"If we don't go," Farsight's voice echoed in everyone's ears, calm and clear, "our chance of annihilation is one hundred percent."
He rose and picked up the artifact that had accompanied him for countless years, the Dawn Blade, said to have been forged by the Air Caste's greatest artisan.
"If we go, we may still have that one-in-a-billion chance."
He looked at Shadowsun, then at all the subordinates still awaiting his orders, and declared with grim resolve:
"Mont'ka begins now."
He gathered every trump card he had left.
Dozens of the T'au Empire's mightiest War Machines-XV104 Riptide battlesuits-slowly rose from the underground hangars, their enormous frames resembling castles.
Shadowsun led the last of her elite Ghost stealth troops.
Then there was Farsight himself, along with his battle-hardened Royal Guard in their XV8 Crisis Battlesuits.
This was the last, and strongest, force the T'au Empire had on Dal'yth.
They had only one target-Twin Peaks.
They had only one mission-decapitation.
The ruins of Twin Peaks.
A magnificent temple had once stood here, but the Imperial Guard's merciless bombardment had left only shattered walls.
Shadowsun and her stealth troops slipped silently into the outskirts of the ruins like true ghosts. Using advanced electronic warfare equipment and precise sabotage, they disabled the Void Shield Generators disguised as rocks around the command center without alerting anyone.
"Outer shields disabled," Shadowsun whispered over the comms.
"Understood."
Farsight's voice came from the sky.
A moment later, dozens of blazing meteors plummeted from above!
It was the formation of XV8 Crisis Battlesuits led by Farsight! Dropping from high altitude, they smashed straight into the ruins' outer defenses with overwhelming force.
The thin defensive lines manned by ordinary Astra Militarum troops collapsed instantly before these War Machines descending from the sky. Ion Cannons and missiles blasted the crude sandbag