T'au Battlesuit - History: The Fire Caste believe that warfare is an art form, a discipline to be studied, practised, mastered and applied. First among their teachings is the Code of Fire, which promotes mobile, rapid warfare and a clear disdain for close combat, favouring instead the application of ranged firepower. The first T'au Battlesuits were developed as a direct result of this martial philosophy, providing Hunter Cadres of the Fire Caste with increased mobility and superior firepower to better destroy their enemies.The advancement of T'au Battlesuits has mirrored the rate at which the T'au have expanded across the galaxy. The earliest prototypes were field-tested during the early stages of the First Sphere Expansion, and although they were successful, the going was slow. In 576.M39, improvements in anti-gravitic motors were combined with relatively new T'au Battlesuit technology at the time to form the first T-Series Battlesuits, which helped the Fire Caste complete the annexation of the Tash'var Sept.Though lumbering and inefficient when compared to their descendants, the T-series allowed the Fire Caste to engage foes otherwise beyond their abilities, and also gave the Earth Caste a critical opportunity to pioneer and field test many technologies that would be crucial to their development of later models. The original fossil fuel-powered T-series was quickly replaced with the V-series, which instead was powered by nuclear fission reactors.Though early marks of the V-series inundated their pilots with deadly radiation, later models were able to account for this problem, at which point battlesuits began to be a mainstay of the military forces of the T'au Empire. It was not until the end of that first period of rapid growth that Battlesuit technology began to regularly appear within the Hunter Cadres. Not surprisingly, it was at these final stages that the T'au won their largest battles, as elite formations of newly-trained Battlesuit pilots began to refine their tactics to take advantage of what their armoured suits could do.By the start of the Second Sphere Expansion, great strides had been made in T'au Battlesuit design, particularly in the areas of power generation and the increased potency of weapon load-outs. By the end of this period, repulsor jump jet technology -- augmented with anti-gravitic technology -- came into its own and the Hunter Cadres were conquering new planets in the name of the T'au Empire at a rate never before seen.The greatest development, however, was the nanocrystalline alloy fio'tak that was dense, durable and incredibly light. Comparable in protection to Space Marine power armour, it enabled the Earth Caste to build more resilient battlesuits without hampering manoeuvrability, an important consideration when taking into account the Fire Caste's desire for fast, mobile warfare.The result was the X-series Battlesuits, the most successful of which has been, and remains, the XV8 Crisis Battlesuit. At present, T'au Battlesuits have never been more successful, and continual upgrades, different marks and variants, as well as new prototypes are continually being developed to advance the Greater Good.Yet the Earth Caste did not stop there. As the T'au Empire expanded across the stars, the Hunter Cadres encountered new and more deadly alien races, prompting the Earth Caste to develop new battlesuits to fulfill particular battlefield tactical roles or face certain foes.The compact XV15 Stealthsuit, for example, was developed for scouting and infiltration missions, but was upgraded to the bigger XV25 Stealthsuit following the Kappa Mortis Incident, where the T'au feared their technology had been acquired by the Imperium in an operational state. The Great War of Confederation saw the development of the High-yield Missile Pod armament for XV88 Broadside Battlesuits to better tackle the Ork hordes that assaulted their lines.The XV104 Riptide Battlesuit, the first Class 10 Battlesuit, was developed following contact with the Imperium's vast armies in the Damocles Gulf Crusade, and the KV128 Stormsurge as a direct response to the Imperium's super-heavy tanks and Titans. The Earth Caste, it seems, never rests in its quest for technological superiority.