The Judging Standards for the Duel
Nimrod led his team behind Campbell, the lush green wheat fields rushing past them.
Serfs and Servitor toiled in the fields. When they felt the ground tremble and heard the rumble of the Knight Mech, they would turn their heads and stop what they were doing, bowing according to the local customs of Daxos.
They would also glance at the black-armored Warrior out of the corner of their eyes; their movements were perfectly synchronized, as if they were a single entity.
Blade Peak, the Fortress and residence of the House Vicstrix, is built atop the towering Taric peak.
At the foot of the mountain, surrounded by sixteen castles, were the residences of the various Knight Houses who served Vixatrix.
Steep cliffs form its natural barrier, and numerous interconnected fortresses and Bastion are hidden in the mountain valleys.
"This is a fortress."
Bukayo House Arshavin gazed at the mountain peaks and spoke in Vostonian Language, his dark eyes scanning the surroundings warily.
"For a unified regime, such defense seems excessive."
The Primarch discovered the reason before his offspring, his eyes deep and unfathomable, and he spoke to offer a reminder.
"The marks on the stone slabs on the ground were not all left by the Knight Mech; there were other marks as well."
Upon hearing this, all the subordinates turned their gazes to the marble floor.
Over countless years, Knight Mech, grain trucks, and Servitor have all passed over it, leaving traces and destroying the previous ones.
The patterns on the marble floor looked like they had been messed up by a naughty child's graffiti.
Arsena uses his powerful consciousness to Analysis, Gabriel starts with graphics, and Bukayo relies on inspiration.
A few seconds later, they gave their answers.
"Residual Aether energy." The silver-haired Psyker sensed the presence of Warp energy.
"A giant footprint of some kind of creature." The Tech Sergeant reconstructed a giant oval footprint from the chaotic traces.
"There seems to be something else." The inspiration for "Nightmare" caught some anomalies, but couldn't be sure.
Nimrod, confirming their guess.
"You each captured and reconstructed a portion of it."
[Extraordinary creatures like the Black Dream Cat, enormous in size and capable of manipulating Psionic Energy attacks.]
As they talked, Campbell did not climb the mountain; instead, he strode to its foot and stood before a golden gate.
Campbell raised his right hand and placed it on a disc in the center of the doorway.
He chanted in Daxos: "I, Campbell Vixatrix, the Knight King of Daxos, command the gates of the Armored Vault to open."
The runes on the Mechanical Throne flashed with a series of dazzling lights, followed by his arms and gauntlets, and finally the disc runes on the gate lit up.
With a rumbling sound, the gate opened, revealing a wide passageway wide enough for two Knight Mech to pass through.
As the doors opened, the Lumen Lamp in the corridor were turned on, illuminating the marble passageway.
Daxos Glory turned around and stood in front of Nimrod, and he spoke.
"The Knight Mech Hall of the House Vicstrix is a place of honor; you can only bring a portion of your people inside."
"Good."
Nimrod agreed, and he took Arsena, Bukayo, and Gabriel with him as they descended with the Daxos Glory. The Knight King also only brought four mechs.
The group descended the mountain and eventually arrived at an open platform.
As Gabriel stepped down the stairs, he was immediately drawn to the circular, silver-gray repair rack, which was laden with rows of green Knight Mech.
In the center of the platform, two green mechs were hoisted out via overhead cableways, clearly the objects of their duel.
The Tech Sergeant conducted a professional assessment of the two war machines: [Initial assessment: both are of moderate damage].
The Knight Mech on the left has its right arm and left leg damaged, while the one on the right has its left arm and right leg damaged; the extent of the damage is similar.
As the Tech Sergeant was examining the situation, Campbell called out loudly.
"Saul."
The telescopic Mechanical Arm brought a person standing on the repair table to the crowd. His robe was half green, the color of the House Vicstrix, and half Mars red.
Gabriel looked at the Sacred Maintainer. He glanced at it and saw that Saul, with his layers of Eyepiece, had most of his body mechanized.
The Sacred Maintainer glanced at the visitor and was startled when he saw Nimrod's imposing figure.
Saul's logic cannot comprehend how a human could possess such a body.
Adhering to noble traditions, the Sacred Maintainer suppressed his curiosity and did not use his bio-engineered eye to scan the giant.
He then turned his attention to the Tech Sergeant, carefully assessing his opponent.
Campbell opened the cockpit door and spoke to Nimrod.
"On my way here, I pondered how to fairly evaluate this duel of honor."
"We should eliminate subjectivity and evaluate from an absolutely objective perspective."
"Saul has prepared two mechs for a duel of honor, both with similar levels of damage."
Nimrod glanced at them and memorized the details of the two Knight Mech: their arms had damaged weapon systems, and their legs had damaged power systems.
He nodded slightly in agreement; at least on this point, the other party had upheld the principles of chivalry and fairness.
"I want to set three evaluation criteria to objectively assess the results of the competition."
"The first criterion is the time required to repair the Knight Mech. The person who completes the repair first wins this evaluation metric."
"After the repairs are complete, the next tests will be the Knight Mech's continuous operating time and the weapon system's power, which will be conducted by two knight Apprentice at the knight training ground."
As the Knight King spoke, the dozen or so Apprentice of the Sacred Maintainer descended from their control panels, listening with curiosity.
The Apprentice figured out the assessment criteria using a translator and some guesswork.
An Apprentice whose right arm had been replaced with Mechanical Arm walked up to a senior Apprentice back had been implanted with Mechadendrite and asked in the local language of Daxos.
"Ginora, the Sacred Maintainer is going to have a contest with an outsider. That outsider looks very tall. Can Saul win?"
"Idiot, this is about repairing the Knight Mech, not fighting."
"Lord Saul is destined to win. Even if that outsider's technical abilities rival those of the Sacred Maintainer, he doesn't have the same familiarity with Knight Mech as you, sir. You've spent your entire life here."
Having completed a preliminary Analysis of the Daxos language along the way, the Primarch understood the conversation between the two Apprentice.
But he trusted Gabriel, and nodded slightly. "Yes."
Campbell, seeing that Nimrod did not object, accepted his arrangement and felt that victory was already beckoning.
"I have prepared a feast for your arrival, please follow me."
"Good."
The others left, leaving Gabriel and Saul behind to begin repairing the Knight Mech.
After the lavish banquet, Nimrod took his leave, citing the need to return to his ship to handle official business.
Upon returning to the ship, he summoned Tierney to the command the Throne.
Nimrod selected 250 soldiers with quick reflexes, calm minds, and excellent psychological qualities from among the candidates who failed the reformation and formed a reconnaissance platoon.
Tierney came from Naryan-Mar, the northernmost Hive City of Vostonia. He passed the first fifteen modification surgeries, but was eliminated due to a strong rejection reaction during the implantation of Mucranoid.
A moment later, Tierney, dressed in a yellow-green military camouflage uniform manufactured by the Vostonia Factory, came before the Throne.
He knelt on one knee. "Your the Monarch!"
"Get up," Nimrod his fingers lightly on the back of the chair, "I have a task for you."
"Your reconnaissance platoon, infiltrate Daxos and gather intelligence."
"Key reconnaissance: Intelligence related to attacks by large local wild animals."
"Yes, the Monarch Majesty."
Tierney received orders and led his reconnaissance platoon to land in a flying vehicle at Daxos Alpha to begin reconnaissance.
Just as Gabriel was meticulously inspecting the Knight Mech, on the Galaxy star map, in the Triken system southeast of Vostonia...
Lord Sanchez of the 7th Legion, "Hunter," swiped his finger across the Data Slate.
"The Aeldari of the savage world, shouldn't they take the bait by now?"