Da 'Ole Of Death

Chapta 6

Home Page

About Me

Writing

Warhammer 40,000 Fiction


Da 'Ole Of Death

Prologue

Chapta 1

Chapta 2 

Chapta 3 

Chapta 4 

Chapta 5 

Chapta 6 

Chapta 7 

Chapta 8 

Chapta 9 

Chapta 10 

Chapta 11 

Chapta 12 

Chapta 13 

Chapta 14 

Chapta 15 

Chapta 16 

Chapta 17 

Chapta 18 

Chapta 19 

Chapta 20 

Chapta 21 

Chapta 22 

Chapta 23 

Chapta 24 

Chapta 25 

Chapta 26 

Chapta 27 

Epilogue 


Star Wars Fiction

Star Trek Fiction

Other Writing

Warhammer 40k Intro

Galleries

Video

Modelling Projects

Links

“Lower ya guns,” Hazug told the rest of the group as he slung his rifle over his shoulder, “and make sure dat staff of yours is drainin’ ya power right Drazzok.”

“Wot ya goin’ to do?” Drazzok asked as he tucked Hazug’s pistol into his belt and drove his staff deep into the sand at his feet.

Hazug didn’t answer the weirdboy; instead he just stared at the orks surrounding them. There were about twenty in all, most armed with bows that creaked as their strings were pulled tight and all carried some sort of crude blade just as their more advanced brethren would. Hazug picked the largest of the orks facing them, an individual who was still much smaller than he was, and strode up to him. The ork raised his bow higher, keeping the weapon aimed at Hazug’s chest. As Hazug drew near the ork stepped backwards, but not in time to prevent Hazug reaching out and with a single swipe he knocked the bow out of the ork’s grip, sending the loaded arrow shooting harmlessly away.

The ork reached for his blade but again Hazug was too quick for him, and with a powerful blow the ork was knocked further backwards and fell clutching at his nose as it bled profusely.

“Who’s next?” Hazug bellowed as he span around, shifting his gaze from one ork to another. All of the orks were now concentrating him, either aiming their bows or brandishing their blades towards him.

Another of the larger orks, this one armed with just a blade, raised his weapon in the air and charged at Hazug with a roar. Hazug side stepped the charge and grabbed the ork as he passed. He lifted up his assailant up off the ground and flipped him over. Then when the ork landed on the ground Hazug delivered a swift kick to his stomach that left him gasping for breath and unable to stand.

“Come on den,” Hazug yelled, picking up the fallen ork’s blade and looking around once more, “Come and ‘ave a go if ya think ya ‘ard enough.”

The other orks remained still, but kept their weapons trained on Hazug, who selected the next largest of the surrounding orks and walked towards him.

“Who’s ya boss den?” he shouted as he neared the ork, “Come on, tell us who ya boss is,” and we waved the blade he picked up.

The ork looked down at the two larger orks that Hazug had incapacitated with very little effort before he spoke.

“You is,” he said, and slowly the entire group of orks lowered their weapons, most of them nodding in agreement.

Hazug turned back towards his friends.

“I learned dat,” he said, “dealin’ with humans. I think it’s called negotiatin’.”

“What happened?” Sophie said, staring in wonder at the orks who were now waiting on Hazug to tell them what to do next.

“Da biggest wos da boss of dis mob,” Drazzok told her, “and Hazug just showed dat ‘e wos bigger and better now 'e’s dare boss.”

“Yeah stupid,” Ratish added, “aint ya figured out ‘ow things work yet?”

“I’m not stupid,” Sophie protested, “I’ve just never seen this happen before.”

“Ya is stupid,” Ratish began before Drazzok interrupted him.

“Shut it da pair of ya. As far as I is concerned ya is both stupid.”

At this point Hazug came back over to them, followed by his new subordinates. The orks gathered in close around Hazug and the others, all eager to prove themselves useful to their new leader. A few also moved closer to Sophie, some leaned in closer to her and sniffed her while others prodded her gently.

“What are they doing?” she asked as she dodged away from those reaching out to her.

“Dey aint seen gits before,” Drazzok told her, “dey is tryin’ to figure out wot it is dat you for.”

“I ‘opes dey eat ya,” hissed Ratish.

“Dey ‘ave a camp near ‘ere,” Hazug said, “so we’ll go with ‘em and stay dare until da mornin’.”

“I though ya wanted to get to where wotever shot down da kroozer wos,” Drazzok said.

“I do,” Hazug replied, “ but we is takin’ dis lot with us too, and I want to teach ‘em some stuff before we go dare. Now let’s get dem flasks filled.

The orks that now followed Hazug found the group’s truck very interesting. They instinctively understood what it did, and knew that they too should have vehicles such as this, but their warband lacked the specialist ork caste necessary to create such vehicles for them. Instead they relied on an alternative form of transport.

The two squiggoths were each slightly larger than the truck, and both of the creatures carried a howdah mounted on its back it which they could carry passengers. One of these was fitted with a large crossbow like weapon that could fire a bolt the width of Hazug’s arm. Drazzok was disappointed when Hazug told him that he still had to ride in the truck because they did not have a length of chain long enough to reach from a howdah to the ground and drain away his excess power. Given the space used up by their supplies there was enough room in the truck for five more orks from the warband and the largest five were eager to claim these places, including the two who Hazug had beaten to gain leadership. Sophie was worried about this, but neither of the defeated orks regarded their loss as anything other than a formality in the transfer of power to a better candidate.

“Bigger and stronger is better and I is bigger and stronger,” explained Hazug when she queried this with him.

Hazug poured the contents of a spare fuel can into the truck’s tank before he clambering into the driver’s seat next to the ork who had taken Drazzok’s place in the front passenger seat while the weirdboy now sat in the back, where he helped himself to some of the stored food.

“Just keepin’ me strength up,” he commented as he devoured a smoked squig.

“Right den,” Hazug said as the truck’s engine spluttered into life, “point da way lad.”

The ork sat next to Hazug did exactly as Hazug had said and pointed in the direction that led to the Blood Axe camp.

“It’s over dare boss,” the ork said.

Hazug accelerated, easily moving ahead of the squiggoths that carried the majority of the warband.

 

When Hazug parked the truck at the camp he took a moment to study the surroundings. The camp itself was a collection of crudely built huts and tents in the shelter of a large rocky outcrop. The smell in the air told him that there was a pool of water nearby, probably in a cave somewhere within the rocks. Such a place would be a likely spot for the fungal growths that produced the various ork species. Given enough time the various specialised castes of orks would appear and this camp could develop into a full-fledged greenskin city.

A few orks had remained in the camp and the noise of the truck’s approach brought them running to investigate. When they saw one of their own sat in the front of the vehicle one called out to him.

“’Ere Gobnok, wot’s goin’ on?”

“’E smacked Feggit and Ghukil,” Gobnok replied with a large grin on his face that suggested that he had not been an eager follower of the warband’s previous leader.

There was some amusement from these orks at the idea of their leaders having been displaced, especially when they saw the damage inflicted to their faces when they also disembarked from the back of the truck and when they heard just how easily Hazug had defeated them.

As Hazug himself got out of the truck he found Sophie standing next to him.

“Wot d’ya want?” he asked her.

“They won’t really eat me will they? Ratish said they might.”

“If dey is thinkin’ of eatin’ ya den dey is likely also thinkin’ of eatin’ Ratish too, and I aint letting ‘em eat either of ya. Ya is too useful, so ya can relax and stop holdin’ dat shoota so tight.”

Sophie looked down; realising that she was still holding the weapon Hazug had given her tightly. She let go of the gun and let it hang on its sling, now longer worried that she would have to keep an eye out for any hungry orks.

“Right,” Hazug said, “now ya don’t look like ya is about to start shootin’ lets go and see wot dis place is like.”

The camp was strewn with litter, broken and discarded possessions plus scraps of waste food could be seen everywhere.

“Why aint grots cleaned dis up?” Hazug asked, waving his hand at the rubbish.

“Wot grots?” one of the wild Blood Axes asked.

“Well dare should be grots around who’ll clean all dis up.”

“When grots come out of da caves dey just try and steal stuff so we chase ‘em off,” Gobnok said.

“Well of dey’ll try and steal stuff if ya don’t give ‘em anythin’ to do,” Hazug said, “if ya keep ‘em busy dey aint got time to go thievin’.”

The Blood Axes looked at one another and considered this for a while.

“So, ‘ow do we get ‘em to do wot we want ‘em to?” one of them asked.

“Ask ‘em,” Hazug said, irritated that being the new leader of this warband meant that he also had to try and civilise them, “but dey won’t do wot ya say so ya will ‘ave to give one of ‘em a good kickin’ until ‘e does. Make sure da other grot see ya doin’ it too. Dat way ya won’t ‘ave to kick da others as ‘ard to get ‘em workin’ for ya. Now go find us some grots, I got stuff I need to teach ya all and I aint doin’ it in this squig pit,” and he kicked a half eaten squig across the camp.

When the two squiggoths arrived only Hazug Drazzok, Ratish and Sophie were in the camp, the other orks had gone off to track down wherever the gretchin in the vicinity were living. Hazug explained to the newly arrived orks about how gretchin were supposed to clean up after them just as he had with the others, and while this was at first a difficult concept for them to grasp the orks did notice the improvement that had been made with just Ratish picking up the rubbish and dumping it all at one end of the camp.

The other orks returned as the sun was setting, bringing with them over a dozen gretchin. Hazug noticed that one appeared severely bruised, while two others also appeared to have been slightly injured.

“Dat’s it lads,” Hazug shouted, “Now get ‘em working while I teach ya somethin’ important.”

With a handful of shouts and slaps the gretchin were set to work. Ratish enjoyed this, since he knew more than these other gretchin about what was expected he became their de-facto leader and was able to avoid the worst of the cleaning up himself. Though both Hazug and Drazzok noticed that Sophie appeared less than happy at Ratish’s new influence.

Meanwhile, the orks all gathered around Hazug who had at his feet a crate that he had taken from the truck.

“I is about to teach ya one of da most important things ya will ever ‘ave to know,” he said seriously and took one of the handguns Ratish had found at the crash site and handed to the nearest of the orks, “dis is a slugga, it’s a weapon and ya is goin’ to learn ‘ow to use one,” he proceeded to take more of the guns from the crate, “pass ‘em around, though dare aint enough for one each.”

Naturally it was the larger orks who each got a pistol, while the others just looked on enviously.

“So wot do we do?” Feggit asked as he stared at the empty weapon he was holding.

Hazug drew his own pistol and removed the magazine as he did so.

“Ya do dis,” he said and he slammed the magazine back into the gun and chambered a round, “now its ready for firin’. Ya aim it like a bow, like dis,” and he aimed the gun away from the cluster of orks around him, “and ya pull da trigger.”

The single shot rang out, startling both orks and gretchin who had never heard gunfire before. The orks quickly regained their composure however, instinctively knowing that this was something that they were born for. Those with guns now moved closer to those who had them, trying to get a better look and prompting the armed orks to shove several of them back.

Next Hazug picked up a box that contained all of his pistol magazines.

“Pass dis around,” he said, giving the box to the nearest ork, “I wants each of ya to take one magazine from da box and put it in ya gun like I showed ya. If ya aint; got a gun just take a mag and pass on da box.”

The orks scrabbled for the box as it was passed around, and Hazug was satisfied to see all of the orks with guns were repeating his loading demonstration without fault. He stood up and spoke again.

“Now everyone in two lines over ‘ere lookin’ out to dem rocks over dare. Dem with guns in front, dem without behind.”

This took a bit longer as the orks sorted themselves out into the line formation requested, an unnaturally regular formation for most orks.

“Now cock da guns and point ‘em at da rock,” Hazug said from behind the orks, and there was the sound of bullets being chambered into the guns. When Hazug saw that the front row of orks was now all pointing their guns towards the rock they were facing Hazug shouted a single word.

“Fire!”

Almost simultaneously the orks each fired a single shot at the rock, and Hazug noticed that at least some of them had hit the target.

“Again!” Hazug shouted and there was a second volley of gunfire followed by some puffs of dust that suggested again some of them had hit the target.

Two of the orks decided to try a third shot without being told to, but their guns produced nothing but a ‘click’ as the firing pins struck only empty chambers.

“I only gave ya two bullets each,” Hazug said, “now take out da empty mags and give da guns to dem without so dey can ‘ave a go.”

As the orks were passing the guns between themselves there came a shout from the other side of the camp.

“Keep da bleedin’ noise down!” Drazzok yelled, “I is tryin’ to get some sleep over ‘ere.”

“Carry on lads,” Hazug told the orks, “I wants each of ya to ‘ave a go shootin’ at da rock, and while ya is doin’ it I’ll be shutin’ up a whingin’ weirdo.”

 

 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