Chapter 5

"Oi Gobshack!" a loud, angry yell came from behind the mek as he peeled away another plate of armor from the wreck. The metal groaned loudly as the large metal pincer grabbed one end and wedged its self between a gap in the metal. With a quick, jerking motion, the plate ripped off with a tearing sound as sparks shot out from a dozen zigzag cuts. Flinging it to the side with his oversized bionik arm, Gobshack laughed in satisfaction as the sheet slammed into a pair of grots who'd be absentmindedly standing around, the others nearby laughed heartily as the meaty crunch could be heard around the hanger. Turning his head, he saw Kaptain Bludchoppa standing behind him.

"'Ey Kapin, whatcha need?" he asked as he swung his legs out from under him and jumped down from the wreck, landing six meters on the ground below, his thick metal legs absorbing most of the impact. Around him, other mek's were busy poking around the wreck and the others examining tools they'd pulled from it. One particularly curious mek was looking at one of the orange glowy things they'd yanked off the bodies. Squinting one eye, a series of nine rough lens hovered in front of him, magnifying his sight and making his one eye seem enormous.

"Et's bin a lotta dayz Gobshack, I wanna know 'ow all dis 'ere stuff works!" the kaptin said impatiently. Like every time he spoke, it was more of a yell than a simple question or command. As Bludchoppa did this, his massive tricorne hat with a jolly ork tilted awkwardly to its side, which he fixed absentmindedly with a poke from his massive power klaw. Gobshack and the others had been working around the clock trying to figure out the strange technology they'd looted off the ship and how to orkify it to make it good and proper. No other vessels had appeared in the days after the fight, so this was the only loot they'd had to show for their troubles so far. Bludchoppa and the others were grousing about the miniscule ship and its lack of loot. All except the strange glowy bitz.

One of the days they'd taken a break from poking the wreck, a boy was snooping around the rear of the ship near its engines. They'd already found some kind of large sphere, but paid it little mind when it didn't do anything after a few good whacks. The boy started fiddling around with some kind of glowy panel near the sphere and somehow, caused it to start spinning. Once that happened, he'd started pressing more buttons and the sphere's speed of rotation became blinding fast. After a few minutes it began spewing some kind of strange blue glowing dust and sludge and started to affect the gravity around it, which they'd discovered when they found the boy had been compressed down to the floor, little more than a puddle of green and red goo.

"'Ell kapin, I fink you'll be likin what wez gotz 'ere" Gobshack grinned as he stepped toward a pile of crates. Curious after the boy had been turned to paste, the meks began looking for anything else on the ship that glowed blue and were surprised to find that the shootas the aliens used; hardly larger than a slugga in their hands, all used the same glowing blue parts found in the sphere. This had intrigued Gobshack immensely and he'd been fiddling around with the guns whenever he could, that and the piles of occasional blue dust they had the grots scoop up. Adjusting his bandoleer, he opened a small crate where they'd stored most of the small shootas they'd taken from the aliens. Peering in, dispute the red tint of his goggles, he found the main gun he'd been studying.

It'd retracted into a rectangular piece of metal, but after he touched the side, it unfolded itself with a smooth motion that reminded Gobshack of an Eldar weapon. The barrel protruded slightly, and a scope popped out from the middle portion of the block while a small stock extended backwards. The angles of the joints were rigidly straight and pointed, a lot like the weapons they looted off the 'umies. This particular shoota was about half the size of Gobshack's forearm, and when he handed it over to Bludchoppa, he lazily held it one hand as one would hold a slugga. Tilting it over to one side, the Kaptin sniffed it along the side.

"Dat dere shoota iz one of da one I fink got one or two of our boyz" Gobshack said as they looked at it. All in all, they'd lost about five boz in the assault, though one of two of them looked like they might have been taken out by ork weapons. The rest of the dead had been riddled with hundreds of small holes that'd cut into the them and were then stomped on by the others. That's what the doks said anyways, that the stompin did most of the killin. Still, better to make the Kaptin think the shootas were worth a lot more, which in different ways they were.

"Dis tiny fing?" Bludchoppa said disapprovingly, his large yellow teeth grimacing as he moved the shoota away from his nose. "Bah!" Raising it, he aimed it at a small group of grots being herded by a pair of smaller boyz towards the ship. The shoota rattled slightly as Bludchoppa held the trigger for several seconds. The gun tilted up for some of the burst as it recoiled slightly, but his large hands brought it back down and he kept it level as it fired. After a few seconds, a loud beeping could be heard as a pair of metal plates popped out of the side of the shoota and steamed for about as long as he'd fired it. Several grot lay on the floor, but the boyz were yelling.

"Ow!"

"Zog!"

Wot da...Oh..Good shot Kapin!"

Bluchoppa growled as he looked back down at the shoota, it'd finished beeping and the plates retracted. "Dats it?" he pointed at the grots laying on the ground "Jus a few grots? Dis fing aint got no powa!"

"On sec kapin" Gobshack said, his face pulled back in a grin, causing his cheeks to pinch against his goggle. "Oi ya two, git ova 'ere!" he yelled at the boys Bludchoppa shot. They marched over , a slight hesitation in their steps as they came to the mek. Blood was dripping for a number of small pinpricks all among their bodies, chest, arms, legs and even a few in each of their heads. Absentmindedly, Gobshack jammed a long pinkie klaw into one of the boys head wounds, the nail sunk in several inches until he tapped the boy'z skull.

"Ow!" the boy snarled, eyes narrowed at Gobshack.

"See kapin" Gobshack said, motioning with his boinik arm to his finger jammed in the boy'z head. "All da 'oles are lik dis! Each are small, but deres a lot of 'em and dats just from one shoota, fink about lots and lots of dem togetha, and fink about 'ow muc dakka dat un shoota 'ad!"

Bludchoppa paused after he'd huffed for a moment. Looking at the shoota again, he aimed it at the ceiling and fired another long continuous burst until the beeping could be heard once more and the shoota vented through the plates. His eyes widened slightly as he realized how many shots he'd poured out, but his mouth grimaced as the beeping continued.

"Dere might be da dakka Gobshack, but dez shootas stop firin after a few seconds. Dat right dere jus ain't proppa fer a shootta, et's gotta fire fer lotz o seconds it doz!". Even as he said this though, the kaptin's eyes returned to the shoota for a moment. Gobshack couldn't remember a time he'd seen the kaptin stay that still for so long.

" 'Ell dat deres da rub kapin. We can fix dem shootas to not stop firin, I poped one open to git a look at da bitz!" he said, pulling a small sack cloth out of the crate, opening it he spilled an assortment of parts on the ground. " 'Deres lots o connecty bitz, wires un otha stuff, but 'eres da interestin fings." he said holding up a block of metal which looked like it had been whittled down a bit, and a small clear container with a small amount of blue dust. Jiggling the block he continued "It seems like da boneez us…"

"Boneez, wots dat?" Bludchoppa interrupted

"Itz wot sum of da boyz 'ave bin callin da fings we fought, on acountin for da fact dat dey all boney an stuff an not all dat good fer eatin or anyfing really cept fightin. " Godshack grunted, glaring behind the opaque orange of his goggles. "Anywayz, da boneez seem ta not use ammo like us" he motioned again with the block of metal "Not like "bulitz" o "boltz", but ratha it looks like da shootaz takes bitz of metal 'ere and shoots it real fast!"

"'Owz dat possble-like?" Bludchoppa gestured, the alien shoota in his hand dangling from one finger which occupied much of the trigger guard, the kaptin looked it over, trying to find a magazine for the ammunition.

"Dats jus it kapin, I looked it ova, and deres waz no ammo or nufin. Stead its dis fing o metal. Now I first fought da boneez were right stupid and impropa, not using ammo boxes and stuff, but den I realized dey were using lectricity frough dez wires to go throgh a small fing o' blue stuff. I took da shoota half apart and fired, da blue stuff came ova the metal and I saw a bit o it move to da barel and it fired, o tried to, but could't on accountin fer da fact da I took half da shoota off."

"So dez shootas 'ave lotz o' dakka den if it just uses da metal?" Bludchoppa asked, his voice raised slightly as he did so. The shoota was now nestled in his arms.

"Dats right kapin, the shoota stop firin cause it gets real hot, but without da heat stoppas, it keeps right on firin, without a reload for probably lotz an lotz and lotz o shots. Without da stoppas, dese shootas got more dakka dan almost anyfing short o a deffgun or big shoota!" Fishing around the bottom of the crate, Gobshack pulled out another gun. Unlike the one held by the Kaptin, the front of this one was oblong and deformed, the barrel was curved at an odd angle and the plastics were melted together in an odd mismatch of dull grey and light colors. "Course, if wez keep firin without some kinda heat stoppas, dis 'appens."

"Urmph!" was all the Kaptin grunted as tapped his chin with the barrel of the new gun. "Well, eitha youz gonna need to make sum kinda special heat stoppa fer da shootas or wez gonna need ta mak lotz an lotz of deez shootas. If ya reconfigurate sum of dez insides to be moar orky an proppa wez shouldn't ave too much o a problem, afta all, all da good shootas get 'ot!"

"Fing iz kapin...we'z gonna need lotz and lotz o dat blue stuff da Bonnez 'ave, wifout it, wez cant make da special shootas!" Bludchoppa frowned and stopped tapping his chin. He returned the gun to a more comfortable grip in his hands, grabing the barrel with an audiable smack in his hands. Gobshack's eyes widened behind his goggles and he began to speak faster. 'Dis 'ere blu stuff is somfing special. It make stuff go fasta even thogh it ain't red, it 'its stuff 'harda even though it ain't black, it shoots more dakka even though it ain't yella. It's cuz blue is lucky! Fink 'bout it, des bonnez use dis stuff to do everyfing, its shootin more dakka faster and hittin stuff harder and more ofin. Only somfing real lucky could do somfing like dat all at once!" as he took a breath, he added "Plus dez dinky fings 'ardly make a sound, fink bout 'ow much stuff it could do if it made da proppa mount o' noise durin a fight!"

Bludchoppa grunted in annoyance, but his snarl softened a small bit and Gobshack breathed a bit easier. Looking back up to the Kaptin, he saw that his face had the rare placid look he wore when he was thinking up some kind of plan, one that required more than four or five days to execute. He rubbed his hands together eagerly, the last time he saw this look, they'd gotten the kroozer they now flew in.

"If wez be needin dis 'ere blue stuff to make supa shootas, den wez need to be fightin da bonnez! Dey 'ave da blue stuff and dey 'ave da fight. Da way I be seein it, wez be krumpin two grots wif one fist."

"Cept one fing kapin...wez don;t know were da bonnez ar!" Gobshack cautioned, raising both hands in a placating gesture.

"'Ell den git one of 'em ta tell ya were dey at. Whaterea Gobshack, stupid?" Bludchoppa growled, his teeth bared uncomfortable at the mek.

We only got one of 'em down in da pitz, da rest fought till dey died! Kapin"

"Hmmm, dey sound 'ard!" Bludchoppa said, smacking his hand against his power klaw. "All dat dinky stuff to fight wif and dey stiff fought? Dats good, dats real good, sike some of dem tiny 'umiez not . Where's da rest of em? The boyz are spolin for a fight!"

"Dunno boss. We're lookin at dem finky boxes in da ship, but it ain't got much, even afta we give em a good whack or two."

"Ah zog!" Bludchoppa roared, slamming the gun into the ground and shattering it into several pieces. Gobshack felt a slight smack as the broken stock of the rifle spun through the air and bounced off his goggles. The kaptain was stomping back and forth on his feet, each step echoing through the cavernous hold. "We can't jus keep flyin around all randomlike Gobshack, we'z be needin a spot ta be going, I ain't 'earin o no WAAAGHs round 'ere!"

Gobshack nodded and began digging around another crate tyring to find of the small orange glowing devices they'd found on the bodies. It'd been strange, they hadn't been feeling the small tugs in their bodies that helped them figure out where other boyz were fightin, it'd been uncomfortably still for the past several days, it made everyone antsy and more than one nob was complaining that all the sitting around with no notion of where fightin was, was "improppa" and "not-orky". If they couldn't fight a good fight soon, Bludchoppa's boyz might start fightin one another more often than they already did.

Pulling out one of the smaller finking box's from the crate, he shoved it into the hands of a nearby grot that was passing by and grunted at it while pointing with his metal hand. It jumped a half meter and then stood, poking at buttons on the device. "Dey also 'ad these smaller finking fings wif 'em, dere wern't much, but each 'ad some pictures and other fings dat might be good!" The grot pressed a button and a video began to play. The sound of loud, clashing music which resembled heavy drums being slammed while the screech of guitars filled the air as a montage of ships flying through space could be seen. Everything from sleek looking fighters, to large, boxy ships could be seen flying through space, each cut marked by another riff in the music. At the crescendo, rapid cuts show the ships approaching something that looked like a massive fork shaped void station with a spinning gyroscope of blue material in the center. In one long sequences, Gobshack and Bludchoppa watched as something that looked like lightning shot out from the device and engulfed the ships, which began to fly parallel with the station before vanishing in a flash of blue light. A second later, the cut went to another of the stations, and the pair watched as the ships appeared to the end of the musical number.

"I ain't neva seen nothin like dat blue spinny fing, wots dat?" Bludchoppa asked as strange text began to roll across the screen.

"Dunno kapin, but it seems like dat blue stuff is wot dez boneez use ta move n shoot."

On of the smaller mekboyz that was crawling along the outer edges of the ship's hull began to cut into the plates with a large circular saw. As the sparks erupted from the hull, a small gout of blue shot out from the ship's hull and engulfed the ork. Yelling in surprise, he was lifted upwards and floated away in a field of blue energy. Everyone looked at as he grunted and fidgeted uncomfortably for a half minute, when the field then dissipated suddenly. Falling like a green brick, he slammed into the hull of the alien ship with meaty smack, bouncing back up a foot or two and then sliding off the side. The mek got up slowly, his arm dangling at an awkward angle as the hanger erupted in a chorus of grunting jeers and laughs, even some of the bolder grots joined, their high pitched cackles sounding over the din. The mek roared and grunted in embarrassment as he sneaked off before a dok could find him.

Bludchoppa howled with the boyz of the hanger as the embarrassed mek left, once he was gone and the laughing stopped after another minute or two. Just as the hanger began to resume a normal level of activity, a scratching came in at Gobshack and Bludchoppa's ears.

"Oi! Kapin, Godshack, wez got somfing on da scannas! Looks like a small fleet o sum boxy ships or somfing. Dere not moving fast or nufin, but I fink dey mighta seen us cause dey turnin. Can we blast 'em?"

Bludchoppa smacked his powerclaw on the ground and howled a loud WAAAGH! which filled the hangar, the rest of the boyz joining in, unsure though at what was happening.

"Well botz, youz all wanted sumfing ta fight, and ole Bludchoppas dun found ya all somfing ta fight. Lets get ta lootin!"..

...

A loud boom woke Parvik from his rough, listless sleep. The aliens hadn't given him or the others any bedding, which was one of the least rough lessons he learned in his first day of being a slave. After his initial shock at seeing the mass of humans in the cavernous workshop, he was literally thrown over to one of the rowing bars by one of the aliens, who cracked a loud whip above his head and grunted towards the machine. Parvik had grabbed the bar uncertainly before his arms were nearly jerked out of their sockets as the other two humans at the bar began to row more vigorously, glaring at Parvik as he struggled to keep pace.

The boom sounded again as he struggled to his feet. He saw the humans around him were already scrambling to their stations, they bumped past him and paid him little mind, something he'd grown accustomed to. He'd tried to introduce himself to the two humans who'd been with him when he'd started rowing several days prior. He cursed himself for slacking off during the language seminar several months prior when they were taught basic words and phrases common in the human trade language. While universal translators in omni-tools made learning a whole new language not necessary, command had a habit of making everyone memorize enough of other species languages to at least form coherent greetings, warnings and commands. "Your equipment could fail at the worst possible moment and leave you stuck in an awkward moment" the human who'd run the seminar had said. Parvik remembered that the teacher and the students had the same bored look in the faces that said they all had better places to be. "But if your lungs and mouth ever fail then you're most likely dead." It sounded as forced and ridiculous coming out of the human's mouth as it had from all the other instructors who'd come in to give similar lessons for the asari, salarian and elcor. Apparently original jokes were in shorty supply across the whole damn galaxy.

He shook his head clear of the memory as he found his way to a rowing bar. He saw a familiar pair of humans giving him their usual glare. Bitterly, he grabbed the bar without a word. He still thought about their first meeting...

"Hello..." the word had sounded strange in his mouth, like a piece of food he didn't know whether to swallow or spit out. "I...Parvik...You?" he'd asked as he'd tried to make gestures his hands, hoping to emphasize some of the words. One nice thing about the humans was that many of their hand gestures were similar to the most of the Citadel species. His gesturing was rewarded with a cold hard punch to his gut at the two suddenly pulled the bar back, catching Parvik by surprise right in his stomach. As he wheezed, they glared at him more, one spat at him while the other muttered something in a language that sounded foreign to him, or at least more foreign than the human trade tongue already was. He didn't understand what they'd said, but he did hear one word he quickly learned was the favorite word many of the humans used to snarl, hiss, growl, scream, yell and laugh at him…"Xeno."

Another boom came, and Parvik realized it was the large, leathery looking drum that dangled above the chamber like a noisy chandelier. A pair of small green aliens, the kind that had striped him, took turns pounding the drum with sticks almost as large as they were. Ignoring the unfriendly duo of humans next to him, he began to row the familiar bar in front of him, his stomach growled audibly and he grimaced at his stomach pains. The one meal they had each day was thoroughly unpleasant. On the first day, he'd been surprised when one of the green aliens blew a loud whistle and Parvik was knocked over by his rowing companions as they and the rest of the slaves rushed towards one of the troughs built into the wall near the tube he'd entered from. As he got to his feet he saw a small cascade of brown, red, blue and green pour out of several of the smaller tubes. The humans began greedily shoveling as much of the stuff in their mouths as possible, pushing and shoving each other aside. By the time he limped over the piles were largely gone, save only a few bit and pieces of what he realized was some kind of fungus judging by the caps and stalks. He grimaced as he teasingly bit into a red mushroom. Chewing twice, he'd felt his face swell up a bit before he quickly spat it out. He tried the brown and green fungi next and felt his face grow fatter still. Grudgingly, he bit into the last one, a blue mushroom and mercifully felt nothing apart from the rubbery texture of the fungus which tasted like dirt and garbage mixed together. Looking down, he realized that the humans largely left the blue fungi alone.

"Should have probably lead with that one" he thought stupidly as he bent down and scarfed down a few more of the putrid things before he was almost knocked over by a rush of small green aliens. These ones were somehow smaller than the others who'd stripped him earlier, these ones only came up halfway to his leg. Their large eyes took up most of their faces as long, stick thin arms and fingers dug into the small fungus piles. He noticed that they shifted around a lot on their feet, like when a small child was anxious about something, The way they looked around the room reminded him of a herd of animals keeping alert for a predator. When one of the large aliens guarding Parvik and the others stomped its foot loudly, the little aliens jumped and began skittering around the floor, some climbing the walls while others moved towards other parts of the workshop. The alien who'd stomped gave what Parvik assumed to be a hearty laugh as the others joined him for a moment before he set his gaze on Parvik. Grunting loudly, he'd started unfurling his whip. Feeling his feet carrying him before he fully realized it, Parvik ran back to his rowing bar, only to see what looked like two new humans there, a male and a female. He'd assumed as much anyways, all the humans had a way of looking alike. These two were also about as friendly as the last bunch.

That had all been several days ago, he could only guess the time though as there was little in the way of any real time keeping apart from the alien's whistles. Once in a while the aliens would give two whistle blows and point to the floor, the slaves would then scramble and find their own preferred spots to lie down. Parvik had been elbowed out from under several tables before he'd settled on an empty patch of floor near the massive lift in the back of the chamber. He'd noticed that several of the humans who'd laid down near him scooted from him in every direction

He struggled to keep a yawn down as they rowed, he couldn't tell if his fatigue was from a lack of sleep since the alien's woke the slaves up at times as random as when they made them sleep. None of the humans would talk to him, and he knew better than to try his luck with one of the larger aliens. Apart from eating, he spent all his time doing manual labor. Most days he spent rowing at one of the bars; it reminded him of the vids he used to watch about the ships of old back on Palavan. He thought about the stories of the legendary Fourth Legion, the men and women who'd sailed the Leherus Sea, fighting pirates, and the Carrinax Empire. Only now instead of imagining himself as one of the mighty marines like when he was a boy, he thought grimly about the all the slaves who'd row those wooden monstrosities. The vids always liked to gloss over those guys apart from a shot or two showing them rowing as hard as they could while the ships careened into one another.

For the life of him, he had no clue as to why they were doing any of this. Apart from the massive spinning wheels people ran in to raise and lower the lifts, he couldn't see any devices connected to the rowing bars or other cranks, nothing which seemed to do anything. He knew there was far more to the ship than this large chamber, he still remembered the sensor reading telling how large the ship was, but the fact that so much space was devoted to this room bothered him, it was a though that never left him no matter how hard he'd rowed. The aliens had to have some kind of enormous power generators to keep their ship moving and keep all their crude devices powered as well. So why row? It made no sense, even the Batarians had practical uses for their slaves, and they wouldn't press gang hundreds of humans like this just to watch them exercise...

The drum beat increased steadily until the cadence became jerky and the rowers began to mimic the rapid, uneven pace. The lights dimmed as a loud humming sound could be heard from the front. A grunting roar could be heard over what he thought was some kind of PA system, which for these creatures was a series of pipes and tubes with irregular openings and conical pieces of metal to serve as rough microphones. After it spoke, the task masters began cracking their whips harder and with an uncomfortable rapidity. As his back began to tighten and ache from the rowing the lights dimmed once and a roar of triumph echoed through the ship. After several seconds, the loud angry voice came out of the pipes and tubes and the drums slowed and gradually resumed a normal rowing pace; much to the relief of Parvik and the others. He saw the humans dripping in sweat, creating small musty pools at their feet. His own mouth felt dry and he wondered if they'd get any water.

They did, though it was only about half an hour later when several sprinklers above their heads activated. Parvik was jostled once more as the human rushed forward, hands cupped as they collected small cups of water in their hands and drank greedily. A few fought over the drinking troughs which still sat half full for the day before. As he let the water fall into his mouth, he noticed something odd about the humans. He'd seen it on his second or third day too. Despite their overall hostility to him, the rest of the captives seemed more or less indifferent to their present situation. Every beating he saw was ignored by the others, every-time someone was dragged off either half unconscious or dead, they paid little heed. When the strange aliens stomped about, the humans usually did nothing but their jobs. It had reached the point that had they not been overtly negative towards Parvik, he would have though them addled or modified in some way to work within the ship. He though about all of that as the humans murmured quietly among themselves, he hadn't see them ever do that before. They congregated in groups of two to five and all were, despite seeming like they were slacking off, none were whipped or yelled at. The aliens too seemed somewhat casual, save for one or two strong arming the odd person. Their gestures and occasional turning of heads all pointed in one direction, the entrance tube...

A banging sound could be heard from it, it had been the same tube he'd been thrown down several days prior. As the humans were busy lapping up what was left of the water, Parvik stared at the dark mouth of the tube. Several of the larger aliens were also waiting, impatiently cracking their whips, and smiling their disturbing grin of mismatched gnarled yellow teeth sticking out in several directions as the grunted at the pipe. The thumping came closer and closer until out of the tube rolled several small round burgundy balls, the tumbled and bounced forward for several meters before slowing. One of the aliens had put up a foot and stopped the ball with his foot, grunting in annoyance as it slowly uncurled. Parvik heard a faint wheeze as the group of volus began to unfurl themselves from their protective posture...

A/N A special thanks to my new beta reader Flame Falcon for giving this chapter a good reading.

Edit: Also thank you Eipok for pointing out the strange spelling errors in the story, it turns out I uploaded the rough draft of this and not the final version. My bad.