The Punishers.

Delaque ... Now, I don't have anything against any of the major Houses really. I'm not one to cast aspersions on a man dependent on where they're born, or who's forced their oath... But Delaque, man ... they just creep me out...

... To be honest, I think that's kind of the point; and probably why they make a habit of shaving their heads, wearing those silly dark glasses even though it's dark as gak down here. They creep around, they steal stuff, they sabotage and ambush. Sneaky drokkers to encourage that kind of thinking. Me and Donny asked around and found a couple of those old scavenger types. The only old people you ever seem to meet in the Underhive, as they're so adept at staying out of trouble. You often find these guys selling blood-stained weapons and bullet-pocked armour... Looters.

Donny's a big guy and mean lookin', despite the battering he took, so it didn't take long to work a little information out of these two. He basically just loomed there while I asked the questions. They weren't even answering me, just looking directly over at Donny and kept talking 'til he nodded his approval. We knew roughly where the Delaque were setting up camp.

I asked Donny to stay behind and look after things in my absence. He's not one for creeping around and I figured we should take on the Delaque at their own game, as they probably wouldn't be expecting us. Orlocks don't usually go in for hiding and biding ... but I ain't your average Orlock. Well, maybe I am but that sort of thinking don't get you no-where, does it!?

I picked out five of The Boys. A couple of the young 'uns to see how their nerve holds and a few older heads to try and keep things nice and tight. Vinny seemed particularly game and Loki was itching to use that sword I gave him, so I made sure to take these two. Can't take Vinny anywhere without Bones, so he came along. I also grabbed Pete and Tiny Tim. Both calm heads.

As we were leaving the bar, that's when the Ratskin approached me. I was kind of shocked and I told him to bugger off. He says, no. Tell's me he knows EXACTLY where the Delaque gang is. Tells me their name and that they've got a water-still in their camp. Donny looks right up at me from behind the bar and says,

"Blow it up!" ... So that's what we left to do.

We got there and I started to feel a bit worried. I told you Delaque give me the creeps and this was a dark and dingy hole, indeed. The Ratskin muttered all the way there and it took a while to clear the tunnels leading there but when they opened up I could see the water-still directly in front of me up a couple of levels. I could see all of their sentries from where I was standing, there were more of them than I'd hoped... at least as many as there were of us. That's also when I got a look at the Heavy Stubber ... Bloody scary thing, so it is!

Most gangs in the Underhive have a heavy stubber. It's nice and reliable for a heavy weapon and most of us don't know how to maintain a better gun. It's just a disgusting, metal-spitting, death monster. If it weren't for Donny's over-religeous tendencies, I'd have bought him one ... as it was he just had that flamer... and we hadn't even brought him with us. I suddenly realised why I'm not cut out to be a Leader of a Gang. I'm a businessman, not tactitian or a fighter. Sure, I knock a couple of heads from time to time. You can't run a mine or a bar without having to clear a few gums... and because I had gone into this fight unprepared ... It was also because I was stupid.

I wondered if the Ratskin realised this as he ran off on his own into the darkness. I cursed all Ratskins in that moment and got the lads to spread out, sending Vinny off with Loki to scale a building on the right and make a diversion, Pete back by the tunnels that we came through with his las to cover the retreat, Tiny to edge forward and draw some fire from the stubber and Bones came with me to the left where we climbed up into an abandoned building with a walkway that lead to our objective. I had picked up some frags at the trading post, so with my Bolter and those I had a pretty decent chance of getting in there and blowing that water-still up before any reinforcements arrived... Shows what I know.

They saw us as we got into position and that stubber immediately got Pete pinned at the back of the field. That gave Loki and Bones a quick chance to shoot at the water-still, but their shots just bounced off and Bones' gun jammed. I heard him cursing at the weapon as he struggled to clear it. This was turning into a bad, old day. I ducked my head out to try and finish this quickly and saw what must have been their gang leader tearing towards us across the walkway. I don't know if he'd seen me, so I stepped out and let him have a chest full of bolts, which knocked him flying over the rail and off the walkway. There was a lot of blood.

That's when I heard the screams. The rest of their gang had heard the shots and come running for us from another part of the camp. I swore to myself and got as far into cover as I could, when that stubber swung around to get a look at me. Fortunately I got out of the way, but he spotted Tiny and opened up on him. I saw him catch one in the head and I swore he'd had it.

I didn't know at the time, but Loki had spotted a weapons cache and had gone haring across a length of pipe to reach it, charging two of the Delaque, Punishers. He stabbed one and hacked him down from such a height that I believe he must have died, the second one smashed him in the face with an autogun and knocked him out, bursting his eye. Loki, and Tim had been put down, but I had my own problems...

The other Delaque began to arrive and they clamoured to get to us. Surprisingly noisy for Delaque. I think they were pissed at having been out-slunk ... so I didn't have any problem working out that they were all headed straight for me. Well, I had just blasted their leader to shreds. One of them climbs up and looks surprised when I charged towards him, hacking down with me 'Atchet. I beat his paltry club aside, parting his fingers from his hand and kicked him down from where he came.

There was gunfire behind me. Bones had given up on trying to fix his gun and started towards where more of the Delaque were coming up but he was too slow. He was shot and downed from the top of the ladder. I put a few more shots in their direction, alone now. I had no idea what was going on with Pete, with Vinny or with Loki.

But Pete was hit, trying to get out of range of the stubber. As he crawled away he must have distracted a couple of the Delaque from me, which might have saved my life at the expense of his. They cut his throat when they caught up with him. that just left me the idiot at the top of the ladder...

I walked towards him, blasting as I went. I caught him in the hip somewhere and sent him spinning down to the deck as well. I was screaming unintelligable things that I can't remember, when the heat bathed my back, melting my coat to my vest ... I dived down from the walkway, not even seeing the heavy with the flamer who burned my back. I must have run at that point, I woke up later in a pool of liquid. Not as badly burned as I thought, but hitting the floor must have knocked me scatty.

It was that Ratskin in the end that managed it. Somehow the bastard had managed to find his way onto the same building as Vinny and Loki, from underneath them and using them as a distraction he was able to get one shot off at the water-still with his las. It went up like a pyro's delight, Vinny said. The Ratskin was shot in the face directly afterwards and Vinny dragged his body out of there. Just as well, too. The Bastard lived, though I don't think he's too happy about it. The settlement's doc said he must have a skull like iron. The bullet richoched off it and tore his face up pretty bad.

The boys have taken to calling him Bullet-Nose of the Lazy-Las. Not to his face though. He's still resting up. We all made it out of there except Pete, who Donny and I burned out back of the Bar last night in front of everyone fit enough to pay their respects. I'll miss that guy. One of the most decent people I've met since coming down this deep.

Tiny Tim's got a plate in his skull and will be layed up for a while. Loki lost his eye, but it's all strapped up and he's been practising with his pistol to make up for the loss in depth perception. Really doesn't seem affected. Bones has got some issues with his shoulder. Only time will tell if it heals up or gives him problems in future. Vinny's fine. Not a scratch. Didn't do much except keep the enemies heads down while Loki did some damage and get Bullet-Nose out of there ... dammit. I promised myself I wasn't going to call him that...

On a side note, Vinny approached me after we ... finished with Pete. He looked genuinely sad and promised me that he'd do better in future. I haven't seen him touch a drop and he's been practising with sword and shotty, both. Seems to be losing weight and gaining determination. I hope I'm right... Certainly hasn't been bragging since the night of the fight.

I thought the mood would be bad here. I certainly feel the loss; and looking around at my scarred and battered gang after their first fight, I feel very old and uncertain. Yet they can still laugh and tell jokes, pat each other on the back ... I guess it's because the road from the settlement has opened up again and the settlers are thanking them ... and me. We certainly hurt the Delaque enough to stop them from being too active for a while but this can't be the end.

A few young guys have just dropped by asking after "The Orlock Gang." They got told, " 'Arry's 'Ooligan's Are 'Iring," by Donny and told to wait downstairs for me. So here I am, typing out this stuff to you for ... who knows why? I should probably go and check out the likely new lads. i think I need to be prepared in case the Delaque show up. We're a man down already and we were already a bit thin on the ground to begin with.

Catch you next time ...