Oh good, it's still got some of the 40k grimderp there so we don't forget.
(Sorry for the delay in responding, meant to do it earlier, got distracted, forgot.)
Being entirely honest, I had considered whether or not to include that line, and might even remove it if the story ever expanded. I did want to emphasize that, while she is in some ways better than the Cyberpunk world, the Imperium is still pretty bad. It's just bad in (mostly) different ways. So I wanted to include some undertones that were unfortunate (hints that she considers them valuable largely for their function to society), while still valuing them as individuals more than the corporations do. So I was wondering if the slave line might have been a bit too far in the "blatantly evil" direction (even though it's perfectly lore accurate). But it was kind of funny for an inspirational speech to have its origins in "Actually, slaves have brains, so it's better to have slaves than mindless automatons," so I just left it in.
On an unrelated note, for the hell of it, I decided to write up a homebrew Sisters of Battle faction, which would be a faction in one story I've been bouncing around in my head.
Order of the Blessed Vial
Colors: Red with white highlights.
Emblem: Two crossed syringes.
"It's not your blood! It's not your god's blood! It's not even my blood! It's the Emperor's blood, he's just keeping it in my body!"
"My apologies for Sister Clarice. We've been having a hard time balancing her dosage."
A militant offshoot of the Sister's Hospitaller, specializing in combat stimulants and melee weapons, with a particular animosity towards followers of Nurgle and Khorne.
On a nameless, largely insignificant planet, a Khornate warband landed. While some of the PDF proved their valor, most of whom were the ones selected to eventually join the Imperial Guard, many of them broke and ran under the cultist's assault, and the planet was held to be doomed.
Many areas broke without even fighting, and the battle lines were scattered and disorganized due to the rapid routes. At one such area, a large field hospital suddenly found itself in the middle of the battlelines. One Sister Allison, a Hospitaller, was attending to those in the tent.
With reports that Chimeras were on the way to help evacuate the wounded, it was decided that the few troops available, including whatever wounded soldiers were able to hold a laspistol, even if they to be carried to fixed positions, would hold the line.
The heretics attacked several times, and were barely repulsed, each attack stripping them of some few defenders.
Despite wanting to focus on treating the wounded, it soon became apparent that they would not be able to hold the position long without her aid, Sister Allison decided to join the fighting. While she was inexperienced on the battlefield, there was a large surplus of medical supplies available, and so she took far more than the recommended dose of combat stimulants, as well as the sword of one wounded guardsman, and met the enemy.
The favor of the Emperor was with her, and she killed dozens of heretics over the course of hours, their madness more than matched by her zeal and fury, and soon more scattered PDF troopers managed to find their way to the field hospital, making it the only surviving loyalist force for kilometers around.
Eventually, the leader of the warband, a fallen Astartes, arrived to the battlefield.
She met him in battle, and somehow, in her sheer rage, met his axe with her own blade six times before her sword shattered. When her sword broke, she charged him, shattering her teeth on his ceramite armor. Tragically, even this zeal was not enough, and after shoving her away, the traitor Astartes was able to cut through her neck with a single sweep of his axe.
However, so struck by her fury, some memory of honor was awoken in his body, as he told the surviving loyalists that while he would claim her skull, they could take the rest of her body for whatever rites they deemed appropriate.
He told them to share the story of Sister Allison, that perhaps they might be inspired by her tale and provide his forces something like an actual battle.
He underestimated the effect her tale would have, however, as when her corpse was brought to her sisters, it was determined that she had been on so many combat stimulants that her heart had exploded in her chest, and still she fought for some time after that.
Declaring it a miracle of the Emperor and that Allison was clearly a Saint, many of the disarrayed PDF were rallied, and more held their ground with fury and fervor, long enough for a detachment of Astartes from the White Scars to arrive on the planet. The chaos of the battle lines proved to be in their favor, the sheer mobility of the Astartes proving sufficient to dismantle many scattered groupings of heretics before they even knew they were under attack.
Soon, the planet was liberated, but not all was well. The leader of the Chaos Warband retreated to the Warp, taking with him but a single skull as a trophy, one whose teeth he replaced with brass.
Many of the Sisters Hospitaller on the planet embraced a more militant path, choosing to follow the path of Sister Allison, and became the Order of the Sacred Vial.
These Sisters have three priorities
The first of which is the defense of all places of healing within the Imperium, and they frequently take roles escorting medics or evacuating the wounded. Their defense of hospitals has earned them a mutual enmity with followers of the Plaguefather, as he wishes to taint all such places with his perverse blessings.
The second is the usage and refinement of combat stimulants. The sheer, blind fury of Sister Allison is held to be a sacred ideal by their Order, and they seek to emulate it and follow into her footsteps. Each member of the Order seeks to create a cocktail of drugs and stimulants that is most effective for themselves on the battlefield. While some seek blind fury with the Emperor's name on their lips, many prefer mixes that boost their focus, or maintain a cool and level head even under the most extreme of circumstances.
The third is, of course, to hunt down the skull of their blessed Saint, and reclaim it in the Emperor's name. Whenever they are not called upon to defend places of healing, they hunt the followers of the Blood God, seeking to find the one who stole her skull to claim their vengeance upon him.
There are rumors that this state of affairs is to the approval of Khorne, as these berserkers of the Emperor hunt and do battle with his followers, spilling blood and matching the fury of his own forces. There are even rumors that it was no blessing of the Emperor that allowed Sister Allison to face the forces of the Blood God. That he so approved of her fury that he granted her his blessings even as she cut down his followers. And, of course, that a certain Chaos Astartes listens to the whispers of a brass-toothed skull as it whispers of conflicts and ways to spill ever more blood.
These rumors are, of course, both hearsay and heresy, and would inspire furious retribution by members of the Sacred Vial, should they ever be whispered in their presence.
