Just Regular Routine ...

It's been an eventful week here at Arry's 'Ole. It's not the name I chose but a drinking den gets it's name by reputation... and mine stinks. Haven't seen hide nor hair of any real threat, but the settlement did come under attack from a load of scavvies. Bad business and we picked up a few bruises and scratches. Plague zombies everywhere, so it looked a little hairy for a while but the lads kept their nerve and ended up wiping out those fearless cretins, then breaking the will of the attacking Scavvies.

The Bolter's been a real comfort to me during these times. It's an old, old thing. Some days it works fine ... Others, it throws a fit and jams up, refusing to work at all. So we're meant for each other. It worked fine against the Scavvy horde. I didn't even get to fire at the leader that time, he ran away. My boys are getting canny and we put up a wall of fire that stopped any of them from getting close to us, where I was positioned.

Donny turned up with the flamer and surprisingly, didn't use it. I would have thought he'd have enjoyed burning some of these sickos. It was a bit hairy on his side of the defense, too. Almost all of the Scavvies managed to get into combat there before we forced them into retreat on our side but as I said, it was all cuts and bruises in the end. You can never count yourself too lucky with those plague-ridden dirtbags, so we got off light by losing no-one to disease.

Then there was the Eschers ... Don't know what they were up to down here and we Orlocks usually get on fine with Hive Primus' only female-led house. Maybe they were just blooding their juves, I don't know ... You'd think with the Delaque gang just down the way, they'd go for them. Their houses are oil and water. Some ancient history there that I'll go into at a later date for you all. I realise that Old-Terra probably wasn't run by millenia-old feuding families, so I'll need to explain to you at some point how that works ... or doesn't.

So the wailing began outside the bar, the taunting. We really weren't game at all. It's not in our blood to fight women and it took a couple of blasts from a bloody plasma weapon at the bar before I lost my rag and told the boys to get their gear together.

They were pretty keen to get at us, but sacrificed cover on a few opportunities to get shots off. They got first blood by taking down Hobo but our cohesion and discipline soon paid off. It was me and Bones, firing into a pack of them that their leader was escorting that broke her nerve and made her bolt for it. I was told by Marky Fish that while he was picking off their Juves with the las, their's were jamming on them Must have come through a dust-fall to get here. Donny went up the middle and basically kept it clear. There was a stalking contest between him and their flamer-heavy. Neither came out on top but the Escher bolted right after their leader anyway, making it a moot point. Most people steer clear of Donny, so he hasn't had a chance to use our most expensive bit of kit.

Everyone's fine. Even Tiny Tim put in an appearance, though he doesn't seem like himself at all. Sometimes, he just stares blankly into space. Other times, he just wanders off in the wrong direction. I can see it frustrates him not to be the way he once was but he's lucky to be alive after a stubber round to the head. I'd retire him, but he's got no-where to go. Reads Donny's Literature every day. Drokking puritan, Donny.

There's tell that there're all kinds of weirdoes hanging around, clad in leather and spikes. Big, muscley types. Nearly every day someone brings back news of some other gang sniffing around in the area, in the hope that i'll be grateful to hear it. Pft! As if ! ... All I want is to sit back and enjoy a glass of the finest gak I can get me dirty old hands on and hope that no-one comes looking to blast me out of my chair.

No ... It's an ever increasing prospect and I don't relish it. Our holdings have gained the interest of more than a few shady types. Some of them are probably just desperate to get their hands on a few creds. I don't worry so much about those guys. They break easily and as long as we stay out of arms reach, we can usually probably outshoot them. The ones that I'm worried about are those from uphive. House gangs like the Escher the other day and the Delaque we fought that did for Pete. Then there's the Goliaths. Those chem-pecks are packed up to the eyeballs on physical stims which grow their muscles disproportionately large. All these guys looking for some idiotic vision of glory, trying to carve out territory and take it for themselves. The Enforcers don't care about us enough to stop them from coming. The Underhive means nothing to them, or their Guilder paymasters, so the Under-hivers turn to stubborn old drokkers like me to defend them in their absence, because our laws weren't written for us.

Law ... The only law we know is: Stick first and leg it before anyone catches up with you.