"Orks instinctively obey those in their species who are larger than themselves. The rulers of Ork society are the most powerful Orks of all, known commonly as Warbosses."

-Excerpt from Imperial Xenology

image [https://i.postimg.cc/G2qYS8P5/orks.png]

The Orks had arrived.

The aliens were a noisy bunch, one could hear them long before seeing them. Oblivious to the subtler aspects of warfare, the greenskins raced one another as they barged into the village’s outer perimeter with engines roaring.

Leading the warband was a particular individual who was more than an Ork nob but not yet a warboss. Jawkraka ‘Da Speedfrek’ was riding a grotesque red warbike decorated with a forest of spikes at the forefront of the alien warband. A prime specimen of its kind, Jawkraka was huge for an Ork. That was very important as Ork society ran on a simple logic: the biggest and baddest of them all called the shots.

Jawkraka had a massive power klaw on one hand while steering its warbike expertly with the other. A menacing squig, its favourite attack pet, stood on top of a kustom shoulder pad decorated with spikes.

Jawkraka and its boyz had been ravaging the outlying settlements for a while now. They were hardly contested in their slaughter, their confidence growing with every unfortunate group of humans to have crossed paths with them, and the dried blood staining their weapons was a testament to the toll they had inflicted on the human population.

‘Humies weak, green iz best! Movfasa you boyz! We iz gonna take all da fightz!’ Jawkraka cried out and the boyz answered in thunderous affirmations as the gang of warbikers throttled forward, leaving a huge cloud of dust rising in their wake.

Jawkraka was happy; there were the kills they collected today and the constant wind blowing on its face. A few more good runs like this and maybe Jawkraka could gain enough reputation to challenge the reigning warboss. Should Jawkraka win, it would take over the Waaagh! and run it with a lot more bikes and speed.

Looking for a good fight, the Orks rapidly approached the village centre. Jawkraka was still daydreaming about the speed Waaagh! when a rude human voice broke its reverie.

‘HEY! YOU! Greenskin!’

A loud and amplified voice came from the centre of the village they were invading, where a large man could be seen standing on top of a wooden structure and speaking through a loudspeaker of sorts.

Wat da? Jawkraka was dumbfounded. This was the first time it had encountered a human on this planet who was not afraid or fleeing after seeing its glorious warbiker gang.

Finally, something interesting.

Intrigued, Jawkraka raised its power klaw and pulled its warbike to a stop. Emulating their leader, the rest of the boyz did the same. Soon the entire Ork warband had stopped at the edge of the village centre, staring at the lone human.

‘Ya talking to me, humie?’ Jawkraka roared, the Ork’s shouting voice rivalling the loudspeaker’s volume. Seeing their leader’s raw display of power, the boyz cheered, expecting the human to back down. But that did not happen.

‘Yeah! You! The big Ork! Are you the boss?’ Asked the big man, who then had the audacity to point at Jawkraka with an accusatory finger, ‘If you are the boss then fight me, one on one! No boyz!’

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Jawkraka’s boyz scoffed at the human’s challenge, they gunned their warbike engines and were about to run the human down when their boss’ massive power klaw was raised again, stopping them.

Jawkraka was intrigued again. Who did this puny humie think he was talking to? Its ego challenged, Jawkraka instinctively sized the man up. Sure, he was by far the biggest man it saw in this world. Going by Ork logic the man must be a big boss here, but Jawkraka was still much bigger between the two. The man was also seemingly poorly armed, his armour looked petty with not a single spike on it.

Not only were the humies weak, they were also stupid? Jawkraka could easily win, that much was certain to the Ork. As Jawkraka powdered these questions, the man taunted again. ‘Come on, Ork! Are you scared? Come! Fight one on one!’

For an Ork aspiring to be a warboss, appearing weak in front of its underlings was the last thing it would ever do and Jawkraka’s response was immediate. ‘One on one! Me and you! YOU DIE SLOW!’ Jawkraka roared, gunned its bike and charged the challenger alone.

The Ork was furious now, as punishment for the man’s insolence it planned to beat but keep him alive for a while. Jawkraka would then leisurely tear the human’s limb one by one. It knew humans did not like pain, the way they howled from inflicted sufferings were hilarious to the Orks. Orks do not mind pain, Orks are better. Green iz best.

‘WAAAGH!’ Jawkraka charged forward on its warbike with power klaw raised high. The pet squig on its shoulder opened its huge maw, anticipating the coming carnage. The Ork reached the wooden structure when suddenly in the blink of an eye a huge black silhouette burst forth from it, splintered wood exploding everywhere.

WAT DA?! Jawkraka blinked in surprise.

Jawkraka saw the end coming in slow motion. Vaax tore through the wooden structure that had hidden him from the alien and his assault cannon blazing at point blank range. The power klaw was a dangerous melee weapon even to one such as him and had to be removed first. Carefully calculated firing solutions tore into the Ork’s arm, and Vaax watched with morbid satisfaction as the assault cannon rounds literally cut off the thick alien arm.

Jawkraka lost control of its warbike and slammed into Vaax just as its severed klaw hit the ground, but the much heavier dreadnought did not even budge. While the big Ork was dazed, Vaax reached out and grabbed its head with his massive power fist.

Activating the hydraulics on his metallic hand, Vaax proceeded to crush the alien’s head. Jawkraka struggled, howling in protest but Vaax pressed further until he felt the Ork’s extra thick skull give way with a quick series of sickenking crunches. Soon the howling and struggling was no more and the alien’s body hung limp.

To be sure the Ork leader would stay dead, Vaax fired the power fist‘s underslung storm bolter, pumping bolter shell after bolter shell into the alien, exploding it from the inside out. The splattering gore flew everywhere and Vaax paid no mind as chunks of alien meat soiled his jet black armour.

The dreadnought was carrying out his grim task meticulously, all the while ignoring Jawkraka’s pet squig that was furiously biting his armoured feet. After being satisfied that the impressive alien specimen was deceased beyond a reasonable doubt, Vaax raised the dead alien high for all to see and declared to the stunned Ork boyz, ‘I won! You all die now, Xenos!’

The dreadnought then flung Jawkraka’s tattered body towards the aliens while stepping on the squig that was bothering him, flattening the beast with a satisfying stomp. Before the Orks could recover from the shock of losing their leader, Vaax fired his assault cannon again, drawing a lethal arc through the mob and scoring several headshots in the process.

‘Attack! For the Emperor!’ Vaax amplified his vocal synthesiser’s volume to maximum and at his command, the armed villagers who had been hiding on the roofs broke their concealment and began firing, adding further confusion to the invading aliens.

Shocked, confused and pressured by the ambush, the Orks reverted to their bestial instincts to kill and charged the closest enemy in their sight: the towering dreadnought in front of them. Seeing none of the aliens had another power klaw between them, Vaax gladly obliged in their frenzy for melee.

Since the opening attack was executed flawlessly and resulted with the Ork leader dead, Vaax took a second to revise his calculus, increasing the odds of survival of him and the villagers. Today would be a good day to die, but logically Vaax knew it was always better to live and serve the Emperor another day.