| abstract | - Plans for the XV107 R’varna Battlesuit had their roots in the stoic Earth Caste of Ke'lshan, but its development was almost abandoned due to the monumental cost of these new war engines. Instead of doing so, head engineer Fio’O Ke’lshan Sho’Aun, turned to the Ethereal Council’s demands for new and improved stealth and infiltration units, appropriating resources intended for this project to create the initial prototype XV107s under the guise of developing a new Stealthsuit. Renewed Tyranid attacks against the beleaguered Tau Sept world of Ke’lshan were to reveal O’Sho’aun’s deception to the Council, as a trio of prototype XV107 units held back the savage host of organic nightmares that threatened to engulf the Sept’s primary city. The destruction they wrought on the alien horde earned the Battlesuit the title R’varna, named for Commander Burning Rain, a legendary hero of Ke’lshan’s wars against Hive Fleet Gorgon. It also earned O’Sho’aun the full attention of the Ethereal Council, who have summoned the errant engineer back to the Tau Empire's capital world of T'au. He has delayed this "honour," citing the need to complete his work before accepting any accolade. Meanwhile, the R’varna has entered full production on the world of Ke’lshan, whose grim and fatalistic warriors favour the tenacity and firepower of the new Battlesuit, with many other examples of O’Sho’aun’s masterwork dispatched to other Tau Septs for combat evaluation against the myriad of threats now facing the Tau Empire.
|
