He closed his eyes, and two trails of scalding tears finally slipped from the eyes of the iron-willed commander.
"Take off." He mustered every ounce of strength to give the order.
The enormous transport slowly rose into the sky, carrying the T'au Empire's last embers on this planet toward the fleet waiting in orbit.
On the Bridge of the Dawnbringer, when Qingliu saw the commander return safely, he could hold on no longer. He collapsed into his chair and sobbed aloud.
"They... they did it... those honorable, magnificent Gretchin..."
The T'au Empire's fleet did not linger for a moment. Their faster-than-light engines activated, and they became streaks of blue light, vanishing beyond the edge of the Jade VII system.
As far as they were concerned, this war had ended in an utterly horrific, utterly tragic fashion. Though they had lost and fled the planet in disgrace, they had gained a great ally who had proven their loyalty through blood and sacrifice. The legend of the Gretchin would surely spread throughout the T'au Empire.
They left.
They left with gratitude, guilt, and respect.
They would never know that, once the last glimmer of their fleet's engine trails vanished beyond the horizon...
The real party on Jade VII had only just begun.
The destruction of the Tyranid Hive's supreme will node, the Broodlord, instantly stripped the hundreds of millions of creatures on this continent of unified command. Like robots unplugged from their power source, they fell into confusion and bewilderment. Some lesser creatures, such as Hormagaunts and Barbed Stranglers, merely followed their most primitive instincts, gnawing on corpses where they stood or attacking one another. More advanced units, such as Tyranid Warriors and Genestealers, began trying to establish small, temporary "synaptic links" to reorganize smaller forces.
But that took time. And time