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Waaargh! Hazug! Chapta 9 | |
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Waaargh! Hazug! Chapta 9 |
The
damaged battlewagon slowed down the convoy considerably and this lack of
speed put Two Heads in a foul mood, particularly since he could see the
various buggies and trucks that made up the rest of the convoy moving
around his own precious vehicle. Only Hazug’s truck remained alongside the
battlewagon at all times, it being the only vehicle driven by an ork that
was not an Evil Sun obsessed with speed above all else. Even with the
battlewagon unable to attain any significant speed the convoy was still
able to make it back to the city just as the first rays of sunlight were
appearing over the horizon. The
convoy headed directly for the street where Hazug and Two Heads lived,
able to move through the often crowded streets as fast as the damaged
battlewagon would allow thanks to the early hour. One
of the Evil Suns leapt down from a truck and rushed to open the large
doors to Two Heads’ building so that Gorrid could drive it inside. At the
same time Hazug turned to Ratish. “Master!
Wot’s wrong?” Ratish called out. “Orks!”
one of the stormtroopers called out from upstairs. “How
many?” Jarr replied as he drew his pistol. “Forty
plus. Motorised including one heavy armoured vehicle.” The stormtrooper
answered and Jarr reached to where Salia and Sophie had fallen asleep at
the kitchen table. “Wake
up.” He said, shaking each one in turn, “They’re
back.” The
two women opened their eyes and immediately they heard the sound of
engines from the street outside, followed by a sudden
‘Crash!’ “Hazug!”
Sophie shouted as she leapt to her feet and rushed to the door leading
into the hallway. As she pulled it open she saw Hazug standing in the
doorway with his rifle aimed up the stairs and behind him she could see
more orks gathering to storm the house, “Hazug!” she called out
again. “Get
back.” Hazug ordered,” Dare’s someone else in da
‘ouse.” “They’re
with me.” Jarr said as he stepped out from behind Sophie with a smile on
his face. Hazug
frowned. Before
either Jarr or Sophie could answer however Drazzok pushed his way through
the orks to the front door. “Drazzok
look who’s here.” Sophie replied, pointing to Jarr and the weirdboy glared
at him. Then he pushed past Hazug as well and strode right up to the
former assassin. Drazzok was larger than Jarr and up close he had to lower
his head as he glared at the man. “’Ere,
I thought dat we got rid of dis git ages ago.” He said. “I
put them in the lounge.” Sophie replied, “They’re waiting for you
now.” “It
really is important.” Jarr said. “I’ll
be da judge of dat.” Hazug said. Then he looked back through the door,
“Mayleth! Batrug! Two Heads! Krorden! Come in ‘ere. Dare’s a human wants
to talk to us.” Cubrim,
Rell, Torris and the two servitors were waiting in the lounge when Hazug
entered the room. In the centre of the room projection equipment had been
set up and a globe of pale blue light hovered motionless in the air above
it. “See.”
Sophie said as she followed him, “They’ve come all the way from the
Imperium.” Then Torris’ hand moved towards his sidearm as more orks and
Mayleth entered along with Jarr and Salia. “An
eldar?” Rell said the moment he saw Mayleth, “Tell me, what craftworld are
you from?” Mayleth
snarled. “Something
else you didn’t mention in your report?” Torris said to Jarr, but Jarr
ignored the barb. “I
got ‘er afterwards.” Hazug said in fluent if accented gothic and Rell
smiled. “Oh
yeah? Well dis lot don’t.” Hazug replied, indicating the other
orks. “Ah
well, in that case I shall have to make use of my servitors.” Rell said
and he tapped at the screen of a dataslate, “How is that?” he then asked
in gothic and one of the servitors repeated the question in the ork
language. The
other orks looked at one another, somewhat surprised by the servitor’s
speech and Hazug noticed Krorden resting his hand on his
pistol. “Relax.”
Hazug said and he heard the servitor repeating the words in gothic for its
human masters, “Sit down and let’s ‘ear wot dis bloke’s got to say.” And
he sat down and stared at Rell, ” Go on den. Speak.” “Cubrim
if you would.” Rell said to the savant, then he looked back at the orks
and added, “Mister Cubrim here is my assistant. He has the most amazing
recollection for details.” Cubrim
stood up and activated a dataslate of his own. At the same time the
holographic display that the inquisitor had already set up sprang into
life to show a cluster of what were obviously biological
organisms. “Wot’s
dem?” Drazzok commented before looking at Sophie and adding, “And where’s
me breakfast?” “Go
get us somethin’ to eat.” Hazug added, “Both of ya.” And when Salia and
Sophie slipped out of the room he looked back at the display, “Well?” he
asked, “Wot is dey?” “Dey
looks like somethin’ wot lives in water.” Batrug commented, though he did
not look at the display for more than a few moments, “I built somethin’
for a dok once wot let ‘im see stuff like dat.” “Dat
aint water though is it?” Hazug asked, ”Dat’s a planet.” And he pointed to
the edge of the display where a dull grey sphere was just about visible
against the black background. Cubrim
smiled. “A
planet?” one of Two Heads said, “Ya know ‘ow daft dat
sounds?” “But
my master is correct.” Mayleth said, “Those are spacecraft. Living
spacecraft.” “Quite
so.” Rell answered. “Tyrannids?”
Hazug asked, “Wot’s dem?” “They
devour worlds my master.” Mayleth said, “And they created the
genestealers.” “Created
‘em?” Krorden said, “Hazug, wot’s dis pansy goin’ on
about?” “The
tyrannids use biotechnology exclusively.” Cubrim said and with a few
presses of his dataslate he adjusted the display to briefly show numerous
six limbed creatures varying from swarms where each member was about the
same size as the humans they were shown fighting to beasts bigger than
buildings before it shifted back to the original image of the living
starships, “And what your eldar servant had to say about them is
true.” “But
they can devour all of the biological material on a planet and us that to
create more of themselves.” Cubrim said. “So
wot’s dis got to do with genestealers?” Hazug asked. “The
genestealers are the ultimate infiltrator.” Cubrim explained, “The
purestrain form infects a host species. This has the effect of not only
enslaving those infected to the will of the tyrannids’ central hive mind
but also causing any offspring to be hybrids that will carry the infection
to the next generation.” Rell
looked at Jarr. “Your
report was right,” he said, “he is intelligent.” And then he leant
forward, “The hive fleets of the tyrannids are moving deeper into the
galaxy and devouring everything in their paths. Entire sectors of space
have been lost already and the tyrannids are growing in numbers. If they
cannot be stopped then eventually all life in this galaxy will be consumed
and they will move on to another.” “Ya
still aint said wot ya wants.” Hazug said. “We
know that you are preparing to leave this world.” Rell said, “Our
intelligence units have monitored the spacehulk in orbit around this world
for several months now. We know that within another year you will load as
many troops and weapons aboard that hulk as you can and launch it back
into the warp. We know that you will launch it towards the Imperium and
strike at worlds we are ill prepared to defend while we must divert
resources to halt the tyrannids approaching from the galactic rim.” Then
he paused and took a breath, “Hazug Throatslitter of the Blood Axe clan I
am here to ask you to use the influence you have with your warboss to
divert that launch into the path of the tyrannid hive
fleets.” “’E’s
a nutter.” Drazzok exclaimed. “If
you attack us then the tyrannids will over run us both.” Jarr said,
looking at Hazug as he stared at the holographic image and the swarm of
living starships it displayed, “But if you target the tyrannids then you
may slow them down long enough for us to be able to mount a
defence.” “Dat
aint our problem.” Two Heads said. “’Ow
many?” Hazug asked, his attention still focused on the display, “’Ow many
of dese nids is dare?” “Billions.”
Rell said, “Billions upon billions.” “’Ow
many’s dat?” one of Two Heads said and then he shrugged as the other
replied with, “’Ow should I know?” Batrug
then leant closer to Two Heads. He had been stood beside the large nob but
had been paying little attention to what was being said. Instead his
attention had at first been captured by the servitors doing the
translating. He had heard of the way in which humans would modify some of
their number using bionics just as orks did, but this was the first
occasion on which he had seen it first hand. But then he noticed the
weapon holstered at Torris’ waist. “Yeah.
Wot about it?” Two Heads asked in reply. “Ya
needs to get it.” Batrug said. “Cause
I seen dem zappas before and dey is shootier dan da regular git zappas.
Get me one of dem and I’ll fix dat fancy choppa ya got from dem metal
lads.” Batrug explained. The metal lads in question were robotic necrons
who had lain dormant under the surface of Crasus Minor for millions of
years until they were accidentally discovered by the orks and were the
makers of the polearm Hazug owned. The energy fields surrounding the
blades of both weapons had ceased to function when the necron tombs were
destroyed and while Batrug had been able to rig Hazug’s warscythe to run
off human lasgun power packs the smaller sword that Two Heads had
recovered required parts that Batrug had thus far been unable to obtain.
Now though, with the arrival of humans from off world a solution appeared
at hand. “Wot’s
in it for us den?” Hazug asked, “We fights da nids for ya but wot does we
get?” “Kazkal
does wot ‘e wants. Not wot anyone else wants.” Hazug
said. “I’m
sure he does.” Rell replied, “But you do have influence with him don’t
you? After all I believe that it was your idea to bring the human
constabulary under his control.” Hazug
frowned and looked at Jarr, wondering if the assassin was the source of
that information. “Yeah,
‘e listens to me sometimes.” Hazug said, “But ‘e still makes ‘is own mind
up.” “But
you’ll ask him?” Rell asked. “Hazug
just kill dis git!” Drazzok snapped,” We don’t take orders from ‘im or any
other git for dat matter.” “What?”
Rell asked, “Where are we going?” “Wait.”
Two Heads said suddenly. “If
ya wants me in on dis den I wants somethin’ in return.” Two Heads
replied. “Not
teeth.” One of Two Heads told him and the other looked at Torris and
pointed to his sidearm, “Give us dat zappa ‘e’s got. Den I’ll back ya
up.” Hazug
noticed a smile suddenly appear on Batrug‘s face and guessed that the
mekboy was behind this. What the pair of Evil Suns were up to was a
mystery but it seemed a trivial price to pay for the backing of another
nob. “’E
better give it to ‘im.” Hazug told Rell and the inquisitor looked at the
sergeant. “Give
him your sidearm sergeant.” He said. “Just
do it sergeant.” Rell interrupted and the stormtrooper drew his sidearm
and tossed it across the room. Catching it one handed, Two Heads then
passed it to Batrug. “Now
go fix me wagon.” One of him said, “And fix me choppa an’ all.” The other
added. As
Hazug strode towards the door he suddenly halted and turned to face Rell
once more. “Just
one thing.” He said in gothic, “Dare’s a human ‘ere called
Rhia.” “Ah
yes, the young lady under guard in the basement.” Rell said, “What about
her?” |
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