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Da Isle Of Doom Chapta 13 | |
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Chapta 13 |
“What was that?” Sophie said, spinning around to look back the way she and Hazug had come. There were following the new trail back towards the main road where Hazug said that the warcopter would be waiting to carry them back to the rest of the warband. “Sounds like Krurgan’s lads is usin’ dat supa-kannon.” Hazug replied, also looking back down the trail. “Does that mean they’ll destroy the fort?” Hazug
shrugged. “Like what?” “I aint sure yet. Dat’s why I reckoned we should take a closer look before we went rushin’ in like over excited runts.” A sudden snapping sound from further along the trail then made both Hazug and Sophie turn back around and Hazug caught sight of the Snake Bite driver that had leapt from the truck Hazug had briefly commandeered. “Oi!” Hazug shouted at the ork who looked back at him for a moment turning and running in the opposite direction, “Oi!” Hazug shout again, “Get back ‘ere. Don’t me come after ya or ya’ll be real sorry about it.” The came to a sudden stop and turned around, watching as Hazug strode up to him with Sophie following. “Right den,” Hazug said, grabbing hold of the ork by his ear, “let’s get ay back to da fort where we can deal with ya properly. Dare’s a lad dare called Nurgank wot’ll tell ya ‘ow we deals with lads wot turn on dare bosses like ya just did.” A split second after the cannon was fired there was a second sound like a clap of thunder as the shell slammed into the top of the fortress’ front wall and blasted yet another hole in it. Fragments of the wall along with the bloody remains of the rooftop guards rained down on Krurgan and his troops as they continued their advance, but the shell had silenced the defensive gunfire and now the way appeared open. “Come on lads!” Krurgan bellowed, “We done it! Waaargh!” Another burst of gunfire came from within the fortress, this time form somewhere inside and Gnarshag shuddered as part of the volley struck him with lethal results. The advancing orks were caught off guard by this and many instinctively dived for cover while the cannon crew worked frantically to clear the spent shell case from where it jammed in the heavy weapon and fire another round at the fortress. The gunfire from within the fortress continued, with burst of fire passing over the heads of the attacking orks. But then another sound joined in the rattle of gunfire, the pounding of running feet and from inside the fortress a column of orks emerged. As soon as they appeared the orks opened fire, their attacks also passing over the heads of the attackers. Krurgan scowled as he watched them realising that rather than rushing out to meet his attack properly these orks were spreading out, using the parked vehicles for cover while engaging his force from a distance. “Dey’s actin’ like gits!” Krurgan snapped, “Come on, let’s ‘ave ‘em.” And he waved towards the ork unit that had been carried aboard the battlewagon. But the cheer that Krurgan expected in response did not come and when he looked around he saw the entire unit gazing blankly ahead, towards the fortress. The nob in charge of the unit then turned his gaze towards Krurgan and the blank expression on his face turned to a frown as he raised his gun to aim it at the Snake Bite. The pistol round clipped Krurgan’s shoulder and he let out an angry growl as he realised that the nob had just turned on him. But the nob was not alone and his entire mob appeared to share his change of heart. These orks promptly turned their attention to the two mobs that had disembarked from the tracked transports, attacking them with a combination of pistol fire and thrown grenades. The reaction to this was a mix of confusion and anger as the various mobs that made up the attack force now turned on one another. Krurgan roared as he charged headlong into the midst of his former comrades, decapitating the nob before he could take another shot at him and then hacking at every other ork who got in his way. There was another thundering boom as the cannon fired again. This time the gun had been levelled to aim at the row of parked vehicles and a rickety looking truck simply disintegrated as the shell exploded inside it. The truck itself was of little consequence, but several of the fortress’ guardians had been using it and the adjacent vehicles for cover and when the truck exploding the expanding cloud of shrapnel tore them apart. “Nice one lads!” Krurgan bellowed and he risked a glance towards the tracked artillery piece. But his face fell when he saw that instead of preparing the weapon to fire again the gun crew were gazing at the fort with blank looks on their faces and he realised what was about to happen, “Hukruk! Brug! Da supa-kannon!” he yelled, cleaving another rebellious ork in two as he ran towards the artillery piece, hoping to reach it before its gun crew turned its firepower on his force. However, the both gun crew and the vehicle’s driver apparently had other ideas and as the driver used the belt fed automatic weapons mounted at the front of the tracked carrier to engage other two similar vehicles the gun crew picked up their personal weapons and began to fire on the dismounted orks still loyal to Krurgan. Noticing Krurgan and the other two nobs rushing towards them the gun crew took aim at them and opened fire. Brug fell dead immediately as a bullet took of the top of his head while another round clipped Krurgan. Unlike the first hit this one struck him in the leg and Krurgan stumbled, landing face down in the mud. He lifted his head just in time to see Hukruk reach the artillery gun and plunge his sword into the gut of one of the crew. Normally orks would react to such an attack by grabbed whatever close combat weapons were to hand and piling into the fight. But in this instance the gun crew simply braced themselves on the cannon as the driver accelerated and as Hukruk attempted to climb onto the vehicle he was instead dragged beneath one of its tracks, a single shriek that was cut off suddenly confirming that he was dead. Staggering back to his feet Krurgan saw that his force was in disarray. The two tracked carriers were now burning wrecks, having fallen victim to the artillery carrying vehicle while the dismounted infantry looked to be pinned down, unsure of who their enemies were and firing at anyone they saw. The rattle of automatic weapons fire attracted Krurgan’s attention towards the battlewagon and he smiled as he saw that the biggest vehicle in his force was still attempting to engage the enemy, firing on the ork defenders using the parked vehicles as cover. A rocket fired from somewhere within the fortress suddenly slammed into the side of the battlewagon and the vehicle ground to a halt as one of its tracks was blown away. But its gunners kept on firing, keeping the attention of the fortress’ defenders focused on it and Krurgan saw his chance. “Over ‘ere!” he shouted, limping towards the only remaining truck from his force. Krurgan could tell that its crew were still loyal to him because the remaining passengers from the battlewagon were firing at the vehicle as its driver steered at random as he attempted to evade the attacks. The truck skidded to a halt beside Krurgan and the nob pulled himself aboard, “Let’s get outta ‘ere!” he yelled. “But boss, wot about da others?” the driver asked. “Forget ‘em.” Krurgan replied, “Just drive.” Doing as he was told the ork driver turned his vehicle around and drove at full speed back towards the trail that had brought them here. “Da boss is runnin’!” an ork called out as he noticed the truck just before it disappeared from view, “Wot should we do?” “Leg it!” another responded, panicking at the knowledge that their leader had given up on the battle. “’E’s right!” another agreed, “We gotta go!” and after delivering one last punch at an ork from another mob he turned and ran towards the jungle. A bullet cut him down before he reached the tree line but panic had not set in throughout the remaining orks loyal to Krurgan and most chose to make a break for it, running for the closest edge of the clearing and leaving the handful who remained to their fates. Hazug was still dragging the Snake Bite along by his ear when they reached the spot where the newly cut trail met the main road and sure enough there was a warcopter landed there, its red-clad pilot sat on the side of the crude aircraft munching on a small type of squig he had caught and roasted on the hot engine cover. “I was startin’ to think dat ya wasn’t comin’.” He said to Hazug as he tucked what was left of his meal in his jacket and got up to return to his seat. “Yeah, well I ran into a spot of bovva.” Hazug replied, shoving the Snake Bite towards the warcopter and adding, “Climb aboard.” To him. From back down
the trail there was the ‘crack’ of gunfire and all three orks looked
towards it. “Nah,” Hazug
replied, “dat was smaller. A big shoota or maybe even a couple of shootas
firin’ together.” “Not if dey was bein’ fired at da fort.” Hazug said, “So I reckon dat dey was closer. A lot closer. We needs to be gone before dey gets ‘ere.” Sophie nodded and climbed aboard the warcopter while the pilot began his pre-flight routine of hitting the engine located immediately behind him with a wooden hammer until both it and the one and the one to the rear of the warcopter both started. Standing on the open passenger platform located between the two sets of rotor blades Sophie looked around, a confused look on her face. The platform was of the typical crude orkish construction and looked to have been made from several smaller sheets of metal bolted and welded together but nowhere could she see any signs of handholds for the passengers. “Hazug?” she said, “How do we stop ourselves from falling off?” “Easy.” Hazug replied, “Just grab wotever ya can.” And just as the warcopter lifted off the ground he took hold of a fuel line leading to the forward engine. Sophie just screamed. Krurgan’s driver brought the truck to a halt when they reached the main road. Behind them they knew that more orks were falling back from the fort, only they were on foot. More worryingly though the sound of intermittent gunfire had suggested that at least some of the orks defending the old human fort were moving in pursuit of them. “Where to now boss?” the driver asked Krurgan. “We waits ‘ere for a bit to see if any more of our lads makes it dis far.” Krurgan answered, “We got ya big shoota just in case any of dem traitors turn up first.” “But den where?” “Where else? We goes back to da refinery.” “But aint dat Blood Axe dare?” the truck’s gunner asked. “Yeah, but ’e aint in charge no more is ‘e?” Krurgan said, “Dat fort belongs to Grath. We’ll point out to ‘im dat so far dat git lover aint done nothin’ for ‘im whereas we’ve ‘ad a go at dat old git fort for ‘im. Trust me, dat Hazug aint gonna be causin’ us no bother.” |
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