|
Da 'Ole Of Death Chapta 26 | |
|
Chapta 26 |
Deep below Hazug and the necron lord continued to struggle for control of the warscythe. The two combatants stood facing one another, each holding on the weapon between them at arms length. Neither of them wished to let the other get too close in case they launched an attack from some unexpected quarter. Hazug looked briefly towards the stairs again, but the necron did not adjust its view in the slightest, even though it was slightly shorter than Hazug it continued to stare him straight in the eyes. “Do it!” Hazug shouted. The necron remained silent, it did not understand what Hazug was referring to, nor did it care. It just wanted to kill him and fort that it needed the warscythe. The necron noticed Hazug glance quickly at the stairs once more. “Do it!” he shouted once again, and the necron attempted to determine what Hazug was talking about. “Do it ya useless bloody grot! Take da shot!” Retaining its hold on the warscythe, the necron turned rapidly to face the stairs, and there at the bottom of them it saw Ratish pointing his battered pistol straight at it. Glowing brightly, the necrons eyes stood out in the gloom of the chamber and they made easy targets for Ratish, gretchin possessing much better marksmanship abilities than orks. The single shot that Ratish’s pistol carried echoed as he squeezed the trigger back and the gun kicked upwards violently. There was the sound of breaking glass as the bullet penetrated the necron’s left eye and it head jerked backwards and to the side. More importantly, its grip on the warscythe relaxed. Hazug stepped backwards, pulling the weapon free of his opponent’s remaining hand. He lifted it over his head and brought it crashing down on the necron from the side. The blade cut through the necron’s head and continued on through it body, finally emerging near the base of its spine. For a brief moment the necron was motionless before the back of its body and head began to slide towards the floor while the front half toppled forwards. Then there was the customary green glow, and the pieces disappeared without a trace. “Ratish do good master?” Ratish said as Hazug hobbled towards the stair, his knee still aching from the necron’s kick. “Yeah grot, ya did good,” Hazug said as he looked at the watch, “now lets get out of ‘ere before it all blows up. I don’t think dat dare’s much time left.” “Dare’s more of ‘em upstairs master. Ratish came to warn master,” Ratish said as they began to ascend the stairs. “I reckon I can ‘andle ‘em, I still got dis big choppa after all.” “Wot about dare teeth master?” Ratish asked, pointing at the ork bodies on the floor. Hazug paused for a moment. “We aint got time to pull teeth grot,” he said, “so just grab dare money pouches and any ammo dey ‘ad left and let’s get goin’.” The necron army had broken into the city. Their pyramid vehicles had fired one volley after another at a single point on the city walls and blasted a breach in it wide enough for three of them to pass through side-by-side. The vehicles did not advance, however, instead they remained outside of the city and took over the task of keeping the ork stompas separated from the city’s other defenders. Meanwhile, the legion of troops that the necrons had assembled outside of the city began to march through the gap and onto the streets. Ironically, as the necrons forced their way into the city that the orks had fought so hard to keep them out of, they found themselves in an environment where the orks held the advantage. Greenskins, especially orks, excelled at the short ranged brutal combat that occurs when armies fight in built up areas. Bands of ork warriors used the myriad of tunnels normally used by gretchin workers to move about the city discretely to move past the invading necrons and strike at them from unexpected directions, while the superior shooting skills and ranged weapons of the necrons counted for little when much of the fighting took place hand-to-hand. It was only the innate toughness of their armoured bodies and their ability self repair that prevented the necron army from being completely wiped out by the city’s defenders as soon as they stepped through the breach. Hazug looked down at what was left of Ghukil and Gobnok. It was clear to see that one of them, Ghukil apparently, had used a grenade against necrons who had been standing right next to him and their bodies had been ripped apart by the explosion confined in the passageway. But in spite of their deaths they had held back the necrons and allowed Hazug to plant the bomb. “Nice work lads,” he said as he stepped over their remains and through the doorway, before adding, “pick up da big shoota grot, it worth seven teeth, no sense leavin’ it ‘ere.” Ratish picked up the automatic weapon and supported it on his shoulder, and then he followed Hazug out of the spire. Hazug was hurrying towards the necron teleporters, and though the kick to his knee still bothered him somewhat his ork physiology made sure that he was not so badly impaired by the injury that he suffered anything more than a slight limp, though the necron warscythe came in handy as an improvised walking stick. He knew that that too would heal given a few days, providing he could escape from this place before the bomb detonated of course. “Hurry up grot,” Hazug said, noticing that Ratish was lagging behind, “now aint da time for daudlin’.” “Yes master,” Ratish replied. The teleporters were not far from the spire, and before too long Hazug and Ratish were back on the bridge and looking out at the wide-open space that the necrons had assembled their forces on the last time they had been here. The necron army was gone now, through the teleporters to join in the attack on the ork city Hazug supposed, but there was still a small contingent of troops left here. Whether they were guarding the teleporters or were standing ready to step through if commanded to Hazug could not tell. All he knew was that they were in his way. “Looks like ten of ‘em,” Hazug said taking a quick head count of the necron warriors, “all of ‘em with shootas.” “Wot do we do master? Do we sneak up on ‘em?” “I reckon so. Up close I can probably take out most of ‘em,” Hazug said before a sudden thought hit him, “’ere did Ubgrub ‘ave any ammo left for ‘is bug shoota?” “Yes master, Ratish ‘as it in me bag.” “Den give it ‘ere grot, cause I got an idea.” Ratish took what was left of the ammunition belt for the heavy weapon from his bag and gave it, along with the gun itself to his master. Hazug loaded it, and steadied it on the wall that concealed them. “I is goin’ to give ‘em da entire belt,” he explained, “I reckon dat den dey’ll start marchin’ dis way, and when dey does we’ll leg it around behind ‘em and go through da teleportas. Goddit?” “Yes master.” Hazug aimed for the centre of the necron unit near the teleporters. For a few moments he tried moving the gun around to see how wide his arc of fire was, then he returned to pointing it at the centre of the group once more. Then he fired. Hazug held the trigger down and hosed the necron squad with gunfire, and with glee he saw that three of them fell to the ground, while only one got back up before the ammunition was all expended. Turning to face the direction of the attack, the necrons spotted Hazug’s firing position and they began to advance. “Right, dey is comin’. Take dis,” Hazug said as he gave the gun back to Ratish, “and let’s get movin’.” The necron squad advanced along a street that ran along the edge of the ravine, so Hazug could see that his attack had lured all eight of the surviving necrons away from the teleporters. “Right leg it!” Hazug yelled, and he and Ratish dashed across to a side street opposite end of the bridge, bolts of green lightning zipped past them as the necrons opened fire. “Ow long do we keep runnin’ dis way master?” “Until we is sure dat dey is not goin’ to ‘ead back to the teleportas.” More energy bolts flew through the air as the necron squad reached the side street and turned down it after the two greenskins. The sound of the necrons’ footfalls quickened as they too broke into a run in pursuit of them. “Next turnin’ we ‘ead back towards da teleportas!” Hazug shouted. “Yes master.” There was a street just ahead that appeared to head in the direction of the assembly area and its teleporters, and Hazug and Ratish ran around the corner with the necrons still in hot pursuit, and found themselves staring straight into a dead end ahead of them. “Ah crap,” Hazug said. “Dey is right behind us master!” Ratish cried out. “I know dat, put down da big shoota and get ya pistol and dagga ready.” Ratish dropped the heavy weapon and drew his own weapons while Hazug pressed himself up against the corner that they had just run around. Hazug listened for the sound of the necrons running after them, holding his warscythe at the ready. As they drew close he roared and spun around the corner, swinging the warscythe by the end of its shaft as he did so. The long tubular grip struck two of the necron warriors as Hazug swung and the force of the impact knocked them both over, while the blade at its end sliced effortlessly through the necks of three more and all three promptly vanished. A shot rang out as Ratish fired his pistol from point blank range, and another warrior collapsed as its knee exploded. It flailed about on the ground as Ratish leapt on top of it and stabbed at its neck repeatedly with his small knife. “Get off it!” Hazug shouted to Ratish as he adjusted his grip on the warscythe to one more suitable, “If it teleports it’ll take ya with it.” Ratish rolled off the prone necron, taking one last swipe at its neck with his knife as he did so. The short blade clipped a critical wire and the necks eyes grew dark just before its emergency teleport system activated and took the warrior from sight. Too close to make effective use of their rifles, the necrons instead had to rely on the short bayonets fixed to their muzzles, but neither Hazug nor Ratish was an easy opponent in such a situation. Ratish moved quickly enough to be able to dodge the few strikes that the remaining four necrons directed towards him, while not only had Hazug been fighting hand-to-hand for his entire life but he was also armed with one of the necrons own weapons, and it was a weapon that continued to proof itself easily capable of despatching its original owners. Hazug rammed the warscythe through the abdomen of one a necron warrior, then freed it simply by cutting across the alien’s body and moved one to the next necron before that one had even begun to fade away. “Lookout master!”” Ratish warned as a necron warrior lunged at Hazug from behind, and its bayonet sliced into the flesh of his leg, just above his already injured knee. Without even crying out, Hazug threw his head back and it smashed into the necron’s face at the same time as he used the handle of the warscythe to strike at another of the necrons. Both of the warriors struck by Hazug’s double strike stepped back in reaction to his blows, and as they calculated their next move Hazug side stepped from between them and turned to face the third necron warrior just as it too lunged forwards with its bayonet aimed at Hazug’s chest. Before the blade could hit Hazug, Ratish dived towards the warrior and tackled it around its knees. The gretchin’s attack had no chance of damaging the necron, but it diverted the alien’s attention away from its attack, and as it looked down at Ratish, Hazug sliced off the arm that gripped its rifle trigger. Attempting to step away from Hazug, the necron was overbalanced by Ratish still holding one of its legs and it toppled to the ground. Ratish let go of the necron as it fell, just as Hazug stabbed it through the chest with his warscythe. Hazug turned to face the final two necrons once more, expecting them to be about to attack once more. Instead he found that they had turned their backs on him and were fleeing from battle. He was about to go after them when he changed his mind. Ratish noticed this and queried it. “Isn’t master goin’ to go after ‘em?” he asked. “Nah, leave ‘em,” Hazug replied,” pick up da big shoota and lets get to da teleportas.” Ratish picked up the heavy weapon once more, and the pair of them ran back the way they had come. |
| 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. |
This Web Page Created with PageBreeze Free HTML Editor