"The rebels won't give us much time. Change equipment immediately after eating, then let the veterans take turns sleeping."
"Take all the supplies we can. Leave whatever we can't carry in the warehouse as bait, and detonate all the ammunition once the rebels go inside."
Inside the supply depot, Sith crouched beside a map with Brunok, Ana, and a dozen or so noncommissioned officers.
Everyone kept nodding at Sith's orders. After speaking for a while, Sith suddenly looked up at Brunok.
"What about recruits? How many have we conscripted?"
Brunok answered without hesitation.
"Over four thousand. With the veterans, that gives us exactly one full-strength infantry regiment."
"That many?"
Sith was taken aback. There simply hadn't been that many civilians in the supply depot.
Brunok explained.
"We drove back the nearby rebels, so quite a few survivors have come to join us."
At that, Sith glanced toward the recruits changing equipment in the distance. There were men and women among them, but every last one was strong and fit.
After all, as workers in the Hive City, anyone with even a slightly weaker constitution wouldn't have survived this long.
Sith nodded and brought his attention back.
"Good. Make sure the recruits eat their fill, and start training them immediately."
As he spoke, Sith raised his hand and lowered his head to check the watch still ticking on his wrist.
"We have exactly twelve Terran hours before we leave. Put our best veterans in charge of training them during that time."
Half a day multiplied a hundredfold was a full fifty days at maximum intensity.
That wouldn't make these recruits elite, but it would at least let them take a solid first step toward becoming soldiers.
Several noncommissioned officers quickly nodded, then immediately got up to make arrangements.
Sith glanced at the map again. Looking at the long route from their corner of the Hive City all the way to its uppermost levels, he rose with a solemn expression.
Everyone beside him hurriedly stood as well, while Sith looked toward his soldiers.
With a corps-level supply depot capable of supporting tens of thousands at their disposal, even the recruits had received a full set of plasteel breastplates, helmets, lasguns, and frag grenades.
With intact uniforms to complete the look, they actually cut somewhat imposing figures wherever they stood.
But seeing the panic still lingering on their faces as they only just began training, Sith truly didn't dare hope he could bring all of them through this breakout alive.
Sith could only turn his gaze to the veterans who had survived this far.
With their formidable combat experience, the veterans had been given even deadlier equipment.
They had now completely shed their previous Khorne Berserker appearance. Everyone wore three-sided ballistic helmets from the Cadian Shock Troops, complete with the latest respirators and goggles, leaving their entire heads covered in equipment.
This not only effectively protected their heads, but also guarded against poison gas and blinding light.
They had also changed into military-grade cold-weather clothing, with not only plasteel breastplates over it, but additional shoulder guards, bracers, and knee guards.
Their weapons had all been replaced with brand-new lasguns.
And rifles were merely standard issue. Every veteran's webbing was now loaded to capacity.
Magazines and frag grenades covered their bodies, while a few of the finest veterans even carried several precious melta grenades at their waists.
These veterans no longer carried the same old lasguns, either, but flamers or grenade launchers.
Combined with the sidearms, sabers, daggers, and other close-combat weapons at their waists, apart from lacking some high-tech backpacks to enhance their capabilities, the veterans were now a genuine force of top-tier mortal elites, no less capable than the Cadian Shock Troops.
And Sith had led them through only three battles to bring them this far from an obscure local Planetary Defence Force that hadn't even qualified as expendable.
Looking at these veterans, Sith finally gave a slight nod. Then his gaze returned to the distant, clearly audible rumble of tracks. There was only one last step before they could carry out the breakout.
"Pick our fifty best veterans. I'll lead them to seize the fighting vehicle."
Sith looked toward the vehicle, and Brunok nodded in agreement. In this fucked-up galaxy, there was no such notion as a lord being too important to risk himself.
Especially with Guilliman leading by example, everyone from the Imperial Regent down to Chapter Masters loved nothing more than taking the lead, blade in hand, to hack people apart.
No, heretics.
Soon, fifty fully armed veterans assembled.
Among them were not only a grenade launcher operator, but also two flamer operators.
Once the squad had assembled, Sith wasted no words. He simply loaded his sidearm with a full magazine, sat down by the exit, and quietly waited.
Meanwhile, in a passage some distance from the supply depot.
The Chimera Infantry Fighting Vehicle stood in the center, surrounded by densely packed rebels providing cover, along with firing positions of all sizes.
The turncoat crew sat atop the vehicle, eating fresh roast meat brought to them by the low-ranking rebels below.
Behind the vehicle, a group of terrified rebel officers knelt on the ground before a man polishing a long blade, forked horns protruding from his forehead.
"A thousand or so men not only held off tens of thousands, but afterward fought their way from the entrance to the supply depot with blades in hand..."
"Listen to yourselves. How do you expect me to believe that? How do you expect the Exalted Lord to believe it?"
The horned man looked earnest. When he mentioned the Exalted Lord, he even performed a strange, elaborate gesture of reverence with utmost devotion.
At those words, the rebel officers kneeling across the ground prostrated themselves even lower, their bodies trembling harder.
After speaking, the horned man didn't punish them further. He merely looked toward the infantry fighting vehicle he had brought, then at the little supply depot surrounded by his sea of troops, his gaze dismissive.
"I will expose your lies myself."
"Once I eliminate every obstacle in my path, the Exalted Lord will decide your punishment."
At that, the horned man had expected to see even more terror from the officers at his feet.
Yet once he finished speaking, rather than growing more afraid, the officers below exchanged cautious glances and breathed sighs of relief!
The sight stunned the horned man.
"Why does it feel... like they're afraid I won't attack?"
Doubt stirred within him. Although he already had an explanation for it, even now, he refused to admit it.
That would mean these officers under his command had actually told the truth!
Because only if they had told the truth would his attack not put pressure on them, but instead completely clear them of false accusations.
The horned man's expression darkened. He swept a vicious gaze over the kneeling officers, then raised his eyes toward the isolated supply depot in the distance.
He glanced at the time. No longer in the mood to wait until the time he had set, he simply raised his hand and signaled the attack.
The infantry fighting vehicle immediately started its engine, while the crew followed the established procedures to begin soothing its machine spirit.
But the engine noise seemed to serve as a signal. As it spread through the Hive City, a boom came from the distant supply depot that should have been waiting for death, and its sealed entrance was blasted open again.
Then, before the rebels' suddenly widening eyes, dozens of "Astra Militarum soldiers" charged out through the storm of fire.
There really wasn't much to say about the process. As the horned man understood it, a group of men rushed out, cut through his sea of troops, jumped onto his vehicle, slapped the original crew into a state of clear-eyed bewilderment, then jumped inside and brazenly drove it back.
Even after the vehicle started moving, the surrounding rebel firing positions still couldn't work out whether they should shoot. Everyone quietly looked over for a signal, but after standing dumbfounded for a long moment, the horned man's eyes suddenly cleared, and he turned to do something else.
Picking up his communicator, the horned man spoke into the mouthpiece with an utterly serious expression.
"Yes, a few dozen men cut through our mass of troops."
"Yes, then they seized the vehicle and blew apart a dozen or so firing positions while they were at it."
"Uh... they didn't fight their way back, sir. To be precise..."
"They ran everything over on the way back."