Begby Boulderbuster always knew he was different. He could tell at the grocer when he and his mother went through the line as a toddler, the hidden line of distaste and the smell of fear from the checkout girl.

His first day at school was a day to remember, he was head and shoulders taller than anyone in his class, and they had to get him a larger desk. He’d sit alone during recess, watching the other children play; they wouldn’t really even talk to him, much less play with him. The name calling and mean-spirited kids took their toll on his self esteem. He grew to have little respect for authority. The adult humans did nothing to protect him from the children’s jeers and provocations; they seemed to delight in it, some teachers at times would even laugh with the children. No matter what he raised his hand for, he was seldom called upon to answer anything.

Begby received his Ork traits from a virus he’d been told, but he couldn’t believe he was sick: he didn’t feel sick, in fact as he became a teenager and his ears and teeth got larger, the muscles in his arms becoming grotesquely overdeveloped, he didn’t even work out much: he realized he was stronger than those humans that hated him, and one day he would put this to use.

He joined the football team in high school. He lead the team in quarterback sacks, he’d move through the offensive line like an unstoppable laser beam and crush the quarterback, till the other team’s bleachers would cry, “Take the monster out, he’s unfair! Is he your only player? You cheaters!” The chants still rung in his head, even as the coach called him out of the game to sit on the bench.

He had a friend in High School, Amanda Burke. In the tenth grade Amanda had a locker next to his; he spent most of the time between classes trying to hide himself with its door. One day, Amanda tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Hi, I uh... bought this candy bar and I... can’t finish it, it’s too much chocolate, would you like the rest?” Begby turned to her, scanning her face for insult, wondering if it was just on the floor, or she had picked it out of a garbage can. He looked around to see if there were any girls masking giggles, watching the scene play out. There were none, and Amanda’s face had an... honesty that he hadn’t seen before in any human. He reached out for the candy bar and took a bite, saying, “Uh, thanks, that’s my favorite...,” not even knowing what kind it was, but he was hungry. He was always hungry. She smiled, turned and walked away, looked over her shoulder at him and smiled again. The following day she did the same, and the day after, and for weeks she would eat half a candy bar and share the other half with Begby. Very little was said until one day she admonished, “How can you stand those jerks treating you like that?” She nodded down the hall as some of the football team was standing around with their fingers up against their lower lips, making pretend protruding tusks like his. They danced about cross-eyed and walked around stomping the ground. He shrugged, there was so much of that, he hardly noticed anymore. After that they talked about everything, and walked home from school together, she was fascinated by him, and often remarked he was fun to be with because he wasn’t like everyone else.

As the year passed and summer came, Amanda helped him get a job at the Trideo store her dad owned. Amanda’s father Jim was always good to him, and was glad for his strength to move boxes and shelving and also paid him quite well, took him to lunch and became his friend and mentor over the summer. Jim seemed to respect him, and talked to him like he was just any normal guy. Begby realized that it wasn’t possible to hate humans as a whole, there were still good ones out there.

Fall came quickly and during his junior year, he and Amanda were inseparable. He started to make more friends, soon he was well known on the football team as “Big Green”. He had a signature move of stripping the ball from the opposing quarterback and making a touchdown on the same play. He learned he could move among the human kids as if they were standing still.

Amanda was incredibly popular and well liked at school, her father was pretty successful so she always had money, and she had a car, a really nice one but she didn’t flaunt it and was never stuck on herself, she had a real soul. Amanda had a crush on a boy named Todd, one of the most popular guys in school. Begby knew by the way she’d stop and stare at him, sometimes in mid-sentence. It didn’t bother Begby, although he didn’t really know Todd, he seemed OK. Amanda was too good a friend to risk anything of a romantic nature with, but deep down, he wished she could be his girlfriend. Every time he thought of this, he wondered what he would do with his lower tusks if they ever kissed, and then he’d shake the idea from his mind in embarrassment.

It was at a dance during their junior year that his life was changed forever. Begby went to the dance by himself, dressed in a suit that was really expensive, custom tailored to fit his huge frame, but he looked good, even for an Ork. He glanced around the dance to see if Amanda and Todd were having fun, he was going to go get a dance with her; she made him promise he would. He caught sight of them leaving out a side door and decided he’d say goodbye if they were leaving, and apologize for not getting that dance in like he said he would.

He followed a dark school hallway, rounded the corner and heard grunting and muffled struggling noises in an empty classroom, he walked up to the door and found Todd with his hands up under Amanda’s skirt, trying to tear her underclothes off, he had his pants around his ankles and she was pushing at his chest and hitting him, telling him to stop, he was laughing, telling her how much she wanted this.

Something flashed deep inside Begby, an ancient power; it was the nexus of his life essence coming into being. His was an old and powerful race, he felt touched by ancestors that protected their villages, he saw Orks from millennia past bearing bloody weapons of war, it was his reason for being, he was warrior. This will not stand. It could not. He was a protector of his tribe from eons past, and now he had only one member of his tribe. Amanda. If he could not protect her, his life was useless, it was his purpose. He exploded with a rage he never knew, all the pent-up frustrations of his whole childhood got released in two seconds.

With almost sickening agility, Begby sprinted to Todd, grabbed him by the throat, lifted him easily three feet off the ground and squeezed his throat and held while connecting with his right fist directly in the nose, making a sickening wet crushing sound, covering him with warm sticky red spray. Most of Todd’s throat stayed in Begby’s hand, but his body flew like a rag doll across the room and splattered messily against a corner table. Looking at the flesh pile that was Todd’s throat in his hand, he realized he had killed him with one blow; it was so easy, so fast. He looked down at his blood-soaked newly-tailored suit and stammered, “But, I... “Amanda screamed and ran out of the room. “...Amanda...”

She must’ve called Lone Star, because they were there quickly, taking him into custody and downtown for interrogation.

In the months that followed, he was jailed, interrogated, jailed, brought into and out of courts, jailed again, interrogated more; the whole thing seemed like a dream. When asked if he was sorry for what he’d done, he could only say it was an accident. It really was an accident in his mind, he had no intention of killing Todd, and he just was too strong for his own good.

His mother would visit him every week, and would often say, “What have I done to deserve this, how could you do this, Begby?” She cried a lot, and Begby wished if only for her sake that he could go back in time and change what he had done.

It was Jim, Amanda’s father, which kept him from life in prison or even execution. His lawyers did great things, and Amanda testified that she would’ve been raped had Begby not stepped in. But he was still in pretty big trouble, he was commissioned to UCAS Military Boarding school , and when he was finished there, forced enlistment. He never finished High School. Throughout his court case, Amanda would occasionally come in for testimony or be in the audience, but he didn’t have the heart to look up at her and lock eyes, but his eyes would always follow her out of the courtroom as she left, even though it made going back to his cell that much harder.

Begby became a skilled military mechanic. He worked on assault hovercrafts, and even upgraded some of the systems of machines he had charge of. He was released after two years of boarding school and 9 years of military service, and with a loan from Jim Burke, operates a hovercraft repair shop today. His parents have disowned him. Recently Jim sent Begby’s parents a big screen Trideo, with a note from Begby, saying, “Thanks so much for everything you did when I was growing up.” They didn’t respond, but they didn’t return the Trideo either, so that made Begby smile. “Someday we’ll be friends again...” it is his deepest wish.

Begby still at the core of everything blames humans for what he did: they wanted this, they provoked a sleeping tiger and although his demons are held at bay, they still exist. He has not contacted Amanda; shame for his outburst still hangs around his head. Jim and Begby don’t talk about Amanda, Jim understands not to cross that boundary, there’s too much of an emotional rift there, but he also believes that time heals all wounds.

His skills as a mechanic and pilot, along with his UCAS knowledge and weapons training make him perfect to run in the Shadows, and the money is too good to pass up. He’s killed before, he’s not afraid to again.

Artwork by Tim Keller