Ciaphas Cain: Choose Your Enemies

– A quotation often attributed to Macharius, although it appears in no primary sources, and he hardly seems to have been the type to indulge in horticultural metaphors.

– Pockets of methane gas, which, when mixed with the air surrounding them, become highly explosive. Feared by most miners, with good reason, as even a single spark can wreak untold devastation in such a confined space.

– Presumably a reference to his adventures on Simia Orichalcae, which, since the relevant portion of his memoirs has already been edited and disseminated, need not detain us any further.

– Two of his fellow instructors at the schola progenium on Perlia, where he spent the bulk of his occasionally eventful retirement.

– The Simia Orichalcae incident again.

– Either Cain is rounding down here, or the platoon had already taken a number of casualties in fighting the eldar; the five infantry squads a full-strength platoon in the 597th consisted of would have come to fifty troopers alone, plus five more for Grifen and her command squad, while Cain and Jurgen would have raised the total to fifty-seven.

– Like many regiments with extensive experience of fighting in urban environments or close terrain, the 597th habitually split its squads into two teams, the second under the command of the assistant squad leader while detached from the other, when it made tactical sense to do so.

– Casual term for vox-operator, a specialist attached to Imperial Guard command squads, generally responsible for carrying and using the long-range communications equipment which keeps the troops on the ground in touch with the higher echelons of the command chain.

– The dead being content to wait for the rest of the platoon’s return to the surface, presumably.

– The 597th issued comm-beads to every trooper, which probably contributed in no small way to their outstanding effectiveness. Most regiments reserve them for unit commanders, or don’t use them at all, relying instead on the bulkier backpack sets issued to the vox-operators at squad, or even platoon, level, making effective coordination far more difficult.

– It’s questionable whether or not orks actually do suffer from hangovers, since they’re so ill-tempered by nature it would be hard to tell the difference.

– A gesture common in the Damocles Gulf and adjacent sectors, where the thumb is folded into the palm of the hand to form a stylised aquila wing in the hope of invoking the Emperor’s protection or favour.