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Blood And Rocks Chapta 6 | |
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Chapta 6 |
“Da git moves too slowly master.” Ratish complained as the small of greenskins and aliens group made their way through Git Town towards the river bank. “If you hadn’t
had Mek Batrug bind my legs I could go faster.” Rhia pointed out. With Rhia no longer slowing them down the group soon reached the side of the river that divided the old city in two. On this side of the river was Git Town and further south the main part of the ork city, while on the opposite bank lay the abandoned ruins of the other half of the old human city from before the world was occupied by the orks. For a long time it had been assumed by the orks that there was no one living there and they had ignored it completely. However, the discovery that the former Imperial governor and his resistance group was based there had changed that perception and now the orks not only monitored the tunnel discovered between the two banks but also occasionally sent forces across the river to search for any signs of trouble. Today though Hazug had no intention of crossing the river, instead he was interested in retracing Cutter’s steps along the riverbank to where the waste of the ork city was collected by gretchin. After gathering the waste together the gretchin would sort through it for anything valuable and then sell on whatever they could, including the sewage that was sold to the trade caravans who in turn sold the foul smelling mixture to farmers as fertiliser. “Oh this is definitely where he came.” Sophie commented as she covered her nose and mouth with her hand in a vain attempt to keep out the smell. “I thought gretchin had a good sense of smell.” Salia said as she rummaged through her pockets for a handkerchief that she used to cover her face as Sophie had done with just her hand,” How do they stand it?” “The beasts are tolerant of such smells mon keigh.” Mayleth pointed out. “You don’t seem too bothered about it.” Salia said to her in response,” How do you do it?” “Practice.” Mayleth replied. “Practice?”
Salia then asked. “Yeah it does smell about right to me.” Hazug said in agreement with Sophie’s original comment and he set Rhia down again. Then he looked at Ratish,” Wot d’ya say grot?” he asked. “Da smell is da same master.” Ratish said. Then he spotted movement and pointed, “Look master! Da sortas!” he said excitedly and when the others looked in the direction Ratish was pointing they saw several gretchin picking their way across the mounds of waste generated by the orks. Each one carried a basket, sack or other container that was used to store anything that caught his attention. As the group watched the gretchin one of the creatures looked up at them and scowled. “Gits!” he
yelled. “Gits!” the cry was repeated and more of the gretchin sorters began to appear, circling around the group. There was more movement amongst the waste as well as several even smaller versions of the familiar orkoid form began to appear, snotlings. Snotlings were the smallest orkoids and were barely sentient. They were useful because of their high tolerance to toxins that would fell an ork or gretchin and so were used to handle the most unpleasant waste. However, they were most commonly known for their cowardice, stupidity and their evil sense of humour. “Dat’s a lot of runts.” Rurkon said as he raised his rifle. “Dat’s a bloody awful load of runts.” Daggot agreed, also raising his rifle. “We is lookin’ for where a human came earlier today.” Hazug called out, slowing unslinging his own rifle, but keeping the weapon lowered for now. “No gits ‘ere.” one of the gretchin called out in reply. “No lads or nobs either.” Another added loudly, “Dis is our stuff. All of it is ours!” “We aint after
ya stuff.” Hazug said, “I just wants to know where da human went and wot
‘e did ‘ere.” Hazug frowned.
Typically no gretchin would dare stand up to even a normal sized ork like
Daggot or Rurkon, let alone a much larger nob like himself. But what the
gretchin lacked in individual bravery they more than made up for in sheer
numbers in this case. All of a sudden he noticed something flying through
the air towards them. Sophie then let out a squeal as a second lump of the foul material struck her and after seeing this the gretchin began to scoop up handfuls of excrement to hurl at them. “We said go away!” one of them shouted as he threw another handful. “I aint bein’ driven off by no runts lobbin’ crap at me!” Daggot exclaimed and he aimed his rifle at the first gretchin he saw. There was a sudden roar as he fired a burst at the gretchin and the short statured creature jerked as the weapon designed to bring down a human or ork-sized target ripped through him. For a moment there was then silence as the snotlings scattered in panic at the sound of gunfire and the gretchin just stared in horror at the body of their fallen comrade. Then one of them scowled and reached down for something else to throw, something harder than the foul smelling but otherwise harmless waste that had been their ammunition so far. “Kop dis!” he yelled as he threw a misshapen lump of metal at Daggot that struck him on the side of his head, bouncing off his skull but still drawing blood. “I’ll ‘ave ya for dat!” he yelled and he fired another burst in response. However this time the gretchin was expecting the attack and he ducked for cover, the bullets instead kicking up clouds of waste as they buried themselves in it. Rurkon joined Daggot, firing short bursts of fire at the gretchin all around them and forcing the creatures to retreat. But in reply the smaller creatures continued to hurl whatever they could get hold of, throwing them up into the air from behind the mounds of waste all around the group. Sophie spotted movement and fired a shot from her lasgun that also impacted only amongst the waste and set fire to something within it. “Stop shootin’ all of ya!” Hazug bellowed. Then he looked around and loudly he added, “And ya bleedin’ runts can stop lobbin’ stuff at us an’ all. We aint’ interested in any of dis stuff.” “Why should we?” a voice called out from behind a nearby mound, “Dare’s more of us dan dare is of ya.” “Because we got stikkbombs.” Hazug replied and he reached for one of the stick shaped grenades he had tucked into his belt. “Now ya’s talkin’.” Daggot said, “Let’s blast dese upstart runts apart.” and he too drew a grenade. “Never!” a gretchin yelled and there was another sudden barrage of waste hurled from out of sight. “Daggot, Rurkon.” Hazug said, “One bomb each. We chuck each of ‘em in a different direction. On my command. Goddit?” “Goddit.”
Daggot replied. “Okay den, get
ready.” Hazug said, pulling out the pin from his grenade with his teeth
and spitting it out. “Fire in da ‘ole!” he shouted and the orks each threw their grenades over the nearby mounds of waste and then ducked. The three
explosions happened in rapid succession, spaced out only by the
differences in the times at which the orks had released them and the
somewhat random nature of their manufacture. The explosions were
accompanied by screams of pain and panic from those caught up in the
blasts on the other side of the mounds. However, the explosions also sent
a large amount of the relatively loose waste up into the air. Waste that
had to come back down somewhere. As the barrage ceased the group looked up slowly to see the gretchin massing once more on top of the mounds of waste all around them, staring down at them silently. “Master listen.” Ratish whispered. “Wot?” Hazug replied, “Dey aint sayin’ nowt.” “No master, not da gretchin.” Ratish said, “Ratish can ‘ear buzzin’.” “The small beast is right my master.” Mayleth added, “I can hear it also.” Hazug looked at Rhia. “Well?” he asked, “Is dis anythin’ to do with dat Cutter?” “I don’t know.” She replied and at that moment a massive insect-like creature, larger even that Hazug himself burst up from beneath one of the mounds of nearby waste and hovered in the air above it. Following in the trail of this monstrosity came a cloud of more mundanely sized insects that buzzed around the creature. A nearby gretchin screamed as the enormous fly descended upon him and slashed at him with the blade-like tips of its front legs. A second one of the creatures suddenly burst out of another mound of waste with its accompanying cloud of flies and sent gretchin fleeing in terror. Then a third and finally a fourth one emerged. This final creature came out from under the mound of waste right beside a gretchin and before the unfortunate creature could flee a snakelike proboscis extended from the tip of it’s abdomen and a mouth in the tip opened, stretching wide enough to engulf the gretchin’s head as it lifted him off the ground. There was a muffled shriek from the gretchin as its arms and legs flailed about wildly. Then the gretchin went limp and the mouth opened again to let the head that was now picked clean of all flesh drop out. “Form a circle.” Hazug ordered, “Back to back.” And as the giant flies began to surround them the group responded by forming a tight circle, all facing outwards. “What about me?” Rhia asked as she found herself caught outside this perimeter, “I can’t-“ but then Hazug reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged her into the centre of the circle. Caught off balance she squealed as she toppled forwards, unable to break her fall because of the way she was bound and she landed face down in the waste covering the ground. Daggot fired as one of the giant flies zoomed in closer, the escorting cloud trailing behind it like some sort of living exhaust trail. Part of the burst struck the creature, but it appeared unharmed by the attack. However, it did cause the thing to halt and hover stationary for a few moments. During this time Mayleth turned. Positioned beside Daggot she was in the perfect position to take a shot with the pair of pistols she currently carried and she fired them both in unison. Her aim was far better than that of most orks and the poison coated slivers of crystal all struck the centre of the giant fly and pierced its flesh. But despite the poison coating each round the creature not only remained airborne, but the holes punched in its rotten appearing flesh scabbed and sealed over almost immediately. “Daemons!” Mayleth yelled as she returned her pistols to her belt and instead drew a pair of curved daggers. Then she rushed out of the circle and leapt upwards, aiming to slice off one of the daemonic creature’s wings and bring it down that way. Hazug had never seen anything move faster than Mayleth before, but the daemon was able to pull back fast enough that Mayleth missed and as she passed by just out of reach it lunged forwards itself and with a flick of one of its limbs it tossed her aside. Unable to halt, let alone control her descent Mayleth landed heavily and her head struck some solid just beneath the surface of the mound of waste she landed on. Her knives fell from her grasp and she lay still. “Hazug! Mayleth’s hurt!” Sophie snapped and she aimed her lasgun at the daemon now buzzing towards the helpless eldar woman. Holding down the trigger she fired a sustained burst at the creature. The energy pulses had no more effect than any of the previous attacks had done against the daemon itself, but the stream of energy blasts roasted many of the flies buzzing around it and it did distract the creature and cause it veer away from Mayleth. “Dat one’s comin’ for us!” Rurkon yelled, firing his rifle as a second daemon fly charged. This burst struck the daemon centrally, puncturing its flesh repeatedly. But as his magazine emptied many of the wounds were already starting to heal. Either side of him, Hazug and Daggot turned to take aim also, with Ratish squeezing himself between Hazug and Rurkon to point his pistol at the daemon as well. The three opened fire simultaneously and more bullets tore into the oncoming daemon. Hazug had battled against a daemon once before, but that had been a far larger and more powerful creature that had been practically impervious to normal weaponry. On the other hand these creatures, although tough and resilient appeared to be vulnerable to attack. Seeing the extra holes appearing in the daemon’s flesh Hazug ejected his rifle magazine and inserted fresh one. He wanted a fully loaded weapon for what he was planning. His rifle was a custom design, built for him by Mek Batrug and one of the features was what the mekboy had termed ‘turbo-dakka.’ This made use of a mechanism more complicated than in a standard rifle to increase the rate of fire by several times. Of course using the weapon in such a way resulted in the magazine being rapidly emptied and so the more bullets available at the start the better. Hazug grinned as he flicked the selector switch tot eh turbo-dakka position and then snatched his finger back on the trigger. The rifle roared as bullets flew from its barrel and it was only Hazug’s brute strength that kept the muzzle from climbing uncontrollably away from the target. The daemon’s body shuddered in the air under the force of the repeated bullet strikes and a thick ichor sprayed from the multiple wounds. Whether the anatomy of the daemon included some vital organ that was struck or maybe just the sheer number of hits overwhelmed its ability to regenerate itself Hazug could not say, but as the last of the bullets in his magazine was fired the un-natural giant fly plummeted to the ground where it’s body simply burst open and melted away, leaving only a foul stench and a cloud of flies that dispersed almost immediately after. “Master! Ya got it!” Ratish yelled, leaping up and down in celebration. “One down.” Hazug said as he ejected the spent magazine. Then he looked around at the remaining three daemons. One of them rushed forwards, aiming straight at Hazug and the proboscis extended from its abdomen even as he was still in the process of reloading. Realising that he would not be able to reload in time Hazug instead aimed his rifle at the daemon and reached for the secondary trigger, the one mounted under the primary barrel that operated the underslung missile launcher, “Take cover!” he shouted and he pulled the trigger. There was a sudden flash of light and a ‘whoosh!’ as the missile was fired. Racing towards Hazug as fast as it could manage the daemon could not turn out of the path of the missile in time and the explosive-filled projectile struck it just beneath it’s misshapen head. Hazug dropped to the ground in a crouch and shielded his face as the missile exploded and spread pieces of the daemon over a wide area. As had happened with the first one that Hazug had killed the pieces of it dissolved into nothing on the ground and those flies not killed in the fireball of the missile detonation dispersed as soon as the daemon’s body was destroyed. The two surviving demonic flies took advantage of the fact that both the rifle part and the missile launcher of Hazug’s weapon were now empty to charge at the group simultaneously. Rurkon fired at them, spraying bullets into the air. But most of them passed harmlessly between the to daemons and the wounds inflicted by those that hit soon healed. In response the two daemons swooped down on Rurkon and impaled him with the blades on their legs. Rhia screamed
and curled up a ball as one of the giant flies hovered over her while the
other turned its attention to Daggot who swung his rifle like a club above
his head in a vain attempt to swat the beast. “Oh no ya don’t!” Hazug called out as he dropped his rifle and instead drew his blade and he charged forwards, “Waaargh!” he bellowed as the daemonic fly turned to face him. However, with one of its legs still stuck through Daggot’s arm and into the ground beneath the beast could not manoeuvre as well as it could in the air and as Hazug swung his blade he hacked a large piece of rotten flesh from its neck. The cloud of flies buzzed around Hazug and he roared with anger as he was forced the back away and swat at them, using his blade like a swatter. But his blade needed only one hand to wield and he still had his pistol tucked into his belt. Drawing this he continued to swat at the cloud of flies buzzing round him as he pointed the gun at the giant daemon fly and fired repeatedly. The first few shots struck the thick hide of the daemon and did nothing, but then some of them struck the still regenerating wound that he had just inflicted and once more the damage became too great and the daemon fell, the leg impaling Daggot snapping in two before it melted. Hazug spun
around as the cloud of flies cleared from around him and looked at the
last of the daemon flies, the one with only one remaining wing. But even
as he tried to decide what to do about it, the daemon suddenly began to
quiver. Then there was a sound like a loud ’Pop!’ and it imploded, taking
with it the cloud of flies and leaving no trace of it existence
behind. Looking at the ork’s wounded arm Hazug saw that the wound looked to be badly infected, something not common with orks who possessed a powerful immune system. “Hazug its changing colour.” Sophie pointed out as she and Salia joined him and she pointed to the flesh around the wound where the natural green of Daggot’s skin was darkening and going grey instead. Hazug frowned. He did not know what wound happen if this reached any of Daggot’s vital organs but he doubted that it would be good. “’Old out ya arm.” He said to Daggot and as the injured ork did as he was told Hazug put a foot down on top of it just above the elbow where the discolouration had not yet reached, “Dis may sting a bit.” He said and then he brought down his blade and with a single blow he severed Daggot’s arm, “See to ‘im.” Hazug then said to Salia as Daggot roared with pain and clutched as his stump with his one remaining hand. Then he looked at Sophie and added, ”And ya best go see if Mayleth’s alright.” “What about Ratish master?” Ratish asked, tugging at Hazug’s leg. “Come with me.” Hazug replied, “I wants to check out where dese mega flies came from.” And he strode towards the closest of the mounds of waste from which one of the daemons had emerged.
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