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Chapta 19 | |
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Da Raiders From Da Shadows Chapta 19 |
Hazug watched the final raider rising into the air and heard the dejected howls of the dark eldar left behind as their means of escape departed. “On ‘em lads!” a nob yelled from the ork lines and a large group of orks joined by numerous nearby gretchin charged into the beleaguered aliens. Meanwhile the main force of dark eldar increased their rate of fire on the orks. Some of the aliens were armed with heavy weapons that they had held back from using while their own vehicles were potentially in the line of fire. The sound of orks screaming as they died filled the air. “We ‘as to do somethin’ about dem.” Hazug said and he looked around at the forces still available to him and well aware that there were more of the aliens concealed behind the hill, “Two Heads!” Hazug bellowed and the Evil Sun nob looked towards him. “Wot?” one of him asked. “’Ow many lads ya got left?” Hazug asked. “About a dozen.” The other head replied. “Right den, I wants ya to take ‘em all and get over to dat smashed wagon wot Gorgoga’s got ‘is lads on. I needs ya to watch out for da eldar warboss comin’ over dat ‘ill. Understand?” “I got it.” Two Heads replied, both of him nodding. “And take Sophie with ya.” Hazug added, “Keep ‘er safe.” “But where are you going?” Sophie asked. “Over dare.” Hazug said and he pointed towards the main force of dark eldar, “Now get goin’.” Two Heads and his troops paused just long enough for Sophie to pick up the baby’s basket and her rifle before they sprinted towards the wreckage of the ravager. Hazug looked at Drazzok, “Is ya ready yet?” he asked. “Yeah,” Drazzok replied, “I reckon I knows wot ya wants.” “’Ow many can ya take?” Hazug asked. “Maybe ten.” The weirdboy answered. “Good.” Hazug said and then he looked to the circle of orks surrounding them again, “Oi! Burnas!” he yelled and a group of orks carrying bulky cylinders on their backs turned to face him, “Get over ‘er now!” he shouted and the orks rushed towards him, “I wants ya an ‘all.” Hazug added looking towards Batrug, “Make sure dem burnas behaves.” “We is ‘ere boss.” One of the ork burnas said as they reached Hazug, “Wot d’ya want?” “We is goin’ on a little trip.” Hazug replied then he drew in a deep breath and shouted his orders to the rest of the force, “Get in a line! Spread ya selves out and keep low! I wants ya to advance on da eldar. When ya is close enough get stuck in!” The orks reacted straight away and the circle of orks split open and reformed into a line facing the dark eldar. Despite Hazug’s order to keep low many of the orks remained upright and the dark eldar shot them down as they moved forwards. “Ready den?”
Hazug said to Drazzok and the weirdboy nodded, “Okay den. ‘Ere goes.
Ratish be ready to let Cuddles go.” Ratish grinned and gripped Cuddles’
leash tighter. “Waaargh!” Running towards the ravager, Sophie turned around when she heard the warcry and was just in time to see the flash of green light Hazug and those near him vanished in. The newly promoted leader of the late Hynor’s unit of trueborn warriors saw the flash of light behind the reformed ork line and thought that the greenskins had just fired some sort of artillery weapon. “Take cover!” he shouted, expecting the impact of some crude artillery shell at any moment. As he expected there was a second flash of light accompanied by a dull ‘boom’ of displaced air a split second later, but what he did not expect was for a group of orks to be suddenly standing right behind his force. Hazug raised his warscythe and bellowed. “Waaargh!” Immediately the unit of flamethrower equipped burnas slammed down the thick visors of their helmets and unleashed jets of fire into the dark eldar. The dark eldar communications channel was suddenly flooded with the screams of the dying as they were doused in fire by laughing orks. “Get ‘em!” Hazug yelled and he charged at the nearest unit of dark eldar not already on fire. Distracted by the sudden appearance of Hazug behind them, the eldar had no choice but to divert some of their troops from firing at the main ork line to engage his smaller force that was already among them. The trueborn warriors themselves rushed to assist the kabalite warriors now being hacked apart. Even the units that continued to fire on the advancing ork line were distracted by this new threat behind them and their rate of fire lessened as they repeatedly checked for orks charging them from their rear. “Waaargh!” This cry came from not one but many orks and for a brief moment it drowned out every other sound on the battlefield as the advancing orks realised that they were close enough to get to grips with the dark eldar at close quarters. Rifles and heavy weapons were cast aside and the mass of greenskins charged into the ranks of the aliens. Lord Shraycht watched the orks charge. His troops were far better disciplined than the orks, but even with the casualties inflicted on them the greenskins still outnumbered his force. “My lord.” A voice said from beside him. “What is it Klaivex Illurim?” he asked the leader of his incubi. “Will we not help them? There is much blood to be spilt here. My men should get their share.” “We will.” Lord Shraycht answered and he retreated from the top of the hill before standing up, “The beasts have left a small force at the wreckage of the ravager even though this goes against what we know of them. I believe that they suspect our presence here and are willing to sit out the rest of the battle if it means fighting us. I want you to engage them. Go now.” Illurim
snapped to attention and raised his large bladed weapon in salute, his
troops copying the action in unison. Lord Shraycht watched as the incubi ran and uttered a single word. “Mandrakes.” He said. The air grew colder and from the shadows of Lord Shraycht and his three remaining bodyguards the mandrakes crawled their way into the material world once more. They looked at the archon without speaking. “My courtiers and I will engage the main ork force.” Lord Shraycht announced, “You will support us. Do you understand?” “Yes.” One of the mandrakes hissed. Lord Shraycht looked the mandrake in its eyes. It had no other facial features to betray its feelings so Lord Shraycht did not stare for long. Instead he turned around, drew his weapons and ran over the crest of the hill. The eldar that appeared first over the hill were unlike the fragile looking troops that Two Heads had seen before. Each of these aliens wore armoured suits consisting of tough looking plates that covered their entire bodies, they reminded him more of human marines that eldar. Additionally rather than the rifles that most of the eldar force seemed to favour these aliens each carried a long bladed weapon that was obviously for use in hand to hand combat. Two Heads both smiled as he decided that he liked these particular eldar. “Let rip!” he ordered and the Evil Suns opened fire. As Hazug charged another squad of dark eldar a gretchin ran across his path. Hazug could have gone around him but that would have risked breaking his stride so instead he kicked the gretchin out of his way. The creature cried out as it flew through the air until it landed on the back of a dark eldar. The alien punched at the gretchin now clinging to her with one fist as she reached for her dagger with her other hand. But she was not quick enough and before she could dislodge him the gretchin let out a laugh and plunged his teeth into the gap at her neck between her helmet and her body armour. Hazug paid this no attention as he focused on his target, an eldar equipped with a whip-like weapon that was taking a heavy toll on the orks. The alien saw him coming and lashed out with his weapon. In response Hazug raised his warscythe and the whip wrapped itself around the head of the alien weapon. Just as Hazug felt the eldar tug and try to pull the warscythe from his grip he activated the blade and it sliced through the eldar’s whip where each turn crossed the unnaturally sharp edge. Stunned by the destruction of his weapon, the dark eldar failed to react quick enough to dodge out of the way before Hazug then plunged the tip of the warscythe through his stomach. With the screaming alien still impaled on his weapon, Hazug kept on running and he added two more of the eldar before there was a crackling sound as the power pack gave out. Even without the energy field to enhance the abilities of the blade, the warscythe was still a potent weapon however. Hazug paused briefly, just long enough to lower the warscythe and push the impaled eldar off the end before lifting it once more. “Come on den!” he yelled out loud, “Come and ‘ave a go if ay think ya is ‘ard enough!” and he swung the warscythe at a nearby eldar, bringing it up beneath the alien’s chin and shattering her jaw. Hazug just laughed as the eldar fell and he moved on. Two Heads watched as sparks flew from the armour of the advancing eldar. This was indeed more like fighting marines whose armour was thick enough to deflect most small arms fire. There was a flash of light from beside Two Heads and he looked down briefly to see that Sophie had placed the crying baby back in its basket and picked up her own rifle to join the orks in shooting at the eldar. “Now?” Gorgoga asked Two Heads. “Not yet.” One of him replied, looking back towards the Goff while the other one of him continued to take aim and shoot at the heavily armoured incubi. Under the barrage of fire at least one round found a chink in the aliens’ armour and one of the incubi dropped his weapon and tumbled, his fellow troops jumping clear as his body rolled down the hill. “Now!” Two
Heads both yelled suddenly and on this command the Evil Suns ceased fire
as Gorgoga and his armoured squad leapt up from behind the wrecked
ravager. “You!” one of Two Heads snapped, pointing at Sophie. “What?” she replied. “Wait ‘ere.” The other head answered and the first one looked up at his troops and said, “Stow ya shootas lads. Dare’s enough pansies for us all. Let’s get stuck in.” The Evil Suns cheered and followed the Goffs into the melee. Unsurprisingly the armoured Goffs got there first. Roaring, one of them leapt towards the nearest of the incubi. Landing on his feet his crouched behind his shield, took aim through the hole built into it for just that purpose and fired off three rounds in rapid succession from his pistol. One shot missed entirely while the other two bounced off the eldar’s thick protective armour. With another roar the ork charged the final few feet towards the alien, still holding his shield out in front of him. The eldar spun, swinging his two handed blade horizontally and the ork twisted to block the attack with his shield. But the alien blade was wrapped in an energy field that crackled with power as it sliced through the thick but crude armour plate the ork was using to protect himself. The ork screamed as the blade continued to slice and cut him in half at the waist. Collapsing in a heap of body parts, the ork went silent and died almost immediately. A rocket fired from point blank range by one of Gorgoga’s troops narrowly missed the eldar standing right in front of him, but the back blast of the rocket motor distracted he alien for just long enough that another ork was able to jam his blade into the alien’s neck. As blood spurted out of the wound the ork twisted his weapon and the eldar’s head was ripped free of his body. The ork reached down to pick up the head, intending to hold it up high. But as he stopped to collect his trophy another eldar stepped forwards and with a single swing of his blade in turn decapitated the ork. The alien then leapt forwards with his blade outstretched and impaled the rocket launcher armed ork standing just behind the first on it. He lifted the weapon upwards and the screamed ork was nearly cut in half. Gorgoga himself quickly recognised the threat from the eldar blades and as he charged one of them he reached out with his power claw and instead of using it to strike his opponent he used it block the alien’s attack, grabbing hold of the energy-wrapped sword. The opposing energy fields of the eldar’s sword and Gorgoga’s claw produced tiny bolts of lightning across the surface of both weapons. Gorgoga swung his shield arm, hoping to use the protective metal plate to batter the eldar into submission. But the eldar’s own armour was thick enough o absorb the blows and the alien continued to try and pull his weapon free of Gorgoga’s grasp. “Waaargh!” Gorgoga bellowed and keeping a tight grip on the sword he spun his entire body around. The strength of the incubi was now match for the sheer mass of the ork nob and being unwilling to let go of his weapon; the eldar was pulled off his feet and swung through the air. When he could no longer keep hold of his sword’s grip, Gorgoga sent him flying. The incubi landed roughly and rolled across the ground, just as Two Heads’ Evil Suns arrived and several of the red-clad orks leapt on the prone alien and rained axe blows down upon him until he was dead. Illurim pulled his own blade from the chest of one of the orks in black and looked around for his next opponent. He saw two that he wanted to claim for himself. They were the two largest orks facing his troops, the armoured ork with the power claw and now the two-headed mutant. Illurim chose Two Heads purely because he was closer and rushed towards the nob. Still crouched behind the wreckage of the ravager, Sophie watched the orks and eldar do battle. She happened to throw a glance to one side, to where no fighting was taking place and there she saw a small cluster of four aliens making their way past the melee and towards the main fight going on behind her. Two of the aliens were eldar and though it was difficult to tell at this distance Sophie believed that there was one male and one female. The third alien was unlike anything she had seen before. It looked like a giant snake but with the addition of four muscular arms. The snake-thing wore armour similar to the dark eldar over its torso and in each arm it carried an eldar weapon. The final figure was more like the eldar but had a massive head that was protected by an opaque visor and had tendrils trailing from behind it. Remembering the sightless hunter from the mining camp Sophie realised what she was looking at. This was the alien leader and his retinue. Sophie lay on her stomach and pressed the butt of her laser rifle into her shoulder. Then she closed one eye and took aim down the scope. At first Hazug thought that the blow was a rather weak attack from one of the eldar warriors. But when he looked around he realised that in fact a severed eldar head that someone had carelessly tossed had just struck him in his direction. “Mind wot ya doin’!” he yelled at no one in particular. Then he went back to pistol-whipping the dazed alien he had grasped by the throat. A flash of light caught his attention and Hazug let go of the alien. As he turned around he felt something get crushed beneath his boot and looking down he realised that he had just trodden on the eldar’s neck. “Soddit!” he exclaimed as he wiped his boot across the ground, trying to dislodge the gunk. Then there was a second flash and Hazug looked to where they had come from. At first he saw nothing but the wreckage of the eldar ravager, but then he noticed a human figure lying just beside it. At first he thought that Sophie had been injured, but then he realised that she was lying prone deliberately to steady her weapon and Hazug turned his head in the direction she was aiming in. Sophie’s first two shots had missed the aliens doing their best to sneak around the battlefield unnoticed. Fortunately for her she had been attempting to hit the rearmost alien, the one she believed to be their leader and both shots had passed behind him leaving the aliens unaware that they were under attack. The energy blasts fired by her weapon would cover the distance between her and the aliens in an instant so there was no need to lead her shots, that was only necessary with her autopistol. So the problem lay with her aim. Frustrated by her poor accuracy Sophie adjusted the setting of the laser weapon from semi-automatic to fully automatic and took aim at the centre of the group. Then she squeezed the trigger again and this time she held it down. A hail of energy blasts suddenly filled the air around Lord Shraycht and his bodyguards. Instantly the archon activated his shadow field and the world around him became dimmed as the protective force field came to life and absorbed the attacks. The massive slyth just hissed and whirled around as the laser blasts struck him but failed to do anything more than sting his flesh and Lord Shraycht’s lhamaean poisoner courtesan rolled across the ground to take herself out of the field of fire. However the last of Lord Shraycht’s retinue was not so fortunate. Bearing the brunt of the sustained burst of laser fire the alien medusae empath screeched and convulsed. The creature had served Lord Shraycht for decades, recording every emotion of almost every being tortured and killed in the archon’s presence and as it died these came spilling out for one last time. “No!” Lord Shraycht screamed and he held the lifeless body of the medusae, realising that the precious feelings it had stored were now gone forever. With fury in his heart the archon cast his eyes towards the source of the attack. Someone was going to suffer for this affront. By the wreckage of the ravager he saw the creature that dared to attack him. A mere human that was destined to die very soon. “With me.” Lord Shraycht said to his last two bodyguards and they began to make their way towards Sophie. |
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