Home Fires – Chapter Thirty-Three: Duel
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Antonius watched as the titanic monstrosity came on.
Standing on the roof of the highest building in the canning district, and even as far away as it was, the Gargant dwarfed him. He had to look up slightly to see its jagged visage. It almost seemed to be smiling. Typical Ork construction.
“Ready demo charges.” Antonius voxed. Chirps and acknowledgements replied.
***
Within the monstrous head of the Gargant, Sandrip Brandyn’s heart beat so loud he could hear it in his ears. He had gotten used to the swaying motion that the Gargant employed to propel itself forward, but he couldn’t get used to the death. So many of his kinsmen lay dying. And he had to smile. Smile and laugh. He was, after all, the King of Altea subduing vile usurpers.
Brandyn rubbed his sore elbow. The jet that slammed into the Gargant had toppled him. Gitsmasha had gotten a good laugh out of that. His minders had helped him to his feet. The canning district loomed large in the eye window. A stomach-churning hum filled the air as Mork’s Gaze charged and fired. The world was stained red as the hideous beam filled the entire window with crimson light. Brandyn hadn’t seen what they hit. It didn’t really matter. He rubbed his tired eyes and gazed out once more.
There was something on the roof of the approaching warehouses.
Something deep blue.
Humanoid figures stood defiant along the edge of the tallest building. One held a banner, fringed in green, with a bright blue flame in the center.
“There he is!” Brandyn shouted. “Captain Antonius! The leader of the rebels! Fire all weapons! Destroy him!” Brandyn gritted his teeth and tensed his neck muscles.
The blow came, as expected. An old hand at this, Brandyn instinctually went limp. His head careened off the rusty diamond-patterned metal of the floor. Black surrounded the center of his vision. Blood trickled from his mouth.
That wasn’t so bad. Brandyn thought.
“You don’ give ordahs on MY Gargant, Humie King.” Gargatok Gitsmasha barked.
“My apologies, tallest one.” he slurred. He had to stay awake. He bit his tongue hard. Pain sent lightning to his brain. “But that is what we came here for, yes? To slay this impudent upstart?”
“I ain’t gonna slay ‘im.” Gargatok said, filling Brandyn’s stomach with ice. After a brief pause, Gargatok shouted “I’m gonna KRUMP ‘IM! WIF ME BARE ‘ANDS! AN’ ALL ‘IS BEEKIES TOO!”
Cries of WAAAAAGH filled the command deck. The ice in his stomach melted. The plan was working.
“Of course. I appreciate a hands on approach. You, my Lord, are a wise ruler.”
Gargatok smiled.
Wide.
He usually barely tolerated Brandyn’s flattery. This was unusual. Brandyn’s countenance fell. Gitsmasha must have taken that as a cue.
“Wise enough to know you called dat Beekie on da talkie-box.”
Brandyn’s eyes popped.
“Yer,” Gitsmasha continued. “…I know youse da one wot put ‘im up ta dis. Wot, you fink I’m stupid? You jus’ appen to ‘ere somefing dis Beekie sez. Afta you been sneakin’ away from yer tent at night.”
Brandyn’s body went into a full shiver. He couldn’t stop it.
Gitsmasha chuckled. “So, whatcha got ta say fer yerself, king?”
Something bright sparked in Brandyn’s mind.
“The Emperor Protects…” he whispered.
“Really?” Gitsmasha shouted. “Les see if ‘e does…”
***
The Gargant finally thudded to a halt before the factorium. Antonius and his command staff held their weapons at the ready.
A creaking noise was audible from above.
Something flew from the top of the Gargant’s head. Antonius took it to be an explosive of some kind for a brief moment before flailing arms and legs began to emerge. The object flew in a short arc, landing just past the edge of the roof.
A man’s body. Clad in a tattered purple cape. A crown made of scrap metal rolled from the corpse, leaving a trail of blood. The crown rolled in a lazy circle and came to rest in a crack in the plascrete.
Sandrip.
A cruel laugh filled the air.
“’Ere’s yer king back, Beekie! ‘E’s a little beat up, tho!”
Antonius’ mouth tightened to a line of white hot rage.
“GITSMASHA!” he shouted, unaided by vox. “FACE ME!”
The hideous groan of hydraulics filled the air as several of the armour plates in the black-stained chest of the Gargant gave way. Antonius and his brothers dashed backwards as a wall of metal fell. The Gargant’s chest became a gangway, connecting it to the rooftop with a sickening crunch of smashed plascrete.
Orks flooded out.
“For the Emperor and Atrus!” Antonius shouted.
The roof filled with fire as the hidden Aggressors emerged from the fake vents they had been in.
***
Gitsmasha roared.
He hadn’t expected a Beekie Cap’n to go down easy, but his lads were getting cooked.
“Send in da Meganobs! An’ get outta my way!” he shouted as he made his way to the ramshackle gantries within the Gargant. As he descended, gretchin and meks swarmed everywhere, seeing to the maintenance of the Gargant’s byzantine systems. Gargatok revved his huge choppa and cleaved a grot that was too slow to flee in half. The noise of battle awakened the instinctual fury of his blood as he approached the hatch.
There he was. Antonius. Gargatok’s vision went red.
“WAAAAAAAAGH!”
***
Antonius slew Ork after Ork. His flaming sword chopped the greenskins apart like wheat.
To his horror, huge Nobs clad in boxy metal armour charged, firing wildly.
“CHARGE!” Antonius ordered. The command squad and the Agressors met the Nobs head on. One with two massive buzzsaw hands barreled straight for him. Two precise swings severed its hands and a third took its surprised face off. All around him, the tumult of battle swelled.
A deep bellow brought his attention to the Gargant. Sure enough, there he was; Gargatok Gitsmasha. Clad in blue, just as Antonius was. Somehow the din of the battle faded. Antonius raised his shield and readied a combat stance.
“Father, I hope you foresaw this…” he whispered as he braced as hard as he could.
Antonius slid backwards as what felt like a freight train careened into his towering Storm Shield. Bullets whizzed by his face from a turret mounted gretchin above Gargatok’s shoulders. Antonius’ slide arrested. A buzzsaw-faced axe bit into the Azure Flame symbol on his left pauldron. Antonius’ flaming blade slapped it away. Antonius peered up to see Gitsmasha rearing for another attack. Nimbly stepping aside, he heard a thick whoosh as the giant axe sped through the place where his head had been. His blade made a loud thrum as he swung it in a flaming arc, scoring the square breastplate of Gargatok’s armour.
Gargatok grunted. “Good. I was ‘opin’ dis weren’t gonna be a short fight…”
“Shorter than you think!” Antonius said as he launched himself at Gargatok. A blur of blue fire split the air again and again, biting into Gargtok’s chest and Iron Gob. Gargatok laughed and raised a massive boot to Antonius’ chest, knocking him onto his back. The ping of small arms fire rattled his greaves and chest. Instinctually, Antonius rolled over, barely dodging another brutal overhand swing. Gargatok kicked out again to keep Anotnius down, but this time Antonius was prepared, doubling his roll and pushing off with the shield, righting himself as another round of gunfire laid into him. Antonius charged in and swept his sword upward. Two loud plinks announced the severing of support struts on the Big Shoota mounted on Gargatok’s shoulders. With a yelp, the gun pulled its gretchin gunner down with it and landed on the ground with an unceremonious thud.
Gargatok roared and brought the axe handle around to Antonius’ temple, gashing his forehead open with a spike affixed to the end. Antonius blinked through the blood that flowed over his eye as it crusted over almost instantaneously. Gargatok shuffled to the side, waiting for an opening. Antonius sensed this and peeked past the right side of the shield. Gargatok swung, but Antonius extended both arms as he sidestepped. With a spin, he deflected the blow with the crackling field of the shield and brought his sword down first, and then in an upward swing.
The blow sliced through Gargatok’s bulky shoulder and followed through, cutting the long haft of his massive choppa in twain.
Gargatok brought several tons of metal down directly on Antonius’ forehead in a massive headbutt.
Antonius heard his skull crack under the massive impact. He stumbled backwards, bringing his shield up. One-handed blows from the choppa rained on it, forcing it to the side. The circular blade of the axe bit into his chestplate, slicing into his reinforced sternum. Antonius shouted, swinging his sword blindly, only to catch air as Gargatok stepped back. Sparks and crimson blood emanated from the gash in his chest.
“Good fight, humie. I’s gonna take dat shield o’ yer’s an’ use it fer me new throne. Den I’m gonna take yer burny choppa an’ make it even more ded burny. ‘Ow ya like dat?” Gargatok taunted.
Antonius grinned. “How about you use the sword for your throne, you filth? Perhaps the flames can cover up your stench.”
“Stupid humie! Choppas ain’t good fer makin’ thrones! Too pokey!”
Antonius caught his breath. “Shut up and fight, Xenos.”
Gargatok grunted and choked up on his ruined axe haft. With its current length, it was almost a bladed knuckle for him. Gargtatok reached out with his now free hand, but Antonius smacked it away with the shield and brought the sword up in a threatening swat at Gargatok’s face. Gargatok’s axe punched at the sword, knocking it askew, then reared back for a haymaker. Antonius let his spine flow backwards, dodging the punch by millimeters, and then brought the wildly arcing sword around and up into Gargatok’s midsection. Gargatok coughed as the sword finally found purchase in his chest. The massive Ork somehow leapt away, cracking the plascrete under his boots as he landed. Gargatok charged again, using his free hand and the axe head in a blistering blur of punches. Antonius let his shield weather several and then met a punch head on with a full armed swing.
What was left of the choppa shattered, leaving Gargatok holding a ruined stick. His eyes went wide.
“For Altea!” Antonius shouted. He rained blows on Gargatok’s bulky frame, cutting huge gouges in Gargatok’s face, chest, and arms. Gargatok howled and fell back. Antonius pursued, but overextended a blow. A quick jab sent him reeling back. Antonius prepared for another hit, but was surprised to see Gargatok waving his arms at the Gargant, and shouting.
The ugly god-thing turned its face to Antonius.
Its titanic chainblade revved and came up, the edge parallel to where Antonius was standing.
Antonius opened his vox. “Charges! Now!”
As the massive weapon fell, an explosion rocked the world. Orange fireballs erupted around the Gargant. It faltered and fell to the side. The tank-sized chainsword deviated in its arc and sliced into the manufactorum. Dust filled the air as the titanic arm fell between Antonius and Gargatok. Both of them sprinted as the building shook. Antonius felt himself pitch forward as the roof collapsed. The entire building was falling apart like a split log.
Antonius jumped.
The speed of his dash, combined with the momentum of the building, propelled him through the air. Below him, the edge of the falling building ate into its neighbor, shattering the entire face of stained windows. Antonius brought up his shield as glass flew about him like rain. He rolled and skidded to a stop inside the neighboring building.
He looked up.
Gargatok Gitsmasha dangled precariously from the edge of the Gargant’s gangway. The thing still stood, though at an angle.
Antonius watched in horror as the gigantic mech righted itself. He opened a general channel.
“Antonius to all forces. Concentrate all fire on the Gargant! Bring it down!”
Noise and confusion answered him.
The defenders were in absolute disarray.
He had failed.