HH3节译：法尔海战3（完）

The Will of Rogal Dorn

罗格 多恩的意志

Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists and, as Praetorian of Terra, responsible for the ultimate defence of the Imperium's heart, had been trying to contact the Retribution fleet ever since the black news of the Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre had reached him. With new traitors emerging, and many Legions either crippled or out of communication, all certainties had been lost. With Mars already wracked by rebellion and war flaring at the edges of the Sol system, he knew that the seat of Imperial power could be threatened at any time. In response, Dorn desired above all else to draw all his forces back to Terra to secure it against a dark future. Choirs of Astropaths had been shouting messages into the dream- saturated substance of the Warp, but none had reached the Retribution fleet, nor had any word come from them of its own accord. Such is the nature of astrotelepathy, that one cannot predict ultimately how or when a message will reach its recipient or if it will be received at all. The Warp is a realm of whim, of dreams and impossibility, and it works to laws that are not laws at all to mortal minds. The warp storms had indeed swallowed Dorn's orders for his sons to return to Terra, but those messages had not been lost.

罗格 多恩，帝国之拳军团的原体，他作为泰拉禁卫官要负责帝国核心的最终防御，自从得知伊斯特万五号登陆点大屠杀这一令人悲痛的消息后，他就（一直）在尝试联系报应舰队。随着新叛军的显现，以及诸多军团不是受损严重就是处于失联状态，一切都处于不确定中。火星已经被叛乱所破坏，战火烧到了太阳系的边缘，多恩知道帝国的权力中心随时都可能遭到威胁。作为回应，多恩最迫切的需要就是把他所有的部队招回泰拉，以确保王座世界不会陷入黑暗的未来。星语唱诗班们高声向如同梦境版光怪陆离的亚空间中传递着信息，但没有一条抵达报应舰队的，同时他们也未收到来自报应舰队的信息。这就是星语通讯的特性，人们最终还是不能预测接收者们能收到怎样的信息，或在何时收到信息，甚至是接收者们能否收到信息。亚空间是充斥着幻想、梦境与不可能性的地方，此地所适用的规律和凡人心目中的完全不同。亚空间风暴事实上吞没了多恩下达给子嗣们的返回泰拉的命令，但这些信息并未遗失。

Even as the battle in the Phall system reached its calamitous heights, through some strange fate or unseen design the astropathic messages from Terra broke through the veil of the storm. Such was the ferocity of their sending that it burned the minds of the Astropaths who heard them, forcing out the words of command through bloodied and broken mouths. The Imperial Fists now knew the will of their father and it could not be denied; they were ordered to return to Terra immediately. Now it was that the ignorance of war cut deepest. Other than the order of their Primarch, the Imperial Fists knew only that Horus had turned against the Emperor, and that the Iron Warriors were part of that betrayal. Beyond those facts anything was possible, Terra might be on the brink of falling, every other Legion might have already been destroyed or turned against the Emperor. Faced with such uncertainty the Imperial Fists reacted as their nature dictated ——their own adamant discipline and inviolate obedience to their oaths of fealty now condemning them一 they followed their orders without question.

随着法尔星系中的战斗达到灾难般的高潮，来自泰拉的星语讯息也因为某些奇怪的命运或者不可见的安排而突破了亚空间风暴的帷幕。而且这些讯息的发送得极为猛烈，以至于那些听到讯息的星语者们都被烧焦了脑子，原体的语音命令从他们满是鲜血且破碎的口中被挤了出来。帝国之拳们现在得知了自己父亲的意愿，而且这项命令不得被耽误：他们被命令马上返回泰拉。现在，对于这场战争的无知最让帝国之拳军团痛心疾首。除了原体的命令，帝国之拳们还得知背叛帝皇的不仅有荷鲁斯，钢铁勇士们也参与到了叛乱之中。除了这些事实以外，一切皆有可能，泰拉可能正处于崩溃的边缘，其他所有军团可能都已经被摧毁或者背叛了帝皇。面对如此不确定的状况，帝国之拳们按照自己的本性做出了反应——他们严格的纪律和对效忠誓言的绝对服从现在迫使他们这样行动——他们毫无质疑地遵循了命令。

The order was given and the Imperial Fists fleet began to disengage from the battle. In the wake of Dorn's message a chink of calm had opened in the warp storms, and one by one the Imperial Fists ships raced for it. They broke away from the battle in stages, first the fastest ships and those who the vicissitudes of battle had let free 一however temporarily——from close quarter action； then the rest as they were able, if they were able. They staggered, distracted and diverted the Iron Warriors warships as best they could,those Imperial Fists ships too damaged to flee willingly hurling themselves to their doom to stave off the enemy so their brothers could escape, but no matter what, such a course of action was always going to have a terrible price.

命令已经下达，帝国之拳舰队开始撤出战斗。在多恩的消息抵达后，亚空间风暴中了一条平静的狭窄通道，帝国之拳战舰一艘接一艘地向着通道飞驰而去。他们分阶段地从战斗中撤离，最先脱离战斗的是那些速度最快的舰船，还有就是那些因为战争形式改变而（暂时）无法执行近距离作战任务的舰船；之后其余战舰也是尽可能地撤出战斗。他们蹒跚前进，尽最大可能可能分散钢铁勇士战舰的注意力。那些损失过于严重到无法逃离的战舰自愿地向敌舰发起猛冲，以自己的毁灭牺牲来拖住敌人，为让兄弟们得以逃出生天。但无论如何，这样的行动总是要付出惨痛的代价。

It did not take long for the Iron Warriors to realise what was happening and when they did they fell on the withdrawing Imperial Fists without mercy, succumbing to a blind and savage rage. At the last, a rear guard of Imperial Fists vessels remained unmoving in the face of the Iron Warriors' onslaught. Many were the oldest and heaviest of ships, great aged warriors of the stars who had carried the forces of the Great Crusade since its earliest years. Now they stood against the tide of the enemy, fighting, selling themselves as clearly as they could before they too became fire and wreckage. The list of ships and warriors lost in that final terrible phase of the Battle of Phall is long and laden with heroism and sorrow. Barely a third of the original strength of the Retribution fleet made it to the Warp intact. The rest went to join their dead kin in the tally of the fallen. Of those who did escape, many did return to Terra. There they found the seat of Mankind not lost, but gripped by slow-burning war and uncertainty. What bitterness may have burned in their hearts at their fate and the bloody toil their obedience had cost them is not for this record to divulge. Others were scattered by the storms to make war on their own account, far from home, and would not see rhe light of Sol until the war had burned the soil of Terra.

不久之后钢铁勇士们就意识到了正在发生的事情，他们就此屈服于盲目且野蛮的怒火，毫不留情地扑向撤退中的帝国之拳。最终，一支帝国之拳后卫舰队停下来面对钢铁勇士们的屠杀。其中很多都是最为古老和重型的舰船，以及群星间伟大的年长战士们，他们在大远征的最初阶段便率队征战。现在他们阻挡在汹涌扑来的敌人面前，奋战不息，在化为火焰和残骸之前尽可能地牺牲自己阻挡敌人。这些舰船和战士们牺牲在了法尔海战恐怖的最终阶段，他们的名单是漫长的，而且写满了英雄主义的光辉事迹与令人悲恸的献身义举。完好无损地进入亚空间的舰船只占了报应舰队初始兵力的三分之一，其余的都牺牲在了战斗中。成功逃出生天的舰船大部分都返回了泰拉。他们最终发现人类的王座世界并未沦陷，但也被缓慢燃烧的战火与不确定性所攫住。至于命运以及为服从命令而付出的血腥辛劳让他们心中燃烧着怎样的苦楚，那并非这份记录要去透露的。其他舰船被亚空间风暴抛散到了各处，他们身处远离故土之地，根据自己的认知进行着战争，直到战火烧到泰拉的土地，他们也未能见到太阳系的光芒。

The fate of Tyr and his forlorn hope remains one that cannot be verified for certain by this record, but evidence exists that he and his warriors spent their lives in a glorious, if ultimately futile, attempt to achieve their goal and kill Perrurabo. Robbed as their attack was of on-going support by the order to withdraw, whatever thread of chance it had held of success was immediately severed. Yet it is believed that despite this, Armandus Tyr and the final spearhead of his Legionaries managed to fight their way into the very chamber of the Lord of Iron, and there they met their final doom at the hands of the Primarch himself. An effort of courage and arms that in itself ranks as highly as any of the Great Crusade.

这份记录也无法确定泰尔连长的命运与他那（生还）希望渺茫的行动的终局，但有证据表明：他和他的战士们牺牲在了实现自己目标并杀死佩图拉博的光荣但最终也是徒劳的尝试中。来自泰拉的撤退命令导致他们进行中进攻行动失去了支援，他们取得胜利的一线希望也就马上被切断了。但人们相信：尽管如此，阿尔曼都斯 泰尔与仅剩的军团战士矛头部队成功地杀入了钢铁之主本人的舱室，他们最终被原体本人亲手所杀。这是一次关于勇气和武力的尝试，这次行动本身足以和大远征时期的任何一次行动相提并论。

Alexis Polux was himself to survive the Battle of Phall, having led a desperate boarding action from his own crippled flagship, the Tribune to take possession of the Iron Warriors warship the Contrader in which he and his surviving command would make their escape. Phall was not to be his last command, and his name would live on in glory and bitter vengeance throughout the War of the Heresy and the Scouring that was to follow.

阿莱克西斯 波拉克斯本人也从法尔海战中幸存，他从自己受损致残的旗舰——护民官号上发动了一次绝望的跳帮行动，以此夺取了钢铁勇士的战舰“竞夺者”号，他和自己幸存的指挥组成员们乘坐这艘飞船逃离。法尔海战并非是波拉克斯指挥的最后一次战役，在整场大叛乱以及之后的大清洗时期，他将会进行一次光荣而苦涩的复仇战争。

So it is that we remember Phall as a defeat that cost the Imperial Fists grievously, but also a defeat that bled the Iron Warriors of warships and warriors heavily in their turn. Certainly, the decision to withdraw on receiving Rogal Dorns order turned the course of the battle, but could it have been otherwise? The nature of the Imperial Fists makes it unlikely that they would have responded differently. This in turn opens up an intriguing and terrible possibility: that the revelation of Dorns message arrived not by chance, but by the will of Horus or his allies, or the dark forces that ultimately made him their puppet.

所以我们如是铭记法尔海战：这是一场令帝国之拳军团受损严重的失败，但反过来，这也是一场令钢铁勇士军团严重折损了舰船与战士的失败。诚然，帝拳们在接到罗格·多恩的命令后所做出的撤退决定改变了战斗的走向，但还可能会出现其他结果吗?帝国之拳的天性使得他们不会做出其他回应。这反过来又开启了一种神秘而可怕的可能性：多恩的信息并非是偶然抵达了报应舰队处，而是受到了荷鲁斯及其盟友意志的左右，或者是受到了那些令战帅派系成为自己傀儡的黑暗力量的支配。