no doubt concentrated on expanding its influence planetside, where most of the institutions it wished to subvert were based. Most of the active rebels in the offworld habs would have been simple dupes of the brood mind, rather than members of it.
38
The belt of cometary debris which marks the nominal boundary of a stellar system.
39
Traditionally, space hulks are given their names by the Inquisition conclave responsible for the sector in which they first appear, and, as Cain points out, they do tend towards the melodramatic.
40
Which seems to indicate that Cain was never made aware of the existence of Mira's siblings, something most people would have thought to mention at some point under the circumstances: a small, but telling, confirmation of her self-absorption.
41
Most Viridian histories of the war credit him with pulling the shattered remnants of the PDF back into a credible fighting force almost single-handed, and playing a decisive part in finally ridding the planet of the genestealer taint, but we obviously have to allow for a fair amount of bias and local chauvinism in these accounts. The Imperial Guard records simply state that he was an effective mediator between them and the PDF, which might charitably be interpreted as grudging approval.
42
Probably not, in fact, given the average Viridian's tenacious faith in the Golden Throne, although 1 suppose there were the inevitable exceptions.
43
In fact they were probably more interested in searching for building materials than items of value.
44
As so often, Cain's habitual cynicism where members of the Ecclesiarchy are concerned may have led him to miss the point. Given the devout nature of so many Viridians, it's entirely possible that the labourers he saw were repairing the temple for spiritual rather than pragmatic reasons.
45
Intended to reduce the sound of the vertical thrusters, which would always be loudest at takeoff and landing, and contain the worst of an explosion in the event of an accident.
46
A faintly derisive nickname for acolytes of the Machine-God, common among Imperial Guardsmen, apparently derived from the cogwheel symbol of their calling.
47
From Soylens Viridians for the Machine-Spirit, a populist work intended to make some of the principles by which the Adeptus Mechanicus operates comprehensible to the vast majority of us with little understanding or interest in technotheology: a no doubt laudable aim, which it signally fails to achieve, being too abstruse for the lay reader, and too simplistic for even the lowliest tech-priest. Its author, unsurprisingly, was Magos Yaffel, one of the handful of people actually to have read it.
48
It was also possible, of course, that Cain's suspicions about her true age were correct, and that this wasn't the first occasion on which she'd boarded a starship.
49
I must say I find that all too plausible: Cain possessed considerable personal charm and was perfectly willing to use it to get whatever he wanted from people. A particular kind of woman would be extremely susceptible to that, especially if she wasn't overly bright to begin with.
50
