| abstract
| - While the XV8 Crisis Battlesuit is by far the most common Battlesuit encountered by the Imperium, the XV88 Broadside Battlesuit variant has been identified as far back as the Damocles Gulf Crusade when it was used to engage heavy armour and provide fire support to squads of Fire Warriors. During the Damocles Crusade, the XV88 Broadside Battlesuit was quickly identified by the Imperium as a major threat to their armoured vehicles, whose soldiers soon learned to dread the whip-crack sound made by the hypersonic speed of a Heavy Rail Rifle round; the distinct noise could only actually be heard after the shot had already hit home. In the battles against the Tyranid Hive Fleet Gorgon during the defence of the Kel’shan Sept, XV88 Broadside Teams proved highly adaptive and effective in combating the larger alien creatures, especially after a refitting of their secondary weapons. The mounting of twin-linked Plasma Rifles in place of the standard twin-linked Smart Missile Systems made the Battlesuits even more effective when confronting the gargantuan Bio-Titans of the Tyranids. A recent addition to the Broadside arsenal came in the Great War of Confederation, when its primary Heavy Rail Rifle armament was configured to be replaced with twin-linked High-yield Missile Pods. During initial setbacks in the war, it was discovered that the masses of attacking Ork waves and the light nature of their vehicles meant the Heavy Rail Rifle, although deadly, did not have the fire rate to stem overwhelming tides of attackers. High-yield Missile Pods, on the other hand, proved more than adequate to destroy the crude scrap armoured Ork vehicles. Since then, many Tau Commanders have included this variant in their Cadres, either on its own or sometimes in a formation with more traditionally armed Broadsides. In open terrain, as at Taros or on the ice plains of Issenheim, a few Broadside Teams were sufficient to negate entire tank companies, quickly turning them into smoking wreckage. During the Taros Campaign, for example, a formation of XV88 Broadside Battlesuits engaged Imperial forces during the Battle of the Phyyra Heights. In this brutal fight, the Broadsides accounted for seven confirmed armour kills against the Imperial Guard's 12th Tallarn Armoured Regiment in under thirty minutes of engagement, including the famed Baneblade super-heavy tank Draco Rex. This forced the 12th Tallarn's retreat and dealt a hammer blow to the usually stout-hearted morale of Tallarn troops. The distinctive whip-crack sound and hyper-sonic speed of a Heavy Rail Rifle round became synonymous not only with the desert fighting on Taros, but in all Imperial engagements with the forces of the Tau Empire. Imperial forces fighting on the Greyshell Front of the Achilus Crusade in the Jericho Reach have recently reported encountering a variant of the standard XV88 Broadside Battlesuit that replaces its Heavy Rail Rifle weapon configuration with shoulder-mounted twin-linked Ion Cannons. Groups within both the Ordo Xenos and the Adeptus Mechanicus are keen to recover an example of this variant for further study, although for very different conflicting reasons.
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