things don't look so bad from up here

THE RESCUE.
The mood was sombre onboard the strike cruiser Heroes of the Fang. The loss of the Company's Jarl, Thorgren Ironfist, weighed heavily on the Wolves' minds, and particularly on the mind of Thorsten, Thorgren's twin brother. The Jarl would be bitterly missed but he had died honourable in combat, falling eventually under a horde of chitinous hormagaunts and would be remembered in a fitting saga. His memory would be celebrated in a night of beer and song in keeping with tradition and then would begin the process of finding his replacement.

Not a being of finesse like his brother with his lightning claw, Thorsten instead took a more simplistic and brutal approach to battle, crushing skulls and hulls alike with his thunderhammer. He vowed to exact vengeance on the Hive Fleet responsible for his brothers death. The hope of battle lightened his mood. Nothing mattered more to a Space Wolf than killing the enemies of the Emperor, though beer came a close second.......

His reverie was interrupted by a member of his brother's Wolf Guard entering the chamber. He had a message that left Thorsten reeling. Thorgren's transponder had been reactivated. His brother was still alive.

Wasting no time, Thorsten redeployed squads Olsan and Jannak to the location to the transponder. They had been present at the Jarl's fall and would be closest. Thorsten also set about organising a bigger reserve force. New reports of more Tyranid activity in the area hastened his actions. He didn't want to lose his brother again.

Thorgren scanned the distance, his eyesight still blurry after regaining consciousness. He didn't question why he was still alive, he just accepted that he was and planned to stay that way...............

Hearing the growl of engines behind him, he turned to see two rhinos stop behind him. A short reunion with squads Jannak and Olsan finished with the current scenario. Survive until rescued.

over the hill

Surveying the distance, Thorgren spotted units of Nids running towards him. It seems like brood of  hormagaunts and a warrior prime were coming from the West. With too small a force to risk direct contact, Thorgren and the two Hunter squads in Rhinos headed East, hoping to keep distance from the advancing horde until his brother's force arrived.

The Nid forces advanced quickly, reinforced with mycetic spores hurtling from the skies, discharging a hulking carniflex in a ruin to Thorgren's right while another discharged devilgants  behind him.

we just dropped in

Fearing getting trapped between two prongs, Thorgren and the Hunters headed to nearby ruins. A blast from a heavy venom cannon wrecked Olsan's rhino and the squad disembarked in it's shadow. Jannak's rhino was stunned and stopped in it's tracks. 

maybe the pod will hide me

Olsan's squad blew the spore up with a melta blast while Thorgren charged the carnifex. His lightning claw would be hard pushed to pierce the creature's hide but he had no choice.

The approaching termagaunts killed two of Olsan's squad before a brood of ravener's charged through the rhino's wreckage to assault the squad. The cover gave the hunter squad the advantage, staving off the full force of the Warriors attacks and their barrage of shooting wounded one of the Tyranids. Their fierce rending claws still bit deeply into the Hunters power armour, felling 5 marines. Three marines fought on......

claws r us

 Deathleaper and trygon entered the ruin from the North while more shots were poured into the remaining rhino, it's hull staying intact, for now.

A brood of ravener's appeared in a ruin, far to the North, having burrowed up in the wrong place.

Thorsten sat in his Thunderhawk, drumming the shaft of this thunderhammer impatiently. Ice-storms were playing havoc with navigation, slowing progress. It was as if a malicious entity was trying to delay their arrival. Flying low on approach, Thorsten viewed the skirmish with a dense of dread. He saw Deathleaper attack a rhino causing the marines to spill out, while the ravener's killed the remnants of another Hunter squad. He sighted his brother in the chaos, wounded but battling a carnifex by himself.

brave or foolish ?

Long Fangs deployed in three areas to the West, East and South but their hurried shots caused no damage. Thorsten headed to the East with a unit of Fenrisian Wolves and two Lone Wolves to relieve his brother but was too late. He saw the carnifex impale his brother through the chest...........

Howling a battle cry, he ran straight for the ruins where Jannak's Hunters were opening fire on the Deathleaper. The creature was well camouflaged however, and the shooting had little effect.

hold fire until you can see the white of their eye's 

On the left flank, ravener's headed towards another Long Fangs squad while warriors erupted from a mycetic spore, their deathspitters & venom cannons pinging off the marines' power armour. In the North, a deep rumbling preceded the roar of a Mawrloc erupting from the earth , narrowly missing the Long Fangs on that flank. While in the South, a brood of termagaunts turned towards another unit of Long Fangs, their flurry of devourer worm-like parasites  felling three marines. 

quick get that banner up

Jannak's squad were now surrounded and grimly raised their Wolf Standard as Deathleaper, trygon and ravener's piled in from all sides for the attack. The Hunters were slaughtered...........The Wolf Standard falling at the last.

In the West, the Long Fangs felt the wrath of the ravener' as their talons dug deep in the bodies of the marines, before rushing onwards.

he's behind you

The Long fangs to the North fired at the Mawrloc with krak missiles and a lascannon, wounding the beast.

Thorsten howled again as he crashed through the undergrowth with his Fenrisian Wolves to engage Deathleaper. The Lone Wolves spread out to attack the carniflex and trygon

a fight till the death

The last of the reserve force entered the fray, a razorback pummelling the termagaunt squad while the Long Fangs tore into the same squad with Frag missiles.

The last grey Hunter squad arrived in the North, hoping to catch the Warriors from behind.

The battle raged on, the Deathleaper and Carnifex fell while the other Lone Wolf fought bravely against the trygon.

i always thought lone wolf's where looking to die

Thorsten wheeled round to face the racing hormagaunt squad, accompanied by a hulking warrior prime. He sought out the brute in combat and killed him while the hormagaunts barrelled into the Fenrisian Wolves, slashing with their talons. The Wolves died soundlessly.

why does this remind me of something

Thorsten wheeled around to face the hormagaunts who were about to strike when suddenly all of the Tyranids started to withdraw from the battle such is the way of the Hive mind, leaving the last of the brave wolf's to regroup.

even I get lucky now & then

My thanks to Ger for writing up this story.