A hydraulic hiss and a clank of metal on metal accompanied the landing of Cain's shuttle into the Strike Cruiser 'Nazarick''s tertiary hangar bay.
'Alright. You can do this, Cain. You've worked with the Angels of Death in the past, it should be no different this time around. Just make a big speech, praise the Emperor, and if something unexpected happens again, let the big guys go in first.' Cain mentally steeled himself while covertly checking over his commissar's uniform and ensuring that it was free of dirt and in immaculate form. He did so covertly as he had packed himself into the shuttle with Jurgen, as having Jurgen and his melta around was more of a lifeline than necessity for Cain, as well as a group of storm troopers from the 12th Valhallan Field Artillery Regiment that he served, and Cain didn't want the troopers to notice his nervousness by being too overt in his fiddling-about.
It had been something of a Munitorium misassignment to send a field artillery regiment a squad of storm troopers as reinforcement due to casualties, but Cain had ensure that the mistake was never rectified by subtly mentioning that he considered but did not strictly speaking require the squad to be something of a commissarial bodyguard unit for him, even if officially he would need to requisition the storm troopers through the Schola if he actually wanted to have a storm trooper squad under his direct command'.
…And naturally, by formally requesting to have such a squad assigned to Cain, he would be expected to actually participate in the Tempestus Scions usual day-to-day suicide missions behind the enemy lines- Which on average were even more dangerous than what Cain was subjected to on regular basis due to circumstances that were outside his control.
Cain felt a shaky impact through the shuttle's floor as the massive blast-doors of the Astartes vessel's hangar closed with a huge boom somewhere outside the shuttle, and then he heard the hiss of air filling vacuum as the hangar pressurized itself. There were no windows in the passenger compartment of the shuttle, leaving Cain to presume the happenings outside the shuttle based on sound and feeling alone.
"Tea, Commissar?" Jurgen offered a flask to Cain from behind him, and Cain took the flask to take a long sip before handing it back to his aide.
Cain glanced back at the atmo-mask-covered faces of the storm troopers behind him and wished for a moment that he had one such face-covering mask for himself, as it would allow him to stop his face from betraying his nervousness about meeting the Astartes without a conscious effort…
…Not to mention that a void-sealed mask would also enable Cain to exist near Jurgen without almost choking on the aide's signature 'scent', as even though he had gotten used to Jurgen's olfactory delights in regular circumstances it was more than a bit bothersome to be crammed with Jurgen into a tiny shuttle with questionable air filtration for several hours.
Sometimes Cain fantasized ordering Jurgen to take a long bath and perhaps change his clothes once a month, but having the 'defensive smell' that would cause even a cultist of Nurgle to gag did have a definite benefit in his specific case- Namely, that it masked the normal human paranoia and disgust that accompanied close proximity to Jurgen's particular hidden mutation by making the onlookers pin it on Jurgen's hygiene instead of his unnatural aura.
Jurgen was a Blank, or rather, a human who was without a soul, and thus was a psychic void that would cause devastating null field effects upon unnatural creatures such as warp-manifestations, demons, and psykers. Or at least, that was how a certain Inquisitor had explained Jurgen's ability to Cain, and Cain had no reason to doubt the Inquisitor's word on the matter.
The null-field effect had saved Cain's skin more than once, specifically during an episode when he was forced to confront his old acquaintance who had turned herself into a demon through ways unknown (and as far as Cain was concerned, he was very much content in letting those ways to stay unknown), but who had failed to slay Cain as Jurgen happened to stumble near the demon, causing her very existence to flicker just enough for Cain to stab her in the chest (and Jurgen to blast her in the back with a Meltagun, but that was more of an afterthought as far as the observing crowd of Imperial Guard platoon of supporting infantry were concerned, even if Cain was fairly sure that his stab had been more of a distracting inconvenience whereas Jurgen's Melta had actually finished the demon off).
Cain had pondered on whether or not he should bring Jurgen along to the Space Marine vessel considering that Inquisitor Amberley had 'suggested' Cain to keep Jurgen's specialty a secret when she had realized Jurgen's hidden trait, but in the end Cain decided to bring Jurgen along as he figured that the Astartes would eventually discover Jurgen's trait and it'd be better if Cain was forthright with the information for the Astartes specifically, and thus avoided a nasty misunderstanding.
Cain spared a stray thought on how Inquisitor Amberley was doing, as the Ordo Xenos inquisitor had conscripted Cain on several occasions to aid her in dealing with various Xeno disturbances from Genestealer incursions to a Tau diplomatic mission, the latter of which had almost resulted in a sector-wide war- And in very unusual change of usual modus operandi, the Tau and Imperium had actually avoided war thanks to Cain's intervention. (Even if at the time Cain had just figured that he'd be safer if he grabbed a Tau diplomat as a meat shield and stayed inside armored vehicles in face of rebel cult onslaught (who, naturally, had turned out to have heretic roots, as usual), and in the end the Tau diplomat had thought that Cain had gone above and beyond any reasonable expectation of a 'human' by nearly sacrificing everything to protect the diplomat's life and escorting him out of the ambush site- Despite the reality of it being almost exact opposite since Cain had been far more worried of Tau railguns and crisis suits than some cultists with ancient hand-me-down weapons in rinky-dink vehicles.)
A massive bang and rhythmic marching noise drew Cain from his ponderings and back to the present moment.
The commissar looked behind himself as the shuttle's pilot opened the small hatch that connected the passenger/cargo section to the shuttle's pilot compartment. "Commissar. The hangar bay controller doesn't respond to standard calls, but the hangar controller is waving a flag for us. Should I drop the cargo ramp?"
"We may have some issues with matching of our low-level comms protocols- As was expected, after all the Emperor's Finest have gear that is so advanced compared to ours that we might as well be using two plascrete cups and a length of wire as comms-beads." Cain joked to the pilot to calm the man, as even though half of the pilot's face was covered by his helmet and visor, the man was clearly nervous, pale-faced and sweated quite heavily while looking as if he wanted to puke. "Open the ramp, but slowly, please."
The pilot nodded and withdrew while his expression changed to relief as he slammed the communication-hatch and locked it again…Or, Cain thought idly, the pilot's earlier expression might have been due to the man opening the so-far air-tight hatch between the cargo compartment and the pilot compartment and getting a full blast of Jurgen's concentrated aroma.
The ramp at the back of the shuttle let a hiss as the small difference in pressure between inside of the shuttle and the outside hangar equalized, and then the sealed ramp lowered with a whine of ancient hydraulic pistons.
Cain took a step forward into the light of the hangar, followed by Jurgen at a distance of two footsteps, who was then followed by the storm troopers that formed into two neat parade-march lines almost immediately…
…And Cain paused, causing the group to come to a halt as well and nearly causing Jurgen to slam against Cain's back due to the sudden stop.
'...Ahem…' Cain struck a headstrong, straight-back stance with his red-gloved fists resting at the sides of his waist in his trademark 'stand before the cameras and look heroic'-pose, but this time the pose came out of sheer instinctive survival habit instead of a conscious decision.
There were at least a hundred, perhaps up to three hundred Astartes in the Hangar, arranged into several regiment-like lines and rows, and with their weapons in their hands and positioned into some sorts of parade-stances- With roughly half of them having a set of melee weapons ranging from shields and swords to dual swords to halberds and shields and spears, and half of them having ranged weapons like bolters or some other arcane and ancient weapons that Cain didn't recognize.
Cain's mind blanked out for a moment with his trademark 'reassuring and inspiring' white-toothed smile stuck to his face.
There were several types of Dreadnoughts amongst the ranks of Astartes, or at least Cain assumed the mechanical walkers to be dreadnoughts of some sort of ancient pattern that Cain had never seen before, as well as some sorts of ancient-looking flying machines with long cockpits and large wings that Cain had only seen employed by various Mechanicus units- Or in the hands of Heretic Astartes, namely as mutated, warp-corrupted daemon machines known as 'Helldrakes'.
However, the flying machines looked considerably well-kept and even featured a number of Imperial symbols as well as purity seals that looked strangely 're-made' as if they had been pulled out of a wall or a sealed bulkhead and then hastily stapled to the flying machines, alleviating Cain's initial manic concerns that the Astartes chapter had somehow tamed Helldrakes- And upon second thought, Cain pondered if the Helldrakes were actually the end result of the hereteks getting their hands on the types of flying machines that were in front of Cain currently. On third thought the latter scenario would have been far more realistic, and Cain kicked himself mentally in the shin for even daring to think that the Astartes had done something as suspicious as attempting to tame daemon engines.
"Commissar?" Jurgen asked from behind Cain and Cain realized that he must have been stuck standing in a heroic pose for at least half a minute, and that realization caused Cain's panic to officially enter overdrive.
Fortunately Cain had plenty of experience in high-stress environments, although in slightly different sorts of scenarios as normally he was being shot at in addition to being forced to act heroic, and the experience allowed him to move on autopilot while Cain's soul shrank to the size of a vent-rat and slithered down his pants leg to take cover in his shoe.
"Yes, Jurgen. We proceed. Follow me, troopers. Good formation now, the Emperor's Finest are watching." Cain told Jurgen and the troopers with a headstrong voice and took a long step forwards on the red carpet that had been rolled out to the ramp of the shuttle.
Cain was slightly less confident internally. 'Oh Emperor, oh Emperor, oh Emperor, frak, frak, frak, frak, I'm so frakked, oh nonononono, this cannot be happening, what is even happening? I have no idea but this can't be a good thing, I thought that the Warmaster had sent a Strike Cruiser and a company of marines to Weissburg at best, but there's two companies of Astartes in this hangar alone?! Did they call all Astartes from the planetside to stand as honor guard for my entrance?! W-what is going on here?! Or did they ram an entire Chapter's worth of marines on board a single Strike Cruiser for some reason?! What are they expecting me to do?! Save everyone in some sort of daring mission to the heart of the enemy?! What can I even do to a foe that causes Astartes to withdraw?! Wave my finger at some sort of unimaginable warp-horror and hope Jurgen's deus ex melta has an effect?!'
Cain had reached the double-doors at end of the red carpet by the time his had mind cleared enough that he could even realize that he had started to walk, much less have rational thoughts, but in quick recall he sighed (internally) in relief in realizing that he had managed to keep up the heroic facade the whole way through instead of falling on his knees as a quibbling, sobbing mess and apologizing to everyone for being an impostor instead of a true hero.
The massive double doors in front of Cain, large enough to allow a tank to drive through them, let out a hiss of hydraulics and began to open with smooth motion.
Behind the doors were a trio of peculiar Marines- One of them a Librarian, if Cain's memory of the regalia and wargear of the Space Marines was still up to date, one of them was a specialist of some sort in massive black armor and wielding a bardiche, possibly the Chapter's Executioner, and the last of the group was a…
'...C-chapter master?' Cain's headstrong smirk and pose might as well have been glued on his face as his muscles had all but seized up as soon as he realized that he was standing in front of the Chapter Master of the Space Marine Chapter, their Chief Librarian, and judging on the pose, the Chapter's equivalent of either the Executioner or Chaplain.
Cain thanked his locked-up knees for not shaking and his bladder for not giving up on life.
The eight-feet tall Chapter Master looked down at Cain.
The seven-feet tall Chief Librarian was looking at something roughly four feet above Cain, and was scanning the area above Cain almost as if he didn't see the commissar or his retinue, or was expecting to see someone who was either on par or even taller than the massive superhumans.
The Executioner glanced at Cain, at the Librarian, looked directly at Jurgen, and the marine's grip tightened around the large bardiche.
'Oh. So they already realized what kind of anomaly Jurgen was.' Cain noticed the Librarian's strange behavior and the Executioner's stare- The Librarian's overlook was likely the result of the Marine being confounded by the Blank's presence, and the Executioner had likely deduced the source of the Librarian's confusion and was likely struggling to keep himself from 'taking care of' the 'mutant' in Cain's retinue.
Cain had known that the Marines would recognize Jurgen for who he was when Cain brought the Blank with him, but Cain had hoped that the marines wouldn't notice the anomaly until Cain could broach the subject first. As it was, it looked as if the Executioner was a moment's away from taking the initiative and lopping Jurgen's head off his shoulders.
However, if the worst came to worst, Cain figured that he could just use a vague mention that an Inquisitor had approved Jurgen's presence in his retinue to justify his existence.
Mentioning Inquisitorial approval was a last resort sort of option, though, as Cain was very certain that Inquisitor Amberley would not appreciate Cain throwing her weight around to get his way, even if he didn't name her specifically. After all, if the marines asked around they would most certainly eventually find another Inquisitor who then might ask another Inquisitor, and thus eventually backtrack Cain's words to Inquisitor Amberley.
Cain knew that the Inquisition did not leave loose ends, so any such end that was waving in the wind would be swiftly plucked, 'Hero of the Imperium' or not.
The Chapter Master in front of Cain, however, seemed calm and controlled as he looked at Cain and was clearly waiting for the commissar to speak first.
It was a gesture of respect that took Cain off-guard, almost as much as he was taken aback by seeing a company or two's worth of Marines as a parade guard in the hangar, and as a result Cain was struggling to come up with an appropriate opener.
'W-would 'I have arrived, my lords' be appropriate? However, these marines seem to hold me in high regard for some reason? Should I just introduce myself? They know who I am so wouldn't that be redundant and seen as insulting? Should I just go 'let's go on with it' and hope for the best?' Cain's stressed-out mind creaked as he struggled to think under the pressure of the formalities in face of superhuman warrior-kings- And for once he wished he was in some stuffy meeting of planetary royals or other stuffy nobles, which he had considered to be his personal hell up to that point (aside from the actual hell of frontline battlefield, or the terrifying hell of assisting an Inquisitor, anyway).
"Umu… Has he arrived yet?" The Librarian turned his head just slightly towards the Chapter Master and spoke with an ancient, dusty tone like two gravestones rubbing together, and making Cain's insides quake in indecisive worry. "I feel… something amiss."
"Greetings, Ciaphias Cain." The Chapter Master took a step forward and offered his hand to Cain.
Cain took the offered hand while smirking confidently, as his face had more or less stuck to the expression out of sheer terror.
The Librarian seemed to jump a bit, pause, and then look four feet down to notice Cain.
Cain felt as if he shrunk a few feet down from the Librarian's evaluating gaze, or at least Cain assumed the gaze to be something like that as all three of the Marines had their full helmets on and the helmets covered both their faces and their expressions.
"U-umu, I see." The librarian seemed to find what he was looking for and turned his head towards Jurgen with slightly shaky movements.
Cain resisted the urge to keel over and vomit as the Executioner's hostile look multiplied by hundredfold, likely because the Librarian was seemingly becoming delirious from Jurgen's presence, but Jurgen's signature odor worked like smelling salts and shocked Cain back to consciousness before he could pass out in terror from the killing intent coming his way.
"Please excuse my aide. You know how these things go." Cain spoke while giving the Chapter Master a well-practiced 'insider wink' out of instinct as he was still on the edge of consciousness, and promptly felt terrified as he was well aware that the 'insider wink' was only effective on targets who were either in awe of Cain or otherwise easy to manipulate. And while the Chapter Master seemed respectful, Cain didn't want to assume anything. "But alas, time is a precious resource. I hope I am not disrespectful if we get to the reason for my visit here."
"Of couuurse. Let us proceed to the negotiation chambers and talk." The Chapter Master's slightly modulated voice had a small glitch, likely the result of some sort of battle damage on his helmet from the long campaign, and the massive warrior-king turned around before leading Cain off, his khaki-coloured half-cape fluttering in the large hallway in a manner that accentuated the massive warrior's might and majesty.
Cain followed the Chapter Master, past the Librarian and the Executioner, his confident smirk still on his face as it had become almost permanent fixture by now, and he did not miss the fact the Executioner's hand was gripping the bardiche with such a tight hold that Cain heard the shaft of the massive weapon creaking from the superhumanly strong grip.
Jurgen and the storm troopers followed after Cain, although the storm troopers were stiff as boards as they marched in perfect parade steps, clearly feeling the eyes of the Astartes on them as much as Cain but either chose to or were unable to pretend to be as relaxed as Cain or as carefree as Jurgen.
A part of Cain's soul felt quite heavy as he was certain that the troops would spread rumors about Cain talking to a Chapter Master of an Astartes Chapter like an old friend, assuming that the group managed to return to the transport-frigate, and would probably embellish the whole fact to nth degree to add to Cain's already over-inflated reputation. But he knew that he needed to keep the troops with him for appearance's sake (and as mobile meat shields, just in case).
The Librarian seemed disoriented and let out a vague 'umu' sound before walking after the group with the Executioner falling in line behind him, making the storm troopers tighten their parade walk even further as the men knew that the Librarian's eyes would be on them.
Incidentally, the Librarian and the Executioner would also have Cain in their field of view at all times, so Cain had no option but to constantly keep his 'heroic pose'.
…Even as the side of Cain's neck started to itch something fierce and he wanted to scratch it, but couldn't afford to look unprofessional.
.
.
.
A few minutes ago:
Ainz struggled to calm himself, and failed.
[Emotion Suppression] went off and calmed Ainz forcefully, making him sigh a bit in relief.
He was clad in the fake 'Librarian' armor beside Pandora's Actor, who was disguised as the 'Chapter Master', and Albedo, who was wearing her usual armor. The bulky and thick plate armor was close enough analogy to the local armor that Ainz was fairly certain no-one would lift an eyebrow at Albedo's standard set of armor, specifically if she wore a backpack that roughly matched that of what the 'marines' had worn usually.
Initially Ainz had wanted to meet Ciaphias Cain (and whoever he had as his retinue) in the hangar, but last-minute message from the Bridge of the Strike Cruiser had forced him to teleport aboard the bridge and figure out what had happened.
Ainz had almost passed out in sheer terror when he had heard that a black-coloured frigate that broadcasted Inquisitorial authority codes had appeared into the system and had hailed the Strike Cruiser.
Fortunately for Ainz, he was unable to pass out from terror, and [Emotion Suppression] took care of the rest once it managed to calm him down.
However, Ainz didn't have many options but to go along with the Inquisitorial ship's boarding request, and he had [Gate]'d back to the hallway bordering the hangar where Cain had arrived via an unmarked shuttle, just in time to see through [Planar Eye] that the shuttle's door opened.
Since Ainz was already late to get to the hangar without making fool of himself, and since [Planar Eye] became incredibly fuzzy once the shuttle's ramp actually opened, almost as if Cain had some sort of anti-divination field akin to area-of-effect [Perfect Unknowable], Ainz decided to meet Cain at the hallway leading to the hangar instead of meeting him at the shuttle. The fact that [Widen Magic: Detect Health] and [Widen Magic: Detect Mana] had also failed to give any clue as to Cain's 'level' were also worrying, almost as if Cain had some sort of area-of-effect anti-divination field.
The anti-spying effect persisted when Ainz tried to use [Undead Slave Sight] on one of the two hundred and sixty Death Knights that he had ordered into the hangar, each disguised as an 'Astartes', as well as a number of heavily armored dragons and various other undead and demons, the latter of which had fitted themselves into and under armored vehicles that Ainz had found aboard the Strike Cruiser, and were moving the vehicles around as if they were tank-shaped tactical cardboard boxes.
Thus, Ainz was left waiting anxiously beside the two Floor Guardians, staring at the thick bulkhead doors and waiting for the Hero of the Imperium to walk through the royal procession and reach the door.
The door opened suddenly and Ainz scanned the area in front of him as he suddenly got a very creepy feeling.
It was akin to standing on a pier that had been built in front of a whirlpool, ready to devour everything that stumbled and fell into the water.
Ainz's paranoia rose to new heights immediately.
'...He's not here? Or is he invisible?' Ainz tried to spot the ten feet tall superhuman figure in red coat with a halo above his head, bearing the flag of Imperial Guard on one hand and a massive, divine and blessed chainsword in his other hand.
The problem was that the 'Librarian's helmet was unwieldy for Ainz, and it was difficult to see through the lenses of the helmet- Apparently the helmet had very intricate and advanced vision systems according to the mind-controller armorers of the Strike Cruiser, but Ainz lacked the 'Black Carapace' to actually interface with the whole system.
"Umu, is he not here?" Ainz turned his head a bit awkwardly at Pandora's Actor and muttered the question quietly… Only to see Pandora's Actor take a step forward.
"Greetings, Ciaphas Cain." Pandora's Actor spoke, causing Ainz to jump in terror internally and then look around in panic, and then follow Pandora's Actor's gaze down…
…And down…
…And down…
Ainz stared at the immaculately dressed man who was roughly six feet tall, and without a halo or wings. Or a large banner. Or a massive chainsword, even though he did have a chain sword.
A part of Ainz wanted to sigh in relief that the propaganda reels had exaggerated Cain's appearance… But another part of Ainz reminded him that perhaps that was what the Imperial propagandists wanted Ainz to think.
Indeed, Ainz couldn't shake the strangely hollow and eerie feeling he got from Cain, nor did he miss the fact that Cain was standing at complete ease and in control, despite the fact he was surrounded on all sides.
Ainz pondered if that was just because Cain didn't see any threat in the situation, and decided to very subtly try his theory out- But without using divination magic, as he had already failed his divination attempts due to Cain's anti-divination countermeasures, so Ainz was forced to use more traditional methods.
'...[Message]- Albedo, can you direct some killing intent on Cain- No, not Cain, nevermind. Direct it at… umu… That unshaven man in Cain's retinue? But make it so that Cain is also hit by it, but only in passing.' Ainz quickly walked back his initial order and instead ordered Albedo to aim killing intent at someone in Cain's retinue- He wasn't sure how hard he wanted to escalate the situation for the sake of a test, but he wanted to at least ensure that Cain wasn't an absolute pushover outside his anti-divination means.
Albedo did as instructed and Ainz felt a wash of killing intent aimed at the aide… Only for Cain to glance at Albedo with his ever-present confident smirk on his face, all the while his aide's nose twitched and the unshaven man reached to stuff his finger into his nose and pulled a sizable clump of dried snot from the hole.
The Commissar then glanced at Ainz, looked at Pandora's Actor, leaned a bit closer to the disguised Treasury Guardian, and spoke. "Please excuse my aide. You know how these things go."
And after that, the commissar winked at seemingly no-one in particular.
'He figured it out! He- Wait, 'please excuse my aide'?! Is he implying that- Wait-' Ainz felt a surge of fresh paranoia as he realized that the Commissar had winked at Ainz like if Ainz was an old friend, or rather, as if the Commissar had seen through Ainz's attempt at forcing Cain to be on edge. And instead the Commissar had shrugged the blast of killing intent off like nothing, somehow canceled the effect before it could hit his aide, and indirectly told Ainz that he knew that Ainz had ordered Albedo, 'his aide' to do that. 'Can Cain intercept [Message]'s?! No, wait, anti-divination… Does [message] count as divination?! Or is it something to do with that 'Psychic power' thing that the serfs told me about?! Is Cain a 'psyker'?!'
Ainz shook in his armor as he realized that he might be in front of someone that was truly terrifying, and that the propaganda was possibly intended to be a false lead to make Cain's enemies underestimate him despite his legend once they actually saw him in person- And Ainz realized that he had almost fallen for it, hook, line and sinker.
Cain's expression changed to a serious frown, almost causing Ainz to instinctively release his suppressed [Aura of Despair IV: Instant Death] out of sheer terror.
"But alas, time is a precious resource. I hope I am not disrespectful if we get to the reason for my visit here." Cain returned his attention to Pandora's Actor, and Ainz felt a new surge of worry- He had asked to meet Cain to take initiative of the action, but now that he had Cain in the position and the commissar had seized the initiative Ainz was unsure how he should proceed.
Pandora's Actor, however, exchanged some words with the commissar and moved to lead him off and Ainz decided to follow Pandora's Actor's example while hoping that the Treasury Guardian had some sort of contingency plan and Ainz could just nod along.
…Even if Pandora's Actor's show-offy flutter of his cape caused Ainz's faith in Pandora's Actor's ability to waver quite heavily from the sheer force of cringe that it caused on Ainz's psyche.
.
.
.
Inquisitor Amberley put aside a data-slate.
"How long until we dock with the Nazarick?" She asked the captain of her vessel.
"I estimate fifteen minutes, assuming nothing changes on our trajectory." Spoke the well-dressed old man with a burly white mustache and beard who had at one point been a highly distinguished Imperial Navy admiral.
She nodded to the old man and the man bowed with sharp, well-practiced yet reverent moves before walking out of Amberley's quarters aboard the cruiser Furiosa Ignatius, having delivered his report to Amberley in person.
Amberley had nabbed the old man and his flagship cruiser when the man had led a desperate defense of an Imperial world, and had ended up destroying an entire flotilla of Xenos invaders at the cost of his entire navy sans one vessel- The flagship, a Tyrant-class Cruiser Gate Warden, which had nonetheless suffered critical damage and had been all but a limping space hulk at the the time after facing ten-to-one odds and coming on top.
The naval board had seen the loss of almost the entire fleet as unacceptable in face of the 'inferior' Xenos, even though the reality and odds had been entirely different- But such things as 'reality' rarely mattered to the bureaucratic machine of the Imperium.
Some words had been said, some promises made, and some strings pulled, and Amberley had all but seized the admiral, his ship and the crew from the teeth of the naval bureaucracy that would have preferred to have the whole group executed for incompetence and cowardice, despite the reality being the exact opposite, and she had added the cruiser to her small flotilla after getting the ship repaired, repainted to Inquisition's colors, and renamed to Furiosa Ignatius.
Normally she would have preferred to use her warp-capable yacht Externus Exterminatus to travel around or use the on-the-surface Imperial Freighter Lucre Foedis to move about covertly. However, the fact that the world of Weissburg was a full-scale battlefront between several xenos factions against Imperial defenders forced her to go for a more overt way of inserting herself into the mess that was unfolding in the sector- It wouldn't do her much good if she was covert in her moves and it resulted in her lightly-armed yacht getting ambushed by an ork patrol vessel who thought to turn the yacht into a hood ornament.
Amberley rubbed her temple with her gloved fingers while sighing. '...At least Cain has arrived here already since that transport frigate fleet is beginning their approach to the planet's capital… I need to get my hands on him and see if I can use him to work his magic on the infestation before it blooms out of control. He has received my message so he should already know what I need him to do.'
She looked out of one of the massive windows of her quarters in the cruiser, and at the considerably large Strike Cruiser which was rapidly growing in view as the cruiser approached it. '...The fact that the Astartes are still here means that they have most certainly found out about the infestation, but have not been able to purge it yet- Otherwise that fleet wouldn't still be on its way here. However, having Astartes on call does make this much simpler affair once I find the source…'
Amberley reached for a glass of amasec and poured herself a tiny sliver of the alcoholic drink, and drank it while thinking about the whole mess that was unfolding in Weissburg- Not to mention that she was certain that there would be even more Xenos corruption that would need rooting out than what she knew of at the moment, once she had the time to dig into it. If she had time to dig into it, as she had a hundred irons in the fire and would need to be strategic on which ones she struck.
'...Hmm… Albeit, I wonder what has made the Silver Hawks change their colors so drastically?' Amberley thought in passing as she noticed that the mostly white Strike Cruiser was slowly being painted violet and the customary building-sized Icon on top of the Strike Cruiser had been replaced by a building-sized golden statue of a robed skeleton holding a strange psyker-like staff that radiated light.
…On one hand Amberley did agree that the depiction was quite accurate on the true state of the Emperor of Mankind as far as she knew, but she did feel as if the depiction was somewhat morbid…
AN: I'm going with the Manga depiction of Albedo's armor, not the anime's. Just in case you were confused.