|
Blood And Rocks Chapta 20 | |
|
Chapta 20 |
Hazug was the first to burst out of the woods and back into the clearing where the rebels had made their camp. “Two Heads! Batrug! Gorgoga! Krorden!” he bellowed as the orks turned towards him. “Wot?” one of
Two Heads responded, calmly walking towards Hazug. “But dare’s still loot to be ‘ad.” The other of Two Heads replied, “Me lads aint finished loadin’ it onto da wagon.” “Da wagon can stay.” Hazug said, “We needs to get back to da city real quick. I reckon dat dese humans ‘ave planted one of dare stones dare. One dat’ll summon a real powerful daemon and I wants to get to it first.” “We can’t all fit in ya trukk.” Gorgoga pointed out. “I knows dat.” Hazug said, “Dat’s why I just want da best of us. Gorgoga dat means ya and all four lads ya got left.” Gorgoga nodded at this point and rushed off to gather up his remaining troops. “Wot about my lads?” Two Heads asked. “I just needs ya to bring Gorrid and two others.” Hazug told him, “Gorrid’s da best driver ya got so ‘e can drive me trukk. Den along with da two of us, Thuggrim Drazzok, Batrug, Mayleth and Ratish dat fills it up. Krorden and Trokken can ride along in dare buggy.” Then he looked towards Mek Batrug, “Oi Batrug! ‘Ave ya got dat blasta fixed?” “Yeah just about.” Batrug replied, picking up his custom energy weapon, “Job’s a good ‘un.” “Good. Ya better bring it with us.” Hazug told him. “Hang on.” Sophie said suddenly as she emerged from the woods and heard Hazug’s plan, “What about us?” and she pointed to herself and Salia. “Dare aint room for ya both. It’ll enough of a squeeze as it is.” Hazug told her. “Yeah, dare aint no trukk big enough for me and dat wazzok.” Drazzok commented, glaring at Batrug. “But you’re taking Ratish.” Sophie pointed out, “I’m a better fighter than he is.” “Gits is crap!” Ratish snapped, pulling a face. “Never mind
dat now. I aint even takin’ Cuddles.” Hazug said, “Ratish is comin’ and
dat’s it.” “Good.” Hazug
said, “Now we needs to get goin’, we needs to run back to me trukk and we
needs to collect dat kannon ya ‘id.” The sun was going down as Kazkal Kromag made his way to the fighting pits, surrounded as usual by an assortment of nobs and other hangers on. “So wot’s on da program for tonight den?” he asked one of the nobs who administered the pits. “We got Snake Bites in boss.” The nob replied, “Plus some Goffs.” “Snake Bites
and Goffs huh?” Kazkal commented, “Well dat aint bad I suppose.” “Aint dare no kans tonight?” a large mekboy asked, referring to the large walking fighting machines that had their ork or gretchin pilots surgically implanted within them. “Ya always wants kans Nuzzug.” Kazkal commented, “Why dontcha go and build yaself some kans if dat's wot ya want? I prefers to see blood dan sparks.” The warboss and his party made their way to the seats that offered the best view of the main arena. There was already a group of orks sat there, but as soon as they saw the warboss approaching they moved away before he could offer them choice of changing places with him or changing places with some of the combatants in the arena tonight and every night until their luck ran out. “Just in time.” Kazkal said, sitting down just as the gates to the arena opened and a group of black-clad orks came marching out from one side while a group of about the same size but dressed in much cruder animal skins entered from the other, ”Now who’ll give me three teeth dat da Goffs win dis one?” “Waaargh!” the
leader of the Snake Bites shouted, lifting an axe into the air as he did
so and in response to this use of the traditional ork war cry a shout went
up all around the arena. The two opposing groups of orks rushed at one another, waving their weapons as they ran. As was normal for orks the largest of each group led the way and when these two met they wasted no time in landing blows on one another. They struck one another simultaneously and both drew blood. Unfazed by this both continued to trade blows, totally unaware that the blood already spilt was being absorbed into the ground far quicker than it should have been, The first time that Hazug had been instructed by the warboss to investigate something troubling him he had ended up rushing back to city to engage an assassin intent on killing Kazkal Kromag himself. On that occasion the only vehicle available had been Two Heads’ battlewagon and although it was significantly slower than Hazug’s truck it was so heavily armoured that they had not had to bother stopping at the checkpoint of the northern fort. Instead they had simply driven right through it in the knowledge that all of the fort’s weapons that were powerful enough to destroy the armoured vehicle were pointed the other way. However, this time both Hazug’s truck and Krorden’s buggy were forced to come to a halt while the guards decided whether they should be allowed access to the city. “Wotcha doin’ comin’ ‘ere?” their leader asked and then he stare at Hazug, squinting in the poor light, ”Wasn’t ya ‘ere before? Ya ‘ad more wagons den.” “Yeah dat was
us.” Hazug said. The guard commander frowned. “Well it aint dat simple ya see. Dare’s a new fee system.” He said. “Since when?”
one of Two Heads asked and then the other added, “Yeah, we aint ‘eard of
no fees before.” The orks in the truck frowned. “’Ear ya go den.” Drazzok called out and he waved to the guard commander, “Come back ‘ere and I’ll let ya ‘ave it.” As the guard commander walked around the truck Hazug, Two Heads and Batrug all exchanged glances. In all the time they had known Drazzok they had never known the weirdboy appear so eager to pay for anything. Then they all smiled as they realised that as a Snake Bite they had all witnessed him be quite happy to inflict physical harm to anyone who irritated him and they waited to see what would happen. “Come on den.” The guard commander said, standing next to Drazzok, “Let me ‘ave it.” And an evil grin appeared on Drazzok’s face. “Okay den. Ya asked for it.” Drazzok said and then he lashed out with his staff and struck the guard around the head. There was a sharp ‘crack!’ as the blow struck him an he staggered back, “Dare ya go.” Drazzok said to the guard commander and he clutched at the side of his face and the weirdboy pointed to the ground where a tooth had been knocked out, “Dare’s ya tooth. Now does ya want me to pay for da buggy an’ all? Cause I reckon dat I can afford it.” “Nah.” The guard commander replied as he bent down and scooped up the tooth before anyone else could get to it first, “Dis’ll cover ya all.” “Yeah, I reckoned dat it would.” Drazzok commented. Hazug looked at Gorrid who was sat next to him in the driver’s seat. “Go.” He said
and Gorrid pressed his foot down on the gas pedal. Behind them the guard
commander just waved Krorden’s warbuggy through the checkpoint, still
rubbing the side of his face. “Dat’s a good question.” Batrug added, “Ya aint told any of us where we is ‘eadin’ for.” Hazug glanced
at Mayleth. “Den we needs to go somewhere wot dare is guaranteed to be loads of blood. Somewhere dat would be worth summonin’ a real big daemon.” Then Hazug looked back at Gorrid, “Gorrid, ya is ‘eadin’ for da pits.” At this hour the streets of Git Town were quiet. Before the ork invasion the area had possessed electric street lighting, but in the invasion’s aftermath the orks had taken not only the generators used as the source of the power for the lights but also most of the lights themselves. Therefore most humans now avoided going out into the streets after dark. On the other hand the ork occupied areas of the city were full of activity as orks met up to mark the end of another day with eating, drinking, gambling and of course fighting. Just because they were not in the pits was no reason for them not to fight and those not directly involved would still gather round to watch and bet on the outcome. Once again Hazug missed the bulk and protection of Two Head’s battlewagon as Gorrid was forced to slow down while the truck’s occupants yelled at ork pedestrians to move aside or be run over or while they waited for other vehicles to get out of their way. “Does ya want me to use da shoota on ‘em?” Thuggrim asked from the gunner’s station up in the roll cage. “Best not.” Hazug replied, aware that it would be easy for Thuggrim to exhaust all of the available ammunition on the crowd and that opening fire could provoke a gun battle that would only slow them down, “Wait ‘ang on a mo.” Hazug then said, “Perhaps ay can do somethin’ after all.” “Right ya is den.” Thuggrim said and he cocked the truck’s weapon. “Not dat.” Hazug said before Thuggrim could open fire, “Just tell ‘em who’s with us.” And he then looked around at Drazzok. “Wot ya lookin’ at me for?” the weirdboy asked. Then he remembered how orks could react to the presence of a weirdboy, “Oh yeah.” And as he smiled he stood up and took hold of the truck’s roll cage to steady himself. “Make way for
da great Drazzok! Make way for da mightiest weirdboy of ‘em all!” Thuggrim
bellowed and then Drazzok joined him. Over the sound of the truck’s engine and the crowd the shouts did not carry very far, but they carried far enough to cause some of the nearby orks to turn their heads and see Drazzok standing tall in the back of the truck. “Weirdo!” they yelled and in turn this caused more orks to take notice and call out with a warning. Almost immediately the crowd in front of the truck began to disperse as the orks decided that being in the path of a weirdboy was not a good place to be should his head happen to explode and take theirs with it. “Floor it Gorrid.” Two Heads instructed, “Da pits is just up ahead.” “Den just get us to da biggest.” Hazug added, “Dat’ll be where da stone is.” The area of
the fighting pits was walled of from the surrounding city but there ere
numerous gates large intended for crowds of orks to be able to pass
through that were large enough for the truck to pass through undamaged.
Away from the fighting arenas themselves the pits the gretchin who made
sure that everything ran smoothly attempted to flag down the truck and
buggy that followed it. “Da gate’s shut.” Gorrid said as he saw the gateway leading to the main arena up ahead. There were several ork guards present, there just to make sure that none of the combatants got any ideas about leaving before the show was over. The idea that someone would attempt to force their way into the arena was not something that had ever occurred to the orks, but now that the truck was hurtling towards them the guards waved for it to slow don and stop. “Dat gate’s just a bit of wood.” Hazug said, “Just go right through.” And Gorrid kept his foot on the gas pedal. The ork guards dived out of the way at the last moment and the gate splintered as Gorrid drove the truck straight through it. The gate’s builders had not thought to make it tough enough to resist anything more than an accidental blow from a power claw. There were two ork nobs fighting one another in the arena when Hazug’s truck burst into it, followed close behind by Krorden’s buggy. Each was armed with a large double handed axe and when the vehicles suddenly appeared they both paused what they were doing and looked at them, confused. “’Ere.” Kazkal said, sitting up as he looked down at the two vehicles that had just some to a halt while the occupants of the truck began to disembark, “Aint dat Hazug down dare?” “I reckon so boss.” One of the nearby nobs replied, “Just like a Blood Axe to ruin everythin’.” And all around the arena the orks began booing. “Geddout!” some yelled. “No wagons! No wagons!” others added and Kazkal frowned. “I reckon dat if ‘e’s so keen to be ‘ere den maybe I should make ‘im tomorrow nights main attraction.” He said. “I dunno boss.” Nuzzug said, “Dis may ‘ave potential.” It was at that point that one of the two orks who had been fighting in the arena realised that he had just been presented with a golden opportunity to win his bout and he swung his axe at his distracted opponent. The blow smashed open the back of the other ork’s head and he fell to the ground dead, blood spilling out from his head. But the blood simply vanished into the ground and all of a sudden there was a noise like thunder and the victorious ork found himself thrown through the air as the ground beneath him burst upwards.
|
|
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. |
Background image miniature design copyright Games Workshop Ltd
This Web Page Created with PageBreeze Free HTML Editor