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Da Portal of Darkness Chapta 16 | |
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Da Portal Of Darkness Chapta 16 |
“Thirteen are you there? Thirteen can you hear me?” Krixus signalled over the vox network, but there was no reply until another vehicle responded in place of the one he had been trying to reach. “This is eleven sir,” a human voice said, its tone indicating fear, “twelve and thirteen are both down. The orks have been joined by a second vehicle, a tank this time. We are firing on them but we don’t have the weapons to destroy something that big. What should we do?” “A tank?” Highbalt exclaimed when he heard the report, “Krixus, get your men to do something, send your rhino after them.” “Calm yourself governor,” Nillotep cautioned him, “the chaplain is well aware of what he needs to do.” Krixus paid no attention to what either of his companions in the vehicle had said; instead he set his vox to broadcast to the entire column. “Maintain formation,” he ordered, “all Word Bearers stand by to engage an armoured target. You have permission to use grenades.” “You see,” Nillotep said, “he knows exactly what to do.” Sophie had heard the approach of the first ork vehicle before the shooting had started and had attempted to look and see who was approaching, hoping that it would be Hazug, but her captors had simply pushed her back onto the bench. At first the soldiers around her appeared calm enough, obviously not believing that they were under significant attack, but when the first vehicle exploded their demeanour changed to one of concern and one of them took a look at their attackers for himself. “It’s a tank!” he cried out, “The greenskins have a fething tank!” Remaining in her seat, Sophie also looked out of the back of the truck just in time to catch a glimpse of green and grey painted ork vehicle swerve out from behind the column, and she saw who was driving it. “It Hazug!” she called out, “He’s come to rescue me.” A few moments later another vehicle at the back of the column spun out of control and turned over, at which point the marines sat at the front of the truck’s cargo area both stood up and moved towards the back, readying their weapons. The next vehicle in front of Hazug’s truck was another open topped vehicle like the last one, but unlike that vehicle this one was occupied only by ordinary human troops who opened fire as soon as Hazug’s truck came into view. “’Eads down again lads,” Hazug said, ducking down again as bullets bounced off the truck, then he added, “Ya can ‘ave a go at ‘em if ya want Thuggrim, I don’t sees Sophie dare,” and there was the sound of gunfire as Thuggrim opened fire. Hazug didn’t bother to assess the damage inflicted by Thuggrim’s shooting, instead he accelerated, overtaking the open topped truck and moving further along the column of human vehicles in his search for Sophie. Unlike the last two vehicles, the next one had its rear are covered, and only a handful of the passengers could fire at Hazug’s truck from the opening at the back. Hazug threw a glance at Drazzok. “Not dis one,” the weirdboy said, holding up Sophie’s hair so that Hazug could see that it still pointed ahead, though it was now diagonal, suggesting that Sophie was close. Hazug kept up the truck’s speed and passed the human vehicle. The gunfire from its passengers ceased as his truck began to overtake it and left the line of fire allowed by the covered rear area they occupied. “Dis one!” Drazzok shouted as Hazug’s truck approached the next human vehicle, another one with a covered rear area, “She’s ‘ere!” Hazug looked towards the hair and saw that it pointed directly at the rear of the vehicle immediately ahead of them. “Never mind da ‘air!” Drazzok shouted, “Dare she is!” and he pointed at the human vehicle. “Hazug!” Sophie yelled from the human vehicle as he looked towards her, then she was pulled away from the opening by one of the human troops also aboard. An explosion from behind Hazug caught his attention for a moment as Two Heads’ battlewagon destroyed one of the vehicles that he had driven past, and when he turned back towards the truck that held Sophie she had disappeared from view. Instead another pair of space marines in their curiously distorted armour stood in the opening aiming their weapons. “’Old ya fire!” Hazug shouted before any of his passengers could shoot at the marines, “Ya’ll ‘it Sophie,” then he swerved sharply to avoid the short bursts of gunfire from the marines. There was an almighty crash from behind the truck and one of the madboys gave out a shout. “’E got da git wagon,” the madboy shouted, pointing to where the battlewagon had just rammed the human vehicle immediately behind them, smashing it to pieces. Now both ork vehicles were trailing the vehicle that held Sophie. “Sophie’s in dare!” Hazug bellowed as loud as he could towards Two Heads, and he waved at the human vehicle, “Don’t shoot it wotever ya do,” in response both of Two Heads just nodded and Hazug saw him ordering his gunners to hold their fire. Unlike the orks, the marines did not withhold their fire, and another burst was directed at Hazug’s truck, punching several holes in its bodywork and forcing Thuggrim to duck away from the gun, but otherwise inflicting no damage. Hazug increased his speed slightly, and pulled alongside the truck. “Wot ya doin’?” Drazzok asked, “Ya git’s in dis one.” Hazug was correct about the marines being unable to target his truck when it was level with their own vehicle, and instead they were now focusing on the battlewagon that still trailed them. One of the marines continued to shoot at the battlewagon with his bolter. The explosive tipped rounds were unable to anything more than scratch the paintwork of the heavily armoured ork vehicle, but they did force the exposed gunners and Two Heads to retreat back inside. While the first marine provided this covering gunfire, his companion slung his bolter and reached down to his belt where he kept his grenades and pulled one free. With a flick of his thumb, he released the safety pin and then he hurled it towards the battlewagon. As the explosive flew through the air tiny fins popped out of its sides and instead of tumbling, it flipped around and followed a neat curve, the same face pointing in the direction of its travel continuously. The grenade landed directly on the frontal armour plate of the battlewagon, and the shaped explosive charge it held, perfectly aligned by the grenade’s stabilising fins detonated. The sound of the explosion echoed through the inside of the battlewagon, and most of its occupants flinched at the sound. Two Heads however, was not easily unnerved. “Ha! Ya’ll need to do better dan dat,” he shouted through one of the battlewagons vision slits, and he waved a fist at the marines. Almost as if he had heard and understood Two Heads, the marine drew another anti-armour grenade from his belt and removed the pin. He paused for a moment while he judged the correct angle and distance required before throwing the grenade at the battlewagon. Once again, the grenade righted itself mid flight and struck the battlewagon. But this time, instead of hitting the heavy armour plating at the front of the battlewagon, it struck to the side, hitting one of the massive forward wheels. The explosion shredded the tyre and as the side of the battlewagon dropped the exposed metal wheel rim dug into the ground and bent the axle, sending the heavy vehicle into a spin. Hazug’s passengers watched in disbelief as the battlewagon was forced to a halt. “We ‘as to stop dis wagon now,” Hazug said, “before we gets too far away from Two Heads and ‘is lads.” “So ‘ow d’ya suggest we does dat den?” Drazzok asked. Hazug looked over at the human vehicle that he was driving along side. Still unable to shoot at him, the only fire that Hazug’s truck was taking came from the vehicle immediately ahead of it in the column. It seemed that this vehicle contained no marines, and the handful of humans firing from the opening at the back of the vehicle were unable to properly aim their weapons while it was on the move so they presented little threat. Hazug noticed that the cab of the human vehicle was open at its sides, and he had an idea. “Ratish, get up ‘ere,” he said without looking away from the human vehicle, “and bring ya slugga.” Ratish scrabbled towards his master, clutching his pistol in one hand. “Ratish is ‘ere master,” the gretchin said from right behind Hazug. “Right, I wants ya to ‘ang on to da side of me trukk and I’ll smash it into da human wagon. When I does, I wants ya to jump on ‘em and stop dare wagon. Goddit?” “Ratish understands master,” Ratish replied, and he climbed past Hazug to stand on the running board to his side, his pistol still held in one hand and his other holding onto the roll cage of the truck, “Ready master,” he added. Hazug steered towards the human truck, but its driver swerved away. However, the manoeuvre took both vehicles off the remains of the road and across open country. The human vehicle was not as well built for this type of terrain as Hazug’s was, and it began to lose speed. Hazug steered again and his truck lurched as it slammed into the human vehicle. Ratish saw his chance and leapt onto side of the human vehicle, grabbing holding of a mirror that stuck out of the truck’s side when he landed. Immediately, Hazug steered away once more, keeping the human vehicle beside him. Meanwhile Ratish levelled his pistol at the truck’s driver, but as he was about to pull the trigger the driver swung his arm out and knocked the gun from Ratish’s grasp and it fell to the ground. Unconcerned about the loss of his weapon, Ratish pulled himself towards the driver, screaming. He grabbed hold of the driver and pulled himself closer so that he stared him straight in the face, as the driver stared at him with fear, Ratish opened his mouth wide and bit down on the flesh of the human’s face. The human cried out in pain and instinctively took his hands off the steering wheel and attempted to pull the gretchin off him. His passenger, seeing that the truck was now out of control reached for the steering wheel rather than help the driver, but while he was able to prevent the truck from taking a dangerous path he could not keep up its speed, and when the struggling driver took his feet away from the pedals the truck began to lose speed even more rapidly. Then the driver accidentally struck his passenger has he continued to try and get Ratish away from him, causing him to turn the steering wheel far too sharply and on the uneven ground the truck rolled over. In the back of the tumbling vehicle there were screams from all but the two marines who fell from the rear opening onto the ground behind the truck. With her arms bound behind her back, Sophie could was unable to even try and control her falling, and she screamed when her left shoulder was rammed into the floor of the truck and she felt a tremendous pain as her arm shifted backwards. When the truck finally came to a halt on its side, the pain was still there and Sophie was unable to move it. As soon as the truck began to tumble Hazug slammed his foot down on the brake pedal and brought his own truck to a halt as quickly as he could then he grabbed his warscythe and leapt down to the ground, followed close behind by Drazzok. Hazug lifted his rifle to his shoulder and began to advance on the wrecked human vehicle. Between him and the truck the two marines who had fallen were getting back to their feet, and there was a burst of gunfire from behind Hazug as Thuggrim opened fire with the truck’s gun, aiming a sustained burst towards the large armoured figures. But though Thuggrim’s aim was good and the weapon powerful, none of the rounds were able to penetrate the marines’ thick armour and instead they just jerked under the impact of the barrage of gunfire. But the distraction that this provided was enough for Hazug to be able to close the gap between him and the marines, and before they could bring their bolters to bear on him, Hazug flicked the activation switch of his warscythe and swung it towards the nearest marine. Initially Hazug thought that his strike had missed his opponent, but he was pleased to see that instead the blade of the alien weapon cut through the marine’s thick armour just as easily as it moved through the air and it struck him beneath one of his arms and sliced diagonally upwards until it emerged from the opposite shoulder and split him in two. The remaining marines slammed into Hazug, having cast aside his bolter, the marine was now instead reaching for the pistol and blade at his belt. Hazug attempted to throw off the marine, but the combination of his own weight combined with that of his power armour made him too heavy, but Hazug was able to knock the marine’s blade out of his grip. Realising that the warscythe was too long and cumbersome for use while wrestling with the marine, Hazug deactivated and let go of the alien weapon, and instead he began to grapple for his opponent’s pistol. As strong as Hazug was, the genetically enhanced space marine was stronger, and slowly but surely the muzzle of the pistol that he held moved closer to Hazug’s face. Salvation came from behind Hazug, though he was oblivious to its approach. Drazzok ran up to where Hazug and the marine fought and raised his staff up above his ahead. “Waaargh!” Drazzok yelled the traditional ork war cry as he brought the tip of his staff down on the back of the marine’s neck. Channelling his amassed psychic power through the staff, it punched through the joint between the marine’s helmet and back plate into his throat, and there was the smell of burning meat as Drazzok’s energies cooked the marine’s flesh inside his armour and he went limp before falling to the ground. Hazug picked himself up and retrieved his warscythe. “Nice one,” he said to Drazzok as the weirdboy pulled his staff free of the dead marine at his feet. “Sometime I wonders ‘ow ya youngsters ever get by without me,” Drazzok replied. “Behold the great warrior Drazzok,” Thuggrim called out as he led the madboys to where he and Hazug stood, “conqueror of beakies.” Before anyone else could speak there was a high-pitched shriek from the wrecked truck, and Hazug set off running towards it. “Sophie!” he shouted as he ran, “Sophie, is ya dare?” From inside the truck Hazug could hear groaning, but above that he suddenly heard Sophie’s voice call out. “I’m in here,” she shouted, “help me.” Hazug ran faster towards the truck, and he saw Ratish crawling out of the cab, his face smeared with blood. Hazug ignored his gretchin servant and instead headed straight for the opening at the back of the truck. As he got there a man was attempting crawl out of the back of the vehicle, and Hazug brought the shaft of his warscythe down on his neck, snapping it. Hazug clambered into the back of the truck, and saw a man at his feet struggling to draw a pistol form a holster under his arm. Hazug stamped his foot down on the man’s chest, and there was a cracking sound as his ribs gave way and he lay still, blood pouring from his mouth. “Hazug I’m here,” he heard Sophie cry out, and Hazug looked deeper into the truck where he saw Sophie lying on what had bee the side, but was now the floor of the rear compartment. Ignoring the other human troops who lay in the back of the truck, Hazug walked towards Sophie, treading on some humans as he went. When he reached Sophie, Hazug saw that she was bound with her arms manacled behind her back. He reached down and wrapped an arm around Sophie and helped her up and led her from the truck, standing on human troops once more as he went before activating his warscythe again. “’Old still,” Hazug told Sophie, and he carefully used the tip of the warscythe’s blade to cut through her manacles. Immediately Sophie took hold of her injured arm and tried to support it. There was the sound of footfalls, and Hazug saw Drazzok and the madboys approaching. Additionally, further behind them, Two Heads and his orks had disembarked from their damaged battlewagon and were heading his way. “Wot now master?” came a voice from behind him, and Hazug turned to see Ratish wiping the blood from his face, taking some of the grime beneath it off as well. Apparently the blood was not the gretchin’s. “We move away from ‘ere,” Hazug answered and with his servants he headed back towards Drazzok and the madboys. “Ya know,” Drazzok said to Sophie, “ya is lucky ya aint bald,” and he reached out and rubber the top of her head, smiling. |
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