Home › Units › T'au Empire › Pathfinders
1 / 4 · Click to enlargeLore & origins
Pathfinders are the Fire Caste's scouting infantry and the eyes and ears of a T'au commander in a way no drone can yet match. The T'au rely on technology for most battlefield tasks, but some jobs cannot be trusted to sensors alone. Pathfinder teams ride specially adapted Devilfish far ahead of the Hunter Cadre, watch the enemy while staying hidden, and report its nature and disposition over encrypted, almost undetectable links such as positional relays and homing beacons. They also run aggressive patrols to dominate the ground around a stationary cadre. Occasionally a whole cadre of Pathfinders is sent to explore a newly discovered world and judge whether it is fit for colonisation.
A Pathfinder's job is not to win the battle but to make everyone else win it. Their markerlights designate priority targets and feed precise data to every networked weapon, so the cadre fights at peak efficiency. They are patient masters of positioning, proud to choose the best targets for others to destroy, and this selflessness in the service of the Greater Good earns them enormous respect across every caste. The cost is high. Their duty keeps them in the field for long periods, often isolated behind enemy lines, and they have especially high mortality rates. Wasting lives recklessly is anathema to the T'au, yet Pathfinders are called on to sacrifice themselves far more often than ordinary Fire Warriors. A Pathfinder holding a markerlight on a distant enemy while their own position is overrun is the very image of selflessness. Often they are used as bait to draw the enemy out of position.
Some survive and rise. Most seek the glory of command and battlesuits, but a rare few choose to keep working from the shadows. The most famous is El'Myamoto, known as Darkstrider, a stealth specialist renowned for refusing promotion beyond the Pathfinder role, although later accounts record him as a Shas'el.
Appearance & wargear
Pathfinders wear recon armour, a lighter form of Fire Warrior plate that trades protection for freedom of movement and stealth, with sensor-laden helms. Each carries a pulse carbine with an underslung photon grenade launcher and a markerlight designator. Squads number four to ten Shas'la, usually led by a Shas'ui veteran and bound together by the Ta'lissera bonding ritual. Blooded veterans may carry bionic replacements for old wounds.
Weapons & Vehicles
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Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
The markerlight projects an almost invisible beam. Its chilling red dot on a soldier's armour is often the only warning before a barrage of seeker missiles strikes, called in by a team that never reveals itself. Imperial troops of the Damocles Gulf Crusade called it the "Valkyrie's Mark". Photon grenades blind attackers when the team is surprised. Special weapons troopers carry rail rifles or ion rifles against heavy infantry and light vehicles, and attached drones add firepower and shields. Pathfinder Devilfish carry marker beacons to guide jump troops and orbital insertions, so Crisis teams can drop straight onto a target.
Notable battles & users
- El'Myamoto (Darkstrider): the archetypal Pathfinder, a stealth specialist who for long refused higher command.
- 'Mirage' long range infiltration units: teams dropped behind enemy lines days before an offensive, keeping silence until the assault begins.
- Ranged Support Cadre: Pathfinders paired with XV88 Broadside teams, which rain fire on targets the scouts designate.
- Tetras: two-crew skimmers that Pathfinders use for long range reconnaissance and infiltration.
Related
Characters (1)
Commander Shadowsun · O'Shaserra, Supreme Commander of the Fire Caste
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