This was a world very close to the borders of the Imperium of Man.
The humans recruited outstanding soldiers from this world to resist the nearest Ork warlord. Of course, their main task was defending the planets where the Knight Houses on the front line were located—the core of the fight against the Great Tyrant.
On this planet,
they had recently heard quite a few rumors.
In the Far East Frontier, an evil imperium had emerged.
They had torn apart the entire Damocles Gulf region and handed the area over to Chaos.
And they had enslaved vast numbers of xenos.
Of course, in the eyes of this planet's inhabitants, such enslavement was nothing at all.
If enslaving xenos could be considered a crime, it would probably be suspicion of collaborating with the enemy.
After all, if you did not kill a xenos species but instead enslaved it, people would seriously suspect that the xenos had given you some benefit.
They killed several fugitives infected by the power of Chaos.
They pried some information out of them.
"We've heard about the Gamma Imperium again. Do you think someone is trying to create a Second Imperium?"
"A Second Imperium? Would Terra tolerate its existence? Humanity will not allow a second imperium to emerge. Besides, by The Emperor, who besides The Emperor could save humanity?"
"The Emperor has already been sitting there..."
"Shh. Don't say that carelessly. If those people heard you..."
The people he spoke of were naturally The Emperor's loyal servants. They had been taught from childhood to revere The Emperor and to be grateful to the Imperium.
But they were simply too far from Terra.
The faith they relied upon had crossed millions of light-years, directed toward someone utterly unfamiliar whom they had never even seen. They had merely heard