Schlock Mercenary: May 19, 2018

Note: When Chisulo says "meatfuel" he's not talking about fuel made out of meat. He's talking about fuel made FOR meat. In this case, it's soldier-grade, which means a soldier will eat it, but not preferentially. One implication of the word "soldier" is the following of orders, and soldier-grade meatfuel is something many soldiers will only eat when doing exactly that.

The people-grade meals created by a Fabberchow are much tastier, but the units are typically installed in bulkheads so that the sludge hopper at the back of the machine is in a separate room from the diners. Many species, even spacefaring ones who should know better, will not consume the Fabberchow's delicious output preferentially (if at all) once they've gotten a good look at what goes into that hopper.