War Disposition

Horus chose the moment to raise his banner carefully, setting plans to have those Legions that threatened his revolt divided and distant from the fighting that would decide the fate of the Imperium. The Dark Angels, ever on the move and split across the vast territory of the Imperium, had been subtly divided by the orders of?the new Warmaster, set to patrols and campaigns far from Terra and deared away from the northern bounds of the Emperor's domains. A significant portion of the Legion had gathered under Lion Eljonson and been dispatched beyond the bounds of the Imperium in the galactic east, beyond news of what was to come and far from those who might call upon them for aid. Both Caliban and Gramarye had seen a sudden drop in shipments of?crucial supplies and news from the far front of the Great Crusade, all blamed on the vicissitudes of war rather than the hidden orders of the Warmaster, leaving them gradually more isolated and vulnerable. To any conventional assessment of?military strength, the Dark Angels had been forced into a corner before even the first rebel cannon was fired at Isstvan.

荷魯斯仔細選擇了高舉反旗的時機，他設(shè)計讓那些威脅到他的叛亂的軍團分散開，并且遠離那些將會決定帝國命運的戰(zhàn)爭。在新任戰(zhàn)帥的命令下黑暗天使軍團被微妙地分散開，他們不斷前進并分開對抗帝國中的重大威脅，負責在遠離泰拉的地區(qū)巡邏和作戰(zhàn)，荷魯斯使他們離開了帝皇疆域的北部邊境。軍團中相當大部分的部隊集結(jié)到了萊昂 艾爾莊森麾下，他們被派遣到銀河東部帝國邊境以外的地區(qū)，不知道將會發(fā)生什么，也遠離那些可能向他們求援的人們?？ɡ嗪虶ramarye都發(fā)覺了關(guān)鍵補給運輸量的突然下降，也收到了來自大遠征遙遠前線的消息，但一切都被歸咎于戰(zhàn)爭無常變化而非戰(zhàn)帥的隱藏命令，這令第一軍團更為孤立和易受傷害。從任何對于軍事實力的常規(guī)評估來看，哪怕早在大叛亂打響第一炮之前，黑暗天使就已經(jīng)被逼到了角落。

Of their full strength, most likely somewhere slightly less than 200000?warriors, no more than a third had been dispatched alongside the Lion and placed beyond the reach of?the Imperium. This left perhaps 120,000 Dark Angels active along the borders of the Imperium, mostly clustered to the galactic south and west in small battleforces of no more than 5,000 warriors. Most of these forces were either heavily engaged in prosecuting difficult campaigns or fresh from the fields of victory and still counting the toll upon their strength. Few had been given the opportunity to make contact with either the upper echelons of?their own Legion’s command or that of the Divisio Militaris that co-ordinated Great Crusade deployments,and the Primarch Lion Eljonson remained far from the reach of his Legion with no news of his progress or the fate of the troops that accompanied him. The Dark Angels that remained were in essence blinded and by accepted military logic exhausted and as such Horus, his strategists and co-conspirators deemed such small forces to be of negligible threat to their plans, that isolated from any central command they would be unable to mount any real opposition to the rebellion.

黑暗天使軍團的全部兵力大概是不到200000名戰(zhàn)士，不到三分之一的成員被派去隨同萊昂前往帝國邊境之外的地區(qū)作戰(zhàn)。剩下的大概120,000名戰(zhàn)士沿著帝國的邊境活動，他們大多結(jié)成不到五千人的小規(guī)模戰(zhàn)斗部隊，聚集在銀河的南部與西部。這些部隊中的大部分要么是陷在極其艱難的戰(zhàn)斗中鏖戰(zhàn)，要么就是從戰(zhàn)場取勝后仍在計算自己的兵力損失。只有少數(shù)部隊得到了與自己軍團的高層指揮官和軍務(wù)庭中負責協(xié)調(diào)大遠征部署的官員進行聯(lián)系的機會，而原體萊昂 艾爾莊森對他的軍團而言仍然遙不可及，第一軍團也不知道原體的進展如何，不清楚那些隨同他作戰(zhàn)的部隊的命運。黑暗天使軍團本質(zhì)上仍然在遭受蒙蔽，荷魯斯與他的戰(zhàn)略謀士與盟友們也認為這些小規(guī)模部隊對他們計劃的威脅是微不足道的：他們被與所有中央指揮部隔離開來，無法對叛亂進行實質(zhì)性的反抗。

They were sorely mistaken. Among all the Legions, the Dark Angels' complex system of Wings and Orders had long defied any foothold to Horus' treacherous warrior lodges, denying that insidious seed of corruption that had stymied so many other Legions'?ability to react swiftly to the news of Horus’?perfidy. Nor were the Dark Angels distracted by the confusion that afilicted the Imperium's control channels in the immediate aftermath of?the Isstvan revolt, for they had long disdained to subject themselves to the direct oversight of the Imperium's authorities. Where other Legions and fleets scrambled to react to the unified onslaught of the Traitor forces and struggled to combat the influence of?the Warmaster within their?own ranks, the Dark Angels fleets each took initiative on their own and met this new challenge head-on. Purposefully kept to the outskirts of the initial conflict by the Warmaster's machinations, the Dark Angels Knight-praetors set their Chapters upon those outlying worlds that dared to openly espouse loyalty to the Warmaster, deprived of the chance to directly strike against Horus'?new centres of power. The Dark Angels turned their disadvantage to opportunity, each fleet an unpredictable threat to the Traitors and their allies, and more than capable of annihilating forces larger than their limited numbers might suggest. The destruction and chaos they wrought kept many systems and industrial centres along the southern and western galactic rims from supplying the main rebel force as well as threatening the Death Guard home world of Barbaras and slowing the rate of?troops from that key world to the front.?

但他們大錯特錯。在所有軍團中，黑暗天使軍團翼軍和修會的復雜體系長期令荷魯斯煽動叛亂的戰(zhàn)士結(jié)社找不到任何立足點，避免被植入潛在的腐化種子——這些種子阻礙了其他許多軍團對荷魯斯的背叛做出快速反應的能力。在伊斯特萬事變剛剛結(jié)束后，黑暗天使軍團也未被對于帝國控制渠道遭到削弱而產(chǎn)生的困惑分散注意力，因為他們長期以來都不屑于讓自己接受帝國當局的直接監(jiān)督。當其他軍團和艦隊還在艱難地應對叛軍的集中進攻，并且掙扎著對抗戰(zhàn)帥施加在他們自己部隊中的影響時，黑暗天使軍團艦隊則發(fā)揮了各自的主動性，應對面前的新挑戰(zhàn)。由于戰(zhàn)帥的陰謀故意讓黑暗天使軍團位于初始沖突地區(qū)的外圍，所以黑暗天使的騎士執(zhí)政官們將他們的戰(zhàn)團派往了那些膽敢公開效忠支持戰(zhàn)帥的邊遠世界，被剝奪了直接攻擊荷魯斯新權(quán)力中心的機會。黑暗天使將他們的劣勢轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)闄C遇，每支黑暗天使艦隊對于叛軍和他們的盟友來說都是不可預測的威脅，他們能釋放出毀滅性的實力，遠多于他們有限的數(shù)量所顯示力量。他們造成的毀滅與混亂導致沿銀河南部和西部邊緣分布的眾多星系與工業(yè)中心無力為叛軍主力部隊提供補給，他們還威脅到了死亡守衛(wèi)軍團的母星巴巴魯斯，使死亡守衛(wèi)軍團放慢了從這個關(guān)鍵世界到前線之間的部署速率。

Even as the hastily-assembled Imperium task force headed to Isstvan V the Dark Angels were fully engaged at a dozen worlds far from Terra, utilising the terror weapons at their disposal to make examples of?those Imperium worlds most vocal in their support of the Warmaster. The burned and poisoned husks of?once-populous worlds were intended to bring a swift end to any insurrection, but could not stem the tide of rebellion that rose up in the wake of?the dropsite massacre at Isstvan V and the momentum it granted to the rebel armies of the Warmaster. Despite this, the Dark Angels did not hesitate to destroy that which they could not hold in the Emperor's name, preferring to leave Horus as the Warmaster of an empire of ashes than allow their temporary weakness to cede him territory, with only the most heavily-fortified worlds proof against their onslaught. So for the first handful of years of the Horus Heresy the limited size of the Dark Angels companies restricted them to small scale raids, with many using the superior void craft of?their attached fleets to take on the role of commerce raiders, cutting the throat of the Traitors’?supply chain. Gramarye and Caliban, while never directly attacked, were kept isolated from the greater war, both by the actions of?Word Bearers esoterists and the strange powers they now wielded, and the disturbing silence from certain echelons of the Legion's leadership. The Dark Angels remained a potent force, but one divided and bereft of cohesive direction, at the time seemingly little more than a painful thorn in the side of?the juggernaut Horus had aimed at Terra. Yet, with the advantage of?hindsight, it is clear that by the actions of the raiding fleets of the First Legion, Horus was denied the early victory he craved, for the supplies they denied him and the chaos they sowed amid sectors that might otherwise have fallen to him without a shot fired slowed his advance just enough.

哪怕在倉促集結(jié)的帝國特遣部隊前往伊斯特萬五號時，黑暗天使軍團就已經(jīng)在遠離泰拉的數(shù)十個世界上進行過大規(guī)模交戰(zhàn)了，他們使用軍火庫中的恐怖武器懲戒了那些最為直言不諱地支持戰(zhàn)帥的世界，以儆效尤。那些曾經(jīng)人口稠密的世界被摧毀得剩下了焚滅有毒的地殼，任何暴動叛亂都被快速終結(jié)，但這樣也遏制不住在伊斯特萬五號登錄點大屠殺之后興起的叛亂浪潮以及變節(jié)世界投入戰(zhàn)帥叛軍的勢頭。黑暗天使軍團無視了這一點，他們毫不猶豫地摧毀了他們無法以帝皇之名保住的一切，他們寧可讓荷魯斯成為一個余燼帝國的戰(zhàn)帥，也不愿因自己暫時的軟弱讓叛軍的疆土得以擴大，只有那些要塞化程度最高的世界才能抵御他們的屠殺。所以在荷魯斯叛亂的最初數(shù)年，黑暗天使連隊那有限的規(guī)模把他們的行動限制在小規(guī)模的掠襲作戰(zhàn)，很多連隊會將他們先進的虛空艦船用作掠襲艦，切斷叛軍補給線的咽喉。不過Gramarye和卡利班并未遭到直接攻擊，他們與這場惡戰(zhàn)隔離開來，這即是因為懷言者的隱秘術(shù)士與他們現(xiàn)在使用的奇怪力量，也是因為軍團某些高層人員那令人不安的沉默。黑暗天使軍團仍是一支強大的部隊，但他們被分散了，也喪失了使之凝聚的方向，當時看來，他們似乎只不過是插入荷魯斯指向泰拉的毀滅部隊中的一根令人痛苦的刺。不過從事后來看，很明顯第一軍團掠襲艦隊的行動使荷魯斯未能得到他渴望的早期勝利——黑暗天使軍團拖住了荷魯斯的后勤，他們一槍未發(fā)便在那些可能落到了荷魯斯手里的世界中散播了混亂，這恰好足以拖慢荷魯斯的挺進。

The stubborn refusal of the Dark Angels to consolidate and grant Horus' lackeys a final decisive battle, a defiant and suicidal assault to express their anger and frustration, granted Dorn time to rally the remaining Loyalist elements around the Imperium's core. It also kept them from the series of massacres and last stands that plagued the Loyalists during the early years of the Horus Heresy, the carefully arranged decimation by which Horus had removed those obstacles that stood in his way. This carefully chosen strategy left the Dark Angels perfectly placed for the return of their lord, poised at the borders of Horus, fragile empire and ready for the Lion to give the word, to let loose the fetters of?Imperial decree and give them leave to unleash all the fell tools they held ready for such a cataclysm. Horus' first gambit had failed, Terra remained outside his grasp and the First Legion stood ready to show him the terrible cost of his ambitions.

黑暗天使們頑強的抗爭鞏固了戰(zhàn)果，他們與荷魯斯的走狗們進行了一場決定性的戰(zhàn)斗——這是一次展示他們的怒火與懊惱的自殺式挑釁進攻，這為多恩在帝國核心世界周圍集合剩余的忠誠派部隊奪取了時間。這也使他們遠離了在大遠征初期困擾著忠誠派的一系列大屠殺和決戰(zhàn)——這些戰(zhàn)役都是荷魯斯為了清除自己前進道路上的障礙而精心安排的毀滅性屠殺。這種精挑細選的戰(zhàn)略讓第一軍團為軍團之主的歸來做好了準備，他們沉著地奔向荷魯斯脆弱帝國的邊界，只待萊昂下令松開帝國法令的枷鎖，批準他們釋放出所有為這場災厄而準備的殘暴武器。荷魯斯的第一步棋就已然失敗了，泰拉尚在他的掌控之外，而第一軍團早已準備好讓他明白自己將會自己的野心付出何等慘重的代價。