History of the Or'es Shi

 

The Or'es Shi Cadre is not an old and well established force. Nothing more than a single gear in the warmachine of the Tau empire. Shifted from one expeditionary force to another Shas'la Ximoro'An found himself on a fronteer world covered in rolling oceans and doted with small clusters of islands. Kroot were already present on the world but they were few and far apart. The expeditions mission was to search for survivors from a crashed manta that had been shot down during a fleet engagement with gue'la pirates in orbit. Jungles covered the Islands, blue green plants were so thick they blotted out the light. Issued blacksun filters even during the day time the several hunter cadres comprising the search force made slow progress.

 

At last on their fourteenth day of hiking through the dense jungle the Tau found the crashed ship. Already the jungle had begun to grow over it. Drones in orbit had found the site of the crash but due to frequent thunder storms and other natural barriers they had not been able to take transports to the site. The first order of bussiness was to find survivors and clear a landing area. After hours of looking they found nothing but bodies and wreckage though the corpse count did not match the crew records. Pacing back and forth during his watch la'An tripped over something strange. Sitting up he pried the object from the ground. It was an Imperial bolter. Drawing his combat knife he began cutting through the brush that covered the ground. In moments he had found the body of the guns former owner.

 

He called out to his comrades and they set about cutting up the folliage in the area. What they found was a battlefield. Gue'la and Tau bodies lay where they had fallen in a titanic last fight for survival. From the appearance of the battle the Tau had lost. Alarm bells rang out around the camp, seeing that their prey had found the scene of battle the Imperials hiding in the Jungle came rushing out with cries to their Emperor. The Tau rushed to form a tight defence, laying down a devastating volley. One, two, three waves of Imperials broke on the Tau firing line but each time more Tau fell, each time the line shrank. Finally of the three cadres who had gone on the search, less than half of one remained.

 

The expeditions Shas'O was dead and the Shas'el leaders of each cadre had also fallen in the first few waves as they desperately tried to rally the defence and call for back up. Flashes could be seen in the sky, a major battle was being fought again, the Imperials just did not know when to quite. Shas'la Ximoro'An knew that they would all likely die if they could not escape. Dropping back from the fireline during the quite before the next wave he grabbed a few others and rushed back into the wrecked manta which had luckily crashed nose first leaving the back end nearly entact. Just as the fourth wave came rolling forward the drop doors at the rear of the Manta creaked open and a pair Devilfish Tansports came soaring out. Stroving Burst Cannon fire along the gue'la charge la'An came up to the surviving Firewarriors and opened the hatches, leaping inside the survivors strapped themselves in for the bumpy ride. It was not crowded, his APC had eleven warriors and the other had ten. A sad day but somehow they managed to escape with no more losses.

 

The following day a swarm of Transports and Gunships roared over the jungle, a swarm of gun drones proceeding them. The gue'la foolishly tried to stand against the force and were killed to a man. By the end of the week the remanants of the Imperial fleet was eliminated. Finally the sector was secured though at heavy loses. This was the first area of stubborn Imperial defence the expedition had faced so far and had been unprepared. More than half of the escorting hunter cadres were in tatters, some whipped out entirely. La'An was promoted to a Shas'ui and given command of one of the surviving Firewarrior squads.

 

This was the first of his many battles against the Imperium of Man. Slowly he advanced through the ranks and was given command of his own cadre. With every fight he was given more respect and greater resources. Soon the Or'es Shi will be a rapid mechanized assault force, finally able to do what they do best. For now they advance slowly on foot, leading the charge against the Imperials to claim new worlds for the Tau Empire and bring more races and lives to the Tauva.