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Chapta 25 | |
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Da Raiders From Da Shadows Chapta 25 |
With each swing of Hazug’s warscythe Lord Shraycht stepped back further. The archon knew that his shadow field could protect him from the ancient weapon of the necrons so he adopted a strategy of just avoiding Hazug’s blows and allowing him to tire himself out. The drawback to this was that Hazug was not so much becoming tired as angry. “Stay still and let ‘it ya, ya stupid eldar!” he yelled as he sliced a chunk out of the wall. “And spoil my fun beast?” Lord Shraycht replied. Hazug roared with fury and struck at the archon again. But instead of using the warscythe like Lord Shraycht expected him to, he lashed out with his foot and kicked at the archon’s knee. Lord Shraycht’s shadow field blocked the attack, dissipating the energy of the blow and sending a shiver of cold up Hazug’s leg. But the unexpected attack did momentarily disorientate Lord Shraycht and Hazug quickly followed it up by swinging around his warscythe to smash its hilt into his face. Without the power of the energised blade the warscythe could not defeat the shadow field, and once again the attack caused Lord Shraycht no harm, but once again it threw him off balance. Finally responding to Hazug’s attacks Lord Shraycht swung his own sword. Hazug responded by putting his warscythe in the way. Lord Shraycht’s sword struck it about half way down and although it missed the energy blade at the tip that would have cut it in half, the sword blade could not damage the ancient weapon. Before Lord Shraycht could withdraw his weapon, Hazug stepped forwards and pushed him back into a wall and continued to push against him. Lord Shraycht dropped his pistol and took hold of the warscythe, then also discarded his sword and gripped the warscythe with both hands and wrestled against Hazug as the ork tried to crush him with it. Clearly stronger, this was a battle that only Hazug could win in the long run and Lord Shraycht looked for a way out. As chance would have it, it was his shadow field that provided him with the means to escape. Under continued pressure, the archon’s protective field generator put out ever more power that was channelled into the grip of the warscythe. Hazug felt the coldness of the field around his hands as the energy flowed along the grip, but he kept up the pressure. Suddenly the shadow field generator reached the point where it could give no more and the field collapsed with a flash. Disorientated, Hazug stumbled backwards blinking. As he pulled the warscythe away from Lord Shraycht the eldar let go of the weapon, picked up his own weapons and fled before Hazug recovered fully. “Get back ‘ere!” Hazug shouted as his vision returned properly, but Lord Shraycht was already most of the way down the corridor. The archon looked back briefly to fire two shots from his pistol, but firing on the move he missed with both. Then he darted through the hatchway at the end of the corridor and slammed it shut behind him. Only to find himself in a room filled with orks. With most of the warband now engaged against the floating creatures, Two Heads turned his attention back to the dark eldar warriors and reloaded his rifle. “Plenty of pansies over dare lads!” he shouted and he fired the entire magazine towards the warriors. Then he sprinted towards the nearest of the barricades laid out by the eldar, who had clearly been expecting more of their troops to reach this place and used it for cover himself. “Ya ‘eard da boss lads!” Gorrid yelled as he too fired at the dark eldar, “Grab yaselves an ‘idin’ spot and let’s give dese pansies wot for!” then he looked at Ratish, “Grot,” one of him said, “release da squig.” In response Ratish grinned and let Cuddles off his leash. The eldar warriors ducked behind their barricades as the orks opened fire. Though none of them were using weapons heavier than belt fed automatics, the weight of fire was tremendous and bit-by-bit the partially wooden crates used to make the barricades began to crumble. Two Heads both
smiled as he watched this from behind his own barricade. “Down lads!” the other head yelled as the explosive was thrown. It landed between two barricades and skidded further back across the floor. The eldar warriors looked down at the grenade and pressed themselves against their barricades just as it detonated. In the confined space of the storage room the blast was deafening. The barricades behind which the dark eldar were hiding disintegrated, the air filling with both metal and wooden shrapnel. Though none of the eldar were killed in the explosion, their barricades absorbing the blast even as they broke up, the concussion of the explosion stunned them. Further away from the epicentre of the blast and less vulnerable to such things anyway, the orks recovered more quickly. “Waaargh!” both of Two Heads yelled and he leapt over his barricade, casting aside his rifle, “Finish ‘em lads!” The orks swarmed forwards behind Two Heads and as the eldar warriors began to regain their senses they found themselves being overrun by the orks who lashed out at the with knives, axes rifle butts and anything else that came to hand. Even further from the explosion the sound of the blast served to distract the two floating monstrosities still battling the bulk of the warband. Both of the beasts momentarily turned their heads, fearing a more powerful attack was about to come. Gorgoga saw his chance and he jumped up at the now tailless creature he was fighting. He swung his shield arm upwards and caught the beast beneath its oversized chin. Then he followed up with a swipe from his powerclaw before it could react. The visored metal helmet that concealed the creature’s facial features was ripped free and flew across the room. Whatever the creature had been before it had been turned into the hulking monstrosity it was now was impossible to tell. The head behind the helmet was completely without skin and it looked directly at Gorgoga with its lidless eyes. “Kop dis!” Gorgoga shouted and he punched the creature’s exposed head with his powerclaw. There was a ‘crunch’ as the creature’s skull gave way and its brain was driven back into its armoured chest, the powerclaw following it. Gorgoga pulled his arm free just as the anti gravity field that held the creature aloft gave out and the headless and tailless corpse dropped to the ground, spraying blood and other fluids around it. Witnessing the death of its comrade, the second creature lashed out with its tail and sent the orks attacking it from behind flying. Gorgoga roared and pulled himself up onto the remains of the creature he had killed. “Come on den!” he shouted at the second creature, “Come and ‘ave a go if ya think ya is ‘ard enough!” Sure enough the creature rose up away from the orks surrounding it, much to their displeasure and turned towards Gorgoga. Its tail weapon lifted up above the creature’s body and it fired at Gorgoga. The Goff held his shield out in front of him and felt it shake as the weapon blasts struck it. “Dat all ya got?” Gorgoga shouted, peering at the pitted front of his shield, “Dat’s crap!” In rising up the creature had positioned itself too high up for the orks to be able to strike at it with their hand weapons, but it had also given the entire warband a clear line of fire, unobstructed by the orks trying to fight it in close combat and the creature began to jerk wildly as they opened fire with whatever firearms they had to hand. Reeling and bleeding from numerous wounds to its exposed flesh components, the creature propelled its way forwards over the warband and fired randomly down into the orks. As it passed by Gorgoga he swung out with his powerclaw and grabbed hold of one of the chains that dangled beneath it, hoping to bring the creature to a halt. But the strength of whatever propelled the creature was too much for Gorgoga and instead he found himself lifted clear of the body of the first and dragged into the air. “Gorgoga!” one of Two Heads yelled, forcing his way through the crowd of orks towards the path being taken by the floating creature, “Give us an ‘and up!” and he reached upwards and caught hold of Gorgoga’s shield. “Mind wot ya doin’!” Gorgoga said as Two Heads pulled himself up over him and onto the body of the creature itself. Two Heads ducked as the creature’s tail whipped overhead, trying to knock him from its back. Lying on his stomach, Two Heads held on with one hand and drew his axe with the other. Reaching over the side of the creature he then hacked at the exposed flesh of its side. The creature whirled around, spinning in mid air and Two Heads lost his grip on his weapon. But he had done what he intended and there was a hole in the thick hide of the creature. Reaching to his belt again he retrieved another grenade and bit out the pin. In a swift motion Two Heads rammed the explosive head of the grenade into the wound he had inflicted and let go first of the grenade, then the creature itself. “Let go!” he both shouted at Gorgoga as he fell. Realising what Two Heads had done, Gorgoga let go of the chain and dropped after Two Heads. The two ork nobs landed amongst the other orks and just had time to yell, “Down!” before the grenade went off. Bypassing both
the creature’s thick hide and grafted on armour platting, the grenade
ripped through its insides and blasted it apart. The orks below cheered
then ducked down as they were sprayed with blood and fragments of the dead
creature. “Ya know,” he said to Two Heads, “I was just about to do dat meself.” Before Two Heads could reply there was the sound of a slamming door from one of the walkways above and the orks looked up. “Dat’s dare warboss!” Mek Batrug yelled when he saw Lord Shraycht. Looking down from the walkway, Lord Shraycht saw the orks looking back up at him. Amongst the mass of greenskins he saw what was left of the two talos pain engines that had been supposed to trap the orks in a killing zone between themselves and the kabalite warriors that would lure them here. Lord Shraycht looked around again hoping for some sign of the warriors in question, but all he saw were the mangled remains of a handful of them, no where near as many had been estimated would survive to make it here. There was the ‘crack’ of gunfire and sparks as the orks below began to shoot up at Lord Shraycht. The archon backed away from the edge of the walkway and watched as some of the orks began to search for a way to climb up to him. A ‘bang’ from the hatchway he had just come through attracted his attention and Lord Shraycht looked around to see the hatch shake as Hazug tried to break it down from the other side. Then Hazug’s warscythe suddenly burst through as he used his powerful weapon to cut through the metal hatch. “Knock knock!” Hazug said as he kicked down what remained of the hatch and stepped onto the walkway. Lord Shraycht looked around again. As far as he could tell he was the last of the dark eldar on this world, his army was gone and there was no rescue coming for him. But he was still an archon of the Kabal of the Flame. He would not just give up and die. “Die in pain!” he screamed and he charged at Hazug with his sword held high. “Waaargh!” Hazug bellowed in response and he charged headlong at Lord Shraycht. As Hazug closed, Lord Shraycht halted and raised his splinter pistol. But before he could fire, Hazug brought his warscythe down and cut the barrel from the weapon. As the blade continued on its path after destroying the archon’s gun it cut through the rail on the side of the walkway before also cutting into the walkway itself. Lord Shraycht lunged forwards with his sword held out in front of him and Hazug jumped back, pulling the warscythe free of the walkway as he moved. He swung the hilt of the weapon around and struck Lord Shraycht with it, the end of the weapon smashing into the archon’s jaw. Lord Shraycht hissed and spat out a mouthful of blood and the tooth knocked loose by the impact. “I will destroy you beast!” he hissed and he swung his sword once more, expecting Hazug to try and jump aside again. But Hazug instead took one hand away from his warscythe and reached out, catching Lord Shraycht’s arm in mid swing. Lord Shraycht looked Hazug straight in his eyes as the ork the swung his warscythe upwards. The alien blade entered Lord Shraycht between his legs and his nervous system had just enough time to communicate with the pain centre of his brain before it came out through the top of his head. Hazug stepped back and let go of Lord Shraycht’s arm as the sword dropped from its grip. Then he watched as the two halves of the archon split apart and fell from each side of the walkway. From the vantage point overlooking the main entrance to the underground complex Sophie watched both humans and greenskins as they began to emerge. Following the defeat of the dark eldar, she was eager to get out of the ill fitting alien uniform and back into her own clothes, leaving the complex as soon as it was thought safe. Now not only the survivors of the warband but also the captives held by the dark eldar were starting to come out after her. “Hazug!” Sophie shouted when she saw him appear in the doorway with Ratish and Cuddles just behind him and just behind them came Drazzok and Thuggrim. She grabbed the baby’s basket and ran towards them, leaving the gretchin that had been left behind dangling from the tree. As she got closer she saw that following further behind him was a large crowd of frightened looking humans, “Are they okay?” she said to Hazug as she watched the humans continue to stream out of the complex. “Yeah, dey is fine.” Hazug replied, “Or at least I reckon dey is. As soon as we started yankin’ da tubes out of ‘em dey started wakin’ up. Da lads an’ all.” “Joshua!” a female voice cried out from amongst the humans, “Joshua it is you!” Both Hazug and Sophie looked around to see a woman and a man pushing their way through the crowd of people towards Sophie where the woman snatched the baby from her and held it close to her. Sophie noticed Hazug reaching for a weapon. “No.” Sophie said to him, “It’s alright. He belongs to them.” “Dey left ‘im in da cupboard.” Drazzok said, “Wot about finders keepers?” “I don’t want to keep him.” Sophie exclaimed. “Good.” Ratish snapped, “One git in da house is too many.” Sophie looked around again and saw that in addition to humans, orks were now starting to emerge from the complex. Some of them she thought she recognised from the warband, while she guessed that others were freed prisoners. “Where’s Two Heads?” she asked, “Is he-?” “Where d’ya think ‘e is.” Hazug interrupted, “’E’s ‘elpin’ Batrug loot da place. Dare’s loads of stuff in dare. If da eldar ‘adn’t led us ‘ere we’d never ‘ave known anythin’ about dis place. Dey’ll follow on behind us.” “Follow us where?” Sophie asked. “Back to da mine of course. We needs go tell da boss about dis place and I wants me trukk back. I just ‘opes dat Cognailer aint taken it apart. I don’t reckon dat ‘e’s right in da ‘ead.” “Course not.” Drazzok interrupted, “’E’s a mek.” |
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