Shas'o Dal'yth Myl'ok

Here I provide some of what I've written on one of the four factions that I'm working on as mentioned in a previous post

One of the last students of Puretide, My'lok was a member of the twelve last disciples of the great commander.  They were at his side when he finally died and this band is determined to bring glory to the T'au in the name of their tutor.  The death of their instructor signaled the end of their time being taught and so together this group of young T'au needed to decide what was to happen.

It was decided that they should split into four groups of three to accomplish as much as possible: one group would continue the teachings of Puretide as best they were able, compiling the greatest recorded lessons as possible and themselves teaching where none existed; another group would work to battle the Tyranid menace wherever it lurked, after the battles with Hive Fleet Gorgon splinter fleets kept popping up and new Tyranids were encroaching upon T'au space all the time, the empire needed all the help against these monsters they could muster; the third group would battle the Orks wherever they appeared; the final group (which My'lok is a part of) would deploy wherever they were needed most, fighting in the most dire of circumstances and acting as only pupils of Puretide could.

My'lok has seen the conclusion of two separate campaigns himself, the first against the now infamous Ork Waaagh!  Boom Blade, a grueling war that engulfed the Fi'rios sector.  Thousands of Tau and their allies lost their lives, but through the tactical brilliance and swift actions of My'lok upon his commanders' deaths the battles that were heading for catastrophic defeats became glorious victories with the capture of several Ork Warbosses that held vital information.  With these captives the whereabouts of the Ork forces and leaders were discerned and My'lok was able to bring about the decisive end to the conflict from Waaagh! Boom Blade.

He was given the title of Shas'o at the end of this conflict, immediately before he was called to do battle with the insidious Eldar corsairs of the Admiral Balykon.  This conflict centered around Tash'var as so many pirate forces' attacks do, but this was not a normal conflict.  The Eldar of Balykon were unusually strong and appeared out of nowhere, constantly attacking T'au forces wherever they were unexpected.  Huge swathes of land and many Tau were slaughtered in the futile efforts to stop the mysterious pirates, and this was what caused My'lok to be called to the front.

Upon his arrival the T'au army and fleet was severely demoralized because of their crushing defeats and the seemingly omnipotent enemy forces.  My'lok called up reports on the enemy tactics, the times between engagements, and the targets of these attacks.  Initially it seemed as if there was no reason for the attacks or their targets, no correlation between the times or occurrences beforehand.  Eventually after many weeks of study My'lok discovered that Admiral Balykon was not only attacking planets which at the time had just upgraded many of their defense and surveillance drones but also that the Eldar forces always seemed to be retreating in the same directions after their battles.  Upon closer examination the drones My'lok discovered were in fact relaying defense information as well as live video footage to the Eldar forces, informing the admiral of the weakest defenses.  Investigating further My'lok found that the Eldar themselves had introduced the technology for these upgrades to the T'au in a seemingly harmless manner and this was how the drones were incorporated into the T'au infrastructure.

When Shas'o Dal'yth My'lok took his fleet to one of the spots he had triangulated the Eldar to commonly retreat to he made a shocking discovery.  The Admiral was utilizing the webway to dash from one position of space to another.  He also made the groundbreaking discovery of how to access the webway entrances and utilize them with the help of Earth Caste scientist Fio'cat Bork'an Bar'thuul.  Soon the entire area of space near Tash'var was scanned for webway portals and these locations staked out.

The trap was sprung on Balykon when he went to attack a planet that was deemed the best area for ambush by the T'au, stripping it of the majority of its defenses an making it a most tempting target.  These forces were deployed nearby, but the reports entered into the planet's defense systems stated that they had gone several systems away to some planets that had recently been attacked.  When Balykon emerged and descended upon the planet a huge armada of ships encircled the Eldar fleet while they were on the planet and destroyed or captured the majority of the vessels, ending the threat of that particular Eldar force.

Of course even without a fleet the Admiral was a potent and very lethal force to be reckoned with and it took many months of tactical maneuvering and swift deployments to capture the Admiral and officially make him into a prisoner of war.

It must be noted that My'lok was not the only T'au who was a player in the fall of Admiral Balykon, several of his subordinates and soldiers were key as well.  Many of these have been promoted and have left his forces with a portion of his army and fleet.  Reduced to a tenth of the size it used to be his army has recently engaged in another crucial fight, but this one may change the entire Empire based on the fate of this conflict.