Jetpack

A Jetpack is a form of flight pack that enables the user to hover and move around in the air. Jetpacks grant great mobility and manoeuvrability to their bearers, and are most commonly utilised by the forces of the Tau Empire and Eldar. Whilst similar to Jump Packs, Jetpacks offer a more controlled flight and are designed to provide stable firing platforms rather than a means of getting into close combat.

Tau Jetpacks
Most Tau Battlesuits make use of powerful and sophisticated Jetpacks, which combine anti-gravitic and jet thruster technology to make the Battlesuit extremely agile for its size. Jetpacks allow them to pounce on the enemy from above and strafe enemies before retreating out of range of any survivors’ retribution. This makes Jetpack-equipped troops hard to counter and very difficult to engage, and also extremely fast moving; being able to bound over long distances and fly across vast areas of land. Tau Battlesuit pilots control their Jetpacks through their Battlesuit neural interface.

Tau Drones are also equipped with a form of Jetpack that keeps them aloft, propelling them so that they can hover and skim over battlefields. Adjusting the power of the motor system also allows Drones to adjust their altitude of flight, with some Drones such as Aerial Drone Mines able to keep themselves aloft high in the stratosphere of a world.

Tau units equipped with Jetpacks will often use them to make aerial deployment, dropping onto a battlefield from high altitudes out of a Orca or Manta transport.

Shadow Spectre Aspect Armour
Integral to a Shadow Spectre’s Aspect Warrior’s armour is its Jetpack. Masters of anti-grav technology, an Eldar’s personal flight pack incorporates sophisticated stabilisation and self-correcting controls, allowing the bearer to adjust altitude and velocity with his subconscious thoughts via a mind-link. Such delicacy of control allows for a speed reactivity and manoeuvrability unknown to many other races. Operating almost silently, an Eldar Jetpack allows the user to move with great stealth, and effect repeated surprise ambushes. An Eldar Jetpack’s top speed and maximum altitude is unknown.

Eldar Corsair Jetpacks
Unlike the crude rockets and solid fuel boosters favoured by more primitive races, the Eldar utilise sophisticated gravitic vanes and miniaturised pulse impellers to enable them to manoeuvre with graceful ease in the null-gravity environments of space. Eldar Corsairs often use their compact devices when carrying out surface raids and boarding assaults; relying on consummate skill to instinctively operate them without conscious thought. These systems do not provide the same ability to cover large distances, as say the wings of Swooping Hawk Aspect Warriors, but they do allow the user to traverse terrain and more rapidly redeploy in combat; sowing confusion and outmanoeuvring the enemy.