Editing Ork-Chan (section)

== Chapter One ==

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Children file out of the school's main doors,chattering happily now that another school day is over. You lean against the gate, watching them run out to the bus lines, laughing and playing as they go.
Ah, to be young again.

"Daddy!" Ork-chan cries as she sees you, skipping down the concrete path where you greet her with a warm hug. 
"Hey sweetie, learn anything good today?" you ask, scruffing her hair playfully as you stand. 
"Yeh, I got a C on a pop kwiz fer Choppa Praktikal!"
"That's my girl." you say, her beaming in happiness.

Ork-Chan's mother was killed in a WAAAAAAAGH! six years ago when her Warbike was shot by the Tau. Since then you have been raising Ork-Chan by yourself, working as a translator so you can work at home and be with her during the nights. Your house is small and she has to buy used weapons for school, but you are able to put Squig on the table and take her to the Trukk Races every month. 
Smiling back down to her, you take her hand. "Let's go home."
"Kan we go out bak an' shoot fingz?"
"Sure. I'll get my lasrifle."
"YAY!"


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Opening the doors to the rifle cabinet in your den, you pull out the Mars pattern Lasrifle, gently caressing the scoring on the barrel.
Ork-Chan's mother did that when you first met, trying to stab you with her knife when you mounted a ridge after being separated from your unit. But it had not ended in death, something beautiful happened...

You look out the window and into the dust bowl of the backyard. Ork-Chan is still in her uniform, and is singing happily as she fills her shoota's empty magazines from a bullet box on the ground. She used all of them at school again today. You shake your head and smile.
They grow up so fast.

Walking out the back in your fatigue pants, boots and a white singlet, Ork-Chan starts bouncing on her feet happily as you approach the makeshift sandbags. Opposite the 'bunker' are targets you let Ork-Chan draw with crayons, pathetic humans cowering in terror.
"Okay. If you hit with most the bullets we can go and get cave fungus for dinner. Deal?"
Ork-Chan clasped the gun to herself happily. "Kan I chooz da color?"
"Only if you do well."

The targets only have a few holes in them after five clips, most of that ammo wasted on a cat running across the back fence halfway through. Embarrassed, Ork-Chan giggles and fidgets nervously.
"Eyes on the prize, sweetie."


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After dinner, you help her with her homework before telling Ork-Chan to go get dressed for bed. You take the dishes to the sink and wash them, stacking them in the cupboard once they are dry. 
From firing two hundred rounds with the shoota you counted twelve hits she had made on the targets. For an Ork that's pretty good. After bullseyeing three shots with the lasrifle you brought blue cave fungus with white growths for her, like you promised. Watching her happily gorge the food, it is hard not to imagine what it would have been like if her mother had been there too, to see how well she had grown up.

After the dishes, you walk down the hallway into her room to find her already tucked into bed, wearing her old white nightgown. She hasn't showered, but Orks don't really shower so it's alright. You are used to her smell now. 
Sitting on her bedside, you kiss her on the forehead. "Sleep tight, don't let the Gnasher squigs bite." you tell her like always, crossing to the door. As you are about to leave, she stops you.
"Daddy... you fink mummy will kome home from da foightin' tomorra?"
You pause, exhaling softly. You never had the heart to tell her what had happened. Maybe you could never fully deal with it yourself. 
"Maybe." you say, wishing you could believe it yourself.
"If she doez, kan we all go ta da trukk races together?"
Your heart is breaking, but you manage to smile back at her, your voice hoarse. "Sure. We can do that."
Satisfied, she closes her red eyes. "Kay. Nite, daddy."

You switch off the light and walk back to the fridge, pulling out a beer and sitting at the table, opening it on the corner. It hurts so much to lie to her, but the truth would break her heart. And she is all you have left...

Tomorrow while she's at school, you'll go price cheap Warbikes. Her mother would like that.