots did test them, but refused to ever consider flying even a revamped versions in combat. And then what our earth caste aerospace engineers had to say made matters even worse. I can quote you directly from their report, “The AX-3 airframe design should be not classified as an ‘advanced fighter design;’ but rather it should be considered a travesty of aircraft design. It is slow, unmaneuverable, and is vulnerable to both ground fire and air-to-air missiles. Furthermore, in aerial combat the AX-3 design lacks both significant protection and durability. Therefore we conclude that the AX-3 fighter bomber is a positive danger to the pilots who will fly it; and an absolute hazard to those ground forces that it is meant to protect.”
You couldn’t ask for a more definitive condemnation of a weapon system then that!’
‘But even AX-3s weapon loads weren’t acceptable to your earth caste designers,’ said Torchstar throwing up her hands.
‘Now, now, to be fair, the weapons loads weren’t liked by either our air caste pilots, or our the earth caste design teams. I mean the AX-3’s pulse bomb generator has a one-in-sixth chance of failure every time it’s used! By contrast, our own AX-302 Jit’hui’la fighter uses standard fusion bombs; which work every single time!’
‘See this is what I mean when I say, I didn’t bring you a single thing that was useful!’
‘Commander, you’re not looking at the wider picture…’
‘Wider picture? The wider picture is that you already had the technology.'
‘No, not everything…’
‘Alright then what about Onager Gauntlets?!’
‘Well in that case we’d been making our own power weapons for centuries – power swords, power glaives, power fists etcetera.’
‘Well, what then about MV8 Shielded Missile drones? Did you have them?’
‘DX-37 Missile drones have been in our arsenal for the last one hundred and fifty tau’cyrs. Seventy-five tau’cyr before Imperial earth caste engineers even developed the MV8 drone.’
‘How about MB3 Recon drones?’
‘Redundant. The MB3 were never put into production.’
‘MV33 Grav inhibitor drones?’
‘Xhmm, yes and no. Never built the drones, but the grav inhibitor technology was incorporated into our air deployable defensive redoubts. That is our equivalent of the Tide Wall defense system, only better.’
‘And the MV31 Pulse accelerator drones?’
‘That’s another yes and no. Never found a use for the accelerator pulse drones; but we did use the technology to extend the range of our battlesuit and vehicle mounted burst cannons.’
‘And MV5 Stealth drones?’
‘Xhmm…no. Unnecessary as our own variant of the XV95, the Mont’upt’erra, uses an entirely different stealth technology. Wait, wait, no I take that back! We do have a version of the stealth drone called a DX-40; which is used for infantry support. So, yes we do…sort of.’
‘So that’s it then?’ sighed Torchstar. ‘Just bits and bobs, here and there of T’au Imperial technology. So there was no real reason for me to come here at all was there? It was all a waste!’ Torchstar dropped her head and leaned on the railing of the observation deck. There was a long pause, as Farsight stood off a ways to allow her some time to herself. And so the two firewarriors stood there in silence, illuminated only by the fiery mass of stars in the galaxy.
It was silence as discourse.
And they remained silent, until at last Torchstar gestured to Farsight that he may speak to her.
When Farsight spoke his words with wisdom, power, and clarity. And with such energy that Torchstar could feel the vibration of his words in her chest, and through her fingers that lightly touched the railing.
‘Shas’El’Ishiin’shas what you did was courageous and brave beyond measure. Not only because you brought back important military designs and hardware; but because you turned your back on both the T’au Empire, and the worship of the Ethereals. And that commander is significant!’
Farsight paused to let his words sink in, and to Torchstar it seemed his native Vior’lan brogue was beginning to come through. It was as if when the words mattered most, his heart could only speak like a Tau born of his native soil. And for reasons she could not understand, there was eur’ii moisture in her eyes again.
‘It is significant because you severed your ties not just with the T’au Empire, but with your ta’lissera, your cadre, and your sept. You made a complete and utter break with everything that you ever knew; and with everyone that ever mattered to you. And why? Just so you could bring us those weapon prototypes and designs. This is the most difficult and gut wrenching thing any Tau could ever do; to sever the ties of kith and kin, to one’s caste, and to the unity of the Tau’va. For doing so makes you a ghost. A spirit wandering without rest for eternity in between the heavens and the lost in land of shadows.
‘And do not be mistaken this is what has happened to you; for your name has been struck from the list of those serve the fire caste. Your name is struck from the membership of your sept. And your ta’lissera will remember your name no more. You are at once both anathema and outcast. And dead to all those you left behind; and in your case, they are ghosts to you as well. For by this time, every you ever knew is dead. Unless of course they were of the Ethereal caste, no one you knew who is still alive today. Commander no Tau was ever meant to be alone. And you, make no mistake you are truly alone. Alone for the rest of your life.
‘So to have done what you did takes unbelievable courage, incredible fortitude, and an unrelenting belief in the justice of your cause. And I know this to be true; because I myself and those who followed me, have done the same thing. We broke our ties to the Empire, and made ourselves ghosts to all those we left behind.’
Farsight then turned put a hand on each of her shoulders and said, ‘Shas’El’Ishiin’shas know now that as of right now, you are no longer alone! You are now are a member of a new family, a new caste, and a new sept. Know that all of us from Vior’los are now your ta’lissera; and that we are all your family now. I am because we are. We are because I am. Welcome my anda’ta’lissera! Welcome to your new family of Vior’los!’
So overwhelmed was Torchstar by her emotions that it took all she had to look Farsight in the eye. But she managed to keep herself together long enough, to give him a simple wag of her head. Farsight now turned and motioned towards the shadows, and a service drone glided up to where they were standing. By the light of the blazing stars, Torchstar could see that two pulse rifles were clamped vertically to either side of the drone. Farsight removed one and held it admiringly in his hands.
‘There was one weapons system that we didn’t have! One weapon that has so far has always been beyond our grasp. One weapon system whose design plans we just could never obtain. But you shas’el have brought us that weapon!’ and with that he handed her the pulse rifle.
‘What is this?’ she asked examining from the rifle from the barrel to the stock. ‘Wait, this looks its derived from a Sniper drone’s Long Shot pulse rifle. But that’s not an infantry portable or capable weapon; which is why our fio designers have only deployed it on drones!’
‘True enough, but since we mount rail rifles on our sniper drones, we don’t need them on for that. Hence the development of an infantry version of the Long Shot pulse rife!’
‘How’s that?! What kind of rail rifles do you equip your Sniper drones then?’ asked Torchstar looking up from the rife.
‘Well, let’s just say they’re as powerful the rail rifles on the T’au Empire’s XV88s; but that’s not important. What is important, is the rifle that’s in your hands right now. That’s what’s really important!’
‘What? As powerful as a XV-88's….’
Farsight ignored her query as he took the second rifle from the drone; and began pointing to its various features saying, ‘This is of coursed only a mock-up, but Fio’O’Yanoi'kais assures me that by the time we reach Vior’los; he’ll have a working prototype that’s ready for testing.’
‘And who is Fio’O’Yanoi'kais again?’ asked Torchstar perplexed.
‘And old friend…’ answered Farsight. But then seeing Torchstar’s confusion he added, ‘O’Yanoi'kais is the earth caste weapon designer whom the gue’la call, Shas’O’Vesa. Which of course isn’t his real name; but as the gue’la have no real clue when it comes to our history or our culture, they’re forever making things up.’
But…’
‘Tsch, tsch!’ said Farsight with a twinkle in his sapphire eyes. And then aiming his Long Shot pulse rifle at some imaginary enemy he said, ‘What you have there in your hands shas’el, is probably the single most important Tau weapon in the last two hundred tau’cyr! You have no idea just how important this rifle is going to be to the defence and security of Vior’los.’ Farsight looked Torchstar in the eye and said, ‘This weapon will change history!’
Torchstar stared at Farsight for several raik’ans before replying, ‘But how could this rifle do that?’
‘Shas’el imagine a firewarriors armed with a pulse rifle that out ranges any other known pulse rifle by almost 50%. And except for some Ar’cea sniper rifles, out ranges every other infantry rifle in the known galaxy!’
Suddenly the realization hit her, and she looked down in amazement at the rifle in her hands. Staring at the pulse rifle in her hands Torchstar said, ‘If individual firewarriors were armed with a Long Shot rifle; even if it were only a single squad in a cadre. Then it could…Well, then it really could change history!’
‘Now don’t think just of a single firewarrior squad armed with Long Shot pulse rifles; but think of an entire cadre armed with them! And then think of an entire contingents, or coalitions armed with them! This could be the greatest advancement in the armament for the average firewarrior in centuries. Don’t you think so Shas’O’Shas’anuk’la?’
‘Yes! Yes, of course! Wait, who is Commander Firebird? A-a-are you referring to me?’ asked Torchstar with a little jerk of her shoulders.
‘Yes, I was referring to you,’ he replied storing his weapon on the drone. Torchstar waited patiently, as he then did the same with hers.
Farsight then stood in front of Torchstar, and looking at her with pride in his eyes, and more than a little emotion in his voice said, ‘The Shas’faan Tso’vol has met and determined that you Shas’El’Vor’los Ishiin’shas a’Vior’la, have passed the Test of Ranking. Which by-the-way, is what we here call the Trial-by-Fire now. Due to your efforts in obtaining military weapon designs and prototypes from the T’au Empire; and then successfully returning with them to Vior’los. And while performing this task, did so under the most difficult and dangerous circumstances. Circumstances such as a prolonged stay in cryostatsis; which threatened certain death onboard a space vessel adrift in deep space. And for all of this, it has been decided to bestow upon you the caste rank of “O” and the new caste rank name of “Firebird”. Congratulations Shas’O’Shas’anuk’la, you are worthy!’
Farsight bowed low to Torchstar, who hesitated a moment before returning the bow.
‘The full ceremony of course will be in a few rotaa, giving you enough time to get your uniform updated to your new rank and alike.’
‘Shas’O’Shovah, it has been quite a momentous time since I awoke from cryostasis. I believe I’ll need some more time for rest and recuperation before the ceremony,’ replied Torchstar putting a hand to her head.
‘Of course take all the time you need to rest. We can always reschedule the ceremony if we have to, so don’t worry about that.’
Farsight again motioned to the drone, and it produced a ceramic bottle of vi’ky’husa. The supreme commander then broke open the bottle, and poured the two steaming small bowls. He handed Firebird, neé Torchstar, a bowl saying, ‘I’ll make the traditional toast of Vior’los; which is slightly embarrassing for me, as I have to invoke my own name!’
He lifted the bowl and shouted, ‘Tō Tan’seri’nan! Tō Vior’los! Tō O’Shovah! - For the Dawn Blade! For Vior'los! For Commander Farsight!’; and with that the two of them tossed back their bowls of hot vi’ky’husa.
‘Hoi that was good! Is it a single-malt?’ asked Torchstar smiling.
‘Aye, a twenty-four tau’cyr old single-malt in fact!’ he laughed; and then poured each of them another bowl.
‘Pardon me commander, but why did you choose the name Firebird for me?’ she asked taking the bowl from him.
‘Well because the Shas’anuk’la was largest raptor to ever fly above the skies of T’au, with a wing span of over ten tor’leks. And flying higher than any other bird at recorded altitudes of 11,300 tor’leks. But it was solitary bird that hunted alone. And because of this our ancestors believed the Firebird flew so high that it could to converse with the gods. And that it took messages back and forth between the gods and the people. And then there of course is the myth of O Shas'anuk'lathe - Great Lord Firebird, which was believed to be the sun; and who flew so high that he could hear the secrets of the gods. And was said to have brought the secret of fire to the people.’
‘Reka Shas’O’Shovah! Reka for honouring me with such a names,’ said Firebird making a formal bow.
‘Nunco, Shas’O’Shas’anuk’la,’ he replied bowing.
Farsight and Firebird now stood together side-by-side on the observation deck; while all around them blazed the white stars of the Celestial Stampede galaxy.
