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Waaargh! Hazug! Chapta 17 | |
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Waaargh! Hazug! Chapta 17 |
Gruggi
was not happy when he saw the humans approaching his hiding place, not
realising that Mayleth was in fact an eldar. As far as he could tell he
had left any pursuit from the mine far behind, but if any of these people
saw him then they could inform on him to his
enemies. “Stupid
gits.” He muttered to himself and he began to wade further along the
river, repeatedly looking back over his shoulder to see if the humans gave
any indication of turning to follow him. Fortunately it looked as if they
were continuing to head for the river. For a moment he thought he caught
sight of a weapon, a long handgun hidden behind the thinnest and palest of
the humans who also showed the most of her flesh. But with the humans not
appearing to be interested in hunting him, Gruggi continued on his
way. “Gotcha!” Hazug’s
voice boomed out right in front of Gruggi as the ork nob suddenly reared
himself up to his full height and reached out to grab the gretchin by the
shoulder. In response Gruggi squealed and bit Hazug on the hand, causing
him to roar in anger and lift the screaming gretchin up out of the water,
holding him aloft as he strode ashore with Garkot and Kuruk following
him. “Shuddup!”
Hazug snapped as he threw Gruggi to the ground and took a good look at
him. Meanwhile Gruggi looked all around for some hope of escape, but it
now dawned on him that he had walked into a trap. The humans he had
retreated from were heading for him and now all of them had weapons on
prominent display, while all other possible avenues of escape were blocked
by orks who wore clothing with colours and patterns that were more
reminiscent of human military uniforms than the usual ones worn by
orks. “I
aint goin’ back!” Gruggi snapped, “Don’t make me go back. I saw wot dey
did. Dey aint proper orks. Even Blood Axes is better orks dan dey
is.” Hazug
growled, but then he realised why the orks under genestealer control had
been hunting the gretchin – he had seen the genestealer hybrid orks.
Presumably his ork masters had been attacked and he had been able to flee,
but when the genestealers noticed that he was missing they set out to
silence him. “Da
bikers is dead.” Hazug said. “Dead?”
Gruggi repeated, “’Ow?” “Master
killed ‘em.” Ratish replied. “He
killed one.” Sophie corrected him, “Jarr killed another and Krorden ran
over the third.” Ratish
frowned, angry at being contradicted by a human. “Dey’s
dead.” Hazug said again, “And we knows dat dey wasn’t normal orks. Dat’s
why we is out ‘ere. We is ‘untin’ for ‘em.” “Yeah,
so ‘ow about ay tell us where w can finds da rest of ‘em?” Thrak added but
Gruggi shook his head. “No!
Not goin’ back!” he snapped. “Give
‘im a kickin’ boss.” Harbok said, snarling at the gretchin, “Dat’ll loosen
‘is tongue.” “This
thing is afraid my master.” Mayleth said, “Very afraid. But not of us I
think.” “So
somethin’ ya seen is scarin’ ya den is it?” Hazug said to the gretchin,
“Wot was it den? Lads with too many arms? Or maybe somethin’ dat wasn’t an
ork at all. Somethin’ alien.” The
gretchin frowned and looked at Hazug nervously, trying to determine
whether the large nob knew about the misshapen figures he had watched
assault the caravan. Of course he did not risk maintaining eye contact for
too long just in case Hazug took offence and killed him for it. Gruggi had
seen too many gretchin die that way to want to risk it happening to him as
well. “Warboss
Kazkal sent us to deal with ‘em.” Hazug added, “I got lads, wagons and
coptas. Now tell me wotcha saw so I can go get da job
done.” “Da
mine.” Gruggi replied, “Dare’s a mine wot me boss took ‘is caravan to a
lot.” “Who’s
ya boss?” Hazug asked. “Crognok.
Crognok of da Bad Moons.” Gruggi said, even though Hazug already knew what
the clan would be. “And
wot about da mine?” Hazug asked next. “It
belongs to Runnug of da Death Skulls.” Gruggi replied and Hazug
frowned. “Nah.”
Hazug said, “But ‘e does.” And he looked down at
Gruggi. The
orks at the camp heard Hazug returning before they saw him. Or rather they
heard Gruggi as he screamed continuously to be released and this noise
caused not only most of the orks but also the human troops to gather to
see what was going on. “So
dat’s ya runt is it?” Drazzok asked as he walked up to Hazug to inspect
the gretchin he had dragged here all the way from the river, “It look so
special to me.” “’E
knows where we can find da genestealers.” Hazug replied and as his
servitor translated this for him, Rell pushed his way between the orks to
the front of the crowd with Claudius following him. “Can
he tell us how many there are?” he asked, “What about the numbers of orks
under their control?” Though
he did not understand Rell’s words, Gruggi looked up at the inquisitor and
saw the massive space marine towering over him as well. “Dat
aint important.” Hazug said, ”Wot is important is dat ya can give us
directions to dis mine.” “I
aint goin’ back! I already tells ya dat.” Gruggi
snapped. “I’ll
get ‘im to tell us.” Two Heads said. “A
tooth?” Drazzok exclaimed, “Payin’ grots? Ya as big a loony as dat lot
sometimes ya know.” And he jabbed a finger in the direction of Thuggrim
and the other madboys, who at that moment were doing their best to creep
after the gretchin they had observed eating earlier. The gretchin looked
around unexpectedly and all of a sudden the madboys tried to act in a
casual manner, some of them pretending to hold conversations even if there
was no one in front of them while others simply closed theirs eyes tight
in the belief that if they could not see the gretchin then he could not
see them. “Are
we ready to roll?” he asked. “Sure.”
The mekboy replied, “I fixed Krorden’s buggy up good as almost new. Plus
da coptas is both fully fuelled.” “Right
den.” Hazug called out, “Everyone get to ya wagons. We is movin’ out.”
Then as the crowd began to disperse he beckoned Two Heads and Krorden
closer. Both
of Two Heads and Krorden nodded in reply. “But
wot if any of dem sees us?” Krorden asked. “Easy.”
Hazug said, “If ya sees any lads wot Drazzok don’t like da look of den
kill ‘em.” And Two Heads and Krorden smiled as they turned to leave. Hazug
then turned around as well, intending to head for the warcopters. But
blocking his path he found Drazzok waiting for him, “Why aint ya ‘eadin’
for me trukk?” he asked. “Ya
really gonna do all dis aint ya?” Drazzok asked. “Yeah
of course I is. Da boss told me to.” Hazug replied. “Nah,
I don’t mean dat.” Drazzok said, walking closer and keeping eye contact
with Hazug, “I means dat after ya is done with dese genestealer things ya
is gonna get da boss to take ‘is ‘ulk and all of ‘is ships and go and
fight da wosit-nids.” “Ya
‘eard wot Rell said.” Hazug replied, “If we don’t start fightin’ da
tyrannids now den dare may be too many of ‘em to fight.” “I
is sayin’ dat I aint goin’.” Drazzok responded, “I’ll ‘elp ya get rid of
dese genestealers cause dis aint dare world, it’s ours. But when ya gets
Kazkal to fly of and ‘elp da gits I is stayin’ right ‘ere.” And to
emphasis his point he banged the end of his staff on the ground several
times. “If
dat’s wot ya want.” Hazug said, “Den ya is welcome to stay. But right now
juts get in da bleedin’ trukk before ya gets left behind already and ‘as
to walk.” Drazzok
snarled and without another word he stormed past Hazug, his various charms
jangling against one another as he headed for the
truck. Purgan
flew the warcopter along a vaguely straight course, following the same
path Hazug had taken when he retraced the route of the warbikers and then
continuing along it while Gruggi peered over the edge of the open topped
passenger area located between the two sets of rotor blades. The problem
was that terrain features could look different from the air than the
ground and the gretchin sometimes needed time to
think. “Dis
grot’s stupid master.” Ratish muttered, ”Ya should just let Ratish and da
squig ‘unt down dese genestealers. We’ll find ‘em for ya
master.” “Dare!”
Gruggi called out suddenly, pointing and Hazug and the other Blood Axes
looked over the side as well, “Dat’s where da mine is.” Gruggi was
pointing towards the horizon where several plumes of smoke could be seen
rising from a small valley. Hazug took out the tau viewing device and used
it to zoom in on the area as much as he could. Sure
enough he saw an ork settlement located so that it occupied not only most
of the valley floor, but also some of the hills around it. As was typical
of ork settlements this one was fortified with a wall running around the
outer edge, plus numerous strong points scattered about inside it. Hazug
also saw signs of construction underway. Most of this looked to be
vehicles, with half built chasses and several completed battlewagons
littering the spaces between the buildings. However, the biggest building
project underway was located on higher ground and was definitely not a
vehicle. There an area of land had been flattened out and now numerous
figures looked to be hard at work moving construction materials towards
it. Worryingly though, the task of delivering construction materials was
being aided by a trio of massive squiggoths that Hazug guessed must have
come from the Bad Moon caravan. Puzzled by what he saw, Hazug used the
device’s memory feature to store an image of this building work and then
took more pictures of the activity and defences of the rest of the
settlement. Then as he returned the device to its pouch he called out to
the pilot. “Oi
Purgan!” he yelled. “Master,
wot about Two Heads?” Ratish asked. “We’ll
wait for ‘im to catch up.” Hazug replied, “I wanna get a better look at
dat mine and I can’t do dat from up ‘ere without ‘em spottin’
us.” “’Ang
on!” Purgan called out and then he put the warcopter into a sudden dive,
taking it down to a level below the tops of the surrounding hills. Then he
headed towards the mine, setting the aircraft down at the base of the
final hill between them an the mine. Behind them the pilot of the other
warcopter had copied the manoeuvre and he also brought his aircraft into
land. As the pair of Evil Sun pilots shut down their engines Hazug jumped
down to the ground. “Right
den lads,” he said, looking at his commandoes, “we is gonna ‘ed up dis
‘ill and take a look at wot’s on da other side. Now remember, we don’t
wanna be seen by wot’s on da other side, so stay low. Ratish’ll stay ‘ere
with Cuddles to make sure dat no one tries creepin’ up on da coptas while
dey is on da ground. Goddit?” “Wot
d’ya see boss?” Thrak asked. “Lads.”
He replied, capturing more images in the viewer’s memory, “Loadsa lads.
Way more dan wot we got with us.” And he handed Thrak the device, “Take
look.” Thrak
did as he was told and saw that Hazug’s assessment had been correct. The
number of orks under genestealer control was vastly greater than the
number Hazug had available to him, even including Rell’s stormtroopers and
Claudius’ marines and bringing in reinforcements would not only take time
but risk exposing the presence of Captain Claudius and his men to the
general population. While Kazkal may have been willing to tolerate the
presence of regular human troops on his planet, after all there was little
difference between them and the constabulary force that now officially
worked for him, a force of marines was a much different
matter. Then
there was the matter of the fixed defences. From here the wall was clearly
visible and so were some of the strong points and artillery positions
inside the mining camp. But it was obvious that a number of the guns
installed in them were designed to fire indirectly, meaning that Hazug’s
force would come under fire from weapons that it could not shoot back at
until it was already inside the camp, by which time it was quite possible
that the heavy guns would be unable to shoot at them because of the
minimum arc they required. Some of these appeared powerful enough to
threaten even Two Heads’ battlewagon. Hazug then focused on the wall
itself, hoping that there would be some evidence of a weakness that would
mean his warband would be able to storm through quickly enough to render
the emplaced artillery useless. However the wall appeared solid all around
the mining camp, in fact from the colour of some of the dirt used to
support it internally it had the look of being recently reinforced.
Obviously another building project undertaken at the behest of the
genestealers. Then
Hazug spotted something odd about the outside of the wall facing his
position. Here and there he saw signs that the ground had been disturbed.
This was visible only through his viewer and when he looked up from it he
saw only trampled grass. However, making use of the device’s magnification
he saw that more fresh dirt had been piled up outside the wall for some
reason. “I
needs to speak with dat grot again.” Hazug said, “I wants ya all to wait
‘ere and keep an eye out for any of dat lot ‘eadin’ dis way. But no
shootin’ right? Just come tell me if dey start’s ‘eadin’ dis
way.” “Right
boss.” Thrak replied while the other Blood Axes nodded in
agreement. Hazug
ran back down the hill and towards the grounded
warcopters. “Master’s
back.” Ratish exclaimed, “Is we gonna go kill da aliens now
master?” “Soon.”
Hazug replied before he turned towards Gruggi, “I saw places along da wall
wot looked like dey’d ‘ad dirt piled up against ‘em.” He said and the
gretchin nodded. “Dey
was tunnels.” He said, “But someone’ filled ‘em in.” “Tunnels?”
Hazug repeated, “Ya mean like da tunnels ya grot use to get around under
da cities?” Hazug
had heard of this sort of thing before. When Gorgoga had run a mine there
had been such tunnels bypassing the wall there as well. That was when an
idea occurred to Hazug about how to deal with the mine’s defensive
artillery.
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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. |
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