HH3节译：暗鸦突围（4）（完结）
The Sundered Legion
破碎的军团
Records show that in the aftermath of the long contaminated rainfall, a dense, stinging fog reeking of chemical-rich blood rose from the broken ground to blanket hundreds of square kilometres. This all-pervading taint of death, which can be said perhaps in retrospect to have some Warp taint infecting it thanks to the Word Bearers Legions dark ministrations, took its toll on many of the Raven Guard, stretching the sanity of many ever further towards breaking point. As Legiones Astartes, not a single Space Marine would surrender to cowardice or weakness of will, yet the apocalyptic slaughter and the cumulative effect of weeks of fighting, combined with little or no rest or sustenance and the need to wreak bloody vengeance upon the heads of the Traitors caused many to descend into a twilight existence somewhere between exhaustion and rage, denial and dejection. Under such relentless pressure, even a Space Marine takes on a haggard cast, the already pale, hollow-eyed Raven Guard coming to appear as armoured vagabonds, their battle plate a haphazard amalgamation of replacement parts scavenged from the dead of any and all Legions present on Issrvan V.
记录显示：在这场污浊的大雨之后，破碎的地表上升起了一股浓重而刺鼻的雾，雾气中散发着富含化学物质的血液的臭气，覆盖了数百平方千米的面积。这种无处不在的死亡污秽（或许在回顾这一切时，我们可以说：由于怀言者军团的黑暗宗教仪式，雾气沾染上了某些亚空间邪秽）伤害到了很多暗鸦守卫，将许多人的理智进一步逼到了极限。作为阿斯塔特军团的一员，没有哪名星际战士会屈服于怯懦和意志薄弱；然而，暗鸦守卫面对着启示录般惨烈的屠杀和数周的战斗所积累下来的影响，加上几乎或根本得不到休息和食物的恶劣状况，以及将血腥的复仇施加在叛军头上的需要，这些要素综合起来，令许多人陷入到介于疲惫与愤怒、抗拒和沮丧之间的朦胧状态。在如此不间断的压力之下，甚至是一名星际战士也变得憔悴不堪，暗鸦守卫们本就肤色苍白且眼睛凹陷，而现在的他们开始变得像一群穿着动力甲的漂泊者——他们的战斗装甲也是用从伊斯特万五号上所有军团死者身上回收到的替换部件随意组合而成的。
At some point around the fortieth day after the Dropsite Massacre, a large force of Word Bearers, under the command of the war-leader Elexis, penetrated the ravines to the north of the Raven Guard Legions sanctuary. Elexis had discerned that the Raven Guard his forces had encountered earlier were a part of a far larger force, and he was determined to claim their heads for himself. It is noteworthy that Elexis appears to have withheld his suspicions from other Traitor factions, in particular the World Eaters, whose Primarch Angron still scoured the far wastes in search of one or both of his lost brothers. Had he done so, there is little doubt the Traitors' assault would have been a direct and brutal one, far from the cunning infiltration from an unanticipated quarter that was in the event launched.
到登陆点大屠杀之后第四十天左右，战争领袖艾莱克希斯所率领的一支大规模怀言者部队进入了暗鸦守卫军团避难所北侧的峡谷中。艾莱克希斯察觉到：他的部队所遭遇到的暗鸦守卫们是某支远为庞大的部队的一部分，他决心要自己歼灭这群暗鸦守卫。值得注意的一点是，艾莱克希斯似乎对其他叛徒军团，尤其是吞世者军团隐瞒了自己的怀疑——吞世者原体安格隆仍在遥远的废土荒原上搜索自己失踪的那一或两位兄弟。如果他这么做了，那么毫无疑问，叛军们在这次事件中的进攻将是直接而残酷的，而非（仅仅是）从某个意想不到的角落进行狡猾渗透。
On this occasion, the Raven Guard did not launch an all-out attack to repel the infiltration. Instead, the Word Bearers were allowed to penetrate many kilometres into the ravines and the twisting gullies while the Raven Guard watched on from the shadows, allowing the Word Bearers to pass by as other units feigned retreat in the face of the Traitors' advance.
在这种情况下，暗鸦守卫们并未发动全面进攻来击退这次渗透行动。相反，暗鸦守卫们在阴影中监视着怀言者进入峡谷和蜿蜒的沟壑，允许他们深入数千米的距离，同时其他单位也在面对叛军挺进时佯装撤退，允许怀言者们通过。
Eventually, the trap was set and the Raven Guard launched their ambush. At a stroke, dozens of separate Word Bearers units were engaged, none of them able to lend aid to their brothers. The aim of the ambush was twofold: in addition to cutting down hundreds of the hated foe, the Raven Guard were able to capture several of the Traitors, though all but one were able to take their own lives before they could be subdued.
最终，暗鸦守卫们设好了陷阱并发动了伏击。一时之间，数十支独立的怀言者部队都陷入了战斗，而且他们彼此之间无法进行援助。这次伏击有两层目的：除了杀死数百名可憎的敌人之外，暗鸦守卫们还抓到了数名叛军，但除了一个被活捉之外，其余人都在被制服前自杀了。
The sole remaining Traitor was brought before Lord Corax, a circle of Raven Guard forming about the base of the ancient crater where the Traitor was cast as the skies were split by unnatural lightning and the black rains came down once more. The Raven Lord brought himself to his full height, visibly casting off the shadows in which he was habitually clad and unveiling the true and terrible splendour of a Primarch roused to anger. Even the Raven Lord's loyal sons were struck dumb by primal awe, as lower tier predators are cowed into abject submission when confronted by an apex hunter. The effect on the Traitor was still more pronounced, the Word Bearer was forced downwards as if by some supernatural weight, prostrating himself upon the rain-slick rock before the sheer majesty of the Primarch. Despite his submission, the Traitor's expression burned with unquenchable hatred, a sight that would become all too familiar to us in the coming age of darkness.
仅剩的唯一一名叛军被带到了克拉克斯面前，这名怀言者被丢到了某个古老火山口的底部，暗鸦守卫们在旁边围成一圈，此时超自然的闪电将天空一分为二，黑雨再次落下。渡鸦之主昂首挺立，他明显地摆脱了自己惯常披在身外的阴影假象，展现出了一位被激怒的原体真实且恐怖的气场。渡鸦之主的忠诚子嗣们也因原初的敬畏而默不作声，就像是低级的掠食者在遇到顶级的猎手时会被吓得表示屈服那样。这种效果在叛徒身上则更为明显，怀言者战士就像是被超自然的重量量向下压倒，他匍匐在被雨水淋得湿滑的岩石上，跪倒在原体纯粹威严的气场下。尽管他表示屈服，但叛徒的脸上燃烧着无法抑制的恨意，在即将到来的黑暗年代，这种景象会令我们觉得再熟悉不过。
None would later speak of the manner in which the Primarch and his officers questioned the Traitor, nor of the nature of the death he was afforded at the last. Soon after though, a stream of orders were disseminated through the Legion and from these certain facts have been pieced together. It was confirmed that Angron was the only Traitor Primarch who had remained on Isstvan V and that his World Eaters represented the only Legion still deployed in full strength, the remainder having left behind only limited contingents to hunt down the last remaining Loyalists. Perhaps the most vital information extracted from the Traitor was that Angron was aware that Corax lived yet, and was intent upon scouring the entire Illium Rifts in order to bring him to battle. A massive assault was being prepared, one that the Word Bearers commander Elexis had attempted to pre-empt for his own glory, and failed.
没有人愿意谈论原体与他的军官们审讯叛军的手段，也没有人知道那名怀言者最后的死状。很快，暗鸦守卫军团中被传递开了一连串的命令，人们也从这些命令中拼凑出来一些事实。得到确认的信息是：安格隆是唯一一个仍旧留在伊斯特万五号上的叛军原体，他的吞世者也是唯一一支部署了全部兵力的军团；其余的叛军军团都只是留下了数量有限的分队去追捕仅剩的忠诚派。而叛军俘虏供出的最重要信息或许是：安格隆意识到克拉克斯仍然活着，他决心搜索Illium裂谷的全部区域来迫使自己的兄弟进行战斗。叛军已经准备好了一场大规模的进攻，怀言者指挥官艾莱克希斯为了自己的荣誉曾试图先发制人，但失败了。
Forewarned of the imminent attack, the Raven Guard made immediate preparations to relocate once more. There were many amongst the ranks of the Raven Guard who objected to what they regarded as retreat. These fatalists spoke out in favour of defending the subterranean refuge, or making a bold last stand if defence was impossible. The line officers quelled such opinions the instant they were voiced, but it was inevitable that the Legions upper echelon officers and the Primarch himself should hear of them. When this happened, the reaction was curt and uncompromising. The Raven Guard would live and die at the word of the Primarch alone. If the end was to come, it would be at a time and place of his choosing, and none other.
由于预先得知了有进攻即将到来，暗鸦守卫立即做好了再次转移的准备。暗鸦守卫中有很多人反对进行所谓的撤退，这些宿命论者公开表示自己支持保卫地下避难所，或者是在防御不可能的情况下勇敢坚守最后阵地。虽然前线军官们在这些观点刚被提出时就对其予以了压制，但军团的高层军官们和原体还是不可避免地会听到这些言论。而当这种情况发生时，军团高层的反应也是简短且毫无妥协余地的：暗鸦守卫军团的生死只取决于原体本人的命令。即便是终局即将到来，选择其发生的时间地点的也要由原体克拉克斯来选择，而非是其他人。
The evacuation of the sanctuaiy could not have been timed more fortuitously, for even as the Raven Guard's rearguard units cast a final glance westwards over their shoulders, they spied its demise. A cohort of blind-hunters was closing in on the hidden main entrance, the baleful dirge of their harrowing-horns blasting out across the wastes. In the wake of the fell war machines came a great mass of Legiones Astartes, the white and blue livery of the World Eaters easily visible against the grey sky and black ground. At the last, Corax himself joined the rearguard and watched silently as the land was swallowed in a mass of explosions, the savage sons of Angron setting the region aflame in their anger at having discovered their prey had escaped them yet again.
暗鸦守卫们们从避难所撤离的时间被安排得再凑巧不过了，当暗鸦守卫的后卫部队向身后西方的位置瞥去最后一眼，他们恰好看见了叛军们进攻的失败。一支盲眼猎手机兵大队接近了避难所隐蔽的主要入口，他们那刺耳的号角所发出的险恶挽歌响彻了荒原。跟着这些堕落战争机器身后的是一大群阿斯塔特军团战士，灰色的天空和黑色的地面衬得这些吞世者们身上的蓝白涂色更为鲜明。最终，克拉克斯本人也加入了后卫部队，他沉默得看着（远方的）地面被大量的爆炸所吞没：在发现自己的猎物又一次逃脱了他们的追捕之后，安格隆的野蛮子嗣们在暴怒中焚烧了这片区域。
The Final Days
终末之日
In the aftermath of the evacuation of the sanctuary, the Raven Guard Legions fight for survival and vengeance entered still another phase. Where before the Legion had been able to exert some control over their fate, albeit one that could not be maintained forever, now they were the victims of circumstance once more. The Raven Guard numbered even fewer warriors than they had in the immediate aftermath of the Dropsite Massacre, eighty days and more of continuous battle and hardship having claimed hundreds more. Many of the most severely wounded Legionaries evacuated from the sanctuary had taken their own lives so that their brethren might not be burdened by them, despite the efforts and protestations of their kin. With this a deep melancholy settled upon the Raven Guard, who had never been an ebullient kindred even at the height of victory. Individual Legionaries became sullen and withdrawn as a grim acceptance of the inevitable took hold. Though the Raven Guard Legion fought on against any and all Traitors it encountered, many fought because the only alternative was to die, not because they cleaved to any hope of eventual victory.
在撤出避难所之后，暗鸦守卫们的生存与复仇进入了另一个阶段。在此之前，第十九军团还能够对自己的命运施加一些控制——尽管这种控制也并不能永远维持下去，但现在他们又一次成为了环境的受害者。暗鸦守卫目前的人数甚至比登陆点大屠杀刚结束时还要少，八十多天的持续战斗和艰苦生活已经夺走了数百人的生命。尽管他们的胞亲兄弟们努力制止，但许多从避难所撤出的伤情最为严重的军团战士们还是结束了自己的生命，以便兄弟们不受到自己的拖累。尽管暗鸦守卫们处在胜利巅峰时也不会感到热情喜悦，但这种状况还是令他们感受到了深切的悲伤。军团士兵们变得郁郁寡欢和沉默寡言，因为他们残酷地接受了这些不可避免的事实。尽管暗鸦守卫们继续与自己遭遇所有叛军交战，但许多人参加战斗是因为死亡成为了他们唯一的选择，而非是因为他们执着于任何（取得）最终胜利的希望。
The fighting was continuous. The only difference was that now the Legion had no refuge other than the twisting ravines of the Illium Rifts, and it soon became apparent that there was scant chance of locating another refuge, for the World Eaters and the Mechanicum's blind-hunters were relentless in their efforts to bring the Raven Guard to battle. Though they remained one step ahead, the Raven Guard were rarely afforded the time needed to properly reconnoitre the path ahead or to formulate a strategy to counter the Traitors' incessant attacks. Try as they might, the Raven Guard could not wrest the initiative from the Traitors, a situation entirely anathema to them. Step by step, the Raven Guard were being pressed ever eastwards. Inevitably, they would eventually be driven into the trackless, inhospitable Gular Salt Plains, an uncharted land even the superhuman physiology of the Legiones Astartcs could not withstand over-long.
战斗仍旧连续不断。唯一的区别在于：除了Illium峡谷蜿蜒的沟壑，暗鸦守卫们已经再无（其他）避难所了。而一个事实也很快变得明显起来：暗鸦守卫们找到另一个避难所的希望是渺茫的，因为吞世者和机械神教的盲眼猎手机兵不停地迫使他们与自己交战。尽管暗鸦守卫们始终领先一步，但他们很少有时间去侦察前方的道路，或者制定战略来反击叛军的不断攻击。尽管竭尽全力，但他们却无法从叛军手中夺取主动权，这对暗鸦守卫们来说是一个彻头彻尾的诅咒。暗鸦守卫们被一步步地逼着向东撤退，他们最终会不可避免地被赶到荒凉且人迹罕至的Gular盐原上，哪怕是军团战士的超人生理机能也无法承受这片无人涉足的土地（的恶劣环境）太久。
The Beginning of the End
终局的开始
As these battles raged, the western skies flickered stark white as the Traitor Mechanicum incinerated the regions they had cleared of salvageable materiel. Explosion after explosion consumed the horizon and boiled away the clouds as the skies themselves burned. Grim faced, the Raven Guard could only fight on as the destruction spread ever outwards from the Urgall Depression, breaking like a wave over the Urgall Hills and spewing kilometre after kilometre across the wastes and into the Illium Rifts beyond.
在这些战斗激烈进行着的同时，西侧的天空闪烁着耀眼的白色火光——机械神教叛军在焚烧那些被清理干净了可回收物资的区域。一次又一次的爆炸吞噬了地平线，高温驱散开了天空中的云朵，那场面就像天空自己燃烧起来一样。面容冷峻的暗鸦守卫们只能继续战斗，因为毁灭正在从Urgall洼地向外传播，这股浪潮冲破了Urgall 丘陵，并在数公里之外的废土荒原上喷涌而出，进入更为遥远的Illium裂谷。
For long days and nights, the Raven Guard fought on in this manner, selling their lives dearly as the wastes echoed with the sound of Angron bellowing for his brother to face him. The salt plains grew ever closer to the east as the raging fires consuming the western skies crept ever onwards. Though the Raven Guard fought with every ounce of determination and skill bred into them by the Emperor's gene-weights, they were by now outnumbered at least ten to one and had no hope of reinforcement or resupply. With the inexorable march of the Mechanicum's land-razing firestorms, all hope of finding any other survivors or of locating any fresh source of ammunition was fled and now they were being channelled into an ever narrower field of flight by the massed firepower of the Whirlwind and Scorpios tanks the World Eaters had deployed to the flanks of their advance, bracketing all avenues of escape with withering fusillades of missile fire. Yet still, the Raven Lord did not order his Legion to turn and face its pursuers and make the last stand all knew must surely come, and soon. The Raven Lord kept his own silent council, and none dared raise a word of objection.
在漫长的日夜中，暗鸦守卫们以自己的方式进行着战斗，不惜献出自己的生命；荒原上回荡着安格隆的咆哮着，这位原体在要求他的兄弟出来面对自己。随着熊熊大火吞噬着西部的天空，盐原也越来越靠近东侧。尽管暗鸦守卫们是在用帝皇的基因技术赋予他们的全副决心和技艺在战斗，但敌军的数量至少是他们的十倍，而且他们也无望获得增援和补给。机械神教摧毁土地的火焰风暴也在无情推进，这令暗鸦守卫们找到其他任何幸存者或确定任何新弹药来源的希望都变得渺茫；而且，吞世者们部署在前进部队两翼的旋风坦克和天蝎坦克用强大的火力将他们逼入了一片愈加狭窄的逃生区域，并用密集的导弹射击阻断了所有逃生通道。然而，渡鸦之主并没有命令他的军团掉头去面对追击者，进行最后的抵抗——所有人都知道这种道命令一定会来，而且很快就会被下达。渡鸦之主默不作声地进行着会议，也没有人敢出言反对。
Sunrise, such as it was upon the tainted, fog-shrouded surface of Isstvan V, on the ninety-eighth day after the Dropsite Massacre saw the last three thousand Legionaries of the Raven Guard mount the crest of the final rise and look down upon the endless expanse of the Gular Salt Plains. The air was thick with toxins rolling in from the crusted plains and the black contrails of whirlwind fire, the eerie howl of the tortured winds almost loud enough to drown out the bass roar of the tens of thousands of World Eaters charging across the broken land.
太阳如往常般升起，照亮了伊斯特万五号笼罩着雾气的污浊地面。在登陆点大屠杀后的第九十八天，暗鸦守卫的最后三千名军团战士们登上了最后一座高地的顶峰，俯视着无尽浩瀚的Gular盐原。空气中充满了从结有硬壳的平原上滚滚而来的毒素，以及火焰旋风所形成的黑色尾迹，狂风的恐怖嚎叫声几乎足以淹没数万名吞世者冲过这片破碎土地所发出的低沉脚步声。
Now, at last, the Raven Lord ordered his sons to halt. Backs to the Gular Salt Plains, the Raven Guard would make their final stand. They had survived for ninety-eight days. They had fought with honour and determination, for no other course of action was possible. The Raven Guard had proven themselves loyal to the end, choosing survival over betraying their oaths, a choice which； we can be sure, never once occurred to the Primarch or a single one of his sons. The Raven Guard had been forged in the searing crucible of the Lycaean Uprising, where resistance, however futile, was the only option, even in the face of utterly crushing, hopeless oppression.
现在，暗鸦之主最终命令子嗣们停止脚步。暗鸦守卫们背对Gular盐原，他们将会进行最后的坚守。他们已经存活了九十八天。他们带着决意和荣誉作战，因为别无他法。暗鸦守卫自始至终都证明了自己的忠诚，他们选择存活下来（继续作战），而非背叛自己的誓言——我们也确信这一选择从未在第十九军团的原体或他的任何一位子嗣身上出现过。暗鸦守卫们是在Lycaean起义的残酷考验中锻造而出的战士——在那场战争中，反抗无论多么徒劳都是他们唯一的选择，哪怕是面对着彻底绝望的压迫。
As Angrons savage challenge rose above the roar of his Legionaries and the first of the Traitors' bolt shells struck amongst the Raven Guards ranks;Corax issued what all assumed would be his final orders to the last of his proud Legion. Here the Raven Guard would stand; here the Raven Guard would die. But now fresh thunder split the skies above the last battlefield of Isstvan V and with it came black-winged charnel birds which fell in a fire-spitting flock from the tumult above, their wrath unleashed not upon the few who remained to the Raven Guard but instead upon the World Eaters whose reckless headlong charge to finally grapple with their foe left them exposed before these birds of prey. In a storm of shot and shell was Angron denied his bloody prize. In fire had the Raven Guard been almost exterminated, and now in fire were the Raven Guard delivered from Isstvan V, the world the Warmaster had sought to make their tomb.
吞世者军团战士们咆哮着冲来，安格隆发出野蛮挑战的吼声甚至还超过了他们的，叛军们射出的第一批爆矢弹也击中了暗鸦守卫们；此刻，向着自己的自豪军团中的最一批成员，克拉克斯下达了被认为是最后一道的命令：暗鸦守卫军团会坚守住这里；暗鸦守卫们会在这里就义。但新的雷霆（突然）劈开了伊斯特万五号这块最后战场上方的天空，黑色双翼的恐怖巨鸟随之而来，在一片喧哗声中喷吐着火舌成群降落；但他们释放怒火的对象并非是仅存的极少数暗鸦守卫，而是吞世者们——后者发起了鲁莽的冲锋，意图与敌人进行最后的搏斗，结果却让自己暴露在这些捕猎的猛禽面前。在风暴般的枪炮扫射中，安格隆失去了自己那血腥的奖赏。曾几何时，暗鸦守卫军团几乎全员都殒没于烈火之中；而现在，他们于烈火中得到拯救，逃出了这颗战帅试图葬送他们的世界——伊斯特万五号。
