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Waaargh! Hazug! Chapta 15 | |
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Waaargh! Hazug! Chapta 15 |
With
Hazug and his Blood Axe troops riding aboard one of the warcopters it had
fallen to one of Two Heads’ troops to drive the vehicle and he had
selected an ork called Daggot to do this. Daggot stood out from the rest
of his mob in that one of his arms was heavily tattooed in the style of
the Snake Bite clan rather than the Evil Suns he was a member of. This was
due to his having had his arm removed by a daemon a year earlier and the
replacement grafted on by a painboy had come from a deceased Snake Bite.
Sophie commented that he was at least better off than Gorrid. Gorrid had
been in Two Heads’ service when Sophie first met them both more than four
years earlier and at that time he had lost a leg to a human attempting to
murder Warboss Kazkal Kromag himself. Unfortunately the painboy he had
been taken to had only a limited supply of spare limbs and the only leg he
could attach was the same as the one he still had, leaving him with two
right legs. “I
still think we should tie her up.” Sophie commented, glaring at
Rhia. The
arrival of Captain Claudius’ Deathwatch squad had made the inside of Two
Heads’ battlewagon somewhat overcrowded. Therefore, since Mayleth, Rhia,
Salia and Sophie were all known servants of Hazug it had been decided to
transfer them to Hazug’s truck. Jarr had also come with them. He did not
have the obvious military appearance of either the marines or Rell’s
stormtroopers so would not attract any attention should they encounter any
other groups of orks. Moving Hazug’s servants back to his truck had
clearly pleased Drazzok and between inspecting the tattoos of Daggot’s new
arm he reeled of lists of food he expected them to prepare for him when
they next stopped. On the other hand, Sophie was less pleased about Rhia’s
presence. “That
would be fatal.” She said as the truck struck a rock on the road and
lurched. “I
could do it.” Jarr pointed out, “Even with my injuries.” “That’s
right.” Jarr replied, “And I’d kind of like a way of paying someone back
for that.” And he grinned at Rhia. “I
never knew what he was planning.” She protested, “He tried to kill me as
well remember?” “Do
not fear mon’keigh.” Mayleth said to her, “I will not let them harm you in
the slightest.” “Of
course not mon’keigh.” Mayleth said and then she too grinned, “Our master
has promised you to me if you try to flee. You may rest assured that I
won’t let either of them spoil my pleasure.” And all around her the humans
other than Rhia smiled at Rhia’s obvious discomfort at the thought of
being at Mayleth’s mercy. “Bikes!
I sees bikes oh great one!” Thuggrim suddenly called out from the gun
mount in the truck’s roll cage and he pivoted the belt fed weapon to face
the cloud of dust being thrown up into the air by the approaching
warbikes. “I
only see da cloud.” Daggot commented as he looked for
himself. “Dey’s
still too far off, dat’s why.” Drazzok responded. Then he muttered,
“Warbikes. Bleedin’ stupid things. Too easy to fall
off.” Spread
out side by side to maximise the amount of ground covered, Hazug’s truck
was positioned at the end of the line of vehicles Daggot looked towards
the next vehicles along. These were Krorden’s trio of warbuggies and he
waved to Krorden himself. “Wot?”
Krorden bellowed over the noise of his engine as he swerved closer to the
truck. “Goddit.”
Krorden said, nodding and then he waved to the drivers of the other two
buggies and they accelerated away. The
next vehicle in the line was Two Heads’ rhino and when its driver saw the
buggies leave the formation he shouted to one of the other two orks in the
rhino with him. Gugrut
then opened the hatch above his head and stuck his head out for a look
around. There he saw Daggot waving and pointing towards the cloud of dust
that the buggies were now rushing towards. “Dare’s
somethin’ dat way Tukrun. Looks like bikers. Best let da boss know.” He
shouted back down into the rhino. “’Ang
on den.” Tukrun responded and he swerved sharply, bringing the rhino close
alongside the battlewagon Two Heads rode in. Even from inside the heavy
armoured vehicle the approach of the rhino was noticed and Two Heads
promptly stuck his head out of a hatch to find out why Tukrun was risking
both vehicles being damaged by getting them so close
together. “Wotcha
doin’?” both of him shouted together. “Boss
look!” Gugrut replied, “Looks like bikers. Krorden’s gone after ‘em.” And
Two Heads frowned. “Dey’re
too fast for either of us.” One of him replied. Then the other looked past
the rhino, took a deep breath and bellowed as loudly as he could, “Oi!
Daggot! Follow Krorden. Stop dem bikers so I can speak with
‘em.” Daggot
gave a thumbs up in return and turned the truck to follow Krorden and his
buggies while in the rear area and on the trailer his passengers grabbed
hold of whatever they could to avoid being thrown from the
vehicle. Krorden
grinned as his buggy closed with the warbikes. “Trokken!”
he shouted, “Get ready with da big shootas.” Then
another of the buggies pulled alongside Krorden’s and the gunner waved to
him. “Look
boss!” he shouted, pointing to the rear and as Krorden glanced over his
shoulder without bothering to decelerate he saw Hazug’s truck following
them with its human passengers and Thuggrim waving as if to attract his
attention. Krorden scowled, knowing he was going to have to slow
down. With
all three buggies stationary the truck soon caught up with them and also
came to a stop. Krorden
snarled. As
the buggies closed in on the cloud their occupants were able to make out
the shapes of the warbikes inside and Krorden was pleased to see only
three of them, meaning that they could not evade him by splitting up. But
as it happened trying to evade the bigger warbuggies did not seem to be a
priority to the warbike riders. Instead as soon as they saw the
approaching vehicles they slowed down and came to a halt, the cloud being
reduced to only what their exhausts could produce. As expected the bikes
were painted red and their riders also included as much of that colour in
their clothing as they could, indicating that they were Evil
Suns. “Da
boss of dat wagon wants to talk to ya.” Krorden called out as he stopped
his buggy close to the warbikes and he pointed back to where the bulk of
the warband was now heading towards them. “Dunno.”
Krorden replied, “Ya’ll ‘ave to wait for ‘im.” Krorden
frowned, puzzled by this response. But before he could question it Daggot
brought Hazug’s truck to halt nearby and as soon as it stopped moving the
madboys leapt down from the trailer, unloaded the sedan chair and carried
it to where Drazzok was climbing down. “Make
way for da great Drazzok!” Thuggrim yelled as he walked along in front of
the chair and the orks carrying it, despite there being no obstructions at
all, “Da greatest of all weirdboys is ‘ere. Make way or be turned into
somethin’ small and sticky.” All
of a sudden the bikers began to look at one another nervously. Initially
Krorden suspected that it was simply because they feared a random burst of
psychic energy that could possibly decapitate everyone close by. But then
one of them spoke. “We
needs to be goin’.” he said, “We gotta find dat
runt.” “’Ang
on. Ya gotta wait for Two Heads.” Krorden told him, “Wot’s da rush anyhow?
Wot’s so important about dis runt?” “And
why is it dat I gets a weird feelin’ from ya all?” Drazzok called out from
his chair, “Just like da one I got from dem lads workin’ for da
genestealers.” All
of a sudden one of the warbikers turned his bike towards Drazzok’s sedan
chair and pressed the triggers of the twin automatic weapons mounted to
its sides. There was a roar and the hail of bullets cut through the
madboys carrying Drazzok. Two fell dead in an instant, while a third
collapsed clutching at the bullet wound to his leg. The effect of this was
that the sedan chair became unbalanced as three of the orks supporting it
on one side suddenly let go. “Soddit!”
Drazzok yelled as he tumbled from the chair and rolled across the
ground. “Let
rip!” Krorden yelled, forgetting all about the idea of taking any of the
bikers alive. Trokken
and the other two gunners swung their weapons towards the bikers and
opened fire, but they were a fraction too slow and the three warbikes were
already in motion as the bullets tore up the ground where they had been
only a moment earlier. In
the back of the truck Jarr and Mayleth both reacted immediately in their
own different ways. Jarr drew his sidearm and fired. In his head it took
only a fraction of a second to calculate the variables of range and speed
and the two bullets he fired both struck one of the bikers in the back and
sent him and his bike spinning in different directions. Meanwhile Mayleth
simply leapt from the back of the truck, also making calculations based on
the speed and heading of the nearest warbike, However, in her case it was
so that she could land on it right behind the rider. Startled
by the sudden appearance of the eldar woman on his warbike the rider took
his eyes off the ground in front of him and reached for the dagger tucked
into his belt. But Mayleth was ready for this and as he was slashing at
her with the blade she reached out and grabbed hold of his head and used
it as leverage to somersault over him and land standing on his handlebars.
Then as he turned to face her again she kicked him in the mouth and
grinned as she was rewarded with a cracking sound as several teeth were
knocked loose. More importantly though, the ork took his other hand off
the handlebars and as the bike spun out of control Mayleth leapt into the
air again only to land unharmed nearby. Looking up from where she landed
she saw both the warbike and its rider rolling across the ground in
different directions. Meanwhile
the third warbike continued to accelerate away, leaving behind it a trail
of dust and smoke. Behind this Krorden and his warbuggies gave chase.
Though they could not see clearly through the smoke all three of the
gunners opened fire, spraying bullets at random into the cloud. A sudden
‘Bang!’ and a brief flash informed them that at least one of their bullets
had struck something significant and the roar of the warbike’s engine
became a spluttering before it gave out completely. “Crap!”
Krorden exclaimed as he continued to drive his warbuggy at full speed into
the cloud left behind by the warbike and all of a sudden found himself on
a collision course with the disabled vehicle and its rider as he
desperately tried to restart the engine. Though relatively lightweight the
buggy was still much heavier than the warbike and as it smashed into it
the bike was ripped apart, a large chunk being dragged underneath
Krorden’s warbuggy along with the rider while the rest was reduced to
small fragments that flew in all directions. As the warbuggy drove over
the mangled remains of the warbike and its rider it shook violently and
there was a tearing sound, followed by a continuous
rattle. “Dammit!”
Krorden yelled as he brought his vehicle to a halt, realising that
something underneath it had been damaged when he drove over the
wreckage. Only
the ork biker knocked off his bike by Mayleth now remained alive and as he
staggered back to his feet she rushed at him from behind. Scooping up his
blade, the ork tried to stab her but Mayleth was far too quick for him.
She easily sidestepped his clumsy attack and at the same time she drew one
of her own long knives and lashed out. The ork screamed and clutched at
his knife hand as both the weapon itself and the fingers that had been
gripping it fell to the ground. Then Mayleth kicked him, the blow striking
the side of his knee and there was a sudden ‘crunch’ followed immediately
after by a howl of pain from the ork as he fell back to the ground. At the
same time Mayleth gasped as she felt his pain and soaked up as much as she
could. Then as the other orks and humans began to gather around her
Mayleth returned her knife to its sheath and smiled. “We
did want one alive to answer questions didn’t we?” she asked out
loud. “Bleedin’
pansy show off.” Drazzok responded.
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