HH6节译：黑暗年代的暗影战争
Shadow Wars of the Age of Darkness
Those who would look back upon the Age of Darkness and attempt to compile anything resembling a coherent accounting of its myriad wars, campaigns and battles know they are faced with an impossible task. For every central battle —Calth, Tallarn, Mars, Yarrant and Terra itself— there must have been a thousand smaller engagements. Wherever a scribe might care to look, there they will discover some sign that blood was shed upon the ground for the Traitor or Loyalist cause. Over time, these unhallowed battles reveal themselves to us through the scattered and fragmented accounts of witnesses, survivors and in some small number of cases, participants. Savant- historators refer to these many conflicts as 'shadow war'.
那些回看黑暗年代，并试图编译出对该时期无数战争、战役和战斗进行连贯说明的任何文献的人们都知道自己面对的是一项不可能的任务。在每场主要战斗发生时——比如发生在考斯、塔兰、火星、雅兰特和泰拉本土上的战役，就必然会有一千场小型战斗随之而来。无论一名文史书吏看向哪里，他都会看到一些表明忠诚派或叛军们在此地浴血奋战过的迹象。随着时间流逝，现在我们要通过零散且碎片化的报告来揭示这些不洁的战斗——这些报告来自目击者、幸存者，而且在少数情况下，甚至是来自亲历者。史学文员们称这些数目繁多的冲突为“暗影战争”
The shadow wars were fought not by conventional Legiones Astartes fighting units—companies, battalions and chapters, as part of a distinct and unbroken chain of command from Primarch all the way down to sergeant. Instead, they fought entirely apart from any structured authority or grand strategy.There was no single template for these forces and they are referred to in various accounts by a range of terms including 'irregular, 'non-doctrinal' or simply 'orphaned".
进行暗影战争的部队并非传统的阿斯塔特军团作战单位——他们不是连队、战斗营和战团，不是作为从原体一直到军士的独立且连续的指挥链的一部分进行运作。相反，他们的战斗完全脱离了任何结构化的权威或大战略。这些部队并不遵循单一的模板，各种报告用一系列的术语来称呼他们，其中包括“非常规部队”、“无章法之军”或简单的“孤儿部队”。
游侠骑士
The Shattered Legions
破碎军团
Another form of unconventional or irregular Legiones Astartes formations were the so-called Shattered Legions'—a retroactive term applied to a broad range of forces and unlikely to have been used by the warriors themselves. The Shattered Legions forces were born of the fiery crucible of the Isstvan V Dropsite massacre, where the treachery of the second attack wave resulted in the nigh-total destruction of the Raven Guard, Salamanders and Iron Hands. Initial reports claimed the cataclysmic news that three Primarchs had fallen and that no more than seven Legionaries had escaped the slaughter, although thankfully these accounts were later proved felse. Nonetheless, these three Legions ceased to exist as coherent, operational military bodies and were forced to drastically adapt their organisation and their methods in order to remain functional in any way at all. In the aftermath of the massacre, bloody, scattered groups from all three Legions coalesced across an entire sector of space, driven by the hunter-killer forces of the Sons of Horus and the Emperor's Children, the latter taking especial delight in running the survivors to ground and forcing them to bear witness to the totality of their defeat. Harried by their relentless foe, the last of these remnant forces turned at bay and fought back, following the example of Shadrak Meduson of the Iron Hands Sorrgol Clan. By sheer force of will, Meduson forged disparate elements from these three Legions into an unbreakable alloys and for a time led a fierce-fought campaign of vengeance against the Traitors that drew on and combined the unique skills and experience of each element, and which cost the Warmaster's war effort dearly.
另一种非传统或非常规的阿斯塔特军团编队是所谓的“破碎军团”——这是一个适用于广泛部队类型的追溯性术语，那些战士们自己可能并不会如此自称。破碎军团诞生于伊斯特万五号登陆点大屠杀的激烈恶战中，第二波进攻中的背叛行径导致暗鸦守卫、火蜥蜴和钢铁之手三个军团几乎完全被摧毁。最初的报告带给了帝国一个灾难性的消息：三位原体陨落，只有不到七名军团战士逃过屠杀，所幸这些报告在之后被证明是虚假的。但尽管如此，这三个军团也不再是连贯且可被使用的军事团体，他们也被迫彻底调整自己的组织和作战方法，以便用任何方式保持运作。在大屠杀结束后，这些来自全部三个军团的鲜血淋漓、四分五裂的部队聚集在整片太空区域中，遭到来自荷鲁斯之子与帝皇之子军团的猎杀部队围追堵截，后者极其热衷于将幸存者们彻底击溃并迫使他们见证自己的全部失败。最后的残军们不断遭受着无情的敌人的残酷袭击折磨，他们效仿钢铁之手军团萨古尔氏族的沙达克 美杜森，背水一战进行反击。美杜森凭借着纯粹的意志力将来自三个军团的迥然不同的分队铸造为一支牢不可破的联军，他一度领导了一场对叛军进行复仇的激烈战役，在此过程中，他吸取且合并了各个分队独一无二的技艺和经验，极大地削减了战帅的战争效果。
But it was not only the remnants of the three Legions that were betrayed at Isstvan V who fought in this manner. Across the entire Imperium and beyond, Legion elements cut off from their chains of command were forced to adapt to circumstances or else perish in the all-consuming fires of war. Some detached Loyalist forces were able to break through the Traitors' lines and join the mustering hosts of the Imperium. Others however found themselves isolated deep within enemy-held territory and too far behind enemy lines to make contact with allied forces. While many of these small forces were never heard from again and their fates go unrecorded, others determined to act on their own cognisance. Leaders of vision and character melded disparate Legion elements into highly effective forces and used them to prosecute the unseen shadow wars that raged across the galaxy, often unknown to the masters of either side of the civil war.
但以这种方式作战的并非只有在伊斯特万五号惨遭背叛的三个军团的残军。在整个帝国境内和境外，与自己的指挥链失去联系的军团分队们都被迫适应（新的）环境，否则就会在吞噬一切的战火中灭亡。某些独立的忠诚派能够突破叛军的封锁线，并且加入正在聚集的帝国部队。其他的则发现自己被孤独地困在了敌占区的腹地，他们位于敌军防线过于后方的位置，以至于无法联系上同盟部队。在这些小型部队中，有很多都再也未被人们听说过，他们的命运也未被记录，其他的则决定按自己认知行动。有远见和勇敢坚毅的领袖们将不同的军团分队融合成高效的部队，并且利用这些部队进行了一场迅速蔓延至整个银河的不可见的暗影战争，这些战争通常并不被内战双方的战争主导者们所知。
And neither was the formation of these Shattered Legion forces unique to those loyal to Terra. As the Age of Darkness progressed, many more found themselves acting alone, following the goals of their own Leaders, and at times these goals dififered from those of the chains of command that had once bound them. With the ebb and flow of war, Traitor forces too became isolated and, given the nature of certain of their Leaders, many Traitor units determined to act entirely according to their own drives and desires. Some resurrected ancient resentments against erstwhile brethren now turned to blood-foes and pursued vengeance for slights of honour thought long forgotten. Others became consumed by the forces they had unleashed upon Isstvan V, shedding reason and honour and reaving across the stars as if to vindicate, or perhaps to forget, their treachery with the blood of all those they branded enemy. At first, most Shattered Legion forces focused their actions on high-intensity attacks against strategic targets far behind enemy lines, often with the military objective of disrupting lines of communication, but with the true goal of exacting bloody revenge on a hated foe too powerful to defeat in open battle. Soon however, opposed Shattered Legion forces encountered one another, and the result was inevitable. A second civil war erupted between rival Shattered Legion groups, and whilst neither was in direct communication with their own side's high command, inevitably both sides determined to destroy their foes at all costs and in so doing serve the strategic interests of the Traitors or the Loyalists. Though it went largely unseen, this war was said to have been every bit as bitter and bloody as the Dropsite massacre, albeit fought not between vast Legions grinding one another to bloody ruin, but mixed bands of warriors sworn to exact retribution even at the cost of their own lives. The shadow wars would be fought warrior to warrior, the killing stroke delivered by the hand of the vengeful while staring the vanquished in the eye and damning his soul to a hell none would have invoked mere months earlier.
并不是所有的破碎军团编队都忠诚于泰拉。虽然黑暗年代推进，有更多的部队发现自己在独立行动，他们追随着自己领袖的目标，有时这些目标与指挥链曾经下达给他们的并不相同。随着战争潮起潮落，叛军部队也变得孤立，而且考虑到特定领袖的天性，许多叛军部队也决定完全按照自己的动机和欲望行动。一些人重新燃起了对昔日兄弟的仇恨，现在这种怨仇变成了血海深仇，他们为了夺回被长久遗忘的荣誉而进行报复进攻。其他人则是被自己从伊斯特万五号上释放的力量所吞噬，它们抛弃理智和荣誉，在群星横冲直撞，仿佛要用所有被他们标记为敌人的对象的血来证明无罪，或者以此来忘却他们的背叛行为。最初，破碎军团们都是专注于对远离敌军前线的战略目标发动高烈度进攻，他们的军事目标通常都是要扰乱对方的通讯路线，而真实目的则是要对这些过于强大以至于无法在公开战斗中将之击败的敌人进行血腥报复。但不久之后，相互敌对的破碎军团们就会遭遇彼此，这是难以避免的。敌对的破碎军团之间也爆发了次级内战，交战双方也都未直接联系己方的高级指挥部，双方也都不可避免地决心要不惜一切代价摧毁敌人，这些战役为叛军或忠诚派夺得了战略利益。虽然在很大程度上都未被目睹，但据说这些战争就和登陆点大屠杀一样痛苦和血腥，尽管这并非是庞大的军团之间血腥的相互毁灭，而是一群战士组成的混合战帮之间的残酷厮杀——他们发誓哪怕付出自己生命也要进行复仇。暗影战争是战士对战士的搏斗，复仇之人们怒视着战败者们，诅咒对方的灵魂落入地狱，同时亲手挥出致命一击，而仅仅几个月之前，还不曾有人如是做过。
Blackshields
黑盾
Perhaps the most extreme example of Legiones Astartes forces acting as irregular fighting units was to be found in the phenomenon of the 'Blackshields'. Who first used the term or when is a matter of debate amongst our Order, but most doubt that the warriors in question described themselves as such. Evoking martial tradition of ancient times, a Blackshield was a warrior who had entirely denounced his parent Legion, or in some cases may never have known which Legion had in fact sired him. They often fought quite literally under a false banner, or one which bore no colour or badge at all so as to confuse or repudiate their allegiances or origins.
在作为非常规作战单位行动的阿斯塔特军团部队中，最为极端的案例或许存在于“黑盾”群体里。是谁或者人们是何时首先使用了这个术语的问题并不在我们修会的讨论范围之内，但大多数人都怀疑这些被提及的战士们是否会如是描述自己。黑盾唤起了我们对于古早时代军事传统的回忆，他们是彻底与自己的母军团决裂的战士，在某些情况中，我们永远也不会得知他们实际上出身自哪个军团。他们通常会非常字面意义上地在虚假的战旗，或一面完全没有颜色或徽章的旗帜下作战，这样他们就能混淆或否认自己的忠诚对象或出身。
Groups of Blackshields engaging in battle against both sides of the Horus Heresy have been traced as early as the war for the Coronid Deeps, where a number of Legionaries clad in black-painted battle plate and bearing no iconography other than the Terran Aquila were reported as fighting for the Loyalist cause, but entirely separate from the Loyalist chain of command. This force refused to respond to any attempts at communication and is presumed to have been swallowed up in the anarchy that was the Imperium's fighting withdrawal from the Coronid Deeps.
荷鲁斯叛乱的交战双方都有成群的黑盾战士参战，这种情况已经追溯到王冠深渊会战时期，在这场战役中，有报告声称许多身披涂成黑色的动力、只佩戴帝国天鹰图章的军团战士为忠诚事业而战，但他们完全独立于忠诚派的指挥链。这支部队拒绝回应任何通讯尝试，我们推测：他们已经被帝国撤出王冠深渊时所造成的混乱战况吞没了。
The phenomenon of the appearance of the many and varied Blackshield groups is but one mystery among countless others that surfaced during the Horus Heresy and one that continues to vex the Lords of Terra greatly, especialy as the troubling matter of the status of the remaining Legiones Astartes and the judgement of certain splinter factions remains yet unresolved. Many different types of Blackshield existed, most defined by the circumstances of their formation. Some were Legionaries driven beyond even the trans-human limits gene- engineered into the Legiones Astartes and consumed by grief or insanity at the sheer scope of the Warmaster's betrayal. Many were so broken in mind and spirit, they no longer recognised or acknowledged the mastery of any lord and were determined to claim their own destiny even as the Imperium tore itself apart in bitter civil war.
有无数的谜团在荷鲁斯叛乱时期浮现出来，数量繁多且各式各样的黑盾部队的出现只是其中之一，但这一现象持续让泰拉的领主们深感忧虑，尤其是剩余阿斯塔特军团的地位和某些分裂派系的判定问题仍未解决的情况下。黑盾存在着许多不同的类别，大多数都要靠他们部队的条件状况来界定。其中某些人是军团战士，接受了基因改造手术，各方面素质突破了超人类限制，跻身为阿斯塔特军团的一员，战帅叛乱的严重情况使他们被悲伤和失去理智所吞噬。许多人的精神意识是如此残破，以至于即使帝国在激烈的内战中分崩离析，他们也拒绝认可所有领主的统治，而是决定索求自己的命运。
One of the few defining factors common across Blackshields groups was the fact that all had renounced their heritage and none considered themselves as belonging or beholden in any way to their Primarch or their erstwhile brethren. Most, though not all, obscured their colours in some way, some repainting their armour black, others scouring it to bare metal. At least one group scorched their armour in a fire rite redolent of certain feral world pyrolatory-cults, during which they repudiated their heritage and their heraldry, leaving their armour cinder black. Others adopted entirely new heraldry of their own invention, either on a warrior-by-wamor basis or by a strong-willed Leader imposing his vision on the entire band. Thus, by the middle years of the Horus Heresy, Legiones Astartes forces bearing previously unseen colours were witnessed fighting across the entire galaxy.
黑盾群体中为数不多的共有决定性因素之一是所有人都放弃了他们的遗产，也没有人觉得自己属于他们的原体或他们的昔日兄弟。尽管并非全部如此，但大多数黑盾战士都以某种方式让自己的原有配色变得模糊不清，有些人重新将自己的动力甲涂为黑色，其他人则是挂去颜色涂层，裸露出动力甲的金属本色。至少有一支黑盾部队在一场散发着某些荒蛮世界烈焰崇拜色彩的火焰仪式中烧焦了他们的动力甲，在此过程中，他们摒弃了自己的遗产和纹章，并让他们的动力甲成为了灰烬黑色。其他人则佩戴上了由他们自己虚构而出的全新纹章，这可能是战士们自行决定的，也可能是一位意志坚强的领导者将他的意愿强加于整个战帮。于是，在荷鲁斯叛乱中期，人们在遍布全银河的战斗中目击到了喷涂着前所未见配色的阿斯塔特军团部队。
As with the Shattered Legion forces, Blackshields were encountered on both sides of the war, and in many cases were fighting entirely for themselves. Some bore the eagle of Terra, while others wore the eye of the Warmaster, but others fought entirely for their own causes. None were part of any coherent chain of command and while they might occasionally have been co-aligned with the strategic aims of one side or the other, they never followed or sought orders from outside forces or consciously coordinated battle plans with them. Many bands of Blackshields were later declared by edict of the Terran Council to be murderers and pirates concerned only with claiming their own domains beyond the sight of Emperor or Warmaster, as was the case with the so-called Company of the Sundered at Boras Minor. While some of these might have been attempting to rebuild something of what Horus had destroyed, others were concerned only with carving out their own petty empires and enslaving those who were too weak to oppose them, as occurred at the Truan Systems at the hands of the Nine Blades. Some believed themselves to be continuing the work of the Great Crusade, carving a swathe of blood and ash across the void in memory of a dream which had turned to nightmare with the Warmaster's betrayal at Isstvan.
就如同破碎军团那样，战争双方都曾遭遇过黑盾，而且他们在很多情况中完全是为自己而战。某些人佩戴着泰拉雄鹰，其他人则佩戴着战帅之眼，还有一些则是完全为了自己的事业而战。他们都并非某个连贯指挥链的一部分，尽管他们的战略目标偶尔可能与忠诚派或叛军一致，但他们永远也不会遵守或寻求外部势力的命令或有意识地与对方协调作战计划。很多黑盾战帮在之后被泰拉议会的法令宣判为海盗或谋杀者——他们只关心如何在帝皇或战帅未能注意的区域夺取自己的领地，就像 Boras Minor 世界上的所谓的分裂者连队一样。也有某些黑盾部队已经在试图重建荷鲁斯所毁灭的事物，其他黑盾则只关心开拓自己的微型帝国，并且奴役那些过于弱小以至于无力反抗他们的凡人，比如“九柄利刃”战帮在Truan星系的所作所为。也有某些黑盾相信自己仍在推进大远征，他们在虚空中刻出一道鲜血与灰烬的痕迹，以此来纪念帝国曾经的梦想——荷鲁斯在伊斯特万星系发动的叛乱已经将之转变为了噩梦。
Many years of laborious investigation reveal that few Blackshield groups numbered more than a thousand or so warriors, and in terms of assets, they were often severely limited indeed. Most had access to some form of warship, either a Legion vessel or a lesser void craft captured during the course of their formation. Legiones Astartes escort vessels and rapid strike cruisers provided a combination of assault vessel and base of operations, being large enough to transport the group and what vehicles and landing craft it possessed, and sufficiently potent in battle to support assaults against lightly defended, outlying target worlds. The crews of such vessel were often bonded or indentured in some manner to their masters. Many were Legion serfs whose loyalties were simply transferred to their new lords, while others had willingly thrown in their lot with the outcasts or been forced to do so by cruel circumstance.
经过数年的辛勤调查，我们发现几乎没有人数超过一千名战士的黑盾部队，事实上他们是武器装备也非常有限。大多数黑盾部队都拥有某种形式的战舰，这些飞船是军团舰艇或者他们在组建过程中俘获的次级虚空舰船。阿斯塔特军团护卫舰和快速打击巡洋舰被证明是攻击舰船与行动基地的混合体，它们体积大到足够运输一支部队及其拥有的载具和登陆艇，而且在战斗中足够强大，足以支援对防御薄弱的外围目标世界的攻击。此类船只的船员通常都以以某种方式与他们的主人保持着联系或契约关系。很多船员都是转而效忠了新主子的军团仆役，其他的则是自愿投入这些被遗弃者的事业、或者因残酷的环境而被迫这样做的凡人。
Whatever their origins, Blackshield groups were invariably led by individuals possessed of a fierce presence and the drive to forge their own destiny, and to sweep others along with them in their quest. Some, such as Nuhmarak, the so-called Crippled King of the Void, were darkly brooding warrior-lords, bitterly resentful of the fate that had befallen the galaxy. Others enthusiastically embraced their new existence and relished the chance to prey upon those weaker than themselves and to take by force that which they considered their rightful due, as was the case when the Umbral Hundred scoured twelve entire systems in the southern marches of the Chomna sector throughout 011.M31.
无论他们源自何处，黑盾部队都无一例外地由具有塑造自己命运的强烈存在感和驱动力的人物所领导，他们将其他人一并卷入自己追求命运的征途。某些人是阴沉的战士领主，他们痛恨降临在银河系的命运，比如所谓“虚空毁灭之王”努马拉克。其他人则热情地拥抱他们的新身份，尽情享受掠夺弱于自己的人们并强行夺取他们认为应得之物的机会，就像本影百人团在整个011.M31时期向Chomna星区南边行军的过程中扫荡了整整十二个星系那样。
One particular sub-type of Blackshield is known of almost entirely through hearsay and myth, and our Order has struggled in vain to discover the full truth of their creation. These are the warriors who actively turned against their own and raised their weapons to oppose their Primarch and their erstwhile kin. None can say how many such groups existed, but certainly rumours abound of Legiones Astartes rejecting their heritage and defacing once proudly-worn Legion icons. Even clad in black, the origins of such warriors might be discerned by careful observation, for each of the Legions utilised its own artificer-wrought and often highly idiosyncratic sub-patterns of Legiones Astartes battle plate that betrayed the origins of the bearer.
有一类特殊的次级类型黑盾部队几乎完全是通过传言和神话为人们所知，我们的修会也曾徒劳地努力探索关于他们诞生的全部真相。这些战士们积极反抗自己的原体和昔日的血亲兄弟，将自己的武器对准了后者。没人能说出此类部队都存在数量，但确实有传言声称：有大量的军团阿斯塔特拒绝了自己的遗产，并且污损了他们曾经自豪佩戴着的军团图章。尽管他们身披黑甲，但通过仔细的观察，我们也可能依稀辨别出这些战士们的来源——每个军团都使用了由自己的工匠制造的次级型号军团阿斯塔特动力甲，这些次级型号动力甲通常都极其特殊，会暴露出穿戴者的原始身份。
These forces and many more, from the unseen Knights-Errant, the vengeful Shattered Legion formations to the outcast Blackshields, fought throughout the Age of Darkness, sometimes adding their weight to one side or the other, at other times pursuing their own inexplicable goals. As with so much of that anarchic era, little went recorded and many accounts that were committed to record were destroyed in the flames of war consuming the entire Imperium. The greater number of the battles of the shadow wars may never be known, but their consequences will no doubt echo down the ages unheeded by mortal men, the fates of some of the greatest heroes and villainous despots ever raised up from the hosts of Mankind lost to the Age of Darkness.
从不可见的游侠骑士、寻求复仇的破碎军团到被遗弃的黑盾部队，他们和其他很多部队都在整个黑暗年代中奋战着。他们某些时候会加入到战争的某一方，其他时候则是追寻着自己令人费解的目标。但就像那个混乱年代的很多事情一样，他们的事迹几乎未被记录下来，很多记录了他们事迹的报告资料也毁于吞噬了整个帝国的战火中。暗影战争的更多战斗可能永远不会为人所知，但毫无疑问，他们的功绩会回响在这个被凡人所忽略的年代中，某些最伟大英雄与最邪恶暴君的命运，都崛起于黑暗年代中迷失的人类群体中。
