Guilliman felt his blood pressure soar as he read the data reports streaming in.
The ferocity of these Warp xenos exceeded almost everyone's imagination.
A report from the Officio Assassinorum, along with several complete recordings, prompted Guilliman to contact Iax immediately after reviewing them.
The material came from Callidus Assassins embedded among the T'au.
The Ultramarines' earlier war of extermination against the T'au had relied on intelligence stolen by these infiltrators.
Although that war had ended abruptly, these masters of intelligence from the Officio Assassinorum had not left the T'au. Instead, they had settled into long-term undercover operations.
Within the distant territories of the T'au Empire, a deeper collapse was unfolding, one that struck at the very foundations of their civilization's survival.
The first recording came from an elegantly designed conference hall.
Inside the oval hall, the Ethereals, representing the T'au Empire's highest wisdom and authority, were holding an emergency meeting.
Some no longer wore the ornate robes symbolizing harmony and guidance. Instead, they wore plain, dark gray garments that almost blended into the shadows, as though mourning a dying ideal.
A holographic star map hovered in the center. Four glaring, ever-expanding crimson regions marking Enslaver contamination—Dal'yth, Pheos, Vash'ya, and Kova—gnawed at its blue territories like festering wounds.
Along the edges of the map, countless points of light representing "refugee ships" were heading toward other Sept Worlds. Each point resembled a falling drop of poison.
The Ethereal identified in the recording as Aun'o Aza'el broke the silence with a cold, piercing voice.
"The evidence is conclusive!"
His gaunt fingers emerged from his dark gray robes and slammed against the floating console before him, bringing up a horrifying recording.
In a burning domed city on Dal'yth, several Kroot warriors, their eyes rolled back and their movements as stiff as marionettes, were