B'bapcha Li'ka'la

## B'bapcha Li'ka'la(Wild Rescue)

Shas'ui Li'ka'la during her time as a Farsight Marksman in a Sniper Drone Team. She wears customary feathers and wrist-wrappings given to her by a Kroot Shaman.

## Character

### **Title(s)**

Shas'Nel
(Cadre Fireblade)

Formerly:
-Shas'ui (2nd Lieutenant)
-Shas'la (Infantryman)

### **Aliases**

B'bapcha
(Determined Rescuer)

Li'ka'la
(Wild Strike)

### **Language(s)**

T'au Lexicon (Native Tongue)
Kroot (Fluent)

## Physical Description

### **Skin colour**

Cyan / Gray
(varies by storyteller)

### **Height**

5'2"
(157.5 cm)

### **Weight**

140 lbs.
(10 stone)

"*We're all a part of the machine. We live for it, we work for it, we fight for it. And, when the time comes, we die for it. But in a way, we never die. Because... it doesn't matter if a piece of the machine doesn't operate anymore. As long as the whole continues to function, the memories and achievements of each part remain with it forever.*"
—Fire Caste Commander Strong Triumph, or Shas'o T'au Shi'ur
The parable of **Fireblade Wild Rescue** (or **Shas'Nel B'bapcha Li'ka'la** in the Tau Lexicon) is a minor fable in the Tau Empire. After the defense of the planet Ke'lshan and the Tau's retaliatory destruction of Lilarsus, a small team of Water Caste investigators and propagandists pieced together B'bapcha's biography from debriefings, eyewitness accounts, and partial battlefield footage. Unfortunately that biography-- an admittedly small cache with very little concrete evidence-- was lost, during the human (or *gue'la*) siege of Ke'lshan in 760.902.M41. Footage from a Tau VX1-0 Drone-net later confirmed that the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Gorgon digested and destroyed the evidence in 115.903.M41.

Despite this, Tau of the Ke'lshan Sept continue to hold up Shas'Nel B'bapcha Li'ka'la as a dark hero of folklore and an example of the dangers posed by aliens-- a controversial interpretation of her story. Other Septs of the Tau Empire dismiss her story as anecdotal evidence used to justify Ke'lshan's open hostility towards aliens, her biography seen by outsiders as a cautionary tale of straying from the teachings of the Ethereals. Some Tau Septs even censor the publication and distribution of the B'bapcha parable for promoting nonconformity and the terrors of antisocial behavior; indeed, delving too deeply into her lore sometimes results in a visit from a criminal investigator (or *Kar'tyr*).

## Early Life

### Shas'la B'bapcha

"*Remember your place. You are a cog in a machine! Ask no questions! Obey and concentrate!
[...]
You don’t need to understand, La’Kais. You just need to obey.*"
—Shas'el Lusha to subordinate Shas’la Kais

The military career of Cadre Fireblade B’bapcha Li’ka’la had humble beginnings: B’bapcha earned her first rank name during training, when it seemed she excelled at search and rescue missions. However, she offered little else to distinguish herself while great heroes of her Caste, their names now lost to time, appeared plastered all across the Empire’s propaganda. B’bapcha’s immediate superiors within the Fire Caste thought she might amount to a Shas’ui Sergeant one day; the higher ups, meanwhile, didn’t even know her name. For her part, B’bapcha gladly accepted being relegated to a lower rank, comfortable in the camaraderie of her Strike Team and preferring to remain amongst her Fire Warrior comrades in the infantry. B’bapcha valued her squadmates dearly after both her siblings had been declared unfit for the Fire Caste and never heard from again. Fate, it seems, had other plans for B’bapcha, which it unveiled during her Sept’s war with the *Var'sin'da* (or Dark Eldar) in late M39…

**The Mandrake Massacre (ca.876.M42)**

"*They cower. We carve.*"
—Maxim of the Drukhari Mandrakes
Years later during the Drukhari raid on B’bapcha’s birthplanet of Ke’lshan, the Fire Warrior followed orders without hesitation, wielding her pulse carbine with passion as she prepared to sacrifice her life for the Greater Good. However, her determination and dexterity were found wanting when she tried— and failed— to save her Shas’ui. B’bapcha called out to her lieutenant over the shattering of poisoned splinters and the screams of tortured Tau as an Acothyst took aim, but the fog of war smothered her voice. Unable to warn him, B’bapcha threw herself between the Acothyst’s hexrifle and its target, a fraction of a second too late. Behind her, B’bapcha’s sergeant turned to dark glass as the Drukhari drank in her despair. The alien disappeared into darkness moments later, shadows encroaching across the battlefield. Hoarfrost suddenly crystallized B’bapcha’s surroundings, and the chattering of a tactical withdrawal crackled across her audio-feeds.

All around, Tau lay dead and dying, creatures of cold flame and writhing shadows claiming trophies from the fallen. A fire of hatred sparked in her heart, and B’bapcha raised her team’s bonding knife with a shrill cry. She rallied her fellow Fire Warriors and their Kroot auxiliaries. Together, they assaulted the nearest gang of the sadistic xenos, pulse weapons blazing blue light as they vanquished the darkness. Half a *dec* of intense striking and fading maneuvers, orchestrated by B’bapcha, led to survival; less than half of her team remained. The lifeless, mutilated corpses of her comrades littered the earth. Their blood ran in warm rivers before her, and she held the Strike Team's bonding knife close. B’bapcha’s promotion to Shas’ui did nothing to cool the smoldering embers of anger and bitterness within her. Instead, it seemed to stoke them: it tied her traumatic experience at the hands of the Drukhari and her failure to rescue her sergeant to her new rank name, Shas’ui Li’ka’la.

## First Promotion

### Shas'ui Li'ka'la

"*They are fierce indeed these Kroot, and savage. I look upon them and tremble at their ferocity. I can only hope that when the enemy sees them they tremble as I do.*"
—Por'vre Tau Cho, Water Caste envoy

Named for her wild ferocity, Shas'ui Li'ka'la quickly grew close to the Kroot auxiliaries that she had fought alongside during the Mandrake Massacre. Li'ka'la spent the remainder of the campaign on Ke'lshan in close collaboration with Kroot Shaman Rr'iiyu Chiikai. Chiikai had witnessed her T'au companion lose three fingers to the Dark Eldar, and the two servants of the Tau'va often bonded between battles. During the respite between engagements, it became common for Chiikai to ply her spiritual trade, easing the phantom pain in Li'ka'la's bionic fingers with psychic powers. The Kroot Shaman and T'au Shas'ui eventually developed a shared sisterhood, with Li'ka'la even being invited to participate in the Kroot funerary customs; she graciously accepted, showcasing the depths of the Empire's religious tolerance by consuming a small portion of Kroot flesh out of respect for her friend's culture. Applying warpaint to each other was also a regular activity for the two leaders. By the successful end of Ke'lshan's defense, Chiikai even learned Li'ka'la's personal name, and Li'ka'la adopted the dominant Kroot opinion of the Tau Empire's recently incorporated Vespid...

**Reckless Rescues**

"*The Vespid have limited contact with the Kroot. We have learned that when left to their own devices, there is a certain degree of cultural… incompatibility between the two.*"
—Por'ui Fi'rios Kau'kartyr of the Water Caste

The practices of the Kroot, taught to Li'ka'la by her friend Chiikai, influenced the Shas'ui in more ways than one: it became increasingly clear to her Commanders and Fireblades that her bond with the auxiliaries affected her military performance. Rather than provide supporting fire for other teams in her Cadre, Shas'ui Li'ka'la followed Kroot auxiliaries into the fray, engaging in close-range firefights with pulse carbines. These tactics greatly improved the Kroots' performance by weakening the resistance to their charges and assaults. However, the increased danger it drew to Ke'lshan's Fire Warriors caused unnecessary casualties. On one occasion, an XV15 Shas'vre serving beside Li'ka'la's team made note in his battle report that she had chose to liberate a Kroot Carnivore Squad of less than half strength (surrounded by Dark Eldar Incubi), instead of rescuing a full swarm of Vespid from the same Auxiliary Reserve Dispatch.

That report, corroborated by friction between Li'ka'la and several Vespid Strain Leaders, led to the Shas'ui being reassigned: her Cadre Fireblade designated her the position of Farsight Marksman. It was his hope that a tour or two among the patient Fire Caste snipers would temper her hotheaded behavior and Kroot-like aggression. Shas'Nel Mu'mont Bork, unlike the other Fireblades and veterans, saw potential in Li'ka'la; thus, he instructed the Shas'ui to observe the *Sio't* meditation of the *Shas'len'ra*-- the Cautious Warrior-- and study the *D'havre* discourse, to stifle her anger. To his credit, this would result in Li'ka'la eventually mastering the *Kauyon* military doctrine. However, he never lived to see the fruits of his leadership, dying tragically at the hands of alien Asuryani, or Craftworld Eldar, during Ke'lshan's campaign to destroy the maiden world of Lilarsus...

## The Lilarsus System

### Death and Destruction

"*Attack swiftly, and without warning. This is the mantra of the striking scorpions-- it is the way of all our kind.*"
—Aulriel Doomhand, Striking Scorpions Exarch

Despite the efforts of Fireblade Shas'Nel Mu'mont, Shas'ui Li'ka'la and Shaman Chiikai remained close: the Kroot learned of her friend's transfer to a Sniper Drone Team, acquired sniper rounds for her Kroot Rifle, and bartered with two other kindred to secure a position in each of Li'ka'la's missions. This ultimately ended in tragedy, for Li'ka'la would lose both her associates in the same mission. During that battle, Chiikai's Allied Advance Cadre surged forward, Kroot Carnivores loping through undergrowth and between tree trunks as Vespid Stingwings flitted through the air overhead. Li'ka'la and Chiikai covered the advance from behind when the stealthiest and most dangerous of the Eldar's Aspect Warriors suddenly assaulted: the killer Striking Scorpions had laid in wait for days before striking like lightning, their chainswords rumbling dark thunder. The Eldar's leader, an esoteric Spiritseer, simultaneously restrained the Vespid's wings, grounding the auxiliaries...

**Aeldari Attackers**

"*Eradicate them all, we can no longer tolerate their filthy presence here.*"
—Lorith, Warlock of Alaitoc

Li'ka'la watched through her Drone Controller as the Kroot vanguard struggled against their heavily armored foes; the alien Eldar still moved faster than Chiikai's kindred, even in heavy Aspect armor. Only the Vespid seemed to hold their own, dodging the Striking Scorpions' blows and deflecting chainswords with their own insectoid carapace. Li'ka'la managed to execute the Aspect Warriors' Exarch with a volley from her drones' longshot pulse rifles, but by the time she noticed Chiikai's absence, the Shaman was in the thick of it: Chiikai broke the circle of Eldar surrounding her Kroot and engaged the Spiritseer in a challenge. Specters of Eldar ancestors and bygone Kroot swirled around the two psykers. Wails of Eldar spirits moaned at the hissing of Kroot phantoms, but through it all echoed something more tangible and worldly-- the bellowing voice of B'bapcha's Fireblade, Shas'Nel Mu'mont.

By the time Mu'mont reached the Striking Scorpions, all the Kroot-- except Chiikai herself-- had perished. The Vespid, however, were not far behind: they had superior numbers, but could not make use of them once the Striking Scorpions had encircled and kettled the auxiliaries. Mu'mont's pulse blaster was a blur of perpetual fire, its blue blasts flashing against the bloody red light of the Eldar's mandiblasters. The Fireblade snatched up a fallen Kroot rifle and, swinging with both hands, drove its curved blade into the side of a Striking Scorpion. The impaled Eldar staggered to the side and fell, bringing two more to the ground with him. Mu'mont's voice crackled over B'bapcha's headset into the Vespid's communication-helms, ordering the auxiliaries to cease fire and disengage. The cordon broke, and B'bapcha watched the cowardly insects flee skyward as all the remaining Aspect Warriors descended on Mu'Mont, carving him apart.

**True Colors**

"*Perfidious Eldar! These aliens had the stars in their grasp and now are left to sift the dust of their once fabulous realm. For all their intellect and mysticism they could not contain the beast within them, nor tame the wild monsters of the Shadow.*"
—Inquisitor Gründwald of the Ordo Xenos
Li'ka'la saw red. Rage tainted her vision as the Eldar's blood stained the forest floor; the Vespids' Neutron Blasters melted the Striking Scorpions in their armor, some of the enemies even bloating with radiation, only to explode in showers of gore when wave after wave of pulse fire lanced through them. Then, there was green: the eerie glow of the Vespids' weapons cast shadows through the verdent forest. The fleeting darkness danced over the pale corpses of fallen Kroot. The Kroot Shaman's jade skin was slick with sweat and scorched by lightning, her beak cracked where the other witch's staff had struck. The Spiritseer and Shaper seemed evenly matched, neither able to land a killing blow. But when the last Aspect Warrior died, its Spirit Stone crushed beneath the boot of an approaching Shas'vre, the world turned violet.

Purple fire blazed from the Spiritseer's fingers, engulfing Chiikai. The Shaman's mouth opened in a silent scream, and electricity burst from behind her eyes with pink sparks. The ghastly Eldar faces surrounding the psykers warped into a single terrible rictus. Its needlelike teeth parted, and it devoured Chiikai's spasming body, her ancestors' spirits dragged screaming into its nostrils as it breathed deep. Li'ka'la fired. All around her, her comrades fired too. Energy pulses pulverized the Spiritseer, and it screamed. Somehow, Li'ka'la knew, it wasn't screaming from the gunfire: molten silver poured from its eyes like tears, and the opal stone on its breastplate exploded like a grenade. Li'ka'la never stopped firing. As chunks of the Eldar's flesh blew away, a twisted purple form tore its way out from beneath the Eldar's skin. As the thing of impossible beauty charged Li'ka'la, she kept firing. Only when it kicked the pistol from her hand did she stop. The Shas'ui drew her bonding knife, but the ceremonial blade shattered on the daemon's flawless skin. Li'ka'la drove the broken blade into its eyes until it stopped moving. Even in death, it never stopped smiling. Now, Li'ka'la had seen the Aeldari's true colors, and such creatures were not worthy of the *Tau'va*, regardless of what the *Auns* preached.

## Behind Enemy Lines

### Shas'Nel B'bapcha Li'ka'la

"*Like clay I shall mould them and in the furnace of war I shall forge them.*"
—Attributed to the Emperor of Mankind
Driven deep into enemy territory by the blades of Howling Banshees and the grenades of Swooping Hawks, Li'ka'la and teams from several cadres found themselves separated from the rest of Ke'lshan. Stealth Team Shas'vre Mont'da Oni'myr, who had formally criticized Li'ka'la and suggested her reassignment, tried to lead the survivors. However, his leadership was quickly found wanting: Oni'myr lacked the passion and inspirational aura needed to unite the infantry around him. His pessimism seemed to only smother the dying light of hope, and the Tau under his command found themselves drawn instead to Li'ka'la's fiery fervor. As the weeks progressed, the Fire Warriors came to hold her in such high esteem that they even called her "Shas'Nel" for the sense of direction and fury she instilled in those that fought alongside her. Oni'myr eventually relinquished his claim to command and resigned himself to guiding Li'ka'la in the *Kauyon* military doctrine, though he began to fear the *Mont'au* devil inside her...

**Spiteful Survival**

"*The trial wasn't over. He felt it in his bones. He must face the Mont'au devil again and again and again until he killed it or it became him.*"
—Fire Warrior Shas’la Kais

Wounded during her encounter with the daemonette, Li'ka'la suffered excruciating pain: she suffered physically, Slaaneshi poison coursing through her veins, and she suffered mentally, nightmares of Chiikai and Mu'mont's deaths haunting her mind. Only hate seemed to cauterize the wounds and ease the agony: she hated the Aeldari for starting this war, raiding her birthplanet and Sept World, and cutting her off from the rest of her caste. She hated the Vespid, spineless insects that the Kroot had warned her about, for abandoning Mu'mont in the jaws of death, where the jagged teeth of chainswords mauled her mentor into gore. She even hated Chiikai, for leaving her side and leaving her to fight this war alone. Most of all, however, Li'ka'la hated herself, for she had been unable to save any of them-- Chiikai, Mu'mont, or even her Shas'ui on Ke'lshan.

Immediately after Chiikai's death, Li'ka'la had heard the orders broadcast to the other cadres: the expenditure of life had been too great, and continuing the *mon'wern'a*-- or deceptive assault-- was unacceptable. Thus, the other cadres retreated as Li'ka'la and the survivors of the counterattack were forced further behind enemy lines. Just as she had been unable to save her comrades, the other cadres of Ke'lshan were unable to save her. At that, Li'ka'la raged: never again, she swore, would she fail to rescue another ally. Li'ka'la assumed the name B'bapcha once again and, under the command of Shas'Nel B'bapcha Li'ka'la, the survivors waged war against the Aeldari. As a Cadre Fireblade with a brilliant *Kauyon* advisor at her side, B'bapcha Li'ka'la would exact a toll of blood from the arrogant aliens, in the name of Ke'lshan and the *Tau'va*. The weeks that followed mirrored the time before the Ethereals, when the Tau were brutal and savage-- when tribe fought tribe, and nation fought nation, and dynasty fought dynasty-- until at last, there was only war...

**Total War**

"*Even when broken, a sword may still cut.*"
—His Eminence Ethereal Aun'Ko'vash
Shas'Nel B'bapcha Li'ka'la's guerilla campaign against the Aeldari began. Her forces scavenged what supplies they could from the smoldering wrecks of Devilfish and allied corpses, rationing ammo and allocating rations according to need. Seeing how little they had left, B'bapcha Li'ka'la sought out the Bonegnasher Kroot from other cadres that had abandoned the Tau during Oni'myr's brief stint as commanding officer; they had left and taken valuable materiel with them in the night. B'bapcha quickly united the disparate survivors, bringing the Kroot back into the fold with her words about the bond she shared with the late Shaper and Shaman Chiikai as she wore several Kroot cultural fetishes. At the first reunion between both species, the mercenaries appreciated the display of strength that B'bapcha had organized: fully armored Fire Warriors flanked the Shas'Nel and leveled their weapons at the Kroot, prepared to seize the Kroot's supplies if necessary, as drones rigged with flechette dischargers from ruined Devilfish hovered nearby.

It's rumored the Earth Caste's *fio* engineers designed part of the XV109 Y'vahra Battlesuit with this scene in mind: notes from the development of the Y'vahra's flechette dispersal pods reference the concept of a flechette drone that was scrapped after the drone's armor was deemed too weak to survive the shrapnel released, and the Earth Caste declared the design too inefficient for mass production. B'bapcha, however, didn't have the luxury of choice. Once the Kroot accepted her terms, she as Shas'Nel ordered the auxiliaries to surrender the pulse rounds for their Kroot rifles. To show solidarity with the Kroot's sacrifice, Shas'Nel B'bapcha Li'ka'la even surrendered her own pair of pulse pistols so her Fire Warriors could be better armed; she replaced both pistols with weapons from the Kroot, giving up her recent reputation as a skilled pulse pistol gunslinger. The Tau and Kroot both followed B'bapcha for four months behind enemy lines, their Shas'Nel wielding the Aeldari's very own weapons against them. She chose to carry a Drukhari Shardcarbine, a keepsake kept by one of the Kroot since the Defense of Ke'lshan.

## Mont'au Devil

### Nonconformity and Antisocial Behavior

"*Our Conquest is inevitable, our ascension a matter of time. Let none who are wise deny our destiny.*"
—Ethereal Supreme Aun'Va, Master of the Undying Spirit

The discovery of Shas'Nel B'bapcha Li'ka'la's survival was an affair of mixed emotions, celebration and elation followed by tragedy and sorrow. Almost immediately after being reunited with the Tau Empire, Shas'vre Mont'da Oni'myr filed another report rebuking B'bapcha: his formal compliant described her as an antisocial radical, a Tau who failed to conform and needed the Empire's help, for she had become bitter and turned her back on the Sio't meditation in favor of vengeance. The Sio't teachings, supposedly composed by the great hero O'Mau'tel, affirm that "The alien is not intrinsically evil." However, Oni'myr had watched hate, rage, and war worm their way into B'bapcha's heart and cut like a knife; they amputated her pity for the ignorance of aliens and left xenophobia in its place. B'bapcha all but confirmed these accusations when confronted by the Tau Empire's criminal investigators and Ethereals...

**Self-Incrimination**

"*What are secrets with no-one to know them?*"
—Fire Caste Commander Shas'o R'th
Shas'Nel B'bapcha Li'ka'la proclaimed that the creatures she had seen on Ke'lshan were not worthy of the Tau'va, regardless of what the Ethereals preached. She had witnessed Aeldari scalp living Tau, tear their tendons from their bones, and drink the blood as it flowed from their veins. Where, she asked, was the place for those that lived off the suffering of others, in the Greater Good? The Aeldari deserved the deaths she'd metered out with their own excruciating weapons. Their suffering would burn in the Warp like a funeral pyre for all the fallen Fire Warriors of Ke'lshan, from Shas'la to Shas'o. She swore, as several *Kar'tyr* dragged her away, to rid her Sept of the threat posed by the alien Aeldari, for they had shown their true colors. She was never seen or heard from again. Here, most accounts of Shas'Nel B'bapcha Li'ka'la end, with the decorated veteran eulogized and remembered for the dozens of Tau and Kroot POWs she rescued in enemy territory. None of the few extended versions of her life have been confirmed, though the Tau of Ke'lshan still whisper of her heroism fighting the Eldar Corsairs known as the Void Dragons, and her ties to Kroot Oathbreakers and Bonegnashers.

## Notable Campaigns & Events

* Defense of Ke'lshan (Late 800s.M42)
* Destruction of Lilarus (876.M42)

## Relations

### Allies

* **Kroot Mercenaries**
	+ Shaman and Shaper Rr'iiyu Chiikai
	+ Bonegnashers (allegedly)
	+ Oathbreakers (allegedly)

### Enemies

* **Eldar**
	+ Craftworld Eldar (Asuryani)
	+ Dark Eldar (Drukari)
	+ Eldar Corsairs (Void Dragons, allegedly)

## Notable Quotes

Below are quotes attributed to Shas'Nel B'bapcha Li'ka'la, retrieved from Tau archives and translated from the Tau Lexicon into Gothic by agents of the Emperor's holy Ordo Xenos:

"*The Kroot have seen their hounds and their krootox, and they have deemed them evolutionary dead ends. Yet, the Kroot Shapers still keep and tame such creatures. Just so, we Tau must recognize the dead end of the Mont’au. We too must tame the Mont’au devil inside each of us and train it to fight for the Greater Path. That is the meaning of the Sio’t meditation’s words: ‘No conquest without control.’*"
—Shas'ui Li'ka'la
"*It is better that ten Fire Warriors fall in battle than one Ethereal. Just so, it is better that one hundred Aeldari die before one Fire Warrior.*"
—Shas'Nel B'bapcha Li'ka'la
"*Crush them to dust. Burn them to ash. Their skulls shall pave the stepping stones of the Greater Path. The Aeldari are a galaxy-spanning pestilence, consumed by the horrors of excess and egotism, that must be excised. Despite the lies and deception of their mind science, I have seen their true colors, and they are far from embracing the Greater Path.*"
—Shas'Nel B'bapcha Li'ka'la