Tuan stood straight against the heavy rain that rolled out in pulses over the landing strip. These storms were common on this moon, the mountainous Horlan Prime. Intense winds drove them on, whipped about through the gravitational influence of the gas giant the moon orbited. The planet’s shadow hung over them now, and Tuan knew it was there, maybe it was due to his air caste physiology, but he could feel the planet above them through the clouds. It felt heavy, like honour; his honour that shadowed all his actions; his honour that would help him be a part of the Greater Good. He felt that honour being tested as a shuttle craft descended on the landing point. 

Korel, a fire caste and Tuan’s superior as commander on this post, stepped forward in her enforcer battlesuit to her position as honour guard, as the shuttle landed. Tuan hated standing next to the fire caste when they were in their wargear, and he was on the ground. Haughtiness radiated off them, that feeling of invincibility.

The door of the shuttle opened, and a song played from within. Out came the water caste diplomat and his entourage, such were not uncommon visitors to Horlan Prime due to its unusual arrangement. The diplomat introduced himself as Irahaln.

‘Please, follow me,’ Korel said from within her suit and indicated a cave made ready for the occasion. The diplomat’s troops used personal shields to keep the rain off as they walked. Tuan allowed it to fall on him; he accepted the environment, it made him a better warrior. 

Indeed, that was why Tuan had secretly called for a diplomat. He had discovered a secret society within the fire caste, one that called themselves the “Black Lilly Society.” Tuan had found data for a plan, a terrorist plan that would plunge Horlan Prime unnecessarily into war with the natives. The indigenous Mortabundians were large arachnid-like creatures of moderate intelligence who had welcomed the T’au presence in their home, exchanging resources for the T’au technological advances in medicine and science. One of them crawled on the cave roof above them. It repaired a power line as they passed through the long tunnel towards the conference room.

Normally, Tuan would have taken his discoveries to Korel, and any other commander would have squashed the terrorist plot. But he found something in the data. A clearance here, requisition of resources there, evidence that led to only one conclusion: Korel was a member of this Black Lilly Society. He felt no relief as they finally entered the conference room. It brought him no joy to submit the data to the water caste investigators, but his honour demanded it. He would not sit by and let the Black Lilly Society start a war just for better control of the moon.

‘This ally species, these Mortabundians, I see, are still as industrious as ever,’ the diplomat Irahaln said as he sat down in the conference room. ‘It is a shame so many of them resist us.’

‘Indeed,’ Korel said from the battle suit. Then, with a hiss of escaping air, the suit opened up so the commander could step out as herself. ‘But,’ she said, ‘now is not the time to worry about such things, now is the time to celebrate your arrival.’

Stocky earth caste T’au dutifully brought out trays of food and drink before quickly leaving. Tuan pursed his lips. This was not how he had expected this to go. He hadn’t expected Irahaln to get straight to business; indeed, water caste have their own circuitous way of doing things, but if they did not confront Korel soon, then whatever the Black Lilly Society was planning would go off. Then it would be too late, and this symbiotic relationship they had with the Mortabundians would be shattered forever. Indeed, the resentment felt by Korel and her people was mirrored in the Mortabundians. T’au and alien alike reacted negatively to the friction of living together, and each side became less and less willing to bridge the divide. Such was the realm of the diplomat.

‘Is it time already?’ Irahaln asked.

Tuan looked between the two others as Korel checked a communicator. 

‘In 3…2…1–’ She was interrupted by an intense rumbling, as if the mountain they were within would fall down around them. 

‘What was that?’ Tuan yelled, jumping to his feet. He could feel his body ready for a fight.

Irahaln downed a glass in one straight shot. ‘That, my friend, was the transport of a prominent Mortabundian minister finding itself on the wrong end of a mining explosive. An investigative team will quickly conclude that it was activated at the behest of a separatist, anti-T’au faction. When strike teams move to arrest the group, there will undoubtedly be enough bloodshed to justify putting the moon under martial law for the foreseeable future.’ 

Tuan stood there, aghast. ‘But, I told them, the ethereals were supposed to intervene. You-you were supposed to intervene.’ 

‘Sometimes the black lilies must fall so the rest of the flowers may survive. It is for the greater good,’ Irahaln said with a smile.

‘It seems like Irahaln, unfortunately, arrived too late to stop what was organised by a few mid-level officers,’ Korel said.

‘You fools,’ Tuan exploded. ‘I know these aliens, and you have just ruined any chance we had at preserving our relationship. The Mortabundian public will not stand for this. We could have repaired–’

‘It is done,’ Irahaln interrupted icily. ‘When the dust settles, they can rejoin the Greater Good with better understood terms.’

Tuan just shook his head. ‘They never will now. You may consider them primitive, but they have honour, more than the likes of you, and they know this moon. They built every cave, every passage through these mountains that we now use, spaces ill-suited for our way of war. No, you have just caused a catastrophe, one T’au and Mortubundian will suffer in kind.’