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Da 'Ole Of Death Chapta 22 | |
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Chapta 22 |
Hazug had seen the necron city from high up on the ledge, but from down here at street level it was somewhat more impressive. Vast structures towered over the greenskins as they stood outside the pyramid shaped structure they had just emerged from. But in spite of the size of the surrounding buildings the spire at the centre of the city was still visible. Indeed it provided most of the light that made it possible for the greenskins to see without having to light torches. “Dat’s where I reckon we should go,” Hazug said, pointing at the spire, “its da biggest buildin’ dare is, so its probably da most important,” he then took his rifle from his back and put to his shoulder before darting towards the shadow of the next building along in the direction of the spire. The greenskins began to move off, following Hazug through the city. Unlike ork of human settlements there was no clutter or irregularity to the city. Both of those species frequently constructed decorative sculptures and allowed the growth of plants in their urban areas, but the streets of this city were clear of all of this. Buildings were constructed to serve a purpose, and were not modified in way to reflect the character of the builders. Or maybe it was just that the builders had no character to impart in their buildings, Hazug thought. The lack of these features was a cause for concern to Hazug; the presence of them would have allowed his troops to move through the city with a greater degree of concealment than just keeping to the shadows cast by buildings allowed. Even though they were inexperienced with urban environments, Hazug’s Blood Axes knew it also. “Wot if somethin’ comes boss?” Ghukil asked. “I reckon we’d ‘ear da lads walkin’ on da roads,” Hazug said, “but dare flyin’ stuff and wagons don’t make no noise, so everyone make sure dat ya keep an eye out for ‘em.” The other orks and Ratish all suddenly looked upwards, expecting necron machines to come swooping down upon them right at that moment. Hazug continued to move ahead until he realised that everyone else was still standing where they had been. He looked around and saw them still facing him, but now looking upwards. Had any of them turned around to face the same way that Hazug now was then they too would have seen the machine bearing down upon them. Rather than shout a warning Hazug just opened fire. The necron machine was beyond the effective range of his rifle, so Hazug ceased fire after only a short burst as his troops sought what cover they could. The machine returned fire. Though it was similar to the machines that had attacked them in the desert on the return journey to the ork city it was differently armed. Those machines had been fitted with short multiple barrelled weapons that fired multiple blasts of energy in rapid succession, whereas this machine possessed a much longer weapon with just a single barrel. The energy beam that shot from it’s muzzle when it was fired was brighter than any Hazug had seen these necrons use before aside from the massive weapons mounted on top of their pyramid vehicles. The beam failed to strike any of the orks it was aimed towards, instead it sliced a neat grove across the ground and also up a nearby wall until the machine ceased firing. Ghukil and Ubgrub responded in kind. Hefting their heavy weapons towards the rapidly approaching alien they snatched back their triggers and held them down, sending two streams of bullets flying upwards. The necron mind had established that news regarding the location of the intruders would be given priority among the data it was receiving. Therefore, when a heavy destroyer platform that had been tasked with carrying out an aerial patrol had located them moving through the streets of the city the mind gave the data feed from the destroyer its full attention. The mind watched remotely as the intruders scattered while their leader opened fire on the destroyer, and then saw the flashes from two more automatic weapons launching projectiles at a high rate. Both of them missed. The two streams of bullets flew past the necron machine, boxing it between them. The machine continued to get nearer and Hazug aimed his rifle once more, but this time his hand moved to the secondary trigger that operated the anti-armour rocket that was mounted beneath it. There was a ‘whoosh!’ as the rocket was launched and the rifle kicked back into Hazug’s shoulder. The necron machine fired at the same time. The beam of energy clipped one of the stabilising fins on the rocket and sent it tumbling towards the ground, where it detonated on impact. Beam was neither stopped nor deflected from its path by the impact with the rocket and it continued on its way towards the Blood Axes. Hazug ducked as the beam passed over his head and sliced another grove in the ground before the machine it self flew over him. The destroyer’s data feed clearly indicated to the necron mind that the intruders possessed weaponry that was capable of bringing it down. It was only random chance that had caused the explosive device fired by their leader to miss. The necron mind was also fully aware that the heavy gauss cannon carried by this particular destroyer was not intended for engagements against groups of infantry, it was a procession anti-armour weapon. Should the intruders scatter as a result of casualties then the task of finding and killing them all would be come significantly more difficult. Instead the necron mind ordered the destroyer to disengage as it was passing directly over the intruders. Their exact position had now been established, and other, more suitable, forces could converge on that location. Hazug watched as the necron machine continued to increase its altitude and fly away from him. He then became aware that the other orks were congratulating themselves on driving it off. “We was too tough for it,” Gobnok said. “Yeah,” added Ghukil, “it just legged.” “We need to get out of ‘ere quick,” Hazug said sternly. “Wot for boss?” Ubgrub asked. “Because I’ll dat dat machine is tellin’ its mates where we are right now, so if we aint out of ‘ere soon den we is goin’ to be up to our necks in dem metal lads.” His troops saw his point and nodded in agreement. Then Hazug noticed that Ratish was not with them, instead the gretchin was crouched by the crater left where Hazug’s rocket had detonated and was looking down into it. Then Hazug noticed that light was being cast onto Ratish’s face, light that could only be coming from within the crater. “Wot is ya lookin’ at grot?” Hazug called out. “Ratish can see a tunnel master,” Ratish responded, looking up at Hazug. Puzzled, Hazug walked over to his servant and looked into the crater. However, rather than a crater in the road there was a hole that lead down into tunnel that ran beneath the street. Leaning in closer he saw the tunnel was lined with glowing pipes that were casting the light out of the hole. Hazug stood up straight again and turned to his troops. “Over ‘ere lads,” he called out, “I think dat Ratish ‘as just found us a way to move about without bein’ spotted.” “Wot down dare?” Nizz asked. “Dat’s right lad, down dare. It may be a bit of a squeeze, but it’ll stop dem flyin’ machines comin’ after us. Now everyone get in da ‘ole. Ratish, ya can go first.” “Yes master.” Warboss Zhalrad roared in anger as his troops were driven further back. His army had been split in two. The twenty or so remaining stompas were now cut off from the city itself, and the necrons appeared content with merely containing them rather than taking action to destroy them straight away. The stompa crews on the other hand were making one attempt after another to find a weak point in the necron lines that would enable them to break through and join up with the rest of the ork army. But the weaponry carried by even the standard necron warrior was capable of damaging the heaviest vehicles when used in sufficient quantities, so without their own supporting infantry the stompas were unable to force their way through. Many of the other ork vehicles were now burning wrecks, with ammunition and fuel detonating randomly as flames reached them. The ork crews had abandoned many more of them when they ran out of fuel and were overrun by the necron troops. Now Zhalrad himself had been pushed back so far that he was almost back within the city itself. The only advantage to his current position was that orks on the city walls were now near enough to be able to engage the necrons with small arms fire. Though they were not immune to counter attack, as more of the small fast moving flyers had appeared to repeat the strafing runs of the first wave that had been responsible for the destruction of the fuel reserve. The progress of the battle for the ork city was acceptable to the necron mind directing the attack, however it was not satisfied with the results of the search for the intruders within its own complex. A unit of destroyers had flown over the area where they had last been spotted and there was no sign of them, and only now were warriors getting close enough for a ground search to take place. The feed from the warriors confirmed that the intruders were no longer in the street where they had last been reported, and there were no tracks leading away from the site. A high-resolution scan of the ground revealed the slight difference in temperature of the ground where the intruders had stood, but the shape of tracks indicated that none were in a direction that left the area. The intruders had come here, then moved about the street and simply vanished. All of the doors along this section of the street remained sealed shut, so the intruders had not attempted to escape by hiding in a nearby building. The mind considered the possibility that the necrons had activated some form of teleportation device to relocate themselves, but such a device would have left a significant thermal signature, and there was none. Then the mind observed that there was one particular spot in the street that had a much higher density of temperature hotspots than the rest, locate near damage that had been inflicted by one of the intruders’ high explosive projectiles, and it had the warriors move in closer. There beneath the surface of the street one of the complex’s service ducts was exposed. The heat given off by the equipment within the duct made an infrared scan such as that run on the street itself pointless, but there was no other credible explanation for how a party of armed intruders could apparently vanish into thin air. Sending warriors into the ducts would be risky, they were not optimised for close combat and their weapons could inflict significant collateral damage to the complex’s systems. All of the flayed ones and wraiths that the mind had been able to bring back on line were already committed to the battle for the city. Instead the mind decided that it flood the ducts with large numbers of much lesser units, and it directed some of the remaining tomb spyders to abandon the task of reanimating those who still slumbered and directed them to access points to the service ducts. Hazug was finding the ducts somewhat awkward, even though the light produced by the equipment that lined them meant that they were better lit than the streets above. He was much larger than any of the other orks, and the height of the duct was forcing him to stoop more than was normal for an ork. Fortunately he was the only one in the group so affected, even Ghukil, largest of his troops now that Feggit was dead was able to adopt his usual standing position without striking his head. So Hazug just put up with the situation. What was of greater concern was the direction they were travelling in. They had begun by heading in the general direction of the spire, but without any visible point of reference for them to be able to check their progress they had no way of knowing if they were still travelling in the right direction. Ratish was moving ahead of the orks through the ducts, yelling out whenever he encountered a junction. But he had yet to indicate that he had encountered anything that looked as though it may lead up to street level once more. “Oi Ratish!” Hazug shouted. “Yes master?” came the reply from further down the duct. “Aint dare nothing dat looks like a way out yet? I want to see where we is.” “No master.” “We’ve been down ‘ere ages and dare aint even any vents,” Ghukil said, “wot if dem metal lads need to come down ‘ere and fix somethin’? Where is dare air goin’ to come from?” “I don’t think dat dey need to breathe,” Hazug said, “Dey is machines.” “So does dat mean…” Nizz began before Ratish called out from further ahead. “Master! Ratish ‘ear somethin’!” The orks all stared down the duct ahead of them as Ratish came running back. “Wot is it grot?” Hazug asked. “Lots Ratish think.” “Wot d’ya mean lots?” “Dare is a lot of ‘em, and dey is comin’ dis way master.” Hazug pointed his pistol down the duct. “Get ready lads,” he said and the other orks and Ratish all followed suit, pointing their weapons in the direction Ratish had heard the sound coming from. From around the curve of the duct they saw something moving. Something small and mechanical that crawled along the floor then suddenly took to the air and hovered silently, as all of the necron machines did when they floated above the ground. “Is dat it?” Zhagrad said with disgust, and he fired three shots from his pistol along the duct. The first two missed, but eh second hit the hovering machine and shattered it. The glow from the numerous light sources in the duct would have made the flickering of the necrons’ emergency teleport difficult to see at this distance, but the noise from falling debris confirmed that the remains of the machine had not vanished in the way that the larger ones did when critically damaged. Hazug began to move forwards, but stopped when Ratish tugged at his trousers. “More yet master, Ratish ‘ear dem.” Hazug looked ahead again just as there was the sound of many small metallic footsteps on the floor of the duct and a swarm of the tiny machines came into view. For a moment they paused, and the necron machines and the greenskins just stared down the duct at each other. As one, the entire swarm took to the air and raced towards the greenskins, who, without even waiting for Hazug to give an order, opened fire with pistols and machine guns. The noise of gunfire filled the duct, echoing repeatedly in the confined space. The tiny machines hurtling towards them lacking the resilience of the humanoid and larger versions and they broke apart under the impact of the orks’ bullets. But what they lacked in individual resilience the machines made up for in numbers and when the swarm reached the orks there were still many of them remaining. As soon as the first of the machines came within arms reach the greenskins stopped firing and began to swat at them as though they nothing more than the troublesome insects that they resembled. But even though gunfire was enough to stop them, a simple blow, even from an ork’s fist was not, and all they achieved was to bat the things towards one another. “Use ya choppas!” Hazug yelled. Unfortunately for him he had not brought his old blade with him. He had favoured his necron weapon since he had obtained it, and it was far too long to be of use here so he was forced to continue to just push the machines away when they came in to attack. The other greenskins, Ratish included, did however have some form of axe or blade that they drew, and as Hazug had hoped they proved quite adequate for dealing with individual members of the swarm. Unfortunately each time an ork split open one machine, three or four others were able to attack them with tiny blades mounted on their heads and though each attack did little more than scratch at the thick hide of the orks, they did distract them from their own strikes. Ratish fared slightly better, the machines ignored him almost entirely and he was able to stab at the insect like machines with his tiny knife. Hazug brought his heel down on a machine that had failed to move quickly enough and smashed it. The orks were definitely thinning out the numbers of the machines, but their counter attacks were beginning to take a toll on their stamina, the tiny wounds they inflicted were mounting and most of the orks were now bleeding from several places. “Sod this!” he yelled, and he reached for the large necron weapon still carried on his back, “Down lads!” The other greenskins immediately dived to the floor as Hazug pulled the necron weapon free and swung in a wide, horizontal arc. The blade passed effortlessly through the air, any of the tiny machines that it struck and also the wall of the duct. There was a brilliant flash of light as the impossibly sharp blade sliced through the cables and pipes that lined the duct, and a blast of hot gas came spurting out under pressure. Hazug was thrown back against the opposite wall, crushing more of the tiny machines beneath him, while the blast consumed all of the remaining machines while passing over the prone greenskins entirely. As quickly as it had begun, the flow of the gas was suddenly cut off as the complex’s emergency systems activated to limit the damage and the greenskins began to get back to their feet again, bruised and bleeding but other wise unharmed. “Is master alright?” Ratish asked, rushing to Hazug’s aid. “Yeah grot, I is fine,” Hazug said as he stood up with the assistance of his weapon. Then he looked at the remains of the tiny mechanical insects scattered about them. “Gobnok, ya is on point from now on,” he said, “’ave ya burna at da ready and let rip if ya see any more of dem metal bug things.” “Right boss.”
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