The T'au are notoriously poor in close-quarters combat. When a burrowing Roach suddenly lunges at their face, panic is the natural result.
Though they fired point-blank while desperately swinging their rifle butts at the encroaching Zerglings and Roaches, it was a futile effort. The Zerg carapace was far too dense for such clumsy strikes and small-caliber pulse fire to penetrate.
"Retreat! Fall back immediately!"
The T'au lines shattered upon first contact. The surviving Hammerhead tanks and Devilfish carriers immediately withdrew toward the center of the town. The infantry on the front lines attempted to break out, but the Zerg were relentless, hounding them every step of the way.
However, violent explosions began to ripple through the streets, slowing the Zerg advance. The human defenders had the foresight to lay minefields along the primary escape routes. Under this fragmented cover, a dozen human soldiers managed to reach the safety of the central fortress; they were significantly outnumbered by the retreating T'au Fire Caste survivors.
The fortress gates slammed shut. These heavy, reinforced bulkheads were exceptionally sturdy—constructed from salvaged starship plating, they could withstand a direct assault from armored units for a considerable time.
The situation was dire. The human officer had narrowly escaped the Zerg's claws, but he bore a horrific gash across his abdomen that seeped blood onto the cold floor. T'au medics quickly rushed to his side, applying advanced medical gel to cauterize the wound.
"You are safe for now, Gue'vesa."
"Vash'ya... why didn't your drones hold them?" the officer gasped.
"We could have contained them on the surface," the T'au commander replied grimly, "but they emerged from the subsoil. They bypassed our firing lanes entirely."
T'au Fire Caste warriors lacked the chainswords or power weapons of the Imperium's Space Marines. Their pulse rifles were peerless at a distance, but in a brawl, they were no match for the Zerg. While a Space Marine might parry a Zergling for a time, a T'au warrior could be torn asunder in a heartbeat.
From beyond the gate came the terrifying sound of thousands of claws scratching at the metal—a jarring, rhythmic screech that filled the defenders with cold dread.
"They'll break through eventually," the officer groaned. "How long until your support fleet arrives?"
"A patrol fleet is in the sector, but it will take three days to reach us."
Three days.
They retreated to the upper battlements, peering down from the narrow windows. The Zerglings and Roaches were not natural climbers on vertical metal surfaces, clustered instead at the base of the fortress.
"Get the demolition charges. Those monsters have monomolecular claws; we can't let them burrow into the foundation, or the whole structure will collapse."
Even the hull of a Luna-class cruiser could not withstand the combined assault of Zergling claws and Roach acid indefinitely. Without intervention, the armor would hold for a day at most. By dropping explosives from the heights, they hoped to buy themselves a few extra hours.
"There is a larger vault beneath us," a T'au technician suggested. "The fortress is built upon the remains of an ancient human ship. If we retreat into the primary hull, we can activate the internal automated weapon platforms."
It was their best hope. The fortress contained massive transit corridors wide enough for a Hammerhead tank to navigate. The defenders began their descent into the bowels of the Luna-class cruiser, establishing a final kill zone within its labyrinthine halls.
The human officer, accompanied by a few haggard Tech-Priests, began reciting canticles to the ship's ancient systems. Soon, heavy bolter turrets rose from the floor, humming as they locked onto the corridor entrances.
"This should hold them," the officer muttered.
What they didn't know was that the Swarm had already bypassed their walls. Changelings and Infested spies had infiltrated the fortress alongside the refugees long ago. Every defensive measure was being broadcast directly to the Overmind.
"It is useless," the Overmind mused. "These trinkets will only buy them minutes."
He would not give them a chance to regroup. Though the T'au were physically frail, their long-range firepower and drone networks were a legitimate threat if allowed to reach critical mass. He needed them dead before their reinforcements arrived.
High above, the Leviathan lowered its massive fleshy tentacles. From the shadows of the town, hundreds of thousands of Infested humans approached the fortress, clutching crude weapons in a scene reminiscent of a medieval siege.
Against a Leviathan, the cruiser's armor was a mere shell. A single bio-plasmic blast from the beast above punched a jagged hole through the ship's topside. Swarms of Zerg flooded into the breach, beginning a horrific massacre of the refugees huddled in the upper decks.
The attack momentarily awakened the Luna-class cruiser's Machine Spirit. The ship's remaining point-defense turrets began to traverse, spraying a desperate hail of macro-cannon fire into the sky. It was a valiant effort, but ultimately futile; the sheer number of Infested was overwhelming.
The Machine Spirit flickered and died within the hour. Without the proper rituals and maintenance of a full Tech-Priest coven, its last spark of strength was spent.
The Infested poured into the corridors, heading toward the heart of the ship where the survivors were cornered.
"Fire! Open fire!"
Inside the claustrophobic halls, a brutal stalemate began. The narrow passages prevented the Roaches from burrowing, forcing the Zerg into a head-on meat grinder against T'au pulse fire and Imperial heavy bolters.
"It's like a twisted game of 'Night of the Dead,'" the Overmind observed.
The Infested were not efficient killers, but their attrition rate was terrifying. Every bullet fired by the defenders was a resource they couldn't replace, while the Swarm had millions of expendable bodies to throw into the fire.
As the pressure mounted, even the civilian refugees were forced to pick up discarded lasguns to defend their lives. They would hold for now, but in the cold void above, the Infested Imperial fleet was already moving into position to intercept the T'au relief force.
The Luna-class cruiser, even in its broken state, remained a grim omen for the T'au.