Gettin' there... and back again!

 

Episode 1: Gettin' there…

 

The dead bird lay still in the grass at the side of the dirty old road. Its wings had been folded backwards and its neck was broken. Blood was pouring out of the small body. A little child sat on his knees and picked up the bird and slowly stroked the back of the dead creature, tears rolling from his eyes. As he turned to ask his mother how someone could have done such a cruel thing his head was split by an enormous axe. The Beastman had sneaked up to the unfortunate child after silently cutting the head off the mother, who had stood by their wagon a few feet away. As the grinning Beastman turned to brag to his friends in the bushes at the side of the road, his head was cracked by a huge morningstar! The Beastman died instantly, with a expression of total surprise in its dying face!

 

A huge Orc looked down at the dead bodies, his morningstar wet with beastblood, then looked up and yelled to his hidden warband:

"So, ladies. Dat Mordheim not far away… heerr heer! Come here yer pieces of Sqigg dump, we's near da damned place! Leave da dead beastis and les get goin!! Heeer heer!!"

The Boss, known as Bork, or rather Da Fatha, waved to the Orcs who lay waiting in the bushes next to the road. They pushed the dead Beastmen aside and stepped up on the dirty road.

"Da Boss give me da creeps when he make dat laff!", murmured one of the Orcs.

"Yer right, it aint natural, dat laff!", said another. These two Orcs were followed by a couple more Orcs, grunting and pushing each other and some very silent and scared Goblins. A Goblin who spoke when not asked to, risked a gruesome death, and they knew it all too well.

"Right, ladies", Da Fatha said as his Warband stood in front him, "its about time we is gonna get to da city. Da spoils is just waiting for us - time to collect dem! And don't ferget da cage!" Two Goblins came forward, dragging a large cage with two angry Cave Squigs. Bork looked at the angry Squigs and nodded. He turned around and started walking down the road, whistling a, sort of, happy tune. In the distance a lonely bird sang a sad song...

 

***

 

"Pah?"

One of the Orcs walked up next to Da Fatha, who strode forward with great eagerness.

"Pah, wha spoil wait for uz? What we gonna do in dat city? Me hear it funny place, full o' no-goodz… why…"

Da Fatha, still walking purposefully forward, suddenly hit the Orc promptly on the nose with his huge fist. A cracking sound was heard and some cautious giggling from the rest of the Orcs. The Goblins didn't dare say anything but was hysterically happy inside, as they always were when Da Fatha "corrected" one of his sons.

"Oh, yer stooped piece of Ungor dung!! I knew I shuddet messt wiv me sista!! Nofink good ever come out when yer mess wiv yer sista!!!!"

Inbreeding was usual within the Orc tribes, hence the somewhat erratic nature of many of the greenskins, and Da Fatha had of course been around more than once. His sister had been in the way when the need came… and that was that. His warband now had two no-good, inbred, sons, who constantly rivalled of being the next-in-line-boss. Not that any of them ever would be the next boss. Da Fatha realized that his sons were too deranged, even for Orcs, to lead a warband. They were good fighters he admitted, but leaders… no! Besides, he already had a choice of successors in Brutal and Noshrek. Fierce Orcs, even by greenskin standards! The funny thing with Brutal was that he never spoke. It was apparently a choice he had made for some reason and Da Fatha had no intention to find out why as long as Brutal fought like he did. And Noshreg was funny too; in constant brooding, but he was cunning and mean and therefore more dangerous than Brutal.

"Da damned city iz full of it!!! Gold! Black stones! Slaughter… and stunties!!"

As Da Fatha mentioned this, the whole warband stopped in its tracks and started to smile.

"Aarr, I thought so, ladies! It is stuntiebashin' time, praise Mork! Come on, maggots!! Letz roll!!"

 

***

 

"Ooh, we's close, ladz… so close!... I can smell it!" Bork shivered of excitement as he sniffed in the air.

"Da only thang I smells iz Noshrek fartin'", Hunkresh said with a gleeful voice. The boyz started to laugh, even the runts giggled nervously. Bork turned around with a sour look, but started to laugh as well. He was proud of his little warband. Not that he would ever admit that, but he felt a strange warmth when he looked at the boys. A sort of fellowship. Noshrek then suddenly farted and the whole gang laughed even more.

 

***

 

The sun was setting but it was still warm. For the past miles lots of signs of warning had been erected. Warnings of entering the damned city. Bork was excited but at the same time a bit worried. The boys' mood was rapidly changing from joy to boredom. The skirmish with the Beastmen was long ago now and the itch for a fight grew by every step. Bork knew that the only thing that could stop an internal brawl was to find a enemy of some sort. He prayed quickly to Mork for something to stumble in their way. As they approached a small farm, Bork knew that his prayers had been answered. The farm was occupied by some humans. From what Bork could see it was a warband of young boys. Perfect! The lads were eager to fight and the opportunity had come, praise Mork. He gestured to Brutal and Noshrek to come to palaver…

 

The plan was simple; let loose the Cave Squigs head on. The sight of a couple of bouncing red monsters would scare the willies off the humans and when they turned to run, Brutal would wait for them in their retreat path. They would then be attacked from both sides by himself from the left and Noshrek from the right. A cunning plan, indeed, Bork thought to himself...

 

The Cave Squigs were vigorously herded forward by a runt with a large stick; a prodder. Bork knew what damage could be done by the red monstrosities and almost felt sorry for the humans as he saw the fear in the humans eyes when they realized that they were under attack. Some of them turned to flee, but not all of them. They seemed to ready themselves to receive the charge. So much the better Bork thought, so much more heads to bash! The Cave Squigs were already upon two human lads with halbeards. One of them fell with a large chunk of his chest chewed up by one of the squigs. The other human managed to fend off the other Cave Squig and gave it a severe cut that made it fall on the ground. It didn't matter, though, as Noshrek slammed into the side of the halberdier. Bork headed for what seemed to be the leader of the humans. He roared and charged with full speed into the soldier. The soldier, clad in red and blue fell back, but didn't fall. He swinged an enormous greatsword and looked grim and determined. Bork feinted with his shield and tried to bury his Morningstar in the soldiers head. The leader of the humans was no pushover though and easily evaded the blow. He narrowly missed Bork with the greatsword and Bork saw his opportunity. His Morningstar tore into the human's side and Bork followed up with pushing his shield hard into the man's face. The human screamed and fell and Bork smashed his skull with another blow. Yes, this was life, he thought, as he turned around to see how the other fared. Brutal had downed two of the young soldier and one of the human lads was peppered with arrows. Even the runts had been useful, Bork thought to himself. One Cave Squig chased another young soldier and the minder followed, cackling madly, with his prodder. The human couldn't possibly get away and he fell with the Cave Squig buried deep in his back, blood pouring and screams dying. The warband was victorious and the casualties light.

"Bring da cage and lock dem squigs up!" Bork roared. It was a good fight and the plan had worked like a charm. With this fight and Mordheim around the corner, his warband would be ready for anything!

 

First blood!

 

“We’s ére! We’s really ‘ere!!”, Bork looked at the dark and gloomy city in front of him. It was an air of desperation, fear and terror surrounding the dark buildings. A foul smell made some of the goblins wretch and the Boyz looked uneasy at each other. Bork signalled to advance and started to move towards the damned city. Noone spoke and the uneasy feeling they had grew by each step. It was a strange silence as they approached and they could feel the tingling of warpstone on their skin. The Goblins looked really afraid and Bork watched them closely. To have them run away now would be disastrous; Goblins were stupid cowards, but the had a role to play in a fight that was important. Besides, they seemed to enjoy the company of the Cave Squigs and kept some kind of control over the strange monstrosities. Bork let Brutal lead and fell back behind the Goblins. This seemed to reassure them and they moved forward without protests.

 

***

 

Brutal suddenly stopped and raised his large, green hand. Bork moved up front and saw them too; a band of humans. Not like the young whelps they dispatched earlier, no this group looked like hardened veterans. Bork the realized that their leader was some kind of priest. The man, who wore black, chanted a lithany of some sort and the soldiers around him knelt before him. Bork was just about to make up a cunning plan, when the priest spotted the Orcs. He bellowed an order and the humans dispersed and advanced towards them. No time for cunning plans, Bork thought to himself and turned to his warband:

“Brutal! Da right flank! Go wiv Grax! Take dem ‘oomans! Noshreg! With me in da middle! You uvver – realease da squigs and shoot dem ‘oomans! Bash der skullz!! Waaaagh!!”

Brutal rushed away with an Orc by his side. The Cave Squigs were released and bounced towards the humans. The bow-armed Goblins were so excited and scared that they started to bicker about what to do. Bork didn’t have time to deal with them, so he just hoped they would do something useful before it was too late. The Goblins bickering got worse and one of them suddenly fell with a severe cut in his belly. Bork saw it and sighed, then rushed on towards the priest and his fellows. He glimpsed a robed figure fanning out to the left and pointed that out to Noshreg, who darted away to meet this threat. Noshreg roared and raised his axe and sword as the throwing knives started to fly around him. The knives narrowly missed him, but a Goblin fell.

  Meanwhile, Brutal advanced towards a human, who was crouching behind a battered wall. He risked a glance to his left and saw the Cave Squigs attacking the humans. But suddenly his was onto his adversary and a blow almost cleaved him in two. Brutal managed to fend off the first blow, but the second hit him in the head and he fell and lost his consciousness. Bork saw this and swore. Everything seemed to go wrong. Two of his Boyz were also bickering and didn’t do much to end this encounter. The Cave Squigs were splattered and the Goblins wavered! Noshreg also fell, a knife embedded in his chest! Was this really happening, Bork thought, was this the end of their long and hard search for glory in the damned city? To die at their first encounter?

 

***

 

Bork draw a deep breath and readied himself for attacking the priest and his compadres. A savage hound sprang at him but he smashed it aside with his shield and hit the dog hard with his Morningstar. The dog squeeked lika an abused Skaven and rolled over and lay still. Bork continued his assault and smashed into a human who seemed to shield the priest. Bork’s Morningstar tore off a large chunk of meat from the side of the human and he fell with a grunt. “Next!”, Bork roared and charged another human who promptly fell by the ferocious attack from the Orc leader. Keeping the momentum, Bork crashed into the priest. The both struggled to keep their feet, but they managed somehow, to remain standing. The priest panted heavily, but managed to raise his voice:

“Yield, filthy Orc! Yield for the Emperor and leave this place! There will be no…”

Bork smashed his Morningstar in a wide arc, faster than anything the priest ever had seen. The Morningstar hit the him hard in the head and he fell to his knees. Bork then kicked the priest in the head with his enourmus boot and sent the priest sprawling. Bork glanced around him. The figure in the robe had downed almost all of Bork’s left flank and he was heading fast for Bork. He knew this fight couldn't be won...

“Ladz! Gotta go!”, he bellowed. “Dis fight is over!” He started to retreat and reached for and dragged Noshreg with him. The knife was stuck in his chest, but Noshreg would live, Bork saw that. He gestured to the figure in the robe with his long-finger and waved with his, now very bloody, Morningstar. The robed figure seemed to get the hint and pulled back. Bork took a deep breath and started to retreat himself. There would be some reckoning when the Bonekrushas was gathered later, they could count on that, Bork thought to himself.

 

To be continued...