Contents

Cover

Hell Fist – Extract

A Black Library Publication

eBook license

HELL FIST

Justin Woolley

Nukreg pushed his way through the trees. He grabbed at the enormous leaves in annoyance as, heavy with the recent rain, they stuck to the green skin of his face. The dank leaves were sticky and almost as bad as those slimy little blood-sucking slugs he sometimes had to pull off his legs at the end of the day – at least those were tasty. Thinking about food made Nukreg remember the fungal beer he had stashed away back at their camp, and by stashed away he meant he’d found someone else’s hidden barrel and was going to drink it just as soon as he got back from this patrol, which seemed to be taking forever.

The jungle was great for sneaking about like Warboss Nogrok Sneakyguts wanted, but that made it really hard to get around and there was hardly anywhere where you could get a good run-up for a proper charge.

The dense vegetation of Gondwa VI limited sight-lines, and arcs of fire were cut off by closely packed trees. It was all but inaccessible to vehicles and provided little opportunity for air support. Of course, Nukreg didn’t know most of this. He didn’t know this world was called Gondwa VI, he didn’t know other worlds weren’t covered in dense jungle in the same way, and he didn’t give much thought to the strategic implications of the prevailing geography.

Nukreg was, as much as could be said for the greenskins, a native of this world. He had sprung from a fungal spore left behind in this very jungle by some previous ork infestation. To Nukreg this was probably what every planet was like, its name was simply Da Planet, and as far as warfare went, orks could and would fight anywhere.

As Nukreg cleared the rubbery leaves from his face he looked ahead into the shadowy green of the jungle. He was supposed to be following Zuglak, but he couldn’t see Zuglak. Stupid Zuglak. How was he supposed to follow him if he kept getting too far ahead?

‘Oi!’ Nukreg yelled. ‘Oi, Zuglak! Where are ya?’

It only took a moment for the dark shape of Zuglak to appear from the trees. The larger ork had backtracked, and emerged from the foliage with anger on his face. His fierce red eyes stared out at Nukreg through the black stripes painted over his green skin.

‘Wot,’ Zuglak said, his voice low, ‘in Mork’s name is you doin’?’

‘I is tryin’ to follow ya,’ Nukreg said, not lowering his voice in the same way, ‘but I can’t follow ya coz you is gettin’ too far ahead and I can’t see ya through all the zoggin’ trees. You is green. The trees is green.’

‘Keep your zoggin’ voice down,’ Zuglak hissed through his teeth. ‘Don’t ya remember that Warboss Sneakyguts told ya to be proper sneaky and proper kunnin’?’

Nukreg shrugged. ‘I s’pose.’

‘You is learnin’ to be a kommando,’ Zuglak said, ‘but you is out here bashin’ through the scrub like a normal ork wot got no fungus in their ’ead. Now, stay close and stay quiet or I’mma have to tell Nob Ruktug and Nob Flik dat you ain’t got the stuff to be a kommando, and do you know wot they do to feral orks wot ain’t got the stuff to be a kommando?’

‘No.’

‘Why you think we got such big juicy squigs? It’s coz they is well fed. Now come on, ya stupid git.’

Zuglak turned and moved off, pushing a branch out of his way. Nukreg, who was too busy mouthing an exaggerated imitation of Zuglak, didn’t see the branch as it flicked back and smacked him right across the cheek. Nukreg growled and pulled out the thick-barrelled shoota he had holstered at his waist and fired it with a resounding boom to blow the guilty branch completely off the tree.

Zuglak once again appeared from the dense forest with his face painted both in camo and rage. He grabbed the barrel of the gun and used his superior strength to rip it from Nukreg’s hand.

‘I told you to zoggin’ be quiet. Dat’s da bloody opposite of bein’ quiet. If ya don’t shut up, you is gonna bring Da Hell Fist down on us.’

‘Da Hell Fist,’ Nukreg said. ‘There ain’t no such thing as a humie called Da Hell Fist. Plus, if there is, then let him find us. Dat would be a proper fight. I would krump dat Hell Fist and then it would be me teachin’ stuff into your ’ead about krumpin’ ’stead of you goin’ on ’bout bein’ kunnin’ all da time.’

‘You is a stupid git,’ Zuglak said. ‘You don’t know nothin’ about taktiks and you don’t know nothin’ about Da Hell Fist. You can’t fight Da Hell Fist by yellin’ “Waaagh!” and chargin’ him.’

‘Course ya can,’ Nukreg said. ‘Dat’s how you do fightin’.’

‘Nah,’ Zuglak said, ‘ya can’t fight Da Hell Fist like dat coz he is incorp-or-real, like invisible but you can see ’im sometimes.’

‘Orks can fight anythin’ by yelling “Waaagh!” and chargin’,’ Nukreg said. ‘Sounds like you is afraid of Da Hell Fist.’

Zuglak looked around, checking all directions multiple times before apparently satisfying himself that they were alone. ‘I ain’t afraid of Da Hell Fist,’ he said, his voice back to that low hiss. ‘I ain’t afraid of no humie. But you don’t know nothin’. I seen Da Hell Fist with my own two eyes back when I was a new kommando and you was still just a stupid feral ork who didn’t know nothin’. Ya still don’t know nothin’. Da Hell Fist ain’t a normal humie. I was with my kommando mob when ’e appeared outta nowhere, like he just come up out of the ground.’

‘I woulda krumped ’im,’ Nukreg said.

‘I’ll tell ya wot it was like then, because you weren’t there, ya git,’ Zuglak said.

Click here to buy Hell Fist.

A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION

This eBook edition published in 2023 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

Represented by: Games Workshop Limited – Irish branch, Unit 3, Lower Liffey Street, Dublin 1, D01 K199, Ireland.

Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.

Hell Fist © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2023. Hell Fist, GW, Games Workshop, Black Library, The Horus Heresy, The Horus Heresy Eye logo, Space Marine, 40K, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, the ‘Aquila’ Double-headed Eagle logo, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world.
All Rights Reserved.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-80407-498-5

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

See Black Library on the internet at
blacklibrary.com

Find out more about Games Workshop’s world of Warhammer and the Warhammer 40,000 universe at
games-workshop.com

eBook license

This license is made between:

Games Workshop Limited t/a Black Library, Willow Road, Lenton, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, United Kingdom (“Black Library”); and

the purchaser of a Black Library e-book product (“You/you/Your/your”)

(jointly, “the parties”)

These are the terms and conditions that apply when you purchase a Black Library e-book (“e-book”). The parties agree that in consideration of the fee paid by you, Black Library grants you a license to use the e-book on the following terms:

* 1. Black Library grants to you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to use the e-book in the following ways:

o 1.1 to store the e-book on any number of electronic devices and/or storage media (including, by way of example only, personal computers, e-book readers, mobile phones, portable hard drives, USB flash drives, CDs or DVDs) which are personally owned by you;

o 1.2 to access the e-book using an appropriate electronic device and/or through any appropriate storage media.

* 2. For the avoidance of doubt, you are ONLY licensed to use the e-book as described in paragraph 1 above. You may NOT use or store the e-book in any other way. If you do, Black Library shall be entitled to terminate this license.

* 3. Further to the general restriction at paragraph 2, Black Library shall be entitled to terminate this license in the event that you use or store the e-book (or any part of it) in any way not expressly licensed. This includes (but is by no means limited to) the following circumstances:

o 3.1 you provide the e-book to any company, individual or other legal person who does not possess a license to use or store it;

o 3.2 you make the e-book available on bit-torrent sites, or are otherwise complicit in ‘seeding’ or sharing the e-book with any company, individual or other legal person who does not possess a license to use or store it;

o 3.3 you print and distribute hard copies of the e-book to any company, individual or other legal person who does not possess a license to use or store it;

o 3.4 you attempt to reverse engineer, bypass, alter, amend, remove or otherwise make any change to any copy protection technology which may be applied to the e-book.

* 4. By purchasing an e-book, you agree for the purposes of the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 that Black Library may commence the service (of provision of the e-book to you) prior to your ordinary cancellation period coming to an end, and that by purchasing an e-book, your cancellation rights shall end immediately upon receipt of the e-book.

* 5. You acknowledge that all copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights in the e-book are, shall remain, the sole property of Black Library.

* 6. On termination of this license, howsoever effected, you shall immediately and permanently delete all copies of the e-book from your computers and storage media, and shall destroy all hard copies of the e-book which you have derived from the e-book.

* 7. Black Library shall be entitled to amend these terms and conditions from time to time by written notice to you.

* 8. These terms and conditions shall be governed by English law, and shall be subject only to the jurisdiction of the Courts in England and Wales.

* 9. If any part of this license is illegal, or becomes illegal as a result of any change in the law, then that part shall be deleted, and replaced with wording that is as close to the original meaning as possible without being illegal.

* 10. Any failure by Black Library to exercise its rights under this license for whatever reason shall not be in any way deemed to be a waiver of its rights, and in particular, Black Library reserves the right at all times to terminate this license in the event that you breach clause 2 or clause 3.