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Da 'Ole Of Death Chapta 13 | |
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Chapta 13 |
The alien mind studied the small settlement via one of the vehicles now approaching it. There was no sign of the vehicle that had successfully eluded pursuit since the intrusion into the complex, but there were indications of numerous life forms matching those who had recently intruded and several lightweight vehicles. There was evidence of a relatively large number of weapons, but these appeared to mainly be personal arms and would not constitute a threat to the heavy vehicles now closing on the settlement. The mind prepared warriors to be sent to the teleport portals of the vehicles and awaited the destruction of the settlement. With only six of the Blood Axe boys left, Hazug had two of them stand watch at a time. Another large automatic weapon had been recovered from the wreckage of the war buggies, along with plenty of ammunition for them both, so each sentry could be equipped with one of the powerful weapons, and by scavenging one of the weapon mounting from a war buggy also Hazug had one of them mounted to the vehicle before they set off in the direction where Hazug believed the Death Skulls camp lay. Aware of the damage to the truck, Hazug kept its speed low. Drazzok noticed something about the way they were heading. “Aint dis goin’ back da way we came? Towards dat ‘ole and da machines rather dan to da city where we wants to be?” he asked, jabbing at the map taken from the human outpost. “I know,” Hazug said, “but dis is da way we ‘ave to go if we is goin’ to get da trukk fixed so dat we can get to da city.” Roggot them interrupted them. “Look boss!” he shouted, pointing ahead, “Dare’s smoke from camp fires.” Sure enough, a column of smoke was rising from over the horizon. Hazug was about to compliment Roggot for being the first to spot the smoke when soothing odd about it occurred to him. “Dat’s a bloody lot of smoke for a few camp fires,” he said, “dat’s a bloody awful lot of smoke. Everyone get ya guns ready, we could be about to run into trouble.” Hazug reduced speed further as the Death Skulls camp came into view. The camp had been built by an oasis, and had consisted of a set of buildings varying from the crude lean-tos often used by gretchin to a pair of solidly built mek workshops, while a single watch tower had been built in the centre of the camp flanked by totems to the gods Gork and Mork. It looked like had it been intact it could have offered a wide variety of services to travellers willing and able to pay. However, much of the camp was wrecked, and it had happened recently. The plume of smoke that had been visible long before the camp itself was coming from a row of fuel tanks that were burning, while most of the more lightly built structures had been reduced to nothing more than smouldering ruins. Wrecked vehicles were scattered about the area and the watchtower and one of the totems had collapsed. As the truck drew closer to the camp Hazug spotted what looked like body parts, and he stopped the truck. “Ubgrub cover us with da trukk’s big shoota,” Hazug said, “Sophie and Ratish can wait ‘ere with ya, everyone else come with me. Ghukil, ya can bring da other big shoota.” Hazug lead the orks to the body parts scattered around the smashed remains of another truck. It appeared that none of the bodies were complete; it was as if parts had just vanished. “Da machines did dis,” Hazug said, “dis is wot dare shootas did to our lads yesterday.” “So it aint just us dat dey is after,” Drazzok said. “Spread out,” Hazug shouted, “and give a yell if any of ya finds anyone left.” Hazug remained where he was with Drazzok while the other orks ran off and began searching the ruins of the camp. “Wot is it with Death Skull camps dat ya visit?” Drazzok said, “Dis is da second one dats been torched by da time ya got to it. Unless dare’s more dat ya aint told about dat is.” Hazug ignored the weirdboy’s comment and began walking towards the remains of the watchtower where something had caught his eye, “Wot’s under dare?” he yelled pointing at the pile of twisted metal. Nizz and Zhagrad ran over to investigate with Hazug. Reaching the tower they saw that wreckage was moving slightly and this was followed by a muffled banging sound from underneath. Hazug aimed his rifle at the source of the movement. “Get rid of dat metal and I’ll cover ya,” he said to the other two orks who nodded and began to pull metal from the pile. Beneath the wreckage was a wooden trapdoor, and when it was clear of metal it was thrown open from beneath to reveal a pair of gretchin in a hole beneath. “Don’t shoot us please!” one of them shouted as they both raised their hands when they saw the three orks pointing guns at them. “Get out!” Hazug shouted, then added, “’Ow many of ya are dare down dare?” “Just us lord,” one of the gretchin responded as they both scrabbled out of the hole. “Just us lord,” the other gretchin replied, “we ‘id down dare when da fightin’ started, but den we couldn’t get out.” “So wot ‘appened?” Hazug asked when the gretchin were both clear of the hole. “Dare was dese big floatin’ wagons,” a gretchin told him. “Dey was big triangles dat shot lightnin’,” the other one added. “Yeah, it wos dis weird green lightnin’ dat made stuff disappear wasn’t it?” and the two gretchin nodded to confirm the point, “And no matter ‘ow many rokkits our masters fired into ‘em dey just kept on comin’.” “And dare was dese metal boys dat came marchin’ out of ‘em too. Sometimes when dey was shot and we thought dey was dead, dey just got back up again so we ran and ‘id in our ‘ole.” “So ya don’t know if dare’s anyone else left den?” The two gretchin looked at each other and then shook their heads. “We couldn’t see anythin’ from in da ‘ole, and all we ‘eard was a big crash when somethin’ landed on da door and we found dat we was stuck.” More of the orks began to congregate around the remains of the watchtower and the open trapdoor. “I aint found no one boss,” Ghukil said, and the other orks made similar comments. Hazug thought for a moment. “Dare aint no meks left,” he said to the other orks, “’as anyone seen anythin’ dat looks like a wagon dat’s still runnin’?” The orks first looked at each other then at Hazug and shook their heads, and commented that they had not. “Wots up with ya trukk?” one of the gretchin asked. “Its missing a wheel, and dare’s a big crack in it,” Hazug replied, “da wheel I can replace if I can find one da right size, but da crack needs weldin’.” “We can weld,” the gretchin said, indicating himself and his companion who was nodding in agreement. “’Ow do ya know ‘ow to weld?” Hazug asked. “We worked for da mek,” the gretchin replied. “Yeah,” the other gretchin asked, “da mek didn’t do ‘is own weldin’, ‘e got us to do it all for ‘im.” “Den ya can
fix me trukk,” Hazug told them, “and in return we’ll take ya to da
city.” “Rights lads,”
Hazug said to the other orks, “take a look around again, dis time look for
anythin’ useful,” and then he turned back to the truck and shouted,
“Ratish, dare’s a pair of grots ‘ere who’ll weld da trukk up. I want ya to
scavenge a new wheel and den take a look at wot else is lying
about.” “And Sophie,” Hazug shouted. “Yes Hazug?” she replied. “Get us somethin’ to eat.” “About bleedin’ time,” Drazzok shouted. The orks ate while the gretchin fixed their vehicle. “So ‘ow cob da mebal bings wob ‘ere bob?” Gobnok said with his mouth full of squig meat. Everyone else just stared at him bewildered. “I said ‘ow come da metal things wos ‘ere boss?” he repeated having swallowed the mouthful of food. “Dunno lad,” Hazug admitted, “but I get da feelin' dat dey is thinkin’ about more dan just killin’ us.” “Tell ‘em wot else da attack ‘ere means,” Drazzok said before tipping his plate up to pour the last scraps of food into his mouth. The Blood Axes all stared at Hazug. “Wot does it mean boss?” Ubgrub asked. “It means dat since we ‘ave come back ‘ere, dey will be ahead of us if dey kept on goin’.” “So dey could be waitin’ to ambush us?” Gobnok said. “Yeah lad,” Hazug replied and then to the entire group he added, “so I’ll be needin’ da lot of ya to be keepin’ ya eyes open. With any luck we’ll reach da city before night tomorrow, but just in case we need to warn Warboss Kromag about all dis.” “Wot do we need to tell ‘im about dis for?” Drazzok asked, knowing that a message sent over such a long distance would require his help. “Because dese
metal things may about to start attackin’ everyone, and ‘e’s got more boys
dan anyone else to stop ‘em with if we can’t. I know ya can send a message
dat far if ya want.” “Alright den,” he said, “but I’ll need a fair bit of power to do it, so we better gather round dat totem of Mork dat’s still standin’.” Hazug assembled the orks in front of the totem to Mork. “Now dis is easy,” he said to them while Drazzok stood at its base, “we is just goin’ to stand ‘ere and chant da name of Mork and dat will generate enough power for Drazzok to send ‘is message,” then he looked at Drazzok, “and it better be da right one if ya know wots good for ya, nothin’ about anyone thinkin’ dat ‘e’s got a squig brain or anythin’ got it?” “Just get on with da chantin’,” Drazzok replied. Hazug turned back to the other orks and began to chant. “Mork, Mork, Mork,” he repeated waving the weapon taken from the aliens above his head as he did so. At first he chanted alone, but the other orks rapidly caught on. “Mork, Mork, Mork,” they chanted waving their weapons in the air. Drazzok concentrated, feeling the increased flow of power through him and into his staff before draining away. Then he lifted his staff off the ground and the power instead began to build up within his body. Picturing the strange underground city and its machine inhabitants he reached out with his mind, and found another mind similar to his own several thousand miles away. Hazug sent the images in his mind to the other one before he slammed his staff back down to the ground and the power dissipated almost immediately with a brief flash of light. Hazug stopped chanting and looked at Drazzok. “Well did ya get through?” he asked. “I did it,” the weirdboy said. “Right lads,” Hazug said, addressing the other orks, “ya can stop now.” The orks stopped chanting. “Was dat it?” Nizz said. “Yeah lad,” Hazug said, “dat wos it.” “Boss?” “Wot lad?” “Is it always dat crap?” “Well sometimes dare ‘eads explode, but normally, yeah it is.” “Bah!” said Drazzok, “Wot would either of ya know about it?”
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