?The Debt of Vengeance?

復(fù)仇之債

Since his takeover of the Legion in the fourth decade of the Great Crusade, Roboute Guilliman had succeeded in transforming the XIIIth?into an intricate and highly functioning weapon of war, and in doing so had built upon a track record of success in battle which held very few stains of defeat. For more than half a century the Legion had gone from strength to strength, waging Compliance actions and liberating worlds for the Imperium across the eastern reaches of the galaxy, and forging the realm of Ultramar in the process. Though not yet having reached the decisive numerical superiority of the other Legions, it would manifest by the time of the Horus Heresy, yet the Ultramarines of 899.M30 were perhaps on the cusp of becoming so, as their ranks, then at around approximately 166000?Legionaries, stood them in the forefront of their peers. The Dark Angels, who in the previous decade to this had been undoubtedly the most powerful single Legion, had fallen in number and evened this figure, having suffered massive casualties holding the line during the famed Third Rangdan Xenocide; the blood of 50,000 Space Marines spent in preventing the destruction of perhaps the entire northern Imperium by the menace from the outer darkness. The Ultramarines in contrast had spent decades in building up their forces and expanding the frontiers in the east, having had the advantage of their excellent network of supply and recruitment, and their Primarchs formidable generalship was at a zenith of its strength thus far.

自從在大遠(yuǎn)征的第四十年接手他的軍團(tuán)之后 基里曼成功地將第十三軍團(tuán)轉(zhuǎn)化為一件錯綜復(fù)雜且運轉(zhuǎn)高效的戰(zhàn)爭武器，這也是建立在極限戰(zhàn)士軍團(tuán)在戰(zhàn)斗中少有敗績的成功記錄上。軍團(tuán)在超過半個世紀(jì)的時間里不斷壯大，他們在的整個銀河?xùn)|部邊境區(qū)域中為帝國執(zhí)行歸順行動，解放了諸多世界，并在這一過程中鑄就了奧特拉瑪?shù)陌鎴D。雖然尚未形成對于其他軍團(tuán)的決定性數(shù)量優(yōu)勢，他們的兵力優(yōu)勢到荷魯斯叛亂時期才會顯現(xiàn)出來，不過?899.M30時的極限戰(zhàn)士可能即將在兵力上力壓群雄，他們此刻大約有166000名軍團(tuán)戰(zhàn)士，這讓他們在兄弟中位居前列。在之前的十年中，黑暗天使軍團(tuán)無疑是單個軍團(tuán)中最為強(qiáng)悍的，但由于在第三次冉丹異形滅絕戰(zhàn)中堅守陣線，第一軍團(tuán)遭受了大量傷亡——50,000名星際戰(zhàn)士血灑星辰才阻止了來自黑暗外域的威脅摧毀大概整個帝國北境，這導(dǎo)致黑暗天使出現(xiàn)減員并拉平了人數(shù)。極限戰(zhàn)士則相反，他們耗費了數(shù)十年的時間鞏固實力并拓張東部邊界，軍團(tuán)絕佳的供給和征兵網(wǎng)絡(luò)體系為他們提供了優(yōu)勢，而且迄今為止，他們的原體那可怖的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)能力已經(jīng)達(dá)到了巔峰水平。

Yet for all this, Roboute Guilliman knew that a shadow of doubt afflicted his Legion's soul. That doubt had its origins in its darkly storied defeat during the disastrous intervention in the Osiris Cluster Rebellion a few short years before the Primarch's reuniting with his Legion. Marius Gage's tenure in command had commenced with this disaster, and it became a baleful influence in the psyche of the Legion, a thing which while left unspoken nevertheless had power, and that even seemed to cast a pall over the Legion's recruits unborn when the battle was lost. The Primarch knew that the only way to truly purge his Legion of this shadow of the mind was to find once more the xenos known as the Osirian Psybrids, and with the Ultramarines at his back, destroy them utterly.

盡管實現(xiàn)了這一切，但羅伯特 基里曼知道軍團(tuán)的靈魂仍然遭受著一片懷疑陰影的折磨。這種（自我）懷疑源自極限戰(zhàn)士軍團(tuán)對奧西里斯群星叛亂進(jìn)行災(zāi)難性介入時所遭受的黑暗傳說般的失敗，此事發(fā)生于原體和軍團(tuán)重逢的短短數(shù)年之前。馬里烏斯·蓋奇就是從這場災(zāi)難后開始擔(dān)任軍團(tuán)長，這場失敗對于軍團(tuán)士氣造成了惡毒的影響，它的影響不言而喻，當(dāng)極限戰(zhàn)士們戰(zhàn)敗時，似乎連軍團(tuán)中未接受完改造的新兵們心中都蒙上了陰影。原體明白：只有再次找到那群被稱為奧西里斯靈能種的異形，并且率領(lǐng)著身后的極限戰(zhàn)士們徹底將其毀滅，方能掃除軍團(tuán)心中的陰影。

To this end, ever since he had first reviewed reports of the action when he took over his Legion, Roboute Guilliman had begun planning the Psybrids' destruction, analysing and re-analysing every facet of the Legion's battle-logs, gun-picter footage and even the deep auspex data gathered from the aetheric cogitators of the warships that had survived for microscopic fluctuations. In the decades as his Legion had gone from Compliance to Compliance, war zone to war zone, the Primarch had never stopped running continued theoretical battle scenarios against the macabre and powerful xenos, knowing that one day they would make their reappearance and that he and his Legion would be waiting. But decades passed and they did not return.

因此，從接手軍團(tuán)時第一次重新審閱這次行動的報告開始，羅伯特 基里曼就已經(jīng)開始計劃靈能種們的毀滅，他反復(fù)分析軍團(tuán)戰(zhàn)斗日志、爆彈槍上圖像采集器收集圖片資料、甚至還有從那些極其僥幸地幸存于那次沖突的戰(zhàn)艦的以太沉思者上收集到的深度鳥卜探測數(shù)據(jù)，他分析這些資料的每個方面。極限戰(zhàn)士軍團(tuán)在數(shù)十年的時間中令一個又一個世界歸順，奔赴到一個又一個戰(zhàn)區(qū)，他們的原體也從未停止過針對可怕而強(qiáng)大的異形進(jìn)行持續(xù)的理論戰(zhàn)斗場景推測?；锫揽傆幸惶爝@些異形會再次出現(xiàn)，他的軍團(tuán)也在等待著它們，但數(shù)十載歲月匆匆流去，舊敵卻從未卷土重來。

There had been rumours of course, unsubstantiated accounts passed on from frontier Rogue Traders, intermittent reports of inexplicable massacres and mass disappearances, but the galaxy, even within the fold of the growing Imperium, was a strange and dangerous place, and the evidence was seldom conclusive as to the culprit, or pointed to the more commonplace if no less deadly privations of the Khrave, the Enslavers or degenerate Eldar corsairs. Only at Maxilla Veritas near the Maelstrom, twenty-six standard years after the Osiris Rebellion, was the evidence for the Psybrids involvement considered viable. Here an agri-world had been robbed of a third of its population almost overnight, the remainder simply lying down in the fields to starve to death, their minds and wills utterly destroyed. But by the time fast cruisers from the Ultramarines fleet had arrived, the trail was already long cold and the planets dead bore silent witness to the Psybrids' passing.

當(dāng)然，也曾有過一些謠言，邊境的行商浪人們傳遞著未經(jīng)證實的故事，關(guān)于莫名其妙的大屠殺和大規(guī)模失蹤的斷斷續(xù)續(xù)報道也偶爾傳來，但哪怕是在成長壯大中的人類帝國疆域內(nèi)，銀河系也是一個怪奇危險的地方；證據(jù)從未決定性地證明靈能種就是造成這些慘劇的罪魁禍?zhǔn)?，或者指向某些更常見的原因——倘若克拉夫人、奴役者或墮落的靈族海盜在該地區(qū)并不是極其罕見的話。只有靈能種入侵了大漩渦附近的Maxilla Veritas世界的證據(jù)被認(rèn)為是真實可行的，此事發(fā)生于奧西里斯群星叛亂后的第二十六個標(biāo)準(zhǔn)年。這個農(nóng)業(yè)世界幾乎在一夜之內(nèi)就被掠走了三分之一的人口，剩下的人只能躺在地上被活活餓死，他們的心靈和意識都被徹底摧毀了。但是當(dāng)來自極限戰(zhàn)士軍團(tuán)艦隊的快速巡洋艦抵達(dá)時，這條線索就已經(jīng)斷開很久了，只剩下死亡的行星默默目睹著靈能種們遠(yuǎn)去。

It was in the closing segments of 899.M30 that conclusive word finally reached the Ultramarines Primarch that the Psybrids had not only been encountered, but met in battle. Relayed from the central Astrotelepathic chamber of Terra, the strange report had come from a sub-fleet of the XIIth Legion, then in its last days as the War Hounds before its own Primarch, Angron, was found.

在899.M30的年末，極限戰(zhàn)士原體最終得到了確切的消息：帝國不僅偶遇了靈能種，而且與它們進(jìn)行了交戰(zhàn)。消息轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)自泰拉的中央星語室，這份奇怪的報告來自第十二軍團(tuán)的分遣艦隊，僅僅幾天之后戰(zhàn)犬軍團(tuán)就發(fā)現(xiàn)了自己的原體——安格隆。

The fleet, under the command of Praetor Erad Krug, was fighting on the south-western extreme of the Great Crusade's frontier near Eurydice Terminal. Here the War Hounds had been engaged in repelling an attack on the frontier outpost world by Ork void raiders from the self-styled Glortian Empire from the untracked abysses beyond. The War Hounds, though severely outnumbered, had held off?the repeated Ork attacks through a series of savage boarding actions in close orbit and high intensity assaults on their landing zones, preventing the xenos from gaining a foothold on the ground. It had been during the latest of these assaults, the largest yet attempted by the Orks, that a mysterious third party had attacked both sides.

這支由軍團(tuán)執(zhí)政官艾拉德 克魯格指揮的艦隊當(dāng)時正在靠近Eurydice Terminal的西南端大遠(yuǎn)征邊境作戰(zhàn)。戰(zhàn)犬軍團(tuán)在這里抵抗了歐克獸人虛空掠奪者對于這個前線前哨世界的進(jìn)攻，后者自稱來自無跡可尋的深淵外側(cè)的Glortian獸人帝國。盡管數(shù)量處于嚴(yán)重劣勢，但戰(zhàn)犬部隊仍然在近軌道區(qū)域進(jìn)行了一系列殘忍野蠻的跳幫行動，并高強(qiáng)度進(jìn)攻獸人的登陸區(qū)，以此遏制住了獸人的反復(fù)進(jìn)攻，阻止異形們在地面上獲得落足點。在攻擊的最后階段，綠皮們進(jìn)行最大規(guī)模的進(jìn)攻嘗試時，一股神秘的第三方勢力攻擊了雙方。

A duo of immense hourglass-shaped vessels had appeared and launched a devastating assault, which the Orks —reacting in a frenzy unwarranted even for their kind— had responded by immediately abandoning the planetary assault and turning on the newcomers with suicidal abandon. The War Hounds had taken advantage of this unexpected respite to regroup and then counter-attack the Orks' all-but-unprotected flank, so savagely were the raiders engaged in attacking the hourglass vessels, many of their warships simply ramming the enemy, all guns blazing. The War Hounds battle barges massacred a path through the Orks and carried through to the unknown foe, encountering the Osiran Psybrids firsthand as the nightmarishly powerful xenos smashed the War Hounds void shields and teleported aboard. In the chaotic void melee that followed, only the savage tenacity of the War Hounds allowed them to survive, as dozens of their own ships and hundreds of Ork vessels were shattered and left as burning wreckage in the skies above Eurydice Terminal before the two hourglass ships were finally driven off.But not before one Psybrid vessel made a low pass of the planet's surface and strange energy readings spiked across its ground stations.

兩艘巨大的沙漏狀飛船出現(xiàn)在此地，并發(fā)動了毀滅性的進(jìn)攻。獸人們馬上放棄了行星進(jìn)攻作戰(zhàn)，以自殺式的狂熱來對抗新到場的敵人。戰(zhàn)犬部隊利用這次意外的喘息機(jī)會重新集結(jié)，并且反擊了獸人毫無保護(hù)的側(cè)翼。獸人掠奪者對于沙漏飛船的進(jìn)攻極其野蠻兇狠，他們的許多戰(zhàn)艦都是簡單地撞向敵艦，（同時）所有火炮全力開火。戰(zhàn)犬的戰(zhàn)斗母艦們在獸人群中屠殺出來一條血路，面對了這群未知的敵人。他們直接與奧西里斯靈能種發(fā)生了遭遇戰(zhàn)，這些噩夢般的強(qiáng)大異形攻破了戰(zhàn)犬艦隊的虛空盾，進(jìn)行了傳送跳幫攻擊。在之后混亂的虛空混戰(zhàn)中，戰(zhàn)犬們只是靠著自己野蠻的韌性才得以幸存。在兩艘沙漏飛船最終離開之前，數(shù)十艘軍團(tuán)戰(zhàn)艦和數(shù)百艘獸人艦船被炸碎，成為漂浮在Eurydice Terminal上空熊熊燃燒的殘骸。但在此之前，一艘靈能種飛船低空掠過行星表面，奇怪的能量讀數(shù)在星球地面哨站中飆升。

By the time the report?had reached Guilliman, thanks to the vagaries of astrotelepathic communications, it was already several standard months out of date, and he knew that his own orders, sealed under his authority as a Primarch and a Lord Marshal Primus of the Great Crusade, for the War Hounds to hold at all cost and if possible crack the hourglass ships to their source might arrive too late. Regardless, Roboute Guilliman swung his long-planned strategy into action, and with nearimpossible dispatch, a powerful Ultramarines Retribution fleet was soon underway to Eurydice Terminal.

但由于星語通訊的變幻莫測性，當(dāng)報告送到基里曼手中時，已經(jīng)延遲了數(shù)個標(biāo)準(zhǔn)月之久?；锫溃含F(xiàn)在以一位原體和一位大遠(yuǎn)征至高領(lǐng)主元帥的身份下令，要求戰(zhàn)犬軍團(tuán)不惜一起代價拖住敵人，有可能的話就破解出沙漏飛船的來源可能太遲了。不論結(jié)果如何，羅伯特 基里曼都將自己長期計劃的戰(zhàn)略付諸實踐，經(jīng)過一次幾乎不可能的調(diào)度安排后，一支強(qiáng)悍的極限戰(zhàn)士報應(yīng)艦隊很快就向Eurydice Terminal開拔。

The Killing Star

殺戮之星

When the retribution fleet arrived, not even the intellect of the Ultramarines Primarch could have predicted what his Legion would find?there. The entire star system had been sundered into a battleground littered with burning debris and the radioactive echo of heavy weapons fire. The dead and broken hulks of Ork and Imperial warships, as well as less readily identifiable wrecks, were scattered everywhere, and the atmosphere of Eurydice Noctis, the systems only life-sustaining world, was scorched and blackened with the fires of war. Above this battle-torn orb, at the heart of a sea of orbital wreckage, no fewer than seven of the monolithic, clockwork-spinning shapes of the Psybrid hourglass vessels hovered, several badly damaged by intense conflict.

當(dāng)報應(yīng)艦隊抵達(dá)時，即便是以極限戰(zhàn)士原體的超凡才智也無法預(yù)見到他們在此將會發(fā)現(xiàn)的事物。整個恒星系都被分割成為了戰(zhàn)場，其間遍布著燃燒的碎片與重型武器開火的輻射回音。獸人和帝國戰(zhàn)艦被摧毀后剩下的破碎廢船，以及一些不太容易被識別的殘骸飄散到了各處。恒星系中唯一能夠維持生命的世界是Eurydice Noctis，戰(zhàn)火將它的大氣層燒焦熏黑。在這個飽受戰(zhàn)爭蹂躪的星球上方，有不少于七條單體發(fā)條旋轉(zhuǎn)形狀的靈能種沙漏船在軌道上殘骸海洋的中心盤旋著，其中一些在激烈沖突中嚴(yán)重受損。

Immediately coming under scattered attacks by Ork gunships stalking the debris fields, the Ultramarines fleet began scanning the system in an attempt to comprehend just what was transpiring there, but it was not until they were contacted by a narrow band Imperial vox signal from the surface of one of the systems outer ice moons that matters became clear. The signal was from the badly damaged War Hounds battle cruiser Cold Cerberus, which had made an emergency landing on the ice moon to make repairs. On board were the last surviving few hundred Legionaries of the XIlth, the remnants of a force that had once been ten times its number, led by the terribly wounded but still commanding Erad Krug.

在殘骸碎片區(qū)巡邏盯梢的獸人炮艇馬上進(jìn)行了分散進(jìn)攻，極限戰(zhàn)士艦隊開始掃描這個恒星系，試圖理解發(fā)生了什么，直到他們聯(lián)系上了一個來自恒星系內(nèi)外行星帶某顆冰封衛(wèi)星表面的窄頻帶帝國通訊信號，事情才明了起來。信號來自嚴(yán)重受損的戰(zhàn)犬軍團(tuán)戰(zhàn)斗巡洋艦“冷酷魔犬”號，它在那顆冰封衛(wèi)星上緊急迫降以進(jìn)行維修。船上有最后數(shù)百名幸存下來的第十二軍團(tuán)戰(zhàn)士，他們曾經(jīng)的部隊人數(shù)是這群殘軍數(shù)量的十倍，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)他們的是受傷嚴(yán)重但仍在指揮的艾拉德 克魯格。

The arrival of the Ultramarines fleet was a welcome surprise to him, for he had received no orders to stand and fight to the last against the xenos menace—he hadn't needed any. He detailed to the Primarch the story of a strange and terrible battle in which the Psybrids had managed through their mental powers to enslave a vast feral population of Orks to do battle for them against their own kind, and had sought to do the same to the Imperial defenders of Eurydice. Only the War Hounds had proved able to resist the creatures' baleful influence, but massively outnumbered they had paid for their resistance in blood, and would have been overwhelmed regardless if huge numbers of enraged Orks, seemingly the massed forces of the entire GIonian Empire, had not swarmed into the system.

對艾拉德而言，極限戰(zhàn)士艦隊的到來是個意外之喜。他并未接到堅守戰(zhàn)場并與異形威脅血戰(zhàn)到底的命令——他也并不需要。執(zhí)政官向原體詳細(xì)敘述了那場恐怖而詭異的戰(zhàn)爭：靈能種們利用自己的精神力量奴役了大量野蠻的歐克獸人，使其自相殘殺，他們還試圖對Eurydice上的帝國防御者們施加相同影響。只有戰(zhàn)犬軍團(tuán)的星際戰(zhàn)士們被證明能夠抵抗這些生物的惡毒影響，但他們的數(shù)量處于嚴(yán)重劣勢。星際戰(zhàn)士們?yōu)樽约旱牡挚垢冻隽搜拇鷥r：如果沒有巨量暴怒的獸人大軍（似乎是整個GIonian帝國的龐大兵力）蜂擁闖入這個星系，星際戰(zhàn)士們就會被擊潰。

The Orks had fought with unbelievable fury even given their warlike species’mien, seeking either reVenge or compelled by some inbuilt genetic drive to exterminate the Psybrids. More of the gargantuan hourglass ships in turn had appeared to reinforce their fellows, and with them thousands of enslaved xenos warriors and ships, few of which were known even to the lexicanic datacores of the Imperial ships. Eurydice Terminal had become a killing star; a vortex of destruction that was even now calling more armies to their deaths, and here the Ultramarines had come to restart the battle afresh.

盡管獸人們是一個好戰(zhàn)的種族，但它們在這次戰(zhàn)斗中所展現(xiàn)出的憤怒也令人難以置信；它們要么是在尋求報復(fù)，要么就是被某種內(nèi)在基因驅(qū)使著來消滅靈能種。更多巨大的沙漏飛船依次現(xiàn)身，似乎是前來增援它們的同伴；它們一并帶來的還有數(shù)以千計被奴役的異形戰(zhàn)士和艦船，哪怕帝國艦船的詞典數(shù)據(jù)核心也僅僅是知道其中的極小部分。Eurydice Terminal 已經(jīng)變成了一顆殺戮之星；這個毀滅漩渦正在召喚更多軍隊走向死亡，而極限戰(zhàn)士軍團(tuán)則在這里重新開始了戰(zhàn)斗。

Guilliman, having apprised himself of the tactical situation, modified his battle plans accordingly and without pause put his strategy of attack into operation. Despite Erad Krug's request for his surviving Legionaries to be lifted from their wrecked vessel and given a place in the line of battle, the War Hounds were denied; this would be a battle for the Ultramarines alone. It was to be a tactical operation more traditionally the speciality of other Space Marine Legions than his, but at which his own warriors were still well versed—a full assault-strike boarding assault.

基里曼將（當(dāng)前的）戰(zhàn)術(shù)形勢告知了自己，他針對性地調(diào)整了自己的戰(zhàn)斗計劃，并且毫無遲疑地執(zhí)行了自己的進(jìn)攻戰(zhàn)略。盡管艾拉德 克魯格要求第十三軍團(tuán)將他們帶離失事飛船，并在戰(zhàn)斗中被給予一席之地，但戰(zhàn)犬們的要求遭到了拒絕：這是一場只屬于極限戰(zhàn)士軍團(tuán)的戰(zhàn)斗。極限戰(zhàn)士們將采取一項戰(zhàn)術(shù)行動，雖然在傳統(tǒng)上其他軍團(tuán)比他們更為專長于此類行動，但第基里曼的戰(zhàn)士們也同樣精通此道——他們要進(jìn)行全面的跳幫突擊進(jìn)攻。

Having long poured over the action reports from the disaster at Osiris, Guilliman had parsed out a number of cohesive facts about his enemy that he planned to exploit to their downfall. The first was that despite their vast ships and the enslaved hosts they deployed with such ruthless determination, the real enemy, the semi-vaporous Psybrid-creatures themselves, were relatively few in number. Their entire style of combat, to fight battles first by proxy as marshals rather than as frontline warriors, intervening only to tip the balance with their prodigious psychic powers, was predicated on keeping their own exposure to casualties as low as possible. The hourglass vessels, as massive as they were from what he could ascertain from data gathered via auspexes, were themselves more akin to mobile space stations than warships, and their internal habitation limited in scope, the rest a vast provision for supply and self-sufficiency. This supposition was now confirmed by his warships, concentrated scanning as the Ultramarines fleet approached their targets; the Psybrids had no home system, no empire; they were nomads, wanderers with all they possessed on their backs, and they were few. The war upon the surface of the world, the Orks, the mind- blasted slave-soldiers, all were irrelevances—a smoke screen— the enemy was the masters of war, the puppeteers aboard the nomad ships, and Roboute Guilliman would not suffer them to live.

基里曼已經(jīng)長時間反復(fù)研究過了來自奧西里斯災(zāi)難事件的行動報告，他解析了許多關(guān)于敵人們的綜合性事實，他計劃利用這些事實來擊潰它們。第一條是要憑著極為無情的決心無視靈能種們巨大的飛船和它們部署的大量受奴役宿主，這些半霧氣狀的靈能生物本身才是真正的敵人，它們的數(shù)量相對稀少。他們的整套戰(zhàn)斗風(fēng)格是優(yōu)先以元帥而非前線戰(zhàn)士的身份進(jìn)行戰(zhàn)斗，它們依靠自己驚人的靈能力量介入戰(zhàn)斗只是為了使戰(zhàn)局平衡發(fā)生傾斜，而且前提是盡可能降低他們自己的傷亡風(fēng)險。極限戰(zhàn)士們通過鳥卜儀收集到的數(shù)據(jù)確定了這些沙漏飛船的大小，判斷它們更像是移動的空間站而非戰(zhàn)艦。他們的內(nèi)部居住空間范圍有限，其余的巨大空間被提供給了后勤補(bǔ)給和自給自足設(shè)施。這一推測得到了戰(zhàn)艦掃描結(jié)果的證實——極限戰(zhàn)士艦隊在接近目標(biāo)時進(jìn)行了集中掃描；靈能種們沒有故鄉(xiāng)星系，沒有屬于自己的帝國，它們是游牧種族，是隨船攜帶自己一切資源的流浪物種，而且它們數(shù)量稀少。星球表面的戰(zhàn)爭，獸人和瘋狂的奴隸士兵都是無關(guān)緊要的——這些只是靈能種們打掩護(hù)的煙幕，極限戰(zhàn)士們的敵人是戰(zhàn)爭統(tǒng)帥——那些身居游牧艦船上操縱心理受控奴隸的靈能種們，羅伯特 基里曼不會放過它們。

The Fire upon the Deep

深淵上的火

The Primarch's plan of attack was a shockingly direct one. His fleet would not pause for long range bombardment, it would not present broadside and pound the enemy at close quarters as a High Admiral of the Imperialis Armada might have done, but rather he would conduct a full boarding strike without prelude. Guilliman would drive the core of his fleet and with it nearly 100,000 Ultramarines into the heart of the enemy. Unlike Thetos, where it had been the Ultramarines who had been outnumbered and slowly overwhelmed, now it would be the Psybrids, forced to contend with a blazingly blue armoured mass of super human warriors whose only purpose was their utter annihilation. It is not without irony that Roboute Guilliman records in his own testimony about the assault that in the past some had thought to opine that he and his Legion were adverse to strategies which resulted in a heavy cost of Ultramarines' lives; this single action would dispel that?myth and illustrate the truth that such tactics were often wasteful and unneeded by a skilled general, but when such sacrifice was the most efficient and indeed perhaps the only path to victory, he and his Legion would pay that price with fervour and unbreakable determination.

原體的進(jìn)攻計劃直接到令人震驚。他的艦隊不會停下來（對星球）進(jìn)行遠(yuǎn)程轟炸，基里曼沒有效仿一位帝國艦隊高級上將的可能做法：沖向敵人側(cè)舷，發(fā)起近距離猛攻，而是將會發(fā)動一次沒有預(yù)兆的全面跳幫進(jìn)攻?；锫鼘⑴沙雠炾牶诵呐c將近100,000名極限戰(zhàn)士直擊敵軍心臟。這次的戰(zhàn)況不同于Thetos世界上的那次——在那次戰(zhàn)爭中，極限戰(zhàn)士們處于劣勢并被敵軍慢慢壓垮，現(xiàn)在的狀況是靈能種們被迫與一群穿著亮藍(lán)色動力甲甲的超人戰(zhàn)士交戰(zhàn)，而后者的唯一目的就是徹底鏟除它們。羅伯特 基里曼在自己的證詞報告中記錄了這次進(jìn)攻，具有諷刺意味的是，過去有些人認(rèn)為基里曼和他的軍團(tuán)反對這種以大量極限戰(zhàn)士的生命為代價的戰(zhàn)略；而這次行動將消除這種誤解，并且說明一個事實；對一位技藝高超的統(tǒng)帥而言，盡管這種戰(zhàn)術(shù)通常是浪費且不被需要的，但當(dāng)這種犧牲是最為高效，而且也是事實上唯一通往勝利的途徑時，基里曼和他的軍團(tuán)也將以熱情和堅不可摧的決心付出這份代價。

So it was that the huge fleet set off?its engines at maximum burn?with at its centre the Primarch himself aboard the Macragge's Honour, spearheading a dozen battle barges and a score of cruisers. While in parallel,the two other giants of the fleet, the Spear of Konor under Marius Gage and the Thunder of Hera under the command of Severin Vale, led their own strike groups of battle barges and cruisers, while the heavier line of battle void ships of the fleet, more suited to firepower than assault, formed an echelon behind.

極限戰(zhàn)士的龐大艦隊把引擎提升到了最大出力，原體本人就位于艦隊中央的馬庫拉格之耀號上，十多艘戰(zhàn)列母艦和數(shù)十艘巡洋艦擔(dān)任著矛頭。與其并行的是其他兩支舉行艦隊：馬里烏斯 蓋奇指揮著康諾堅矛號，賽維利安 瓦雷指揮著赫拉雷霆號，他們各自率領(lǐng)著戰(zhàn)列母艦和巡洋艦組成的攻擊群，同時艦隊中那些更適合進(jìn)行火力輸出而非突擊的虛空戰(zhàn)艦也排成了重型戰(zhàn)列線，組成了后方梯隊。

This rear echelon broke in parallel as the fleet made its final approach, sweeping out to encirde the enemy and cutting off any avenue of escape. At first, the Psybrid nomad vessels responded by closing ranks and hurling out great pulses of sheering gravitational force in the path of the oncoming Ultramarines, hoping to break their formation and crush or deflect the volleys of fire they expected to be unleashed against them at any moment. But too late they realised the danger they were in as no such bombardment was forthcoming.

隨著艦隊最終接近目標(biāo)，前方梯隊改變了平行列隊的陣型，它們?nèi)Π鼑鷶橙?，切斷一切逃跑的途徑。靈能種游牧艦船首先做出的回應(yīng)是集結(jié)部隊，并在即將趕到的極限戰(zhàn)士的路徑上釋放出了強(qiáng)大的偏導(dǎo)重力脈沖，希望能破壞星際戰(zhàn)士們的編隊，并粉碎或偏轉(zhuǎn)星際戰(zhàn)士們在任何時候期望對他們釋放的炮火。但當(dāng)他們意識到自己處于危險中時已經(jīng)太遲了，因為這樣的轟炸并未到來。

Instead the Ultramarines fleet ploughed on through the spacial-gravitic turbulence, their pilots and captains having practised such manoeuvres in endless simulations at their Primarch's command, and few ships were lost to the roiling void, though many were pounded and battered like flotsam in a terrible sea storm. The Psybrid vessels began to scatter, but slowed by their own huge mass, which rendered them ungainly in the planet's gravity despite their power,could not break away in time to avoid the vast fleet of warships hurtling at them.

相反，極限戰(zhàn)士艦隊在空間重力湍流中艱難前行——在原體的指揮下，軍團(tuán)中的飛行員們和船長們已經(jīng)在無盡的模擬訓(xùn)練中實踐過了此類機(jī)動。盡管很多艦船都像處于可怕的海上風(fēng)暴中的船骸那樣遭受著連續(xù)的沖擊拍打，但只有少數(shù)艦船損失在了翻涌攪動的虛空中。靈能種飛船開始分散開來，但他們自身龐大的體積拖慢了速度，盡管這些飛船實力強(qiáng)大，但在星球的引力下它們卻顯得笨拙，無法及時逃離以躲避向他們猛沖過來的龐大艦隊。

At a range of no more than a handful of kilometres apart, the Ultramarines at last unleashed their wrath, and before the afterimage of the blinding fire-flash of a thousand lance batteries and macro cannon unleashed could fade, hundreds of gunships and assault rams were roaring from their flight bays to the attack. The Psybrid nomad-vessels lashed about them with frenzied whips of elemental energy, and all around them hulls burst and ships burned, but it was too little against the unstoppable tide of ire which crashed against them. The Ultramarines fleet engulfed the towering Psybrid vessels, strike cruisers and battle barges themselves ram-charging into the turning clockwork-like cores of the nomad-ships, grapple nets and corvus bridges piercing the alien ships' sides. They were as giants beset by hundreds of birds of prey and slowly torn?to pieces.

在不超過幾公里的距離之外，極限戰(zhàn)士們最終釋放了怒火，上千門光矛和宏炮釋放出的炫目火焰的殘影還尚未消失，數(shù)百艘炮艇和突擊艇便咆哮著沖出飛行港前去進(jìn)攻。靈能種的游牧飛船用狂暴的能量長鞭瘋狂地抽打著它們，周圍的飛船船殼破裂，艦體燃燒，但這不足以抵擋向靈能種襲來的勢不可擋的憤怒浪潮。極限戰(zhàn)士艦隊包圍了巨大的靈能種飛船，打擊巡洋艦和戰(zhàn)列母艦沖進(jìn)了游牧飛船那狀如時鐘的旋轉(zhuǎn)核心，鉤網(wǎng)和鴉嘴跳幫橋刺穿了外星飛船的兩側(cè)。異形的飛船現(xiàn)在就像被數(shù)百只掠食猛禽圍攻的巨人，它們會被慢慢撕碎。

Through maze-like networks of turning corridors like the innards of a great machine, the Ultramarines stormed with deadly intent, destroying as they went. The ghoulish, half solid vapour forms, lean and gaunt without their exo-armour, fought with the savagery of caged animals, burning bright with psychokinetic energy and striking out with mind-burning blasts of power, but for every Legionary who fell, a dozen pressed forward in their place and, one by one, the Psybrids began to be corralled, cornered and killed. Led by axe?and shield-wielding Invictarii and moving bulwarks of Terminator armourclad veterans, the Ultramarines pressed into the heart of the great vessels, mining the corridors and power junctures with melta- bombs and atomantic implosion charges as they went. The armoured claws of the Ultramarines Dreadnoughts tore open bulkheads to reveal vaults of plundered treasures and the wealth of innumerable worlds, but the Ultramarines were not swayed by such wonders any more than they were halted by the larder-surgeries they encountered, where the cephelvoric aliens hung the still-living heads of their victims by the hundreds for later consumption,for the warriors of the XIIIth Legion were implacable, and in them had been woken a rarely displayed drive for Vengeance that could not be diverted nor denied.

穿過了就像一臺巨大機(jī)器的內(nèi)部結(jié)構(gòu)的迷宮般轉(zhuǎn)彎走廊網(wǎng)絡(luò)，極限戰(zhàn)士們以致命的意圖發(fā)起了攻擊，摧毀了沿途的一切。靈能種們有著幽靈狀的半固體蒸汽態(tài)形體，他們沒有外在盔甲的身體瘦削而憔悴，以困獸的野蠻兇狠與星際戰(zhàn)士們交戰(zhàn)。異形們?nèi)紵髁恋哪盍δ芰?，發(fā)射出燃燒意識的能量爆炸，但每當(dāng)有一名軍團(tuán)戰(zhàn)士倒下，就會有數(shù)十名同袍沖上前去接替位置，靈能種們開始遭到圍困，被逼到墻角，然后被殺死。在手持戰(zhàn)斧和盾牌的常勝軍，以及身披終結(jié)者動力甲宛如移動堡壘般的老兵們的率領(lǐng)下，極限戰(zhàn)士們沖入巨型飛船的核心區(qū)域，在經(jīng)過的同時，他們在走廊和動力交匯處埋設(shè)了熱熔炸彈和原子內(nèi)爆炸彈。極限戰(zhàn)士無畏機(jī)甲的裝甲利爪撕開了艙壁，露出了盛放掠奪自無數(shù)世界的珍寶和財富的倉庫，但極限戰(zhàn)士們并沒有為這些奇跡所動搖，也并未因他們在異形們的食品儲藏室中遇到的場景而止步：這些以頭顱為食的外星人將數(shù)百顆仍然活著的受害者頭顱掛起來供以后食用，因為第十三軍團(tuán)的戰(zhàn)士們是毫不留情的，他們身上有一種罕見的復(fù)仇沖動，這種沖動是無法改變的，也無法否認(rèn)。

It was Roboute Guilliman himself who breached the innermost chamber of the largest of the hourglass ships to find the master of the Psybrids. It was a towering, multi-limbed gestalt-thing, thrice the Primarch's own height, whose long, almost equine head screamed out shockwaves of ceramite-breaking force as its inner sanctum was invaded. But even as his own Terminator armoured bodyguard staggered and fell under the psychokinetic onslaught, the Primarch, with his chief battle psyker Aaroth Ptolemy beside him, charged. The Psybrid-King reared up above them, its clawed arms bearing strange weapons like the image of some forgotten devil-god of Old Night, but Guilliman with the strength and speed born?of the Emperor’s unmatched arts struck, cleaving the creature limb from vaporous limb as Ptolemy fought it on the psychic plane with very ounce of power in his possession, sacrificing his life so that Guilliman would be defended from the nightmarishly powerful creatures psychic assault. The monster fell and the Primarch of the Ultramarines enacted his Legion's Vengeance, ripping the things glowing brain from its skull and crushing it under his heel.

羅伯特 基里曼本人親自攻破了最大沙漏飛船的最內(nèi)側(cè)艙室，找到了靈能種之主。那是一只高大且有著眾多肢體的格式塔生物，身高是原體本人的三倍，在它的內(nèi)部圣所被入侵的同時，它那幾乎狀如馬頭的修長頭部吼出了一陣力道能擊碎陶鋼的沖擊波。盡管自己身披終結(jié)者動力甲的衛(wèi)隊在異形的念力猛攻下蹣跚倒地，但原體還是和身邊自己的首席戰(zhàn)斗靈能者阿羅斯 托勒密發(fā)起了沖鋒。靈能種之王站著俯視他們，它的爪子上帶著奇怪的武器，形象宛如舊夜中某個被遺忘的惡魔之神。但基里曼以帝皇那無可匹敵的（基因）技術(shù)所賦予的力量進(jìn)攻著，他從異形之王蒸汽般的軀體上砍下（有實體）的生物肢體；同時托勒密釋放在靈能領(lǐng)域和異形交戰(zhàn)，他釋放出自己所擁有的全部靈能力量，犧牲了自己的生命，這樣來保護(hù)基里曼不受這只噩夢般強(qiáng)大生物的靈能進(jìn)攻。這只怪物倒下了，極限戰(zhàn)士的基因原體執(zhí)行了軍團(tuán)的復(fù)仇儀式，基里曼從頭骨上扯下異形發(fā)光的大腦，抬起戰(zhàn)靴一腳踩碎。

One by one the towering hourglass vessels of the Osiran Psybrids fell, either torn?apart?by explosive charges from within, or rent to flinders in the crossfire of the waiting Ultramarinesechelons as they tried to break free. There was no escape. As the Psybrids died, so too did their slave armies still warring on the ground, and soon only the Glortian Orks, already mauled and all but exhausted, remained, and the Ultramarines made short work of driving them away once more into the outer darkness. The blood price of the battle had been high enough, several thousand Legionary casualties, and many among them veterans of the Legion's Terran roots, eager to be the first in battle in order to expunge the failings of the past. But it had been a price willingly paid for Vengeance, and it would be a price and more that the Ultramarines Legion would willingly pay again in the future.

巨大的奧西里斯靈能種沙漏飛船一艘接一艘的隕落，它們要么是被內(nèi)部的爆炸撕開，要么是在努力逃脫時被等候中的極限戰(zhàn)士梯隊用交叉火力轟為碎片。他們無一逃脫。隨著靈能種死亡，那些仍在地面上混戰(zhàn)的奴隸軍隊也一并暴斃；很快，地面上就只剩下來自Glortian帝國的歐克獸人，它們已經(jīng)遭受重創(chuàng)，幾乎筋疲力盡，極限戰(zhàn)士通過一場短暫的戰(zhàn)斗就將它們再次驅(qū)逐回了外域黑暗空間中。極限戰(zhàn)士為這次戰(zhàn)斗付出了足夠慘重的鮮血代價：數(shù)千名軍團(tuán)戰(zhàn)士傷亡，其中很多都是軍團(tuán)的泰拉裔老兵，他們熱衷于沖在戰(zhàn)斗第一線來消除過去的失敗。但這是第十三軍團(tuán)為復(fù)仇而心甘情愿付出的代價，而且在未來，極限戰(zhàn)士軍團(tuán)也將會心甘情愿地再次付出更多代價。