Legends of the Smoke Jaguars Chapter 30

Hed'breka stared at the stars in frustration and ground his teeth together. Beyond the flimsy armourglass the tiny points of light spun, creating a kaleidoscope of white and black as the ship manoeuvred. Behind him the bridge crew went about their myriad tasks, shouting back and forth without order as sparking consoles spat small flames and grots hammered keys at random. That such confusion and disorder could steer a three-kilometre long ship through the void would be laughable, surely guaranteed to produce a disaster, except that the Orks managed to operate the ship anyway.

Hed'breka didn't bother to look back as he snarled, "Can't dis tub go any fasta?"

Masha sniffed, "We'ze goin' fast as da mekboys can git."

"Ain't fast enuff," Hed'breka snarled, "Da weirdboyz sez Bloody Red-hands is us to someting, we needz ta git dere."

It was true, some days after the raid the Ork's feral shamans and psykers had started screaming about terrible events unfolding on another planet. Hed'breka didn't have much use for the bone-rattlers but when all of them started screaming the same thing at once he'd taken notice. He'd jumped into a squadron of frigates, faster than the lumbering Kroozer he'd claimed, and tore across the system at top speed, bidding his scattered Waaagh to converge on the target. Unfortunately he had been hunting on the far side of the local star at the time and getting from planet to planet was a slow process, even with a ship that was two-thirds engine.

Suddenly Gut'twista yelped, "Look, dere it is!"

"Finally," Hed'breka grumbled as a small dot the size of a marble swung into view, "Ugly little festerpit don't deserve me presence, but dere I'm gonna gut Bloody Red-hands."

"Dunno," Masha moaned as he rubbed his brow, "Someting bout dat place makes me 'ead hurt."

"Sod ur 'ead," Hed'breka growled, "It's time ta finish dis."

For long minutes the marble grew in size, the Ork frigate closing at tremendous velocity. Hed'breka knew nothing of interplanetary vectors or insertion trajectories, and in truth neither did the crew, but driven by instincts encoded into their genes the Greenskins began manoeuvres to bring them into orbit. He glowered as minutes crawled by, counting the seconds with mounting frustration. Bloody Red-hands was finally in his grasp he intended to end this once and for all. But what he could not have anticipated was Masha grabbing his skull with both hands and yowling, "Me 'ead!"

Suddenly a spike of bright light shot up from the planet, a shimmering beam of unlight mixed with impossible colours. It rose from the noxious atmosphere like an orbital tower, reaching for distant stars. Hed'breka gawped as it shot past his vessels, disappearing into the distance. He craned his head about and began to see the stars dwindling, drowned out by a lurid stain of colour that spread in the darkness between them. Like blood seeping around a knife blade driven into a belly colours spread from the point where the beam vanished, violating the body of the material universe.

"Wat da zoggin' hell is dat?!" Gut'twista yelped.

"Bloody Red-hands," Hed'breka growled, "He's up ta someting. Get dis crate movin' ya useless snotbags!"

The frigates redoubled their efforts, trying to bring them into range to deploy troops but too slowly. The beam pulsed with colour, growing brighter with every second and the stain across the heavens grew ever larger. Things moved in that ray of unlight, hideous faces trying to push through the breach between realities. Without being told Hed'breka knew if this bizarre event was not stopped, they would be free to roam where they will. That would be bad, and yet it was not to be. Suddenly the beam began to crack apart, flaring bits of it breaking away as the colours flared angrily. Masha screamed, "I can't take any more!" and then the beam disintegrated, blasting a wave of impossible colours across space itself.

Hed'breka's eyes filled with insanity as the wave washed over his ships, passing through their hulls without pause. He saw vista of faraway worlds, and impossible planes of being, realms made of dreams and landscapes where floating castles drifted over thundering volcanoes. Lands where creatures of fire contested with scaly fiends for dominance and iron ships hung under magical gondolas. A universe opened up before him and all of it was at war. Warriors in brass armour marched across all the realms, bringing with them a torrent of bloodshed and calamity. They fought golden figures who wielded hammers stamped with the icon of a twin-tailed comet, who died again and again only to be reforged into harder and sterner forms. Blood mad beserkers clashed with squattish figures in iron and long beards, led by crazed champions with red hair and no armour. Slyvette figures with magical swords duelled roaring warlords with brass axes while armies of feral Greenskins tested themselves against knights in black armour on steeds of fire. All was war and Hed'breka yearned to join their endless conflict, but his vision was interrupted when Masha's head exploded.

One second the Ork was doubled over, clutching at his head, the next his skull became a fountain of red gore. He fell to the floor as a torrent of blood poured out the stump of his neck, more than any one Ork could produce. It kept pumping out, forming a pool of red vitae, forcing Hed'breka to take a step back. The blood bubbled for a moment then something arose from it. A pointed skull, crowned with black horns, leading down to a narrow face, eyes without irises and gnashing fangs. A thin red body followed with whipcord arms that clutched a sword of black iron. Back-jointed legs ended in hooved talons and a stumpy tail that flicked to a fro with eagerness to spill blood. It drew in a breath and cried, "Blood for the…"

It was interrupted by a hail of hot lead slamming into its face. Hed'breka's incendiary shoota, letting rip on full auto. Burning rounds smote the creature, making it stagger back as craters were punched into its form. Surprisingly it didn't fall, its form rippling with liquid resurgence, craters oozing over in seconds as it grinned. Then a half-dozen more pointed heads began to form in the pool of blood as it sprang to attack.

Hed'breka swore profusely as the black iron sword carved over his breastplate, leaving a smoking furrow. He swung his drill back in response and hit the thing in the chest, dicing it to bits. One swing saw everything above the waist line obliterated and yet the remains stood proud in the pool of blood, drawing more to itself as it began to rebuild its torso. Hed'breka snarled again and yelled, "Wat u gits standin' around fer?! Get stuck in!"

The bridge crew snapped out of their amazement and leapt to engage, drawing crude knives and boarding cludgels. They dove upon the half-dozen things, hacking and stabbing, hundreds of them at once. They ripped and they tore, they diced and they cleaved, reducing the intruders to offal but no matter how many times they carved the foe to shreds they just kept rebuilding, undoing whatever damage was inflicted faster than the Orks could hack.

"Wat are dese?!" Gut'twista yelled as his buzzsaw cut one in two, only to see it merge back to together.

"Warp grizzlies!" Hed'breka snarled, "Bloody Red-hands has been muckin' about again!"

"Can't kill dem fast enuff!" Gut'twista cried as a black iron sword was driven into his knee joint.

Hed'breka saw it was true, for every blow the Ork inflicted another was given back in return. Orks fell in bits, cleaved apart by vicious cuts and run through the guts by barbed blades. They were fighting bits of enemies, bodies without heads or arms, sometimes merely stumps of limbs but no matter what the Greenskins did the intruders just kept growing back, sucking up more blood to restore themselves. A score of Orks had fallen already and they hadn't put down a single enemy, not one.

Gut'twista yelled, "We can't hold em!"

"Dere gotta be a source," Hed'breka snarled as he mashed a reforming foe to bits, "Dere's always a source."

Suddenly he spied it, Masha's headless body, laid at the edge of the pool. Blood was still gushing from the neck, refilling the pond as quick as the grizzlies could drain it. So long as that tide of blood kept coming they had an endless supply to draw upon, they were infinite and endless. Hed'breka was moving instantly, bashing aside struggling forms to close on the headless corpse. He shoved an Ork aside then hoisted his leg high, before slamming it down on Masha's corpse. The body was engulfed under the broad stamp of his boot, leaving only arms and legs sticking out. His boot slammed down and reduced the torso to gore, cutting off the supply of blood in an instant.

In a heartbeat the tide of battle shifted. Suddenly the Grizzlies had lost their wellspring and wounds became telling. Chopped off limbs no longer regrew, destroyed bodies could not rebuild while their swords broke and did not reforge. The pool of blood was drained dry in moments as the Orks washed over them, reducing them to nothing but red smears on the floor. The last of the grizzlies went down to a dozen blades at once, hacked to bits and finally they were done.

Gut'twista groaned, "Dat was zoggin' weird."

Hed'breka lurched back and spat, "I've seen weirder tings, but not a lot. Wat u ugly gits doin' standin' bout?! Get on da blower and find out if more Grizzlies got in!"

The Orks returned to their posts but a Grot yelled, "Da uvver ships say dey got Grizzlies too. Not a lot mind, but dey don't die."

"Tells em ta squish whatever berk got his ed done in," Hed'breka snapped, "Dat should handle it."

They left the crew to it as Gut'twista snorted, "Bloody Red-hands threw his best at us, but you beat him again boss!"

But Hed'breka growled, "Dat weren't his best, not by a long shot. Someting else is going on ere, I feels it in me water."

"Shame bout Masha."

"Zog him, he were a berk. I never liked…"

Hed'breka trailed off as he turned about and stared outside the window. The beam of unlight was gone but its effects remained. Across the broad vista of space the stars were going out, tiny points of light swallowed by a surging aurora of red and black and purple. Vast stretches of space were being blotted out as a thick curtain was laid across them, covering all directions. It was growing faster as it encircled the star system, accelerating beyond his vision and he didn't doubt it would continue until there was no black of space left to be seen. The Copan system was being cut off from the wider universe, captured in a sphere of ugly colour and confined within a tormented isolation.

Gut'twista yelped, "Wat da sodding hell is dis?!"

"I dunno," Hed'breka growled, "But I know who dun it and he's gonna bleed for it."