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Da Cybork Menace Chapta 22 | |
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Chapta 22 |
“Dey is comin’ after us master,” one of Dok Gutstitch’s gretchin exclaimed as he leaned over the side of the barge, “I can ‘ear da engines of da trucks.” Frustrated, Dok Gutstitch let out a grunt and then turned to the barge’s pilot. “Just keep on goin’,” he ordered, “we’ll ‘ave to go past da docks and find somewhere else to land.” The gretchin pilot nodded, and he guided the barge further out into the river, away from the clutter of the various vessels moored all along the dockyard. “So wot now?” Two Heads asked Hazug as the truck came to a halt at the far end of the docks. They had driven the whole length of the dockyard complex looking for where Dok Gutstitch was going to attempt to come ashore next but, in spite of finding numerous empty berths where his barge could have been docked, they had found nothing. Now only the crudely constructed dwellings of the riverside gretchin shantytown lay ahead of them. “’Ang on a
mo,” Hazug responded to Two Heads’ question, “I’ll ‘ave to ask.” “Oi! Grot!” Hazug yelled out when he caught sight of something moving in the darkness between the simple buildings, “’Ave ya seen a boat come past ‘ere just now?” and he held up a tooth. “Yes lord,”
the gretchin replied excitedly, “A biggun too, it ‘ad kans standin’ on top
of it and it went dataway,” and the gretchin pointed further up the
river. “Wot’s ‘appenin’?” mek Batrug yelled from his own vehicle as he grew impatient. “We’s off!” Hazug shouted back at the mek as he put his truck in gear, “Just keep followin’ me!” and then as he began to drive off he yelled down to the gretchin ahead,” Mind out grot!” just in time for the creature to jump aside and avoid being run over by either Hazug or Batrug. “Ya know,” Drazzok said from the back of the truck as they drove through the shanty town, keeping the river beside them,” if ya ‘ad squished dat grot, ya could ‘ave got ya tooth back.” “Well?” Dok Gutstitch asked the gretchin, “Can ya still ‘ear ‘em?” “Yes master,” the gretchin answered, “But dey is well behind us now.” This didn’t entirely satisfy Dok Gutstitch. The darkness of the riverbank made it difficult to identify a suitable landing site, and at this rate they would end up sailing as far as Git Town without finding anywhere to unload. “Sod it!” Dok Gutstitch cried out, “Just take us in ‘ere.” “But master…” the gretchin pilot began to say before Dok Gutstitch reached out his hand and slapped him. “Just do as I say grot!” he yelled, “We aint goin’ to be needin’ da boat again anyways.” Picking himself up form the deck where he had fallen, the gretchin pilot turned the wheel and directed the barge towards the shore. “Faster! Get us further up da bank!” Dok Gutstitch shouted and the pilot increased speed as much as he could. “Right, ‘ang on,” Dok Gutstitch warned as the shadowy riverbank loomed ahead of the barge. There was a crash and the sound of wood splintering, accompanied by a sudden and violent lurch as the barge rammed the riverbank and the combination of its momentum and engine pushed it up the bank, ripping away the timbers of its hull. The noise was joined by terrified screams from the gretchin unfortunate enough to have built their homes at this location on the riverbank. They, along with their homes were promptly crushed beneath the massive bulk of the rapidly disintegrating barge. “Dat’s it!” Dok Gutstitch shouted when the ruined barge finally came to a stop, “Now get all da lads out! We’ll ‘ave to ‘urry,” and he ran tot eh front of the barge and jumped down to the ground, landing square on top of what was left of a gretchin already crushed by the barge. “Ukk!” he commented, “Now look wot I’ve trodden in. Someone get me a cloth to clean dis off me boots.” While Dok Gutstitch wiped his boots, replacing the splattered blood and gore with oil and grease from the barge’s engine, his gretchin unloaded the barge’s cargo. The pair of massive mega dreadnoughts came first, followed by the twenty mega-armoured cyborks from in the hold. They stood motionless on the shore amongst the remains of the tiny crude structures that they smashed their way through as they came off the barge. “Right,” Dok Gutstitch said, proudly staring at what remained of his cybork army, “Follow me den,” and he turned and strode defiantly through the shantytown. One by one, the cyborks behind him also began to move, the sound of the mechanical suits of armour they wore filling the otherwise quiet night air. “Dare!” Hazug shouted when he spotted the wrecked barge, and he pointed at the remains of the vessel as he slammed on the brakes. Behind him he heard mek Batrug curse as he was forced to brake rapidly also to avoid driving straight into the back of Hazug’s truck. Hazug leapt down from his truck, followed rapidly by his passengers and, gun in hand he strode between what remained of the buildings here to the wrecked barge. The barge was covered in gretchin, tearing at what was left of it and removing anything they took a liking to. “Wot ‘appened to dem wot was on da boat?” Hazug shouted at the gretchin. “Wasn’t us!” one replied. “Yeah, it was like dis when we found it!” another added. Two Heads fired a shot into the air, and all of the gretchin scavengers immediately stopped what they were doing and stared at the orks. “Now,” Hazug said slowly and clearly, “wot ‘appened to dem wot was on dis boat?” and he held his swept his own rifle over the gretchin, his finger on the trigger. “Dey all ran off. Dey went dat way,” a gretchin responded, pointing in the direction that Dok Gutstitch had gone, followed by his cyborks. Though the painboy had not run though any of the gretchin buildings himself, some of the cyborks that followed him had been oblivious to the fragile structures, and many of them to either side of the trail taken by Dok Gutstitch showed signs of damage. “Right, everyone back in da trukk,” Hazug said. “In da trukk, out da trukk, back in da trukk,” Drazzok complained as he clambered back into the vehicle, “I’d expect it from ‘im,” he said pointing at Two Heads, “but can’t ya just make ya git lovin’ mind up?” but Hazug ignored his outburst and drove after Dok Gutstitch. Reaching the edge of the shantytown, Dok Gutstitch led his army onto the streets of the ork city itself. Now in the early hours of the morning, many orks were making their way back to their homes following the night’s drinking and brawling. The sight of an ork leading a large mob of mega-armoured troops along with a massive pair of dreadnoughts was enough to attract attention from other passers by, but no one gave a thought to the possibility of doing anything to stop him. After all, if he was up to no good then the warboss would sort him out, and if he couldn’t then he wasn’t up to being the boss was he? So Dok Gutstitch was able to march through the streets unimpeded, pedestrians moving out of his way and drivers either putting up with the delay of the lumbering troops and dreadnoughts marching in front of them or just deciding that the road blocked by the oncoming force marching down it was not the one they needed to drive down after all. “Well if ya is gettin’ out again, I is stayin’ put,” Drazzok said when Hazug stopped his truck at the edge of the shantytown and searched for any sign of the direction taken by Dok Gutstitch’s force. “So which way did ‘e go?” Two Heads said. “I dunno,” Hazug answered him, then after a pause he added, “we’ll just ‘ave to ‘ope dat I’m right about where ‘e’ll be ‘eadin’ towards.” “Wot, da boss’s place?” Two Heads said. “Dat’s right, we’ll go straight dare and since ‘e’s walkin’ maybe we’ll get dare sooner.” “Not in dis,” Two heads said, shaking both his heads, “we somethin’ dat’ll make lads get out of da way.” “Oh we got dat,” Hazug said, turning to look into the back of the truck, grinning. Two Heads turned around and looked in the same direction. Then he both grinned also. “Wot d’ya want now?” Drazzok said when he realised that everyone in the truck was staring at him. “Just come and stand up ‘ere in da front,” Two Heads said as he got up to move into the truck’s rear area. “Weirdo!” an ork yelled when he saw the vehicle approaching with the weirdboy standing up in the front passenger seat, hanging on to the vehicle tightly. “Weirdo!” the cry was repeated, and the throng of other road users, both on foot and other drivers parted to allow the fast moving truck passage. Mek Batrug kept his own vehicle close enough behind that he was able to take advantage of the space created before it was once again filled in by the orks who had rushed to get out of Drazzok’s way. Thus Hazug was able to drive through the ork filled streets of the city much faster than other drivers who had to slow down for crowds too thick to simply drive straight through. This continued until Hazug heard the pounding of many heavily armoured footsteps close by and the shapes of Dok Gutstitch’s mega dreadnoughts came into view over some of the lower buildings. “There they are!” Sophie yelled out, waving towards the hulking machines when she first caught sight of them. The others in the truck turned to wards where Sophie pointed, even Hazug taking his eyes off the road to risk a glance, and they too caught sight of the massive dreadnoughts moving along on a road parallel to them. Hazug braked sharply, very nearly causing Drazzok to fly over the engine of the truck as he was forced to hold on even tighter. “Watch wot ya doin’!” the weirdboy shouted as he stood up straight again. More cursing from mek Batrug as he also braked sharply then followed this. “Dare dey are!” Hazug shouted to Batrug, pointing at the dreadnoughts, ”Let’s get ‘em!” Batrug ceased his insults and instead began to bark orders to his gun crew. Meanwhile the rest of the warband got ready for battle. Hazug turned his truck around and drove rapidly down a side street that connected the two roads. “’Ang on everyone!” he shouted as he continued moving at speed as the mega-armoured cyborks marching behind the dreadnoughts came into view up ahead. Hazug aimed the truck straight at them. “Waaargh!” he yelled as he pressed his foot down on the accelerator as far as it would go. |
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