Do you actually fucking want to die?!

Black Watch.

In this fucked-up galaxy, the name might have been nothing more than a simple Astra Militarum unit designation.

Yet when Sith saw it, he inexplicably thought of another human organization he remembered from another life.

An organization made up entirely of ordinary people, yet one that had beaten all manner of monsters in its world until they cried for their parents.

Now, the title of strongest mortal force seemed to have coincidentally fallen upon Sith along with the name "Black Watch."

"All right, the designation has been delivered, Lord Sith. Now please take your Black Watch and prepare for takeoff."

As Daviro finished speaking, the doors before him opened.

Brunok and Ana came in, the roar of the massed transports' jets sweeping through the doorway with a fierce gust.

"My lord, Lord Calgar has formally challenged the rebel leader to a duel. Orders have now been issued for all boarding teams to enter space immediately and prepare to attack the enemy flagship."

Clad in carapace armour, Brunok spoke quickly, while Daviro picked up his helmet from a nearby table and silently put it on.

Ana hurried a couple of steps inside and stood before the Power Armour, her face solemn.

"Sith... my lord..."

Ana was still somewhat unused to the change in how she addressed Sith, but she spoke the honorific nonetheless.

"I will now fit your armour, my lord."

Ana had been permanently assigned as Sith's accompanying Tech-Priest, a reward of sorts from the Adeptus Mechanicus.

It was also a declaration of support for Calgar's decision.

As Sith looked at Daviro, Brunok, and Ana before him, and the officers standing in rows farther outside, all wearing their new Black Watch shoulder insignia, the transports' roar seemed to urge him on!

A few minutes later, a mortal clad in dark silver Power Armour, holding a master-crafted bolter in his left hand and an elegantly antiquated Power Sword in his right, walked through the densely packed ranks of officers.

Behind him followed a towering Deathwatch warrior, a burly adjutant cradling a machine gun, and a Tech-Priest clad in cog-adorned red robes.

Numerous transports sat in the middle of the enormous landing pad, while farther out stood tens of thousands of elite mortal troops in several square formations, all wearing black, fully enclosed combat suits.

Every gaze was fixed on Sith, waiting for their commander to act.

Sith looked at the people before him, then raised his gaze toward the distant front lines of the Hyperia Hive Cluster.

Dense fluctuations of Warp energy rippled across the front, where the fierce battle had actually fallen silent because of a duel between two enormous figures, one black and one blue.

The Departmento Munitorum's urgings over the communicator grew increasingly frantic. Powerful though Calgar was, he was still at an absolute disadvantage against Abaddon.

With Calgar coming close to death several times, the Departmento Munitorum had even anxiously begun ordering the advance units to board the Chaos warships.

There was no need for words, nor any time to waste. Looking at this Black Watch that had existed for only a few minutes, Sith led the way into a transport!

With the roar of engines running at full power, the cabin began to shake violently.

There were no viewports whatsoever through which to see outside. Everyone was simply shut inside a can, feeling their bodies sway from side to side with the tremendous jolts.

Metal restraints held them in place, every jolt and collision bringing a burst of bruising pain.

Though nothing outside the steel cabin was visible, dense cannon fire exploded around it as they continued to climb.

The entire space was "quiet." Everyone remained silent, and apart from the cabin's shuddering groans, there was only the endless thunder of exploding cannon fire.

At last, perhaps through the protection of the Golden Throne, or perhaps the Throne of Brass, Sith's transport reached a relatively quiet shipboard bay after a frightening but uneventful journey.

But when the cabin doors opened, there was no welcoming ceremony before them, only a row of boarding craft that had long been waiting, and crewmen frantically urging them on with anxious faces.

"Quickly! If you don't hurry, we'll die for nothing!"

The crewmen had accepted their fate as a matter of course. After all, sending the remnants of the Imperial Navy against the fully prepared Chaos Fleet could end in nothing but death.

Now, these "abandoned" crewmen only cast calm looks at Sith and his strange black-clad Astra Militarum troops.

After all, compared with the quick deaths awaiting them, Sith and the others about to be launched would not have it quick!

Sith looked around the completely enclosed compartment. In this cramped space, he could not even tell what class of Imperial warship he was aboard.

There was only the constant roar of Macro-cannons transmitted through the solid hull from outside, along with the faint shuddering of the entire warship under their tremendous recoil.

Sith withdrew his gaze. Feeling the warship suddenly lurch violently beneath his feet, its hull groaning under an immense impact, he hurriedly steadied himself and strode into the boarding craft as the crewman's face turned instantly pale.

The warship had begun twisting and moving erratically. With a little room still left inside the boarding craft, Sith looked at the despairing crewman outside the hatch.

He reached out to invite him aboard, but the crewman froze when he saw Sith actually offering him a place.

The crewman abruptly pressed the launch button. As the boarding craft shot away, Sith saw him smile at Sith and decline his "kindness" while, before the flames could burn him, he aimed at his own head and promptly pulled the trigger.

More violent shaking, more ferocious cannon fire.

Dense, tiny impacts rattled around the hull as fragments of unknown origin struck it. Inside the boarding craft, Sith felt as though his backside had not remained quietly in its seat for even a single second.

Had the metal restraints not held him firmly to the hull, Sith had no idea how badly he would have been flung around the cabin.

Then a tremendous impact struck, and the immense inertia instantly hurled everyone forward.

As he felt his shoulders slam painfully against the restraints, the boarding craft finally began slowing amid a piercing screech of scraping metal, and the sounds outside at last fell quiet.

The restraints sprang open just before the hatch did. Before Brunok and the others could even pick up their weapons, the hatch before them, warped by the violent collision, opened outright.

Bang, bang, bang!

Sith and Daviro immediately pulled their triggers, firing through the hatch. More than a dozen cultist crewmen who had been about to open fire crumpled beneath their bolter rounds.

Jumping down from the deformed cabin and looking at the crewmen fleeing in terror ahead, Daviro finally stopped concealing his feelings and roared with fury from the depths of his heart:

"Iron Within, Iron Without!"

"Slay the traitors!"

With that, Daviro was about to raise his bolter and launch his final charge, but he had only taken one step forward when the flat of a Power Sword smacked him across the back of the head.

The impassioned Daviro instantly crumpled. Brunok and the others, who had been about to follow him with reddened eyes and give their lives for the God-Emperor, froze, staring wide-eyed at Sith, who had knocked Daviro unconscious.

As the crowd stood dumbfounded, Sith looked around, then pointed in another direction.

"Go seize the enemy's boarding craft!"

Boarding craft?

Everyone froze, and Brunok spoke in bewilderment:

"We're already aboard the enemy ship. Where else can we board?"

"An Imperial warship!"

Everyone: "...???"

Seeing that they still failed to understand, Sith gritted his teeth helplessly, then abruptly roared at them:

"What? Do you actually fucking want to die?!"