HH7节译：千子军团战机

Thousand Sons Legion Strike Craft

The Thousand Sons Legion made extensive use of sub-orbital strike craft both for targeted attacks against enemy positions and for escort duties during planetary interface operations. This preference spoke both to the Legion's general dislike of attritional warfare and 'unpredictable' drop pod assaults, and the wider desire bred by its history to preserve its rank and file from needless losses it could historically ill afford. Commensurately, the Thousand Sons utilised a sizable fleet of heavily armed and well-protected gunships, many of which are believed to have been uniquely modified by the Legion’s artificers with additional defensive systems as well as unknown technologies thought to take advantage of their masters' psychic arts in prognostication, telekinesis and, most importantly, biomancy. This latter discipline, it is believed, allowed the Legion's pilots to endure stresses and maintain a speed of perception which beggared the belief even of other Space Marines, and gave their squadrons an enviably lethal reputation.

在对于敌军阵地的针对性进攻和行星大气层内的护航任务中，千子军团都大量使用了次轨道攻击载具。这种偏好既反映了千子军团对消耗战和“不可预测”的空降舱突袭的厌恶，也反映出了军团历史在千子中所孕育出的保护普通民众免受不必要损失的普遍愿望——在其历史角度上，这种损失是难以承受的。与此相配的便是千子军团使用着一支武器精良且保护（能力）完善的炮艇舰队，人们相信其中很多炮艇都被军团工匠进行过独一无二的改造，其上安装了额外的防御系统，并使用了被认为能利用其主人的灵能力量来进行预知、心灵致动以及最重要的项目——生化系灵能技艺的未知科技。人们相信对于未知科技的使用让军团飞行员们能承受住压力，并且保持哪怕是其他（军团的）星际战士们也难以相信的（飞行）速度，这也给千子的飞行中队们带来了令人羡慕的致命声誉。

Throughout the Legion's campaigns, it chose to operate a considerable number of dual use fighter-interceptor craft for this escort role for its gunships and shuttles, ranging from earlier adapted Terran patterns such as the Atept-se/17 'Night Rakers' dating back to the Unification Wars, to afterburner-fitted hulking Mars pattern Thunderbolt heavy fighters and the temperamental and soon abandoned Ryza-Nistrus Voidstar, before the final development of the Xiphon Interceptor. To the pilot corps of the Thousand Sons Legion, the Xiphon was the apotheosis of Legiones Astartes support fighter design, and the XVth were a strong and early adopter of the design, to the extent that it swiftly superseded all other fighters in their service. By the time of the censure of the Thousand Sons Legion, by Logistica Corpus' estimates there were in operation over three hundred Xiphon Interceptors, however most of these were on-station aboard the Legion's core fleet and departed with them under the Primarchs orders before the Censure Host arrived at Prospero. Only a scattering remained in the city, and with the air defence left primarily to the garrisoning human Prosperine Airguard for the main, little serious resistance could be given to the Space Wolves landing.

在军团的（各场）战役中，他们都选择使用大量的两用型战斗拦截机来为炮艇和穿梭机护航，而在剑尾拦截机最终被开发出来之前，从诸如阿特普—瑟/17“暗夜清道夫”之类能够追溯到统一战争时期的经过早期改造的泰拉型号战机，到安装着后燃室的机体庞大的火星型雷电重型战机和（机魂）反复无常并被很快放弃的瑞扎—尼特鲁斯型虚空之星战机，千子军团使用过种类繁多的战机。对千子军团的飞行员们而言，剑尾是阿斯塔特军团支援型战斗机设计的巅峰之作，第十五军团是该型号战机的坚定支持者和早期采用者，他们极为喜爱此类战机，以至于剑尾很快就取代了其他所有在千子军团中服役的战机。据后勤资料统计，等到千子军团遭受惩戒之时，军团中有超过三百架剑尾拦截机在运行，不过其中大部分都停靠在军团核心舰队的机舱中，并且按照原体的命令在惩戒部队抵达普罗斯佩罗之前随舰队一并离开。普罗斯佩罗城市中仅留下了零星的一部分剑尾拦截机，驻守在普罗斯佩罗的凡人空军成为了空中防御的主力，太空野狼的登陆行动几乎没有受到严重阻碍。

Xiphon Interceptor The 'Feathered Serpent': Noted for its distinct panoply of war, the Feathered Serpent, a veteran of the aerial wars above New Carthage and Rovacallii, was one of the few Thousand Sons' Xiphons which engaged in battle above the skies of Tizca. Buried with its hangar during the battle's opening stages thanks to the ground quakes caused by the planetary bombardment, it took to the skies after the primary landings had already been made and struck with deadly effect at the landing craft shuttling second wave troops and war machines to Prospero's surface. Believed to have accounted for the loss of at least one Space Wolves Storm Eagle gunship, three Imperials Armada support fighters and, most devastatingly, two Therium class heavy landers, it was eventually harried to its destruction by both Space Wolves and Legio Custodes fighter craft, its engines aflame as it crashed into the wasteland beyond the city.

剑尾拦截机“羽蛇”号：“羽蛇”号是在新Carthage和Rovacallii参加过空战的老兵，也是极少数参加了提兹卡城空中战斗的千子剑尾拦截机之一，它因自身独特的战争装备而被人们注意。由于行星轰炸所引发的地面震动，羽蛇号在战斗开始阶段和机库一起被埋在地下。但在惩戒部队执行过主要的登陆行动之后，它飞上了天空，以致命的效率进攻着那些将第二波部队和战争机器运送到普罗斯佩罗地表的登陆艇。据信，羽蛇号至少要对一架太空野狼风暴鹰炮艇、三架帝国海军支援型战斗机和两架巨兽级重型登陆艇（这也是最具破坏性的损失）的损失负责。太空野狼和禁卫军团战斗机的不断进攻最终摧毁了羽蛇号——当它坠入城外的荒原中时，引擎正在熊熊燃烧。