Sol'tak War

The Sol'tak War was a war of reciprocity against the Tau of the Sol'vos Sept by the Storm Zealots Chapter's 2nd and 6th Companies, in retribution for the loss of the vitally important mining world of Solata during the earlier Damocles Gulf Crusade. Though the Storm Zealots had no issues wiping out a large portion of the Tau forces on their own, during the conflict, the Tau had somehow inadvertently awakened the sleeping Necrons below the planet's surface, not realising that the mining world was in actuality, a Tomb World of the Necrons of the Nautekh Dynasty. The Storm Zealots managed to herd the Tau into the subterranean tunnels of the mining world, forcing the Tau to take the brunt of the Necron assault. In the end, once the Tau were eradicated and the Necrons achieved their mysterious objectives, they departed the planet - promising the Storm Zealots that they would encounter them again, sometime in the near future.

History
Sol'tak War was a conflict between the Storm Zealots and the Tau Empire forces of Sol'vos Sept that occurred in 997.M41. The war was a retaliation conquest after the infamous Damocles Crusade in which the volcanic mining world of Solata was conquered by the Tau Empire and many of Imperial Citizens were either slain or lived under the banners of the so-called 'Greater Good'. Realizing that the Sol'tak was turned into a fortress world by the Tau Empire, the Storm Zealots sent a Gladius Strike Cruiser with a force comprised of both the 2nd and 6th Companies, as well as Knight House Orenstein, under the leadership of Second Captain Zachariah, to destroy any Tau forces and reclaim the planet in the name of the God-Emperor.

As the proud scions of the stoic Rogal Dorn, no fortress planet was unbreachable and a horrific fate would be enacted upon Sol'tak. Hundreds and thousands of Sol'vos Fire Warriors and Crisis Suits were destroyed and slain by the notorious Captain Zachariah and his Space Marine. Within 3 months, the planet was reconquered and the Tau forces devastated. But another problem began to arise as the Sol'vos reinforcement from the Tau Empire and its commander return to Sol'tak, ensuing continuous war for another 2 months, led by Commander Beamshrike. The war didn't just hit the surface but also underground, for a large catacombs glared with green lights were discovered by Tau expedition team and the Tau soon embarked their forces underground to strike the Zealots from within the planet itself. It was in the catacomb where Commander Beamshrike discovered an ancient alien essence and as the Tau commander took the essence inside its battlesuit, the unknown essence began to manifest the Battle Suits and soon the Tau commander's suit began to glow and fires of an unknown beam gauss, deadly enough to destroy a Rhino Transport. The Sol'vos Sept began to think that the Greater Good favored them as they were able to breach the defenses and even slay a Knight of House Orenstein.

Unknown to the Sol'vos Sept, a Necron Vargard of the Nautekh Dynasty had come from an eternity gate from within the deepest catacombs. Thousands of Necron Warriors, Wraiths and Tomb Spyders marched and glided across the vast catacombs, ready to strike any low race who had taken the shard of their ruling C'tan. While the main forces began their assault on Sol'tak Fortress Walls, the Necrons slaughtered the Tau rearguard, tearing apart every Kroot and Tau in their way. The Storm Zealots, recognizing through the servo skulls that Solata was once a Tomb World, begin to rally his men, encouraging them that the their enemy was caught up in a fight they couldn't win, thus, by slaughtering their main army, the enemy xenos would surely tear apart their rearguard forces and awaken the unliving Necron forces. And so the Storm Zealots and House Orenstein begin their offensives in destroying the Tau Forces and spread fear among the Sol'vos Sept. The Zealots also cut off all the surface escape routes, forcing the Tau Forces to retreat underground where they were forced to fight the Necrons. With 3 rhinos, 2 tactical squads and a Storm Commando Squad, Captain Zachariah proceeded to the underground, herding the retreating Tau forces into taking deeper route while destroying their main entrance from the surface.

The catacombs were filled with a massive lake of blue blood and corpses. Many Tau and Kroots were slaughtered and their battlesuits becoming shredded scraps, scarred and shot by necrodermic claws and gauss rifles. In the midst of the corpses stood Tau Commander Beamshrike and his Crisis Suit bodyguards, shooting and burning every last necron, in a final, desperate last stand. The Captain and his Storm Commandos charged through the mountains of corpses. With his formidable relic weapon, Duskbreaker, lifted in the air, the Space Marine Captain landed a shattering blow on the XV46 Battle Suit's hands, destroying their flamers and missile pods while the Tau Commander landed a kick to the Space Marine Captain. An intense duel commenced for over an hour until Captain Zachariah punched through the Battle Suit, and forcefully pulled the Tau Commander out of it. With his dying breath, the Tau Commander Beamshrike swore that the entire Tau Empire would destroy Jeras and the Storm Zealots. Captain Zachariah than snapped the neck of the fallen Tau Commander, winning the duel.

At the moment of victory, a Fire Warrior Shas'ui began to aim his pulse rifle directly at the Space Marine Captain's head, until suddenly, a Necrontyr Staff impaled the Shas'ui, killing him before he could shoot the captain. From the darkness of the catacombs, a Necron Vargard walked towards the field of dead aliens. While the Storm Commandos aimed their bolter towards the Necron, Captain Zachariah ordered them to lower their weapons. The Vargard silently showed them a gesture that he did not wish to fight the Space Marine, but to take and collect the essence of the C'tan from the XV46 Battlesuits of Commander Beamshrike. The Space Marine Captain and his men backed off from the dead Tau Commander as the Vargard collected the essence of the C'tan shard and left the corpses piled high as all of the Necron warriors suddenly vanished in a flash of green light, teleported by a sudden surge of power, and before the Necron Vargard returned to the portal gate he spoke slowly, "Until we meet again, Space Marine".

The Necron Catacombs fell silent with nothing but vox chattering of 30 Space Marines and the drills of the Narthecium performed by Apothecary Kevin ben Aaron on his fallen Brothers Ezra and Ali. The Storm Zealots, though sustaining heavy casualties, stood triumphant over the planet Solata as fresh Astra Militarum troops deployed to Solata and new citizens from the Imperium began to immigrate to the once-fortress planet, returning it into a valuable mining world.