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Blood And Rocks Chapta 14 | |
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Chapta 14 |
Following the
humans was slow going Hazug noted. Cuddles was quite able to follow their
scent and move at a reasonable pace, but once again Rhia was having
trouble keeping up. “There wasn’t room in any of the trucks for it.” Salia pointed out. “We couldn’t even bring any of the missile launchers.” Sophie added, ”They’d have been useful against those last daemons.” “Missile launchers?” Rhia suddenly commented after having remained quiet for much of the journey so far,” Are those the-“ “Yes.” Sophie interrupted, “They are the ones you wanted to steal from Hazug.” “Perhaps it would have been an idea not to mention them in front of her then mon keigh.” Mayleth commented. “Yeah, stupid git should shut up.” Ratish hissed and Sophie frowned, annoyed at herself as much anyone else. “None of dis does anythin’ about me chair.” Drazzok then said, “If we’d just waited a bit den perhaps dat bleedin’ mek could ‘ave made ‘imself useful and knocked me up a new one outta da wreckage of dem buggies.” “Wot if we just picked ya up and carried ya oh great one?” Thuggrim suggested and without waiting for a reply he looked at the other madboys and added, “Ya ‘eard ‘im lads! Da great Drazzok is to be carried.” And he raised his rifle above his head. “Carry da great Drazzok!” the madboys yelled in unison and they rushed towards Drazzok, picking up the weirdboy and lifting him above their shoulders. “Where to oh great one?” Thuggrim then asked. “Put me down ya loonies!” Drazzok yelled, his arms and legs flailing, “Me staff! Me staff can’t reach da ground!” “Get down!” Sophie yelled as she saw the green glow building up in Drazzok’s eyes and she and Salia dived to the ground. Mayleth did likewise, but as she fell she also pulled on Rhia’s chain to drag her down as well. “Put ‘im down!” Hazug yelled at the madboys but it was too late, there was a sudden burst of green lightning from Drazzok’s eyes and mouth that was thankfully directed skywards followed almost immediately after by a sound like thunder and a telekinetic blast that sent the madboys flying and leaving Drazzok to plummet back down to the ground. The blast extended further out than just the madboys however and Hazug and Ratish were also thrown to the ground. As he fell Ratish let go of Cuddles’ leash and the squig suddenly raced off ahead, still following the scent trail left by the humans but no longer held back by Ratish. “Get back ‘ere!” Hazug called out as he saw Cuddles racing off into the distance. “Cuddles! Come here!” Sophie then shouted but neither call succeeded in summoning the squig back again. “Wait ‘ere while I goes after ‘im.” Hazug said as he picked himself up. Then just before he ran he turned to Thuggrim and added, “And don’t go pickin’ up Drazzok again.” “Shouldn’t we
follow you?” Salia asked. Concealed in the undergrowth either side of the trail once more The sentries watching the approach to the rebel camp noticed a brief green flash in the sky followed by a low rumbling sound. “That wasn’t
thunder was it?” one of them said as he peered up through the trees
overhead. “Cuddles! Cuddles get back ‘ere!” Hazug yelled as he pursued the runaway squig. Fortunately for him Cuddles was not moving as quickly as Hazug could while running and the ork eventually caught up with Cuddles, grabbing hold of his leash and bringing him to a sudden halt. Knowing that the reason Cuddles had led him to here was because the humans’ scent led in this direction and he looked around. Immediately a gap in a nearby tree line caught his eye and letting Cuddles move ahead of him Hazug approached it, holding up his rifle in just one hand just in case. Sure enough Cuddles followed the scent into the gap that turned out to be the start of a trail that led deeper into the woods. “Nice one Cuddles.” He said and then, pulling on Cuddles’ leash to drag him along too Hazug headed back to where he had left the others. “Dey’ve gone into da woods.” Hazug said when he rejoined the rest of the group. “I thought ya
said dat dey’d stick to open ground.” Drazzok commented. “Lead you?” Sophie noted, “You’re not going alone are you?” “What if they’re waiting for you?” Salia asked, but Drazzok snorted. “’E’s a Blood Axe.” He said, “Dat means dat dare’s no one better for sneakin’ about. Am I right?” and he looked at Hazug, who smiled. “I aint goin’ in alone anyways.” He said, “I’ll be takin’ Ratish with me.” And at the mention of his name Ratish first grinned and then stuck his tongue out at Mayleth, Salia and Sophie, “And ‘er.” Hazug then added and he looked at Rhia who looked back startled. “But master not need lyin’ git.” Ratish protested. “Yeah I do.” Hazug replied, “I needs ‘er to tell em if da humans in da woods is da ones we is lookin’ for.” “I don’t know
every rebel on the planet by sight you know.” Rhia pointed out. “But what about my chains?” Rhia asked, lifting her hands as high as the chains would allow, “I can’t sneak about like this.” “Yeah I know.”
Hazug replied and he walked over to her and simply picked her up and threw
her over his shoulder, “Now keep quiet cause I don’t want ya givin’ me
position away. Goddit?” and Rhia nodded. “Right den, let’s go.” Hazug said, “We’ll all go as far as da woods and den I’ll go on ahead with dese two.” And once more he set off towards the woods. As planned Hazug split away from most of the rest of the group when they reached the start of the trail, leaving them at the edge of the woods while he went to investigate deeper inside. However, the canny ork did not actually move along the trail himself. he knew full well that the trail was the most likely avenue of approach to whatever lay at the other end and so it would be likely that any guards would be keeping a careful eye on it. Therefore Hazug instead crept cautiously through the trees and undergrowth, moving parallel to the trail. From here he hoped to be able to follow it to whatever lay at the other end while also getting the chance to see what defences had been set along it. Most orks moving along the route Hazug was taking would have simply blundered though the undergrowth, hacking away to clear a path while yelling out as many curses as possible and probably shooting at anything that moved, therefore giving away their position to anyone in quite a wide radius. Blood Axes like Hazug on the other hand not only appreciated the value of stealth, they excelled at it so instead of cutting his own path Hazug made use of room existed naturally and was careful where he stood to avoid making any unwanted noise. Still carried over Hazug’s shoulder, Rhia made no noise at all while as a gretchin Ratish was also adept at sneaking about. It was a natural trait of the orks’ smaller cousins that when face with danger they often liked to be able to find somewhere to hide as quickly as possible until it went away. Therefore, thanks to the quietness of their movement the trio was able to make it as far as the rebel checkpoint without being spotted. Instead it was Hazug that saw one of the human sentries first. “Stay still and stay quiet.” He whispered as he set Rhia down beside a large tree. “Don’t worry master.” Ratish hissed as his hand went to his belt and drew a short dagger, “Ratish’ll slit da gits throat if it speaks.” And he held the knife to Rhia’s neck. Meanwhile Hazug took an alien device from his own belt and lifted it to his eye. The device was an advanced optical viewer built by the tau and since it had fallen into Hazug’s hands he had made good use of its capabilities. Right now he was interested in it ability to magnify images of objects far away and as he pointed he device towards the human sentry he zoomed in for a closer look. The sentry Hazug had seen was armed with the human equivalent of the standard ork rifle, lighter and firing a much smaller calibre bullet such a weapon was similar in hitting power to the lasguns Salia and Sophie used but with lower ammunition capacity. Panning around Hazug then found what he was looking for, another sentry positioned slightly further away from him. This one was armed with a shotgun and from their relative locations it seemed that it was intended that they would emerge to surround anyone caught coming along the trail. Hazug then turned his attention to the woods on the other side of the trail, concentrating on the areas directly opposite the two sentries that he had already seen and sure enough he found two more humans located there for a total of four sentries. None of them was armed with anything heavier than a rifle or shotgun as far as Hazug could tell, so it seemed likely that their job was not to actually fight off an assault but instead to give advanced warning of it. Then a sudden ‘Snap!’ attracted Hazug’s attention and he turned quickly, directing the tau viewing device towards the source of the sound. There he saw another six humans approaching and between them they carried a heavier drum fed weapon. Hazug had seen many weapons of this type and recognised it immediately. It was a multi-role weapon that fired heavy shells at high velocities at a rate that made it effective against not only infantry but also against all but the most heavily armoured vehicles and fortifications. Though the frontal armour of Two Heads’ battlewagon would likely be thick enough to stop any shot from this weapon, it would still be vulnerable from the sides or rear. In addition the weapon would tear apart any of the lighter vehicles or infantry, including Gorgoga’s more heavily armoured troops. Hazug smiled when he saw this, realising instantly how valuable the weapon would be if he could capture it. “D’ya recognise any of ‘em?” Hazug said to Rhia softly and he held the tau viewing device in front of her face, directing it towards the human troops. “I can’t see
properly.” She replied, keeping her voice low as she attempted to look
into the device’s eyepiece properly. Then, because of her crouched
position she was able to lift her hands high enough to steady the device
and get a clear look. “But wot about da gits master?” Ratish asked, “Aint master gonna kill ‘em?” “Not just yet.” Hazug replied and Ratish’s face fell, “If dey is settin’ up to try and stop us ‘ere den dat means dare’s somethin’ further up ahead dat dey don’t want us seein’. Now let’s go see wot it is.” Picking up Rhia and throwing her over his shoulder again, Hazug then continued to move through the woods. He was more cautious now though, there was no guarantee that he had seen all of the sentries and it would take only one to see him for alarm to be raised. If that happened then Hazug knew that he stood little chance against the auto cannon. The sound of running water was the first thing that Hazug heard as he approached the rebel camp, it had been built beside a river to allow the rebels to take advantage of the natural water supply. The sound of voices came next and it was immediately obvious to Hazug that the handful of guards he had observed in the woods was but a tiny fraction of the total number of humans who inhabited the camp. “Loads of gits master.” Ratish whispered as they studied the camp from just within the trees, but Hazug did not reply. Then a sudden cry of alarm from across the camp attracted Hazug’s attention and he turned to see where it had come from. There he saw a group of people currently setting more of the tents that made up the bulk of the camp, one of who had apparently just torn the one he was attempting to put up. Hazug frowned when he saw this man, certain that he had seen him somewhere before. Taking out the tau viewing device again Hazug pointed it in the man’s direction for a better look. The device gave Hazug a clear view of Viktor Mortel as he was helped back to his feet, apparently yelling at everyone near him and Hazug realised where he had seen the man before. Though he not bothered to learn the names of most of members of the Trader’s Association, Hazug did know most by sight thanks to the meetings he had had with them in the past as part of the agreement between the humans and Kazkal Kromag and this man was one of them. “So dat’s Viktor Mortel.” Hazug said to himself, grinning. Then he lowered the viewing device again so that he could study the wider area of the camp itself. Hazug saw only tents, no permanent structures. Therefore it seemed possible that the rebels moved their camp to new locations quite often. The fact that most of what he saw seemed to be small enough to be carried by a single individual, even humans who were relatively weak when compared to most orks only reinforced this view. However, there was one tent that was much bigger than any of the others and, going by the orkish view of ‘bigger is better’ Hazug guessed that whoever or whatever was in here was important to the rebels. If it was an ork camp then this tent would have housed the warboss himself. Therefore Hazug decided that this tent also deserved closer investigation and he pointed the viewing device towards it. In addition to its ability to magnify images, Hazug had discovered with Mek Batrug’s help that it also included the ability to see into the infrared spectrum. Though this was quite capable of detecting sources of heat such as human or ork bodies it could not see through solid walls. However, the tents used by the rebels were of far lighter construction than stone walls and so Hazug hoped that the device would be able to see through them. Sure enough, when he activated the thermal imaging system the large dull grey tent became a mass of colours representing the heat patterns within it and amongst the various shades of blue and green Hazug saw a patches of red, orange and yellow in the shape of human beings. There were two of them in the tent, one sitting down while the other stood close by. Then the human standing up turned and walked away and Hazug looked up from the viewer to see Captain Yale as he emerged from the tent. Hazug had no idea ho he was of course, but it was soon obvious that he occupied a position of authority amongst the rebels when another walked passed him and brought his hand up to his forehead as Hazug had often seen human troops do when close to a superior. This was something that often confused orks. To them the biggest and strongest were always in charge, a fact accepted even by the smaller and weaker gretchin. So when faced with a species like humans who were all of generally similar size, orks had trouble in identifying leaders. However, by their frequent use of hand gestures like the one Hazug had just witnessed along with the displays of brightly coloured trophies the humans were kind enough to provide other means of identifying their leaders. However there was still the question of the second individual inside the tent. The presence of Captain Yale suggested to Hazug that his instinct regarding the largest tent belonging to the rebel leader was correct, but was Captain Yale the leader or was it the second human? Therefore Hazug looked through the viewing device again, hoping for a further clue as to who was still inside the tent. “Wotcha see master?” Ratish asked, eager to find out what Hazug was looking at. From Ratish’s pint of view the tent remained featureless and opaque. “Dare’s still someone in dare.” Hazug replied. “Da git boss master? Why not shoot ‘im from ‘ere?” This was entirely possible. Hazug’s rifle easily had the range to hit a man sized target inside the tent and by making use of either fully automatic fire or the underslung missile launcher he could make up for the problem of not being able to see his target by blasting at the entire area of the tent. However, Hazug knew that such an action would give away his position to the human rebels and given the number of weapons he could see from his location he did not think that this was a fight he could win on his own. “Dare’s too
many of ‘em.” Hazug told Ratish, “I just wants to find out everythin’ dat
I can about dis place and den we’ll go get da others.”
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