3964992.M41 The Eve of Destruction

3964992.M41毀滅的前夜

The onslaught that had consumed more than half of the inhabited star systems that made up the Orpheus Sector had done so in just less than a hundred standard days, sowing panic and terror on a vast scale and ending the lives of billions. In doing so the invaders had thrown all before them into disarray, savage battles becoming desperate retreats and retreats becoming anarchic routs as the sectors forces were owcome and scattered, the invaders ravaging ever onwards to victory after victory. No imperial force available was able to do more than delay the enemy's onslaught or stay their progress. Then, seemingly inexplicably, they stopped.

在不到一百個標(biāo)準(zhǔn)天里，這場進(jìn)攻就已經(jīng)吞噬了超過半數(shù)組成俄爾普斯星區(qū)的恒星系們，它在規(guī)模龐大的區(qū)域內(nèi)激起了恐慌，導(dǎo)致了數(shù)十億人的死亡。侵略者的所作所為令他們面前的一切都陷入了混亂，隨著星區(qū)中的部隊(duì)被擊敗和分散，殘酷的戰(zhàn)斗變?yōu)榱私^望的撤退，繼而撤退又變?yōu)榱嘶靵y無序的潰退。入侵者們先前蹂躪了諸多世界，奪取了一次又一次的勝利?，F(xiàn)有的帝國軍隊(duì)除了拖延敵人的猛攻或阻止他們前進(jìn)之外，再也進(jìn)行不了其他反撲。但在這然后，入侵者們似乎莫名其妙地停了下來。

At Amarah, under the oversight of Sector Commander and Governor-general Calibron Laan and his military council, all forces that could be availed upon were concentrated and rallied with haste, none knowing just how long this pause in the attack would continue. As time wore on and no attack came. Laan's growing paranoid and seeming instability—at the time unknown in its particular cause—weighed heavily in the battle plans and dispositions of force that were enacted in Amarah?defence. The out-of-sector reinforcements that now began to arrive in response to Lean's calls for help were largely channelled directly to the build-up at Amarah. Other local units from the worlds of the Arcantis Cluster and eastern portions of the sector, as yet untouched by the war, were stripped wholesale from their defensive positions and likewise redirected to Amarah,?weakening the protection of their home worlds; an act which damaged greatly morale and planetary political stability, leading to outright mutiny on several occasions which needed to be brutally dealt with by the Commissariat. Within a quarter span of a standard year the forces arrayed at Amarah had grown to colossal proportions, with over nineteen million Imperial Guardsmen in place, with perhaps ten times that amount of reservists and militia raised under emergency edict?and armed and equipped with the Cadian pattern to the strictest?provisions of the Department Mumtorum. Foremost among the off-world Imperial Guard formations in martial power, and one of the last contingents to arrive in-system, were two million troops drawn from the Death Korps of Krieg, spearheaded by the veteran 17th Line Korps under the command of Marshal Karis Venner.

阿瑪拉世界上，在星區(qū)指揮官兼總督卡里波龍 拉恩及其軍事議會的監(jiān)督下，所有可用的部隊(duì)都被集中起來并迅速集結(jié)，沒人知道這種進(jìn)攻暫停的狀態(tài)會延續(xù)多久。但隨著時間流逝，進(jìn)攻并未到來。拉恩日益加劇的偏執(zhí)和看似精神不穩(wěn)定的狀況（當(dāng)時人們還并不知道其中的真實(shí)原因）對阿瑪拉防御部隊(duì)所制定的作戰(zhàn)計劃與軍力部署產(chǎn)生了重要影響。為了響應(yīng)拉恩的呼救，從俄爾普斯星區(qū)之外趕來的援軍已經(jīng)抵達(dá)，他們大部分都被直接輸送到阿瑪拉世界進(jìn)行備戰(zhàn)。尚未被戰(zhàn)爭所觸及的Arcantis星群和星區(qū)東部各個世界上的當(dāng)?shù)夭筷?duì)也被命令全員離開防守位置，并且同樣被重新派往阿瑪拉，這削弱了他們母星所受到的保護(hù)；此舉嚴(yán)重?fù)p害了士氣與行星（政府）的政治穩(wěn)定，在很多次情況中都導(dǎo)致了公開叛亂，其程度嚴(yán)重到需要政戰(zhàn)司進(jìn)行殘酷處理。在四分之一個標(biāo)準(zhǔn)年之內(nèi)的時間里，部署在阿瑪拉的部隊(duì)已經(jīng)增長到了龐大的規(guī)模：超過一千九百萬人的帝國衛(wèi)隊(duì)，以及按照緊急法令而組建起的數(shù)量大概十倍于其的預(yù)備隊(duì)和民兵——這些后備部隊(duì)也按照卡迪安模式進(jìn)行了武裝，達(dá)到了軍務(wù)部最嚴(yán)格規(guī)定（的要求）。在這些從其他世界趕來的帝國衛(wèi)軍編隊(duì)中，軍事力量最為重要的是一支二百萬人的克里格死亡軍團(tuán)部隊(duì)，擔(dān)任其矛頭的是元帥卡里斯 文納所指揮的克里格第17線列軍，這是一支作戰(zhàn)經(jīng)驗(yàn)老道的部隊(duì)。

Additionally, several Space Marine Chapters had answered the Orphean Sectors call to arms, including the entirety of the Minotaurs Chapter, its vanguard elements now sweeping through the northern Orpheus Sector alongside a company of the Marauders Chapter which had also deployed to the Amarah system, while detachments of the Red Seraphs and Nemesis Chapters were known to be en route. The armada massed in Amarah's voidspace at this time was no less impressive, comprising several hundred escort-class vessels and more than sixty rated cruisers and capital vessels of the imperial Navy including seven primus-grade battleships and four Space Marine battle-barges, with the ancient and storied Arica Dominus as their flagship. Seldom in the history of the Imperium had such overwhelming force been seen in the defence of but a?single star system.

另外，還有數(shù)個星際戰(zhàn)士戰(zhàn)團(tuán)回應(yīng)了俄爾普斯星區(qū)的呼救，其中包括米諾陶戰(zhàn)團(tuán)全員，他們的先鋒分隊(duì)正和掠奪者戰(zhàn)團(tuán)的一支連隊(duì)共同橫掃俄爾普斯星區(qū)北側(cè)——后者也被部署到了阿瑪拉星系；同時紅熾天使和復(fù)仇女神戰(zhàn)團(tuán)的分隊(duì)也已知在趕來的路上。此時聚集在阿瑪拉虛空中的艦隊(duì)同樣令人印象深刻，其中包括帝國海軍的數(shù)百艘護(hù)航艦級別飛船和超過六十艘巡洋艦級別艦船與主力艦，其中包括七艘最高級別戰(zhàn)列艦和四艘星際戰(zhàn)士戰(zhàn)列母艦，旗艦是古老且傳奇的“阿里卡主宰者”號。在帝國歷史中，用如此壓倒性的力量來保衛(wèi)單個恒星系是很少見的。

As the silence of the invaders drew out and time passed, the rush to defend Amarah seemed no longer so pressing and calls for more immediate action to meet the enemy's forces became common, but laan and his council remained adamant. An absolute moratorium was imposed on any attempt to counter-attack into the lost regions of Orphean space, or even conduct reconnaissance in force to ascertain ?if imperial survivors still fought on isolated and alone or even to espy enemy movements and strength. A dark veil had been drawn across the sectors lost worlds which Laan and his confidants seemed loath to disturb.

隨著入侵者的沉默延續(xù)和時間的推移，保衛(wèi)阿瑪拉的行動似乎不再那么緊迫，呼吁采取更為迫切的行動去對抗敵軍部隊(duì)成為常見狀況，但拉恩和他的議會仍舊要堅(jiān)持現(xiàn)狀。任何向俄爾普斯星區(qū)淪陷區(qū)域發(fā)起反攻的嘗試都被絕對禁止，甚至連派出部隊(duì)進(jìn)行偵察以確定帝國幸存者是否仍在孤軍奮戰(zhàn)，或偵察敵人的動向和兵力都是不被允許的。一片黑暗帷幕已經(jīng)籠罩住了星區(qū)中各個已淪陷的世界，那里是拉恩和他的親信們似乎不愿去打擾的地方。

3970992.M41 The Black Fleet

3970992.M41黑色艦隊(duì)

The Battte of Amarah began without preamble or warning; no deep range augury foretold of the Necrons'?coming and no Astropath or seer prophesied their presence in the currents of the Empyrean. At 1534202, local timescale, a massive gravitational flux sprang into being near the Amarah star, its shockwaves causing the sun to violently eject plasma and radiation into space in a series of massive solar flared. The fury of the injured star was such it reached as far as the orbit of the system's innermost planet，Auric, and flash-incinerated everything on its day-side in an instant. Across the Amarah system sensor-nets and auspex scanners were blinded, vox traffic was drowned out and unshielded instruments rendered useless in the electromagnetic howl of the tortured star. Such was the confusion and tumult created by the sudden solar storm that it was not until the Sentinel-4 battle station, in deep orbit around Amarah Prime, exploded in a rapidly expanding ball of burning gasses and?molten wreckage, that it was realised that the long-looked for attack had finally come—the Necron host had unleashed their wrath.

阿瑪拉之戰(zhàn)在沒有任何預(yù)兆和警告的情況下開始了；沒有預(yù)示著死靈們到來的遠(yuǎn)程占卜報告，也沒有星語者和先知預(yù)言出它們在至高天浪潮中的出現(xiàn)。在當(dāng)?shù)貢r間1534202，阿瑪拉恒星附近突然出現(xiàn)了大量重力流動現(xiàn)象，沖擊波導(dǎo)致恒星向太空猛烈地噴射等離子體和輻射，形成一系列巨大的恒星耀斑。受傷恒星的怒火極為猛烈，以至于耀斑都抵達(dá)了星系中最內(nèi)側(cè)行星Auric的軌道處，位于晝半球的一切都在瞬間化為灰燼。在這顆倍受折磨的恒星的電磁怒吼聲中，阿瑪拉星系各處的傳感器網(wǎng)絡(luò)和鳥卜儀掃描器都盡數(shù)失靈，音頻通信被淹沒，未被屏蔽的設(shè)備也變得毫無用處。這場突然爆發(fā)的太陽風(fēng)暴造成的混亂狀況是如此嚴(yán)重，以至于直到位于阿瑪拉主星軌道深處的哨兵4號戰(zhàn)斗空間站發(fā)生爆炸，成為了由燃燒著的氣體與融化的殘骸組成的快速膨脹球體時，人們才意識到自己長久等待的進(jìn)攻已經(jīng)最終到來了——死靈大軍已經(jīng)釋放出了怒火。

The vast Imperial battlefleet on-station further out at the fleet anchorage at Laymon (Amarah Ill), posted at what conventional wisdom dictated was the optimum location to best intercept ships translating into the system from the Warp, quickly brought back-up systems and optical surveyors online to view the destruction. They found to their horror the image of a black fleet of unknown vessels silhouetted against the burning death-throes of the battle station, the ships travelling at such near impossible speeds they were in range of Amarah Prime in moments, and there was nothing that could be done to stop them, nor even time to give a warning. The enemy had appeared within the walls.

龐大的帝國戰(zhàn)爭艦隊(duì)駐扎在位于Laymon（阿瑪拉三號）的更遠(yuǎn)處艦隊(duì)錨地，他們所處的位置是傳統(tǒng)（戰(zhàn)爭）智慧策略中對于從亞空間中進(jìn)入星系的飛船進(jìn)行最佳攔截的最佳地點(diǎn)，艦隊(duì)很快就啟動了備用系統(tǒng)和光學(xué)測量儀來檢查受破壞情況。他們驚恐地發(fā)現(xiàn)，在戰(zhàn)斗空間站死亡劇痛所引發(fā)的熊熊烈火的映襯下，出現(xiàn)了一支由未知艦船組成的黑色艦隊(duì)的身影。這些飛船在以近乎不可能的速度航行著，它們頃刻間便抵達(dá)了對于阿瑪拉主星的進(jìn)攻范圍之內(nèi)，而帝國部隊(duì)采取不了任何行動來阻止它們，甚至沒時間發(fā)出警報。敵人已然兵臨城下。

As the fleet raised its mighty engines from their idling slumber, a process that would take time that Amarah Prime could ill afford, the Arica Dominus and her sister ships were forced to watch impotently as flashes of golden and emerald light flickered around Amarah as orbital minefields and weapons platforms were swept aside by the black scythe blade and spear-like shapes of the alien invaders. Systematically. Amarah Prime was stripped of the defences that so much blood, treasure and time had forged, and Sentinel-2 then Sentinel-1—each a battle station with the firepower of an entire cruiser squadron in its own right— were blasted into a pyre of burning wreckage and left to hang like fiery omens in Amarah Prime's night sky. The capital world of the Orpheus Sector lay open for attack.

艦隊(duì)從空轉(zhuǎn)的休眠狀態(tài)中醒來，點(diǎn)燃自己巨大的引擎飛向阿瑪拉主星，而這個過程需要的時間是阿瑪拉主星提供不了的。當(dāng)異形入侵者黑色的鐮刀狀與長矛狀飛船將軌道雷區(qū)和武器平臺們掃去一邊時，“阿里卡主宰者”號和她的姊妹艦被迫無能為力地眼看著金色和翠綠色的光芒閃爍在阿瑪拉周圍。異形艦隊(duì)系統(tǒng)性地摧毀了阿瑪拉主星上用大量的血汗、財富和時間鑄就的防御設(shè)施，哨兵1號和哨兵2號這兩座戰(zhàn)斗空間站（它們自身都擁有著一整支巡洋艦中隊(duì)的火力）都被先后炸成了一堆燃燒中的殘骸，它們?nèi)缤瑹霟岬念A(yù)兆那般掛在阿瑪拉主星的夜空中。面對著敵人的進(jìn)攻，俄爾普斯星區(qū)的首府世界洞門大開。

3971992.M41 Planetfall

3971992.M41行星登陸

By the time the orbital defence batteries that shielded its hive cities, and the missile silos concealed beneath its grey seas, began to open fire wildly into the skies above, the enemy was already at Amarah's gates. Dark and unnatural storms boiled in the skies above, riven with vivid and corposant lightning, whilst eerie flashes of pale radiance flickered in the shadows between the hive spires and tunnels and passageways deep below ground. Tactical vox-nets, still mired in howling static and inierference, were suddenly swamped with reports of attack both from the ground and the air. In the wide ceremonial plazas of the Callowsheen Hive, a spectral army of blackened iron had appeared between the lightning-strokes and was advancing through the city streets, slaughtering all before it. At Duneratd Star Port, swarms of ravenous metallic insects in?their thousands had erupted from the subterranean access tunnels below, devouring everything in their path and tearing a part?the troop shuttles and gunships on their slipways from within.

當(dāng)護(hù)衛(wèi)著巢城的軌道防御炮塔，以及隱藏在星球灰色海洋之下的導(dǎo)彈發(fā)射井開始向上方的天空瘋狂開火時，敵人已經(jīng)逼近了阿瑪拉的門戶。天空中翻涌著黑暗且超自然的風(fēng)暴，并被耀眼且如同放電光球一般的閃電撕裂開，與此同時，詭異的蒼白光芒閃爍在巢都尖頂、隧道和地下深處通道之間的陰影中。原本仍舊深陷于嘈雜的靜電聲與干擾聲中的戰(zhàn)術(shù)音頻通訊網(wǎng)絡(luò)，突然淹沒在了進(jìn)攻報告聲中——阿瑪拉遭到了來自空中和地面兩個方向的進(jìn)攻。在Callowsheen巢都寬闊的紀(jì)念廣場上，一支由黑色鋼鐵組成的幽魂大軍從閃電間現(xiàn)身，它們正在沿著城市街道前進(jìn)，并屠殺掉自己面前的一切。在Duneratd星港處，數(shù)以千計極為饑餓的金屬昆蟲從地下管道鉆出，它們吞噬了沿途的一切，并將那些位于滑道上的帝國部隊(duì)穿梭機(jī)們和炮艇們從內(nèi)部撕碎。

Elsewhere the hive city of New Vassburg,the largest of Amarah Prime's arcologies, was to be destroyed from the air as the sleek shapes of Doom Scythe and Night Shroud class attack ships fell upon it from the storm-wracked skies above. The antimatter bombs released as lightless-black containment spheres by the Night Shrouds shattered on contact with their targets, ripping them into oblivion and rending great wounds into the spires, which so undermined began to topple and crush down, bringing untold carnage upon the multitudes trapped inside. The haIf-submerged complexes of the Tritonus hive were likewise soon undone. The city's defences had long relied upon its labyrinth of flooded passageways and sub-levels to impede and confuse any attacker, but found they were poor barricades against the machine-dead things that came for them; creatures with no need to breathe and to whom darkness was refuge. Assailed by mournful funeral barques that rose from the black waters bearing silent legions of skeletal metallic warriors and scissor-handed fiends that crawled from the shadows to do murder, soon the air-domes and coral-like heights of Tritonus were also splintered and falling, its watery streets echoing with the scream of the dying.

擁有著流線外形的毀滅之鐮?wèi)?zhàn)機(jī)和黑夜壽衣進(jìn)攻艇從暴風(fēng)肆虐的天空中降臨到了阿瑪拉最大的生態(tài)建筑——New Vassburg巢城，它們將要從空中摧毀巢都各處。黑夜壽衣丟下近似夜色般漆黑的有抑制功能的球體，這些反物質(zhì)炸彈在接觸到目標(biāo)時破碎開，將目標(biāo)湮滅掉并在巢都塔尖上留下巨大的傷口。這種轟炸是如此具有破壞性，以至于巢都塔尖開始崩塌并碾碎下方建筑，被困其中的普通人們遭到了不可言說的大屠殺。Tritonus巢都半浸沒于水中的復(fù)合體很快也同樣遭到了破壞。長期以來，這座巢城的防御一直是依靠被洪水淹沒的迷宮般的通道和地下巢層來阻礙和迷惑所有攻擊者，但它們阻擋不了那些到達(dá)此地的機(jī)械死者們；它們是無需呼吸的生物，而且以黑暗作為隱藏地。悲慟的葬儀巨艦從黑色的水中升起，運(yùn)來了骨骼狀金屬戰(zhàn)士組成的沉默軍團(tuán)，有著剪刀狀雙手的惡鬼也從黑暗中爬出，它們發(fā)起了進(jìn)攻，Tritonus巢都的空中圓頂和珊瑚狀的高層很快也被撕碎并倒塌下來，滿是積水的街道中回蕩著垂死者的尖叫。

Beyond the cities that were the invaders, primary targets, military outposts were also soon attacked by the relentless Necron invaders. The foremost of these, the polar Bastion Militaris, a lynchpin?of the planet's defences, was suddenly besieged by a phalanx of hulking war machines that hovered soundlessly over the ice flows. Seemingly unstoppable by shot and shell they closed in relentlessly, tearing apart the mountain holdfast with lashing blasts of energy and unleashed waves of seismic force that brought down the granite faces of the fortress' curtain walls as if they were made of sand. The kilometres of prefabricated barrack-blocks on the Marcovan Peninsula, built to?house nearly a million Guardsmen, were simply annihilated from existence, blazing lambent shafts of light descending from orbit and leaving nothing but fine white ash and fused silica glass where once a vast army had stood rallying for war.

入侵者們的主要目標(biāo)——位于城市之外的軍事哨站也很快就遭到了這些無情死靈們的進(jìn)攻。其中最為重要的是極地軍事要塞，此處行星防御關(guān)鍵設(shè)施突然遭到了某支巨型戰(zhàn)爭機(jī)械方陣的進(jìn)攻，這些機(jī)械無聲無息地懸浮在冰流上。人類的槍火和炮彈似乎都無法將其阻止，它們無情地接近了要塞，用大量的能量爆炸撕碎了山體中的堡壘，并且釋放出地震波，令堡壘幕墻的花崗巖外層如沙土般破碎崩落。帝國在Marcovan半島上建立了數(shù)千米長的營房區(qū)，用以安置將近一百萬名衛(wèi)軍士兵，但從軌道上降下的熾熱燃燒光束將建筑群化為烏有，那片曾有龐大的軍隊(duì)集結(jié)起來準(zhǔn)備作戰(zhàn)的區(qū)域現(xiàn)在只剩下了細(xì)密的白色灰燼與熔融的硅玻璃。

Outmatched by an enemy that seemed to?be suddenly everywhere and had the power simply to materialise out of thin air, the defenders of Amarah,though thrown into disorder, nevertheless fought back and fought back hard against the invader.At Callowsheen the massacring legions were met by the tanks of the Tekarn 234th Armoured Battalion, who quickly learned that even the small arms of the invaders proved lethal to their heaviest armour at close range. Knowing that to remain on the open battlelield would mean swift destruction, the commanders of the battalion therefore pulled their vehicles back into the wide concourses where they could hope to engage their foe at range, in places almost jamming the area between the hab-spires with Leman Russ drawn up in staggered lines abreast. Manticore and Basilisk artillery tanks behind them providing barrage fire support.At the first sight of the unliving ranks of the Necron Warriors stalking towards them, the Tekarn opened fire in an unrelenting barrage of shellfire at long range through which nothing could hope to survive. Even as rank upon rank were blasted apart and shattered warriors were sent spinning into fragments, more took their place and yet more still dragged themselves up from the broken ground and began to re-assemble thernselves to haul their metal bodies forward again. The Tekarn, seeing with horror that their fury was doing no more than holding the tide back, could not relent their barrage and kept firing until their cannon barrels began to glow dull red with heat as shells were brought up with back-breaking haste to feed the guns. A savage stalemate of sorts had been achieved. It was one the Tekarn officers knew they could not sustain long, but little did they know they would not get the chance to see how far their determination and munitions could last against so implacable a foe.

敵人似乎突然出現(xiàn)在了各處，而且似乎有能力憑空出現(xiàn)，它們比阿瑪拉守軍更勝一籌；但盡管陷入了混亂無序狀態(tài)，守軍仍然奮起反擊入侵者。Tekarn第234裝甲營的坦克在Callowsheen迎戰(zhàn)了大舉屠殺人類的死靈軍團(tuán)，衛(wèi)軍們很快就意識到，在近距離情況下，哪怕是入侵者手中最小型的武器對他們裝甲最為厚重的載具而言也是致命的。裝甲營的指揮官們明白，繼續(xù)在開闊戰(zhàn)場上交戰(zhàn)意味著快速毀滅，因此他們將載具撤回到寬闊的廣場上——衛(wèi)軍在這里有望與敵軍遠(yuǎn)距離交戰(zhàn)。黎曼魯斯坦克并排交錯?？?，次級尖塔之間的某些地方擠到近乎水泄不通。排在黎曼魯斯坦克后方的蝎尾獅和石化蜥蜴炮擊坦克提供炮火支援。一經(jīng)看到死靈武士們組成的不死大軍逼近的最初跡象，Tekarn營便連續(xù)不斷地從遠(yuǎn)距離發(fā)射炮火——在此等炮火下，沒有任何事物是有望幸存的。盡管死靈武士們被一排又一排地炸成碎塊，而且他們破碎的身軀又繼而變成了碎片，但有更多的武士接替倒下者的位置，還有更多的武士從破碎的地面上爬了起來，它們的身體開始重組，（用雙手）拖著自己向前爬去。Tekarn營驚恐地看到：自己的怒火不過是阻礙了這些潮水般的敵人，他們不停射擊，直到炮管因?yàn)闊崃堪l(fā)出暗紅色的光芒——衛(wèi)軍們以極快的速度裝填著炮彈。雙方形成了一種殘酷的僵局，Tekarn營的軍官們知道己方在這種狀況下?lián)尾涣颂?，但他們也幾乎不知道自己將沒有機(jī)會看到己方的決心和彈藥在對抗如此無情的敵人時能堅(jiān)持多久。

For the valiant guardsmen of Tekarn, death came from both above and below. Testimony from the single warrior of the action, a trooper named Yeon Bak, then employed as part of the shell-carrying train, reports that the danger went unnoticed at first owing to the thunderous din of their own guns. The first he saw of their plight was when a lance of burning heat—like the blast from a meltagun, only far more focused and prolonged—instantly incinerated the troopers in front of him and bisected a Sentinel power-loader nearby in a single sweeping arc. Bak attributes to luck the fact that he and his fellows were on the return to retrieve more shells or the munitions would have surely ignited and he would have been instantly killed. He describes a huge black shape buzzing past directly over his head as he threw himself into cover, and looking up in shock he saw the sides of the spire-towers around the armoured column crawling with multi-segmenied robotic insects of nightmarish size. Identified?by the logisters of the Ordo Xenos as "Acanthrites"?these machine constructs propelled themselves downwards onto the trapped Tekarn forces on tenebrous wings of shadowy force, slicing apart armoured vehicles with their cutting beams before descending to smash and hack apart the survivors with bladed limbs and energy-wreathed stingers. Anarchy quickly descended on the Tekarn as, trapped so close to each other; their tanks could not manoeuvre or bring their weapons to bear without hitting one another and their own troops, with no less than general slaughter ensuing. Tekarn Commando units, attached to the armoured battalion, sought to counter the attack with concentrated bursts of hellgun fire and man-portable plasma weaponry, but this counter attack was Quickly overwhelmed when huge, rapidly moving arthropod-like constructs erupted from the ground beneath the Tekarn and sealed the trap. These killing machines, moving with blurring speed, were able to pass through solid matter at will. Swiftly they completed the massacre, smashing through the remaining battle tanks, the carcasses of the Tekarn Guardsmen dismembered and sent spinning away as the killing machines tore past. The entire 234th Battalion met its end in a span no greater than twenty standard minutes, with trooper Yeon Bak surviving by crawling into a sewer culvert and being swept away, later to be summarily executed for cowardice in the face of the enemy.

死亡從空中和地下同時降臨到英勇的Tekarn營衛(wèi)軍們身上。相關(guān)口供來自于參加此次行動的一名戰(zhàn)士——某個名為亞昂 巴克的普通坦克兵，他當(dāng)時被部署為了炮彈運(yùn)輸隊(duì)的一員。根據(jù)巴克的報告，由于己方的火炮發(fā)出了雷霆般的轟鳴聲，衛(wèi)軍們起初并沒有注意到危險。當(dāng)一發(fā)熾熱的光矛（像是一道熱熔爆炸能量束，但能量遠(yuǎn)為集中，持續(xù)時間也長得多）瞬間將他面前的士兵們化為灰燼，并將旁邊的一輛裝彈用哨兵機(jī)甲一分為二時，巴克才第一次看出了己方的困境。不過巴克是幸運(yùn)的，事實(shí)上，（當(dāng)時）巴克和戰(zhàn)友們正在返回去取回更多彈藥——這些彈藥原本會被點(diǎn)燃，他們原本也會被瞬間殺死。他描述稱，當(dāng)自己躲入掩體時，一個巨大的黑色物體帶著嗡嗡聲直接從他頭頂飛過；當(dāng)他震驚地抬起頭時，看到裝甲圓柱周圍的塔尖兩側(cè)爬滿了噩夢般大小的多節(jié)機(jī)器昆蟲。這些被攘外修會邏輯士們識別為“針尾幽魂”的機(jī)械構(gòu)造體乘著幽暗力量構(gòu)成的黑色翅膀，向被困的Tekarn營俯沖而下。它們用切割光束切開裝甲載具，之后它們降落下來，撞向幸存者們，并用利刃般的肢體和纏繞著能量的毒刺將其砍碎。由于彼此過于靠近，Tekarn營被困，混亂狀態(tài)很快便降臨了；坦克們在進(jìn)行機(jī)動或用武器開火時，必然會擊中彼此和己方（步兵）部隊(duì)，隨后到來的必然是大規(guī)模屠殺。配屬到裝甲營的Tekarn突擊隊(duì)試圖用地獄槍和人力便攜式電漿武器的集中開火射擊進(jìn)行反攻，當(dāng)巨大且快速移動的節(jié)肢動物狀構(gòu)造體從地下鉆出來，并將陷阱封死時，反擊攻勢很快就被擊潰了。這些殺戮機(jī)器以令人看不清的速度移動著，能夠隨意穿過固態(tài)物質(zhì)。這些殺戮機(jī)器很快就完成了完成了屠殺，它們急馳而過，撞穿了剩余的戰(zhàn)斗坦克，衛(wèi)軍們的尸體也被肢解并卷走。在不到20個標(biāo)準(zhǔn)分鐘的時間內(nèi)，Tekarn第234裝甲營就被毀滅了。坦克兵亞昂 巴克爬入了下水道并被沖走，因此得以幸免，之后他由于在面對敵人時怯懦畏戰(zhàn)而被倉促處決。