Ork Logic

The Astra Militarum Commissar gave all the Orks the middle finger. In Ork culture, this meant skewering prey through the middle and roasting it to eat-a fate many Gretchin suffered. It was an extreme insult.

"You ain't big enough, and you ain't got enough Waaagh! That one actually thought he could kill me? I challenge your boss!" the Commissar shouted in fluent Orkish.

All the Ork Boyz were furious at his words. They hurled crude insults at him, but none stepped forward to attack.

They were not the boss. If one stepped out to challenge the Commissar, even killing him would amount to challenging the boss's authority. The boss could easily hold a grudge and kill him afterward.

"Boss Slick, that Humie's way too mouthy!"

"Yeah, boss! Kill him, chop him down, slice him up, hack him to bits!" Countless Boyz crowded around Cheng Mingrui, fuming.

"Boss, here's my Choppa. You can borrow it. Chop down from the head, and shlick-the Humie's in two halves." Iron Claw eagerly offered Cheng Mingrui his weapon.

Cheng Mingrui was speechless. You're sucking up to your boss, and you're only lending it to me? Besides, I could blast that Commissar to slag just by pulling my Plasma Gun's trigger, but instead I have to stupidly go fight him up close.

Orks appreciated cunning and treachery, but they worshipped martial prowess even more.

The various Ork clans each had their own quirks. Some liked shooting, some liked racing, and some liked collecting Teef. But the strongest clan, the Goffs, loved nothing more than charging head-on and using their Choppas to Waaagh! through everything.

If Cheng Mingrui backed out of his duel with the Commissar now, the other Orks would look down on him and consider him unfit to be boss. The challenges afterward would never end.

He tossed his combination Plasma Gun to Weirdboy. Although Weirdboy had grown another size larger by now, he still staggered as he caught Cheng Mingrui's weapon.

"Keep my weapon safe. If there's so much as a chip of paint missing when I get back, I'll burst your head." With that, Cheng Mingrui gripped Iron Claw's massive Choppa in a reverse grip and walked toward the Astra Militarum Commissar.

"Sir, the Ork boss has come out. If we launch a surprise attack and kill him, the Orks will collapse without a boss and start fighting among themselves," a subordinate beside the Commissar suggested.

"No. If no other Orks were watching, we could kill their Warboss in an ambush. That would deal a severe blow to their morale." The Commissar surveyed the surroundings. Apart from the troops still holding formation around him,

the other Astra Militarum soldiers had either been killed or fled. Everywhere he looked, there were Orks, Gretchin, and Squigs.

"With all these eyes on us, killing the Ork Warboss in a surprise attack would only send the Orks berserk. They'd think we were despicable cheats. They would fight among themselves for the position of boss later, but only after killing us."

"Countless people paid for this precious knowledge with their lives fighting Orks..." The Commissar discarded his Boltgun, drew his Chainsword, and slowly stepped forward.

"Killing the Ork Warboss in a duel is our only hope of survival. For the Emperor!" With that, the Commissar pulled his Chainsword's trigger. Amid the roar of its biting teeth, he raised the sword and charged Cheng Mingrui.

The Ork's enormous Choppa collided with the roaring Chainsword. Neither figure, one tall and one short, gave an inch.

Cheng Mingrui had expected his massive body and strength to let him kill the Commissar in a single blow. He was stunned. How could a mortal who hadn't undergone Astartes surgical enhancement be this strong?

With a furious roar, Cheng Mingrui switched from a one-handed grip to two hands and shoved with all his might. The momentary balance of strength broke. In the end, the mortal was overwhelmed by the Ork's formidable power.

But the Commissar did not lose his balance. He twisted at the waist to bleed off the force and slashed, sweeping the Chainsword's edge across Cheng Mingrui's thigh. Had Cheng Mingrui not dodged in time, he would have lost his leg instead of merely suffering a bloody gash.

They exchanged four or five rounds of blows without either gaining the upper hand. The Commissar countered Cheng Mingrui's strength with nimble movements. Cheng Mingrui, who had never fought in close combat before, was being held up by someone far weaker than himself.

This wasn't right. How was this possible? How could a mortal move so fast? Cheng Mingrui grew increasingly astonished. Only when he heard the nearby Ork Boyz whispering among themselves as they cheered did he understand why.

"This Humie boss looks like Old One-Eye."

"You think so? I reckon so too."

"You idiot! You moron! Old One-Eye died of old age! How could that be Old One-Eye?"

Two Orks who disagreed started fighting. "You're the idiot! How could Old One-Eye die? Old One-Eye's different. He's a Humie, but he can't die."

Cheng Mingrui took a closer look. Sure enough, green energy surrounded the Commissar fighting him! It was Ork Logic! The Orks' stupid thoughts were helping the enemy!

Ork Logic was another racial cheat the Orks possessed besides Waaagh! energy. No one had yet figured out how it worked, but its effects could be summed up simply as mind over matter.

For example, if Orks believed vehicles painted red went faster, then merely painting a vehicle red would make it go much faster, even without any modifications.

The Orks' weapons, tanks, armor, and starships, all cobbled together like piles of scrap, were also influenced by Ork Logic.

If the Orks thought something worked, it would work. Put the same thing from an Ork's hands into the hands of another species, such as a human, and it would either break down or explode. It defied all reason.

Humans had even conducted dedicated research to understand the principle behind it. They found that, at the microscopic level, Ork Knowledge caused the material world to compensate for precision errors in weapons and machinery! Like the inscrutability of quantum mechanics, Ork Knowledge was unfathomable.

Even the errors it corrected at the microscopic level had limits. It could not, for example, make a square wheel roll faster than a round one or let a brick ignore aerodynamics and fly into the sky.

Its effects were still astonishing. They already fell within the realm of consciousness determining matter.

Cheng Mingrui was about to explode with rage as he fought the Commissar hand to hand. You stupid Ork Boyz, stop thinking nonsense! You'll get someone killed!

Ork Knowledge did not affect physical matter alone. It could also influence all kinds of flesh-and-blood life, and was not even limited to the Orks themselves.

Old One-Eye was a powerful human Commissar. The Orks could never remember his human name, so they called him Old One-Eye because he had a red mechanical eye.

Old One-Eye had defeated large-scale Ork Waaagh!s many times. The Orks spread tales of his formidable victories, and some even called him the Ork Slayer.

If these damned Boyz decided the Commissar in front of me was Old One-Eye, I'd really be in deep trouble!

He was not Gork's Chosen Bonecrusher. If he encountered Old One-Eye, he would be dead for sure!