Uprising, page 24
Next, Grendl removed every piece of his own gear displaying the Vega Rams emblem and draped them over the corpse. The man was taller and thinner than Grendl, but that wouldn’t matter for long. With the strength of a man consumed by loss, Grendl reached into the exposed wall and ripped out a burning length of timber, which he dropped on the corpse.
Once the fire had engulfed the corpse from head to toe, Grendl kicked the body over the edge and watched it burn in the hole. As the flames licked at the dead man’s face, Grendl reached up to his shoulder and removed his banner-jarl’s badge of office. He stared at the insignia and recalled the names of the soldiers he’d lost this night. Then, with a vow of vengeance, he tossed the badge onto the flaming corpse.
Grendl turned from the blaze and looked at the dead man’s gear, which he needed to destroy. He picked up the tunic and stared at the unfamiliar House emblem – a strange ankh-like symbol that used an infinity symbol as the crossbar. ‘What House do you work for?’ he asked. ‘Who did this to us?’
‘Stay close,’ Grendl told Nikki as he strode towards the compound’s outer wall. He was determined not to repeat old mistakes. ‘Follow my orders without hesitation.’
Nikki had to quicken her pace to keep up with Grendl, despite being nearly a head taller than the squat hunter. He glanced at her as she caught up. Her bright eyes were now tightly focused under furrowed brows. Grendl saw no fear behind those eyes, though. Just a grim look of determination. There was more to this Orlock woman than he’d realised. They might just live through this.
Grendl aimed for an undamaged section of wall away from any breaches. ‘There’s a gap in the wall over there,’ Nikki said, pointing towards a corner of the compound.
‘That’s where the beasts want us to go,’ said Grendl. He glanced furtively between the breach Nikki had pointed out and several darkened streets and alleys that opened onto the plaza around them. He couldn’t see any mastiffs lurking in the shadows, but he could feel their presence.
‘We’re going over,’ said Grendl as he quickened his pace. They had one advantage over the metallic hounds. They could climb. It had saved them – barely – at the tenement building. It just might get them into and through the compound. But they had to get to the wall before the mastiffs figured out his plan.
Ten yards from the wall the howling began. ‘Run!’ yelled Grendl.
Grendl and Nikki sprinted towards the wall as the sound of metal claws against pavement echoed around them. The hunter strengthened his grip on his power hammer, leapt and drove it into the wall. Rockcrete sprayed from the impact. Grendl pulled himself up, grabbed the lip of the hammer hole with his fingertips, and reached overhead to slam the weapon home again.
Little by little, Grendl hammered and scrambled his way up the wall with Nikki close behind. The howls were almost on top of them, though, and Nikki’s legs were dangerously close to the ground. Grendl drove his hammer home one more time, but held there, hanging by one hand.
‘Hug the wall,’ he cried as he drew his boltgun. Nikki flattened her body against the wall as Grendl fired past her, taking out the lead mastiff. Most of the beasts stopped in their tracks, glancing at each other as if waiting for some other packmate to be the first to brave the firestick.
Two mastiffs near the front of the pack did just that. But as they loped forward, Grendl fired twice more, dropping the first one at the base of the wall and the second mid-leap. The back half of its metal body slammed into the wall next to Nikki, who, Grendl noted, didn’t flinch.
After that, the mastiffs kept their distance, giving Grendl and Nikki time to reach the top of the wall. While Nikki caught her breath, Grendl scanned the compound with his shoulder-mounted sensors, zooming in on likely spots for the munitions depot. Won’t be close to the wall, he thought. Somewhere near the mayoral residence but not attached. Most politicians like to keep the military close at hand but still at arm’s length.
‘Um… Mister Grendlsen?’ said Nikki behind him, a bit timidly. ‘Hello? Mister Grendlsen?’
The hunter ignored her and kept searching. They were safe up here. There! he thought, as the sensors focused on a set of three buildings. The one in the middle was long and low – the design of every barracks he’d ever called home. To either side of the barracks stood blocky, two-storey buildings that screamed military. One would be command and control, the other the armoury. Fifty-fifty, he thought. I’ll take those odds.
‘Grendl!’ hissed Nikki. ‘We have a problem.’
Grendl turned to his charge. ‘What else is new?’
Nikki pointed down to either side of their vantage. The dozen cyber-mastiffs that had followed them to the wall had more than doubled. Plus, another couple dozen now prowled the base of the wall inside the compound. ‘We’re trapped,’ said the Orlock woman.
‘No. We’re not,’ Grendl replied. ‘I have a plan.’ He turned and picked his way along the top of the wall. Below, the two groups of mastiffs followed along. Eventually, Nikki followed as well.
Grendl stopped near the breach that Nikki had pointed out earlier. Long ago, a gate had filled the space. Just inside the wall, a guardhouse still stood. He held up his hand and said, ‘Watch and do as I do.’
Grendl gauged the distance from the edge of the wall to the guardhouse and ran forward. He pumped his short legs for all the speed they could muster, and leapt. He arced through the air towards the top of the guardhouse, legs running in air. At the last moment, Grendl tucked, hit the roof, and rolled.
It was almost perfect, but his rolling momentum carried him too far and Grendl slipped over the far edge of the roof. As he fell, the hunter grabbed at the masonry with both hands. One block broke away from its mortar, dragging Grendl’s hand off the lip, but his other hand held. After a moment, he clambered back onto the roof.
‘Your turn,’ he yelled after standing up, but Nikki was already in the air. She hit, rolled, and came up in the centre of the roof. ‘Hmph,’ muttered Grendl, once again surprised by the aptitude of the young, so-called uphiver. ‘Well done.’
From there, the two of them made their way across the compound – rooftop to rooftop – towards the military buildings. Twice, they were forced down to street level when the buildings were too far apart to leap. Both times, Grendl scouted the route from door to door before they left the roof.
Once at ground level, Nikki would open the door so Grendl could toss a frag grenade into the street. In the commotion that followed, he and Nikki ran across the street into the next building and closed and barricaded the door behind them.
They made a good team and, by the time they reached the military buildings, Grendl felt like Nikki would make a decent partner – if only he could trust her. Still, he’d lived alone with his regrets and vengeance since the purge, and it felt good to be able to rely on someone else, if only because of mutual need.
‘One of those two buildings should be the armoury,’ Grendl said, pointing to the two-storey stone structures on either side of the barracks. One was intact, but the other had a large hole where the door should have been. ‘We’ll try the secure one first.’
Grendl and Nikki made their last leap to the top of the square building. Grendl slammed his hammer into the roof access door and they descended into the building. It was full of offices and file rooms. The first floor held a large conference room with a tattered map of the dome hanging on the wall, and a separate briefing room filled with chairs.
Outside, they could hear the howls and growls of the cyber-mastiffs closing in on their location. They had dispersed for a while after a grenade caught several of them in its blast. But now, it seemed as if they knew their prey had gone to ground, and so were approaching to surround them.
‘Quick,’ said Grendl. ‘We should make a break for the other building while there’s time.’
Nikki stopped and looked around the room. ‘I remember this building from the salvaged reports,’ she said, snapping her fingers. ‘The cyber-mastiff commander’s office is upstairs.’ She turned to head up the stairs.
‘No time,’ said Grendl. ‘Come on.’
‘Trust me,’ replied Nikki. ‘This is worth it.’
Grendl had had reservations about Nikki and this mission from the beginning, but she’d proved herself trustworthy during the infiltration. He nodded. ‘Be quick.’
Grendl went to the barred windows and watched for cyber-mastiffs, but kept his ears open for Nikki’s return – just in case. The metallic howling grew louder as he heard her rummaging around upstairs. Then everything grew quiet. The howling stopped and the scraping and slamming of drawers and doors ceased.
Grendl glanced at the stairs, but at that moment several packs of mastiffs emerged from the streets between the closest buildings and stalked towards the military base. The glow in their eyes told Grendl they intended to attack – soon.
‘Nikki?’ he called over his shoulder as he watched the mastiffs advance. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I am now,’ she said, coming up behind him so silently he almost jumped. No one ever got the drop on him like that. Who is this woman? he thought.
‘What were you doing up there?’ he asked aloud.
Nikki held up a strange piece of tech. It had a grip and trigger like a pistol, but instead of a barrel, it ended in a tiny radar dish. The design looked familiar to Grendl, but he couldn’t put his finger on where he’d seen anything like it before.
‘It’s a sonic modulator,’ Nikki said. ‘I had one our techs built based on schematics in the report, but I lost it in the hive quake.’
Grendl remembered the device sitting next to Nikki in the tunnel before the quake. He hadn’t seen it clearly then.
‘The cyber-mastiff commander had the original in her office,’ continued Nikki. ‘She used it to control the mastiffs.’
‘That one has been down here for decades,’ he said, noting the layers of dust and rust on the device. ‘You sure it still works?’
‘Should work long enough to get us safely to the next building,’ replied Nikki. She set the dials on the side of the sonic modulator, strode to the door and opened it. ‘Follow me.’
Outside, dozens of mastiffs howled and charged. Nikki pointed the modulator at the pack and pulled the trigger. Grendl didn’t hear anything, but he did feel a slight pressure in his inner ear. The cyber-mastiffs reacted immediately, however. Their howls and growls turned to yelps of pain as soon as Nikki pulled the trigger, and every single one turned tail and ran.
Nikki released the trigger as some sparks sprayed out the back of the device. She then sprinted into the street. ‘Come on,’ she called.
Grendl followed Nikki to the second building. She stopped inside the broken front wall and handed her satchel to Grendl. ‘Fill it with plastic explosives and primer cord,’ she said. ‘I’ll keep the mastiffs at bay with the modulator. Be quick. No telling how long this old thing will last.’
Grendl grabbed the bag and ran into the building. It was indeed the armoury. He yanked open cabinet after cabinet searching for the explosives. One cabinet held bandoliers of frag grenades, so he grabbed a spare. Another had bolter ammo, which he also snagged.
Finally, Grendl found the explosives stores. He opened the satchel and, deciding he shouldn’t toss ordnance on top of detonators, pulled out the bundle and set them aside. He filled the bag with putty-like bricks and rolls of yellow cord before grabbing the detonators again.
That’s when he saw the emblem imprinted on the detonators – the detonators Nikki had brought along for the job. It was a specialised ankh with the crossbar replaced by an infinity symbol!
Thoughts and questions swirled through Grendl’s mind. How did Nikki get these detonators? Was she part of the purge of the Vega Rams? A hired gun sent to kill him? If so, why was he still alive? She’d had plenty of opportunities to finish the job over the past few hours.
Grendl looked from the detonators to Nikki and back again. Could it be a coincidence? he wondered. The one piece of information he had gleaned about the purge in the years since was that it was ordered by a rival rogue trader, who killed Lord Gerrit to take over his territory. The purge was meant to prevent the Rams from retaliating. It was possible this rogue trader now supplied the Necromundan Houses with munitions – as Gerrit had done in the past.
‘Grendl!’ called Nikki. ‘We have to go. Now!’
In the distance, Grendl heard the howls of the returning cyber-mastiffs. He dropped the detonators in the satchel and slung it over his shoulder. ‘Coming,’ he called.
The questions could wait for now because one thing was certain: Grendl needed Nikki to get out of this accursed dome. At least he could keep an eye on her as they ran for the exit. For extra insurance, he grabbed a laspistol from a cabinet on the way to the door and stashed it inside his coat. In the end, Grendl did not believe in coincidences.
‘Let’s go,’ he said.
Nikki ran out of the building and down the street towards the main gate of the compound. A pack of mastiffs loped towards them but yelped and fled as soon as she fired the sonic modulator at them. Grendl scanned side streets and checked behind them for stray beasts, firing his bolter at any that charged.
After leaving the compound, Nikki turned and headed back towards the section of the dome where they had fallen earlier. A few turns past the building where they had holed up, Grendl saw the entrance to a dark, shadowy tunnel leading up and out of the dome. Behind them, the howls began anew.
A short way inside the tunnel, the light from the dome dimmed to almost nothing. Beyond was only darkness. Nikki stopped at the edge of the light and turned towards Grendl. The hunter fully expected her to come at him with her knife, but instead she handed him the sonic modulator.
‘Use this to keep the mastiffs off us while I set the explosives,’ she said. ‘It’s intricate work to blow open a hole without burying us. It will take time.’
Grendl nodded as he took the modulator.
‘We’ll need to retreat to a safe distance before I detonate them,’ added Nikki. ‘So, protect our backs.’
Nikki grabbed the satchel, grunting from the effort, and slung it over her back. Grendl watched as she trudged into the darkness, her blonde hair matted with sweat and dirt and her white jacket now looking more like an underhive rag than a fine uphiver’s raiment. Beneath her torn garments, Nikki’s taut tendons and rippling muscles flexed with a strength that had remained hidden earlier. The soft ‘uphiver’ Grendl had met earlier had been washed away in only a few hours, revealing a hardened underhive ganger.
The howls brought Grendl’s mind back to the task at hand. Whatever and whomever Miss Nikki Lyon might be, he needed her demolitions expertise – and she needed his battle skills – if they were to get out of this dome alive. For now, at least, they were partners.
Grendl retreated into the shadows and checked out the modulator. The controls were straightforward. Two dials set intensity and beam width. The intensity was set in the middle and the beam was at its widest radius, which had worked well to send large swaths of beasts running.
Grendl left the settings alone and waited for the cyber-mastiffs to arrive, boltgun in one hand and the modulator in the other. As soon as the first set of beasts ventured into the mouth of the tunnel, he steadied the bolter on his forearm and began firing. He dropped three mastiffs before the others charged. Pulling the bolter back, he raised the modulator and pressed the trigger. The rest of the mastiffs ran off, but the sparks showering off the modulator were increasing.
Grendl repeated this process twice more before the mastiffs grew wise to the trick. The howling trailed off to silence, but Grendl could see the beasts massing outside the entrance, waiting. He glanced up the tunnel to see how Nikki was faring. In the glow of a dozen flares, he could see her still setting explosives. Primer cord was strung in an intricate pattern across half of the far wall.
Grendl considered the mastiffs, who now guarded the mouth of the tunnel. He could move forward and disperse them with the modulator, but they would just come back, and he doubted the old tech would last much longer. He needed to clear the tunnel entrance once and for all before Nikki was ready to blow the wall. He had to finish the job.
‘Sometimes old tactics work the best,’ muttered Grendl. He set the modulator to full power and narrowed the beam to a pinpoint and then chuckled as he prepared a little surprise for the mastiffs.
Once he was ready, Grendl ran down the tunnel towards the cyber-mastiffs spread across the entrance. The beasts hesitated in the face of the modulator, which gave Grendl the opening he needed. He fired his boltgun at the mastiff closest to the tunnel wall and aimed the modulator at the beast next to it. The bolter shot detonated, ripping off the first beast’s forelegs and leaving a gaping hole in its metal chest. Under the intense vibrations of the narrow, max-powered sonic beam, the head of the other beast simply melted.
With that, however, the showers of sparks engulfed the modulator and it began smoking. The handle grew red-hot, forcing Grendl to drop it as he ran. He was almost to the line of mastiffs and they started to converge on him. He fired the bolter again, dropping another beast, and then pumped his squat legs as fast as he could.
After a harrowing moment of snapping jaws, Grendl was through the line and back into the domed city. He fired his bolter over his shoulder a few times as he ran to keep the closest mastiffs off his back, but the pack continued to gain on him.
Then, he saw it: a building ahead of him in his direct path. The entire pack was on his heels. Never slowing down, Grendl stowed his bolter and pumped his legs harder. Just before slamming into the wall, the hunter jumped into the air and hit the side of the building. Grabbing handholds he’d dug into the mortar earlier, Grendl scrambled up the wall and into the room where he and Nikki had rested.
