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HH3节译:帕拉玛五号攻防战(2)

2022-08-22 17:36 作者:机兵苍熊式  | 我要投稿

The False Flag

伪旗

Although speed was of the essence, what was to follow was not a headlong rush to attack, for that was not the Alpha Legion's way of war. but a cold, calculated campaign both intricate in its complexity and ruthless in its execution. Like jackals in the night, the Alpha Legion first surrounded their prey and observed its movements, gauging its strengths and weaknesses. The Alpha Legion fleet had broken into realspace far into the cold darkness beyond the range of the vast trinary star systems limits, relying on their own expertise in such matters as well as the fury of the three stars of Paramar's own radiant emissions to mask their slow and silent approach. Their arrival undetected they encircled their targets with a predators patience, finding it as expected already on a state of heightened alert. What followed was a dangerous game of brinkmanship and timing. The longer they delayed their attack, the greater the risk of discovery and the greater the risk that the news of the Dropsite Massacre — and the Alpha Legions part in it—would reach Paramar, despite the rising warp storms and the murderous blockade and waiting ambushes the Legion had established in several nearby systems, silencing the approaches and isolating Paramar from immediate aid as much as was possible given the vagaries of the Warp. Conversely, the longer the Alpha Legion waited, the more perfect their attack strategy could be formed, the closer their spectral warships stalked and the deeper their hidden fangs were already sinking into the system unbeknownst to its defenders, their paralysing venom already taking effect.

虽然速度是不可或缺的,但接下来要做的并非是一头冲上去展开进攻,因为这并非阿尔法军团的战争之道,不过一场精心策划的冷酷战役也会因其执行过程中的复杂性和无情性而变得错综复杂。阿尔法军团就像是黑夜中的豺狼,他们首先会包围自己的猎物并观察其动向,估计对方的优势和劣势。阿尔法军团舰队冲入了现实宇宙,深入到了巨大的三恒星系统边界范围之外的寒冷黑暗空间中,他们依靠自己在此类行动上的经验与三颗帕拉玛恒星自身散发出的辐射怒火来掩盖其缓慢且无声的接近。抵达的舰队未必检测到,它们以掠食者的耐性包围了目标,并发现对方就如同预料中那样处于了强化警戒状态。接下来的就是一场关于边缘策略和时机把握的危险游戏,阿尔法军团拖延进攻的时间越久,他们被发现的风险就越大,登陆点大屠杀(以及阿尔法军团参与其中)的消息抵达帕拉玛星系的风险也越大;不过亚空间风暴在愈演愈烈,阿尔法军团也在周边数个星系中建立了凶残的封锁线并设好了埋伏,考虑到亚空间的变幻莫测,阿尔法军团尽可能让自己的接近行动保持沉默,并让帕拉玛星系孤立,令其无法得到立刻援助。反过来,阿尔法军团等待的时间越长,他们能形成的攻势便越完美,而幽灵般的战舰越是接近该地,他们已然刺入该星系中的隐藏毒牙便扎的越深——帕拉玛守军们对此还浑然不知,阿尔法军团的麻痹毒液已经起作用了。

Swiftly, several scheduled transport ships and patrol vessels had been hijacked and suborned en route to Paramar by the Alpha Legion and used as a vector to poison the system's outer defences with its operatives and gather further detailed intelligence. Individuals, particularly on the Pharaeon of Paramar, more readily accessible than Paramar V to the Legion's Spartoi operatives, had been marked for assassination, while sabotage devices were sown in the system's defence grid in preparation for the attack. The system's prison hives were of little immediate concern, being far from the twin primary objectives of the assault, and also the easiest dealt with as time-released toxins and bacteriological contaminants were introduced into the heavily centralised water supplies of each, ready to create havoc when triggered. An unseen chronograph counted down to the appointed hour with inexorable motion as the labyrinthine plans of the Alpha Legion converged and configured, until the sands of time ran out for Paramar and the honourable role it had played in the Great Crusade's dream of Mankind's future was crushed in the coils of the hydra.

很快,阿尔法军团就在通往帕拉玛的航路上劫持和收买了很多预定的运输船和巡逻舰,并用这些舰船搭载着自己的特工们去破坏帕拉玛星系的外侧防御系统和收集更详细的信息。军团中的斯巴达托伊特工已经将某些人标记为了暗杀对象,对前者而言,后者——尤其是在帕拉玛宝冠站上时,相比于在帕拉玛五号上时更易于接近;同时特工们也在星系防御系统网络(终端)处安放了破坏装置,为进攻做好准备。星系中的监牢巢都则几乎没有得到立刻的关注,该区域远离此次进攻的两个主要目标,它们是最易于解决的目标——每座巢都高度集中的供水系统中都被加入了按时释放的毒素和细菌污染物,准备在被触发投放时引发浩劫。在阿尔法军团迷宫般的计划们进行汇合配置的同时,一个不可见的倒计时表也就形成了,上面的数字无情地倒数向了指定的时间,直到帕拉玛星系耗尽它的时间;到那时,它在大远征关于人类未来的愿景中所扮演的光荣角色也会被盘绕的九头蛇所粉碎。


The Blade from the Dark

自黑暗中而来的利刃

At 019-17 sidereal/local time, approximately thirty-eight days Terran standard after the Dropsite Massacre on Isstvan V. a fleet of eleven Legiones Astartes warships of the Alpha Legion broke realspace on the edge of the Paramar system in proximity to the standard ingress co-ordinates for Imperial shipping en route from Terra. The lead vessel, a Basileus class battle barge designated Sigma-Pythonus in the Astra Imperialis records, made direct communication with the Pharaeon of Paramars central command, invoking the seal and orders of Rogal Dorn, Praetorian of Terra. Demanding rights under these orders of immediate and urgent resupply and aid, the Alpha Legion detachment claimed to have been swept off course by the turbulence of the Warp and separated from the punitive taskforce sent to Isstvan V, and its intent was to resume its mission at the swiftest possible dispatch. Its authority accepted, the Sigma-Pythonus and its escorts approached the Pharaeon of Paramar with the apparent intent to make temporary repairs at the fleet anchorage, while a single Bellerophon class heavy assault cruiser, designated Anax-Rho detached from the Alpha Legion fleet and proceeded to Paramar V to requisition additional supplies. No suspicion was raised and no alarms were sounded, as under the flags of brothers-in-arms against a common foe, the Alpha Legion approached their targets, their blades naked in their hands. In the dark at the edge of the light of Paramars three suns, their brothers waited.

登陆点大屠杀事件过去大约38个泰拉标准日后,在当地恒星时间019-17,某支由11艘阿斯塔特军团战舰构成的阿尔法军团舰队在帕拉玛星系的边缘处突入现实空间,它们抵达的地点接近从泰拉前往帕拉玛星系的帝国舰船的入境坐标。为首的舰船是一艘被帝国星际(航行)记录标明为“西格玛—蟒蛇”的君王级战列母舰,它立刻联系了帕拉玛宝冠站的中央指挥处,提及了泰拉禁卫官罗格 多恩的命令和信物。凭着这些命令,该阿尔法军团分遣队要求得到立刻且紧急的补给与援助,它们声称自己是被亚空间湍流冲出了航线,从被派往伊斯特万五号的惩戒特遣队中分离了出来,它们的目的是尽可能以最快速度重新开始任务。在其授权被接受后,西格玛—蟒蛇号与其护航舰队接近了帕拉玛宝冠站,它们表现出了要在舰队锚地进行临时维修的明显意图;同时一条名为“阿纳克斯—罗”的柏勒洛丰级重型突击巡洋舰被从阿尔法军团舰队中派出,它前往帕拉玛五号去征用额外的补给。帕拉玛星系未产生疑惑,他们也并未拉响警报,就像对方是对抗共同敌人的袍泽兄弟那样;阿尔法军团接近了目标,露出了手中的利刃。他们的兄弟们就等待在帕拉玛三颗恒星光芒边缘处的黑暗中。


The Iron Pilgrim

钢铁访客

No plan, no matter how well formulated or executed, escapes the hand of fate in the unravelling of its design. So it was that as the Sigma-Pythonus and its brethren were making their final approach through the Pharaeon of Paramar's defensive corridor, under the shadow of the guns of the colossal void-bastions that surrounded it, and the Anax-Rho itself was within light-minutes of Paramar V, reality ripped open once more, disgorging more vessels into the void around Paramar. These vessels were not of the Alpha Legion and not part of their plan. It is not difficult to imagine the consternation and fear of discovery within the Alpha Legions ranks at this moment, but even as long range auspex readings approximated that these were Legiones Astartes warships , five in number, including a capital class vessel, the Alpha Legion held fast to their plan. They did not break ranks, or attempt to flee from the shadow of the firepower that surrounded them, but instead pressed on as if nothing was awry, merely issuing the standard vox-challenges that such a sudden meeting naturally called for. Pict-images from long-range occular-scopes resolved to display the unknown ships as slab-sided hulking monstrosities of black-scarred steel, the silhouettes of the Imperial pattern hulls barely recognisable beneath layer upon layer of improvised ablative armour plating and flanks studded with fifteen metre long adamantium anti-boarding spines. The Alpha Legions vox-challenge was at last answered with something like indifference. The lead warship identified itself, the Tyches Lament, flagship of the 77th Grand Battalion of the Iron Warriors Legion, and its master, Kyr Vhalen, responded that he cared not under what orders the Alpha Legion flew, only his own...

无论它被制定或执行得多么完美,任何计划也都逃不过命运之手对其设计的拆解。发生在阿尔法军团上的事情也是如此:西格玛—蟒蛇号与它的兄弟们正在通过帕拉玛宝冠站的防御走廊,它们从围绕宝冠站的巨大虚空要塞的火炮阴影下驶过,最终接近了空间站;阿纳克斯—罗号距离帕拉玛五号也仅有几光分之遥;但就在此刻,现实再次被撕裂开,更多舰船冲入了帕拉玛星系周边的虚空。但这些舰船不属于阿尔法军团,也不是他们计划的一部分。此刻阿尔法军团内部对自己被发现这一事感到的惊愕与担忧是我们不难相信的,但尽管远程鸟卜读数近似于五艘阿斯塔特军团战舰(的数据)——其中还包括一艘主力级舰船,阿尔法军团仍旧坚持着他们的计划。舰队并未将队列分散开,也没有试图从那些包围着他们的火力的阴影中逃离,而是继续前进,仿佛一切正常;它们只是按照此类突发性会面的正常要求发出了标准的音频通讯质问。远程观测镜所捕捉到的图像信息显示,这些未知的飞船侧面平坦,是由带着黑色疤痕的金属构成的庞然巨物,船身被挡在了一层又一层临时拼凑的烧蚀装甲板之下,帝国式船体的轮廓几乎无法被辨认出,两侧还遍布着十五米长的反跳帮精金尖刺。阿尔法军团的音频通讯质问最终收到了某些近似于冷淡(言辞)的回答,为首的舰船表明自己是“堤喀哀叹”号,钢铁勇士第77大营的旗舰,它的主人——凯尔 瓦伦回应称他并不在乎阿尔法军团是奉了什么命令,他只在乎自己(的目的)…

A Light Extinguished

熄灭的孤灯

The identity of the incoming warships was entirely unexpected. Though like the Alpha Legion, the Iron Warriors and their brutal Primarch Perturabo had sided with the Warmaster at Isstvan to the ruination of those Loyalists sent to bring the Traitors to heel, no love had been lost between the two brother-Legions in the past and their presence at Paramar at this time was entirely unpredicted. Likely this unforeseen turn of events, coming at such a crucial juncture, was itselfa dangerous complication for the Alpha Legion's plans. Had the Iron Warriors been sent on the same mission as they by Horus in his distrust, and then if this was the case, had they come as aid or as watchdog to see that the Warmasters wishes were carried out? Or were they simply a rogue element to be dealt with as proved necessary? Were these five ships all, or were there more in waiting, just as the Alpha Legion waited? Ultimately, it did not matter, the plan was too far gone to be stopped; events had taken on a momentum of their own.

这些新抵达帕拉玛星系的战舰的身份是阿尔法军团完全未曾预料的。虽然就如同阿尔法军团那样,钢铁勇士及其残忍原体佩图拉博也在伊斯特万星系加入了战帅派系,毁灭了那些被派去击溃叛军的忠诚派部队,但这两个兄弟军团在过去便关系不佳,而且他们此时出现在帕拉玛星系是完全未被预料到的。此种不可预见的事件转折发生在了如此紧要的关头,其自身很可能就是阿尔法军团计划中一个危险的复杂因素。钢铁勇士们也是因不受荷鲁斯信任而被派来执行相同任务的吗?倘若如此,他们是来提供援助的,还是作为监察者来观察战帅的愿望是否得到实现的?亦或他们不过是一群(只)在必要时才要被处理掉的离群分队?这五艘飞船就是全部兵力了吗,或者是还有更多飞船等待在这里——就像阿尔法军团所做的那样?最终来看,这一切都不重要了,因为进攻计划已经走得太远,无法被阻止了;事已至此,势在必行。

Like silent actors in a vast shadow play of gods and monsters against the backdrop of the cold stars, the colossal warships of blackened steel and ghostly azure moved across the void, each to their journeys' end. With equal silence, aboard the Alpha Legion's serpent-scaled vessels, Legionaries in full battle gear and armed for war waited in utter stillness for the order to be given, and shielded capacitors, their caged lightning hidden utterly from the prying auguries of the Pharaeon which swept automatically over them blindly, waited to fire their apocalyptic weapons into sudden life. Through the cyclopean floating chain-cables of the gun bastions the Alpha Legion ships passed; their leader towards the Pharaeon itself and its escorts towards the protected fleet anchorage platforms, their progress patient and measured.

两支舰队以冰冷的恒星们为背景,编排出了一场关于诸神与怪物的宏大影子戏剧,无论是巨大的铁黑色战舰,还是庞大的幽灵般碧蓝色战舰,都如同默剧演员那般穿梭在虚空中,每艘舰船都飞往了自己旅程的终点。阿尔法军团带有蛇鳞装饰的飞船上同样是一片寂静,全副武装的军团战士们完全一动不动,静待命令的下达;(武器系统的)电容器也被屏蔽,宝冠站的占卜仪盲目地从飞船上方自动扫过,却未能检测到被关在其中的(能量)闪电,这些飞船等待着用自己启示录般的武器突然开火的准备。阿尔法军团战舰从炮台构成的巨大悬浮锁链间穿过;领头的舰船驶向了宝冠站,护航舰们则驶向了受到保护的舰队锚地平台,他们的行动进展耐心且慎重。

As the Sigma-Pythonus came to rest in her appointed position mere kilometres away from the Pharaeon of Paramar's outer docking bays, and well within the radius and protection of the battle station's bastion-fortresses, a single unescorted amaranthine-hued Thunderhawk gunship departed her cavernous launch bays and made over to the Pharaeon bearing the Alpha Legions delegation. The figure which descended the gunships ramp to meet the shocked deck officers and Magos who awaited it towered over them, a pale spear was held like a staff of office in its hand, its ornately worked armour glittered like a shimmering sea, the scaled cloak that coursed behind it writhing as if it had a serpentine life of its own. "Alpharius…” went the stunned whisper before him,"It is Alpharius; a Primarch is here among us!'' The towering figure demanded to be taken to the master of the Pharaeon immediately, and it was obeyed. On the deck of the main control Orrey of the Pharaeon of Paramar was the silent Primarch received by the Commodore-Intendant and his command staff, and with them was the Magos-Shipmaster of the fleet anchorage and the Preceptor of Astropaths, indeed no dignitary of the Pharaeon dared decline not the honour of such a dread meeting. It was as they were kneeling in obeisance before this son of the Emperor incarnate that the first alarm-claxons began to sound across the Pharaeon. Before even the first mumbled words of surprise and apology could fall from the Commodore- Intendants lips for the interruption, Alpharius made red ruin of them all.

西格玛—蟒蛇号开始停泊到距离帕拉玛宝冠站外侧对接港仅有数公里之遥的指定位置,进入了战斗空间站堡垒要塞的(开火)半径与保护(范围)之内。同时,一架无护卫的不凋花色泽的雷鹰炮艇离开了战列母舰巨大的发射港,它运载着阿尔法军团代表团前往了帕拉玛宝冠站。一位人物沿着炮艇降下的坡道走了出来,见到了那些等待着他的甲板军官和机械神教贤者们——后者们满脸震惊。来人如同手持权杖那般握着一柄苍白色的长矛,身上华美的动力甲如同波光粼粼的海面那般闪闪发亮,带有鳞片(装饰)的斗篷如同活生生的长蛇那般甩动在他身后。“阿尔法瑞斯…”他面前的人们惊愕地低语到,“是阿尔法瑞斯;一位原体驾临了我们这里!”这位高大的人物要求立刻去见宝冠站的主管者,他的命令被执行了。在帕拉玛宝冠站主控室的甲板上,督管准将和他麾下的指挥官们接待了沉默的原体,一并列席的还有在舰队锚地总管船只的贤者以及星语者导师——事实上,宝冠站的权贵中也无人胆敢拒绝(参与)这次可怖会面的荣誉。就在众人向这位帝皇子嗣下跪行礼时,第一声警报响彻了宝冠站。督管准将和麾下众人尽数被杀,准将在死前甚至没能说出第一句表示惊讶和歉意的来打断警报。

The guns of the Sigma-Pythonus spoke, and too late the Pharaeon of Paramar discovered it had taken a clutch of vipers to its breast. In seconds the fusillade had blinded and crippled the battle stations close range defences, void shield generators were blasted, breaches punched clean through vital systems and the roar of boarding craft and the howl of teleporter shockwaves sounded throughout the beleaguered Pharaeon. At the anchorage platforms, the other Alpha Legion warships too woke to murderous life, their batteries blazing at point blank range as Caestus assault rams and Dreadclaws spat from their launch bays into the flanks of the helpless ships of the Imperial Fleet moored nearby. Confusion reigned as control systems failed; all over the outer defence network, orders were blocked, power systems suddenly died, and targeting data was garbled so that defence batteries fired on their brothers or spent their ordnance fruitlessly into the empty void. Anarchy reigned on the Pharaeon station as menials looked to their masters only to find many of their officers dead, murdered at their posts or poisoned in their quarters. Against the azure-armoured giants that crashed now through the Pharaeons confined corridors, what little resistance that could be rallied was hopeless and savagely crushed. In under an hour all that remained was the bloody work of suppression and takeover. As for the line of drifting gun-bastions in the near void around the Pharaeon, they could do little more than look on helplessly as the station and its anchorages both were systematically taken, their own primary weapons useless against the attackers in their midst, set as they were outward against attack from without not within. The Pharaeon of Paramar belonged to the Alpha Legion.

西格玛—蟒蛇号的舰炮猛然开火,帕拉玛宝冠站这才发现自己是将一条毒蛇拥入怀中,但太迟了。舰炮连射在数秒之内便瘫痪了战斗空间站的近距离防御设施,虚空盾发生器也被炸毁,重要系统也被彻底摧毁。宝冠站陷入了四面楚歌的境地,跳帮艇的轰鸣声和传送冲击波的尖啸声响彻在空间站中。在锚地平台处,阿尔法军团的其他战舰也觉醒进入了杀戮状态,它们的炮塔朝着近距离处的目标喷射出火舌,同时拳套突击艇和恐惧爪也从发射港中冲出,扑向了停泊在周边的帝国舰队的无助舰船们。随着控制系统崩溃,一切都陷入了混乱;整个外侧防御系统的命令都被阻挡住,动力系统突然失效,目标瞄准数据也遭到篡改,防御炮塔不是向着同袍开火,就是将弹药徒劳地消耗在虚空中。宝冠站陷入混乱无序状态,仆役们看向自己的主人,却只发现很多军官都已死去——他们不是被杀死在自己的岗位上,就是在自己的住处被人毒杀。身穿碧蓝色动力甲的巨人们冲过了宝冠站狭窄的走廊通道,守军们绝望地召集起了仅有的一点抵抗,但也都被残忍粉碎了。在不到一个小时的时间中,星际战士们进行的只有镇压和接管的血腥工作。至于那一连串漂浮在宝冠站附近虚空中炮台,它们只能无助地看着空间站和锚地遭到有计划的攻占,这些炮塔的主武器在面对处于自己中间的进攻者们毫无用处,因为他们被设定成应对来自外部而非内侧的进攻。帕拉玛宝冠站属于阿尔法军团了。

Impasse

僵局

Above Paramar V, however, all did not go as accordingly to plan. In geo-synchronous orbit of the Paramar Nexus, the Tyche's Lament and the Anax-Rho vied for position, each determined that the station below should receive their emissaries and meet their demands first, neither backing down. The Mechanicum, for their part, kept cold neutrality as they always did in matters between the Legiones Astartes, and merely awaited the outcome. To the Alpha Legions dismay, the realisation dawned that the Iron Warriors contingent knew nothing of the Dropsite Massacre or even of their Legions siding with the Warmaster. The 77th Grand Company, it transpired, had been operating under its own aegis for more than four decades, conducting a seemingly unending campaign of suppression of the Therikon Wastes region which they had been left to garrison against the numerous xenos species that had made the trackless nebula of the wastes their home. Vhalen, the Iron Warriors commander, had returned to Paramar for resupply as he had done many times before. He was utterly ignorant that his Legion had turned against their Emperor and would not be denied his rights now. Events, however, would not wait for the impasse between the two Legion warships to be resolved.

但在帕拉玛五号的上空,并非一切都在按计划进行。在帕拉玛枢纽站的星球同步轨道中,堤喀哀叹号与阿纳克斯-罗号在激烈争夺位置,双方都认为下面的枢纽站应该接收自己的使者,并首先满足自己的要求,他们互不相让。机械神教则保持着冷漠的中立姿态——他们在关于阿斯塔特军团的事项上一贯如此,只是等待着结果。当他们最终意识到这支钢铁勇士分队毫不知晓登陆点大屠杀,甚至不知道自己的军团站在了战帅一侧时,阿尔法军团感到了诧异。据钢铁勇士第77大营所称,他们已经在自我领导庇护的状态下运作了超过四十年的时间,对Therikon荒原地区进行着一场看似永无止境的镇压战役;他们是被留下驻守在那片区域,对抗将那片无人造访的荒芜星云作为故乡的无数异形种族。就像之前很多次那样,这群钢铁勇士们的指挥官瓦伦这次也是返回帕拉玛星系获取补给。他完全不知道自己的军团已经背叛了帝皇,也不知道钢铁勇士军团现在不能剥夺他的权力了。不过,阿尔法军团并不会等到两艘军团战舰之间的僵局被打破后再去执行自己的任务。

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