The last Khorne cruiser was blasted apart by the battleship Infinite Loyalty. Khorne's fleet in the system had been all but wiped out.
The battleships disposed of the remaining Forces of Khorne as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, the Lunar-class Cruisers drove deep into the system to pursue the remaining T'au forces.
The Nicassar had also suffered devastating losses. Seeing yet another army arrive, they decided they couldn't take any more, threw in the towel, and fled.
The Nicassar disliked war. They were explorers.
The dozen or so remaining T'au warships had lost all will to fight, their morale hitting rock bottom, because High Elder Ethereal Tuk'ro was now in five pieces.
A Chaos champion had taught him a lesson.
That was the thing about the T'au: when an Ethereal arrived, pheromones and hypnosis sent them into a frenzy, but once the Ethereal died, their morale plummeted.
A Nicassar clutched a device containing Tuk'ro's head and frantically ordered the fleet to retreat at full speed.
Some T'au warships that could still move searched the drifting wreckage for escape pods, but occasionally they released Khorne warriors from those pods, resulting in heavy crew casualties.
Eventually, these T'au warships all but stopped paying attention to escape pods without signals.
The Vior'la System had fallen. Behind it lay the T'au's third defensive line, established along the Damocles Gulf. If that fell too, the outer worlds would slip entirely out of T'au control.
They thought they could just leave?
Did they think the Lunar-class Cruisers were that accommodating?
Several Nova Cannon shots blasted toward them. The enemy raised psychic shields and barely blocked a few, but one still struck a Defender Cruiser. The numb T'au watched another fireworks display.
The T'au navy withdrew. Truly, fewer than one in ten remained.
Khorne deserved much of the