Desraki Omens: Destruction

“Captain! We found a survivor.” 

The leader of the Desraki war party looked up from the maps in his tent. At the entrance stood one of his sergeants, backlir by the setting sun. Beside him was a young soldier, armor pitted and scratched, whose body was thin with malnutrition and whose skin was burned from days under the sun. Without a word, the sergeant directed the boy inside and stood to attention. 

“Dismissed, sergeant.” 

The captain turned his attention to the soldier, clearly nervous in his presence, yet feebly saluting. He almost berated the boy for his lax posture, but he thought twice, realizing that there must be some strength in the lad for him to have survived whatever had destroyed the captain’s predecessor’s camp, followed by days alone in the desert. Perhaps he was due some order of respect.  

“Report, soldier. What happened here? Who killed our men?”

“Orruks, sir.” 

Orruks? The scrawny things would be hard pressed to assault the camp directly like he had seen, not to mention their swamps were not anywhere near this side of the Domain.  

“The kruleboyz? You must need your eyes checked, son. They can’t have been here.” 

He narrowed his eyes. The boy had either mistaken some other enemy in a panic, or otherwise had his head addled by the sun.  

“N-not kruleboyz, sir. Bigger. They came from out in the open desert. Big, red-armored hulks. Broke our lines before we had even finished forming them. It was a slaughter.” 

The captain took a slow breath. It would not do to dismiss the young soldier’s claims outright. If this truly was some as-yet unknown enemy, it would be good to learn as much as he could. 

“Continue, soldier.” 

“They came like the tide, killing as they went. Their banner was of an orruk skull, surrounded by what I think were laurels. The lieutenant – he got trampled under an enormous pig! We shattered, Khorne take me, and we ran for our lives. I… I was the only one who made it. They ran us all down, even me. They would have killed me, too, but – an orruk grabbed me by my breastplate and away from the others. It- it was the biggest one I’ve ever *seen*, sir. It leaned in close, and it spoke to me.”  “

It spoke Desraki?” 

“Flawlessly, sir.” 

“What did it say?” 

“It- it mentioned you by name, sir. I didn’t even know who you were at the time.”  “What did it *say*, soldier?”  “It – it told me to tell you…”  The boy hesitated for a second, pale with fear. Far in the distance, where the sun had now set, a drum sounded.  “It said ‘Kroolius is coming.'”