hh4节译:黑暗归顺

On many worlds, the seeds of corruption had been sown long before the hand of betrayal struck at Isstvan. When the Warmaster led his forces in civil war, hundreds of worlds not directly connected to his power base declared for his cause. On these planets and dominions, many scattered around the dangerous periphery of the Imperium's frontiers, it was because his agents and those of his allies within the Mechanicum, the Alpha Legion and the Word Bearers had already poisoned their hearts against the Emperor. There would be many hundreds more, from isolated and otherwise unimportant colonies to keystones of the Imperium's economy and military strength, that would fall under his sway as the war progressed in a process that became known as the 'Dark Compliance’.

在很多世界上，腐化的种子在叛军们于伊斯特万悍然起兵很久之前就已经被播下了。当战帅率军发动内战时，数以百计与其权力基础没有直接联系的世界们宣誓效忠于战帅。这些行星和领地许多都分散在帝国边界的危险边缘，阿尔法军团和怀言者军团依靠着自己的特工与在机械神教当中的盟友已经毒害了他们的内心，使他们反对帝皇。从偏远的世界和其他非重要的殖民地到帝国经济和军事实力的基石世界，还会有数百个更多的世界将会随着战争的推进而拜倒在战帅的说服下，这个过程被称为“黑暗归顺”

To each world over which the Warmaster's shadow fell, a simple choice was given： total submission and surrender or total destruction and brutal subjugation—slavery or death, there were no other options and no second chances. It was a perverse parody of the progress and glorious goals of the Great Crusade, but served as more than mere scorn for the Emperor's dream or even the vainglory of a tyrant, for there was underlying method and intelligence beneath the apparently wanton savagery. When one militant world or stubbornly Loyalist star system was punished by apocalyptic destruction for their brave defiance, such fear was created in others nearby that their surrender came as a rapid and forgone conclusion, often without a shot fired in their defence. Each world added not simply territory but manpower, production capacity and supply, feeding a war machine that was growing exponentially in power. Further, those worlds marked for death — where possible— can be seen with hindsight to have been more strategically expendable compared to those spared to fall through fear, or the more measured if no less brutal decapitation strikes for which Horus' own Legion had long been famed. It can also be observed that the devastation visited during the Dark Compliances was never so thorough that survivors were not left to spread the word of what terrors they had beheld, and of the price this new shadow emperor exacted for defiance.

每个被战帅投下阴影的世界都被给予了一个简单的选择：要么彻底投降并归顺，要么遭到彻底的摧毁和野蛮的征服——被奴役或死亡，没有其他选项，也没有第二次机会。这是对于大远征进展和光荣目标的愚蠢模仿，但也不过是充当了对于帝皇梦想的嘲弄或（满足）暴君的虚荣心，（不过）在明显肆意的野蛮行为之下，存在着潜在的手段和才智。当一个军事世界或者顽强的忠诚派星系因他们勇敢的抵抗而遭到末日般的摧毁时，它们周边的其他世界便会产生恐惧并放弃抵抗尽快投降，这些世界的守军甚至都不会短暂地开火一次。每个归顺的世界不仅增加了叛军的领土，而且增加了叛军的人力、生产力和供给，供养（叛军）那实力指数般增长的战争机器。另外，如果可能的话，相比于那些因恐惧、或者更严格的衡量了自己是否会更多地遭受荷鲁斯及其军团那长久以来声名狼藉的斩首打击而幸免的世界，那些被被标记为死亡的世界在事后更多地被看做是战略牺牲品。我们也能观察到：黑暗归顺期间的毁灭行动如此的彻底，以至于没有幸存者能传播自己看到的恐怖场景，以及这位新的影子皇帝会让抵抗者付出何等代价。