Tau Arctic Corps

[Lord Hanaur]

I posted this in the past but decided that since 7E was here, it was time to take a second look at old ideas.  I wrote this as fluff for this army, an army that went on to do a lot for the Greater Good before 6E.

 

Now it's back!  I updated the points and some other small things but it is almost exactly the force it was before.

 

Tau Arctic Corps (T.A.C) Expeditionary Force.

Tau rely heavily on machines and mercenaries to compensate for the one thing they lack that other races do not: population.

Simply put, the Tau span very few systems and although their fearsome technology would suggest otherwise, the fact is they are hopelessly outnumbered by the other races and would have fallen long ago had those races not already been so intent on the mutual destruction of each other.

Nonetheless, the Tau are expanding and that expansion has seen birth rates soaring and with it, the need for new planets to colonize. The Explorer class Starships of the Tau have plodded through space without the assistance of the Imperiums warp spanning technology, some of them Generation ships that started with crews in the hundreds but land with crews in the thousands, with more on their way.

And so it is that the Tau have need of expeditionary forces to protect them. In order for the Ethereals to continue the societal structures that the Tau adoped to curtail their nomadic and barbaric past, it has been assured that all the components of the Tau forces are included to remind all that the Tau way is a singular thing, not to be diluted by space, circumstance nor time.

These expeditionary forces are built to handle the climates they are sent to. The Tau Arctic Corps is a specialized colonial branch that deals with sub-zero temperature climates. Given the propensity for blizzard-like conditions, the force does not tend to carry Sniper Drones, as their effectiveness would be as limited as the enemies trying to locate them. Even though the Sniper Drones might see their target via their imaging hardware, their pin point accuracy would be compromised. As it is the forces always have a compliment of Pathfinders to assist the other units, but even such measures can only do so much when it comes to a snipers extreme need for accuracy and intimidation.

Arctic environments tend to be a poor place for Ethereals and the threat of losing one in the frequent storms some arctic planets exhibit is simply too great a chance and so they generally stay aboard the Explorers and do not make planetfall except when needed for ceremonial reasons.

Kroot, naturally adaptable to any environment, are a welcome addition to expeditionary forces, and their Hound packs do an excelent job of finding prey and determining whats edible on the planets early on. Indeed a large contingent of hounds is kept so that they can "test" the food first. Kroot hounds are notoriously finicky, as they have a preternatural sense for what will effect their future genome and are generally unwilling to eat anything that would prove detrimental to their offspring. Those preternatural instincts serve Tau colonists very well.

Stealth teams are a critical part of the process of colonization, allowing the Tau to view the flora and fauna up close before making planet fall. While the Kroot hounds busily sniff out the good foods from the bad, the Stealth units use their stealth fields to explore the geography around them without alerting the indigenous species to their presence, or if an enemy exists. Orbital sensors cannot see below the surface nor through ion storms of great severity and so it falls to the Stealth Teams to work in "triads", providing valuable intel on indigenous populations that may be worth contacting by the Ethereals. This is far more fitting work for small teams than for mounted Fire Warriors.

The Fire Warriors guard the settlement, and are amost always provided environmentally sealed Devilfish transports, both as a practical matter of keeping warm while in the field as well as the ability to ferry supplies to and from the settlement and the surrounding areas. The Devilfish is also capable, because it is environmentally sealed, of acting like a submarine, allowing them to ferry workers and tow huge cargo containers down to the bottom of the waterways so that the construction can begin on underwater complex's which are a common long term solution to colonization. They can unload their supplies and their drones. The drones can replenish their battery supplies via the Devilfish's engines. The Devilfish has long been the cornerstone of underewater colonization and no other race boasts such an effective process that involves so few actual man hours. What takes a human crew a year to build can be built by Tau Drones in four months and with few if any loss of valuable Tau lives.

The Warriors aboard these vessels are Firecaste of course and their battlesuits can be used to work underwater when the Drones programming meets its limit. They can use their pulse rifles to blast rock and reefs out of the way as needed, or just swim to install things that require finer manipulation than drones can handle. They are also often called to fight off hostile water lifeforms and the pulse technology they employ is ideal for knocking such creatures unconscious, ready for the Kroot hounds to test!

The fear of avalanche can be ever present in the early stages of colonization. mountains are ideal places to begin above ground dwellings, with cliff faces and cavern complexes providing the natural materials needed for immediate dwellings and mining operations, and so the Stingwings of Vespa are employed by the Tau because their wings will carry them where roaring jet engines might set off an avalanche. The StingWings are adept flyers, and their Neutron Blasters can evaporate snow packs completely where needed in order to reach vital mineral deposits and the like, without the concussive force that the Tau Pulse technology produces. All in all a very satisfactory and graceful answer to a tough problem. The hearty Vespids are as tough as a Space Marine also and so they take the cold and altitude better than the Kroot (some of which also boast wings), who would normally be the Tau answer to such manually intensive tasks. The Tau provided armor is light and provides warmth as well without fettering their wings. Kroot tend not to be able to wear the armor and still fly as well.

Piranha light Skimmers are ideal for drilling out the caverns and passages needed once the initial work is done of finding and clearing the area safely. They use less fuel than a Devilfish, they travel faster and the ability to take a larger drone unit that can work as one makes the networkd Piranhas the ultimate in mining technology. These pieces of machinery can drive holes through mountains in mere weeks, and though they cannot fly below the waves, they also make excellent hunters for "big fish" that must come up for air. The Drones then deploy, attach wires and then the Piranha Squadron picks up and carries the entire thing in formation back to base for more Kroot Hound testing.

Always present is the danger of avian predators. On some planets the avian population can be both voracious, silent and as large as a small aircraft, not to mention made up of as many redundant organ systems as you might find in a typical Space Marine!

To take these birds of prey out, a modest contingent of Broadside Battlesuits are almost always deployed with an Arctic Corps force, though not many. Whlle the rest of the force is very much focused on the task of colonization, these wonders of technologically destructive firepower have a decidedly martial purpose: "180 degree defense". Not only can they take down such creatures in one shot, but they can be used in an emergency to annihilate the larger fish as well. Their armor is almost as tough as that of a Devilfish and they can be deployed DEEP underwater in order to defend against especially dangerous predators of unusually large size. This multipurpose role makes them ideal for colony ships, as such underwater duties would be beyond the stress limits of normal Crisis suits.

As the forces on the ground wil not typically have an Ethereal actively amongst them, a Shas'El or Shas'O is placed in charge of the settlements progress, his suit almost always equipped with flamers to forge the way forward for the units if a blizzard should block a pass or disallow the colonials to get back to base. While not the most subtle answer, the Flamers are extremely effective in making a way through the frozen wastes of some planets and the fuel can be used for more munane purposes of course. Recently, after the Shas'O Ver'Ta'Ik incident, Ethereal command has issued Stim inector to the Arctic Commanders, as they are in the field for so long that at times the cold can overwhelm even a Crisis suits ability to protect its wearer should its cells run low. The Stim injector can keep a Shas'El or Shas'O awake and functioning long enough to hopefully reach safety or repair the cells if this should happen. Its use is experimental and side effects are still being monitored closely through the Crissis suit bio-electric sensor panels.

 

Broadside (Heavy Rail Rifle, Shield Generator, 2 Shield Drones, TL Plasma)

 

Broadside (Heavy Rail Rifle, Shield Generator, 2 Shield Drones, TL Plasma)

 

6 Fire Warriors (Pulse Carbines, EMP Grenades)

Devilfish (Disruption Pod, TL Smart Missile System, 2 x Smart Missiles)

 

6 Fire Warriors (Pulse Carbines, EMP Grenades)

Devilfish (Disruption Pod, TL Smart Missile System, 2 x Smart Missiles)

 

6 Fire Warriors (Pulse Carbines, EMP Grenades)

Devilfish (Disruption Pod, TL Smart Missile System, 2 x Smart Missiles)

 

6 Fire Warriors (Pulse Carbines, EMP Grenades)

 

10 Kroot + 5 Kroot Hounds + 2 Krootox

 

10 Kroot + 5 Kroot Hounds + 2 Krootox

 

3 Stealthsuits (1 x Fusion Blaster)

 

Shas'O (Repulsor Impact Field, Stim Injector, Neuroweb System Jammer, Onager Gauntlet, TL Flamer, Flamer)

 

9 Vespid Stingwing (Strain Leader)

 

4 Piranha (Fusion Blasters, Flechette Dischargers, Disruption Pods)

 

8 Pathfinders (3 x Rail Rifles, Pulse Accelerator Drone)

[Guest]

Are kroot warm blooded?

[fluger]

What is the main weapon on the broadsides?  

[Lord Hanaur]

The main weapon is the Heavy Rail Rifle.

[Lord Hanaur]

Are kroot warm blooded?

They adapt and become like the foods they eat.  So they can live in almost any place given a generation or two worth of pups.