In every account of the war on Calth, there is little dispute over the overwhelming tactical advantage held by the Word Bearers in the early stages of the fighting. They had complete control of orbital space, with the Ultramarines void craft scattered and broken and the overwhelming firepower of the orbital defence platforms under their control. On the ground, the Word Bearers chapters held all major strategic objectives and had inflicted devastating casualties upon the Ultramarines, leaving the XIIIth?Legion with few means to even organise a cohesive campaign against the Word Bearers, let alone prosecute such an offensive.

在所有關(guān)于考斯之戰(zhàn)的報告中，有一點幾乎是毫無爭議的：懷言者軍團在戰(zhàn)斗早期階段保有壓倒性的優(yōu)勢。他們完全控制了太空軌道，而且在極限戰(zhàn)士虛空艦船（艦隊）四分五裂、支離破碎的情況下，他們還完全控制了軌道防御平臺的壓倒性火力。在地面上，懷言者戰(zhàn)團們控制了所有主要戰(zhàn)略項目，并對極限戰(zhàn)士造成了毀滅性的傷亡，這讓第十三軍團幾乎無法組織起對于懷言者的整體性戰(zhàn)役，更不要說持續(xù)進行這種攻勢。

The fighting around the southern city of Ithraca stands as an exemplar of the bloody, one-sided and yet curiously inept battles the Word Bearers fought across the face of Calth in the brief surface war. What initially appears as a strategically sound assault on an objective held by unsuspecting units of the XIIIth?Legion, quickly degenerated into a confused massacre, only complicated by the inexplicable tactics employed by the Word Bearers and those auxiliary units which had long served under their direction. In many cases, the Word Bearers seem to have abandoned all military logic and sought simply to kill and destroy without recourse to any other concern.

懷言者軍團在考斯的地表進行了一場血腥、一邊倒而且奇怪地缺乏技巧的短暫地面戰(zhàn)，圍繞考斯南部的城市Ithraca所展開的戰(zhàn)斗就是這樣的一個案例。這次行動一開始看起來是懷言者們對第十三軍團那些毫無防備的單位所控制項目發(fā)動了具有戰(zhàn)略合理性的攻擊，很快這就變成了一場混亂的大屠殺，而且懷言者軍團和那些長期在他們麾下以供差遣的輔助軍們采取了令人費解的戰(zhàn)術(shù)，這只能讓情況變得更為復(fù)雜。在很多情況中，懷言者們似乎已經(jīng)拋棄了所有的軍事邏輯，只想簡單地殺戮和破壞，不關(guān)心其他任何問題。

Such was the advantage granted the Word Bearers by treachery that the casualties inflicted upon the Ultramarines were crippling despite the flawed tactics the Word Bearers employed. Regardless, the Ultramarines refused to die, denying the Word Bearers the victory they reached for. Even crippled by the destruction of the orbital vox network, bereft of their command elements and battered in body and mind, Ultramarines detachments across the planet put aside doubt and fear, devised methods to hurt those who had wounded them and put their plans into action with whatever tools of war they could gather to themselves.

這就是懷言者通過背叛所獲得的優(yōu)勢，盡管使用了有缺陷的戰(zhàn)術(shù)，但他們?nèi)詫O限戰(zhàn)士造成了極其嚴重的傷亡。但不管怎樣，極限戰(zhàn)士們都拒絕簡單受死，他們阻礙了懷言者奪取想要的勝利。盡管他們被摧毀了軌道通訊網(wǎng)絡(luò)、失去了指揮，而且身心都飽受煎熬，但全球各地的極限戰(zhàn)士分隊都把恐懼和懷疑拋在一邊，第十三軍團的戰(zhàn)士們設(shè)計出痛擊這些傷害他們的叛徒的方法，并且用自己能獲取到的所有戰(zhàn)爭工具來將計劃付諸實踐。

Convergence of Might

群雄匯聚

Ragged Ultramarines detachments from battlefields across the continent went on the offensive instead of running for shelter as lesser warriors might have done, some as isolated commands and others using short range local vox nets to coordinate with other groups of survivors. Leading the bloodied remnants of a dozen companies of the Ultramarines 9th Chapter, the Tetrarch Tauro Nicodemus cut his way through Word Bearers forces under the command of Foedral Fell. Wielding his tired Legiones Astartes like a rapier, he targeted isolated units as the Word Bearers dispersed to ravage Erud Province. Tetrarch Nicodemus annihilated those Word Bearers commands lost to an unpredictable blood rage while avoiding larger forces and slowly made his way to the north-east, following a fragmentary vox signal broadcast from the remains of the fortified manor of the planetary governor at Leptius Numinus.

身處整個大陸上各個戰(zhàn)場中的裝備破爛的極限戰(zhàn)士分隊們都發(fā)起了進攻，他們并未像低級的凡人戰(zhàn)士那樣奔向庇護所。某些分隊失去指揮獨自作戰(zhàn)，其他分隊則是使用當(dāng)?shù)囟坛掏ㄓ嵕W(wǎng)絡(luò)與其他幸存者團體配合作戰(zhàn)。英杰托羅 尼考德穆斯率領(lǐng)著來自極限戰(zhàn)士第九戰(zhàn)團十二個連隊身染鮮血的殘軍們從菲德拉 費爾指揮的懷言者部隊中殺出了一條血路。英杰如同揮舞輕劍一般指揮著疲憊的阿斯塔特軍團戰(zhàn)士們，趁著懷言者們分散前去蹂躪Erud省的時機，他將那些孤立落單的單位作為了目標。在避開大規(guī)模部隊的同時，英杰尼考德穆斯也在一場未曾預(yù)料到的血戰(zhàn)中殲滅了那些失去指揮的懷言者部隊。他們向東北部緩慢前進，指引他們的是從從位于Leptius?Numinus的行星總督要塞莊園的廢墟上傳來的支離破碎的聲音信號。

In the north, in the scrub deserts around the Holophusikon of Calth, a second Tetrarch, Eikos Lamiad, the Iron Warden of Konor, led a mismatched assembly of Imperial Army soldiers and Ultramarines armoured units in pursuit of the same signals. Tetrarch Lamiad and a retinue composed of Solar Auxilia from the 41st?Espandor High Guard, a battered Contemptor pattern Dreadnought and a towering Thanatar siege-automata, scoured the plains for other survivors, while Imperial Army officers organised these stragglers into a column headed towards Lanshear.

在北側(cè)圍繞著考斯的霍羅普西孔大博物館的灌木沙漠中 ，第二位英杰，康諾的鋼鐵守衛(wèi)者——艾科斯 拉米亞達率領(lǐng)一支由極限戰(zhàn)士裝甲部隊和帝國軍士兵組成的不匹配混合部隊，他們也在追尋相同的信號。英杰拉米亞達率領(lǐng)著一支由來自第41艾思潘多至高守衛(wèi)兵團的太陽輔助軍、一臺備受蹂躪的蔑視者無畏和一臺高大的薩納塔爾攻城機兵所組成的扈從部隊，他們在這片平原上搜尋著其他幸存者，同時太陽軍的軍官們也將這些掉隊者組織成了一支向著Lanshear地區(qū)進發(fā)的編隊。

Even as far south as the vast forests of Sharud Province, where Word Bearers-allied Mechanicum units and Titans of the Legio Suturvora had turned the dense foliage into a hell of flame and ash, units of the XIIIth Legion responded to the call to arms. In a display of tactical coordination few other Legions could have matched, even at their best, the few thousand survivors of the 11th?and 12th Chapters of the Ultramarines fought a complex war of hit and fade against fire- blackened automata and blood-hungry Word Bearers units. Ad hoc fire teams defended rough fortifications of earth and fallen trees, while other units hastily prepared the next line of defence, exacting a heavy toll in blood for each position the Word Bearers forced them to abandon.

哪怕是在遠至南部Sharud省廣闊森林的區(qū)域，與懷言者結(jié)盟的機械神教部隊和火焰之主軍團的泰坦們也將茂密的樹林化為了烈焰與灰燼的地獄，而第十三軍團的單位也提起武器予以還擊。他們展現(xiàn)出了即使是最強的軍團也無可比擬的戰(zhàn)術(shù)協(xié)調(diào)能力，來自極限戰(zhàn)士第十一和第十二戰(zhàn)團的數(shù)千名幸存者對被火焰熏黑的自動機兵和嗜血的懷言者部隊發(fā)動了一場復(fù)雜的游擊戰(zhàn)。臨時組建的火力部隊守衛(wèi)著用泥土和倒下的樹木搭建的粗糙防御工事，同時其他部隊則匆忙準備下一道防線，在被迫放棄每一塊陣地之前，他們都讓懷言者們付出了慘重的傷亡代價。

As the fighting wore on, what had begun as a series of isolated and chaotic slaughters slowly began to coalesce. With many Word Bearers detachments disregarding what was once considered standard military practice to engage in inscrutable rituals and wanton butchery, the XIIIth Legion survivors were afforded a momentary respite. For any other than Guilliman's own, such a pause would have meant little; a chance, perhaps, to sell their lives dearly in a glorious but hopeless last stand or futile rage-fuelled assault. For the XIIIth Legion however, it was a chance to grasp victory from defeat. With several task forces of survivors converging on the outskirts of Lanshear, an army that numbered in the thousands and even included a Titan maniple of the Legio Oberon, the Deathbolts, the Loyalists had assembled a response that was capable of achieving more than an honourable death.

隨著戰(zhàn)斗的進行，一系列孤立而混亂的屠殺開始慢慢地融合起來。許多懷言者分遣隊無視曾經(jīng)經(jīng)過深思熟慮的標準軍事慣例，轉(zhuǎn)而進行神秘儀式和肆意屠殺，第十三軍團的幸存者得到了短暫的喘息之機。對于除了吉利曼自己之外的任何人來說，這樣的停頓都沒有什么意義;這這也許是一個機會，讓他們在光榮但無望的最后一搏中以高昂的代價獻出自己的生命，或者發(fā)動盛怒但卻徒勞的攻擊。對第十三軍團而言，這是一個反敗為勝的機會。隨著數(shù)支幸存者特遣部隊集結(jié)在Lanshear地區(qū)郊外，這是一支數(shù)千人之眾的部隊，甚至還包括了一支來自奧伯龍軍團，或者說死亡箭矢軍團的泰坦中隊。忠誠派組建起了一支反擊部隊，他們不會僅僅榮耀地戰(zhàn)死，而且將會痛擊懷言者部隊。

Yet while the Word Bearers had sacrificed the strategic initiative, they still held a tenuous advantage in numbers, the initial battles and orbital bombardment having taken a terrible toll on the XIIIth Legion, and unlike the Loyalists, they were not scattered across the surface of the planet and isolated from their commanders. In Lanshear City, Hol Beloth, master of the graven star，commanded a force of almost ten thousand Legiones Astates and uncounted auxila troops, reinforced by several maniples of Legio Suturvora Titans; were the Loyalists to engage such a force head-on, they would have had little hope of a conventional victory. Another target, one of significant strategic value enough to tip the scales of the brutal war unfolding on Calth, would have to be found before the Loyalists would expend their last strength.

盡管懷言者已經(jīng)喪失了戰(zhàn)略主動權(quán)，但他們?nèi)匀挥形⑷醯臄?shù)量優(yōu)勢。初期的戰(zhàn)斗與軌道轟炸已經(jīng)對第十三軍團造成了嚴重傷亡，而且懷言者并未像忠誠派們那樣分散在星球表面各處并與指揮官失聯(lián)。在Lanshear城中，不滅鐵星戰(zhàn)團的戰(zhàn)團長——霍爾 貝羅斯指揮著大約一萬名阿斯塔特軍團戰(zhàn)士和無數(shù)輔助軍部隊，而且還有來自火焰之主軍團的數(shù)個泰坦中隊提供增援；如果忠誠派們與這樣一支軍隊正面交鋒，那他們幾乎毫無取得常規(guī)勝利的希望。在耗盡最后的力量之前，忠誠派們必須找到另一個目標，這個目標具有重要的戰(zhàn)略價值，重要到足以扭轉(zhuǎn)考斯上殘酷戰(zhàn)爭的局勢。

Bitter Victories?

苦澀勝利

Elsewhere on Calths war-torn surface, the fighting knew no pause or ebb in its brutal ferocity. Innumerable battles, both large and small, played out in blasted cities, frozen tundra and burning forests. The entirety of Calth was engulfed in a war that knew nothing of mercy or restraint, and blood was spilled under the bright sun of Veridia as well as the starlit blanket of night. Heroes were born in the crucible of war and perished forgotten and unrecorded by any who yet lived, and the most treacherous of villains met their ends with none to tell of the deed. Even where they emerged momentarily victorious, the warriors of Ultramar could not help but be dismayed by the cost of their triumph before more foes sought them out.?

在考斯被戰(zhàn)爭摧毀的其他區(qū)域上，戰(zhàn)斗的殘酷烈度毫無減弱，無論它們的規(guī)模是大是小，是發(fā)生在被炸毀的城市中、冰凍的苔原上還是燃燒的森林里。整個考斯都被卷入了一場不知仁慈和克制為何物的血戰(zhàn)，無論是Veridia恒星的朗朗白晝下，還是繁星映照的茫茫黑夜中，都有血腥的惡戰(zhàn)在發(fā)生。英雄們起于戰(zhàn)火之中，死者被現(xiàn)在還活著的人們遺忘，他們也不曾被記錄，而最奸詐的惡棍們也死于戰(zhàn)爭，無人再會講述他們的劣跡。即使暫時了取得勝利，在更多的敵人找到他們之前，奧特拉瑪?shù)膽?zhàn)士們也會忍不住為奪取勝利所付出的代價感到沮喪。

Sanachi Province and much of the southern continent were reduced to a charnel house as rampaging entities spawned there from the very depths of the Warp, and few would ever live to speak of the horrific events that took place. The Korvel Islands were engulfed in nuclear fire, their populous cities blasted from orbit at Kor Phaeron's command, perhaps for no better reason than to see them burn. The slaughter fields of Komesh were covered with over twenty thousand dead Ultramarines, their corpses and the bodies of the wounded who still lived used to ornament Word Bearers tanks and aircraft. In Sylator, the war engines of the Legio Cybernetica Magenim, long since having exhausted their stocks of ammunition,?sought to stem the hordes of fanatical auxiliaries and deformed Word Bearers shock units with bare manipulator and the strength of their servo-driven limbs, while their masters sought with desperate futility to restore control of Calth's defence systems.

隨著從亞空間的最深處產(chǎn)生的瘋狂實體沖向此處，Sanachi省和南部大陸的大部分地區(qū)都化為了一座停尸場，幾乎沒有能活著說出發(fā)生于此的可怕事件的人。Korvel諸島上，核火焰在熊熊燃燒著——科爾 法倫命令懷言者部隊從軌道上炸毀了人口稠密的城市，也許（想要）看著當(dāng)?shù)厝吮粺谰褪亲詈玫睦碛?。Komesh屠殺場中遍布了超過兩萬名死亡的極限戰(zhàn)士，懷言者們用第十三軍團戰(zhàn)士們的尸體和那些依舊存活著的傷者來裝飾自己的坦克和載具。在Sylator，馬格尼姆智控軍團的戰(zhàn)爭引擎?zhèn)冊诤芫弥熬鸵呀?jīng)耗盡了自己的彈藥儲備，他們試圖用空無一物的機械手和伺服器驅(qū)動的肢體力量來遏制大批狂熱的輔助軍和變了形的懷言者突擊隊，同時它們的操縱者在試圖恢復(fù)對于考斯防御系統(tǒng)的控制，但卻徒勞無功。

In the blasted ruins of the manufactoria of Dainhold, the remnants of the Ultramarines 8th and 15th Chapters, reduced to less than 1000?warriors, continued a grim battle against the Flayed Hand Chapter of the Word Bearers. Already worn down by the unending tide of chanting auxiliaries unleashed upon them to drain their munitions, the survivors were little more than desperate bands isolated in the crumbling halls of the manufactoria, and yet they still held after almost a full twelve hours of constant battle. However, measures taken to stymie the screaming hordes of auxiliaries unleashed by the Word Bearers, severing power to lights and heating systems and forcing the merely human auxiliaries to fight in the frozen darkness of Calth's winter night, deterred the power armoured Word Bearers as little they did the remaining Ultramarines.

在Dainhold鑄造廠被炸毀的廢墟中，極限戰(zhàn)士第八和第十五戰(zhàn)團的殘軍現(xiàn)在只剩不到1000名戰(zhàn)士，他們與懷言者軍團的剝皮之手戰(zhàn)團持續(xù)進行著一場殘酷的戰(zhàn)斗。懷言者源源不斷地釋放出高呼著禱詞輔助軍部隊來消耗極限戰(zhàn)士們的彈藥，幸存者們因此而精疲力盡、戰(zhàn)損嚴重，他們現(xiàn)在不過是一群孤立困守在坍塌的鑄造廠大廳中的絕望戰(zhàn)士們，然而，在持續(xù)了將近12個小時的戰(zhàn)斗之后，他們?nèi)匀粓允刈×岁嚨亍２贿^，他們也采取了一些措施來阻止懷言者們釋放出的嚎叫著的輔助軍們——他們切斷了照明和供暖系統(tǒng)的電力，迫使這些僅僅是凡人的輔助軍們在考斯冬夜冰凍的黑暗中戰(zhàn)斗，這種環(huán)境對身穿動力甲的懷言者們而言幾乎起不到阻礙作用，但對殘存的極限戰(zhàn)士來說也是一樣的。

With dusk falling over the cities of Enid, half a world away, dawn was arriving over Dainhold's manufactoria, heralding an assault by the elite of the Flayed Hand Chapter of the Word Bearers. Fully two hundred hulking Cataphractii Terminators were unleashed on the exhausted Ultramarines holding out. Trampling a path through the masses of dead and injured auxiliaries who thronged the manufactoria hallways and vestibules, the fresh Word Bearers Terminators tore into the few battered Ultramarines who remained, spending munitions with abandon as they slaughtered the defenders.

隨著黃昏降臨到了Enid諸城，半個世界之外的Dainhold鑄造廠也迎來了黎明，而這一切是以懷言者軍團剝皮之手戰(zhàn)團精銳部隊發(fā)動的進攻為標志。懷言者派出整整兩百名身形巨大的鐵騎終結(jié)者去殲滅固守陣地的極限戰(zhàn)士們。踩著擠在鑄造廠大廳走廊和門廳中大量死亡和受傷的輔助軍，終結(jié)者們對極少數(shù)倍受蹂躪的極限戰(zhàn)士殘軍發(fā)動了猛攻，他們肆意開火，屠殺著防御者們。

With almost no ammunition remaining to them, the warriors of the XIIIth?had few weapons left that could stop the rampaging Terminators, yet still each warrior strove to inflict as much damage as they could before death overtook them. Improvised pitfalls and hastily converted industrial tools accounted for several of the heavily armoured Word Bearers, and those officers and veterans who bore powered weaponry potent enough to pierce Terminator plate made valiant stands, but ultimately there was little the isolated and exhausted warriors could do. By the time Dainhold was fully engulfed by the changed and suddenly deadly light of Veridia there remained only corpses, mounted on the manufactoria walls as gruesome trophies by the Word Bearers.?

第十三軍團戰(zhàn)士們的彈藥所剩無幾，他們幾乎沒有可以用于阻止這些兇狠殘忍的終結(jié)者們，然而每個戰(zhàn)士仍然努力在死亡來臨之前造成盡可能多的傷害。極限戰(zhàn)士們用臨時拼湊的陷阱和匆忙改裝的工業(yè)工具解決了幾名身披厚重裝甲的懷言者戰(zhàn)士，那些裝備了足以刺穿終結(jié)者動力甲的動力武器的軍官和老兵們英勇地進行著抵抗，但這群孤立無援且精疲力盡的戰(zhàn)士們終究還是做不了什么。當(dāng)Dainhold地區(qū)完全被Veridia恒星那與之前完全不同且突然變得致命的強光所吞沒時，此地只剩下了尸體，而且懷言者們將這些殘軀作為恐怖的戰(zhàn)利品裱掛在了鑄造廠的墻壁上。