TAU PLANETARY DEFENSE CADRE

Maelstrom prime’s planetary defense cadre is a small, highly mobile and well trained collection of hunter cadres. The colony being a recent one and still relatively insecure, It does not have the potential to support a large force for long periods of time, but that small force is equipped with the most recent additions to the tau arsenal.

Preferred tactics are hit and run and recon-in-force, especially in the face of the overwhelming odds that favors the tyrannids since their landing on maelstrom. The main aim of the cadre is presently to buy enough time to evacuate the population south until some help arrives from the empire’s core.

Maelstrom is also the place where is field tested a new hover gunship built to carry a small team of pathfinders deep into enemy territory and to provide them with serious fire support. The Saw Shark, as the prototype is called, carry 6 pathfinders and mount a powerful Ion cannon in an under-nose axial mount as well as twin-linked burst cannons. It has still to see combat although it is believed that the prototypes will be deployed near Kaeloth in the near future.