The Emissary of Mars

火星特使

It became known much later, that at the height of the spreading alarm throughout the Cyclops Cluster in the closing quarter of 006.M31, the Forge Worlds of M'Pandex and Mezoa, the two greatest independent powers within the region, each received the Emissary of Mars, and with very different outcomes. The ambassador in question was the Magos known as Regulus (or at least an entity bearing that name, as there are extant contradictions in the records regarding the location of this individual at various times). This senior Tech-Priest of the Mechanicum had for many years served alongside the Warmaster, long before the betrayal at Isstvan, and now remained his, body and soul, being part of Horus' inner circle and bound in allegiance to the Traitor's cause. Regulus came bearing dual patents of authority, the first from his Warmaster and the second from the hand of Kelbor Hal, none other than the Fabricator- General of Mars, and by right the voice of the Omnissiah and supreme pontifex of the Mechanicum. Kelbor Hal had also thrown in his lot with the Traitor Horus, sparking a civil war on Mars itself a fact not yet known by those in the Cyclops Cluster. To each Forge World in turn he made an offer and a demand; the demand was for fealty, that they serve the Warmaster as their own Fabricator- General bid them to do. That they obey him and offer up their arts and the fruits of their forges to him and his armies, and open their ports to his warships, while denying these things to both the forces of distant Terra and the local Imperial Commanders, already demonstrably squabbling amongst themselves in fear and disunity. To honey the threat of force, Regulus offered the Warmaster's protection for their Forge Worlds and, just as he did to sway Kelbor Hal to his cause, he also offered gifts; STC technologies harvested from the later Great Crusade era and kept solely by Horus and those he trusted, and the freedom to pursue those technologies and arcana the Emperor had so cruelly denied them as forbidden knowledge since the Treaty of Mars.

很久之后人們才知道：在006.M31的最后一個季度，當(dāng)傳遍獨眼巨人星群各處的警報達到高潮時，該區(qū)域中最強大的兩股獨立勢力——鑄造世界梅左阿和M'Pandex都迎來了火星的密使。我們提及的這位大使是被稱為“雷古魯斯”的賢者（或者至少是一個被冠以此名的實體，而且關(guān)于此人在不同時間段所處的地點，現(xiàn)存的記錄也存在矛盾）。這位機械神教高級科技神甫已經(jīng)在戰(zhàn)帥身邊服侍了很多年，他在戰(zhàn)帥于伊斯特萬星系背叛帝國很久之前便效忠于荷魯斯；而且他現(xiàn)在也是全身心地服務(wù)于荷魯斯，成為了戰(zhàn)帥內(nèi)環(huán)的一部分，并效忠于叛軍的事業(yè)。雷古魯斯擁有雙重的權(quán)力，第一重來自于戰(zhàn)帥，第二重則來自火星鑄造將軍凱爾博 哈爾——他是萬機神的圣音（使者），以及機械神教的至高主教。凱爾博 哈爾已經(jīng)加入了荷魯斯的派系，并親自在火星上引發(fā)了內(nèi)戰(zhàn)，而獨眼巨人星群中的人們還不知道這些事實。哈爾依次向各個鑄造世界提出了一個倡議和一個要求；他要求各個鑄造世界獻上忠誠，要求各位鑄造將軍命令自己（統(tǒng)治下）的鑄造世界為戰(zhàn)帥服務(wù)；各個鑄造世界要遵守他的命令，將自己的技術(shù)和鑄造成果提供給他和他的軍隊，把自己的星港開放給他的戰(zhàn)艦，同時不得將這些物資提供給遙遠泰拉和當(dāng)?shù)氐蹏笓]官的部隊——他們已經(jīng)因為恐懼和不團結(jié)而爭吵不休了。為了美化自己的武力威脅，雷古魯斯也向他們的鑄造世界提供來自戰(zhàn)帥的保護，而且就像他說服卡爾博 哈爾支持自己一樣，荷魯斯也贈送了禮物；僅由荷魯斯與他信任的人所保管的來自后大遠征時期的STC技術(shù)，以及允許他們追求那些禁忌知識——自從火星條約以來就被帝皇殘酷禁止他們研究的科技與奧秘的自由。

On M’Pandex, an ancient Forge World whose history had been blighted until re-contact by the Great Crusade, here a Magos also identifying himself as Regulus was greeted with great reverence and courtesy, and personally led to direct audience with the High Ourteka of M'Pandex to put his case. What passed between them at this private conference is unknown, but from then onward and without recourse to consorting with the synod of M'Pandex's Magos for confirmation, the Forge World was pledged to the Warmaster. There was in some quarters brief but violent resistance to this new order, but the world was long used to internecine conflict in its ranks, and the High Ourteka was merciless in wielding the handful of Martian Skitarii and the small detachment of Legio Mortis Titans based there to aid in his worlds protection, now his private enforcers to ensure compliance. This new allegiance, while firm, was not widely broadcast and was unknown to outsiders. M'Pandex was quickly girded for war, its production capacity ramped ever higher and now destined for Horus' armies, while whatever Loyalist or merchant ships passed into its space were seized and impounded, their crews and complement forcibly converted into adsecularis slaves for a growing Taghmata of the Forge World's own.

在M’Pandex，這個歷史一直被破壞、直到大遠征與其重新取得聯(lián)系的古老鑄造世界上，一位自稱雷古魯斯的賢者受到了極其尊敬和禮貌的歡迎，他本人被帶去與M’Pandex的至高主教進行直接會面來表明自己的觀點。我們不知道雙方在這次私下秘會中進行了怎樣的交易，但從此之后，在未與M’Pandex的賢者議會進行確認的情況下，該鑄造世界便被承諾給了戰(zhàn)帥。某些區(qū)域爆發(fā)了對新秩序短暫但暴力的抵抗，但這個世界早已習(xí)慣了內(nèi)部的自相殘殺，M’Pandex至高主教無情地派出了一小群火星護教軍和駐扎在此地的死顱軍團小規(guī)模分遣隊前去鎮(zhèn)壓——后者原本是協(xié)助保護該鑄造世界，現(xiàn)在則成了M’Pandex至高主教的私兵。M' pandex很快就為戰(zhàn)爭做好了準(zhǔn)備，它的生產(chǎn)能力不斷提升，而且現(xiàn)在注定要服務(wù)于荷魯斯的軍隊。任何經(jīng)過此地的忠誠派艦船和商船都會被扣押，船員和乘員們被強行轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)樵撹T造世界不斷壯大中的機神禁衛(wèi)軍的技術(shù)契奴。

The reception which greeted the Emissary of Mars at Mezoa, however, could not have been more stark in contrast than to that at M'Pandex. Regulus found a star system already geared for siege and conflict; his warp runner was stopped at the outer edge of the system and forbade entry on the threat of?immediate destruction. Mezoa had ever been a militant system, born of the ferocious wars of the Great Crusade and fashioned as much as a fortress as a centre of macro-industry, its Magos fiercely independent from their kin elsewhere and just?as fiercely loyal to the ideals of the Imperium whose expansion they served.

然而，梅左阿對于火星特使的接待與M'Pandex的形成了鮮明對比。雷古魯斯發(fā)現(xiàn)整個星系已經(jīng)為了沖突和（遭受）圍攻而整軍備戰(zhàn)，他的亞空間快船被截停在了星系外環(huán)邊緣，對方禁止其入內(nèi)，否則就威脅將其立刻毀滅。梅左阿是一個好戰(zhàn)的星系，它誕生于大遠征的殘酷戰(zhàn)爭中；它被塑造為了一座堡壘，也是一座宏大的工業(yè)中心。當(dāng)?shù)氐馁t者們極其獨立于自己在其他各處的同胞們，他們服務(wù)于帝國的擴張，并強烈忠實于帝國的理念。

Forced to communicate via only the most primitive two-way vox circuit with a hulking Mezoan battle-sphere rather than directly with the Forge World, and under the condition that any attempt at other communication or the passage of data-djinn or other influence over the circuit would result in immediate annihilation, Regulus nevertheless put his case. In response the Pentarchy of Archimandrites, which had by tradition ruled Mezoa, offered a blunt rejection of the Warmaster and a formal secession from the authority of Mars. Further, they called Regulus and Kelbor Hal both apostates and blasphemers in the eyes of the Omnissiah, and pronounced them or any under their command to be under sentence of death if they entered the Mezoan system again. They finished their communication with a single word in judgement: "Heretek". Regulus fled.

雷古魯斯被迫通過原始的雙向音頻（通訊）線路與對方交流，而且與他通話的是梅左阿的巨大戰(zhàn)球，并非是鑄造世界直接與其交談；在這種情況下，任何試圖進行其他通信、試圖影響數(shù)據(jù)靈精通道或?qū)€路進行其他影響的行為都會導(dǎo)致自身的立刻殲滅，但雷古魯斯還是開出了自己的條件。作為回應(yīng)，梅左阿傳統(tǒng)意義上的統(tǒng)治機構(gòu)——牧首五人議會直截了當(dāng)?shù)鼐芙^了戰(zhàn)帥，并且正式與火星當(dāng)局脫離關(guān)系。另外，他們稱雷古魯斯和凱爾博·哈爾為萬機之神眼中的叛教者和褻瀆者，并且宣布到：如果他們或者他們指揮下的任何人再次進入梅左阿星系，梅左阿機械神教就會將其處以死刑。五人議會用一個帶有審判含義的詞結(jié)束了通訊——“異端”。雷古魯斯逃之夭夭。

The Blockade of?Mezoa

封鎖梅左阿

Shortly after the denial of Regulus, a blockade of Mezoa was begun. With the direct aid of the warships of M'Pandex — both their own Mechanicum vessels and those they had captured and now operated under false flag, as well as more shadowed forces operating under the Warmaster's direction— the various star systems that fed into Mezoa were cut off from it, with the aim of choking off its supply of raw materials. Resources which, where possible, were now directed instead to the hungry forges of M'Pandex. The Mechanicum of Mezoa actively resisted where they could, although they steadfastly refused to sally forth with their full force, treating the attacks as bait in a trap. Instead, they ordered their outposts and detached forces to resist until destroyed, and on far flung mining stations and on the decks of mass transporter vessels, the forces of the two Forge Worlds, long rivals but never before enemies, clashed in mortal combat.

在梅左阿拒絕雷古魯斯不久之后，叛軍便開始了對于此地的封鎖行動。對于這次行動，M'Pandex戰(zhàn)艦（即有其自身的機械神教艦船，也有被其俘獲后在叛軍旗幟下行動的飛船）提供了直接協(xié)助，而且還有更多的暗影部隊在戰(zhàn)帥的命令下運作起來——為梅左阿提供資源的各種星系都被與其切斷了聯(lián)系，目的是阻斷梅左阿的原材料供應(yīng)。在可能的情況下，這些資源都被輸送進了M'Pandex饑渴的鑄爐中。梅佐阿機械神教對此積極抵抗，但他們堅定地拒絕全力出擊，將（對方的）攻擊視作陷阱中的誘餌。相反，他們命令自己的前哨和派遣部隊拼死抵抗，直到被毀滅為止；這兩個鑄造世界雖然長期相互競爭，不過之前從未成為過真正的敵人，但現(xiàn)在，雙方的軍隊在遙遠的采礦站和大型運輸艦的甲板上展開了殊死較量。

Mercy was not to be found in either sides’?circuit-augmented hearts and the adsecularis cohorts of M'Pandex were matched savagely by the armoured centuries of Mezoas Thallaxii which, while fewer in number, vastly overmatched the adsecularis in individual might. In what seemed now to outsiders to be a civil conflict between the Mechanicum rather than a move in a wider game, refinery stations on Jujya and Gunnar's Rock burned, and on New Providence, thousands of fleeing vapour-mill workers, caught between the battle lines, were crushed beneath the tracks of Krios tanks and slaughtered needlessly in the withering crossfire of blazing energy weapons as both sides utterly ignored them, as if they had all the consequence of stalks of wheat caught in a hurricane. Confusion as to the cause of this conflict forestalled any intervention by the Imperialis Armada, fearful of the consequences of their actions, until it was too late.

雙方用電路改造過的心中都不再留有仁慈，M'Pandex的契奴軍團與梅左阿的死隸機兵裝甲百人隊殘酷激戰(zhàn)——后者雖然數(shù)量更少，但在個體力量上遠超契奴兵。對現(xiàn)在的外人們而言，這似乎更像是機械神教的內(nèi)部沖突，而非某盤大棋中的一步；Jujya和Gunnar（小行星）巖石上的精煉站在燃燒，而在New Providence世界上，數(shù)千名逃難的蒸汽工廠工人被困在雙方的戰(zhàn)線之間，他們在克里歐司坦克的履帶下被碾碎，被火光耀目的能量武器的激烈交叉火力不必要地屠殺——交戰(zhàn)雙方都完全無視了他們，仿佛這些凡人的遭遇就是麥秸被颶風(fēng)刮斷而言，不值一提。由于對這場沖突的原因感到困惑，帝國無敵艦隊并未進行任何干預(yù)——他們擔(dān)心其行動所造成的后果，直到為時已晚。

By the end of 006.M31, the Mezoan system had been almost entirely cut off,?and now enemy warships were circling the edge of its outer reaches as sharks waiting for prey. Mezoa was a prize not to be underestimated, but it was also fortified beyond ready conquest, even by a force as large as a fully marshalled Expeditionary fleet, but once cut off from aid and from giving aid to others, it was now effectively neutralised. Mezoa would wait. The next stage of the Warmasters plan was about to begin.

在006.M31年末，梅左阿星系的對外聯(lián)系已經(jīng)幾乎被完全切斷，敵軍的戰(zhàn)艦就像等待獵物的鯊魚那樣環(huán)繞在此地外側(cè)邊境的邊緣。梅佐阿是一個不可低估的戰(zhàn)利品，但它的防御工事堅固，哪怕是一支全副武裝的遠征探索艦隊這般龐大的力量也難以將其征服，可是一旦被切斷了外部向其提供的援助，也阻斷了其提供給外部的援助，梅左阿的防御力量也就被有效中和了。梅左阿將會等待，而戰(zhàn)帥計劃的下一階段也將要開始。

It was just as the fleet command at Port Maw was finally progressing with a plan to break the blockade of Mezoa in order to counteract the growing loss of advanced munitions and macro weapons supplies the Imperialis Armada was predicting, that dire news reached it via garbled astropathic signal from Lascal on the edge of the Grail Abyss. Previously, a number of reports of worlds 'going dark' had come out of that region and the stars which bordered it, but to the authorities on Lascal, Dominica Minor and at Port Maw, the abyss was too distant, its worlds too unimportant to be considered a priority for action, or to justify the diversion of their finite supply of warships where the wolf was evidently at the door of closer, far more strategically imponant systems.

就在巨口港的艦隊指揮部最終開始計劃打破叛軍對梅左阿的封鎖，以解決帝國艦隊預(yù)計中的先進彈藥和宏炮武器供應(yīng)日益減少的問題時，一條恐怖的消息通過亂碼的星語信號從圣杯深淵邊境的Lascal世界傳來。之前，很多條關(guān)于（多個）世界“在變得黑暗”的報告已經(jīng)從該區(qū)域與其周邊的星球上傳出，但對Lascal、Dominica Minor和巨口港當(dāng)局而言，圣杯深淵太過遙遠，那些世界也過于無足輕重，以至于他們沒有考慮對其優(yōu)先采取行動；他們將自己有限的戰(zhàn)艦派往了那些明顯遭到叛軍的迫切威脅、在戰(zhàn)略上也遠為重要的星系中。

Now such parochial thinking had born dark consequences, and without warning a massive fleet had torn out of the Empyrean at the edge of the Lascal system, and there would be no time to rally reinforcements to meet it. Much of the strategic detail of what was to be Lascal's last broadcast had been lost to the soul-static of the Warp, but what images and allegories remained were clear enough: bleak warship after bleak warship, slab-grey and bone white, stained and pitted with the scars of ancient battles and recent acts of murder. Alongside these were Warp—carried images of the death's head and the black sunburst, the scythe of the reaper. The Death Guard Legion had come for the Cyclops Cluster。

這種狹隘的想法現(xiàn)在導(dǎo)致了黑暗的后果。在沒有任何預(yù)警的情況下，一支龐大的艦隊撕開至高天，出現(xiàn)在Lascal星系的邊緣，而當(dāng)?shù)兀ㄕ┙z毫沒有時間來召集增援部隊與之交戰(zhàn)。Lascal世界發(fā)出的最后一次廣播中的大部分戰(zhàn)略細節(jié)都遺失在了靈魂靜滯的亞空間中，但留下的圖像和寓言卻足夠清晰:一艘又一艘黯淡的戰(zhàn)艦，噴涂著淺灰色和骨白的配色，往昔戰(zhàn)爭和最近的殺戮行為所留下的傷痕玷污和凹陷了船體。與這些信息一并到來的還有亞空間輸送的圖像：死者的頭顱、黑色的日光射線與收割者的鐮刀——死亡守衛(wèi)軍團已經(jīng)來到了獨眼巨人星群。

The Death Guard Unleashed

死亡守衛(wèi)出陣

When the XVIIth?"Sun Dragons" deep range cruiser squadron of the Armada Ultima finally forced their way through the warp turbulence which had dogged their attempts to reach Lascal in answer to their home station's distress call, they broke into a scene of still burning carnage. The war fleet, mustered at the Armada's high orbit anchorage over the fifth world of the system —some forty ships of the line and more than a hundred escorts, including three Retribution class battleships: the Sceptre of Iron, the Ozytnandias and the Star Tamer— was blasted to ruin; some of the larger hulks still bleeding fiery plasma from broken reactor cores and frozen air from their rent and lifeless hulls. Further scans shockingly revealed precious little wreckage that could be identified for certain as belonging to an enemy, speaking of an attack utterly overwhelming in its suddenness and its overmastering power. Further in, they found the fleet anchorage station had been torn?into a new debris belt ringing Lascal V;?and the core worlds themselves were dense with a ghost fog of weapons-fire radiation and the garbled echoes of distress calls.

作為對自己母港空間站遇難呼救的回應(yīng)，極限星域艦隊的第十七遠航巡洋艦中隊——“艷陽之龍”中隊前去支援；當(dāng)這支艦隊最終艱難穿越了阻礙自己航行的亞空間亂流，抵達Lascal時，他們便闖入了一片仍在燃燒的屠殺現(xiàn)場。此地集結(jié)在星系中第五顆星球上方的艦隊高空軌道錨地的戰(zhàn)爭艦隊被炸為殘骸——該艦隊由大約四十艘戰(zhàn)線（主力）艦和超過一百艘護航艦組成，其中還包括三艘報應(yīng)級戰(zhàn)列艦：鋼鐵權(quán)杖號、奧茲珊迪亞斯號和馴星者號；在某些大型的廢船殘骸上，破裂的反應(yīng)堆堆芯中仍在噴射著熾熱的等離子體，凍結(jié)的空氣從裂縫和無生命的船體中泄露而出。進一步的掃描則揭示出令人震驚的情況：只有極少數(shù)的殘骸能被確定是屬于敵軍，這表明此次進攻是以突然性和壓倒一切的力量完全擊潰了Lascal戰(zhàn)爭艦隊。艷陽之龍中隊還發(fā)現(xiàn)艦隊的錨地空間站已經(jīng)被撕碎，化為了環(huán)繞Lascal世界的碎片帶；核心世界本身也籠罩著一層幽靈般的煙霧，其中彌漫著武器開火的輻射，以及求救呼叫的混亂不清回聲。

Proceeding with caution through the dangers of the war zones aftermath, still deadly with unspent ordnance, rumbling wreckage and waiting mines, the Sun Dragons swept the ruins of the systems with their auspexes and their weapons primed for ambush, but no attack came. Lascal had not been merely invaded or conquered; it had been purged of life and left to the dead. The system's sole primary world, Lascal IV, once a burgeoning Imperial colony with a population in the tens of millions, was now a poisoned orb, its atmosphere thick with toxic green and black strata betraying the tell-tale signs of mass biochemical bombardment.

未用完的炮彈、轟隆作響的殘骸和等待著的空雷讓該區(qū)域仍舊致命，艷陽之龍艦隊小心翼翼地穿過這片危險的戰(zhàn)區(qū)，各艘艦船都用鳥卜儀掃描著殘骸，并準(zhǔn)備好武器以防遭到伏擊，但進攻并未到來。Lascal并非是僅僅被入侵或被征服，進攻者清空了星球上的所有生命，令其陷入死寂。星系中唯一的首要世界——Lascal四號曾是擁有數(shù)千萬人口的帝國新興殖民地，而它現(xiàn)在則是一顆有毒的石球，大氣中充滿了含有毒素的綠色和黑色云層，顯示出大規(guī)模生化轟炸的跡象。

Solar Auxilia landing parties in full hazardous environment gear launched from the Sun Dragons cruisers to the palace of its Imperial Governor and several known defence bunkers all returned, ashen faced, with the same tale of utter destruction. The dead in their thousands covered the land, struck down in their stride by blistering airborne poisons and murderous nerveagents. In those few places, such as the Imperial Governor's palace, which had been sealed in time, a more direct hand had been taken to destroy those huddled within. Ferrocrete walls had been shattered by direct cannon fire, bulkhead doors torn from their mountings by the merciless gauntlets of power fists, and everywhere was rank slaughter and the litter of spent bolt shell cases, unmistakably Legiones Astartes in pattern. As if any more evidence was needed of the perpetrators of this atrocity, in the auditorium of the Imperial Commander, above the cast-down Aquila and impaled in the bloated corpse of the man who had ruled there in the Emperor's stead, was a ragged banner bearing the death's head and black sunburst of Mortarion's Legion.

配備了全套危險環(huán)境防護裝備的太陽軍登陸部隊從巡洋艦上乘空降艇前往帝國總督的宮殿，數(shù)座已知的防御堡壘出現(xiàn)在他們面前，其表面也都覆蓋著灰燼，都同樣遭到了徹底摧毀。成千上萬的死者倒在地面各處，他們是在奔跑逃亡的過程中死于熾熱空氣中的毒素和致命神經(jīng)毒劑。而在極少數(shù)及時封閉起來的地方，比如帝國總督的宮殿中，進攻者們用某種更為直接的手段消滅了（躲在這里）擠成一團的人們。鋼筋混凝土的墻壁直接被炮火炸得粉碎，隔離門被進攻者用動力拳從固定架上無情撕下，到處都是慘無人道的屠殺（景象）和成堆被廢棄的爆矢彈彈殼——毫無疑問，這是阿斯塔特軍團所為。仿佛是要留下更多的證據(jù)來證明犯下這一暴行的人那般，在帝國司令部的禮堂中，倒塌的帝國天鷹（標(biāo)志）上方，一面破爛旗幟（的旗桿）刺穿那個曾為帝皇統(tǒng)治此地的男人的腫脹尸體，將其釘在墻上，旗面上帶有死者頭顱和黑色日光射線的圖案——莫塔里安麾下軍團的標(biāo)志。

As the Sun Dragon squadron left the charnel house of Lascal behind them, news of what they had found quickly spread, and in the systems of the Cyclops Cluster, already fraying apart from each other in fear, pure terror now took hold. At worlds such as Endicott, Moravasis and San Pardor, when the news of the murder of Lascal escaped to the general population —perhaps aided by agents and fifth columnists already planted among the population by the Traitors' spy network— widespread civil insurrection, rioting and rebellion toppled the Imperial authorities from power and left only chaos in their wake. But barely had similar dissent been put down in the orbital habitats of Dominica Minor, the seat of the Cyclops Cluster's notional political leadership, the Guildmasters, when news reached them that the reaper's scythe had visited two more systems, the mining colonies of Grist and Rabbasan, and left none alive. Both star systems lay in a near direct path via the known warp routes between Lascal and Dominica itself and left the Guildmasters in no doubt that they would soon be next.

隨著艷陽之龍中隊離開Lascal的停尸間后，關(guān)于他們所發(fā)現(xiàn)情形的信息快速傳播開來；在已經(jīng)因恐懼而彼此關(guān)系緊張的獨眼巨人星群各星系中，純粹的恐懼現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)占據(jù)了上風(fēng)。在諸如Endicott, Moravasis和San Pardor等世界上，當(dāng)Lascal大屠殺的消息被泄露給公眾時（其幕后推手可能是叛軍間諜網(wǎng)絡(luò)早已在當(dāng)?shù)厝酥邪膊宓拈g諜和第五縱隊），廣泛的內(nèi)亂、暴亂和叛亂推翻了帝國當(dāng)局，只留下一片混亂。當(dāng)?shù)弥崭钫叩溺牭兑呀?jīng)砍向了另外兩個星系——采礦殖民地Grist和Rabbasan, 而且無人從進攻中存活時，在獨眼巨人星群名義上的政治領(lǐng)袖——行會總管們的所在地：Dominica Minor的軌道定居站中，類似的異議卻幾乎未被平息。這兩個星系都位于Lascal和Dominica之間已知亞空間航線上近乎直接的通路中，行會總管們無疑很快就會成為莫塔里安的下一個目標(biāo)。

Frantically, they attempted to invoke their Terran-bestowed primacy and call to them a muster of fresh forces from their dominion of worlds, but were answered with silence or scorn. They found with horror that the Mezoan blockade was now reinforced with dark-hulled warships of unknown origin, and the Forge Lords of M'Pandex had reached out to nearby worlds and seized control with their implacable half dead cohorts of adsecularis, butchering any who would stand in their way. Worse yet, reports reached them that Gethsamaine's Imperial Commander had bent the knee before the Traitors, and delivered up his world without a shot fired in its defence. His actions were echoed on the lesser worlds of Vargas and Bleak Harbour, while the feral natives of Zavarich had massacred their Imperial overseers and abased themselves before the Sons of Horus as if they were gods descending from the heavens. It was to the Guildmasters of Dominica Minor suddenly apparent that, with a surgeon's skill, the Cyclops Cluster had been dismembered and laid bare before onrushing death, as much by human weakness as by the sword of the enemy.

他們瘋狂地試圖利用泰拉賦予的主導(dǎo)地位（來平息內(nèi)亂），并且想要從自己統(tǒng)治的（各個）世界上集結(jié)一支新的部隊，但對方的回應(yīng)只是沉默或輕蔑。他們驚恐地發(fā)現(xiàn)：有來源未知的黑色船體戰(zhàn)艦增援了對于梅左阿的封鎖行動，M'Pandex的鑄造領(lǐng)主們也向周邊的世界伸出魔爪，用他們那不可阻止的半死者半機械契奴部隊控制了這些世界，屠殺掉擋在他們（前進）路上的所有人。更糟的是，他們還得知Gethsamaine世界的帝國指揮官在叛軍面前下跪屈服，未放一槍一彈便放棄了自己的世界。Gethsamaine總督的行徑也在次級世界Vargas和Bleak Harbour造成了反響；Zavarich世界上處于蠻荒狀態(tài)的當(dāng)?shù)厝送罋⒘舜说氐牡蹏^察員，之后他們向著荷魯斯之子們屈膝下跪，仿佛后者是自天堂降臨的神明。Dominica Minor的行會總管們突然意識到：在獨眼巨人星群沖向死亡之前，叛軍便已經(jīng)靠著外科手術(shù)般的高超技藝將其肢解并扒去了防護，而在這一過程中，人類的軟弱性發(fā)揮了和敵人利劍同等重要的作用。