Razorshark Strike Fighter
To the Fire Warriors forming the front ranks of a firing line, there are few sights more gratifYing than seeing a Razorshark Strike Fighter swoop out of the cloud cover and streak over enemy formations. Built along a design pattern modified from the Sun Shark Bomber, the Razorshark forgoes the Interceptor Drone in favour of additional manoeuvring thrusters, and it trades the pulse bomb generator for a fearsome quad ion turret. A formidable weapon, the quad ion turret is ideal for turning light vehicles into twisted wrecks. Although it makes the weapon slightly unstable, when fired on its overcharged mode, the quad ion turret can produce an enormous blast radius that consumes entire squads with a single shot.
During the Tyranid invasion on the sept world of Ke'lshan, the aliens quickly grew wary of the dominating Tau air attacks. High in the stratosphere, the super-heavy Manta blasted away the flying terrors, while just above the planet's surface swept the Sun Shark Bombers, their pulse bombs breaking up the swarming Hormagaunt attacks. While the Tau's entire aerial arsenal played a part, it was the Razorshark Strike Fighters that took the highest toll on their foe. Streaking back and forth over the battlefront, the Razorsharks relentlessly targeted the Tyranid Warriors, the beams from their quad ion turrets easily penetrating the Tyranids' thick, chitinous armour. After one of the Razorshark's attack runs, entire squads of the elite alien warriors would be left in ruin, their half-melted bodies continuing to sizzle long after their deaths. A fast moving craft, the Razorshark was able to seek out and destroy the brains of the invasion - whether they attempted to lurk far behind the front lines, or chose to surround themselves with intervening lesser creatures, the Razorshark was manoeuvrable enough to hunt them down. When infiltrators such as Lictors or Raveners emerged to threaten the Fire Warriors, the Razorsharks could swiftly fly back to target the beasts, minimising both the harm and the disuaction of such attacks.
The Razorshark Strike Fighter can engage enem flyers, but the craft was purpose-built as a ground support attack craft; a role in which it excels. Its success is evident from the craft's ever-growing popularity with the Fire Warriors that it flies above. In addition to its main armament, each Razorshark is loaded out with a nose-mounted burst cannon. For further support, it also carries two seeker missiles. These can be auto-fired by the Razorshark's Air caste pilot himself, but are more effective when launched by a ground unit that has painted its target with a markerlight.
And that's its fluff. It's crunch on the other hand...
11/10/10 armor with three hull points is average for an aircraft, meaning gauss any skyfire weapon will ruin its day fairly quickly (though vehicle systems and jink mitigate this somewhat). The quad ion gun is basically a hammerheads ion cannon, complete with S7 and AP 4, which can of course be overcharged to a S8 large blast. Do this at you own risk, since gets hot! is a lot more dangerous on a relatively fragile platform. It's also mounted on the rear, so getting behind it isn't as a hot idea as you might think. It also has a 360 degree missile pod, perfect for sniping any gig who tries to close the gap.
In all, it's not Bad, it's just not all that good either. The Sunshark does all it can do and more, for a noticeable price bump of course. If you're trying to be competitive however, it's a better idea to pass on this fish. If you insist on having your blue Air Force, you might as well bite the bullet at buy yourself a Barracuda.