Where Nomads Fear to Tread

Josam could barely see the hand in front of his face, and he was having a hard time fighting off the impression that the whole world was pressing in on him. Urartu had led them back to where their encampment had once been only to find a small hive fallen from the sky instead of their tents and shacks. Access was easy. The walls were cracked in so many places it was just a matter of finding a hole big enough. Urartu had wanted to get inside and assess what could be plundered despite the protests among the few survivors of his nomadic band. He saw this as a treasure chest dropped from heaven and he intended to take full advantage of it. He was so eager that once he and An-Nur had made it inside that he hadn’t waited for Josam and Ishik to get in and now the two groups had gotten separated.

Up ahead there were some lights were flickering and as his eyes began to adjust. Ishik came alongside him.

“Can you tell which way they went?” Ishik asked.

“Man, I can barely tell which way is out of this hell hole, let alone which way they went. Can you see anything?” Josam replied looking back at the Nomad Heavy.

“No. And this place is giving me the creeps. It ain’t natural to be walking around in these things. I can’t see what makes all them hive dwellers live one on top of each other like this either.”

The two fell back into silence as they each peered through the dimly lit dome trying to find their wayward leader. Skittering could be heard off to their left, but it was impossible to get a determination of how far away or what it was. With nothing else to go on, and without another word between them, they turned to investigate the sounds.

Within a short distance their sight had grown accustomed to the twisted interior of the hive, and something large started to move off in the distance.

“That ain’t no rat Josam.” Ishik said as he brought his lasgun up to the ready.

They picked up their pace. Just past some very large overturned vats Josam caught site of Urartu and An-Nur. “There they are! Come on!” Josam, started to trot toward his leader.

Without any warning the area ahead and to the right became lit up with the staccato of some kind of automatic weapon, and Urartu and An-Bur both responded. Josam dropped to one knee and tried to site in on whoever was shooting, but he couldn’t see anything as Ishik bounded past him. He jumped back up and followed after him.

The pair struggled to get over and under all of the debris. It was obvious that the other two had walked into some kind of ambush, and now seemed to be barely holding their own as Urartu and An-Nur were firing off in different directions.

Finally Josam got within a few meters of his compatriots when something that he first took as a very large spider coming out of the shadows of a tower on the far side of the clearing his leader was now trapped in. Swallowing down his immediate fear he leaned against some pipes and took aim. The “spider” jumped into focus as he sighted in through his long rifle's scope and the real truth became known. It wasn’t a spider at all, but a man (or was it a woman) dressed in some kind of suit. And he was fast!

Josam tracked the spider-like man and the instant it moved in between a pair of ladders he squeezed the trigger. He never spotted where his shot went, but it was obvious that he had missed his target because it just disappeared into the shadows out of sight.

Standing back up, he jogged to his right but he was too late. The “spider” was on top of Urartu and the two of them were going at it. Urartu had his Nomad knife out and was parrying every blow the “spider” tried to land. He tried to get a counter strike in but he was on his heels. The spider-suit had a pair of claws in each arm and its user knew how to use them. Finally the guy over extended and was twisted up. Urartu saw his opening and, lunging in, brought his knife in a rapid upward strike with the blade on the top side of the handle. Seeing the strike coming out of the corner of its eye “spider” backhanded the knife blow wide and struck Urartu upside his head. If it had not been for his lunge Josam was sure he’d be seeing a set of claws protruding through his leader’s back right now. The blow knocked Urartu off his feet and he was down for the count.

Simultaneously all three of the remaining nomads opened up on the spider-like suit. A few shots started to impact on and around it and the suit emitted some kind of growl or grunt and melted back into the shadows.

Ishik was the first to arrive and check up on their leader. An-Nur and Josam subconsciously formed up a quick perimeter around the two men.

“He looks ok, just out.” Ishik told the two men to their backs. “Let’s fall back and get him out of here. He’ll be alright. He just needs some fresh air.”

Josam couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. Necromunda hadn’t had ‘fresh’ air in over a millennium.