Chp 11: Last Stop Locomotive

Location: Squat land train armed to the gills

----

'Aye yummie wayke up'

Adam watched through his eyelids as a lightbulb swung above him from side to side.

'Wayke up you sleep arder then me ole nann'.

Adam opened his eyes, only to see to the bulbous noser face of Skalfi leaning down over him inches from his eyeball.

'Yooh ginna ley all day lil ummie'.

Adam rolled off the bunk he was laying on. Placing two feet on the floor before unsteadily getting to his feet.

'Who are you people' inquired Adam smiling.

Another man in the corner replied, in the process of field stripping a strange pattern of las rifle, one Adam had never seen before despite Kaldor and his many forays through the ruins and remnants of many a eviscerated imperial guard regiments.

'We are the exploratry host of the great thurian league'.

'But I am Kôrv Ȗrann of the einhyr hearthguard, while ove-r thee is me half brother Skalfi a hearthkyn warrior'. Replied Kôrv.

'Are you part of the imperium' asked Adam.

'Uh ... Aye laddie kind of but we seldom leave the core world dooonwn't we, ever heard of the kin'.

'No, are you some form of rare abhuman' asked Adam quizzically'.

'Now look here big ummie, we are the proud kin...'

'You're squats' Adam burst out remembering that Kaldor had mentioned some similar looking small hardy fellows before.

Skalfi burst up visually steaming, Kôrv intercepting him halfway as he rushed over to strangle Adam.

'Aye lad don't use that word we don't take kindly to it'. Said Kôrvs holding the battling Skalfi back.

'Hold me back Skalfi I'll fucken twat the lil wanker'.

'I'm sorry' said Adam flabbergasted.

'Calm down Skalfi remember what the kid said earlier he's never been out of the warp he couldn't have known.

Skalfi's short man anger receded stomping off to the other side today, back to tinkering with some unknowable gizmo spitting steam and crackiling with electricity.

'Whatever' said Skalfi begrudgingly.

'Come Adam I need you to talk to our leader'.

----

'Mmmmmmmm' said Ymmê staring at Adam as if she was measuring him up, sitting across from him.

'Mmmmmmmmhhhhhhmmmm'

Getting up she circled him, grabbing him by his ears, poking him in the chest, finally opening his eyes wide.

'Oi' said Adam.

Sitting back down across from him.

'I heard that you think we're in ter warp, and not just any part of ter warp, you say we're smack dab outside Khornes howm'.

'We kin knooow little of ter warp, for few of us are affected we are, only ter fall of Cadia brought us out of our isolation and into the issue caused by the great rift'. Rattled off Ymmê.

'What year are we in' asked Adam, 'if I get back to my mentor he'd want to know'.

'We were in the year 999. M41 weren't we Kôrv' said Ymmê.

Aye we were, before we entered, immaterium space, it's been two weeks now according to our chronometer but if we're in the immaterium that may not be that accurate if we return to the materium'. Answered Korv looking tired a worn out.

Deciding to trust the kin Adam spoke up. 'I don't know anything apart from what my mentor told me, but last I knew we are in the realm of brass and blood, in the open somewhere in the hunting planes of his realm, I was on my way to the palace, I got separated from my mentor and it's the only way for me to get out without him. If you don't believe me go look closer at the nearest demon the fire and metal colour schemes is a pretty sure indication of a khornite demon out here'.

'Fair enough hummie we believe you, just we need t know what t do nxt, you say Khornes palace is a way out' said Ymmê

'As far as I know, I've pretty much given up, because as it was explained to me I didn't expect to make it but I was still going to try' replied Adam 'I don't have any other options left'.

'I told you what I said t Skalfi his hearth burns bright' said Kôrv.

Walking to a porthole Adam looked out over the battle raging in the distance, wincing as a particularly large explosion threw orkz and demons alike into the air after a manically laughing weird boy overloaded some convulted contraption it had duck taped together in a flash of green lightning and fire.

'Waaaaaaaggghh' echoed in the distance.

'How did you guys get here I've never seen another human after from my mentor my entire life'.

Ymmê looked away embarrassed before saying quietly '.... we made a mistake, I made a mistake, hate clouded all of our judgement'.

She turned to Adam beginning her story.

'We had begun to disengage an Ork rok, three standard months after leaving, hold world crimson gulf, near ter Ork held world of Golgotha'.

'Our shields were holding well enough as we turned out of the engagement but coming round we saw a sigil one we thought gone.

Morboks symbol ... the great iron headed Ork skull the sigil of the empire of scrap'. Ymmê and Kôrv both spat fat globules of spit either side of them.

'Our league and many others had persued the warboss and exterminating him and his waaargggh root and stem for their great slight against our people'.

'Seeing the symbol of our great enemy we saw red it was like a great veil came down, our guns firing before any command was given, engines brought to full ahead, charging us head on towards the Ork rok'.

'We defeated them, but at ter cost of near critikal damage to our ships shields as it took us ramming ter rok' t silence the firing of its guns. What we didn't seey was that t orkz had activated their method of warp travel, ope-ening a portal around both our void craft which destabilized right next to the maelstrom'.

'We entered ter warp gellar shields down, and immediately demons came out of all the rafters, us three only survived, by actervating this land train out into the currents of the warp'. 'We landed ere some toime after but as you can see we took sum damage and have bin stuck ere ever since'.

'Im sorry for what happened... What kind of damage did you suffer' asked Adam.

'Its repairable but we're missing a few parts for the power plant which were damaged when we crashed here, there's not much point though if what you says true'.

Adam went quite, thinking for a moment before saying 'When I said I didn't think I'd make it I didn't say it was impossible just not easy, throughout Khornes citadel are portals running to demon worlds and into the web way of we can get to the web way we have a shot of getting out but we have to get though the battle ahead of us and all of Khornes champions whilst we search for a portal. My plan was just to try and sneak in but to be honest I don't think I would have made it'.

'What are our chances with the train' asked Kôrv.

'Even if it's armed to the gills low' relied Adam seriously 'but it's the only option'.

'AAAAhHAHAHahahgahaa' laughed Ymmê.

Both Adam and Kôrv looked at her shocked from the sudden outburst, Skalfi pocking his head in.

'Ahahhaahahaha, were going on a ride through hell'. Holding her head in her hands one wild eye sticking out between her shaking fingers.

Whooping wildly she said 'Boys get your exosuits on, we have some parts to find'.

Both Kôrv and Skalfi adopting menacing grins as three pairs of daunting red eyes flashed on in front of Adam.

'Gulp'.