On a planet within the Tau Empire.
An Earth Caste researcher was not asleep.
Instead, he was operating something on his personal AI computer.
One Tau Empire rescue report after another was being compressed and packaged.
Then transmitted through his personal information account.
But—
These rescue reports were not about Tau.
They showed some twisted Chaos creatures.
They were engaging in some sort of friendly cooperation with the Tau, as though they were allies.
"Engra?"
"What are you doing?"
"Working." The Tau nervously shut his personal AI computer and looked at the Tau who had greeted him.
A patrolling AI seemed to have detected some kind of disturbance.
That faint disturbance drew over a patrolling order squad.
The order squad conducted a simple inspection but found nothing.
In the darkness, a figure swiftly left the area.
Then it headed toward another location, where it would adjust the communications equipment at the next station.
At a banquet celebrating a Tau's return, countless old friends welcomed him back.
A host of alien friends had all hurried over as well.
However, the alien friends with their keen sense of smell felt that their old friend's mental state seemed a little off. Even his scent seemed to have changed somehow.
But because he had returned, they did not think too deeply about it.
Perhaps they had simply sensed it wrong.
The stars of the Tau Empire.
They served to transmit and amplify signals, playing an enormous role in the Tau Empire's communications network.
Signals were launched from transmitters on the Tau Empire's planets and concentrated for transmission to space stations. Then, using stellar modulators and control consoles, the smaller signal bands were spread outward at greater amplitudes. The energy of the amplified signals was then compressed through beam transmitters they had developed, packed into