|
Da 'Ole Of Death Chapta 19 | |
|
Chapta 19 |
Advance. The necron control mind sent the command for the troops it had already been able to send to the ork city to move and meet the horde of green skinned savages that now poured from every available gateway. The crude walking machines that had formed a line between the mind’s army and the city walls also began to advance, and for the first time they opened fire. “Waaargh!” The entire ork army gave their traditional war cry as it charged head long towards the assembled necron army that was now also moving. The noise was great enough that it even drowned out the sound of the stompas launching their missiles. More than just crude rocket propelled bombs; these each carried a gretchin pilot who guided them to their targets. The gretchin of course died when the missiles detonated or, in the case of those that turned out to duds, just crashed into something solid. Most of the missiles were flown towards the necron pyramids, though the armour of these was so effective that none of them had any lasting effect and the barrage slowed none of the pyramids for more than a few moments. A handful of the missiles instead crashed into the neat rows of advancing foot soldiers where their payloads had more effect, blasting several holes in their numbers. Only the larger ones of them were able to repair themselves, the smaller type who made up the vast majority of the force just faded away when they were caught in the blasts. Warboss Zhalrad had made his way to the front of a massive horde of ork warriors and he now led them into the centre of the necron lines. He saw flashes of light ahead, and initially though they were muzzle flashes, but then he saw that the flashes were appearing randomly within the ranks of the necrons and that they were breaking their formation to engage in hand to hand combat with swarms of tiny green creatures that were materialising next to them. He grinned as he realised what was happening, and he briefly looked back towards the city walls where he saw a group of large ork mekboys holding strange contraptions over their shoulders with propeller like spinning arms at the front. Behind the meks gretchin with pointed sticks were herding even smaller snotlings towards the backs of the machines carried by their masters where they were being sucked into them and teleported into the midst of the alien ranks. Those that survived emerged insane and attacked whatever was nearest to them. Others either failed to emerge or died as a result of the teleportation or materialising inside something solid, such as the alien warriors themselves some of who were fading away as their internal systems attempted to coexist with the matter that had made up teleported snotlings that appeared within their bodies. “Da snotzoggas is getting’ ‘em lads!” he yelled, “Move faster or dare won’t be any left for us to kill!” As the orks got closer to the aliens they came within range of their weapons, and orks began to fall as the strange energy weapons carried by the necrons that disintegrated the flesh of their victims struck them. In response, orks with rifles stopped their advance and returned fire. Their accuracy was poor, but the numbers of both ork riflemen and their alien opponents were so great that many rounds struck the metallic skeletons. Most shrugged off the crude bullets and continued to fire at the charging orks, while others fell temporarily before repairing themselves and rising to their feet once more and getting back into the fight. Some did not get up however, and instead faded away leaving no evidence that they had ever been there. Zhalrad was still at the front of the horde of orks as it smashed into the ranks of the necrons and began to lash out at their enemy wildly. “Dis is da life!” he shouted as he ripped the head from an alien and hurled it away before moving on the next opponent. Another of the pyramid shaped vehicles fell to the ground in a ball of flame as it was struck by volley after volley of energy blasts and shells from artillery guns that had been dragged into position by their gretchin crews under the supervision of the meks that had built the weapons. Gretchin cheered as the wreckage of the alien vehicle continued to burn, but the meks used whips and chains to get them back to work. “Less shoutin’, more shootin’!” the largest mek yelled at the gun crews as they pushed their heavy weapons around to face at another of the oncoming alien vehicles. But the vehicles were not without their own armaments and before the gun crews were ready to fire another volley a brilliant beam of light erupted from several of the crystals mounted on top of the pyramids and shot towards the artillery position far too quickly for either the gretchin gunners or their ork supervisor to be able to seek any sort of cover. The power of the beam roasted the flesh of the greenskins before it even hit them and their weapons. Before they even had time to scream their lungs were scorched, and then their bodies were blasted apart as ammunition for the guns was detonated. Rounds for some of the cannons and rocket launchers was thrown clear before it could detonate, and as they exploded further away they spread the destruction caused by the alien energy blasts. Unperturbed by the destruction of their artillery, the orks continued to surge towards the aliens as more greenskins of all sizes, from snotlings to nobs, emerged from the city gates. With so many of its forces deployed to attack the city, the necron control mind limited its observation to the data feeds from the monoliths and the commanders in the field rather than trying to interpret the information sent back by each individual warrior. Even this provided a wealth of data to be processed. The city’s inhabitants had proven themselves to be well armed and determined and many warriors had returned to the complex for repair and even some of the monoliths had been destroyed by artillery. Situation
satisfactory. In spite of the losses suffered there was little doubt that the city would fall. They most powerful weapons that it had possessed had been destroyed by the destroyer platforms, and the lighter artillery guns had been blasted to atoms by the monoliths they had threatened. Only the ork spacecraft in orbit now posed a serious threat to the monoliths, and the poor accuracy demonstrated so far by the city’s defenders suggested that if they were able to call down supporting fire with the two opposing forces so close together it would be as likely to strike their own lines or even the city itself as it would hit any the necron forces. In any case, the spacecraft were all in low orbits and their orbital paths did not appear to be bringing any of them into a position where they could provide fire support. The mind was aware that there were spacecraft closing in response to its request for assistance that would be more than capable of dealing with those in orbit now, so rather than concern itself with them the alien mind would wait for the appropriate forces to arrive and deal with them. Shifting its attention back to the battle under way, the necron control mind decided to continue to bolster its forces with more of the troops that had been revived from their slumber and bring the battle to its inevitable conclusion more quickly. Surrounded by the skeletal necron warriors, warboss Zhalrad lashed out in all directions. Each swipe of his heavy blade cut into another of the figures, and in spite of their heavily armoured bodies he was amassing an impressive tally of kills. He was however infuriated with the situation. Firstly there was the fact that his defeated foes simply faded away to nothing, making it impossible to recover any form of trophy as proof of his achievements, and secondly he occasionally caught sight of another group of the necrons stepping from the front of one of the pyramids they used instead of real vehicles that travelled on tracks or wheels. The stompas at least were cutting a swath of destruction through the ranks of the enemy. Their gatling cannons had run dry of ammunition moments after the battle had started, but each had taken many dozens of the aliens down first, and each machine still retained a formidable arsenal of weapons that they were putting to good use. Zhalrad became aware of something strange approaching. Long and slender it floated across the battlefield towards him, a flexible tail hanging beneath a set of broad shoulders. As it moved it appeared to fade and then become clearly visible before fading again, thought it never quite fully disappeared. Zhalrad forced his way through the group of necron warriors he had been fighting, leaving the other nearby orks to deal with them and raced towards these newcomers. He lashed out again, and was startled to see his blade pass through the body of one his new opponents without there being any resistance to the attack. The machine became easier to see once more and lunged forwards to counter attack. Zhalrad raised his blade to parry the strike and this time his weapon connected. Clearly he could only strike his enemy when it was fully visible. His strained to push his own weapon against his opponent’s bladed arm and drive it back into its body, but as he began to make progress the necron faded, becoming ghost like again and Zhalrad’s blade slipped straight through it, almost overbalancing the warboss in the process. Movement to his side caught his eye, and he swung around with his blade extended just as another of the necrons attempted to attack him. The force of his attack cut the necron in half, and both parts disappeared fully as they fell to the ground. “Boss! Over ‘ere!” Hazug stopped his dash through the city when he heard Gobnok’s yell and looked around. Ratish didn’t stop in time and crashed into the back of his master, but Hazug barely noticed the impact. He saw the other Blood Axes rushing towards him from a side street. “Lads!” Hazug shouted back, “Wot is ya doin’ ‘ere?” “We went for somethin’ to eat,” Ghukil said as the Blood Axes reached their leader, “and den dare was all dis shoutin’ and things stared explodin’ so we came to look for ya. We figured that ya would go back to da warboss’s place on da walls so we was goin’ dare ourselves.” There was the dull ‘thump’ of a large explosion from the direction of the battle, and the orks saw a ball of flame shoot skywards. “Look’s like one of da stompas just went up,” Hazug said, then added, “come on den lads, let’s get movin’.” Sophie ran to Hazug and wrapped her arms around his waist when he burst into the command post followed by the other Blood Axes. “I was so worried,” she said. “Yeah, well I is just fine,” Hazug said as he pulled himself free, “now wot’s ‘appened to da boss?” “’E’s gone to get some fightin’ done,” Drazzok said, “if ya ‘as got dat bomb ya better get movin’ with it.” Hazug went to take a look at the battle raging on below. Behind him the other Blood Axes also crowded around for a look. Unsurprisingly the ork army had charged the necrons head on, and as a result they had taken many casualties as they had run across open terrain, they remains of many orks still lay where they had fallen, their comrades had not yet had the opportunity to loot what remained. As Hazug had expected, one of the stompas was a burning wreck, while another appeared to have been disabled without exploding and there were signs of damage to most of the lumbering walkers. On the other side of the battlefield there were the remains of some of the pyramids that had disgorged the ranks of skeletal warriors prior to the battle, so clearly it was not all going the necrons way. Weapons fire still erupted from positions occupied by both sides, most of it was small arms fire, marked either by the muzzle flashes of ork projectile weapons or the green lightning from the alien weapons. The volume of weapons fire was steadily decreasing as more and more ork units got close enough to engage the necrons hand to hand or were either forced to flee or wiped out entirely. “So when do we get to join in boss?” Ghukil asked. Being the largest of the other Blood Axes he had pushed his way to the front of the group and stood at Hazug’s side as he watched the battle as it unfolded below. “We aint goin’ into da middle of dat,” Hazug said, “We is still goin’ along dat river. Just as soon as dat bomb gets ‘ere anyway.” Hazug pointed to the river he intended to follow. As he had hoped it had remained on the periphery of the battle with only a handful of units from either side anywhere near it. “So when is da bomb getting’ ‘ere boss?” Ghukil asked. Hazug shrugged. “Dunno lad,” he said, “mek Garspark reckoned ‘e was almost done last time I saw ‘im so I ‘ope we aint goin’ to ‘ave to wait much longer.” “If ya do,” Drazzok interrupted, “den dare may not be anythin’ left to provide ya distraction.” “I can see
dat.” Hazug didn’t bother to argue with the weirdboy. Drazzok wouldn’t be going on the raid anyway, he lacked the infiltration ability that was innate to all Blood Axes. Instead he took a sheet of paper and some charcoal from one of his pouches and began to write. It was at that point that there was a shout from the street below. “Oi!” mek Garspark yelled up to the command post, “Is Hazug dare? I got ‘is bomb.” Everyone in the command post dashed to the back and looked down into the street. There they saw mek Garspark standing beside a truck from which a pair of gretchin were unloading a metal cylinder that was the size of a small barrel. “I’m ‘ere,” Hazug shouted back, “we is comin’ down now,” and after giving the he led the Blood Axes down into the street where Garspark was waiting for him. “See told ya it wouldn’t take long,” the mekboy boasted, “and ya’ll need dis,” and he produced a crude key, which he handed to Hazug. “So ‘ow does dis work den?” Hazug asked. Garspark turned to where his gretchin had put the bomb down and pointed to a hole near the top of it. “Ya put da key in ‘ere,” he said, “and turn it all da way around.” Next he indicated a glass tube beside the keyhole, “Den dis fills with liquid metal until it makes da contacts and dat makes da forcefield shrink real quick which squashes da gas inside da bomb and it goes off.” “Ow long will it take?” Garspark pulled another device from a pocket; this was clearly not of ork manufacture. Hazug had seen such devices in the hands of humans from the Imperium, and occasionally on this planet also. They called them watches, and used them to measure time far more accurately than most orks every bothered to do. Warboss Kromag organised his time in the human way, but he used human staff to assist him do so. The example Garspark had was damaged. Hazug knew that there should be two or three straight bits of metal to show the time, but this only had the largest one present. “Ya ‘ave da time dis takes to go around once,” Garspark said, “should be plenty to get out of da blast radius providin’ dat ya don’t ‘ang about too much.” Hazug took the watch and put it in his pocket. He hadn’t covered time keeping with Sophie yet so he didn’t actually have any idea of just how long it would take for the metal strip to complete a full rotation, but it was too late to do anything about that now. “Right lads,” Hazug said as he picked up the bomb, “get ya weapons ready cause we is off.” The Blood Axes began to check their weapons, and Hazug saw that Sophie was also inspecting hers. “Ya aint comin’,” he told her, “ya aint got wot it takes to sneak into a fortress. Ya’ll just get ‘urt so ya is stayin’ behind.” Sophie just stared at him. “But I want to go with you,” she protested. Hazug gave her the piece of paper on which he had been writing. “If I don’t come back,” he told her, “den I want ya to take dis letter and find Two ‘Eads. It tells ‘im wot to do.” Then he turned away as Sophie continued to stare at him. Then he remembered the crystal fragments in his pocket. He dug his hand into the pocket and pulled them out. “And I got dese for ya when I smashed dat crystal,” and he pushed the pieces into Sophie’s hand. “Right lads,” he then said, “let’s be goin’.” As Sophie watched as the Blood Axes walked away in the direction of the river, followed by Ratish who threw a look in her direction and stuck his tongue out at her. Tears welled up in her eyes at thought of Hazug leaving her here and the possibility that he wasn’t coming back. “What do I do now?” she said. “Read da letter,” Drazzok suggested, and she unfolded the piece of paper that Hazug had given to her that was covered in the pictographs used by the orks. Two
‘Eads, If
Sophie’s given ya dis note den I ‘ave probably snuffed it. If a bunch of
metal lads turn up with shootas watch out for ‘em cause dey is real tough.
Dey is called necrons. Use ya ‘eavy guns to shoot da flyin’ bike things,
and keep clear of dare wagons, even rockets can’t take ‘em out easily. Ya
is probably best just drivin’ over da lads cause dey don’t move dat quick.
Dare’s a runtherd ‘ere wot says dat orks was fightin’ dese necrons ages
ago. ‘E says dey can be beaten if ya can blow up dare fortress. Da
fortress dis lot is usin’ is under da desert near an old human base.
Dare’s some stone spikes and a big ‘ole right above it so see if ya can
get warboss Kromag to ‘ave ‘is kroozers blast it from
space. I want ya
to look after Sophie for me, I got a truck ya can ‘ave if ya do. She can
cook and clean real good, better dan any grot. She don’t eat much, but she
needs lots of water cause she likes to heat it up and sit in it most days
for some reason. But she don’t like ya to see ‘er doin’ it so don’t go
stickin’ a mug in da water while she’s sat in it no matter ‘ow thirsty ya
is. She puts somethin’ in da water dat makes it smell and taste funny
anyway, and ya’ll burp bubbles all night if ya do drink
it. Hazug “See,” Drazzok, who had stood looking over Sophie’s shoulder while she read the letter, “dare aint nothin’ for ya to worry about. Now get me somethin’ to eat, and I’ll tell all about wot’s wrong with Hazug’s plan.” Sophie began to cry, and she threw her arms around Drazzok as she did so, squeezing him. “Wot is ya doin’ now?” he said as he pulled her off, “I is ‘ungry, get me somethin’ to eat.”
|
| 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 miniature design copyright Games Workshop Ltd
This Web Page Created with PageBreeze Free HTML Editor