"I accept your apology, but you weren't wrong. We really are recruits."
"We also need the guidance of your extensive combat experience, teacher."
Idamas remained neither servile nor overbearing. He did not impulsively rise to the provocation because the other party looked down on them. Instead, he followed the fine traditions of Gamma World: recognize anyone with strengths as a teacher and learn from their merits. Only when there was nothing new left to learn would one become the foremost authority in that field.
They were all adults. And for adults, victory and defeat were decided on the real battlefield, not by words. Strength was the best measure for earning another's respect.
Their thousand Space Marines were not as experienced as the four of them. That was a fact.
The four of them might be able to defeat ten of theirs. That was also a fact.
But they would learn what they lacked from the others. They would call them teachers and regard them as their goals. They would swiftly surpass them through learning, rapidly growing into powerful warriors who would leave even them in awe. Once they had surpassed them, they would seek their next goal.
Besides, they possessed more than just themselves. They had combat mechs, Drone combat support systems, stronger alloy Power Armor, and fiercer artillery. The warriors of the Imperium had nothing to be proud of before them.
In their eyes, surpassing these so-called Imperium Chapters was only a matter of time.
What they sought to restore was the age when the Golden Age ruled and commanded the galaxy.
Not this age of barely clinging to life in a shattered world.
Zephram truly had not expected the other side to be so composed and self-possessed.
If it had been certain Chapters, they might already have begun