First Customer Bonus - Expanded Edition - [Canon]
No, that reaction is fully reasonable.
First Customer Bonus - Expanded edition
Admiral Yanavir von Wild Al Raha was sent as leader of navy officers that the Glimmering Federation requested to consult about the designs of the lance ships custom-designed to oppose the vile Heretics who worshipped the Plague Lord because while the duchy can afford to throw more resources at that problem, Her Highness allowed her family's faction, Home Wardens, to ask federation for help. Although it was worded differently through 10 different layers of double meanings and euphemisms, it took an hour of audience time for Her Highness to say that she agreed. According to her honourable grandfather, that was very quick meeting.
Which made her very glad that she followed the footsteps of her great great grandfathered and focused on their navy mandate. The few years she spent in the Glimmering Federation were surprisingly productive. When they were told to weigh in on the designs federation was willing to part with, she expected long and very annoying talks, or rather "talks" with their mechanicum, but to her pleasant surprise, Star-Mechanicum adepts that they were working with were very to the point and willing to dumb down technical jargon, so officers can understand what was said to them.
And oh, Starchild, did the claims those adepts made seem fabricated at first, then the cogbois deliver the Caelum-class Lance Destroyer who run circles around the testing destroyer that Duchy lend for comparison, after that the insane claims of Star Mechanicus only continued to prove to be true. Equuleus-class Escort Frigate and Lacerta-class Light Cruiser that they made together were a thing of beauty, not very well automated, but given the amount of "automatons" and according to the inquisitorial psyker, that may be on purpose, but the sheer range of those lances.
Oh, if she hadn't been a believer in Starchild already, she would have converted from this mission alone. Funnily enough, this happened to quite a few delegation members, including the other one led by Mechanicus.
Gentor Hal-52125, leader of the technological exchange mission to the federation, after multiple tours seeing the wetware production, implementation and repair as well as the augments of the common laymen in the federation, started following the creeds and ritual rites of Star Mechanicum. He, of course, was vetted later by the Inquisitor, who passed as one of her junior officers but, upon once again finding no corruption, was quietly returned to their quarters.
Either way, after a short and yet long years in federation, she and both delegations will return to their homeland to fight against all that besiege it. She will miss dirty cheap chocolate.
"My Lady." Oh, stay still her poor heart; you just need to act like a superior to an inquisitor, not a big deal you manged it for years.
"Yes, Reginus?"
"Glimerings said that they have a gift to the duchy and Home Wardens to help fight against Chaos and show that they appreciate "Duchy becoming less of a dick to its own people"." Oh it seems that surprises aren't over.
"Why do you need to tell me that?"
"They said it is a warship, but they want to start the handover of it in the Voxx Primus and ask you to appeal for an exception to the DMZ treaty for that ship alone." That is a bit surprising but in hindsight, a lot of her counterparts from Federation and star mechanics adepts did ask what kind of ship Duchy would be pleased with if they could make a flagship worth of the legends of Great Crusade.
"Of course, let me contact Inquisitor to file the paperwork."
"Yes, my lady." Oh dear, that is a very smug smile; stay still, my heart.
Which made her very glad that she followed the footsteps of her great great grandfathered and focused on their navy mandate. The few years she spent in the Glimmering Federation were surprisingly productive. When they were told to weigh in on the designs federation was willing to part with, she expected long and very annoying talks, or rather "talks" with their mechanicum, but to her pleasant surprise, Star-Mechanicum adepts that they were working with were very to the point and willing to dumb down technical jargon, so officers can understand what was said to them.
And oh, Starchild, did the claims those adepts made seem fabricated at first, then the cogbois deliver the Caelum-class Lance Destroyer who run circles around the testing destroyer that Duchy lend for comparison, after that the insane claims of Star Mechanicus only continued to prove to be true. Equuleus-class Escort Frigate and Lacerta-class Light Cruiser that they made together were a thing of beauty, not very well automated, but given the amount of "automatons" and according to the inquisitorial psyker, that may be on purpose, but the sheer range of those lances.
Oh, if she hadn't been a believer in Starchild already, she would have converted from this mission alone. Funnily enough, this happened to quite a few delegation members, including the other one led by Mechanicus.
Gentor Hal-52125, leader of the technological exchange mission to the federation, after multiple tours seeing the wetware production, implementation and repair as well as the augments of the common laymen in the federation, started following the creeds and ritual rites of Star Mechanicum. He, of course, was vetted later by the Inquisitor, who passed as one of her junior officers but, upon once again finding no corruption, was quietly returned to their quarters.
Either way, after a short and yet long years in federation, she and both delegations will return to their homeland to fight against all that besiege it. She will miss dirty cheap chocolate.
"My Lady." Oh, stay still her poor heart; you just need to act like a superior to an inquisitor, not a big deal you manged it for years.
"Yes, Reginus?"
"Glimerings said that they have a gift to the duchy and Home Wardens to help fight against Chaos and show that they appreciate "Duchy becoming less of a dick to its own people"." Oh it seems that surprises aren't over.
"Why do you need to tell me that?"
"They said it is a warship, but they want to start the handover of it in the Voxx Primus and ask you to appeal for an exception to the DMZ treaty for that ship alone." That is a bit surprising but in hindsight, a lot of her counterparts from Federation and star mechanics adepts did ask what kind of ship Duchy would be pleased with if they could make a flagship worth of the legends of Great Crusade.
"Of course, let me contact Inquisitor to file the paperwork."
"Yes, my lady." Oh dear, that is a very smug smile; stay still, my heart.
The Orbital station overlooks a green and blue planet that once was a hive world under the Duchy. For centuries, it served as an unofficial embassy of the Duchy until recently, an ambassadorial palace was opened on the planet itself, yet aside from Lord Ambassador whose uncle is High Jester of the Mulistranus Clown Syndicate and Court Jester to Her Highness, most officials prefer the old orbital station, especially for short stays.
And despite their different status, opinions, creeds, inner factions, planets of origins and age, the natives of the duchy, for the first time, were of the one mind upon witnessing the gift from the Federation. For the lowest maid to the inquisitor himself:
They sent us a Battleship!?!?
Reginus al Allisanterd was, for the first time since his years as a mere agent of inquisitor, stupefied. His fellow inquisitors always saw the Glimmering Federation as the least evil of the neighbours of the Duchy. Their creed was a heresy, but barely; they still opposed forces of chaos and worshipped the Emperor, even if said worship intertwined him with mechanicus creed of omnisiash and was focused on his 2nd coming. The apparent naivete of the state and its work to uncover the Abominable Intelligence plot during the Hive War were signs that Duchy could afford to wait until the situations in other regions calmed down and they could be returned to the fold sometime in the future.
A few inquisitors were tasked with watching them for signs of Tzeentchian or Slaaneashi corruption but found nothing, for the federation was very much not like the rest of the sector, trying to find criminal underbellies in the shanty towns to recruit informants or cults proven to be almost impossible as at least neighbouring subsectors lacked poverty, oh there were a few poor people around, but the state&church made sure that they weren't desperate enough to fall to chaos and wanted bigger bribes to act as informants; infiltrating the military and the military-industrial complex was much harder as Federation's counterintelligence often found out about the infiltrators before they could be share more than basic information. In general Inquisitorial conclaves about the Federation could be summarized as "Where the fuck are the chaos cults and poverty among these xenoloving heretics?!", but also being happy that at least one border was stable.
And yet, as he walks behind Admiral Al Raha, he can't help but wonder if Federation is simply that good; he wasn't a member of Mechanicus, but even to him; the ship they were on was clearly holy. It was self-sustaining, had more lances than some fleets, the many shrines to the "Starchild" and its aspects, including the holy Emperor, were scattered in walking distance from every quarter or battle station; and what a quarters they were, house Al Raha will swim in the 4th and 5th+ children of nobles house involved in the navy begging for a position of simple gunner.
He walked admiring the artworks depicting humanity at what the federation thought was their greatness, helping others and killing Chaos. While he had some trouble understanding why a child helping another stand up in a creek was treated with near same reverence to what clearly was human fighting against darkness that is Chaos (an interesting way to depict it without any room for it to use it to corrupt the weak) their tour guide thankfully had an answer:
"Both fight the enemy, one with mercy other with ruthlessness, without one other means nothing."
Which... was an interesting take. The tour moved on to many different parts of the battleship, through the orchards and hydroponic farms, through a manofactorium which used techniques duchy sold to federation just a few years ago, which meant that they could make more of battleships... At least they are interested in fighting chaos as long as duchy population won't live like underhivers.
They finally finished on the command centre and bridges, which, in his personal opinion, were surprisingly cosy looking but not bad per se. Admiral Al Raha had the honour of testing the primary weapons on what looked like an emptied-out Asteroid of large size.
One moment, there is one, and the next light flashes, and the dust remains.
And no one could help but just imagine what it will do to the cultists and smile.
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