It was undoubtedly a desperate move. Inquisitor Ferrier sprung into his ornithopter and slammed the cockpit hatch down. He streaked up into the sky and away to Hive Primus. The ambient radiation in the Wastes was not enough to really hurt him for the short time he was exposed, but it was enough to disrupt his long range coms.
He'd talk to Lord Helmawr when he reached the Spire and get him to send out a force to sweep the area. In the meantime he hoped his plan would at least keep the spread of the cancer contained.
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Dust blew through the settlement, it piled on window sills, it stuck to exposed skin, it wore down structures and it gummed up machinery. The worst thing it did was make you cry, even with the goggles on it got in and it got in your eyes.
Tiny waited with the rest of his boys. Sellistown may have been a dump, but it was their dump and Sellis Plasteelers were going to keep these scum bags out. Leroy had slipped the man who had told them about their rivals some coin for the information and then sent the wanderer to safety. The Plasteelers were thankful that the man had come along when he did.
The intruders were trying to get some sort of spy into their town and that was not going to happen if Tiny could do anything about it.
The boss went to the right and Rips and Giga went left with Tiny covering them. The sand choked reclamation station was between them and the enemy. The enemy headed right through it.
Tiny heard the first blasts ring out, the discernible sound of the stub cannon rose above the screeching wind and Tiny smiled despite the tears blurring his vision. "Scratch one interloper," he said as he moved around the corner to see what was shaking.
He did get his first look at one of their foes, but that foe was not laid out on the ground with a stub hole blown through him. He was smashing paired chain-cleavers through the little armour that Rips had on him. Giga was already down.
Tiny didn't have much time to think about it, he launched a grenade their way and then he saw their main target, the spy the old man had warned them about, run right past him. The boss was firing to his right, plasma alternating with stubber rounds was bound to making someone's day worse.
He let loose with another grenade as the spy went running past. This shot went wide also but not by as much. He heard the boss move around the ancient bunker to his rear moments before he heard the whining buzz of an electric motor. He ducked just in time to avoid the buzzing blade that whipped over his head.
Diving to the ground he fired one more shot from the grenade launcher while prone. This time his aim was true, or true enough, and the grenade exploded near the spy. In a crackle of energy the disappeared and then reappeared 20 feet away from where he had been.
The shock must have been too much for him though, and the spy went running off. With most of his gang in tatters, Tiny stood up and took to his heels as well, managing to help the boss up from where he had been mauled by one of the enemy.
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It wasn't hard to track the spy down later. With the intruders having to search for their ally more circumspectly in the Goliath settlement, the Plasteelers were easily able to find the agent and chain him up.
He seemed to not be a spy so much as a messenger. From what little they could get from him it seemed that there were elements in the town that were ready to rise up against the Goliaths and claim the town in the name of a House Tiny had never heard of.
"There's new gangs about all the time," he said to Giga, "But new houses? Have you ever heard of the House of Khorne?"
"Not me," said Giga.
"Me either," agreed Tiny.
"Oi! Yelled the boss, "Keep them peepers rolling, spuds!"
Giga shrugged his massive shoulders and wandered away from Tiny. Tiny stayed under the bell tower. He had a pretty good view of the door where they were keeping the prisoner while the enforcers from Hive Primus sent someone to collect him.
He looked over his shoulder and saw something, movement? Movement it was indeed. One of those horn-helmeted freaks from House Khorne was lurking behind the wall. He looked back and saw the rest of his gang scattered between the casement and the Residence.
He heard the report of shots from behind him and spun around to see another one of their men shooting at him.
"Boss! They're here!"
The gang sprang to life running towards his position. The boss was running past the casement when one of the savages emerged from it and attacked him from behind. The boss took his lumps and then turned around and smashed the cretin to the ground.
Tiny tried turned around again to draw a bead on the one he had seen but he wasn't quick enough and the man was on him. In quick succession the twin blades cut though the suspensor, dropping his grenade launcher from his arm and then his armour splashing his blood all over the bell tower that had given him cover from the blazing sun above.
As Tiny went down his assailant, instead of tiring from the effort, seemed to be invigorated by the blood that had been spilled and ran forward.
The wounded Goliath tried to retain consciousness holding himself off the ground with one army and holding his insides in with the other. He watched as one of the enemy slipped into the jail and while the rest of the gang was kept away from it, soon emerged with the prisoner and made their way away. With the prisoner freed and little left to fight over the combatants separated and went their own ways.
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The Plasteelers licked their wounds and concentrated their position, they were too weak now to prevent the revolution that was going on in Sellstown. Pretty soon the residents that had staying loyal to House Goliath and those that had gone over to House Khorne had carved the town into two parts.
The line of the two segments was the ancient town wall, or the remains of it, that divided the town into Newtown and Oldtown. The upstarts had even erected their own altar just over the border.
Leroy was feeling better than any of the rest of the gang and went out to keep the enemy honest. They had sent one of their own out and the two stared each other down. Leroy offered insults to the insurgent but the man said nothing back, his only response a low growl that echoed from his helmet in an unsettling way, the noise audible on this oddly windless day.
Soon the rest of the Plasteelers were moving up to support the boss. Leroy was encouraged that his boys were back on their feet. He could hear movement on the other side of the wall and backed away from the door in it with the intention of shooting anyone that came through.
He then heard the amplified battle cries, more like anguished screams, of the enemy as they came at full clip from Oldtown. His attention was stolen for only a moment when the door he was covering was kicked open and the reports of gunfire exploded in front of him. He felt the sting of the bullets as they pinged off his armour and torment of them where they sunk into his augmented flesh.
He dove down and was only dimly aware of the rest of his men firing their weapons off in every direction.
He stumbled to his feet and his assailant had advanced on him and was firing again, more rounds ripping through his flesh. This time he managed to stand and blasted the little freak with his plasma combi.
With the grit that was covering his body being washed off by the blood pouring out of him he became aware that his side was losing. All of the people of Sellistown would be watching now, they couldn't lose this. He strode past the writhing form of the enemy on the ground, rolling this way and that with his plasma burns and strode towards the enemy's altar.
He cast a glance over his shoulder, Tiny was still standing in defiance of the insurgents he stood before the massive plasteel skull hanging from chains that was the symbol of the Plasteelers.
There was no one between him and the altar now and he hurried towards it. The pain from his injuries was intense and his heart beat pounded in his ears. He didn't hear the footsteps as they moved rapidly towards him.
He did feel the blade as it skewered the outside portion of his left thigh. He turned, tearing a chunk of meat from his thigh where the blade was sticking out. The little freak he had hit with his plasma pistol was standing. Impossible!
It was his last thought before the man stabbed him again and he lost consciousness.
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With the very public shaming they had suffered at the hands of the Corpse Grinders, the Plasteelers had to go underground. Many of the residents that had remained loyal to them went over to the enemy, most out of necessity rather than an actual change of heart.
It was only weeks before the last of Newtown was in the hands of the House of Khorne.
And Giga knew it would only be a matter of time before their whereabouts would be discovered.
Das Bunker was an old outpost dating from the earliest days of Imperial rule on Necromunda. Giga and the others took turns prowling around the area after dark trying to get a feel for how much control the enemy had of the area immediately around them. As far as being stealthy the Goliaths were about as useful as wings on a brick. After only five terran standard weeks of hiding their location was discovered and soon the Corpse Grinders were after them.
They had set up some quick defensive works, as much as they could. Giga took position on the tower by Das Bunker and tried to keep everyone inside to just keep pumping rounds into the enemy until they were overrun.
As good as the Goliaths were at fighting, these usurpers were masters.
But almost as soon as the attack began the boss yelled, "That's the blighter there!"
He ran out and smashing himself against the wall of the hab that the enemy was in. Fire bust from the window and as the boss ducked from that one of the enemy came up behind him. Giga watched as the man's first strike racked down Leroy's back. The Goliath leader's mouth opened in a scream silenced by the intensity of the pain. The next blade caught him in the hamstring and down Leroy went to his knees. The man used one of his paired cleavers to push the boss's head to the side by his metal mohawk before slicing into the neck with the other savagely severing the skull from the trunk. With no muscles controlling it the plate armour of the Goliath dragged his body forward and there was a small dust cloud as he smashed into the ground.
A grenade exploded near the Corpse Grinders as Tiny moved up, but he was not quick enough and one of the Chaos cultists caught him from behind too. The man's paired cleavers cut off one of Tiny's legs and the other caught the Goliath in the flank as he fell onto the stroke. The blades whirled shooting gore over the ground and both combatants before the insurgent kicked the body of the Goliath clear of his weapons.
Ripa fired knocking one of the enemy from their feet. Both he and Giga moved towards that man in the hopes of fleeing in that direction but the man rose from the ground and soon their were more of the enemy all around them. Giga turned and ran towards the smallest of the foe that had followed him and heard Ripa scream from behind. He did not turn to look.
The man fired almost point blank as Ripa came bellowing towards him. The bullet pinged off of his armour and with the adrenaline pumping through his veins the Goliath could not even feel it.
With his stub cannon held like a club, Ripa went to crush the smaller man's skull but some forced prevent the gun from swinging.
As he turned he saw the paired cleavers of one of the cultists crossed over the grip of the weapon. With muscles bulging and veins standing out he man was holding the weapon in place.
Ripa pulled him off balance with his superior strength but then felt his legs go numb and saw four inches of serrated palsteel poking out of his stomach before disappearing from his body.
His lower half was not collapsing yet, but it was not obeying his commands as he saw the four inches appear again from another point. As it disappeared yet again his knees gave way and the last thing he saw was the world spinning as his head tumbled from his shoulders to the ground.
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