This fellow never technically had a name. He was numbered 28561 (in reality the number of his cage), though he assumed that this was his name since nobody explained the idea of numbers to him. Shortly after he was born, he was selected by the choosers and sent off to the pens. There he was locked in a cage about a meter long, a meter tall and two meters wide with only the front having bars. In one end was a grated hole, and in the other end was the trough and a water dispenser. Every hour or so a cart would come by and fill the trough with a mixture of diced up plant matter, grain, mushrooms, chemical run-off and chunks of various stuff that had been simmering in huge cauldrons, dried out and mixed into a uniform grayish brow meal. It was not a very tasty, but there was a lot of it and the fact that he got to eat it while the emaciated slaves that tended him had their snouts locked shut made him feel smug about eating it. Every so often he'd be hosed down by those slaves or have his nails filed down. He'd tried gnawing on his cage's bars a couple of times, but was beaten by an clanrat overseer. His claws were also cut off. As a pup 28561 could scamper around but as he grew he found this more awkward as he settled into laying down facing forward. They also showed him a machine into which his snout was put which clamped his jaws shut. As he was beaten if he did not comply, he complied. In any case broke up the monotony.







Within a few months he had grown huge and fat and so came the time of his collection. His door opened, his hands were manacled and he was led out. A simple loincloth was affixed to his underside and he lumbered his way onto a dolly cart, which he lethargically flopped down on. No sooner than 28551 was out then a new pup was thrown in. He'd seen rats like himself be wheeled away before and knew that his time had come. His mind was abuzz with what was coming, all the other Skaven he had seen were thin and scrawny compared to his bulk. Sure he might have been a bit out of practice to move about but he'd soon enough figure that, but bigger was still better after all. A while latter he found himself chained to belt which dragged him along slowly along with dozen of other fat skaven like him. Soon enough he was led to a set of metal doors which opened and shut to let one fat skaven through. Once it closed odd mechanical sounds happened and when it opened the rat had gone. Here he would be given his just rewards, be given the things he needed to thrive and the opportunities to call the shots. Skinny skavenslaves and clanrats would do what he wanted them to do. Everything was making sense as he was led through the door.





A muzzle clamp went forwards and he let it grab his nose. That was unexpected, but he knew what to do. Son he was led along and then something swung above his head. It was a strange machine with red splattered on it and a large metal spike. He briefly wondered what it could be and part of his mind came to the idea that this was bad, he had cut himself a few times and had seen clanrats use blades to threaten slaves. The implications of these things were just beginning to percolate through 28561's mind when his thought processes were suddenly and terminally cut off as a rush of steam drove the spike into his brain. The chain then moved up the wall and dragged the flabby corpse up to be carried along on rails. There it would be skinned, gutted, taken apart section by section and divided into cuts of meat, bones and bit that were fed into huge grinding engines which produced the fillings for sausages and patties. Thus was the fate of the Skavenstock, those assigned to live a short life of being fattened up and slaughtered. Even Skavneslaves have some vague hope of being promoted or escaping into the warrens of the Under Empire, but the second a ratling is tossed into the cages of one of the Empire's factory farms his fate is sealed. Even if they managed to get out of their cage, these sluggish obese examples of ratkin are typically easy prey. Then again, while their doom is a forgone conclusion they still generally are subject to less abuse and privation than skavenslaves as they pack on mass. You don't need to prod skaven much to get them to gorge themselves.



