The Port Maw fleet anchorage was one of a handful of?massive Imperialis Armada fleet bases situated on or near the Imperium's borders. These bases, and the forces which operated from them, were a relatively recent development, born of an Imperium for which the galaxy now had been largely conquered, rather than one in which the Emperor still led the Great Crusade, its work not yet done. These fleet anchorages, at least one of which was founded in each of the Segmentum Majoris, with more planned, were the largest of their kind outside of?the Segmentum Solar, and in their turn were dwarfed by the vast capacity of the Sol System itself, and were founded for the specific purpose of securing the domains the Great Crusade had forged from the strife-torn galaxy. As such, their functions were in the main as ports of supply and muster, command-and-control hubs, and as home bases for a permanently stationed armada of warships with their own armies of Auxilia troops. These armadas were designed to serve both as a source of deep-range patrols and rapid-reaction forces to respond to sudden threats, be they civil disturbance, rebellion or outside attack, both from within the Imperium and from beyond its borders.

巨口港艦隊錨地是位于或靠近帝國邊境的為數(shù)不多大型艦隊基地之一。這些基地與依靠它們進(jìn)行運作的部隊出現(xiàn)得相對較晚，它們誕生于一個已經(jīng)征服了銀河系大部分區(qū)域的人類帝國，而非是帝皇仍在領(lǐng)導(dǎo)大遠(yuǎn)征、征服銀河的偉業(yè)尚未完成時期的那個。帝國在每個主要星域中都建立了至少一個艦隊錨地，而且還計劃要修建更多的此類基地。這些錨地是太陽星域之外的同類艦隊基地中規(guī)模最大的，而在恒星系自身的巨大容量面前，它們又顯得微不足道；帝國建立這些錨地是為了一個特定的目的——保衛(wèi)大遠(yuǎn)征在這個飽受戰(zhàn)亂的銀河中所獲取的疆土。所以它們的作用主要是作為進(jìn)行補給和集結(jié)的港口，指揮控制中心，以及永久性駐扎在此地的戰(zhàn)爭艦隊與艦隊自身輔助軍部隊的母港基地。這些艦隊即可以進(jìn)行遠(yuǎn)程巡邏，也可以被用作處理突發(fā)威脅的快速反應(yīng)部隊——這些威脅是內(nèi)部動亂、叛亂和外部進(jìn)攻，它們來自帝國內(nèi)部與邊境之外的區(qū)域。

In terms of the warships that physically made up these fleets —and the Port?Maw Armada was an exemplar of this— they outnumbered and en masse likely out-gunned any single Expeditionary fleet of the Great Crusade, at least on paper. They were made up primarily of several hundred first and second rate ships of the line; various classes of?cruiser and assault vessels intended to dominate 'small wars' and conduct lengthy patrols, supported by frigates and destroyers meant for escort duty, to pursue and destroy marauders, and hunt lone predator craft that might disturb the Emperor's Peace. By nature they possessed fewer large capital class ships than the outward reaching forces of the Great Crusade by disposition, but those they possessed were often very powerful examples of the type, including Goliath and Legatus class battleships. These two in particular were still extremely strong but support-intensive designs that had been replaced in frontline service only as the Great Crusade had reached ever further from the core worlds of the Segmentum Solar and supply lines had become stretched, giving way to more independently operating Gloriana and Victory patterns, but this was a deficiency of no consequence in their current role.

至于組成這些艦隊的軍艦，至少在文件中，它們在數(shù)量上和整體規(guī)模上可能都超過了大遠(yuǎn)征時期任何一支單獨的遠(yuǎn)征探索艦隊——巨口港艦隊就是一個例子。他們主要由幾百艘一流和二流的戰(zhàn)艦組成，其中包括旨在左右“小規(guī)模戰(zhàn)爭”戰(zhàn)況和執(zhí)行遠(yuǎn)距離巡邏任務(wù)的各種級別巡洋艦和突擊艦船，由（本要）執(zhí)行護航任務(wù)的護衛(wèi)艦和驅(qū)逐艦進(jìn)行支援，它們能追捕并摧毀掠奪者，并且捕獵那些擾亂帝皇（所賜予）的和平的孤獨掠襲艦艇。由于其性質(zhì)的原因，駐防錨地的艦隊所擁有的主力艦少于那些負(fù)責(zé)向往擴張的大遠(yuǎn)征部隊，但它們所保有的主力艦都是極為強力的類型，其中包括巨人級和副將級戰(zhàn)列艦，這兩種戰(zhàn)艦尤其是極其強悍但又需要大量支援的型號，不過隨著大遠(yuǎn)征到達(dá)了離太陽星域那些核心世界更為遙遠(yuǎn)的區(qū)域，補給線也被拉長，此類戰(zhàn)艦也從前線戰(zhàn)場上退役，讓位于獨立運作能力更強的榮光女王級和勝利級戰(zhàn)列艦，不過這一缺陷對于此類艦船目前的用途并無影響。

Unlike the ships and armies that made up the great Legiones Astartes-led Expeditionary fleets, the smaller Compliance battlegroups, and the Explorator and Rogue Trader-led formations, they were essentially defensive in nature, inward looking and meant to be successively piecemealed down into smaller commands and sub-deployments when needed, and as for as long as was needed. Because of this, they were made up almost entirely of the Imperialis Auxilia, with cohorts formed in the 'Solar' pattern almost exclusively. These were in turn usually drawn from the established Segmentum Excertus commands, and so were purely human in make-up and quite outside the regular command structures of the Great Crusade. Their Grand Admirals and Lords Marshal operated under authority directly proffered by the ruling Council on Terra, and were equal or perhaps greater in effective rank even than the Lords Commander who governed the individual worlds their ships protected. In practice, of course, it would be a very foolish Grand Admiral that would not defer to a Primarch when matters came to it, or an emissary of the Terran Court or Mars for that matter, but this growing distance between these two sides of the Imperium's military coin, one to defend, the other to conquer, particularly after the Emperor's return to Terra, accounts perhaps for the fact that the Traitors' cause did not have quite so much traction in the midst of these sovereign defence fleets as it did elsewhere in the Imperium's forces, a fact borne out broadly by the historical record.

不同于那些組成偉大的阿斯塔特軍團領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的遠(yuǎn)征探索艦隊、小型鎮(zhèn)撫戰(zhàn)斗群以及探索者和行商浪人們所領(lǐng)導(dǎo)編隊的艦船和軍隊，錨地艦隊本質(zhì)上是防御性部隊，它們著眼于內(nèi)部，并在需要時被依次拆分為更小的指揮和次級部署單位，而且這種況且需要多久就會持續(xù)多久。所以，駐守錨地的部隊幾乎完全由帝國輔助軍組成，而且?guī)缀跛旭v防兵團的組織模式都是“太陽”模式。這些部隊通常是輪流從已經(jīng)建立的星域帝國民兵指揮部中抽取，他們由純粹的凡人士兵組成，完全脫離了大遠(yuǎn)征的常規(guī)指揮結(jié)構(gòu)。他們的至高上將和領(lǐng)主元帥們手握泰拉上的統(tǒng)治議會直接授予的權(quán)力，這些軍官們的實際地位與統(tǒng)治單個世界們的領(lǐng)主指揮官不相上下，甚至更高，他們的艦船保護著后者所管轄的世界。當(dāng)然，在實際情況中，當(dāng)一位原體提出要求時，只有極其愚蠢的至高上將才不會服從，而當(dāng)同樣的情況發(fā)生在一位泰拉議會或者火星特使身上時，結(jié)果亦然。帝國的軍事力量分成了兩個部分：一方進(jìn)行防御，另一方去進(jìn)行征服，但雙方的距離越來越遠(yuǎn)，在帝皇返回泰拉后這一狀況尤為明顯。這或許也解釋了一個事實：叛軍陣營在這些主權(quán)防御艦隊中的吸引力并不像它們在帝國其它部隊中那么強烈，這一事實得到了歷史記錄的廣泛證實。

This observation bears true in the case of the Port Maw Armada, which despite clear efforts being made to deliberately subvert it, remained in the majority loyal, and those ship's crews and Solar Auxilia regiments which did join the Traitors’?cause were seldom crewed by wholehearted converts, but more often taken over by a polluted officer cadre or an armed mutiny by a well-prepared and ruthless minority.

這一觀察結(jié)果在巨口港艦隊的案例中被證實。盡管明顯有人在此地進(jìn)行蓄意的顛覆破壞行動，但大多數(shù)人員依舊忠于帝國，那些加入了叛軍陣營的艦船上的船員和太陽輔助軍團中也幾乎沒有全心全意的皈依者，更常見的情況是一名被腐化的核心軍官或準(zhǔn)備充分且冷酷無情的少部分人發(fā)動的武裝嘩變奪取了艦船控制權(quán)。