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Da Isle Of Doom Chapta 25 | |
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Chapta 25 |
The orks under the control of the enslavers had retreated as far as the access to the stairs on the ground floor and were using the limited approaches to the stairwell to hold back the attacking orks. With what appeared to be just two heavy automatic weapons the defenders were still quite capable of laying down a considerable weight of fire in both directions as their attackers surrounded them and so far not even Druken’s stormboys had found a way of overpowering them. Beside him two of his troops dragged the body of one of Gorgoga’s orks back out of the line of fire before they set to work removing his teeth. The Goffs had attempted to form a wall of steel to protect themselves by placing their heavy shields side by side, but to their cost they had discovered that even this was not enough to block the powerful rounds fired by the belt fed weapons and now two of them lay dead. “Aint no one
got any stikkbomms?” Druken called out as he briefly leant around the
corner to fire the contents of his pistol towards the stair, sparks flying
from the walls as the lightweight bullets bounced off. “Soddit!” Druken exclaimed and then he raised his voice more to call out down the corridor past the stairs to where Two Heads and Gorgoga’s troops were located, “Got any stikkbomms?” he shouted. “Yeah, a few.” Gorgoga shouted back, “But we can’t chuck ‘em dat far.” Druken scowled as he realised that Gorgoga had a point, the stairs were located too far from the junctions that the attacking orks were using for cover for them to be able to accurately throw an explosive through the door. But then his frown disappeared and a smile spread across his face as he realised that there was another direction form which they could try and attack the stairs, “Stay ‘ere,” He said to his troops, “and shoot anythin’ wot pokes it’s ‘ead out of dat doorway. Goddit?” “Goddit boss.” The nearest stormboy nodded and as Druken retreated from the corner the stormboy stepped forwards to take his place. Druken made his way around the ground floor, following the sounds of gunfire coming from Two Heads and Gorgoga’s position. “It’s me!” he called out as a pair of two Heads’ orks spun around and took aim with their rifles, “Where’s ya boss?” “I is ‘ere.” Two Heads responded, “Wotcha want?” “I knows ‘ow we can get past dem big shootas.” Druken replied and he pointed upwards. One of Two Heads looked up at the ceiling while the other just stared at Druken and frowned. “Dare’ll be another way into da stairs on da floor above.” The leader of the stormboys explained, “We smash through and send some lads round with stikkbomms wot dey can den just drop on da ‘eads of dat lot round dare. Den we is in.” Both of Two Heads smiled simultaneously. “Now dat
sounds like a plan.” One commented before the sound of automatic gunfire
from the stairwell abruptly ceased. “Dey’s gone boss.” Horgun called out. “So where dey go?” Two Heads said as one head looked at Gorgoga and the other at Druken. “Maybe dey decided to go upstairs and drop stikkbomms down on us.” Gorgoga suggested. “Den we needs to move quick.” Druken said, “We ‘as to get to dem stairs.” The orks rushed around the corner, Gorgoga’s armoured orks taking the lead with Two Heads’ rifle-armed troops poking their weapons between them and over the tops of their shields. “Dis way lads!” Druken called out down the corridor to where his stormboys waited and he waved them forwards. The stormboys emerged from cover and advanced towards the stairs from the opposite direction; unlike Gorgoga’s and Two Heads’ mobs they remained close to the walls either side of the corridor instead of filling the whole width of it. At the door to the stairwell Druken and Gorgoga were the first to force their way through it, pushing the smaller orks out of their way and they looked around as Two Heads followed them through and looked down over the safety rail. “Well dey didn’t go up.” One of his commented as he heard the sound of rapid footsteps as the enslaver controlled orks hurried deeper into the fort. “So da question is,” Gorgoga began, “wot made ‘em suddenly want to go down dare?” “Dunno.” One of Two Heads replied while the other continued to look into the darkness below, “But I reckon dat we can at least try and ‘urry ‘em along.” And he plucked a grenade from his belt, pulled out the pin and then dropped it over the rail. There was the sound of the stick shaped explosive bouncing down the stairwell for a few seconds before a dull ‘boom!’ sounded out as the grenade went off. “Right den,” Two Heads said, “let’s go see if dare’s ought left.” The strange light continued to lead Hazug onwards. The corridors on this level had a different design to those on the barracks level and Hazug guessed that that had some bearing on the purpose of the rooms this far down. “Wait!”
Drazzok sudden exclaimed and he stood upright, staring directly
ahead. “Oh ‘e’s just a weirdo.” Mek Batrug commented, “Dey does stuff like dis all da time.” “Drazzok wot is it?” Hazug asked. “I aint sure.”
Drazzok replied, “But I can feel an ‘ole load of power all around.” “Nah, not proper power. Raw stuff.” “My master, we should be cautious.” Mayleth warned, “I believe the shaman may be sensing the warp gates the enslavers use to access the real world.” “So dat light-“ Hazug began and Mayleth nodded. “Is the power of the warp leaking out.” “Is that what that enslaver was guarding perhaps?” Sophie suggested and Hazug looked at Mayleth for an answer. “Perhaps my master.” She told him, “But it is also possible that the enslaver you encountered had only just arrived here.” “Wot d’ya mean, only just got ‘ere?” Mek Batrug asked, “Dey been ‘ere ages aint dey?” “When the mon keigh were driven from this place and no other victims available the enslavers will have retreated back to the warp. Now that they have been disturbed again the enslaver will be congregating around this world once more, but it will take time for them to get here. Each of their warp gates can be used by only a handful of enslavers.” “So which way den?” Hazug asked Drazzok and the weirdboy pointed to a side passage. Hazug crept
forward and looked around the corner into the passage and he smiled as he
saw that it was lined with open doors and from beyond each one came a
bright glow. Sophie gasped as she peered around Hazug into the tiny room and she saw the warp gate. “Is that it?” she said, “Why does it look like that?” and she pointed to one of the stubby protrusions dangling from the mass. “It was an arm mon keigh.” Mayleth said softly. “An arm? But that would mean-“ “That the warp gate was once another of your kind? Yes.” Mayleth replied, “This is just as I explained. The enslavers turned one of your stunted psykers into this so that they could make their way into the real universe.” “Stunted eh?” Salia commented, “But didn’t you also tell us that your people no longer have any psykers? So if ours are ‘stunted’ then what does that say about you?” and Mayleth glared at her. “Well dare aint gonna be no more aliens usin’ dis warp gate.” Hazug said and he braced his rifle against his shoulder and fired at the fleshy warp gate, emptying the magazine into it. But each of the projectiles that struck the warp gate came to a halt and their deformed and blunted remains fell to the floor. Hazug frowned, “Wot da bleedin’ ‘ell is it gonna take to destroy dis thing?” he said out loud and all eyes turned towards Mayleth. “I regret that I do not know my master.” She said, “In all likelihood the amount of force needed to destroy the warp gates would also bring down the ceiling on us.” “Well we can’t just leave ‘em ‘ere.” Batrug said, “Dese things is givin’ me da creeps.” And he prodded the gate with the end of his staff, producing a brief spark of power before he rapidly withdrew it. “They’re making it hot as well.” Salia added as she wiped her brow. “Yeah I noticed dat an’ all.” Hazug replied. “That is not
the warp gates my master.” Mayleth said, “There must be another source for
the excess heat.” Batrug looked at the two remaining burner boys before he looked back at Hazug. “Power.” He
said. “Yeah, ya lets da magma from under da volcano run past water, or pipe water past da magma and den it gets boiled. Ya can use it to generate power dat way, just like burnin’ fungus gas.” “So ya is sayin’ dat dare’s an ‘ole load of red ‘ot molten rock flowin’ right near ‘ere?” Hazug asked, a smile starting to appear on his face. “Yeah, my
guess would be on da lowest level. Closest to da natural magma flow. Dat’s
why it’s ‘otter down ‘ere dan where we came in.” “Well wotever it is ya better ‘urry up with it.” Drazzok said, “Cause I reckon we’s got company.” Hazug pushed his way back out of the tiny room and through the tightly packed madboys outside. He stopped as soon as he was clear of the group and in the distance he could make out the sound of running feet. “Dey’s got us trapped.” He said, “We’ll not get around ‘em to da stairs.” “Trapped! Hah!” Some bloody Blood Axe ay is.” Drazzok snapped, “Wot sort of sneaky kommando gets ‘imself trapped?” Ignoring this Hazug turned to Batrug. “Batrug, I wants ya and ya lads to ‘old ‘em back. Use ya burnas to block da passage.” He said. “How is that supposed to help?” Sophie asked, “Doesn’t that just trap us in this one corridor with all these warp gates?” “Yeah it does.” Hazug answered, slinging his rifle over his shoulder and instead drawing his warscythe, “At least until I can make us another way out.” “Okay Skrath, Narrak. Ya ‘eard ‘im. Let’s get to dat corner and give a good roastin’ to anyone we sees.” Batrug and his burner boys reached the end of the row of cells just as the first enslaver controlled ork appeared ahead of them and Narrak reacted by sending a jet of flame down the corridor that enveloped him. Even the mental control of the enslaver could not override the intense pain of being set on fire and in the moments before he died the ork let out a shriek that echoed up and down the corridor. This sudden and determined response was not lost on the enslavers or the orks they controlled and rather than rush headlong around the corner the next orks instead just leant around for as long as it took to get off a couple of shots and then retreat back out of the burners’ line of fire. “Ya better ‘urry.” Batrug shouted back towards Hazug, “Da juice in dese burnas aint gonna last forever.” “I is workin’ on it.” Hazug responded and he swung his warscythe at the floor again. He had seen the power alien blade cut through the toughest of armour plate, but the sheer mass of material to cut through to create a hole from this level to the one below required several blows for each side. As the last piece of concrete gave way the square section of floor that Hazug had cut around simply plummeted into the darkness of the floor below and he heard it shatter as it impacted. “Ratish!” Hazug snapped. “Yes master?
Ratish is ‘ere.” “Mek stuff master.” Ratish called back up. He was standing directly beneath the hole and holding the torch, turning on the spot so he could see as much as possible. All around him were assorted pipes and control mechanisms, the function of which was well beyond his comprehension. “’Ang on den. We is comin’ down.” Hazug shouted, “Get ready to catch Cuddles.” And a moment later the squig came falling towards Ratish. The party spread out around the hole to leave enough room for the next one to jump down without landing on top of someone else. “Throne! Its even hotter down here.” Salia exclaimed. “That’s good isn’t it?” Sophie asked, looking to Hazug. “I reckon so.” He replied, “But Batrug’s da one to ask about dat.” At that moment the mekboy himself came dropping through the hole, narrowly missing Drazzok. “Mind where ya
fallin’!” the weirdboy snapped at him. “Right den,” Hazug called out, “Batrug we best get searchin’ dis place for wotever ya needs to let all dat magma into dis place.” “Let it in? Is ya as mad as ‘im?” Drazzok exclaimed and he pointed his thumb at Thuggrim, who aware that the weirdboy was looking at him snapped to attention. “Nah I gets it.” Batrug said, “We lets da magma flood in ‘ere and it’ll fill dis place right up. Even if dat don’t destroy dem warp gates den anythin’ dat comes through is gonna get real ‘ot, real quick.” “Exactly.” Hazug said, “So we needs to – Lookout!” and at that moment an ork nob wielding a large axe dropped through the hole. With a single swing of his axe the nob promptly decapitated Narrak, killing him without a sound before he turned towards Batrug himself. Reacting quickly, Batrug pointed his pistol at the nob and put a single bullet between his eyes. The nob’s head jerked back and he collapsed, then Batrug waved at Skrath and he fired a brief burst of flame up through the hole. The flames struck the ceiling of the level above and spread out around the hole, a sudden loud shriek indicating that they had caught another ork in the blast. “Right dey knows we is down ‘ere.” Hazug said, “Thuggrim I wants ya to take ya lads and secure da stairs. We’ll need a way outta ‘ere cause I don’t intend on bein’ stuck down ‘ere when all dat magma comes floodin’ in. Drazzok go with ‘em and take Salia and Sophie with ya.” “Wot about Ratish master?” Ratish asked. “Let Sophie ‘ave Cuddles and ya can come with me and Batrug to search dis place. And Mayleth I wants ya to stay ‘ere with Batrug’s burna lads to make sure nothin’ tries followin’ us down dat ‘ole. Now if everyone knows wot dey is doin’ let’s get to it.” |
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