The command post was deathly silent.
That shocked exclamation, coming from somewhere unknown, had voiced what everyone present was thinking.
Caught off guard by the Orks, humanity had lost the vast lands outside the Hive City almost instantly, along with millions of soldiers.
Before the Astartes arrived to reinforce them, they had all but accepted that the Orks could not be destroyed in open battle.
Yet just as everyone had resigned themselves to their fate, not only was a human army still operating in the field, it had actually fought its way through the Ork-infested sea of sand!
How could this news not send a shudder through the Astra Militarum who witnessed it?
No one spoke. They simply watched the army as it continued marching.
Only when hurried footsteps sounded outside the command post did they come back to their senses.
The doors opened, and the old general strode into the command post.
All around him were Astra Militarum soldiers who had not made it back to their stations in time. But despite their panicked expressions, the old general paid no attention to these soldiers who had abandoned their posts. His eyes went straight to the display.
Seeing that a force really had fought its way through the sea of sand, the old general could no longer maintain his composure. He drew a deep breath and froze where he stood.
An officer approached with a newly compiled report on the force, but before he could salute, the old general read its designation off the screen:
"The 101st."
The officer froze. The old general gazed at the regimental standard still being protected within the ranks, his expression falling silent.
For the old general knew that this force had not only fought its way through the Ork-filled sea of sand, but had also braved friendly artillery fire to break through rebel lines, single-handedly fighting through the rebels across an entire Hive City.
Each of those battles would have been enough to break even the Astra Militarum. Yet not only had they failed to crush this force, they had made it ever stronger.
This time, the old general's eyes no longer held the mere indifference with which he regarded currency. As he looked at this force, worthy of being called legendary, and at Sith at its head, a measure of respect finally entered his gaze.
But immediately after that respect came a sudden glance to one side, toward a military order placed at the very top, bearing the highest authority of the sector's Departmento Munitorum.
The faces of everyone in the command post stiffened when they saw him look at that order.
"How are preparations for the auxiliary force requested by the Adeptus Astartes coming along?"
Everyone in the command post lowered their heads slightly. Only the officer responsible for the order forced himself to speak:
"We're still transferring troops. We estimate..."
The old general raised a hand:
"Stop the transfers. We can't break through the Xenos encirclement."
The officer stopped, then cautiously looked at the old general.
Then he followed the old general's gaze to the screen!
"Have the 101st Regiment assist... the Astartes."
Though they had anticipated it, everyone still sighed inwardly when the old general gave the order.
After all, fighting alongside the Astartes was not merely an honor, but a journey that almost certainly ended in death.
The officers dared not show their sympathy for Sith's 101st Regiment. They immediately set to work, following procedure to draft the military order to be sent to Sith.
Soon, the drafted order was delivered to the old general.
The old general picked up a pen to sign it, but caught the name of the Astartes order out of the corner of his eye and frowned.
Lowering his head to sign, the old general asked in puzzlement as he wrote:
"Deathwatch?"
"Why have I never heard of this Chapter?"
At the edge of the sea of sand.
Tens of thousands of footsteps dragged up yellow sand, leaving long trails behind them.
The few motorcycles they had sped along in the distance, serving as the army's eyes and ears.
As another report on the Orks' distance arrived, Sith paused briefly, glanced around, and strode up a dune.
He raised his binoculars and surveyed the surroundings. The sandstorm deep in the sea of sand was no longer barely visible as it had been before. It now filled the distant sky, blotting out the entire world.
Through the binoculars, Sith could even see the frenzied Orks beneath the sandstorm, riding their speeding motorcycles.
Lowering the binoculars, Sith looked toward the Hive City. Though he had not held out much hope, he still could not help frowning slightly at the empty land.
Brunok stood beside him. Seeing Sith's reaction, his expression was equally grim.
But he made no complaints. He simply looked toward the vast abandoned positions on the other side and the ruined fortifications within them, then turned to Sith for his opinion:
"The scouts found quite a few Planetary Defence Force troops still hiding in those positions. Should we conscript them?"
They were not the Astra Militarum, after all. They could not be expected to give everything for the Imperium.
The sprawling positions, which had once held millions of defenders, sheltered many Planetary Defence Force troops unwilling to keep throwing their lives away.
Sith glanced over, but could not even be bothered to raise his binoculars toward the positions.
"Rather than waste the effort digging them out, we might as well give the soldiers a few more minutes to rest."
The routed troops were scattered, and so afraid of death that they would rather hide than retreat toward the Hive City, where fighting might break out.
Just thinking about organizing those men gave Sith a headache.
At that, Brunok withdrew his suggestion, while Sith put away his binoculars and turned to walk down the dune.
"Halt the march. Give the soldiers one last thirty-minute rest."
Brunok froze, watching the calm Sith walk down the dune. A moment later, he looked toward the Green Tide's sandstorm drawing ever closer on the other side!
The soldiers finally received their long-awaited rest. They sat on the ground, took out their last blocks of compressed starch, and put them into their mouths.
They drank every last drop of their scant water, feeling the starch and water gradually turn into strength that flowed into their limbs.
Not far from the soldiers, pairs of eyes silently turned toward them from the ruined fortifications.
Inside one fortification, dozens of soldiers crouched or lay in a relatively spacious chamber.
Their uniforms differed slightly, making it clear that they were defence troops forcibly conscripted from different Hive Cities.
Now, all of them peered outside as best they could through the half-buried ruins.
It was not just the command post that was shocked humans had actually emerged from the Ork-filled sea of sand. Even these routed soldiers, who had once faced the Orks brimming with confidence thanks to the Departmento Munitorum's propaganda, found it terrifying.
Whenever they recalled the scenes that had taken them from confidence to doubt and then terror, they felt nothing but sympathy for the army outside.
Then, seeing Sith's army begin setting up defensive lines and occupying some of the abandoned positions as though preparing to fight, the routed soldiers withdrew sheepishly.
Though none of them spoke, looking at the men calmly preparing for battle and then at themselves huddled inside the fortifications, they could not say they felt particularly ashamed, but it still left an unpleasant feeling inside.
While the routed soldiers wrestled with their mixed feelings, Sith, some distance away, had yet to celebrate the command post's unprecedented delivery of supplies when the military order delivered right after them froze the smile that had just appeared on his face.
Far away, deep in the sea of sand, the Orks' war cries already shook heaven and earth.
The soldiers around him busied themselves preparing for battle, but Sith only stared at the military order and the Astartes name upon it, his expression still:
"Deathwatch..."
"Instead of Calgar, this force got here first."
Sith let out a faint, resigned breath as he finished speaking, then raised his eyes to look ahead.
Densely packed Orks spilled over the dunes.
Yet compared with the Orks, Sith saw something worse.
Because when a planet attracted the Deathwatch, the Orks were very likely the easiest Xenos to deal with!
And beyond the Xenos, there was another point that gave people, especially mortals, an even greater headache: the Deathwatch still contained large numbers of loyal Astartes from Chapters that had turned traitor!
For with news of the "Horus Heresy" tightly suppressed by the Imperium, once a mortal learned that the Imperium had not nine Space Marine Chapters but eighteen, congratulations.
It was time for your soul to return to the Emperor!