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The Kauyon – Extract

A Black Library Publication

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The Kauyon

Andy Smillie

The fire warrior’s face was frozen in the agony of dying. Strung up on a section of electro-wire, his body was a broken tangle of flesh and scorched carapace. He spasmed, twitching like a macabre puppet as the electrical current played through his limbs. The white moon motif on his ruined shoulder guard was barely visible but marked the warrior as belonging to the Seventh Hunter Cadre.

‘Ta’ma,’ Kal’va cursed. He gritted his teeth in impotent rage. He had never mastered the art of detached observance. Honour demanded that he deliver mercy shots to those still clinging to life. It pained him to stand idly by and watch those of his caste suffer. The sniper took a breath and steeled himself. There was nothing he could do.

He was nowhere near the massacre site.

Kal’va tapped the dial on the back of his glove. In response, the image the spotter drone was overlaying onto his helmet display changed, panning out to give him a wider view of the valley.

The tau dead stretched in every direction. Tens, dozens, hundreds of broken bodies were strewn across the bloodied earth. The ruined hulls of Hammerhead tanks and Devilfish carriers lay in smoking craters. Of the enemy, there was no sign. The Hunter Cadre had been ambushed and destroyed before they could respond.

At Kal’va’s direction, the spotter drone shifted location and moved north up the valley. The drone stopped a few feet from its original position, its auto-sensors focusing on movement ahead.

He couldn’t see what the drone did. A pall of smoke and dust hung in the air, conspiring with the dense rock and foliage to obscure the target. Switching to the visual feed from the secondary spotter, he caught the first glimpse of his prey.

Seven Imperial tanks were snaking their way through the canyon. Two bipedal walkers kept pace, one on either side, protecting the flanks. Three of the tanks had squat turrets, while the other four were troop carriers with little in the way of offensive weaponry. Each was painted in hues of green and brown that masked them against the landscape.

‘Ta’ma va’ra,’ Kal’va growled as he watched one of the walkers clamber over a broken Crisis battlesuit. Looking down at his controller, a cluster of blue icons flashed quizzically as his squadron of gun drones awaited orders.

‘Patience,’ he muttered. ‘Patience.’

The drones were not advanced enough to respond to voice commands. Kal’va spoke for his own benefit. Only those of the fire caste who could temper the flame in their breasts rose to the rank of sniper, but the urge to fight first and gather intelligence later never truly left them.

Tasking the secondary spotter drone to follow the convoy, Kal’va switched to the feed being transmitted from a third drone.

Hovering just below the cloud layer, the drone was well placed to make out the inscriptions on the tanks’ hulls.

‘Cadian 101st. Emperor’s Wrath. Foe Bane.’

Kal’va mouthed the words as the drone relayed them to him, forcing his tongue around the unfamiliar sounds. Unlike the envoys and traders of the water caste, he had only the most basic grasp of the human language – just enough to track targets.

The drone ignored the middle tanks; their hulls carried numbers, instead of names.

‘Terra’s Guardian.’

Kal’va recorded the name of the rearguard vehicle and rotated the altitude dial on his drone controller.

The Imperial convoy shrank into the distance as the image on his display panned out, the tanks merging into a single geometric shape as their outlines blended together.

Tapping the dial again, Kal’va ordered the hovering spotter drone to climb into the atmosphere. The image continued to zoom out, the convoy receding until barely visible, a single blip on a display that mapped the entire region.

Kal’va already knew that the tanks were headed for the Imperial base. The ethereals believed that they sought to reinforce it before the tau could muster another attack. He didn’t care about the reason, as long as they passed within range of his rifle.

Manipulating the information on his display, he plotted the convoy’s most likely trajectory. Human protocol was rigid, predictable. Extrapolating their path was a simple matter. When negotiating hostile territory the humans always took the fastest route that presented the least resistance, travelling in as straight a line as possible. In this case, the convoy would cut through the Arav’la Pass and turn left over the Gal’ta Plains.

‘Ma va’ra,’ Kal’va swore again. He needed them to turn right.

Never chase the prey. Better to adjust its course. Kal’va instinctively touched the helmet mag-locked to his belt as he remembered Sas’la’s words. He wished that his team leader had managed to follow the path he had advocated.

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A Black Library Publication

First published in Legends of the Dark Millenium - The Tau Empire in Great Britain in 2016.
This eBook edition published in 2018 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd,
Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.
Cover illustration by Nacho Molina.

The Kauyon © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2018. The Kauyon, GW, Games Workshop, Black Library, The Horus Heresy, The Horus Heresy Eye logo, Space Marine, 40K, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, the ‘Aquila’ Double-headed Eagle logo, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world.
All Rights Reserved.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-78572-934-8

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

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