"Sisters! And sister, yes, hi there, Yang," began the rather diminutive Seraphim with a flourish of her blood-red cloak. "Four score and seven minutes ago our day became awesome."

"Oh, here we go," muttered a white-haired Celestian to the rest of the group.

"Sure, having Cannoness Goodwitch sent away because the Inquisitor was dubious about her name was a bad start," admitted the Seraphim superior. "And, sure, on that topic: we have been requisitioned by an Inquisitor who doesn't exactly seem to be the most orthodox and devout of the bunch…"

The whole group of sister superiors collectively turned towards where the Inquisitor who was meant to be commanding them was standing with her henchmen next to a Chimaera. Inquisitor Cinder smiled back and waved, making the sisters shudder.

"Any more understatement of the year candidates you'd like to trot out, Ruby?" asked Blake with a sigh. The Mistress wound the coils of her neural whip around her wrist as she glanced again at the inquisitor's motley retinue.

"Yes, there are!" declared Ruby. "Okay, so we may have hoped for a little more backup from the Guard…"

"Hey!" protested one of only two men in the circle, a young blonde man in an officer's uniform.

"Look," snapped the Celestian Weiss, "When you ask for an armoured regiment and get a company sized battle group…"

"Not that we don't totally appreciate you coming along, Captain Arc," said Ruby with the sweetest smile she could muster.

Just when the Captain looked set to protest further, he jolted, having been prodded in the side by the incredibly chilled-out looking commissar at his side. Commissar Ren was clearly not about to let Jaune get the company into the bad books of the Adepta Sororitas.

"Well, I like having them here," declared a red-haired woman in Celestine gear and a badge that marked her as the head of Goodwitch's command squad.

"Yeah, they're cool, and they have Basilisks, which blow up so much stuff," declared the orange haired commander of the detachment's Exorcist tank.

"Pyrrha, Nora, guys, I'm trying to give a speech here!" said Ruby. "Sure, our new Priests are a little too absorbed either telling old war stories or talking ancient history. Sure, the Munitorium is annoyed with us because Coco's Retributors cooked off a regiment's worth of bolter rounds yesterday…"

"Hey!" said Coco, making a point of patting her beloved heavy bolter. "How were we to know those buildings were empty?"

"Perhaps when they fell over?" suggested Yang with a grin.

"... and sure, mid-ambush was a bad time to find out that those heretics could summon grim beasts," continued Ruby heedlessly. "It might also have been nice if Yang's, Penny's, and Velvet's squads weren't the only Battle Sisters that the Inquisitor took along for the ride. But look at all the good news!"

"There's good news?" asked Weiss, putting a hand to her armoured chestplate and rearing back in exaggerated surprise.

"Of course," answered Ruby. She turned and pointed down the hill. "Just look at all those heretics we get to set on fire while trying to get this relic for Inquisitor Cinder!"

Everyone turned to look at the imposing fortress on the plain beneath them. It bristled with guns, manpower, trench lines, walls, emplacements, pillboxes and just about every other unpleasantry known to military engineers. Blasphemous flags of heresy flew from every high place, every pillbox, hung from the crenellated walls like vile, vaguely Slaaneshi moss.

Everyone then turned back to Ruby.

"Wh-what…?" stammered the Seraphim.

"You're unbelievable," said Weiss.