Junior chymist McKenzie stared blankly at the bubbling vats of lung-wrenching chemicals. Countless cycles had come and gone slavishly repeating the same rites of filtration for the good of the house. All thoughts of anything else had long ago passed from her mind, lost to a mindless sequence of mixing filtering and draining the vats that had been worked by her mother and grandmother before her.
The latest cycle completed uneventfully as the past 1000 or more had. The lights changed to indicate the mandated 4-hour sleep cycle was about to start and McKenzie removed her protective gear and left it for the next-cycle chymist to use. Leaving the chamber, she began the long trawl back to box she called home. Mid route she remembered that she was low on corpse starch and decided to swing by the trading post at the settlement to get more.
Entering the trading post, McKenzie trudged towards the food dispensorium and used the last of her creds to buy more scop for another night. Turning to leave she found her way blocked by one of the muscle-clad Matriarchs of the house militia. Looking her up and down the Matriarch seemed to be weighing her worth. “Hey kid, how are them lungs? Gonna make it another 1000 cycles stirring the slop? Or did you want out?” The Matriarch leaned-up against the wall awaiting McKenzie’s response.
It was not even a question. There was no other way out of such a mundane existence other than a slow death-by-chem exposure. “I’ve never fired a gun” McKenzie confessed, “but I’m ok with a blade”. The matriarch smiled. “Be at elevator Beta Sigma 349, before the start of next cycle. We’re heading down to Sump City to grab what we can or die trying. We’ll leave whether you’re there or not”.
That was 100 cycles ago. Since then, McKenzie had seen sights she had never dreamed possible and learned that a talent for blades was all that is needed to escape a life at the chem vats and run with the newly formed “Chem City Alley Cats” – her adopted sisterhood, who were setup and ready to stake House Escher’s claim on territories in the Sump.
Escher Chapter 1 – Stand-off with The Forge Breakers
She died right in front of her. That Goliath bastard had shot Brit dead in front of McKenzie. It had had all been going so well. They’d held the barricade outside the fighting pits and taunted the Goliath jug-heads out with ease. Brit had charged their leader and plunged her dagger into him, the toxins knocking him out. Her triumph had been short lived, another knucklehead running over and butchering her with stimm-induced ease.
The sight of this combined with Klora their gang-queen running-off had been enough to make the seasoned gangers run. McKenzie had followed suit…not worth wasting her life fighting these stimming giants. There’d be time for revenge yet.
Escher Chapter 2 – Border Dispute with the Iron Dogs
McKenzie could have died. One more step and she would have fallen into the abyss. She’d been following Klora along a walkway when she’d spotted a loot-cache. She’d made a beeline to the cach and began to bash away at the lock, before she’d heard Klora’s shout of a warning.
Too late she saw the explosive markings on the crate and the blast nearly carried her off the side. She stopped short of falling and carried on towards the Iron Dog’s sentry post outside of the Narco-den they were trying to capture. The denim-clad males were clustered around it pumping grenade after grenade to where Big Alexis had been standing. They didn’t spot McKenzie, Klora and Neko until it was too late.
The Orlocks turned tail and fled after Klora’s bolt rounds and Neko’s arrows had found their mark. McKenzie’s own shots had gone wide, but Klora was pleased, and the Den was now in possession of the Alley cats.
Escher Chapter 3 – Pit fight
McKenzie had been up all-night helping patch-up Big Alexis for the pit fight. This blood sport seemed such a primitive waste of time. But Klora had assured them all that it was necessary to keep the gang’s growing rep intact.
The fight itself was swift and brutal with the Goliath stimmer charging around butchering all that came within swinging range. Alexis had hung back hoping to zap the other three gangers with her plasma gun but was taken out as soon as she had raised her head to line up a shot. McKenzie left the fight to the jeers of the other gangs in the audience…there was no glory for house Escher this day.
Escher Chapters 4 and 5 – Sneak Attack and tunnel Skirmish vs the Mega Shitty One’ers
McKenzie was supervising a young chymist working on the gang’s prized Narc-lab. Their current range of stimms and narcs were a hit with the locals and Klora was glad of the creds that McKenzie’s former job-skills were bringing in.
She was instructing Slag-Heap Sally on the finer points of Narc production when a booming voice echoed down the tunnels. “Illegal production of non-imperial sanctioned goods will not be tolerated. Put down your arms and face the judgement of Lord Helmawr!” Drek! Enforcers! The arbs were already right on them. McKenzie drew her pistol, turned to warn Sally only to see her sister shredded by mass-reactive bolt shells.
Falling-back McKenzie met-up with Klora, both backs to the Narc-still with the synchronous marching boot-fall of the enforcers counting-down to oblivion. “We got this kid”, Klora grimly smiled at McKenzie leaning of cover to take a shot, only to be spun around as a bolt round clipped her head pulverising her eye sending bones shards and blood everywhere.
McKenzie checked the ammo counter on her laspistol, zero shots remained. Her gang leader was down, and Sal was dead. Fuck it. She drew and blade and charged through the door at the oncoming enforcers. Swinging wildly at the shielding lawmen behind the door. It was the last moment of her life, a grim-faced judge shooting her through the heart from behind. “Die criminal scum” their words to ringing in her ears in her life’s last moment.
Escher Chapter 6 – Stand-Off with the RadTek Riggers
Klora put down her Bolter-Needler and waited for it to cool. She’d been practicing her aim since the Drekking Enforcers had blown her eye out and she was now back to consistently hitting her mark. She thought back to recent events. The damned enforcers had left her in charge of the Sludge sea and Doc shop something about “maintaining the balance for the greater glory of Helmawr”. She spat – Helmawr in his spire knew nothing of having to grasp every damn cred just to survive.
She walked back into the settlement, past the slop stands and into the drinking hole where she was due to meet the Van Saar envoy. The man was not impressive physically but even Klora had to grudgingly admit the tech he had put her own house’s gear to shame. “You bring the creds?” she asked not deeming him worthy of looking him in the face with her one remaining eye”. “I have your price ‘Queen’” the envoy said with obvious dislike in his voice “You will receive it when we have our Tek back”. Klora motioned to Alexis who brought over the captured Tek. The envoy dumped the credits on the bar, and Alexis untied the captive ganger. “Safe travels friends” said Klora, her voice laden with venom, to the departing forms of the Van Saar delegation.
Finishing her drink, Klora scooped up the creds and walked the short distance to the Chymist enclave in the settlement. The Chymists nodded with respect to the Gang Queen as she walked through to the morgue where she’d arranged to meet the Moraegan representatives. “Well met, sisters. I have the creds for the procedure, are you prepared?” Klora asked the chill of the place and the outlandish nature of the chymists chilling her even further. “We are prepared, hissed the spokesperson of the Moraegan delegation, “are you sure you wish this? Are you aware of the consequences?”. “Do it” Klora commanded…
McKenzie awoke, every nerve in her body screaming with the echo of her death. She clutched at her heart, or where her heart should have been but instead found a series of chymist tubes and pumps. The irony…she’d escaped one life bound to a vat of chemicals only to now be resurrected by the same chems she used to help create. She spat, her spit burning through the floor, the power of her re-animated body threatened to overwhelm her. She turned to Klora and nodded “Revenge it is then”
Background Sump City. The only lower place in Hive Primus is the heat shaft that bores into the magma rock of Necromunda itself. To hit the Sump is to hit rock bottom. The Sump is where the effluent and detritus of billions of souls and their machinery filter down the tiny creaking cracks and runs offs of hive primus, flowing down through the lower hive , continuing even lower than the lawless underhive, gathering even more waste from the frontier settlements of Dust Falls and Razor Town, it congregates in great oceans of green liquid filth. The infamous Sump Sea. It is a dangerous and hazardous place, but riches are to be made and the shanty settlement of Sump City grows fat on the rocky shoreline from the booty and spoils of the fleet of Sump Drifters who set sail into the vast sump sea on a daiy basis. There is the odd denizen, mostly old sludge drifter Captains who will let you know that Sump City isnt reall...
The Forge Breakers - Prologue House Goliath gangers have been present in Sump City for decades, their muscle and strength a welcome skill at sea and on the docks. They've also found success in the fighting pits of Sump City, wrestling some of the terrors that are brought ashore from the Sump Ocean. House Goliath Tyrants up hive prize sump creatures as pets, especially Sump Crocs. However these gangers have been loners, drifters and chancers. There are no great foundries to be found in Sump City, but with the growing wealth and so close to the mantle of Necromunda that may change, especially if the Orlocks start mining this far down. The Forge Breakers are led by Arnold 'Ankle Breaker' Axle and their goal is simple. Be biggest and strongest gang in town and smash some faces in the process. Chapter 1 - Wounded Muscle Arnold was fuming and when Arnold fumed Sump City knew about it. Bane sat in the corner, shotgun shells being picked from a ga...
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