Of those worlds within the Nostramo sector known to have been inhabited prior to the outbreak of the Horus Heresy and the subsequent loss of contact, only two retained any viable population by 017M31. The rest lay in ruins. Same of these worlds were found to have been obliterated or infested by hostile xenos breeds, while others appear to have destroyed themselves in brutal internal civil strife, both between those of Loyal or Traitor sympathies and between factions of the VIIIth Legion itself .However, some of these bearing many similarities to those who struck Tenebor.

在荷魯斯叛亂爆發(fā)之前，諾斯特拉莫星區(qū)內的世界就已經有人類定居了，它們隨后與外界失去聯(lián)系。等到017M31，僅有兩個世界仍保有著能夠自主發(fā)展繁衍的人口，其余世界則化為廢墟。某些世界被發(fā)現(xiàn)是遭到了敵對異形種族的毀滅或侵襲，其他的則是在殘酷的內戰(zhàn)沖突中毀滅了自身：既是因為忠誠派與叛軍之間的戰(zhàn)爭，也是因為第八軍團自身內部派系之間的內斗，不過，其中的某些部隊與進攻Tenebor的勢力有很多相似性。

The following pict-record is from the personal logs of the Rogue Trader Erasmus Skathe, and is excerpted from the voyage his ship, the Invidious Glory, made through the Nostramo sector in the early years of the first century of the 31st Millennium. It deals with an expedition to the ruins of Hive World Cairn which, in the years before Horus tore the galaxy apart, was a hive world of untold billions and origin of much of the Nostramo sector's riches. While Rogue Trader Skathe found none of the wealth he sought, what he did uncover speaks of the character and origins of the unknown enemy who struck the sector.

下文的圖像記錄來自行商浪人艾拉斯莫斯 薩卡瑟的個人日志，內容節(jié)選自他的飛船“傲人榮耀”號的航行記錄，這艘飛船在第31千年第一個世紀的早期前往了諾斯特拉莫星區(qū)。她探索了巢都世界Cairn的廢墟——在荷魯斯叛亂撕裂銀河之前，有數(shù)不清的數(shù)十億人口居住在那里，星區(qū)中大多數(shù)最富有的家族也起源于此地。雖然行商浪人薩卡瑟并未找到他想要的財富，但他的經歷揭示出了進攻諾斯特拉莫星區(qū)的未知敵人的特點和起源。

Log File 844/014/Nostramo, As?dictated by Rogue Trader Erasmus Skathe, Master of the Invidious Glory, to his Servant, the Faithful?Cadmus Rahn, in 020M31:?

日志文件844/014/諾斯特拉莫，由傲人榮耀號之主，行商浪人艾拉斯莫斯 薩卡瑟口述給他忠誠的仆人卡德穆斯 拉恩，時間020M31：

LOG FILE 944-ALPHA

日志文件944阿爾法

Thanks to star charts set down to aid the Great Crusade, and the fitful graspings of our Navigator, we arrived in orbit of the world once known to the Imperium as Cairn. Described in the old records of the Great Crusade as an enclave of technology and reason among dark and squalid stars, Cairn was a towering bastion of industry whose creations brought untold wealth into the coffers of the lords of Nostramo before the Night Haunter brought destruction upon that world. Here, where the servants of the undying Emperor had reported only ruins and silence at the end of the Horus Heresy; we had hoped to find a treasure of salvage; a wealth in stored resources perhaps, or storehouses of arms and munitions still waiting to be claimed by the warriors of the Horus Heresy, maybe even that most sought after of?treasures, the encoded secrets of a lost STC template.

多虧了這張為協(xié)助大遠征而編繪的星空圖，以及我們的導航者斷斷續(xù)續(xù)地抓住了航向，我們抵達了曾經被帝國稱為Cairn的世界的軌道，大遠征時期的古老文件將此地描述為黑暗污穢群星中的一片科技與理智的飛地，在午夜幽魂將毀滅帶往此地之前，它是一座高聳的工業(yè)堡壘，其產品為諾斯特拉莫領主們的金庫帶入了數(shù)不盡的財富。不過在荷魯斯叛亂的末期，不朽神皇的忠仆報告這里只剩廢墟和沉寂。我們希望找到可回收的財寶：可能是被儲存起來的資源，或者一間仍在等待被荷魯斯叛亂的參戰(zhàn)者們開啟的武器彈藥儲存室，甚至有可能是最受熱捧的財寶——遺失的STC模板的編碼機密。

LOG FILE 946-ALPHA

日志文件946阿爾法

From orbit the appearance of the once great world dampened our enthusiasm, for whatever disaster had overtaken Cairn had rendered the towering hives into little more than blasted rubble. Our only consolation was that the sub-surface levels?of the old?hive cities appeared to be intact, sealed closed by the rubble above them and likely kept safe from scavengers. Intending to explore these artificial caverns, we set down a shore party by arvus lander; twenty-three of the ship's armsmen, many of whom were veterans of Solar Auxilia pattern regiments of the Imperial Army, myself?and such of the ship's engineering crew that had been initiated far enough into the mysteries of the Machine Cult that they could identify any items of true value.

從軌道上看去，這個曾經偉大世界的外表就挫敗了我們的熱情，發(fā)生在Cairn的災難將高聳的巢城蹂躪得僅剩被炸碎的瓦礫。唯一令我們欣慰的是古老巢城的下層似乎完好無損，它們被自己上層的瓦礫封得嚴嚴實實，可能沒有被拾荒者侵入過。為了探索這些人造洞穴，我們用阿爾福斯型登陸艇派出了一支登陸先遣隊：船上的二十三名武裝兵，其中大多數(shù)都是來自帝國軍中太陽軍模式兵團的老兵；我本人，以及船上那些對于機械教派的秘密鉆研得足夠的工程船員們，他們能夠辨別出有真正價值的目標。

LOG FILE 946-BETA

日志文件946貝塔

Breaching the rubble that sat atop the lower levels like a shield proved more difficult than we initially imagined; it almost appeared as though someone had purposefully demolished the hive above so that it would form a formidable barrier to either entering or leaving the lower levels. We were forced to utilise specialist breaching tools?in order to force entry; but could excavate only a small entrance lest we collapse the unstable layer of rubble above us. Within minutes of forcing a path into the hidden vaults below Cairn, we were attacked by a wave of stinking, hollow-eyed, emaciated creatures that we initially thought some debased xenos breed.

從巢都低層結構上方覆蓋的那層護盾一般的瓦礫中打開一個通道口遠比我們剛開始想象得要艱難，就像有人故意拆毀了上層的巢城，瓦礫形成了一層可怕的阻隔，阻止有人進入或離開下層巢城。為了打開入口，我們被迫動用了專門的鉆孔工具，但是也只能開出一個很小的入口，以免我們破壞我們上方不穩(wěn)定的瓦礫層。在我們打開通往Cairn下方隱藏寶庫通路的幾分鐘時間里，一群惡臭、雙眼空洞且消瘦的生物攻擊了我們——我們一開始認為它們是某種墮落的異形種族。

They came as a terrifying silent horde, scrabbling from the opening we had torn?in the rubble, blinded by the weak light of Cairn's distant sun. The engineering adepts that had manned the cutting equipment were swiftly pulled down by the wretches and even our outlying sentries, veteran soldiers armed with modem lasrifles, fell prey to the numberless swarm. The creatures were only driven back at length by the disciplined fire of our armsmen, who retreated from the entrance way to form a firing line on more open ground, abandoning some few of our party to save the greater proportion. In this brief engagement, though we were to emerge triumphant, much of our limited supplies of ammunition were exhausted. In the wake of the attack, we determined that the creatures that assaulted us were in fact human, the remains perhaps of the original inhabitants, ruined and broken by life in the rad-soaked darkness of the ruins beneath Cairn. Rather than risk our depleted numbers in tile pitch-black warrens beneath Cairn, I elected to bring down reinforcements from orbit, having fortunately bartered the considerable authority of my Writ of Trade for the services of the depleted 83rd Memlok Cohort of Solar Auxilia, who had previously been stationed at Gulgorahd for refit.

他們如同恐怖沉寂的獸群般沖來，從我們在瓦礫層上挖開的出口伸手抓撓，不過Cairn遙遠太陽的微弱光芒使他們目盲。操縱切割設備的工程專家們很快就這些混蛋拽倒了，甚至那些裝備了現(xiàn)代的激光步槍，在外圍負責警戒的老兵們也淪為了這群怪胎的獵物。只有武裝兵有規(guī)律的開火射擊才能把這些生物趕回去，前者從入口通道撤回，在更開闊的場地形成了射擊線列，為了拯救大多數(shù)人，我們拋棄了極個別人。雖然我們在這次短暫的交戰(zhàn)中獲勝，但我們也消耗掉了有限彈藥補給中的大部分。在這次攻擊之后，我們確信這些生物事實上就是人類，他們可能曾是幸存的定居者，但Cairn廢墟中輻射遍布的黑暗生活（環(huán)境）毀滅和破壞了他們。我沒有讓減員的探險隊在Cairn漆黑的街區(qū)上繼續(xù)冒險，而是選擇從軌道上呼叫增援。幸運的是，通商特許狀所給予的可觀權力為我換來了嚴重減員的第83梅洛克太陽輔助軍兵團的協(xié)助，他們之前駐守在Gulgorahd來進行修整。

LOG FILE 947-ALPHA

日志文件947阿爾法

We made our second foray into the artificial caverns beneath Cairn, with techadepts moving in the wake of the armoured auxilia and utilising powerful but temperamental lumen-caster arrays to ward off the smothering darkness and to catalogue any potential finds. What we found within those caverns haunts me to this day: charnel pits that stretched beyond what light our equipment could cast,the squalid and hideous detritus of the cannibalistic nightmare that had consumed the survivors of?Cairn. Every chamber and passage held the macabre remains of those dragged down by what had once been fellow citizens, and in the shadows about us, those who remained and the terrible progeny they had begot lurked and waited to feast upon us. Some units of Solar Auxilia were lost in that bleak realm,when their lumen-casters failed and the inhabitants of this shadowed realm overwhelmed them; of these souls we found little but bloody bones and torn?fragments of their armour, the wounded dragged away as stock for their gruesome larders. Whatever humanity had once existed in these creatures, it had long since been extinguished by more than a decade trapped in the black pits beneath Cairn, forgotten by an empire consumed in civil war and never to return.

我們進行了第二次進入Cairn地下人造洞穴的嘗試，技術專家們跟在全副武裝的輔助軍身后，使用功能強大但也反復無常的流明投射陣列（機仆：特大號探照燈…）來驅散令人窒息的黑暗，并登記任何潛在的發(fā)現(xiàn)物。我們在這些洞穴中發(fā)現(xiàn)的事物困擾我們直到現(xiàn)在：照明設備投射出的光線也無法照到的陰森坑洞，已然吞噬了Cairn幸存者們的食人噩夢般骯臟丑陋的殘垣斷壁，每個房間和每條走廊都堆著受難于自己曾經的同胞駭人遺骸，而且在我們周身的黑影中，那些殘存著的居民和他們可怕的后代潛伏著，等待著將我們大快朵頤。某些太陽輔助軍單位迷失在了這片陰冷的區(qū)域中，他們的流明投射器失效了，暗影王國的居民們壓倒了他們。我們幾乎未能找到這些可憐士兵的遺骸，只有血淋淋的骨頭和他們的護甲被撕碎的碎片，傷員則被這些怪人們拖走，成為了他們幼崽的存糧。無論這些怪物曾經擁有著怎樣的人性，十多年困在Cairn地下黑色深坑都已經在很久之前就毀滅了這些品質，被內戰(zhàn)吞噬的帝國也遺忘了他們，他們再也未能回歸為人類。

Log File 947-BETA

日志文件947貝塔

As we scoured this lightless hell we discovered arteficts of Cairn's fall but these were not the valuable tech-salvage I had hoped to procure. Instead they were the remains of Cairn’s executioners: bolt?shells and fragments of Legiones Astartes battle plate in a black and red heraklry that was unknown to me. The doom that had befallen the world had come at the hands of Legiones Astartes other than the Night Lords. Further artefacts of this distant catastrophe?were uncovered by our tech-adepts as we cleared the lower caverns, most often items of Legiones Astartes, wargear rendered non-functional by damage and discarded, all in the same unknown heraldry pattern. Within the deepest vaults of the fallen hive we finally uncovered the remaining data archives, stored within a vast cogitator marix of?truly ancient design that had, to our great dismay, suffered extensive damage. It seemed that the deformed survivors of Cairn's fall had long since destroyed the caretaker automata that had once tended the data-engines，perhaps intending to silence the great machines themselves, and now nested in that complex in large numbers.

隨著對于這片無光地獄的搜索，我們也發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些人工制品，但它們并非我希望回收的科技復原物，相反，它們是Cairn世界處刑者的遺物：爆矢彈殼和帶著某種我未知的紅黑色紋章的軍團阿斯塔特戰(zhàn)斗裝甲碎片。降臨在這個世界上的末日是經由午夜領主之外的阿斯塔特軍團施加的，隨著我們清理出了下層洞穴，技術專家們發(fā)現(xiàn)了更多與這場遙遠災難相關的造物，大多數(shù)通常都是阿斯塔特軍團的棄物：被丟棄的因損壞而失靈的武器裝備，而且全都帶著那種未知的紋章。在倒塌巢城最深處的倉庫中，我們終于發(fā)現(xiàn)了殘存的數(shù)據儲存器，它被安放在一臺某種真正古老型號的巨大沉思者矩陣中，但讓我們非常沮喪的是，沉思者遭受了大量損壞。似乎Cairn廢墟中那些畸形的幸存者們很久之前就毀壞了那些照看數(shù)據引擎的自動機械看護者，可能是為了讓這些偉大的機器沉寂下來，現(xiàn)在這些機械大量地嵌套在那個復合體中。

All our tech-adepts were able to coax from the machine’s?depths over the course of several fraught?days of interminable invocations and ritual, the Solar Auxilia vigilant all the while to the ever-present threat of the creatures that dwelt in the depths of Cairn, were a series of recordings and data entries. While these provided little in the way of technical information, they did give a disturbing insight into the final days of Cairn. This world, it seemed, had not been merely destroyed, but rendered into a warning for other systems in the sector; its armies utterly annihilated and its population herded into the depths of its hive cities before they were collapsed and sealed, the price of?their defiance. These tactics match well the descriptions of?the Dark Compliance inflicted by the Sons of?Horus on a number of worlds during the Horus Heresy, yet Cairn was already sworn?in service to the Warmaster's cause through their Night Lords masters and would seem an unlikely target for such terror tactics.

在憂心忡忡的數(shù)天時間中，我們的技術專家進行了冗長的禱告和儀式，太陽輔助軍也一直對那些居住在Cairn深處的生物所不斷造成的威脅保持警惕。我們最終能夠從機器深處騙取到的就是一系列記錄和數(shù)據條目。雖然這些內容幾乎未能提供科技信息，但也向我們展示了Cairn末日時那令人不安的場景。這是世界似乎并非是僅僅被毀滅了，而是被制成了一個對于星區(qū)內其他世界的警告：軍隊被徹底摧毀，在巢城崩塌和被封住之前，將居民們驅趕到巢城深處——就是他們抵抗的代價。這種戰(zhàn)術極其符合人們對于大叛亂時期荷魯斯之子軍團在許多世界上實行的黑暗歸順的描述，但Cairn已經通過他們的午夜領主統(tǒng)治者宣誓效忠于戰(zhàn)帥，它似乎不太可能成為這種恐怖戰(zhàn)術的目標。

Log File 948-Alpha

日志文件948阿爾法

Clearly shown in a number of pict images are Legiones Astartes warriors, each outfitted in baroque variations of the older Mark II battle plate once common during the Great Crusade. The heraldry in use by these warriors is unlike any I have seen before, a deep black with the pauldron and helms daubed in a dull red. Many of the Mark II armour's segmented plates have symbols inscribed on them, not in a regimented pattern that would indicate marks of rank or status, but almost at random and in the form of primitive tribal runes or gang symbols like those once worn by the Sons of Horus. Many also bear the raptor and lightning bolt symbols of the Emperor, an honour usually reserved only for those Terran recruits who fought by His side on the battlefields of Ancient Terra and the other worlds of that system, and often considered a sign of Loyalist allegiance. Trophies of fellen enemies, in the form?of fragments of weapons, and skulls and claws of xenos beasts adorn the warriors, many in forms I have never witnessed before, and I have seen much that few others have borne witness to in my travels, and small charms on carved green stone, similar perhaps to Terran jade. Most notably, each warrior displays a strange sigil upon the pauldron that would normally boast the symbol of one of the Legions, a circle ringed by jagged claws, ash-white on a field of red that matches the colour of dried blood, an ominous and sinister emblem.

許多捕捉影像里都清晰地顯示出了阿斯塔特軍團戰(zhàn)士的形象，他們每個人都裝備了曾經常見于大遠征時期的馬克2型戰(zhàn)斗裝甲的怪異改裝型號。這些戰(zhàn)士們的涂裝標志不同于我之前見過的任何同類事物：深黑色的肩甲，暗紅色的頭盔。馬克2型動力甲的許多分段甲片上都刻著標志，但并非是某種表示軍銜或地位的有條理符號，而是某種近乎隨機的圖案，形式類似荷魯斯之子們曾經佩戴的那些原始部落符文或幫派標志。許多人也佩戴著帝皇（賜予）的猛禽和閃電箭矢標志，這份榮譽只被保留給了那些在古老泰拉和太陽系其他世界的戰(zhàn)場上隨侍在他身邊的泰拉裔戰(zhàn)士，通常被認為是忠誠派的標志。這些戰(zhàn)士用來自死亡敵人的戰(zhàn)利品——通常是武器的碎片，以及異形野獸的顱骨和利爪裝點自己，我曾在旅程中見證了許多幾乎沒有其他人要忍受著去目擊的事物，但這些東西中的多數(shù)都是我之前未曾見過的形式，我還見到了雕刻在綠色石頭——某些類似于泰拉玉石的物質上的小型奇怪記號。最明顯的是每名戰(zhàn)士的肩甲上都顯示出來一個奇怪的標記——那里正常來說應該自豪地佩戴著某個軍團的標志，但有的只是一個被鋸齒狀的爪子圈住的圓環(huán)，肩甲的底色是堪比干燥血液的紅色，其上的標志則是灰白色。這是種不祥而險惡的象征。

LogFile 950-ALPHA?

日志文件950阿爾法

Whatever their loyalty, it was these warriors who plundered Cairn, for the information contained within the archives details a number of STC templates, construction matrices and other technological treasures that once were held by the rulers of Cairn, but now are notably missing. The world was broken and then striked clean, before its attackers vanished into the chaos of the Horus Heresy. I can only wonder how many other worlds within the Nostramo sector fell prey to similar attacks by forces bent on their own gain and the creation of petty empires while the eyes of the mighty were fixed on distant Terra. I fear our expedition to the Nostramo sector may be doomed to fail.?

無論他們忠于何方，就是這群戰(zhàn)士掠奪了Cairn：保存在數(shù)據儲存庫里的信息表明Cairn的統(tǒng)治者們曾經握有諸多STC模板、建造矩陣和其他科技財寶，但它們現(xiàn)在明顯都失蹤了。進攻者們破壞并洗劫干凈了這個世界，之后便消失在了荷魯斯叛亂的混亂戰(zhàn)局中。我只能猜測：當強者們的雙目注視著遠方的泰拉時，諾斯特拉莫星區(qū)中還有多少個世界淪為這些醉心于自己的利益和創(chuàng)造微型帝國的勢力的獵物，類似的攻擊發(fā)生過多少次恐怕我們對于諾斯特拉莫星區(qū)的探索注定是要失敗了。