Official records
indicate that some two million workers were employed by House Orlock
in the Cruxrail construction project (latterly known as the Gerontius
Line). This ambitious industrial freight route was intended to link
the Great Ash Gates to key house holdings in the core of Hive Primus,
facilitating the movement of raw materials for processing and
distribution. House-sworn enginseers and techprentices linked dome
after dome with cavernous, quake-proofed transit shafts; indentured
helots laid thousands of kilometres of heavy-duty rail; hardened
gangers secured the lengthy perimeter against rival house agents and
Underhive raiders.
As the project neared
completion, foremasters and gang bosses looked to redeploy their
human resources, only a certain proportion of whom would be required
to maintain the operational line. Mech-wrights and serf-labourers
were assigned to duties across and beyond the Palatine Cluster, and
the majority of the gangs were sent to guard Ash Waste convoys or
Orlock bastions and other holdings. Of the remainder, the deadliest
and most loyal were invited to join the illustrious bodyguards of the
House Overlords. This left the ungovernables, marked by their
reputation for lethality and unpredictability. To them fell the
one-way jobs, the suicide missions - the grim duty of claiming the
most forsaken, tox-laden, bitterly-contested turf that Necromunda has
to offer.
Such was the fate of
the young sons of Bedlam Town, who'd migrated from their downhive
slum in search of better prospects. They'd carved out quite the
reputation in their assigned Cruxrail sector, treating their fellow
workers with disdain and the overseers with disrespect. If the common
maxim of House Orlock is 'gang before house, house before the rest',
here was a crew of rowdies who'd learned the first part but neglected
the second. Still, for all they cursed the Bedlammers' insolence, the
foremasters would concede that the gang excelled in seeing off
incursions onto their stretch of the line. Scavvy raiders would
whisper fearfully of the sadistic tortures awaiting those captured by
the Bedlam crew, and even the stealth-wreckers of House Delaque
learned to direct their sabotage missions elsewhere.
When the time came, the
Orlock overbosses summoned the most senior Bedlammer, Vintsen
Courraine - a braggadocious man of notorious lineage – and bade him
gather his fellows to carve out fresh turf in the most hellish
quarters of Necromunda. For their colours, the gang maintained the
regulation orange coveralls they'd worn while working on Cruxrail,
and this also provided their name: the Hi-Viz Jackers. And so the
saga of the sons of Bedlam continued, but this is a tale of the
Underhive yet to be told.....