The woods were quiet as the 2nd Calzona Imperial Guard moved swiftly north. The enemy, called the Tau, had caputred the capital city and port of Calzonaport, and the 2nd Calzona was to assault the left flank.
Colonel Langston looked to his men. Perhaps the quickest and stealthiest in the Imperium, there was no chance they could be detected, so he thought.
Langston's attention was grabed by one of his veterans carrying a small automatta of sorts. "What the hell is that?" he asked.
"Dunno, but my platoon found it wanderin' around jus' outside our perimitah. It aint Imperial, suh, and I think its da enemies'" he soldier replied. The Colonel looked at his man. "Hmm. Good work bringing it in. Stick it on the half-track." The veteran saluted and did so.
A few moments later, the army reached a small clearing in the woods where the Colonel ordered a rest stop. Unknown to him, however, silent shapes were taking aim and quietly painting the vehicles, heavy weapons, and leaders of the 2nd Calzona with markerlights.
Colonel Langston found out half a minute later, however, when all hell broke loose. Missles and artillery rained down on the army like fire, shots rang out from the woods, pinning down his men, and a shot took the Colonel down at the chest.
Shas'O'Connah's Deepstrikers, the 1st Tau'n Advanced Deployment Battleforce, had opened the first shot with a checkmate.
Shas'O'Fal'shia'Connah'Mont'yr, or Commander Deepstrike as he perfers to be called, did not work up through the ranks as ordinary Tau do, from Shas'La firewarrior to Shas'Vre Crisis pilot, but trought the ranks of the Pathfinders. He started out as a Pathfinder Shas'la, was eventually promoted to a Pathfinder Shas'ui, and was eventually put in charge of Shas'El'M'yen'Mal'cor's Pathfinder divisions with a rank of Shas'Vre.
During the Damocles Campaign, when Knight Spider was wounded and killed, Vre'Connah (Connah means Deepstrike in the Tau language), as he became known as due to his favorite saying "Strike them hard and strike them deep," found himself in command of an indipendant task force deeper in enemy territory than other Tau forces.
Treating the Operating Theatre of War as a giant battlefield, and the forces under his command as a large group of Pathfinders, he successfully took out many forces larger than his command and brought most of them alive back to the main Tau HQ, where he was confirmed to the command of what was now referred to as "Connahs' Deepstrikers" as Shas'El'Connah, and was latter promoted, in due course, to Commander, or Shas'O.
It was O'Connah's advance forces that made contact with the Bari Trade Federation 5 years before Hive Fleet Behemoth's arrival, and made a friendship with then Ensign Simmions, later Hero of the Republic of Bari and General of the Republic Army, which cemeted the renegade huuman star nation and the emerging Tau empire together.