Warhammer 40,000: Stavrakis- The Hunt For Valakt

Kalanaar

In the end, the Ordo Xenos Grand Master for the Sector was 'requested to attend to matters'. No one believed I was capable. But I guess I should first explain the Warlock? As any member of his majesties Inquisition could tell you, the Eldar are... Aloof, sequestered, haughty even. They all describe the same thing, but the words used are inaccurate, at best. As a race, they are all driven by a single motive. To survive. Since the birth of Slaanesh, the Dark Prince of all pleasure, the Eldar have been a dying race, slowly eaten away by the ravages of war and Chaos. This one, single desire fuels them as a people, and unites them. 

It's quite marvellous to see how much it takes for a race to unite in such a way. To say that an Eldar would sacrifice any imperial citizen for the life of their own is an understatement. They would gladly condemn millions of humans to death to save but a handful of their own. This fate is why the Eldar are as they are today. 

But they are dying out, slowly, but inevitably. A brief summary, to be sure, but time is limited. Any scholarium or Librarium worth its salt has entire volumes dedicated to the Eldar.

I digress. It was a slight navigational glitch that set me on the path to Kalanaar, but I believe the knave orchestrated the whole thing. A terrible battle had taken place between the Eldar and a Chaos warband. This was many years ago, along a fringe of the Segmentum Obscuras. The Eldar had caused a lucky hit on their battleship and detonated its warp drive, causing complete and systematic destruction to 75% of the chaos warband. 

Kalanaar was commanding the engagement that day. To his horror, the warpdrive caused an unstable rift in space/time, and a temporary warp gateway was established. Whether by luck or blessings from the Chaos Gods, the gate started spewing forth more Chaos warships. Hundreds flew out and engaged Kalanaar's fleets. The warp is patchy at best, with all the time and space dilation and fragmentation. 

The navigational glitch the Radiant Dawn suffered had caused me to drop into realspace along the edge of the battle. Of course I sided with the Eldar, with Chaos being the greater and more instinctual foe. Even so, one extra ship against an entire Chaos Armada?

After zoning out huge portions of space with interdiction directed mines, the Radiant Dawn opened fire with its Sacred Atomic missiles. The battle seemed lost even then, until the warpgate shuddered, shifted, and suddenly collapsed. Having been caught in the wake of the collapse, the entire Chaos fleet was destroyed. I still believe Kalanaar orchestrated everything. After the battle, we made contact with each other. I will summarize what he said, and it is the reason he and I are working together now.

Him and his warriors, along with their hundreds of ships, have splintered off from their Craftworld, and for a very peculiar reason indeed. As I have mentioned the Eldar gladly orchestrate and plan events to any outcome that favours them. It could be battles or negotiations along the opposite Galactic Arm, but if the Farseers deem that this 'event' will affect them, it will be manipulated in their favor. 

Kalanaar decided that this wasn't good enough. Why, he reasoned, should the Eldar skulk and slink in the shadows, manipulating events from behind? Why, when they could openly show themselves and become a galactic presence once more? To his credit, his plan was genius. The Imperium has outgrown itself. We can no longer sustain ourselves inside the vast area of space we exist in. The Imperium is wisely on a "shoot, but only if shot at first" basis, as we cannot maintain our borders. But, no one else on the ruling council really favoured that idea, citing "high risk, low reward" nonsense.

 Kalanaar spurned them for being cowards, and left taking his entire warfleet with him. The very next day, he had appeared at a trade summit on Viddens Clutch, placing his case before thousands of human diplomats. Many Craftworlds don't acknowledge him and his actions, but some are very thankful he has been involved in their affairs. On the other hand, showing out in the open has caused a lot of trouble for them too. Not that he minds. The push to become more aggressive in protecting Eldar interests was his true calling, he has told me, and he hopes he can continue to be a public diplomat and Warmonger for his people. In fact, before I had met him on that day, he had been actively pursuing and eliminating active hostile elements operating near Eldar Craftworlds. From being the voice behind the curtain to a shield for his people. I take his tale to heart and it has inspired me.