'Charge capacitors, time to intercept'?

Kor'uil vash'ya tozhan lowered himself into his blast couch and glanced at the control surface to trigger the emergency restraints. He never locked himself down until the last moment before combat, he was air-caste born and orbital-raised, swimming in zero gravity was far more natural to him than walking. Around his couch the array of holographic displays projected by his bridge drones settled next to him, he took in the details with an experienced eye. His vessel had accelerated to optimum speed and was rapidly closing with his human quarry. Even though his bridge drones had definitely identified the target as a civilian vessel it had impressive speed, almost as fast as Tozhan's Skether'qan class, and his ship was as fast as any in the Kor'vattra.

'Intercept in 72.83 centidec'.

Tozhan confirmed that the intercept point had appeared on his tactical display and a countdown to intercept had started. All his railgun tubes were loaded and the huge energy charge needed to fire them could be released on his command. This was one consignment of supplies that would never reach the fighting on Arthas Moloch.

The Tau Empire has only expanded into space during the last thousand years. Despite this they have made remarkable progress in developing both civilian and military starships, and have now reached a level where their ships can be compared to Imperial designs.

The development of the Tau fleet (known as the Kor'vattra in Tau) has been given the highest priority by the Ethereal Caste. Without the Kor'vattra the manifest destiny of the Tau could never be realised and as a species their existence would be at the mercy of celestial phenomena such as meteors or supernova.

Once unified by the Ethereal Caste the Tau made incredible technological progress. By M39 they had spread through the T'au system and ringed their homeworld with orbital research and manufacturing facilities. Further expansion required a drive system capable of spanning interstellar distances however and this proved to be a formidable barrier.

Tau vessels already used a form of gravitic drive. This projected a sheath of gravitic energy ahead of and around the vessel which was continually re-projected further ahead, drawing the ship behind it rather like an archaic sail. For two hundred tau'cyr the Earth Caste grappled with the problem only for the breakthrough to be handed to them.

On the innermost of T'au seven's moons a routine geological survey discovered the remains of an alien vessel. The significance of the find did not disrupt Tau society as much as might have been expected. Tau theorists had long reasoned that other life forms existed and the verification helped confirm the belief that there was a greater destiny awaiting them. No Tau commented on the sheer good fortune of finding the technology that they so desperately needed on their doorstep just when they needed it.

The Tau were able to duplicate the warp drive of the alien ship but the initial test flights were disastrous. Achieving transition to the Warp required more than technology, it required psychically attuned minds and the Tau race boasted no psykers. Without them to guide the transition no amount of power could breach the dimensional barriers. The best the Tau could do was make a partial transition, forcing themselves into the void that separated Warpspace and real space before they were hurled out again like a ball held under water then released.

Data gathered at great cost during the test flights was studied closely. The Water caste scientists made the observation that the boundary between real space and warp space was not a neat line. It was closer to being a turbulent ocean fomented by the tempestuous warp tides below. By carefully angling their descent toward the Warp and extending the field generated by the gravitic drive into a wing, shaped to hold the vessel down a Tau vessel could extend the duration of the dive considerably. The speeds achieved in the ascent back to real space were staggering and this coupled with the effect of the Warp on time and space ensured that the real distance covered by the dive was immense. Early tests lost several drone ships because they inadvertently passed far beyond the sensor range of their recovery vessels.

The details were soon resolved. There was still a major constraint, only the most powerful (and bulky) drives could sustain the gravitic wing throughout the dive and the power drain meant that considerable recharge time was needed between dives. Also by comparison to actually navigating the warp the pace was still very slow. Taking typical Imperial Warp speeds the Tau drive was slower by a factor of five. The speed was consistent though, did not expose the Tau to the perils of the Warp and enabled the Tau to expand beyond their home star for the first time.

The first major class of Starships built were the ponderous Gal'eath'(trans. Explorer ). These leviathans laid the foundations for the Tau Empire and formed the basis of the Kor'vattra for its first wars with the Orks and the Niccassar. The Niccassar were less advanced than the Tau and after their speedy defeat were one of the first other races absorbed into the Empire. The Orks however posed a major problem. Their ships were faster, better shielded and more heavily armed. Against such a dangerous enemy the Gal'eath class was simply too expensive a resource to risk. Fortunately new, more compact gravitic drives led to the introduction of the smaller Il'fannor (trans. Merchant) class. To counter the numerous Ork escorts the Tau developed their own Kass'l (trans. Orca) gunships. The Tau were slow to build a gravitc drive with sufficient power for Warp dives small enough to create an independent escort so the Kass'l would travel inside a larger vessels gravitic sheath over long distances, disengaging when back in normal space. This combined with the introduction of super-heavy ion cannons and barracuda fighters helped restore the balance but it was the power and efficiency of the Tau shipyards that prevented the Empire being devastated.

Tau'n was a choice objective for the expanding Tau and following extensive exploration a colonisation fleet was assembled based around seventeen Gal'leath and twenty-three Il'fannor class vessels, Between them these ships could transport some forty Kass'l class Gunships. Most important however was the immense transport capacity of the fleet which was used to take components for half a dozen heavily-armed orbitals to Tau'n. Fighting off Ork raiders the Tau were able to set up their orbitals around Tau'n and control their colonisation of the world from space. The Tau fleet used the orbitals as a secure harbour from which to fight off Ork attacks including a major assault involving nine Ork Kill-kroozers and Terrorships. Tau tactics were still too static however and on numerous occasions the Barracudas and Orcas were lured too far from the rest of the fleet and destroyed. The conflict was ended when Tau ground forces defeated a hastily landed Ork army enabling colonisation to proceed unopposed. The victory cost the Tau fourteen of their capital ships for only one confirmed Ork loss of comparable mass. Important lessons were learned.

Firstly a better method of linking space and ground forces was needed. The result was the Manta, a machine capable of fighting in space as a very heavy bomber (it is almost large enough to be considered an Escort) and within an atmosphere as a drop ship and heavy fire support. The use of Orbital platforms to augment the fleet's firepower became part of standard Kor'vattra doctrine as did the imaginative stratagem of using small stations (called Waystations) to create harbours and rendezvous points in deep space where they were safe from detection. The problem of communication over interstellar distances had to be resolved as well. Lacking telepathic communication a Tau fleet, once despatched, was immediately on its own, unable to communicate with its superiors or other elements of the fleet. Strings of waystations were established to relay messages but this was only effective over relatively short distances. Accordingly the Skether'qan (trans. Messenger) class starship was built. The Messenger was tiny by comparison to the rest of the fleet and was crewed by a single pilot aided by the most advanced drones. By reducing the crew to a minimum the Messenger was able to be fitted with the smallest gravitic drive capable of performing Warp dives. Its systems were optimised for storage and relay of vast quantities of data. Urgent messages could now be transmitted by relays of Messengers each diving in turn and passing its data to the next vessel in the chain. The method was still clumsy and co-ordinating separate fleet formations remains a Kor'vattra weakness necessitating extremely rigorous planning.

Beyond this the Tau made numerous minor advances. The best example was the improvements made in drone technology which allowed the deployment of spy pods to extend sensor ranges. The Fire Caste provided guidance to the Air caste-dominated Kor'vattra devising a series of training programs to hone their combat skills.

Fundamentally the Tau military system remained the same until the Damocles Gulf Crusade brought them into conflict with the Imperium. It is likely that if they had been confronted by a significant Ork Waaagh! at any time during this period they would have been defeated but the destruction of Waaagh! Scraghurtz by Alaitoc Craftworld in M40 ensured their survival. The limited (by human standards) conflict with the Imperium set new standards for the Kor'vattra though. The expansion of the Empire now meant that the Tau could call upon species such as the Kroot with their own starships and Imperial Rogue Traders were a valuable source of new technology. Within twenty years of the armistice the Tau launched their first Lar'shi (trans. Hero) class cruiser, inspired by the Imperial Lunar class. A Tau fleet including a high ratio of the new ships subsequently defeated an Ork fleet of almost comparable size assaulting the D'yanoi system.

The Tau are now an established power on the Eastern fringe but it remains to be seen whether the Kor'vattra can rise to the challenge of the Tyranid Hive Fleets and the other perils of a very dangerous universe.