前文

The Warlord of?the Web

戰(zhàn)網(wǎng)軍閥

A little over a hundred kilometres to the south-east, ArchmAgos Draykavac observed all. His sight was that of a thousand different war machines, Battle-automata and servitors all over Numinal's surface, relayed to him via his djinn-skein in a myriad of ghostly spectrums and augury shadows beyond the power of any unaugmented brain to fathom. Warning runes and anathematic equations ran through his cogitator-enhanced brain; already the first wave of attack on the Agathean landing zone had resulted in heavier losses than all of the TAghmata Cyclothrathe's military operations over the last two years combined, the Agatheans having displayed unprecedented and uncalculated levels of close range firepower, as well as superior deployment and tactical cohesion. Furthermore, secondary landings and incursions were now observed at a number of other locations, and the invasion had not gone unnoticed; native resistance movements were showing themselves in wholesale acts of Aggression, while riots and revolts were reported at the majority of processing centres and still extant civilian population centres not yet having undergone total conversion. The data was incontrovertible; the TAghmata Cyclothrathe was losing control of the planet. Victory however, Draykavac concluded, was still possible so long as the landing zone could be purged of the invaders, forcing a stalemate in which the TAghmata controlled the surface and the Agatheans the void and system. Matters would then be decided by the scale and frequency of potential reinforcement. Above, if it tried to intervene, the Loyalist galleass could be held back at the cost of his own Sacra Astra's and the remaining Mechanicum escorts' sacrifice if needed to ensure the attack's success. It was the arithmetic of war.

在東南方一百多公里處，大賢者德拉卡瓦克觀察到了一切。他注視著遍布Numinal表面的一千臺不同的戰(zhàn)爭機器、戰(zhàn)斗機兵和機仆，這些單位通過靈精通訊束向他傳達了無數(shù)幽靈般的頻譜掃描數(shù)據(jù)和鳥卜陰影信息，這超出了任何未經(jīng)增強的大腦的理解能力。警告符文和（令人）憎惡的公式從他用沉思者強化過的大腦中奔流而過；Cyclothrathe禁衛(wèi)軍在對于Agathean登陸區(qū)的第一波進攻中所遭受了嚴重損失，比在過去兩年里軍事行動中遭受損失的總和還嚴重，Agathean部隊展現(xiàn)出了前所未有且無法計算的近程火力水平，以及卓越的（戰(zhàn)略）部署和戰(zhàn)術凝聚力。另外，機械神教在其他很多地點都觀察到了輔助性的登陸和入侵行動，這些入侵行動也被注意到了；當?shù)氐牡挚管娨舶l(fā)動了規(guī)模全面的進攻，報告稱大部分轉(zhuǎn)化中心和現(xiàn)存的尚未完成改建的平民人口中心也發(fā)生了騷亂和起義。數(shù)據(jù)顯示出一個無可置疑的結論：Cyclothrathe禁衛(wèi)軍正在失去對星球的控制。但根據(jù)德拉卡瓦克的推論，只要清理掉登陸區(qū)的入侵者們，迫使禁衛(wèi)軍控制住的地面戰(zhàn)場與Agathean部隊部隊控制住的虛空和星系戰(zhàn)場之間形成僵局，那么奪取勝利就仍是有可能的，而潛在增援的規(guī)模和頻率將決定戰(zhàn)況。在頭頂?shù)奶罩校绻艺\派的亞空間快船試圖介入干預地面戰(zhàn)爭的話，德拉卡瓦克會在必要時以自己的圣星號巡洋艦和剩余的機械神教護衛(wèi)艦們的犧牲為代價，來拖住阻撓忠誠派艦隊，以此來確保進攻勝利。這就是他的戰(zhàn)爭盤算。

It was now time for Draykavac himself to take a hand. Ascending from the command vault on his battle-Abeyant, he joined his acolytes and bodyguard covenant of Thallax at the centre of the amassed second wave of the assault mustering under a shimmering curtain of Triaros-Tesrudo generated mobile void shields to protect them from aerial attack. Around him were arrayed the greyblack armoured ranks of his personal?cadre of Battle-automata, and beyond them the hulking ranks of the Knights of House Atrax and Freeblade raiders from House Aerthegn, some sixty armours in all. Hovering macrohauler barges were even now waiting to forge the crossing to the landing zone archipelAgo, and Against this gathering of might, even the firepower and defences of the Solar Auxilia would be as nothing.

現(xiàn)在德拉卡瓦克要親自介入戰(zhàn)事。他升高了自己戰(zhàn)斗載具的指揮拱頂，在聚集起來的第二波進攻集群的中心加入了自己侍從兵和死隸機兵衛(wèi)隊中，特里亞羅斯運輸車生成的移動虛空盾閃爍著，保護他們免受空襲。他身邊排列著私人戰(zhàn)斗機兵們所構成的灰黑色裝甲部隊，而在他們外側，是一支由來自阿特拉克斯家族的騎士們和來著阿爾澤恩家族的自由之刃掠襲者騎士們組成的龐大部隊，總計大約六十臺機體。巨型貨運船懸停在空中，現(xiàn)在它們就在等著打通前往登陸區(qū)群島的渡口。在此等（軍事）力量的集結下，那怕是太陽輔助軍的火力和防御也是無能為力。

Regicide

一擊必殺

Lord Marshal Ireton MaSade, the old general, kept alive by long-implanted augmenrics of his own far past a normal human span, watched the gathering of force at the Mechanicum-held dockyards on the occularis viewers of his command tank, as calm and still as if graven in stone. The MAgos warlord he faced was carrying out the most logical course of action, and the one most likely to succeed, as Against such a concentration of Knights, his own forces, despite their strength and discipline, could not prevail in open battle. It was exactly why MaSade had formed his forces in this manner, why he had deployed them as he had, exactly why his home fleet was absent, and why the Hammer of the Deep stood ready with her deadliest cargo yet unleashed. He wanted such a concentration of Mechanicum forces, to engAge them when they were together, not forced to hunt them down across an entire waterlogged world where every outpost and processing plant might become a fortress Against him, and where his own troops would be at the disadvantAge Against the tireless superhuman machines of the TAghmata. He had in his years fought outnumbered and outgunned Against alien powers in a hundred campaigns; he had fought even at the side of Horus and his Legion in days past, and learned well from the master the value of the decapitation strike in warfare. With the TAghmata and their army of Knights moving towards the waiting hover barges under the rippling shadows of their mobile void shields, Ireton MaSade gave the order his staff had been tensely waiting for.

領主元帥伊拉頓 馬薩德通過自己指揮坦克的隱匿式取景器注視著敵軍部隊在機械神教控制的港口船塢中集結，這位老將軍通過延壽植入手術活過了遠超凡人年齡的歲月，此刻他沉著冷靜，宛如靜置于石中。他所面對的軍閥賢者正在執(zhí)行最合乎邏輯的行動方案，而且機械神教是最可能取勝的一方；盡管他自己的太陽軍部隊實力強勁、富有紀律，但面對著如此密集的騎士，他們也無法在公開戰(zhàn)斗中取勝。不過這也正是一切的原因：馬薩德以這種方式組織部隊并之前那樣部署部隊，讓來自他故鄉(xiāng)的艦隊避戰(zhàn)，讓深淵之錘號準備好尚未被釋放的最致命貨物，這一切安排都是有目的的。他想要讓機械神教部隊如此集中起來，以在他們聚集時進行攻擊，而非被迫在整個被水浸潤的世界上到處獵捕機械神教叛軍們——因為每座哨站和加工廠都會成為負隅頑抗的堡壘，他自己的部隊在對抗機神禁衛(wèi)軍那超越人類的不知疲倦戰(zhàn)爭機器時也處于劣勢。在他的戎馬歲月里，馬薩德曾在一百次戰(zhàn)役中與數(shù)量和武力都壓倒己方部隊的異星人勢力激戰(zhàn)；他在過去甚至曾與荷魯斯與戰(zhàn)帥本人的軍團并肩作戰(zhàn)過，并從這位統(tǒng)帥那里深刻地了解到了斬首進攻在戰(zhàn)爭中的價值。在移動式虛空盾翻著閃光漣漪的陰影下，機神禁衛(wèi)軍和他們的騎士部隊向著等待中的懸浮大型貨船進發(fā)，同時伊拉頓 馬薩德也向一直在緊張等待中的下屬們下達了命令。

In close orbit, the Hammer of the Deep's drives flared and the galleass?great kilometre-long over-bay doors swung majestically open like the spreading wings of a vast bird of prey. From within, two brutal-looking drop ships, ancient Khobol class heavy assault landers,emerged —relics older than the Great Crusade— and moved to make their burning descent into Numinals atmosphere. The surviving Mechanicum warships on their own watchful orbit moved to intercept, the galleass turning and offering itself to battle so that the landers would go unchallenged, and the void burned between them.

在近地軌道中，深淵之錘號引擎燃燒加力，這艘戰(zhàn)艦寬達一公里的巨大艙門莊嚴打開，宛如一只掠食巨鳥張開的翅膀。兩艘外表野蠻的空降船——庫波爾級重型突擊登陸艇現(xiàn)身，這兩艘來自大遠征之前時代的古老遺物發(fā)動引擎移動起來，下降進入Numinal的大氣層，周身因摩擦而燃起火焰。監(jiān)視著軌道的幸存機械神教戰(zhàn)艦前來攔截，深淵之錘號轉(zhuǎn)頭迎戰(zhàn)，這樣一來登陸艇就能不會遭到敵方艦船的阻撓，它們周圍的虛空則燃燒著。

Manticore

蝎尾獅出籠

The twin landers burned down through the skies of Numinal, heavy flak missiles streaking up to strike them, but doing nothing more than adding fresh scars to the slab-like armour plates which covered their blocky hulls. The landers came in fast and low on their powerful engines, but rather than slam directly into the roiling mass of Knights and Battle-automata quickly dispersing themselves from crushing attack, they roared overhead, skimming the crackling void shield mantle and sending shivers of blistering lightning coursing through the skies. In the wide scrubland wastes beyond the loading docks, the landers settled their vast bulks, side-ramps splitting open. Then across the wastes came a siren howl older than the Imperium, a complex,eardrum-splitting dirge. It was the ancient challenge, that of Knights to others of their warlike kind to partake in deadly combat.

兩艘登陸艇燃燒著穿過Numinal的蒼穹，重型高射（防空）導彈拖著尾際沖向它們，但也只是在包裹著短粗船體的堅硬厚實裝甲板層上添了些新的傷痕。登陸艇們依靠強悍的引擎進行了快速的低空俯沖，行進中的大量騎士和戰(zhàn)斗機兵們快速散開以規(guī)避沖撞攻擊，但登陸艇并未直接沖向它們，而是從機械神教部隊的頭頂呼嘯而過，掠過了噼啪作響的虛空盾屏障，濺起的顫抖著的閃電電弧沖向天空。船體巨大的登陸艦停在了裝載港口之外廣闊的灌木林廢土中，側門放下形成斜坡。一陣歷史比人類帝國的還要久遠的汽笛長鳴聲傳遍了廢土，這是一曲復雜且震耳欲聾的長歌。這是騎士們向自己的好戰(zhàn)同胞們所發(fā)出的古老挑戰(zhàn)，是他們加入這場致命惡戰(zhàn)的宣言。

The ground shuddered as the Knights thundered forth, the bulk —some fifty armours in all— cast in quartered sable and deep amethyst blue, bearing the golden Manticore heraldry of the dread House of Orhlacc, missing from their home world of Dark Haven since before the Warmaster's talon had touched the Coronid Deeps. They were not alone. With them came Freeblades and outcasts in liveries both gaudy and strange, a maniple of Knights in the crimson hued armour of House Hermetika, oath- sworn of distant Mezoa, and a warband of House Aerthegn, outcast from their brethren that had taken up the cause of Horus and now come to make war upon their kin in bitter feud.It had been the sinisterly told-of House of Orhlacc that had brought to the Agatheans?cause the galleass of the Rogue Trader that had in her folly come to Dark Haven to subjugate them and paid the price. It had been Valdemar Orhlacc, High Seneschal of his House, that Ireton MaSade had bargained with for his might on this day of reckoning, at a price no less than the dominion of the dim world of Wychval, far from prying eyes at the edge of the Agathean Domain, and the Knights of Orhlacc had come to make good that bargain in blood.

騎士們沖向前方，腳步聲若雷霆，地面都在隨之顫抖，其中大部分——總數(shù)大約為五十臺機體——都噴涂著黑色與深紫藍色的四等分配色，佩戴著可怕的奧爾拉克家族的金色蝎尾獅徽章，早在荷魯斯的惡爪觸及到王冠深淵之前，這群騎士就從自己的故鄉(xiāng)世界“黑暗之港”消失了。但他們也并非獨自應戰(zhàn)，隨同他們前來的還有配色花哨怪異的自由之刃和被流放者們，這群身披猩紅色裝甲的騎士來自赫爾梅提卡家族，該家族誓言效忠于遙遠的梅左阿鑄造世界；一并前來的還有一支由阿爾澤恩家族的流放者們組成的戰(zhàn)幫，這些騎士與自己投靠荷魯斯的胞親們進行了決裂，他們現(xiàn)在懷著苦澀的仇恨前來與族親們交戰(zhàn)。正是關于奧爾拉克家族那邪惡的傳說使得Agathean部隊得到了深淵之錘號——某位行商浪人駕駛著自己的戰(zhàn)艦，愚蠢地來到黑暗之港，想要征服征服騎士家族，結果付出了代價。在清算之日，伊拉頓 馬薩德與奧爾拉克家族的至高王——瓦爾德馬爾 奧爾拉克做了一筆交易：領主元帥要奧爾拉克家族為他效勞，交易條件至少包括讓出昏暗世界Wychval的統(tǒng)治權，此地遠離Agathean統(tǒng)治域邊境的監(jiān)視范圍，而作為交換，奧爾拉克的騎士們要為領主元帥血戰(zhàn)敵軍。

There was nowhere to hide from the savAgery to come; the wasteland, and the dockyard span upon which it ended, were all but featureless, an expanse of emptiness that in an instant was transformed into a killing ground which no mortal creature could have crossed and lived.There was no room or opportunity for trickery or subtle tactic, no time even for orders to be given; there was only the storm of steel and fire. The Loyalists charged, their weapons blazing sun-heat and thundering deadly shell fire, and the Traitor forces turned as one to meet their oncoming attack, answering with their own shimmering arcs of pale volkite rays and cracking bolts of dark lightning.

惡戰(zhàn)即將到來，而此時的戰(zhàn)場上卻毫無藏身之所：廢土荒原和位于它盡頭港口船塢都是毫無遮蔽、一片空曠，頃刻之間，此地就變成了一個任何凡人都無法跨越和生存的殺戮場。雙方部隊沒有時間也沒有機會來使用欺詐戰(zhàn)術，他們甚至都來不及下達命令；此處只有鋼鐵與火焰的風暴。忠誠派部隊開火，武器射出聲如雷霆的致命灼熱炮火，叛軍部隊們也整齊劃一地迎戰(zhàn)即將到來的進攻，用蒼白色爆燃射線的閃弧與噼啪作響的黑色閃電矢彈還擊。

The thunderous walkers closed the distance between the two and immediately Draykavac saw the danger. His Knights were marginally outnumbered, but his oath-sworn Atrax were primarily equipped with the Mechanicum Styrix and MAgaera pattern armours, superior in their protection from damAge, but also slower than most of his foe's forces, many of which were equipped with the swift Cerastus patterns designed to outflank an enemy at speed. Even now the Orhlacc Knights?and their allies' faster units were breaking into two horns of battle to encircle his own forces, while the Loyalist Paladins and Errants made direct assault on his centre, formed up in fighting wedges so that their ion shields created an all but impenetrable overlapping barrier Against incoming fire. Draykavac extended his will and his army moved as one, tessellating into a hexAgon formation, its own ion shields presented outwards, defending the core within, at the centre of which hovered Draykavac and his bodyguard of dark armoured Battle-automata.

腳步聲如雷霆的步行機甲們拉近了雙方之間的距離，德拉卡瓦克也馬上看出了危險：雖然他麾下的騎士們在數(shù)量上的劣勢極其微小，但向他誓言效忠的阿特拉克斯家族主要配備了機械神教的斯特里克斯和莫紀拉型騎士，他們的防御性能更強，但速度遜于敵方部隊中的大多數(shù)騎士——忠誠派大量配備了敏捷的瑟拉斯托斯型騎士，這種騎士被設計依靠速度迂回包抄敵人。現(xiàn)在，奧爾拉克騎士們和友軍中的快速單位們一分為二，形成掎角之勢包圍住了德拉卡瓦克自己的部隊，同時忠誠派都圣騎士與游俠型號騎士們直接進攻了機械神教的部隊中心，他們排列成楔形戰(zhàn)斗隊列，這樣他們的離子盾就能形成一個幾乎無法被穿透的重疊屏障以抵御來襲炮火。德雷卡瓦克通過意志下達了命令，他的部隊整齊劃一地進行移動，排列成一個六邊形編隊，這些部隊向外側展開自己的離子盾，保護著他們背后的部隊核心單位，而德拉卡瓦克和他黑色裝甲的戰(zhàn)斗機兵衛(wèi)隊就盤旋在這些部隊中央。

The complex manoeuvre was barely complete when the two tides of metal and fire met, the Orhlacc and their allies crushing round the Atrax in a murderous grip. The ground shook and rattled, the air was rent with an indescribable cacophony as Knight met Knight in shattering impact. Battle cannon roared at point blank range, power lances pistoned forth to smash explosively through armour plate, ion shields flared and guttered. The white-hot beams of thermal cannon speared through hulls, sending adamantium running like molten wax, and mighty metal limbs were torn?from their sockets by crushing servo-claws and shimmering solar blades. Where the Atrax fought with cold, calculating brutality, the Orhlacc fought like madmen suddenly unleashed, but the bitterest savAgery was the domain of the Aerthegn, as brother fought Against brother to the death. In such a tumult of inhuman war and incalculable power even the Castellax Battle-automata of the TAghmata Cyclothrathe were as nothing compared to the fury unleashed, as the reaper chainblades of the Orhlacc lashed through them like kindling before a falling axe, and Draykavac's bodyguard of Thallax fell in droves as they were caught in an annihilating crossfire of Castigator bolt cannon shells.

當兩波由鋼鐵和火焰組合而成的部隊相遇時，這項復雜的機動才剛剛完成，奧爾拉克騎士們與盟友們殺氣騰騰地從四周沖向阿特拉克斯騎士們。雙方騎士互相應戰(zhàn)，雙方都帶著粉碎性的沖擊力，此刻地面震動、吱嘎作響，空氣中彌漫著一種難以形容的刺耳噪音。戰(zhàn)斗火炮在近身戰(zhàn)斗中咆哮著，動力長槍向前突刺，爆炸般地擊穿對方裝甲，離子盾閃爍明滅。熱能火炮射出的白熱射線擊穿騎士的機體，精金如同石蠟那樣融化流淌，能粉碎敵人的私服爪和閃著寒芒的太陽利刃將騎士強大的金屬肢體從連接軸上扯下。阿特拉克斯騎士們帶著冷酷且縝密算計的殘酷，對抗著他們的敵人——如同突然被釋放的瘋人一般的奧爾拉克騎士們，但最苦澀的殘酷戰(zhàn)斗則是發(fā)生在阿爾澤恩家族的騎士們之間，族親兄弟們兵戎相見，互相置對方于死地。在這種非人的戰(zhàn)爭與不可估量的實力面前，哪怕是Cyclothrathe禁衛(wèi)軍的堡星戰(zhàn)斗機兵相比于騎士們所釋放出的怒火也不值一提，奧爾拉克騎士們用收割者鏈鋸劍掃開它們，機兵們們就像擊錘前的引火物那樣被毀滅了，而懲戒者爆彈炮毀滅性的交叉火力也將德拉卡瓦克的死隸機兵衛(wèi)隊成群掃倒。

The ArchmAgos was not without power of his own however, and the crimson armoured Knights-Castigator of House Hermetika which had made the attack found themselves slowly crushed under the weight of a fusillade of graviton cannon blasts, stAggering to their doom. Swiftly they were swamped by murderous Vorax Battle-automata, their sickle-bladed arms hacking and slashing through joints and power cables, crippling them, until Draykavac himself tore the living pilots from the control thrones within and liquefied their bodies to dripping gore.

但大賢者也并非沒有屬于自己的部隊。猩紅色盔甲赫爾梅提卡家族懲戒騎士們發(fā)動了進攻，然而他們發(fā)現(xiàn)自己在被重力炮沖擊波的連續(xù)射擊緩慢壓碎，他們踉蹌著走向毀滅。兇殘的鋸齒蟻型戰(zhàn)斗機兵很快就淹沒了他們，它們鐮刀狀的手臂砍斷了騎士的關節(jié)與電纜，使其癱瘓，最終德拉卡瓦克會親手把活著的駕駛員從機體內(nèi)部的控制王座上扯下來，將他們的軀體液化滴落的血水。

The?clash of Knights, apocalyptic in its destruction, rAged on, but even at the centre of this hurricane of chaos, Draykavac's half machine mind was holding watch over a hundred other conflicts rAging on Numinal. On the northern archipelAgo, his diminished second wave, robbed of their reinforcements, was being driven back into the sea as the invading Agathean Cohorts broke out of their fortified landing zone and attacked in full force. Obedite-led native resistance was destroying the Mechanicum's conversion crawlers all across the globe, vulnerable now that Draykavac had withdrawn their supporting Knights. New and unknown forces had also entered the fray as a trio of mismatched Javelin Attack Speeders, one in the umbral black of the Raven Guard and the others in the ochre yellow of the Imperial Fists, had flown in under the void shield mantle and were now striking at the machines that generated it, threatening the shields' integrity more with each passing attack. At one primary flesh-processing facility, no more than eleven kilometres away, a lone Legiones Astartes had appeared in armour scoured clean of all markings and was now systematically killing every servitor, Tech-Priest and automata in the complex. In orbit,the void battle had proved bloody too but inconclusive to both sides, and even now the Sacra Astra?was badly damAged and on an outbound orbit to effect emergency repairs, and would not likely survive another close pass Against the Hammer of the Deep. Were Draykavac one of the Emperor's Angels of Death, defeat would have been impossible to countenance and he would have fought on regardless of the odds of victory, but he was of the Mechanicum, and the cold equations of bloodshed told him he had lost.

騎士們那擁有啟示錄般破壞力的沖突越演越烈，但即使在這戰(zhàn)混戰(zhàn)的颶風中心，德蠟卡瓦克的半機器思維也在注視著Numinal上其他一百多場正在肆虐的沖突。在北部的群島上，他的第二波兵力因失去了增援部隊而變?nèi)酰粨敉嘶睾Ｖ?，入侵的Agathean兵團沖出了他們設防的登陸區(qū)，全力進攻，將機械神教部隊趕回了海中。領導有序的當?shù)胤纯管娬谌蚋鞯卮輾е鴻C械神教的轉(zhuǎn)化廠履帶車，由于德拉卡瓦克撤走了支援它們的騎士，這些載具現(xiàn)在頗為脆弱。一股新的未知力量加入了這場戰(zhàn)斗：這是三輛裝備不匹配的標槍速攻艇，一艘噴涂著暗鴉守衛(wèi)陰暗的黑色想，其他的則是帝國之拳的赭石黃色。他們從虛空盾下方飛入，現(xiàn)在正在進攻護盾發(fā)生器，每一次攻擊都在進一步威脅虛空盾的完整性。一名孤獨的阿斯塔特軍團戰(zhàn)士出現(xiàn)在不超過11公里外的一個主要的生體處理設施中，他穿著被清除干凈所有標志的動力甲，正在有組織地屠殺基地綜合體里的所有機仆、技術神甫和自動機兵。在軌道上，雙方經(jīng)歷過一場血腥卻毫無定論的虛空戰(zhàn)，現(xiàn)在圣星號嚴重受損，正在外軌道進行緊急維修，它可能無法再與“深淵之錘”號進行近距離交戰(zhàn)。倘若德拉卡瓦克是一名帝皇的死亡天使，那他不可能（坦然）接受失敗的現(xiàn)實，而是會毫不考慮勝利的可能性來奮戰(zhàn)到底；但他是一名機械神教成員，而且關于血腥惡戰(zhàn)的冷酷數(shù)學算式也告訴他：他已經(jīng)輸了。

Immediately, the Cyclothrathine Knights' hexAgonal formation of defence began to shift, and what was a defiant battle became instead stalled, a fighting retreat with a single purpose, to deliver Draykavac to safety at any cost. Soon the dockyard complex running back to the Mechanicum?command centre was a fire-strewn waste, littered with the burning hulls of broken Knight armour and the twitching, dismembered remains of Battle-automata as the House of Atrax and the TAghmata Cyclothrathe were sacrificed for their master. Once within the fortified bastion, Draykavac made good his escape off-world, his salvation-rocket blasting off from its position of concealment in one of the bastion's storAge silo-towers, leaving fiery ruin in its wake. The last baleful command he issued to each and every surviving servitor,?automata and Tech-Priest of the TAghmata was to kill, kill relentlessly and indiscriminately until their own destruction came. Numinal had fallen to the Loyalists.

Cyclothrathine騎士們的六邊形防御編隊立刻開始變化，曾經(jīng)殘酷激烈、相互挑釁的惡戰(zhàn)（現(xiàn)在）變?yōu)榱私┚?，這場戰(zhàn)斗撤退只有一個目標，那就是不惜一切代價保護德拉卡瓦克的安全。很快，通往機械神教指揮中心的港口船塢綜合體就變成了一片四處著火的廢墟，到處都是燃燒著的破損騎士盔甲和抽搐著且遭到肢解的戰(zhàn)斗機兵殘骸，阿特拉克斯家族和Cyclothrathe禁衛(wèi)軍為他們的而主人犧牲了。一經(jīng)進入了堡壘，德拉卡瓦克就從星球上逃離成功，他的逃生火箭從堡壘某個儲倉塔的隱蔽位置發(fā)射升空，身后只留下了燃燒的廢墟。他還向所有幸存的機仆、技術神甫和戰(zhàn)斗機兵們發(fā)布了最后一條惡毒的命令：殺戮，他們要不分青紅皂白地無情殺戮，直到毀滅降臨。忠誠派奪回了Numinal世界。

The Age of War

戰(zhàn)爭紀元

The counter-invasion of Numinal and the catastrophic destruction visited on Gethsamaine would only be the start of a new phase in the ongoing war for the Coronid Deeps. Four sidereal weeks after the successful liberation of Numinal, the Agathean war fleet, so notably absent, was in action at Cerada Secundus, skirmishing with the Cyclothrathine battlegroup attacking that world. Here, Against the massed war arks of the TAghmata, it would not prove so victorious. But instead would be repelled with considerable loss, but their mere presence shifted the strategic landscape such that the TAghmata temporarily withdrew to reinforce its captured domains, and so another fault line of war was established.

對王冠深淵中持續(xù)進行著的戰(zhàn)爭而言，Numinal上的反攻行動與Gethsamaine上星語中繼站的毀滅只是戰(zhàn)爭進入新階段的開始。在成功解放Numinal四個恒星周之后，明顯缺席了那場戰(zhàn)役的Agathean戰(zhàn)爭艦隊，在Cerada Secundus與攻擊這個世界的Cyclothrathine戰(zhàn)斗群發(fā)生小規(guī)模沖突。凡人艦隊在對抗機神禁衛(wèi)軍的大型戰(zhàn)爭方舟時并不是非常成功，他們被擊退，而且損失慘重，但但僅僅是他們的出現(xiàn)就讓戰(zhàn)局發(fā)生了改變，禁衛(wèi)軍暫時撤退以鞏固其占領的領土，戰(zhàn)爭的另一條斷層線也由此確立。

The 'raid' on Gethsamaine would prove only to be the first attack carried out by the Red Talon and other Loyalist survivors in the region, and Sons of Horus-led squadrons and battlegroups were soon dispatched from Port Maw to deal with a threat that struck throughout the Grail Abyss and the Cyclops Cluster, and even deep into the subjugated worlds of what was once the Manachean Commonwealth. What would follow throughout the Coronid Deeps would become a protracted and bloody series of campaigns and battles with no certain victor.Outposts were raided, planets laid to waste, convoys ambushed and murderous reprisals taken; the tables frequently turning so that the hunters became the hunted and back Again, and where one side gained an advantAge, it was quickly squandered or laid low by sudden reversal of fortune. Loyalist and Traitor clashed Again and Again; forces came and went from the region as the tides of the unquiet Warp allowed and battle waxed high and waned in bloody exhaustion, only to be taken up Again.

Gethsamaine上的“掠襲”也被證明僅僅是紅爪部隊和該地區(qū)其他忠誠派幸存者的第一次行動，巨口港不久后就派出由荷魯斯之子領導的中隊和戰(zhàn)斗群前來解決這些橫掃了圣杯深淵和獨眼巨人群星，甚至還深入到了Manachean聯(lián)邦那些被征服世界的威脅。之后王冠深淵中發(fā)生了一系列曠日持久的血腥戰(zhàn)役，而且沒有哪一方是完全的贏家。哨站遭到掠奪，星球化為廢土，運輸船遭到伏擊，報復性的謀殺時有發(fā)生；戰(zhàn)爭形勢經(jīng)常發(fā)生逆轉(zhuǎn)，獵人與獵物的身份來回發(fā)生轉(zhuǎn)換，當一方占上風時，他們的優(yōu)勢很快就會被命運的突然逆轉(zhuǎn)所浪費或摧毀。忠誠派與叛軍們反復鏖戰(zhàn)；隨著動蕩不安的亞空間的浪潮漲落，軍隊在該地區(qū)來來去去，戰(zhàn)斗高潮迭起，在血腥的疲憊中沉寂，但最后又只會再啟戰(zhàn)端。

So it was with the Coronid Deeps; so it was to be all across what was once the unified Imperium of Mankind. A grim Age of war had been born at Isstvan that would never end in the lifetimes of those who were caught in its bloody embrace, an Age of war that would outlast the Horus Heresy, outlast the Great Scouring and beyond, an Age of Darkness.??

王冠深淵的境況就是這樣，而曾經(jīng)統(tǒng)一的人類帝國也是如此。伊斯特萬星系的慘劇誕生出了這個殘酷的戰(zhàn)爭時代，它在被卷入這段血腥歷史的凡人的有生之年都不會結束；這段戰(zhàn)爭時期的持續(xù)時間比荷魯斯叛亂和大清洗都更久，黑暗年代，就此到來。