The T'au Empire fleet, retreating in disarray from the front lines, like startled birds, spread news of the Imperium of Man's brazen invasion throughout their vast territory. Devotees of The Greater Good had never imagined that their barbaric, corrupt, and superstitious neighbor would dare to unilaterally tear up the fragile peace and bring war to their doorstep.
Alarms blared across every planet, from the prosperous core worlds to the distant colonies. The entire T'au Empire underwent an unprecedented, full-scale war mobilization.
At this moment, the T'au's advantage in homeland defense was fully apparent. An efficient social structure, unified ideology, and advanced logistics system allowed them to unleash astonishing energy in a very short time.
In just one or two months, the T'au Empire constructed layers upon layers of deeply-entrenched defenses along a series of fortress worlds on the edge of the Damocles Gulf. Countless orbital defense platforms, minefields, and battle-ready fleets, like a dense spiderweb, awaited the reckless invaders to stumble into them.
The T'au command believed that with this impregnable, in-depth defense system, they could pin the Human fleet here, bleeding them dry, and buy enough time for the true main forces gathering in the rear to reinforce. At that point, they would gather all their strength, launch a thunderous counterattack, and utterly wipe out the remnants of the Imperium of Man from the cosmos.
But the Imperium of Man's choice once again surprised all the T'au.
At this time, among the decision-makers of the expeditionary fleet, the extermination faction, led by Grand Cardinal Iso Gunni of the Ecclesiarchy, still held the dominant position. After their victory in the battles of Zel'khor and Hydass Sector, the Imperium of Man discovered many planets in the Damocles Gulf that had once belonged to humanity but were now occupied by xenos.
It was imperative to bring these planets back under the Emperor's glory. However, the expeditionary fleet clearly did not have enough time to conquer, purify, and process each of these planets individually.
After a brief but intense discussion, the War Council decided to implement a more aggressive 'island-hopping tactic': dispatching some smaller fleets to blockade or take over secondary planets, while the main fleet would bypass the T'au Empire's meticulously arranged defenses to deliver decisive strikes against key planets deep within their territory. As long as the main planets, serving as administrative and industrial centers, were taken, these subordinate colonies would naturally surrender at the sight of them.
Thus, something that shocked the entire T'au Empire command occurred.
The Imperium of Man's fleet completely ignored the Damocles Line, which the T'au had placed so much hope in. They directly executed short but dangerous warp jumps, passing through layers of defenses like phantoms, appearing directly before Fae'n, an outer planet in the Dalis Sector.
The expeditionary fleet attacked Fae'n without hesitation. However, it proved to be an overly arrogant and reckless move. They still believed that the orbital defense stations above Fae'n would be as weak as those encountered previously at Zel'khor.
As the expeditionary fleet gradually entered the optimal firing range of the orbital defense stations, the T'au immediately activated the heavy railguns mounted on them. The silent, deadly torrent of metal carved out eerie blue trajectories in the vacuum.
With just one volley, the 'Glory of Damlaras,' a Lunar-class cruiser of the expeditionary fleet, was precisely hit by several shells. Its void shields instantly overloaded, a massive gash was torn open in its midsection, and the entire warship was instantly rendered derelict, tumbling helplessly under inertia.
To counter this sudden development, the expeditionary fleet's commander, Gelaqua, hastily moved all nine squadrons of frigates forward, attempting to suppress the orbital station with their agile bodies and concentrated firepower.
It was at this moment that eleven T'au Empire Merchant-class light cruisers, like lurking sharks, suddenly emerged from a blind spot in the Human fleet's detection range, catching the Humans off guard.
As all frigates had been diverted to engage the orbital defense station, the expeditionary fleet had no choice but to use its more valuable capital ships for a hasty engagement.
Although the T'au ambush fleet initially gained a long-range firepower advantage, as the Imperium of Man fleet gradually reacted and the massive cluster of warships began to turn and join the battle, the overwhelming numerical superiority eventually became too much for the T'au to handle. The roar of macrocannons and the flash of lances quickly overshadowed the eerie blue glow of the railguns.
Just as the tide of battle was beginning to turn in favor of the Imperium of Man, another unexpected event occurred. A hideous spherical battleship, piloted by the Kroot, an ally of the T'au Empire, tore through the veil of reality and clumsily emerged from the warp. Its target was chillingly clear—it charged directly towards the almost unarmed transport and supply convoy located behind the Imperium of Man fleet.
Although the Kroot's spherical battleship was slow and outdated in design, its thick armor and massive ship cannons were more than sufficient to deal with defenseless transport and supply ships.
For a time, the Imperium of Man's transport fleet was forced to dart around in space, frantically dodging the Kroot's fire and sending desperate distress calls to the expeditionary fleet commander.
Gelaqua knew very well that these transport and supply ships were the foundation of the Imperium of Man's landing operations, the lifeline of the expedition. If they were destroyed, the expedition could be considered a complete failure.
Thus, he had no choice but to immediately divert the expeditionary fleet's flagship—the magnificent Retribution-class battleship, the 'Blade of Sorrow'—from the main battle to intercept the Kroot battleship.
Under the overwhelming, god-like firepower of the 'Blade of Sorrow,' the Kroot's spherical battleship quickly became a burning, twisted metallic wreck in space. Simultaneously, the orbital defense station was finally destroyed under the Human frigates' relentless, no-holds-barred assault. The remaining T'au Empire Merchant-class light cruiser fleet, seeing that the situation was hopeless, decisively abandoned the wrecks of several heavily damaged comrades and chose to retreat.
The battle ended.
The expeditionary fleet achieved another Imperium of Man-style victory. The cost: one Overlord-class battlecruiser heavily damaged, one Gothic-class cruiser, one Lunar-class cruiser, one Dauntless-class light cruiser completely destroyed, and fourteen frigates turned to cosmic dust, with two more frigates suffering irreparable damage and having to be abandoned.
And after paying such a heavy price, the expeditionary fleet, far from becoming more cautious, grew even more aggressive under the fanatical urging of the extermination faction.
The War Council abandoned its original plan to land on Fae'n and establish a stable forward base. This time, they weren't even willing to establish a stable rear. Humanity would immediately, without delay, launch an assault on Dalis, the main planet of the Dalis Sector.
They would go all-in, to take it before the T'au Empire's main fleet could return for reinforcement!