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Da 'Ole Of Death Chapta 1 | |
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Chapta 1 |
Several million years later… The Deadly Claw was on its way home from the tau empire, where it had been part of a task force despatched by warboss Kazkal Kromag in revenge for their recent attempt to assassinate him. The fleet had inflicted heavy damage on one of the alien worlds and most of the surviving ships, just over two thirds of those who had been sent, were now returning. Other ships had either been destroyed by the powerful tau defences or had instead chosen to stay behind and continue to raid the tau empire. The Deadly Claw had just completed the translation from warp space to real space with a minimum of damage and only a few dozen casualties amongst the crew. Ship Boss Dagran of the Death Skull clan pushed his way through a crowd of gretchin rushing to attend to some of the damage somewhere else on his vessel as he made his way onto the command deck. The chamber was filled with ork meks and their gretchin assistants carrying out the multitude of tasks necessary to keep a three-mile long cruiser like the Deadly Claw running as best as possible. “Wot’s goin’ on den?” he demanded of the nearest mek, “I wos polishin’ me choppa when ya went and called me up ‘ere so dis ‘ad better be good.” “Come look at dis boss,” the mek told him, beckoning him towards one of the many display screens. This particular display had a radically different appearance to the others installed on the command deck, where they had images that were intermittently disrupted by static or colours that did not stay quite the same for any length of time this one showed information crisply and clearly. It did however produce images that were labelled in an alien language that was incomprehensible to the orks. The image shown on the screen at this time was of one of the continents on the planet that the cruiser was speeding towards. “Da stuff we looted from da tau ‘as spotted somethin’ boss,” the mek said, “but it don’t show up on any of our other detectors.” Dagran stared at the display and its depiction of part of the planet ahead. There, the display had highlighted a location some distance from the coast with a symbol and text label in the strange language all flashing red. “’Ave any of da other ships got any of dese tau detectors?” Dagran asked. As he did he suddenly became aware of a presence behind him, and looking over his shoulder he saw that Hasrad the weirdboy had made his way onto the bridge and was also studying the map on the display. “Nah,” the mek said in reply to his superior’s question, “we is da only ones who will ‘ave seen it.” “And wot is it?” Dagran asked. “Trouble,” Hasrad said before the mek gave his own answer. “I think it’s a machine. A big one.” “And if no-one else ‘as seen it,” Dagran said with as a grin spread across his face at the thought of loot for the taking filled his Death Skull mind, “den its ours. Lets get in closer and see wot we got.” The mek grinned and began to yell instructions to his fellow bridge crewmen while Dagran continued to stare at the alien display screen and the flashing indicator. “Dis aint good boss,” Hasrad said. “Ah shut it,” Dagran told him. Hasrad sighed and close his eyes; he had a message that needed sending. Meanwhile the vibration of the vessel changed subtly as it altered course. Deep beneath the surface of the planet an immense ancient mind stirred, a single word took prominence. Discovered. The mind looked out into space and it saw a crude but massive spacecraft approaching. The mind studied the movement of the alien vessel and saw that it had recently adjusted its course to bring it closer. Looking closer at the vessel itself the mind saw that it had a subtle difference to the others scattered throughout the system. This one was emitting regular energy pulses of the same type that altered the mind to its detection. The mind studied the mass and composition of the alien vessel and compared this to the resources it had available to respond with. The mind had seen vessels similar to this long ago in the distance past before it began its slumber, a suitable course of action was selected and the mind waited for the alien vessel to come closer.
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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. |
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