IA12节译：阿玛拉之战（2）
Krieg
克里格
In the days following the initial assault, Amarah Prime had been blasted into a burning ruin and each of the main hives had fallen to the invaders, the Necron hosts taking no prisoners and offering no quarter. Imperial resistance, however, was far from entirely spent, and as the havoc of the initial assault passed, ad hoc formations and rallying points soon formed on the ruins and in areas spared either by accident or design from the destruction that had been visited upon the world. Out on the Karalsa industrial plains, which ranged for tens of kitometres to the west of the shattered ruins at New Vassburg hive, the Death Korps of Krieg were waiting. A late arrival to the muster at Amarah, and with their reputation preceding them, the Death Korps had been deployed to several out-hive areas across the planet well away from the local forces, barrack stations. On the Karalsa plains, the 17th Line Korps had taken over an area of a hundred square kilometres of warehousing and manufactory to house their forces. Finding these structures far less secure than was meted by their doctrine, they had proceeded to exploit the underground utility tunnels that criss-crossed the area, setting their engineers to further expand them to create arms dumps and refuges.
在最初进攻之后的几天中，阿玛拉主星被炸成了一片燃烧着的废墟，入侵者们攻陷了所有主要巢都，死灵大军不留俘虏，也毫无停歇。但帝国的抵抗也远非全然耗尽，在浩劫般的初次进攻过去后，帝国部队很快就组建起了特别的编队和集结点，它们要么是位于废墟中，要么是处于那些被造访了这个世界的毁灭行动所有意或无意放过的区域。克里格死亡军团正等待在Karalsa工业平原上，此地位于New Vassburg 巢城那破碎残骸以西数十千米的区域。克里格死亡军团在阿玛拉集结行动中姗姗来迟，不过他们的名声先行抵达，因此他们被部署到了星球各处的数个非巢都区域，这些地区远离当地的军队和兵营。在Karalsa平原上，第17线列兵团已经接管了一百平方千米的仓库与工厂（区域）来容纳自己的部队。克里格士兵发现这些（建筑物）结构远不如他们的（战斗）信条所要求的那样安全，他们便开始利用起了该区域纵横交错的地下公共隧道，派遣工兵去进一步拓宽隧道，以此建造出武器存储区和避难所。
When the onslaught came, this foresight saw the Line Korps survive almost unscathed by the initial attack and once the firestorm had passed, they emerged from their improvised bunkers in their tens of thousands into the smoking ruins, resolute in their determination to drive back the invaders. The Death Korps first dispersed into the wreckage of the industrial plain, sweeping methodically across the shattered ground, engaging the enemy, linking up with other imperial survivor groups and recovering armour and munitions wherever they could be found. It was Marshal Vinner of the Death Korps who took charge of the battlefield at this point, ordering the execution of several senior officers of the Orphean Guard he considered had failed in their duties and offering others the chance for glorious martyrdom in the front lines. Vennerr's command quickly grew to encompass over two hundred thousand Guardsmen as well as a dozen scratch-built squadrons of attack aircraft formed from a score of decimated formations, now dispersed into smaller groups for their protection and using cleared roadway concourses designed for macrocrawlers as airstrips.
当进攻开始时，正是这种远见令线列兵团几乎毫发无损地活过了最初的攻势，而等到火焰风暴一经过去，数以万计的克里格士兵从临时构筑的要塞中现身，进入了冒着烟的废墟中，他们驱逐入侵者的决心是坚定的。他们首先分散到了工业平原的废墟中，有条不紊地穿行于破碎的场地中，与敌人交战，和其他帝国幸存者团体取得联系并回收自己在任何地方发现的甲胄和弹药。死亡军团的温纳元帅在此时接管了战场，他下令处决了数名被其认为失职的俄尔普斯卫队高级军官，并向其他人提供在前线光荣牺牲的机会。温纳指挥下的部队很快就扩充到超过二十万帝国卫军（的水平），而且还组建出了十数个仓促拼凑起的攻击机中队——这些飞行器来自于数十个被摧毁的飞行纵队，现在它们被分散成了小规模战斗群以保全力量，而且设计用于大型履带爬行车（通行）的道路广场也被清理出来，充当了飞机跑道。
The disciplined Death Korps troops, veterans of such broken battlefields as-Amarah had become, use the shattered cityscapes as cover from which to fight,using every tumbledown ruin as an improvised strong point and concealing snipers and lookouts amid the mounds of the dead. In the days that followed, fighting against the Necron forces was fierce, the armoured bodies of the enemy proving all but impervious to las fire and their implacable war machines preternaturally resistant to most heavy weapons in the Imperial arsenal. The Death Korps however, more than matched their relentless foe with their determination to fight, no matter the odds, and quickly they shifted tactics to a combination of long range indirect bomb with artillery and extreme close assaults, denying the Necron's own long range firepower as much as possible, seeing to overwhelm the foe with sheer numbers and bloody determination.These tactics met with great success, but often came at a very heavy cost in lives. Likewise their combat engineers, skilled in generations of tunnel fighting,used seismic detectors to shield their bunkers and tunnels from the ravening assault of the Necrons Canoptek Scarab swarms,with flamer and melta squads kept in permanent readiness to respond to any sudden incursion from below.
阿玛拉已经变成了一片破碎的战场，而纪律严明的克里格死亡军团正在在此类环境中作战的老手，他们以破碎的城市区域作为战斗掩护，将所有坍塌的废墟都用作临时据点，并让狙击手和瞭望员隐藏在成堆的尸体中。在之后的数天中，克里格士兵与死灵展开了激烈的战斗，敌军的装甲躯体几乎不受卫军们激光枪火的伤害，它们冷酷无情的战争机器对帝国武库中的大多数重型武器都具有不可思议的抵抗力。然而，死亡军团的战斗决心远超过了他们无情的敌人，无论面对怎样的困境都是如此。克里格部队很快便改变了战术，采取了火炮远距离间接轰炸与极端近距离突击相结合的策略，尽可能让死灵的远程火力发挥不了作用，并试图用纯粹的数量和血腥的决意压垮敌人。这种战术取得了重大成功，但通常也会造成极其严重的伤亡。同样地，克里格战斗工兵们精通隧道作战，他们使用地震探测仪进行侦察，保护碉堡和隧道免受墓穴圣甲虫群的掠袭进攻，并让装备了火焰喷射器与热熔枪的小队随时准备应对来自地下的任何突然入侵。
Marshal Venner knew that such gains as his forces had made were at best transitory and with no hope of reinforcements arriving, and with the Necrons in command of much of the planet's surface, it was only a matter of time before hrs forces were isolated, surrounded and destroyed as soon as they were deemed a sufficient threat. Venner decided that rather than see his command bled and destroyed without gain, he would instead attack and pursue martyrdom in the glorious destruction of the Emperor's enemies. All he needed was a target, and he would soon be provided with one.
温纳元帅明白，他的部队所取得的胜利充其量只是暂时的，增援部队的抵达更是无望。死灵控制了星球地表的大部分区域，只要温纳的部队被认为构成了足够的威胁，他们遭到孤立、包围和毁灭只是时间问题。温纳做出了决定，他不会眼看着自己麾下的部队无所作为地遭到血腥屠杀，他将会发起进攻，在消灭帝皇之敌的光荣战斗中献身殉道。他需要的只是一个目标，而且他很快就会得到一个。
Reconnaissance by elements of the Minotaurs Chapter, trapped on the planet's surface during the attack, had determined that in the rubble of New Vassburg hive something alien had manifested in the darkness. Where wreckage had been strewn hours previously, a step-pyramid of strangely-angled green-black stone, riven with veins of pulsing emerald light, now rose up into the night, drawing bolt after bolt of lightning from the troubled skies above to strike its apex and causing it to burn with glimmering ghost fire. Around this pyramid had formed lesser citadels of the same maleficent stone, these being studded with arcane weapons emplacements and strange battlements 一 connected to the main structure by angular trenches filled with glowing fog. Around the pyramid complex the skeletal figures of Necrons moved in tireless patrol and tides of scarabs and other constructs swarmed in and out. dragging a multitude of corpses and wreckage fragments with them to feed the pyramid's hunger. Against thts stronghold of the enemy Marshal Venner ranged his forces for attack,even as intelligence come in from fonward observers of alien stairs being seen in the rent-open storm above the pyramid through which blasted flares of emerald energy that surged its apex with deafening reports. As they moved into position,each of the men of the Death Korps assault brigades knelt in silent ordered ranks, crouching in the rubble and ash, waiting for the call to battle as the alien lightning flashed and flickered shrouded night. Between the ruins in which Death Korps marshalled and the Necron defences lay was a rough kilometre of open ground, blasted flat and scorched, marking the killing zone which they would have to cross to reach their objective. The signal was given at last and the Death Korps rose as one and began to advance across slowly, evenly gathering pace as they left the rubble and entered the blasted ground.
几支米诺陶战团的分队在进攻中被困在了星球地表，他们的侦查（报告）表明：在New Vassburg巢都的瓦砾中，某些异星事物已经于黑暗中现身了。几个小时前还散落着残骸的地方，现在已经出现了一座棱角怪异的绿黑石块搭建的阶梯状金字塔，其上布满了跳动着的翡翠色光纹。这座建筑物现在从黑夜中升起，混乱的天空中射出的一道又一道闪电击中了它的顶部，令其燃烧出闪烁的鬼火。恶毒有害的相同石块在这座金字塔周围形成了较小的堡垒，其上布满了神秘的武器炮台和奇怪的城垛——它们由充满发光雾气的棱角分明沟槽连接到主体结构上。骷髅状的死灵士兵在金字塔复合体周围不知疲倦地巡逻着，成群的圣甲虫与其他构造体在建筑物上进进出出，它们拖着大量的尸体与残骸碎片来饲喂这座饥饿的金字塔。尽管来自前线观察员的情报表明：人们能在金字塔上方的撕裂风暴中看到异星阶梯，伴随着震耳欲聋的爆炸声，翡翠色能量的猛烈闪光涌动在它的顶端，但温纳元帅还是安排自己的部队向敌军要塞展开攻势。随着部队移动进入阵地，死亡军团突击旅中的所有克里格士兵都安静有序地做好跪姿，异星的闪电闪烁在夜幕中，而克里格人们蜷缩在瓦砾与灰烬中，等待着战斗的召唤。在死亡军团集结其中的废墟与死灵的防御设施之间，是一片大致一公里（长）的开阔地带，土地已被炸平并烧焦，克里格人将其标记为抵达目标的过程中必须穿越的杀戮区。进攻信号最终被给出，克里格士兵共同起身并开始缓慢前进，而随着他们离开废墟进入被炸平的开阔地，步伐也在匀速加快。
Immediately the curving arcs of sentry pylons materialised on the walls of the citadels and turned to track the advancing army,arcs of power visibly flaring along the strange Necron battlement,the killing began. Howling beams of blasted great swathes of men from existence, while Tesla cannon spat volleys of lightning that left anything they touched as blazing cinders. Hundreds fell in the first moments but the Death Korps line did not waver in its advance and now, from deep in the ruins behind them, their own guns spoke. Impassively, forward artillery observers had noted the range and disposition of the Necrons' own heavy weapons and marked them for destruction. Venner had ordered that no munitions were to be spared, no cannon left in reserve, and the Death Korps Basilisks and Praetors answered his call with a furious bombardment, sending tonnes of shells into the air to fall like deadly rain on their targets.
弧形的哨兵炮塔立刻出现在了堡垒的城墙上，并且转向追踪着前进中的人类部队，肉眼可见的能量电弧沿着怪异的死灵城垛闪烁着。咆哮着的爆炸光束令大群的士兵灰飞烟灭，同时特斯拉加农炮也喷吐出出闪电齐射，任何被碰到的东西都变成了燃烧的灰烬。在最初的时刻便有数百人倒下，但死亡军团的推进战线并未发生丝毫的动摇，而且他们隐藏在身后废墟深处的火炮现在也轰鸣起来。前线的炮兵观察员们已经冷漠地记录下了死灵重型武器的射程与部署状况，并将其标注为（应被）摧毁目标。温纳下达了命令：动用所有火炮，耗光全部弹药；死亡军团的石化蜥蜴火炮和执政官导弹车则用猛烈的响应了元帅的号召，成吨的炮弹飞入空中，向目标降下一阵致命铁雨。
Instantly the pyramid and its sub-citadels were wreathed in a mantle of flame as hundreds of shells burst against the alien structure. The pyramid flickered for a moment like a mirage on the horizon before becoming solid once again, one of its outlying obelisk towers blasted to fragments in a stream of arcing lightning. Soon, as the bombardment lashed out again, great chunks of black masonry were torn free from the structure and an eerie howl cut across the battlefield, dearly audible even over the thunder of the shellfire. The Necron firepower was quickly redirected upwards, sweeping the skies and blasting apart the shells before they could reach their target, and in the respite the Death Korps pressed their advantage, surging forwards while Venner's tank companies, held back until now, roared forth from the rubble at flank speed through the Death Korps lines towards their objective. As the Imperial troops closed to a few hundred metres, the ground before the citadels burst open, disgorging murderous Canoptek constructs directly into the oncoming Death Korps troops. The huge articulated bodies of the stalkers rose up and tore through the lines, whilst hundreds of smaller scarabs dragged men down, stripping the flesh from their bones. They were met with bayonet and lasgun, flamer and frag grenade, and the Death Korps flowed like a tide around the killing machines while the tank companies entered range and opened fire with their battle cannon into the ranks of the shambling Necron warriors that were beginning to stream from the citadel.
随着数以百计的炮弹炸开在异星人的构造物上，金字塔与它的次级堡垒顷刻间便笼罩在了一层烈焰中。金字塔如地平线上的海市蜃楼那般闪烁了片刻，之后又再次变为坚固无隙（的整体），外围的一座方尖碑高塔则在一阵闪电弧光中被炸为碎片。很快，随着轰炸再次袭来，大块大块的黑色砖石从建筑物上脱落下来，一阵怪异的尖嚎声响彻了战场，这阵声响即便在雷鸣般的炮火轰鸣中也是清晰可闻的。死灵的火力很快就重新瞄准了天空，光束扫过天空，在炮弹击中目标前便将至炸碎；而死亡军团也在这短暂的喘息中乘胜追击，猛冲向前。温纳的坦克连队们之前一直保持原地不动，现在也以最高速率咆哮着冲出废墟，它们穿过了死亡军团的战列线，冲向了自己的目标。当帝国军队距离金字塔只剩几百米时，堡垒前侧的地面骤然张开，直接向着袭来的死亡军团释放出致命的冥工构造体。这些追踪者支起了自己巨大的铰链式躯体，撕穿了克里格人的战列线；同时数以百计的小型圣甲虫也将士兵们拽倒，从他们的骨头上剥下皮肉。克里格士兵则用激光枪、刺刀、火焰喷射器和破片手雷迎战它们，他们如潮水般包围了这些杀戮机器。同时坦克连队们也进入武器射程内，坦克的战斗炮向着步履蹒跚的死灵武士们开火——后者正开始从堡垒中涌出。
On the left flank, a squadron of Macharius Omega plasma tanks unleashed blasts like miniature suns towards the defence pylons; heedless of their overheating cannon in their determination to strip the citadel of its defences. While on the right, Centaur carriers sped forth through a storm of gauss fire, which blasted scores of them to shrapnel in order to deploy their quad launchers as close as possible to the enemy. Thousands fell, tanks erupted into fire and a blizzard of shells was hurled against the black pyramid which began to break and crack, smoke billowing and actinic lightning playing sickly across its splintering surface.
一支马卡里乌斯欧米茄电浆坦克中队在左翼发起进攻，它们用如同迷你恒星一般的电浆团炸向了防御炮塔；士兵们全然不顾火炮过热，一心只想摧毁防御堡垒。同时，半人马运输车们在右翼迎着风暴般的高斯炮火加速冲去，这些运输车想要将自己（拖着的）四管迫击炮部署到尽可能接近敌人的区域，而它们中也有数十辆被炸成了碎片。数以千计的士兵倒下了，坦克爆炸起火，大量的炮弹被抛向了黑色金字塔——后者也开始破裂开来，散发出滚滚浓烟，光化闪电也病态地扭动在他破裂的表面上。
Behind the Imperial lines the companies of troops left behind to defend the artillery position found themselves beset and in a desperate battle to stave off twisted, blade-handed flayers that came for them from the shadows, just as Necron attack craft shrieked from the skies to strafe them into oblivion. The squadrons of imperial Lightnings and Avengers that tore through the night to intercept the lethal Night Scythes of the Necrons were few, but bravely they dove straight into the heart of the enemy squadrons, their weapons blazing in the darkness, each pilot commending their soul to the Emperor and knowing that this would be their final battle.
在帝国战列线的后方，那些被留下保卫炮兵阵地的步兵连队们发现自己遭到了围攻，他们发起了绝望的战斗，试图暂时避开那些身形扭曲且有着刃状手部的剥皮者们——后者是从阴影中向他们袭来，就像那些尖叫着从空中扑下以将他们扫射到湮灭的死灵攻击飞行器那样。由闪电战机与复仇者战机组成的帝国飞行中队穿过夜空，前来阻截死灵致命的夜镰战机；帝国战机数量稀少，但它们勇敢地直接冲入敌军中队的核心处，武器在黑夜中闪烁着火光。所有帝国飞行员都将自己的灵魂托付给了帝皇，他们都知道这会是自己的最后一战。
The die was cast, the battle was held in the balance and there could be no holding back. Already tens of thousands lay dead on the blasted plain before him. but Venner did not falter in ordering forth the second wave. Raising his sword high and leading the charge himself across the deadly ground, the Death Korps filled the battlefield like a living tide of steel and fire, and crushed and toppled the remaining Canoptek Stalkers that barred their path, trampling the scattered scarabs into the earth. The Death Korps reached the outer citadels of the pyramid complex just as their own shellfire began at last to falter, but for the Necrons it was too late, the enemy was already upon them, the human soldiers swarming like ants across the alien fortifications. Surrounded, the Necron Warriors were brought down in murderous crossfires and the machinecreatures were driven back and destroyed one by one. as for every Krieg the Necrons slaughtered, a dozen more took their place. Everywhere across the structure breacher charges were slammed into place and melta bombs were hurled into energy conduits and cracks in the armoured edifice. The violent detonation of the black pyramid blinded onlookers five kilometres distant and carved an ash-white crater out of the wasteland that was clearly visible to vessels in orbit above the battle-savaged world.
战况木已成舟，参战双方陷入僵局，局势也无可挽回。已经有数万名士兵战死在了温纳面前的平原上，但他毫不犹豫地下令进行第二波攻势。元帅高举起自己的佩剑，亲自率领部队冲过了这片致命的战场，死亡军团部队遍布在战场上，如同钢铁与火焰组成的活生生潮水一般。他们击倒并碾碎了那些挡住道路的剩余冥工追踪者，散落在各处的圣甲虫也被踩进了土中。就在他们自己的炮火最终开始减弱时，死亡军团也抵达了金字塔复合体的外侧堡垒处；死灵的反击则太迟了，敌人已经扑向了它们，凡人士兵如同蚂蚁那般向着异星防御工事各处蜂拥而去。死灵武士们遭到了包围，它们被凶猛的交叉火力击倒，克里格士兵击退了这些机械生物，并将其一个接一个地摧毁掉。每当有一名克里格人被死灵所杀，便有十数人冲上来接替他的位置。在结构体的每一个地方，破坏者炸药包都被投放到位，装甲巨厦的裂隙和动力管道中都被丢入了热熔炸弹。黑色金字塔的猛烈爆炸使五公里外的旁观者都双目失明，并在荒原上挖出了一个灰白色的巨坑——位于这个饱经战火蹂躏的世界轨道上的飞船（的人们）都能清晰看到这道痕迹。
Although elsewhere the Imperial detenders also saw degrees of success, holding off if not repelling the invaders, the Necron invasion had been murderously effective. Each of the three major hive cities was in ruins, the planets principal star port was overrun and its keystone defence facilities had been reduced to rubble. The death toll had climbed into billions and Amarah Prime burned.
虽然帝国守军们在其他区域也取得了一定程度的成功，即使不能击退入侵者也能将其抵挡住，但死灵的入侵行动仍然是极其有效的。三座主要巢城全部化为废墟，行星的主要星港被攻占，其关键的防御设施也被化作瓦砾。死亡人数已经攀升到了数十亿，阿玛拉主星也在熊熊燃烧。
