The Underhive ...

The thing about the Underhive is that it stinks. Now, I'm going to assume that you've never been to Necromunda before. Given that you exist in an alternate reality ... possibly even the past of mine own. It's what we call an industrial world, categorised by all of the things what we produce for the Imperium.

The Imperium? Well ... In theory, it's kind of like a great big space empire that protects the interests of humans and some sub-humans too. So we Necromundans are a planet of humans that is kind of attached, or owned, by the Imperium.

We supply their weapons, their armour, their bullet, shells, ships, lasers, mech units ... We give them everything, even down to our own people, for their endless wars across countless galaxies. More meat for the murder-machine...

Don't get me wrong ... Our people go willingly, apart from the convict units. Whenever we have a regiment founding it's usually mobbed with people trying to get out of this gak-fest. No. It's just as bad out there as it is here, I reckon. So i'll probably stay. They don't want a scummy old drokker like me anyway. I'd be under the whip so often, they'd soon have the bones on my back.

We live in Hives. Kind of like what you guys back on Old-Terra might call ants or termites. Our air is poisoned by the gak that our stacks and our factories belch out into the atmosphere; and it needs to be refined before we are allowed to breathe it. The crust of our world is coated in ash that falls from the sky like what you call, "snow." We've been producing that ash for so long that our fresh water is mined from underneath the crust and funnelled to the top of our Hives ... the Spires, where our Nobles live. Then they use it all. They wash themselves in it, drink it and piss in it, then they send it down to us so that we can drink it. We drink the piss of our ruling houses and thank them for it.

Some of us, like me ... we who were born under the gaze of the Noble Spirers and their Guilder lackies ... some of us go deeper than the hive. Where the water is worse, the air is tainted and all the rest of the scum that can't bear the gaze of "civilisation" on their backs go. We form gangs and alliances and kill each other for water, food and loot. We gather our friends and family members and carve out settlements in the wastes beneath the Hive. We steal from the guilders, watch each other's backs and struggle against the kind of things that live only in your nightmares...

... Old Terra. Shame ... I heard it was nice there once, too.

Anyway, that's ancient history. I'm Arry. Atchet Arry. Atchet Arry Ackett; if you want my full name. I live on Necromunda under Hive Primus. The house I was born into isn't no noble house but we do alright really. We get some of the more lucrative production contracts tossed down to us from the spire, when they can't meet demand on their own. It happens more than you might think. There's always a new war starting ... Always another ship needs kitting out.

But feth them anyway. I had a mine once. My family had it for generations and my own gakkin' House took it from me. It was running dry anyway and there weren't no creds in it, so I guess I was sumped either way. Still, you'd think they'd do more than toss you out on your behind with your family to fend for yourselves. It was only my unofficial savings and my cousin Donny Furnace, selling his holdings ... small as they were, that allowed us to buy this bar.

It was going okay too until some dodgy business started in the settlement where I get all my drunks from. The Underhive ... Emperor's Throne, but does it stink down here. Recently there's been some of these gangs knocking around, ambushing people as they go from here to Up-Hive to sell any of the tech that you find down here... bad business ... and bad for my business. Less people willing to make the trip out to my bar with these idiots messing things up.

Worst thing happened was Donny coming out here one day and gets jumped by a few young, hairless, sneaky drokkers... Delaques. Must have seen Fat Donny Furnace and took him for an easy mark. Big mistake. He took a hell of a beating himself but made it back here with more than a few tooth marks on those big mitts of his. Got him riled right up. My wife, Neta told me I needed to go and do something about it. Man ... women ... man ...

Now I'm not averse to violence but I always avoided this gang gak. 'What's the point?' I always figured that getting shot at or having one of those vain-glorious Goliath Bastards screaming his death-oath at you while swinging a dirty great length of sharp metal about your head kind of diminished your survival prospects ... but I had to admit, I was losing money hand over fist, my own House had pretty much abandoned me and my family ... and now the gangs had found some easy territory, ripe for the exploitation and my family was in danger. It was time to get my hands dirty.

I suppose it was inevitable, really. No new settlement thrives in the underhive without gang involvement sooner or later. Having so many people around who aren't used to defending themselves properly just seems to attract gangs like Ratskins to a bottle of grog. Only ... it was my grog; and with the only bar in this sector for levels, I'd definitely need to defend my lot. I have everything tied up in this place.

Gangs ... pffft ... that's what I think of gangs. So I felt sick to the stomach wandering around with Donny rounding up the local 'ardnuts, drunks, thieves and juves. Most of them are tops guys really, it's just you have to be an 'ardnut a drunk or a thief to survive this far down. We all go one way or the other in the end, I reckon. I don't know what I am yet, but I've thrown all of these guys out at least once and I get through a lot of Second Best (The Best thing on the Menu!)... I don't want to remember what I might have stolen in my life.

I got as many of them as I could still afford to keep in creds for a while and I bought Donny Furnace a flamer. He's really keen to go and burn some of these drokkers, but he still needs to heal up. His time will come ... Till then, I need to work out a way of keeping this Delaque gang preoccupied for a while...

... I'll let you know how it goes ...