Mork's Will

Chapter 5

  "Zogdalf! Git ready, on my mark!" Gutchoppa could not contain his excitement, nor could the rest of his tribe.
  "Izzhe he sure 'bout this, boss?" Bloodtoof quipped, eyeing the dok's lab with a mixture of caution as he swigged from his fungus gin flask. "Might be a disappointment."
  "Alotta teef's been put into his work." Snikklaw responded. "I trust he knows wot he's doin' now."
  "ALROIGHT!" the dok yelled through the loudspeaker attached to his lab. "COMMENCE DA WAAGH ENERGY!"
  Instantly, the massive crowd surrounding the dok's lab began chanting and stomping. Zogdalf, stationed on the roof of the lab, placed his hand on the 'kondukktor' rod there, and gripped his copper staff with the other. The chanting and stomping got louder, and soon the crowd was awash in a green wave of psychic ork energy.
  "NOW, ZOGDOLF!" the dok shouted.
  The weirdboy raised his copper staff up into the air and closed his eyes in concentration. The WAAAGH power surged forth from the crowd and, like squig-sharks encircling a fresh kill, it closed in on Zogdalf and formed a large funnel cloud of crackling energy at the edge of his staff.
Gutchoppa glanced at the power reader on the monitor as it rose to 100%, then 600% and then to 1150%. When it reached up to 2000%, he flipped the switch on the control board in front of him. The kondukktor rod activated, drawing in the energy that Zogdalf conducted. If any other weirdboy had attempted this, he'd be liquefied from the intensity of the energy but Zogdalf was a veteran at channeling WAAAGH energy. He knew how to concentrate and let the energy flow through him, instead of trying to fight back at it. The funnel cloud decreased in size as the green electricity coursed through him and towards the kondukktor rod, where it travelled down on wires attached to the great carapace of Gutchoppa's creation.
  "ARISE!" Gutchoppa screamed in delight as the silhouette of a truly terrifying creature encompassed him. His assistant boyz cowered away, completely taken aback by the abomination as it rose to consciousness. One of them ran away in shock, and from the awakened creature a horrible mixture of crushing claw and metal shot out and impaled him. The other assistants dared not move as the creature reared its head, placed the impaled ork into its mouth and chomping down on it.
  Almost half the size of Gutchoppa's lab, it glowered at the greenskins, its neck moving with the fluidity of a giant snake. The metal plate that replaced half of its face was outfitted with large ocular lenses that served as its eyes, with a piston-operated jawbone geared with crude, iron teeth and a barbed tongue of xeno flesh and steel that darted out, tasting the air. It scanned the beeping monitors, the glass containers holding various xeno organs, and then it stopped at the painboy himself. The two gazed at each other, and then Gutchoppa snapped his fingers. The creature reacted with a deep growl that shook the lab's walls and could be heard by the rest of the greenskins outside.
  "By Mork, he's dun it..." Snikklaw whispered, his mind already concocting all the ways in which he could utilise the dok's new creations...

...

  "Make way! We have a criminal here!"
  The callous nature in which they ushered her down the street did not bother her. During previous days, Sarah had witnessed alleged heretics and mutants being persecuted and convicted in this manner. The news had spread like wildfire: the ork mobs that gathered outside Argus had diverted their course to a nearby Chaos planet. It was a breach of protocol for any citizens to have unauthorized access to a vox-caster, for risk of being deciphered by potential invaders.
  "Bring her forth." the intimidating voice before her belonged to a commissar and two possibilities ringed out in her head: either she'd get shot with a bolt pistol, or she'd be forced to confess her crimes and then she'd be shot with a bolt pistol. It didn't matter to her. She puffed out her chest and faced her fate with pride. "You are the one who broke into that warehouse and used a vox-caster without permission, is that correct?"
  "Yes sir." Sarah responded, her courage immediately waning while in the commissar's presence. Even without staring at his eyes, the officer's cap atop his head glared down at her with authoritative malice.
  "What possessed you to utilise the vox-caster?" wordlessly, his presence coaxed the answer from deep within her; a task not difficult to do with a child.
  "I did it to protect my mama and papa. They were in that platoon that was being sent to defend against the orks, sir."
  "You are aware all Imperial Guard regiments go through rigorous training and dedicate their lives to the Imperium, as well as any home planet they are stationed at. You know this."
Commissar Fredrick was a patient man. Other commissars were known to be ruthless and Fredrick was no exception, but even he knew that coldness and ruthlessness would only get people so far. When he was assigned to this planet, he wasn't expecting much, but the longer he stayed, the more amused he became at how creative at survival its denizens were.
  "At the time you were detained, that's when the orks changed their course to that Chaos planet." his response made Sarah jolt as the gravity of the situation finally set in within her. Would she be able to even see her parents again? How devastated would her parents be with her absence or imprisonment?
  "I...I just wanted my mama and papa to live..." she stammered.
  "What did you tell them?" Fredrick pressed on. "Orks do not simply change course with no reason, especially with someone like Snikklaw leading them."
  The commissar's mentioning of the warboss made Sarah perk up. No else was willing to talk about orks in a civilized manner, certainly not without a heavy tone of scorn and intense hatred.
  "I told them that we're not worth fighting." Sarah answered.
  Again, the room fell silent.
  "How did you know that would work?" the commissar's tone wasn't of annoyance, but of genuine interest.
  "Orks love fighting sir. Everyone knows that."
  The commissar cocked his head. "Snikklaw seemed to listen to you, and even was open to reason. No one else has accomplished this goal. Certainly not a young girl like yourself." Fredrick kneeled down to her, his unblinking, focused eyes staring right into hers. "Do you understand, young lady, that you just turned away an entire fleet of orks away from our position and bought us invaluable time, in one exchange without so much as a shot being fired off?"
  Sarah's young mind got a fraction of the concept Fredrick was explaining to her. The only thing she was concerned about was her mom and dad were alive and well. Her exchange with the warboss gave Fredrick and his battalion vital knowledge when dealing with greenskins, most specifically Snikklaw.

...

  Laz'Grul had time to think. The event known as 'Krumpmuss' came to a satisfying end, at least to him. Snikklaw was denied slaughtering his vessels, and the daemon knew the warboss would not forgive this transgression. He closed his eyes and in the darkness he could see multiple bright fissures appear. Within those fissures, he could witness the sights and sounds of his vessels, and he was delighted. Orks were his favorite prey and he was impressed by how well his servants performed against them.
  "Your Sanguine mead, sire."
  He opened his eyes and gazed down at the little daemon before him. Dressed in a red gown, clasping a goblet bigger than her head in both hands, she gazed up at him with golden eyes. He took the goblet from her hands and sifted it under his crooked nose.
  "Did you kill lots of greenskins, sire?" she asked, her total height barely reaching up to his shin.
  "Indeed, Tia." he responded with a leer. "They proved more than a worthy appetizer." he reached down with his remaining hand and scratched her head. "I transported them back to their home planet before they could take more of my vessels. Our brutish foe was denied his 'Krumpmass' and he will come back with a vengeance." he held up the stump where his left hand had been. "Do you see this, Tia?"
  His cupbearer grimaced at the stump. "The others tease you about that. Aren't you going to fix that...?" she asked.
  Their conversation was interrupted as the gates to his chamber burst open and one of his lesser servants shambled forth. A lowly servant from one of the numerous hive cities within Argus, Laz'Grul vaguely remembered his name was Sam.
  "SIRE!" Sam screamed out in a shrill voice. "The orks have mobilised a nefarious new machine! They have already taken two planets under your control; both Delta and Primus have fallen to their advances! We must___"
  His head was vaporized into a mist of hellfire as a tremendous explosion ripped and echoed through the room. Tia let out a squeak of surprise, covering her ears. When the smoke cleared, her eyes traced from the smoking corpse of what was once Sam to the glowing cannon that replaced her master's arm stump.
  "As I was explaining," Laz'Grul continued, transforming the cannon back to his stump arm in a cloud of flame. "there is nothing the greenskin brutes can throw at me I cannot handle." The daemon loved mysteries. He leered at what Snikklaw would throw at him next they crossed paths. "Let the others spread their flimsy rumors about my feats." He rose to his feet, his shadow eclipsing the smaller daemon. "Let us go for a walk, shall we?"
  He picked his cupbearer up by her cloak hood like a towel and tossed her onto his shoulder. They exited his lair and he bathed himself in the atmosphere of his home planet: a mighty forgeworld named Aurelius. He looked to his right and gazed upon the huge smokestacks that churned out the daemon-infused war machines that made up his army. Lining the path to his lair were the atrophied priests of the Imperium impaled on poles. "False prophets, all of them." He growled, taking in the scent of their charred flesh.
  "You let them escape, fool." Laz'Grul turned his head and grimaced at the presence that dripped of excess in his mind. He didn't need to see to know it was one of Slaanesh's lapdogs. "I expected greater from one of Khorne's chosen."
  He turned around to face a daemon just a foot shorter than him. "Zaani." he spoke, Tia feeling the contempt in his voice as he spoke. "this is not your planet. Go back to whatever fancy palace you came from, whelp."
  "You call yourself a warrior?" Zaani replied, his coattails floating and slithering like a snake. "You purposely sent your enemies away. And I thought Khorne relished in battle?"
  Tia knew exactly what was about to happen next and leapt off her lord's shoulder, hopping towards a hill overlooking the duel.
  "Oh, I love battle. More than I love chattering with perfumed, feeble harlots like you." Laz'Grul leered. "You do not know the thrill of bloodshed, and that's why you lot will always be lesser."
  A second pair of limbs emerged from Zaani's coat, their bladed appendages glimmering with purple energy. "We're done talking."
  Laz'Grul smirked, his taloned hands unclenching. "Likewise."