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Chapta 9 | |
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Da Raiders From Da Shadows Chapta 9 |
“Dead?” Lord Shraycht screamed at the top of his voice, “All of them?” “Yes lord.” The scourge kneeling before him replied, averting his gaze as the archon glared at him. Had word of the reavers’ failure been brought to him by one of his kabalite warriors, then Lord Shraycht would have likely had them flayed alive, but scourges were protected. To harm one invited terrible retribution, even for one such as the archon of the Flame. It was not the loss of the reavers themselves that trouble him, but it was essential that the webway portal be recovered. Without it the dark eldar were stranded here. Lord Shraycht whirled around and stared at Lyanil. “Rhulal was one of yours.” He hissed as he advanced on her. Rather than an integral part of the dark eldar kabals, reavers were instead a subset of the wych cults. As such the succubus had brought them here. “My lord, I-“ Lyanil began before Lord Shraycht cut her off. “”Silence!” he yelled at her. Lyanil was not used to being spoken to in such a manner, but with the archon’s serpentine bodyguards and poisoner-courtesans so close she was not in a position to challenge him, “Recover the webway portal Lyanil. Recover it quickly.” Then he turned away and stormed from the room. Her face a picture of rage, Lyanil turned towards her own wyches. “Mayleth!” she snapped. “Yes my lady?” she answered. The leader of the wych squad struggled to conceal her smile at Lyanil’s discomfort, “How may I be of service?” “Take your squad in a raider. Take Lashal’s reavers also. Return the webway portal to us.” Mayleth bowed, not bothering to hide her smile any longer. “Oh and Mayleth.” Lyanil began. “Yes my lady?” “If you can’t return with the portal-“ Lyanil said and she paused briefly, “then don’t bother returning at all.” The little girl watched as her home burned. Men had come in the night and her father had gone out to meet them. Her mother had screamed when the men shot her father and then they shot her too while the little girl hid and watched it all from the barn. She continued to watch, unable to tear her eyes away as the men hung the bodies of her parents from trees and ransacked their home before lighting it on fire. That was when there was the sound of engines and the ork vehicles appeared. The orks fell upon the men who had burned the farm, just because they could it seemed. They roared with delight as they tore the men limb from limb and devoured their flesh. Then they too began to pick over what was left. One of the orks found the little girl where she was hiding and bellowed something in its crude language. The little girl screamed, fearing that she was about to die like her parents. But instead a human appeared behind the ork. A human in simple garb that had a tattoo on his arm that matched the markings on the ork vehicles, a white skull on a blue background. “Don’t worry.” The human said to the little girl, “We’ll take care of you both.” The little girl looked beside her where a smaller child grasped her hand tightly. That was when Sophie woke up. The orks had made camp beside a river for the night, a cluster shelters made from blankets strung up between their vehicles as well as trees, rocks and poles. They had chosen a spot where the river was shallow and slow moving so that Drazzok could easily walk across to the far side. Something about putting the water between him and the other orks apparently reduced the strength of the psychic field generated by the orks that he channelled. Sophie herself had a bed set up beneath a blanket supported at one side by Hazug’s truck and a pair of vertical poles at the other. In the basket beside her, the baby was crying. She could see a pair of Two Head’s orks standing on watch at the edge of the camp, while on the far bank of the river Thuggrim stood upright and alert to protect his master. All of the other orks remained asleep however. The sound of the baby crying had not disturbed their slumber, on some level they knew that it was not a call to arms and that they were not in danger so they slept on. Sophie could tell that the baby needed changing, so picking up what she needed she head for the river. When she got there she set down the baby and began to remove its soiled clothing. She dipped a rag into the river and squeezed it out before cleaning the baby’s skin. It was then she became aware of someone watching her. “What are you doing Ratish?” she asked. “Master not need any more gits.” He snapped, “Ya should not ‘ave brought dat one with us. Its no good for anythin’.” “We couldn’t just leave him at the farm.” Sophie said, “He’d have died. “Good!” Ratish snapped, “Ratish kills it now!” and he plucked a small dagger from his belt. As Ratish raised the weapon Sophie reacted quickly. She reached to her waist and drew the bulky sidearm kept there. Gripping the auto pistol in both hands, she aimed it towards Ratish just as he lunged at her. The single gunshot that rang out was enough to wake the orks. They all reacted by grabbing whatever weapon was nearest and turned towards the sound of battle. There was no more gunfire however, just a constant screaming from two different sources. One was the human baby, scared by the sudden loud noise and the other was Ratish, his dagger now lying on the ground by his feet and his hands clamped over one of his ears. In front of him stood Sophie, gun in hand and directing it towards the gretchin. “Master! Look wot da git did to Ratish!” he yelled as Hazug approached and he pushed a finger through the hole that the bullet had punched in his ear. The orks began to laugh and point at Ratish. “Da grot got ‘is ear pierced!” one shouted. “Not funny!” Ratish shouted, “Da git tried to kill Ratish. Da warboss say gits can be killed if dey tries to kill lads. Master should kill it.” “Ya aint an ork.” Hazug said sternly, “Da warboss never said anythin’ about killin’ humans wot kills runts. Wot was a doin’ anyway?” “He was going to kill the baby.” Sophie said. Hazug looked at Ratish and scowled at him. “Shut up and get back to sleep.” He said, “Ya got wot ya was akin’ for.” And Hazug returned to his bed, as did the other orks now that they knew there was no fighting to be had. Knowing that he had no other recourse, Ratish picked up his dagger and ran back to the pile of leaves that served as his bed. All the time watched by Sophie who kept her gun in her hand until he was gone. Sophie then returned the weapon to her waist and got back to cleaning and changing the baby. Only then did she notice that two orks who had been on watch were gone. Looking around Sophie saw the two empty bedrolls that the ork sentries would have occupied had they gone to bed instead of staying on watch. Clutching the baby in her arms she ran to where Hazug lay. “Hazug!” she whispered, shaking the large ork. “Wot?” he replied without even looking up at her. “The sentries have gone.” Hazug sat up and grabbed his pistol from beside his bed before getting to his feet and turning full circle, searching for the sentries. He rushed towards where Two Heads lay and kicked him. “Get up.” He said, “Ya lads is gone.” “Gone?” the first of Two Heads to open his eyes asked and then both of him looked at where they had last been. “I bet dey’s just gone for a dump or somethin’.” He said as he too got his feet and picked up his rifle. “Lads?” he called out, “Where is ya?” “We is all around ya boss.” Another ork replied, yawning, “Tryin’ to sleep.” Two Heads walked over the ork and kicked him hard. “I wasn’t talkin’ to ya!” One of him snapped, “I was after Noggle and Feggrat.” “Dey is on
watch boss.” The ork replied and Two Heads kicked him again. “It better not be dat grot again.” One of the Evil Suns complained. “Spread out lads.” Two Heads ordered as he looked beyond the camp, trying to locate his two missing orks, “I wants to know where me lads is.” “Somebody wake up Drazzok. We may needs ‘im.” Hazug called out and on the far side of the river Thuggrim prodded the sleeping weirdboy. “Geddof!” Drazzok bellowed as he punched Thuggrim. “Da Blood axe needs ya oh great one.” Thuggrim said, wiping the blood from beneath his nose. “Hazug? Doesn’t ‘e know its da middle of da night?” “I shall ask ‘im oh great one.” Thuggrim replied and he began to walk in Hazug’s direction. “Don’t bother,” Drazzok said, “I is awake now. I’ll do it meself.” Forming a rough semi circle the orks began to move out from the camp, all holding their weapons at the ready. Every other ork carried a burning torch that cast a flickering light into the darkness. At the centre of the semi circle stood the three ork nobs, Batrug and Drazzok, while Sophie and Ratish waited further behind. Meanwhile Cognailer stayed by the vehicles. “Does anyone see ‘em yet?” Two Heads called out. There were several responses, all negative. Then suddenly Cognailer called out from the campsite. “Over there!” he shouted, extending arm out straight and standing still. Hazug looked at Mek Batrug. “Can ‘e see in da dark or somethin’?” Hazug asked. “Maybe.” Mek Batrug, “I dunno. Of course if ‘e’s got some good seein’ in da dark stuff in ‘is ‘ead it may explain why ‘e’s so odd. Dare might be a nail stuck in da wrong bit of ‘is brain.” The Evil Suns had halted and all looked towards Two Heads for further orders. Two Heads both looked at Hazug. “’Ang on a mo.” The Blood Axe said,” Wait ‘ere while I takes a look over dare.” And he made his way to the line of orks. From his belt he took the tau viewing device and adjusted it for seeing in the dark. “Keep dem torches out me way.” He said as he looked through the device. Experience taught him that the device worked best when all artificial light sources were removed. “I sees ‘em!” Hazug called out, “I can see dare ‘eads behind – behind-“ “Behind wot?” Drazzok shouted. “Behind nought.” Hazug shouted back, “Dey is just on sticks.” The orks rushed through the darkness to where two fallen branches had been driven into the ground. On the top of each of these the severed head of one of the missing sentries. “Is dey dead?” one of the orks said out loud. Drazzok poked one of the heads with his finger and watched for any reaction. “Aye dey is dead.” He stated, “I reckon dat dese sticks dey is stuck ‘ave go through dare brains. Even if we ‘ad a painboy ‘ere to stitch ‘em back on to a body dey wouldn’t wake up again.” “So wot does we do boss?” another asked. “Dey still got teeth in dare ‘eads aint dey?” Two Heads asked back. “Yeah boss.” The ork answered. “So pull ‘em out and share ‘em around.” Two Heads said, “But makes sure ya leaves da biggest share of me.” “So who did dis?” Gorrid asked as the other orks began pulling the teeth from the severed heads. “Da pansies of course.” Two Heads replied and he slapped the ork, “Not even Blood Axes could ‘ave dragged ‘em off and killed ‘em without us noticin’.” “Da question is,” Hazug said, “wot sort of eldar could do dis without us noticin’?” Mayleth sensed the change in temperature that signified the emergence of a mandrake. As was normal for them, the creature had chosen to materialise behind her. It had come as a pleasant surprise to her that Lyanil had convinced Lord Shraycht to dispatch them to scout ahead of the wych force. Clearly, although Lyanil and Mayleth personally despised one another the succubus was in no hurry to explain to the archon why her forces had failed to recover the portal. “You have located the beasts?” she asked without bothering to look around. “Yes.” The mandrake hissed, “They are many, though not too many more than us. We took two. Then left them for the others to find.” “What about the portal?” Mayleth asked, only now turning around to look at the mandrake. In the pre-dawn gloom the thing was barely visible and it was difficult to believe that this shadow-like creature’s ancestors may at one time have been eldar like her. “It was not seen.” The mandrake answered. Mayleth scowled and drew in breath. But before she could chastise the mandrake for returning without word of the artefact she was tasked with recovering it went on. “But it was sensed.” “Then the beasts still have it in their possession?” “They do. One of the larger ones. The one that dresses like the mon keigh.” “That is to be expected.” Mayleth said, “The larger ones are the leaders, they have first choice over what their species steals from others.” Mayleth looked into the slowly lightening sky. “It will be light soon.” She said, “Fetch the others, we must act quickly before the beasts have a chance to move on.” The orks had loaded up their vehicles and were ready to move out just after sunrise. There had been some complaints from some of Two Heads’ mob but he was able to explain the urgency of relocating. He did this not by repeating the words told him by Hazug who wanted to be a moving target before the eldar who had killed the two sentries had chance to return with reinforcements, but instead by the much quicker method of hitting everyone who asked why they could not have breakfast first. With the deep rumble of engines the ork vehicles moved away from the river. Hazug made sure his vehicle was at the head of the column. He wanted to be sure that they remained on the heading reportedly taken by the fleeing eldar aircraft and also from here it was easier to see if Cuddles was reacting to the scent of humans without worrying about exhaust fumes from vehicles in front of him. So it was that Hazug was the first to notice the approaching eldar. They started out as tiny specs in the sky. At first Hazug thought they were some of the avian life forms indigenous to the planet, but when he heard the sound of jet engines coming from the same direction he knew what they were. “Eldar!” he yelled and he pointed skywards. The other occupants of the truck looked upwards and Thuggrim aimed the gun. “’Ang on!” Hazug shouted at the mad nob, “Dey is too far away yet.” Then he raised a fist and waved it above his head. In the
battlewagon behind, Gorrid saw Hazug wave. Two Heads lent over Gorrid’s shoulder to peer out of the vision slit at Hazug’s truck. He saw Hazug waving his fist and noticed that Thuggrim was aiming the truck’s weapon upwards. “Get out me way!” Two Heads snapped as he walked further back tin the battlewagon to where the vehicles own automatic weapons were mounted and he pulled one of the gunners down before clambering up into the seat himself. From there Two
Heads had an unrestricted view and he looked up into the sky for himself.
Now that he was outside the battlewagon, the heavy vehicle’s engine noise
was lower and he could make out the high-pitched noise of jets instead of
the low rumbling of ground vehicles. He squinted as both heads tried to
make out details on the slowly growing shapes in the sky. Two Heads’ attack was copied by the gunner of the second twin weapon mount on the battlewagon and also by the rhino’s gunner, all three putting as many rounds into the sky as possible. Mayleth stood on the deck of the raider transport towards the vehicle’s rear. She wanted to stay near the pilot so she could have the maximum control over the vehicle as possible. “The beasts are moving.” A voice said in her ear. The leader of the reaver squad placed under her command by Lyanil was sending the message. Mayleth had positioned the jetbikes ahead of the raider, intending for them to make an initial pass over the orks while her own unit of wyches disembarked from the raider and assaulted them while their attention was elsewhere. Mayleth cursed under her breath. She had not delayed a moment more than was necessary to explain her attack plan to the rest of her force, but they had still arrived too late to prevent the orks from getting their powerful armoured units moving. This would make things more difficult, though not by much. “Reavers!” she shouted into the communicator at her neck, “Dive and attack!” There were bright flares from the reavers’ engines as they pushed their jetbikes down towards the ork convoy at full speed. Mayleth watched as they descended and at the same time she saw more flashes of light coming from below as the ork vehicles opened fire. |
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