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Da Cybork Menace Chapta 6 | |
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Chapta 6 |
The painboy shook his hand as he accidentally jabbed a needle into it while sewing up an ork that lay on the table before him. “’E was where?” the dok bellowed as he stood up straight and towered over the assembled gretchin. “Well first ‘e wos at da surgery of dat dok wot ya ‘ad killed, and den we followed ‘im to git town. But den ‘e wos with a bunch of Evil Suns,” one of the gretchin answered. “And one of ‘em ‘ad two ‘eads!” another one added. “Wot wos ‘e doin’ when ya saw ‘im at dese places?” the painboy asked. “At da dok’s surgery ‘e wos askin’ about da body wot we took back,” a third gretchin said. “And in Git Town ‘e got shot at, den looted a bunch of boxes from one of dem places wot loads of gits live in,” a fourth one said. “Yeah,” interrupted the first gretchin, “den ‘e spoke with gits and swapped somethin’ for another box.” “But dis box wos smaller,” another gretchin added. “Yeah, I wos about say dat,” the first grecthin argued. “Well I think dat dis ork needs watchin’,” the painboy said, “I wants ya to keep followin’ ‘im all da time, and if ‘e’s goin’ to be a problem den I’ll ‘ave some of me lads kill ‘im just like wot I did to da other dok.” The gretchin
all nodded in agreement with their master. The previous owner of Hazug’s new home was a Bad Moon, and he had used the room that adjoined the master bedroom to store his accumulated wealth. Warboss Kromag had of course, taken that upon his death rather than leaving it for Hazug. Now Hazug had decided to use the room as a storage place for his weapons. A single cupboard had been enough until yesterday, but the looted missile launchers and lasguns required far too much space for that. Hazug was going through each crate and examining the contents carefully when he heard the sound of running up the stairs. He calmly walked onto the landing just as Ratish and Sophie both reached the top of the stairs. “There’s someone to see you!” they yelled simultaneously, each trying to be the one to deliver the news. “It’s a woman,” Sophie added, while Ratish instead said, “It’s another stinkin’ git like ‘er,” and pointed at Sophie. Sophie shoved Ratish and he tumbled back down the stairs. “Ratish is fine master,” Ratish called out from the bottom of the stairs, “and da git is still ‘ere waitin’.” “Shut da door Ratish, da cold is getting in,” Hazug said as he came down the stairs and saw that the front door was open to the street outside. “Yes master,” Ratish responded, and he dashed around the human to close the door. The human standing in the hall was another female. She was slightly taller than Sophie, and appeared to also be slightly older. “Well?” demanded Hazug, speaking in gothic, “Wot d’ya want?” “I heard you were looking for the source of some metal cylinders,” she replied in the ork language. “And wot is it to you?” Hazug asked, speaking in orkish now that he knew she understood the language. “I can take you to where they come from,” she said. Hazug paused and grinned. “Come dis way,” he said, and beckoned the human to follow him into the kitchen. “Told ya somethin’ would turn up,” he said to Sophie. Hazug, Ratish and the woman sat around the kitchen table. Sophie placed a plate of food on the table and joined them. “Dig in,”
Hazug said as he helped himself, “and tell me who ya is.” “And wot d’ya know about dese metal cylinders den?” Hazug asked as he chewed his food. “They come form outside the city,” Rhia explained, “gretchin are digging them up for an ork.” “Wot ork?” “I don’t know,” Rhia said. “Stupid git,” Ratish interrupted, but was silenced by a slap from Hazug. “Go on, “ Hazug said. “I just saw the gretchin digging up the cylinders,” Rhia continued, “I worked at a nearby farm at the time, and we could see them working sometimes.” “And wots in it for yer to be tellin’ me dis?” Hazug asked. “I need work,” Rhia said, “the farm I worked at was burned down, and I heard that you employ humans.” “Just da one,” Hazug said. “One too many,” Ratish snapped, and he ducked before Hazug could hit him again. “And wot makes ya think dat I need another servant?” Hazug asked. “Because another would make you appear powerful,” Rhia said, “you don’t have a squad of soldiers following you, so having more servants will make other orks respect you more. Especially since most humans cost a lot to hire.” Hazug grinned, then laughed. “Ya know orks den,” he said, “but ya don’t know me. I don’t care wot other orks think of me, I never ‘ave.” Rhia looked back at him silently. “But I’ll give ya a chance,” Hazug continued, “since dare is more for Ratish and Sophie to do round ‘ere dan at da last place. But if dare aint enough for ya to do, or if ya aint no good, den ya is out,” then he turned to Sophie, “when we gets back I wants ya to explain to ‘er wot to do around ‘ere.” “Get back from where?” Sophie asked. “Didn’t ya ‘ear wot she said?” Hazug responded, “She knows where dem cylinders is comin’ from. Now let’s get goin’.” Snow had fallen overnight, and while gretchin had been doing their best to clear as much of it as they could from the city’s streets since daybreak there were still many places where it covered the ground. This was especially true near Hazug’s home near Git Town, where the street clearing teams had not reached yet. For once Sophie was not sat in the front of the truck with Hazug, but he had specifically instructed Rhia to sit in that position to direct him towards the farm where she had once worked and from where she claimed to be able to direct him to the source of the metal cylinders. “Do I get one of those?” Rhia asked, indicating the handguns that Ratish and Sophie carried. “No,” Hazug said, “ya only gets a gun when I knows ya can be trusted,” and he started the truck’s engine. In Git Town the covering of snow on the ground was even thicker, gretchin would not think to clear it from this area, and the humans did not have the manpower to do it for themselves. Reluctantly, Hazug slowed the truck down to compensate for the worse driving conditions, he remembered the missile attack from the previous day, and would rather not give anyone who had more of the weapons a slower moving target that was easier to hit. “Keep watch,” he said, “and Ratish…” “Yes master?” “Get up dare
on da big shoota, if ya see anyone shootin’ at us den I wants ya to shoot
back.” Beyond Git Town was the northern fortress, where Warboss Kromag maintained a garrison of orks to keep a watchful eye on who and what was coming into his city. Though as they drove past the heavily fortified building it occurred to Hazug that rather a lot of missiles and lasguns had got into the city under their noses. “So ‘ow far is dis farm den?” Hazug shouted over the noise of the truck engine as the northern fort shrank into the distance. “About four of five miles,” Rhia shouted back. Hazug was familiar with the terms used by humans to express distance, and he quickly reasoned that the distance Rhia had stated would not normally take long to travel in the truck, even though they were travelling across open country. But the ground out here had a thick covering of snow, and it was hard going for the truck to get through. Hazug began to wish that he had asked Two Heads to drive them out here; the battlewagon’s reinforced ram would have had no trouble in clearing a path. As it was, the outline of the ruined farm buildings appeared in the distance at about midday. “This is it!” Rhia shouted, pointing at the ruined buildings, “Stop here!” Hazug stopped the truck near to the ruined farm and then jumped out onto the snow-covered ground. Rhia and Sophie followed him, but he called out as Ratish began to climb down from the weapon mount of the truck. “Stay put grot,” he said while he retrieved his rifle from the truck, “I wants ya to keep an eye out form up dare for anyone else sneakin’ around out ‘ere,” and Ratish clambered back to the gun and gripped it at the ready. “So where do we go from ‘ere?” Hazug asked Rhia. “This way!” she yelled, and she began to run towards the nearby woods as fast as the snow would allow her to. “Slow down!” Hazug shouted as he and Sophie followed her from a distance, “Dare could be someone lurkin’ out dare.” Rhia stopped, and waited for the pair to catch up with her. “Its an old building just inside the woods,” Rhia said as she walked with Hazug and Sophie towards the woods ahead of them. Sure enough, there were the remains of a human built building just within the woods. Whatever had happened to it had happened along time ago, possibly even before the ork invasion of this world. But whatever had destroyed the building had left many of its contents intact, and they now lay at least partially buried in the ground all around the ruins, sheltered from the recent snowfall by what remained of the walls and the trees that surrounded the ruins. Bending down, Hazug picked up the first object he came to and pulled it from the ground. It was a metal cylinder; almost identical to the one that Hoggot had delivered to him the day before. The only difference was that this cylinder lacked the tubing and wiring that had been added to that one. “Is that what you’re looking for?” asked Rhia. “I reckon so,” Hazug responded as he looked around at the remaining cylinders poking out of the ground. Then he kicked at the frozen soil. “What are you doing?” Sophie asked him as he continued to kick the ground around him. “Dis is too ‘ard to dig quick,” he said, “it’ll take ages for us to get ‘em all out without ‘elp. But then again…” “We can get them out?” Sophie said. “Nah,” Hazug replied, “Like I said dat’ll take us ages, we’d need loads of grots to do it. But if da ground is frozen den any tracks in it may be an’ all,” and he crouched down and began to sweep away the snow from around the ruins. “What’s he doing now?” Rhia asked Sophie. “Stay still,” Hazug said, “I don’t want ya crushin’ any tracks dat da grots left.” “What gretchin?” Rhia asked. “Da gretchin ya saw diggin’ ‘ere…,” Hazug said, then he paused for a moment, thinking. “What’s the matter?” Sophie asked him. “Nothin’,” Hazug replied as he began sweeping the snow once more, “just lookin’ at da lie of da land, dats all. Ah! Got it!” and he began to quickly clear an area of ground around him. There, in the frozen earth were tracks made by gretchin before the soil had frozen and preserved them. “’Elp me with dis,” Hazug said, and both Sophie and Rhia crouched down and joined him in clearing the snow from the ground, revealing yet more tracks. A sudden burst of gunfire made Hazug sit up and listen. “Da trukk!” he shouted, and he leapt back to his feet and ran off towards the truck where Ratish waited. Rhia and Sophie looked at one another before they too got up and ran after him. Hazug paused at the tree line, his rifle at the ready. Ahead of him he could see Ratish still in the truck, pointing the mounted weapon at a point further along the edge of the woods. “Wots goin’ on grot?” Hazug bellowed as he ran out across the open ground towards his vehicle. “Ratish see somethin’ move master, so Ratish shoot at it.” Hearing Rhia and Sophie approach from behind him, Hazug turned around. “Stay ‘ere,” he ordered and then he looked up at Ratish, “and ya can keep me covered, I’m goin’ to take a look for wot ya wos shootin’ at.” “Yes master.” Hazug ran in the direction Ratish was pointing the heavy weapon, keeping his gun to his shoulder as he went. Watching him run off, Sophie extended the stock of her own compact automatic weapon and pointed in the same general direction. Hazug stopped at the tree line and looked around. The undergrowth had died back for the winter, and the bare trees could not conceal the damage caused by the burst of heavy calibre rounds that Ratish had fired into them. Around one of the massive bullet holes Hazug saw what he needed, a bright red splatter of fresh blood. Looking around further, Hazug saw another blood splatter on the snow covered ground ahead of him and then another beyond that. A set of footprints ran between them, Hazug had a trail he could follow. Moving slowly now, and keeping as low as he could, Hazug moved into the woods and followed the footprints and the blood trail in the snow. He stopped when he heard a whimpering sound from ahead of him, and he aimed his rifle towards the source. Moving closer he saw the diminutive form of a gretchin leaning against a tree, clutching at a wound to it’s side where a bullet had blasted its way straight through him. Even distracted by its injury, the gretchin’s hearing was good enough to alert him to Hazug’s cautious approach and it turned to face him. “Mercy lord!” the gretchin called out, holding up a blood soaked hand, “Wasn’t my idea!” “Wot wasn’t?” Hazug said, moving closer and keeping his rifle trained on the injured gretchin. “Followin’ ya out ‘ere,” the gretchin replied, and it lowered both its hand and its gaze. “Den who told ya to do it?” Hazug shouted, pushing the muzzle of his gun closer to the gretchin’s head, but there was no reply. Hazug jabbed with his gun, poking the gretchin in the side of his head. His head wobbled when pushed but the gretchin remained silent. Hazug reached out and lifted the gretchin’s head and looked straight into his dead eyes. “Useless, grot,” Hazug said to himself, “can’t even take a bullet without dyin’ from it.” Then Hazug looked at the ground once more. Two individuals had clearly made the trail that he had followed to this point, and a single set of tracks continued on, further into the woods. A second gretchin had accompanied this one, and even now was fleeing to report back to whoever had sent it here. Hazug turned back in the direction of his truck and ran. “Everyone get in!” he shouted as he climbed into the vehicle, “We is getting’ out of ‘ere!” “But why?” Sophie asked, “What happened?” “Dare was grots watchin’ us,” Hazug explained as he started the truck’s engine, “and one of ‘em got away. If we aint out of ‘ere soon, den whoever sent ‘em may come lookin’ for us and we aint ready for a big fight.” “Aren’t we going to do anything about those cylinders in the ruins?” Sophie said while she and Rhia climbed into the truck, “They are what we came here for aren’t they?” “No time,” Hazug told her, and he put his foot down on the accelerator pedal before either Rhia or Sophie had had chance to sit down, causing both to fall over as the vehicle sped off in the direction of the ork city. |
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