Act 1: The Ashes of T'ros'ka - Mission 3: Ghosts in the Canopy

The jungles of Kharos IX swallowed sound.

 

From above, the canopy was an unbroken ocean of green, but beneath it lay a suffocating maze of tangled roots, hanging vines, and stagnant pools that reflected nothing but shadow. The Shadowspire did not land—it simply hovered, silent and predatory, before releasing its strike team into the suffocating depths below. 

The crews sneak towards the bunker in the jungle

They descended without a word.

Grav-lines whispered as Aeldari Corsairs drifted between branches, while Tau Pathfinders moved with disciplined precision down rope lines and natural clearings. The jungle seemed to recoil from them, as if aware of their intrusion. At the centre of it all, half-consumed by creeping vegetation, stood the smuggler relay outpost—its antennae jutting through the canopy like broken spears.

Voss raised a hand and the attack began.

Shuriken fire sliced through the air in near silence, followed by the sharp crack of pulse rifles. The outer guards dropped before they could cry out. The joint crew surged forward, slipping between thick tree trunks and ruined structures as the dense foliage choked lines of sight and fractured the battlefield into tight, brutal engagements. Figures appeared and vanished between the undergrowth—Vale’s mercenaries, scrambling to respond. Gunfire erupted in bursts, flashes of light swallowed quickly by the oppressive green. Every advance was measured, every step contested.

For a time, the crew held the advantage. Then one of the enemy broke. A lone mercenary sprinted through the chaos, ducking beneath branches and leaping over roots, his breath ragged as he made for a raised relay console mounted on a wooden platform. A Pathfinder’s shot missed by inches. The mercenary slammed his hand onto the console.

A siren wailed.

The jungle came alive.

From hidden watch posts and camouflaged nests, more mercenaries poured into the fight. Shapes emerged from the green in every direction—rifles raised, blades drawn. The air filled with gunfire.

“Their number are many”  Quorath murmured.

Voss’s voice cut through the chaos. “Hold formation! Do not let them break us!”

On the right flank, Veyron Duskrunner no longer heard those orders. His brother lay dead behind them on another world, and the jungle became his battlefield for vengeance. With a cry that was more rage than words, he broke from cover and charged headlong into the enemy.

“Veyron, fall back!” Voss shouted.

Veyron did not listen.

His pistol spat shuriken at point-blank range, tearing through mercenaries who had no time to react. He cut down one, then another, moving with terrifying speed, his grief transmuted into lethal precision.

“Come then!” he roared into the jungle. “Take me!”

Varr backs up the Corsairs 
to secure the bunker entrance

Rifle fire struck him from multiple angles. A round punched through his side, another clipped his shoulder. He staggered but did not fall, firing again, dropping another attacker before finally collapsing behind a fallen log.

For a moment, he lay still.

Then, with sheer will, he dragged himself into the underbrush, vanishing into the tangled roots and shadow before the enemy could finish him. Meanwhile, at the centre of the compound, Kai Sho’var reached the bunker.

“Cover me!” the Pathfinder hacker called as he slid to one knee at the reinforced door, tools already working.

A pulse charge blew the lock.

Inside, the bunker was cramped and dark, its systems humming with stolen data. Kai jacked into the central terminal, his visor flooding with cascading streams of encrypted information.

“I’m in,” he said. “Beginning download.”

Outside, the battle intensified.

Pathfinders and Corsairs formed a loose perimeter, firing into the jungle as shapes moved through the foliage. Every fallen mercenary was replaced by another. Every gap threatened to collapse.

“Status?” Varr called, firing measured bursts into the advancing line.

“Thirty percent!” Kai replied. “They’ve layered the encryption—this will take time!”

“You have it,” Varr said. “We will hold.”

The mercenaries advanced relentlessly, their numbers swelling as reinforcements emerged from hidden paths. The sound of gunfire became constant—pulse, solid shot, and shuriken blending into a single roar.

At last—

“Download complete!” Kai shouted.

Relief flickered through the line.

“Fall back to secondary objective!” Voss ordered. “Destroy the relay arrays—we cannot allow them to track us!”

The crew shifted position, pushing toward the outer uplinks.

But the moment had passed.

Enemy fire intensified, converging on their movements. A heavy weapon opened up from an elevated platform, tearing through cover and forcing them to ground.

“We cannot reach the arrays! There's too many of them” Ash called.

Varr stepped forward to direct the withdrawal—and a shot caught him in the side. He staggered, dropping to one knee as blood seeped through his armour. Varr gritted his teeth, forcing himself upright. “We have the data,” he said through the pain. “That is enough.”

Voss hesitated for only a moment before nodding.

“Withdraw! All units fall back!” 

The retreat was chaotic.

The crew scattered into the jungle in small groups, firing as they moved, using the dense terrain to break line of sight and shake pursuit. Mercenaries gave chase, their shouts echoing through the trees as they tried to cut off the escape.

A creature emerges from the jungle!

Veyron, pale and bleeding, rejoined them from the undergrowth, saying nothing as he fell into step.

One by one, they reached the extraction zone.

The Shadowspire descended just long enough to take them aboard before rising once more into the canopy, its engines whispering as it vanished into the void above.

Behind them, the jungle fell quiet once more.

The mercenary who had sounded the alarm stumbled back toward the relay platform, breathing hard, weapon lowered. He looked around, listening, unsure if the danger had truly passed.

The undergrowth shifted.

Something vast and green unfurled from the shadows—tendrils thick as cables, lined with barbed thorns. The creature moved with horrifying speed.

The mercenary barely had time to scream.

The creature swallowed him whole and Kharos IX returned to silence.