War Disposition

For the Iron Warriors Legion, the Horus Heresy came as the culmination of a series of reversals and fell tragedies that had, in recent years, stalked the Legion and by their effect both deranged and twisted its psyche. Foremost of?these had been the rebellion of Olympia, the seat of the Legion's domain in the Meratara Cluster and foundling world of their Primarch Perturabo. With Dammekos, the long-lived Tyrant of Lochos and Satrap of Olympia finally dead, the tangled and viperous politics of Olympia had once more developed into infighting and vendetta. The violence and division flared up more bitterly than ever before because of the changes the Imperium had wrought on the world and the discontent bred by generations of the planets finest youth having been culled for the Legion, never to return.The shocking news of the rebellion struck at the heart of the Legion and its master, and could not have come at a worse time. For over a year, the Iron Warriors Legion had been involved in the almost single-handed suppression of a major infestation of the noisome xenoform known as 'Hrud'(or the Temporaferrox as they are referred to in certain records) across several worlds of the Sak'trada Deeps. All such actions in the history of the Great Crusade have proved costly both in terms of lives and the sanity of those who must fight such nightmares, and this was to prove no exception.

對(duì)鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)而言，荷魯斯叛亂是一系列的逆轉(zhuǎn)和悲劇高潮，這些事件在叛亂即將爆發(fā)的幾年中糾纏著第四軍團(tuán)，它們也擾亂并扭曲了軍團(tuán)的精神。其中最嚴(yán)重的是奧林匹亞世界——鐵勇軍團(tuán)在Meratara群星中的封地與原體佩圖拉博被遺棄到的世界的叛亂。隨著達(dá)梅庫斯——長(zhǎng)壽的Lochos僭主和奧林匹亞總督最終去世，奧林匹亞的糾結(jié)和暴政再次惡化為內(nèi)斗和仇殺。由于帝國(guó)為此地帶來的變化和數(shù)代優(yōu)秀青年被軍團(tuán)挑選帶走所導(dǎo)致的不滿，暴力和分歧變得比以往任何時(shí)候都更為苦澀，一切都永遠(yuǎn)無法挽回。母星叛亂的驚人消息震驚了軍團(tuán)的核心與他們的主宰，而且這一切發(fā)生在了一個(gè)最糟糕的時(shí)間。在超過一年的時(shí)間中，鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)在單槍匹馬地壓制被稱為“赫魯徳”（在某些記錄中它們被稱為“銹時(shí)者”）的惡心異形種族遍布Sak'trada深淵多個(gè)世界的嚴(yán)重侵?jǐn)_。在大遠(yuǎn)征的歷史中，此類行動(dòng)被證明會(huì)對(duì)那些必須與這種噩夢(mèng)般的異形交戰(zhàn)的戰(zhàn)士們?cè)斐缮砗途裆系膿p壞，而且這種情況被證明毫無例外。

Forced to contend with the violent disruptions in the fabric of time, storms of solar flares and tectonic instability attendant on these incomprehensible entities, as well as the malign technology wielded by the creatures themselves, the Iron Warriors Legion is estimated to have lost more than a fifth of its then active strength in a campaign located far from the border of the Imperium and what to many seemed a doomed and purposeless expedition under 一what appeared at least— to be direct orders from Terra. Following on the heels of the recent savage casualties they had suffered in the Great Crusades service, the rebellion on Olympia was a wound that could not be borne.

鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)被迫與（赫魯徳造成）的時(shí)間編織結(jié)構(gòu)的暴力破壞、太陽耀斑風(fēng)暴和這些難以理解的實(shí)體帶來的地質(zhì)構(gòu)造不穩(wěn)定性，以及這些生物本身使用的惡毒科技進(jìn)行抗?fàn)?，我們估?jì)第四軍團(tuán)在這場(chǎng)遠(yuǎn)離帝國(guó)邊境的會(huì)戰(zhàn)中損失了超過五分之一的有生兵力，在很多人看來，這是一場(chǎng)注定失敗也毫無目標(biāo)的遠(yuǎn)征，而且至少看起來是有來自泰拉的直接命令。在鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)已經(jīng)在大遠(yuǎn)征中遭受了新近嚴(yán)重?fù)p失的情況下，奧林匹亞叛亂的消息緊隨而至，這份傷痛令第四軍團(tuán)無法忍受。

Leaving a sacrificial force in his wake to finish the fight against the alien horrors at any and all costs, Perturabo brought his Legion home in murderous wrath. Olympia burned, mountain?citadels?were cast down and whole cities of the Iron Warriors'?own kin were put to the sword. With a bitter rage that bordered on madness, it was Perturabo who shattered with his own hands the defences of Lochos he himself had raised in a former age. To their own blood and kith he and his Iron Warriors had shown no mercy, and in the aftermath millions were left dead, and Olympia and its planetary system brutally enslaved. Amid the ruins of once-fair Olympia, it is said by some that Perturabo and his Legion finally knew despair at what they had unleashed, and horror and guilt at what they had become. But by others it is said that the Legions last shreds of self-deceit fled them and the Iron Warriors and their Primarch saw the truth of their souls for the first time, and embraced darkness. It was to many in the Imperium a shocking crime of self-destruction, but it was one to which the authority of the Warmaster gave licence and the veneer of justice.

佩圖拉博在身后丟下一支犧牲性部隊(duì)，命令他們不惜一切代價(jià)來結(jié)束與這些令人厭惡的異星人之間的戰(zhàn)斗，自己則帶著殺人的怒火率領(lǐng)軍團(tuán)返回故鄉(xiāng)。奧林匹亞被焚滅，群山堡壘被摧毀，軍團(tuán)戰(zhàn)士的親屬們居住的整座城市都遭到了屠殺。在近乎瘋狂的苦澀狂怒中，佩圖拉博親手擊碎了Lochos城邦——他年輕時(shí)長(zhǎng)大的故園的防線。原體和他的鋼鐵勇士們沒有對(duì)自己的血親和鄉(xiāng)鄰們表現(xiàn)出任何的仁慈，之后有數(shù)百萬人喪生，奧林匹亞和它的星系遭到了殘酷奴役。在奧林匹亞這個(gè)曾經(jīng)公正的世界的廢墟中，有些人說佩圖拉博和他的軍團(tuán)終于對(duì)他們釋放的東西感到絕望，他們驚恐和愧罪于自己成為做出此等暴行的人；其他人則說第四軍團(tuán)丟掉了自己最后一絲自欺欺人的幻想，鋼鐵勇士們和他們的原體第一次看到了自己靈魂中的真相，他們也就欣然接受了黑暗。對(duì)帝國(guó)大眾而言，奧林匹亞事件是一次自我毀滅的驚人罪行，但是戰(zhàn)帥的權(quán)力給予了（第四軍團(tuán)）許可，而且披上了審判的虛假外衣。

In the wake of this tragedy, the Legion retreated further into a private world of bleak violence and bitter paranoia. It brutally oppressed the worlds it garrisoned with renewed savagery and unleashed genocidal force upon the first hint of open rebellion, with many of its commanders growing ever more unhinged and isolated from the Imperium they served.

在這場(chǎng)悲劇之后，軍團(tuán)帶著凄涼的暴力和苦澀偏執(zhí)退縮到了某個(gè)私人世界。他們殘酷地壓迫著這些世界，帶著新生出的野蠻殘暴駐扎在這里。只要一有公開叛亂的跡象，他們便會(huì)派出執(zhí)行種族滅絕任務(wù)的部隊(duì)，軍團(tuán)的很多指揮官遠(yuǎn)離帝國(guó)，他們變得更為精神錯(cuò)亂。

At the time of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the Iron Warriors Legion is estimated to have had an active strength of between 150,000 and 180,000 Legiones Astartes, along with a very substantial war fleet of over a hundred Capital class vessels. More accurate assessment than this is, however,?impossible given the considerable portion of sub-deployments and garrisons that were maintained by the Legion scattered across the Imperium and its increasingly isolationist tendencies in the years before the war. It is believed that the Legion had further accelerated its indoctrination and recruiting program, as well as local shipbuilding at Olympia in the lead-up to the rebellion, and so the lower division of these estimates may indeed be erroneous.

在荷魯斯叛亂爆發(fā)時(shí)，鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)的有生兵力據(jù)推測(cè)在150,000到180,000名軍團(tuán)阿斯塔特，而且擁有一支超過一百艘主力艦的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)艦隊(duì)。不過，考慮到軍團(tuán)保有了大量分散在帝國(guó)中的次級(jí)部署單位和駐軍，以及他們?cè)趹?zhàn)爭(zhēng)前數(shù)年中的孤立主義傾向，進(jìn)行更為準(zhǔn)確的估計(jì)也是不可能。我們相信鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)進(jìn)一步加速了意識(shí)灌輸和征兵過程，奧林匹亞當(dāng)?shù)氐脑齑瑥S也為叛亂做了準(zhǔn)備，因此，將這些估算值的下限進(jìn)行劃分確實(shí)是錯(cuò)誤的。

Further?to this the Legion, according to evidence uncovered later, appears to have increased its ties to certain factions of the Mechanicum and the Legio Cybernetica in particular during this period, and is believed to have begun to shelter some renegade or outcast elements of the Machine Cult under Perturabos protection. It is also known to have raised up from the ashes of Olympia a fanatically loyal and highly trained human auxiliary force, the Thorakata, as a fool of oppression and client army in its own right, to serve the Legion. These measures can now be seen as the beginning of the bloody Empire of lron, centred on damned Olympia, that was to take root in the years that followed of rebellion and civil war.

此外，根據(jù)后來發(fā)現(xiàn)的證據(jù)，鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)似乎尤其是在這一時(shí)期加強(qiáng)了與機(jī)械神教某些派系和智控軍團(tuán)之間的聯(lián)系，我們相信軍團(tuán)開始窩藏一些由佩圖拉博庇護(hù)的機(jī)械教派變節(jié)者或被放逐者。而且我們也知道從奧林匹亞的灰燼中崛起了一支狂熱忠誠(chéng)且高度訓(xùn)練的凡人輔助軍——佩章衛(wèi)隊(duì)，他們是一支效忠于第四軍團(tuán)的鎮(zhèn)壓和委托者部隊(duì)?，F(xiàn)在看來，這些措施是在開始建立一個(gè)以被詛咒的奧林匹亞世界為中心的血腥鋼鐵帝國(guó)，它將在叛亂和內(nèi)戰(zhàn)之后的歲月中扎下根基。

So?it was that, rotting from within with loathing and bitter spite, the iron facade the Legion presented to the Imperium hid the extent of how rapidly and how deeply it had descended into homicidal madness; until at last it was called on to help in the punishment of the rebellious Warmaster on Isstvan V, and the dark truth was revealed.

就這樣，鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)帶著仇恨與苦楚的情緒從內(nèi)部腐壞了，他們展現(xiàn)跟帝國(guó)的鋼鐵外表掩蓋了他們是多么快速和嚴(yán)重得淪為了一群嗜殺的狂徒；直到他們最終被召喚去懲戒伊斯特萬五號(hào)上反叛的戰(zhàn)帥，他們才揭露出自己的黑暗真相。