|
Da Cybork Menace Chapta 5 | |
|
Chapta 5 |
Hazug stood on the turret of the battlewagon and peered over the wall that Gorrid had stopped the vehicle next to. “Dis is it,” Hazug said, “Dare’s loads of humans with stuff all laid out to sell.” “So wot now?” Two Heads asked as Hazug climbed down, then the other one asked, “Do we run in and grab ‘em?” “Nah,” replied Hazug, “I’ll go in dare with Sophie and see if dare’s anyone sellin’ bits of metal. I wants ya all to stay ‘ere and watch for anyone runnin’ out past ya with anythin’ dat looks like dat tube. But ‘ave someone stand up dare on da turret and watch wot’s ‘appenin’. If I gets into a fight den ya can charge in, but make sure ya give out a big yell to scar off as many as ya can first.” There were murmurings of discontent from most of the orks before Two Heads spoke up. “Right lads, dis is wot we came ‘ere to do. Morfang, get up on dat turret.” “Right boss.” “Wot about Ratish master?” Ratish asked. “Stay in da wagon,” Hazug told him, “ya will scare da humans if I takes ya in dare.” “Yes master,” and Ratish ran back into the battlewagon. Taking Sophie with him, Hazug began to walk around the perimeter of the market until he reached an entrance at the far side. He reasoned that if anyone were to flee from him they would do so directly away from him, and that would take them past Two Heads Smasha Butt Face and his mob. The sight of an ork nob entering the market place did prompt some surprised reactions from the humans. Those immediately near him leapt out of the way; fearing that his massive blade would otherwise cut them in two, while those further away just stopped and stared. Hazug looked around at the goods laid out on the stalls around him. Most of them were common household items and foodstuffs that in an ork society would be provided by independent gretchin, though these appeared to be of a much higher quality, while others sold various trinkets and luxuries. Hazug noticed that many of the stallholders with these luxury goods were armed, mainly with projectile pistols but some appeared to have shotguns or carbines behind their stalls. “Right den,” Hazug said to Sophie, “so where d’ya reckon dat we’ll find someone sellin’ dese tubes?” “We’ll have to ask,” she replied, and she wandered up to the nearest stall. Hazug watched as Sophie spoke with the stallholder and pointed at the metal cylinder Hazug held. The stallholder shrugged, then he shook his head as he replied, but Hazug could not make out what was being said. “He didn’t know anything about the cylinder specifically,” Sophie said when she returned to Hazug, “but he did point me in the direction of some stalls that sell scrap metal and small machine parts. We can try those.” Sophie then began to walk through the crowded marketplace. Hazug followed her, and the crowd promptly parted around them. After they left another female human approached the stallholder that Sophie had just spoken with. “What did that girl want?” she asked the stallholder. “That ork with her is looking for someone selling machined aluminium cylinders,” the stallholder replied while he got on with serving a customer. “And what did you tell her?” “That no sells stuff like that here, but the scrap dealers may be able to find someone who does,” and he looked towards the woman to add, “What is it to you anyway?” but she had already gone. Hazug was becoming frustrated. He and Sophie had spoken with a dozen different stallholders now, and none of them knew anything about a human with the tools needed to work metal to the standard of the cylinder. “You orks took all of that a long time ago,” one of them said. “You’d need a reliable power source too,” another added, “and those are rare since your invasion.” Something about this bothered Hazug, the laser weapons he had discovered had plenty of power cells with them. He pulled the ammunition belt from his bag; it still had four power cells in it. “What about dese?” he asked. The humans running this stall stared at him open mouthed. “Where did you get those?” one said in amazement. “Found ‘em,” Hazug said, “dey worth somethin’ den is dey?” The chief stallholder produced a small wooden box and opened it. Inside were numerous small metal disks that Hazug recognised as the human equivalent to money, plus a smaller number of ork teeth. “I’ll give you everything I have here for them,” he said, staring at the power cells. Hazug looked closer at the contents of the box. There were at least a dozen teeth in it, which was the most that he would get form a mek for the four power cells, plus there was the human money, which was metal and so had some value even to orks. Hazug paused briefly before holding out the ammunition belt. “Go on den,” he said, knowing that his share of the looted arms cache still had many more of the energy cells in it. The human grabbed at the belt and handed over the box that Hazug promptly stuffed into his bag. “Come on Sophie,” Hazug said, “we is done ‘ere.” “So we’re just giving up then?” Sophie asked as she followed Hazug back towards the battlewagon. “Yep. Nothin’ more for us ‘ere.” “So where do we go from here then? We still don’t know who made that ork the way he was.” “Nobody’s actually payin’ us to find out anyway,” Hazug pointed out, “so I aint in no special hurry about it. I’ll just ‘ave to keep an eye out for any more orks with odd bionic bits dats all. Somethin’ll turn up. Trust me.” Returning to the battlewagon, Hazug explained to Two Heads that they were done and it was time to go home. As they boarded the battlewagon once more, none of them noticed that they were being watched by a young human woman standing in the shadows of an alleyway, and by a pair of gretchin peering out from under a manhole cover. “They were looking for someone selling machined aluminium cylinders,” the woman said to the man sat across the table from her in a secluded corner of the bar. “What for?” the man replied as he adjusted his jacket. Beneath it, the woman caught a brief glimpse of an armoured vest. “I don’t know,” she said, sipping at the warm drink she had purchased. “So they could have been looking to buy some of them, or they were trying to trace some that someone else bought.” “That sounds a bit complicated for orks.” “This one’s different,” the man said, “it’s a Blood Axe that calls itself Hazug Throatslitter. Apparently it’s got the ear of their chieftain. It does its special ops work for it; apparently it was instrumental in the attack that was launched on a rival chieftain in the summer. Infiltrated air defence batteries and destroyed them before the main attack or something like that.” “I didn’t know
orks were capable of such a thing.” “Yes, I got a look at the one it was holding, it was about this big,” and the woman held up her hands to indicate the length of the cylinder. “You speak orkish, yes?” “I do,” the woman answered, “though not quite fluently.” “That’s good enough, because I think I know where these cylinders come from,” the man said, “now here’s what I want you to do…” |
|
Copyright Notice 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. |
Background image miniature design copyright Games Workshop Ltd
This Web Page Created with PageBreeze Free HTML Editor