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Behold, a short story born out of boredom


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Stirring The Swamps------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_________________________________________________________ Part One__________________________________________________________


It was a hot day, but not unlike all other days on Ousia. The buzzing insects, the stench of sweat and the constant stink of the swamp were normal things to any Ousian born man. Sergeant Dukkas was like all other Ousians. A tanned skin, an attitude like he was the damned Emperor himself, though Ousia was not known for it's pious nature, and built like an ox. The swamp-boat made it's way through the thick smudge that was the Ousian Swamp, covering the whole of Ousia. They were out here for two days straight, he and his squad, patrolling the swamps for any sight of feral orks that dwelled in the bayou. It was harvest season, the one period in which they couldn't afford to allow the orks to roam freely. Dukkas always thought this the work of the Militia, though they didn't have the needed equipment to go ork hunting. Ousia didn't have a PDF, just it's military, to protect itself. It suited Dukkas fine to defend his home. As long as he could skewer orks with his machete Dukkas was a happy man.

leaning against the railing, he puffed his cigar, and peered through it's smoke, out into the swamp. It wasn't strange to not see any orks straight away, these feral orks were just as used to swamp warfare as the Ousians were. These orks were stealthy, but it didn't worry Dukkas. He had all the confidence in the world that he would see this one through, just like all other twenty-eight river patrols. He removed his standard issue cap from his head and swept it against his brow, sweeping the sweat off. He had long abandoned to wear his tunic, the only things he wore were his flak vest, on top of his bare chest and his standard issue pants. His boots were loosely tied, he couldn't afford a rotting foot. Putting his cap back on, he glanced in the direction of the prow, and saw the gunner lounging at the foot of the prow mounted heavy stubber.

"Get to your feet, Cruwe!" Sergeant Dukkas yelled. "Do you want those orks to cleave though us?"

As on cue, the swamp boat rocked violently, and calls of warning could be heard aboard the ten man capacity ship.

"Battle stations!" Ordered Dukkas. "Langou, status report."

"Everything fine, Sir," replied the trooper in the steering cabin. I think we just hit a reef."

"Shut it you Vrek, we ain't hit no reef!" yelled trooper Pulver. "Look!"

Now, Dukkas saw the same. A large harpoon had rammed straight through the starboard side.

"Orks at Starboard, prepare to engage!"

"Sir, I can't get loose," said a shivering Langrou. "The harpoon got us lodged."

Cruel laughter could be heard, there must be around twenty orks in the area, Dukkas thought. Vrek was about to hit the fan.

"Get your lasgun, Lang', you're no use like that."

Dukkas calmly took aim through his sights, spotting a small runty ork wielding a crude cleaver. With two pulls on the trigger, the ork dropped dead, two clean holes through the throat. This triggered something with the orks, and a band of orks surged forward through the foliage, unto the river banks. Orks were taking shots with crude guns and pistols. Shots that punched clean holes in the starboard side of the ship.

"I've had it," Cursed Dukkas. "Cruwe,blast them!

The stubber barked, and spat rounds at the ork raiders. The shots drove some of the smaller ones back into the jungle, others dropped dead but most of the others stood their ground. Trooper Lasao dropped back, his chest punched open by crude ork weaponry. Cursing, Dukkas shot another ork, which slumped into the river. Trooper Derrick leaned over the side, attempting to cut the thick rope loose. He almost succeeded, but his head exploded as a round hit him. Derrick had a sad look on his stature, slumped, dead, over the railing.

Now, with the rope almost cut through, Dukkas sent Langrou back to the steering cabin to hit the gas. As langrou climbed the stairway to get to the higher positioned cabin, a large sword hacked him straight in half. An ork had swum the river and clambered on board to kill the first mate. To add insult to injury, another harpoon rammed through the side. Dukkas cursed colorfully as the boat rocked again. But there was something different to the rocking feel, like they were being pulled. No, not being pulled, something was being pulled towards them. A smaller vessel rammed into the starboard side of the boat, and Dukkas and several others fell over onto their backs.

Getting back up, he saw four greenskins clambering onboard. Where that orks who cleaved Langrou in halve was, Dukkas didn't know, probably knocked into the river by the ramming. The rattle of the heavy stubber stopped, an Ork chopped Cruwe's head off. Dukkas saw another one rushing towards him, but he couldn't reach his lasgun in time, and took his machete instead. The ork was almost on top of them, but suddenly it was knocked over sideways. Corporal Blach stood ,triumphantly, over the sprawled ork, Blach crushed the ork's skull with his mechanical arm. Trooper Mohane got Dukkas back to his feet.

Snatching his lasgun off the ground, Dukkas could hear the ork's maniacal laughter. Their cunning plan had worked, and already four good men were dead.

"Get those 'skins off my deck!" Dukkas raged, and as a follow up move, he shot one of the three remaining orks through the head. Blach punched another one in the groin, then slammed his machete through it's throat. Mohane killed the last one with a blast from his shotgun, the ork's torso pulverized.

Pulver and Lasong were shooting the orks on the banks while Brax manned Cruwe's heavy stubber.

"Blach, get to the steering cabin, we're getting out of here." Dukkas said calmly. "Mohane, with me. The rest, give us some cover fire."

Dukkas hopped over the side, onboard of the smaller ork vessel that had lodged itself onto the boat. Taking out his machete again, Mohane dropped next to him, pumping scatter shots into the foliage, while las and stubs were punching holes in the orks on the river banks as well. Dukkas tried to cut through the ropes, but they were thick, and it would take a while. An ork clambered on board the vessel, but Mohane was quick, and shattered it's body with a well places scatter shot. The ork dropped dead, and Mohane saw the stick-grenades hanging from it's belt. He dropped on his knees, and, without thinking about himself, pulled the pin of one grenade and lobbed it in the foliage. An ork flew high, then into the river, a big pool of blood quickly colored the river red.

The stubber - and las-fire didn't let up, and several more Orks dropped dead. But the orks weren't easy to bring low, and shots were still punching through the hull.

" Cm'on sarge, We can't keep this on for much longer!" yelled Brax. "I'm almost out of stub rounds."

"Shut it," Dukkas barked. "busy here, you Vrek!"

Dukkas managed to cut though on of the ropes, but it was slow going.

"Get back Sarge!" Lasong yelled.

Lasong leaned over the side, and took a shot at the ropes. The las round cut straight through the rope. Dukkas and Mohane quickly clambered back onboard their boat.

"Let's get the Vrek out of here!" Yelled Blach. "Hold on!"

The swamp boat lurched forward through the swamps, out of sight of the raiding orks.

"We may have to get back there." Said Dukkas, calmly. "Relay these coordinates to base camp. There must be a nest of the 'skins around here."


______________________________________________________Part Two________________________________________________


"I do hope you mean 'going back in' as in, later..." said Blach. "We got pretty banged up sir."

"Almost dry on the stubber too, sarge." added Brax. "All I can get out of this baby are a couple of sprays that's all."

"Alright, alright, stop with the whining..." Said Dukkas" ..."Blach, get back in the steering cabin, Brax mount the gun. The rest's on watch. We head out east, thats back to Outpost Shivak, there we'll pick up two more boats and we'll go ork hunting, how's that?"

"Seems alright to me, bastards got my friend" Mohane said, mourning the loss of Cruwe.

"That's the spirit I want today, boys. We need one like that" replied Dukkas. "Alright, why are we not moving? Get on with it!

the 5 remaining men on Dukkas's squad grunted in agreement, and set to work. within ten seconds, the swift boat was on the move again. Belching smoke was coming out of the engine compartment, and Pulver was looking into it. Pulver was the loudmouth mechanic of the squad, and whenever he said he'll get the thing working, he usually did. Amazingly, the swift boat traveled like it was on peak efficiency, and the trip to the outpost was done without any threat. Within 15 minutes they reached the outpost, and immediately started refitting the swift boat. Fitting crews set to work to repair the boat as best as they could in the makeshift docking, but Pulver never left the engines side, he loved it like it was his life.

'Always was like that...' though Dukkas.

"Someone, get me lieutenant Falder!" Yelled Dukkas.

The fitting crew were checking the vitals of the ship, and rearmed the stubber. Extra rounds were replenished at Brax's request.

"What's the matter, Sergeant?" Asked Falder. "Your boat's looking good." He added, with obvious sarcasm.

"We may have found an ork settlement not far from here sir. I request a stage of standby, and I wish you to lend me two of your squads to aid in the raid." Said Dukkas. "We were attacked at waypoint Echo 54.1 by a sizable force of ork raiders. Luck, and courage, let us live to fight another day. Sir."

Falder sighed, and called up two of his sergeants.

"Lads, assemble your squads and accompany sergeant Dukkas here." Falder said to each of them, then to the three of them. "The one who brings me the head of their boss gets booze on me."

This triggered vigor in the sergeants, and the two reinforcing ones quickly assembled their squads. Once their boats were refitted, they could go on a hunt.

Dukkas loved it.


___________________________________________________________Part Three_______________________________________________________________________

With freshly found vigor, the three swift boats made their way to the place of ambush. They would spread out from there, and look for the ork settlement. Finding wouldn't be that hard, Orks were loud enough to be heard a mile off, and stinking enough to be smelled a mile off. There was no hurry in getting there, but the three squads made good speed either way. The idea of some extra benefits from the lieutenant sure was something.

"Sergeant Dukkas, swift-boat Swamp Raider, calling to all swift-boats, sign in, if you please."

"Sergeant Quinten, swift-boat Swifty, to your left." came the first return call.

"Sergeant Jethro, swift-boat Death Race, to your right." Jethro came in. "This'll be fun."

"I reckon it will, mate." replied Dukkas. "But don't get overexcited. We still need some tactics. Jethro, you go in on the right flank, encircle the encampment. Quinten, you do the same but on the left flank. Encircle it two times, and hose 'em all down. Then I want you to disembark on the riverbanks, and go in after us. My squad will go in there as you keep 'em busy blasting them."

"Copy that". Jethro came in.

"Your getting all the fun, aren't you?" Quinten came in.

"Shut it, Vrek heads, " Dukkas replied. "We have a duty to pay Ousia with. Now get in there. Judging the way these orks build their settlements around these parts, they should have built theirs on a round embankment, that's where I based the plan on."

"What if it's not?" Asked Quinten.

"Improvise." Jethro came in over the vox.

"You got 'em mates." Dukkas added.

It wasn't long until they found the settlement. It wasn't a large one, probably upwards of 40 orks in there. The swift-boats stalked the perimeter a while, quietly, taking in strong-points, weak points, places to land,... Dukkas had chosen his, and as soon as the others had chosen theirs, they went in like a lightning strike. Sergeants Quinten and Jethro went in first, blasting at the ramshackle buildings and wandering orks inside the settlements. The orks had erected wooden walls, but it wasn't a problem for the heavy-stubber armed swift boats. The stub rounds ripped straight through the wood.

While Swifty and Death Race were racing about the ork perimeter, stubbers blazing, The Swamp Raider prepared to land.

"Blach, get to the docking area, we'll land there." Dukkas ordered. "Brax, I want you to kill all those Vrekkers on the docks, got it? Pulver, take the grenade launcher out the weapons trunk, we'll need it. Blach, Brax, I want you two to stay with the boat. Lasong, Mohane, Pulver, you're going with me."

The orks, most still wondering what was going on, managed to get some return fire in. Most ork rounds went wide, but those that hit, did some damage. Dukkas saw a trooper on Quinten's boat getting blasted back, his chest squirting blood and guts as the large slug ripped his chest apart.

"Get the Vrekkers!" Dukkas swore.

Brax shot down an ork wandering about the docks, and forced two others to get to cover. The orks were quickly dealt with by Pulver, armed with the grenade launcher. The grenade launcher was a compact weapon, not like all the others manufactured by forge-worlds. The Riverine had their own grenade launcher design. It looked a lot like a large barreled
slug-shotgun. It came in handy with boarding actions, where large weapons are a down-point, it's only downside was it had to be reloaded after each shot. Pulver quickly reloaded the weapon, he wasn't only an able engineer, he also was quite capable with the weapon.

"Hold on lads, nearly there!" warned Blach.

The swift boat 'Swamp Raider' nursed it's way through all the ramshackle ork gunboats docked there, and found a spot large enough to squeeze in. It was the closest the boat could get near the opened gates of the settlement. The orks clearly hadn't bothered to close it off for the day. Having docked the 'Swamp Raider', Blach yelled the all clear.

"It's alright, you can go get 'em Sarge!

"You heard 'im!" Dukkas yelled. "Follow me."

The four guardsmen hopped off the boat. The small squad hoped to get as much damage done as long as the orks were busy fighting off 'Swifty' and 'Death Race'.

"Pulver, use some krak grenades to sink these gunboats." Dukkas ordered.

The swift engineer set about, pulling krak grenades from his webbing. It had to be done quickly, so he didn't have time to use the grenade launcher. He primed the grenades one by one, and signaled the all clear to Dukkas.

"They'll blow in twenty." Pulver said.

The four of them ran into the settlement. Going in went surprisingly well, almost all orks were busy taking shots at the encircling swift-boats. Judging by the time spent, the two must have done half a circle around the settlement. having just set foot inside the settlement, they heard the sharp cracks the krak grenades made. Those boats should sink now, cutting any ork survivors off from chasing them.

"Right flank!" Warned Lasong. The crack shot trooper brought his lasgun up, and shot one of the three approaching orks through the head, dropping it. Pulver decided to save the valuable grenade inside his launcher, and let the Sergeant and Mohane deal with the others. Dukkas shot his lasgun on full-auto, making neat holes in the orks, but they kept running. Mohane finished one of them with a blast from his shotgun. The last one kept coming at them. it was a brawny ork with bulging muscles, no doubt one of the leader's lieutenants.

"Kill the bastard!" Dukkas yelled, as he shot more beams of las into the brute. It still refused to go down, and it kept coming at them.

"Vrek! Mohane cursed.

"Get down." Pulver warned, and as the three others got on the ground, Pulver shot a grenade right on the green brute, disintegrating it, and splattering blood on the nearby walls.

"Let's move, shall we?" Pulver said, and ran ahead of the three others still clambering to their feet.

The settlement was very tightly built, with winding alleys and it had a confining feel about it.

Pulver waited for them at the next corner, and they regrouped seconds later.

"Alright, listen up lads." Dukkas started. "We need to find the big man's mansion." he said with sarcasm. "Look out for a large building, that's where he'll probably be. If not, he's somewhere around the walls."

"What about that big shack over there?" asked Lasong, pointing at said shack.

"Might be it." Dukkas said, judging the size of the building. "Let's find out.

______________________________________________________________PART FOUR_____________________________________________________________________

Suddenly there was a loud explosion, followed by an incoming vox message from Jethro's swift-boat.

"Death Race for Swamp Raider, The orks got Swifty. They managed to hit it with an RPG. The boat's sinking, though not all the men are dead. I can see three, no wait, four survivors. I Don't see Quinten though. We'll just assume he's gone."

"Bastards!" Dukkas swore. "What are they doing now, where have they been hit?"

" They're just ten meters off the docks, and they're heading for it." Jethro replied.We finished our attack run, and we're coming in for a landing, over."

The vox went dead.

"Great, more KIA's." Mohane cursed.

Dukkas chose not to reply, and opted to head for the big hut two blocks away. The gun fire ceased somewhat, the orks are definatly recovering from this sudden blast. Dukkas was sure most of the Orks didn't know yet there were guardsmen inside their settlement. The small squad ducked behind cover as they saw and heard a medium sized ork mod heading down the street towards the docks. Dukkas, Mohane, Lasong and Pulver hid behind rusty barrels, out of sight of the approaching orks. By now, Jethro should have landed his squad on the docks, and they should be minutes behind Dukkas' squad. There were 12 orks in total just a couple of meters ahead of them. It all went well, Dukkas wanted to wait and regroup with Tehro and go after these orks, but suddenly Pulver, in a fit of rage, got to his feet, cursed colorfully, and fired his grenade launcher. In one blast, three orks disappeared in a mist of blood. The tight streets worked in favor of blast weapons, so Dukkas though they would manage after all. The other three members got up and took up fire on the unsuspecting orks. Two more orks went down with the combined strength of of the three other men. Pulver dropped as he was hit in the shoulder. He went down screaming, the solid round had shattered his left shoulder. Pulver clasped his shoulder with his right hand and continued screaming.

"Oh Vrek it!" Dukkas swore and dropped next to Pulver. There was nothing he could do for Pulver at the moment, the approaching orks were far more important to deal with first. He swung his lasgun around his back, and picked up Pulver's Grenade Launcher and scavenged his ammo bag. Dukkas quickly reloaded the Ousian Pattern Grenade Launcher and fired another shot, resulting in a mist of blood as another two orks were riddled by the shrapnel. Mohane's shotgun blasted, Lasong's lasgun cracked and Dukkas folded the Grenade launcher open as he put another round in. The orks were almost on top of them, so Dukkas abandoned the use f the laucher and got out his machette. Pulver's screaming grew louder, and Dukkas accepted the fact he was likely to die today as suddenly the remaining orks were engulfed by flame. Jethro's squad had appeared faster then Dukkas had thought possible. The orks writhed as flame peeled their skin off. Jethro's Flamethrower operator squirted another burst of flame towards the orks and las-beams stuck out. The last orks finally died down. Just like Pulver's screams. Dukkas bent down over the ruined man, and closed his eyes with his fingers. Pulver wasn't just another dead squad member to Dukkas, it was his friend. He deserved respect. Getting up, he grabbed the grenade launcher again, and swung the ammo bag with the remaining grenades over his shoulder.

"Dukkas, You're still alive." Jethro said. "I thought you lot were goners."

"Obviously we ain't. " Dukkas spat.

"I left three men behind with the boats, Quinten's men should be at the docks now, but they're out of the fight, they lost most of they're gear including weapons."

"Can we just go after the big melon-fether now? "

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

-Part one, done
-Part two added.
-Part three added.
-Part four added. Might need some correction.

tight action packed story! i liked it every bit and held my fingers crossed for the guardsmen to come through on top...
one thing i have but to point out... would a goin hit to an ork cause that much pain? even with a mech arm?...hmmm maybe^^

cool read, i hope you are bored again enough to make a second installment^^

cheers, vik

.

@ Vik: Well, the exams are coming up, but I'm fairly sure I'll have to redo my school year. So I'll be bored a lot this time being.

@Sam: Black Library would be a bit too far fetched. Considering I'm only 16 and obviously still student.

ouch... how was that happening??? did you do some crappy exams? not bothered to learn enough? i only had to redo my last year...only to redo that some years afterwards again... then finally getting my "abitur", the testament to my school life so to speak...

Viktor von Domm wrote:ouch... how was that happening??? did you do some crappy exams? not bothered to learn enough? i only had to redo my last year...only to redo that some years afterwards again... then finally getting my "abitur", the testament to my school life so to speak...

Well no, The exam period hasn't started yet. It starts in a couple of days. But I've got some crappy results throughout the school year, and I haven't yet started studying yet. I just had a rough schoolyear, emotionally speaking.

ups...went there too...when i was your age my parents went ballistic so to speak...my mum was attached to the neck of a certain kind of bottle and thus i was a bit preocupied so to speak...didn´t take school that serious then... then school got serious on me... and to add injury to insult (love that proverb^^) they got serious over me too...life was crap back then...

Viktor von Domm wrote:ups...went there too...when i was your age my parents went ballistic so to speak...my mum was attached to the neck of a certain kind of bottle and thus i was a bit preocupied so to speak...didn´t take school that serious then... then school got serious on me... and to add injury to insult (love that proverb^^) they got serious over me too...life was crap back then...

Life's always crap in school... -_-

But...let's get back to studying for the exams. I got German Exam tomorrow.

na toll^^
da drücke ich dir die daumen^^

Life's always crap in school... -_-

i somehow got the feeling that this is a major planned aspect of schoollife... to teach you that life can be all crappy and you have to hope and search for the silver lining...somewhere you will find it... it is just that some people don´t go searching anymore...

as said above i cross fingers for you (only figurativly as otherwise i would be pretty useless^^)


vik

Viktor von Domm wrote:na toll^^
da drücke ich dir die daumen^^

Life's always crap in school... -_-

i somehow got the feeling that this is a major planned aspect of schoollife... to teach you that life can be all crappy and you have to hope and search for the silver lining...somewhere you will find it... it is just that some people don´t go searching anymore...

as said above i cross fingers for you (only figurativly as otherwise i would be pretty useless^^)


vik

Thanks mate!

bah, my sliver lining would be far away I think...


But, to get back on topic, I'm working on an idea for the second part. I think I'll do this one in 5 or 6 pieces, the previous piece being piece 1.

sounds good, the more the merrier^^

Viktor von Domm wrote:sounds good, the more the merrier^^

I think I have the main line done, now I need to work it out... Maybe it'll be up tonight, maybe tomorrow

don´t stress yourself man, when it comes to you it will be good, remember : first things first^^

______________________________________________________Part Two________________________________________________


"I do hope you mean 'going back in' as in, later..." said Blach. "We got pretty banged up sir."

"Almost dry on the stubber too, sarge." added Brax. "All I can get out of this baby are a couple of sprays that's all."

"Alright, alright, stop with the whining..." Said Dukkas" ..."Blach, get back in the steering cabin, Brax mount the gun. The rest's on watch. We head out east, thats back to Outpost Shivak, there we'll pick up two more boats and we'll go ork hunting, how's that?"

"Seems alright to me, bastards got my friend" Mohane said, mourning the loss of Cruwe.

"That's the spirit I want today, boys. We need one like that" replied Dukkas. "Alright, why are we not moving? Get on with it!

the 5 remaining men on Dukkas's squad grunted in agreement, and set to work. within ten seconds, the swift boat was on the move again. Belching smoke was coming out of the engine compartment, and Pulver was looking into it. Pulver was the loudmouth mechanic of the squad, and whenever he said he'll get the thing working, he usually did. Amazingly, the swift boat traveled like it was on peak efficiency, and the trip to the outpost was done without any threat. Within 15 minutes they reached the outpost, and immediately started refitting the swift boat. Fitting crews set to work to repair the boat as best as they could in the makeshift docking, but Pulver never left the engines side, he loved it like it was his life.

'Always was like that...' though Dukkas.

"Someone, get me lieutenant Falder!" Yelled Dukkas.

The fitting crew were checking the vitals of the ship, and rearmed the stubber. Extra rounds were replenished at Brax's request.

"What's the matter, Sergeant?" Asked Falder. "Your boat's looking good." He added, with obvious sarcasm.

"We may have found an ork settlement not far from here sir. I request a stage of standby, and I wish you to lend me two of your squads to aid in the raid." Said Dukkas. "We were attacked at waypoint Echo 54.1 by a sizable force of ork raiders. Luck, and courage, let us live to fight another day. Sir."

Falder sighed, and called up two of his sergeants.

"Lads, assemble your squads and accompany sergeant Dukkas here." Falder said to each of them, then to the three of them. "The one who brings me the head of their boss gets booze on me."

This triggered vigor in the sergeants, and the two reinforcing ones quickly assembled their squads. Once their boats were refitted, they could go on a hunt.

Dukkas loved it.


____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



This is just a small part, like an interlude. Part three will include action again, I promise.

well that was sure quite quick... in update as in reading^^

seems there will be a hell of a fight... but now dukkas and his mates bring the fight to the green hides...

keep ´em coming, those updates i mean^^

Read part one, on the whole i liked it alot, very herioc and action packed with a bonus helping of tension.

A couple points though, i notice the belgian flag on your avatar and on the whole the english is fluent and stylish but there are a few grammatical errors, (though no more than a native like me lol).

A minor point would be Glach's mechanical arm, i would prefer it if you pointed it out before the combat begins, this way the reader can look forward to its use, instead of it appearing out of thin air (possibly a bit harsh but hey).

Also Dukka seems somewhat unlikable, he appears quite mean to his men. Perhaps he leads by example but i dunno something about his dialogue. Also 'pepper them' isn't quite forceful enough for me it needs to sound more epic.

There we go, i only crit because i care scrazzman, will read part two ASAP as well as part 3,4,5 and 6...

EDIT: meant to say i really like the Nautical theme... More boats please!

Thanks Perkustin! I just changed 'Pepper them', to 'blast them'. How's that?

Also, ahoy to part three!

___________________________________________________________Part Three_______________________________________________________________________

With freshly found vigor, the three swift boats made their way to the place of ambush. They would spread out from there, and look for the ork settlement. Finding wouldn't be that hard, Orks were loud enough to be heard a mile off, and stinking enough to be smelled a mile off. There was no hurry in getting there, but the three squads made good speed either way. The idea of some extra benefits from the lieutenant sure was something.

"Sergeant Dukkas, swift-boat Swamp Raider, calling to all swift-boats, sign in, if you please."

"Sergeant Quinten, swift-boat Swifty, to your left." came the first return call.

"Sergeant Jethro, swift-boat Death Race, to your right." Jethro came in. "This'll be fun."

"I reckon it will, mate." replied Dukkas. "But don't get overexcited. We still need some tactics. Jethro, you go in on the right flank, encircle the encampment. Quinten, you do the same but on the left flank. Encircle it two times, and hose 'em all down. Then I want you to disembark on the riverbanks, and go in after us. My squad will go in there as you keep 'em busy blasting them."

"Copy that". Jethro came in.

"Your getting all the fun, aren't you?" Quinten came in.

"Shut it, Vrek heads, " Dukkas replied. "We have a duty to pay Ousia with. Now get in there. Judging the way these orks build their settlements around these parts, they should have built theirs on a round embankment, that's where I based the plan on."

"What if it's not?" Asked Quinten.

"Improvise." Jethro came in over the vox.

"You got 'em mates." Dukkas added.

It wasn't long until they found the settlement. It wasn't a large one, probably upwards of 40 orks in there. The swift-boats stalked the perimeter a while, quietly, taking in strong-points, weak points, places to land,... Dukkas had chosen his, and as soon as the others had chosen theirs, they went in like a lightning strike. Sergeants Quinten and Jethro went in first, blasting at the ramshackle buildings and wandering orks inside the settlements. The orks had erected wooden walls, but it wasn't a problem for the heavy-stubber armed swift boats. The stub rounds ripped straight through the wood.

While Swifty and Death Race were racing about the ork perimeter, stubbers blazing, The Swamp Raider prepared to land.

"Blach, get to the docking area, we'll land there." Dukkas ordered. "Brax, I want you to kill all those Vrekkers on the docks, got it? Pulver, take the grenade launcher out the weapons trunk, we'll need it. Blach, Brax, I want you two to stay with the boat. Lasong, Mohane, Pulver, you're going with me."

The orks, most still wondering what was going on, managed to get some return fire in. Most ork rounds went wide, but those that hit, did some damage. Dukkas saw a trooper on Quinten's boat getting blasted back, his chest squirting blood and guts as the large slug ripped his chest apart.

"Get the Vrekkers!" Dukkas swore.

Brax shot down an ork wandering about the docks, and forced two others to get to cover. The orks were quickly dealt with by Pulver, armed with the grenade launcher. The grenade launcher was a compact weapon, not like all the others manufactured by forge-worlds. The Riverine had their own grenade launcher design. It looked a lot like a large barreled
slug-shotgun. It came in handy with boarding actions, where large weapons are a down-point, it's only downside was it had to be reloaded after each shot. Pulver quickly reloaded the weapon, he wasn't only an able engineer, he also was quite capable with the weapon.

"Hold on lads, nearly there!" warned Blach.

The swift boat 'Swamp Raider' nursed it's way through all the ramshackle ork gunboats docked there, and found a spot large enough to squeeze in. It was the closest the boat could get near the opened gates of the settlement. The orks clearly hadn't bothered to close it off for the day. Having docked the 'Swamp Raider', Blach yelled the all clear.

"It's alright, you can go get 'em Sarge!

"You heard 'im!" Dukkas yelled. "Follow me."

The four guardsmen hopped off the boat. The small squad hoped to get as much damage done as long as the orks were busy fighting off 'Swifty' and 'Death Race'.

"Pulver, use some krak grenades to sink these gunboats." Dukkas ordered.

The swift engineer set about, pulling krak grenades from his webbing. It had to be done quickly, so he didn't have time to use the grenade launcher. He primed the grenades one by one, and signaled the all clear to Dukkas.

"They'll blow in twenty." Pulver said.

The four of them ran into the settlement. Going in went surprisingly well, almost all orks were busy taking shots at the encircling swift-boats. Judging by the time spent, the two must have done half a circle around the settlement. having just set foot inside the settlement, they heard the sharp cracks the krak grenades made. Those boats should sink now, cutting any ork survivors off from chasing them.

"Right flank!" Warned Lasong. The crack shot trooper brought his lasgun up, and shot one of the three approaching orks through the head, dropping it. Pulver decided to save the valuable grenade inside his launcher, and let the Sergeant and Mohane deal with the others. Dukkas shot his lasgun on full-auto, making neat holes in the orks, but they kept running. Mohane finished one of them with a blast from his shotgun. The last one kept coming at them. it was a brawny ork with bulging muscles, no doubt one of the leader's lieutenants.

"Kill the bastard!" Dukkas yelled, as he shot more beams of las into the brute. It still refused to go down, and it kept coming at them.

"Vrek! Mohane cursed.

"Get down." Pulver warned, and as the three others got on the ground, Pulver shot a grenade right on the green brute, disintegrating it, and splattering blood on the nearby walls.

"Let's move, shall we?" Pulver said, and ran ahead of the three others still clambering to their feet.

The settlement was very tightly built, with winding alleys and it had a confining feel about it.

Pulver waited for them at the next corner, and they regrouped seconds later.

"Alright, listen up lads." Dukkas started. "We need to find the big man's mansion." he said with sarcasm. "Look out for a large building, that's where he'll probably be. If not, he's somewhere around the walls."

"What about that big shack over there?" asked Lasong, pointing at said shack.

"Might be it." Dukkas said, judging the size of the building. "Let's find out.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So what do you think? I ran out of inspiration, so I left it an open 'ending' to work with for part 4. c&c welcome.

nice read, tho some bitz could use some rewriting:

Orks were loud enough to be heard a mile off, and stinking enough to be smelled a mile off.

to make sense, the sentence should have an image different for either smell or noise... i bet the smell of an ork outreaches the noise he could make...

as for how the story could go on...i think they will try to go to the big shed... for now the hunt is pretty easy peasy for dukkas men... i think they should encounter some true resitance... tho we know and read that guardsmen are brave and capable, we do know too that their main destiny is to bleed^^ so i think some of your men should be sacrificed on the altar of a good story^^ then when a amlost too high of an obstacle is overcome the main even, namly the boss gets drawn into the line...


i like the pace that your story has, actionsequences can get easy complicated and you manage that really good that it doesn´t get complicated and that the readyer can foloow the pace and action quite good!

cheers, now back to the writing place and get those quills out!^^

cheers, vik

Thanks mate! Sure enough, you got some sense concerning the noise/smell thing. I'll try and rephrase the wording.

Also, that was what I was going for. I wanted the story to gradually build up. So, in part four it will get difficult, in five even more, and six would be a death trap. maybe I'll do a short part 7 to finnish the story off.

But thanks for the kind words!

sounds like a good plan to me^^ also like that you are thinking now even about a part seven^^ the more the merrier^^

Viktor von Domm wrote:sounds like a good plan to me^^ also like that you are thinking now even about a part seven^^ the more the merrier^^

If I don't put a stop on it, I'll go on like this for another 5 parts.

i read with great joy a storyline form shasolenzabi here on this board concerning imperial veterans...was such a fun time to read that i was pretty down whenhe finally let it end...so a good story needs time and space to be told^^

I can agree with that, but this one is about one event. So keeping it going on for too long would make the story too long and stretched out. That would ruin it, as it would be boring to read.

that is totaly right! if a singulary incident is done in too long installments then one could have the feeling of a too watered down storyline!

Viktor von Domm wrote:that is totaly right! if a singulary incident is done in too long installments then one could have the feeling of a too watered down storyline!

Anyway, the end of the exams are nearing, so y'all can expect a part 4 in the next week.

yeah^^




*coughs* good luck to your exams...i forgot^^

Just readed trought the whole lot of 1,2 and 3 and I must say Scrazz, you are doing a great job! Maybe I should give it a good try once, and with summer vacation in sight, it's seems I got lot's of time so maybe... Anyway, eager to see part 4!

Love to read your fiction. But sadly a girlfriend tends to get in the wayè of writing fan fiction.

Well, you'll have to wait some more.

it is such a thing that we are not able to have all in life, eh?

*Confused Panda*

What do you mean?