Da Boss Of Da Dead

Chapta 5

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Da Boss Of Da Dead

Prologue

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Epilogue


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The deathmarks materialised in the head of one of the gargants. Almost completed, the chamber was intended to be the command centre of the machine and included a large throne like seat from where the mekboy in charge of its construction intended to take command and oversee its operation. Unfortunately for him, the mekboy in question was inside the command centre working on one of the control panels when the deathmarks arrived.

He felt the displacement of air as the aliens teleported in and he whirled around, furious as at the intrusion and with a heavy wrench raised above his head to use as a weapon. Then he froze. He had assumed that a rival mek was trying out a teleporter as was shocked to see the five imposing metal figures now standing before him.

“Who da bleedin’ ‘ell is ya?” he demanded, but in reply all that happened was one of the deathmarks raised it weapon and fired.

The mek shuddered as he died and he fell backwards, his fall taking him over the control panel and through a hole in the wall that had yet to be sealed. His body then bounced down the side of the gargant until it impacted on the ground more than seventy metres below. Seeing the mekboy’s body split open as it landed an ork turned to his companion and commented.

“Looks like mek Fangammer slipped. Let’s go see if any of ‘is teeth survived.”

Meanwhile, up in the control centre of the gargant, the deathmarks turned to leave the room.

But Mek Fangammer’s shout had been heard by two other orks in the corridor outside; both lesser mekboys training with him and this pair both stopped what they were working on and looked towards the door to the command centre. The both knew that the big mek had been alone in the room just a few moments earlier and they knew of no other way in than going past them. Suspicious, they both selected the tools that they though would make the best weapons. One took a large hammer while the other simply unhooked the burna from the fuel tank on his back and adjusted it from its blowtorch setting.

“Ya can go first.” The ork armed with the hammer said.

The other ork grinned then lowered his visor before turning towards the door to the command centre. Where he found himself staring at a necron standing in the doorway.

The ork roared and he aimed his weapon at the same moment that the necron took aim with his. They fired simultaneously, a jet of flame engulfing the necron while an energy blast hit the ork. The necron was unharmed by the fire; the ancient alloys used to make his body provided excellent protection against extremes of temperature even such as this and the alien simply stepped forwards to clear the doorway for the others behind him. On the other hand the necron energy was lethal to the ork and as he dropped dead his body convulsed, triggering a further release of fire from his weapon. Completely undirected, this fire spread back down the corridor and set light to the second young mek.

Screaming in agony the ork ran from the necrons, his arms flailing as he burned. He tripped over cans filled with paint and assorted solvents and the flames spread to the chemicals as they spilled, igniting them too. The burning chemicals flowed down through the floor to the chamber below. A chamber already filled with ammunition for the rocket launcher due to be installed there.

 

The trip to Hazug’s house was anything but dull for Mayleth. The last time she had ridden in his truck she had been a helpless captive, caged and immobile. Now though she sat in the front passenger seat beside Hazug while Cuddles rolled about behind them. Another difference was that the previous trip had been across country and she had put the poor ride down to being forced to stand as the vehicle travelled over rough ground. But now she discovered that the quality of Hazug’s driving along with the lack of proper suspension meant that travelling along roads was not much better and she found herself clutching tightly to the vehicle’s chassis. What made up for this however, was the reaction of greenskins on foot. Dark eldar like Mayleth had long since adapted to draw sustenance from the negative emotions of others, which was why they craved inflicting harm on others and the fear and panic of pedestrians when they realised that Hazug’s vehicle was bearing down on them helped feed her desire as they leapt clear. The flavour was not as sweet or strong as what she gained in the arena, but it was better than nothing.

Hazug braked sharply and without warning and Mayleth found herself reacting with panic as she was forced to put her hand out in front of her to stop herself being thrown forwards from the vehicle. A ‘thunk’ from the rear was all that indicated Cuddles slamming into the back of the seats.

“What is this place?” she asked as Hazug clambered down from the truck. He paused and looked at the building he had stopped in front of.

“’Ome.” He said simply. Cuddles was about to jump to the ground when Hazug blocked his way, “No Cuddles.” He said to the squig, “Stay.” Then he turned to Mayleth, “Ya better follow me.” He added.

Without saying another word, Mayleth followed Hazug inside and from there straight up the stairs. Hazug was running as fast as he could, but from Mayleth’s perspective the pace was sedate and had she known their final destination she could have been there in a fraction of the time it took Hazug. He led her to one of the bedrooms; a room that Mayleth guessed was Hazug’s own room from the size of the bed. Set into one of the walls was a massive armoured door with a large lock fitted. Hazug only stopped when he reached the door and he began to fumble through his pockets until he found the key.

“What is this-“ Mayleth began as he opened the door, but she halted mid sentence when Hazug swung open the door and revealed what lay in the windowless room on the other side.

The previous owner of the building had been a Bad Moon ork who had used this room to keep his treasure safe. Though Hazug was becoming wealthier he did not have anything like the amount that the Bad Moon had possessed, so he had found an alternative use for the strong room.

He stepped inside and plucked his rifle from the wall, then began to rummage through boxes of ammunition clips and compact rockets that fit beneath the barrel of his weapon. He glanced at Mayleth.

“Ya’ll need more dan a couple of choppas against dese metal lads.” He told her, “Pick out wot ya wants.” Then he went back to loading up with ammunition.

Mayleth looked around the armoury. She saw orkish weapons of course, a large belt fed weapon was leant up in the corner next to a box filled with grenades and there seemed to be a large quantity of human weapons also. A number of crates that bore the markings of the Imperium were stacked up along one wall with several loose example laid on top of them and added to that were a handful of tau weapons. Clearly Hazug had taken more than a few trophies over the years.

But what attracted Mayleth as soon as she saw them were the dark eldar weapons that she recognised as having belonged to her own kabal and she smiled, her smile widening when she recognised her own splinter pistol lying on a shelf with two others. There were belts holding magazines for the pistols hanging from a hook nearby and Mayleth took two of them, removing the holster from one and attaching it to the other so that she could carry a pair of pistols that she then took from the other shelf, unsurprised that they were both still loaded. She switched the safeties back on and stowed them at her waist along with the knives she had brought from her cell.

“Is dat it?” Hazug said when he saw what she had selected, “Wot about one of dem shootas?” and he pointed at a bundle of splinter rifles on the floor.

Mayleth shook her head.

“I prefer to get close.” She told him.

Hazug grinned.

“I can understands dat.” He replied, slinging his rifle over his shoulder. Then he picked up the large belt fed weapon along with some ammunition and headed for the door, “Come on.” He said, “Dare’s one more thing dat ya needs.”

“What’s that?” Mayleth asked.

Hazug led Mayleth to another bedroom; one that she could tell belonged to Sophie. It was much tidier than Hazug’s and there was a small shrine to the humans’ corpse God-Emperor in the corner. Pinned to the walls were an assortment of images, all of which had been drawn by hand and from Mayleth’s point of view were fairly accurate representations of not only Hazug but also several other orks who she recognised as well as more that she didn’t.

Hazug went to the wardrobe and removed a brightly coloured vest. On it there were several large markings in the orkish alphabet.

“What is this for?” Mayleth asked as Hazug tossed her the vest.

“It let’s people know dat ya belongs to me.” He told her, “Da letters say ‘I is da property of Hazug Throatslitter’. Put it on.”

Mayleth frowned. Then, instead of putting the vets on as Hazug intended she simply tied it to her belt and let it hang down beside her.

“Dat may not be good enough.” Hazug said, “If some lad sees ya got dem sluggas ‘e may attack ya if ‘e don’t realise ya belongs to me.”

Mayleth placed her hands on her waist, resting one on a pistol and the other on a dagger.

“Let them try.” She said.

Hazug smiled again. Though she was scrawny and her skin was even paler than Sophie’s, Mayleth thought like an ork.

On returning to the truck Mayleth got back into the passenger seat while Hazug climbed up into the rear passenger area and began to fit his belt-fed weapon to the vehicle’s roll cage. He was just about finished when there was the sound of an explosion.

 

Using the flames as cover, the deathmarks descended. They remained inside the gargant so as not to alert the orks to the reason for the explosion. They encountered more of the workers building the gargant almost as soon as the made their way to the next level down where a panicked gretchin was yelling through a hole for fire fighting equipment to be sent up immediately to combat the blaze. Hearing the approach of the deathmarks the gretchin turned around, expecting to see one of the orks who had been working on the level above. But when he instead saw the shapes of the alien necrons looming out of the smoke he gave out a scream. Before he could give a precise warning the lead necron lashed out with his foot and kicked the gretchin hard enough to send him toppling backwards through the hole and plummeting to his death on a deck several levels below.

The scream did however; attract the attention of several other gretchin who rushed to see what was happening, expecting to find their comrade now on fire. Instead they ran into a barrage of gunfire from the necrons and ever last one of them was cut down, a thick fluid leaking from their heads as they lay dead.

Satisfied that this level was now clear, the lead necron waved the others on towards the stairs.

 

Hazug brought his truck to a halt at the base of the burning gargant. At the moment the fire was confined to the area around the war machine’s head, but it was spreading. All around large orks were bellowing orders for the fire to be extinguished. Orks were setting up pumps and hoses while gretchin were being rushed into the gargant’s structure with nothing more than buckets of sand and water, many of which were leaving trails of their contents behind the gretchin as they leaked out.

“So tell me my master,” Mayleth said as she looked up at the fire, “is this a result of enemy action? Or has one of the beast workers been clumsy?”

Hazug didn’t reply, instead Mayleth watched as he made use of yet another of his trophies.

The viewing device had been found on the body of an ork killed by the alien tau and since then Hazug had put it to good use himself. Right now he was interested in its ability to provide a close up view of things far away, in particular the burning portion of the gargant. He raised the device to one eye and adjusted the controls to zoom the image in on the gargant’s neck. This was just below the flames and through holes in the gargant’s structure Hazug could just about make out the shadows of figures moving about in panic. But a sudden green flash told him that this was more than an attempt by the workers to get clear of the fire before it reach them. There were necrons in the gargant and they could only mean to destroy it. If Hazug did nothing then Kazkal Kromag may decide to blame him and Hazug was not about to let that happen.

“Come on.” He said to Mayleth as he put the tau device away, “We gots necrons to smash.”

Immediately both he and Mayleth disembarked the truck and Hazug went to retrieve the weapons he had stashed in the back. He was about to summon Cuddles to accompany them when he suddenly remembered where he was. Though the greenskins around him were currently distracted by the fire, there were a great many meks and Death Skulls among them and any one of them could suddenly decide that a piece of his truck was useful to them. “Cuddles, stay with da trukk.” He said and he tied the end of the squig’s leash around the roll cage. Then he looked at Mayleth and as he began to sprint to towards the gargant he added, “Come on.” Once more.

 

The deathmarks were encountering greenskins with increasing frequency now. They had taken up a position high up in the structure of the gargant, just below its head. Here they had found a wide vertical shaft that seemed to run all the way down to the base of the machine. Every level of the gargant was exposed from this position, so as the workers moved down to escape the flames and gretchin ran up to fight them the deathmarks could pick them off with expert sniper fire. The necrons picked out individuals or those at the backs of groups, enabling them to kill them without anyone even noticing. The greenskins didn’t even realise that they were being shot at.

That was until Hazug and Mayleth reached the shaft.

“Back!” Hazug shouted and he reached out and took hold of Mayleth by the shoulder just as she was about to leap over the body of a dead ork.

“What is it?” she asked, looking around.

“Look at dat lad.” Hazug said and he pointed to the body. It was lay face down next to the railings that ran around the shaft where the orks had been bothered to fit them. From beneath it’s head a thick dark liquid could be seen collecting, “Aintcha seen dat before?” he asked.

“The beast guards at the arena.” Mayleth replied, “That was the effect the y’ngir weapons had on them.”

“Dat’s right.” Hazug said, “But I don’t reckon dat dey could have got dis low by now. So dey must just be shootin’ down da shaft.”

A small shape suddenly dropped past, falling silently down the shaft. It was obviously one of the gretchin fire fighters.

“He didn’t scream.” Mayleth commented.

“So ‘e was already dead when ‘e fell.” Hazug said, “Dat settles it den. Dey’re up da shaft.” Then he drew in a deep breath, “Everybody out!” he bellowed, “Dare’s aliens in ‘ere!”

All around orks and gretchin came to a halt and stared at Hazug.

“I only sees one alien.” A nearby ork said, snarling as he drew his knife, “Dat ‘alf-naked pansy with ya dare.”

“Ignorant beast.” Mayleth said calmly before drawing one of her pistols and shooting the knife from his hand.

“She’s with me.” Hazug said sternly, “Da ones up da shaft aint. Now everybody out while we deals with ‘em.”

The gretchin obeyed straight away, Hazug was the largest ork present so that made him the one in charge. The orks on the other hand looked less certain. They had just been told to clear the gargant they had worked so hard to build so that a Blood Axe and his pet could fight aliens without them. But Hazug was larger than them too, so reluctantly they obeyed.

“Now what my master?” Mayleth asked, “It would seem that this shaft holds the way up to the y’ngir, but if we try to ascend here we will-“

Before she could finish the sentence Hazug swapped his rifle for eh warscythe that was slung over his shoulders.

“I’ll get us another way up dare.” He said and he calmly strode to the nearest outer wall of the gargant.

Four times he swung the warscythe while Mayleth watched, horizontally twice followed by two vertical strokes that made a square breach in the armoured metal as if it were paper. Then with a single kick of his boot he knocked out the square before carefully stowing the warscythe over his shoulder once more.

“Come on Mayleth.” He said, “We is goin’ outside for a bit.”

Like all such machines, the gargant’s body bulged outwards from the base of its head all the way down to where its feet stuck out. Combined with the patchwork appearance caused by the use of poorly matched sheets of metal used in its construction meant that it was relatively easy to climb up the outside of one, even without any special equipment.

And this was exactly what Hazug, followed by Mayleth did. They scaled the side of the gargant while bemused orks and gretchin looked on from below, several making bets on how high they would reach before falling. Unsurprisingly Mayleth was the more adept climber and though she started behind Hazug she had soon passed him and the gap between them was widening. She could feel the metal beneath her bare hands and feet getting warmer as she got further up the gargant, a sure sign that the fire was continuing to burn inside. But dark eldar were used to pain so she was able to ignore this mild irritation easily.

Just as the smell of smoke began to fill her nostrils Mayleth halted. She had almost reached the gargant’s head and she could hear footsteps coming from the war machine’s interior. These were not the heavy clumping sound she would expect from orks but instead a higher pitched sound like metal on metal. The metal feet of necrons on a metal floor. She looked back down to where Hazug was still several metres below her and waved him to come closer.

“Wotcha got?” he demanded.

“Footsteps. The y’ngir are inside here.” She replied.

Hazug grinned and picked up his pace, stopping only when he reached Mayleth. Looking around he spotted a hole about the size of his head and he edged his way over towards it and peered inside. There he spotted a pair of the necron deathmarks stood with their backs to him, their weapons aimed down the shaft.

“Gotcha.” He muttered and he reached for his belt where a grenade dangled.

With one hand still holding onto the gargant’s structure Hazug lifted the grenade to his mouth and pulled out the pin with his teeth. Then he counted to three and hurled the explosive into the hole before rolling aside.

“Fire in da ‘ole!” he yelled.

 

Most movement from below had almost totally ceased and there were fewer targets for the deathmarks’ weapons now. But they wanted to be certain and so they would remain here until the fire above reached them. Then they would use the expanding cloud of smoke to cover their descent into the lower levels of the gargant.

Then there was a sound from behind them, the unmistakeable clanging of an object bouncing across the floor that turned into a roll as the object lost kinetic energy. One of the deathmarks looked around. The sound was clearly not a greenskin, but it made good tactical sense to identify the source. The source turned out to be an ork grenade that detonated before the necron could issue a warning.

The grenade went off and created an expanding ball of flames and shrapnel. All of the deathmarks shuddered as the explosion sent tremors through the deck plates while the two nearest were buffeted by the shockwave. In addition pieces of hot, sharp metal from the grenade’s casing flew in all directions, bouncing off the walls as they went. The deathmarks’ bodies were amongst the best built under instruction from their ancient gods and the flying metal shards barely scratched them. But the metal used to build the deck on which they stood was not of such high quality. The blast tore through the lightweight grating and the two nearest necrons suddenly found the floor beneath their feet giving way under their weight. Both did their best to move aside and get to a more stable portion of the deck but it was to no avail and as the deck plates gave up entirely they fell, their metal bodies bouncing down the inside of the shaft and smashing against the hard floor at the base of the gargant.

 

Hazug returned to the hole after the sound of the detonation and looked through to assess what his attack had done. Before he had seen only two necrons, but now there were three and they were all heading towards him. For a moment he thought that the grenade had done nothing, but then he noticed the gaping hole in the floor that the necrons were having to pick their way around and he realised that the original two had fallen to their destruction.

“Go find a way in!” he yelled at Mayleth as he plucked his rifle from his back and pushed its muzzle through the hole.

Mayleth nodded and began to move horizontally across the outer skin of the gargant, searching for a gap large enough for her to fit through.

Meanwhile Hazug opened fire on the deathmarks, holding down the trigger of his gun and emptying the magazine into the leading necron. Thanks to his association with the local human population Hazug had access to the ammunition they produced under a supposedly exclusive deal with Warboss Kromag. This was superior to the majority of orkish ammunition that was built by gretchin with the bare minimum of skill. Ork meks could produce better bullets of course but they rarely did so since they considered it a wasteful, or rather boring, task. But these human-made rounds still failed to penetrate the armoured shell of the necron, even after Hazug emptied a full magazine of them into him. However, Hazug’s rifle could fire more than just plain bullets.

He checked the rocket mounted beneath the primary barrel to make sure that it was properly fixed. Then he reached for eh secondary trigger that would activate the launcher. Carefully he lined the crude sights up on the deathmark and fired.

And missed completely.

The rocket sailed between the necrons who did not even flinch as it passed. Their machine brains calculated that they were safe the moment the powerful projectile was launched. The rocket flew across the interior of the gargant until it reached the far side and detonated against the wall.

Still making her way across the gargant’s exterior, Mayleth heard the whoosh of the rocket motor and realised that it was heading for her. Rather than try and moved aside she let go of the gargant’s armoured skin and let herself slide downwards, much to the amusement of the watching orks below who for a brief time thought that she was falling to her death. But as soon as the rocket exploded she grabbed hold of the nearest piece of protruding metal and looked upwards. There, just as she had hoped she saw that the rocket had blown a hole in the gargant big enough for her to get inside.

Scrabbling back up the body of the gargant, Mayleth leapt through the hole, rolling as she landed on the floor inside until she reached a position of concealment from where she could search for targets. She saw three, all with their backs to her and she drew both of the pistols holstered at her waist.

Outside, Hazug heard the peculiar sound of the deathmarks’ weapons discharging while he struggled to reload his rifle without slipping off the gargant. So far the aliens’ rifles were unable to penetrate the gargant’s thick armour, but Hazug knew form experience that necron weapon could be surprisingly effective against even the thickest armour when used in concert with others Then he heard another sound, the short, sharp snap of a dark eldar splinter pistol.

“Mayleth.” He said to himself, “Good on ya.”

The tiny slivers of crystal fired from Mayleth’s weapons were no more effective against the armoured necrons than Hazug’s rifle fire had been and all that happened was the three deathmarks turned away from the hole and towards her. In unison they then took aim.

Hazug knew that he did not have long and that Mayleth would need his help. Rather than continue with his efforts to reload his rifle, Hazug instead hung it from a large protruding metal bar and unslung the warscythe from his back. Then he went back to the hole. A quick glimpse inside confirmed that the necrons were now facing the other way. Holding the warscythe in one hand he lifted it over his shoulder and drew back his arm. Then he hurled the alien weapon as hard as he could, sending it hurtling through the hole and straight towards the necrons.

The warscythe sailed silently through the air, unnoticed by the deathmarks until it struck the neck of the one in the centre. Though the blade cut through the alien’s neck, decapitating it cleanly. But as the weapon continued to travel forwards the long shaft clipped the necron’s torso where it had joined the neck and the warscythe flipped over in the air before clattering to the deck with the headless body of the necron collapsing beside.

The two remaining deathmarks looked down as their fallen comrade faded away to nothing, leaving only the weapon that had claimed him. Recognising it as necron technology one of the deathmarks bent down and reached out to take hold of the warscythe.

“Oi!” Hazug yelled through the hole, “Dat’s my choppa!” and he plucked his pistol from his belt, pushed it through the hole and began to fire. He aimed at the deck where the warscythe lay and rounds bounced off both the deck and the necron’s forearm. But then a lucky round struck the alien’s wrist and with a shower of sparks the hand was blown off. Hazug continued to fire, shifting his aim towards the damaged necron’s head and there were more sparks as the deathmark’s head jerked with each impact. His pistol gave a ‘click’ as Hazug fired the last round and the hammer then fell on an empty chamber and he rolled away from the hole just in time to avoid an energy blast from the other necron.

Now it was Mayleth’s turn to come out shooting.

She concentrated her fire on the damaged necron, hoping that the hail of fire from her two pistols would find another weak spot. But as she rushed closer she saw the necron extend the stump of its arm towards its lost hand. Then Mayleth saw something she had only heard about in rumour and legend. Wires sprang from both the hand and the wrist, intertwining together and pulling the hand back to its original location as the necron repaired itself. Then it stood up and turned towards her, lifting its rifle into a firing position.

Hazug recovered his rifle and slammed another magazine into it. His last burst had done nothing, but Hazug knew that necrons were not invulnerable. He just had to keep shooting. Wanting to put as many rounds as close together as he could Hazug used his thumb to adjust the fire selector. The selector had three fire modes; semi-automatic, fully automatic and a third in which a secondary feed mechanism would be engaged to dramatically increase the rate of fire. Grinning, Hazug flipped the selector to ‘turbo-dakka’ and pushed it back through the hole. He aimed on instinct, pointing the muzzle towards the necron still facing him and he snatched his finger back on the trigger. The rifle roared as a hail of bullets sprayed at the necron. One of the first round smashed through the alien’s glowing green eye and even as the strange crystal material that it was made of began to knit itself back together another round punched through the same hole, followed by another and another. There was a flash and a shower of sparks as the necrons head exploded and another headless corpse fell to the deck before fading away and leaving nothing behind.

The interior of the gargant was getting warmer now and the air was starting to fill with smoke as the fire in the head spread down into the upper levels of the body. Through the smoke Mayleth could see the ominous green glow of the necron’s single eye as it came closer. Mayleth’s pistols were both empty, but with the necron coming closer she knew she did not have the time she needed to reload. So she holstered both pistols again and instead drew a dagger.

Leaping to her feet Mayleth charged the necron even as it took aim. But by forgoing a direct path in favour of leaping and somersaulting from side to side she was able to prevent the deathmark from acquiring her as a target before she was quite literally on top of him. She gave out a shriek as she jumped from the wall to land on the deathmark, knocking him to the floor and sending his rifle sliding from his grasp and down the shaft. She plunged her dagger into the deathmark’s neck and drove the blade between two of the vertebrae-like components that made up the necron’s spine But in doing so she struck one of the power conduits that ran up to the deathmark’s head and Mayleth screamed again as the power instead flowed through the blade and into her. This time however her cry was one of pain and she relaxed her grip enough for the necron to throw her off. Mayleth rolled across the deck towards the shaft and it was only by reaching out and grabbing hold of what remained of the railing that surrounded it that she was able to stop herself from falling to her death as she dropped over the side like the necron’s weapon.

Hazug had watched as Mayleth lunged at the necron and he knew that he would not be able to help her any further from outside. So instead he began to make his way around the body of the gargant, hunting for the hole that she had used to gain entry.

There was a crash and a bean dropped from the ceiling as a hole opened up and scattered burning debris across the deck. The necron looked up for a moment, assessing the stability of the structure around it. Satisfied that it was not about to be crushed the alien advanced on Mayleth as she dragged herself up from the shaft. The increasing amount of smoke in the air was taking its toll on Mayleth following the exertion necessary to climb back to the deck and she lay on the metal grating and coughed as she struggled to take in air. The last thing she saw before the smoke overcame her was the shape of the necron deathmark looming above her.

The deathmark bent down and scooped up the unconscious Mayleth, the strength provided by his metal body being more than ample to lift the slender eldar woman and he lifted her over his head as he took a step towards the shaft.

“Oi!” Hazug shouted, “Put ‘er right back where ya got ‘er.” And the deathmark looked up to see Hazug advancing towards him with his rifle aimed at him. The deathmark took another step.

Hazug’s rifle roared as he once again opened fire using his weapon’s enhanced rate of fire to empty the entire magazine in about a second. Not one of the bullets was able to pierce the necron’s armour plating, but the force of the repeated impacts made the alien stagger backwards and he dropped Mayleth to the deck instead of down the shaft as he had intended.

“Come on den!” Hazug bellowed as he slung his rifle over his shoulder and stared at the deathmark, “No weapons! Come and ‘ave a go if ya think ya’s ‘ard enough!”

In its mind the necron calculated its best chance of success. It’s own weapon was lost and the only other ones within reach were the pistols on Mayleth’s belt. The odds of it being able to retrieve one or both of these before Hazug could charge were negligible. Therefore, the deathmark’s best chance lay in accepting Hazug’s challenge and charging before he could draw another weapon.

So the deathmark charged.

It ran directly towards Hazug, which meant that it ran straight toward the shaft. But when it reached the edge of the deck plate it leapt into the air and cleared the gap in one bound to land with a ‘thunk’ in front of Hazug. Hazug reacted quickly, grabbing hold of the deathmark’s outstretched arms as it reached out for his throat. He snarled as he wrestled with the necron, all the time keeping hold of its wrists. But Hazug knew that this could not continue for long, the smoke in the air that had rendered Mayleth unconscious was also starting to enter his lungs while the necron had no need to breathe at all. With his hands being used to prevent the deathmark from strangling him and nothing vulnerable within reach of his feet Hazug had only one choice left and so he pulled the necron closer.

“Kop dis!” he yelled and he heat butted the necron at the same time as he let go of its wrists.

The necron staggered back under the impact and just as it was recovering from the blow, Hazug delivered a single powerful kick to its chest that pushed further back and over the side of the shaft. The deathmark reached out as it fell and with one hand it caught hold of the edge of the deck plate, leaving it dangling down the shaft.

Hazug knew he did not have much time available to him. He needed to get out of the smoke but could not afford to ignore the necron just in case it was able to climb back up again. So he walked to the edge of the shaft and looked down at the necron.

“Bye.” He said and he stamped on the necron’s fingers and ground them under the heel of his boot.

As the necron fell Hazug looked towards Mayleth but could not tell if she was alive. He could have left her there, but Mayleth was his property and Hazug was not about to abandon his property to be burned if he could help it. Instead he rushed to her side and picked her up, just as the necron had done. But where the necron had tried to kill her, Hazug intended to try and save her and throwing her helpless form over his shoulder he headed for the stairs, coughing.

It was when he was about half way down the gargant and now well clear of the smoke that Hazug heard Mayleth moan softly and he grinned as he realised that she was still alive and he continued to descend through the gargant. When he reached the lowest level Hazug headed for the exit, a route that took him across the bottom of the shaft and it was here that he found one of the rifles carried by the necron deathmarks. He paused and looked upwards and sure enough he could just about make out the deck where he and Mayleth had fought them and he realised that it probably belonged to the last one he killed, the one that had lost its weapon by the time he fought it.

“At least I got somethin’ to show for all dis den.” He said to himself and he picked it up in his free hand before continuing on his way to the exit.

As soon as he emerged Hazug found himself surrounded by greenskins all staring in his direction. Some orks cheered at his appearance, while others groaned. The reason for this becoming obvious when teeth and other valuables were handed over to settle bets. Hazug meanwhile turned his attention to the crowd of gretchin who stood closest and all clutched buckets.

“Well wotcha waitin’ for?” he shouted at them, “Get dat bleedin fire out or da boss’ll skin ya all alive!”

Immediately orks began to shout at and beat gretchin to drive them into the burning gargant while others got back tot eh task of preparing more advanced fire fighting equipment with which to follow up the gretchins’ damage control efforts. While this went on Hazug pushed his way through the crowd to his truck where Cuddles still waited. He deposited Mayleth in the back, followed by the weapons he carried.

“Don’t eat ‘er Cuddles. Not even a nibble.” Hazug said, waving his finger sternly at the squig before he got into the front of the vehicle and started it up.

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The Warhammer 40,000 universe is the intellectual property of Games Workshop Ltd. The fiction presented here is a derived work. It is completely unofficial and Games Workshop Ltd has not endorsed any of it.

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