HH6节译：爪牙相对2
The Burning Moon
燃烧的月亮
Autek Mor's first deed in the assault on Tredecimmia was as symbolic as it was practical. As the Red Talon fleet speared towards Bodt it came upon its lone moon, a body possessed of a far-ranging and sharply elliptical orbit. At that point in its transit, the satellite was closing on Bodt, affording Mor a singular opportunity. The Iron- Father ordered that the moon be violently shunted but a fraction of a degree from its course using what remained of the Red Talon's stocks of high-yield void ordnance. As a result, instead of passing Bodt at half a million kilometres, the satellite was set upon a course that would strike the planet within hours with apocalyptic force far in excess of any weapon of mass destruction in the Red Talon's arsenal. The detonation that marked the altering of the moon's orbit was said to be visible from the surface, the staggering energy release casting a baleful halo about it that, though it was unknown to the witnesses, heralded the doom of an entire planet.
奥塔克 摩尔进攻Tredecimmia城的第一步举措同时具有实际意义和象征意义。随着红爪舰队扑向Bodt，他们遇到了这个世界唯一的月亮——这颗天体拥有长距离且明显呈椭圆形的轨道。这颗卫星处于凌日的过程中，它正在接近Bodt，这给摩尔提供了一个难得的机会。钢铁之父下令，要求红爪号使用弹药库中剩余的大当量虚空炮弹炮击这颗月亮，令其剧烈偏离轨道——（尽管）只是进行程度很小的偏离。结果就是：卫星不会再从五百万千米的距离之外掠过Bodt世界，它被重新设定了运行轨道，会在几小时之内撞向行星，其所释放出的启示录般力量远超红爪号武库中的任何大规模杀伤性武器。据说人们在地表上就能看到这些标志着月亮轨道改变的爆炸，弹药爆炸产生的巨大能量使其周围产生了一道邪恶的光环，尽管人们并不知道，但这一景象预示着整颗行星的毁灭。
The sight of Bodt's moon transformed into a flaming orb in the night skies is said to have caused the feral gun-clanners who infested the rad wastes to fall to their knees in collective, atavistic terror, an effect it is likely that Autek Mor fully intended. If the world's overlords had ever counted the gun clans as an operational element in any strategy to defend their world from external assault, the gun-clanners could certainly be counted in such plans no longer. The clanners rose up in primitive fury, driven mad by the burning omen that had appeared in the night skies, and the wastes erupted with gun fire and explosions as they unleashed hell upon one another. Some are even said to have expended their formidable arsenals on firing madly at the burning moon as it swelled in the skies above. The feral gun-clanners were but one faction that Autek Mor had need to subdue. While the World Eaters and their allies would no doubt be thrown into a state of some disarray by the spectacle of the flaming moon, Mor knew that it would take a far greater effort to render them incapable of standing against the next phase of his assault.
Bodt之月在夜空中变为一个燃烧的圆球，据说这一景象令星球上出没于辐射荒原上的枪炮氏族们在返祖的恐惧中集体下跪这，可能这就是奥塔克 摩尔完全打算获得的效果。如果Bodt的统治者们曾将枪炮氏族看作是保卫他们的世界免受外来攻击的战略中的一个作战要素，那么（从此刻起）这群当地人肯定不会再被计入此类计划（的可用资源）中。氏族成员们在原始的怒火中奋起，燃烧的预兆出现在夜空中的场景令他们疯狂；荒原上枪声与爆炸声大作，那是他们在相互残酷杀戮。据说当月亮在头顶天空中越变越大的过程中，某些人甚至耗尽了自己可怕的武器储备，朝着燃烧的月亮疯狂射击。但野蛮的枪炮氏族只是奥塔克 摩尔需要解决的一个要素。虽然这轮熊熊燃烧着的月亮无疑会令吞世者和他们的盟友不知所措，但摩尔知道，要做出更大的努力才能让他们无力抵抗自己下一阶段的进攻。
This phase began with a precision bombardment of targets across the region surrounding Tredecimmia, unleashed as Mor's fleet split into a dozen assault squadrons. Each barrage was targeted against one of many surface-to-orbit weapons batteries, which, while they were nowhere near as developed as certain key worlds in the Imperium, nonetheless presented a threat to any attacking force. As the assault squadrons closed on their prey, heavy ordnance rained from the sides above Tredecimmia, entire chains of defence emplacements consumed in fire and plasma. It is likely that any mortal defender would have been defeated by the sheer fury of the bombardment, laying the world open to an unopposed planetary landing. But Bodt was defended by no such army of mortals, but by the World Eaters overlord cadre and their Mechanicum Taghmata and Titanicus allies, none of whom were subject to such base frailties.
下一阶段的进攻开始于对Tredecimmia城周边区域各处目标的精准轰炸，同时摩尔的舰队也分为了十数个进攻中队。每一次炮击都对准了诸多地对轨道武器炮塔中的某一座，尽管它们远不及帝国中的某些关键世界上的防御系统发达，但对任何进攻部队来说这些炮塔都是一种威胁。随着进攻中队接近目标，如雨点般密集的大量炮火从天空中落向Tredecimmia城的两侧，火焰和电浆吞噬了整个防御工事。面对着此等纯粹的暴怒轰炸，任何凡人守军可能都会被击败，让敌军不受任何阻拦地登陆这个世界。但守卫Bodt世界的并非凡人军队，而是一群担任霸主的吞世者军团战士和他们来自机神禁卫军和泰坦禁卫的盟友，他们不存在这种低劣的弱点。
Though accounts state that Tredecimmia's ground-to-orbit defences were pounded to ash and cinders within the hour, many of its defenders must have been garrisoned in subterranean bunker complexes and protected from bombardment by nigh- impenetrable void shields. Defeating them would therefore only be achieved by a mass planetary landing, and as the attack entered its third hour, the next phase of the operation was set into motion.
尽管报告声称Tredecimmia城的防御设施在一小时之内就被轰炸为了灰烬和焦渣，但很多守军一定是驻守在了地下的碉堡综合体中，几乎无法被穿透的虚空盾保护他们免受轰炸的伤害。所以，只有通过大规模行星登陆行动才能击败他们，随着进攻进入第三个小时，行动的下一阶段也开始了。
The Talon Closes
利爪合拢
Pict-captures show that as the doomed moon waxed in the heavens, the night was turned hellish orange by the light of its oncoming death.As if to make the spectacle still more soul-numbingly awful, the descending moon was attended by countless smaller forms falling through the tortured skies ahead of it. It was towards Tredecimmia star port, as well as several other key facilities located in its vicinity, that the bulk of the great landing force is known to have made planetfall.
图像采集资料表明：随着那注定带来毁灭的月亮在天空中渐渐变大，夜空被（预示着）即将到来的死亡的光芒所笼罩，变为了地狱般的橙红色。似乎是为了让这一场景变得更为恐怖到令人心惊胆战，在月亮下降的同时，还有无数的小形物体从它前面饱受折磨的天空中坠落。在进行登陆的大规模部队中，大部分都扑向了坠向了Tredecimmia的星港，以及位于周边区域的其他诸多关键设施。
As the massed drop pods descended ahead of the burning moon, those ground defences that had survived the initial bombardment finally opened fire. Halting such a drop was almost certainly impossible, but the sheer weight of fire sent up by the surviving defence batteries took a fearsome toll, especially on those drop pods slowing their descent in the last seconds before touching down, for this was the point of their greatest vulnerability. The wastelands that the attackers had chosen as their drop zones were consumed in fire, shrapnel and las-blast as the defenders reacted with all the firepower at their disposal, yet many of the attackers had been at Isstvan V and such losses must have meant nothing to them. Even if a dozen drop pods crashed and burned, two dozen more set down in their immediate wake, and by the end of the fourth hour of the assault, Iron Hands and Imperial Fists Legionaries were pressing outwards from the burning drop zones, bringing overwhelming fire to bear upon the defenders.
在大量的空降舱冲在燃烧的月亮前方，坠向地面的同时，那些在最初的（轨道）轰炸中幸存下来的地面防御设施也终于开火了。阻止这样的一次空降行动几乎必定是不可能的，但幸存的防御炮台射出的密集火力还是对忠诚派造成了可怕的损失，那些在着陆前的最后几秒钟减缓下降速度的空降舱损失尤为严重，因为它们在那个时间点最为脆弱。火焰、飞溅的弹片和激光爆能束吞噬了被进攻部队选作空降区的荒原——守军动用了自己的所有火力来进行反击，但很多进攻者都经历过伊斯特万五号上的战斗，他们无所谓于这样的损失。即使有十多架空投舱坠毁燃烧，也会有二十多架紧随其后；等到进攻行动第四个小时的末尾，钢铁之手和帝国之拳军团战士冲出了燃烧着的空降区，将压倒性的火力射向守军。
The fury of Mor's ground assault was magnified by a simultaneous sub-orbital strike of staggering proportions. The skies over the black, poisoned sea were filled with squadrons of Xiphon strike fighters ranging ahead of an entire wing of Storm Eagles and Fire Raptors. The first target to know the wrath of the combined strike wing was Tredecimmis primary defence bastion at the centre of the poisoned sea, which towered above waters turned boiling from the bombardment and whose void shields even the initial orbital strikes had been unable to penetrate. Flying so low the shield domes were rendered all but useless, the strike craft unleashed such a dense rain of high explosive ordnance that no trace of the bastion was left standing and a tsunami was reportedly unleashed upon the furthest reaches of the sea's coast.
在地面进攻的同时，红爪舰队也进行了一次规模惊人的次轨道突袭，以此来放大摩尔的怒火。黑色且有毒海洋的上空布满了剑尾攻击机中队，其后还跟着一整支由风暴鹰和火焰猛禽炮艇所组成的编队。最先知道这支联合进攻编队怒火的是位于有毒海洋中央的Tredecimmia城主要防御工事，这些建筑耸立在因最初的轰炸而沸腾起来的海水中，甚至连初期的轨道进攻也未能穿透它们的虚空盾。这些进攻飞行器飞得如此之低，以至于护盾的圆顶都变得几乎毫无用处。它们释放出一阵密集的高爆弹药轰炸，工事被摧毁，没留下任何痕迹；而且据报告称，海岸的最远端已经产生了一场海啸。
Having reduced the central bastion to burning wreckage, the attacking craft turned northwards to support the strike of two further sub-orbital wings closing on a mountaintop defence line identified as the central command point for the entire region. Following in the wake of the bombing run, two Thunderhawk insertion wings,one of Iron Hands squads, the other of ImperialFists, breached either end of the line so that the warriors disgorged from their assault bays could work their way along and together attack the entrance to the subterranean command bunker. This assault would rage for over an hour as the two forces fought their way along the mountaintop defences through hundreds of enraged defenders. At the last, the Imperial Fists breached the massive blast doors and plunged into the interior, evidently hungry for the honour of attaining their objective ahead of the Iron Hands squads. The effect was to decapitate the Traitors' chain of command and to make possible the final stages of the assault.
在将中央防御工事摧毁为一片燃烧着的残骸后，进攻的飞行器们转向北侧，去支援正在接近某条山顶防御线的另外两支次轨道飞行连队的攻势——此处被辨认为整个地区的中央指挥处。在经过轰炸之后，两支雷鹰穿插联队（一支是钢铁之手，另一支是帝国之拳）突破了防线两端，这样一来，从炮艇的进攻舱中冲出的战士们就可以沿着这条路与数百名愤怒的愤怒的守军激战，共同进攻位于地下的指挥碉堡的入口。最后，是帝国之拳们攻破了巨大的防爆门，冲进了堡垒内部，他们明显渴望获取赶在钢铁之手小队之前完成目标的荣誉。此举的效果是砍断了叛军的指挥链，也让进行最后阶段的进攻成为可能。
To the south of the inner sea, Tredecimmia star port, as well as a number of unidentified Mechanicum facilities further east, came under simultaneous drop pod assault. The star port was attacked by a large Iron Hands force, which drew upon itself a large force of World Eaters whose reported ferocity, even for this most notoriously savage of Legions, was the first evidence of the unsanctioned implantation protocols the Worlds Eaters had been engaged in. The battle for the star port appears to have quickly devolved into bitter hand-to-hand fighting, but the balance was tipped in the attackers' favour when a second wave of Imperial Fists set down upon the port's western flank in order to assault the defenders from the rear. Even thus surrounded however, the World Eaters by all accounts showed no hint of dismay and fought savagely to the very last.
在内海的南侧的Tredecimmia星港，以及位于更东侧的诸多机械神教设施，都同时遭到了空降舱突袭。进攻星港的是一支大规模的钢铁之手部队，他们引来了一大群据说极其凶残的吞世者军团战士——甚至在这个最为凶恶的军团中也是如此，这也是吞世者军团进行了未经批准的植入过程的第一个证据。争夺星港的战斗似乎很快就演变成了苦涩的肉搏战，但是当第二波帝国之拳部队降落到星港西侧，来从后方进攻守军时，天平倾斜向了进攻者一方。尽管被包围，但所有报告都显示：吞世者都未表现出任何惊慌的迹象，而且他们野蛮地战斗到最后。
The wastes surrounding the unidentified Mechanicum facility were the scene of the largest single drop conducted during the assault on Tredecimmia, where elements of the 1,522nd Cohort of the Agathon Solar Auxilia established a blocking line so that whatever machine horrors the Traitor Mechanicum might have spawned there would be interdicted if they attempted to deploy. It was well that the Solar Auxilia's super- heavy tank companies had been deployed in this manner,for even as their Stormhammer and Baneblade assumed position across the wastes, a tide of malevolent machine constructs is known to have exploded from a chain of formerly concealed bunkers. For the next hour, the 1,522nd fought a grinding and costly holding action against myriad Mechanicum constructs, many of which had never before been witnessed but which would become horrifyingly familiar to us in future campaigns. Possessed of outsized combat claws and propelled across the wastes by disturbingly articulated limbs, squadrons of these combat walkers sought to fall upon the super-heavy tanks and rend them apart in a welter of buckled armour. Even when engaged at range, they proved fiendishly difficult to destroy due to some manner of warp shield akin to, and still more effective than the atomantic shielding utilised by Legiones Astartes Dreadnoughts. Though it cost them dozens of super-heavies, the bold Agathonians fought hard to keep the Traitor Mechanicum monstrosities from fatally penetrating their lines and pressing into other zones where the Iron Hands and Imperial Fists were engaged against their erstwhile Legion brethren.
在对于Tredecimmia城的进攻中，规模最大的单次空降行动发生在了被未经确认的机械神教设施所包围着荒原处；来自Agathon第1522太阳军兵团的分队在此地建立了封锁线，无论机械神教叛军在那里制造出了怎样的机械恶物，如果它们试图进行部署的话，都将遭到阻拦。太阳军超重型坦克连队已经用这种方式进行了（时机）良好部署，就在他们的风暴锤和毒刃在荒原各处就位时，一大群恶毒的机械造物从一连串原本隐藏着的碉堡中猛冲出来。在接下来的一小时中，面对着无数的机械神教造物，第1522兵团进行了一场艰难且代价高昂的阻击战。其中的许多造物是之前未被目击过的，但我们在未来的战争中会令人恐怖地熟悉起它们。那些战斗步行机装备着超大号的格斗爪，它们迈着自己那以令人不安的方式铰接起来的肢体，穿过荒原；由此类机械组成的中队试图扑到超重型坦克车身上并将其撕裂为一堆扭曲的装甲（残骸）。即使在射程范围对其射击，它们也被证明是极其难以摧毁的，因为它们装备了某种形式的偏导护盾，其类似于阿斯塔特军团无畏机甲所使用的原子护盾，而且更为有效。尽管损失了数十辆超重型坦克，英勇的Agathon太阳军们通过鏖战阻止了机械神教叛军的机器怪物们穿透他们的防线，并且挺进到了钢铁之手和帝国之拳们在与其曾经的军团兄弟们交战的其他区域。
It appears that wherever the Loyalists pressed their assault, waves of defenders flooded out to engage them. The frenzied gun-clanners coalesced into ragged masses across the open wastes and threw themselves at the attackers, seemingly driven beyond madness at the spectacle of the burning moon that waxed ominously overhead. Most were cut down by the massed bolter fire of the advancing Loyalists, but many were so insanely driven to engage the Legionaries that hordes of them had to be scoured from the wastes by flamer-armed Tactical Support squads or simply butchered with combat knives and chain bayonets, which must soon have grown slick with their tainted blood.
似乎无论忠诚派向哪里发动进攻，都会有一波又一波的防御者涌向他们。疯狂的枪炮氏族们在空旷的荒原上聚集起来，这些衣衫褴褛的暴徒们冲向进攻者——燃烧的月亮在头上不祥变大的景象似乎把他们逼疯了。其中的大部分人都被前进的忠诚派用密集的爆弹射击所击倒，但很多如此人疯狂，他们与军团战士们交战，以至于忠诚派不得不用装备了火焰喷射器的战术小队将他们从荒原中成群地清理掉，或者简单地战斗刀和链锯刺刀将他们屠杀掉——这些近战武器很快就因沾满了污血而变得黏滑。
With the star port, command bastion and numerous secondary facilities across Tredecimmia either aflame or the scene of heavy fighting, Autek Mor instigated the phase of his plan which, when considered in retrospect, reveals his true intent in attacking the Traitor Legiones Astartes fief world in the manner that he had. That intent would be focused upon the heavily defended macro-provender silos in the north-west sector of the Tredecimmia region.
随着星港、指挥堡垒和Tredecimmia城各处的无数次要设施熊熊燃烧起来或陷入激战，奥塔克 摩尔开始进行自己计划的另一阶段。从事后来看，摩尔在这一阶段的行动揭示出了他以这种方式进攻叛变阿斯塔特军团的封地世界的真实意图。而他实现意图的行动将会集中在Tredecimmia地区西北侧由重兵把守的巨型地下储藏库。
Assault on the Macro Silos
突袭巨型地下储藏库
The assault on the silos is known to have begun in the fifth hour of the operation and represented the greatest moment of risk for the attackers. Archival records suggested that the Legio Audax Titan presence on Bodt was likely to be massed to the north of the silos, but had yet to be located, necessitating the deployment of still more blocking forces to hold any Titan force that should appear at bay. One such interdiction force, consisting of Iron Hands Legion infantry mounted in heavy Mastodon assault transports and supported by mid-weight Mauler battle tanks, was dropped by heavy transporter to the east of the silos, while two more, one of Iron Hands and one Imperial Fists, were dropped still further to the north, beyond the immediate sector of operations. The instant the eastern drop set down,the large force of World Eaters stationed at the silos reacted as Mor must surely have predicted they would, abandoning any pretence at static defence and surging across the wastes to engage the attackers. In the north meanwhile, the other two blocking forces reported only light opposition to their landings, scattered gun—clanners emerging from hidden crags in the blasted wastes to be cut to bloody rags in the rain of bolter fire that would meet them.
已知对于巨型地下储藏库的进攻开始于这次行动的第四个小时，这是进攻者们最为冒险的时刻。档案记录表明：出现在Bodt世界上的灰烬群狼军团泰坦可能是聚集在了储藏库的北侧，不过进攻者尚未将其定位，但他们需要部署更多的封锁部队来阻止任何似乎因陷入绝境而做困兽之斗的泰坦部队。重型运输舰将某支此类部队空降到了储藏库东侧，其中包括搭乘着（数辆）乳齿象重型突击运输车的钢铁之手步兵小队和为其提供支援的拳击者型中等重量坦克；另外两支部队——其中一支是钢铁之手，另一支是帝国之拳，被空降到了更北侧，到达了当前行动区域之外。在东侧的进行空降的一刻，就像摩尔必定已经预料到的那样，驻守在储藏库处的大量吞世者部队做出的反应——他们放弃了静态防御，冲过荒原来和进攻者们交战。同时在北侧，另外两支封锁部队报告称自己的空降行动只遭到了轻微抵抗——分散的枪炮氏族们从被炸毁的荒原上窜出，他们从自己藏身的峭壁间现身，结果迎面而来的爆矢弹雨将其化为了血淋淋的碎布片。
With the bulk of the defenders of the macro silos swarming eastwards to give battle to the Iron Hands heavy units deployed there, Autek Mor was then able to commit to the true objective of the entire operation. This phase is known to have been led by the Iron-Father himself attended by the iron- hard core of the Morragul Clan Company 一spearheaded by Autek Mor's elite Gorgon Terminator units, a technology he had personally been able to replicate, even as an exile of war. As all-consuming battle raged across Tredecimmia, a blazing hemisphere of light akin to ball lightning flared into existence upon the wastes to the south of the macro silos. Arcing plasma fused the sands as a mighty phalanx of iron-black Terminators was revealed to have teleported directly to the surface from the Red Talon teleportarium deck, a singular device of the rarest pedigree. Soon, the hulking warriors were bearing down on the western perimeter of the objective, the only defenders that could oppose them the cortex-controlled gun-towers of the Sarum Mechanicum. These defences gave the Iron Hands no pause, and soon the force was pushing through the clustered ordnance silos towards the entrance to the subterranean stasis chambers.
随着巨型地下储藏库的大部分守军蜂拥向东侧去与部署在此处钢铁之手重型单位交战，奥塔克 摩尔现在就能执行整场行动的真正目标。据我们所知，钢铁之父本人亲自领导莫拉古氏族连队钢铁般强硬的核心——精锐的戈耳工终结者们组成的矛头来参与该阶段的行动。哪怕是在战争期间，摩尔也能复制出打造这些精锐战士的技术。随着吞噬一切的战火蔓延到Tredecimmia城的各处，巨型地下储藏库南侧的荒原中突然出现了一颗类似球状闪电的半球状光团。电弧状的电浆（能量束）融化了沙土，由铁黑色的终结者们所组成方阵被从红爪号的传送甲板上直接传送到了地面，使用的是一类最为罕见的独特装置。很快，这些身形巨大的战士们就逼近了目标的西部边界，而唯一能阻挠他们的防御设施就是Sarum机械神教（制造的）由脑皮质控制的炮塔。但这些防御设施并未能阻挡住钢铁之手们，他们很快就穿过了密集的炮塔，向着地下静滞库的入口处推进。
Here, the attackers met an unanticipated mode of resistance and the first of their number fell. The metal flanks of the vast silos reportedly appeared to shift at the Gorgons' approach, jagged, insect-like shapes detaching themselves from the machine- structures and dropping to the ground to land upon spear-tipped mechanical claws. Each machine-sentry bore a weapon of typically fiendish Mechanicum design, from irad-cleansers to lightning guns, which they quickly brought to bear upon the attackers from every quarter. Each a veteran of countless savage battles, the Gorgons pressed onwards through a twisted metal labyrinth crawling with the sentinel-constructs. Every shadow and crevice was lair to some new foe, and so the Gorgons increased their own weight of fire, shredding the structure about them and tearing apart any Mechanicum construct caught in the storm.
攻击者在这里遇到了意想不到的抵抗形式，他们中出现了第一位阵亡者。据报告称，在戈耳工终结者们接近时，巨型储存库的金属侧面似乎发生了位移，带有锯齿的昆虫形物体从机械结构上分离出来，它们落下来，并用带有矛尖的机械利爪站在地上。每一台机械哨兵身上都安装了带有典型的机械神教式恶毒设计的武器，从辐射净化炮到闪电枪，不一而足；他们迅速从四面八方向攻击者发起进攻。但戈耳工终结者们也都是经历过无数恶战的老兵，他们在布满这些哨兵结构体的扭曲金属迷宫中前进着。新的敌人们隐藏于每一道阴影和裂隙中，所以戈耳工终结者们增强了自己的火力，摧毁周围（所有的）建筑结构，用风暴般的枪火撕碎所有被困其中的机械神教构造物。
At last, Autek Mor stood upon the cusp of his objective. The entrance to the subterranean macro chambers is known to have been protected by blast doors constructed to withstand heavy ordnance, but which resisted the chainfists of the Gorgons for mere seconds. The burning moon looming in the tortured skies, Autek Mor ordered his warriors to form a ring of impenetrable steel about the entrance. With a curt order, he utterly forbade any of his warriors to follow in his wake, no matter what occurred either above or below. With that, he is said to have passed through the breached armoured portal and descended the steps into the stygian vaults below.
最终，奥塔克 摩尔站到目标面前。据我们所知，保护进入地下静滞室的入口的防爆门能够阻挡重炮的轰击，但面对戈耳工终结者的链锯拳套，它仅仅坚持了数秒。燃烧的月亮在饱受凌虐的天空中向地面逼近，奥塔克 摩尔命令战士们在入口周围组成一道不可逾越的钢铁环带。他下达的是一条简短的命令：无论空中或地下发生了什么情况，任何战士都不得跟在他身后。据说他穿过了被破坏的装甲（防护门）入口，走下台阶，进入了下方阴暗的仓库中。
Blood shall have Blood
血腥鏖战
Despite the storm of blood that the Loyalists had unleashed upon the Traitors, they would not go untouched by the hand of death. Across the wastes, the Traitors struck back and the wrath of the World Eaters in particular was a horrifying spectacle to behold. Waves of Legion Inductii —rapidly-indoctrinated aspirants— poured forth from their fortifications to meet the assault, all notions of tactics cast aside in favour of raw ferocity. Where such forces clashed with the Iron Hands and the Imperial Fists, the dusty ground was turned slick with the blood of Traitor and Loyalist alike. What the Inductii lacked in skill and experience, they made up for in strength and savagery, and so while they would eventually be slain, it was only at a high cost in the lives of Loyalist Legionaries.
尽管忠诚派们向叛军释放出了一阵风暴般的血腥攻势，但他们也并非未遭受伤亡。在荒原各处，叛军们发起了反击，尤其是吞世者们，他们发怒的景象是恐怖的。成群的军团速成兵——接受了快速（记忆）灌输的星际战士候补们——涌出防御工事来迎击敌人，他们放弃了所有的战术理念，以纯粹原始的凶狠来取而代之。在此类部队与钢铁之手和帝国之拳部队发生战斗刀地方，忠诚派和叛军双方的鲜血令尘土飞扬的土地变得湿滑。速成兵们用力量和野蛮来弥补自己所缺乏的技艺和经验，所以（尽管）他们最终都会被杀死，但忠诚派军团战士们也为此付出了大量的伤亡代价。
A Traitor counter-attack came from an entirely unanticipated quarter, its accounting serving as yet more evidence of the crimes of the Warmaster's followers. At one point, the Iron Hands' primary interdiction landing in the north of the Tredecimmia war zone was met with a wave of World Eaters Terminators, later identified as belonging to the so-called Red Butchers. The warriors of this cadre are known for the fact they are so broken in mind that their armour must be kept locked and immobile between battles lest they turn their fury upon their own battle-brethren when no foe is to hand. The Red Butchers who charged across the wastes to engage the Iron Hands were later determined not to be blood-maddened Traitors however, but Legionaries who had fought against the Traitors at Isstvan III and whose minds had been so destroyed by the experience that they no longer knew or cared who they were fighting. A great phalanx of these tragic warriors cut a bloody swathe through the advancing Iron Hands and for a time threatened to push them back to their landing zones. Only the mass deployment of Mastodon heavy assault transports appears to have halted the Red Butchers' counteradvance, their cyclonic melta cannon scouring the wastes and burning the Red Butchers, and in some cases the doomed Iron Hands they were locked in combat against, to ashes.
而叛军们从某个未曾预料的方向所发起的反击，则为我们提供了关于战帅追随者们罪行的证据。当时，钢铁之手位于Tredecimmia战区北侧的主要拦截空降部队遭遇了一群吞世者终结者单位，这些军团战士之后被识别为红屠夫部队的成员。红屠夫们的意识极其破碎混乱，以至于在非战斗状态下，他们的动力甲必须被锁闭固定，令其不能移动，以防他们在手边没有敌人时将怒火发泄在自己的战斗兄弟身上。然而，这些冲过荒原来与钢铁之手们交战的红屠夫们之后被确认并非来自那些嗜血疯狂的叛军，他们都曾是在伊斯特万三号上抗击叛军的军团战士，这段经历对他们的意识造成了极其严重的毁坏，以至于他们不再知道和在乎自己的交战对象是谁。这些命运悲惨的战士们组成了一个庞大的方阵，将前进中的钢铁之手们成列地屠杀掉，在其部队中撕开血腥的空缺；他们一度胁迫着钢铁之手们要撤回到登陆区。只有乳齿象重型突击运输车的大规模部署似乎才阻止了红屠夫们的反击，这些载具的热熔炮旋风般肃清着荒原，将红屠夫们化为灰烬——某些情况中，与红屠夫们缠斗在一起的不幸铁手战士们也会遭此劫难。
