First days on the job

I DID NOT WRITE THIS

Deep in the bowels of an orkish kroozer, a Big Mek snoozed soundly in his bed whilst a frightened tau girl shivered on the grimy floor beneath him, the musty rags provided to her doing little for her comfort and she had been too disgusted by the odor and appearance of the food she had been provided to even touch it. Today was her first day working aboard the Loot Havva and it had been a terrible day for the child. She had been given various tasks throughout the day, mostly to make “more dakka” and she had failed at every single one. It wasn’t her fault though! How was she supposed to make sense of ork tech? Everything she cracked open was just a mess of wires attached to various components seemingly at random, rife with redundancies, tangles, and even switches that weren’t plugged into anything at all. On top of that, each gun and each vehicle was its very own labyrinth to decode! It wasn’t like that day when they had abducted her in the first place, where she was mostly running on instinct due to shock and primarily tasked with breaking down tau tech into its base components. No, this was a different challenge altogether. One she failed miserably.

She could feel the glare of the other Earth Caste orks all day for dragging them down and for not being “proppa orky”. Thankfully, their Fio’O had kept them in check and made sure none of them harmed her in his presence. That didn’t stop them from jostling, shoving, and kicking her whenever his back was turned, though. The tau chuckled bitterly at the cruel joke fate had dealt her, forever cursed to remain an outcast and the target of hatred no matter where in the galaxy she was. At least this time she had someone that at least halfway cared about her wellbeing. Thoughts of the big ork helped to stem her tears. It felt good to have someone care about her, even if it was just an ork that seemed to regard her as a pet or some sort of lucky charm as much as a person. Fio’O Zizzbitz did his best to watch over her and even tried to guide her when she was “muckin about”. He even gave her the rags she currently called a bed and the food she didn’t dare eat, dismissing her abysmal performance today with the reasoning of “You’z just used up all yer luck in dat scrap wiff da tau. You’z just needs ta recharge a bit, just like anything a proppa mekboy builds” and a pat of his massive hand on her head before he hit his bed and immediately began snoring.

The tau’s downtrodden reflection of her day was brought to an abrupt end when she heard something lightly scraping and scratching at the slab of metal that passed for a door to Zizzbitz’s room. Gripping her spanner, the tau braced herself. If it was one of the smaller ones coming to assault her again, then maybe she could bludgeon it to death quick enough and gain some small morsel of approval amongst the other orks, and if it was a bigger one, then maybe she could throw her spanner at Fio’O Zizzbitz and rouse him before she was mercilessly slaughtered, a possibility she was always painfully aware of in this place. After a few beats, nothing seemed to happen, causing the tau to lower her guard a tad and slink towards the door in curiosity. When she had crawled close enough to the door to touch it, she leaned in to peer under the crack in the door and bringing her face to face with the culprit of the noise. She jumped back and landed on her rump, letting out a small “eep!” in surprise. It was one of those strange creatures that had licked her back on the colony, two legs and a mouth with a single horn and a tail, except this one’s body was about the size of her fist and it didn’t glow. It made a few chuffing noises as it sniffed the air and rooted about for food. The tau retrieved the bowl of mash that had been given to her and offered a spoonful of the stuff to the little creature. It jumped back in surprise much as she had done earlier, sniffing the spoon with caution, causing the tau girl to giggle softly.

“Come on, little guy.” she whispered in encouragement as she gently shook the spoon tantalizingly, careful not to wake the sleeping Zizzbitz. The diminutive beast took a few hops forward before stopping to eye her with suspicion. “You have to be brave if you hope to make it in this nightmare.”

The animal suddenly jumped forward and stuck the entirety of the spoon’s contents into its maw, gnawing and suckling greedily. The tau rewarded its daring with another spoonful of muck. This continued until the creature summoned enough courage to jump onto the rim of the bowl in the child’s lap and eat directly from the source. Once it had its fill, it curled up next to the tau drifted off to sleep. For some reason, the creature made her feel at ease, curled up and content beside.

“We both have to be brave, don’t we? Like a Shas’O fighting for the Greater Good!” she mused to the dozing critter as she lifted the spoon out of the bowl of food, inspecting its contents. If her new friend could eat this stuff, then so could she! She had to be brave if she was going to live! The tau closed her eyes, wished that her nose was easier to plug, and shoved a spoonful of the vile sludge into her mouth. It tasted…not that bad, actually. It wasn’t great, but it was by no means the worst thing she had ever eaten. Then again, when one has been forced to eat dirt by the mouthful by bullies, one’s standards aren’t incredibly high. The small bite of food quickly reminded her gut of how little she had eaten since her ordeal and it growled angrily for more. Complying with her grumbling stomach, the tau quickly gulped down more and more of the food until she had emptied its contents. With a belly full of warm food and a brand new companion to see her through this ordeal, the child grabbed her friend and dragged her ragged blanket over the two of them as lie down. The beast let out a small huff in protest to being jostled, but quickly fell asleep, as did the tau to the rhythmic snores of her guardian.

“Oiy! Get up! It’s time to get ta work!”

The tau stretched and yawned It felt as though she was being roused awake again by Zizzbitz as soon as she had closed her eyes. But no matter! Today was going to be a good day! She felt confident and ready to take on any challenge that was thrown at her. Her animal companion awoke with her, scrambling up to take perch on the helmet that Zizzbitz had given her.

“Look like you got yerself a squig dere.” Zizzbitz noted before heading out the door to the mek shop.

A squig. So that’s what her brave little Shas’O is she noted to herself as she scratched its chin. Shas’O Squig. That mystery solved, the tau rushed off to meet the day.

“So ‘ow’s me favorite blue grot doin’? Didja finally get yer luck back?” Zizzbitz inquired a few hours later, spotting the tau hunched over a gun in concentration.

“I just can’t get it to work!” She cried out, the same frustration she felt yesterday welling up inside her alongside her tears. Zizzbitz sighed.

“Well dat’s you’z muckin’ about again. All you’z gotta do is quit muckin’ about and get ta work!”

“But how do I do that?! I’m trying my hardest!” the tau called after him, but it was too late. Zizzbitz had already wandered off again to go run some personal errand or another. She let out an exasperated sigh. If she couldn’t figure something out and soon, she wasn’t sure how long her position as the Fio’O’s favorite would protect. She wasn’t even sure how long she’d retain that position if she couldn’t pull off something like that modified chainsword again. She attempted to remember how she did it, but try as she might, she just couldn’t. She had been acting purely on instinct then, grabbing whatever pieces she could near her and cobbling together in a fashion that seemed to fit. Sure, she recognized a few of the pieces as components from various tau mechanisms due to her time training in the workshop to be initiated, but that was the extent of her knowledge. There was no way she possessed the knowledge to do what she had done then. Lost in thought, her gaze scoured the mek shop. It wasn’t anything like the workshops she had been brought to on the colony. There was no consulting of manuals and no orderly assembly lines. Instead, there was a bunch of Earth Caste orks wandering to and fro at their leisure, arguing over this or that, and welding and wiring things however they pleased. Maybe that was the trick. She was an Earth Caste, just like them, building was in her blood! She just needed to stop over thinking it, grab a handful of bits, and stop mucking about and get to work! She cleared her mind and looked down on the mess of parts in front her. Awash in a state of serenity, the child’s hands began to move on their own accord…

“See, I told ya you just needed ta recharge!” Zizzbitz exclaimed proudly, clapping the child on the back and sending her sprawling. When she had recovered from the tumble, she noticed with surprise he was inspecting the gun she had been working on. She could hardly recall starting it, much less finishing it. She remembered that she had wanted to incorporate the firing mechanism and gyroscopic stabilizers of a pulse rifle and then…nothing, just a blank. Zizzbitz took aim and fired the gun, leaving a fried stump where the head of an ork who had been particularly cruel to the tau whenever he thought Zizzbitz wasn’t looking.

“An’ don’t let me catch any of da rest of ya tryin’ ta rough up me Blue again, or else I’ll krump ya just the same!” Zizzbitz shouted to the mass in front of him before handing the gun back to the tau.

Beaming proudly, the tau scratched her squig on the head “I think we might make it out of this one just yet, Shas’O.”