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Da 'Ole Of Death Chapta 25 | |
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Chapta 25 |
Hazug approached the crystal box in the centre of the room. It was larger than his truck along its sides, and it came up to his chest in height. Standing by the box he saw that the top surface was not as featureless as the four sides. Instead some of the crystal had been hollowed out to leave an indentation that looked as if a massive figure had lay down and the crystal formed around it. Hazug looked up to the ceiling, and in the gloom above him he saw another crystal box of the same size immediately above this one. This second box also had a humanoid shape carved out of it. Hazug had seen moulds many times, and the impressions in the two crystal boxes made him think that they were a gigantic mould meant to form an enormous humanoid figure that would be at least twice his height. Hazug could not see any channels through which molten material could be poured into the mould, if that was what it was, nor did he have any idea of what the necrons could want to make in this way, but he could see no other possible function for the crystal boxes. Hazug took the bag containing the bomb from his back, removed the bomb itself and placed it into the impression in the crystal box in front of him, making sure that he aligned it correctly. Then he produced the key that would activate the bomb and reached out to insert it into the slot provided. At the last moment he stopped, remembering the time keeping device that mek Garspark had given him. Rummaging through his pockets he found the device. Hazug inserted the key and turned it at the same time as he started the watch. As he turned the key, Hazug saw a drop of silver coloured liquid fall into the glass tube at the side of the bomb, followed a few moments later bay another. The bomb’s timer was running. Then Hazug turned to leave, as he did so he saw a single necron coming down the stairs. “Behind ya lads!” he yelled at the orks he had left at the bottom of the staircase. All three of the orks spun around and raised their weapons as the necron advance on them. The necron struck first, swinging a bladed weapon identical to Hazug’s in front of it. The blade sliced through the barrel of Ubgrub’s automatic weapon, and took his left hand with it. Clutching at the stump of his wrist, Ubgrub slumped to the floor where he was decapitated by a return swing by the necron. Both Zhagrad and Nizz opened fire with their pistols, but even from point blank range the bullets just bounced off the necron and it was not even slowed by them. Nizz swung his axe and the necron stepped back to avoid the strike. Nizz swung his weapon again, but this time the necron stepped towards him and grabbed his arm as he attacked. The necron’s grip was powerful, and Nizz cried out in pain as a loud ‘crack’ signified that the necron had crushed the bone in his arm. The necron pulled on Nizz’s ruined limb and the young ork was dragged closer, where the necron impaled him through the chest on his blade. Zhagrad leapt backward to put more room between himself and the necron, he knew that the alien’s weapon was useless at a distance so he thought that the more space he put between them the better. He fired another volley of pistol shots at the necron as it pulled its weapon free of Nizz’s body and turned to face him. Sparks flew as the bullets bounced off the necron once more. Rather than charge towards Zhagrad the necron instead gripped its weapon in one hand at its middle and lifted it over its shoulder, pointing it towards Zhagrad. Then the alien hurled its weapon at the ork. The weapon struck Zhagrad at his neck and the impossibly sharp blade cut his head from his shoulders. But the weapon did not stop moving once the ork was dead, instead continuing to fly through the air until it embedded itself deep in the wall beyond Zhagrad. The necron strode forwards and stepped over Zhagrad’s headless corpse to retrieve its weapon. While the alien had been fighting with his troops, Hazug had picked up his rifle once more and aimed it at the lone alien. He snatched the trigger and fired a rapid burst at the necron. The attack struck the necron on its side, most of the bullets promptly bounced off but some of those that struck the alien’s arm penetrated the thinner plating there and the arm suddenly fell limply to the necron’s side. The necron halted and turned towards Hazug, then it looked down at its damaged arm as the damage inflicted by Hazug’s attack began to spontaneously repair itself. Then the necron turned back towards where its weapon was lodged in the wall. Hazug fired another burst at the necron, but the bullets all failed to inflict any damage. Then Hazug reached for the secondary trigger. He was about to launch the rocket at the necron when he instead changed his point of aim to the weapon the alien had thrown. Then he pulled the trigger. The rocket launched with a ‘whoosh’ and it flew directly towards the alien weapon sticking out of the wall. The rocket hit just above the weapon and exploded. Moments later there was a secondary blast, as the rocket inflicted critical damage to whatever equipment lay behind the wall it had struck. The weapon that was lodged in the wall shattered under the force of the two blasts, and pieces of it joined the fragments of the wall blown clear by the explosions. The necron was thrown backwards by the shockwave from the exploding equipment, and it skidded across the floor back to the staircase. Hazug slowly moved closer to the prone alien, inserting a fresh magazine into his rifle. The necron lay still as Hazug approached, but after he had taken about a dozen steps first its fingers twitched and then it sat upright, its eyes glowing red. Hazug lifted his rifle to his shoulder and switched the selector to the ‘turbo-dakka’ position, and then he pulled the trigger. The entire contents of the magazine were discharged in under a second, and the necron took the entire burst in its chest. Yet again the armour plating of the necron’s body proved tough enough to withstand the attack, and not a single round pierced its chest plate. Hazug grunted as he watched the necron get to its feet, all the time staring directly at him. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and instead drew the alien blade. Holding it in front of him he stared straight back at the necron. “Well?” he said out loud, “Wot is ya waitin’ for den? Come and ‘ave a go if ya think ya is ‘ard enough.” Hazug and the necron stood staring at one another as Hazug waited for the alien to make its move, aware that the bomb was armed and he needed to leave. Unfortunately, the necron was blocking his escape from this place. Then the necron did something unexpected, something that Hazug didn’t even know that it could do. It spoke to him. “Krork,” it said in the ork language. “Who?” Hazug replied. “Krork,” the necron repeated, “you cannot escape. You have trespassed where gods are born and for that you will die.” “Da name’s Hazug,” Hazug said, “not Krork. Ya must ‘ave me mistaken with some other nob.” The necron indicated the bodies of Hazug’s troops that lay on the floor. “You are all krork. I fought your kind millions of years past, and I will be fighting whatever other life forms dare to challenge the glory of the C’tan millions of years hence. Your mockery cannot change that. Now give me the warscythe and I will make you death swift and easy.” “So ya call it a warscythe den do ya?” Hazug said as he looked down at the weapon he held, “Pansy name for a choppa, especially a big choppa like dis ‘un.” “You cannot agitate me with your words krork,” the necron said, “I moved beyond such weaknesses when I embraced the will of the C’tan. Now return the warscythe and we will finish this.” “Oh we’ll this alright,” Hazug said, “but I stole dis ‘ere choppa from one of ya dead mates fair and square. So if ya wants it back, ya will ‘ave to come and get ya self.” “You will suffer krork,” then the necron charged. As soon as the necron began to move Hazug also charged straight at the alien and let out a cry. “Waaargh!” The necron reached out to grab the warscythe as Hazug drew close, but the ork surprised it by pulling the weapon closer to his body, and instead of attacking with the warscythe Hazug slammed his body into the necron and both of them tumbled to the floor. The necron recovered first, and it reached out for where the warscythe had landed. But before it could retrieve the weapon, Hazug grabbed the necron by its leg and pulled it back towards him. “No ya don’t,” he said before bringing his fist down on the back of the necron’s head. The attack did no damage to the necron, but in the time it took it to process what had happened and determine that there was no damage Hazug reached the warscythe and picked it up. The necron stood up and lunged at Hazug who swung the weapon at his opponent. The blade sliced clean through the necron’s outstretched arm at the elbow, and its forearm fell to the floor with a clatter. “Need a hand?” Hazug asked rhetorically, swinging the warscythe again. The necron sidestepped the attack, and with its one remaining arm it grabbed the warscythe between where Hazug’s hands were gripping it. Hazug fought to pull the warscythe free of the necron’s grip so that he could launch another attack, but even with just one hand to use the alien’s grip was too strong for Hazug to break it. The necron saw that Hazug was focusing all of his attention on the warscythe, and it lashed out with its leg, kicking Hazug in the knee. “Arrgh!” Hazug cried out as his knee gave way and he collapsed, but he still retained his grip on the warscythe and he dragged the necron down with him. Lying on the floor, with the necron kneeling over him, Hazug continued to try and wrestle the warscythe away from his opponent. The necron spider machine had collapsed in heap following a prolonged stream of gunfire from Ghukil’s automatic weapon, and its remains had faded to nothing as soon as it hit the floor. Then they heard the explosion from beneath them. “Was dat da bomb?” Gobnok said. “Da bomb’s supposed to blow up da ‘ole city,” Ghukil replied, “da boss must ‘ave run into trouble down dare, and ‘e’s ‘ad to blow somethin’ up.” “Should we go ‘elp ‘im?” “Nah. ‘E’s got da other lads with ‘im, dey’ll be alright.” Then, from outside came the sound of marching, and a group of necron warriors came into view from the street where the spider had been positioned just a few minutes earlier. “Besides,” said Ghukil, “it looks like we ‘ave our own fightin’ to do,” and he opened fire again. Hazug had tried to wrest the warscythe free by twisting it, but so far he had had no success. Now he instead looked for an alternate method of attack. Against a human soldier he would have probably brought his knee up between his opponents legs, but Hazug reasoned that the necron would, like an ork, be unaffected by such an attack. Instead he bent his arms some more and brought the warscythe lower until it was lay across his chest. Then, with one sudden movement, Hazug lifted his head up and butted the necron as its head was brought closer to his own. The alien’s head snapped backwards, and when it lowered it to look Hazug in the face again he repeated the attack and watched as the necron’s head jerked backwards once more. The necron was momentarily distracted by Hazug’s unexpected strikes, and Hazug used the opportunity to push upwards with one arm on the warscythe and now it was the necron who was thrown to the floor rather than him. Hazug stood up in an attempt pull the warscythe free of the necron’s grip but, rather than letting go, the necron instead retained a firm hold of the weapon and used Hazug’s pull to help it get to its feet again. Hazug stretched his arms out in front of him, wary of letting the necron get close enough to kick him once more. Then something caught his eye on the staircase. “I’m out of ammo!” Gobnok shouted. Though potentially devastating assault weapons, infantry portable flamethrowers carried only enough fuel for a handful of shots before they need replenishing, and he had just used up the last of what fuel had brought with him to set fire to some of the necrons who were now advancing on the two orks guarding the doorway. “Use ya slugga instead den,” Ghukil told him as he continued to fire his automatic weapon at the oncoming necrons. Ghukil removed the now empty flamethrower’s fuel tank from his back and let it fall to the floor. He drew his pistol and began to fire through the doorway. The necrons outside continued to advance towards the doorway, though some of them fell under the weight of fire being put out by the orks defending it, and not all of them got back up instead of teleporting away. Gobnok lowered his pistol and pulled a grenade from his belt. “Stikkbomb!” he yelled as he hurled the explosive device at the necrons, where it exploded in the midst of them. The doorway had until now provided adequate cover for both of the orks against the gunfire from the necron warriors, but when Gobnok revealed himself in order to throw his grenade he presented too good a target to miss, and several blasts of green lightning struck him. He fell to the ground with a hole burned right through his chest, and the flesh on his face burnt away so that it exposed his skull. He died without a sound. Though momentarily distracted by the death of his friend, Ghukil continued to fire on the necrons as they drew closer until his weapon also ran out of ammunition. There were only three necron warriors left now, and Ghukil drew his pistol to engage them. His first shot was a lucky one, striking a necron in its eye and the alien faded away before it had chance to fall. Ghukil screamed in agony as blasts from the two remaining necrons’ rifles clipped his body and he fell backwards with blood pouring from the massive gashes ripped in his side. The two necron warriors stepped through the open doorway in unison and saw Ghukil lying face down on the floor, bleeding heavily. As they aimed their rifles at the helpless ork, Ghukil rolled over and faced them. “Kop dis,” he gasped, and as he breathed his last breath he let go of the grenade he was holding. |
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