The passage from the spire to the Hive City.
Daviro, whom Sith had not seen for several days, stood before the passage with only one battle-brother behind him.
The other Astartes had been left at the top of the spire with serious injuries, replaced by the 101st Regiment led by Sith.
"Over the past few days, I've gathered all the information about the Hive City. Here, we can bypass the rebels and enter the Underhive directly from the spire."
Daviro crouched on the ground with his helmet in his arms, while Sith stood with his head lowered, watching Daviro point to a secret passage drawn on the map.
"According to the information the spire received three months ago, everyone in the middle hive and Underhive has become a rebel, so we estimate their numbers at around 1.5 to 2 billion."
Daviro stated the figure calmly. Although Sith knew that the vast majority of these rebels were merely rebellious workers carrying crude melee weapons, the number still made him swallow.
"So before we set out, I need your troops, Commander Sith, to launch a sufficiently large attack on the rebels in the Upper Hive, drawing as much attention away from our coming operation as possible."
After saying this, Daviro looked at Sith with a questioning gaze rather than giving an order. After all, asking soldiers, most of whom had received only three days of training, to attack rebels numbering in the hundreds of millions looked no different from sending them to their deaths.
Yet Sith was remarkably straightforward about it.
"No problem."
Daviro's expression visibly warmed. To him, this demonstrated Sith's absolute loyalty to the Emperor.
But to Sith, nothing could have been more suitable for training his troops than a group of rebels armed primarily with melee weapons.
They were not actually trying to wipe the enemy out, anyway. Once he and Daviro returned, they could retreat to the top of the spire again.
Daviro rose and finally put on his helmet.
His lenses glowed red again and turned toward Sith.
"This is a reconnaissance mission. We need to go to the Underhive to locate a target and establish its current scale."
"So once we've gathered enough information, we can return."
Sith said nothing more. He merely picked up his bolt sidearm and lifted his saber. Behind him stood a hundred of his most elite veterans, carrying an assortment of heavy weapons.
Sith and these hundred veterans would accompany Daviro to the Underhive.
These hundred men were the ultimate veterans who had followed Sith through battle after battle since the earliest days of the 101st Regiment. They could no longer be described merely as veterans of a hundred battles, but as survivors of a thousand!
Simply standing there, these elites who had survived a thousand battles made even Daviro feel somewhat wary.
The other Astartes, who had only one gold stud in his forehead, was even reminded by these men of the unease he had felt facing veterans when he first enlisted.
Yet beyond that wariness and unease came trust: as Astartes, they had actually come to trust a group of mortals.
At least in the coming mission, they were willing to entrust their backs to these mortals.
Without further words, Daviro followed Sith's example and lifted his bolter, then turned toward the secret passage.
The two Astartes walked in front, and Sith nodded to Brunok.
The already prepared 101st Regiment launched its attack on the dumbfounded rebels beyond the other passages as the thunderous grinding of gears rang out from them.
Gunfire and cannon fire once again resounded throughout the Hive City.
A full twenty-nine infantry regiments launched an all-out attack on the Upper Hive, while an artillery regiment began pouring fire into its densely packed buildings.
Thick shells streaked across the towering Hive City before landing on all manner of illegal structures. Violent explosions brought towers crashing down, startling countless densely packed rebels out from within.
An endless sea of people then began converging wildly on the 101st Regiment.
While the rebels were busy resisting and even counterattacking the 101st Regiment, elsewhere, in the secret passage leading directly from the governor's palace to the Underhive, a massive elevator plunged downward, hurtling into the depths.
The intense weightlessness made their hearts feel as though they were about to leap out of their chests.
The shrill scraping of the elevator against the walls rang intermittently in their ears amid showers of sparks, as though it were carrying Sith and the others into a bottomless hell.
Then came a distinct deceleration. Their previously "weightless" bodies suddenly became immensely heavy, and the sparks around the elevator abruptly thickened. At last, the elevator slowly reached its destination.
Sith raised his bolt sidearm, and the veterans behind him disengaged their safeties and put their fingers on their triggers.
As the elevator was about to come to a complete stop, Daviro turned to Sith:
"According to our intelligence, this passage is highly classified. There won't be any enemies outside the doors."
Sith did not reply, keeping his eyes on the elevator doors.
With a piercing, juddering noise, the doors of the stationary elevator slowly slid apart. Fierce firelight shone from the corridor outside, and beneath it stood an endless mass of rebels stretching as far as the eye could see, who had long been waiting for them!
Sith looked up at Daviro...
Daviro said, "Well, the intelligence may be a little out of date."
Gunfire roared. The massive bolts fired by the Astartes smashed through the heads of a dozen rebels before detonating amid the packed crowd.
As though that were the signal, both sides, inside and outside the elevator, frantically pulled their triggers with nowhere to dodge.
"Everyone, get behind the Astartes! Use the Astartes as cover!"
Sith pressed himself behind Daviro and shouted to the veterans behind him.
The fact that these veterans had survived until now proved that, aside from Sith's Hundredfold Amplification, they were outstanding soldiers in their own right.
So the moment Sith spoke, they all ducked behind Daviro.
Even those unable to do so immediately dropped prone, keeping themselves beneath the barrage.
Daviro and his companion were exceptionally cooperative as well. Relying on their ceramite power armour, they simply stood and took the rebels' barrage.
Fortunately, the rebels' primary weapons were all autoguns, a grade below even lasguns, and their only heavy firepower consisted of relatively slow rockets. Daviro actually managed to withstand their fire!
As Daviro slaughtered the packed rebels before him with bolts, he even casually shot incoming rockets out of the air.
With the equally ferocious firepower of the veterans behind him, Daviro fought for a while, then actually began advancing into the barrage.
Like two autocannons constantly pushing forward, Sith and Daviro slaughtered the rebels faster than their relentless charges could bring them in.
Eventually, they emerged from the elevator passage into the Hive City governor's secret base. The hidden Underhive fortress that should have served as the governor's final refuge now flew a mass of rebel banners.
Fortunately, most of the rebels had only recently been mobilized to head for the Upper Hive, leaving relatively few guarding the fortress.
Sith and Daviro took very little time to clear out the already sparse rebels.
The veterans immediately spread out to secure the fortress's key defenses, while Daviro and his companion headed deeper inside to gather intelligence.
Only Sith had nothing to do for the moment. He surveyed the rebel camp curiously. There were none of the cult sacrifices he had imagined; instead, the entire camp was rather tidy.
Even more curious at the sight, Sith swept his gaze around and even gave a slight gesture of respect to the enormous portrait of the God-Emperor in the very center.
Yet no sooner had he looked away than he frowned.
Rebels? The God-Emperor?
He looked back, and the sight before him made his expression freeze:
"This God-Emperor..."
"Why does he have four arms???"