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Da Portal of Darkness Chapta 15 | |
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Da Portal Of Darkness Chapta 15 |
The chimera armoured infantry fighting vehicle was older than most of the soldiers sat inside it and it had seen better days. Its main armaments had long since ceased to function, and now the pintle mounted heavy machinegun was its only means of attack. But even given its current state, the vehicle’s commander was not overly concerned when he spotted the ork truck approaching from behind. “Contact to rear,” he shouted over the noise of the vehicle’s engine before he activated his radio, “Leader this is thirteen, single contact to rear.” In the car near to the head of the column Venris Highbalt sat upright when he heard the call. “What’s happening?” he demanded, but instead of answering him Krixus just held up the palm of his hand. “Thirteen from leader, repeat message.” “Leader from thirteen, single enemy contact to rear.” Krixus was puzzled. “I hear no gunfire, column confirm target identity.” The vehicle immediately in front of the chimera in the column was an open topped flat bed truck. Amongst the passengers was a pair of Krixus’s marines who he had spread around the convoy because their single rhino armoured personnel carrier had lacked enough room for all of them. At the request for target confirmation, both of the marines got up and, steadying themselves on the open frame over their transports cargo area they looked behind the column. “Chaplain this is Yistral,” one of the marines responded, “Target confirmed, single light ork vehicle. Perhaps a dozen occupants, one weapon observed but no fire yet.” “What are you waiting for Krixus?” Highbalt snapped, “We must halt the column and engage the orks.” “There is no need for that governor, “Krixus answered him, “there is only a single light vehicle, the vehicles to the rear can easily destroy it before it threatens us here without us needing to waste time by breaking up our formation,” then he activated his vox unit again, “All vehicles stay in formation and stand to, fire on the orks as the present themselves,” then he terminated the link, “You see governor, that is all we need to do.” Hazug’s truck was almost level with the chimera at the rear of the column when heard Thuggrim open fire with the trucks only weapon. There was a burst of fire that was unusually short for an ork gunner followed by the sound of empty cases bouncing across the floor of the truck. A yelp from one of the madboys suggesting that at least one hot case had landed on top of somebody. “Cut it out with da big shoota!” Hazug shouted, “If Sophie’s in dat wagon ya might ‘it ‘er.” “I wasn’t shootin’ at da wagon,” Thuggrim protested, “I was shootin’ at dat git wot was getting’ dare own big shoota ready.” Hazug looked towards the armoured vehicle he was closing on, and he saw that there was no the body of a human slumped in the hatchway located on the vehicle’s small turret where a weapon similar, but smaller to the one on his vehicle was mounted. As he watched an arm appeared through the hatchway and dragged the body back down inside the vehicle. A moment later another human began to climb up to the weapon. “Do it again!” Hazug shouted, pointing at the man now getting the weapon ready to fire, and Thuggrim sprayed bullets at the turret once more, hitting the human squarely in the chest with the large calibre rounds. This man’s body remained slumped over the heavy gun, and instead of the other occupants of the vehicle attempting to take it over they threw open the much larger hatch behind the turret, where Hazug knew the internal seating for the troops the vehicle carried to be located. Several humans then appeared in the hatchway armed with an assortment of automatic rifles and shotguns, which they aimed at Hazug’s truck. Hazug adjusted the pressure of his foot on the accelerator pedal so that the truck drew level with the armoured transport as buckshot and solid rounds bounced off the truck. He didn’t want to risk overtaking the vehicle, even though he doubted that the main turret mounted cannon was not functional since the humans had not attempted to use it, there was another gun mounted on the front of the hull that may still be operational and Hazug wanted to keep out of its fire arc. “Keep down lads,” Hazug said, as he himself ducked down lower for better protection. His truck was proof against the puny weapons the humans were using, but their projectiles could still injury or even kill an exposed ork. “Waargh!” Hazug heard the war cry come from immediately behind him and he risked a quick glimpse over his shoulder. In the rear of the truck he saw that one of the madboys had lowered the boarding plank towards the chimera alongside them. “Not now ya loony!” Hazug shouted at the madboy, but it was too late. The ork let go of the rope holding up the plank and it dropped onto the chimera’s side, its tip landing on the exposed track of the armoured vehicle. Immediately the madboy began to run along the plank between the tow vehicles with his weapons held high, still screaming. The humans firing form the top of their transport shifted their aim towards the ork attempting to board them and a volley of bullets and shot sent the unfortunately greenskin tumbling to the ground below. A second madboy suddenly leapt for the plank and attempt to make the crossing to the chimera but, before he too could be shot down by the human warriors, the chimera’s track which had been digging into the end of the plank from the moment it dropped onto them ripped it clear of Hazug’s truck and both the plank and madboy fell. There was a loud scream, and Hazug felt his truck lurch as the ork was pulled beneath its rear wheels. “Ratish think we ran ‘im over master!” Ratish shouted, looking at the ork’s broken body on the ground behind them as the vehicles continued to move forwards at speed. Hazug didn’t answer, he knew that he’d run over the madboy, but it was the madboy’s own fault for using the boarding plank too soon. What was a problem was that now the plank was gone for good. “Ratish!” Hazug shouted, “Grab a bomb from me bag and see if ya can get inside dat wagon.” “Yes master,” Ratish replied with a grin and he began to rummage through the bag of Hazug’s personal gear in the back of the truck. Finding a stick grenade, Ratish’s grin grew bigger and he moved to the side of the truck nearest to the chimera. “Gis it ‘ere, I’ll lob it,” a madboy said and he snatched the grenade from the gretchin and hurled it at the chimera. It sailed through the air and dropped through the large open hatchway into the chimera’s troop compartment. “Ya did it!” Thuggrim yelled, “Nice one lad!” “Yeah,” Drazzok added, “now we just gotta ‘ope one of da gits pulls out da pin so it’ll go off,” and he reached out with his staff and struck the madboy over the head. “Get another bomb!” Hazug shouted at Ratish, and the gretchin scrabbled back across the truck to search for a second grenade. Before he could find one there was a massive ‘boom’ and smoke billowed from the chimera beside Hazug’s truck. Its occupants ceased firing, and the vehicle fell back. Then, following a second detonation the chimera flew apart in flames. “See, dey did pull out da pin!” the madboy who had thrown the grenade shouted, pointing at the burning wreckage. “Or more likely it was dem!” Drazzok shouted back at the ork and pointed behind the truck to where Two Heads’ battlewagon could be seen racing down the hill at top speed, smoke still coming from the barrel of its main cannon and Two Heads himself waving from an open hatchway. “Can ya tell where Sophie is yet?” Hazug asked, and Drazzok held up the length of hair again. “I don’t reckon its dis next one,” Drazzok replied, then he added, “Oh crap.” “Wot?” Hazug asked, then he too added “Oh crap,” as he looked at the next human vehicle in the convoy. Unlike the chimera this was just a lightweight open topped transport, remarkably similar to Hazug’s own truck. But in the rear of this vehicle a pair of giant space marines stood bringing their weapons to bear on the orks. Hazug had never seen space marine before, and though he knew them to be giants compared to ordinary humans, these were not what he was expecting. The deep red armour that covered them completely had an unusual appearance, instead of the crisp lines Hazug had expected these two warriors were protected by suits that appeared to have been repeatedly embellished with details such as horned helmets and power backpacks that looked to have been stretched, bringing their cooling exhausts further from the marines’ bodies than was generally shown in orkish drawings of Imperial marines. But whatever peculiarities there may have been about these marines they were still dangerous foes. The marines maintained their balance in their vehicle without needing to keep hold of the cage above the, this left them each with both hands free to support their bulky weapons. Hazug swerved as both marines fired simultaneously, their four round bursts passing by the truck harmlessly. “Shoot ‘em!” Drazzok shouted at Thuggrim, “Da git we is after aint on dis truck.” Thuggrim lowered the angle of the belt fed gun he was manning, and sprayed the rear area of the human truck ahead of him with automatic fire. The bodies of the human occupants jerked wildly as the massive bullets tore through them, rupturing organs and shattering bones. But the two marines did not even flinch, the thick ceramite armour plating that covered their entire bodies held firm against the relatively soft projectiles which just bounced off them, some subsequently hitting their more fragile human companions. Hazug swerved again as Thuggrim stopped firing in order to load a fresh belt of ammunition into the gun. At the same time, there was a whistling sound followed by an explosion to the side of the column of vehicles as Two Heads’ battlewagon fired its main gun once more but failed to hit its target. Hazug chanced a glance behind his truck and saw that the battlewagon was closing on the column. While it lacked the top speed of Hazug’s truck, Two Heads made sure that the red paint of his vehicle was always kept in good condition. Even a non-Evil Sun like Hazug knew that ‘red ones go faster’, and the paint job that Two Heads maintained gave his battlewagon a better top speed than the human vehicles it was now pursuing. Several of the madboys began to fire at the marines on the truck in front of them, but just like the rounds from the truck’s own gun, their pistol rounds were deflected harmlessly away by the marines’ power armour. In return, the marines targeted the truck with short bursts once more, and one of the madboys who had risen to fire at them was struck, the explosive projectile taking his arm off messily. The wounded ork toppled from the truck and fell to the ground. Hazug didn’t bother slowing down to try and help him, if he was already dead there was nothing that could be done for him, and if not then he would just have to walk it off. There was another rattle of automatic fire, this time from behind the truck and as Hazug risked another glance over his shoulder he saw the battlewagon now drawing level with him. The marines on the truck now turned their attention towards the much larger threat, and Hazug saw his chance. He sped up alongside the human vehicle until he was personally alongside its driver, then he reached down to his belt and yanked out his pistol. Hazug reached out his arm and used the butt of his pistol to smash the window of the human vehicle’s cab and roared at the driver who, with his eyes wide opens in terror swerved away from Hazug’s truck and out of Hazug’s reach. Hazug matched the manoeuvre, and reached out towards the human driver again. The last thing that the man saw was Hazug’s pistol pointing directly at him before the ork nob snatched the trigger back and blew most of his head off. The result was immediate, moving at high speed and without its driver, the truck moved out of control and flipped over, sending the pair of marines it carried flying through the air. “Get ‘em Gorrid!” Two Heads shouted when he saw the armoured warriors land in front of his vehicle, and Gorrid steered the battlewagon directly at them. Briefly disorientated by being thrown form the truck, neither of the marines were quick enough to avoid the oncoming vehicle and it drove over them both, crushing them beneath its massive weight. |
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