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xenosgirlvents · 5 years

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The young Aun’Saal peered out from under her mother’s cloak with wide-eyed inquisitiveness at the flurry of action before her. On the other side of the dense pane of glass in front of the observational party, sparks were flying in a chaotic but beautiful dance as the swords of an Exodite warrior and a grizzled Fireblade flashed. Not against one another, no. The pair were trying with all their decades of experience to land a blow on the T’au girl between them.

Shas’Saal H’kek’an La’al was all but a blur between the two men, giddy at her own speed and seemingly untouchable, parrying their strikes or slipping between them with near supernatural speed and grace. In the young Aun’s eyes she was as a divine figure. The unique, lightweight alloy composing her limbs made her shimmer with every motion, the mirrored surfaces catching and reflecting nearly every trace of light pointed her way, while her eyes practically glowed a vibrant, almost radioactive green. In the sharp, appraising eyes of the Aun’Vre, however, her movements were skilled but still sloppy. The Shas’Saal was making numerous superfluous movements that, had she been of pure flesh and blood, should have earned her many a cut and bruise. She displayed a clear affinity for the martial arts of both her T’au teachers and those of the Aeldari, but she was still clearly a novice. Those augmentations, however… those certainly intrigued her…

The action in the other room came to a sharp, grinding halt as the three combatants turned to face the window. The Fireblade stood at perfect attention, blade slipped into its sheath once more and his face devoid of any visible emotion. Saal’La’al looked dismayed, her previous glee gone from her face and her own blunt blades sheathed as well. Only the Exodite warrior still had his own blade out, the psychically hardened dragon-bone dripping a slight trickle of blue blood from the small tear he had managed to make in Saal’La’al’s shirt at her shoulder. The small cut beneath her shirt stopped bleeding in seconds, but a cut had still been landed.

As the trio stood, the two T’au at their varying states of attention and the Aeldari with his hips at a slant and one knee bouncing, the other room became a buzz of discussion and motion. Most of the numerous Fio’faan began to discuss numbers and statistics with an almost jovial tinge in their voices, the Little Hero they had been watching grow over the course of their Sept’s isolation from the war with the gue’la thoroughly impressing them all. The Fio’O closest to the window’s perpetual smile had grown even wider, and, by the young Aun’Saal’s guess, seemed to have infected the Shas’faan girl in the other room, her disappointment no longer visible on her face. The young Ethereal’s mother, on the other hand, had a dour look about her as she turned to H’kek’an’s head Ethereal, ushering him and her daughter out of the room for a more private conversation.

“Saal’La’al has certainly grown into a fine example of the Sha-” the Aun’Ui began with a grin before he was sharply cut off.

“If we are able to make augmentations of such caliber, why in the name of the Tau’va would they be granted to a child with no combat experience, rather than to our tested and true war heroes, Ui’Erra’nan? It is foolishness of the highest order,” Vre’Da’ty hissed at her subordinate. “She is barely competent even with them but imagine what they could do in the hands of a truly skilled warrior!” She kept her voice low, much too quiet to be heard by anyone not invited to the conversation, but there was an unmistakable fury in her words. And that was plenty enough to cow the man before her and draw a whimper from her child, clinging tightly to her leg.

“Fio’O Yr’va’yan,” Erra’nan began with a barely concealed gulp of nerves, “Fio’O Yr’va’yan never expected her to be able to draw this much capacity from them to begin with, Aun’Vre. They are generally more potent than standard issue prostheses, yes, and he has submitted their specifications for mass production, but Shas’Saal La’al is a dramatic outlier.” Da’ty’s already hidden glare melted into nonexistence, replaced by an open look of curiosity.

“Really?” She responded with a cocked brow, picking her daughter up to calm her now that her anger was subsiding. The other Ethereal hid a sigh of relief as her mood shifted, nodding his head quickly.

“He believes that it’s due to her age when she received the first prototype. Children’s bodies are much more adaptable, after all. Supposedly, her nervous system has bonded to the connectors more intimately than an adult’s could ever hope to. Obviously, this is beyond my own specialization, but I do trust the Fio’O’s assessment,” Erra’nan said, his confidence returning as the Aun’Vre nodded thoughtfully.

“Then we obviously cannot ensure more troops of similar caliber…” she said, bouncing her daughter gently, the young toddler patting her mother’s shio’he. Vre’Da’ty smiled softly and playfully poked hers in return, the child’s not yet having taken on the distinctive diamond shape. “I presume she has been properly trained in Shas’faan protocol and combat doctrine?” The words were delivered happy and sweet, a voice to entertain her child, but that compared against the content they carried killed Ui’Erra’nan’s confidence practically as soon as it returned.

“Yes, Aun’Vre. She is something of a prodigy, in fact,” he said, hesitantly.

“Is she now? Then see to it that she is transferred to active duty as soon as possible. I would like to see exactly what she can do in combat.” The Aun’Vre’s words brooked no dissent even as they dripped with the almost sing-song tune as she looked into her child’s eyes with a broad smile. Ui’Erra’nan knew better than to argue, genuine fear of the woman before him creeping through his body.

“Y-yes, Aun’Vre…” the lower ranked Ethereal replied, slowly making his way back into the still jubilant room as he tried to wipe the obvious distress from his features.

(A couple of things should probably be mentioned, here.

First, there is clearly a timeskip here. This part is set just shortly after the Damocles cease-fire went into effect, giving civilians much more ability to travel. This also gives the situation on H'kek'an to settle a bit more, giving La'al time to actually train with her Caste-mates and largely acclimate to her limbs without making me write a training montage. It also gave me an excuse to skip past her actually getting the upgrades. I know I’m writing 40k fic, but I’m not comfortable actually writing a child going through that pain.

I will say though, she didn’t make a sound through the entire procedure

Second, I felt that Ethereals probably have a much more personal touch to their children’s upbringing, while also likely exposing them to as much of the Empire’s political world as possible from a young age. They need to know how to lead it one day, after all, and there’s no better way to learn than by directly seeing their parents work.

Anyhoo, as always please feel free to send any questions or critiques my way. I know a lot more of what’s going on in the background and the characters’ heads than I could conceivably fit in the story without bloating it to oblivion)

Thanks again! One thing I was intrigued by particularly is the notion of the Ethereal children. It’s because I don’t think it’s ever been brought up or mentioned before. The Ethereals remain largely unexplored among the T’au fiction, little of it that there is, so that’s an interesting idea which I enjoyed seeing.

A question I do have though; the Ethereal objects to the notion of the cybernetics being used on children. For some Ethereals I can imagine this being an issue but we do know the likes of Aun’va, for example, was fine with even a project like the Puretide Neurochips which, though not being used on children and so that is an important distinction, were rather callous seeing as they left the users largely brain-damaged afterwards. Admittedly in-story this was supposedly only discovered after the fact, and so is more a testament to the device being rushed out without full safety testing, rather than purposeful cruelty, but it is something to keep in mind.

An idea, for example, would be that if you required an internally antagonistic character that having an Ethereal who did not share such objections could serve that role.

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