Within the Imperium of Man, there exist many knight worlds whose social structures are nearly identical to those of the medieval age.
Everything on those worlds is just like that dark, decaying era of decline from Old Terra's first millennium, with only one real difference.
When the common people rise up, it is not corpulent lords in plate armor who come to crush them.
It is giant Knights emerging from beneath the castles.
Faced with that kind of overwhelming gap in military power, anyone who tries to change the rule of the nobility is mercilessly crushed.
Imperial Knights, in a sense, are one of the symbols of the Imperium itself. Aside from the Titan Legions, they are among humanity's strongest ground combat units.
These ancient war machines stand anywhere from ten to twenty meters tall. They are equipped with powerful ion shields, devastating ranged weaponry, and reaper-saw blades capable of tearing through anything.
Though it is said that during the Dark Age of Technology these formidable machines were originally just industrial walkers used for logging, by the era after the Age of Strife, they had already become one of humanity's highest forms of military power.
And now, right before Gaia and Solomon, there stood one of those Knight engines in a state of catastrophic damage.
The danger implied by that sight made both of them want to run on the spot.
Gaia knew exactly what kind of power a Knight represented, and Solomon, having once served in the Navy, had also heard stories of the legendary Imperial Knights.
If a top-tier war machine like this had ended up in such a pitiful state, then whatever it had been fighting was obviously not something Gaia, a Space Marine, and Solomon, a mortal man, could hope to handle.
Even so, Gaia's superhuman mind kept her calm.
First, they were still some distance away from the Knight. Even if an enemy had fought it, they likely would not be caught in the aftermath immediately.
Second, ever since she first caught sight of the giant war engine striding beneath the sunlight, she had not once seen the distinctive violet flash of an ion shield, nor had she heard the roar of weapons fire.
That seemed to suggest that, at least for the moment, there was no enemy nearby.
And just as Gaia was thinking that through, the Knight's heavily damaged legs finally failed to bear the weight of its massive body any longer.
Right before their eyes, with a world-shaking crash, the godlike steel body of the Imperial Knight collapsed as its right leg bent at an unnatural angle.
Feeling the ground tremble beneath their feet with an intensity they had never felt before, the two of them stared at the rising cloud of dust in the distance and exchanged a perfectly synchronized look.
"That was... one of those legendary Imperial Knights, right?"
Solomon swallowed and pointed weakly at the rolling cloud of dust.
Gaia nodded.
"That's right. And judging by the size, it's at least a Dominus-class Knight."
Dominus-pattern Knights were large, heavily armed Knight suits specialized in overwhelming firepower.
Based on the enormous silhouette of at least fifteen meters in height that they had seen before it fell, along with the prominent gun barrels visible on its back, this machine was most likely one of those battlefield monsters often called death incarnate.
Solomon glanced at Gaia, surprised that she could casually identify the pattern of a Knight, though not exactly shocked.
After all, Gaia clearly carried all kinds of mysteries around her. If she were not unusually knowledgeable, that would have been stranger.
"The crash from that thing falling was huge. There's a good chance it'll attract whatever terrifying thing put it on its knees in the first place."
Solomon leaned his head out a little, worry plain in his voice, as he looked toward the Knight still hidden by dust.
Gaia, meanwhile, fell into thought.
She had no idea what exactly had happened, but with her own peculiar luck, there was probably something major happening on this world.
And in a situation like that, the only way to gain any initiative was to learn more of the hidden truth.
Besides, the pilot of an Imperial Knight might be exactly the kind of link they needed to connect themselves to the local Mechanicus, which in turn might help them trace their way to Tylvius's reclusive mentor.
In other words, they needed to get to the downed Knight as quickly as possible, before whatever dangerous things roamed these outskirts, or whoever else might be drawn by that crash, arrived ahead of them.
The moment Gaia explained that idea, Solomon's eyes widened.
"By the God-Emperor, has your brain been rattled loose by that shockwave?"
"Leaving aside the possibility that whatever attacked that Knight has already lined up a long-range shot on the place where it fell, and will send one fatal blast right into us the moment we walk over there so we can all go meet the Emperor together..."
"Just looking at how badly it's damaged, there's at least a seventy percent chance it could go up in a sympathetic detonation."
"And even if we're lucky and don't get blown to pieces on the spot, something on this scale is way beyond us."
"I can already feel that something on this damned world is wrong, something twisted and dangerous. But we haven't even finished our actual mission yet. There's no need to go sticking our noses into this kind of trouble, especially when this kind of trouble can get people killed!"
His concerns were completely valid.
Once you got involved in certain matters, there was no way to pull yourself back out.
He understood perfectly well that Gaia would never ignore a disaster that might threaten innocent people, but their ship was small and their crew was thin. They could not survive being smashed by waves too large for them.
Looking at the stubborn Solomon, Gaia felt something stir within her.
Yes, Solomon had agreed to accompany her in carrying out that nearly insane rescue plan, and yes, he was highly capable in many ways.
But in the end, he was still a mortal man.
Just because she herself had lost her fear of danger after all her modifications and all the life-and-death trials she had faced did not mean her companions had done the same.
At that thought, she felt a little guilty for trying to drag Solomon into danger with her just now.
But she did not change her mind.
She took the crate off her back and set it down beside Solomon, then said stubbornly,
"You're right. Going over there is dangerous. But being ignorant in a dangerous place is like walking a wire strung between two cliffs. You can die at any moment."
"I'll leave Mr. Tylvius's cargo with you. Keep an eye on it. I'll go there alone."
"Don't worry. With my abilities, even if something happens, I can get away."
"And no matter what, I can't just stand by and leave that Knight pilot in danger."
Solomon looked at Gaia, stubborn as ever, and for a moment her figure overlapped in his mind with the way she had looked when they first met, when she had unhesitatingly chosen to head for the front lines where the greenskins were raging.
He said nothing more, because he knew she could not be talked out of it now.
And he did not insist on going with her, because he knew that no matter how little he feared death, in a real crisis he would only become dead weight.
Under Solomon's watchful gaze, Gaia made her way toward the place where the Knight had fallen.
Then, just as she stepped through the dust, surrounded by the stench of machine oil and scorched earth, a strangely familiar voice suddenly echoed in her mind.
"That's weird... how did this logging machine get modified into something like this?"
The voice made Gaia freeze on the spot.
It was Dushi, who had fallen asleep the moment its core was removed from its body.
(End of Chapter)
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