《帝国战术》节译：Naxos世界之战（1）

NAXOS (FORMALLY 88-B-N-7) is a non-virile, mineral-wealthy world, one of the outer planets circling the star 88 beta Naxos in the Coreward region of the Reef Stars (Tarsal/Scorpis 347-23), proximal to the Mandeville Point at 46 Gemos. First identified in M37 during the sixteenth voyage of the rogue trader Benefico Lazale, the system was recommended by him for mineral exploitation, but such development only began in 561.M38, under the authority and benefit of the Governor Subsector at Tarsal. At this time, speculative prospector out-posts were established on four of the system's worlds, but within a decade the world now known as Naxos had been revealed as the most resource rich, the other outposts shut down, and all development work concentrated on Naxos itself. It was then that Naxos adopted its name from its local star, being the most prominent in the planetary group. 

NAXOS (正式编号88-B-N-7) 是一个无生态系统但矿物资源丰富的世界，是环绕暗礁群星（跗骨/天蝎星座347-23地区）核心区域的恒星——88贝塔的外环行星之一，位于恒星46格莫斯曼德维勒点的近端。行商浪人贝内菲科 拉泽雷在其于M37的第16次远航探索中确认该世界，他推荐对该星系进行矿产开采，但帝国到561.M38才开始对该星球进行此类开发，由位于Tarsal的次星区总督对其进行管理并从中获益。在这一时期，帝国在该星系的四颗世界上建立了试探性的勘探前哨，但在不到十年的时间中，目前被我们称为Naxos 便被发现拥有最为丰富的资源，于是其他前哨被关停，所有开发作业都集中于Naxos本星。之后Naxos世界采用了其当地恒星的名称，成为了该行星群中最重要的行星。

Naxos is abundant in several rare inner transition metals, including Xygnite, from which the adamantium analogue Temperine can be alloyed, and Phlogesthene, a vital component in the manufacture of heat sinks and the ignition rings of plasma weapons. By 589.M38, the prospector outpost on Naxos had been uprated to a mining station (Grade B1- [a]), in which capacity it continued to develop and prosper until 217.M39, when it was awarded a colonial charter and the mining station received the designation Naxos Colony One.

Naxos富含多种稀有的内部过渡金属，其中包括西格尼特金属——其可用于合成精金类似物帝姆伯因合金，以及菲洛戈森金属——其是制造电浆武器点火环和散热片的重要成分。等到589.M38，Naxos上的勘探前哨已经升级为采矿站（采掘站B1- [a]），其也凭借采矿能力不断发展繁荣。等到217.M39，此地被授予殖民特许状，采矿站被命名为Naxos一号殖民地。

Despite its remote location, Naxos Colony One fared well for many centuries, and proved to be one of the subsectors most lucrative outholdings. Twice - in 580.M39 and 341.M40 - the colony's governor petitioned for a second colonial charter to be issued, as the workforce influx drawn by the expanding mining operations threatened to outstrip available habitat development. Indeed, around 580.M39, work began to prepare a second colony site a thousand kilometres west of Naxos Colony One. However, in both instances, the charter was denied due to fluctuating economic pressures in the region. At its height, circa 340.M40, Naxos Colony One's population approached three and a half million Imperial citizens, but this figure had declined, by the time of the action in question, to around four hundred thousand. 

尽管位置偏远，但Naxos一号殖民地也经过了数个世纪的良好发展，并被证明是次星区中最为有利可图的地区之一。在580.M39和341.M40，殖民地总督曾两次请求帝国下发第二张殖民地特许状，因为不断扩大的采矿活动吸引了劳动力涌入，人数可能会超过现有的宜居地开发水平。事实上，大约在580.M39，人们就在Naxos一号殖民地以西1000公里处开始了第二块殖民地的准备工作。然而，在这两起事件中，由于该区域的经济压力波动不定，殖民特许状均被否决。在高潮时期——大约340.M40，Naxos一号殖民地的人口接近三百五十万帝国公民，但是到行动开始的时候，这个数字已经下降到了四十万左右。

In the five decades leading up to the events under consideration in this account, the prosperity of Naxos had begun to fall off due to dropping productivity. Mineral reserves were worked out, and the commercial production of Xygnite had effectively ceased by 785.M41. Furthermore, the vast mineral reserves in the Quardes Belt (Tarsal/Opus 960-47) opened up in 690.M41 had swiftly become the region's principal provider of the ores and metals that had made Naxos viable for so long. By 811.M41, Naxos was a colony in a slump.

在本报告中所述事件发生之前的五十年里，由于生产力的下降，Naxos的繁荣开始衰落。矿产资源被耗尽，西格尼特金属的商业生产实际上在785.M41已经停止。另外，Quardes环带（跗骨/欧普斯星群960-47）上的大量矿物资源也于690.M41被开拓出，其渐渐成为了该地区矿石和金属的主要提供方——Naxos能存在如此之久就是因为提供了这些资源。到811.M41，Naxos已经是一块处于衰落中的殖民地。

The remote nature of Naxos's location had also worked against it over the years, as the colony lay vulnerable to periodic dark eldar raids. The entire region was prone to such hit-and-run attacks, and on occasion whole colonies in the zone had been wiped out (cf. Gaudae 9, 55 Trieste, Sycor Outflung). During its comparatively long, robust history, Naxos Colony One suffered thirty-nine raids, the most significant ones being in 476.M40, when eight thousand citizens died in a four-week campaign, and 520.M41, when the colony was besieged and two of the mining complexes destroyed. Estimates vary, but it is possible that as many as a hundred thousand Imperial subjects have been killed on, or abducted from, Naxos since records began. 

多年来，Xaxos偏远的地理位置也对其产生了不利影响，殖民地在面对黑暗灵族的周期性掠夺时是脆弱的。整个地区都易于遭受这种游击进攻，在某些情况中，区域内的整个殖民地都会被抹除（参阅Gaudae9世界事件, 此地环绕55Trieste恒星,处于Sycor外延区）。在其相对漫长且残酷的历史中，Naxos一号殖民地遭受过39次掠夺，其中最严重的一次发生于476.M40，八千名平民死在了一场为期四周的战役中；在520.M41，殖民地遭到围困，采矿综合体中有两座被毁。尽管估计各不相同，但自有记录以来，有多达10万名帝国公民在Naxos被杀害或被绑架

In 811.M41, there had been no dark eldar predation in thirty years. 

等到811.M41，Naxos已有三十年未遭受过黑暗灵族的猎捕。

THE RAID LASTED for five hours. A force of approximately four hundred enemy warriors, mostly conveyed on light, grav-capable fighting machines, swept in from the mountains on the Rising (west) side of the colony location. As is the habit of these creatures, the assault was fast-moving hit-and-run. The Colonial Defence Force, under the command of Major Gyorgi Fodor, had maintained a programme of strenuously rehearsed attack protocols over the years for just such an eventuality, and responded with admirable speed, However, the enemy moved with shocking swiftness, using the colony's ore processing trenches and transit channels to stay below the firefields of the defence batteries. Fierce fighting broke out in Mass Residential Habs 12 and 13, and in the auxiliary processor plants at the Rising Three Mine. Eighty-nine members of the CDF were killed or injured in these battles, along with over a hundred citizens. A further two hundred and seventy-three citizens perished in the fires that swept through Mass Residence Hab 13 in the aftermath of the raid. This loss was initially blamed on inadequate evacuation mechanisms, but later studies showed that the attackers had deliberately seeded the Hab area with slow burn incendiary devices, and had disabled the fire prevention systems. Only the stalwart efforts of the Falling Firewatch divisions prevented the fire from spreading into adjoining Mass Residence structures, an effort for which they were later recognised with citations. 

掠夺持续了五个小时。组成入侵部队的是大约400名敌军武士，他们大多数都乘坐着轻型的反重力战斗机械，从殖民地上升侧（西部）的山地上冲进来。依照其天性，这些生物进行了一次快速移动的游击进攻。乔治 费多尔少校指挥下的殖民地防御部队多年来一直坚持不懈地演练攻击方案，就是为了防范这种可能性；他们以极好的速度做出了回应，但敌人的移动迅速得惊人，他们利用殖民地的矿石加工壕沟和运输通道躲藏在防御炮塔射击区的下方。12号和13号住宅区以及抬升侧三号矿区的辅助加工厂都爆发了激烈的战斗。89名殖民地防御部队人员和超过100名平民在战斗中死伤，而在突袭结束之后，另有273名公民在席卷13号住宅区集体住宅的大火中丧生。之后的调查研究表明：袭击者故意在住宅区放置慢速燃烧装置，并瘫痪了防火系统。全凭落火监测者们坚定努力，火势才没有蔓延到邻近的群居建筑中，他们的努力后来得到了认可和引用。

In the immediate aftermath, Major Fodor made it plain that the enemy had not been driven off, nor even `withheld'. The CDF had been fighting for survival. The enemy, as ever operating according to the rhythm of some great and secret tide, had simply chosen to remove themselves from the conflict. 

此事之后不久，费多尔少校便清楚地表明敌人没有被赶走，甚至没有被“抑制”。殖民地防御部队要为生存而战。敌人一如既往地按照某种庞大且神秘的波潮的节奏在行动，他们只是选择了从冲突中脱身。

There was little doubt they would return. 

他们将会归来，这点几乎毫无疑问。

THE COLONIAL GOVERNOR of Naxos, Tobin Clauser, issued an immediate state of emergency and placed the colony under the conditions of martial law. Mining operations in all facilities except South Primary were suspended, and extended mine workings were closed down and sealed on the recommendation of Major Fodor. All leave was cancelled, and defence force reserves armed and mobilised from the worker masses. Clauser was a career politician who had risen to power seventeen years before on the back of a process of reforms designed to bring the colony back to previous levels of prosperity. He firmly believed — a belief based mainly on the strength of recent metallurgic assays conducted in the Rising Mountains — that Naxos had a great measure of previously unrecognised mineral wealth. He had been campaigning hard to have the colony's mining charter extended, and to attract new wealth and investment to Naxos. Clauser, who had not seen a primul raid during his office, realised that the day's events — and its probable sequels — might bury the colony's rep-utation for viability forever. He sent an immediate request for aid to the Governor Subsector on Tarsal. 

Naxos殖民地总督——托宾 克劳瑟尔下令进入紧急状态并将殖民地置于戒严令中。除南部主矿区之外，所有设施中的采矿活动都被中止，扩建的矿井也在费多尔少校的建议下被关闭并密封。所有休假都被取消了，防御后备军也动员起工人群体，并将其武装起来。克劳瑟尔是一名职业政客，他在17年前通过以改革令殖民地恢复到以前的繁荣水平而上台。他坚定地相信Naxos拥有大量以前未被发现的矿产财富（这一信念主要基于最近在上升山脉进行的冶金分析结果而产生）。他立刻向Tarsal上的次级星区总督求援。

Two days later, via astropathic channels, Clausen received a response. His request had been refused. 

两天后，克劳瑟尔通过星语通讯收到了回应。他的求援被拒绝了。

The reasons cited by the Governor Subsector for his refusal — a decision made 'with regret' — were simply ones of mobilisation. The five-decade long dynastic wars in the Carillon Group were still raging, and a hot war had recently broken out with the separatist movement on Bracchia. The standing reserves of the Imperial Guard were at full stretch and none could be committed for at least ten months sidereal.

星区总督列举出的拒绝（而且他是“带着遗憾”做出了这个决定）理由仅仅是他无法动员起援军。Carillon星团中长达50年的王朝战争仍在持续，帝国部队最近在Bracchia世界上与分离主义分子们爆发了一场激烈战争。帝国卫队的常规后备军已整装待命，在至少十个恒星月的时间中，次星区都无法派出援军。

It is possible that other issues affected the decision. Rumours had begun to circulate at court, and through diplomatic back channels, that Lord Militant Bower, tired with the seneschalship of the Petal Worlds given to him after the Ondurion Campaign, was petitioning to raise a crusade against the greenskins (a military operation later famously curtailed at the eleventh hour after Bower's sudden death). Bower was a figure of immense influence, and those who backed his crusade call with promises of manpower and support would find themselves in favour at the very highest levels. It would be a pardonable sin to suggest that the Governor Subsector was amassing troop reserves in the expectation of lending them to Bower's build up. In the face of such an enterprise, the fate of a single, small, remote colony was a minor thing. It is also possible that Naxos was considered to be as good as lost already. However, the Governor Subsector's message concluded with the curious suggestion that he was `examining other options'. In his diaries, we learn that Clauser regarded this final phrase as 'an empty promise to save face.' 

这一决定也可能受到了其他问题的影响。谣言开始在宫廷和外交渠道中传播：据称军务领主鲍威尔厌倦了帝国在Ondurion战役之后赋予他的对花瓣世界们的管理职务，正在请愿要发动一场对于绿皮的远征（后来，这次军事行动在鲍威尔死后第十一个小时被褫夺终结）。鲍威尔有着巨大的影响力，那些承诺为他提供人力和补给的人将会发现自己得到了来自最高层的支持。如果说星区总督是在聚集预备队以提供给鲍威尔的事业，这也是可以原谅的，毕竟在如此大业面前，一个偏僻渺小殖民地的命运微不足道。然而次星区总督的信息中提到了奇怪的一点，他声称在“考虑其他选择”。从克劳瑟尔的日记中，我们了解到他把最后这句话看作是“为了挽回面子的空洞承诺”。

But it proved to have more weight than that. Two weeks after the primul attack, a starship translated into geosynche orbit above the colony. 

但事实证明此言非虚。在之前的进攻过去两周之后，一艘星舰进入了殖民地上方的同步轨道。

Tension in the colony was running high. There had been no further raids by the dark eldar, but rumour and alarum had spawned a thousand stories of figures in the hills beyond the colony, of spectres haunting the habs at night, and of children taken from their cots. While it is entirely possible that some of these tales had a basis in genuine dark eldar activity, most of them were the product of overheated, over-stressed imaginations. Though unpredictable in almost every measure, dark eldar raids are often notable for the length of time between assaults, as if the enemy delights in waiting to appear again long past the endurance of any patience or courage. It is as if they attack once, and then leave the victims to stew in their own fearful apprehension, tearing themselves apart with panic and ghastly possibilities. Certainly, in that two-week period, eighteen men deserted, another five were executed for desertion, and twenty-nine citizens were killed or injured in outbursts of rioting or street violence. 

殖民地的居民们极为紧张。虽然黑暗灵族们还尚未进行继续的进攻，但谣言和恐慌催生了一千个关于殖民地外侧山丘上那些人影的故事，这些故事声称亡灵会在夜间于居民区中游荡，孩子们会被从自己的小床上掳走。虽然其中一些故事完全有可能真的是以黑暗灵族的活动为基础，但大多数故事都是头脑过热且过度紧张的人们的想象产物。尽管几乎所有措施都无法对其进行预测，但黑暗灵族的袭击在两次进攻间的时间间隔方面通常是值得注意的，这些敌人仿佛是乐于在对手的勇气和耐心耗尽之后再次出现。似乎他们在袭击过一次之后就会让受害者在自己的恐惧中煎熬，令他们在恐慌和可怕的可能性中自我撕裂。当然，在这两周的时间里，有18人从部队中脱逃，另用5人因当了逃兵而被处决，并有29名平民在暴乱或街头暴力中被杀或受伤。

The arrival of the starship briefly brought the simmering mood in the colony to boiling point. Many believed that this was the arrival of a fresh primul raid. Civil unrest, greater than any seen before, broke out and the CDF had to work hard to contain it. 

星舰的到来让殖民地的恐慌不安情绪达到了沸点，很多人相信这是新一次掠袭的到来。殖民地爆发了比以往任何时候都要严重的内部暴，殖民地防御部队不得不努力控制局面。

Two orbital landers, in formation, left the orbiting ship and descended towards the colony. They made no request for landing rights or descent data. They set down in a slag zone north of the gas separation facility. 

两艘轨道登陆艇离开轨道上的飞船，组成编队朝殖民地飞来。他们没有要求获得着陆权或降落数据，而是降落在气体分离设施北边的矿渣区。

They were Imperial vessels. They were Astartes Thunderhawks. 

它们是帝国载具，而且阿斯塔特的雷鹰炮艇。

FIELDING A FORCE of forty battle brothers, Space Marines of the Legio Astartes Chapter the Iron Snakes had arrived on Naxos. They were led by Brother Captain Trokus. Captain Trokus immediately met with Clauser, Major Fodor and other seniors of the colony. He explained that routine strategic monitoring of the region had brought the plight of Naxos to the Chapter's attention, and they had decided to mobilise a force and step in when it became apparent that no Imperial Guard force was available to reinforce. Trokus would not confirm if the Governor Subsector had contacted the Iron Snakes Chapter house or not. In his own private journal, Fodor speculated that the Iron Snakes had been monitoring astropathic traffic, and had learned of the situation by intercepting the encrypted communiqués between Clauser and the Governor Subsector. This notion, which Fodor sensibly kept to himself, was later cast into doubt by another, perhaps more sinister, possibility. 

抵达Naxos世界的是铁蛇战团的星际战士，他们在此地部署了40名战斗修士。率领他们的是修士连长德罗库斯。德罗库斯连长马上会见了克劳瑟尔、费多尔少校和殖民地其他高级官员。他解释称，战团对于该地区的常规战略监测使其注意到了Naxos的困境，当发现帝国卫队显然无法进行援助时，他们便决定动员一支部队来进行介入。德罗库斯并非说明次星区总督是否联系过铁蛇战团。费多尔在其个人日记中推测铁蛇战团是在监听星语通讯，他们是通过拦截克劳瑟尔与次星区总督之间的加密通讯得知了这个情况。费多尔很明智地未将这一想法透露给他人，该观点后来被另一种或许是更为险恶的可能性所质疑。

Governor Clauser was at once delighted and dismayed. No governor, his colony in peril, would ever refuse the help of Mankind's greatest warriors (though it is pertinent to reflect that Trokus offered no choice in the matter and how does a mortal man begin to refuse a brother of the Astartes?). However, there were misgivings. The first, shared by Fodor and the other officers, was that their own command and control of the situation would be diluted at best, dissolved at worst. The Legio Astartes were autonomous and would answer to no master except their own. In all but the largest engagements, Space Marines operated by their own authority. Whilst respectful of Governor Clauser's status, Trokus's Iron Snakes would expect full cooperation from the colony, and full dispersal command of the CDF and the levies. 

此事立刻令克劳瑟尔总督悲喜交加。没有哪个其管辖的殖民地处于危险中的总督会拒绝人类最优秀战士们的帮助（恰当地说，德罗库斯在此事上与没有提供选择余地，但一个凡人又该怎么拒绝一位阿斯塔特修士呢?），然而其中也有可疑之处。首先，费多尔和其他军官都认为，他们自己对局势的指挥和控制往好了说会被冲淡，往坏了说会被瓦解；阿斯塔特修会是自治的，除了自己的战团长之外，他们不听命于任何主人。在尊重克劳瑟尔总督地位的同时，德罗库斯的铁蛇希望得到殖民地的全面合作，并完全分散对于殖民地防御部队的指挥和征税（权）。

The second concern -and perhaps Clauser's greatest worry - was that the Iron Snakes were not the garrison he had petitioned for. Clauser's simple desire had been for a large, strong garrisoning force that could remain on station at the colony for the duration, for months or even years if necessary, safeguarding the site against any recurrence of the dark eldar activity. Fodor, an experienced and rational man, had advised the governor that any campaign against the primul threat had to be waged using time and patience. The Iron Snakes, like the Astartes of all Chapters, were battle warriors. Their role was to engage and fight in swift, decisive operations. They were too rare, too few, too powerful to be 'wasted' on efforts of fortification.

第二点——或许也是克劳瑟尔最忧虑的一点是，铁蛇战团派出的并非是他所请求的驻军。克劳瑟尔想要的是一支大规模的强悍驻军部队，这样的部队能够在殖民地驻留一段时间，如有必要可以驻扎几个月甚至几年，保护殖民地免受黑暗灵族的反复进攻。作为一名经验丰富且理性的军官，费多尔曾建议总督：对抗任何威胁的运动都必须利用时间和耐心。就像所有战团中的阿斯塔特修士们一样，铁蛇们也是战士。他们的作用是迅速且果断地参与战斗。而且星际战士们也太过稀有和强悍，以至于不能被“浪费”在驻守防御工事上。

The Iron Snakes were not likely to stay on Naxos beyond any immediate flashpoint. 

铁蛇们不太可能留在Naxos上，除非此地有任何马上一触即发的危机。