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Da Cybork Menace Chapta 23 | |
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Chapta 23 |
The sound of the orks natural war cry caused every greenskin within earshot to stop what they were doing and look for its source. Even Dok Gutstitch halted and looked around just in time to see Hazug’s truck burst from the side street and plough into his cyborks. As heavily armoured as these cyborks were, the mass and speed of the truck was more than they could withstand, and the four of them at the back of the mob were caught in the path of the vehicle and thrown aside as if they were mere snotlings. The truck did not escape unscathed, however, and it rapidly lost speed and stalled as the multiple impacts dented the reinforced front plate and slowed it down. Quick to react, Gorrid swivelled the automatic weapon mounted on top of the truck around and fired it into the rear of the nearest of the mega dreadnoughts. Sparks flew as most the bullets simply bounced off the machine, but the armour plating of the engine block mounted on the dreadnought’s back was thin enough in places for the heavy bullets to punch through and there was the sound of tearing metal as one of the mega-dreadnought’s shoulders was damaged enough for the weight of its pincer-tipped arm to rip itself away from the dreadnought’s body. Furious, Dok Gutstitch pointed at Hazug’s truck, and at the top of his voice he bellowed, “Kill ‘em all!” right as mek Batrug’s truck pulled up behind Hazug’s. Dok Gutstitch had no time to modify his order before the passengers crammed onto the back of mek Batrug’s vehicle leapt down and gave the crew of the powerful gun mounted there the room they needed to turn it to face the already damaged mega-dreadnought and open fire just as it was turning to face them. The beam of energy played across the exceptionally thick armour plating at the front of the dreadnought, but even this heavy armour was insufficient to prevent the beam from burning through and reaching the pilot behind it. The gun crew cut off the beam as the dreadnought began to topple forwards, crushing two more of the mega-armoured cyborks as it crashed to the ground on top of them. Seeing the remaining cyborks shambling towards the stationary vehicles, Gorrid lowered the heavy machinegun’s point of aim and, keeping his finger firmly pressed down on the trigger, he sprayed bullets into them. At such close range, and against such a densely packed group he could not fail to hit a cybork with nearly every shot. But even the powerful rounds fired by the truck mounted gun were not up to the task of defeating mega armour, and nearly every round just bounced straight off. Only a single cybork fell, one of the bionic legs replacing its own limbs damaged and leaving it unable to stand. But though down, the cybork was not out of the fight yet, and its tiny implanted squig brain instead used its grafted on bionic arms to drag itself towards the warband its master had ordered it to kill. Then the gun clicked empty, and Gorrid let go of it and picked up his rifle instead. “Let rip!” yelled one of Two Heads as the other took aim and fired several shots at the crawling cybork, attempting to put a round into the head that was exposed through the thick armour that covered the rest of its body. The remaining mega-dreadnought opened fire as it advanced, spraying bullets through the air. With so many potential targets, the simple squig brain of its pilot became confused, and rather than select a target and then fire at it, it instead just fired its machine guns down the street until they ran out of ammunition. By this time the cyborks were getting within arms reach of the warband’s vehicles, and they swung out with their massive metal-clawed arms. Still in the front of Hazug’s truck, Drazzok jabbed at an approaching cybork with his staff, and the moment it made contact with the creature he allowed the sum total of the psychic energy he had built up so far to discharge down his staff. Lightning played across the cybork’s armour as is shook uncontrollably, and there was the smell of burning flesh as the cyborks remaining organic parts were roasted inside its armour. Drazzok pulled his staff away when he saw smoke begin to emerge from inside the armour, and the cybork dropped to the ground. “Aint ya got it yet?” one of Two Heads asked the other one while he continued firing at the crawling ork, still unable to hit its head. “’Ere git, Sophie or wotever ya name is,” the other one of Two Heads said to Sophie,” see if dat pansy zappa can get dat ork in da ‘ead.” Sophie and Rhia both swung their lasguns towards the crawling orks and fired. The hail of lasblasts peppered the mega-armoured body of the crippled creature without effect until one of them eventually hit its head. The energy bolt punched through the cyborks now mostly empty skull and severed the connections of its implanted brain, and finally the cybork slumped lifeless to the ground. “See?” Two Heads said to the one that had questioned his own marksmanship, “Job done.” “Dat don’t
count,” the other one replied, “Ya ‘ad to get a git to do it.” “Not now!” Hazug shouted between the bursts he was firing from his own rifle at the cyborks who were almost on top of them, “Do I ‘ave to separate da two of ya?” By virtue of its much longer stride, the remaining mega-dreadnought reached the warband ahead of the mega-armoured cyborks and it brought its massive pincer crashing down on the heavy energy weapon mounted on mek Batrug’s truck as the gunners of the vehicle’s other weapons fired at it desperately, but unable to pierce its armour. Then everyone still on the truck leapt aside as the pincer smashed into the energy weapon and destroyed it with a single blow. But the dreadnought did not stop with just that blow, and it brought the pincer down again on the wrecked weapon. “It’s gonna blow!” mek Batrug shouted as the pincer was thrust into the weapon’s somewhat unstable power source. The warband, along with many of the orks who had just happened to be in the street when the battle began and were now watching it, as well as wagering on the likely outcome, threw themselves to the ground just as the energy cell was breached. There was a flash of light that consumed both mek Batrug’s truck and the mega-dreadnought and, when it subsided the scorched dreadnought, its electrical systems overloaded and burnt out, collapsed on top of the wrecked truck. Caught at the edge of the blast from the self-destructing energy cell, several of the mega-armoured cyborks were knocked backwards, but were otherwise unharmed thanks to the protection given them by their heavy armoured suits. As they got back to their feet their fellow cyborks reached their targets. Firing from point blank range the warband succeeded in placing shots into the heads of two of the cyborks before they could strike, and they fell dead. Squigs are just animals, but they form part of the same ecosystem as orks and to a certain extent they behave in the same way. So when the squig-brained cyborks attacked the warband they did so by targeting the biggest and strongest first, and that meant Hazug and Two Heads. “Kop dis!” one of Two Heads shouted as the other one head butted the first cybork to charge him, and the stunned creature took a step backwards. Meanwhile Hazug ducked out of the way before a cybork was able to strike at him with its massive claws that crackled with electricity. He spun round a he heard a second cybork approach and, ramming his rifle under this new opponents chin; he blew off its head with a burst of gunfire. Having operated the heavy machine gun on Hazug’s truck also marked Gorrid out as a priority target for the cyborks, and a pair of them attempted to climb up onto the vehicle to attack him. Gorrid fired on the cyborks as they climbed, and as one of them reached out towards him, he saw Drazzok’s staff swinging and it struck the cybork. There was another flash of psychic energy being released through the staff into the cybork, but the weirdboy had not had the opportunity to build up enough power to blast through its armour, and he achieved nothing more than to knock the cybork off the truck and to the ground. Gorrid kicked at the other cybork, but with the help of the claws on its bionic arms, this one kept its grip on the truck and began to pull itself into the cargo area. Then Gorrid received help from and unexpected source. Ignored by the cyborks because of his tiny size, Ratish was able to leap into the truck un-noticed, and as the cybork raised its head over the side of the truck the gretchin pushed he pistol against its face and pulled the trigger repeatedly. The cybork’s head jerked backwards as the bullets from Ratish’s pistol slammed into it. The first two rounds passed straight through the empty parts of the cybork’s skull, but the third hit the tiny squig brain at its centre and the dead cybork slumped to its knees. It did not drop to the ground however, its claws locked shut when the signals from its brain were cut off and it kept its grip on the side of the truck, hanging there with its arms over its head still clamped onto the vehicle. The cyborks knocked over by the destruction of mek Batrug’s truck and the last mega-dreadnought were now getting back on their feet, while the former occupants of the truck now lined up behind the wreckage of both their own vehicle and the dreadnought to fire on them. As had happened previously, the small arms fire had little effect on the cyborks, but it at least slowed some of them down as they closed in on the warband. Engaged against a pair of cyborks, Hazug was joined by a pair of the pilots who had accompanied Kaglort to the docks. One of them was batted away is if were nothing more than an insect, his chest caving in when the cybork’s powerclaw smashed into it. The remaining ork, the speed of his attack distracting the cyborks away from Hazug dodged as the lumbering creatures both decided to lash out at this new threat rather than the nob. The distraction was just enough for Hazug to drop his rifle and draw his blade. The cyborks caught the unfortunate Evil Sun ork between them, and a pair of blows from their claws ended his life in an instant. But the time taken to kill him provided Hazug with enough time to raise his blade and stab it into the side of one of the cyborks’ necks. Forcing the blade in deeper, Hazug severed the cybork’s spine, and it fell forwards. For a moment the weight of the cybork looked as if it were about to drag Hazug down with it, but with an almighty pull, he wrenched his blade free and stepped backwards. As Hazug was positioning himself to fight his other opponent, Two Heads and a pair of his troops were ganging up on the last cybork facing Two Heads. The trio of Evil Suns struck at the cybork with their rifles, swinging them like clubs in an attempt to beat him with the butts. Then, when the cybork swung its massive bulk around to face an ork, it would jump back out of the way while the other two struck at it from a different direction. One of the orks was a fraction too slow with his dodge, and one of the cybork’s power claws slammed into his head. The ork crumpled to the ground and, apparently not realising that he was already dead, the cybork lifted a foot to stomp on his body. Two Heads saw his chance, and placing the muzzle of his rifle against the leg now supporting the cybork, he shot the knee joint of his mega-armour. Suddenly unable to support the weight of the armour, the joint gave way and the cybork’s leg was snapped off at the knee. The cybork overbalanced and toppled to the ground. Now it was Two Heads that raised a foot, and he brought it down on the cybork’s exposed head. There was a crunch as Two Heads’ boot broke what was left of the cybork’s nose. The next blow broke off the metal cap that served in place of the top of his skull. It slid away and exposed the brass cage inside his head. Reaching down, Two Heads grabbed hold of the cage and pulled. The rods that held it in place bent as Two Heads ripped the cage free and snapped the nerve endings that allowed it to control its ork body, killing it instantly. Dok Gutstitch watched from under an archway where he had taken cover with several other orks as the battle raged while the warband destroyed his finest cyborks one by one. Barely a quarter of his elite troops now remained and as he watched another one fell, shot in the head as it tried to climb over the wreckage of the mega-dreadnought that had been destroyed along with the truck it had attacked. Meanwhile another cybork was now flailing its arms about wildly, trying to dislodge the trio of orks that had leapt from behind the remains of the truck and appeared to be attempting to simply hold the cybork still. One ork was hanging onto the cybork’s back, while the others each held onto one of the swinging arms. All three had been able to keep clear of the power claws fitted to the mega-armour and the cybork appeared unable to dislodge them. It was the same story elsewhere too. The members of the warband were using their speed advantage to keep out of the way of his cyborks, while firing at them from a distance knowing that they could not shoot back. Dok Gutstitch had always known that his cyborks could not be taught to operate small arms, the brains he implanted just didn’t have enough fine control over their fingers to work the relatively complicated mechanisms of firearms, so he had settled for an assortment of blades and claws to arm his troops. It had always been his intention to fight room to room where his opponents would not be able to maintain the gap between them and his troops that the warband was capable of in the street. The he saw that another cybork was engaged against a pair of nobs. The cybork faced an ork in the strange clothing worn by Blood Axes, dull colours that blended in with their background rather than proclaiming their presence to their enemies, while a two-headed mutant ork in the bright red livery of the Evil Suns was charging up behind it. The gretchin he had used for surveillance had described these two repeatedly over the last few days, and it seemed that they were the driving force behind the efforts to stop him. Focusing his anger at these two, Dok Gutstitch looked around for a suitable weapon. He caught sight of a pistol tucked into the belt of an ork stood beside him watching the fight. Dok Gutstitch slammed his fist into the ork’s face and wrenched the gun from his belt as he collapsed and pointed it towards the Blood Axe. |
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