Years before the days of Yaisdra IX, Kor'ui Del'tor cut his dogfighting teeth on Arkunaska in 732.M41 against the mighty Waaagh of the Green Skins...
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| Kor'ui Del 'Tor after his reassignment to Barracudas Interceptor squadrons. |
For the third time in less then ten minutes an Ork heavy bomber filled his sights. Carefully, at little more than a few meters above the cresting waves, the young Kor' El eased his twin engine Tigershark up into position directly astern of the laboring Blasta Bomber. There was no sign of life in the rear turret. He moved in even closer, before opening fire. Flames erupted from both wings of the stricken bomber as the punctured tanks spewed fuel. With an almost imperceptible dip of its nose, the Blasta Bomber wallowed into the sea.
He circled the oil slick that marked the bomber's last resting place on the sea bed, some 25km off the coast of some Emperor-forsaken ork settlement. Arkunaska , western most of the Fridiun Islands, in a vain search for survivors. A light sea-mist was already beginning to gather as the Ochre Tigershark set course for the mainland. Within 15 minutes the heavy fighter was roaring in low over the dusky landing strip of Nan Kar'tyr airbase, it's wings rocking to indicate an unprecedented success - three Ork bombers downed in a single sortie - to the onlooking air crews below.
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| Kor'ui Del chases an Ork bomber out towards the coast. |
Now on Yaisdra IX the priciple striking power of the T'au force were the four potent Air Cadres to be landed on Yaisdra IX. It was these forces that were to deliver the Mont'ka, "the killing blow", upon which much of the T'au tactical doctrine is based. The first and second cadres formed the principle aerial strike force and were composed of a mixture of Barracuda superiority fighters, Razorshark strike fighters, Sunshark bombers and an unusually high amount of Tigershark heavy escort fighter-bombers. The third cadre was formed around a core of five Manta super-heavy dropships carrying the hunter cadres, with an ancillary force of smaller non-combat Orca dropships that would transport munitions and supplies needed for the island hopping campaign in the Tulagik Islands. The smaller fourth cadre was designated as a special operations unit and contained two formations of the Tigershark AX-1-0 rail cannon ground attack craft as well as other specialized and expiremental aircraft, including several specialized variant aircraft including Barracuda AX-2-5.
The y'eldi ("winged") of the T'au Air caste are their greatest combat pilots, and their skills and accomplishments are the stories of legend told throughout the T'au culture. Kor'ui Del'tor now the y'eldi in charge of all 4 of the cadres operating over the Tulagik Islands and his work was now cut out for him...
