HH6节译：诺斯特拉莫星区的搜捕（概述）

AT EMPIRE'S END 

帝国的尽头

In 017.M31, hosts of the Emperor swept outwards from Terra in vengeful pursuit of the Warmaster's broken hordes, the first loyal fleets reaching the north-eastern fringes of the galaxy long a stronghold of Legions sworn to the cause of Horus. Composed largely of squadrons from Baal, Ultramar and other Loyalist enclaves, these outriders of what later chronicles would come to call the Scouring, were eager to inflict on the fleeing Traitors the same humiliation they had suffered themselves in the early years of the Horus Heresy. The armada bore a full panoply of those weapons once forbidden from use,rad-phages and virus weaponry of terrible potency, as well as numerous battalions of Legiones Astartes warriors, all honed by the fires of heresy and war to the pinnacle of human skill-at-arms. Such measures were considered barely adequate for dislodging entrenched Night Lords battalions, the VIIIth Legion having had nearly a decade to fortify their domain and no hope of clemency from their brethren in the wake of the Siege of Terra to blunt their determination. 

在017.M31，帝皇的军队冲出泰拉，对战帅破碎的残党进行报复性的追捕，第一批搜索银河东北部边境的忠诚派舰队渴望找到宣誓效忠于荷鲁斯一侧的军团据点。在后世的编年史中，这次行动被成为“大肃清”，前锋部队主要由来自巴尔、奥特拉玛和其他忠诚派飞地的星际战士中队组成，他们热衷于让四散奔逃的叛军承受自己在荷鲁斯叛乱早期所遭受的同样的耻辱。这支舰队携带了全套曾经被禁用的武器:威力恐怖的辐射噬菌体和病毒武器，以及许多个阿斯塔特军团战斗营的战士们，他们经受了大叛乱战火的洗礼磨练，成为了人类中战技最为优秀的战士。但这些手段仍被认为不足以驱散（此地）盘踞此地的午夜领主战斗营们，第八军团耗费了将近十年的时间来加固他们的领地，在泰拉围城战之后，他们没有任何从自己的堂亲兄弟那里获得宽容的希望，这让他们顽抗的决心更为坚定。

Yet despite all intelligence to the contrary, no determined resistance was to be encountered by these fleets. Of the VIIIth Legion only scattered and isolated warbands were diScovered, and none larger than a reinforced company. While these forces fought with all the vicious spite and skill that was to be expected of the Night Haunter's sons, each fought and died alone and unsupported, little more than irritations to the gathered might of the Loyalist armada. Of the great armies they had expected to meet, the fleet, Scouts found only ruined fortresses and the battle-scarred wrecks of VIIIth Legion void craft drifting in space, broken by some unknown force that had taken the Night Lords by surprise and left them dead in its wake. 

然而情报与事实相反，这些舰队并未遭到顽固的抵抗。他们发现的第八军团部队只是分裂孤立的战帮，而且没有一个战帮的规模大于一个加强连。这些部队靠着午夜幽魂的子嗣们应有的恶毒怨念和技艺作战，每个人都孤独且毫无支援地战斗和死去，对于忠诚派舰队集结起来的庞大兵力而言，他们只比惹人厌烦的麻烦强了那么一点儿（根本构不成威胁）。至于他们期待遇到的那支强大军队，舰队的侦察兵们只发现了被摧毁的要塞和漂浮在太空中的伤痕累累的第八军团虚空舰船残骸——某些未知的势力出其不意地击溃了第八军团，并把他们丢在身后等死。

Faced with a worrying enigma, and the possibiliry of some grand deception on the part of the Night Lords, the lords of the fleet withdrew the bulk of their forces to the remote fleet anchorage at Caith Laes. Those forces anticipated in and around the Nostramo sector composed perhaps a third of the expected remaining strength of the VIIIth Legion, and the command officers of the fleet were wary of allowing their forces to be caught in ambush by the Night Lords, long since renowned as masters of such tactics. Instead, an extensive survey of the sector was made by the fleet's Scout elements, a search that would last nearly six months and uncovered no hidden warriors or secret fastnesses, only more mysteries. With no Immediate mlitary threat and the desire for vengeance still Strong within the Loyalist warriors, the fleet departed the Nostramo sector, en route to distant battle zones where Horus’ legions still fought.The final fate of some 30,000 of the Night Haunter's sons was of little import in those fleeting days of optimism and victory, and it is only now, as the enemies of Mankind slowly devour all that was built in our Great Crusade and we seek for all advantages that we may, that questions are asked. 

面对着这个令人担忧的秘密，以及这一切是午夜领主军团设下某些宏大骗局的一部分的可能性，舰队的主官们将部队主力撤回到位于Caith Laes的遥远的舰队锚定点，帝国预计诺斯特拉莫星区内部和周边的叛军部队可能包含第八军团预期残存兵力的三分之一，舰队的指挥军官们也要提防遭到午夜领主军团的伏击，后者长久以来作为此类战术的大师而著称。于是，舰队的侦查分队对于诺斯特拉莫星区进行了广泛的调查，这次调查持续了将近六个月，但他们并未发现隐藏的战士和秘密要塞，只有更多的谜团。由于不存在当前的军事威胁，而且忠诚派将士的复仇愿望依旧强烈，舰队便离开了诺斯特拉莫星区，前往了荷鲁斯派系军团仍在顽抗的战区。在这些关于乐观和胜利的短暂时光中，大约三万名午夜幽魂子嗣的最终命运变得微不足道。只有到了现在，随着人类之敌缓慢地吞噬着我们在大远征中建立的一切和我们可能寻求的所有进步，这些问题被询问出来。

Many have attempted to solve the riddle of the Nostramo sector, and few have arrived at the same conclusions. Collected here are some of the most revealing treatise from within the sealed archives of great Terra, each based on the fragmentary information that has been recovered from that area of space. Perhaps from the distilled wisdom of these accounts an answer can be divined for the question that still haunts the Divisio Militaris: what Scoured clean the entire Nostramo sector in the dark years of the Horus Heresy？

许多人都曾尝试解答发生在诺斯特拉莫星区的神秘事件，也几乎没有人得出相同的结论。我们在此收录了来自伟大泰拉被封印的档案馆中某些最为发人深省的著作，每一篇都是基于回收自那片宙域中的碎片化信息。可能通过从这些记录出提取出的某些知识，我们能够领悟到那个依旧在困扰着军务庭的问题的答案：是什么在荷鲁斯叛乱的黑暗岁月中肃清干净了整个诺斯特拉莫星区？

This report and those that follow it are but a few of many billions of censored documents sealed within the great archives of Terra. Much information from the dark days of the Horus Heresy and the earliest days of the Scouring that followed has been hidden away and allowed to fade from the sight of history yet in such forgotten scraps can be found glimpses of the true fate of the Nostramo sector. There has been some resistance to its printing as part of this document, but for now the needs of the Divisio Militaris inquiry have superseded the policy of erasing history that has occupied some sects within the Archivists Colleges. 

这份报告已经以及下接的这些材料仅仅是被封存于泰拉的大档案馆中的数十亿份被删减档案的极小部分。许多源自荷鲁斯叛乱黑暗时期与随之而来的大肃清最早期的信息被隐藏起来，并被放任从历史的视野中淡出，而在这些被遗忘的残破记录中，我们得以一瞥诺斯特拉莫星区的真实命运。作为这份文档的一部分，对于其进行打印存在着一些阻力，但现在军务庭的调查需要取代了档案学会中某些派系所固守的抹除历史政策。

This first fragment dates from the arrival of the first of the Retribution fleets, the initial wave of the Scouring that pursued the retreating hosts of Horus across the galaxy. In addition, I have appended some additional information from more standard archival sources for purposes of clarification. While the focus of the Legiones Astartes in this instance was not the same as the inquiry we have posed, the facts uncovered are intriguing in their ramifications. 

第一批碎片化数据是在第一批报应舰队抵达时获取的，最开始的一波肃清是在全银河中追捕撤退的荷鲁斯派系部队。另外，出于解释说明的目的，我也附加了一些来自更为标准的档案来源的额外信息。阿斯塔特军团在此次事件中的关注点与我们的调查中所质询的方面并不相同，但揭露出的真相所导出的结果是令人着迷的。

CARRION BIRDS ALL; RED PINIONED AND BRIGHT-EYED 

秃鹫逐腐肉；赤红之缚与耀目之瞳

When gathered in hand, the various hidden, buried or lost scraps of history make plain a number of causes for the destruction found in the Nostramo sector at the end of the Horus Heresy. Prime among these being the actions of a fleet of Raven Guard turned not to the service of the Warmaster's dire schemes, but rather to a mandate of greed and mercenary intent. 

当把这一切聚合在手中时，各种各样被隐藏、埋没或遗失的历史残片对于诺斯特拉莫星区在荷鲁斯叛乱末期发生的那次毁灭的众多原因进行了解释。其中首要的就是（被流放的）暗鸦守卫舰队的行动：他们并未转而效力于战帅的可怕计划，而是意图成为贪婪的雇佣军。

Full research into the origins of the Ashen Claws fleet notes that they were despatched on-Crusade in 002M31. the commander of the expedition, Praetor Calvus, a Deliverance survivor known for his loyalty to Corax. What fate Praetor Calvus met is unknown, but it is likely that by the return of the Ashen Claws in 011.M31 he had perished. With an original complement of thirteen capital craft, a Score of smaller ships and some 4.000 of the Legiones Astartes assembled from the survivors of the fighting in Akum-sothos, the fleet was a significant force, even assuming that nine years of Crusading had taken its toll on the fleet. ln fact, it is this slow bleeding of resources and manpower over the course of their exile that likely led to the tactics displayed in the few records we have of their actions, all of which seem to have been focused on the acquisition of resources and munitions. 

针对灰烬之爪舰队的全面研究表明他们是在002M31被派出进行远征，这次远征探索的指挥官是军团执政官卡尔福斯，这位拯救者部队幸存者因其对于克拉克斯的忠诚而著称。我们并不知晓军团执政官卡尔福斯的命运，但在灰烬之爪于011.M31回归时，他可能就已经牺牲了。这支舰队包含了最初的十三艘主力舰，二十艘小型战舰和从阿库姆—索萨斯战斗的幸存者中集结起的大约4000名阿斯塔特军团战士，哪怕我们假定耗时九年的远征对这支舰队造成了损伤，这也是一股强大的力量。事实上，资源和人力的缓慢流失可能导致了我们保有的极少数灰爪战团行动记录中所展现的战术：这些战术似乎专注于获取资源和弹药。

However， despite the focus of those accounts we have seen on the actions of the Ashen Claws, it is highly unlikely that they could be the sole cause of the collapse of the Nostramo sector. Indeed, the sources noted point out the other key factors in this end result, those being an influx of xenos attacks as the Imperial presence along the tumultuous borders of the Ghoul Stars waned, and the infighting amongst the fractious and leaderless Night Lords. That these were only exacerbated by the raiding and destruction left in the wake of the Ashen Claws is undoubted. but without these factors it is unlikely that the relatively small number of Raven Guard could otherwise have achieved such success. Indeed，this phenomenon was far from rare throughout the lmperium during the years of the Horus Heresy, innumerable sectors fell silent, some never to be heard from again, and it is likely that many of these were the result of other rogue formations of Legiones Astartes unable to reconcile loyalty to either their Emperor or the Warmaster. 

然而，即便我们在灰爪的行动上看到了这些记录，他们能独自毁灭诺斯特拉莫星区也是极为不可能的。事实上，资料中指出了导致这一结果的其他关键因素：随着帝国在食尸鬼群星边境的出现（次数）减少，对其控制衰弱，该地遭受了大量的异形进攻，不安分且失去领导的午夜领主部队之间也爆发了内斗。而毫无疑问，灰爪在身后留下的掠袭和破坏只会加剧这些问题，不过，没有这些因素的话，数量相对较少的暗鸦守卫部队也不可能取得如此的成功。事实上，在荷鲁斯叛乱时期，这种现象在整个帝国中都远非罕见，无数的星区陷入沉寂，有些（甚至）再也没有被人听说过，其中大多数可能都是其他未能保持住自己对于帝皇或者战帅的忠诚的阿斯塔特浪人部队所导致的。

Whatever the causes, the fragmentation of the Nostramo sector would have dire repercussions for the north-eastern fringes of the Imperium. At the recommendation of the Divisio Militaris, the High Lords of Terra issued an edict declaring the Nostramo sector and those sectors adjoining it a forbidden zone to Imperial craft, save those with special dispensation. The borders of the lmperium contracted and a great swathe of space was abandoned to the ravages of xenos predators and the few scattered bands of rebels that lingered on remote worlds. With the final fate of the Ashen Claws undocumented, it may be that they also lurk somewhere within these forbidden stars. that far from the eyes of the mperium those worlds brought to Compliance by their final Crusade still survive. I wonder perhaps. in the face of the changes wrought on the Emperor's realm in the wake of His hollow victory, if perhaps they chose the wiser course. 

无论情况如何，诺斯特拉莫星区的崩溃都将对帝国的东北边境造成恶劣的影响。根据军务庭的正式建议，泰拉高领主发布了一道法令，宣布诺斯特拉莫星区和毗邻它的那些星区为帝国舰船禁止通行的区域，除了那些拥有特殊豁免权的舰船。帝国的疆域进行了收缩，放弃极长的一条空间，任由该地遭受异形捕食者和少数徘徊在遥远世界上的叛军破碎战帮的蹂躏。灰爪的最终命运并未被记录，他们可能也潜伏在这片禁忌星空的某处，这片区域远离帝国的注视，那些在他们的最后一次远征中归顺于他们的世界也依旧幸存着。我想，与其在帝皇取得他那空洞的胜利后面对帝国所遭受的种种改变，他们或许选择了一条更为明智的道路。