HH6节译：爪牙相对3（完）

The Beginning of the End

终局的开端

Now the assault on the World Eaters fief world is known to have entered a new and still more savage phase, heralded by the burning moon as it drew so close that the entire upper atmosphere appeared to have been set alight. The gun-clanners must have understood that their world was ending and they fought with ever more intense savagery, perhaps seeking not to avoid their fate but to embrace it. The ferocity of the mortal wasteland dwellers was as nothing to that of the World Eaters however. Analysis of surviving accounts of these battles, as well as studies of similar instances of rapid indoctrination and implantation carried out elsewhere, suggests that the Legiones Astartes warriors the Iron Hands, Imperial Fists and Agathon Solar Auxilia faced were something utterly devolved from the Emperor's vision for his favoured warriors.

现在，对于吞世者封地世界的进攻已经进入了一个全新也更为残酷的阶段；燃烧的月亮昭示了这一切，它离地面如此之近，以至于整个上层大气都似乎被点燃了。枪炮氏族们必定是已经明白了自己的世界正在走向终结，他们的战斗变得越发野蛮——也许他们不是想逃避命而是想拥抱这种命运。然而相比于吞世者，荒原居民们所表现出的凶恶不过是小巫见大巫。对于这些战斗的残存报告的分析，以及关于其他地区所发生的快速（思维）灌输和植入的类似实例的研究表明：钢铁之手与帝国之拳阿斯塔特军团战士和Agathon太阳军所面对的生物完全背离了帝皇对于自己所钟爱战士的想象。

While a core of World Eaters Legion officers was evidently in command of the defences, the bulk of their warriors appeared to have been acting entirely beyond any control. Savage Legionaries clad in mismatched battle plate, by its distinctive features manufactured by the Crimson Brotherhood of Sarum, surged across the rad wastes bearing myriad esoteric short-ranged weaponry that could only have been the product of the fallen magi of Sarum. Such weaponry was unknown to the Loyalists in both form and function, and took a fearsome toll on their ranks. Yet the Iron Hands and Imperial Fists were all veterans of uncountable Compliance campaigns and were able to overcome these short-term losses and press onwards, adapting their tactics to meet this new and novel threat.

虽然一群吞世者军团的军官们明显是在指挥防御行动，但他们麾下大部分战士的行为似乎完全不受任何控制。这些披着错配动力甲（其上带着Sarum猩红兄弟会制造物的独特特征）的野蛮军团战士们冲过辐射荒原，他们手中拿着各种各样深奥难懂的近程武器——这些凶器只可能是Sarum堕落贤者们的造物。忠诚派不知道此类武器的形制和运作（原理），这些武器让他们的部队遭受了可怕伤亡。然而参战的钢铁之手和帝国之拳们也都是经历过无数归顺战役的老兵，他们能够克服短期损失，调整战术来应对这种奇异的新威胁。

Of all the phases of the assault on Tredecimmia, accounts of the events of the sixth hour are by far the most incomplete. It is certain that the fighting reached a climax during this period and that both sides suffered and inflicted a fearsome death toll. The inexorable tide of battle appears to have flowed against the invaders at last, until the whole endeavour hung in the balance. Though the entire world was evidently doomed, the invaders' objective in launching their attack, which had yet to be revealed, might now have failed. Strategic-savants have debated the exact nature of Autek Mor's objective for several years, but the events that followed were to prove that it was of the utmost importance to his long-term aims. So vital was that mission that it was worth the cost in blood and treasure the invaders were paying across Tredecimmia while the Iron' Father was apart from his force in the vaults beneath the macro silos.

在进攻Tredecimmia城行动的所有阶段中，关于第六个小时中事件的报告是到目前为止最不完整的。可以肯定的是，战斗在这一期间达到了高潮，双方都遭受和造成了可怕的阵亡损失。势不可挡的战斗浪潮似乎终于涌向了进攻方，双方不相上下、胜败未定。虽然整个世界都显然（注定）被毁灭，但进攻方发动攻势的目的（这一点尚未被揭示）可能已经失败。战略专家们讨论奥塔克 摩尔目标的具体本质已有数年之久，但接下来发生的事件将会证明：这对他的长期目标至关重要。这项任务是如此的重要，以至于当铁父（本人）与自己的部队分开，前往巨型地下储藏库下方的宝库中时，进攻部队在Tredecimmia城各处付出的鲜血和（战备）资源都是值得的。

Whatever Autek Mor was seeking in the subterranean vaults, his mission was clearly taking too long. As the burning moon waxed so large it now consumed the entire sky, the warriors fighting one another across the surface resigned themselves to their fate and redoubled their efforts to exact what vengeance they could before the end.

无论奥塔克 摩尔在地下仓库中寻找什么，他的任务显然消耗了太长的时间。燃烧的月亮越发变大，现在已经庞大到吞噬了整个天空。地表各处相互厮杀的战士们听天由命，他们加倍奋战，要在终局到来前进行复仇。

As the doom of Bodt grew ever closer to hand, now the balance of death threatened to turn entirely against the Loyalists. A dozen Warhound Titans of Legio Audax charged out of the northern wastes, their vulkan mega-bolters scything down invader and defender alike as they bore down upon the macro silos as if drawn there by Autek Mor's presence. The Titans had evidently bypassed or simply overrun the northern interdiction forces, and all that stood between them and the silos were the massed Gorgon Terminator phalanxes of Clan Morragul. Though possessed of the strongest armour and the most potent weapons, even such warriors as these could not stand for long against this foe. As the mission counter finally ran past the seven hour mark and the burning moon entered its terminal phase, all appeared lost.

随着Bodt的末日愈加逼近，死亡的天平似乎也完全倒向了不利于忠诚派的一侧。灰烬群狼军团的十二台战犬泰坦冲出了北侧荒原，他们仿佛是被奥塔克 摩尔的存在吸引到了这里，用火神巨型爆弹炮将攻守双方一并扫倒。泰坦们显然是绕过或者干脆击溃了北侧的截击部队，它们和储藏库直接唯一的屏障就是莫拉古氏族的戈耳工终结者们所组成的密集方阵。尽管这些战士装备了最强大的动力甲和最强悍的武器，但哪怕是他们也无法在泰坦这样的敌人面前坚持太久。随着任务计数器最终超过了七个小时，燃烧的月亮也进入了它的最后阶段，一切似乎都失败了。

The Sundered Seal

解封

And then, Autek Mor emerged from the macro silos. The Clan-captain's eyes were said to have been "…alight with dark fire..,"and his hulking Terminator armour was"... rent and scored as if he had battled a thousand savage foes..." His demeanour more malevolent than even it was before his descent. In one hand he bore his ancient paragon blade, its edge jagged from scores of nicks, and in the other his volkite charger, its induction coils aglow like red hot coals. It was the object that Autek Mor held in the grip of his back-mounted servo-arm that gave witness to his true mission however 一 a stasis casket, its flanks etched with the arcane sigils of the inner order of the Emperor's Terran gene-wrights, who under the guidance of the Master of Mankind had brought into being the Primarchs and the entire Legiones Astartes.

这时，奥塔克 摩尔从巨型储存库中现身了。据说这位氏族连长眼中“…燃烧着黑暗的火焰…”，他庞大厚重的终结者动力甲“…被撕裂和刮伤，仿佛他与一千名凶残的敌人交战过那般…”。摩尔的外表变得比前往地下之前更为凶恶，他一只手中握着自己古老的典范之刃——锋刃上有着诸多缺口；另一只手中握着爆燃长枪，武器的电磁感应线圈如同红炽的煤炭那般发着红光。不过，摩尔装在背部的伺服臂所紧握着的对象让我们见证了他的真正任务——那是一个静滞匣，其侧面铭刻着帝皇的泰拉基因工匠们内环修会的玄奥纹章——这群人在人类之主的指导下创造出了原体和完整的阿斯塔特军团。

Autek Mor is known to have looked upon the destruction unleashed across Tredecimma and spoken a single word of command. It was the order to withdraw and within moments it was being enacted. Mor and his attendant Gorgon Terminator squads were the first to depart, leaving the macro silos a twisted mass of burning wreckage as they fought their way clear to a point from which they could return to the Red Talon in the same manner they had arrived. Elsewhere, Iron Hands and Imperial Fists units that had deployed by drop pod hours before fell back to pre-arranged zones where the Storm Eagles and Thunderhawks of the orbital strike wings set down to carry them clear, the Fire Raptors and other gunships circling overhead and unleashing a storm of suppressive fire on the hordes of Traitors attempting to pursue. In the south, the Solar Auxilia forces are known to have fought a disciplined and bold withdrawal back to their own heavy landers, and while in places the frenzied enemy forces overtook them, the greater number were soon being ferried to their vessels in orbit.

奥塔克 摩尔看了看忠诚派在Tredecimma城各处释放的破坏，他说出了一个词作为命令：撤退，部队也很快便开始执行。摩尔和随他而来的戈耳工终结者小队们是首先离开的，他们与敌军激战，清出了一条通往传送点位的路——他们用同样的方法从红爪号上抵达了此处，身后巨大的储存库化为了一堆扭曲的燃烧残骸。在其他地区，数小时前由空降舱部署的钢铁之手和帝国之拳单位们撤回到了事先布置好的区域，轨道进攻编队的雷鹰炮艇和风暴鸟降落下来将他们从这里运走，火猛禽和其他炮艇在上空盘旋，并对试图进行追击的大批叛叛军释放出猛烈的压制火力。在南部地区，太阳军们纪律严明且大胆地撤回到了自己的重型登陆艇，当疯狂的敌军在某些地方追上了他们时，多数部队都在被送往轨道中的舰船。

In the aftermath of the Loyalists' sudden withdrawal, the Traitors were bereft of foes, with the exception of those few who had been unable to depart and who resolved themselves to a bitterly fought last stand. In moments, the hordes turned their wrath upon their own and the battle lines were redrawn anew. At the last, the gun-clanners and the World Eaters fell upon one another in a seething mass of muscle and blade, shot and flame which consumed Tredecimmia even as the very air itself burned with the heat of the approaching moon. Hair set alight and the very cloth upon their backs igniting, the two factions, who between them had fought so many battles that the best of the gun-clanners might one day join the World Eaters, locked together in the mutual berserker fury of their final moments.

在忠诚派们突然撤退后，除了极少数未能离开和决心苦涩地奋战到死的忠诚派之外，叛军们失去了（其他）敌人。顷刻间，成群的部队将他们的愤怒转移到自己身上，重新划分出战线。最终，枪炮氏族和吞世者们战作一团，甚至在即将坠落的月亮所释放出的热量燃烧了空气时，双方也在用肌肉、利刃、枪弹和火焰相互杀戮，战火吞噬了Tredecimmia城。人们的头发和身上的衣服全部被点燃，这两个派系之间已经进行了如此之多的战争，最优秀的枪炮氏族成员可能有朝一日也会加入吞世者军团，而在生命的最后一刻，他们都在共有的狂暴愤怒中死死抓住对方。

Destroyer of Worlds

世界的毁灭者

Finally, the burning moon struck. The apocalypse was witnessed by thousands of Loyalists as their vessels sped clear, and etched into the data-stacks of countless logic engines. The moon impacted the surface and a tsunami of flaming matter rapidly rushed outwards to encircle the entire globe. The surface buckled as the moon impacted, the greater planetary mass literally swallowing the smaller satellite with horrifyingly slow grace. In moments, the atmosphere was aflame and the already unstable crust was rent open by a thousand fractures, and volcanic eruptions exploded across the entire surface as the mantle below was swelled by the additional mass. By the time the moon was finally consumed not a single living being survived on the surface, the entire population, Traitor Legiones Astartes, Sarum Mechanicum, Legio Titanicus and gun clan alike burned to ashes and cast to the fiery winds.

最终，燃烧的月亮撞上了星球。在他们的舰船快速撤离时，数以千计的忠诚派目睹了这番启示录般的情景，这一场面也被铭刻在了无数逻辑引擎的数据栈中。月亮撞击了星球表面，燃烧物质如海啸迅速向外冲去，包裹了整个世界。顷刻间，星球的大气燃烧起来，本来就不稳定的地壳裂开了上千条裂缝，额外的质量挤压下层地幔令其膨胀，导致整个地表都喷发出了岩浆。当月球最终被吞噬的时候，Bodt表面已经没有生物存活下来，星球上的全部人口、阿斯塔特军团叛军、Sarum机械神教成员、泰坦军团和枪炮氏族一并化为灰烬，被猛烈的焚风卷走。

After the Apocalypse

末日之后

So much as has been recounted here is known to us, though the accounts from which this record has been compiled are not accepted by all of our Order. Nonetheless, the planet once known as Bodt is now lost to Mankind, its surface a shifting volcanic nightmare that by all estimates will not stabilise within the span of many centuries, and by some estimates may simply ultimately disintegrate, unable to hold its cohesion and torn apart by the forces from within. It is clear from his actions in ordering the world's moon to be sent hurtling into Bodt that this was the outcome that Autek Mor intended, yet a question of still greater import remains unanswered. Why was the infamous Iron- Father prepared to risk the lives of so many of his warriors when in altering the orbit of the moon he had already ensured the death of every Traitor on Bodt?

这里所叙述的便是我们所知晓的内容，不过我们修会中也并非是所有人都接受该记录所依据的那些报告。但尽管如此，人类还是已经失去了那颗曾被称为Bodt的星球，其表面成为了一个不断变化的岩浆噩梦，按所有人估计，它在很多个世纪的时间里都不会稳定下来；而据某些人的估计，这颗星球会无法保持其凝聚性并被其内部力量所撕裂，最终分崩离析。从他下令将Bodt的月亮猛掷向这颗星球的行动中，我们可以明显地看出：这就是奥塔克 摩尔想要的结果。然而一个更为重要的问题仍未得到解答：既然在改变月亮的轨道时，摩尔就已经确定Bodt上的所有叛军都会死亡，那为何这位臭名昭著的铁父要让麾下如此之多的战士冒着生命危险去和敌军交战？

The answer can only lie with the object that Autek Mor recovered from the stasis vaults far beneath the macro silos of Tredecimmia. Of that descent into the darkness no account is known to exist, and given Mor's infamously grim mien, it is unlikely that any will ever be forthcoming from this survivor of wars uncounted. All we may do is speculate as to the nature of the prize that Mor recovered from the vaults—stasis chambers which after all were suspected to contain myriad technological horrors wrought by the hands of madmen in the depths of Old Night, or conceived of inhuman minds far beyond the light of the Imperium's rule. To some, the fact that Mor's prize bore the sigils of the gene-wrights of Terra is key, and hints at some long-term ambition to transform his Clan-company into something beyond the limits of its creation, how this will tally or conflict with the current processes of change some would impose on the shattered Legiones Astartes is another matter, and one whose speculation is beyond the remit of this discourse. But if history tells us anything in this matter it is that Autek Mor is not a warlord to underestimate, for like the tyrants of Old Night, his true power lies in the terrible secrets he holds, and his willingness to use them, he at whose hand entire worlds have burned.

答案只可能与奥塔克 摩尔从深埋在Tredecimmia城巨型储藏库下方的静滞仓库中回收的物件有关。已知关于他进入那片地下黑暗空间的报告并不存在，而考虑到摩尔臭名昭著的冷酷举止，我们也不太可能从那些经历了无数战争的幸存者处得到任何信息。我们所能做的就是推测摩尔从地下仓库中找到的战利品的性质——毕竟，人们怀疑那些静滞室中保存着旧夜时期的疯子们所创造，或者是并非受到帝国统治的非人（物种）思维所构思出的无数可怖技术造物。对某些人而言，摩尔的战利品上带有泰拉基因工匠的纹章这个事实是一条关键信息，并且暗示着他的某种长期野心：将自己的氏族连队转变为某种超越了其造物限制的事物；至于这将会如何与某些强加给破碎的阿斯塔特军团们的改变进程相符合或发生矛盾，那就是另一个问题了，而且对于该问题的推测也超出了本文的讨论范围。不过历史也告诉我们，奥塔克 摩尔是一个不可被低估的军阀，如同旧夜时代中的暴君们那样，他真正的力量在于自己掌握的可怕的秘密以及使用这些秘密的意愿；在他手中，整个世界都会被焚灭。