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Chapta 1.
Chapta 2.
Chapta 3.
Chapta 4.
1.
Mek Hugrud
hammered another nail into his machine. The work was slow-going owing to
the decision of his gretchin staff to all walk out after he nailed one of
them to the ceiling for knocking over his carefully ordered row of wotsit
jars. Now he had to de everything himself and he still had wotsits all
over the floor, randomly mixed with the thingamabobs and doodads the
fleeing gretchin had knocked over in their haste to leave.
Tomorrow he
would go out and get a new staff, Hugrud decided. Then, staff in hand he
would go to the riverbank where there was a large population of gretchin
living in a shantytown and beat some of them with it until they came to
work for him. He could of course just go to the runtherds and have them
arrange for trained gretchin to come and work for him, but why should he
pay for something he could do himself for free?
Hugrud was an
expert labour negotiator.
“Dammit!”
Hugrud yelled as he accidentally struck his own thumb with his hammer and
then added another, “Dammit!” as the nails he had been gripping in his
mouth fell to the floor when he uttered the first ‘dammit,’ “Nows I gotta
pick dem up an’ all.”
Hugrud placed
his hammer on top of his latest and greatest creation and bent down to
pick up the nails then stopped. He could hear an unusual sound, a repeated
‘tick, tick, tick’ and he looked around to try and determine where it was
coming from. Sounds like that sometimes came from things that were about
to snap or explode and he could do without either of those things
happening right now.
The sound was
coming from outside, Hugrud realised. This surprised him, the departure of
his gretchin had forced him to stay late to make up the work that they
should have done and as far as he knew all of the other meks had shut up
shop and gone home for the night a long time ago. Hugrud walked towards
the back of his workshop, the direction that the sound seemed to be coming
from and it was then that he heard more sounds accompanying the relentless
ticking. There were muffled clumps as if someone in heavy boots was moving
about but trying not to make any noise while doing it. Hugrud frowned. The
footfalls were too heavy for a gretchin and for an ork to sneaking about
anywhere was exceedingly rude. Reaching to a nearby bench he picked up a
length of metal piping and slapped his palm with it a few times to test
the weight.
”Should do.” He said to himself as he determined the pipe
was suitable to teach this interloper some manners. Then he smiled as he
realised I would also do when he went out recruiting in the
morning.
Hugrud was
just about to reach out and open his back door when there was a loud
‘crash’ and the door splintered and broke of its hinges.
“Wot da
bleedin’ ‘ell is dis?” Hugrud exclaimed when he saw the figure standing
there and he dropped the pipe in surprise.
There was a
‘clump’ as the figure stepped through the ruined doorway and the
continuous ‘tick, tick, tick’ was accompanied by a high pitch cackling and
then the dying screams of Mek Hugrud.
Hazug
Throatslitter, last of the Blood Axe clan on the planet was having trouble
readjusting to the practicalities of communal living. It was not long
since he had returned from the remains of the old city that had been the
centre of human civilisation on the planet before the orks had invaded and
as a result of that expedition he had wound up acquiring not one but two
servants. The room he called home had always been sufficient for himself,
but now whenever he tripped over a box there was a chance that there was
someone else sleeping in it.
Right now the
air was filled with a peculiar odour, one that Hazug typically associated
with the brightly coloured tops of certain plants that he sometimes
scrapped off the bottom of his boots.
Now though the
smell was coming from behind a screen consisting of blankets hung over a
simple frame made of wood and rope that one of his servants had
constructed. The servant in question was a human, one of the smaller types
that Hazug had heard referred to as ‘female’. As a Blood Axe, Hazug had
encountered humans many times and even spoke their language. But he had
never actually lived with one before and their private habits were
somewhat confusing to him. Take now for example. At this moment, the
human, Sophie, was sat behind her curtain in a large tub of water. Hazug
could hear the sploshing of water but had no idea why she was doing it,
never mind why she had to make the room smell of flowers while she did it.
What he did know was that if either he or Ratish Brownskin, the gretchin
who he had also acquired, attempted to look over the curtain she would
scream at a very annoying volume. He also knew that whatever was making
the smell also affected the taste of the water, making it
undrinkable.
“Git stinks
master.” A voice said from across the room and Hazug looked around to see
Ratish peering out of the box he slept in. A gretchin’s large nose gave
them a heightened sense of smell, but this was something even Hazug had
noticed.
Hazug
nodded.
”Yeah.” He said in agreement.
“I heard
that.” Sophie called out from the other side of the curtain and after more
sploshing she emerged with a towel wrapped around her, “I smell nice. The
room does now too.”
Ratish grabbed
his nose.
”Lyin’ git!” he snapped.
“Well what
should the room smell like?” Sophie asked.
“Normal
stuff.” Hazug replied.
“What?” asked
Sophie, “Sweat, rotten food and whatever missed the bucket?” and she
pointed to a bucket in the corner used whenever anyone needed to evacuate
their digestive system. The bucket was something else that Sophie used in
a strange way, Hazug had noticed. Like sitting in water, she hid behind
her curtain while she used it even though everyone knew what was going
on.
At that moment
the gretchin sprang from his box.
”Ratish clean around da bucket
master!” he exclaimed excitedly, “I just needs a cloth to wipe it up.
‘Ere’s one.” And he grabbed hold of the towel Sophie had wrapped around
her.
“Get off!”
Sophie screamed as he clutched at the towel, “Hazug, tell him to get off
me!”
Hazug leant
back in his chair and smiled. Communal living could be entertaining at
times he had decided.
Then, over the
sound of fighting Hazug heard a knock at his door.
“Shuddup!” he
bellowed. Immediately both Ratish and Sophie stood still and quiet, “Get
da door grot.” Hazug added.
Ratish grinned
then stuck his tongue out at Sophie.
”Ratish get door for master.” He
said, “Gits is too ugly, dey scares off polite company.” And he dashed to
the doorway and opened it. As soon as he had begun the ork standing in the
hallway outside gave the door a shove to speed things up and sent Ratish
rolling back across the floor.
“’Ello
Batrug.” Hazug said when he saw who his visitor was, “Come on in and sit
down.”
”Wot’s dat stink?” Batrug asked as he entered the
room.
“Ask ‘er.” Hazug replied,
nodding towards Sophie.
“So its true den.” Batrug
said as he looked at Sophie, “Dare was rumours dat ya ‘ad got yaself a
pet.”
“I’m not a pet.” Sophie
protested as she pulled a plain sleeveless dress over her then let the
towel drop to floor at her feet, “I’m Hazug’s
friend.”
Hazug’s shoulders
slumped.
”I wants me breakfast.” He said then he looked at Batrug, “Wot
about ya?”
“Nah, I ‘ad a squig on da
way over.” Batrug replied as he sat down at the table opposite
Hazug.
“So wot’s ya want ‘ere?”
Hazug asked, “Just come to see ‘ow many of us is
‘ere?”
Batrug took a deep
breath.
“Dare’s a mek wot ‘as been
killed.” He said, “Late last night. Got ‘is head all caved in and ‘is
workshop all torn up.”
Hazug
frowned.
“Aint interested.” He
said, “Dead orks is not my problem. Dat last one caused me nothing but
trouble. If ya wants to know who killed ‘im find out
yaself.”
“Nah,” Batrug replied, “I
aint interested in findin’ out who killed ‘im cos I already knows.
Everyone does.”
”Who?” Hazug asked.
“A kan. Well a killa kan.”
Batrug explained, “We, da meks dat is, all reckon dat Hugrud was buildin’
a killa kan wot went berserk when he turned it on. Da kan killed ‘im and
did a runner. Now all of us meks is lookin’ for da kan for
ourselves.”
”And ya though dat I’d ‘elp ya.” Hazug
said.
“I’ll pay.” Batrug said,
“Two teeth.”
“Five.” Hazug
replied.
”Store credit?”
“Cash.”
“Three teeth
den.”
“Done. Show us where dis
Hugrud was killed.”
2.
The workshop of the late
Mek Hugrud was now a hive of activity as his neighbours sought to remove
everything that wasn’t nailed down. Items that were nailed down would have
to wait until someone found a suitable tool to remove the nails. It would
have been busier of if the meks had not suspected that somewhere there was
a rogue killa kan up for grabs, so some of those who would otherwise have
been here looting were instead out trying to catch
it.
“Git!” a gretchin suddenly
yelled out form on top of a high shelf where he had been handing spare
engine parts down to his master and the creature pointed at Sophie who was
standing behind Hazug in the doorway. The gretchin picked up one of the
engine components and raised it over his head, ready to hurl it. But Hazug
was quicker and he aimed his pistol at the creature as Sophie ducked
behind him for cover.
“Go on den.” He said, “Ya
wanna make my day?”
“Oi!” the mek standing
below the gretchin bellowed, “Dat’s my grot!”
“Dat’s alright.” Hazug
said, “I got more bullets.” Then he looked around the room. Hazug was a
nob, one of the leadership caste of the orks who over the course of their
lives had grown larger following multiple victories in battle. It was
uncommon for meks to attain such size and as such he towered over all of
the other orks in the workshop. To an ork bigger was generally held to be
better.
“Get out!” Hazug bellowed
and he fired a shot into the ceiling.
“Ya can’t tell us to get
out!” a mek shouted back at him, “We found dis stuff first. Finders
keepers.”
“I said to get out.” Hazug
repeated,” If ya don’t want to den come and ‘ave a go if ya think ya is
‘ard enough. Of course if ya wants to keep ya teeth ya’ll ‘ave to be da
first to find ‘em.”
Reluctantly the meks and
their gretchin began to file past Hazug into the street. After the last
one had left Hazug stepped inside and looked around. On the floor and
walls near the back of the workshop he saw smears of
blood.
“Is dat where ‘e died?”
Hazug asked.
“Yeah.” Batrug replied as
he followed Hazug and his servants into the workshop, “Da grots took da
body away. Most it anyway, dare was a few bits dat no-one could
find.”
“That’s horrible.” Sophie
said.
Hazug walked to where the
floor and walls were stained. The most obvious workshop feature was the
remains of the back door that were scattered between the bloodstains and
the doorframe. There was something about the remains of the door that
didn’t look right to Hazug. But at the same time it looked
familiar.
Then it occurred to Hazug
where he had seen damage like this before. During many battles he had
indulged in fighting in built up areas and had forced his way into many
buildings. Someone breaking into the workshop, not breaking out, caused
the damage he was looking at.
“’Ow did da first one to
find Hugrud get in?” he asked.
“Through da front door.”
Batrug replied, “We broke da lock off.”
“Ya said everyone says dat
‘e was killed by a killa kan wot went berserk when it woke up
yeah?”
“Yeah. It ran off before
anyone knew ‘e was dead.”
“Well everyone’s wrong.”
Hazug said.
Not surprisingly there
were bloody footprints outside the back of the workshop. They were large,
bigger even than Hazug’s and several other sets of tracks were heading off
in the same direction. These were the size that Hazug expected of an ork
and he guessed that they belonged to the meks that had set off after
Hugrud’s killer. Then Hazug saw another set of footprints and he crouched
down for a better look. These ran along the wall of the workshop and
looked to be heading towards the door. Like the bloody prints leading way
these were large and deep but there was no blood inside them. This was the
path the killer had taken on his way in.
Hazug smiled as he stood
up. The killer must have known about the blood on his feet and when he
left the workshop he had taken a route that would lead any pursuit in the
wrong direction. Hazug decided to follow the other
path.
“Ratish! Sophie!” he
called out, “Come on, we is goin’.” Then he looked back into the workshop
at Mek Batrug, “Is ya comin’ too?” he asked.
“Nah.” Batrug replied, “I
is goin’ to see wot I can grab ‘ere before da others decide to come back.”
And he began to rummage through the equipment that had not yet been
looted.
This part of the ork city
was almost entirely given over to the workshops of mekboys and the trail
of footprints led Hazug and his servants between these structures.
Repeatedly the sound of some violent mishap in a workshop would fill the
air and Hazug would grind to a halt and crouch down, fearing an attack.
Behind him, Ratish and Sophie stayed close. Neither of them was armed and
the meks would be unlikely to look kindly on them if them found either of
them skulking about near their workshops.
“Where do you think these
tracks lead?” Sophie asked.
“Dunno.” Hazug replied,
“But I wouldn’t be surprised if dey leads to another
mek.”
“Why?” Sophie
asked.
“Cos I reckon dat a tinboy
would be a pretty good weapon to use against a
rival.”
”Tinboy?”
“Dontcha know anythin’?”
Ratish said, “Stupid git.”
“Shut up.” Sophie replied,
“Hazug, what’s a tinboy?”
“Its like a kan, but it
aint got a lad inside it. Its just nails an’
gubbins.”
“Like a robot?” Sophie
asked. She used the human word ‘robot’ and Hazug had to think for a moment
as he tried to remember how he had heard it used
before.
“Dat’s right.” He said,
and then he stopped.
“Master, wot’s wrong?”
Ratish asked.
“Look at dat prints.”
Hazug said, pointing to the ground at his feet. There the heavy footprints
moved all around, seemingly at random, “Spread out,” Hazug said to his
servants, “see if either of ya can spot where dey came
from.”
Obediently, Ratish and
Sophie began to help Hazug search the area. They were located in one of
the rare clearings amongst the maze of workshops and the area had been
used as a dumping ground by the meks. Scrap metal and empty containers
were scattered all around, some of which showed signs of having been
crushed underfoot by the mysterious killer.
“Master come quick!”
Ratish suddenly called out, “Come see wot Ratish found!” and he waved
Hazug towards him.
“Wot is it?” Hazug asked
as he approached. Meanwhile Ratish was crouched down and scraping at the
ground.
“It’s a door!” Ratish
exclaimed and he stood back from his
discovery.
Hazug looked down and
looked at what Ratish had found. Sure enough there was a wooden door set
into the ground. It was crudely constructed, typical of greenskin work and
it had been carefully hidden.
”Does that lead where I think it does?”
Sophie asked.
Hazug reached down and
pulled the door open.
“Looks like it.” Hazug
said, “Into da grot tunnels.”
Beneath every ork
settlement there were tunnels. Being much smaller than their cousins,
gretchin were vulnerable to attack and so they dug tunnels beneath the
ground that allowed them to move about in relative safety. Of course they
had other uses too, the incident that had led to Ratish and Sophie
entering Hazug’s service had seen an assassin use them to gain admittance
into the local warboss’s fortress. What was more, the aliens who had
sponsored the attempt on the warboss’s life had used several large
mechanical suits to increase the power of their elite
troops.
Hazug turned and began to
walk away.
”Where’s master goin’?” Ratish called out after
him.
Hazug stopped and turned
around.
“’Ome.” He said and he
held up his pistol, “I gotta feelin’ we needs more firepower dan
dis.”
Hazug owned several
weapons that he kept in a cupboard. As soon as he got back to his room he
went directly to it and began to remove its contents. Like any ork the
first weapon he selected was the biggest.
“We’ll take dis,” He said
as he removed a large automatic weapon, “and bullets too.” He added as he
also removed the two belts of ammunition he had for the
weapon.
Next came grenades. Hazug
always kept several of the stick-like explosives in his wardrobe,
considering them to be useful for evening things up when facing a large
number of opponents. Finally he grabbed as many spare magazines for his
pistol as he had.
”What about us?” Sophie
asked.
“Master give Ratish
shoota?” Ratish asked, “Ratish can fight
too.”
“I only got dese two. Ya
will both ‘ave to make do with dem choppas.” Hazug replied, pointing at
the small knives both Ratish and Sophie carried, “But ya can both ‘elp out
by carryin’ me spare ammo.” And he began to divide up the extra ammunition
between them.
The sun was still high in
the sky when Hazug and his servants returned to the entrance to the
gretchin tunnels. But even so both Ratish and Sophie brandished torches,
the tunnel beneath the city would have no artificial light and they would
be the only method of lighting their way.
“Stay behind me.” Hazug
said, loading the belt of ammunition into the heavy
weapon.
“Without a gun?” Sophie
commented, “I’m not standing in front of
you.”
“Ratish will take lead
master!” Ratish exclaimed, “Ratish not
scared.”
“Nah, but Ratish’ll get
‘is ‘ead shot off if ‘e’s in front of me when I start shootin’.” Hazug
replied.
“Ratish will stay behind
master.” Ratish said softly.
“Make sure dat ya do.”
Hazug said and he pulled the tunnel door open before making his way
underground.
Being constructed both by
and for the near exclusive use of gretchin, the tunnel networks beneath
ork settlements tended to have low ceilings that would compel even a
regular ork boy to stoop as he walked. So for a larger nob such as Hazug
it was only reasonable to expect him to have bend down a great deal to be
able to move along the tunnel.
“Dis aint right master.”
Ratish said as he saw how the tunnel had been modified with a ceiling high
enough to allow Hazug to stand up straight.
“Yeah.” Hazug replied,
having seen gretchin tunnels before, “But its
good.”
“Good?” Sophie asked, “How
is it good?”
“Well,” Hazug began,
“first its cos I don’t ‘ave to bend over when I wants to move and secondly
cos I don’t reckon dat every tunnel down ‘ere ‘as been changed. Only da
ones wot go where we needs to be.”
“So we just follow the
taller tunnels?” Sophie asked.
“Dat’s it.” Hazug said,
“Now shut up before da grots ‘ear ya.”
“Yeah,” Ratish added,
“keep ya git mouth shut! Ouch!” and he found himself sprawled on the floor
as Hazug slapped him around the head.
“Da goes for ya an’ all.”
He said in a voice unusually quiet for an ork. Then he began to creep
forwards.
3.
Borki brought his hammer
down on the metal plate twice more and then held it up to the other piece
that lay in front of him. Satisfied that the ends no matched put down his
hammer and instead reached for a large drill. Holding the piece of metal
he had just shaped over the other one he prepared to drill through both so
he could rivet them together.
“Borki!” a voice suddenly
called out, “’E’s back!”
Turning his head Borki saw
a bulky figure lurching into the cavern through one of the enlarged
tunnels. As it made an appearance all of the gretchin present stopped
their work and looked at the figure. With the sudden cessation of
hammering and banged of parts the only sounds left were the footfalls of
the figure and a continuous ‘tick, tick,
tick’.
The figure ground to a
sudden halt and there was a hiss of escaping gas. Now that it was in the
cavern fully the figure could be seen more clearly in the flickering light
of the assorted torches and sodium lights scattered about. At first glance
it appeared to be a heavily armoured ork nob, but where the large ork
cranium would protrude from between the armour plates protecting the torso
there was instead the much smaller head of a
gretchin.
“Get ‘im out.” A gretchin
shouted as several of the creatures rushed towards the imposing
newcomer.
A pair of gretchin began
to scale the figure, each of them clutching a wrench between their teeth.
They halted at the torso and began to undo the various nuts that were
holding the chest plate in place.
“Loddin, wot ‘appened?”
Borki called out to the gretchin whose head stuck out from the
chest.
“It works!” Loddin shouted
back, loud enough so that all of the gretchin present could hear him
clearly, “I smashed Mek Hugrud’s ‘ead right
open!”
A gleeful cheer went up
around the cavern as the gretchin celebrated the news of the mekboy’s
death. A sudden ‘clang!’ rang out as the final nut was undone and the
chest plate dropped the floor to reveal Loddin standing inside the hollow
torso, surrounded by levers, gears and pulleys running into the
limbs.
Loddin untangled his arms
from the internal workings of the suit and then pulled his entire body
free before leaping down to the cavern floor.
“Wot about da orks?” Borki
asked.
“I led ‘em over towards da
dump den snuck in through da tunnel entrance dare. Dey’ll never figure it
out. Now wot about ‘ere?”
Borki smiled and pointed
across the cavern.
“We is doin’ well.” He
said as he pointed at another three bulky headless humanoid shapes in a
row.
Hazug held up his hand for
his servants to halt, but neither understood the signal and both barged
into him. Hazug let out a roar of pain as a burning torch was accidentally
thrust into the small of his back and he swept his arm around behind him,
knocking both Ratish and Sophie flat.
“Watch wot ya doin’!” he
snapped, though still trying to keep his voice below the loud bellowing an
angry ork would normally use in a situation like this. His inadvertent
exclamation of pain was bad enough without adding to the
problem.
“Da git did it master!
Ratish not to blame!” Ratish exclaimed.
“Shush!” Sophie
hissed.
“Don’t tell Ratish to shut
up!” Ratish shouted back.
“Shut up grot!” Hazug then
hissed, snarling and leaning in close to Ratish’s face, “Or I’ll just slit
ya throat ‘ere.” And he drew his hand across his own
throat.
“Wot was dat?” Borki asked
the gretchin standing beneath him as he pulled a heavy mechanical arm up
to the shoulder of one of the three half built mechanical
suits.
“Wot was wot?” the other
gretchin asked.
“Sounded like someone
shoutin’ somethin’ ‘bout a git.”
Another nearby gretchin
ceased what he was doing and looked around.
“Dey say dat a bunch of
gits was down ‘ere tryin’ to get to da warboss’ fort. Dey wanted to kill
‘im.” He said.
“Who said dat?” the
gretchin beneath Borki asked.
“Dey did.” The other
replied.
”Who’s dat?”
“You know, dem. Dey said
it.”
“Ah, dem.” The gretchin
below Borki said, nodding slowly as if he understood when in fact he had
no idea what the other was saying.
“Oi! Neg!” Borki called
out to where a gretchin was pouring molten metal into crude nail
moulds.
“Wot?” Neg shouted, then
he yelped as he accidentally poured hot metal over his foot and dropped
the pan he was holding. Then he hobbled closer to Borki, “Wot d’ya want?”
he asked.
“Dare may be someone else
in da tunnels over dare.” Borki shouted, pointing in the direction of the
sound he had heard, “It may be a git. Take an ‘andful of others and go see
wot’s goin’ on.”
“Wot if it is a git?” Neg
asked.
“Bring ‘em back ‘ere.”
Borki replied, “Or if ya can’t, kill ‘em.”
Hazug crept further
forwards along the tunnel until he reached a fork and held up his hand
again.
“Dat means stop by da
way.” He said softly as Ratish and Sophie successfully stopped without him
having to yell out in pain this time.
“Which way master?” Ratish
asked as he looked at where the tunnel split into two ahead. Both of the
tunnels looked to have had the ceilings raised and Hazug began to wonder
if just relying on tunnel height to determine his path through the
subsurface network may have been a mistake.
Then something caught his
attention, a slight sound from down one of the tunnels and a smile began
to appear on his face.
“Wait ‘ere.” He said to
Ratish and Sophie, “And keep ya mouths shut.” Then he slowly walked down
one of the tunnels until he was consumed by the
darkness.
Ratish and Sophie both
looked down the tunnel, trying to determine where Hazug was and what he
was doing. Then there was a pattering sound coming from down the other
tunnel and both of them turned around.
“Hazug?” Sophie said, even
though the large ork’s footsteps were typically far heavier than the sound
she could hear now.
“Shut up!” Ratish snapped
and he too peered down the tunnel.
As Ratish and Sophie
watched the pitch-blackness of a trio of burning torches suddenly lighted
up the tunnel. From the darkness a group of half a dozen gretchin
appeared, most of them clutching bulky hand tools that they brandished
like clubs.
“Get ‘em!” the gretchin at
the head of the group yelled and with a chorus of excited shrieks the mob
of gretchin charged.
The gretchin barged into
both Ratish and Sophie, knocking them to the floor and pulling their
torches from their grasps.
“It is a git!” one of the
gretchin yelled and he grabbed hold of a handful of Sophie’s long blonde
hair and tugged on it.
“Ow!” Sophie cried out,
“Let me go!”
“It can talk!” Neg
exclaimed, surprised at a human who could speak the language common to all
greenskins.
“Da warboss ‘as gits wot
talk.” One of the others said, “Maybe dey is spies for
‘im.”
“Dat’s it innit?” Neg
said, “Ya is spies.”
“Dat aint it!” Ratish
cried out as he struggled against the pair of gretchin holding him down,
“Da git is, but I aint.”
“It’s a spy!” another of
the mob yelled, “Kill it!” and the creature raised the wrench it held high
over its head.
Sophie screamed, expecting
the wrench to come crashing down at any
moment.
“Hazug! Help!” she
yelled.
Suddenly the gretchin was
lifted off his feet and he dangled in the air, kicking his feet and
looking around as he tried to see what was going
on.
“About dat human.” Hazug
said as he grasped the end of the wrench, “She’s mine.” And he thrust the
tip of his blade through the back of the kicking gretchin’s throat. The
blade was almost as wide as the gretchin’s neck and as Hazug twisted his
weapon the creature was decapitated, his head rolling forwards and landing
on Sophie’s stomach.
“Ork!” another gretchin
cried out as he looked up at Hazug as he towered over the gretchin, then
his cries was cut off as Hazug swung his blade down and sliced open his
chest.
The other four gretchin
reacted with panic, the typical reaction for any group of gretchin
suddenly having to watch a portion of their number being hacked apart and
believing that they could be next. Hazug reached out and grabbed hold of
the nearest gretchin and as he screamed for mercy he swung it upwards,
smashing open his skull against the tunnel
ceiling.
Neg tried to scrabble
between Hazug’s legs, but the ork simply stamped his booted foot down and
there was a ‘crunch’ accompanied by a shriek of pain as he broke Neg’s
spine. Then Hazug swung his blade again and another gretchin went flying
as the flat edge of the weapon struck him with enough force to crack his
ribs.
The last remaining
gretchin still had hold of Sophie’s hair and as he backed away from Hazug
he pulled her along with him, using her as a
shield.
“Kill ‘im master.” Ratish
said, snarling at the other gretchin as he got to his
feet.
“I’ll kill ya git first.”
The gretchin said and he plucked a tiny knife from his belt and held it to
her throat.
“Kill ‘im master!” Ratish
repeated, grinning at the though of Sophie’s imminent
death.
Hazug pushed his blade
downwards, embedding its tip in the dirt floor of the tunnel. The gretchin
continued to back away, staring at the blade in case Hazug picked it up
again. This meant that he was not watching what Hazug was doing with his
other hand and failed to notice as Hazug plucked his pistol from his belt
and aimed it at the gretchin’s head. The discharge of the weapon echoed in
the confines of the tunnel, making both Ratish and Sophie flinch. But the
effect on the gretchin holding a knife to Sophie’s throat was far more
pronounced when the heavy lead bullet smashed through his forehead and
blew off the back of his skull.
Sophie scrabbled away from
the headless gretchin and towards Hazug for safety. Meanwhile Hazug
himself looked around to where Neg was dragging himself down the tunnel,
his legs trailing limply behind him. Growling as he strode towards the
disabled Neg, Hazug stuck his pistol back into his belt before reaching
down and grabbing hold of one of Neg’s
ankles.
“Where d’ya reckon ya is
go’ ya stinkin’ grot?” he demanded.
“Let me go!” Neg squealed,
“Let me go or me mates kills ya!”
“Kill ‘im master!” Ratish
snapped, “No amount of gretchin is better dan ya
is.”
“Ratish is right.” Sophie
said and as both Hazug and Ratish looked at her in amazement she added,
“You should just kill him. We know which way they came from, you don’t
need him to tell you.”
“I reckon dat she’s got a
point dare grot.” Hazug said to Neg, “So wotcha got to say fer
yaself?”
“Me mates’ll kill ya all!”
Neg screamed, “Dey’s strong! Stronger dan wot ya is!
Dey’ll-“
There was a ‘crunch’ as
Hazug grew tired of Neg’s pointless ranting and just as he had earlier
broken the gretchin’s spine by stamping on it, he now cracked open his
skull by bringing down his boot on top of that. Then he turned towards his
servants.
”Go look down dat other tunnel.” He said to Ratish, pointing,
“I left da big shoota down dare and I reckons we may need it
soon.”
Ratish smiled and picked
up one of the dropped torches before running off down the other
tunnel.
“It’s lucky you came back
when you did.” Sophie said to Hazug as she too picked up a torch that was
still lit.
“Luck ‘ad nought to do
with it.” Hazug replied, “I was watchin’ from da
darkness.”
“So you knew where those
gretchin were?”
“Course I did. But dem
runts wasn’t goin’ to try ought with me standin’ ‘ere with me big shoota
was dey?”
“You used as bait.” Sophie
exclaimed.
“Yeah, I
did.”
“Dat was a shot.” Loddin
said, “I knows it was, I ‘eard it.”
“Neg didn’t ‘ave no
shoota.” Borki replied.
“Den dare is someone in da
tunnel.”
“Yeah, but who are dey?”
Loddin asked, “Gits? Or orks?”
“Whoever it is, we better
get da suits ready to smash ‘em.”
4.
“’Ammerin’ master.” Ratish
whispered. The larger ears that gretchin possessed gave them superior
hearing to other greenskins so Hazug had no hesitation in asking Ratish to
identify the sounds that became clearer as they advanced down the tunnel
used by their attackers.
“Den we is close.” Hazug
said and he handed his belt fed weapon to Ratish, “’Ere, kop ‘old of dis
for a mo.” He instructed and Ratish grinned as he took hold of the
valuable weapon.
With his hands now free,
Hazug reached down and scooped up a handful of dirt from the floor of the
tunnel, dirt that eh then proceeded to smear over his
body.
“Now stay well back
‘behind me. I don’t want anyone up ahead seein’ da light from dem
torches.” He said as he took hold of the weapon Ratish held again and he
began to make his way down the tunnel towards the source of the
hammering.
Loddin clambered up the
suit as fast as he could and climbed inside.
“Quick!” he said to the
other two gretchin accompanying him, “Put da front on!” and the pair
strained as they lifted the chest plate into position and began to tighten
up the nuts needed to keep it in place.
Across the cavern, Borki
and the other gretchin dashed about in a frantic attempt to complete the
other armoured suits, none of which was ready for use
yet.
“Ya’s set!” one of the
gretchin holding onto Loddin’s suit said, “Try
it.”
Loddin pulled a lever,
attempting to lift one of the suits arms.
“It aint got no power!” he
exclaimed, “Quick! Get da key!”
One of the other gretchin
ran off and after a few moments returned holding a large ‘T’ shaped piece
of metal. He then inserted the base of this into a hole in the back of the
suit. Both gretchin then took hold of the exposed ends of the ‘key’ and
began to rotate it about the bar running into the suit. As they did, there
was a clicking sound from inside the suit.
As Hazug drew closer to
the end of the tunnel, where he could see it open out into a cavern he saw
that the space ahead was well lit by greenskin standards, with both
torches and electrical lighting. Hazug reacted by lying down on the floor
of the tunnel and crawling forwards on his stomach, keeping watch on the
cavern ahead. He saw movement as gretchin rushed about. But what
interested him more was the trio of bulky headless humanoid forms lined up
at the side of the cavern. Whatever the gretchin were doing, these things
were central to it.
Staying prone, Hazug aimed
his weapon towards the suits that the gretchin were still in the process
of making. Then smiling he pulled the trigger and held it back. There was
a roar and the tunnel mouth was lit up by the muzzle flash as Hazug fired
a stream of bullets towards the headless constructs. Being soft metal the
bullets sparked as they bounced off their armoured hides, but the gretchin
swarming around them were a different matter altogether and the gunfire
tore them to shreds. Additionally, the suits they working on had not had
their chest plates attached yet and some of the bullets entered the cavity
where the gretchin operator was supposed to sit. Now the thick armour they
had been equipped with was their undoing, as the bullets from Hazug’s
heavy gun ricocheted about inside, cutting through wires and smashing
gears. The roar of the weapon stopped suddenly and looking down Hazug saw
that he had expended all of its ammunition. Leaving the gun where it was
he stood up and drew his pistol and blade before striding into the cavern
intent on finishing this up close.
Standing in the mouth of
the tunnel he proclaimed his presence with a mighty
yell.
“Waaargh!”
Gretchin scattered,
dropping tools and equipment they were working on and running in all
directions. Despite their grand plans for revenge on their larger cousins,
they still possessed the innate belief that bigger was better and Hazug
was far bigger than any of them.
Storming into the cave,
Hazug began to fire his pistol into the gretchin, hitting a few but mainly
serving only to further scatter the panicking creatures. Every now and
again he would encounter a gretchin that rather than attempting to flee
from him would instead cower at his feet and he dealt with these with a
swift blow from either his blade or one of his booted
feet.
A sudden shriek from above
his head caught Hazug’s attention and he looked up just in time to see a
gretchin dropping from a narrow hole in the ceiling. The gretchin landed
on Hazug’s shoulders and clung on with hand while the other was clenched
into a fist that repeatedly struck Hazug’s head. Fortunately for him, an
ork’s skull was very thick and it would take more than a single unarmed
gretchin to do any damage.
What the gretchin did
succeed in dong however, was to inspire his fellows to make a stand and
when they saw Hazug staggering as he tried to dislodge the gretchin from
his back a number of them stopped panicking and picked up the tools they
had just dropped. Then in a large group they began to advance towards
Hazug.
“We’ve got to help him!”
Sophie exclaimed from the tunnel where she and Ratish were watching the
fight and she ran forwards to the tunnel mouth where Hazug’s large
automatic weapon lay on the floor. She set down her bag and opened it up,
rummaging through the contents until she found the end of a belt of
ammunition for the gun. She fed the belt into the breech and pulled the
cocking handle to chamber a round. Satisfied that the weapon was loaded,
Sophie then dragged it into position. The weapon was heavy even by ork
standards and it was all she could do to get it pointed in the right
direction while still lying on the floor. Then she lay down and took aim
before pulling the trigger.
‘Click.’ Nothing
happened.
Amongst the tech priest
enginseers of the Adeptus Mechanicus it is well known that ork technology
does not always function consistently when non-greenskins attempt to
operate them. To the tech priests this is a sign that the orks create a
form of psychic field that their technology requires to function properly.
To ork mekboys on the other hand it is a sign that their machines know
what will happen to them if they do not function as they are meant
to.
Sophie tried again,
cocking the weapon and pulling the trigger only for there to be nothing
more than a ‘click’ as the weapon failed to
fire.
“Get off it!” Ratish
snapped as he rushed towards Sophie and pushed her away from the gun,
“Ratish’ll show ya ‘ow its done!”
Ratish lay exactly where
Sophie had been and did exactly what she had done, pulling back the bolt
and pulling the trigger. But this time instead of a ‘click’ there was a
roar and flames from the muzzle lit up the tunnel mouth as the weapon
functioned for Ratish exactly as it was supposed
to.
The stream of bullets tore
through the mob of advancing gretchin, scattering them once more. But
Ratish held the weapon’s trigger back even when the group was dispersed
and soon there was yet another ‘click’ and the bolt moved forwards to an
empty chamber.
“Gimme more!” he shouted
at Sophie, waving his hand at her for another belt of
ammunition.
“I don’t have any.” She
replied, “Didn’t you have any?”
“Master just give Ratish
slugga clips.” He said, “And stick bombs.”
Fortunately the burst of
fire from Ratish had been enough to give Hazug all the time he needed to
grab hold of the gretchin clinging to his back and rip it free. He gripped
it in both hands as he held it up in front of him and as it screamed first
for mercy and then in agony he pulled one of its arms from its socket and
hurled both pieces across the cavern.
Having dropped both of his
weapons in the struggle, Hazug looked down to retrieve them. His blade was
sticking straight up from the dirt floor and he pulled it free without
effort. But eh pistol had travelled further when he dropped it and it was
out of reach for now. Hazug was about to make a rush for the gun when a
strange sound caught his attention.
‘Tick, tick,
tick.’
Looking around Hazug saw a
massive figure lumbering at him from the shadows at the far side of the
cavern and as it approached there was the unmistakable cackling sound of
gretchin laughter. The figure that approached was clad in a suit just like
those in the row that Hazug had destroyed and he realised that there had
been one more that he had not noticed.
“I is bigger dan ya now!”
Loddin cried, “Now I is better dan ya!”
“Ya is just a runt on
stilts!” Hazug bellowed and he swung his blade low, intending to cut the
mechanical suit’s legs out from under its
operator.
There was a ‘clang!’ and
sparks flew as Hazug’s blade failed to do any damage to the suit and once
again Loddin just cackled. Reaching out one of the suit’s arms, Loddin
grasped hold of Hazug’s blade and pulled it from his grasp before hurling
it across the cavern.
“Little orks no good
without dare choppas!” Loddin yelled and swinging the suit’s other arm he
delivered a blow that sent Hazug flying
backwards.
‘Tick, tick,
tick.’
The sound filled Hazug’s
ears as he lay with his face down in the dirt and he knew that the suit
was coming to finish him off. Rather than waste time getting back up Hazug
just rolled to one side and watched as Loddin stamped down a mechanical
foot where his head had been a few moments
earlier.
‘Tick, tick,
tick.’
Looking at the suit from
the side, Hazug could see that there was a large ‘T’ shaped handle
sticking out of its back and as he watched the suit move he saw it
spinning as the spring inside unwound. Hazug grinned as an idea on how to
stop the suit entered his mind.
He jumped back to his feet
and turned to face the suit head on. Then he roared and charged at it. In
response Loddin just laughed out loud, reaching out the arms of the suit
and intending to grab hold of Hazug and pull him apart. But at the last
moment Hazug dived to one side and rolled past the suit. Then, before
Loddin could turn to face him, Hazug leapt back to his feet and grasped
the ‘T’ shaped handle tightly.
Loddin screamed as the
suit ground to halt, its clockwork mechanisms now
jammed
“Geddim off me!” he
screamed to the other remaining gretchin as he desperately pulled at
levers inside the suit, “Me suit’s stuck!”
A gretchin rushed towards
Hazug and he gave it a good hard kick, sending it flying backwards. But he
knew that he could not stay like this, if he kept hold of the handle then
the other gretchin may be able to overwhelm him. But on the other hand if
he let go then Loddin would be able to pilot the suit properly once more.
Then he had an idea and he smiled.
He plucked one of the
stick shaped grenades from his belt and wedged the wooden grip between the
‘T’ handle and a set of pipes on the back of the suit, preventing the
handle from turning. Then he pulled out the pin of the grenade and briefly
dangled it in front of Loddin’s face before dropping it into the suit.
Then he ran for the tunnel mouth, sidestepping, leaping over or just
barging past any gretchin he met on the way.
Loddin screamed as he
looked over the suit’s shoulder, frantically trying to get the suit moving
again as he searched for the grenade.
“’Elp me ‘Elp me!” me
called out.
“Dat’s da last suit!”
Borki yelled, “’Elp ‘im!” and all of the remaining gretchin rushed to try
and clear the suit’s mechanism. The gretchin reached the suit and Hazug
reached the tunnel just as the grenade’s timer
expired.
With the force of the
explosion compressed by the cavern walls, the blast was enough to lift
Hazug off his feet and sent him flying into Ratish and Sophie. For a few
brief moments there were screams from the gretchin not killed outright by
the explosion before there was another massive rumbling sound as the roof
of the cavern fell in and buried them all.
Hazug got back to his feet
and turned around. Light now flooded into the tunnel from where the cavern
had been. The collapse had been total; the entire group of rebel gretchin
and their mechanical suits had been buried beneath the mounds of dirt that
now lay in front of Hazug.
“Are they all dead?”
Sophie asked.
“I reckon so.” Hazug
replied, nodding slowly.
“Then can we go home now?”
Sophie added.
“Not yet.” Hazug
replied.
”Wot’s left master?” Ratish asked, “Ratish’ll help.”
”I’m
glad ay said dat.” Hazug said, “Cos me choppa and slugga is buried under
dat lot somewhere, so I needs ya to go dig ‘em
out.”
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