The icon of the T'au Empire
Commander Surestrike is a T'au Commander of the T'au Empire and one of the disciples of Commander Shadowsun. He commanded the disastrous Fourth Sphere Expansion, the events of which have left him embittered and highly suspicious of all non-T'au species.
History[]
The T'au world of Mu'gulath Bay, previously the Imperial Hive World of Agrellan, was abandoned in the aftermath of an Exterminatus operation carried out by the Imperium that left only the city of Lo'vash'tau standing thanks to its use of a energy shield dome to protect itself from the orbital bombardment. Many of the T'au survivors decided to make their way to the Farsight Enclaves, the T'au colonies that were independent of Ethereal rule. Commander Surestrike followed an order given by the Ethereals to execute these survivors to prevent the Farsight Enclaves' strength from growing with the arrival of more T'au refugees.
Surestrike was next recommended by Shadowsun to lead the Fourth Sphere Expansion of the T'au Empire. The new Sphere of Expansion utilised the experimental AL-38 Slipstream Drive that had been reverse-engineered by Fio'vre Ka'buto, a famed scientist of the Earth Caste, from captured Imperial Warp-Drive technology.
Ka'buto warned the Ethereal Council that the Slipstream Drives present on the vessels of the Fourth Sphere Expansion should never all be activated simultaneously, but his warning was ignored. When activated by the T'au armada that had assembled at Numenar Point, the Slipstream Drives overloaded the local region of space-time and created a wormhole into the Immaterium that encompassed the entire T'au fleet, dragging it into the Warp.
Within this alternate dimension, which was wholly unknown to the T'au, three-quarters of the T'au fleet were destroyed by the hungry Daemons waiting to assault their ships, leaving only the auxiliary forces fully intact. The remainder of the fleet was saved from destruction only by a multi-armed Warp entity later dubbed the Goddess T'au'va, created by the fierce belief in the Greater Good of the psychically-capable alien species among the T'au auxiliaries.
Eventually, what was left of the Fourth Sphere Expansion fleet was rediscovered in the Chalnath Expanse and the wormhole, now a permanent fixture in space, has been dubbed the "Startide Nexus". Survivors of the Fourth Sphere Expansion now have a reputation for brutality and xenophobia previously uncharacteristic of their kind.
In the mind of these T'au, their auxiliaries were to blame for what happened and the new Chaos deity that has been birthed within the Warp can only be destroyed by their extermination. There have since been massacres of Human prisoners and instances where T'au alien auxiliaries have been intentionally sacrificed in battle by the Fire Caste of the Fourth Sphere Expansion. After one such massacre and a subsequent Kroot uprising on the colony of Ky'san, the Ethereal Council proceeded to remove all alien auxiliaries from Fourth Sphere Expansion forces.
After all that has transpired, much like his troops, Commander Surestrike has become bitter and jaded. He subtly criticises the Ethereals and now displays open racial animus towards all the alien species that comprise the T'au Auxiliaries, blaming them for the tragedy that befell the Fourth Sphere Expansion.
During the Battle of the Startide Nexus in the Era Indomitus between T'au Empire forces and the Heretic Astartes of the Death Guard, Commander Surestrike frequently clashed with his non-T'au allies as well as Commander Shadowsun. After Shadowsun attempted to learn the truth of what had befallen the Fourth Sphere Expansion fleet, and was herself saved by the Goddess T'au'va, Suretide was briefly placed by Aun'la in Shadowsun's absence as the supreme commander of all T'au military forces. However, once Shadowsun was restored to realspace, took command of the T'au forces and achieved victory over the Death Guard, Surefire was placed back under Shadowsun's command by the Ethereal Council.
Sources[]
- Codex: Tau Empire (6th Edition) pp. 32–34, 53
- Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (8th Edition), pg. 134
- Codex: Tau Empire (8th Edition), pp. 22–25
- Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good (8th Edition), pp. 4-5
- Shadowsun: The Patient Hunter (Novel) by Phil Kelly, Chs. 1, 12, 19