I was kinda busy you know trading for massive stores of ore and materials to be loaded up on the ship in return for extra blessed weapons to the sent to the Ecclesiarchy. Too busy to deal with auditioning the thousands of Sister's of Battle that were ecstatic to go on this holy crusade.
But... I probably should have fucking made time honestly. As I watched through dull eyes as the Sisters of Battle did a very Sisters of Battle thing in stripping buck naked besides seals covering their chest and genitals.
And then with wooden swords in the shape of chain swords. The initiates proceeded to beat the living shit out of one another till the other Sister fell to the ground due to their wounds or broke their opponents 'chain sword'.
"Adeleith, how does beating the piss out of one another determine they are worthy of joining our holy crusade?" I asked the lieutenant of our group of Sister's of Battle as Katherine was the leader of our group of Sisters.
Adelieth without hesitation from where she was noting down notable names of the Sister's who were proving themselves spoke up. "This isn't unusual, though typically proving grounds like this happen more often due to a powerful Inquisitor coming to take sister's to purge a world or censor some Astartes."
I shook my head and said with a grunt. "Add another criterion on the strength of their faith. Have the combat failures go through a test of determination and will and take the best from there as well."
She was quiet for a moment before she said bluntly. "Organizing such a test will take a few days my lord, to say nothing of doing the test."
I gave Adelieth a look from the side with her stiffening before I said. "We have a week before we leave. Get it done, I don't want only meat heads on the ship who can only swing a chain sword."
Adeleith bowed and I heard her finger nails clicking on her own data slate to send my orders and just as I was about to take a drink from some wine I bought in bulk that came from a relatively close Pleasure World.
I got a notification on my HUD as a Custodian sent me a direct message. [Sister's who failed that proving ground have attempted to sneak onto the ship.]
With a mental groan, I messaged whichever Custodian it was. [Get rid of them. Either throw them off the ship, or into an incinerator. Do not allow anyone onto the ship we do not get a chance to check as I refuse to have Gene Stealers on my ship.]
I didn't get a message back from the Custodian so I just disengaged my helmet so I could literally pinch the brow of my eyebrow before grumbling. "Who knew there would be so much damned paperwork being a Rogue Trader."
And the worst part! Was how all the damned paperwork was literally actually in paper/parchment that I needed to safely store on my ship to keep track of my shit in case officials from Terra demanded to get the book for taxes.
"Is this Bishop asking if I am taking on servitors that have been blessed?" I muttered in disdain before deleting the damned offending message.
But then a loud blaring rang out that made my ship's energy shield shimmer at the awful cacophony of noise. "What the hell was that?" I asked confused as hell as I began cycling through the ship's systems to see what happened.
Was there a surprise attack coming from outside the system my own ships' systems didn't pick up? Did that old Cardinal fucking keel over and die after looking into the records and finding out who Erebus was?
Soon enough my system bleeped and I got the message. [Risen Lord Lion El Johnson has won a battle against Hive Fleet Kronus of the Tyranids and is en route to perform Exterminatus on several corrupted worlds in the radius of the Eye of Terror.]
"Well, this is interesting news." I mused to myself with a hand coming to my jaw as I wondered if I should go out of my way to meet a Primarch... Or if that was too risky and attention-seeking.
Granted he was clearly also doing something I appreciated in fucking over the Tyrranids and the forces of the Great Enemy. But I didn't want to give up my forces to join his retinue if he got an idea of what I could do.
He could order me to be his serf and maybe... Just maybe the Custodian's would stand beside me but I had my doubts about the Sister's and the Guardsmen's loyalty in the face of being blasted with a Primarch's aura.
"My lord do you-" Adeleith's words were silenced as the door to the bridge opened up with a loud hiss and I chuckled as Ecris the catgirl bounced in with a happy smile.
"Sir! I came to directly report that several civilians taken out of the ore, and materials bay from the world have been given the Emperor's mercy and their bodies destroyed under the orders of the Custodian watching the intake work."
I nodded and said firmly. "Good work Ecris, great evil in the Gene Stealers adore to climb into ships to infect the passengers and take over their minds."
Both Adelieth and Ecris's faces twisted at the mention of Gene Stealers as I made sure my men and women knew... The general threats of the galaxy and what they could expect and how to deal with them.
I most certainly didn't tell them about Greater Demons or other bullshit like that as that was dangerous information. Though with several dozen sister's and Custodians armed with a lesser version of Supernatural's Colt. I was confident in us dealing with those as well.
"Wait one second Ecris, I need to send a message then we will be heading down to the manufactorium where the new larger weapon systems will be made." I spoke as I sent a message to the other Guard squad leaders.
Confirming for a second time that 'ALL' stowaways were to be shot on sight as I was well aware of Gene Stealer Patriach's bullshit psychic nonsense that could mind control people.