Transmission Received

Recipient: Inquisitor General Meglos

Authorization: Approved
Thought for the Day: The best diplomacy is eradication.
Inquisitor General Meglos
Following your orders the raid against the Tau outpost was successful. All mission
objectives were achieved. You were right about the Tau warrior caste preparing a new
weapon for use against the servants of the Emperor. However no new technology or
grand engineering projects were found. Instead what was discovered was another
blasphemous slave species that the upstart Tau were vetting in combat trials.
The Letum Vigilo cruiser Venetor Fidelea entered the system designated by the Tau as
Iezuf undetected. Indeed, this far into the Ambitus Orientaleas the Tau did seem to
expect attack. As our forces approached the seventh moon of the forth gas giant our
augurs detected the only significant threats to be days away performing sun skimming
exercises.
The Xenos damper fields attached to the Venetor Fidelea meant that our approach went
undetected for the three days it took to reach the target moon. The moon itself was
sparsely populated, appearing to house nothing more than a few farming settlements.
Three separate installations with probable military function were identified, including one
that matched the description provided in your orders.
Once in orbit however the Tau on the surface began frenetic efforts to communicate with
us, snivelling their usual drivel about how they are a peaceful species and would like to
communicate to us their message about serving the greater good. Captain Tugeruf replied
by locating the source of the transmission and letting the barrage cannon silence it.
I left the heart of the Venetor Fidelea on one of three tempestas autours. Each contained a
cohort of thirty faithful Letum Vigilo Adepts. Each cohort was given the designation of
Velox, Celer, and Pennipes. Cohorts Velox and Celer were to scour the other possible
military targets after orbital bombardment and exterminate any xenos survivors. This
distraction provided I led cohort Pennipes to our target.
As the Tau favour bodies with lighter gravity, the atmosphere was thin and insertion to
the target sight was smooth and uneventful. As the target site, specified as objective
Attero, was approached I could see many shallow trenches carved into the landscape.
Each trench was approximately ten meters wide and three to four meters deep. After brief
discussion with the Adept piloting the tempestas autour a landing site was selected in the
lee of a trench 200 meters of our target. The thinking was that it would be difficult for the
dropship to be targeted by whatever indirect fire the enemy might have. A short distance
from the landing site another trench intersected the first and led directly to the target.
Ten Adepts spread out on touch down to secure the dropsite. The other twenty followed

me to the intersection. Upon turning the corner I met a site that is still giving me
nightmares. Four abominations faced me, each slightly taller than an Adept in armour,
with three pairs of golden eyes gleaming in the bright sun. A whirring sound not unlike a
chain sword originated behind the leader as he approached with open two clawed paws.
An incandescent cloud would coalesce into wings momentarily, each time leading to a
cessation of the whirring, before starting up again. This horrible lumpy chitinous thing
approached slowly, its unclosing maw leaking some sort of gooey viscera onto its blue
white mottled torso.
I did the only thing any true servant of the Emperor could do. I filled its overly broad
torso with the might of the Imperium. I was so startled and disgusted I foolishly emptied
the entire clip of my bolt pistol into the hideous thing. I brought my sword up, switching
the power on as I did so, to deflect the assault of the things still living companions.
What happened instead was unexpected as it was disgusting. The thing to the left
immediately leapt upon the recently deceased and straddled it. The thing to the right leapt
upon the first, tackling it to the ground. The third beast replaced the first and proceeded to
insert a large stinger from the base of its abdomen into the still smoking corpse of the
abomination I had dispatched. As it did so it stared at me with evil intent with all six of its
shining yellow eyes.
I caught a glimpse of brother sergeant Validus, this hardened xeno-killer of the Letum
Vigilo was standing next to me mouth agape at the horror he was witnessing. I can only
imagine that his brothers standing near him, their faces hidden by the helmets of their
auctorias loricum, were the same. I turned back in time to see the creature that had
straddled the corpse leap at me.
With power provided by its furious wings the thing knocked me the ground. My chain
sword chewed harmlessly at its hardened carapace. Discovering my armour to be to much
for its claws the thing began reaching for my face. However this massive beast was weak!
Comically so! I easily forced it back. Brother sergeant Validus then ripped the things
head clean of its shoulders. I was doused in the stinking white pus like blood of the beast.
As I stood up with the help of Validus rest of the cohort opened fire at the remaining two
creatures, they vanished in a cloud of flying chitin and white effluvia. Almost at once the
first shot came from the ridgeline above us. Five brothers flew to the ridge line on the
screaming thrust of their jetpacks. Before they reached their destination they were met in
mid air by more of the hideous beasts. However ugly these beasts were, they were no
match for the mighty brethren of the Adeptus Astares. Dead beasts rained down upon us
as we approached target Attero.
Less than fifty meters from a large door in the structure we encountered the first of the
Tau warrior caste. There were only five. The brothers quickly delivered the wrath of the
Emperor to them. A brother ran to the door and attached a melta-bomb. As he withdrew
he was struck down by a storm of fire coming from the roof of the structure. As an
Apothecary quickly moved to retrieve the gene seed the other brothers threw grenades to

the roof in response. This silenced the Tau warriors who had taken position there.
As is typical of Tau structures I have seen, several steps descended into the hallway. Of
the fighting in the building I dont remember much, only the faces of the Tau workers
I came upon before I dispensed the will of the Emperor into them. Needless to say, the
Tau warriors were no contest for the brothers of the Letum Vigilo in such close quarters.
The directions you provided with the orders for this mission were flawless. I quickly
found my way to the xenos librarium. The strange device you provided worked as
promised, draining the librarium of its contents in minutes. The data secured I issued the
order to withdraw.
As we left the facility we again came under fire from the roof. Several of the winged
beasts had taken position there and were firing Tau weapons adapted to their claws at us.
When the brothers threw there grenades the beasts sped off the roof at us on their wings.
What ensued was a desperate melee. Every beast slain was quickly replaced with more
who flew in from the surrounding trenches. The fight would have been lost had the beasts
not been more interested in stinging their fallen comrades than fighting us. Indeed, just
wounding one of these fell creatures was enough to set its comrades upon it. Once stung
in this manner the fallen did not move again.
Still there were hundreds of them all around. I was saving a xenos explosive device I
collected during the exaction of ancient ruins on Hanat for when there was finally no
hope. I was going to take as many of the loathsome things with me as I could. Fortunately
that was not to be.
The drop ship roared into view with guns blazing. Its appearance startled our attackers
who withdrew with haste. The battle cannon of the tempestas autour proved its worth,
reducing large sections of the withdrawing horde to white paste. Our rescue assured the
drop ship screamed skyward, but not before covering the area with a toxic nerve agent
that the Tau are known to be especially venerable to. My only hope is that the winged
beasts I have dubbed Vespids are also affected by it. Either way, I had captain Tugeruf
obliterate the site from orbit before we departed.
The Venetor Fidelea had come under heavier attack than expected. While the main
spaceport had been destroyed in the initial barrage, there were secondary subterranean
hangers scattered around the main port for use by Vespid pilots. The Venetor Fidelea
suffered superficial damage when a Vespid piloted interceptor impacted a defence turret
after receiving damage. Unfortunately the crew of this gun was lost resulting in three
casualties. Captain Tugeruf seems disappointed that the xenos Tau were scattered about
the surface in small agricultural settlements. This resulted in only ten to twenty thousand
xenos slain in orbital bombardment actions during our stay in orbit.
Of the three cohorts sent to the surface only two returned. Apparently cohort Velox, sent
to the spaceport had its drop ship destroyed on the ground by the surprise appearance of
the before mentioned interceptors. Fortunately our attack was so swift that no interceptors

were dispatched to the other target sites. A recovery mission was able to retrieve four
survivors and eighteen gene seeds for the loss of two more Adepts. It is estimated that
over a thousand xenos perished during these two operations.
Cohort Celer suffered one wounded from a misfiring ictus suboles. The possible military
structure turned out to be a large factory for the manufacture of agricultural machines.
The factory was had only unarmed Vespid workers with Tau worker caste supervisors.
The Brother Sergeant in command of that cohort reported over a thousand xenos
eradicated.
My own mission suffered nine brothers fallen with five gene seeds recovered. Only one
member of the jetpack equipped team returned wounded to the drop site. They had, like
us, been overwhelmed with large numbers of Vespid warriors. The drop site itself was
under constant attack almost from the start. Turns out the trench system was there
barracks, they live in holes on the ridgeline. Luckily the Vespid warriors were only
equipped with pulse carbines and so were driven off repeatedly by the heavy weapons
mounted to the tempestas autour class assault drop ship. Enemy dead are estimated near
three hundred.
After analyzing the data retrieved from the Tau librarium I have started to call these
horrible creatures Vespids. This is due to the terrible reproductive cycle these creatures
have. Instead of carrying young internally or laying eggs these creatures inject each other
with a fatal virus. This virus causes the hosts body to break down and form Vespid larva.
A living host so injected can produce up to fifty larva. After being stung a living host will
quickly loss consciousness as its body transmutes into a writhing mass of maggot like
larva. A host that has been dead for as long as three days can still produce a viable larva
when mated with. Both parents contribute genetic material to the larva, all dominate traits
come from the Father that implants his virus with a sting. Adult Vespids wait to collect
the larva as they emerge from a hosts body.
If a Vespid suffers an injury serious enough to breach it tough armour its own comrades
will begin to fight for the right to sting the wounded Vespid. This behaviour is manic and
stems from the smell of another Vespids blood. Aside from this, every Vespid apparently
seeks the opportunity to mate with it brethren. Assassination is a fact of life for this
species. Indeed its vital for the continuation of the species.
This mating behaviour has given indigenous Vespid society a level of disunity almost
never seen in an intelligent species before. The Tau themselves theorize intelligence
evolved in the Vespids to handle the complex and constantly changing social order that
this behaviour brings. Vespids naturally only ever collect into small nests, rarely
exceeding twenty in number. These nests are constantly engaged in skirmishes with
neighbouring nests. Occasionally indigenous Vespid will come together in larger groups,
but these alliances quickly breakdown into warfare.
The Tau discovered the Vespid in a system designated Uknet, which translates into little
treasure. Uknet holds the remains of an ancient nova, its red dwarf star orbited by thick

gas clouds, asteriodal debris, and a single planet. The Tau believe this planet to have been
an extra solar body that was captured by the gravity of the dwarf star. They further
speculated that the planetoid was itself once a moon in another system before being
ejected into the void.
The Vespid have been shaped by this system. While the system they inhabit is rich in
minerals, their home world itself is deficient in mineral wealth. All metals used by the
indigenous Vespid come from meteor impacts. The home world is incredibly close to its
primary, resulting in massive tidal forces affecting the small body. This leads to a very
active geological lithosphere with earthquakes and volcanoes common. There is very
little standing water, the largest being a couple of large lakes near the magnetic north. The
atmosphere is so thin even at the median surface level that no species found on this
world, including the Vespid, have evolved a sense of hearing.
A Vespid has eight eyes. Six eyes face forward and two cover the rear arc. The rear eyes
are necessary to make up for the lack of hearing. The Vespid communicate using wing
beat patterns. Their excellent vision allowing them to follow up to two thousand separate
beats per minute, meaning the Vespid are at no disadvantage when it comes to
communication when compared with species that have hearing. Even while flying Vespid
can communicate important ideas by measured pauses in wing beats.
While capable of full flight on their home world, Vespid can only control guide on worlds
with heavier gravity. This is aided by the addition of helium. Helium is present not only
from the dust cloud surrounding the Uknet star, but is constantly renewed by the fusion
occurring on the dying primary. Vespid bone and carapace structure incorporate
uncountable small pockets of this gas. On Uknet helium is acquired by breathing. On
other worlds the Tau have had to provide special helium chambers for larval Vespid so
that they develop with the right proportion of helium in their bodies.
The large torso of a Vespid holds a unique lung system. While air is taken through the
mouth, it moves though the primary lung, then to a secondary lung to extract as much
oxygen as possible. The secondary lung forces the air out of vents on the back. This air
flows over the wings. On their home world this lets the Vespid fly higher than ambient air
pressure would sometimes allow. When excited or threatened the mouth of a Vespid locks
open so as to procure a constant airflow through the respiratory system. A side effect of
this is that in a denser atmosphere Vespid will become over oxygenated, leading to a
furious level of almost drunken activity. A Vespid under these conditions can be brave to
the point of suicidal actions in combat.
The thick hard carapace that covers each Vespid is composed mostly of silicon. This
material is readily available from their diet of plant material. The Vespid are almost
entirely herbivorous, able to consume huge amounts of any plant material presented with.
Indeed, due to the low nutritional value Vespid almost constantly eats. Insects consumed
with forage are a welcome source of protein. The Vespid digestive system is incredibly
complicated, the goal being to extract as much useful material from their resource poor
diet as possible.

The Tau came to Uknet searching for an abundance of easily obtained mineral ore. As a
bonus they discovered the Vespid. The Tau themselves refer to the Vespid as the cursed,
or in their own tongue Iet. Despite their treacherous nature to their own kind the Vespid
have embraced the greater good wholeheartedly. The violent behaviour a Vespid uses in
its own culture to secure its safety and breeding rights are not needed with the Tau.
Within years of the first encounter with Tau individual Vespid were begging to join the
Adatupni. Since then Vespid have become integrated on a number of colony worlds as
members of the worker caste.
The Tau have had fantastic success using the Vespid as factory workers. With small
cubicles with locked doors serving as living quarters that allow security from their fellow
workers individual Vespid can be guaranteed a level of personnel safety unknown to their
forebears. Working conditions are similarly isolated, the workers only connection to each
other being the assembly line. Encouragement to work hard is simple breeding rights. The
hardest working Vespid for a given year gets to mate with the worker who performs the
worst. Even with almost non-existent salaries by Tau standards, Vespid voluntarily left
Uknet in droves to work in these conditions. Little more than a steady supply of forage
all that need be provided.
Vespid have also become valuable servants to those of the working caste that can afford
them. A Vespid becomes a welcome friend and guest to a family that has no interest in
killing them.
The installation I attacked on your orders was one of many working towards integrating
the Vespid into the Tau warrior caste. This is a bigger danger than any data Ive provided
so far would leave you to believe. This is because of Vespid intelligence.
The Tau are not impressed by an adult Vespids intelligence. What impressed them and
frightens me is the way a Vespid learns about its world. When an adult adopts a larval
Vespid the larva is fed a diet of regurgitated plant material. Memories are transferred by
way of a saliva secretion during these meals. So much so that upon metamorphosing the
new adult has all the memories of its caretaker.
Train one Vespid to fight, then let it care for fifty larva. A well-fed larva will enter a
chrysalis two years after birth. Emerging a mere six months later as an adult. Within five
years you have an army twenty five hundred strong that is well trained and ready to fight.
The Tau space caste is also trying to incorporate these awful xenos into their forces.
Apparently the Vespid have excelled in trials as interceptor pilots. Their natural
understanding of three-dimensional tactics has given them the advantage in mock
combats with comparably trained Tau pilots. It is also my understanding that interceptor
duty is one of the most dangerous in any space fleet. By keeping succeeding generations
in the role of interceptor pilot the Tau could cut down on training costs considerably.
I believe the Tau were attempting to withhold this addition to their forces from us. Now

that their secret is out I would expect to see them vet these new additions to the warrior
caste in raids against the Imperium.
As always your humble servant,
Inquisitor Apprentice Ordo Xenos Consilius Klien