HH2节译：登录点大屠杀1-1

Planetfall: Minus 339 hours Terran Sidereal 

时间：行星登录前339个泰拉恒星时

The first Imperial vessel of the execution taskforce to break real-space at the edge of the Isstvan system was the Ad Temperesta, a purpose-built warp-runner and observation craft of the Symphalia class, belonging to the Raven Guard Legion fleet. Equipped with auspex shrouds and sensory systems unequalled by the vessels of any other Legion —save perhaps the XXth— there were few vessels better suited to the task before it anywhere in Imperial service. It exited the Empyrean at a vast distance from the system's core, and on a trajectory designed to mask its appearance, before using gravitational drives alone to impel it on its course. As a blacker shadow among blackness, life support and all extraneous power uncoupled and silent, its small crew of Legiones Astartes and augmented servitors conducted silent vigil amid the dark and ice-rimed corridors and auspex chambers of their vessel as the Ad Temperesta journeyed on in a wide orbit of Isstvan's star, seeing all, but remaining unseen. It watched and it listened. At first the Ad Temperesta found a planetary system deserted, save for the ghosts of the dead and the fading echoes of battle. Isstvan III was once a teeming sphere of human life that, years before, the Raven Guard themselves had brought into Imperial Compliance, but it was now a carcass world, shrouded in boiling black ash, scoured by the ravages of the life-eater virus and the fury of orbital bombardment. Radiation decay and still cooling debris carried the evidence that a void battle had also taken place in the third planet's vicinity, but of the culprits there was no sign; the area around the system itself seemed devoid of enemy vessels.

处决特遣队中第一艘在伊斯特万星系边缘突入现实宇宙的帝国舰船是“暴雨将至”号，这艘专门建造的交响级亚空间快船和侦测舰属于暗鸦守卫军团舰队。她装备了鸟卜仪隔绝罩和其他任何军团的舰船都不能比拟的感知系统——可能第二十军团除外。帝国中服役的其他舰船几乎没有能够比她更适合这项任务的，她在距离星系核心极为遥远的地方离开了亚空间，并在利用引力把自己独自驱动到航线上之前，驶入了一条用于隐蔽自己出现的航道中。在愈加黑暗的阴影中，生命维持和无关动力解耦沉寂。随着暴雨将至号驶入伊斯特万恒星的宽阔轨道，船上的一小群阿斯塔特军团战士和强化仆役们沉默地盯着舰船黑暗结霜的走廊和鸟卜室，他们看见了一切，但要保持视而不见。暴雨将至号看着，听着，她最开始发现的是一个空寂无人的行星系统，除了死难者的亡魂和渐息的战斗回响，别无他物。伊斯特万三号曾经是个人口稠密的世界，暗鸦守卫军团在数年前使其归顺于帝国。但它现在是个亡骸世界，包裹着滚烫的黑色余烬，遭受着噬生者病毒和轨道轰炸引发的大火的蹂躏。辐射衰变和仍在冷却中的碎屑表明这第三颗行星附近也曾发生过虚空战斗，但此处并无罪魁祸首的信号，行星系统周边的区域似乎也完全没有敌军舰船。

The tortured state of Isstvan III at least appeared to confirm the garbled intelligence the Loyalists had at their disposal; that on Isstvan III a great betrayal had been undertaken, and the blood of those who had remained loyal within the Sons of Horus, Emperor's Children, World Eaters and Death Guard Legions had been bitterly spilled. It seemed then that the Loyalists had been robbed of their vengeance—that the traitors had fled the scene of their crime, but the Raven Guard were patient hunters, and not so easily thrown from a scent. The Ad Temperesta pressed on, its course pursuing the ghosts of vox signals to a strengthening source on the system's fifth planet. Here, at close range, the Raven Guard vessel discovered the truth —beneath Isstvan Vs dense upper atmosphere lay a blizzard of close range encrypted vox-traffic, half- masked power signatures and the heartbeat heat of tens of thousands of Legiones Astartes warriors——the shadow-signs of a vast army digging in. Here, on Isstvan V, the Traitors lay.

至少，伊斯特万三号备受折磨的情况证实了忠诚派所掌握的混乱情报：伊斯特万三号上发生了大规模叛乱，荷鲁斯之子、帝皇之子、吞世者和死亡守卫四个军团中仍旧保持忠诚的战士们惨遭屠杀。似乎忠诚派已经实现了他们的复仇——叛军逃离了罪恶现场，但暗鸦守卫们是耐心的猎人，他们不会如此轻易地放过叛军的气息。暴雨将至号沿着航线继续前进，追踪着幽灵般的无线电信号，最终在星系中第五颗行星上发现了增强的信号源。暗鸦守卫的舰船于此处在近距离上发现了真相——在伊斯特万五号稠密的上层大气之下有大量的无线电近距离加密传送信号、半隐蔽的能量信号和数万名阿斯塔特军团战士的心跳搏动信号——这是一支在此地深挖战壕的庞大军队的暗影信号。叛徒们就躲在这里，潜藏在伊斯特万五号上。

When the target's information was relayed by astropathic transmission to the Loyalist fleets closing on the Isstvan system, it was received with a mixture of bellicose fervour and some trepidation. Given the scale of concealed activity on Isstvan V,it was clear that the enemy was rearing up a fortress of prodigious strength there, no doubt intended to be the headquarters of the Warmaster's rebellion and its principal mustering ground. The absence of the Traitors fleet, however, was a more troubling matter, but one perhaps easily explained by a needful scramble for resources and supply from distant systems in preparation for a conflict to come, and if indeed the Traitors were sure that no sizable counter-attack could yet be attempted upon them, such a brave gamble was in-keeping with the Warmaster's known character. Long-range pict-captures from the Ad Temperesta showed the personal standards of both Horus and Fulgrim flying above the overbuilt ancient fortifications of Isstvan Vs Urgall ruins, while power armoured figures and Mechanicum engines toiled ceaselessly to raise up defences beneath them, and this damning evidence above all else settled the fate of what was to come.

当目标信息被星语传输给靠近伊斯特万星系的忠诚派舰队时，暴雨将至号收到了混杂着好战狂热和某些惊恐的回应。考虑到伊斯特万五号上隐藏的活动规模，很明显敌军在那里构筑了一座强大的堡垒，毫无疑问这是要用作战帅叛变的总部和他们的主要集结场地。但叛军舰队的缺席是一个更为令人困惑的问题，但也许可以简单的解释为：叛国者确信帝国尚未对他们进行大规模的反击，舰队是在遥远的星系对资源和补给进行必要的争夺，以为即将到来的冲突做准备，这种勇敢的豪赌也符合战帅已知的性格。暴雨将至号进行的长距离影像捕捉：荷鲁斯和弗格瑞姆飞临于修建于伊斯特万五号的Urgall废墟上的古老要塞，同时军团战士的动力甲和机械神教的机器不停地运转着，来提升两位原体的防御，这些最为卑鄙的证据信息决定了（忠诚派）即将到来的命运。

It is important to note that at this early stage of the great conflict, the full scale and rank horror of Horus' betrayal were yet to unfold, and both his motivations and the murderous depths of his ambition remained unclear, while the Imperium believed wholeheartedly that it had the upper hand both in materiel strength and capacity to act. There were those among the Loyalists still utterly baffled by what could have triggered the Warmaster's perfidy, and in the private councils of those who knew of the matter 一which was still far from common knowledge— as the punishment fleet was sent to bring the traitors to justice, talk of mental breakdown or megalomaniacal insanity on Horus' part, or even the cancerous control of some hideous alien form such as the Khrave or the Enslavers was common speculation as to the cause of this sudden treachery. Regardless of this confusion as to its genesis, the judgement of the Imperium was to be swift and savage in its execution, and Horus' rebellion, swaying as it had four Space Marine Legions to his cause, was judged more dangerous than any that had gone before it during the Great Crusade (and indeed there had been several such), but it was also generally thought that Horus would content himself with carving out an empire of his own as the Throne's rival. Although clearly a false assumption in hindsight, with this hypothesis in mind, the selection of Isstvan ——a strategically significant system, seated at the confluence of several known stable Warp routes, but one also far distant from the seat of the Imperium's power—— as a base for this treacherous domain made a certain sense. As did the wisdom of immediate attack before the Traitors' stronghold could be properly established.

我们要指出很重要的一点：在大叛乱早期阶段，荷鲁斯背叛的恐怖全貌还尚未被揭开，帝国对于战帅的动机和他野心的恶毒程度并不清楚，他们全心地相信自己在军力和行动力上都技高一筹。忠诚派当中也仍旧有人彻底困惑于是什么触发战帅的叛变，随着惩戒舰队被派去执行审判，那些知道这件远超常理事件的人们也在私下的会议中讨论着荷鲁斯是否发生了精神崩溃或者夸大狂的疯狂，甚至他会不会是遭到了诸如克拉夫人或奴役者等某些可怕异形的恶毒控制，帝国觉得这可能是这次叛乱的原因。尽管对此事的起源感到困惑，帝国还是判断要快速果断地处决叛变者，荷鲁斯的叛乱动摇了四个星际战士军团的忠诚，使他们站在了荷鲁斯一侧，这使帝国判断这次叛乱比大远征时期发生的任何一次叛乱（事实上发生过很多次）都更危险，但帝国大体上也认为荷鲁斯会满足于打造自己的帝国，与泰拉分庭抗礼。虽然从事后来看这明显是个错误假设，但考虑将伊斯特万星系选做叛变疆域的基地确实说的通：这是个在战略上很重要的星系，位于多条已知的稳定亚空间通道的交汇处，而且它也远离帝国权力的所在地。就像在叛军把自己的据点建设完善之前就立刻对他们进行进攻一样智慧。

For Ferrus Manus, the absence of the Traitor Legions' fleets in the Isstvan system was not so much a cause of suspicion as it was an opportunity that should not be wasted. Through the bungled attempt of Fulgrim and his Emperor's Children to sway Ferrus Manus to the Traitors' cause and the flight of the Eisenstein escaping the betrayal at Isstvan III, the Imperium had been made aware of the Warmaster's plot long before the arch-traitor had been ready, and to the grim mind of the master of the Iron Hands, it was an error for which the enemy would be made to pay. The time to strike was now, before the enemy fleet returned, and crush the rebellion with a single concerted attack. It was a judgement shared by many; they had caught the Traitors' preparations in disarray—the Warmaster's dispositions half made and his defences incomplete. The enemy was vulnerable or so the Loyalists thought.

对费鲁斯 马努斯而言，叛军舰队在伊斯特万星系中的缺席并非一件非常值得怀疑的事情，这是一个不能被浪费的机会。通过弗格瑞姆和帝皇之子军团试图将费鲁斯动摇到叛军阵营的愚蠢行径，以及爱森斯坦号逃过伊斯特万三号的背叛前往泰拉汇报的信息，帝国在战士做好准备之前很久便知道了这名大叛徒的阴谋，而且在钢铁之手主宰冷酷的意识中，这就是一个敌军们将要为之付出代价的错误。（机仆：可惜学姐大错特错，被套路了）现在就是进攻的时刻，趁着敌军舰队尚未返航，就用一次同心协力的进攻剿灭叛乱。这是一个很多人共享的判断：他们会让叛军的准备陷入混乱——战帅的准备只进行到了一半，他的防御尚不完善。忠诚派认为叛军是脆弱的。

The eruption of so many powerful warships into real-space at such proximity was not something that could be concealed from those on the planet. What mattered would be the speed and fury at which their attack was pressed, and the Salamanders, Raven Guard and Iron Hands were each determined to meet those demands with emphatic force, while on the planet below, a savage foe greater than they had ever known —their own kindred— awaited them with equal resolve. In a measure of minutes, swords would be drawn on sworn brothers in earnest, and blood spilled not simply within the Legions that had turned their coats, but by entire Space Marine Legions on others of their kind unto destruction. The cataclysm would be unleashed, and the war of the Horus Heresy would truly begin.

如此多的强大战舰在极为接近的距离中突入现实宇宙是无法对星球上的人们掩盖住的，重要的是他们的进攻所施加的速度和狂怒。火蜥蜴、暗鸦守卫和钢铁之手都决定用强大的部队来完成这些要求，而在下方的星球上，某种比他们曾经所知的一切对手都更为可怕的危险敌人——他们的亲族们也怀着同等的决心等待着他们。在几分钟之内，誓约兄弟们便会严肃地拔剑相向，不仅那些易帜的叛徒军团会流出鲜血，所有的阿斯塔特军团都会与敌对阵营的血亲进行厮杀，直到有一方被毁灭。灾难将被释放，荷鲁斯叛乱的战争将要真正开始了。