Commander Farsight - Road to Command: As was standard procedure, the young T'au served the first four Terran years of his career as a member of a Fire Warrior team in a Hunter Cadre. Although he was posted to the fiercest war zones of each engagement, and that Shoh was always right on the front line, the young T'au proved more than capable during the Fire Caste's ongoing purges of the Arachen species.En route to the war zone, Shoh memorised every fact the Water Caste had been able to glean in their dealings with the female Oestromystics of that many-legged species, and had thoroughly analysed the battle doctrine of the Arachen's blade-legged male gender.During the four standard years of war he spent as a Shas'la trooper, Shoh became known to every warrior in his cadre. His ability to wield a Pulse Rifle at extreme close range saw him drive back several Arachen surprise attacks, and he was always quick to push home any advantage he could gain.He quickly earned the trust of his senior officer, Shas'ui Mon'oka, and later his respect. This turned to eternal gratitude at the Battle of the Great Web, where Shoh shot the shas'ui free of a tangleclutch trap, saving him from the eggsacs of the Oestromystics and the horrific death that would otherwise have followed.By the end of his tenure as a Fire Warrior, it was Shoh's "suggestions" that formed the vast majority of his unit's battle plans. A firm believer in the Greater Good, Shas'ui Mon'oka recommended his charges for their first Trial by Fire at the earliest opportunity. With the approval of their superior Cadre Fireblade, the young T'au warrior and his team were shipped back to Vior'la for potential promotion.The Trial by Fire was a traumatic experience. A high level of adversity is the norm for the warrior caste's coming-of-age tests, but there were those at the training academy that remembered Shoh's inadvertent hand in the fall of their old colleagues, and wished to test him all the more harshly for it.Shoh was thrust into a pitch-black, live-fire war dome where he and his team were assailed by numerous nameless horrors that defied classification or understanding. Even Shoh's quick wits were of limited use, and in the end, it was the fire in his soul that secured his fate.When a tentacled maw-thing came whirring down to chew his shas'ui apart, Shoh threw himself headlong into its path, and was cut to ribbons in the process.The T'au warrior died that day, and not for the last time. When Shoh was brought back from his simulacoma, his tutors informed him that only those of his team who had "died" in the ordeal had passed their trials, and that his new rank was that of shas'ui.When Shoh asked after those who did not pass their trial, however, his question was met only with stony silence. Though a hidden part of Shoh's soul railed at this, his gladness at being alive and the fulfilment of his most fervent desire temporarily drowned out any more questions he had; for with the rank of shas'ui came the honour that Shoh had always dreamed of -- the right to pilot a T'au Battlesuit.After returning to the Western Veil to garner experience as a Fire Warrior shas'ui, Shoh was quickly inducted into the armoured elite of the T'au armies. However, whilst analysing Drone-captured footage of his time as a Fire Warrior, Shoh's Vior'lan masters had noted a marked affinity for close action in the young T'au's tactics.The Fire Caste T'au Commanders who had monitored his progress wanted to teach Shoh the self-control and perspective of a support role. On the day the young prodigy reported for duty to Shas'ar'tol High Command, he was immediately assigned to the specialist pilots of the XV88 Broadside Battlesuit teams.It was under the auspices of the veteran rifleman Shas'vre Ob'lotai that Shoh learnt the basics of Battlesuit command, and in the process, a measure of restraint. At first, Shoh was privately crestfallen at his reassignment to the back ranks of the Arachen War, yet he knew the war effort was greater than his own personal desires.He applied every part of his exceptional mind to mastering the systems of his XV88 Broadside, drinking in specification data and after-action reports with every waking hour he spent outside the suit's piloting matrix. Within a single training cycle, Shoh was getting more range and accuracy out of his Battlesuit's Heavy Rail Rifle than Shas'vre Ob'lotai himself.As soon as the correct training programs had been observed, Ob'lotai's Support Cadre was dispatched to the Veil with all haste. There, as his team blew apart one huge-bellied Oestromystic after another, Shoh earned himself a new epithet -- the "Young Executioner."Though only his mentor Ob'lotai picked up on it, the four Terran years fighting at the rear of the Hunter Cadre's efforts were the most trying times of Shoh's life so far. To be armed and armoured in the height of T'au offensive technology, and yet to have to rely on younger, more lightly-armoured warriors to fight in his stead -- it was a kind of torture that Shoh never wanted to repeat.Four Terran years and one vertiginous Trial by Fire later, Shoh earned his wish. Because he had served long enough and with enough distinction to earn the rank of shas'vre, he was entrusted the command of a cutting-edge XV8 Crisis Battlesuit.He was expected to master its weapon systems quickly, for Commander Dawnstone herself was about to lead the warriors of Vior'la in the final actions of the Veil War, and she needed the best troops the planet could provide at her side.A period of exceptionally bloody battle soon unfolded across the Western Veil, scarring Shoh both physically and mentally. He lost most of his left leg to a skitterling swarm that got inside a damaged part of his Crisis armour, and saw many trusted comrades meet spectacularly visceral ends, their Battlesuits physically ripped apart by giant Arachen Grandfathers.However, Shoh's agility and skill at the helm of the XV8 Battlesuit quickly became famous amongst Dawnstone's command. He was promoted to Saz'nami, taking his place alongside one of his old tutors as a close protection officer for his Commander.Shoh repaid the faith placed in him tenfold during the engagement with the much feared Arachen Trinity at the heart of the war effort. Having unwound the maze-like logic patterns with which the Arachen made their nests, Shoh led his commander to the silken heart of the Arachen cocoon-ship. There, he and Commander Dawnstone launched the Mont'ka strike that killed all three of the Trinity and expelled the Arachen from the Western Veil once and for all.En-route back to Vior'la, tragedy struck. Whilst docked with the cocoon-ship, Commander Dawnstone's flagship had been infested with Arachen skitterlings that poured out of the vents and conduits to swarm through its blue-lit corridors. Perhaps intended as a last spiteful gesture of defiance, the infestation fell upon the Fire Warrior command council whilst they were engaged in debate, catching them unarmed and dressed only in their fatigues.Shoh held the swarm back, using his body to block the doorway to the chamber as best he could whilst his commander and her aides made their escape. Shoh stood firm, but the venom-tusks of the skitterlings piercing his skin again and again proved too much and his tortured frame shook its last.Shoh awoke in a med-bay with the familiar surrounds of Battle Dome Mont'yr visible outside. Dawnstone herself was waiting by his bedside to inform him that the skitterling attack had in fact been a Trial by Fire -- the whole event was a simulation.Just as she had hoped, Shoh had excelled in his role as bodyguard, even without his Battlesuit to rely on. In light of this success, he had been promoted to shas'el -- a commander-in-training. Better yet, Shoh had succeeded in his duties with such flying colours that the venerable Commander Puretide himself had agreed to train him in the arts of war.