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Da Isle Of Doom Chapta 6 | |
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Chapta 6 |
Two Heads arrived shortly after dark at the head of the convoy bearing not only the rest of the warband but also the supply of ammunition off loaded from Frurgen’s ship. “Oi!” one of Two Heads shouted at the nearest ork, an armoured Goff from Gorgoga’s unit, “Where’s Hazug?” the other head then asked. “Over dare.”
The ork replied, pointing to Hazug’s command hut where a light could be
seen through the window. Two Heads then simply strode past the ork sentry
and headed for the hut. “He’s gone with Drazzok and Thuggrim.” She said, “They’re looking for somewhere safe for Drazzok to sleep.” In an ork city weirdboys lived apart from the rest of the population in dwelling known as weird huts. These were compact homes mounted on top of tall copper poles that served to dissipate the psychic field that concentrated around them in a relatively safe manner. Given that a large number of orks would be gathered together for the night in close proximity it was understandable that both Drazzok and Hazug would want to find somewhere that the weirdboy could sleep without his head exploding. Two Heads turned around and left the hut, looking about for any signs of where Hazug had gone. But with such a large number of orks moving about in the poor light he could see no sign of the Blood Axe. However, it was then that he heard the sound of badly played squig pipes and both heads smiled. Taking a torch and following the sound of what Two Heads refused to call music he walked into the jungle until he came across a cave that was surrounded by the madboys, all but the pipers stood absolutely still an aiming their weapons in random directions. Two Heads pushed his way between the motionless madboys and entered the cave where he found Hazug with Drazzok and Sophie. As usual the weirdboy was clutching his copper staff in one hand and right now was holding a half eaten pie close to his chest in the other. “It’ll do I suppose.” Drazzok said, “But I needs a proper ‘ut if we is stayin’ ‘ere much longer. Dare’s a draught.” “Perhaps one of dem madboys out front ‘as a spare blanket for ya.” Two Heads announced to make his presence known. “Bah. I’ll be fine for tonight.” Drazzok replied, sitting himself down at the side of the cave and taking another bite of the pie. “Two Heads,” Hazug said, “any trouble getting’ ‘ere?” “Nah.” One of Two Heads answered as the other just shook, “A few of da lads got ‘emselves shot when we came ashore, but da dok says dey is all just actin’ like whingin’ runts and dat dey’ll be fine after ‘e’s beaten some sense into ‘em. So wot ‘appened ‘ere den?” Hazug shrugged. “Da lads is gone.” He replied, “All of dem.” “Gone?” Two Heads said and then the other one added, “Gone where?” “Dunno.” Hazug replied, “But when we got ‘ere dare was none of ‘em left and no signs of any fightin’.” “Ya know.” Drazzok announced as he set down the remains of his pie on a nearby rock, “Dis may all be very interestin’ to ya, but I ‘as ‘eard it all already. So ‘ow’s about ya sods off and lets me get some kip?” “Come on Two Heads.” Hazug said, “Lets get back to da camp and I’ll explain properly.” “Goodnight Drazzok.” Sophie said as she wrapped a blanket over the shoulders of the weirdboy. He grinned briefly, but changed his expression to a frown when he though Sophie had noticed. “Now get out da lot of ya.” He snapped and he closed his eyes, clutching his staff tightly. The others headed for the way out of the cave and as they got further away the light cast by the torches carried by Hazug and Two Heads faded and Drazzok was left alone in darkness, “Dat’s better.” He said to himself. A few moments later Drazzok’s eyes snapped open again and in rapid succession he did two things. Firstly he lifted his staff off the ground, channelling power through it to cerate a green glow that lit up the cave and secondly he reached out with his free hand and grabbed the gretchin attempting to steal his pie by the throat. “Thievin’ runt!” Drazzok’s shout and the cry of alarm from the gretchin brought Hazug, Sophie and Two Heads rushing back into the cave as well as snapping the madboys out of their phantom squig induced trance and bringing them in to check on the weirdboy. They found Drazzok standing upright, still using his staff to provide light and apparently choking the life out of a gretchin while three others did their best to dodge the kicks he aimed at them. “I told ya dare was a draught.” Drazzok said as the others came rushing into the cave, “Look wot its blown in ‘ere now.” Two Heads raised his rifle. “Say still ya runts!” one of him yelled as the other took aim. The gretchin did not stop moving about so Two Heads fired, the sound of his weapon echoing inside the cave. Startled, Sophie clamped her hands over her ears but the reaction of the gretchin was even stronger. Their keen hearing worked against them when exposed to such a sudden loud noise and as well as coming to a halt they all screamed out in pain as they too tried to block out the sound with their hands. “Grab ‘em.” Hazug said sternly and he and the madboys ran forwards to take hold of the gretchin, lifting them off the ground. Hazug then noticed that the gretchin Drazzok had hold of was staring to turn a funny shade of red, “Let ‘im go.” He said to the weirdboy and Drazzok let the gretchin drop to the ground before delivering a good strong kick to its stomach, “Okay start talkin’.” Hazug said, “Who is ya and wot is ya doin’ ‘ere?” “We doesn’t mean no ‘arm. Honest boss.” one of the gretchin exclaimed, “We works at da rig.” “Doin’ wot?” Hazug asked. “We does wot
da meks and da lads tells us.” Another responded. “We don’t know. We was out lookin’ for squigs and when we came back dey was all gone, but da rig was still runnin’. We waited for ‘em to get back but dey never did.” “Wot about Grath da Bludgeoner?” Hazug asked, Wot’s ‘e been up to?” The gretchin looked at one another nervously. “Dunno.” One of them said quietly. Hazug snarled. “We just waited ‘ere. Honest. We never went back to ‘is fort because we didn’t want to get in trouble if da lads came back ‘er and we was gone.” One of Two Heads grunted. “Dey don’t know nowt.” The other said. “Maybe not.” Hazug agreed, “But now we knows dat da lads ‘ere didn’t plan on leavin’ before dey went.” At first light the convoy moved out. Hazug had the four fully armoured vehicles available to him, Two Heads’ battlewagon and converted rhino and a further two armoured battlewagons, take the lead in the convoy with the lighter open topped vehicles behind them. If there was going to be trouble Hazug reasoned, then the vehicles at the front would be the ones best placed to smash through it. Everyone in the warband was ready for such trouble, even Salia and Sophie had unpacked the laser rifles Hazug allowed them to carry. Sophie was used to carrying a weapon after all the time she had spent with Hazug but Salia was still somewhat new to it, her former owners not seeing the point in arming their human slaves and she had a tendency to watch her sister for inspiration on how to act. On this occasion Drazzok was not riding with Hazug. The madboys currently following the weridboy around would have taken up too much room for Hazug’s servants to still be able to fit in the back of the truck, so instead Mek Batrug and his burna boys rode with Hazug while Drazzok was being carried aloft by the madboys behind the convoy in a hastily constructed sedan chair complete with a length of chain to the ground to disperse his power. Overhead the warband’s copter support circled. Their pilots had been given orders to signal sightings of anything unusual simply by shooting at it. The convoy could then come to a halt and the orks rush to take a look. There were few roads on the Isle of Selus and it was easy to follow the one track that led from the drill sight to Grath Da Bludgeoner’s fortress. There was just one point at which Hazug noticed someone looked to have recently attempted to clear a path through the jungle itself, but for now this was ignored. A single row of hills separated the peninsula on which Grath’s was located from the rest of the island and as the convoy began to climb this Hazug pulled out from behind the armoured vehicles and overtook them, waving to Two Heads who was again leading from an open hatchway. “Stop ’ere!” Hazug shouted and Two Heads banged on the roof of his battlewagon to tell Gorrid to bring it to a halt. The battlewagon lurched as Gorrid braked sharply and behind it the rest of the convoy drivers copied this manoeuvre, resulting in a chorus of abuse from startled passengers who ere told in no uncertain terms that thy were welcome to get out and walk with the gretchin and madboys following behind the convoy on foot. “Wot’s up?” Two Heads asked Hazug. “I want’s to see wots on da other side of this ‘ill.” He said. “Wot about da koptas?” Two Heads replied, pointing to the circling aircraft but Hazug shook his head. “I don’t wants anyone on da other side seein’ us.” He said, “Wait ‘ere and I’ll get a bit closer for a better look.” Hazug then drove his truck on ahead, halting again just short of the crest of the hill, “Everyone wait ‘ere.” He said as he jumped down from the truck and then reached into the back for his rifle. Bracing this against his shoulder Hazug then ran right to the top of the hill, keeping close to the trees beside the track so that his silhouette would not stand out to anyone watching from the other side and he looked down upon the fortress of Grath Da Bludgeoner. In common with all ork built fortresses this one was surrounded by thick walls built of a mixture of stone and metal plates and weapons could be seen mounted at irregular intervals along the tops of these. Hazug lay his rifle down and rummaged through his pockets until he found a compact device made by the alien tau and lifted it up to his eye. Upon activating the tau device Hazug was rewarded with a magnified view of the fortress and its walls and Hazug scanned the length of the nearest wall, focusing on the battlement at the top and its weapon emplacements. They were completely abandoned. No ork nob or warboss would leave the walls of his fortress unguarded and no invading ork would leave serviceable weapons behind as Hazug could clearly see had been done here. However, as Hazug took advantage of his elevated position to look over the walls and into the fortress grounds he saw that unlike the drill site there were signs of fighting having taken place here. Several doors hung off their hinges, windows were smashed and a row of bikes had been riddled with small arms fire. Hazug even spotted a handful of ork bodies lay on the ground, apparently lying where they had fallen and still with weapons in their grasps in some cases. Hazug looked back to the walls and his attention was immediately drawn to the main gates that stood wide open and undamaged. Whoever had attacked the fort, the orks living inside had let them in. None of this made any sense to Hazug. No ork would leave the amount of salvageable loot behind that he could see from here and yet the orks of the fortress would never have opened the gate for anyone else. He returned the viewing device to his pocket and picked up his rifle. Then he got up and headed back to the convoy. “Get movin’.” He shouted at Two Heads. “Wot did ya see?” Two Heads asked as Hazug was climbing back into his truck. “Dare’s no-one left dat I can see.” He replied, “No-one livin’ anyway. But I can’t figure out wot ‘appened from ‘ere. Tell ya lads to spread out as soon as ya is inside da fort. Da gates are open and dares loads of loot.” Both
of Two Heads smiled. |
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