|
Da Portal of Darkness Chapta 17 | |
|
Da Portal Of Darkness Chapta 17 |
“It seems that the orks have broken off their attack,” Krixus said as he received another report, “their battlewagon has been disabled and the occupants of the other vehicle have stopped to pick over the wreckage of unit nine.” “Nine?” Highbalt said, “Doesn’t that one contain one of our sacrifices?” “It did yes,” Krixus answered, “but we still have the other one in unit six.” “So we can just get out of here then,” Highbalt said hopefully. “We cannot take the risk of the oks disrupting out ceremony,” Nillotep replied, “We should destroy them first.” “Agreed,” Krixus added, then he activated his vox once more, “Units seven and eight halt and dismount for battle. Unit six I want you stop long enough for your marines to dismount to join seven and eight, then return to the convoy.” The sound of groaning could still be heard coming from the human truck, and Hazug turned to the madboys around him. “Anyone got some decent beer?” he asked, and the madboys began checking their flasks. “Is dis good enough?” one of them asked, handing a clay flask to Hazug. The Blood Axe nob took the flask, removed the cork and sniffed the contents. It smelled strong which was just what he wanted. “Should do just fine lad,” he said and he took a tooth from his money pouch, “’Ere’s a tooth for it and da flask, “Now I needs a rag,” he added. “Ratish find one ‘ere master,” Ratish said, and he grabbed hold of Sophie’s towel. “Hey get off!” Sophie yelled at the gretchin, and slapped him before he could pull the towel from around her. “Ow, da git ‘it Ratish,” Ratish protested, but Hazug ignored him as another of the madboys handed him a tattered rag that he had been keeping for some unknown reason. Hazug stuffed the rag into the open flask and tipped it upside down, allowing the beer to soak the rag. Then he held it out towards Drazzok. “Give us a spark would ya,” he said, and the weirdboy held a fingertip near to the rag. There was a sharp ‘crack’ as a tiny green spark jumped from his fingertip to the rag and it burst into flames. Acting quickly, Hazug hurled the flask into the back of the overturned human truck, and the groans became screams as the vehicle caught fire with the humans still inside. “D’ya think me beer’ll be alright in dare?” the madboy who had given Hazug the flask asked, staring at the burning vehicle, but the others paid him no attention. The sharp ‘crack’ of a rifle shot suddenly caught the attention of the entire group, and they turned to see a force of humans advancing towards them on foot. Towering over them at the head of the force were the unmistakable forms of four space marines. “Wot now den?” Drazzok asked as another shot rang out. “Leg it,” Hazug said, and he began to run back towards his truck. It took just a moment for the rest of the group to follow him. The shooting had intensified by the time that Hazug reached his truck, but it seemed that the humans were still too far away for their shots to be too accurate on the move. However, there was a much deeper booming sound as one of the marines paused to fire his bolter, and one of the madboys following Hazug fell dead. “Leave ‘im,” Thuggrim said to another madboy who had stopped to pick over the dead madboy’s body, “keep movin’.” Meanwhile, Hazug had pulled his rifle from the back of his truck and he lifted it to his shoulder. He pushed the selector lever mounted on the side of the gun from its current semi automatic position, through fully automatic and into the ‘turbo dakka’ position. Then he snatched back on the trigger. There was a brief but loud roaring as the rifle rapidly emptied its magazine and Hazug was pleased to see several of the pursuing human troops fall, though all of the marines continued on unharmed. “Keep goin’,” Hazug said as the other reached his truck, “we needs to get to da battlewagon, Two Heads can ‘elp us sort dis lot out.” Jarr opened his eyes slowly, and he checked the device that he had been using to monitor his condition. For now it appeared that the medication was keeping the bleeding under control, but he doubted that his condition would remain stable for much longer. Then his attention turned towards the noise that had awoken him. It was the unmistakable sound of gunfire. Using his rifle for support, Jarr got to his feet and made his way to the window and looked outside just in time to see a mixed force of traitor astartes and humans running past the burning remains of an upturned truck. Ahead of them, apparently fleeing was a group of greenskins. Mostly they were orks, but Jarr saw that there was also a pair of gretchin among them. Then he corrected himself, one of the smaller figures was most definitely human, and he activated the optics in his mask for a better view. Yes, there was definitely a young woman accompanying the orks, and she did not appear to be a prisoner. Jarr also saw that three of the orks were larger than the others, two were obviously members of the leadership caste known as nobs, while the third had the appearance of one of their shamans. Who these orks and their mysterious human companion were was unimportant to Jarr, but what did matter to him was that this situation gave him the opportunity to take out some more of the traitor marines on the planet. He retreated away from the window and dragged a simple wooden chair into the centre of the room. Then he rested his rifle on the back of the chair for extra support, knelt down and took aim out of the window. “Wot about da big shoota?” Thuggrim asked as he ran past the truck. “”Forget it,” Hazug replied, “we needs to keep movin’ and get to Two Heads’ lads.” Hazug reloaded his rifle on the move and paused briefly to turn around and fire another rapid burst at his pursuers. This time he concentrated the burst on one of the marines, but to no effect, the armoured giant continued to run towards him. The four marines were now clearly out in front of the other human troops, and they were beginning to take the chance of hitting the orks with short bursts from their bolters. So far though the orks were avoiding getting hit. Hazug was about to turn around and keep running when a plume of blood erupted from the side of one of the marines’ heads as an armour-piercing projectile shot straight through him and he collapsed to the ground in a heap. Immediately the other three marines halted and all turned to face the direction from which they had just been attacked, but before they could try and return fire another of them dropped to the ground with a hole punched through the chest plate of his armour. “Hazug, what’s happening?” Sophie asked, having noticed that Hazug had stopped running with the rest of the group and turned around herself. “Dunno,” he responded, turning around and starting to run once more,” Everyone just keep on movin’.” The battlewagon was not far ahead now, and several of the Evil Suns were visible inspecting the damage inflicted by the marines. “Two Heads!” Hazug shouted, “Dare is loads of humans comin’ after us. Let ‘em ‘ave it!” The Evil Suns took notice immediately and Two Heads himself appeared from out of the battlewagon. Most of his troops formed up in front of the armoured vehicle with their rifles at the ready, while others clambered about inside to take up positions on its undamaged weaponry. “Get inside da battlewagon,” Hazug said to Sophie as they reached Two Heads and his troops while, followed by Ratish, Drazzok and the madboys he turned around to face the pursuing humans. There was just one marine leading them now, the other lying in a heap just behind the rest of the charging humans, and as the orks watched the final armoured giant also dropped to the ground as another of the mysterious shots blew most of his head off. “Let rip!” both of Two Heads bellowed, and all of the orks opened fire simultaneously. The small arms of the orks alone would have been deadly enough to the humans caught in the open like this, but backed up by the heavy automatic weapons and cannon of the battlewagon they did not stand a chance, and many of them fell dead before thy could even attempt to seek cover or flee. The barrage of ork gunfire slackened off as the orks found their rifles empty and had to pause to reload them, but the battlewagon continued to fire. “’Ang on a mo!” Hazug shouted, and he held up his hand for the ork gunners to cease firing. “’E told ya to stop shootin’,” one of Two Heads added when one of the gunners continued to fire his automatic weapon at the fleeing humans. There was no just a single human left, running as fast as he could away from the orks, and it appeared that he had dropped whatever weapon he had earlier been carrying. Then, just like the marines before him, he fell to the ground as a mysterious hole was punched through his body. “So wot now den?” one of Two Heads asked while both of him looked at Hazug. “Well I don’t know about any of da rest of ya,” Hazug began, “but I reckon dat dem marines was killed by someone shootin’ from dat farm over dare,” and he pointed towards the ruined buildings nearby,” and I wants to find out who it was.” Jarr slumped back down to the floor after he shot the final soldier. The regular human troops were of little consequence, but at least he had killed another four of the traitor astartes present. Of course he had no idea how many of them were actually on the planet, but he doubted it was a large force or they would have been waging open warfare against the orks, and that certainly wasn’t happening. While he had lined up his first shot, jar had caught sight of a convoy of human vehicles that appeared to be headed by a rhino headed in the direction of the eldar webway gate. The presence of such a large force, and one that included traitor marines, suggested the presence of the governor himself, and Jarr resolved to follow the convoy to the gate. Not immediately of course, he needed more rest yet and beside the convoy would likely be on full alert following their skirmish with the orks. No, he decided, he would wait for sunset and then make his way back to the gateway under cover of darkness. Leaving a pair of Two Heads’ Evil Suns to watch over the two vehicles, Hazug, Two Heads and Thuggrim lead the remaining orks towards the farm. “Keep down lads,” Hazug cautioned them as he guided the warband along a river bank that he hoped would conceal them from being observed too easily from the farmhouse, “Ya don’t want to get ya ‘ead shot off an all.” There was a squelching sound as several of the madboys took this mean that they should throw themselves into the mud by the river. This was then followed by more squelching and muffled grunts as Drazzok decided that the prone madboys made an excellent bridge across the mud. “I’ll say dis for ya lads Thuggrim,” the weird boy said as he forced the face of a madboy down into the mud, “dey is committed.” “They need to be,” Sophie commented as she stepped carefully around the orks in the mud. The orks just looked at her, “Sorry,” she said, “human joke.” “Git jokes is stupid,” Ratish said, leaping from ork to ork, “just like gits. Whoa!” and he cried out as one of the madboys he was attempting to use as a bridge got up out the mud just as he was trying to jump onto him, causing him to fall face first in the mud himself. “Right, ‘ere looks good,” Hazug said coming to a halt, and he rummaged through his belongings for the tau viewing device. Lifting it to his eye, he used it to observe the farmhouse, “Yeah dis is good, dare aint no one lookin’ at us from ‘ere,” and he put the tau device away again, “Now everyone do wot I does.” “Wot sneak about with gits?” a madboy asked, then he added “Ow!” as Drazzok hit him around his head. “Shut up and watch squig brain,” the weirdboy snapped. Moving quickly, Hazug scaled the sloping edge of the riverbank and dashed towards the farmhouse, stopping only when he reached the building and pressed himself against its wall. For a moment no on e did anything while Hazug just waited by the farmhouse. “Well I’m not staying here all day,” Sophie said suddenly, and she too clambered up the riverbank and ran towards Hazug as fast as she could. Not to be outdone by the human, Ratish followed close behind her. “Right lads, ya seen ‘ow its done, even gits and grots can do it” one of Two Heads said to his troops, and then he too ran towards Hazug as the other head just shouted, “Move.” The Evil Suns followed close behind their leader, leaving just Drazzok and the madboys by the riverbank. “Well?” Drazzok said to the madboys, “Aint one of ya goin’ to ‘elp ya elder and better up dare den?” The madboys promptly surged towards Drazzok and lifted him up on their shoulders. “Soddit,” he called out as they then hurled him up to the top of the slope and he landed in a heap. Then, grumbling, he picked himself up and walked rather than ran towards where Hazug waited. “Ya can make a bit more noise if ya wants to Drazzok,” Hazug said to the weirdboy, “after all I is sure dat everyone inside dis ‘ere buildin’ as dare fingers in dare ears.” “Sod off, I don’t care, us Snake Bites don’t do quiet.” “I know dat,” Hazug replied, “I seen ya eat.” Drazzok just scowled. By the riverbank the madboys now prepared to move, but unfortunately they had all pick this moment to insist on being polite and letting someone else go first. “I’ll go after ya ‘as gone.” “Is dey ever comin’?” one of Two Heads asked as they awaited the madboys. “Dis’ll shift ‘em,” Hazug said, and he pulled a grenade from his pack. Leaving the pin in place, he then hurled the grenade towards the river, and it disappeared down the bank. The madboys suddenly came rushing over the bank and ran towards the rest of the warband. “We is under attack,” Thuggrim said, “dare’s someone lobbin’ bombs at us.” “Never mind dat,” Hazug said, “ya just needs to keep followin’ where I goes,” then he looked around, “’Ang on a mo,” he said, “we is one short ‘ere, who’s missin’?” “Dat would be Krognort,” Thuggrim said, “I shoved ‘im on da bomb to save da rest of us. ‘E’ll be with us after it’s gone off.” “It aint goin’ to go off,” Hazug said, “I never pulled out da pin,” then he turned to Ratish, “go get me bomb back grot, and bring da madboy back with ya an all.” “Yes master,” Ratish replied, and he ran back to the riverbank where he saw Krognort lying in the mud. “’As da bomb gone off yet?” the madboy asked when he saw Ratish looking down at him, “I ‘ad me fingers in me ears so I never ‘eard anythin’.” “It aint goin’ to go off, da pins still in it and master wants Ratish to bring it back,” Ratish said to the madboy as he slid down the side of the riverbank. The madboy pulled himself up out of the mud and Ratish was able to retrieve the grenade before he headed back to Hazug with it, followed closely by Krognort. When Hazug saw them running from the riverbank, he began to make his way along the farmhouse wall towards the nearest opening followed by the rest of the warband. Pausing briefly at the doorway he passed his rifle and warscythe to Ratish. "’Ere ya go grot,” he said, “keep ‘old of dese while I goes inside,” and then he drew his pistol and blade from his belt, preferring these shorter and more easily handled weapons over the harder hitting ones. “Ya seen ‘im lads,” one of Two Heads said to his orks, “get ya choppas at da ready,” and the Evil Suns slung their rifles and also drew their blades. Being armed mainly with pistols anyway, the madboys had no need to swap weapons, and Thuggrim kept hold of his rifle anyway. “What about me?” Sophie asked Hazug, “I don’t have a weapon.” “Stay behind me with Ratish,” Hazug told her, and Sophie and Ratish both looked at one another and frowned. But before either of them could protest Hazug moved quickly through the doorway into the farmhouse and the warband pushed them both in behind him as they followed. Jarr heard the noise outside the farmhouse, the crude bellowing common to ork speech. He remained motionless and continued to listen as the voices grew louder, but as far as he could tell the greenskins remained outside of the farm buildings. Then he heard the heavy sound of ork footfalls as they stormed into the building’s ground floor. It was possible that they were not aware that he was here and they were just seeking shelter, in which case it may be possible for him to remain concealed here until they left, but there was the distinct possibility that they intended to remain here all night in which case he would be unable to leave for the gateway without risking detection. There was only one other option left to him, he would have to kill them all. Jarr’s rifle was a custom built masterpiece, designed specifically around his own body. But it was far too long and cumbersome to be effective inside the farmhouse. Fortunately his temple had also seen fit to provide him with a sidearm that was as deadly at close quarters as his rifle was at long range, and he drew it from his holster and got back to his feet. |
|
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