World`s Edge Mountains, DawiZharr Railhead
Lord Gholam wondered how they had ever done without the new lights that were made with the aid of the humans in Lord Astragoth`s employ. They needed no air, gave a strong even light and could be switched on or off at a moment`s notice. They needed no magic, would not spill flammable oil when you dropped them and gave off neither soot nor smoke and smell. They made subterranean life a great lot easier, even when they needed big and heavy batteries or cables to the nearest generator. Even if they would do nothing else but making reading much easier than the flickering flames of candlelight they would be worth it, his headaches became much less since the DawiZharr used them.
Currently the lights illuminated the huge cavern that was the last between the railhead and the Red River Valley. It had been shaped by a combination of natural forces and the various races that had called it their home in the millennia past. Smooth walls shaped by water, the angular, blocky and precise work of the DawiZharr and the irregular works of Greenskins could be seen from where he crouched.
Pillars held a roof in many meters height, an uneven floor was strewn with the detritus of the fighting of the last days and the evacuation that followed. Outside of the tunnel that led to the Red River Valley all was ruin. The Golem that could dictate the battles against the Greenskins so handily and that could fight the human chariots had been roughly handled by the feral human reinforcements. The latter had brought different and far bigger war machines which could take them down in a single shot from more than a mile. The human fliers were able to kill the flying disks to the point where the demons powering them refused to fly no matter what his mages did to them.
Lord Hrothgar had provided two final services for him. His warning that the feral Goblins would attack through unknown tunnels and try to use the slaves already harvested as meat shields had allowed him to set a trap. It had netted some dead Greenskins, allowed him to retrieve a few of the rifles the little green shits had stolen from his dead and made it possible to talk about a victory.
The much bigger service provided by the hopefully late Lord Hrothgar was scapegoat. His narrative of another clear conquest just a week ago, even if a hard-fought one, was now changing to determined and heroic defense. He needed somebody to take the blame for that and who was better suited than Hrothgar who had attacked the humans without his orders and could hardly protest. The Lord had let them escape so that word would spread to the other humans, had been so remiss in his duties that the Goblins could ambush him and too weak to defend what had been graciously assigned to him.
So if he had to take the train back to ZharrNaggrund he could spin a tale that might save him from an early appointment with Hashut`s fires.
But things were not at that stage yet, he had a cunning plan that should convince these feral humans that the costs of attacking the DawiZharr were too high. He could not keep the valley, that was obvious, but he could fight in the tunnels and caverns. The few survivors of Lord Hrothgar`s forces that had reached him reported that they had fought the humans to a standstill and ambushed them successfully when the Greenskins put the knife in their back. We would do far better than that, he would annihilate any force the ferals might send into his realm. As soon as the humans learned that he could strike at any moment from the tunnels into the valley and retreat before they could react they would concede the ground, wouldn`t they?
But before that happy turn of events came about he had to teach a lesson and the next part of his plan was about to commence. Just when he thought it overdue a series of cracks and rumbles assaulted his ears and dust shot from the huge tunnel that led to the Valley`s floor. Now the only entrances into the railhead were sized for DawiZharr on foot, vehicles were no longer able to access it. Let`s see how the ferals would fight without their war machines, he had a surprise for them or three. Huge surprises.
From the letters, mails and phone-calls for the TV-show "Can we go back home to Earth someday - what is your opinion about Warhammer?"
Hello and Good Day!
I do not remember much of Earth, I was very young when we got here. But when I listen to my parents telling me and my brother about Earth, I want to go home again. Even if I know few things about "the blue planet". I hear about how we had two cars, could travel to Spain - whatever that place is, seems to be like Estalia from the descriptions - or could fly around the world without bankrupting ourselves. You could travel to neighboring nations without having to fear bandits much and demons and Chaos forces at all. I learned about Mangos, a fruit I never ate and want to try it someday. I hope to return to Earth, that we find a way back - but I´ll want to keep on flying on Dragons like Falrauch, that is absolutely great fun! Would he come back to Earth with? Could he at all?
Kevin, 12 years old
A house in Saarbrücken, Germany
Dr. Horst-Henning Jank, a political economics teacher by trade at the University of the Saarland prepared a lecture for his students, which partly was stuff for his new research as well.
The picture on his monitor was pure nostalgia today. The graphic showed the streams of trade on Earth in the year 2011, last one before Germany was ripped away to the Warhammer world. There were thick, broad arrows, indicating massive amounts of trade, going back and forth between East-Asia, Europe and North America. There were medium-sized arrows going to and from the Middle East, Oceania, South America and Africa as well. Henning grinned, shook his head and went on. Even on Earth this picture was history.
The first transmissions from Earth had proven his theory. With Germany gone, the massive destruction across Earth´s northern hemisphere and the equally damaged infrastructure, Germany alone was a major crossroad of trade traffic, Earth´s economy had taken a nosedive like Germany´s had done in the early phase of being on Warhammer for very different reasons.
If the messages from Earth were to be believed, it was worse than it could be predicted from Warhammer. With Germany gone, Europe´s economy had been hit within days you simply could not plug the gap the departure of Earth´s fourth-largest economy and one of its major production centers, left overnight. It was worsened due to the cutting off of most important transit routes, not only did trade plummet down, delivery of food and beverages was seriously strained.
Europe was one pillar of the world trade and with them down, the shock-waves arrived elsewhere soon.
And these shortwaves did not hit stable economies. The majority of the significant economies on Earth are on the northern hemisphere as well and so they had incurred sizable damage to landscape and infrastructure when the magical energies that had ripped Germany from Earth needed an outlet. The end result was a depression caused by the massively strained infrastructure and logistics worldwide. Earth had begun to climb out of that hole by the time the first transmissions reached Warhammer.
The next picture Dr. Jank pulled onto the screen was nostalgia as well. It showed a world map, Germany in the middle with bars going out to the other nations on Earth, indicating the trade with them. There was practically a ring of sizeable bars surrounding Germany, showing the trade with the neighboring countries, with another second substantial ring showing the trade with the other European nations. Especially thick were the bars into France and the Netherlands.
There were other thick bars to nations farther away, like the US, China or Japan. Even if some of the bars were more fine lines than anything else, the picture showed that Germany had been trading with practically everyone on Earth. That was history and would stay history, except somebody found a way home for Germany, which seemed improbable.
The next picture to be included into the lecture materials was one Henning made himself. It was a map of Warhammer, the Old World in the center of the projection. It had taken time to go through the data accumulated in the last years, but now he could present the first graphic about Germany´s trade on her new home planet. And the contrast to the graphic of Earth was unsurprisingly staggering.
There was just a single really thick bar on the map, connecting Germany and the Empire. Several somewhat smaller bars connected Germany with Tilea, Norsca, Nippon and interestingly the eastern Steppes and three Border kingdoms. A handful medium-sized bars reached to Estalia, Kislev, Wang Chan, Lustria, Jeguk and two other Border Kingdoms.
Not really weak, but considerably thinner strands, indicating a growing start trade, touched Albion, six Border Kingdoms, Bretonnia, Cathay, Ind, Ulthuan and surprisingly Naggaroth. Beggars could not be choosers, trade was part of the lifeblood of Germany and with the Warhammer economies so far behind an industrialized nation, you had to trade with anyone willing to keep your own going.
Beyond that was a veritable spider´s net of weak strands going out to the known nations of Warhammer, which were at least neutral. The Germans had done a lot to improve trade on the Warhammer World, not just by offering goods that everybody wanted to have, but also by improving transportation in ways unthinkable a decade ago. Ships that would circle the world in mere months and that would not be deterred by storms or pirates, trains that would span the Empire in days and airships that would reach all parts of the globe in days reduced transport costs and times to a fraction of what they were before. German marketing made people yearns for goods they had never heard of before, be it medicines that actually worked or spices they had never tasted before. Still, despite the arrival of a modern trade nation like Germany pushing the Trade on Warhammer up by several magnitudes, it was still lagging behind an even weakened Earth. Helping to hold Germany´s economy together was the fact that a lot of industries had to be build or retooled to keep up a modern state without much outside help.
World`s Edge Mountains, close to DawiZharr Railhead
Joakim Vos adjusted the hook attached to his assault rifle`s butt so that it rested on his right lower arm like a gigantic pistol. The actuators of his power armour allowed him to hold it steady, even when he extended the arm to the right and around the next corner. A lot of shots could be heard immediately, one bullet made his rifle twitch, the other was deflected by his vambrace. He struggled to acquire his targets for a second as the video camera on top of his Mauser only had a limited field of view. He still made them out by the muzzle flashes and triggered the grenade launcher. The 40 mm grenade barely managed to arm itself before it hit the wall behind the stumpies and exploded in a fireball spewing fragments galore.
This was the signal for two other members of his squad to jump around the corner and spray bursts into anything that might have moved the last five minutes. They took cover at the next corner to repeat the process. Normally they would probe ahead with a spider drone, but the Chaos Dwarfs had shot all three that his squad had. He could have requested more of them, but that would have allowed Valten to reach the them and put his royal arse in danger. Currently he was actually doing his job trying to coordinate the three assaults that used different tunnels to push forward.
The Paladins had gotten the shit job as the Cave Raiders had suffered nasty losses during the campaign already. The Paladins were far better at assaulting heavily defended tunnels as their armour was able to withstand the rifles used by the enemy, at least when properly equipped. So far things went as well as could be expected with the Paladins able to win any straight firefight and push faster than the stumpies could perform a fighting retreat. There had been a couple of nasty traps using explosives which had mostly been found by their sniffers, the drones and their night vision equipment. "Mostly" also meant that Valten would have to write a couple of letters when this was over and several Paladins would spend more than a few days with the Sisters of Shallya.
Which made Joakim push more as he knew that losses would make Valten come forward in an attempt to protect his men, which was laudable if he were not charged with making sure that he survived. Given that Valten`s favourite mode of attack was punching his hammer into things till they broke it was a bit difficult to preserve his royal hide.
The camera on his rifle revealed the next chamber to be an elongated oval with several side tunnels or niches. He also saw several piles of rocks that were quite probably cover. Going in there would be costly for the Cave Raiders and even for his Paladins and invitation for more letters to be sent. Fortunately he had other options.
"Hans, one T-bar into the next cavern, make detonation after 50 meters."
"Yes Sir."
Hans Pfluger stepped forward and placed a baseball-sized weapon in the bayonet holder of his rifle. Everybody stepped back when he pushed his arm around the corner and hunkered down when he let fly. Joakim ripped the Paladin back and both man did their level best to gain another meter while the ball-shaped weapon flew a remarkably straight line down the cave. After 50 meters a small fuse inside the ball ignited and spewed its payload of very finely ground aluminium powder into the air. A second ignition followed just a millisecond later and the metal particles which had been so well mixed with air burned down in no time at all in something between a proper explosion and a conflagration. A shockwave of titanic forces raced down the cave, hammered against anything it met, rebounded from all surfaces to return to more destructive works. Several DawiZharr were slammed against the walls with such force that only few bones remained intact, limbs were ripped from others.
None of which mattered as none of the Chaos Dwarfs had a lung to breathe with a second after the weapon had been used.
Joakim led his Paladins forward into the huge cave that came after that. He was extra weary of an ambush as this was the most likely spot. There was resistance, but nothing which could not be overcome. The machine gun nests that had been placed well succumbed to more RAWs or grenades. There were three bunkers which were more resistant, he cleared one out personally by inserting his rifle into a firing slit and spraying the inside with a full magazine. It would have been absolutely murder for unarmoured infantry and a hard day`s work for the Cave Raiders, the Paladins took it in stride. By that time several other squads had reached the huge cave, securing it for the next push forward. Joakim walked towards the tunnel exit from which Valten stepped forward when the explosions nearly topped him.
He needed a second to step from the dust cloud that had emerged from the tunnel before him, it had probably been blown like several others. Once he could again see the first scene in his view was straight from hell as three Paladins were blown to pieces by some unseen assailant. He tracked back to where the shots had come from and found a huge figure stepping from a niece that had not been there a minute before.
Huge legs and arms moved in the flickering light that lit the cave and something like an armoured head turned in search for more victims. At 12 meters high the "Crusader" golem was hugely impressive in the cave and it was one Mech of three that wanted to take the Paladins down.
Red River Valley, close to Railhead
The ground shook under Joakim Vos feet, something that told the veteran of the Skavenblight campaign things he did not want to know before the news were related to the earphones and the monitors of his helmet.
The deeper grumble that preceded the smoke that shot from the tunnel hinted at a retreat cut off by explosives. The tremors that ran through his feet`s soles indicated that there was more than the one Golem that was already in his view.
Rising above the dust and smoke that occluded the cavern`s floor the Mech-shaped Golems rose like vengeful gods of war that wanted to trample the unbelievers before them to dust.
To Joakim`s right a Paladin disappeared in a series of explosions that left a mangled heap of high-tech armor and body parts. A few years ago the old Joakim might have frozen on the spot from the twin impacts of surprise and carnage. That Joakim had died during the Battle of Skavenblight and the Assault on the Fortress of Lead. The new Vos sprinted into the cover of a pillar and listened to his wireless for orders.
"All Paladins, get into cover and use HESH. Weapons, go for the tunnel on your left and go for the right Mech"
At least Valten was not trying to attack a 12-meter monstrosity made from steel with that hammer. Joakim made the pillar in time, even when several explosions came uncomfortably close and something punched his shoulder hard enough to hurt. Seeing that most of his group managed to get there he tried to get an idea about the rest of the Paladins. There were two more corpses on the floor but the rest had found some sort of cover.
He pulled one of the basketball-sized warheads from his belt and attached it to the bayonet holder on his rifle. Taking a deep breath he ducked around the pillar that sheltered him, aimed very briefly and pulled the trigger. The warhead spun like a top and sped towards the Mech. Joakim had already begun to get back into cover when it hit the broad chest. The warhead`s thin metal cover dropped away to expose nearly two kilogram of plastic explosive that attached itself to the metal surface like a pancake.
The fuse ignited as soon as it reached the hard plate and a satisfyingly bright and loud explosion followed. It left the surface of the armor plate intact, even when a blackened spot indicated where it was. The inside was a different story though. The shockwaves traveled trough the metal till they reached the inner surface and found no place to go, so they ripped off razor-sharp slivers of steel that flew through the Mech at the speed of sound. Had there been a crew or an intricate mechanism driving the Golem it would have downed it then and there. As there was only empty space inside it just hurt the demon powering the War Machine. The Mech`s head tiled back and a roar that combined the grinding of rock with escaping steel could be heard.
Joakim attached his second warhead and tried to get a picture of the situation. More RAWs flew towards their targets, leaving glowing spots, explosions and screams in their wake. A fiery trail came from one tunnel entrance and a shaped charge vented its fury against the back of a Mech, leaving a hole that bled orange-glowing steel for a while. When the Golems were not reeling under the impacts they tried to disperse so that the Paladins could no longer find cover behind the Pillars. Joakim managed to slide around his pillar just in time when two streams of autocannon fire slammed into the rock where he had just been before. The explosions pummeled him nevertheless and another Paladin was hit before his eyes
This could not go on for much longer or there would be no Paladins left. He started looking for another piece of cover when they went back to the dead body before him. It held something that had attracted his interest, even when his conscious mind had not yet realized what. When he found it he knew what to do.
Even when the account he had read had been a fictional one it had warned about the dangers of what he wanted to do. Nevertheless it had to be done and done now if he did not want to lose more Paladins. He sprinted forward, hardly stopping to pick up the grey-green bag from the fallen soldier`s back and rapidly changed course from there. Even well healed and packed into the best braces man and Dawi could build his leg protested when he started a zig-zag course at a pace that an unarmored human could be hard-paced to match in a straight line. Now that he had left the pillar`s shadow he got a view of the cavern he could do without. Smoke rose from several fires and the weapons used so liberally muzzle flashes and explosions lit the scene in a hellish flickering light and above the din rose the three Mechs that moved around and which fired machine guns and autocannons in long salvos.
His target was the Mech closest to him, something right out of the same account that served as the inspiration for his current foolishness. The Mech before him resembled a "Crusader" he had read about so many years before in another universe. Whenever it took a step forward a huge gap opened at the knees, exposing the twin faces of the bearing within. He tried his level best to time his sprints so that he would arrive when the Mech had one leg bent. The latter was pretty hard to do given that the caverns floors seemed to explode with small craters when at least two machine gun searched for him. And then he simply stopped in a knee-wrenching move, pivoted in place and triggered the actuators in his leg in the jump mode. Gripping a steel edge with his left hand he thrust the satchel charge into the opening with his right and pulled the cord attached to it while he dropped to the ground.
He had barely moved a meter when the charge detonated, showering the ground before him with splinters shortly before the attached foot met the ground.
He did not have any time to check on his attack, he was far too busy making for the next bit of blessed cover. The whine of near misses and the push in the back he received from a far-too-close explosion underlined the wisdom of that. He had barely dropped on his stomach behind a pile of rubble when something like a very nasty accident in a forge assaulted his ears. He could not and would not suppress a wordless. The Crusader`s lower leg had been ripped off cleanly and the Mech had dropped on its "face" and was currently simulating a baby`s tantrum in its efforts to get back up.
"Thanks William" was in the mind of Joakim Vos who had read Battletech novels at an impressionable age.
The screams that issued from it were deafening and they slowed Joakim`s mind for at least a second. He was still trying to make up his mind about what he saw and the mixture of fear and anger had just formed when Valten had reached the downed War Machine. What was he about to do-dent the armor with his hammer?
And that was exactly what the Paladin`s commander did-strike the Mech with the orange-glowing head of his hammer at all the strength his muscles, the actuators of his suit and the help of a god provided. There was a "bang" far out of proportion with the hammers impact and the "Crusader`s" scream changed tone after a half-second. The hammer, even wielded by Valten, could hardly dent the tough steel that made up the Mech. But the part of the hammer that resided in the Empyrean could hit the demon that powered the Golem much worse than any other weapon currently in the employ of the Paladin`s.
There was a second strike and a third one, with a higher tone in the scream every time. Valten was about to strike again when Joakim pulled him back bodily back into cover. Valten wanted to shout a protest when two salvos of autocannon fire slammed in the same spot he had just vacated. At the same time the steel of the Mech started to burn which meant something had to be done soon.
"Paladins, go for the legs, we need to topple these things right now."
The "Crusader`s" fire lit the cave with arc-lamp brightness and masked the many fiery trails that moved about. Several RAW warheads went for the right leg of another "Crusader" and another anti-tank missile vented the fury of its shaped charge into the same limb. That had the desired result with the Mech going down, this time backwards. Valten was about to jump up and go for it when Joakim saw something that made him pull his Commander back another time.
"Joakim what…"
"Wait a second Valten, this is going…."
Joakim had seen the hatched on the "Crusader`s" shoulders and legs open and before he could say anything more a virtual volcano erupted on the caves floor. More than 40 missiles rose from their tubes and collided with the ceiling. They had lacked the time to arm and so the missiles ricochet into many directions, leaving fiery trails and exploded wherever they hit next. Most of them in fact detonated against the very Mech that had shot them or so close to it as it made no difference. Several buried themselves into the pillar next to the Golem and heaps of rubble were ejected when they went off. The Mech moved around, probably to get on its front side when the pillar failed with a rumble that was felt as much as heard and it was followed by many tons of rock from a ceiling no longer supported. A lot of that rock dropped on the Mech and some of them seemed to reach something vulnerable as several more explosions heaved a part of the rubble away from the "Crusader" just to reveal a mangled heap of junk where the rocket launchers used to be. The Golem ceased to move after that.
All of the sudden the third Mech revealed that he was able to walk backwards, away from the carnage. While he might be unable to retreat from the cavern he could make the puny humans who turned out to be dangerous after all come to him. The Heavy Weapons Team that left the tunnel entrance to regain a clear shot for their missile launcher paid the price for that when a heavy autocannon from the "Warhammer`s" arms caught them. Two of their number were still alive but the others had disappeared in a bloody heap that dropped mangled limbs far from the offal that used to be Paladins. Several RAW warheads flew it way yet at the greater distance the legs were hard to aim for. The only visible result gained was that the missile launcher on its shoulder erupted in flames and one of the red eyes on the Mech`s head flickered and died.
For now that stopped any attempt to bring something heavier to bear and an uneasy standoff ensued-one that was not sustainable. The steel of the Crusader downed by Joakim and Valten started to burn for real and once steel burns it burns very, very hot. It was just a question of time till the munitions still in the Mech would explode or the air inside the cavern would become unbearable for even powerarmored humans.
Both Joakim and Valten were trying to formulate a plan when a scream announced that the situation was about to change. The figure was hard to spot in the flickering harsh light and spotting individuals inside Power Armor nearly impossible, yet the sound effects inside the helmets made it quite clear who was the shadow that jumped from cleft to ledge, always up on the cavern`s wall near the Warhammer. There was just one female Paladin in armor and the scream was unmistakably Ulrika, their resident Vampire-Mage.
Muscles that moved only because they were powered by magic aided German technology working hand-in-glove with more magic to make the 300 kilograms of Ulrika Mandragova leap a chasm of too many meters. Ulrika managed to land on the Warhammer`s shoulder and grabbed the mangled remains of the rocket launcher to steady herself. An arm came up and she had to move quickly to avoid being squashed by the cannon barrel, yet she was back quickly when it retreated. Joakim wondered what she was about to do as he could not see any explosives on her when he saw her arm punch forward with inhuman speed. The claws that had been fixed to her vambrace punched deeply into the metal on the Mech`s head and Ulrika used that to pull herself away from the next strike that was to remove her. Instead the rocket launcher was ripped from its foundation and junk clung to the cannon barrel that skewered it.
By that time the second set of claws had been set and Ulrika`s legs were placed against the Mech to gain as much power as possible. For a moment it seemed that nothing would happen before the second " eye" parted from the head among a shower of sparks. The Vampire dropped free from the "Warhammer" and rolled away from the chaos that happened above her. The Golem screamed at least as loud as the Crusader before, stumbled blindly about and fired all of its weapons in random directions. A half turn brought it towards the wall that had so far protected the broad back. While the wall got itself punished by cannon and machine gun fire for its nonexistent crimes another heavy weapons team rose from cover. A rocket made its way across the chamber and then a second one. One indeed hit a leg while the other missed and detonated on the Mech`s side. While the leg did not buckle flames and smoke shot from various opening on the Mech, indicating where unspent munitions joined the party.
The Paladins were easily able to force their way through the tunnel deeper into the caverns now that they had to cope with rifle-armed DawiZharr only. More than a dozen of their number remained as mute witness to the Dwaven ambush.
Red River Valley, Railhead
Lord Gholam hated waiting, hated doing nothing and trusting his fate to the actions of the enemy, hated the situation he was in and what he was about to do. Currently he only saw a few members of his command staff and two of the warriors he had attached to it. Even a DawiZharr`s eyes had to work hard to make out anything in the near-complete darkness that surrounded them. He did not need to see his fellow DawiZharr to know that they felt like him, that they waited to the ambush to spring, were afraid of what it might bring and willing get it over with. They all hated him guts of course, which was nothing new, but had an added edge because of the situation. Currently he made very sure that he had nothing but solid rock at his back and kept his revolver in hand always, even when no enemy could be seen.
While the enemy was nowhere to be seen he was certainly heard. The sharp cracks of rifle fire was interspersed with the explosion of grenades, the evil hiss of the tear gas dispensers and the low deep rumble of something else that he had not heard before but which could hardly be anything good.
The sounds got closer that was for sure, yet there was still nothing to be seen. The latter was hardly surprising as he was huddling inside a former slave`s pen that branched off the main corridor leading to the train station. He had directed his warriors to clear the chains that used to hold Greenskins to the side so that they would not stumble or give away their approach too soon. Even his nose was assaulted by the accumulated smells in the room, digestion, bleeding, desperation and fear had left traces in the air that would linger far longer than he would stay here. All of it just fueled his hate against these feral humans who refused to see their place in the scheme of things and submit to the DawiZharr as was right and proper. The DawiZharr had always known that their discipline, their willingness to fight and their technological prowess allowed them to subdue any enemy they choose. It was just that they had no need of more lands and many more slaves until recently and when they needed it they were easily able to subdue the Greenskins.
Even the humans had been beaten after a hard fight. After the first battle he expected them to skewer themselves on his carefully arranged defenses and being annihilated in his carefully crafted ambushes if they had the will to come back after their bloody defeat at all. They had the insolence to bring new weapons to the battlefield and had blown through his ambushes with a combination of treachery and brute force.
They had brought down his Golems with frightening speed and had restored the tunnels he had blown in a time that his warriors would be unable to match. Ever since then they had brought a nasty combination of soldiers so well armored that even the mighty rifles wielded by his warriors would rarely harm them, weapons which penetrated even heavy dwarven plate and their use of tunnels even he had not known about. Instead of making the ferals bleed so much that they would retreat they were taking the link to ZharrNaggrund at a pace frightening even to him. They had to be stopped or at least slowed so that the last trains could leave and the tunnels demolished properly. Only then would ZharrNaggrund be safe.
And to do so he needed to lead his troops personally-and for other reasons too of course.
The pace of the explosions had picked up and they were definitively getting close-a lot closer. By now the sounds were not just coming through the corridor, they came through the walls of the slave pens in a manner that let Lord Gholam know that the explosions were in the pens, not the thoroughfare. He knew that no Warrior of his was in these pens, which was troubling. Who had so many explosives that he could afford to throw them where an enemy might be instead of where he was? No matter, he could handle that.
"Persnid, get everybody behind that bench"
The solid stone bench was far away from the entrance and would stop any fragments that would come his way. It would slow down his warriors on their way to glory and battle, but his warriors would hardly reach the battle if they were dead. And then there was the explosion in the pen next to this one, with the shockwave strong enough to detach dust from the ceiling of this one. Gholam was still trying his best not to sneeze when the little light from the entrance was diminished for a second and he tucked in his head even deeper than before. It had not even moved a centimeter when a small explosion mixed aluminum powder with air and a second explosion made it combust with the air around it. The shockwave from the explosion traveled through the slave pen and rebounded from walls and ceiling. A wall of flame walked over any surface, leaving flames and ashes where life had been before. Nearly any DawiZharr in the room died within the next 30 seconds when limbs were torn off bodies, heads were bashed into unyielding surfaces and lungs collapsed.
Nearly all DawiZharr but not Lord Gholam. He had enough protective wards on him to shield a platoon of worthies and whatever effects these had, he was still alive after the conflagration. Yet it was a confused, deaf and hurt life and one without friends or allies. It was a life without the hair and beard that had shielded his features for so many years. The room before him with chocked with debris where order had been before and dust chocked airways and eyes.
He did not care. Instead his short legs started to pump and propelled the stocky DawiZharr through the room and the entrance into the tunnel beyond. He should have emerged in a group of warriors wielding guns and grenades, not alone with a revolver. He should have directed the fight, not tried in vain to find a target and kill at least one hated Feral. He saw the shadow of something through the mist his eyes threw over everything, pointed the revolver there and started to pull the trigger. The gun rocked in his hand, his ears unable to transmit any sound to his rattled brain. He never knew if he had hit and killed or not and did not care. In the same second something hot and cold at the same time slammed into his chest and breathing became impossible.
He did not care either as the Ferals had done what needed doing. Going home to ZharrNaggrund in defeat would have been suicidal anyway. But not granting his people the time to block the railway would mean things he could not imagine, far better to die here and now.
