Oresh'uan Sept

On the northern border of the Tau Empire lies the Tau Sept world of Oresh'uan, which houses some of the finest warriors known to the Tau Empire. The force's conquests play a key role to the the third sphere expansion, among the other crusades led by fine commanders including the famous Commander Shadowsun. They are rumored to best even Aun'Va Coalition in the battlefield.

The Commander
The commander of the force, the inspiring Commander Shas'o Tau'n Aur'es Taan, who is also known as Commander Darkstorm, was a promising warrior ever since first promoted to a Shas'la.

When he was a Shas'saal back on his birth sept, Tau'n, he was like any other fire caste child on the planet; energetic, confident, and eager to serve the Fire Caste. Then came the day he was given his first pulse rifle,and then he knew in his heart that this was his destiny. After induction into the military he flew through the ranks, he then was bonded into a team of other fire warriors, and was given the duty to bear the ceremonial bonding knife, today even though only six of the original twelve have survived the years through the ranks, and one has mysteriously dissapeared, they share a bond that very few can break.

Only after four years, he earned the place of a Shas'vre in Tau'n, but his battle force's guide ethereal, Aun'tares, knew that this wasn't enough to make proper use of his talents, and he made him commander of a new and insignifcant sept, Oresh'uan.

Today Aur'es has made the weak sept a very strong and feared force of the greater good, and the squad he was bonded with years ago still stand by his side as bodyguards and veterans. Also, even O'Aur'es's guide ethereal Aun'tares, has now taken the position as the sept's lead ethereal, even he was inspired by his student's success.

O'Aures is now so successful that he was offered a place as a Commander of a new battle force in the Aun'va coaliton, named the Desert Hunters. He abruptly refused, and unintentionally started the famous rivalry between the two forces.

The other team members, and close friends of Shas'O Aur'es make a very powerful spearhead to the already strong sept of Oresh'uan.

Squad members' history

Shas'o Aur'es- Alive, is the commander of the entire battle force. He had remained the leader of the group, but isn't the most imposing member of the group. He, unlike some commanders prefer to fight not from watching above, but in the thick of it. He has tried many of the special issue weapons granted to all commanders, but decided to give them to his bodyguards, and has kept the traditional plasma rife and rocket pod. Some special issue he has kept, such as an emergency ejector seat, which has saved him many times from a near-death assault.

Shas'vre Mat'au- Alive, a bodyguard of Aur'es, he speaks rarley... most of his activity is in his mind, but throughout all his life, he has kept his ground and refuses to fall back, even when the odds are utterly impossible, and always rises victorious among the wreckage. He always equips a sheild generator, and his choice weapons include cyclic ion blasters, plasma rifles and sometimes fusion blasters.

Shas'vre Or'nesu- Alive, another bodyguard, he and Aur'es are like minded people, but knows that Aur'es has a lot more potential for the service of the greater good, and chooses to be his bodyguard. On the battlefeild he is a feared individual, he prefers to strike his enemies while hidden, and his enemies are always ducking for cover as the blows seem to have come from ghosts. The secret to his sucess is the new weapon, the airbursting fragmentation projector, which fires deadly shrapnel in the air, and landing on the enemies from above.

Shas'el Tan'keu- Killed in Action, he was a very bold warrior, his battlesuit was adorned with warpaint and other honours, and always chose a fusion blaster with a plasma rifle. Sometimes if the situation demanded equipped another, twin fusion blaster. He was killed in a war with space marines of the Salamanders Chapter, and his body is now perserved in the Sept Planet's main Fortress.

Shas'vre Arasan- Died as a result of injury, during a battle with a dark eldar raiding fleet he was terribly wounded by a stinger, and died before medical attention could be given. Vre'arasan was most comfortable fighting while horribly outnumbered, and went to war equipped with twin flamers, and a multi-tracker so he could use them at the same time. He was also known to utelise twin burst cannons instead.

His battlesuit was wrecked beyond repair, but his cremated remains are housed in the Sept Planet's main fortress.

Shas'vre Nes'kaan- Alive, he has always been a risk taker, even on the battlefield, and today he has a bionic eye, parts of his body are aided by cybernetics, and his lower left arm has been replaced by a mechanical one. He even though is injured, he still fights with full faith, and goes by the saying

"Even though the enemies try to blast me to bits, because of bionic replacments, they wont be able get rid of me!"

Shas'vre Kar'nes- Alive, Vre'Kar'nes is an excellent sniper, he reluctantly left the position of a pathfinder sniper when he was given a battlesuit, but now his battlesuit has been upgraded to a XV88 broadside, and now annihilates his enemies miles away with his twin shoulder-mounted railguns, all while protected by impenetrable battlesuit armour.

Shas'vre Ares'kai- Dissapeared, Ares'kai was last seen fighting head on with another battlesuit of the Farsight Encalves. His opponent's dead body was recovered, but Ares'kai didn't appear. It is belived he has been taken prisoner by the Enclaves, and Commander Darkstorm is planning a reconnaissance mission into the enclave's territory to try and rescue him.

Shas'vre E'shen- Killed in action, Vre'E'shen was utterly outnumberd by orks and was eventually killed. Diring a defence against an ork waaagh on the planet Oresh'uan when it was still a small and insignificant world, he was managing to hold off the green tide alone, but they eventually came up close enough to assault him, he was quickly killed, as all tau are weak in close combat. His body hasn't been recovered, but like all tau killed in service of the greater good, will be remembered.

Shas'el Kyan'al- Alive, back when the team was mostly shas'la, he was the team's Devilfish pilot, he had almost unshakeable faith in his transport, skimming it across the battlefield and doging enemy fire while Ui'Aures navigated. He is now instead a pilot of an XV9 Hazard Battlesuit, and in record time has killed so many enemies that his right shoulderpad ran out of room for any more kill markings, and has now replaced it with a new one (not surprising as hazard battlesuits are killing machines).

The Planet
The planet is a largely desertified death world, but is now almost half urban and military developments. The North-eastern hemisphere is left clear as a testing ground for new weapons and for the training of Fire warriors, which is known as Mon'ash, or 'The Wasteland'.

The planet has a very low level of surface water, and therefore was lifeless before the tau came. The only water is frozen, and in small amounts at the polar ice caps. The tau inhabitiants are currently making water from offworld supplies of hydrogen and oxygen, and melting the polar ice.

Just above The Wasteland, near the north pole lies the capital city, Arn'uan. The city has grown to its size as the citizens have taken advantage of the cooler climate, and also because a frozen water scource is nearby. In this very large city lies towering buildings dedicated to air caste aircraft control and the ethereals, and outskirted by massive factories where the earth caste makes and designs new weaponry. Forming an almost perfect square around the city, four giant Ion cannons lie ever vigilant against a planetary invasion.

On the equator exactly opposite of Mon'ash is the largest military base on the planet, T'eshuan, it spans many hundreds of kilometres wide, and houses some of the most powerful of defence platforms on the planet, it would be a very unwise decision to attack the planet via this direction. This base also houses the sept planet's main fortress, the centre of the planet fire caste military. The enitre stucture is reinforced and hardened, to the point where is fit to survive planetstrike attacks and even orbital bombardament.

The majority of the planet's fire caste spend their time here, and if their not, they're doing rigourous training at the wasteland.

Force Characteristics
Besides mastery of warfare in all forms, of the force are also masters of survival, being that their sept world is entirely an inhospitable wasteland. It has happened many a time a cadre has gone missing after a war, and not long after find their way back, sometimes months later, but all still alive and well.

Every tau from the lowest Shas'la to the highest Aun'o has extensive knowledge about surviving away from civilisation. The force's knowledge is revered by the rest of the Tau Empire, and are almost always called for support for wars on on death and dead worlds. Even if there is no source of water or food when they are stranded, they are equipped with enough rations to survive for a long period of time.

Warrior's Equipment
The Fire Caste are making use of many new equipment. Every warrior has reinforced armour plating, incredibly strong, yet very lightwieght. Their soft armour is also remade to a material similair to Kevlar, which can resist bolter shells. They are equipped with pulse weapons such as rifles or carbines, and every warrior has a pulse pistol in their inventory for the direst situations. Also in their inventories are water filtration and harvesting systems, which assist in wasteland survival, and other essentials such as first aid kits, rations and tools. Other features include Global Positioning Sytems (GPS) fitted on their wrists, and every suit of armour is fitted with Electronic Identification Systems (EIS), chips only readable by tau networks (which can be disabled if needed). They pin the location of the warrior if he ever were to get lost. last their helmets are equipped with computers which scan others nearby with EIS chips, and warn the user if something without one is nearby, which on the battlefield, will most likely be a threat.

Uniforms
The entire force utelise desert colours such as bone, black and yellows, with turquoise as their sept colour which blends in with the skies of their planet. More varied shcemes are used by others such as vehicles having several shades of bone and light browns, forming a camoflague. XV15 and XV25 Stealthsuits have the most detailed camo, which allow them to still hide if their stealth feilds were to fail. The are also experimenting with new designs of camo, like jagged polygons instead of irregular stripes, and also digital comaflauge, very fine boxes and rectangles joined together forming a pattern, and from close inspection may seem to make a terrible camo, but actually works better than other styles.

Ranking System
The sept uses the universal tau ranking system, but every rank is shortened to letters and numbers to avoid confusion on the battlefield. Every member of the Oresh'uan sept, including non-tau use the system, which also acts as an identification system.

An example of the in this format is: SOCB1-1, which is Shas'O Crisis Battlesuit 1-1, in long terms it acts as an identification tag, in that format the previous appears as SOTATCB1-1, Shas'O Tau'n Aures Taan Crisis Battlesuit team 1-1.

The ranking symbols start off with the caste of the individual: S (For Shas, or fire), then the rank: O, then the name, which is skipped in short term: TAT, Tau'n Aures Taan, and finally their squad/team type and number: CB1, which is a Crisis Battlesuit team, it is the first battlesuit squad, and then followed by their place in the squad, 1.

Other races use a similair format, for example the highest Kroot Shaper is identified as SKC1-1, Shaper Kroot Carnivore squad 1-1, the main Vespid Leader uses SLVST1-1, Strain Leader Vespid Stingwing Strain 1-1, and an example of a typical human warrior: GLGV5-2, which translates to Gue'la Gue'vesa squad 5-2.

The planet under threat
The sept has crushed all opponents on other planets, but now the planet itself has been plunged into desperate war with a tyranid hive fleet, codenamed "Erebus".

Unlike most fleets encountered by the Tau empire, the resistance hasn't been originating from the east, instead this fleet had come from below the galactic plane. It is unknown why the tyranids have chosen the planet, as it has very little organic matter, but it seems the insects are desperate for any kind of organic matter after their long crawl though the void, and Oresh'uan happened to be the first planet they encountered.