Work Text:
Yarrick fired his bolter, feeling the recoil in his hand before he quickly turned around, hearing the steps behind him of those damn beasts coming towards him, trying to catch him off guard.
His klaw closed around the head of the tyranids and he broke its skull with a pop, purple blood pouring out over the mechanical limb while the rest of the tiny hit the floor with a barely audible thud.
He took a moment just to breathe. Blood kept dripping down his klaw, while he holstred the botler to readjust his hat at which point he heard a voice, speaking in low gothic.
“Bale Eye! How are you doing old man?”
Yarrick tensed before relaxing in the next moment and turned towards the person seeing former general Pyrrhus sliding down the slope towards him. His steel toed boots sending stones flying.
Yarrick had gotten separated from his battle group and still somehow, despite there being a grand battlefield stretching on for miles he got stuck with this delusional traitor who kept saying how he was the Emperorsfavoured while kissing an ork around corners.
Yarrick felt a feeling close to envy well up inside him at the thought but he pushed it down deep and buried it the second it reared its head. No . No he was not thinking about that.
The general looked the same as always, walking around with his mockery of a uniform filled with both real and fake medals and patches of Taktikus warband adorning his shoulders along with the aquila showing his delusions right on his sleeves. His dog tag was replaced with a crude looking one that displayed Taktikus name, while Yarrick knew Pyrrhus own was hanging around the warboss neck.
“Pyrrhus? Why are you here?” Yarrick felt his heart drop and looked around immediately, not trusting this was not some kind of trick or ambush set up by the Blood Axe’s “Where is Taktikus?”
At the mention of the ork Pyrrhus' smile dropped.
“The plane we were on got hit and broke in half. He went in the other one and I crashed a stone throw from here and heard your bolter”
At the mention of the crash Yarrick looked him over with his eye. He did not like Pyrrhus, don’t get him wrong, but he was the only other human he could talk to while being stuck with the orks. Yarrick had also met thousands of people throughout his life, and despite the general's delusion of an ork and human allegiance so was his company not completely insufferable. His knowledge about orks was almost on par with Yarrick’s own which was a nice change of pace from all the unknowing fools Yarrick had to deal with normally from the Imperium.
“You alright?”
“Hurt my arm, but I’ll live” Yarrick only then noticed his overarm which the general was cradling. Before he could respond the other man continued while looking away into the distance “I’m more worried about Taktikus”
“He will be fine. Orks are hardy” he replied both as a statement of fact, and slight comfort. It was better to keep the general calm and focused than walk around worried about a warboss that most likely was doing just fine after the crash.
“Yeah, I know but still. I’m worried” he then grinned, a dreamy expression on his face “He’s my love after all”
Yarrick scowled.
“He’s your love, but more than that he’s a warboss .” he responded in a chilly tone “If killing one of them was as easy as shooting down a plane Ghazghkull would have died the moment his ship hit Armageddon”
Yarrick began to walk. Pyrrhus followed him, staying shoulder to shoulder.
“Any idea where your ork is?”
“It’s not my ork ” Yarrick snapped at once, like a snake striking out “Ghazghkull is not mine”
“I never mentioned any names” Yarrick gave him a glare that warned him that the Bale Eye could fire up and burn through him. The general quickly continued, “Well, you going towards him?”
“Yes. He’s that way” he pointed as he was seeing where the flow of battle was gathering. Orks were like moths and their prophet was their flame. They always traveled towards it, getting all energetic and even more ecstatic while fighting in his presence. Fighting around him, hoping to be seen by their Prophet. To see the battle prowess of the Gods chosen, while hoping the warlord would take notice of them and their skill. Like younger siblings trying to impress their older.
They were still far away, it would take a good two hours to reach him and that was while hoping no tyranids got in the way or they got run over by some inattentive speed freak.
“That’s quite a walking distance” Pyrrhus muttered before looking around and pointed at an blue Shokkjump Dragsta where the driver seemed to have been shot, their body laying back in the seat, blood flowing from a hole in their chest painting the seat red “Lets hitch a ride”
“Who’s gonna drive it?” Yarrick asked him with a grim look. Only orks could drive those vehicles. Not because they were complicated, they were far from it. But anything built by orks tended to break apart if anyone but a greenskin used it. Either immediately with a big explosion or at the worst possible moment soon after. By the Emperor, at times it didn’t even work for orks, ending their little drive in a ball of fire and the greenskin exploded into thousands of burnt meaty bits.
“I’ve driven ork vehicle before,” Pyrrhus said and started to walk towards it. His words made Yarrick scowl, but he did follow.
“ Driven ? You can’t drive ork vehicles. It breaks for humans”
“Really mr ork klaw?” he said and snapped one of his hands open and shut like the mechanical appendage making Yarrick scowl.
“The mechanicus modified it”
“Sure thing. It’s not like they said ‘The machine spirit is absolutely chuffed, promise’ without having a clue how it worked and just slapped onto you to see what happened”
“I do not know the work of the adeptus mechanicus”
“No one does! They’re secretive bastards.” Pyrrhus snarled “ ‘Ooo look at us, we’re so important cause we’re in a secret club! We know all the things but we’re not telling you flesh bag’ . Pisses me of to no end, at least the mekboyz won’t tell you because they themselves has no clue how stuff works” and with that he started to climb onto the vehicle, stepping over the corpse. "Maybe if the orks consider you like, orky enough, or sees you as one of theirs maybe it works?"
“Watch it” he sneered “I’m still a commissar-”
“Help me move this brute”, he cut him off. Not caring to listen to Yarrick’s threats.
If they had been in the Imperium he would have shot him for that. But this was an ork Waaagh, and Pyrrhus had made himself a little sweet spot where he was annoying but not annoying or heredical enough to be worth the problem murdering him would bring.
If Yarrick killed Pyrrhus then Taktikus would kill him, no matter if it meant Ghazghlkull would punish him for that or not.
Yarrick sighed but decided to drop it, the battlefield was not a place to have petty arguments, if this was such a bother it could be resumed later.
He grabbed the orks arm and pulled while Pyrrhus placed his boots on the orks side and pushed and together they were able to get the body out of the vehicle. It hit the ground with a wet thud as the big sack of meat and muscle hit the dirt but Yarrick didn’t give it a second thought as he used it as a stepping stool to get into the vehicle just to realize the driver seat was way too big for a human to drive.
They needed one to press down on the pedals and the other to steer, Yarrick took his spot in the passenger seat because no way in warp he would sit on Pyrrhus lap.
“I’ll steer, you do the pedals” he said, knowing holding the wheel with his klaw would probably be better…And with Pyrrhus' hurt arm it was just better for him to handle the pedals.
“Got it sir ” he said and slumped down in the chair until he was almost laying flat on the seat, making it so only Yarrick could see the actual road as he was sitting on the passenger seat on his knees.
To his great surprise the general pressed a few buttons and actually got the thing started. The engine let out a roar, thick black smoke escaping it and the whole scrap heap shook. Pyrrhus, the second he knew it was not just going to combust, pressed the pedal to the floor and they flew forward making Yarrick flinch at the sudden motion and he grabbed onto the wheel tightly. The wind almost blew Yarrick’s hat off, forcing him to grab onto it.
They flew over the battlefield. Yarrick tried to miss most of the xenos but some smaller tyranids were run over making the vehicle bounce all over the place as there were no shock absorbers, but it was going surprisingly well so far.
“Who taught you this?” Yarrick asked despite knowing the most likely answer and he was sure it wouldn’t fill him with confidence.
“Taktikus. I teach him all the human stuff, he teaches me orks stuff” Yarrick held back a deep sigh.
He turned the wheel harshly making them pass a tyranid who tried to slash into the vehicle with one of its limbs.
“I can’t believe you’re dating an ork” was all he said trying to keep out the most of the irritation while the grip around the wheel turned tighter. Pyrrhus didn’t even try to hide his relationship, not seeing what was wrong with it. He considered orks and humans on similar levels, that the two groups could and should have an alliance and work closely together.
Yarrick didn’t believe a word of this, even less did he believe that Pyrrhus had gotten some grand calling from the Emperor to make this mad plan real…But at least the general was not turning to chaos.
Orks and humans could not be together. It was impossible. The Emperor would never allow it, and the orks could never keep such an allegiance without betraying them in the end. It was not possible, he knew it was not possible, but still some cold lump formed in the depth of the commissar's heart at that truth.
“What can I say? I like a man in uniform” Pyrrhus responded with a shrug ignoring Yarrick’s tone or simply not noticing it.
“That’s no man. It’s a beast ”
“Well, you chose ‘the beast of armageddon’ so you’re one to talk” he retorted. Before Yarrick could respond, appearing from around a crashed ship a Carnifex jumped out and turned its head looking right at them. The sound of their roaring engine must have caught its attention and it was now heading right towards it at top speed.
Yarrick quickly looked around. The area was too rocky to move sideways, and tyranids were still everywhere, they had to stop and turn, they had no other option that would not end up with them crashing or a tyranid right on top of them.
“Break! Break! Carnifex right ahead, break!”
Yarrick was screaming and the vehicle's engine was roaring but somehow that soft little sound that was like the bell of doom could be heard above it all.
‘Thunk’. A moment of silence and he saw Pyrrhus eyes go wide. ‘Thunk’. ‘Thunk’, ‘thunk’, thunk’.
The vehicle did not slow down and Yarrick slowly turned towards the other man.
“...Pyrrhus?”
The man slowly looked up towards him, meeting his eye.
“The…The breaks don't work commissar” He looked worried while Yarrick just met his fearful expression with a deep scowl. He couldn’t even feel fearful as every other emotion was drowned out by strong irritation.
Ork engineering, to the same standard as always.
If they had not been about to die just now, he would have killed the man himself. ‘I can drive ork vehicles’ what a fool he had been to believe that.
“We can still salvage this!” the general said in response to the commissar's silent judgement. He looked at the buttons that existed next to the wheel “This is the faster button right?” he said pointing at the biggest and reddest button of them all.
“What?”
“Kustom Boosta-blastas has one right? We can just speed past it!” he reached for it and Yarrick felt his heart sink all the way down into his stomach as he realized the general's mistake.
Pyrrhus was almost as knowledgeable of Orks as Yarrick. But that word, “almost” held a lot of weight in this situation.
He immediately screamed to stop him, but it was already too late.
“This is a shokkjump drag -!” the button got pressed with a satisfying but horrying ‘click’. He felt his gut turn and the wind that had brushed against them stopped suddenly as they no longer were on the planet. The ground vanished under their tires as they got thrown right into the warp. The sound of battle stopped, instead screamed of pure agony, of tortured souls rang in their ears along with inhuman laughter that seemed to echo inside their heads.
Yarrick immediately reached out with his hand, covering Pyrrhus’ eyes while he himself closed his. It was little protection against the warp but it was the most he could do, this and pray to the Emperor they would make it out unscathed.
“Taktikus?”
“Yes boss?”
“Where are the humies?” Ghazghkull asked, looking around.
He had lost track of Yarrick a while ago, having been on another part of the battlefield but he had completely lost contact with him and at this point. A slight concern was nagging him in the back of his head now and it had grown to string for him to simply ignore at this point.
Yarrick was strong, stronger than any normal humie…But in the end he was still a humie, no matter if he liked it or not.
The warboss, who has several new stitches after his plane crash, looked at him confused and turned his head slightly to the side.
“Why do you think I know?” Ghazghkull growled and gave him a might glare to go along with it.
“You’re a Blood Axe , it's your job-”
The recognizable sound of a Shokkjump Dragsta teleporting reached their ears unexpectedly and theyboth snapped their heads towards the noise at the same time. They saw the warp spit a vehicle out followed by the loud screaming from a humie and the even louder reprimanding tone and a lot of cussing from the other.
Taktikus pointed at the Shokkjump Dragsta that was quickly coming closer without any sign of stopping or turning. As it approached it became clearer who was driving both from better visual and from the yelling getting louder.
“Found them boss”
Ghazghkull almost smacked him for that but the Blood Axe was sawed by Yarrick suddenly stopping ripping Pyrrhus a new one and instead screamed towards them.
“Thraka! The brakes don’t work!”
They had left the warp, thankfully it had just felt like a couple of minutes and nothing had seemingly attacked them or dug its roots into them. Thank and praise the Emperor because that was the only possible way they had escaped this horrible predicament without lasting damage.
Yarrick had seen what warp could do to people, by the saints he had seen what it could do to greenskins with their shokk attack guns. Send people hurtling through the warp just to come out crazed and blood thirsty or simply getting stuck in damn rock and being killed that way. That they were still alive and still had their wits about them, it could be nothing but the work of the Emperor (Yarrick refused to believe anything else, like the engineering of a Mekaniak).
However, the moment they left the warp the issues with the speed continued as they kept just racing forward without the ability to slow down. Sure Pyrrhus had pulled his foot off the gas pedal but they were still heading at a breakneck speed and they were now not in front of the big tyranid, but the rest of the waaagh. And not only that, they were heading right towards Ghazghkull.
Yarrick was about to turn the wheel and try to miss the warlord, and hope they would somehow navigate through the patch of orks around them without hitting a greenskin that was big enough to flip the vehicle or crash into something and make them explode into smithereens.
However, before he could turn, and idea hit him. He stopped his plan of turning and instead yelled.
“Thraka!” Yarrick screamed at the warlord's ears pointing forward in attention “The brakes don’t work!”
Taktikus jumped to the side at once, not wanting to get run over while Ghazghkull just sidestepped and waited, keeping a close eye on them quickly closing in. As they were just about to pass them Gork’s klaw grabbed the end with a grip of steel, making the plating break and puncture under his strength. As the warlord had gotten a good grip he raised it slightly off the ground, the wheels spinning helplessly in the air.
“Get off”
Yarrick scrambled out. Pyrrhus as he was on his way out, got grabbed under the arms by his boyfriend and lifted out, as if Taktikus was scared that the moment Yarrick left the vehicle Ghazghkull would let it go with the general still inside.
Yarrick jumped the last bit his, boots hitting the ground and as soon as they were out the warlord let go of the vehicle seeing it continue forward at top speed, flatting two boyz before running into the side of a grot tank and exploding both itself and the other vehicle to the loud cheers and laughs from the orks that saw it.
Taktikus put Pyrrhus down and the moment his feet hit the ground Yarrick grabbed him with his klaw and squeezed him tightly.
“You’re worse than a grot!” he screamed and shook the general violently side to side while the two ork bosses just watched in stunend silence. “Don’t press random buttons you imbecile! And for the love of the Emperor learn the difference between a Kustom Boosta-blastas and a Shokkjump Dragsta!”
“How will I know the difference?!” The general screamed back, his voice fluctuating as he was still being shaken like a ragdoll. “All ork vehicles looks different-”
“Not different enough for you to confuse those two!”
Yarrick could see Taktikus watch him, his hands clenched into fists. It was clear he didn’t like Yarrick manhandling his grod, the same way orks get very miffed if you touched their guns, or Emperor forbid, shoot the thing.
Howere, Yarrick also saw something more than just irritation in the Blood Axe’s eyes. There was actual worry . Yarrick was for the moment just shaking the other human, but with one twitch he could close his klaw and snap Pyrrhus apart, or at least break several ribs. It would be easy, and the warboss didn’t like that danger hanging in the air like this. Orks knew one thing about humies, and that was that they were fragile, easily hurt and broken, how easy it was they usually could not pinpoint but the Blood Axe knew that old Bale Eye could have Pyrrhus dead at any moment.
Ghazghkull meanwhile was watching Taktikus like a squig-hawk ready to beat his head in if he tried anything or lashed out towards the commissar. Ready to protect his own grod.
Yarrick just let him go in the end, not wanting to leave the warboss in tension and make him do something stupid in response to it. Giving the general this punishment was not worth the risks.
Pyrrhus was no worse for wear, just slightly dizzy which could be seen how he stumbled slightly, just for Tatkikus to grab his arm and hold him steady so he would not fall to the ground. He then just as effortlessly scooped him up into his arms like a husband would grab his wife and rubbed his forehead against his to Pyrrhus giggling.
“Not in front of the commissar” he said between chuckles but didn’t put in any effort further to actually stop it.
Yarrick felt this sickness in his stomach but more than that deep burning feeling he refused to name. But even then, his treacherous heart, before he could stop it, made him glanced up just to see Ghazghkull looking at him.
Their eyes met and Yarrick stiffened. They just stood there, the commissar looking up at him and the warlord meeting his eye with an unreadable expression. The eye contavt was only broken when the warlord glanced at the couple that was walking away and then back at him.
Yarrick felt his cheeks start to turn red at the clear question even if no words were said. No, no, no, no! He refused to even humor this idea! It was heresy! It was sick! It was just-it was just wrong .
So despite his heart hissing at him that he was doing a mistake, that he was hurting it, breaking it apart inside his chest he started to walk away. He refused to look at the warlord, instead he watched as Taktikus guided Pyrrhus to one of the speed freak vehicles and started to point inside. Yarrick could not hear what was being said but by just watching he knew Taktikus was explaining how to tell the difference, as best he could.
Even orks had issues explaining their equipment, they could just ‘sense’ what was what, having to actually point it out was harder and soon Yarrick saw Taktikus scratching his head and Pyrrhus pointing, the two of them tighter trying to figure this out. Yarrick held back a deep sigh.
He heard Ghazghkull follow behind him. If he was following him or was just going the same way was unclear but still it made Yarrick’s heart scream out that it was not to late, he could still do something, and once again his will faltered.
Yarrick stopped, hearing the heavy thuds of Ghazghkull’s armor stop slightly behind him.
He glanced over the shoulder, meeting eyes with the warlord for the second time and his heart just started to beat faster.
“Thank you” that was all he said, and still it felt like the words tasted like poison on his tongue while setting his heart on fire. It made him feel sick and alive, at the same time. How could such a horrible sensation at the same time fill him with so much euphoria?
He snapped back around and started to walk faster before he could see Ghazghkull’s expression once he had processed what he had said, and before he had the chance to give any kind of response.
He just kept walking, now seeing a mekboy standing next to Pyrrhus and Taktikus, also scratching their heads as they tried to explain how to see the difference between a kustom Boosta-blastas and a Shokkjump Dragsta.