For the Loot and The Glory

[BrassClaw]

For the Loot and The Glory

By Brassclaw (P.A. DeLauw)

 Part 1: Azgam Skullstapma

How could things go so wrong? Azgam thought to himself while sitting on the command throne of the Squig’s Bite. The Squig’s Bite moaned and creaked like dying levianthan. The Brute Ram ship had seen better days, along with its crew and Kaptian Azgam. The ship had been limping through the void for weeks, her engines were coughing like a dying squig. Fuel was low, supplies non-existent and morale was cratering. 

 

Azgam took a long swig from his bottle of fungus grog. How could things go so fracking wrong? He thought to himself again. You see, Azgam used to be on top of the Freeboota game. He once commanded a fleet of 800 ships. His flagship, the Deadnot Mork’s Revenge was one of the powerful ships to sail the void of the Octarius Sector. His base, Da Skull Yard was a large asteroid field complex in the galactic east in the Octarius. It served as one of the largest pirate havens in the sector. He even had Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka visit HIM at Da Skull Yard, although Azgam thought he was a bit of a blowhard. He was on top of the world when it came to ork pirating not too long ago. Until they came.

 

Now Azgam, being a Freebooter pirate, had been one for a long time. You heard a lot of stories that pass through Da Skull Yard. Tall tails, the kind of stuff that orks tell when they have a bit too much squig ale or maybe a story you tell to keep the gretchin in line. A yarn about cursed treasure, or strange alien empires or of monsters that lurk in the void. Azgam never paid attention to these stories, it was all just boasting and hot air to him. Maybe he should have.

 

It all started when Azgam found that space hulk debris out in the void. It had appeared not too far from the base. So Azgam took the Mork’s Revenge to investigate. Space hulks are good sources of loot so it was worth his time to go check this hulk out. The hulk was small, only about 20km long but even small hulks can have good loot. It looked mostly like humans made it, but it had some fleshy bits. It’s not common for a void whale to become a part of a hulk, but Azgam had seen it before. He sent out his boarding parties to check out the innards of the hulk and everything seemed fine. They chose to tow the hulk to Da Skull Yard as it would be easier to strip it for loot.

 

When the hulk was brought to the base, strange things started to happen. Ork started ending up dead, which wasn't strange for an ork pirate base or ship. What WAS strange that no one was taking credit for the kills. Why kill an ork if you’re not going to boast about it. There were no arguments on deck. No “I krumped ‘im good!” from some swaggering Nob. Just bodies turning up in dark corners of the hulk, throats torn out or chests split open like overripe squigs.

At first Azgam assumed it was some new lad trying to make a name for himself. But even the sneakiest Kommando couldn’t resist bragging. The wounds, they weren’t right either. It looked like something had killed for food, not for fun. The bodies kept coming. It had gotten so bad that sections of the ship were isolated. Azgam was paying kill teams to neutralize whatever was hunting them. The bounty reward kept climbing, but the teams were ending up dead. Azgam had enough. He ejected the space hulk into the void from whence it came, after loading it with enough explosives to alter the orbit of a small moon. Then blew the hulk to kingdom come. Revenge, proper orky revenge and problem solved, right?

Things were quiet at first, then the flood came. A flood of spore pods containing more and more of the bug-things. Da Skull Yard’s defenses were overwhelmed in minutes. Flak cannons either running out of ammo or getting clogged with the carcasses of the aliens. Huge flesh ships emerged from the void and before Azgam could board the Mork’s Revenge, it was bitten in two by one of the behemoths. Azgam got on the closest ship he could find, The Squig’s Bite. When the reactor of the Da Skull Yard detonated, it blew The Squig’s Bite free from the swarm.

He’d escaped. Barely. Everything else: his fleet, his base, his legend; devoured by the void creatures.

Azgam blinked away the memories and took another swig of fungus grog. The command throne creaked under him. The bridge was dim, lit only by flickering lumen strips and the occasional spark from an overworked console. The crew was quiet, which isn’t a good thing on a ork warship. It meant a storm was brewing. He could smell it. The fear, the hunger, the doubt.

The Squig’s Bite shuddered as the engines hiccuped again.

“Sir!” spoke a small shrill but familiar voice. It was Azgam’s cabin grot Mogwog. 

“Sir, sorry for distrubin your thinkins, the Mekboss wants to speaks with yous”

“About WHAT!?!” Azgam barked back

“It’s about the fuel situations, sir. We only have enough fuel to make one more warp jump! sir ”

“Sodding Hells, keep your voice down Mogwog. The whole fracking deck will hear you!” Azgam said in a forced whisper. Azgam stood up from the command throne, pushing Mogwog out of his way.

“UGRAK!” Azgam yelled out with enough force that Mogwog had to cover his ears.

A large ork with a black eye patch standing in the entry way of the bridge replied

“Yea, Kap?” there was a hint of dismissiveness in his voice

“OUT OF MY WAY” Azmag thundered towards the entryway, stopping within centimeters of Ugrak. “You have the bridge, Ugrak.” Azmag continued to walk through the entryway, down the hallway where he punched the lift panel to head down to the engine room.

The lift doors clanged shut behind Azgam, sealing out the bridge’s flickering lights and the low, dangerous murmur of the crew. Inside the lift, the air was thick with the stink of oil, sweat, and burnt fungus. The walls were dented from years of frustrated Orks punching them during long waits. Azgam punched the panel again anyway, just to feel something break.

The lift lurched downward with a groan like a dying beast. Azgam steadied himself against the wall, his jaw tightening. One more warp jump. One. After that, they’d be drifting. They would be as good as dead.

He could already hear the whispers behind his back.

Kaptin’s lost it.
Shoulda followed Ugrak instead.
We’z all gonna starve out ‘ere…

Azgam snarled under his breath. He’d krumped bigger threats than a pack of hungry Freebooters. But the truth gnawed at him: a mutiny wasn’t a question of if, only when.

The lift shuddered to a stop. The doors screeched open onto the engine deck, and a wave of heat slammed into him. The air was thick with smoke and the metallic tang of ozone. Sparks rained from overhead cables. Gretchin scurried across the grated floor like terrified vermin, carrying tools twice their size.

At the center of the chaos of the engine room stood Mekboss Zagdakka, his massive frame silhouetted by the pulsing glow of the reactor core. His armor was a patchwork of plates, wires, and smoldering welds. One of his mechanical arms twitched violently, sending arcs of electricity snapping through the air.

Zagdakka didn’t look up as Azgam approached. He was too busy beating a malfunctioning coolant pipe with a wrench the size of a boy’s torso.

“ZAGDAKKA!” Azgam roared with an unusual amount of cheerfulness.

The Mekboss froze mid‑swing. Slowly, he turned, one glowing bionic eye whirring as it focused on the Kaptin.

“Oh. It’s you,” Zagdakka grunted. “Wot d’you want, Azgam? I’m busy keepin’ dis heap from fallin’ apart.”

Azgam stepped closer, lowering his voice so the nearby grots couldn’t hear.

“Mogwog says we only got fuel for one more jump.”

Zagdakka snorted. “Dat’s if da engines don’t eat it all first. Dey’re runnin’ hotter than a squig in mating season. I told you weeks ago we needed proper promethium, not dis watered‑down scrap you keep findin’.”

Azgam’s fists clenched. “I ain’t here for excuses. I’m here for solutions.”

Zagdakka turned to face the Kaptin, jabbing a sparking finger at him. “Den you better find us a promethium source, Kaptin. Soon. Or dis ship’s gonna go dark, cold, and dead. And when dat happens…” His metal jaw clicked ominously. “Da boyz ain’t gonna blame da engines.”

Azgam felt the weight of the words settle on him like a chain around his throat. The Mekboss wasn’t threatening him, he didn’t need to. The truth was threat enough.

“Alright, Alright, I will find you some promethium, just give me enough juice for a jump” Azgam said reassuringly 

Azgam pounded the button for the elevator. “One more jump,” he said as he stepped into the lift. 

“You better hurry Kap, time is runnin out” Zagdakka replied as the doors of the lift closed. 

One more jump. 

The words echo in his mind. Azgam pressed the console. There was only one person on this ship that could help him now. Although he was already regretting the choice to go see him as the elevator screeched into action. 

Weirdboys had always freaked Azgam out. He understood their value, especially when it came to navigation. But the Squig’s Bite weirdboy made the insane seem normal. Fizgob was his name. Rumors about him were commonplace at Da Skull Yard. One of these rumours was that he gained his weirdboy powers by shoving a pointy ear shiny stone up his nose. Azgam has never met him before the situation they have found themselves in. He knew that Fizgob only spoke 3 words: Gork, Mork and Jump. Usually when he said the last one, he would grab his nose and  then, would disappear without a trace. No one actually knew what Gork and Mork meant to Fizgob. The main theory was that Gork meant something positive and Mork meant something negative but that was just a guess. 

The lift stopped with a loud screeching sound. This was the map room. The map room was a disorganized library of countless scrolls and star charts. In the center of the room was a large table with a holographic projection of the Octarius sector and surrounding sub-sectors. In one of the corners of the room, a hunched over ork with wiry grey hair, dressed in dark red robes. Gripping a staff-axe in one hand. He appeared to be engrossed in reading a scroll, a mystery if he knew how to read.

“GOOOORRKK” the robed figure shouted while pointing at the scroll and looking at Azgam, “GORK, GORK GORK” he continued as if he was trying to show Azgam something in the text. 

“Fizgob, I don’t know how to read. Nevermind that. I have a problem. WE have a problem and I need your help.” Azgam pleaded with Fizgob. “I need you to focus!”

“MORK, MORK…..GORK MORK” Fizgob scudded towards Azgam and taped his staff-axe on his forehead.

Azgam sighed deeply. “Alright, Fizgob. Where are we?” he asked. 

Fizgob climbed on top of the holomap table, and began looking around like tracking squig as if he was searching for something. He then stopped and pointed his staff-axe at a point on the holomap and shouted “GORK!”

The point where Fizgob pointed came to a surprise to Azgam. An freeboota kaptain usually has a good idea where his ship is in space, using his guts to figure out a rough location, but this seem way off. The point on the map was in the Greygar Sub-Sector, still near the Octarius Sector. Maybe it was because the Squig’s Bite was still new to him, but he thought the ship must have traveled farther than that.

“Are you sure Fizgob?” Azgam asked with skepticism in his voice.

With a swift motion, Fizgob struck Azgam’s face with the flat part of his staff-axe. “MORK!” Fizgob shouted as if he was disciplining a grot. Azgam snarled back, almost pulling out his killsaw claw to engage the weirdboy in combat. But he needed this disrespectful ork alive in order to make the jump.

“Ok, Ok, I get it” Azgam capitulated to the orc standing on the table. “ Now, we only have fuel for one jump, what are our options?”

Fizgob then pointed to two stars, one star was north of the position and the second star was to the south. The planet to the south was called Elmeon, according to the holomap it was a 6 planet system that was uninhabited. Azgam never heard of it. The system to the north was called Dengamar, Azgam had heard of it before. Humans controlled it. Rumours had it that it wasn’t really worth raiding, but what choice was there to be had?

Azgam stared at the two glowing stars on the holomap. One dead system with nothing but rocks and dust. One human‑held system with rumors of poor loot and stubborn defenders.

Neither option was good, but only one had even a chance of promethium.

Azgam rubbed his jaw, feeling the old scar where a pointy ear panzee had cut him.

He wasn’t going to die drifting in the void like some forgotten grot.

“Dengamar…” he muttered. “Humies ain’t worth much, but dey always got fuel.”

Fizgob nodded vigorously, tapping the Dengamar star with his staff‑axe. “GORK! GORK!” he shouted, then pointed at Elmeon and hissed, “MORK.”

Azgam didn’t need a translator. Even a lunatic Weirdboy could make that clear.

“Fine. Dengamar it is.” He jabbed a finger at the holomap. “Plot da jump.”

Fizgob’s eyes rolled back into his skull. His wiry hair stood on end. The air crackled with green psychic energy. Scrolls fluttered off shelves. Grots screamed and dove under tables.

Azgam took a cautious step back.

“Oi! Not yet!” he barked. “We ain’t ready!”

Fizgob froze mid‑convulsion, eyes still glowing. Slowly, he lowered his staff‑axe and blinked at Azgam with a confused expression, as if waking from a dream.

“Gork?” he asked.

“Later,” Azgam growled. “We gotta get da crew ready first.”

Fizgob shrugged and hopped off the table, immediately tripping over a pile of star charts and vanishing behind a stack of scrolls. Azgam wasn’t sure if he’d knocked himself out or simply wandered off. Either way, it didn’t matter.

Azgam turned toward the lift. As he stepped inside, he felt the ship lurch again. This was it, the engines wouldn’t be able to last much longer.

“One more jump,” he muttered. The doors slid shut.

The lift rattled upward, slower than before. When the doors opened, the bridge was even quieter than before. Ugrak stood at the command throne, arms crossed, his single eye watching Azgam with a mixture of annoyance and calculation.

The crew glanced up as Azgam entered. Some looked hopeful. Others looked hungry. A few looked like they were measuring his skull for a trophy rack.

Azgam stomped toward the throne and jabbed a finger at Ugrak.

“Move.”

Ugrak didn’t move.

A long, tense moment stretched between them. The bridge crew held their breath. Even the engines seemed to quiet down.

Then Ugrak stepped aside.

Azgam dropped into the throne, gripping the armrests like he was taking back a piece of himself.

“Listen up, boyz,” he growled, his voice echoing across the bridge. “We’z got one jump left. One. And we’z gonna use it to hit a humie system called Dengamar.”

A murmur rippled through the crew.

“Humies?”
“Dey got promethium?”
“Dey better…”

Azgam slammed his fist onto the console, silencing them.

“Now, I don’t know what’s there. But its are only shot and we are going to take it, if not we dies in the void”

He leaned forward, eyes blazing.

“I’m still da Kaptin. SO THIS IS WHAT WE GOING DO”

Azgam jabbed a button on the throne.

“Bridge to Weirdboy. Fizgob, get ready.”

A distant, muffled “GORK!” echoed through the ship.

Azgam grinned.

“Set course for Dengamar.”

The Squig’s Bite groaned, engines whining as they prepared for one last leap into the unknown.

“One more jump,” Azgam whispered.

And this time, it didn’t sound like a curse.

End of Part 1