|
Da Isle Of Doom Chapta 17 | |
|
Chapta 17 |
Gorgoga parried another blow with his shield. So far this battle had run like a practice sparring session. The tankbusters had been unable to land any injuring blows on his heavily armoured mob while on the other hand his own troops had been instructed to avoid using weapons. Their assignment was to distract the tankbusters not kill them, despite the natural instincts of Gorgoga and his troops. But the lack of fatalities was not the only thing about this fight that stood out to Gorgoga as odd. Throughout the whole thing the orks facing his troops had not uttered a single word between them. That was until something odd happened. All of a sudden the whole mob arrayed against Gorgoga’s Goffs stopped as if they had forgotten they were supposed to be involved in a fight. Gorgoga took advantage of this to deliver a good strong blow to the jaw of his opponent, the largest of the orks facing him. “Wot da bleedin’ ‘ell is ya playin’ at?” the ork suddenly demanded as he staggered back, clutching at his jaw, “In fact wot da bleedin’ ‘ell is goin’ on ‘ere?” Hazug looked around him at the confused looking orks who had stopped trying to kill him and the rest of his group the moment the alien had collapsed. “Hazug what is that?” Sophie asked as she and Salia approached, staring at the corpse of the bloated alien. Unsure, Hazug did not reply. “Oi!” he bellowed, pointing to the nearest ork, “Get over ‘ere now!” “Why me?” the ork protested, “Wot’ve I done?” “Just get over ‘ere and tell me wot dis thing is.” “It is not a creature of this universe my master.” Mayleth said calmly as she too joined Hazug in looking at the dead alien, “It comes from the immaterium.” Hazug frowned. “’Ow?” he asked, “We blew up dat portal thingy ya boss used to bring ya ‘ere and dat smaller gizmo is still locked up with da rest of me weapons at ‘ome.” “And what is it?” Sophie asked again, this time directing her question to the eldar. “They have many names.” Mayleth replied, “It depends on what civilisation you ask. Psyrens, krell, dominators, puppeteers. You mon keigh simply call them enslavers I believe. A crude name that nevertheless describes their behaviour very well.” “Dare behaviour?” Drazzok said, “Wot is it dey do den?” “They enter
the minds of those nearby and seize control of them, bending them to do
their will.” Mayleth said. “No my master. I have heard of them only in legends. Legends that go back to the time of the great war against the y’ngir. They live in the immaterium and it is not even known if they are truly intelligent, all that is known is that they are incredibly dangerous. They force their way into the real universe by using psykers who they turn into living warp gates. The old ones created many psychic species to use against the y’ngir and their metal warriors and this in turn led to the creation of these creatures and an invasion of the galaxy by them and this helped bring about the downfall of the old ones themselves. My distant ancestors were amongst those they preyed on and were forced to divide their efforts between battling them and the y’ngir. There have been no psykers amongst my people for millennia now, so we have had even less contact with them than others.” Salia looked around at the bemused looking orks. “So now that it’s dead the orks are no longer under its control?” she asked. “Looks like it.” Hazug replied. “That is correct.” Mayleth said, “Once removed from the control of the enslaver those controlled by it will recover their own will. If these beasts have recovered then it would seem that this was the only one of its kind nearby, otherwise another would have stepped into take over control.” “In dat case, “Drazzok said, “why can I still ‘ear shootin’ outside?” Hazug listened
and in addition to the sound of gunfire he also heard the sound of engines
from the sky. The three warcopters made another run over the airbase. There had been a brief lull in the ground fire directed at them but it had started up again as soon as the warcopters had fired another burst of gunfire at their targets. But as they dived towards the ruins the pilots caught sight of Hazug and his servants rushing from another of the ruined buildings and waving their arms in the air. “’Old ya fire!” he bellowed, “Everyone stop shootin’!” But given the their height above the ground the noise produced by the warcopters’ engines Hazug’s voice was drowned out and the warcopters once again strafed the ruins. “They can’t hear you.” Salia exclaimed, “They’re just going to keep on shooting.” “Not necessarily.” Hazug replied, “Give us dat zap gun.” And he took the energy weapon from Salia. Hazug struggled to grip the weapon properly, its grip was not designed for a hand as large as his was. Fortunately however, for what Hazug had in mind accuracy was not of great importance and he lifted the weapon to his shoulder and fired a single shot. The lightweight rifle produced almost no kick at all, something Hazug was not used to. It did however produce a bright flash as the compact energy bolt it fired streaked across the sky and passed in front of the three warcopters, causing their pilots to look around and investigate the source of this apparent new attack. “Get down ‘ere!” Hazug bellowed, despite the pilots being unable to hear him and he waved his arm up and down, “Down!” and then he waved towards a patch of cracked and broken runway. This time the pilots seemed to get the message and the three warcopters immediately ceased fire and began to descend. “Right den!” Hazug shouted at the top of his voice as he looked around the airbase to positions he knew to be occupied by both his own forces and those who had apparently been under the controller of the creature described by Mayleth as an enslaver, “Let’s ‘ave everyone right ‘ere, right now and we’ll see if we can’t figure out wot’s been goin’ on.” The force defending the airbase had been quite large in comparison to Hazug’s, consisting of more than twice as many orks as he had brought with him. Apart from the specialist tankbusters each group was from a mix of clans and right now they seemed to be eyeing one another up just as nervously as his own troops were watching them. “So wot can any of ya tell me about dis thing ‘ere?” Hazug asked, kicking the enslaver’s body and producing a ‘squelch’ sound. Not one of the orks from the airbase replied however, instead they all just continued to look at one another and now also at Hazug, “Not one of ya eh? Ya came to dis place cause dis alien told ya to and not one of ya knows why?” “Takin’ orders from an alien? Look who’s talkin’.” “Who said dat?” Hazug demanded, a sudden frown appearing on his face, “Come on, own up.” And he began to push his way into the crowd of orks. “It was me. Wot’s it to ya?” one of them replied, pushing his way towards Hazug and the Blood Axe saw that he was facing one of the handful of nobs from amongst the crowd. From the amount of yellow in his clothing Hazug could tell that he came from the Bad Moons clan. Hazug lashed out as soon as the nob was close enough, delivering a powerful punch to his face. The blow was enough o break the nob’s nose, sending him staggering back into the orks arrayed behind him with his hands clamped over his face and blood pouring from behind them. “I’ll ‘ave ya for dat!” the nob spat back at Hazug as he removed his hands from his face. “Yeah, geddim Kregkor!” another nob called out and Hazug was not surprised to see that this one wore the cruder clothing of a Snake Bite. But as the Bad Moon advanced towards him Hazug simply drew his pistol, pointed it downwards and fired a single shot that clipped the other nob’s leg before embedding itself in the ground. “Now listen up!” Hazug yelled, pointing his gun upwards and looking around as Kregkor collapsed in pain, “Boss Kazkal Kromag ‘imself sent me ‘ere to find out why ya lot aint sent ‘im da fuel ya was supposed to and now I finds dat ya was all doin’ wot some alien was tellin’ ya to instead. So I wants to know why and any one of ya dat reckons dat I take orders from anyone dat aint an ork ‘ad better think good and ‘ard about ‘ow many aliens and ‘ow many orks I’ve killed over da years, cause I is always willin’ to add a few more of each. So come and ‘ave a go if ya think ya ‘ard enough. Well, is ya?” The orks looked at one another again, the Snake Bite nob backing away and doing his best to lose himself in the crowd. “We don’t know boss.” One of them finally said, “Dat’s da truth. I just remembers a truck pullin’ up at da rig I was guardin’ and den I was ‘ere.” “Fair enough.” Hazug said, “If dat’s ‘ow it is den we’ll do dis another way. Ratish!” “Yes master? Ratish is ‘ere master.” Ratish replied as he made his way through the crowd to Hazug. “Find me da
grots.” Hazug said. The gretchin that had not been burned along with the boat they were building had, in true gretchin fashion scattered as soon as the fighting started. The orks had not seen fit to equip them with weapons and so they had instead surrendered to their natural cowardice and hidden. As a gretchin himself, Ratish knew exactly the sorts of places they would seek to hide in. “Over ‘ere master!” Ratish called out as he found a group cowering under the ruined wing of a destroyed Imperial valkyrie troop carrier. Hazug glanced at Gorgoga who in turn beckoned for a pair of his troops to follow him to the valkyrie where they pulled back the wing to expose the gretchin cowering beneath. “Get out ‘ere now!” Gorgoga snapped at them, “Get in a line while da boss asks ya questions. Ya answers better be bleedin’ good an’ all or da lot of ya’ll be for da chop!” Nervously the gretchin began to form a lien while Ratish continued to seek out more of them, leading Gorgoga to clusters of the creatures scattered around the still burning half built boat. “Hazug what are you doing?” Sophie asked him quietly as he separated himself from the crowd of orks. “I is gonna ask da grots wot’s been goin’ on.” He replied simply. “But if the orks controlled by the enslaver don’t remember anything, why would the gretchin?” Mayleth laughed. “Foolish mon keigh.” She said, “The smaller beasts naturally do as the larger ones tell them. The enslaver would have had no need to control the minds of the lesser type when it can just command those larger ones under its control to issue commands on its behalf.” “I only asked.” Sophie replied, “There’s no need to be nasty about it.” “Nasty? Trust me mon keigh, you can’t comprehend the meaning of the word as I can. Pray that our master never orders me to demonstrate it to you.” “Take a good look at dis.” Hazug said to the gretchin, prodding at the dead enslaver, “Tell me wot ya know about it.” “Is dat wot was ‘idden in da truck?” one of the gretchin asked. “Of course it is,” another responded, “where else would it ‘ave come from?” “I take it dat ay don’t know wot it is den?” Hazug said and a handful of the gretchin shook their heads. “We aint seen it before lord.” One told him. “Den what can ya tell me about wot ya was doin’ ‘ere?” Hazug asked. “We was
buildin’ a boat for da lads.” A gretchin replied almost
immediately. “Dare’s a bunch of smashed up dethcoptas over dare.” Another gretchin added, waving towards one of the ruined buildings, “We was supposed to be usin’ bits of ‘em to make da propella’s for da boat.” “Where to?” Hazug asked, “Did da lads say where dey was plannin’ on goin’ in it?” The gretchin looked at one another again, but none of them had anything to say. “I’ll take dat a s a no den.” Hazug and he looked at Mayleth, “Ya knows about dese enslavers,” he said, “why would dey want to leave dis place?” “To reach more minds they could control my master. That is all they desire. They enslave more minds and use them to further expand their influence, creating more warp gates as they discover more psykers and bringing even more of their kind from the immaterium until there enough of them to dominate this entire world.” “I reckon dat
dare was another one of ‘em ‘ere.” Another gretchin said, “But a load of
lads left when da sun came up with another of dem covered
trucks. “So much for getting’ answers out of dem.” Mek Batrug said to Hazug. “Okay den,” Hazug then called out, addressing the orks who had been under the enslaver’s control, “I wants all of ya in a line. Nobs at dis end, lads and yoofs down dare. Now move!” Immediately the orks began to organise themselves into a single long line, arranged in a rough height order, “Okay,” Hazug went on, marching along the line and looking each ork in the eyes, “ya turned on ya boss and lost. Ya all knows wot dat means, ya all got to be punished for it.” The orks in the line glanced at one another nervously, well aware of the nature of what passed for the ork justice system. “Now we’ve already dealt with one like ya by ‘avin’ Mayleth over dare give ‘im a good ‘idin’ in da pits, but we aint got time for dat right now so I is just gonna ‘ave to give ya all a quick taste of wot may in store for ya.” Then he turned towards Drazzok. The weirdboy had been sat on a boulder while Hazug had been interrogating the air base’s defenders, munching on the severed leg of one of the gretchin killed by the burning boat, “Drazzok, forget ya snack for a mo and deal with dis lot. One each.” “Wasn’t much kop as a meal anyway.” Drazzok said as he tossed the leg away, “Dem gits of yours can do better.” And he strode up to the largest and thus first ork in the line, Kregkor. Glancing down he saw that the Bad Moon was supporting himself on just one leg and Drazzok grinned, “Kop dis ya traitor.” He snapped and he kicked the ork nob in his good leg. Then as Kregkor collapsed once more Drazzok began to make his way along the entire line, delivering a single blow to each ork from a hand, foot or even his staff. Whenever he knocked loose a tooth he would shove the ork in question back and yell out, “Dat’s mine!” as he bent down to pick it up. As Drazzok continued to dish out punishment Hazug turned towards Mek Batrug. “We’ll need dat body loadin’ onto one of da coptas.” He said, “We’ll need it to show da others wot we is up against.” “What about all of them?” Sophie asked as she watched the line orks still getting struck by Drazzok, “If we’re going back to the refinery there isn’t enough room for all of them in the helicopters.” Hazug shrugged. “Dey can bleedin’ well walk for all I care.” He said, “So long as dey gets back so we can deal with ‘em properly.” “But if an alien was controlling them is it really their fault?” Salia asked, but Hazug just looked at her and frowned. “Of course it bleedin’ well is.” Mek Batrug answered, “No ork dat gets ‘is brain taken over by an alien deserves to be an ork.” Anxious to see their enemy, the orks at the refinery gathered around the body of the enslaver. “So wot is it?” one of Two Heads asked while the other focused on poking the enslaver with the muzzle of his rifle. Hazug shrugged. “Mayleth said dat is was some sort of thing wot lives in da warp.” He replied. “So like dat daemon thingy wot dat old git turned into when we was near dat portal?” Two Heads asked, the second head now looking up from the enslaver’s body so that both concentrate on Hazug. “I don’t think so.” Hazug said, “She made it sound like somethin’ else. But wotever it is I reckon dat dare’s an ‘ole load more of ‘em.” “Why’s dat den?” “Cause da grots at da air base said dat more lads left da base to go somewhere. From da sounds of its dey went with another of dese enslavers. It looks like if ya get lads wot is under dare control far enough away from ‘em dey comes to dare senses again. So at least one ‘ad to go with da other lads and dare must ‘ave been more of ‘em at dat old human fort in da jungle.” Both of Two Heads frowned. “Why does I get da feelin’ dat ya is gonna go back dare again?” he asked. “Yeah, but not until tomorrow.” Hazug replied, “I was up for most of last night so I wants to get some kip first.” |
|
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. |
This Web Page Created with PageBreeze Free HTML Editor