Da Portal of Darkness

Chapta 12

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  Da Portal Of Darkness

Prologue

Chapta 1

Chapta 2 

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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 

Epilogue 


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Rhia still twisted in the straightcape, even though it had been designed precisely to stop someone from being able to just wriggle their way out of it.

“For the Emperor’s sake Sophie, you have to help me out of this. Highbalt’s going to unleash a horde of daemons on this planet, I heard him talking about it with those marines or whoever they really are. They’re going to let most of the resistance die by sending them to attack the orks’ airbase just to distract them. People are going to die, don’t you get that?”

“People have already died,” Sophie responded, “Your resistance killed my father, and all those constables this morning. Weren’t they people too?”

“I had nothing to do with any of that, honest.”
”Honest!” Sophie shouted, “What would you know about honest? You lied to me, and you lied to Hazug. When he kills you I hope he lets me watch.”

The argument was interrupted by the sound of the cell door being unlocked, and a group of the governor’s personal guards entered the room.

“Pick her up, we’ll have to carry her,” the leader ordered his men, pointing at Rhia and a pair of them went over to Rhia and grabbed hold of the sides of Rhia’s straightcape and lifted her up between them. While they did this, another of the guards walked over to Sophie and grabbed hold of her arm.

“Right, cuff her and let’s go,” the leader said to his men, and Sophie had her arms pulled behind her back and manacled together.

“What do you want?” Sophie pleaded.

“I told you, “ Rhia said, “their going to kill us.”

“No need to worry about that,” the leader said looking at Rhia, “we’re just taking you for a little drive, that’s all,” and he walked out of the cell, followed by his men as they dragged Rhia and Sophie after him.

 

Hazug could hear the sound of hammering coming from inside the building he now stood outside, his truck parked opposite to it. Raising a fist, Hazug pounded on the door.

“Two Heads where is ya?” he shouted, “Its me, Hazug!”

Hazug waited for someone to come and answer the door, but there was no response, instead just the continued sound of hammering, so Hazug pounded on the door again.

“Two Heads!” he shouted again, still striking the door with his fist, “Open da door!”

This time there was another sound in addition to the hammering as a bolt was pulled back from inside the door and it opened just enough for and ork to peer out from inside the building.

“Wotcha Morfang,” Hazug said, recognising the ork who stared at him.

There was the sudden sound of something heavy falling over and breaking and Morfang winced before replying to Hazug.

“Wotcha want?” he asked.

“I needs to speak to Two Heads,” Hazug said, trying to look past Morfang into the garage, “Is ‘e in?”

“’Ang on a mo, I’ll just get ‘im for ya,” Morfang answered and his face disappeared from the gap, “Boss! Dat Blood Axe is ‘ere for ya!” Hazug heard him yell.

“’Ang on mo,” a shout came from further inside the building. It had a strange echoing sound to it.

“Dat’s wot I already told ‘im,” Morfang said before his face appeared once more, “Da boss’ll be right ‘ere,” he told Hazug.

Hazug just nodded, and a moment later a hand dragged Morfang away from the door and instead Two Heads peered through the gap. Or at least he tried to.

Two Heads Smasha Butt Face of the Evil Suns clan was a mutant; whatever had corrupted the pod in which he had grown before digging his way out had caused him to sprout a second head. This had brought with it some benefits, it had caused other orks to try and pick on him which resulted in him fighting even more than most orks and after winning so many fights so quickly he had built up enough muscle mass to make him qualify as a nob before his tenth year and secondly he grew teeth twice as fast as other Evil Suns, faster even than Bad Moon orks did, and this had made whim rather wealthy. Wealthy enough to be able to afford to own and run his own battlewagon. But it had also brought a major drawback, the two separate heads each had their own brain and there were times when they disagreed about a course of action, being an ork this could easily lead to one head attacking the other. Hazug hoped that today the heads would be in a good mood with one another.

Two Heads struggled to see through the gap, both heads wanted to look at Hazug, but there was room enough for only one. No matter how Two Heads positioned himself one head wound up with its face pressed against either the inside of the door or the wall beside it.

“Do dis Two Heads,” Hazug said, growing tired of waiting for his friend to sort himself out, and Hazug lent his head sideways. Two Heads followed Hazug’s suggestion, and both heads promptly appeared in the gap, both sideways and one above the other.

“Nice one,” one of Two Heads said, “dat’s better.”

“Yeah much better,” the other head added. Then both heads spoke together, “So wotcha want?”

“Can I come in?” Hazug asked, “It’d be easier dan standin’ like dis.”

“’Ang on,” Two Heads answered, one head speaking while the other looked behind the door, “I just gotta move some stuff out da way of da door.”

Two Heads closed the door, and Hazug then heard a massive crash from just inside it before it was opened again, this time wide enough for Hazug to be able to enter. Two heads waved at Hazug to signal that he should come inside, and Hazug entered the garage where he got a good look at what all the noise had been about.

The large red painted half tracked armoured fighting vehicle that was Two Heads’ prize possession was currently standing on four piles of wooden blocks, its wheels and tracks having been removed.

“Wot ‘appened to ya wagon?” Hazug asked, looking at the vehicle.

“Varlug ‘appened,” one of Two Heads replied and the other one just frowned.

“Who’s Varlug?” Hazug asked.

“A new lad wot wanted to join me mob, “ Two Heads said, his other face’s frown deepening, “’e said dat ‘e could drive really good like, but on ‘is first go ‘e drove into a pile of rocks and buggered up all da wheels. Now I needs to replace ‘em all.”

“Sounds expensive,” Hazug said.

Both of Two Heads nodded.

“It is,” one of him answered, “but Varlug’s payin’ for da new ‘uns. I took all ‘is teeth to pay for ‘em, “ then the other head interrupted with, “Well actually I took ‘is ‘ead off with me choppa, but I ‘ung on to it so dat I could pull out da teeth later.”

“Good thinkin’,” Hazug said, and both of Two Heads grinned and nodded again, “so ‘ow long before ya is ready to roll den?”

“Not long, it don’t even need a mekboy,” Two Heads said, “Why, who d’ya want killin’?”

“Whoever’s got Sophie.”

Both of Two Heads just stared at Hazug for a moment before one of him spoke.

“D’ya reckon dat it was da Death Skulls?” he said.

The Death Skulls clan were scavengers who looted abandoned places for anything they thought they could either use or sell, and were also infamous for stealing anything left unguarded and not nailed down. If something was nailed down it was only safe until another Death Skull stole the nails. More significantly, Sophie had previously served a Death Skulls nob before his death at the hands of the tau, and when Hazug first took Sophie in himself he had been aware of the possibility that another member of that clan could come looking for her.

“Nah, it was other humans wot took ‘em. Dat Rhia’s one of ‘em too.”

This surprised Two Heads, and it showed on his faces.

“Ya wants to kill gits?” one of him responded after a brief pause while this sank in.

“Dey is da ones wot shot dat rokkit at ya wagon last winter,” Hazug said, “dey reckoned dat dey could make me swap da rokkits wot I got for Sophie. Da one wot said dat is about an ‘ead shorter now, just like Varlug.”

“Dare’ll be loot yeah?” Two heads asked.

“Possibly,” Hazug answered, “but I’ll give ya five teeth anyways if ya can ‘elp.”

“Done,” Two Heads both said simultaneously and then he turned around to face where his troops were now rolling a large wheel towards the battlewagon, “Get a move on lads!” he yelled, “We is movin’ out as soon as wot we can, dare’s killin’ to be done.”

There was a cheer from the Evil Suns, and several of them waved weapons in the air at the news. Then they returned to the task of repairing the battlewagon, and it looked to Hazug as though they were moving faster than before.

“See,” Two Heads said, “dey’ll be done real quick like.”

 

Good to his word, Two Heads’ troops soon had the battlewagon ready to move, and from their position across the street, Hazug and his passengers heard the sound of the vehicle’s powerful engine starting up, and then watched as one of Two Heads’ orks appeared to open the main door and allow the vehicle to drive out onto the street. The battlewagon turned and pulled up next to Hazug’s truck and Two Heads promptly appeared from a hatch in the battlewagon’s turret and leaned over towards Hazug.

“So wot’s da plan den?” the two-headed ork asked.

“Just follow us,” Hazug said, “Drazzok is leadin’ us to Sophie.”

Familiar with Drazzok’s abilities as a psychic tracker, Two Heads just nodded his heads and ducked back down inside the battlewagon and pulled the hatch shut behind him.

“Is we goin’ now den?” Drazzok asked.

“We is,” Hazug replied.

“Good, den ya git’s dat way,” and Drazzok pointed a finger in the direction that the hair was stretched out in. Grinning, Hazug put his foot down on the truck’s accelerator pedal and sped off.

In side the battlewagon its driver watched as the truck grew smaller as it got further away.

“Wot ya waitin’ for lad?” one of Two Heads asked, then both just yelled, “After ‘im!”

The battlewagon could not normally match the speed of Hazug’s truck, but in the confines of the city streets there were no open stretches of road on which Hazug could get his vehicle up to its top speed in any case, and Two Heads’ driver was easily able to match the truck’s pace. This was also in part due to the rules of ork driving which were much like the rules for all ork civilisation. There were few, but bigger was always to be assumed to be better, even if it wasn’t. This meant that while there were other vehicles around that would not automatically move aside for Hazug’s truck to pass as pedestrians were forced to do, they could generally be counted on to get out of the way of the battlewagon. Only one ork buggy driver tried his luck in getting out of a side street before the armoured vehicle had sped past first, and his vehicle was sent spinning into a bar whose patrons then proceeded to beat him severely for his carelessness.

“Da ‘air aint pointin’ dis way,” Drazzok pointed out as Hazug took another turn, “Ya is goin’ da wrong way again, aint we got enough lads with Two Heads’ mob?”

“Sure we ‘ave,” Hazug said, “but da only thing dat way now is da grot shanties, and da humans aint goin’ to be ‘idin’ Sophie dare.”

“So where is we goin’?” Drazzok asked.

“Dey must ‘ave taken ‘er across da river,” Hazug said, “so unless ya wants to swim across it, I reckons dats we needs to go ‘ire a boat to get us across dare an’ all.”

 

Even during the daylight hours the street outside the hospital turned resistance headquarters was mostly empty. The humans who had lived here before the invasion had mainly been supporters of the despised Imperial governor, and when the humans across the river had risen up in support of the invading greenskins they had either fled or been slain. During her time serving the Death Skulls, other humans had told Sophie of bodies hanging from lamp posts after so many of the local defence forces were called away to resist the orks that the remainder had been overwhelmed. The only sound now was the steady thrumming of the engines of a column of vehicles that was parked immediately outside.

The column was made up of an assortment of vehicles. Most of them were wheeled, but at the rear of the column was a single tracked vehicle that mounted a small turret, while another tracked and armoured vehicle of a different design headed the column. Also near to the head of the column Sophie saw Venris Highbalt standing beside a vehicle that appeared to be in better condition than most of the others, and then she saw a man opening the vehicle’s door for the man to get inside. Apparently he had reserved the vehicle one for his own transport.

Sophie shivered as the governor’s men took her and Rhia towards the column. Without the blanket she again had only her towel to protect her against the cool springtime air, but at least now she was not so afraid that it could come undone at any moment. Rhia meanwhile, still struggled against the men carrying her, yelling abuse at them. For their part, the men carrying Rhia ignored her protests, not even threatening her to keep quiet. Instead they just joked between themselves about how heavy she supposedly was and whether she had considered going on a diet.

“We’ll put her in this one,” the leader of the guards said to the man holding onto Sophie’s arm and he pointed at the nearest vehicle. Like most of them its was a vehicle that resembled Hazug’s truck in its basic design, but rather than being crudely built and with a simple roll cage this one looked much better designed and had its rear area cover by a rigid roof. The dull green paintwork suggested that it was a military vehicle.

Obediently the guard pulled Sophie towards the back of the truck and looked inside.

“Company for you lads,” he said to the men already sat inside, and then he climbed up into the vehicle himself, dragging Sophie along with him. There was jeering form the men in the vehicle as Sophie was pushed onto on of the bench seats.

“Is she yours then Riggs?” the man sat opposite Sophie asked the guard who had brought her here, “Or do we all get a go?” and there was more jeering. Sophie flinched as the man reached out his hand towards her.

“She is not to be damaged,” came a voice from outside the vehicle, and all of the men in sat in the truck with Sophie turned to see a pair of the traitor astartes standing there. Even though it was stationary, the truck lurched as the two armoured warriors climbed aboard, the vehicle’s suspension straining to withstand their massive weight. The marines walked down the length of the truck’s rear compartment.

“Move,” one of them said coldly, addressing the soldiers sitting at nearest to the front of the vehicle, and on each side the soldiers sat there slid further along to make room for the marines in turn pushing Sophie, who sat at the rear, even closer to the opening at the back.

There was more movement outside the truck, and Sophie looked out just in time to see another of the governor’s men lift up the truck’s tailgate and slam it shut. The man then walked out of sight before banging his fist on the side of the truck. The pitch of the engine changed and with another lurch, the vehicle was set into motion.

 

Finding transport to take them across the river was proving troublesome. There were many vessels docked at the time, but still Hazug couldn’t find one to take his group where he wanted to go. The problem lay with Two Heads’ battlewagon, the powerful fighting vehicle was heavy, far too heavy in fact for many of the smaller vessels that normally ran cargo and passengers up and down the river, and the larger ocean going boats had no interest in carrying such a small group and were thus demanding ridiculously large fees. As it happened the solution was provided by an old foe.

During the winter a renegade ork painboy had sought to seize power by means of an army of cyborks that he had brought to the city in barges. Lead by Hazug, a force of orks loyal to warboss Kromag had successfully destroyed all but one of those barges, sending the cyborks and dreadnoughts that they carried to the bottom of the river, but the barge captained by the painboy himself, and carrying two especially large dreadnoughts had sailed further upstream to the gretchin shanty town where he had beached his vessel, offloaded his force and then abandoned it.

Hazug had always assumed that the local gretchin would have ripped what was left of the barge apart, kept what they wanted and sold everything else. But as it happened the gretchin who had discovered the wrecked and empty barge had instead decide to repair it.

“I thought dat da idea was dat we got across da river and den da gits tried to kill us all,” Drazzok said, staring at the barge, “not for us all to drown on da way dare. Some ‘ow I doubts dat even da madboys will get on dat.”

“Da boat is good masters,” one of the gretchin crew assured the orks, but none of the larger greenskins looked convinced, “very good boat.”

“Good boat, good boat,” several other gretchin repeated as they jumped up and down on top of the deck to prove their point.

Hazug walked closer to the boat as it bobbed up and down in its mooring. He frowned as he looked at the forward section of the barge where the hull had torn open when the vessel had been run aground. The wood there looked in worse condition than the timbers that had been used to originally build the barge.

“I don’t see dat we got any choice,” Hazug said returning to the other orks, “we’ll just ‘ave to chance it.”

“Not with my wagon ya aint,” one of Two Heads said while the other head just shook from side to side slowly.

“Don’t worry,” Hazug responded, “I got an idea.”

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