HH6节译：黑暗年代，一段关于背叛的岁月

It was 007M31, and the Age of Darkness had descended upon the Imperium.

当时间来到007M31，黑暗年代已经降临于人类帝国。

The veil of night had fallen and it would not be lifted within the lifetime of any condemned by the fates to live through it. At Isstvan III, Warmaster Horus had purged four entire Legions of those elements who could not be trusted to follow him and his Traitor brothers into rebellion against their father-Emperor. Soon after, the terrible extent of the betrayal was revealed at Isstvan V where three more Legions demonstrated their loyalty to Horus and three others were all but annihilated.

暗夜的帷幕已然落下，对于任何命中注定要经历这段岁月的人而言，在他们有生之年，黑暗年代都没有结束。在伊斯特万三号上，战帅荷鲁斯对整整四个军团进行了清洗，屠杀了那些他不相信会追随他与他的叛徒兄弟们背叛父皇的战士。不久之后，伊斯特万五号上的惨剧揭示出了这次叛变的可怕程度——又有三个军团表明了自己对荷鲁斯的忠诚，而另外三个几乎被毁灭。

As the fires of war caught, entire worlds burned. The Imperial Fists were savaged at Phall, while the Ultramarines were betrayed at Calth and their Five Hundred Worlds plunged into a sea of blood by the combined war hosts of the Word Bearers and the World Eaters. Of the remaining Legions, little was known of the fate of the Blood Angels, White Scars and Dark Angels, for the artifice of the Warmaster and his agents had ensured they were scattered far and wide by the time his treachery was revealed. For the first years of the Horus Heresy, they were feared lost at best, and turned at worst.

战火在（诸多）完整世界上燃烧着。帝国之拳在法尔星系遭受重创，同时极限战士也在考斯遭到背叛，怀言者与吞世者的战争联军令五百世界陷入一片血海。至于剩下的那些军团，我们对于圣血天使、白色伤疤和黑暗天使的命运知之甚少，因为战帅及其下属们使用了诡计，确保这三个军团在自己发动叛乱时被分散到了各处。在荷鲁斯叛乱的最初几年中，帝国认为乐观的情况是这三个军团迷路失联，悲观的情况则是他们已然叛变。

between Isstvan in 006.M31 and the casting back of the Shadow Crusade in 009.M31, the Imperium knew anarchy, uncertainty and bloodshed on a scale never before witnessed. Though still more destruction was to come before the end, this was a period of unprecedented confusion and chaos. Lorgar of the Word Bearers had, by the ritual offering of the Veridia star, invoked the Ruinstorm, a raging tempest that made warp travel and astrotelepathic commutationacross the galaxy-spinning Imperium perilous at best and impossible at worst.The Primarch Rogal Dorn of th Legiones Astartes Imperial Fists had assumed command of the defences of Terra, while the Emperor appeared to have withdrawn entirely to pursue a mission he could not confide even to his most trusted sons. The Warmaster claimed world after world in the northern Imperium, and other spheres, systems and entire sectors across the galaxy declared for the Traitors' cause. Millions-strong armies reeled in disorder as desperate pleas for aid went unheeded. A torrent of orders flooded out from Terra with no notion of whether the intended recipients would receive them, or if they had already been slain or turned to the Warmaster's cause. Entire planetary populations fled across the stars, a migratory diaspora of refugees driven beyond sanity by the horrors unleashed by the rapidly advancing Traitor armies.

从伊斯特万屠杀爆发的006.M31到暗影远征军撤退的009.M31这段时间中，人类帝国经历了规模前所未见的混乱、动荡和流血冲突。虽然在终局到来之前还会发生更多的毁灭，但这是一个前所未有的混乱时期。通过对于Veridia恒星的仪式性献祭，怀言者原体珞珈引发了毁灭风暴，这场狂暴的亚空间风暴在拓展到银河系的人类帝国中肆虐，亚空间航行和星语通讯在好的情况下是变得危险，坏的情况下则是变得不可能。帝国之拳阿斯塔特军团的原体——罗格 多恩统领着泰拉的防御，同时帝皇似乎完全退居幕后，去执行一项他甚至不能向自己最信任的子嗣们诉说的任务。战帅在北银河夺取了一个又一个世界，而在其他的宙域中，银河各处都有星系和完整的星区宣布加入叛军阵营。数以百万计的军队在无序混乱中摇摇欲坠，而绝望的呼救也无人理会。命令如同洪水般从泰拉涌出，但帝国也不知道目标接收者能否收到信息，或者是否已经被杀或投入了战帅的阵营。整个星球的人口都在群星间逃亡，叛军部队的快速挺进所散布出的恐慌将流散得难民们逼到失去理智。

Thus it proved nigh-impossible for Terra to mount a truly coordinated defence of its worlds and so sector after sector fell to the Warmaster as he advanced upon Terra. There was no single frontline that could be held and no decisive salient that could be mounted. Individual forces, from small companies to entire armies, threw themselves willingly into the crucible of war in a desperate effort to stem the inexorable tide. Never before had Mankind been divided by such conflict, and soon a thousand worlds and more were transformed into blasted war zones across which millions of erstwhile brothers-in-arms, from the humblest militia conscript to the mightiest warrior of the Legiones Astartes, clashed.

因此，对于泰拉而言，要建立起一个真正协调的防御系统几乎是不可能的，所以在荷鲁斯挺进泰拉的过程中，一个又一个星区落入战帅手中。帝国没有哪一条战线是可以守住的，也没有哪一个决定性的突出阵地是可以攻下的。独立的的部队——从小规模的连队到完整的军队应有尽有，自愿投身于战争的严酷考验，绝望地想要阻止那不可阻挡的潮流。人类之前从未因这样的冲突而分裂过，不久之后，超过一千个世界都化为了战火纷飞的战区，数百万昔日的战友兵戎相见，从最卑微的征召民兵到最强大的阿斯塔特军团战士都莫不如此。

The task of recounting the triumphs and tragedies of the Age of Darkness is one that can never be completed even should the Imperium stand for ten thousand years and our Order swell in size to rival the armies of humanity. Countless battles must therefore go unrecorded by posterity, so total was the destruction wrought by and upon both sides when at last the end came. Where once the young Imperium had stood upon the cusp of an age of unity and prosperity, suddenly it stood upon the very brink of the abyss. between the outbreak of the Horus Heresy at the Isstvan system and the casting back of the Shadow Crusade from Ultramar, a period of around three years, all-consuming war came to Calth, the Coronid Deeps, Baztel, Anvillus, Paramar, beta-Garmon, Tallarn and a hundred other worlds, many of them rendered to blackened wastes by the close of the Age of Darkness.

即便帝国能够屹立万年之久，我们修会的人数也膨胀到能够与人类的军队相匹敌，记述黑暗年代中的（全部）胜利与悲剧也是一件永远无法被完成的任务。无数的战争必然不会被后人所记录，当终局最终来临时，双方遭到的破坏都是如此彻底。年轻的帝国曾经站在了统一且繁荣时代的顶峰，但现在它突然站到了深渊的边缘。从荷鲁斯叛乱于伊斯特万星系爆发到暗影远征军撤出奥特拉玛的这段时期——大约三年的时间中，考斯、王冠深渊、Baztel、安维鲁斯、帕拉玛、贝塔—伽尔蒙、塔兰和其他一百个世界上都爆发了吞噬一切的战争，当黑暗年代结束时，他们中的大部分都沦为了被烧得焦黑的废土。

Trials and Tribuimions

审判者与保卫者

Warriors whose names had been carved in glory into a thousand triumphal memorials would come to be reviled by the multitudes, their names turned into bywords for fratricide and atrocity. Warriors whose names had never been known were at a stroke propelled to such heights that they held the fate of entire worlds in their hands. The task of redacting the names and deeds of the former and enshrining those of the latter is one that has already begun, but which is unlikely to be completed within the span of mortal years.

在黑暗年代的战争中，（很多）姓名被光荣地刻在成千上万凯旋纪念碑上的战士们将会遭到民众的唾骂，他们的名字也变成了自相残杀和暴行的代名词。很多原本名不见经传的战士们也被瞬间推上高位，以至于整个世界的命运都掌握在他们手中。帝国已经开始了修正前者的名字和事迹，并将后者的名字和事迹载入史册的任务，但这不可能在有生之年中被完成。

Galaxy of War

战火银河

For every world that burned in planet-wide conflagration, innumerable smaller scale, but equally bitter wars were fought, often far away from any war zone that might be considered a front line. At the opening of the Horus Heresy, many of the Legions had been operating as large bodies under the direct command of their Primarch, but even then, many smaller contingents had been seconded to service elsewhere. As the Age of Darkness ground on, many of these mighty hosts became fragmented and while individual Primarchs often remained in direct command of the core of their Legions, ever more sub-commands were despatched across the galaxy in pursuit of either Traitor or Loyalist goals. As the Ruinstorm cut yet more regions off from the greater Imperium, many such detachments were turned by circumstance into independent commands in all but name, their leaders vested with what amounted to total authority to conduct their own wars in whatever manner they deemed most appropriate.

在每个全球范围内都燃烧着战火的世界上，都进行着小规模但却同样苦涩的战斗，它们通常远离那些可能被视为前线的战区。在荷鲁斯叛乱初期，很多军团都是在原体的直接指挥下作为庞大的整体进行运作，但之后很多小规模特遣队被临时派往其他区域。随着黑暗年代推进，很多庞大的部队集群也变得支离破碎，同时各位原体也通常是直接控制着军团的核心部分，越来越多的次级指挥官被派往银河各地，去追逐叛军或忠诚派的目标。随着更多地区被毁灭风暴切断与更大帝国主体之间的联系，受环境影响，此类特遣队中有越来越多都在进行独立指挥，他们只是在名义上遵从上级命令。这些部队的领袖们也授予他们全权，允许他们以自己认为最合适的方法进行战争。

Across the galaxy, independent Legiones Astartes forces varying in scale from subcompany to battalion or chapter conducted countless high intensity operations. Many were surgical strikes against targets of vital strategic worth 一 at Grendel's World for example, a mixed force of around three hundred Night Lords and Emperor's Children Legionaries destroyed the Astropathic relay station established there a decade earlier to serve the 78th Expeditionary Fleet as it pressed into the regions beyond. Whether or not it was their intent, the destruction of the relay station caused all contact with the 78th to be cut for many years. The fleet's high commander, Lord-Captain Morrachi of the Legiones Astartes Blood Angels, did not therefore learn of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy until after the event and was thus unable to intervene at vital juncture in history.

在银河各处，规模从半连到战斗营或战团不等的独立阿斯塔特军团部队都在执行着无数高强度的行动。其中很多都是对具有重要战略价值的目标进行外科手术式的进攻——例如在Grendel世界上，三百名午夜领主和帝皇之子军团战士组成的联合部队摧毁了此地的星语中继站，此站点于十年前建成，目的是在第78远征舰队向更远地区挺进时为其提供服务。无论这是否是袭击者们的意图，该中继站的毁灭都导致帝国与第78远征舰队的联系被切断数年之久。因此该舰队的最高指挥官，圣血天使阿斯塔特军团的领主连长莫拉奇直到荷鲁斯叛乱爆发后才得知该事件，因此他们也未能在历史的关键时刻进行干预。

Many operations were specifically targeted attacks against key enemy leaders or individuals holding the balance of power, and many of these amounted to litde more than callous murders and brutal assassinations. Far-ranging Legiones Astartes kill teams or larger strike forces were capable of reaching and striking against targets more conventional Legion forces could not engage, and so no commander or high administrator was guaranteed safe from the executioners'axe. Though reliable accounts of most such attacks are few and far between, the assassination of the Magister-Mllitaris of Constantinium serves as something of an exception, as was no doubt intended when it was conducted. Magister Karpath of Constantinium had declared the entire Viridis sector for the Warmaster in mid 007.M31 and expended prodigious resources to fortify his capital, claiming that its walls would be built every bit as strong and tall as those of Terra and that no attacker would ever penetrate them. The Magister-Militaris was made a fool and a liar when within a year a strike force of Dark Angels, White Scars and Iron Warriors Legionaries conducted a coups-dc-grace operation which penetrated straight into the heart of his massively fortified palace. Karpath was executed kneeling at the foot of his own throne before his entire court in what could only have been intended as an incontrovertible message to all who would turn against Terra.The presence of the Iron Warriors element in this force however remains unresolved and unexplainable, as do so many similar accounts of the unseen wars of the Age of Darkness.

许多行动都是专门对于敌方关键领导人或掌握权力平衡的个人的攻击，其中许多案件都不只是无情的谋杀和残忍的暗杀。分散在遥远空间中的阿斯塔特军团战士杀戮队或更大型的进攻部队能够抵达和攻击那些传统的军团部队无法与之交战的目标，没有哪位指挥官或高级政务官能保证自己不会死于处刑者的利斧之下。尽管记录此类袭击的可靠报告很少，但对于Constantinium世界军事执政官的暗杀行动则是一次例外。Constantinium的执政官卡尔帕斯在007.M31中叶宣布整个Viridis星区都效忠于战帅，并且耗费了大量资源来加固他的首府；他声称自己首府的城墙将会被建造得和泰拉上的同样坚固高大，没有进攻者能够将其击穿。但不到一年之后，这位执政官就被证明是个蠢货和骗子——某支由黑暗天使、白色伤疤和钢铁勇士军团战士们组成的打击部队所进行的致命一击行动击穿进入了他大规模加固的宫殿的核心。在他整个宫廷的面前，卡尔帕斯跪在自己王座的脚下被星际战士们处决，这只可能是传递给所有将会背叛泰拉之人一个不容置疑的信息。然而，就像许多对于黑暗年代那些看不见战争的相似描述那样，钢铁勇士们在这支部队中的出现仍未得到解释。