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hh9节译:冉丹会战

2021-01-22 14:21 作者:机兵苍熊式  | 我要投稿


The Imperium is a fragile sliver of sanity in the void, besieged upon all sides by forces of monstrous dread that are held at bay only by the blood and sacrifice of millions of forgotten heroes. For every crusade trumpeted to the masses as a safe legacy of triumph and glory, like the much lauded victory at Ullanor, there are a hundred dire tales of desperate stalemate with forces malignant beyond mortal ken. Were the populous of the Imperium to realise the dire peril in which they existed in the tenuous days of the Great Crusade then it is likely that the terror would have kept them prisoner on Old Earth, never to reach out for the stars. Of all these hidden threats and dire wars against the unknown, the most infamous among scholars of the forbidden is that of the Rangdan Campaigns.

人类帝国是悬浮在虚空中的脆弱理智条带,它被骇人的恐怖之物所环饲着,能将这些强敌隔绝于国门之外的,只有数以百万计被遗忘英雄付出的鲜血与牺牲。对于大众,每次远征都被宣扬为关于胜利和荣耀的安全遗产——就像很多人都称赞着乌兰诺的胜利,但(帝国)仍然有一百个关于帝国和某些超越凡俗范围的恶毒力量之间陷入绝望僵局的可怕传说。倘若帝国的芸芸众生意识到这些恐怖的祸患就曾存在于飘渺的大远征岁月中,可能恐惧便会将他们囚禁在旧地球上,永远也不向群星进发。在所有这些隐藏的威胁和对抗未知敌人的恐怖战争中,有一项事件在那些被遗忘的学者当中最为恶名昭著——冉丹战争。

These campaigns have long been relegated to the footnotes of history, little understood by the common historian save as an obscure reference to a forgotten evil. In reality the wars against the Rangda threatened the utter destruction of all the realms of Mankind, the destruction of His dominion and the butchery of its subjects. More than 80,000 of the Legiones Astartes and uncounted millions of the Imperial Army gave their lives to hold back the hordes of the Rangda and their cohorts,over wars fought across some two decades of the Great Crusade. The Dark Angels stand prominent in the telling of this tale, and it is by their hand that so few details are known, for it was deemed by the First Legion that all knowledge of the Rangda and the wars fought against them should be purged for the good of the Imperium.

冉丹战役已经被降级为史书的脚注很久了,它几乎不被一般历史学家所知,这些脚注是对这些被遗忘的邪恶之物的模糊提及。事实上,与冉丹之间的战争曾对人类的全部疆域造成过彻底毁灭的威胁,人类的领土遭到毁灭,人民遭到屠宰。超过80000名军团阿斯塔特与数百万帝国军牺牲自己来阻止冉丹的族群和军队,这场大远征时期的战争横跨了大约二十年。黑暗天使在这个故事的讲述中有着突出的地位,也正是经由他们之手,人们几乎不知道故事的细节,因为在第一军团看来,为了帝国的利益,所有关于冉丹的知识和对抗他们的战争(记录)都应该被净化抹除。

Much of the fact surrounding those battles has long since been obscured by rumour and invention, with even the true form of the Rangda forgotten. All that remains are a few blurred and indistinct picts of fallen Rangdan warriors and ancient horror stories speaking of towering xenos of monstrous appearance and terrifying intellect. They were conquerors and destroyers whose seat of power lay along the very edges of the galaxy, a race whose foul technology and cruel ambition were a match for that of the Imperium and whose determination to rule over all others threatened to drown the Emperor's dream of empire in blood.

有很多事实围绕着那些长期以来被谣言和虚言所模糊隐晦的战斗,甚至连冉丹的真实形态都被遗忘了。所有的残留物只是少数模糊不清的冉丹战士遗体照片和讲述拥有骇人外貌与恐怖才智的高大异形种族的古老恐怖故事。它们是征服者与毁灭者,势力所在地分布于银河系非常边缘的地区,这支异形种族拥有能与帝国相匹敌的污秽科技和残酷野心,它们决心统治其他所有种族,威胁要把皇帝的帝国宏梦淹没在鲜血中。

It is beyond the scope of this volume to address the full impact and devastation wrought during the campaigns that would see the eventual extinction of the Rangda, though perhaps future works may address this omission. However, considering the integral role of the First Legion in the events of all three Rangdan Campaigns, it seems appropriate that the base facts of the fighting be presented here, at least in brief. 

写出见证了冉丹最终灭绝的那些战争期间造成的所有影响和毁灭就超出了本书的范围,但在后续内容中可能会写出这些被省略的内容。不过考虑到第一军团在所有三次冉丹会战中都是不可或缺的角色,在这部分至少简要地介绍战斗的基本事实似乎也是适当的。

The wars fought against the Rangda number three in total. The first of these campaigns, the assault and destruction of Advex-mors in 839. M30, is most probably the first encounter between the forces of the Emperor and the Rangda, and has been covered elsewhere in this treatise in some detail. Advex-mors would later be discovered to be little more than a small outpost of the Rangdan empire, a minor station at the edge of their domains. In the aftermath of the Imperium's assault, the Rangda paused in their conquests elsewhere to turn their eye back upon Advex-mors and the surrounding systems, now swarming with the Imperium's colonies and fleets. The victory at Advex-mors, despite the steep price paid to secure it, would prove to be little more than the prelude to the true assault.

对抗冉丹的战争总共有三次,第一次是发生于839. M30的Advex-mors世界的进攻和毁灭,这最有可能是帝皇的部队与冉丹之间的第一次遭遇战,本书已经在其他部分已经进行了详细描述(机仆:hh9战史部分)。帝国之后将会发现Advex-mors不过是冉丹帝国一个不起眼的前哨而已,一座位于他们领土边境的次级哨站罢了。在帝国进攻之后,冉丹暂停了它们在其他地方的政府,将目光转回到Advex-mors和周边的星系——这些地方现在蜂拥着帝国的殖民地和舰队。帝国在Advex-mors的胜利——还要不考虑为了攻取它而付出的高昂代价,将会被证明不过是真正进攻前奏。

In 862.M30 the Rangda returned to Imperium space, marking the start of the second Rangdan war. They came not with a single small fleet, but with a vast armada comprising thousands of vessels as well as over a dozen war-moons, a force of might far exceeding that of the small garrisons and Expeditionary fleets in the area. They struck the northern fringe of the Imperium like a thunderbolt, annihilating the fleets set in defence over the fledgling colonies and forcing their colonists into neural shackles. It was only by the efforts of Expeditionary fleets under the banner of the Vth and XIXth Legions that the tide was delayed long enough for Imperial forces to rally, and the price they would pay to buy this respite was staggering. Making a stand at the isolated Forge World of Xana, the combined forces of the Vth and XIXth Legions fought a bitter holding action for eight months at a cost of 3,000 of the Legiones Astartes and many hundreds of thousands of Mechanicum thralls. The siege of Xana would be broken by the furious onslaught of the Dark Angels and Death Guard, shattering the Rangdan blockade and cutting a path through the slave cohorts on the surface to once again open up the forge as a beachhead for the Imperium's counter-attacks.

冉丹于862.M30返回了人类帝国宙域,这标志着第二次冉丹战争的开始。随它们前来的并非是一支单独的小型舰队,而是由数千艘战舰和超过一打的战斗月亮组成的庞大无敌舰队,其力量可能远远超过了当地的小规模帝国驻军和远征探索舰队。它们如雷霆般袭击了帝国的北部边境,歼灭了在此处保卫新建殖民地的舰队,迫使殖民者接受神经束缚。全靠第五和第十九军团麾下远征探索舰队的奋战这波攻击才被拖延,时间长到足够帝国部队集结,但帝国将为这份拖延付出令人难以置信的代价。第五和第十九军团组成的联合部队在偏远的铸造世界Xana设置了立足点,联合部队进行了一场艰苦的阻击行动,牺牲了3000名军团阿斯塔特和多达数十万之众的机械神教仆役兵。黑暗天使和死亡守卫狂怒猛攻打破冉丹对于Xana的围困,他们撕碎冉丹的封锁,在星球地表的奴隶兵团中撕开一条通路以再次开启铸造厂,为帝国的反攻建立滩头阵地。

What would follow was more than two decades of war, millions upon millions of deaths, 19 inhabited systems laid waste and a ban on further expeditions past the exclusion posts on Endyris and Morox. Before the crisis was declared ended, contingents from nine separate Legions would become embroiled in the fighting, with more than 300,000 Space Marines being deployed at the height of the conflict during the climactic assault on Taxal. Due to the widespread nature of the campaign, the battle honour goes to no single warlord, though three of the Primarchs were known to have led their troops into battle against the Rangda. Despite this, the Primarch of the Dark Angels is widely held to be the foremost commander of the war.

随后便是超过二十年的战争,千百万人的牺牲,19个定居星系化为废土,而且帝国禁止(任何人)越过Endyris和Morox上的废弃哨站进一步探索。在这场灾难被宣告终结之前,来自九个分散军团的分遣队将被卷入战斗,而在进攻Taxal世界的战斗高潮,将有超过300000名星际战士被部署。由于这场会战涉及甚广,战斗荣誉无法归属于单独的某位战争领主,不过已知有三位原体率领他们的部队参与了对抗冉丹的战争,除此之外,黑暗天使的原体被广泛推举为最重要的战争指挥官。

The last known battle of the second Rangdan campaign is thought to have occurred in 882.M30, a chance encounter with a battered Rangdan fleet, a broken remnant of the vast armada that had challenged the Imperium and lost. At the time the truth of the Rangdan campaign, of the slaughter endured and how the Imperium had teetered on the brink of ruin, was concealed. Those worlds tainted beyond recovery were abandoned and the surviving veterans sworn to silence or eliminated, for it was deemed necessary that the Rangda must vanish if the Imperium was to rebuild. Much of its legend would come later, the invention of Remembrancers and ideologues eager to promote the glory of the Great Crusade, and was composed of as much fiction as fact. For most this marked the end of the wars with the Rangda, an end to one threat among thousands. A simple, if bloody, way marker in the Great Crusade's inexorable path.

第二次冉丹会战中的最后一场已知战斗被认为发生于882.M30, 这是一场与遭受重创的冉丹舰队之间的意外遭遇战,它们是那支挑战人类帝国且失败的冉丹无敌舰队破碎残余。在当时,那些关于冉丹会战、持续性屠杀以及帝国如何在毁灭的边缘摇摇欲坠的真相都遭到了掩盖。那些被污染到无法回收的世界遭到了遗弃,幸存老兵们发誓保持沉默或者清除记忆——因为如果帝国要进行重建,就必须要灭绝冉丹,这被认为是必要的。它的大部分传说都会在以后出现,记述者和理论家们的虚构故事热衷于推广大远征的荣誉,而这些故事则半真半假。对大多数人而言,这标志着帝国与冉丹——数千个威胁当中的某一个之间战争的终结,大远征不可阻挡的道路上某个简单却血腥的路标。

The third and final Rangdan war, more commonly known as The Rangdan Xenocide, is little known and in many histories completely absent. It was conducted under the orders of the Divisio Militaris by the combined forces of the Dark Angels and Space Wolves, the final and irrevocable solution to the threat of the Rangda. That great and terrible race had been sorely wounded by their losses in the second war with the Imperium, but not vanquished. They had returned to their ancient home worlds, and there, nourished by hate and a dark hunger, they had grown strong once again. By chance those nests were discovered by a roving Company of White Scars after the lifting of the edict of exclusion in 887.M30, news the sons of Jaghatai brought to the courts of the Lion and the Wolf. Those two, often antagonistic, warlords were united by the same bleak purpose, for if the Rangda still lived, they must be swiftly and utterly destroyed lest they rise again and ignite another great war. Together they and their Legions visited hell upon the remaining Rangda, scouring their last worlds clean from orbit and then descending to verify the termination of every hive and fortress with blade and flame.

第三次也是最后一次冉丹战争更常见的叫法是冉丹异形灭绝战,它罕为人知,而且在很多史书上是完全不存在的。在军务庭的命令下,黑暗天使与太空野狼军团的联合部队执行了这次作战,它们一劳永逸地最终解决了冉丹威胁。这个强大且恐怖的种族因在与人类帝国的第二次战争中遭受的损失而元气大伤,但它们并未被彻底击败。它们返回了古老的母星世界,而且它们在那里得到了仇恨与黑暗贪婪饥饿的滋养,再次变得强大起来。887.M30,一支白疤巡游连队在禁令解除后偶然发现了这些隐匿巢穴,察合台子嗣将这些消息带往雄狮和狼王的议厅。这两位经常敌对的战争领主为了同一个灰暗目标而携手合作——因为如果冉丹仍然或活着,它们就必须被快速且彻底地毁灭,以免他们再度崛起并引燃另一场大战。两位原体还他们的军团共同找到了Randa世界上剩余的冉丹巢穴,从轨道上清理冉丹最后的世界,之后他们降落到星球上,使用烈火和利刃确保每座巢城和要塞都被终结。

This last campaign was no war, but a brutal and one-sided extermination. Neither Russ nor the Lion held any illusions of tawdry chivalry to stay their hands, and they took a savage and final satisfaction in the utter annihilation of every last warrior and worker of the Rangdan breed. In the space of a year the galaxy was wiped clean of the Rangda, their last fastnesses torn down and all traces of their works brought to ruin. The world of Rangda, once a vast and hideous city, was left as little more than plains of fractured glass formed from atomic fire, and became the site of a chantry house of the First Legion, home of the Order of Broken Claws, the keepers of the last set of codices that detail the Rangda and their weaknesses. This was the end of both the Rangda and the campaigns against them, a quiet and undignified slaughter undertaken with the stoic determination that was the hallmark of the two rival Primarchs of Caliban and Fenris. If any of the xenos breed known to the Imperium as the Rangda survive, in some far flung outpost beyond the edge of the galaxy then they have not returned to seek their vengeance, but the sentinels placed by the First Legion still watch and wait, and should they falter in some distant future where the Legions have ceased to be, I fear for the Imperium.

最后的战役并非是一场战争,而是残酷的单方面灭绝屠杀。鲁斯和莱昂都未让任何关于骑士精神的俗气幻想困住自己的双手,彻底灭绝冉丹族群中最后的最后一名战士和工人令他们获得了野蛮且终极的满足感。在一年的时光中,人类把冉丹从银河系里抹除干净,摧毁了冉丹最后的堡垒,将冉丹的所有造物化为废墟。Rangda世界曾是一座巨大且丑陋的城市,但现在只剩下被原子火焰焚化后形成的破裂的玻璃平原,它成为了第一军团某座礼拜堂的所在地,断爪修会的母星——该修会是最后一套详细记录着冉丹及其弱点的手抄本资料的保管者。这便是冉丹与冉丹会战的终局,来自卡利班和芬里斯的两位互相竞争的原体都被打上了一个标记:安静且不择手段屠杀者,而且有着坚韧的耐心。即便帝国所知的任意某些异形种族就是幸存于银河边境之外的某些前哨的冉丹族群,它们也未曾回来寻仇,不过第一军团设置的哨兵们仍在监视和等待。不过他们是否会在军团不复存在的遥远未来中发生动摇,我为帝国而担忧。

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