HH4节译：Manachean联邦战争（2）
Treachery at Port Maw
巨口港上的背叛
The situation in the Port Maw system was one of extreme and ruthless order holding back a tide of chaos. The shell of the great artificial planetoid on which the vast naval base and void-forges had been built was choked by a swarm of vessels, both mighty and small, from a score of battleships girding themselves for war, to dozens of cruiser squadrons, countless hundreds of escorts, and thousands of servitor-drone tenders, victuallers and supply ships, troop transports and orbital lighters—all about their own business as the entire system stood on a state of high alert. In grim alliance, reinforcing fleets had come from the east, dark bronze warships bearing the fiery lantern-sigil of the Agathean Domain, one of the most isolated of all the Imperium's clusters of civilization, lean pirate-killers from the Cerada Nebula and a trinity of huge storm-grey war-arks from the Mechanicum Forge World of Cyclothrathe, void-automata scuttling across their hulls like macabre insects. Into this morass of vessels, before the border fell silent, had also come the refugees from the storm. Some had been mercantile vessels, others great livestock conveyors or ore transports, fleeing from a dozen different systems under threat or under direct attack, and others were warships, the ragged survivors of the battles in the Cyclops Cluster and a handful had fled from as far afield as the murderous void battles at Isstvan, but of these no Space Marine vessels remained long at anchor. Of this flotsam of war, most had been mauled by the enemy or driven past any safe operational ability in the desperate flight to reach safety, and all required aid and assistance of some kind. Some even had arrived in such a parlous state that they had to be scuttled or set to drift at the system's edge so they posed no danger to the vortex of ships that swirled around the port station.
在巨口港所处的星系中，极端且无情的秩序阻挡了一波又一波的混乱。其上建筑有巨大海军基地和虚空铸造厂的大型人造小行星的外壳上停满了大小各异的飞船，从二十艘（左右）整装备战的战列舰，到几十支巡洋舰中队，数以百计的护卫舰，以及数百艘由机仆驾驶的货物供应船、食品运输船、补给舰、运兵船和轨道驳船——整个星系都处于高度戒备的状态，所有人都在进行着自己的工作。增援舰队从东部区域赶来：来自全帝国最孤立的文明星群之一——Agathean统治域的暗青铜色战舰，其上还带有统治域的纹章：燃烧着的提灯；来自Cerada星云的海盗杀手舰；还有三艘来自机械神教铸造世界Cyclothrathe的风暴灰色巨型战争方舟，虚空机兵像恐怖的昆虫一样在船体上疾走。在边境区域陷入沉寂之前，那些从亚空间风暴中逃离的难民船也汇入了这片舰船的沼泽。其中一些是商船，另一些是大型牲畜运输船或矿石运输船，它们逃离自十几个受到威胁或直接攻击的不同星系。还有些飞船是战舰，它们船身破烂，是独眼巨人群星战斗中的幸存者，也有一小部分是来自遥远的伊斯特万星系，它们是从血腥的虚空战斗中逃出生天的，但并没有星际战士的舰船在此长期停泊。在这些饱经战火摧残的舰船中，大部分都遭到过敌军的袭击，或者是在逃往安全地区的绝望战斗中绕过了所有安全操作，所以飞船都需要各种类型的急救和协助。有些飞船甚至是在极其危险的状况下到达此地，以至于巨口港当局不得不将其摧毁或让它们停泊在星系的边缘地带，这样它们才不会对港口空间站周围盘旋的船只造成危险。
This hurricane of vessels, with its bewildering complexity and ever-shifting maze of hazards, was far too great a burden than any merely human mind could bear, and control of the vast armada was channelled through Port Maw's Mechanicum Astra Control Panopticon. This powerful broadcast tower, ten kilometres high, jutted spike-like from Port Maw’s southern pole. From here fleet orders and beacon signals were relayed, navigational co-ordinates checked and rectified, and centrally controlled cogitator- maintained data directly fed into the helms of the ships under the Port's watch, so as to swiftly reorganise their patterns and avoid collision. This system could, of course, be swiftly overridden by the ships themselves, but still represented a terrible vulnerability and so the Panopticons control frequencies had been proofed against treachery by a complete replacement of cyphers and encryption-djinn following the reveal, first of the Warmaster's treachery, and then changed again with panicked haste after the double blow of yet more betrayal at Isstvan V.This had been of even greater concern as a significant portion of both the Raven Guard and Iron Warriors fleets had made layover for resupply at Port Maw on their way to what would become the Dropsite Massacre, and both had been fully updated on the Port's codes and deployment schedules. All of this was deemed compromised and once again swiftly replaced wholesale and, due to this, the Port Maw void augury and geas-overide systems were then believed by the Armada Command to still be impregnable against outside influence. Indeed, perhaps they would have proved so, except that the spider at the heart of this vast web, the Archmagos- Astral Leit Mercuric, cyber-ordinator of Port Maw, was already secretly sworn to Horus.
（处理）这些巨量且庞杂的舰船，以及它们运作时那令人困惑的复杂性和如不断变化的危险迷宫般的队列，远非是普通凡人所能承担的重任。控制这支庞大舰队的是位于巨口港的机械神教星际控制圆厅。这座功能强大的广播塔足有十千米高，像根钉子一样从巨口港的南极伸出。这里转发舰队指令和（导航）灯塔信号，检查和矫正导航坐标。这座塔会集中将沉思者保存维护着的数据直接输送到巨口港监视下的舰船的轮舵，这样就能迅速重组舰船的（行驶）模式并避免发生碰撞。当然，舰船本身也能快速超驰这套系统，这是一个可怕的弱点。所以当战帅战帅第一次露出自己背叛的獠牙之后，控制圆厅就用密码和加密鬼灵完全替换了控制频率；当荷鲁斯在伊斯特万五号做出更多背叛之举，对帝国进行双重打击之后，控制圆厅再次惊慌失措地匆忙更改了密码。由于在前去参与被后世称为“登陆点大屠杀”事件的途中，暗鸦守卫和钢铁勇士的军团舰队都有很大一部分在巨口港进行过短暂停留以进行补给，两者都完整地更新了巨口港的密码和部署时间表，因此巨口港当局对这一情况进行了更为密切的关注。（于是）所有这些信息都被认为会令巨口港陷入危机，巨口港再次对其快速进行全面替换，舰队指挥部由此相信：巨口港的虚空鸟卜仪和指令覆盖系统在应对外部影响时仍是坚不可摧的。事实上，或许这些装备和系统会被证明是可靠的，但身处这张巨大网络核心处的那只蜘蛛——巨口港的智控网络协调官、星辰大贤者雷特 梅尔库里克已经秘密宣誓效忠于荷鲁斯。
The Web of Deceit
欺诈之网
Under the hand of the treacherous Archmagos of Port Maw, a fiendish web of conspiracy and malevolence had been forming and its strands stretched far and wide across the Manachean Commonwealth and its worlds, and out to the dominions of Agathon and the dual suns of Cerada at the furthest extreme of the Coronid Reach. Now its hour was at hand.
经由巨口港的叛变大贤者之手，一张由阴谋和恶意所组成的恶毒网络正在形成，它的触角延伸到了Manachean 联邦和此地诸世界的各处，而且还向外延伸到了Agathon统治域，以及位于王冠深渊区域最遥远地区的Cerada双星星系。现在，它发挥作用的时刻即将到来。
This conspiracy had many layers, and many agencies were bound up within it, from the Traitor Archmagos-Astral Mercuric and her acolytes, to several officer cadres of the Imperialis Armada who had been corrupted by strange rites and secret societies brought into their midst while serving alongside the Sons of Horus and the Word Bearers Legions, to turncoats bribed through the more traditional means of festering dissent, greed, fear and hungry ambition, and purposefully planted spies and saboteurs hiding behind the identities of murdered men and women. Their numbers, particularly in relation to the billions of men and women under arms in the Manachean Commonwealth, were in comparison very few, but they were well placed, and with such a tainted network, it had been all too easy to ensure that forces and agents loyal to the Warmaster were where they would do the most harm when the time came.
这个阴谋有许多层次，很多机构都涉及其中，从叛变的星辰大贤者梅尔库里克和她的侍从们，到数名被奇怪的仪式和他们当中的秘密结社（这种组织是在他们与荷鲁斯之子和怀言者军团共同行动时被引入的）所腐化的帝国舰队军官，变节者们通过煽动异议，利用（人们的）贪婪、恐惧和野心等更为传统的方式来进行收买贿赂，并且有意安插以谋杀被害者身份作为掩护的间谍和破坏者们。他们的数量相比之下非常稀少，尤其是相对于Manachean联邦中数十亿男女武装人员而言，但他们布置周密，而且通过这样一套被污染的网络，等时机一到，变节者们很容易就能确保那些忠于战帅的部队和特工们在自己所处的位置上做出最严重的破坏。
Like a fruit, wholesome to the appearance but canker-ridden from within, the Manachean Commonwealth's vaunted defences were already undermined, and its fate was to serve as an object lesson not in outright destruction —as that at the worlds of the Cyclops Cluster had been一 but in the surety of a blade in the back.
（现在的）Manachean联邦就像一颗水果，外表完整光鲜，但内部已经满是腐坏溃烂，他们自夸的（严密）防御已经遭到破坏。联邦的命运将会成为一个实际的教训，而非一次彻底的毁灭——就像已经发生在独眼巨人群星各个世界上的情况那样，不过发生这一切是因为联邦在背后被人捅刀。
The Blade in the Dark
黑暗中的利刃
It was at 0044008.M31,0402 local standard time, some five hours before the system's white sun would dawn over the spires of Hive Ilium, principal seat of power and governance of Manachea Vysidae, when the first reports of the attack came. Within minutes alarm klaxons were sounding and civil defence hailers were barking out orders all across the worlds eleven sprawling open- metroplex hive structures, and Manachea's billions were rousing themselves for imminent crisis. Ground-to-orbital defence laser batteries and sentinel auspex towers swept the skies. Great arterial roadways which thundered daily under the treads of millions of vehicles were cleared and fell silent but for priority military traffic, habitation blocks went under mass curfew, and countless militia units were mustered, armed and deployed, their Rhino carriers sweeping through the otherwise empty night-time streets. In the most vital strategic areas, transport termina, landing zones, mass-generatora stations and the thuggish Arbitrator block fortresses set against the threat of civil revolt, the scurrying of the militia was watched impassively by the visored helms of the Solar Auxilia Cohorts deployed to defend the capital hive, the battle-hardened professional soldiers already alert and ready at their posts. But the clockwork precision with which the long-drilled defence plans of the Manachean state swung into action was belied by the horror and near anarchy that reigned in the command amphitheatre of the Palace of Light, as the fortified government spire of Hive ilium was known.
现在是当地标准时间0044008.M31,0402，大约五个小时之后，星系中那颗白色的恒星将会从Manachea Vysidae主要的权力和政治所在地：Ilium巢都的塔尖上方升起——这就是第一次进攻报告发出的时间地点。几分钟之内，警报的电子喇叭声响起，民防系统的高音信号播放器在位于世界各地的十一座向四周蔓延开的开放型大都会式的巢城构造体中大声播放着命令。Manachea的数十亿人都在为应对这次迫在眉睫的危机而奋起抵抗，地对轨道激光防御炮塔冲着天空扫射，哨戒鸟卜塔搜索着苍穹。平日里，巨大的主干道上有数百辆载具驶过，发出雷霆般的声响，现在道路被清空且陷入沉寂，行驶优先权被给予军用交通工具，居住区实行大规模宵禁，无数的军事单位被集结、武装和部署下去，他们的犀牛运输车行驶在夜晚空旷的道路上。在最为重要的战略地点、运输航站、登陆区、大型发电站和凶悍的仲裁官们的驻地——为了应对内部暴乱而设立的仲裁官要塞中，被部署前来保卫首府巢都的太阳军兵团进驻了这些地方，带着遮住面部头盔的太阳军们冷漠地看着民兵们匆忙跑过——这些久经沙场的职业军人已经在各自的岗位上做好了警戒和战斗准备。Manachean联邦长时间操练过的防御计划一旦付诸行动，就会如同时钟一般精准，但光明宫殿——ilium巢都要塞化的政府尖塔的指挥圆厅中恐怖且近乎混乱的状况表明这一切都是假象。
Here the Imperial Commander of Vysidae and Lord Protector of the Manachean Commonwealth, Pryamus Beket, a born patrician whose noble line had ruled this world since the Age of Strife could do nothing but look on in disbelief and dawning terror at what was displayed in the huge holo-occularis which lit up the central space of the echoing amphitheatre. Around him his generals and staff officers bickered and argued, almost in a frenzy, whilst civic officials wandered in confusion. The Tech-Priest strategos linked to the sensorium through thick umbilical cabling howled screeds of lingua-technis at each other while their slaved servitors spewed reams of data-parchment as they checked and re-interrogated readings and reports, which should not... could not be true. The very stars of the night skies over Vysidae were being blotted out by the warships of the enemy approaching and despite this, the orbital mines had not detonated and the defence monitor ships had answered no vox- hail, although they appeared to sail on serene and oblivious to the danger on the auspex- scanners. All of this is recorded in the deepcore archive of Hive Ilium, recovered from its ruins many years later when the ashes of the Commonwealth were raked over by the forces of the Great Scouring, shedding light on a tragedy that until then had remained just one more mystery of this great and unknown war.
Vysidae的帝国指挥官兼Manachean联邦的护国尊主——普里亚摩斯·贝克特此刻就身处指挥圆厅，这位贵胄出身自一个从纷争纪元开始就统治着这个世界的贵族家系，但他现在只能带着怀疑和逐渐浮现的恐惧看着巨大的全息显像器中所展示的东西，这道投影照亮了回响着各种人声的圆厅的中央空间。围绕在他身边的将军和参谋们在近乎疯狂地争吵，而文官们则在困惑慌乱地来回踱步。负责军事指挥的技术神甫们用粗重的脐带电缆连接着感觉器官，他们彼此在用冗长的技术语怒吼喝骂，而在他们检查和重新查询读数与报告的同时，受他们操控的机仆们也吐出了大量的数据羊皮卷，但上面的内容不应该…不可能是真的。逼近中的敌军战舰遮蔽住了Vysidae夜空中的所有星辰，但轨道空雷并未被引爆，防御监测船也未回应任何音频呼叫，尽管它们似乎是在平稳运行，而且对鸟卜扫描仪上显示的危险浑然不觉。所有这一切都被记录在Ilium巢都深核区的档案馆中，数年之后，当大清洗的部队前来搜索联邦的余烬时想，他们从巢都的废墟中回收了这些记录文件。这些资料为我们阐明了一场悲剧，而在这之前，这场悲剧仅仅是那场规模宏大且未知的战争中的又一个谜题。
At this very hour, in a feat of co-ordination that ought to have been impossible over distances separated by weeks of Warp travel from each other in normal circumstances, the skies of other worlds yet untouched by the war were being darkened by other war fleets moved by the Warmaster's hand. In orbit of the frontier world of Subinus, an expected relief convoy, flanked by escorting frigate squadrons, opened fire on the patrol cruisers they were to have resupplied, before turning their batteries on the few cities of the world below, pounding them to rubble. Elsewhere, at the vast open-cast carbide mines on the shattered planetoid of Cryxa, the lone Fourth Horseman of the Death Guard Legion attacked, crashing through the outer workings to unleash an entire company of Grave Warden Terminators directly into the mine's populated gallery levels, commencing a month long season of slaughter which purged the planetoid of human life. At distant Numinal, key to the Coronid Reach, an armada of more than a hundred vessels bearing the arachnid-machina heraldry of the Taghmata Cyclothrathe tore out of the Warp and declared the entire star system forfeit to them on pain of death. Even further out, at Maxilla Planus, the arrival of Rogue Trader warships bearing the Eye of Horus on their flanks was the signal for a mass workers revolt that set the continent-spanning fields of the agri-world ablaze, while at the nearby colony world of Bredac Junction, the reaver Knight House of Aerthegn swept down from the stars to plunder, enslave and kill, bearing that same serpent's eye upon their banners.
就在此时此刻，其他那些尚未被战争所触及的世界的天空也（同时）被战帅移动到此地的战舰所遮蔽——这些世界舰相隔着亚空间航行数周才能穿越的（遥远）距离，在正常情况下，这种壮举般的协调本应是不可能发生的。在边境世界Subinus的轨道上，一支由护卫舰中队们护航的预计中的救济舰队来到此地，但它们向自己本要为其提供补给的巡逻巡洋舰开火，之后这支舰队将炮塔转向了下方世界上为数不多的城市，将其轰为瓦砾。在破碎的小行星Cryxa上巨大的露天碳化物矿场中，死亡守卫军团的“第四骑士”号战舰独自发动了进攻，它撞穿了矿场的外层作业区，将整整一个连队的墓葬守卫终结者直接释放到了人口密集的矿道层中，在进行了长达一个月的屠杀之后，整颗小行星上的人口都被清理掉了。在通往王冠深渊地区的关键（节点）区域——遥远的Numinal星系里，由超过一百艘携带着Cyclothrathe禁卫军机械化蛛形纲生物纹章的舰船组成的舰队撕开亚空间来到此地，他们宣称整个星系都归自己所有，违抗者将痛苦死去。在更为遥远的Maxilla Planus世界处，在船身两侧携带着荷鲁斯之眼标志的行商浪人战舰们到达此地，舰队的到来是地面上爆发大规模工人起义的信号，这个农业世界上横跨大陆的农田陷入一片火海；同时在附近的殖民地世界Bredac Junction上，阿尔泽恩骑士家族的掠夺者们自群星而来，进行掠夺、奴役和杀戮，他们的战旗上也带着同样的蛇眼标志。
The Wolves of War
战争群狼
In the amphitheatre of the Palace of Light on Manachea, garbled facts were at last taking shape just as the planetary defence lasers were beginning to open fire at maximum range against the vanguard of the encroaching fleet, sending spears of blinding light into the night skies. A fleet of ships had somehow bypassed the system's outer ring of defences entirely, and in doing so had passed through none of the expected Warp termina transfer points from the galactic west or south, instead they had come in from the northern shipping channel—from Port Maw itself .In doing so, these new arrivals had impossibly carried with them Port Maw identification cyphers which had blinded the servitors and picquet ships far from visual range to their hostility until it was too late.
在Manachea世界上光之宫殿的指挥圆厅中，就在行星防御激光开始在最大射程内对入侵舰队的先锋开火，令人目盲的光矛穿透夜空时，被篡改的事实终于成形了：一支舰队依靠某种方式完全绕过了星系外侧的防御环带，而且在这个过程中，他们并没有通过银河系西部或南部任何一个预期中的亚空间传送终点，相反，他们是从银河北方的航道——也就是巨口港本身来到此地的。这支舰队也不可能携带着巨口港的身份识别密码——这套密码能使远离他们视线范围的机仆和哨卫舰察觉不到他们的敌意，直到一切为时已晚。
Waves of near silent boarding torpedoes, assault rams and Dreadclaws sent hurtling towards their targets as mute and cold as lead shot in the void had done the rest.
一波又一波几乎悄无声息的鱼雷、突击艇和恐惧爪冲向了目标，它们就像虚空中被射出的铅弹一样悄无声息、冰冷无情。
The frost-rimed assault craft, using neither life support nor power in order to conceal their approach, slammed into the hulls of defence monitors and gun platforms undetected until the last, and soon the void war for the control of Manachea's orbit was over before it had even begun. It was only now, as the main body of the invading task force drew close, that the cogitators and lexmechanics reached their conclusions and put names to a handful of the warships poised like spear tips over Hive Ilium: the Desolation, King Eater, the Oblivion, Gore Prow, and the infamous Bone Jackal; all heavy warships of the XVIth legion——warships of the Sons of Horus.
船体边缘覆盖着冰霜的突击艇停用了生命维持系统和动力（系统）来隐藏自己的接近，它们撞穿了防御监测站和火炮平台的外壳，直到最后才被发现；不久，争夺Manachea轨道控制权的虚空战甚至还未开始就结束了。直到此刻，入侵特遣队逼近Manachea世界时，沉思者和词录仪才得出了结论，显示出了几艘像矛尖一样悬在Ilium巢都上空的飞船的名称：荒芜号、噬王者号、血首号以及臭名昭著的白骨豺狼号，所有这些重型战舰都来自第十六军团——是荷鲁斯之子军团的战舰。
