Shas’O Ximoro’An is strangely enough something of a mystery in the Tau empire. Tau records are some of the best in existence but even so some things slip through the cracks. O’An is one of them. The last traceable record of him was a medical report taken on the survivors of the Dal’mien massacre. Of the thirteen cadres involved the survivors would have barely made up a single cadre. Tracing the origins of the survivors became nearly impossible. It has been speculated that O’An was born on T’au itself but there is no validation of this and Ximoro’An either cannot or will not say.

Ximoro’An’s military record truly begins after the Dal’mien massacre when he participated in the recent 3^rd stage expansion. He held the rank of shas’ui team leader for a squad of Firewarriors under the command of Shas’el Fal’Shia Ye’Lai. While attached to a colonization fleet El’Lai was forced to lead four cadres in a cleansing mission against a group of Orks that had been detected harassing one of the colony outposts. Early reports by pathfinder teams marked the Orks at no more than a thousand. El’Lai’s forces were outnumbered more than two to one; however the fleet’s tactical advisors had decided that such numbers would be more than enough since the reports marked the Orks as broken. A series of five successive raids were planned out, each to target a separate Ork tribe. The first three raids went exactly as planned with next to no casualties. With the operation going even better than planned Shas’el Ye’Lai proceeded on to the fourth raid sight. The area was scattered with debris from the Ork habitation but in their inattentive state the cadres did not pause to note the greater saturation than could be expected for such a small tribe of Orks. So it was that when the first Devilfish entered the combat site it was to meet nearly 600 of the green skin menace. Determined to do their duty the troops under El’Lai engaged the Orks anyway. The battle that ensued can only be described as furious. The first waves of green skins were cut down by a precise and ordered firing line. Once three volleys had let rip into the Ork mass the Firewarriors began to fall back drawing their foe behind them. As the center of the mass of Orks passed over the abandoned position the explosives that had been hastily buried were detonated and flanking teams of XV15 battlesuits and Devilfish mounted Firewarriors hit the Ork lines. Within short order the Orks were nearly decimated. With the foe apparently destroyed the remaining Tau forces entered the area and began to clean up the mess.

It is here that the battle suddenly turned, entering the battle from the route the Tau had taken came an Ork Kult of Speed numbering an estimated three thousand green skins. If that were not bad enough more than four thousand Orks came pouring out of the surrounding hills. El’Lai suddenly found his forces surrounded and horrendously outnumbered. Forming his troops up on a small hill at the center of the field the Tau prepared to fight to the last. Five waves of the foul creatures broke on the Tau position but not without inflicting serious casualties. Slightly more than one cadre remained when the Orca drop ships arrived to extract the survivors. Seeing the Tau beginning to escape the Orks launched a massive assault. Only half of the Tau were in the air when the Orks hit their lines. Shas’el Ye’Lai refused to depart before his troops and stood his ground against the Orks. Shas’ui Ximoro’An was one of those remaining on the ground when the green skins attacked. When ordered to board the next Orca he refused. Eye witnesses reported that El’Lai personally picked up ui’An and threw him into the transport just before the Orks overwhelmed the last defenders. Of the 400 Tau who were under Shas’el Ye’Lai only 82 survived. Shas’ui Ximoro’An was one of only three members of his team to escape. The expedition bombed the area and sweeper teams were sent in to finish off the surviving Orks. As a last measure the entire area was burnt to remove every trace of the horrid xenos. The Orks were declared eradicated and the construction of the planet’s colonies was allowed to continue. Nevertheless the defense forces for the expedition had suffered greatly and were now significantly undermanned. Ximoro’An was field promoted to Shas’vre. This in itself was unusual as normally the progression of rank would be an assignment to a battlesuit team, then to a team leader and then finally to a Shas’vre. Further still vre’An was then assigned as a bodyguard to the expedition’s new commander, Shas’el Shi’ranna.

The colonization expedition lasted another two Tau’cyrs before it was finally concluded. During this time vre’An saved El’ranna numerous times. At the end of the expedition vre’An was promoted to the rank of Shas’el, fully two Tau’cyrs before the standard trial by fire. He was put in command of a small outpost on the outskirts of the empire. This outpost was in fact Yu’Yeni Blau where Aun’el T’au Kovash was captured by Space Marines of the Raptors Chapter and taken to Dolumar IV. Shas’el Ximoro’An was among the rescue forces sent under the command of Shas’O Sa’cea Udas. During the final few Decs of the operation el’An was charged with evacuating the stranded Tau forces on the planet. Ever since he had served as El’ranna’s bodyguard Ximoro’An had made use of an unusual battlesuit configuration, opting to carry the plasma rifle and fusion blaster combination of the helios pattern. In addition he had a multi tracker system hard wired into him and a shield generator installed on his suite. Some rumors went around speculating that he chose this close range and dangerous armament setup in the hopes of bringing about his own doom and courting death, perhaps as the result of the disasters he had survived in his past. Whatever his reasons it became clear in this operation that the configuration was suited to him. Seeing a position held by a group of Tau and Human survivors being overrun by the forces of Chaos el’An dropped into the midst of the battle along with the search team he was leading and proceeded to break the chaos forces and protect the otherwise doomed survivors. El’An is also attributed to the evacuation of several hundred human soldiers who latter established a colony in the Damocles Gulf and now provide a constant supply of Auxilary troops to Tau forces in the region.

Because of the rescue operation in the Dolumar system Ximoro’An finally achieved the rank of Shas’O. He was next placed in command of a system defense force in a recently colonized region acquired during the 3^rd expansion. The system suffered from a strange phenomena resulting in erratic ion storms. These storms made several of the planets unsuitable for habitation until a safe habitation system is developed. The remaining planets were covered in a strange blue luminous jungle. It was at this time that Shas’O Ximoro’An created the Or’es Shi cadres and it was the strange habitat that gave them their colors of blue and silver. During his station in the system O’An received a distress signal from a nearby region and personally lead a dispatch of reinforcement forces. This action placed him at the center of a campaign against the forces of the Imperium. It was the actions of O’An and the elite first cadre of the Or’es Shi that were responsible for the liberation of the planet and later another that had already been captured by the Imperials.

Currently O’An fights on in the nearby systems against the gue’la and other alien races protecting the empire from all threats.