Lead-Footed Trukkboy Driver
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Hey Dakka!
this is my first time posting in the fiction forum and I wanted to give it a try! I've started writing books several times but never finished. I hope that dakka will help me stay motivated. So please feel free to post your questions and comments. If you get bored while reading, that's fine, but please leave a comment why you hated it so I can fix something if it bothers lots of people. So without further ado, here is chapter 1 of Dantrith!
The last thing that Dantrith remembered was looking up at a particularly large ork examining his face and grunting at some gretchin to pick Dantrith up. Then all was darkness.
When he woke, his vision was crystal clear, he thought it very sporting of the Orks to retrieve his glasses, though he still had a massive headache from getting knocked unconscious, that would pass after a few days no doubt. He still sat still, examining the metal ceiling, which was obviously of orkish design, it’s like they felt a pathological need for disorder. A glance at the ceiling told him that anybody with half a brain could have arranged it better.”
“Think you’re so special because you like straight lines there, eh human?”
The voice was obviously xenos, though not like anything he had ever heard before, it sounded kind of like an ork, but without the mauling of Gothic that Orks usually participated in
“Just cause we talk funny, you think we’re always stupid? It’s these Jaws they made us with, can’t say anything proper with them.”
Dantrith got up to look around in the room he was in but found himself restrained.
"Who’s there? Show yourself.” Said Dantrith, with more bravado then he actually felt, shouting commands just seemed the natural thing to do after years in the guard.
“look to your right,” said the voice and Dantrith turned to see confused ork chained to a table looking back at him
“BOO!” shouted Grex, chuckling to himself in triumph
he realized with horror he was gazing at his own reflection
“That’s right, you’re one of us now, seems that we made it, the other weren’t so lucky.”
“Who are you?” said Dantrith now in his head
“I’m you’re new best friend, my name’s Grex, I was lucky enough to be “selected” by the Doc for one of his experiments,” Said Grex,
I decided that having a conversation with an ork is an unnerving process enough by itself, but when you’re talking inside your own mind, that’s a whole new level of weird. I didn’t have long to contemplate this new development before another ork (besides me) rushed into the room, the large one who originally captured me if I wasn’t mistaken, and if Grex was right, transplanted my brain into an ork body. He walked around the table once, then twice, examining me and then asked me if I felt up to walking around. Quite kindly actually, considering the temperament of most orks I’d run into.
He didn’t have time for pleasantries though as a blast shook the whole structure and a few scraps even fell off the ceiling, one of the larger one slicing my bicep as it fell. I expected far more pain than I felt and I heard a laughing from Grex at my fear of a little cut.
“We’re under attack it seems," said the large ork, "it looks like you’re on your own now try don’t to get yourself killed, I’ll be watching.”
“Grunt!” said Grex urgently
I followed Grex’s instructions and grunted, that seemed to appease the larger ork and he undid my restraints and left the room. Leaving Me and Grex, alone inside, sitting on what looked to be the same operating table they transferred brains. When I looked behind me I saw to my horror, myself, or what was left of me, after what the orks had done to me on the battlefield and on the surgery table, there wasn’t much to recognize. I resolved to serve the emperor even in death.
“Oh, I’ve heard of your emperor, you humans always mutter to your Emperor before we hack your brains in, seems like a terrible waste of breath.”
“Well, when it’s your last it can’t hurt.” I thought back at him as I got to my feet and another blast shook the building.
It seems that the orks were on the defensive despite routing the imperials where I was stationed. This didn’t help me though as I knew the amount of ordinance that could be falling on my, well ours, if I count Grex, position any moment.
I knew that I couldn’t bring myself to fight my own brothers so I needed to find a way out. Grex didn’t particularly like that idea but it seemed that for the moment I had complete control over my body so his opinion didn’t matter at the moment. I started heading in the opposite direction of where the larger ork had gone, figuring that that orks tend to run towards combat and therefore not the way to go.
I kept running out of the haphazard shack and took a small step down and then I was running on dirt, still amazed at the speed and stamina of my new body. Grex grunted in approval. Again, saying this in my head. Trusting my instincts and the fact that battle noises were reducing. I was actually starting to enjoy loping along at an incredible pace with hardly any strain. That was when I ran into another group of boys who ignored me in their bloodlust to get to the front. I had no such desire for bloodshed and it appears that the orks sprinting in the opposite direction had no desire for me to join them either so we ignored each other and kept running. The experience was disconcerting to say the least, I was terrified for a second when I first saw them but I didn’t have that adrenaline rush I had grown accustomed too. Even though I knew I was scared in my head, I didn’t have the natural reaction I had come to expect after years in the front line. An ork body was going to take a while to get used too.
I finally broke out into open ground and was stunned to see the rest of the ork compound, I had never been inside one when it wasn’t covered in Imperial guardsmen scourging the compound of all Ork presence. I saw what was unmistakably the warboss. He was almost black with age and 3 meters tall. Apparently his eyes didn’t grow in size with the rest of his face and he appeared almost comical from that one development. If the strangely small eyed head hadn’t been attached to something that could dispatch several Astartes simultaneously in close combat I would have laughed. I didn’t need Grex to warn me not to mention the eyes to realize that making fun of a warboss would hardly be a prudent decision. Until I understood more about Orks society and how I was going to survive even the next few minutes and the coming imperial assault, I wasn’t going to be poking fun at any of the orks. I did know enough about orks to understand that something strange was happening if the Warboss was standing idly in the camp that was under assault.
“What’s wrong with him? If the boss stands there any longer he’s going to have more to deal with than just humans” said Grex
I could see he was right and that his entourage of Nobz did indeed look about ready to mutiny. As soon as we had both thought this, the Warboss said something to the nobz and one they started running towards the sound of battle that had been getting steadily louder the whole time. I noticed an abandoned sword on the ground and picked it up just to be safe. As I looked up one of the nobz motioned to me to follow. I didn’t particularly feel like following a bunch of crazed orks into battle and so I ran in the opposite direction towards another building in the building, I had no idea what might be in there but it was probably safer than being out in the open under the scrutiny of the warboss, even Grex agreed with that assessment. The nob who had motioned didn’t particularly like my idea and motioned again, then followed me when I ignored. This wasn’t looking good.
The building that I ran into was filled with all sorts of machine parts. “Mek’s shop,” Grex told me unnecessarily. The mek shop was filled with lower level orks, Grots, I remembered from some course I’d taken a long time ago. That was all I remembered however and I regretted my moments of inattention, but I never expected myself to be this close to orks without a gun.
The gretchin looked at me with trepidation, but I ignored them and tried to find a place to hide but in lieu of that, a large caliber pistol was lying on a bench and I grabbed it and kept running through several chambers but I could still hear what sounded like an avalanche chasing me as it appears the Gretchin were pointing out to the larger ork where I was going. The nob was probably so mad at this point that simply following him and slinking off later wasn’t an option.
“you’re right about that one humie, he’s as angry as a hungry squiggoth now” grimly replied Grex
Well, only one way to end this I thought and hid behind the door frame reading to pounce as the nob ran by. I didn’t have to wait long as he came barreling past the door frame I was waiting behind and he took a spray of bullet in the back for his lack of caution.
“At least the gun works,” I thought to Grex, but I didn’t register his response as I had an enraged but apparently unharmed nob faced me. I was the finest swordsman in my division and I was in a massively more effective body than the one I used to occupy so my chances seemed considerably better than they normally would have been if I was squaring off against an ork sergeant.
“nob” Grex added annoyed
“whatever”
It’s a good thing whatever procedure the mad dok had done to me left me with my sword skills as the hundreds of hours of spent dueling when I was just a spoiled noble's son left the ork at more of a disadvantage than he could have known.
The ork had been trying to intimidate me with his size and even from this distance, smell. Now he gave up and charged me, swinging his massive two handed ax down at me with the force of a seargent’s powerfist. I dodged the first blow easily but the ork recovered extraordinarily fast to swing again, taking a chunk of flesh out of my thigh, an apparently unimportant part of my thigh as I didn’t feel hardly any pain. The nob did leave an opening and suffered a jagged gash to his fore arm.
Blood was leaking down my leg in significant quantities and I realized that I must be more injured than I felt and the lack of pain must be part of unusual ork physiology. If I didn’t finish this fight quickly I probably wouldn’t get a third chance at life. I had no idea how many bullets I had left but I tried the trigger again and shot the nob twice more in the chest. The bullet wounds were starting to have an effect on him as his reactions slowed and I left a slice on his back after he tried again to rush me. This slash left ribs exposed and the ork bellowed in pain. I decided it was time to end this and parried twice then brought my sword crashing down on the nobs thick skull, inflicting a mortal wound to even these hardy creatures.
“Nice fight, I thought we were dead for sure.” Grex added, obviously impressed
I looked at my leg and was amazed to see it had practically stopped bleeding and all I felt was soreness, not even real pain. Instead of an 8 inch gash in my leg, it felt like I’d gotten a nasty kick. No wonder orks fought through such terrible injuries, they really can’t feel it.
“We always wondered the same about humans; your race becomes to hurt to fight far too easily.
Since my leg wasn’t hurting too bad my next goal was to get out of the ork base and back into imperial hands. Though he wasn’t sure how they’d accept him. The Ordo Xenos would most definitely qualify him as worthy of purging.
I hurried out of the now empty mek shop, all the gretchin had hidden after they heard fighting, back into the open courtyard in the middle of the ork base. The warboss still remained in the middle, searching the sky with his beady eyes. His behavior just seemed so wrong for Orks that all his instincts told him to be careful. So he moved to a hiding place right outside the mek shop behind some scrap metal and tires and waited.
He saw a piece of glass beside his hiding place and caught his reflection. A broad green forehead, large yellowing fangs, small beady eyes, this was his world now. His old comrades would never accept him he realized. There would be no welcoming back from the dead and donning the imperial eagle again. He would have to serve as best he could from this side of the front line. Just as this thought struck him a shuttle appeared from just over the wall and landed in the courtyard. The warboss clambered aboard and was talking to the pilot, well more like screaming orders at the pilot.
“If you want to live, I’d get on that ship. We’ve got a couple killkroozers in orbit and this must be a shuttle to them, maybe he’s giving up on this world, or maybe just this continent. Either way, you need to get on that shuttle.”
Dantrith then did the bravest thing he had ever done. He sprang up from his hiding place and ran pell-mell across the courtyard in the middle of the fort, not a second too late as the ramp had started to close. Just as it appeared it would be too late he dove for the lessening crack and rolled down the raising ramp into the stolen imperial shuttle. It looked like a diplomatic shuttle; he shuddered to think how the orks had acquired it. He couldn’t exactly be quiet about his entrance and the warboss turned and stared at me in surprise. The warboss threw his head back at laughed at the small ork sprawled bleeding on the floor in front of him.
“Smart one we got here”
After that he ignored me, preferring to stay up front and micromanage the mekboy pilot. I huddled in the back corner and nursed my wounds, the cut in my leg was still hurting, though it definitely looked well on its’ way to healing. The cut on my arm from the falling ceiling was barely worth mentioning as well as another cut on my left shoulder from something else that I didn’t even notice it when it happened. Ork physiology was incredibly resilient, it’s like he’d spend his whole life fighting in a body that was poorly designed for the task, now he reveled in battle. His new body was a veritable dreadnought in its endurance, strength, and durability. Even though he was slightly slower than before, the other benefits far outweighed the detractors.
I looked through the shuttle window and saw space beckoning to our little ship. The shuttle continued to speed up as it broke the atmosphere and made its way towards a large ork vessel in space.
“that’s the HAND OF GORK” Grex told me as we approached the massive vessel. What the ship lacked in grace, it made up in size. The warboss had been generous with his mek, supplying them with enough metal to fabricate the monstrosity that grew ever larger as they approached. It was terrifying to imagine that three such vessels loomed around the planet.
“Don’t worry too much about that human, The HAND OF GORK is the largest by far and held most of his forces before they were teleported down to the planet. The boss didn’t trust anybody with enough power to hurt him, so his big ship is the majority of his fleet”
“How do you know all this Grex? I though most orks were barely sentient until they became bigger.”
“Well the dok didn’t pick us at random, there’s all kinds of oddboys out there, a few of us happen to figure things out. What good is a warrior race without tacticians?” said Grex
“That does make sense,” I responded
“We tend to be on the runtier side though, so almost none of us make it past being boys, but the one’s that do, they’re the best Bosses.” Grex added proudly
I suppose it must be tough I thought, being small in this society, he had already seen what could happen and he’d only been an ork for a matter of hours. I felt kind of sad for Grex, knowing that he must have been lonely as one of the few intelligent orks alive.
I jumped when Grex shouted in my head
“I can hear you! you stinking humie, don’t sympathize with me!”
I carefully made sure to think my thoughts in the part of my head that the proud ork did not have access to and vowed to stay away from the remnants of the ork’s brain as much as possible. I had obviously upset him quite a bit, breaking into regular orkish despite not needing to force words out of jaws instead of a mouth.
We continued to approach the ship and arrived in a matter of minutes. Despite leaving behind his retinue of nobs, the Warboss seemed particularly happy to be on board.
“He left them on purpose, they were getting big heads, the lot of them were putting on muscle to challenge him, he left the planet to them for a reason. Any ork could see where it was going, including him.” Said Grex “he’s just going to leave them here to tie up the humans while we go onto somewhere else. Most of the Waagh is still in space, so he won’t even be losing much. Our Boss is a smart one alright”
“What’s his name? You keep just saying boss” I asked
“oh, it’s Nashbrig, but he hates his name, so we always call him boss and that’s how he likes it so no one calls him Nashbrig.” replied Grex
The shuttle touched down heavily and the gate flew down and the boss strode out of it, the essence of violence exuding from him, Dantrith understood how Waaghs happened. His host body felt alive when he was near the boss. Space marines frightened him but as an ork he was violence made real. the psychic powers of the boss were staggering this close to him, he knew his life could never go back, he had only one future. Grex exulted inside him and as I finally admitted to myself what the future held.
"Only War"
And there it is! Chapter 1, possibly 2 as I might divide it on a further edit. But leave a comment on your favorite part, or if your a fluff fanatic, a helpful bit of ork trivia would be great to incorporate.
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