[Lore Question] Is the Mechanicus always like this?

[Toadally Awesome]

To give some context, I was always a 40k enthusiast but mostly through the video games and the tabletop rpgs and never really dove into the lengthy books and such.

I am really liking the game so far but the attitude of the various cohorts that give you missions in the game surprised me. As far as I was aware of the Mechancius is part of the "good guys" (as much as good guys can be in 40k) yet the acquisitor literally wants to lick every necron piece in the tombs clean while the subdomina keeps giving sass about losing soldiers' lives on literally every single mission. As a lore newbie I thought that among the loyalist factions even the slightest discontent when receiving orders would lead to being accused of heresy.

So is the Mechanicus supposed to be this kind of "independent" in their way of thinking or is it just the approach the writers here decided to take?

[Wise Dagsos]

I actually think that given their autonomy inside the empireum social order and by being an Ordo at all the effects like the Inquisition (obviously less free) they can decide punishment and innocence of their members, as long as they don't damage their structure.
On the other hand you can clearly see the Magos telling the Subdomina that he understands that she still have her emotional centers not yet "worked out" buy the cult so he understands that she cannot put away her emotions. (for being brief: he knows that she is more flesh than himself so he understands that she is not as "cogitative" as him) that's the way I intended it, I hope you'll like my point of view, and for ending the answer, in the world of warhammer 40k almost everythingn depends on who is commanding you and his point of view.

[FieserMoep]

No, this CAN be totally in line. Keep in mind factions can have different approaches even within the faction.

Think of it like this: Maybe the Magos in charge WANTS each of his Staff Officers to embrace a certain way of thinking and to challenge his command so they don't hide behind "fear" of repercussions.

I think there is even an example from ancient times (Don't know what it was called) where certain officers specifically had the job to question their commander or to embrace certain aspects of warfare to ensure nothing was forgotten and everything was thought through. This is also reiterated within the command structure of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman and the Emperor himself had an entire Caste of Warrior-Philosophers to argue with, aka the Custodes.

There is a line between insubordination and making sure your input was heard and to challenge the status quo. That being said, our Magos is also established to have a slightly unorthodox approach to leadership if you listen to the dialouge.

In the end, each Branch, be it Research or Troop Support is supposed to argue for what is best for its branch. You as the Commander recieve this input at it is on you to make the compromise, the conscisous decistion what to sacrifce in orther to recieve something.

[Toadally Awesome]

Ah I see, so it goes by individual commanders. That makes a little more sense since I was wondering how certain factions can work were all constructive criticism to be met with gunshots.

[FieserMoep]

The "constructuve criticism" meeting bullets trope is mostly overplayed in novels and the like. Same with incompetent leadership in the guard etc.

More often than not its simply boring for the hero to encounter a well oiled machine of professional soldiers where he can't be the sole beacon of hope, light and sanity. Same with the Imperial Guard or Skitarii being "cannon fodder". For a novel about i. e. Astartes you need Guardsmen getting killed in the first place for no Astartes would deploy on a battlefield that is contained by the Guard anyway. (And that is the vast majority in the background of 40k).

Its always important to keep in mind that most 40k stories that make a novel are the exception, thats why they are novels in the first place, because writing about Skitarii Regiment / Guard Regiment X doing business as usual is not grim dark enough.

[Schlappohr Pyro]

Also many of the Mechanicus Magi are barely human anymore. Their logic and worldview are very different from other factions within the imperium.
After all they don't follow the dogma of the imperial thruth, but have their own believes.

[FieserMoep]

Well, nobody follows the imperial truth in M42 anyway.^^

Also its worth mentioning that they communicate by Noosphere. Its pretty much one step before they actually turn into a hivemind. So their dialouges take way less time which they can afford that way to discuss more details.

[DLS201]

Most tech priests have a tendancy to short-circuit their emotions as they attain higher ranks, the subdomina is not as augmented as the rest of the staff and give more value to life than the others. Moreover, she is responsible for the Skitarii contingent, and thus is less inclined to see them die.

Concerning Scaevola (the necron tech licker) his tendancies come from his forge world, Stygies VIII, which is borderline tech heretical according to some Mechanicus factions, and totally tech heretical according to others. Their forge world has been saved by Edlar in the past, and since then they like to collect Xeno tech and study it.

[Daliena]

The Mechanicus has a tendency to be overly fascinated by Necron technology. To give examples from some of the books I read, one had a short story where they found a deactivated Tomb Spyder and, *naturally*, despite warnings from other, saner folks, reactivated it, and with that, woke up the entire tomb. Only one survivor, and that was because an Astartes battlebarge was already on it's way to the system and had terminators boarding the Necron ship who then rescued the sole survivor who had, deciding between certain death and -almost- certain death, rushed into the Necron portal in the tomb connecting to the ship.

Another had an ice world where promethium was being mined and refined. There were richer deposits across the planet, but the refinery was placed in a particular valley.. Because underneath it, a Necron tomb slumbered, and the techpriests knew that perfectly well. They figured that it was a good cover for trying to plunder, even in the midst of an Ork invasion!

Result: Tomb woke up, everyone who didn't evacuate before the Necrons reached the surface from the tunnels underneath the refinery (they were already active elsewhere on the surface, engaging the Orks) died, site was nuked from orbit.