|
Chapta 1 | |
|
Da Raiders From Da Shadows Chapta 1 |
Mayleth eyed up her opponent. Until recently the slave warrior had been one of the numberless minions fighting for the mon keigh’s corpse Emperor and supposedly highly regarded amongst its own backward species. But to her it would be only a momentary source of entertainment here in the arena. There was a snapping sound as the neck of the mon keigh that Mayleth had gripped between her thighs broke and she relaxed her legs and allowed the body to drop to the ground. There was a cheer from the crowd at the kill, but it was not the ecstatic roar that she knew her next kill would bring her. Effortlessly she leapt into the air, the few lightweight armour plates strapped over her bodysuit not encumbering her at all. The mon keigh saw her coming and tried to ready itself. In its arrogance it seemed to think that it might actually be able to survive her strike. Mayleth reached out an arm as she continued to flip end over end and extended a blade towards the mon keigh, expecting the slave to try and parry the attack. But instead the mon keigh stepped to one side and allowed Mayleth to move past it rapidly. As she passed the mon keigh reached out with its own crude weapon and sliced at her. The point of the blade brushed against her and Mayleth felt her bodysuit being cut open, revealing more of her flesh to the crowd. By blind chance the mon keigh’s attack failed to break her skin and Mayleth spun around to face it once more. She prepared to lunge at the slave, but before she could strike there was a blur of motion and the lithe form of her succubus mistress landed between her and her prey. The succubus lashed out at Mayleth, a back handed strike that knocked her backwards without effort. As Mayleth fell winded to the ground she could only watch as the succubus plunged a dagger into the mon keigh’s stomach, angled upwards towards its heart. Then she pulled the mon keigh closer and as she withdrew the dagger she planted a kiss on the slave’s lips. When they separated Mayleth saw the mon keigh’s blood now on the lips of the succubus and as she licked them clean the crowd roared. “The kill was mine.” Mayleth said as she regained her breath and got back to her feet, “You stole it.” The succubus looked around at Mayleth and smiled, the last few drops of blood still visible. Then she blew Mayleth a kiss and calmly walked out of the arena, her arms held upwards in triumph as the crowd continued to cheer. Frowning, Mayleth followed her succubus into the tunnels beneath the arena. “Is this how it will always be Lyanil?” she demanded. “Until you improve, yes.” Lyanil replied, “Stick to choking a few of the lesser slaves Mayleth, you don’t have what it takes to be a real star.” Mayleth glanced down at the knife she held. If she struck quick enough she might just be able to kill Lyanil here and now. Then again, even if she did kill her the succubus would likely return to take her revenge. “Can’t even stab me in the back?” Lyanil asked, “Perhaps I should give command of your unit to someone else.” Mayleth frowned again, it had taken her many decades to prove herself worthy of commanding a unit of wyches but ever since Lyanil had become succubus she had done everything she could to stop Mayleth advancing further. Before Mayleth could respond however, the pair of wyches were interrupted. “Mistress Lyanil.” The hunched figure spoke and held out its hands to show that they held no weapons. “Approach unworthy one.” Lyanil said, then she glanced at Mayleth and added, “That wasn’t directed at you by the way.” “Thank you my lady.” The newly arrived figure said as he stepped closer to Lyanil, “My lord archon bids you greetings.” “Why? What does the archon require of us?” Lyanil asked, tilted her head, “I saw him and his court in the crowd today.” “My lord leaves for a place beyond the webway mistress. He wishes you to accompany him.” Lyanil smiled. “A hunt.” She said and she laughed out loud. Lord Shraycht, Archon of the Kabal of The Flame felt the slight change in air pressure as the raider he sat atop glided smoothly from the webway to the world beyond the gateway. Immediately he felt the aura of death and he inhaled deeply, trying desperately to take in some of the suffering that had been inflicted here. Orks had a high tolerance for pain and the agonies they could endure before dying meant that the flavour of their suffering endured long after it was inflicted. Sadly it also meant that the quality of the suffering was reduced, but the duration of it made for this deficiency. “My lord.” A voice called out from the ground beside the raider. Lord Shraycht’s sslyth bodyguards reacted instantly, slithering across the raider’s deck to position themselves between the source of the voice and the archon in case this was part of some assassination attempt. At the same time his poisoner courtesans drew closer to him, ready to act as a last line of defence. “Approach me.” Shraycht hissed and he waved to his guards, including in the wave the secret hand signal that told them to allow a being to get nearer though to be ready to strike them down if he so commanded. “Thank you my lord.” Dracon Velurill said as he stepped up onto the deck of the raider and the archon’s bodyguards separated in front of him, “The area is secure lord.” The dracon added as he knelt before Lord Shraycht. By kneeling the dracon was in effect offering his life to his master. The archon’s courtiers would make short work of even such an experienced warrior as they stood all around him. “I feel the residue of battle.” The archon replied. “Yes lord. The orks had positioned troops around the gateway before we arrived. My troops-“ “My troops
dracon,” Lord Shraycht interrupted, “remember your place.” “Then the orks do not suspect our presence yet?” “No lord.” Lord Shraycht smiled and leant back in the ornate throne mounted on his personal vehicle. “Excellent dracon. Now go. Take raiders and reavers and survey the area. If you encounter greenskins avoid contact unless they are few. In that case kill or capture them as you see fit, but let none escape with word of us. Understood?” “Understood my lord.” Velurill replied, risking a glance upwards at the archon’s face. Then he stood up and backed away from the throne before leaping down and rushing away. “’E’s dare again captain.” Captain Squigbeard looked around to see one of his crew looking along the length of his vessel. Then Squigbeard himself looked towards the bow of the ship where a lone ork was standing, ignoring the waves splashing onto the deck around him. The ork had been there every night since the ship had left port, while during the day he remained below decks in his cabin. Several of the crew had claimed to hear him talking to someone, even though he was the only passenger in there. Now he was standing at the front of the ship clutching the bag that he was always holding when he emerged from his cabin. As far as Squigbeard could tell the ork was a mekboy, one of the engineering caste of ork society and they were well known for being somewhat unhinged. After all it took a very special sort of mind to look at a dinner plate and wonder what would happen if it had an engine. But standing at the front of a ship and staring out to sea was unusual behaviour even for one of them. “I ‘as ‘ad enough of dis.” Squigbeard announced and he shoved the ork crewman out of his way as he stormed towards the front of his ship, “I is goin’ to find out wot ‘e’s doin’ up dare.” Seeing that their leader was finally going to find out why one of their passengers was behaving strangely, several of the other ork crew followed behind him. As they approached the mysterious mekboy, the ork crew heard him muttering something. They couldn’t tell what was being said, but it was obvious that he seemed to be talking to someone. “Oi!” Squigbeard suddenly yelled out, “Wotcha doin’ up ‘ere every night?” The mekboy quickly shut his bag before he looked around at the approaching mob. “Da stars.” He said, “Dey are more easily seen from ‘ere.” There were snorts from the orks. Though they were familiar with the idea of looking at the stars to navigate a ship across the ocean there were much better ways of doing it. Ways that mekboys would be well aware of after all they were the ones who made the equipment to do it. “Lookin’ at da stars?” Squigbeard asked, “Wotcha want to do dat for?” “Because I is lookin’ for one in particular.” The mekboy replied calmly. Not a typical state of mind for any greenskin. “’Ave ya found it den?” Squigbeard enquired, leaning towards the mekboy. The captain was larger than his passenger and he hoped to use his bulk to intimidate him. “No. I was distracted.” “Distracted? By wot?” “By the vehicles approaching us from the direction of the coast.” The mekboy said and he pointed over the side of the ship. “Wot?” Squigbeard said, striding to edge of the deck and pulling out his telescope. He lifted the device to his eye and looked for himself, “Dare aint nought dare.” He said, “We is alone.” “Dey is there.” The mekboy said, “Dey ‘as been dare every night for the last three nights. Each night dey comes a little bit closer to us.” “Well dare aint no one dare now.” Squigbeard replied. Then he spotted something, “’Ang on a mo.” He said, “Dare is somethin’ out dare.” Then he pointed out to see and yelled at the top of his voice, “Someone shine a light out dare!” he bellowed. “I wouldn’t do dat.” The mekboy said, but Squigbeard ignored him. Instead the captain waited while a group of gretchin, the smaller sub species of ork society who filled the roles of menial labourers, dragged a reflective plate across the deck to where a fire burned in a metal casket. They heft the plate upwards and angled it so that the light of the fire was cast out across the ocean in the direction indicated by Captain Squigbeard. By this time most of the orks on deck had gathered along the side of the ship to find out what had attracted the attention of Squigbeard. “Look!” one of them yelled, “Sailin’ boats!” Squigbeard looked down his telescope again. He could clearly see the sails of the vehicles following his ship, but these were no boats. They floated above the ocean instead of riding in it and their sails did not flutter in the wind like they should. As soon as the reflected light shone on the vehicles they accelerated towards the ork vessel. Standing on their open decks he could make out tall and slender figures, all clad in armour and wielding long, narrow rifles. For a moment Squigbeard thought that they were humans, but the humans of this world were not supposed to possess the level of technology to produce such vehicles. Squigbeard saw several of the figures bring their weapons up to their shoulders and he knew immediately what they were about to do. “Get ready lads!” he yelled, “Dey is ‘ere for a fight!” then he raised a fist in the air and let out a mighty roar, “Waaargh!” Grabbing whatever weapons they could, the orks on deck opened fire before the strange sailing vehicles were in effective range and their shots did nothing. In reply the leading vehicle returned fire with a large deck mounted gun. Captain Squigbeard was among those orks who recoiled from the unnatural flash of the weapon, while other screamed that they were blind and fired their weapons randomly until their comrades could disarm or disable them. The beam from the enemy weapon struck barrier running around the ship’s deck and blew it apart, a ball of fire expanding out from the point of impact. But that was not all that the attack did, the beam continued to pass over the deck and whatever it met was instantly consumed in fire. “Don’t just stand dare dyin’!” Squigbeard yelled, “Do somethin’ about dat cannon!” Suddenly he felt a hand grab him from behind as the mekboy dragged him down to the deck. Squigbeard was about to give the mek a good kicking for his arrogance when another of the strange energy beams cut through the air overhead and Squigbeard covered his eyes. “Darklight.” The mek said, frowning. “Wot?” Squigbeard asked, “’Ow is light dark?” “It is not true light.” The mek replied as he fumbled in his bag, “Rather a stream of highly unstable particles.” Squigbeard had not idea what ‘particles’ were, but he understood the notion of unstable. It accurately described most of what ork mekaniaks built. Looking around, Squigbeard saw that a group of orks had got themselves sufficiently organised to ready his ship’s deck gun for use. “Da cannon!” he yelled, “Aim for dare cannon!” and he waved at the nearest of the attacking craft. Nodding, the ork now sat in the gunners seat began to operate the pedals at his feet that rotated the gun and directed towards the oncoming alien sailing vessels. He gave out a shout when it was pointing in roughly the right direction. Another ork picked up a large shell and swung it at the breech of the gun, causing the ork who had been about to open it to cry out as his hand was caught between the shell and the breech. As the two orks began to argue over whose fault it was another one stepped forwards to open the breech before picking up another shell and loading the gun. He slammed the breech closed and punched the gunner in the back of his head to signal that the gun was ready. The gunner laughed as he pulled the firing lever before the resulting boom drowned out his laughter. “Nice one lads!” Squigbeard yelled and he looked back towards his foe, just in time to see the shell whiz past the closest sailing vessel and instead land in the ocean. A moment later a massive plume of water exploded upwards as the shell’s fuse finally triggered. “Ya useless bunch of grot brains!” Squigbeard yelled, “Ya missed!” Frantically, the orks began to load another shell. But before they could finish the task another of the alien vehicles fired its own deck gun and the strange energy beam that it emitted sliced through the ship’s deck gun. The resulting fireball engulfed the gun crew and their screams could briefly be heard over the general panic now gripping the deck. But the sound was abruptly cut off when the fire reached the crates of ammunition kept piled near the gun. Squigbeard’s limbs flailed about as found himself flying through the air. For a few brief moments he could see his precious ship burning as it got lower in the water, then there was a loud and sudden ‘splash’ and his mouth filled with salty water as he landed and disappeared below the surface. Years of travelling the oceans of this world in an assortment of vessels that were anything but seaworthy had at least given Squigbeard plenty of practice at swimming and so he did not panic, but he knew he had to do something to prevent himself from drowning. Orks were not naturally very buoyant creatures, they had far too much dense muscle in their bodies, so it required a few good strong kicks to propel him back to the surface where he spat out a mouthful of water and instead sucked in a lungful of air. Looking around again Squigbeard saw his ship now disappearing beneath the waves, the fire finally extinguished as the ocean swamped the deck. All around him now were pieces of debris that had been thrown clear by the explosions that had sunk his ship. Amongst the debris he could also see numerous other orks flailing about in the water, some of which clearly could, not swim and would soon drown. Then Squigbeard saw the boat. It was a small wooden rowboat that was normally kept tethered to his ship for use in emergencies and if this didn’t qualify as an emergency then Squigbeard didn’t know what did. The rowboat was upturned, but intact. If he could reach it then it would help keep him afloat. Squigbeard kicked with his legs and began to swim towards the boat. When he reached it he found that he was not the first one there. A group of gretchin, who were generally better swimmers than orks, had gotten there before him. “Dare’s no room.” One of the small creatures called out as Squigbeard grabbed for the boat and it kicked at him. “Ingrate!” Squigbeard snapped as he grabbed hold of the gretchin’s leg and he pulled the creature off the boat. It screamed for a moment until Squigbeard forced its head underwater and held it there while it thrashed about. When it was still he let go and the gretchin’s body floated to the surface and drifted away. “Sod off!” Squigbeard now yelled and he reached up over the upturned boat and swung his arm around, forcing the remaining gretchin to leap into the water to avoid being struck and swim towards another piece of debris instead. Satisfied that he now had the boat to himself, Squigbeard held on tightly as it bobbed up and down in the ocean. A splashing
sound caught his attention and Squigbeard glanced over his shoulder. There
he saw the mekaniak struggling to swim through the water. Remembering that
the mek had saved his life a few minutes earlier, Squigbeard called out to
him. The mek swam closer and Squigbeard saw that he still had his bag over his shoulder. In fact he appeared to be trying to keep it out of the water with one hand. “Let it go.” Squigbeard said as he grasped hold of the mek and pulled him to the boat, “Its just weighin’ ya down.” “No.” the mek replied, “I mustn’t.” and since he was now clinging to the boat anyway Squigbeard did not press the point. Instead the ork nob looked around again to assess their situation. Here and there he could see orks in ones and twos clinging to other pieces of wreckage and there appeared to be enough that once it got light they could construct some sort of raft to get them safely to shore. Providing they could all hold on that long of course. Then there was a yell from one of the survivors and Squigbeard turned just in time to see an ork being lifted out of the water on the end of barbed chain and being dragged aboard one of the alien vehicles that had attacked them. Another of the vehicles came in low over a piece of wreckage that had three orks clinging to it. One of the three was still armed and he fired at the slender figures crewing the vehicle. His shot sent an alien toppling over the edge of his deck into the water and the three orks all roared in triumph before there were several flashes that were unmistakably muzzle flashes from alien weapons and the armed ork jerked about before sinking beneath the water. Then the aliens let down more barbed chains and dragged the other two orks up to their vehicle. They struggled briefly, but the aliens subdued them somehow and Squigbeard could see them lying motionless on the alien deck. “Down.” Squigbeard said to the mek, “Under da boat.” “Wot?” the mek asked before Squigbeard dragged him beneath the water with him. Moments later they both surfaced again, this time beneath the upturned hull of the rowboat, “Dey is takin’ all da lads wot is left,” Squigbeard said, “but I bets dey won’t find us under ‘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