Por’El Kais awoke as he was dragged along the ground by his feet.
‘Hurry! Get the weapons from the shuttle,’ a voice barked near him.
Clarity returned.
It was Commander Shas’Vre Korvesh, his Fire Warrior bodyguard. The memories slammed back – Tormenta, a Tau’va colony world, now under invasion.
Terrified shouts and thunderous explosions filled the air. A sharp slap snapped Kais fully awake.
‘Rise, my Aun,’ Korvesh ordered. ‘The Gue’Vash are here!’
Kais opened his eyes just in time to see a member of his security detail vanish into blue mist. The hulking, unmistakable form ahead fired again as two more dropped from an Imperial Valkyrie. Kais scrambled behind wreckage as another of his detail was torn apart. Korvesh fired a pulse rifle, then dove for cover as explosions peppered the crashed shuttle.
Kais risked a glance – three towering figures advanced through the smoke: Space Marines. They were alone. No escape…
Kais closed his eyes and accepted his impending death.
Then the unmistakable crack of railguns.
He opened his eyes to see the Astartes lying dead. Emerging from the mist appeared to be a crisis suit?
No, he thought. Kais squinted. The silhouette was wrong.
It was an enormous Ork.
Thick industrial blue paint coated its crude armour, and a battered railgun hung across its chest. Two drones buzzed overhead, one sparking violently. Dozens of shapes emerged behind it.
Every Ork wore some grotesque parody of Tau equipment. Pulse carbines welded to scrap weapons. Tau armour hammered into rusted plates. One Ork carried a rail rifle taped to a heavy stubber. They spread out in disciplined fashion—some securing the perimeter, others looting everything in sight.
Kais and Korvesh stared in disbelief. The lead Ork turned toward them, eyes widening with gleeful recognition.
‘Oi! It’s one of Da Tav’ua! Servant of Da Greater Gork!’
Kais and Korvesh exchanged a bewildered look.
Several Orks dropped to one knee. Kais noticed the Ork glyphs biting into stylised Tau symbols adorned on them.
‘Did he mean the Greater Good?’ Korvesh muttered.
‘Ya,’ the Ork replied bluntly. ‘Dat’s wot I said.’
Kais stood slowly, straightening his robes. ‘You… know who I am?’
The Ork grinned wide. ‘‘Course we do. You’se an Uan!’ The Ork waved to the others around him. ‘I’m Snagglerock, an’ dees are me Fire Gitz!’
Korvesh edged closer to Kais. ‘They will kill us. Once I open fire, you must run.’ Kais motioned him down, studying the creatures. Orks who worshipped the Greater Good? Impossible.
And yet…
The history of Tormenta swirled in his head. The Tau saved the Gueva population from an Ork Warband known as the Blood Axes a century earlier. These Orks must be survivors, feral descendants worshipping a barbarian interpretation of the Greater Good.
A strange thought stirred within Kais… opportunity.
‘How long have you followed the… Greater Gork?’ he asked carefully.
Snagglerock laughed proudly, ‘After da big fight. We found da talky botz!’ He pointed at the damaged drone. ‘Da little floaty gitz taught us everything. Made us think propah. Consdiah new taughts.’
Korvesh’s expression went cold. Kais understood instantly. During the Tau reclamation of Tormenta, countless drones, caches, and depots had been abandoned among the Ork dead. Disposal had been deemed too costly.
Korvesh grabbed Kais’s arm. ‘We are in danger. We must flee.’
Kais resisted. Korvesh tried to reason. ‘My Aun, you don’t understand Orks, they—’
Flashes blinded Kais and Korvesh’s chest detonated into blood and shattered armour. Kais was thrown into the mud. More Marines burst from the fog, charging for the kill, only to halt at the sight before them: a mob of blue-painted Orks encircling a Tau Ethereal.
Even Kais understood how absurd it looked. He acted fast. ‘You must defend me,’ he shouted. ‘This is the will of the Greater Gork!’
‘For da Greater Gork!’ the Orks thundered.
Railguns barked. A hypersonic slug tore through the lead Marine. Jerry-rigged drones shot from concealment, while pulse rounds and crudely stabilised stubbers hammered the others. One Astartes vanished beneath a torrent of fire. Another fell to a massive Ork’s crackling power cleaver fashioned from a Hammerhead stabiliser. The last disappeared under a dogpile of muscular blue-green bodies.
Battle over, the Orks moved swiftly to loot the area. Before Kais could protest, Snagglerock hoisted him up on his shoulders and off they ran to the ruins of old Hive Tormenta. The mob quickly vanished below ground via a crude tunnel.
What he saw beneath the city stunned him. Caverns vast and impossibly engineered stretched beneath the dead hive. Tens of thousands of Orks worked in diligent efficiency in sprawling industrial camps. Blue banners hung everywhere, bearing crude Tau symbols fused with Ork glyphs.
‘Impressive, right, Ma Uan?’ Snagglerock beamed, ‘Da erf gitz stay busy.’ Kais watched Orks assemble bizarre, hybrid machinery with shocking coordination. In the centre stood an immense Ork draped in robes made from shredded Tau banners.
Snagglerock bowed, letting Kais fall from his shoulders. ‘We have returned, My Weird’Uan!’
He raised his arms triumphantly as Kais rose. ‘Da servant of da Greater Gork has come!’ The cavern shook with thousands of roaring voices. The robed Ork gestured towards the darkness ahead.
‘Behold!’
Kais turned and froze. An enormous war machine towered before him, half-completed. A monstrous fusion of Tau design and Ork brutality. Crisis suit reactors pulsed within a gargantuan frame. Colossal rail cannons hung beneath jagged armoured shoulders. Shield drones orbited like metallic insects.
Kais stared in horror. ‘No… you misunderstand the Greater Good,’ he pleaded.
The massive Ork regarded him, then laughed. ‘Naaaahhh, you lot taught da Tau’Ork Propah.’ He spread his arms wide. ‘All da recess fightin’ together…foreva! For da Greater Goooorrrrk!’
A new chant erupted from thousands of throats. ‘Greater Gork! Greater Gork! Greater Gork!’
As the colossal machine growled to life beneath the ruined hive, Kais felt dread hollow him from within. The Greater Good had not civilised these Orks. The Orks had uncivilised the Greater Good.
