Order of the Sacred Rose

"How exactly was I supposed to train Sisters of Battle?" Chen Xi rubbed his chin and suddenly found himself at a loss.

He played Sisters of Battle and had Sister miniatures in hand, but his understanding of them was hardly deep. He had not read many official Sisters of Battle novels, nor had he read their codex. He had only handled their index while playing games and writing army lists.

So he really did not know how to train a Sisters of Battle force in the 40K Era.

Still, he did not dwell on it for long. He took out his phone and contacted a group member from his Warhammer chat group who mainly played Sisters of Battle.

"Goose, do you know how Sisters of Battle are recruited and trained in 40K?" Chen Xi asked her.

Goose was one of the rare female Warhammer players in Chen Xi's group, a veteran player with roughly four thousand points' worth of Sisters of Battle miniatures.

"Recruit and train Sisters of Battle? Just build a convent! Once it's built, apply to have an Order of Sisters stationed there through the sector's Order of Sisters. They usually won't refuse." Goose replied quickly, then asked curiously, "Why are you asking? I saw the pictures you posted in the group earlier. Don't tell me you're cooking up something huge? Bring me along if there's something good!"

"It's not that huge. I just wanted to understand how it worked." Chen Xi did not reveal anything and merely gave a brief reply.

It was not yet time to tell his group friends that he could travel between worlds. Besides, he still lacked a solid foundation.

Still, Chen Xi asked Goose, "Say, if you could travel to the Warhammer world, what would you want to do?"

"Travel to the Warhammer world? Goose wants to become one of those huge muscle-brained beasts! I want to know what it feels like to punch a Chaos tin can's head right into his torso!" Goose sent a message utterly at odds with her image.

Chen Xi stared at Goose's message, feeling his brain knot itself up, but he still replied, "A bio-engineered brute from Necromunda's Goliath gang? Then you'd have to kidnap a few fitness matrons from the Escher Family to inject you with growth hormones."

"Yeah, yeah! Those huge muscle-brained beasts with pointy heads!" Goose replied excitedly, sounding as though she wanted to go waaaaaagh with Gork and Mork.

Chen Xi truly had no idea what to say to that, so he merely asked, "Don't you play Sisters of Battle?"

"Yeah, but Bolter Babes aren't strong enough. They aren't waaaagh enough! But I don't really want to play Orks." Goose's answer had all the spirit of an Ork.

Chen Xi could not help wondering whether, if she traveled to the Warhammer world and became an Ork, she might turn into a warboss on par with Ghazghkull.

But that was not the point. After learning from Goose how Sisters of Battle were recruited and trained, Chen Xi ended the conversation.

Turning his attention back to his miniature shelf, Chen Xi picked through the Sisters of Battle miniatures, preparing to select suitable pieces to deploy to Rostov II.

He still had a little over two hundred points available. If he deployed battle squads, roughly two squads would fill those points.

But if he used special units, he estimated that he could field four or five of them.

After giving it some thought, he took down a Canoness (50 points), a Palatine (50 points), a Dialogus (45 points), and an Imagifier (40 points) from the shelf in turn. After calculating the points, he could only regretfully put down the Hospitaller (50 points).

(Canoness)

(Palatine)

(Dialogus)

(Imagifier)

(Hospitaller)

So far, he had deployed Eisenhorn (65 points), a Sisters of Battle Squad (100 points), and Kasrkin Shock Troopers (100 points). Adding these four miniatures would use up all five hundred points he had available.

It was a little regrettable that he could not deploy a Hospitaller, but he had at least assembled all the Sisters of Battle miniatures he needed.

A Canoness was the highest leader of an Order of Sisters, equivalent to a Space Marine Chapter Master.

A Palatine was a combat-force commander similar to a Space Marine captain, while the Dialogus and Imagifier were corresponding support personnel.

Together, they formed the core leadership, decision-making, and command group of an Order of Sisters. With some additional support personnel, they could sustain an Order of Sisters' basic operations.

According to Goose, Chen Xi only needed to build a convent on Rostov II for an Order of Sisters to move into, then submit an application to the local sector's Ecclesiarchy and Order of Sisters, and he would receive an Order of Sisters garrison.

But Chen Xi did not intend to do that. Instead, he planned to use his own miniatures to establish the Order of Sisters' presence.

After all, the Sisters of Battle sent by the local sector's Ecclesiarchy and Order of Sisters would not be under Chen Xi's control. That would be an unstable factor.

As mentioned before, Sisters of Battle were all fanatics. They were extremely useful for purging heretics from a planet and could effectively prevent Chaos Corruption from spreading across it, but these musclebound lunatics were not easy to control.

Once something went wrong, they would become as hard to rein in as runaway horses, perhaps even turning into a pack of mad dogs.

That brought up the Order of the Bloody Rose, one of the six major Orders of Sisters. Clad in red armor, they were galactic big sisters who could probably butcher people even more fiercely than Khorne Bloodletters just from the sound of their name.

They believed that every breath a heretic drew in this world was blasphemy against the God-Emperor, and they became exceptionally fervent whenever they encountered heretics on the battlefield.

Chen Xi was not confident he could keep a group of fanatics like that under control.

So he decided to build up an Order of Sisters with his own miniatures instead. At least then he would not have to worry too much about problems arising in combat command or everyday operations.

"Contact the sector Ecclesiarchy through Rostov II's local Ecclesiarchy, then apply for an Order of Sisters establishment. Once I get the establishment, recruiting and training the remaining personnel will be easy." Chen Xi reviewed the entire plan in his mind. Only after deciding there were no issues did he place the four miniatures in the box and deploy them beside the Inquisitorial Governor.

After completing the deployment, Chen Xi issued new orders to the miniatures, telling the Inquisitorial Governor and the Canoness to contact Rostov II's Ecclesiarchy bishop and submit an application to build a convent and station an Order of Sisters there.

"Come to think of it, all my miniatures belong to the Order of the Sacred Rose. What were this Order's traits again... Strict discipline, calm composure, and flawless tactical coordination, I think..." Chen Xi muttered to himself. Although Sisters of Battle miniatures were universal, their paint schemes could still distinguish the six major Orders of Sisters. "The Order of the Sacred Rose may not see much use on the tabletop, but in reality, she would undoubtedly be far more useful than the other lunatics."