Ni’loc lay still, staring at the ceiling. The morning light was slowly filling the room. He still had the nightmares, not as frequent as in the early days, but they still frequently haunted his sleep. He had been a warrior for a long time, but the nightmares were not of the war against the Imperium. Joining the T’au and fighting its oppression was the best thing he ever did, well maybe the second best thing. Din’sea, now twenty years old, was his life. Her mother had died in a terrorist attack just months after she had been born. After the Awakening some peoples had refused to recognise the new freedom brought by the Greater Good. Din’sea was his life and life was good… apart from the nightmares and the multi-limbed horrors that lurked at their edges.
Ur’veil, the new name the T’au had gifted to his home world, had known peace for over ten years. The alien threat he had faced just after the T’au forces had conquered or converted the Imperium defenders had disappeared. Ni’loc hoped they had left Ur’veil or had simply died out. Terrorism and insurgency, mostly instigated by ultra-religious followers of the Emperor of Man, had become infrequent to the point where he believed they were gone or neutralised. The peace had brought prosperity, it more importantly it had brought hope. His hope for Din’sea was that she could spread the message of T’au’va to more peoples forsaken by the Imperium.
Ni’loc’s thoughts were dragged back to his room by the screaming of engines, a sound he hadn’t heard in almost twenty years. He lept from his bed and opened the window shutter. Blood red drop ships hurtled through the sky and defensive batteries began to open fire. War had returned to Ur’veil.
Until next time,
Owen