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Waaargh! Hazug! Chapta 21 | |
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Waaargh! Hazug! Chapta 21 |
While
Rell and his stormtroopers split into pairs, both Hazug’s commandoes and
the marines remained in larger groups. Hazug wanted to make use of his
fellow Blood Axes to conceal his human and eldar servants, while Claudius
wanted to maintain the maximum strength possible just in case of
discovery. The
problem with seeking out targets for the explosives was their location. So
far the raiding party had been moving around the outskirts of the
fortified mining camp when they were less likely to encounter any of its
inhabitants. But the defensive artillery and strong points were scattered
around the camp, intermixed with residential structures and workshops.
Even during the night there was a strong chance of encountering orks
moving around and if these could not be avoided they needed to be dealt
with quietly and disposed of without leaving any
evidence. Fortunately
orks of any variety other than Blood Axes took little care to conceal
themselves and the raiders found that they invariably became aware of the
orks presence before the orks became aware of them, allowing them to avoid
contact for most of the time. Where this was impossible all combat had to
take place using bladed weapons, both the noise of projectiles or the
flash of a laser in the darkness would instantly alert the genestealer
controlled orks to intruders in their midst. The bodies of these orks were
crudely concealed under whatever debris came to hand or shoved into
various confined spaces where they were unlikely to be
found. Being
an ork himself Hazug was able to be bolder in his actions, leading his
group right through the midst of the camp to the main gate. Here there was
a clearing amongst the various crude structures that gave the array of
heavy weapons trained on the inside of the gates a better field of
fire. “Right
lads,” he said softly, “spread out and stick ya bomms to anythin’ dat
looks like it’ll go bang. Ya wants ammo crates and power packs to make
sure ya put dese things out of order. But watch out for da crews.” Then he
glanced at Jarr and indicating himself and his servants he added in
gothic, “Ya best follow us.” The
Blood Axes did as they were told, splitting up and individually heading
for artillery positions. Despite the mine not being under attack many of
these were manned, with their gretchin crews curled up sleeping beside
their weapons. Cautiously the Blood Axes stepped into the dugouts to set
their charges, placing them out of sight in case the gunners should happen
to awake before dawn. Sophie
was just handing Hazug a charge to set behind the generator for a powerful
energy weapon when one of the crew murmured and began to move. However,
before he could awake Jarr suddenly raised his silenced pistol and fired
it twice into him. “Roll
‘im over.” Hazug said quietly and Jarr nodded before rolling the dead
gretchin onto his stomach, making it appear that he was merely asleep.
Then with the charge in place Hazug beckoned for his group to follow him
as he made his way towards the next dugout. At
the same time this was happening Rell and his stormtroopers were
concentrating on targeting the various workshops that had been set up to
produce weapons for the genestealer-controlled army. They set their
charges either amongst the stacks of completed weapons outside the
workshops or made small holes in walls and pushed them through into the
interior of the buildings so that they were hidden from view. The strong
points were something else to be targeted. These were split into two
distinct types, the first were dugouts similar to those used to house the
mine’s artillery weapons while others were solidly if crudely built
reinforced bunkers. This second type was a greater threat to the attacking
force, but also presented a greater challenge to the stormtroopers. Being
enclosed structures many of them also doubled as barracks for some of the
orks who now resided here. To deal with these the stormtroopers crawled
right up to the walls of the strong points and pressed their explosives up
against them where the walls met the ground. The charges were then covered
in dirt to conceal them before the stormtroopers withdrew. The hope was
that when the charges detonated the blast wave they produced would travel
through the wall itself and cause the inside to splinter, showering the
occupants with enough fragments of stone to at least incapacitate
them. Finally
came Claudius and his Deathwatch squad. Like the heavy weapons covering
the main gates, the mortars and larger cannons set to fire over the walls
were crewed by gretchin, many of whom slept alongside their weapons and
the chances of a fully armoured marine being able to sneak into a dugout
containing sleeping gretchin, plant an explosive charge and then leave
without disturbing any of the gretchin was so slim that they did not even
attempt it. Instead they took advantage of the fact that all of these
weapons fired large calibre projectiles. While the others kept watch one
of their number would take a charge and gently insert it into the barrel
of a weapon, letting it roll down until it became stuck at the bottom.
Only the bigger breach loading cannons needed carefully checking before
this was done. If the breach was open and the chamber clear then the
charge would simply drop out of the other end and could risk waking the
gretchin crew. Only one weapon was found in such a state and rather than
risk waking the gretchin the marines noted its position and moved
on. Then
when all of the charges were planted and with the sky beginning to lighten
the raiding party headed back to the tunnel entrance. “My
men and I took care of as many vehicles as we could.” Rell replied, “The
running gear and engines on most of the heavier vehicles have been
sabotaged and several more have been booby trapped with grenades. Then we
set charges against as many of the strong points as we could. They’re set
against the outsides of the occupied ones and we just tossed them inside
the empty ones.” Claudius
nodded once. “Likewise.”
He said, “Charges have been placed in as many artillery pieces as
possible. The key exception is one heavy cannon located approximately
three hundred metres away.” Hazug
nodded back. “I
guess dat’ll ‘ave to do.” He said before he looked at Rell again and
asked, “So is dare any of dese wagons ya aint
wrecked?” Rell
turned and pointed towards one of the large half tracked
vehicles. “That
one.” He said, “It’s unarmed so I didn’t think it mattered when there were
better targets available.” Watching
Batrug at work and holding onto Cuddles’ leash, what they were doing did
not seem right to a part of Two Heads. As an Evil Suns ork he believed
that vehicles of any sort needed to be kept in prime condition and
upgraded as needed to ensure that they moved as fast as possible. However,
what they were doing here was intended to reduce one of their own vehicles
to nothing but fragments of scrap scattered over a large area. Part of the
modification process had involved removing everything not essential to the
job at hand, including such features as the reinforced ram bar extending
forwards of the engine, side panels and roll cage and most significantly
the belt fed weapon mounted in front of the front passenger seat. If not
for the fact that he could see the necessity of all this he would
intervene to stop Batrug long ago. About
half of the explosives loaded into the back of the truck had been taken
from the grenades that Mek Batrug had used parts from to create the
detonators that Hazug had taken with him into the mining camp. The rest
had come from several other sources. He had reluctantly given up two
explosives shells from each of his battlewagon and rhino. Then each ork in
the warband had surrendered a single grenade that had also been emptied of
their explosives. Batrug and his apprentices had then mixed some of these
explosives with surplus fuel from the other vehicles to produce a highly
volatile paste that they literally painted onto the truck. Finally the ork
from Gorgoga’s mob armed with a rocket launcher had provided one of his
precious rockets. This last item was key to the plan. Mek Batrug secured
the explosive rocket to the front of the truck so that it’s impact
triggered fuse pointed directly ahead of the vehicle. The detonation of
this rocket would trigger a chain reaction that would turn the entire
truck into a giant fireball. “Batrug
is ya done yet?” one of him called out. “Sure,
everythin’s in place.” Batrug replied as he backed away from the truck,
almost afraid to take his eyes off it just in case it exploded
prematurely, “Job’s a good ‘un.” “Okay
gather round!” Two Heads called out and the warband’s nobs began to gather
around Two Heads and Batrug. Two Heads stared at Hazug’s truck where
Drazzok remained sat in the back and rummaging through one of the boxes
that had been filled with food at the start of the journey from the city,
but now mostly filled only with the empty packing that he had put back in
there after eating the contents, “Ya an’ all.” He called out and the
weirdboy looked up and scowled. “Ya
know wot ya problem is Two Heads?” he asked as he strode towards him,
Thuggrim and his madboys taking up flanking positions and marching either
side of him. One
of Two Heads scowled at Drazzok. Though the Snake Bite frequently
disapproved of Hazug’s ways he generally tolerated them. Now however he
seemed to have reached his limit. The
other head looked around at the assembled nobs. Druken, Gorgoga and
Krorden were all standing in front of Two Heads and Batrug, while their
troops were gathered behind them. “For
dose of ya dat don’t know ‘ow dis works,” Two Heads began to explain, “we
is gonna crash dat trukk over dare into da gates of da mine.” Then he
grinned and the other continued, “Dat’ll make us a nice big bang and blow
‘em right off, leavin’ us with an ‘ole we can get through. After dat da
plan is simple. We drive around and we kills everythin’ wot aint part of
our warband. But remember, Hazug’s got gits workin’ for ‘im so try not to
‘urt ‘em. ‘E’ll get mad at ay and I aint stickin’ up for ya if ‘e decides
to cut ya in ‘alf with ‘is fancy choppa.” Then he turned to where the two
warcopter pilots were conveniently standing beside Druken, “I reckon ya
lads is best flyin’ in da coptas.” Two Heads said, “’Ead in quick and drop
down on ‘em. I don’t care where, just make it good.” All
of a sudden there was a brilliant flash in the sky followed by a
rumble. “Dis
is it lads!” Two Heads shouted, “Get to ya wagons and mount
up.” The
orks turned and ran, each heading for the vehicle that would carry them
into battle. Since he had been the one to oversee the loading of the
explosive onto the truck bomb, Batrug ran to this vehicle and climbed
aboard. Without waiting for an order from Two Heads he turned on the
engine and slammed his foot down on the accelerator, seemingly oblivious
to the highly unstable nature of his cargo. The
first charge to go off had been placed against the side of a strong point
and just as intended by the stormtroopers who placed it there the blast
wave sent fragments of wall flying around the interior. Those orks
occupying the structure not killed in their sleep screamed in pain as
these tore through them. Then
there was an eerie quiet. The genestealer controlled orks and their alien
masters did not yet know the reason for the explosion and ork technology
was unstable enough for it to have been a simple accident. But they were
beginning to stir. The
second and third charges went off in rapid succession, both of them
located in the dugouts for heavy weapons covering the inside of the gate
and there were secondary blasts as the ammunition stored for them cooked
off as well. Then came another pause. Despite Batrug’s best efforts to
create detonators that would all go off simultaneously he had been unable
to truly synchronise them and combined with the wide tolerance that was
natural to ork technology the charges went off at slightly different
times. Woken
by the first explosions the gretchin crew of one of the larger cannons was
amongst the first to realise that the mine was under attack. The
largest explosion came in the midst of the chaos caused by the blasts
occurring all around the mining camp when the detonator left in the
explosives store by Hazug finally went off, triggering the entire
stockpile. The dawn sky was lit up by the blast that tore through all of
the surrounding buildings without giving any of the orks inside them any
chance to escape and drowning out the sound of the next few blasts. The
mine entrance itself was close enough to the store that it too was caught
in the blast and the tremor created by the explosion was enough to
collapse the entrance, ensuring that it was sealed.
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