The soldiers cleared the battlefield.
Aside from finishing off the Orks, they mostly searched for the wounded and collected weapons.
Sith had operated almost entirely without logistical support. Every soldier and every round of ammunition was precious.
But unlike their usual focused bustle, this time the soldiers kept glancing toward the center of the battlefield.
Steel Pincer's corpse lay atop the mountain of bodies, like a trophy raised high in the last light of sunset.
Below the mountain of corpses, three towering "iron giants," clad entirely in black armor with their faces hidden beneath helmets, looked down at the "tiny" human before them, and...
The mountain of Ork corpses behind him!
Daviro stood at the head of the three-man squad, his eyes widening slightly beneath his faceplate as he studied Sith.
According to the information from the Departmento Munitorum, this regimental commander and the mortal infantry regiment under his command were nothing more than the lowest grade of cannon fodder, no matter how one looked at them.
Yet as he surveyed the battlefield, the fierce faces of the mortal soldiers, the towering mountain of Ork corpses behind Sith, and the Ork boss at its summit that even he could hardly claim to be able to dispatch easily, Daviro could not reconcile the force before him with the unit in the Departmento Munitorum's records!
Daviro was the white-bearded man who led the three-man squad.
A veteran with three gold studs in his head, he had been an Astartes for three hundred years.
Over those three hundred years, he had fought in countless wars and witnessed the courage of countless mortals.
Yet this native Planetary Defence Force, which had never even been into space, had still reshaped his understanding.
He even raised his gaze slightly, surveying the battlefield through his helmet. At the sight of defensive lines with almost no vehicles and a severe shortage of heavy weapons, his eyes widened a little more as he looked back at Sith.
"This mortal force actually held back the Orks with flesh and blood..."
Daviro's expression was solemn, so much so that, looking at Sith, he momentarily did not know where to begin.
Behind him, the two Astartes who had originally thought little of mortals, even considering them unworthy of serving as their auxiliary troops, also remained silent.
Silence settled over the scene. But while Daviro's feelings were complicated, Sith's were even more so as he looked at the black-armored Astartes before him, especially Daviro at their head.
The two Astartes in the rear both bore the emblems of their former Chapters on their left pauldrons, but Daviro's was nothing but black.
Sith could only curse inwardly. He had never expected that the force he was to cooperate with would not only be the Deathwatch, specialists in fighting xenos who dealt with all manner of galactic monsters every day.
Their leader was also a "Blackshield"!
Blackshields were Astartes who had completely severed ties with their parent Chapters, and almost all loyalists from traitor forces within the Deathwatch were Blackshields!
At the thought that Daviro, standing before him, might very well be an Astartes from a traitor Chapter, Sith felt as though he, too, had a lump of promethium in his mouth, its bitterness reaching all the way to his heart.
Sith could practically foresee it: once the mission was complete, having had close contact with xenos and traitor Astartes, he would receive no reward. Instead, he would face a thorough purge.
After all, among the Imperium's mortal forces, numbering in the trillions, the one thing never in short supply was people!
Unless...
Sith's eyes widened slightly as he looked at the towering Daviro before him.
Unless he could earn Daviro's recognition and have the Deathwatch personally submit his unit to the Departmento Munitorum to become a specialized anti-xenos Astra Militarum force!
Snap!
Sith straightened and saluted.
"The 101st Regiment is honored to fight alongside you!"
Sith took the initiative to break the silence. Daviro, who had not known where to begin, was briefly taken aback, then actually gave Sith a silent nod.
Without the slightest circumlocution, Daviro spoke directly.
"Our target is a fallen Hive City now completely controlled by rebels."
"Large numbers of xenos led by several Ork bosses have also gathered outside the Hive City. We need you and your men to attack the Orks and draw their fire so we can break into the Hive City."
Daviro finished laying out his original plan. But looking at Sith and the fierce soldiers around him, he actually paused briefly and made a rare addition.
"If you can keep up, you may enter the Hive City with us."
The other two Astartes looked toward Daviro with some surprise, their helmets turning slightly. But after looking at Daviro, then at the fierce soldiers of the 101st Regiment around them, neither actually objected.
Sith's expression, on the other hand, only grew uglier.
Several Ork bosses?
Sith could not help letting out a faint breath.
Holding off a single Ork boss had already been extraordinarily difficult, and now he was supposed to take the offensive against several times as many Orks?
If he was left outside the Hive City, even he would have no end but to be swallowed by endless Orks.
Daviro understood this too, so his final sentence had offered Sith a way to survive, however short that path might be!
Sith had no room to bargain. Never mind him-even Guilliman had never had the option of retreat when faced with this fucked-up situation.
To survive, all humanity could do was press forward without faltering! There was no other choice!
The pause lasted only the briefest instant. When Sith raised his head to look at Daviro again, his expression held only calm.
"For humanity."
Sith accepted the mission. Daviro studied him intently, confirming that he could see no fear on his face. Then Daviro actually returned Sith's salute.
"For the Emperor."
His right fist struck his chest, and the dull impact against heavy ceramite armor reverberated across the ground.
The two Deathwatch members were even more shocked. Their helmets turned conspicuously, their red lenses fixed entirely on Daviro.
This was Daviro showing his recognition of a mortal. In past wars, he had occasionally shown such recognition to courageous mortals.
But that had always come after many bloody battles together, not after barely half an hour of acquaintance.
The two were stunned. They watched briefly before turning their gazes back to Sith and the mountain of corpses behind him.
Though he had not witnessed it himself, Daviro could imagine what Sith and his 101st Regiment had endured to come this far from a cannon-fodder unit.
The mere fact that they could still stand here and calmly accept their fate made Sith worthy of his recognition.
Sith was somewhat surprised too, but before he could speak, Daviro had already lowered his arm, his words turning cold again.
"You have one hour to prepare. We leave in one hour."
With that, Daviro looked up at something behind Sith and suddenly offered a reminder.
"If I were you, I would make good use of this final hour to replenish your manpower as much as possible."
Replenish his manpower?
Sith was even more puzzled, but rather than ask, he followed Daviro's gaze behind him.
In the last lingering light on the horizon, deserters who had been hiding were converging on the vast position from every direction.
Now, every deserter was looking at Sith and Daviro with anticipation and hope.
Sith's expression froze. Looking at the hope in their eyes, he even found it somewhat hellish.
Had they suddenly found their courage?
No, they simply thought that with Sith's 101st Regiment and the Emperor's angels here...
If they followed Sith and Daviro, their chances of survival...
Would be better!