Damn you Forge World, Stop tempting me!

Forge World are at it again....enticing me with their sweet seductive charms.
All hail the Deimos Vindicator Destroyer.....

Storms of Judgement - The Pandora Cluster Revealed

Janus had fought with Void Span's machine spirit for days, overcoming one obstacle only for the space station's malignant intelligence to throw up yet another.
Lucian had suggested purging it and allowing the never-born to infest it, but Janus dismissed the Sorceror's idea immediately. Truth was, Janus admired its tenacity, it was a worthy adversary and technology such as this should be harnessed....revered even. Finally the Warpsmith had mastered it, taming its spirit and establishing his dominance. 
Nestor was delighted when the scatter-field was disabled, revealing the Pandora Cluster in all its glory, ripe for the plucking. Janus used his.....Voidspan's sensors to delve deep into the system and unearth its secrets had been an exhilarating experience and the Warpsmith marvelled at just how sophisticated his.....Voidspan's alien sensors were. Exploring the.....station's other systems had been a fascinating experience that had opened him up to stimuli that he could never have dreamed of. With the scatter-field down, it had become evident that his.....Voidspan's position could no longer be triangulated, making it ideal as a permanent base for the Castigators. Janus was pleased when his lord gave permission for him to stay behind and refit Voidspan to suit the Chapter's needs.

“So nothing can be done?” Asked Nestor.
“Janus has become fully integrated with the station’s machine spirit.” Lucian replied.
“His body is merely an empty husk, but at least we have full control of the station.”  

Storms of Judgement - The Fall of Voidspan

The bridge of the Shaft of Dominance was a hive of activity as the ship manoeuvred alongside the enormous space station. Squeals of binary code echoed around the chamber adding to the endless reports and orders being issued, creating a cacophony of noise that bordered on chaos. Captain Vane sat silently in his command throne, his attention focussed on the view screen before him. Lights flickered across the screen like fireflies on a balmy summer breeze, dancing to a tune that only he could hear. Two of the lights came together, their embrace momentarily amplifying their brightness before winking out of existence. 

The ballet continued as more of the Assault Torpedoes attempted to close with the space station. The Wolves were suffering horrendous casualties; the Corpus Mundi adding her considerable firepower to the barrage from the other side of the space station, each ship mindful of the others presence, made sure to keep the space station between them.
“And there lay the flaw”, thought Vane to himself. A blind spot that neither the Shaft of Dominance nor the Corpus Mundi, could reach. A corridor that once entered would allow the Wolves’ Assault Boats free run at the space station. Vane continued to watch as the ballet reached its climax. “There!” He said aloud as four Assault Torpedoes punched through the barrage and entered the corridor. All eyes turned to the Captain as he rose from the command throne, his gigantic armoured form throwing shadows that coiled and crept at the edges of vision.
“Open a Comm-link to Nestor and inform Lord Lustheart to expect visitors.”

Storms of Judgement - The Scourge of Voidspan

“You’re sure this scourge cannot be stopped?”
“Not from here, my Lord” replied Janus. “However, I’ve located the source and believe that the parameters can be changed to a more favourable setting.” continued the Warpsmith.
“Parameters?” Inquired Nestor.
“The Scourge operates under predefined protocols when targeting intruders. The Death Guard have locked the internal sensors to emit a wide angled beam that attacks the targets molecular structure. If we reach the coordinates that I am currently uploading to all squads, we can reset the protocol to emit a narrow angled beam. This would allow a quick-witted enough target to avoid the Scourge.”
“How long before the Scourge activates?
“Less than four cycles, my Lord.” Replied Janus.
Nestor opened a comm-link “All units, converge on me. We move out immediately.”

Painting Season Begins

Finally we're on the right side of Ostara, the cold grim darkness is pushed aside to make way for the....err....cold grim light! The clocks have gone forward and at last there's enough daylight to start painting again.
I've always painted in daylight, so when Ostara (the spring Equinox) comes around I wake from my painting hibernation and bask in the glorious daylight with paint brush in hand, ready to do battle with the endless hordes of plastic that infest my abode.

Storms of Judgement - Voidspan fights back

The roaring, thundering presence of the machine-spirit echoed everywhere. Janus slipped through the next layer, and its anger hit him like a tidal wave. It was hot and vibrant, a shocking terrible mass of emotion to come from a machine spirit that had been so quiet for so long. When the Warpsmith had first entered Voidspan's Machine-Spirit he had known it only as a chained storm, its power and the potential energy of its great intellect and knowledge contained in the metal shell of the station. Now it was open and raw, all of its centuries of corruption powering its fury, and its pain. Waves of pure agony hammered off it. Janus forced his mind to conceptualise the machine-spirit as it loomed up from the darkness of the space station's higher systems. The storm clouds were angry red, and they rained blood. Currents of hot, toxic pain flowed around the storm, lashing Janus with black lightning of pain as the machine-spirit raged.

“Tell me!” cried Janus. “Tell me what I must do!”

The emotion that howled on the electronic gale was not human, but it could not be mistaken. Pain, anger and malice mixed into one, battering against the Warpsmith’s mind.

The Station wanted him to die.

Janus wrenched his mind out of the space station's information systems. He snapped back into his body and turned to face Nestor.

“We must hurry my Lord. Defence protocols have re-established themselves, if we don’t reach the inner level to stop it, the outer ring will detach itself and we will be cast adrift.”

As if to emphasise the Warpsmiths point, rivets, the size of a man’s fist tore a section of panel away as the station shook violently.

“Move out!” ordered Nestor.

New Game Mat Arrives

I'd been thinking about getting a game mat for a while. I looked at Frontline's gaming mats and thought they looked great but the shipping costs from America really put me off. Fortunately I came across GAMEMAT.EU who are based in the Czech Republic and, being considerably closer, are also considerably cheaper.