Solomon's extraordinary way with words immediately caused a much more visible reaction from Gaia.
Because she had never seen someone so shameless in her life.
And the look she gave him, as if she were staring at garbage, made Solomon conclude that she was clearly dissatisfied with the salary package.
So he gritted his teeth, slowly raised his right hand, and with great difficulty held up six fingers.
"Sixty Throne Gelt a month. I can't go any higher."
Gaia was just about to curse him out with some Ancient Terra profanity when Commissar Horne's voice rang out:
"Captain Harlock, please stop using that terrible sales pitch, which is about as awful as the Eye of Terror itself. This place isn't safe to linger in. We need to shift positions."
"My friend, thank the Emperor for bringing you here. You should come with us as well. There are a lot of those xenos, and moving around alone will be dangerous."
Horne's words made Solomon spread his hands helplessly, while Gaia felt a strange sense of familiarity.
Harlock?
That name sounded very familiar...
Gaia vaguely remembered seeing that name somewhere before.
But no matter how hard she thought, the only thing she could recall was Captain Harlock.
Before she could think any more deeply about it, Gaia was swept along with the Conscript Regiment and began moving with the crowd.
"Brother Horne, do you know where we're going?"
Solomon took a drink from a canteen he had no idea who he had lifted it from and asked with curiosity.
Horne answered in an utterly decisive tone:
"No idea. We just keep moving."
That answer nearly made Solomon choke on the water in his mouth.
"No, seriously, brother, if you don't even know the destination, then what exactly are we moving for right now?"
Horne looked at Solomon like he was an idiot and slowly replied:
"To find xenos. Then fight."
Solomon first glanced at the battered infantry around them, then looked at the artillery that had disappeared at some point behind them, and finally gave the surroundings a proper survey, discovering that they did not even have half an armored unit.
"Brother, are you all in such a hurry to go die?"
Horne looked at Solomon in surprise and asked doubtfully:
"How did you know the order from above is to fight to the death?"
Solomon's eyes nearly bulged out of his head.
So this lunatic had deliberately called him and that terrifyingly strong pretty one over just to get two extra people to die with them?
What, was he trying to gather enough people to queue for some kind of team resurrection match?
Looking at Horne's perfectly matter-of-fact expression, Solomon could not help rubbing his forehead and sighing.
Brainwashing had crushed thought, and faith had replaced reason.
While the two of them were talking past each other on completely different wavelengths, Gaia pieced together the planet's situation through the scattered bits of information she had learned.
This mining world had probably been infested with Ork spores a long time ago. Recently, after the hidden Orks had accumulated enough numbers to form organized warbands, they launched a green tide that swept across the entire planet.
She looked at the conscripts around her: dark-skinned, exhausted, short in stature.
They held weapons that were barely better than sticks and stones, and only under the leadership of a few experienced veterans had they managed to hold themselves together.
Clearly, the Imperial Guard and Navy had not yet reached this place. In order to buy time, these Conscript Regiments had become expendable line-filling cannon fodder.
To the rulers of this planet, the only purpose of these people was to slow down the Orks as much as possible, or at least make them waste more of the ammunition they somehow slapped together through sheer Ork nonsense.
Their mission, just like that crooked bastard Solomon Harlock had said, was to go die.
Gaia narrowed her eyes. Looking at these poor wretches, who could not even truly be called soldiers, a flame of anger began to rise in her heart.
If the planetary governor were willing, then simply coordinating the armored units of the Planetary Defense Force with these Conscript Regiments, or pulling back the forces and consolidating them around the hive city's void shields, could have avoided a massive amount of unnecessary casualties.
But she would bet her life that those people would never reveal the true strength in their hands until every single one of these conscripts was dead, or until the greenskins pushed all the way to the hive city.
To them, conscripts were just vermin from the Lower Hive and the Underhive. Their lives were cheaper than paper, and it did not matter how many died.
The Planetary Defense Force, on the other hand, was a real asset they actually owned. Unless death was staring them in the face, they would never send it out to fight an endless tide of greenskins.
In their eyes, the best tactic was to stall with human lives.
After all, as long as reinforcements arrived and launched a counterattack, everything would be fine.
She understood that all too well.
Back on Oteanta, if the Planetary Defense Force had intervened in time, the rebellion would certainly have been crushed before it spiraled out of control.
But it was exactly their refusal to act that had gotten her adoptive father killed.
She clenched her fist hard, and the muscles in her arm bulged with anger-driven blood flow, thick veins standing out like twisted roots on limbs as solid as iron.
Some things, once you see them, you cannot ignore.
She still remembered her father's hopes for her. She still remembered her own dream of becoming a Space Marine.
No matter her reasons, she had already made up her mind.
She would do everything she could to help the innocents on this planet survive the green tide.
"Horne, listen, hand me the local map."
Solomon looked at Horne, who had clearly made up his mind to lead the remaining soldiers to the bitter end, and spoke with a trace of helplessness.
When he noticed the wary look in Horne's eyes, Solomon's mouth twitched, then he launched into a lie without the slightest blush:
"Actually, before I became a free captain, I was a student at a military academy, and during my sailing career I've fought these greenskins more than once."
"If you give me the map, I can offer you a few suggestions so we don't keep running around like headless grox."
"The Emperor definitely doesn't want us wandering around over here and wasting precious battle time, right?"
Gaia shot a surprised glance at this glib-tongued man.
If not for the massive guilt flickering in his emotions, she might actually have believed him.
Solomon's words hit perfectly at the core of Horne's thinking. So after hesitating for a while, Horne pulled a folded map from inside his coat and handed it over.
The moment he received it, the captain's eyes went straight to the nearest hive city.
There was no point in dying for those noble lords.
And right now, only the hive city with its void shields raised was truly safe.
"I understand. We go east."
The instant he said that, Horne pulled out his laspistol in outrage.
"You want me to throw away my honor, disobey orders, and become a shameless deserter?"
Looking at the gun barrel edging closer, Solomon replied with complete calm:
"Think about it. If we head east from here, we'll pass quite a few small population centers along the way."
"And greenskins love finding people to fight. The Orks that scattered after clashing with us earlier are very likely to head in that direction too."
"So what we're doing is pressing the advantage, making a strategic redeployment, and attacking backward. You get it?"
(End of Chapter)
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