01x03 - Ashes

[bunniefuu]

[insects chirping]

The great wheel turns.

[Kelseth] The cycle of suffering
and revelation continues.

The past shows us
what the future shall be.

Bitter ashes and broken dreams.

We try to mask our nature.

We try to control it, hide from it.

But in the end,

our fates are inexorable.

[burning]

[spaceship landing]

-[g*nf*re]
-[groaning]

[expl*si*n]

[g*nf*re]

[Lako'ma] Can you move?

I have lost full cloaking ability.

There is additional damage
to jetpack operation.

There is additional damage
to jetpack operation.

I cannot guarantee full flight.

More are coming.

But our quarry is close.

We need time.

And you shall have it.

These are the coordinates.

Go.

[distant explosions]

For the Greater Good.

[sparks and beeping]

[dramatic music]

[battle sounds]

This is Shas’vre Tash'var Lako'ma,

I have located the Aeldari.
Requesting extraction.

[T'au pilot] Acknowledged.

[T'au pilot] Acknowledged.

[sighs]

Welcome, shas’vre.

You speak our language.

It is as simple as your belief system.

Truth is simple.

A truth that can only live in fire?

Fire does not only destroy.

It is what opens the path to new life.

I am here to end this conflict.

I am here to end this conflict.

End it?

You and your kind, and what you did here,

are merely the latest expressions

of an eternal cycle of sorrow,
suffering and death.

This never ends.

All that has happened here
is because of you.

You m*rder*d our ambassadors
and assassinated the human commander.

You m*rder*d our ambassadors
and assassinated the human commander.

Why?

What did you want from this?

[Kelseth] This universe cares nothing
for what we want.

My ancestors wanted peace
and fled the dissolution of our race

and the creation of horrors
you cannot imagine.

And yet, in time,

those horrors found us, regardless.

Our w*r serves a greater good.

Not vengeance, or spite or cruelty.

Your race held it in their power
to craft a better universe,

Your race held it in their power
to craft a better universe,

and yet you squandered that chance.

You failed.

[laughs] You really do not see it?

Like you, we were arrogant,

full of self-belief and conviction.

Just like the humans.

They had their chance,
but paid no heed to what had gone before.

And now you, this fledgling race,
embarks upon the same path.

[sighs] And so the cycle continues...

[sighs] And so the cycle continues...

It is not naïve to hope.

To believe in something greater.

Greater?

[ship g*ns firing]

[Kelseth] For all their failings,

at least the humans have come to accept
the inescapable truth.

What truth?

[sighs]

That eventually, your ideals,
your "greater good,"

will fail you.

[Kelseth] You will start to act with
the cruelty that the universe demands,

[Kelseth] You will start to act with
the cruelty that the universe demands,

until the armour
of your certainty is eroded,

and you are no different
from those that came before.

[Lako'ma] No. You’re wrong.

I shall prove it.

I can still put an end to this.

You will come with me.

[Kelseth] No.

That is not the path
that fate has drawn for us.

[Drone firing]

[Drone firing]

Now, shas’vre!

Take him!

[dramatic music]

[Commander Stonedance] Shas’vre Lako'ma?
Shas’vre, do you hear us?

-[Lako'ma] I read you.
-Do you have the Aeldari?

Shas’o, I...

Evade. Evade!

No!

[Kelseth]
You thrash in anguish at a single death,

and yet my world burns
for your Greater Good.

[gasp]

What have you done?

[dramatic choral music]

[Shadowseer] Wake...
kindred of the garden...

child of ashes...

child of ashes...

The dark reaper has not yet
cut spirit from body...

[Kelseth] Who are you?

I am the dancer of the Veil of Tears...

I am the Mirror of Minds
and the Laughter of Dreams...

You are the Orphan of Sorrow.

I know. Oh yes...

I know.

All is clear in fate’s mirror.

The Asuryani shall reclaim
the World Spirit of your home.

The Asuryani shall reclaim
the World Spirit of your home.

Your ancestors are saved.

The humans shall pour
more blood onto the ashes,

and the new-born T’au
shall stagger bloody from the stage.

Then my work is done.

You hope for the smile
of the scythe to end your tale.

You hope for the smile
of the scythe to end your tale.

There are roles that you may yet play...

Come, tell your story.

[cruel laughter]

Show yourself.

[Death Jester] Do you think that a door
opens onto only one path?

[Death Jester] Do you think that a door
opens onto only one path?

[Lako'ma] Where is he?

[Death Jester] The heart of the one
who crosses the threshold

leads them to journey’s end
and path’s beginning...

[Death Jester]
And look where vengeance has led you.

[Death Jester laughing gleefully]

[ominous choral music]