The Raven Guard's ninefy-hght day

暗鴉守衛(wèi)的九十九天

In the aftermath of the Dropsite massacre, all was anarchy and ruin on Isstvan V. Of those Space Marine Legions that had been betrayed to their deaths, those few who had survived knew despair and horror. Confronted with treachery of such scale and the terrible killing power ranged against them, each Legion reacted according to its own nature and demeanour. The Salamanders cast themselves wholesale into the searing crucible of war though confronted by unassailable odds, the majority never to return. The Iron Hands, driven beyond reason by the inconceivable spectacle of their Primarch, the Gorgon, beheaded by his own brother, were consumed by unreasoning hate. The Raven Guard, however, were different. Guided by their own nature, the Raven Lord's legacy carried his remaining sons not towards the fire, but away from it to the shadows. Corax had survived, and this factor above all others was to be the salvation of his Legion.

在登陸點大屠殺之后，伊斯特萬五號各處都是廢墟，處于一片混亂之中。在那些因遭遇背刺而毀滅的星際戰(zhàn)士軍團中，極少數(shù)的幸存者們知道了（何為）絕望和恐怖。面對如此規(guī)模的背叛和向他們兇猛撲來的恐怖殺戮力量，各個軍團都根據(jù)自己的天性與行為習慣做出了反應(yīng)。盡管面臨著不可戰(zhàn)勝的絕境，火蜥蜴軍團還是把自己全部軍力投入了殘酷的戰(zhàn)爭，大部分軍團戰(zhàn)士也就再也未能歸來；鋼鐵之手的原體——“戈耳工”費魯斯 馬努斯被自己的兄弟砍下了頭顱，這一不可思議的場景將軍團戰(zhàn)士們逼到失去理智，他們被非理性的仇恨所吞噬。但暗鴉守衛(wèi)則不同，在他們自己的天性的指引下，渡鴉之主的（基因）遺產(chǎn)讓他剩下的子嗣們并未沖向戰(zhàn)火，而是遠離戰(zhàn)場躲入陰影之中。克拉克斯幸存了下來，這也是他的軍團能夠得救的最重要原因。

Swiftly upon divining the merciless trap enclosing around the Loyalists at the dropsite, he ordered a general extraction of his Legion as soon as he had extricated himself from direct and bloody confrontation with his brother-Primarchs turned foes: Lorgar and Curze. Here the Raven Guard's longstanding arts of war, focused upon rapid manoeuvre and hit and run, made telling difference. Protocols long practised by the Raven Guard enabled a plan for a swift, fighting withdrawal to be enacted despite the havoc that engulfed them. Battle-cant rendezvous and emergency dispersal coordinates were code-burst across the Legion's command net by Corax, using phrases and idioms dating back to the Lycaean Uprising. Corax rightly suspected his Legions command and control net was compromised and this fact alone would save many of his Legionaries'?lives.

一經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)登陸點形成了包圍著忠誠派們的無情陷阱，克拉克斯便命令軍團進行全軍撤退——當時他剛剛擺脫了與科茲和珞珈的血腥且直接的對抗——這兩位原體曾是他的兄弟，現(xiàn)在則轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)樗臄橙?。此時此地，暗鴉守衛(wèi)那注重快速機動和游擊戰(zhàn)的長期戰(zhàn)爭技藝使他們（的命運）產(chǎn)生了顯著的差異。盡管慘遭劫難，但暗鴉守衛(wèi)長期踐行的信條使他們能夠進行一次快速的戰(zhàn)斗撤退。通過軍團的指揮網(wǎng)絡(luò)，克拉克斯用密碼將戰(zhàn)場集合點與緊急疏散坐標大量發(fā)送給軍團戰(zhàn)士們，并使用了可以追溯到Lycaean起義時期的慣用語?？死怂拐_推測出暗鴉守衛(wèi)軍團的指揮和控制網(wǎng)絡(luò)遭到了破壞，這一事實挽救了很多軍團戰(zhàn)士的性命。

As his Legion began its fight out of the killing zones, Corax went to the aid of a body of his sons cut off by a mass of Word Bearers. The Raven Lord himself was an umbra-clad storm of death, his eyes blazing wells of hatred, savage and merciless in his vengeance and yet not without purpose. He had lost one lightning claw in battle against his twisted kin, the Night Haunter, but where the other lashed out, his every blow cut an enemy Legionary to ragged shreds and cast steaming viscera on to the thirsting black sands, and when he took to the sky upon his black- pinioned flight pack, it was to descend once more to scythe down scores of Traitors and to rescue pockets of Loyalists who had been cut off and surrounded, falling like lightning on their attackers and allowing them to break out of the killing ground.

在他們軍團開始從殺戮區(qū)突出重圍的同時，克拉克斯前去救援那些被大量懷言者們切斷退路的暗鴉守衛(wèi)軍團戰(zhàn)士群體們。渡鴉領(lǐng)主本人是一陣被陰影所裹覆的死亡風暴，他眼中閃爍著憎恨，進行野蠻無情但絕非毫無目的的復仇。在與自己那位扭曲的兄弟——午夜幽魂交戰(zhàn)的過程中，克拉克斯遺失了一只閃電爪，但他還能用另一只閃電爪兇猛進攻。他施出的每一次進攻都將一名敵對的軍團戰(zhàn)士劈為碎塊，并將他們冒著熱氣的內(nèi)臟丟在拋在饑渴的黑色沙地上。他利用黑色羽翼形狀的背包飛往高空，之后再次落下，砍倒數(shù)十名叛軍，解救出一群被圍困和切斷退路的忠誠派戰(zhàn)士。原體如同閃電般落到進攻者們頭上（來發(fā)起進攻），以讓被圍困者們逃出殺戮區(qū)。

The Raven Lord's defiance and rage was not unreasoning, but channelled into a single purpose——to allow time for his sons to fight their way clear of the murderous anarchy of the Urgall?Depression.?Squad by squad, company by company, the Raven Guard disengaged from the Traitors, Legion reconnaissance squads using the general chaos to identify extraction routes and muster points in the wastes beyond. The sable-clad Moritats of the Legion stalked the battlefield too, seeing this dark hour as their time come to fulfil their direst purpose and find bloody redemption, falling upon enemies the recon squads could not circumvent, many selling their lives dearly so that the doom of their entire Legion might be averted. Less than an hour after the Traitors great act of betrayal commenced and the massacre began in earnest； all who would escape the Urgall Depression alive were fighting their way through the enemys rearguards and streaming through the hills, and those who could not reach them were now doomed. All that is apart from Corax himself who was by now surrounded by many thousands of Traitors in the sea of carnage and fire at the centre of the cauldron of battle, ever shrinking in size at the centre of the dropsite. Though Corax had slain hundreds and could have killed hundreds more given leave, even one as mighty as a Primarch would in time have been overwhelmed by the sheer weight of numbers that pressed in from all quarters.

渡鴉之主的反擊和怒火并非是毫無理智的，而是以一個目標為導向——他要為子嗣們爭取時間，讓他們能夠從Urgall洼地致命的混亂戰(zhàn)場上殺出一條生路。一個小隊接著一個小隊，一個連隊接著一個連隊得，暗鴉守衛(wèi)們擺脫了叛軍，軍團偵查小隊們利用這種整體混亂的狀況在廢土之外的區(qū)域確定了逃離路線和集結(jié)點。軍團中身披黑甲的暗殺精英們也潛行進入了戰(zhàn)場，他們將此黑暗的時刻視作自己完成最可怕的目標并尋求血腥救贖之時，向偵查小隊無法避開的那些敵人發(fā)起了猛攻，許多人不惜犧牲自己的生命來阻止整個軍團可能遭受的毀滅。在遭遇叛徒們嚴重的背叛之舉和開始于（洼地）最東側(cè)的屠殺不到一個小時后，所有那些將會活著逃出Urgall洼地的部隊都在從敵軍前鋒中殺出一條血路并從山丘間魚貫逃脫，而那些未能抵達安全區(qū)的部隊現(xiàn)在則被屠殺殆盡。但科拉克斯本人除外，他現(xiàn)在處于這片沸騰戰(zhàn)場的中心，被數(shù)千名叛徒包圍在屠殺和炮火的海洋中。叛軍將原體圍在登陸場的中心，而且包圍圈一直在縮小。雖然克拉克斯已經(jīng)殺掉了數(shù)百名叛軍，而且條件允許的話他還能再殺掉數(shù)以百計的叛徒，但面對著從四面八方壓過來的敵人，哪怕是如同原體這般強大的人物遲早也會被純粹的數(shù)量所壓倒。

With hordes of Traitors closing in on the now isolated Corax and a storm of fire scything through the air, a single Raven Guard Thunderhawk gunship successfully descended from the fire-streaked skies against the odds, and blasted a landing zone nearby the Primarch. Having boarded, Corax remained at the open assault ramp, and it is said his black eyes burned as he cursed the numberless hosts even as the gunship rose once more, the backblast of its rocket engines making a pyre for the betrayed dead that had fought to the last alongside their lord.

成群的叛徒們包圍了現(xiàn)在孤身一人的克拉克斯，這時一陣火焰風暴掠過天空，一架暗鴉守衛(wèi)雷鷹炮艇抵抗住了千難萬險，從留有火焰條紋的天空上成功降下，并在原體附近炸出了一片降落區(qū)。登上炮艇后，科拉克斯留在了敞開的突擊坡道處。據(jù)說哪怕當炮艇再次起飛時，原體也還在詛咒著無數(shù)的叛軍部隊，同時他黑色的眼睛中燃燒著怒火。炮艇火箭引擎的尾焰為慘遭背叛的死者們進行了火葬，這些戰(zhàn)士與自己的領(lǐng)主并肩作戰(zhàn)直到最后。

The Thunderhawk was commanded by the Legions Master of Descent, Strike Captain Alvarex, the officer responsible for leading the Legions planetary landings. Unwilling to countenance the loss of his Primarch, Alvarex had ordered his command Thunderhawk to negotiate the burning skies above the dropsite, whilst evading enemy fire that had brought dozens of other vessels plummeting to the corpse-strewn ground. Though the pilot's skill, determination and luck held for long enough to reach Corax and to ensure the Primarch was embarked, they could not hold forever. Inevitably, the sheer weight of fire directed at the Thunderhawk shredded its armoured skin, tore one wing clean off and ripped its cockpit canopy wide open, slaying both pilot and co-pilot in an instant. Wrestling with the ruined controls even as the cockpit burned around him, Strike Captain Alvarex fought to arrest the stricken gunship's terminal descent, turning what would have been a catastrophic crash into a controlled landing. Though most of the crew were slain and the Strike Captain badly wounded, the Primarch survived thanks to Alvarex Mann's dedication and sacrifice, the two rejoining the Legion as the sun finally set on that great day of betrayal.

指揮這艘雷鷹炮艇的是軍團空降大師——打擊連長阿瓦萊克斯，他是負責領(lǐng)導軍團行星登陸行動的軍官。他不愿眼看著原體喪生，便命令自己的指揮雷鷹炮艇闖過登陸點上方燃燒著的天空，同時躲避著敵人的火力——已有數(shù)十艘其他艦船被叛軍炮火擊落在了布滿尸體的地面上。飛行員的技術(shù)、決心和運氣維持了足夠長的時間，長到足以讓他們抵達科拉克斯所在的區(qū)域并確保原體登船，但這些條件不會永遠維持下去。直接集中雷鷹炮艇的強大火力不可避免地撕碎了它的外層裝甲，一只機翼被完全扯掉，駕駛艙頂蓋被撕開，駕駛員和副駕駛都被瞬間殺死。盡管駕駛艙在他周圍燃燒著，但打擊連長阿瓦萊克斯還是努力控制著損壞的控制臺，最終奮力阻止了被擊中炮艇的墜落，將一次原本要發(fā)生的災難性墜毀事故轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)榱艘淮问芸氐闹憽１M管許多船員不幸遇難，打擊連長本人受傷嚴重，但也是由于阿瓦萊克斯?曼恩的奉獻和犧牲，原體才得以幸免。當太陽終于落山，這發(fā)生背叛暴行的漫長一天終于過去時，原體與打擊連長重新回到了軍團。

The Night of Butchery

屠戮之夜

All that remains of the first night on Isstvan V is a scattering of fragmentary accounts, many of them entirely contradictory. Some survivors later spoke of tides of Traitors surging across the hills in a berserk frenzy, howling for the blood of the survivors. Others described a deep, sonorous chanting that rolled through the valleys like thunder and stirred dread in the hearts of those still loyal to the Emperor. Still other evidence shows bands of Traitors descending on isolated Loyalists and tearing them apart in an atavistic savagery, while circling gunships loosed fire indiscriminately, little caring of who they slew so long as it was not their own. How many battles raged throughout that night cannot be known, for every Legionaiy fought his own bitter war for survival.

關(guān)于伊斯特萬五號上第一夜發(fā)生的事情，僅存的所有資料就是一些碎片化的報告。某些幸存者后來聲稱：潮水般的叛軍在山丘間狂暴地涌動肆虐，嚎叫著要奪取幸存者們的鮮血。另一些人則描述了一種深沉且洪亮的吟唱聲，它像雷聲一樣響徹山谷，在那些仍然忠于皇帝的人心中激起了恐懼。其他證據(jù)表明叛軍們成群結(jié)隊地找到那些孤立的忠誠派們，并以返祖的野蠻殘忍將對方撕裂；同時盤旋在空中的炮艇不分青紅皂白地開火射擊，只要對方不是他們自己軍團中的成員，他們就不在乎自己殺的是誰。我們無法得知那一整個夜晚中發(fā)生了多少次戰(zhàn)斗，因為每名軍團戰(zhàn)士都在為自己的生存而進行著苦澀的戰(zhàn)爭。

Even as the main body of the foe harried the Raven Guard from behind, others fell upon them from above as they passed along the cracked ravines. Few Legionaries had any ammunition to spare, and so most of these battles were fought with fists and combat knives. When individual Raven Guard fell, their brothers made impossibly valiant attempts to rescue them from the howling, blood-maddened foe. Those who could walk bore those who could not, the withdrawal ever teetering on the edge of being overrun. But by the time the wan light of Isstvan V’s sun appeared on the horizon, barely penetrating the tortured, smoke-stained skies, the bulk of the surviving Raven Guard had broken free of their pursuers, finding sanctuary in the maze-like ravines beyond the Urgall Hills, for a brief time at least.

敵軍主力在背后襲擾著暗鴉守衛(wèi)軍團，而當?shù)谑跑妶F穿過裂谷時，其他敵軍也從山上沖下來撲向他們。幾乎沒有哪位軍團戰(zhàn)士還有任何備用的彈藥，這些戰(zhàn)斗中的大部分都是以拳頭和戰(zhàn)斗匕首作為武器。當一位暗鴉守衛(wèi)倒下時，他的兄弟們會做出了不可思議的勇敢嘗試，試圖從嚎叫著瘋狂嗜血的敵人手中拯救他。能夠行走的人們拖著那些不能移動的傷兵，撤退行動一直在徘徊在超時的邊緣。但當伊什特萬五號的太陽出現(xiàn)在地平線上，陽光幾乎穿透了倍受折磨且煙霧彌漫的天空時，大部分幸存的暗鴉守衛(wèi)都已經(jīng)擺脫了追兵，在Urgall山外迷宮般的峽谷中找到了避難所——他們至少在短時間內(nèi)是安全的。

As the Raven Guard were fighting alongside their Primarch, those Legionaries unable to escape the noose of the Traitor armies were being systematically butchered. As the tides of war receded, the Traitors stalked the battlefield, knee deep in the shattered bodies of their erstwhile kinsmen, seeking the dying that they might deliver death. Others sought out the wounded in order to perform abominable tortures upon their already ruined flesh. Some Traitor Legions piled their own dead on to great pyres so that their deaths might be honoured as the growing flames licked the blackened skies. The World Eaters are known to have performed one of the basest acts of savagery that day by butchering the dead and dying, decapitating them, flensing the flesh from their skulls and piling these in massive ossuary-cairns. The Word Bearers, following the teachings of their damned Primarch, enacted their own victory rituals, the terrible significance of which is now all too well known to us.

當暗鴉守衛(wèi)隨同自己的原體奮戰(zhàn)時，那些未能逃出叛軍圈套的軍團戰(zhàn)士們遭到了系統(tǒng)性的屠戮。隨著戰(zhàn)爭潮水退卻，叛軍們趾高氣揚地走進戰(zhàn)場，在昔日族親破碎的尸體間單膝跪地，尋找他們可以殺戮的垂死之人。其他人則去找傷者，目的是對他們已經(jīng)殘破的肉體施以令人發(fā)指的折磨。一些叛徒軍團把自己人的尸體堆在巨大的柴堆上以進行火葬，以此來向他們的死亡表示敬意，火焰越燒越旺，火舌舔舐著黑暗的天空。眾所周知，吞世者軍團在那天做出了最卑鄙的野蠻行為之一：他們屠殺死者和垂死之人，砍掉他們的頭，把他們的頭骨剝皮并堆成巨大的顱骨京觀。懷言者軍團遵循著他們受詛咒原體的教導，進行著他們自己的勝利儀式——這一事件的可怕意義現(xiàn)在已為我們所熟知。

As if to heap infamy upon ignominy, the Traitors began another, still worse mutilation of the fallen. Tens of thousands of corpses had their Progenoid glands —the implant that bears the Space Marines' gene-seed by which the Legions themselves are propagated— torn bloodily from them, for what fell purpose few would dare speculate.

仿佛是要恥上加恥一般，叛徒們又開始對死者進行更惡劣的殘害。數(shù)萬具尸體被血淋淋掏出了地掏出來基因存收腺體——這個植入器官中包含著軍團用于自我繁衍的星際戰(zhàn)士基因種子，其目的幾乎沒人敢去猜測。

The Heavens Aflame

天火降臨

Even as the Raven Guard slipped their howling pursuers, yet another torment was visited upon the war-shattered surface of Isstvan V. The flaming hulks of those Loyalist war ships caught in the Traitors’?ambush now began their inexorable and fatal descent. The vox-nets shrieked as if in pain, stuttering machine code and screaming feedback interspersed with hopeless pleas for aid. The few Techmarines and Masters of Signal left in the Raven Lord's force fought in vain to establish a two-way link with the source. Soon however, the tortured, smoke- wreathed skies were lit orange by flickering conflagrations high above the clouds and the growl of stratospheric explosions rolled over the surface like distant thunder. From horizon to horizon, the clouds churned with unimaginable energies as Loyalist and Traitor alike paused to look upwards. Then the first fragment not incinerated by the fires of re-entry speared downwards, parting the clouds and smashing into the ground with a force equal to a planetary bombardment. The resulting explosion scoured a crater a hundred metres across and sent up a mushroom cloud tens of?thousands of?metres into the atmosphere. Moments later, searing debris rained down and a wave front of ashen smoke smothered all. It was the first of many hundreds of impacts that would fall upon the embattled planet's surface over the coming days, weeks and months, wreaking indiscriminate destruction upon Loyalist and Traitor alike.

就在暗鴉守衛(wèi)擺脫了那些嚎叫著的追捕者的同時，伊斯特萬五號飽受戰(zhàn)火摧殘的地表又遭受了另一種折磨。那些在叛軍伏擊中被摧毀的忠誠派戰(zhàn)艦燃燒著的殘骸現(xiàn)在開始發(fā)生無情且致命墜落。音頻通訊網(wǎng)痛苦地尖叫著，斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的機器代碼和哀嚎著的回復中夾雜著絕望的求救。暗鴉守衛(wèi)部隊中極少數(shù)留存下來的技術(shù)軍士和通訊主管們努力建立著與信號源的雙向聯(lián)系，但卻徒勞無功。然而，煙霧繚繞的天空很快就被云層上方閃爍的烈火映為了橙色；平流層爆炸的咆哮聲響徹地面，就像遠處傳來的雷聲。在整個地平線上，云朵都帶著難以想象的能量翻滾著，忠誠派和叛軍都停下來抬頭仰望這一場景。之后，第一片未能被再入大氣層時的烈火所焚化的碎片向下方刺去，它們沖破云層，以相當于行星轟炸的力道撞向地面。由此造成的爆炸形成了一個一百米寬的隕石坑，并使大氣層中出現(xiàn)了數(shù)萬米高的蘑菇云。片刻之后，灼熱的碎片如雨點般落下，一波又一波的灰燼煙塵籠罩著一切。而這僅僅是第一次，在接下來的數(shù)天、數(shù)周乃至數(shù)個月中，此類撞擊還會發(fā)生數(shù)百次，而這些撞擊會對忠誠派和叛軍們同樣造成毀滅。

With the wreckage falling from orbit overwhelming the vox-net with impenetrable interference and the choking debris drastically curtailing visibility, the Raven Guard pressed ever deeper into the cracked land beyond the Urgall Hills, a vast, broken region called the Illium Rifts. By dusk on that second day, little definite had been learned of the fate of the Iron Hands and the Salamanders, and so Corax was seen to pace the outer limits of the rifts, his gaze dark, his humours swinging violently between choler and melancholy. Several times he led his chosen warriors out into the hills in search of his lost Raven Guard sons, and any others of the Loyalist force who might survive yet. Several times he returned with Raven Guard Legionaries, having come upon them in the hills.

從軌道上墜落的殘骸形成無法被穿透的（電磁）干擾，這令暗鴉守衛(wèi)的音頻通訊網(wǎng)絡(luò)崩潰；而且令人窒息的碎片也嚴重降低了（大氣）能見度。暗鴉守衛(wèi)（只能）不斷深入Urgall山丘之外的破碎地帶，這一片巨大破碎的區(qū)域被稱為Illium裂谷。等到第二天黃昏時分，暗鴉守衛(wèi)軍團還是未能了解到關(guān)于鋼鐵之手和火蜥蜴軍團命運的準確信息，因此人們看到科拉克斯在裂谷的外側(cè)邊緣踱來踱去，他目光陰沉，情緒在憤怒和憂郁之間劇烈地搖擺。他數(shù)次率領(lǐng)自己選中的戰(zhàn)士們外出進入山丘間，尋找自己迷失的暗鴉守衛(wèi)子嗣與其他可能幸存著的忠誠派部隊。他也數(shù)次帶著暗鴉守衛(wèi)軍團戰(zhàn)士回來回來——這些戰(zhàn)士都是克拉克斯在山丘上碰到的。

Signs of?other survivors having broken free of the massacre at the Urgall Depression were found all about, many in the form of tracks terminating in the broken corpses of once proud warriors run to ground like cornered animals. Throughout the night, still more scattered bands of Raven Guard staggered into the refuge, many wounded almost beyond the ability to fight, in body and in mind. Of all the horrors they had witnessed, of all the hurts they had withstood during the wars of the Great Crusade, here was an entirely new phenomenon. The betrayal that had split the Legiones Astartes in twain had inflicted upon them a wound no other foe had ever struck—for the first time in the experience of any present, the vaunted spirit, wrought by the hand of the Emperor himself was stretched unto breaking point.

其他從Urgall洼地大屠殺中逃生的幸存者的跡象隨處可見，其中大部分都是足跡：曾經(jīng)高傲的戰(zhàn)士們像走投無路的動物一樣遭到獵捕，這些足跡一直延伸到（其）殘破的尸體上。在整個晚上，更多破碎的暗鴉守衛(wèi)戰(zhàn)幫蹣跚著進入避難區(qū)，其中很多人在生理和心理上都幾乎失去了戰(zhàn)斗能力。伊斯特萬五號上出現(xiàn)的是一種全新的現(xiàn)象，暗鴉守衛(wèi)們在大遠征時期的戰(zhàn)爭中目睹過的所有恐怖事物、經(jīng)受過的全部傷痛都與之不同。這場背叛把阿斯塔特軍團們分裂為兩半，它對星際戰(zhàn)士施加了其他敵人所不能造成的創(chuàng)傷——他們那由帝皇本人親手鑄就的高傲精神有生以來第一次達到了崩潰的邊緣。