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Da Isle Of Doom Chapta 19 | |
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Chapta 19 |
Fortunately from Hazug’s point of view the noise created in getting his small force into the pipe did not persist and despite the occasion bump as a loose piece of equipment struck the inside of the pipe each member kept quiet as they crawled along. Occasionally they would hear the dull booming of the cannon as another shell was fired at the refinery, but apart from that there was nothing to indicate what was happening outside the pipe. After some time Hazug noticed that the angle of the pipe had become inclined slightly and he smiled to himself, this meant they were nearing their target. He knew that the incline was a sign that they had reached the base of the hill. The cannon was positioned at the top of the hill and so all the group had to do was keep going until the pipe began to slope downwards again, signifying that they had reached the other side of the hill, behind the enemy’s lines. Hazug did have concern’s about what may be within the pipe on the other side of the hill however, so far there had been no signs of the flammable liquid fungus in the pipe but Hazug knew that when the pumps stopped whatever had been in this section of the pipe would have continued to flow down to the refinery. But on the other side of the hill it was possible that the explosive liquid would still fill the pipe. “Keep dat torch ‘igh.” Hazug cautioned Ratish, knowing that in its unrefined form the fungus would need direct contact with the flame to be ignited, “And wait right dare while I go on ahead.” He added and he crawled further up the pipe. The flickering light from the torch grew dim as Hazug approached the point in the pipe where it passed over the crest of the hill and began to slope back down again, but there was just enough for the tau viewing device to make use of as Hazug held it up to his eye to inspect the pipe ahead. It took just a brief look to see that the pipe was empty. Like all ork construction, the pipeline had been put together somewhat crudely and the connections between different sections of the pipe were not perfectly sealed, meaning that during normal operation a portion of the liquid fungus pumped along the pipe would leak out. Given the amount of time that had passed since the drilling rigs stopped pumping, all of the remaining liquid in the pipes had now escaped and left the way open for the raiding party to continue. Hazug put the viewer away and signalled the others to advance with a wave of his hand rather than calling out, the chance of detection this close to the enemy position was too great for him to risk making unnecessary noise. From behind him he heard the sound of the rest of his raiding party crawling along the pipe and when he felt the heat of the torch he began to crawl along the descending pipe until it once again began to level out. “Drazzok,” he said quietly, “can ya tell if dare’s any lads outside?” “’Ang on a mo.” Drazzok replied and he took a deep breath while he used his mind to search for the tell tales signs of orks channelling psychic power towards him. The strongest signs came from directly ahead and behind him, from Hazug and Thuggrim and then there were the unmistakeable presences of the madboys. Finally there was the relatively weak presence of Ratish, but all of these were located within the confines of the pipe, “Nothin’.” He said. “Good.” Hazug said and then he added, “Right, pass us dat warscythe. I needs to chop us an ‘ole to get out of.” Sophie slid the warscythe forwards, carefully pushing it past Drazzok towards Mayleth who took hold of it and in turn slid it past her to where Ratish took over. “’Ere ya go master,” He said, “Ratish got ya choppa for ya.” Hazug took hold of the weapon and flicked the switch to activate its blade. Then, holding the warscythe out in front of him he cut a section from the pipe that promptly dropped to the ground outside, producing a dull ‘thud’ as it landed in the soft jungle mud. “Wait ‘ere a mo.” He said as he pulled himself out of the pipe, “I wants to make sure dat dare really aint no one about.” “I hope he hurries up.” Sophie said, “I can’t wait to get out of here. This place stinks.” “I dunno.” Drazzok said, “It could be worse.” “How?” Salia asked. Drazzok took a deep breath and broke wind. Not just a brief burst of flatulence, but a long and drawn out emission of bodily gas that caused both Salia and Sophie to clamp their hands over their noses and mouths. “Throne!” Sophie exclaimed, “I felt that on my face.” “It stinks.” Salia complained, coughing, “Sophie why did you have to say that?” “Well I didn’t know he was going to do that.” From in front of Drazzok Mayleth looked back and smiled. “Be grateful mon keigh.” She said, “It would have been worse had you been the one with the torch.” But neither human saw the funny side. Hazug’s head
then reappeared through the hole in the pipe. “Oh thank the Emperor.” Sophie said as she crawled forwards as quickly as the progress of those ahead of her would allow and when she dropped out of the pipe she took in several deep lungfuls of air. “Okay dis is wot we is gonna do.” Hazug said as he took his rifle back from Salia and checked it, “Da supa-kannon is up at da top of dis ‘ill. I’ll lead da way and I wants Mayleth, Ratish, Salia and Sophie with me. Drazzok I needs ya to ‘ang back a bit and let us know if ya senses any of dem enslavers ‘angin’ about. Thuggrim-“ “Yes sir!” Thuggrim snapped and all of the madboys snapped to attention. “Stay with Drazzok and stay quiet.” Hazug said, scowling at Thuggrim’s sudden outburst. “Yes sir.” Thuggrim whispered and he raised a finger to his lips before turning to the other madboys and adding, “Shush. All of ya shush.” Hazug turned and set off up the hill, keeping his rifle at the ready and followed close behind by his servants. Just as Hazug had said the cannon was located at the top of the hill, form where its crew could evaluate the damage from each shell they fired at the refinery under the assumption that the orks there were unable to retaliate. As he led his small force towards their target Hazug made out the shapes of several other orks vehicles arrayed in a line along the top of the hill, including the pair of mobile anti-aircraft guns either side of the heavy artillery piece. “Dey needs takin’ out as well.” He said, pointing to the anti-aircraft guns, “Dem flakka-dakka guns’ll cut us apart if dey sees us. Salia, Sophie, does ya reckon dat ya can-” “Oi Hazug!” Drazzok hissed from further back down the hill. “Wot is it?”
Hazug replied. Hazug looked along the slope of the hill and he spotted another ork vehicle, an armoured gun carrier that had a heavy cannon mounted in the front of its chassis. Immediately Hazug saw that the positioning of the vehicle made no sense. The weapon it carried was designed for direct fire, so placing it here on the far slope of the hill made it useless for firing on either the refinery or any of its defenders should they attempt to rush the hill. The obvious reason for its presence here was that it contained something that needed keeping out of harm’s way and given that Drazzok had drawn his attention to the gun wagon Hazug knew exactly what that would be. There was an enslaver inside. “’Ere Mayleth,” he said, beckoning the eldar closer as an idea began to take form in his mind, “I reckon dat dare’s one of dem enslavers I dat wagon over dare. If we blow it up will all of dese lads come to their sense?” Mayleth cast her gaze towards the gun wagon and then looked further along the hillside, the jungle terrain obscured her view slightly but in the darkness the natural ability of her species to see further into the infrared spectrum allowed her to just about pick out several more enclosed vehicles parked on the reverse side of the hill where they were hidden from view from the refinery. “I believe that the creature is not alone my master.” She replied and she pointed to the locations where she could see the parked vehicles. “So just killin’ one of ‘em won’t make a difference den?” “Not in the long run, no. Though there may be a certain degree of confusion during the time it takes the others to make up for the loss of one of their number.” “Dat may be
enough.” Hazug said and he looked back towards Drazzok and the madboys,
“Drazzok,” he called out, just loud enough for the weirdboy to hear
him. “I needs ya to take out dat wagon.” He said, “Can ya do it?” “Da great one
can do anythin’.” Thuggrim responded and he waved his troops
forwards. “Get ya guns ready.” Hazug said to his servants, “We’ll need to ‘it dem flakka-dakka wagons real quick.” “Wot about da supa-kannon master?” Ratish asked as another shell was fired. “Leave dat to me.” Hazug told him, “Flakka-dakka wagons first.” It was then that the madboys let out a sudden yell. “Waaargh!” At that moment they had Drazzok pointed towards the gun wagon and the influx of psychic energy that he was unable to channel away from himself safely into the ground had to go somewhere else and that somewhere was directly towards the gun wagon. The energy erupted in the form of greenish light bursting from his eyes and mouth to form a beam that struck the side of the gun wagon and punched a hole straight through it hull. There was a flash from inside the vehicle as the energy beam ignited stored ammunition and there was the sound of rounds cooking off. The rear door dropped open and from within the bulk of an enslaver pulled its way out of the gun wagon before turning towards the madboys. At the same time the gun arrays of the anti-aircraft trucks also turned and the weapons began to depress so that they could fire at ground targets. However, before they could fire Thuggrim, who was the only one of the madboys not have been holding Drazzok on his shoulders lined his custom rifle up on the enslaver. His bionic eye gave him a perfect picture despite the darkness and as soon as his sight picture showed him that his rifle was aimed at the rough centre of the alien he squeezed the trigger in the way he had observed a human assassin making a kill. Sure enough the bullet struck the alien’s bloated body, just above where its head hung down. The enslaver lurched suddenly from the wound but it made no sound. A second shot rang out before the orks manning the anti-aircraft batteries could bring their weapons to bear. This one struck the enslaver’s head in the midst of its cluster of eyes and it dropped to the ground in an instant. The effect of this on the nearby orks under its control was immediate and obvious. Where they had been working furiously to either bring their weapons to bear on the madboys or prepare and load another shell into the large cannon now they suddenly halted. “Now!” Hazug snapped and he opened fire on the nearest of the anti-aircraft trucks, switching his rifle to the ‘turbo-dakka’ setting so that it fired at an enhanced rate. The disadvantage of this was that he rapidly emptied the magazine and was force to reach for a replacement while his servants were still firing on the vehicle and its exposed crewmen. By the time Hazug had reloaded there were no signs of movement on the truck and Hazug instead turned his attention to the other while its crew remained confused and opened fire on them. “Da other one!” he yelled as he sprayed the vehicle with bullets. Once again Hazug soon emptied the magazine of his weapon while his servants continued to fire theirs. This time however Hazug did not attempt to reload, instead swinging his rifle towards the artillery gun between the anti-aircraft trucks that was the primary target of this mission. Then, reaching for the secondary trigger located beneath his rifle’s barrel his fired the rocket mounted there. The explosive round streaked towards its target. Hauzg’s aim was good and the rocket struck the cannon’s tracked platform where its crew had stored spare ammunition for the cannon, sending a ball of fire into the sky that lit up the jungle. |
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