Fighting in the depths.

  The dark hallway slowly comes into view as Hagar claws his way back to consciousness. Suddenly he realizes where he is. His upper body inside the Fortress of the Fallen Blade. His feet visible to the rest of the world. The hydraulics are holding the blast door firmly against the greaves of his armor. Only then did he realize that his feet were bare as a cold needle was forcibly inserted into the arch of his foot.
    "Get this door off of me!" Hagar growls at the wolf priest.
   "Brynjar is on his way, " the Wolf Priest states while applying healing balms to the injured legs that he can reach through the jammed door.
   Hagar fights to release himself from the door, but the the hydraulics of the door hold tight against his powered armor plates. Only the armor keeps the door from separating him from his feet. As he twists his body to assess the situation, he sees two large jawed clamps enter through the opening and rend the door completely off the building. As the daylight washes in the hallway, he sees the tell tale signs of an Iron Priest looming over him and three smaller figures coming in around to assist Hagar with replacement leg armor.
    "Hurry!" Hagar growls. "They need to pay for my wolves."
    Brynjar subtly reminds Hagar he can't take down the whole fortress. "Ragnar needs the be sure the holding chambers have not been disturbed."
    The lone wolf grumbles incoherently about tearing the limbs off of everyone that crosses his path. As the servitor installs the last piece of the borrowed armor, Hagar runs into the building, gabbing his weapons as he goes.
   The emergency alarms flash red lights on the walls. The servitors, fighting the compulsions to answer the silent Imperial distress code that is sent out with the flashing light. Brynjar tightens the control he has on the cyborg minions that he brought with to deal with the blast doors inside the structure. They, of course, heed their master.
   The Space Wolves separate into two  teams. Brynjar takes his servitors to the control room, dispatching the two Dark Angels on the way.
     Hagar leads the others deeper in the complex. As they drop down to the next level, they are met with bolter fire. Unfortunately for the Dark Angels, they seem to be meeting the Wolves individually. The Space wolves simply over power the guardians that were left. Hagar senses something amiss, a scent of something old. He sends  a team to one of the holding cells and he follows the scent toward the other. The two Grey Hunters make it to the hallway that leads to their objective. The blast doors are sealed tightly. Attempts to blow the door fails, time and again.
    Hagar, on his way to the other, catches sight of the origin of the smell that led him further  and further in.  Then he catches sight of veterans left to dispatch the intruders. Hagar growls and charges the green armor soldiers, He quickly dispatches the first with a cleave of his frost weapon. The second puts up a fight and cuts through the armor on his right leg with his empowered claws and destroying the plates a second time today. The gravity of such an offense again infuriates the lone wolf. He picks up the marine and forcibly inserts him into the blast doors until he stops moving. Then the blast doors open.
     Brynjar makes his way to the control. One of the servitors move up and remove the door from the tracks in one clean swipe of his power fist. The cybernetic enhanced human is no match for the two veterans that wait on the other side, Brynjar watches the cyber eye pulse out as he charges into the warriors guarding the control room. His armor holds up to all the onslaught of attacks that batter at him. Then, slowly, calculatingly, he grabs both veterans with power fists from his servo harness and toss them limply into the corners of the room.
      The Iron Priest walks into the room and take control of the facility. Servitors assisting at the console. A third marine lays on the floor of the control room. His blue armor battle worn but not seriously damaged. The headset showing strange green arcs jumping from node to node and back to the librarian's skull.
    Brynjar scans the complex, opens the doors for Hagar. Then he notices two remaining Dark Angels heading toward one of the underground escape hatches. He realizes the fight here is over. He leads them to the exit and redirects his own Grey Hunters away. No one else needs to die today.
    Hagar scans the room. The holding cell is empty. The scent leads from the room. The scent is from a Space Wolf. The Lone Wolf immediately takes up the hunt for the occupant of the cell. The trail leads down some corridors and out an open hatch. Hagar is back outside.

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

        Hey guys. Yes, yes. I know I have been gone too long for some of my avid readers. For that, I, oh so humbly, apologize. I could tell you a story of too much stuff to do or how crazy my personal life has been or that seventh edition has got me in a confused on what to play or so on, blah... blah .... blah. I know that know one wants to read about that, so let's move on.

       I have been getting some painting done. First off, my pretty purple warp spiders. Deadly, fast and durable, They will make a great addition into my Eldar army. I did an awful lot of color testing on these guys. They were black, red, light green, I think they were even a burnt orange color. I just couldn't come up with colors that fit the theme and still have them correspond to the Samm-Haim theme of my Eldar army. This is what I finally came up with and I couldn't be happier. I plan to do my harlequins in similar colors, just a bit brighter.

   Then came the Dire Avengers. They just cried to get finished. I think these minis have been blue in my Eldar drawer for more years than I can remember. I'm still not thrilled with the shuriken catapults, which is the big reason I haven't painted them or the forty-some guardians I own. I decided to go with a dark blue and then just edge  the guns to make the lines look more sharp. Instead they came out a little weathered looking, which isn't bad either. The red in the plumes and hoses bring them back to the craft world. My Eldar drawer still has ten of these to cheer up from their blue state.

   The next part to the story will be coming soon. I have been putting some work into this part because it is a major turning point in how the story progresses from here. So, please stay tuned for the next segment.

    The last thing I wanted to mention is my good friend, Steve, has his store back to full working order, if that's possible for a hobby store. And I got to say he is actually my local neighborhood game store. The store is only a few blocks from where I am currently writing. Anybody in the Allentown, Pa area that needs a place to rolls some dice or get your hobby supplies come over and check it out and tell him I sent you.
 Dragonhead Hobby and Games
2905 W Emaus Ave Allentown, PA 18103