Rumlar strode across the bridge of his new ship. Ol’ Stompafist’s bad luck brought good fortune for Rumlar. See the data entry. Too bad he didn’t survive, but his kroozer was mostly intact and the mekboys would have her running soon. On top of that the imperial cruiser Blessed Ignorance was knocked out of the fight but was also mostly in one piece. (See “Disaster at Hegira.”) Hopefully it would stay that way after the meks got through with her. Things were shaping up. Half a dozen new ships, the war on the ground was going good, what could go wrong?

“Umm Kaptin’? We got a note in from Boss Irongut.”

“Well? What’s he say?”

“Not much Boss. Seems the Humies killed ‘im to death and sent the boyz packin’ back across the Sea of Dust.”

Rumlar though long and hard…”Should I kick the grot across the bridge? Or just shoot him?” he said to himself. In the end he did neither and only asked “Slapdash” to explain what happened.

“Well boss, seems the humies put up a bunch of satty-lights while we was fixin’ up the ships. Dey knew we was coming that way, so they sent one of their best bosses. A colonel to slow us down. Seems he knows how to fight. Those are dem over dere. The blinky lights just around the planet. Shmitty (Rumlar’s Chief Mek) has one in the hangar he’s checking out.”

Rumlar strode up to the pile of machinery lying on the deck; various bits, gubbinz, and sprockets littered the area as the Mek was scrounging for parts or trying to turn it into something useful.

“What have we ‘ere?” growled Rumlar.

Shmitty poked his head out of the hatch about to launch a long teknikal ‘splanation when Rumlar held up his hand. “Just the short version; I ain’t got all day.”

“Vel Keptin. Seems vee haf vound a highly complex piece of Imperial junk. See? Dis is de kameraa and here is a vox transceiver. It is shtill vorking zo de humies on de ground ken ‘ere every ting you zay.”

Oh yeah? Well give it here! Hokay youse guys. Listen up and listen good. You may think you got one over on us down there, but you ain’t. We didn’t lose. You put up a good fight and for that ya ‘ave our thanks. Seems like Irongut didn’t bring enough boyz wiff ‘im. Well we’re gonna fix that. Orks don’t lose. We just didn’t win that time so we’re coming down for another round. And this time, I’m coming. And the Meks are coming wit’ me. Get it? Good! BWaahaahaa.”

“Shmitty! About those wagons and jets. I want some more dakka. The kind that moves fast.”