Ikaros Contingency

The Mechanicum sat at the heart of the Emperor's new Imperium. It was the beating heart of its military and industrial base, supplying the industrial might by which the armies of the Great Crusade were forged and maintained, its far flung Forge Worlds were the cogs around which the campaign to liberate the galaxy turned. Without the Tech-Priests of Mars there could have been no Great Crusade, for the Mechanicum had become an essential part of the Emperor's plans. It was also the greatest threat to them in the years before Horus turned to treachery, for the Mechanicum stood apart from the careful order the Emperor had established. Of all the Imperium's institutions, they still worshipped a god openly, worked to their own rituals and creed that had little to do with the Imperial Truth. Worse, should they ever rise up against the Emperor, they could turn to their own formidable armies to prosecute a war against Him and turn the very technology of the Great Crusade against His servants. Such a war would be the end of the Imperium.

機械神教的新帝國中居于核心地位，它是帝國軍事與工業(yè)基礎(chǔ)跳動著的心臟，提供了鍛造和維持大遠征軍隊的工業(yè)力量，遙遠分布著的鑄造世界們是銀河解放戰(zhàn)爭的齒輪們。沒有火星的科技神甫們，大遠征也將不會存在，因為機械神教已經(jīng)成為了帝皇計劃中必不可少的一部分。但在荷魯斯悍然叛變之前的時光中，歐姆尼賽亞之仆們亦是帝國的最大威脅——因為機械神教脫離了帝皇下達的審慎命令。在帝國的所有機構(gòu)中，他們?nèi)栽诠_崇拜神明，執(zhí)行他們那與帝國真理不相關(guān)的儀式和教義。更糟的是，倘若他們起來反抗帝皇，他們就能自己那可怕的軍隊來發(fā)動針對帝皇的戰(zhàn)爭，并用大遠征中的所有技術(shù)來對抗帝皇的忠仆們。這樣一場戰(zhàn)爭將成為帝國的終結(jié)。

To counter such a threat, the Emperor had established a number of contingency plans, several of which remain shrouded in mystery to this day of those known to history, the Ikaros Contingency is perhaps the most dire. A directive issued only to Lion El'jonson and the warriors of the First Legion, the ikaros Contingency consisted of two distinct clauses. The first was an Imperial warrant empowering the Dark Angels to keep in their possession a number of relics from the period of history known as Old Night, technology that had long been forbidden to any other institution as dangerous and unstable. It was, however, a technology that shared few similarities with that of Mars and as such was resistant to the wiles of the techno-magi and anethematic to their machines of war. The second clause, had it become common knowledge, would have been cause enough to start the war the Emperor sought to avoid, for it empowered Lion El'jonson and his warriors to conduct pre-emptive combat operations to neutralise elements of the Mechanicum deemed to have become “contrary to the needs of the Imperiurn”.

為了反擊這樣一種威脅，帝皇制訂了許多應(yīng)急計劃，其中的很多計劃至今仍然籠罩在神秘當(dāng)中，而伊卡洛斯應(yīng)急協(xié)議可能是最為緊急的一項。這是一項僅僅發(fā)布給萊昂 艾爾莊森和第一軍團戰(zhàn)士們的指令，它由兩個不同的條款組成。第一條是授權(quán)黑暗天使們保有諸多來自被稱為舊夜的歷史時代的遺產(chǎn)——由于其危險性和不穩(wěn)定性，其他任何機構(gòu)都被禁止擁有這些科技。這些科技與火星的科技幾乎沒有相同之處，因此，這些科技能夠抵抗機械神教的科技術(shù)士們的詭計，并且憎惡機械神教的戰(zhàn)爭機器。第二條則已經(jīng)成為一項共識——倘若情況已經(jīng)足夠危急到要進行帝皇努力避免的戰(zhàn)爭：泰拉帝國與機械神教的決戰(zhàn)，萊昂 艾爾莊森和第一軍團就會被授權(quán)執(zhí)行行先發(fā)制人的作戰(zhàn)行動以瓦解機械神教的部隊——等到了這種關(guān)頭，機械神教會被視為“違背了人類帝國的需要”。

This final clause is known to have been invoked eight times in the history of the Imperium, though details of most of these incidents remain sealed within the vaults of the Dark Angels, with the encounter at Triplex the only openly acknowledged occurrence at this time. It would not be the last, for the Lion would not stay his hand now that open war had consumed the Imperium, and would bring censure to many more Forge Worlds he deemed 'contrary to the needs of the Imperium" before the end of the Horus Heresy.

第二條已知在帝國的歷史中被啟動了八次，不過多數(shù)此類事件的細節(jié)都被封印在黑暗天使的倉庫中，Triplex鑄造世界上的遭遇戰(zhàn)是目前唯一被公開承認的此類事件。Triplex事件也并非是終結(jié)，因為萊昂不會在那場吞噬帝國的公開戰(zhàn)爭中袖手旁觀，在荷魯斯叛亂結(jié)束之前，會會有多得多的鑄造世界被萊昂認定為“違背了帝國的需要”，并被雄獅降下嚴厲的責(zé)難（與審判）。