|
Da Isle Of Doom Chapta 20 | |
|
Chapta 20 |
“Dat’s it!” Grath exclaimed as he watched from the battlements and he turned around to where Two Heads and Nagrippa stood, “Get a move on, both of ya!” The two Evil Suns rushed from the battlements, Two Heads running to where his troops waited inside his two armoured vehicles and Nagrippa heading for the refinery’s landing field. Two Heads climbed into his battlewagon and before the hatch was even closed behind him both vehicles were heading out of the gates. Meanwhile Nagrippa clambered onto his deathcopter and started the lightweight aircraft’s engine. Moments later his was the first of the ork helicopters to take to the sky. Rapidly crossing the area of cleared ground just beyond the refinery’s walls both of Two Heads’ vehicles came skidding to a halt beside on another. “Now Kragglat!” one of Two Heads yelled at the ork sat in the battlewagon’s turret and the other one added, “Let ‘em ‘ave it!” Kragglat
cackled as he pulled back on the firing lever for the battlewagon’s main
gun and the booming sound of its discharge echoed around the inside of the
vehicle. Observing through one of the viewports Two Heads saw the armour
piercing shell rip through one of the vehicles parked along the top of the
hill. As the flash of the exploding vehicle illuminated the surrounding
area Two Heads noticed a mob of ork infantry close by. “Kop dis!” he exclaimed and he fired again. “Yes!” one of Two Heads yelled out, the other adding, “Nice one!” as he saw the shell land in the middle of the target unit and blast them apart and he raised a fist into the air in celebration. Another booming sound from close by then attracted Two Heads’ attention and he looked towards the looted rhino. Unlike the battlewagon the rhino had no room inside for passengers, its original troop carrying capability having been discarded in favour of mounting a large ork-built turret mounting a weapon even bigger than the battlewagon’s main gun. This lacked the range and hitting power of the cannon their enemies had been using to bombard the refinery, but now that weapon had been destroyed the gun mounted on Two Heads’ looted rhino was the largest present on the battlefield. The destruction wrought by this weapon was impressive, the explosive filled shell ripped through undergrowth, vehicle hulls and flesh alike and Two Heads cheered when he saw another enemy vehicle blasted apart. Clearly the enslavers’ strategy had been to use the long range of their captured super cannon to not only reduce the refinery to rubble but also to keep counterattacking armour at bay and with it lost their remaining troops were discovering that it was they who were out gunned. The only weapons they had that possessed sufficient range to hit the battlewagon lacked the penetrating power to damage it from the front and Two Heads grinned as he heard the sound of bullets bouncing off the thick armour plates in front of him. “’It ‘em again!” he yelled. Gunfire cracked overhead as Hazug and his servants fell back towards Drazzok and the madboys. Unlike Two Heads armoured units they were well within range of the lighter weapons carried by the orks under enslaver control and it was clear that the aliens were looking to avenge the loss of their most powerful weapon. “So wot now?” Drazzok asked as Hazug reached him, squatting down beside a tree while he fumbled for another rifle magazine. “We waits ‘ere.” Hazug replied, firing several shots towards a group of orks that had pursued them. The shots hit nothing but they did force their pursuers to go to ground. “Shouldn’t we get back into the pipe?” Sophie asked. “Don’t be so bleedin’ daft.” Drazzok said sternly, “While we is climbing back into dat pipe dem lot’ll be fillin’ us all full of ‘oles.” And he pointed towards another group of orks closing in on them. “Even if we
did make it inside all dey’d ‘ave to do is shoot along da pipe and dey
couldn’t miss us.” Hazug added. “Thuggrim, ‘ow many does ya reckon?” Hazug called out. Thuggrim still had his bionic eye fitted and looked through the jungle to take a quick head count of the forces coming for them. “Loads.” He replied, “Yep, definitely loads of ‘em.” And he fired a single shot from his rifle that took the head off an ork, “One less now though.” “We’ll need some light.” Hazug said looking at Drazzok. “But won’t that let them know where we are?” Salia asked. “Dey already knows were we is.” Hazug replied, “But wot I wants is a light wot can be seen from da air.” The burning remains of a vehicle provided enough illumination for Nagrippa to pick out a cluster of orks preparing to advance towards Two Heads’ position and the Evil Sun recognised the opportunity to take out the entire unit. “Squadron forty, dive!” he yelled over the noise of his deathcopter’s engine. The other pilots of his unit failed to hear him over the sound of not only the engines but also the gunfire coming from the ground below, but as soon as they saw him angle his deathcopter downwards they followed his lead. Squeezing the trigger set into his deathcopter’s handlebars Nagrippa watched as a pair of rockets streaked towards the ground. At the last moment the orks below realised that they were under attack and scattered, so when the rockets exploded they killed only a single ork. However, behind him the rest of Nagrippa’s unit as well as the trio of lager warcopters opened fire and the barrage of rocket and cannon fire further reduced the unit’s numbers. It was then that Nagrippa saw something else penetrating from beneath the jungle canopy, a pale green glow from the direction he knew the pipeline to be in and he steered his deathcopter towards it, knowing that the others would follow. As he drew closer to the source of the light he saw that there were other below as well, but rather than a constant glow these were the short lived muzzle flashes of small arms fire and Nagrippa knew that he had found Hazug’s raiding force. Waving at one of the other deathcopter pilots he then pointed to a spot some distance from the green glow. “Over dare!” he yelled when he knew he had the pilot’s attention, “Use ya bomm!” The other pilot grinned and veered off in the direction Nagrippa was pointing and angled his deathcopter downwards. As he descended the pilot reached for a large machete-like blade tethered to the side of his deathcopter and took hold of it. Then with two quick strokes he cut through the leather straps holding the large bomb mounted beside him on the deathcopter and the explosive promptly fell away, whistling. The pilot pulled up, accelerating furiously to get clear before the bomb exploded and though he was far enough away that no shrapnel reached him the deathcopter still shook from the blast when it went off. Nagrippa watched the detonation of the bomb and smiled when he saw the hole it blasted in the jungle. He looked around towards the warcopters, but he saw that he did not need to order them to descend because all three were already heading for the new clearing. “Move!” Hazug yelled as soon as he heard the explosion accompanied by the sound of falling trees. “Its dem bleedin’ coptas again innit?” Drazzok snapped as he began to move, the green glow from the end of his staff disappearing. The gunfire from the orks under enslaver control continued as the raiding group withdrew to the clearing created by the bomb and one of the madboys fell to the ground, a bullet hole passing all the way through his chest. “’E was one of mine. I’ll ‘ave ya for dat!” Thuggrim snapped and he whirled around to fire at the ork who had just shot the madboy, killing him in revenge, “ha!” he called out, waving his fist, “’Ow d’ya like dat den?” “Just move!” Hazug snapped, “Get to da coptas.” And he grabbed hold of Thuggrim to pull him along. Sure enough when the raiding party reached the clearing the three warcopters were there waiting for them and they ran for them. Behind them the pursuing orks halted at the edge of the clearing to fire on them from within cover. Most of the shots directing at the raiding party missed, the combination of poor light and poor marksmanship limiting their effectiveness. But given the amount of fire it was inevitable that at some shots would find their target and just in front of Hazug one of the madboys fell, screaming as he clutched at the wound inflicted on his leg. “Get up lad!” Hazug said as he pulled the madboy back to his feet and helped him towards the nearest warcopter. There was the flash of a rocket exhaust accompanied by a sudden ‘whoosh’ and then an explosion as the missile struck the rear-mounted engine of one of the warcopters as it sat vulnerable on the ground. The initial explosion was followed by a second as the disintegrating engine sent red hot shards of metal into the warcopter’s forward engine and this too exploded, killing the pilot instantly. “Quickly!” Hazug yelled, “Get aboard da other before dey reload for another shot!” The raiding party began to scrabble aboard the remaining two warcopters and at the same time Nagrippa’s unit of deathcopters that had been circling overhead streaking downwards to strafe the tree line. Already aboard one of the warcopters, Salia and Sophie turned around to help one of the last madboys still on the ground to get aboard. But as they reached out to take hold of him the ork suddenly halted and gave a shout. “Squig!” he yelled and he turned on the spot to face the jungle, motionless. “No!” Sophie cried out, but before the madboy could be roused there was another shot and his head jerked backwards as he was hit. “Dat’s da last!” Hazug shouted at the pilot of the warcopter when he saw that there was no one left on the ground. The pilot nodded and increased the power to the engines and the warcopter lurched as it lifted off. Below the rising warcopters the enslaver controlled orks continued to fire upwards, with several vehicle mounted automatic weapons joining in as well. Seeing the muzzle flashes Nagrippa angled his deathcopter towards one of them, determining that this brief battle would be far more worthwhile if he could add a vehicle to his kills. Diving down he saw that the truck in question was an enclosed type and it appeared to be stationary. “’Ow stupid can ay get?” he said to himself, “Kop dis.” And he fired another pair of rockets. The first of the rockets missed the truck, instead slamming into the trunk of nearby tree, but the second one scored a direct hit on the truck’s engine and there was an explosion as it caught fire. “Gotcha!” Nagrippa exclaimed as he looked back to check on the damage caused by his attack. There he saw movement coming from the truck and he expected to see the ork crew come rushing out to escape the flames. However, instead of orks he spotted the bulbous form of another enslaver as it evacuated the burning vehicle, “Down dare! Down dare!” he yelled, waving towards the ground and behind him another of the deathcopters swooped down. There was a rattle of gunfire as the pilot opened fire on the enslaver and the alien jerked about under the barrage before deflating like a burst balloon, its insides ripped apart by the sustained high calibre burst. “Dat’s me lad!” Nagrippa yelled, “But don’t forget dat I set ya up for dat one!” Whether it was the loss of two of their number, or perhaps the realisation that without the long ranged super cannon they lacked the ability to bombard the refinery from a safe distance the remaining enslavers determined that now was the time to withdraw and in a moment all of the gunfire coming from the orks under their command ceased. From the safety of his battlewagon Two Heads heard the impacts against its hull suddenly stop and he studied the hilltop carefully. “We’s done it lads!” he shouted, “Dey’s runnin’ away. Look!” and the other Evil Suns orks began to crowd around him to look out of the viewport fro themselves, “No pushin’.” Two Heads, “Remember who’s in charge around ‘ere.” |
|
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