hh2节译：费鲁斯 马努斯的牺牲

The Primarch of the Iron Hands Legion was the first to die by violence as a casualty of the Horus Heresy; a loss made more tragic by the fact that it was the hand of a one-time brother and friend that dealt the blow. Since that dark day on Isstvan V, there have been a great many rumours and legends that have grown up around this fateful death, masked as it is by the anarchy and destruction loosed on the battlefield and by the lies of the enemy, whose murderous counter-assault enveloped the Primarch and his bodyguard at the end. As such, concrete facts about the Gorgon's death are difficult to sift from the half-truths, suppositions and outright falsehood that are the natural progeny of all truly great events. What truth can be threaded from this web of fictions is thus: that Ferrus Manus fought relentlessly in the vanguard of the initial drop assault on Isstvan V against the Urgall fortress-line; that he and his Avernii Clan warriors bore the brunt of the Traitor counter-attack from the centre and did not waver, and that the godlike martial power of the Iron Hands Primarch himself was perhaps the greatest factor in this. The Gorgon was strength personified and his armour inviolable it seemed, moreover his fury was unmatched and terrible to behold. It is this last factor that is worthy of particular note; long before Isstvan V ，the savage choler that lurked beneath the Primarch's clenched will was widely known, but before now his cold reason had proved its ultimate master. This was not so at the Dropsite Massacre, the betrayal of his friend and brother Fulgrim in retrospect can be seen to have clouded his judgement and drowned good sense in wrath. So it was that when all but overwhelmed by counter-assault and the betrayal of the Loyalist second wave, it seems to have been the direct appearance of Fulgrim on the battlefield, goading the Iron Hands Primarch, that doomed Ferrus Manus, and those who stood with him, to their ends.

钢铁之手的原体死于暴力，他也是荷鲁斯叛乱中的一名阵亡者。而某个事实则令他的死更为悲惨：他是被自己曾经的兄弟和挚友亲手所杀。从伊斯特万五号上那黑暗的一日开始，就已经有数量众多的谣言和传说围绕这场宿命般的死亡展开，真相被战场上放任的混乱无序与破坏和敌人的谎言所掩盖，当终局到来时原体和他的卫队被敌人们的凶残回击所围困着。所以，从这些半真半假的故事、假想和全然虚伪的编造谣言中筛选出关于戈耳工之死的确切事实是颇为困难的，毕竟它们都会所有真正重大的事件中自然而然地产生。我们能从这张虚构故事的网络中串联出的事实如是：在对于伊斯特万五号世界上Urgall地区要塞防线最初的空降突袭中，费鲁斯 马努斯无情地冲锋在前；原体和他的阿维尼氏族战士们遭到了来自阵地中央叛军反攻的正面冲击，但他们毫不动摇，而钢铁之手原体那宛若神明的军事才能可能是其中最为重要的因素。戈耳工本人即是力量的拟人化形象，他的甲胄也如同看上去那般坚不可摧，而且他的怒火也无可匹敌、难以压抑。最后一项尤其值得我们进行记录的要素是：早在伊斯特万事件很久之前，潜藏在原体那紧绷的意志下的野蛮暴躁脾性便是广为人知的，但在此之前终究还是他冷酷的理性掌握着一切。这这在登录点大屠杀中不复存在，回顾弗格瑞姆——他的兄弟和挚友的叛变蒙蔽了他的判断力，他敏锐的感知力也被盛怒所淹没。所以，当忠诚派们被叛军们的反击和第二波攻势中的背叛所压倒时，弗格瑞姆就像在战场上突然亮相一般，这刺激了钢铁之手的原体，也让费鲁斯和他身边的卫队走向了毁灭的终点。

Though none that stood by the Gorgon in that bloody last stand survived, even the accounts that have surfaced from the lips of the enemy speak of the duel between the two Primarchs in hushed tones of fear and awe. By some accounts the lithe Fulgrim wielded the stolen hammer of Ferrus Manus, Forgebreaker, against him, and in others a hellish sword of strange aspect that laughed and howled as it cut the air, while Ferrus Manus fought with his own strange metal-impregnated hands whose grasp it was known could splinter armoured ceramite like thawing ice and against which the flesh and bone of even a superhuman Primarch could offer little defence. It is said that the duel between the two brothers was both bitter and bloody; the one lithe and lightning quick, striking with the murderous speed and precision of an attacking bird of prey while the other was an inhuman bulwark, a warrior of unbelievable physical strength—indefatigable, relentless and impervious to pain. The two traded blows like thunderbolts, the ground beneath them quaking, the air rent, while around them the warriors of their Legions bled and died. Each suffered wounds that would have killed the greatest of the Legiones Astartes a dozen times over before the end, and neither would yield though the world around them burned. In the end it was Fulgrim who dealt the death-blow to Ferrus Manus and laid the Primarch low. This much is known to history as certain as any other fact of that dreadful battle, but by some accounts this was only achieved by some perfidious trick, or —as many have since come to believe given what was to befall the accursed Primarch of the Emperor's Children later— by the intervention of the Ruinous Powers of the Warp.

虽然当时站在费鲁斯身边与他共同奋战的战士们无一从那场血战中幸免，但即便是那些从敌人的口中拷问出的证词，也都是轻声用恐惧和敬畏的语调所讲述的两位原体之间对决的过程。根据某些证词，矫若惊龙的弗格瑞姆是挥舞着从费鲁斯那里偷盗来的战锤——破铸者与戈耳工决战，在其他证词中弗格瑞姆则是使用着一柄形状诡异的可憎利刃，当刀刃砍过空气时会发出嘲讽和嚎叫；而费鲁斯 马努斯则是依靠自己金属包裹的奇异双手对战自己的兄弟，据说费鲁斯的双手能像融化冰块一样捏碎装甲陶钢，即便是一位超人原体的骨骼血肉也几乎不能抵挡它们的进攻。据说这对兄弟之间的决斗苦涩而血腥：一个是翩若惊鸿、疾如紫电，以猛禽般的谋杀速度和精确攻击对方；另一个则是力拔山兮气盖世，拥有着超人的防御和令人难以置信的伟力——永不止息，不屈不挠，无谓痛苦。两位原体如同雷霆般交手，他们脚下的大地都在震动着，周身的空气都被撕裂开，他们身旁的军团阿斯塔特战士也在流血和死去。两位原体都身受了能杀死最优秀的阿斯塔特战士十数次之多的伤，他们身旁的世界熊熊燃烧着，但在终局到来之前，哪一方都不会停手。最终，弗格瑞姆向费鲁斯挥下了致命一击，砍下了自己的兄弟的头。就像这场可怕战斗中的其他任何事实一样，这在历史上是众所周知，但从某些证言来看，这一切是通过某些不正当的手段实现的，或者就像从那之后很多人所相信的那样——是在亚空间毁灭大能的干预下实现的，而帝皇之子受诅咒的原体之后也将堕落。

Just as falsehoods and myths have grown up around the death of Ferrus Manus, so too have such myths persisted about the fate of his remains. While many believe that the head of the Primarch was presented to Horus by Fulgrim after he was slain, other tales claim that it and the rest of his remains were given as a gift to, or perhaps stolen by, agents of the Dark Mechanicum with the goal of creating their own fearful Legion of twisted Legiones Astartes from his genetic makeup. Others believe that at some later date his body was recovered in whole or in part by his sons of Medusa, while some scions of the Iron Hands quest for it still.

就像虚言和荒诞故事围绕着费鲁斯 马努斯的战死而滋生那样，与他的遗体有关的神话也同样持续着。很多故事相信弗格瑞姆在杀死费鲁斯之后将自己兄弟的首级呈献给了荷鲁斯，其他故事则声称这具遗体被赠予了黑暗机械神教的特工——或者被他们盗走了，他们的目的是要根据一位原体的基因蓝图打造出属于他们自己的由扭曲的阿斯塔特战士组成的恐怖军团。其他的故事则相信美杜莎子嗣们夺回了父亲全部或部分的遗体，而钢铁之手的某些后裔们仍在寻找他。