"An all-out war was about to erupt."
Then both sides spent three years building fortifications.
Three years later, Shadow Wasp fighters and T'au interstellar reconnaissance craft had clashed countless times in the boundless darkness. Whenever they approached the brink of all-out war, one side always tacitly pulled back.
In the end, after three years, both sides believed they held the advantage.
The Fire Caste's commander-in-chief had spent a very, very long time carefully studying a copy of the Codex Astartes. During his previous encounter with the Astartes, this experienced commander had correctly recognized that the numerous "big metal fellows" the enemy deployed in ground battles were their army's trump card.
The key to victory was to contain these enemies, preferably by trapping them and blasting them to pieces.
These fellows called Astartes wore the finest, toughest armor. His ground troops could do almost nothing against them.
But other forces could. However formidable they were, could they withstand ground-based antiaircraft cannons-rated to damage Lunar-class Cruisers-leveled at them?
The Fire Caste commander read through the Codex Astartes again. According to its contents, the enemy would very likely send the Astartes to raid his critical facilities.
So he built fake command centers, fake T'au Shield Groups-something like void shields-and fake power plants.
The entire planet had already been evacuated. It was now a steel trap, with every important facility packed with mines and laser-guidance beacons.
Once triggered, they would unleash an endless bombardment from concealed missiles.
The Supreme Commander surveyed his defenses with absolute confidence. In countless strategic simulations, they had always achieved a hard-fought victory.
Then he looked at his advanced warships. Since the Defender Project began, their performance had become entirely capable of going toe-to-toe with the enemy's so-called Lunar-class capital ships.
But the Ethereal beside him had repeatedly poured