Field Trip

Field Trip.

Ragnug looked over the battlefield. It was a large field covered in the reds and purples of small flowers sat upon tall green stems. Roughly in the middle of the field there was a group of small huts. They were made from red sundried mud blocks piled on top of each other and secured together with more of the bright red mud. The roofs were made of some sort of metal bronze in colour but Ragnug's experience had taught him that it was much tougher than most metals yet was still extremely light. It was much sought after by the mekboys who wanted to make buggies out of it. Ragnug laughed as he reminded himself of the amount of meks who were killed for a few scrapes.

Ragnug went back to polishing his slugga and then decided to test it on a passing grot. The slugga gave a satisfying kick as the bolt flew out of the barrel with a pleasantly large explosion. He smiled not only had the slugga fired not that he doubted it but he had hit the small green slave. Now all that was left of it was a green smear on the dry red dust.

A large roar rose from behind him. He turned round and saw his entire mob circling what could only be a fight. He smiled. A grin full of yellow teeth small and large glared out of a large black hole like stalagmites and stalactites at the mouth of a cave. He could guess who one of the combatants was, it had to be Gungtal a vicious individual even for an ork. During this campaign he had doubled in size as his muscles grew. He was preparing to kill Ragnug. Ragnug knew this. He had seen it before and done it before. That was how he became a Nob. He hoped that Gungtal would be killed in battle and not survive to challenge him. He was still young and strong but Gungtal was getting stronger every battle. Ragnug might have to kill him before he made a challenge.

Ragnug pushed his way through the crowd to get a better view. He was right about Gungtal. He was pounding a much smaller ork, obviously a newbe not much larger than a grot. This wasn't a fight, it was a beating but he liked it all the same. He started to cheer with the rest of the boyz, baying for blood.

Gungtal took the full force of his opponent's headbutt in his chest with a crack. It wasn't one of his ribs it was his opponent's head. He had headbutted Gungtal's steel plate that was attached to him when he had taking a laser shot there that burnt nearly all his muscles. He still managed to take out several 'ummies before the painboyz got to him. They would have implanted several weapons if an artillery shell hadn't blown the tent up. He didn't care it had saved him a lot of teeth.

Ragnug's attention snapped back to the fight as his opponent made another charge. It was a clumsy attack that was easily side stepped and a quick sharp elbow to the back of the head nearly decapitated the new guy but the momentum from his charge meant it only knocked him out. Gungtal was quite disappointed about that.

"Shame u didn't kill 'im"

It was the voice Ragnug booming over the shouts of the others, which were but whispers, compared to his growl.

"One day one day I will kill u and den I will lead dis lot to victory" Gungtal whispered quietly to himself as he skulked away through the crowd.

The order for the orks to attack had been given over quarter of an hour ago, that is to say the boss and his retinue had raced off in their bright red trukk towards the enemy. Not that Ragnug needed any other order. His boyz were getting restless, as was he. He wanted to sink his choppa into a 'Ummies 'ead. He stepped on another rodent as that thought raced through his mind and a laser pulse whizzed past him and into Tantal's arm. It was only a slight burn but this meant the 'ummies were close. He scanned the area ahead of him and saw nothing.

"Must ave been a stray shot" Tantal shouted as he picked up the power axe he had stolen and still not figured out how to use. It lacked a big red button to hit.

Ragnug nodded his head in recognition, disappointed.

The mob charged on for another fifteen minutes. Blasting the odd escaped squig. Suddenly the grass ahead of them started to sway as if something extremely large was running towards them. As one the entire mob raised their choppas. Ragnug was the only one who raised his slugga. He wanted to get up close and personal but he also wanted to live.

A huge metallic foot broke cover first followed very quickly by a robotic leg as thick as a fat grot. It was covered in thick cables and wiring, there was a horrific sound from the pulleys and gears that were obviously under strain from a capacious weight. The main body where the most weight was was somewhat podgy but entirely covered in metal, which in turn was covered in more cables and wires. The left arm that was as large as the legs carried a large slugga combined with a rokkit launcha. The right arm ended in a massive claw capable of ripping in to a tank easily. Both arms were also entwined in cables and wires, some of which were the thickness of his slugga's barrel.

It was an intimidating creature. But it was on their side.

It was Hog'ah an immense dreadnought of an ork, even with out his mega armour which the meks "donated" him. With his armour he was only a few inches smaller than a dreadnought and bigger than a few Killer Kans. With the increase in fat came the inevitable loss of braincells (disastrous for an ork). As a result he was as slow mentally as physically. Few had seen him out of his armour and there were rumours he couldn't move at all with out it. The thought disgusted him and he desperately held back a cringe every ork feels when they see such a lazy slob in charge of a mob.

Brushing aside personal feelings that could wait till later he thought about why Hog'ah was running. True he was lazy, stupid and slow but he would fight till either his mob or the enemy was dead. As all orks would. Something must have really beaten him bad, and quickly.

" Wat u grots run from? " was the cry from behind Ragnug. He didn't care who it was he was about to ask anyway.

" We wer in a cave 'nd wer 'mbushd. "

" Dam 'ummies! "

" No not 'ummies dey wer faster dan 'ummies. "

Ragnug was a little taking back. He had been ready for humans but theses creatures were new, dangerous, a challenge. He smiled; this might be his chance to dump Gungal.

" Shall we show dem some ork steel? " Ragnug sneered. Hog'ah's face or, what he could see was a picture of shock but there was no horror.

The two mobs moved off, Hog'ah leading the green mass towards the cave where he was attacked. Ragnug would have liked to approach in something resembling stealth however this was not to be, they were noisy, even for orks. If there were anyone in the cave they would be long gone by the time they arrived. That or they would be in hiding ready for the ambush. Either way it was in the general direction of the battle so was of little consequence.

* * * * *

The cave was surpassingly light. A cold blue glow lit the cave. Ragnug could not determine the source of the illumination but it was like no 'ummie light source he had seen. Of cause that was of little surprise and was given little thought. As the two mobs entered the cave there was no sign of anything un-orky. Not even any strange footprints, not that anyone had checked.

" So dis is wer u grots were ambushed "

" Der wer panzies here. Dey wer fast we couldn't 'it dem. "

Was Hog'ah's puzzling response.

" wat waz dat !? " one of Ragnug's boyz was stood there pointing to a large shadow cast by an even larger rock.

" U grot, u scared of u're own shadow." was the response from one of Hog'ah's boyz. Ragnug and Hog'ah acted fast to stop a riot they both realised that this was not the time.

After the boyz calmed down Ragnug turned to Hog'ah and gave him a look that explained that they would not stay if there was nothing to fight. Hog'ah gave Ragnug an understanding nod he wanted a fight too.

A couple of the quieter boyz were sent deeper into the cave, towards the glow. After a while it was clear that they weren't coming back. Even though there had been no sounds of combat. So in a stroke of tactical genius the noisiest boyz including Gungtal. This should get him out of his hair squig. This time the group's progress could be tracked by the sound of their bickering.

Then suddenly, silence.

Something had shut the boyz up quickly and effectively. Ragnug gave a fiendish grin at last Gungtal was dead. With that thought he charged the hoard that was the rest of the boyz into the cave. Ragnug was hoping to catch the ambushes of guard as they finished off the scouts. See it did have some cunning behind it.

When they reached the area of ambush there were no attackers. Just dead boyz with one exception.

Gungtal.

The git had survived even with several razor sharp discs in his steel chest. Ragnug recognised the projectiles from a previous campaign. It was a sure thing now it was defiantly those pansy eldar. He liked this, there was something very satisfying about breaking their necks that he could not really explain.

He didn't wait for Gungtal to be patched up or examing the stranger marks and injures on the dead boyz. Such as the fact that some of the boyz' insides had been turned to soup. The order was given to advance further into the cave, towards the blue glow and one hell of a fight.

They reached the end of the tunnel and discovered the source of the glow. A pool of a lighting blue liquid as big as a dreadnought, if not bigger. It had a very regular shape, a semi-circle on top of a rectangle. What was most surprising was that it was vertical, surrounded and contained within a strange bone like material that resisted all attempts of destruction. None of the boyz knew what it was, it really did puzzle them. It would have however none of them could be bothered to even consider trying to work it out.

They didn't have time to worry about it anyway within seconds of reaching the portal several blurs of colour erupted from behind the red rocks that surrounded the edge of the damp cavern. Discs of razor sharp metal flew from some of the blurs flying through flesh, armour and bone with equally ease. From one came a torrent of greenish light, which caused the boyz to collapse holding their heads, in obvious pain. Ragnug was caught full on by this alien weapon.

As the green glow surrounded him he felt his mind being ripped apart by some unseen force. It was only because he desperately want to kill something and that he did not want Gungtal to supersede him as nob that he survived.

By the time the orks had realised they were in a fight about half of them had been cut down. They still outnumbered the enemy 3 to 1 however.

Hog'ah swung his shoota arm out into the path of a blur and felt it make contact with something. The eldar was flung against a nearby wall. As it stopped moving its outline became less blurred to the point were you could clearly see the harlequin's details. His bright checked body tight suit, his flip belt and his constantly changing mask which showed all manner of daemons could all be seen clearly if only for a second. As soon as he was down he leapt back up so fast that the boyz could not grab hold of him to stop him from moving and fighting.

Next to Tantal a boy convulsed and dropped to the ground, he just saw a thin wire leave the body of the boy. He could see by the way the body fell that the internal organs had been liquefied along with the bones. With that thought he threw himself into the path of one of the blurs, colliding with it and dragged it to the floor. He sat on his victim and brought his power axe down towards the eldar's head. The eldar had other ideas however and had the nerve to catch the axes hilt stopping the blade inches from his face. Enraged Tantal started to push even harder down, in response the eldar pushed up with more force squeezing the hilt to maintain a grip. As he squeezed the eldar pushed in one of the gems, as soon as it clicked into place the green gem glowed brighter than normal. As if in a sign of communication the blade began to glow lighting blue. As his favourite axe gained power Tantal grinned. Resigning himself to his fate the laughing god's servant set the small explosive that would render the advanced technology useless to the brutish orks.

Seeing that the fight was not going that well Ragnug pulled three stickbombs from his belt. Taking a second to insure he threw the bomb, not the pin, he pulled the pins and threw them towards the roof. He then realised what he had done and threw the stickbombs up as well. He then proceeded rapidly to the exit. Several of the quicker orks including Tantal and Gungtal saw what he was doing and followed him out. Hog'ah noticed the mass exit and began to move to the exit but did so too late. The stickbombs detonated and brought the roof down.

After the dust settled it was clear that the webway portal (not that they knew what it was) had been destroyed. As a result it was quite dark. To solve the problem Tantal used his rediscovered toy to relieve a dead boy of his arm and proceeded to light it. The ork flesh burnt surprisingly well.

As soon as they walked in it was clear that everything caught in the cave in was dead or dyeing. At least they got the panzies. Ragnug was quite happy to crush one of their heads under his foot as he turned to exit. He was stopped however when a pile of rubble began to move. The orks all grinned as one. This one would feel ork steel and wish it had been crushed.

As the unfortunate soul rose out of the rubble the boyz grins dissipated as one as they recognised the form of Hog'ah. Apart from a few dents in his armour he seemed fine. Ragnug shook his head in disbelief

"Com' on boyz der iz a scrap out der 'nd 'ummies to kill. Waaagh!!"

With that the boyz ran out the cave and into the field towards the sound of battle.