Delia's mechanical dog ran to the front lines, its electronic eyes recording the situation. It ejected a hard drive fitted with a rocket engine, which swiftly flew back toward Delia.
Delia caught the hard drive and plugged it into the back of her neck, finally seeing what had happened on the battlefield they had lost contact with.
A massive black sphere radiated an unsettling presence, making it nearly impossible to see what was happening inside. Yet from the flashes of fire shining through its weaker points, it was clear that the people within were still fighting.
"What a slaughter." Commissar Cain leaned over for a look, though more of his attention remained on the surrounding battlefield.
The bodies and combat suits of dead 37th Regiment soldiers carpeted the ground. Squads of Mirror Soldiers patrolled around the black sphere, clearing out survivors and dragging their corpses toward it, like keepers feeding an animal.
"How many troops do we have now? This place doesn't look easy to break through." Commissar Cain asked Kastin and Selina.
"The Valhalla battalion still has over fifteen thousand men available for combat."
"The Penitent Army battalion has around eight thousand left. The Mirror ambush dealt us severe losses."
"Can we call for support? Artillery and the fleet?" Cain then asked Rebecca, but received only a negative answer.
"Aeldari involvement in the battle is suspected. From the scrambled code and the underlying logic of the T'au code, I found traces of weapon programs written by the Aeldari." Rebecca rattled off a barrage of technical terms, leaving Cain unable to make sense of them for the moment.
"Uh... you know about xenos equipment... technology?" Commissar Cain asked cautiously. It was rather unusual for a communications officer to know so much about xenos weaponry.
Rebecca's eyes darted around before she