Blue Dawn

"'It's only when you can't back out of a contract that you realize the full extent of your mistake...' "-Unknown Businessman from Battlement

The Revolution Against the Tau is the defining event that created the Agents of Liberty and Emperor's Liberators as they are known today. From their tactics to their values and very personalities, this war molded them from the ground up. It would instill in both of these armies a gnawing distrust of any authority not their own and a zealous -yet dangerous- set of beliefs that polarized the Astartes and Imperial Guard respectively.

Tau Forces
Fire Warriors, Battlesuits, Auxiliaries. Custom picture of Gue'vesa coming soon and estimated numbers coming soon.

Imperial Loyalist Forces
Agents of Liberty, and later Emperor's Liberators. Estimated numbers coming soon.

Course of the War (WIP)
The Tau Empire sends forces from the Dal’yth, Ke’lshan, and Vior’la septs to the world of Battlement, as they covet their resources and sizeable population of 7 billion people. Water Caste diplomats from Dal’yth utilize their skills to slowly subvert the population and the planet’s culture to the Greater Good. On top of the cultural and economic pressure by the Water Caste, the planetary governess Angelium Marcellus was successfully corrupted by Tau influence and began selling out her planet and people to the Tau. At the Water Caste’s behest, Marcellus labelled her political rivals as extremist hate groups, created laws with like-minded politicians (from both the planet and the water caste!) to legalize political persecution of said groups, and eventually began banning any dissent to her rule while erasing civil rights. Mass surveillance became the norm, and the amount of civil rights that the population lost depended on whether they were gue’la or gue’vesa. One notable difference however was that the gue’vesa lived significantly better than the gue’la.

 

At around this time, Alexis Jonesson’s vox-cast, ‘Information Warrior’, convinces a sizeable majority of the population to believe Angelium Marceullus sold out her people. Water Caste attempts to encourage gue’la to transition to gue’vesa by discouraging the backwards and intolerant Imperial Creed in exchange for the Greater Good, but by this point people’s minds have been made up. The Fire Caste, especially the ones from Ke’lshan and Vior’la, begin cracking down on the gue’la and enforcing order. More militarized crackdowns and aggressive surveillance become the norm. Eventually, the two respective classes of humans are forcibly separated by the Fire and Water Castes, with the gue’la being crammed into a region known as Mericae. With the complete elimination of civil rights in the gue’la populations, a famous weapons enthusiast named Tedium Nugentus begins hoarding weapons of all types. He’s wary of what happens when the population loses all means to resist Tau rule…

 

Chief among the people disarmed are the PDF and Arbites units of Battlement, since their loyalties belonged to the Imperium first and foremost. A sergeant named Davidius Clarkeson leads a few groups to clear the armories and give their contents to Tedium Nugentus before the Tau can get them. The entirety of the PDF and Arbites melt into Mericae’s sprawling cities before the Fire Caste returns to confiscate the war gear and retaliate against the former soldiers. In Mericae meanwhile, riots and protests become the norm thanks to food shortages and poor housing, general dissatisfaction, and miserable conditions. This leads to the Fire Caste initiating a full military occupation of the region.

 

The already hectic situation becomes a powder keg amidst rumors that the Tau were beginning culling operations of the gue’la to make room for more gue’vesa and solidify their control over Battlement. Regardless of the truth to these rumors, Alexis Jonesson ensures these are spread far and wide across the planet.The population is driven into an anti-Tau frenzy, and open revolution begins. The Agents of Liberty is formed by Crispus Attuckus, whose stated goal is to free Mericae and Battlement from Tau occupation. However, Attuckus is killed by the Tau in a protest. It was a massacre. Nobody knows who started the firefight, but this detail becomes irrelevant in the face of upcoming events.

 

The Agents of Liberty’s armed resistance is led by Davidius Clarkeson (General), Tedium Nugentus (chief armorer), Alexis Jonesson (head of communications), and Omega Ben Lucious (overall leader of resistance). This resistance group begins guerrilla operations against the Tau, as they seek to simply kill as many of their oppressors as they can and gather wargear. They soon realize they need volunteers, and begin efforts to expand their membership and wind the hearts and minds of Mericae and the gue’vesa. The Agents unfortunately begin taking heavy losses across Mericae thanks to increasingly brutal Fire Caste counter-revolutionary actions. The silver lining in this was that the backlash against such heavy handed measures further boosted membership in the Agents of Liberty.

 

It becomes apparent that the Agents of Liberty are severely outclassed in training, technology, and tactics with only the slimmest margins of victory being attained in quick raids and guerilla campaigns. The Agents are either forced underground or into the deepest and darkest corners of Mericae as they continued to wage their war against the Fire Warriors and their auxiliaries. The leadership of the Agents decide they need to try and convert human Earth/Fire Caste members back to the light of the Emperor for technology and techniques that can counter the Tau’s Battlesuits. Operation Plagiarism is the most famous of these efforts, where the Agents of Liberty were tasked with stealing technological secrets of the Tau to decipher exploitable weaknesses. Omega Ben Lucious himself also manages to get one distress call to a legendary Freeblade, known for his exploits alongside the Dark Angels against the World Eaters and Orkz on Tarnis.

 

After a year, the new techniques are finally put to the test against the Tau in a general offensive across Mericae. Although the Tau Battlesuits experienced significantly higher casualties in their engagements, the offensive is a failure due to devastating casualties and must lie mostly dormant for two years. A small consolation is the amount of tech and weaponry stolen from the destroyed Battlesuits and Fire Warriors to a grateful Tedium Nugentus. Instead of open conflict, the Agents of Liberty sneak anti-Tau propaganda and evidence of Tau atrocities across the planet to gather more recruits and defectors. Priority is also placed on stealing any Tau weapon possible in order to bolster the anti-Battlesuit tactics. Some time later, the Freeblade finally lands on Battlement by sneaking past the Air Caste blockade. The Freeblade charges a steep fee for the services he is tasked with, as he will be a very busy man in the coming years.

 

The Freeblade makes his presence known in the Battle of the Plains. The Agents of Liberty sent forces to the plains of Battlement to gather foodstuffs and steal them from the Tau, but heavy resistance was encountered. The Tau drones alone exacted a heavy toll. Fire Warriors and even XV8 Battlesuits were later encountered, which nearly forced the Agents of Liberty out of the area entirely. The plains were flat and very open aside from the various crops and livestock, which made the Tau’s job that much easier. The Freeblade soon approached the area and the result was nothing short of a massacre. The much weaker Battlesuits were turned into metal coffins, either crushed by his graviton gun or electrified by his lightning cannon. A few pilots were even ripped apart by the Freeblade’s lightning claw. The battle is a rout for the surprised Tau forces, and the Agents now have food security for the coming years.

 

Meanwhile, Alexis Jonesson and Ronald Raegus are hard at work as they sneak into gue’vesa cities to spread their message in secret rallies and gatherings (as well as hacked broadcasts). The Earth Caste works tirelessly to suppress these broadcasts while the Fire Caste raids these broadcast centers. One raid nearly kills the two men, but they manage to escape before they can be surrounded entirely. With Tau forces hot on their heels, Alexis and Ronald take stock in the many precious minds they managed to sway back to the Emperor’s light.

 

Sometime later, the Freeblade pilot is tasked with protecting Alexis Jonesson as he starts a rally in Mericae, for the purpose of inspiring more recruits. Because of the opportunity to inflict heavy casualties on the personnel and leadership while inspiring fear, the Fire Caste launches a massive assault led by a Riptide and multiple other powerful Battlesuits. The Agents of Liberty's few tanks and technicals are quickly wiped out or forced to retreat, so the Freeblade takes up the slack and reaps a heavy toll with his missile launcher and graviton gun alone. His lightning cannon manages to electrify dozens of enemy infantry as well, and ends up single-handedly repulsing the brunt of the assault. His Knight is heavily damaged, but he emerges victorious and that much richer. Jonesson is forever grateful to the Knight.

 

In his own home city of Michigus, Benjamin Carsonius encounters an unknown ailment that is afflicting segments of Mericae’s cities. He discovers that it’s part of Fire Caste operations to cull the Gue’la populations to minimize Tau casualties. Benjamin and the Agents of Liberty on hand discover Tau pathfinders and Gue’vesa double agents spreading pre-programmed viruses that only harm those without Gue’vesa or Tau DNA and embedded ID chips. After brief but brutal firefights against these infiltrators, Carsonius interrogates Gue'vesa'ui Benedictus Arnoldsen and finds out how to cure the viruses before executing the traitorous human. Thanks to his quick thinking and newfound experience with biology, Carsonius saves 90% of the victims from a gruesome death. The Agents of Liberty, with their new weapons and tactics, take the fight to the Tau in Mericae as they fight their way through the various occupied cities. Despite heavy casualties, the Agents of Liberty manage to get the population to rise against the Tau and overwhelm them with sheer numbers. The cost however, is high. The Mericaen cities are in ruins, but at least they are free. The Agents of Liberty waste no time in consolidating these gains.

 

The Tau Empire will not let this stand. The Tau forces on Battlement form plans to retake Mericae and marshall their forces like never before. Propaganda manages to swell the ranks of gue’vesa while Earth Caste workers spend their overtime creating newer and deadlier machinery. Drones by their millions are also fabricated, for surveillance and harassment operations. Imperial convoys are returning at partial strength, soldiers are missing, and critical supplies are being destroyed. Areas that were previously considered immune to the watchful eyes of the Tau are discovered and raided. The Agents of Liberty know something is coming. Even the Freeblade lowers his fee. He tells himself that if more Agents can pay for his services he’ll make a better profit, but even he can only pity the dark days ahead...

 

Eager to retake the cities, the Tau Fire and Air Caste begin a massive operation to sweep through these cities and crush the rebellion before it gets out of control. The Tau battlesuits make massive gains as the Fire Warriors and their auxiliaries begin taking ground inch by inch. The Agents of Liberty in many places fight to the last man, desperate to cling to their freedom as they know that Tau retribution will be brutal. Hundreds of thousands are killed in the city of Neo Yorkson alone as the Agents are forced to withdraw from their former headquarters. The Freeblade completes a task given by the Agents of Liberty and receives his payment, but suddenly he encounters a group of Agents pinned down and on the verge of annihilation. Even though he wasn't paid, the Freeblade reluctantly decides to aid the pinned down Agents before they're killed by Fire Warriors. His Lightning Cannon fries the circuitry of an entire drone swarm in the nick of time, while his lighting claw acts as a scythe through wheat against vespid units. The Freeblade expects compensation at a later date. After seeing a series of massive explosions and plasma bursts in orbit, a gigantic ship can be seen hurtling to the ground in a fiery streak. The resulting explosion is as bright as a nuclear bomb, and the entire ground shakes for miles around. The Agents of Liberty are ordered to move in the direction of large capsules that also hurtled to the ground in various directions.

 

The Tau attempt a decapitation strike in the Appalachan Mountains, where the Agents of Liberty HQ is located. Fire Warriors and XV15s breach the perimeter multiple times and wreak havoc in the command center, hacking multiple files that contain sensitive data. Many Agents of Liberty are killed before the Tau invaders are finally pushed out of the complex. The nimble but powerful Battlesuits are eventually driven back after the timely arrival of the Freeblade, who was previously busy elsewhere. His graviton gun sweeps many Battlesuits off their feet and plummeting down the mountains into jagged rock formations. Those that can fly are shot down by his missile launcher. The Freeblade never requested payment after the mission, much to the surprise of Omega Ben Lucious.

 

The Agents of Liberty run into power armored men who call themselves the Adeptus Astartes. These Astartes had fought their way through various Tau Battlegroups, unknowingly saving the Agents of Liberty from a complete collapse thanks to months of crushing defeats. The astartes work with the awe-struck Agents of Liberty to find the massive Battle Barge that had crashed onto Battlement after a skirmish in space.

The Freeblade, inspired by a sermon from an astartes chaplain and a rally by Alexis Jonesson, pledges his aid to the Agents of Liberty. He takes up the name 'Libertatum Primus’. The Astartes lead the Agents of Liberty to the Battle Barge crash site, where a massive battle had just taken place. The space marines finally reunite, and pledge to aid the Agents of Liberty in their quest for freedom. The Agents of Liberty and their astartes allies fight the occupying Tau Empire in what is referred to as the Revolution Against Tau Tyranny. Over the course of the war, young Agents of Liberty are inducted into the ranks of the astartes via implantation as scout marines. Their culture begins to shape their astartes allies.