006-007.M31

006-007.M31

The first region of the Coronid Deeps to feel the Traitors'?fury in the birth-years of the Horus Heresy was the Cyclops Cluster. The cluster was, at the time, famed for both its industrial output and the harshness of its living conditions, and had proven a key factor in the supply and expansion of the Imperium, both across the Coronid Deeps and the eastern Segmentum Obscurus. These factors made it a prime target for attack, as the warp route access through its star systems —known to many Navigators— was still yet clear of turbulence, making it a welcome avenue of escape by fleeing Loyalist forces retreating from the catastrophe at Isstvan.

在荷魯斯叛亂的初始階段，王冠深淵中最先感受到叛軍怒火的區(qū)域是獨(dú)眼巨人星群。在當(dāng)時(shí)，這片星群因其工業(yè)產(chǎn)出與粗劣嚴(yán)酷的生活狀況而著稱，無論是在整個(gè)王冠深淵還是在東部的朦朧星域中，其都被證明對(duì)于帝國(guó)供給和擴(kuò)張有重要意義。這些因素導(dǎo)致此地成為首要進(jìn)攻目標(biāo)，因?yàn)樵S多導(dǎo)航者都知道：穿過此地的各恒星系的亞空間航線仍未出現(xiàn)亂流，對(duì)于那些從伊斯特萬星系的災(zāi)難事件中逃出生天的忠誠(chéng)派部隊(duì)而言，此地是一條可隨意使用的逃生途徑。

The Hounds and the Hunted

獵犬與獵物

While Terra and a few select and powerful Imperial Commanders, who were given to know the truth that Horus and what was then believed to be four Legions had turned against the Emperor, waited with various apprehension for the outcome of the battle at Isstvan V, the worlds of the Cyclops Cluster, and their billions, turned ever onward in ignorance. Defence states had been heightened on many frontier worlds, but in the Cyclops Cluster, as elsewhere in the Coronid Deeps, such a condition was a regular occurrence, and no reason or enemy was given to those lower down the chain of command. The changes of security codes and targeting matrixes to forbid the vessels and retinues of the four turncoat Legions was a precaution enacted swiftly, but one that would ultimately prove futile.

當(dāng)泰拉和極少數(shù)被選中的有權(quán)勢(shì)帝國(guó)指揮官們（他們知道真實(shí)情況是荷魯斯和四個(gè)軍團(tuán)被相信背叛了帝皇）懷著各種疑慮等待伊斯特萬五號(hào)上的戰(zhàn)斗結(jié)果時(shí)，獨(dú)眼巨人星群中的世界與其上的數(shù)十億人仍在無知狀況下繼續(xù)生產(chǎn)生活。很多前線世界都已經(jīng)提升了自己的防御狀況，但在獨(dú)眼巨人星群中，就和王冠深淵中的其他區(qū)域一樣，這種情況是經(jīng)常發(fā)生的，位于各級(jí)指揮鏈下方的士兵們也不會(huì)被給予原因，也沒有遇到敵人。不過，獨(dú)眼巨人星群也迅速實(shí)施了防御措施，修改了安全密碼和瞄準(zhǔn)矩陣以禁止四個(gè)叛變軍團(tuán)的艦船與隨從（人員）們進(jìn)入，但這一舉措會(huì)被證明是徒勞的。

The first harbinger of the war to come was a ship of the dead. The Malin Dawn, a Gladiator class frigate belonging to the Emperor's Children Legion, was detected moving at a low velocity in the outer reaches of the Gethsamaine system by watchful servitor—gunstations guarding the system's astropathic beacon at 4598006.M31. So alerted, high speed reconnaissance cutters were launched and their close range augurs found the ship to be badly damaged and almost without power. Having identified the vessel as a derelict enemy ship, the warden captain of the system took the decision for the vessel to be prevented from closing with its core worlds, her motion arrested and the ship boarded under all possible precautions. Leaving nothing to chance, the system’s two primary defence monitors, Gaius Herab and Brazen Bull, conducted the operation flawlessly, Veletaris troopers performing the incursion of the vessel without resistance.

即將到來的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的最初預(yù)兆是一艘運(yùn)載著死者的飛船。在4598006.M31，Gethsamaine星系中負(fù)責(zé)守衛(wèi)該星系星語燈塔的機(jī)仆炮臺(tái)偵測(cè)到：一艘屬于帝皇之子軍團(tuán)的角斗士級(jí)護(hù)衛(wèi)艦——“險(xiǎn)惡黎明”號(hào)正在星系外環(huán)區(qū)域低速移動(dòng)。收到警報(bào)后，當(dāng)局派出了高速偵查快艇；偵查艇的近距離占卜儀發(fā)現(xiàn)這艘護(hù)衛(wèi)艦受損嚴(yán)重且?guī)缀鯖]有了動(dòng)力。辨別出這艘艦船是一艘敵軍棄艦后，星系的守備隊(duì)隊(duì)長(zhǎng)決定阻止這艘飛船接近星系內(nèi)的主要世界；她停止了行動(dòng)，在采取了一切可能的預(yù)防措施的情況下登船。該星系的兩艘主要防御監(jiān)測(cè)船——“蓋烏斯 赫拉波”號(hào)與“黃銅雄?！碧?hào)沒有（給潛在敵人）留任何機(jī)會(huì)，完美地執(zhí)行了這次行動(dòng)，維勒塔里斯部隊(duì)在未遭到任何抵抗的情況下進(jìn)入了艦船。

Inside they found nothing but the dead. Slaughter bedecked the corridors where Space Marines and crew in the purple livery of Fulgrim's Legion had fought a brutal close quarter combat in defence of their ship against others of their own kind and Legiones Astartes in the white and azure of Angron's World Eaters to their mutual extinction. Further interrogation of the ship's logs revealed that the Malin Dawn had been a casualty of the desperate battle over Isstvan III, having remained loyal only to be turned on by her fellows in murderous ambush. During the confusion of the battle in the system as the Traitors exterminated their brethren, and under heavy assault, the ship had barely managed to escape, but in the Warp the battle within her hull had raged on until she had become nothing more than a flying tomb, bent upon a preordained course. Her Navigator had clung on to life long after the rest of the ship had fallen silent, and held on in the forlorn duty of carrying a warning of treachery that fate had, unknown to her, given to another to herald. When the frigate had, after her arduous voyage, broken into realspace in the dark of the Cyclops Cluster's stars, life had finally fled the Navigator's body before she could broadcast her distress call.

跳幫隊(duì)在船上找到的只有尸體。走廊上遍布屠殺（留下的）的痕跡：為了保衛(wèi)自己的飛船，穿著福格瑞姆軍團(tuán)的紫色制服的星際戰(zhàn)士和船員們進(jìn)行了一場(chǎng)殘酷的近距離戰(zhàn)斗，他們所對(duì)抗的敵人是自己的其他胞親兄弟，以及一些身穿安格隆的吞世者軍團(tuán)藍(lán)白兩色動(dòng)力甲的星際戰(zhàn)士，雙方在戰(zhàn)斗中同歸于盡。對(duì)于飛船日志的進(jìn)一步審查揭示出：險(xiǎn)惡黎明號(hào)是伊斯特萬三號(hào)上空絕望戰(zhàn)斗中的遇難艦船之一，這艘忠于帝皇的艦船在一場(chǎng)致命的伏擊中遭到了“同伴”們的進(jìn)攻。這艘飛船卷入了叛徒們?cè)谝了固厝f星系消滅其（忠誠(chéng)派）兄弟的戰(zhàn)斗，在遭受著激烈進(jìn)攻的情況下，她勉強(qiáng)逃出了九死一生的困境；但在進(jìn)入亞空間后，船艙內(nèi)的戰(zhàn)斗仍在繼續(xù)，兩方相互廝殺，直到飛船最后變?yōu)橐蛔w行的墳?zāi)?，一心一意地向著預(yù)定的方向行駛。當(dāng)飛船的其余部分都陷入沉寂之后，導(dǎo)航員仍舊堅(jiān)持存活了很久，她肩負(fù)著一項(xiàng)難以實(shí)現(xiàn)的任務(wù)：把叛變的警告?zhèn)鬟f給另一個(gè)人以進(jìn)行示警（盡管她并不知道）。在經(jīng)過艱難的航行后，這艘護(hù)衛(wèi)艦在獨(dú)眼巨人星群的黑暗中進(jìn)入了現(xiàn)實(shí)宇宙，但在導(dǎo)航員能夠廣播自己的遇難呼救（信號(hào)）之前，生命便最終從她的身上流逝而去了。

Even as this omen of war caused great consternation among Gethsamaine's high command, and urgent messages were dispatched to Port Maw and Lascal, the fabric of reality ripped open and the Hunters appeared; a wing of four Havoc class heavy destroyers in the slate grey and bronze of the 507th?Attack Squadron, an Imperialis Armada formation attached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet of Warmaster Horus, and behind them the Huntsmaster to these hounds, the Ikon, an Eclipse class battlecruiser in the dark viridian of the Sons of Horus Legion. Battle was joined immediately as the Traitors charged headlong at the system defence monitors, their destroyers releasing cycling volleys of?fusion-warheaded torpedoes as soon as they entered effective range. The Gethsamaine defence monitors were powerful ships designed for protracted operations, each with the firepower of a cruiser and the armour of?a battleship in their own right. Used primarily for planetary blockade and picquet, they were slow and lumbering compared to the sleek interstellar warships that confronted them. Their turbo laser and plasma-caster batteries threw up a blazing barrier of fire against which even the heavy salvos of the Havocs' torpedoes could not prevail, while the monitors' own dorsal lances pulsed frantically at the attacking destroyers through the web of fire.

這條戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)預(yù)兆在Gethsamaine世界最高指揮部引起了極大恐慌，巨口港和Lascal世界也被發(fā)送了緊急信息，但就在此時(shí)，現(xiàn)實(shí)宇宙的結(jié)構(gòu)被撕開裂口，獵捕者們從中現(xiàn)身；出現(xiàn)在此地的是四艘噴涂第507突擊中隊(duì)的藍(lán)灰與青銅配色的浩劫級(jí)重型驅(qū)逐艦，一支附屬于戰(zhàn)帥荷魯斯本人的艦隊(duì)——第63遠(yuǎn)征探索艦隊(duì)的帝國(guó)海軍編隊(duì)，還有就是跟在這群獵犬身后的獵首——噴涂著荷魯斯之子軍團(tuán)暗翠綠色的日蝕級(jí)戰(zhàn)斗巡洋艦“圣像”號(hào)。隨著叛軍們急速?zèng)_向星系防御監(jiān)測(cè)船，戰(zhàn)斗也很快開始；一經(jīng)進(jìn)入有效射程，叛軍驅(qū)逐艦們便循環(huán)齊射聚變彈頭魚雷。Gethsamaine星系的防御監(jiān)測(cè)船是設(shè)計(jì)用于拖延行動(dòng)的強(qiáng)悍飛船，每一艘都擁有巡洋艦級(jí)別的火力與戰(zhàn)列艦級(jí)別的裝甲。此類飛船主要被用于行星封鎖和警戒哨衛(wèi)任務(wù)，相比于面前線條流暢的星際戰(zhàn)艦，這些飛船緩慢而笨拙。它們的渦輪激光炮和電漿投射炮塔拋出了一道熾熱的炮火屏障，甚至浩劫級(jí)驅(qū)逐艦密集的魚雷齊射無法將其壓制住，同時(shí)監(jiān)測(cè)船背部的光矛也穿過火網(wǎng)向進(jìn)攻的驅(qū)逐艦瘋狂射擊。

Drawn close together to maximise their overlapping fields of fire, the monitors fell into the defensive tactics for which they were designed, while soon the vast distance between the Loyalist and Traitor ships shortened inexorably and the firestorm went on unabated between them. The duel waxed hot and between the relentless barrages of the destroyers'?torpedoes and the heat of the monitors'?cannonade, it was up to the fates which were to fail first. Then, at once, elation flashed across the Brazen Bull's command deck as one of the Traitor destroyers blazed suddenly out of existence as a lance strike found the Havoc's reactor. But triumph turned at once to horror and despair as a frantic message voxed through by the skeleton crew left on board the broken Malin Dawn cut through the static. They had seen what the monitors, blinded by the fury that they and their enemies were unleashing, had not; the Ikon, her massively powerful engines burning at over-thrust, had split from behind her destroyer screen and corkscrewing wide of them had overtaken the firefight and was about to attack from their flank.

兩艘監(jiān)測(cè)船共同接近敵艦以最大化他們的交疊火力（覆蓋）范圍，他們用出了自己被設(shè)計(jì)（使用）的防御戰(zhàn)術(shù)。不久后忠誠(chéng)派和叛軍飛船之間遙遠(yuǎn)的距離就不可避免地縮短了，雙方之間的激烈交火也繼續(xù)有增無減。戰(zhàn)斗愈演愈烈，驅(qū)逐艦魚雷齊射，監(jiān)測(cè)船釋放出熾熱的連續(xù)炮擊，哪一方先失敗將取決于命運(yùn)。之后，黃銅雄牛號(hào)的一發(fā)光矛擊中了某艘浩劫級(jí)的反應(yīng)堆，這艘驅(qū)逐艦猛烈燃燒起來，最終化為無物，監(jiān)測(cè)船的指揮甲板上立刻響起一片歡呼。但勝利立刻變成了恐懼和絕望，因?yàn)闅埰频碾U(xiǎn)惡黎明號(hào)上的已化為骷髏船員切斷靜電干擾，發(fā)出了一條瘋狂的音頻信息。他們看到了監(jiān)測(cè)船未能看到的東西，后者因自己與敵軍釋放出的怒火而目盲；是圣像號(hào)，她強(qiáng)大的引擎燃燒著過度推進(jìn)的尾焰，她從驅(qū)逐艦的后方脫離，并在兩方進(jìn)行交火時(shí)從遠(yuǎn)方進(jìn)行螺旋前進(jìn)，她現(xiàn)在將從監(jiān)測(cè)船側(cè)翼進(jìn)行攻擊。

Panic gripped the Brazen Bull's command as they attempted to answer this new threat, but the diversion of?fire did nothing but open a gap through which the latest torpedo volley streamed, striking her amidships just as the broadside macro-cannon batteries of the Ikon spoke and ripped the Brazen Bull open from stem to stern. With dismissive cruelty she flew on beyond the two monitors, loosing a wave of Dreadclaws in her wake. The remaining monitor Gaius Herab was bracketed and torn?by the concentrated final volley of the Havocs' torpedoes as they too sped on by the wounded defender. Swiftly after, the attacking wave of Dreadclaws slammed home into the stricken defence ships, and the cargo of Sons of Horus they carried —once the proudest warriors of humanity— tore into the crew within, who in turn sold their lives with desperate futility.

恐慌攫住了黃銅雄牛號(hào)的指揮層，他們?cè)噲D應(yīng)對(duì)這一新的威脅，但炮火的轉(zhuǎn)移只是導(dǎo)致了一個(gè)（火力）缺口的出現(xiàn)，最后一批齊射的魚雷由此進(jìn)入，正中了船體中部；同時(shí)圣像號(hào)側(cè)舷宏炮炮塔開火，把黃銅雄牛號(hào)從頭到尾撕開。她帶著輕蔑的殘忍飛離了兩艘監(jiān)測(cè)船，并在身后丟出一波恐懼爪。剩余的監(jiān)測(cè)船“蓋烏斯 赫拉波”號(hào)也被包圍，浩劫級(jí)驅(qū)逐艦也從受傷的防御監(jiān)測(cè)船身邊急馳而過，當(dāng)受傷的防御監(jiān)測(cè)船從她們身邊急馳而過時(shí)，驅(qū)逐艦發(fā)射出的最后一波密集的魚雷齊射也將其撕開。緊接著，進(jìn)攻的恐懼爪們猛沖向受損的防御監(jiān)測(cè)船，刺入船身；這些跳幫艇中運(yùn)載的是荷魯斯之子軍團(tuán)戰(zhàn)士，這些人類曾經(jīng)最高傲的戰(zhàn)士沖入船艙，船員們?cè)诮^望中被撕碎。

Shorn of its most powerful defenders, Gethsamaine's system lay open before the Traitor Hunter squadron, and again the skeleton crew aboard the powerless Malin Dawn were forced to watch helplessly as one after another gun-stations and watch posts were out-ranged and out-manoeuvred and destroyed without mercy. Without the monitors to shield them, Gethsamaine's few static defences were isolated and blasted into flaming debris, just as the screams and pleas for help on the still-open vox channels from the Gaius Herab grew fainter and fewer.

在被奪去了最有力的防御者后，Gethsamaine星系在叛軍的獵殺中隊(duì)面前洞門大開。星系內(nèi)的炮塔和監(jiān)測(cè)站的武器射程與機(jī)動(dòng)性都遜于叛軍飛船，它們被一個(gè)接一個(gè)地?zé)o情摧毀，而險(xiǎn)惡黎明號(hào)上化為白骨的船員們被迫再次無助地目睹眼前的慘象。失去了監(jiān)測(cè)船為它們抵擋進(jìn)攻，Gethsamaine星系中的少量靜態(tài)防御設(shè)施被孤立并炸為燃燒的碎片，同時(shí)蓋烏斯 赫拉波號(hào)（的船員們）在仍舊公開的音頻頻道上發(fā)出的尖叫聲和呼救聲也越來越微弱。

Hours later, the Dreadclaws finally detached from their prey and flew to rendezvous with their mother ship, by which time both the Gaius Herab and the Brazen Bull were little more than blood-splattered charnel houses of rent metal, venting air into the void, and the system's astropathic relay station was nothing more than a dissipating cloud of vapour. Gethsamaine Colonus, the major inhabited world of the system, its planetary weapons primed for an attack which never came, had itself been spared, but as the Ikon departed for the Warp, she left a chilling message behind her. It was a message which with variation in word, but not intent, would be repeated shortly across the Cyclops Cluster and in a hundred star systems in the years to come, a dark ultimatum which promised a future only of despair and destruction.

幾個(gè)小時(shí)之后，恐懼爪們最終從自己的獵物身上離開，并再次飛回到母艦中進(jìn)行匯合。此刻，蓋烏斯 赫拉波號(hào)和黃銅雄牛號(hào)都只化為了由破裂的金屬所組成的血腥停尸房，其中的空氣也在噴泄到虛空中；星系中的星語中繼站也變成了一團(tuán)消散中的蒸汽云。Gethsamaine星系中的定居主星——Gethsamaine Colonus的行星武器已經(jīng)準(zhǔn)備好迎接一場(chǎng)從攻擊，但叛軍艦隊(duì)并未發(fā)動(dòng)攻勢(shì)，它們放過了這個(gè)世界，但當(dāng)進(jìn)入亞空間離開此地時(shí)，圣像號(hào)留下了一條令人不寒而栗的信息。這條信息很快就會(huì)在獨(dú)眼巨人星群各處被重復(fù)，并在之后的幾年中被傳達(dá)給一百個(gè)恒星系。信息的文字（措辭）各式各樣，但意圖始終不變，這份黑暗的最后通牒預(yù)示著未來只有絕望與毀滅。

“Bow before Him who is the Warmaster,

abase yourselves before His truth.

Serve those who serve Him,

harken only to their words.

The Imperium is His. Mankind is His.

You are His.

Submit to the Warmaster, or die by His hand.

There is no other choice, and you will be given the chance to kneel but once.

Horus is Lord. Horus is Death."

“爾等當(dāng)向戰(zhàn)帥屈服致敬，汝輩在他的真理面前卑若螻蟻。

侍奉戰(zhàn)帥的忠仆們，聆聽他們的訓(xùn)誡。

帝國(guó)屬于他，人類屬于他，汝輩是他的奴仆。

汝等臣服于戰(zhàn)帥，否則便死于戰(zhàn)帥之手。

汝等別無選擇，戰(zhàn)帥會(huì)賜予你們下跪求饒的機(jī)會(huì)，但只有一次。

荷魯斯是尊主，荷魯斯是死亡?！?/p>

The Reign of Fear

恐懼的統(tǒng)治

The destruction of the Gethsamaine astropathic relay, vital in a system often troubled by turbulence in the Warp, prevented the swift dispersal of the news of the sudden attack by the Traitors, but the seeds of fear had already been sown. By the time the Imperialis Armada was properly alerted to the incident, there was no chance of forming a pursuit force to track down the Hunters, and it was only then as alerts were raised to forewarn the worlds of the cluster about these marauders, that it was discovered that a score of distant frontier outposts could not be raised. Soon after, ships and freight convoys passing through the northern stars of the Cyclops Cluster towards the Grail Abyss began to be declared first overdue and then lost. Within a dozen sidereal months standard, the dark rumours about the attack at Gethsamaine and the words the Sons of Horus had delivered —compounded and amplified many times in the telling— had passed through the void-borne, the trade ships and the patrolling Imperialis Armada, spreading like a contagion.

在一個(gè)經(jīng)常受困于亞空間亂流的星系中，星語中繼站極其重要。Gethsamaine中繼站的毀滅使叛軍發(fā)動(dòng)突襲的消息無法被快速傳遞。當(dāng)?shù)蹏?guó)艦隊(duì)實(shí)際收到關(guān)于這一事件的警報(bào)時(shí)，它們已經(jīng)沒有機(jī)會(huì)組建一支追擊部隊(duì)來追捕獵殺中隊(duì)了，而直到向星群中的各個(gè)世界發(fā)送關(guān)于此類掠襲的警報(bào)時(shí)，人們才發(fā)現(xiàn)有十?dāng)?shù)個(gè)遙遠(yuǎn)的邊境哨站無法收到信息。不久之后，穿越獨(dú)眼巨人星群北部區(qū)域前往圣杯深淵的飛船和貨運(yùn)艦先是被宣布晚點(diǎn)，繼而被宣布失蹤。在十二個(gè)（泰拉）恒星月標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的時(shí)間之內(nèi)，關(guān)于Gethsamaine星系遭受的進(jìn)攻與荷魯斯之子留言的黑暗謠言便在虛空族裔、貿(mào)易飛船和巡邏的帝國(guó)艦隊(duì)中傳遞開來——而且內(nèi)容在口口相傳的過程中被夸大了很多倍，流言如同傳染病般傳播開來。

The Eve of the War

戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)前夜

The Cyclops Cluster was now raised to arms, and the auspexes and astrotelepathic auguries of a hundred worlds began to reach outwards in fear and keen vigilance. Reports were channelled through to the centralised Imperialis Armada commands at Lascal and Dominica Minor to be sifted and organised in the hope of divining a pattern and planning a defence. Only now did the extent of the silent intrusion become clear. At Taracanis, the ikon had once again appeared and delivered her bleak message, but only after blasting a docking station from orbit, the wreckage costing thirteen thousand lives as it fell to earth. At Shear, long range detectors had observed a savage void battle between a score of Capital class warships, which lit up the occularis screens of the savant-surveyors of the Imperial Legation's bastion for more than nine hours with their dread fires, before disappearing again unknown and unidentified into the deep night. Black-hulled ships were sighted over Dark Haven, while at the edge of the Zavarich system, a hulking Dolmar class mass conveyor carrying processed nutrients enough to feed millions simply disappeared without trace on its way to its assigned Warp transit point. As news of the events spread, an insurrectionist revolt flared up on Moab, the mob chanting the Warmasters name, only to be bloodily put down in a five week pacification pogrom and the instigation of planet-wide martial law.

獨(dú)眼巨人星群現(xiàn)在開始全副武裝起來，一百個(gè)世界的鳥卜儀和星語占卜儀開始帶著恐懼和敏銳的警惕向外伸展探測(cè)。報(bào)告被傳送給了位于Lascal和Dominica Minor上的帝國(guó)艦隊(duì)中央指揮部，其內(nèi)容被篩選和組織，希望能以此來預(yù)測(cè)出（叛軍行動(dòng)）模式并計(jì)劃防御措施。直到現(xiàn)在，這次無聲入侵的（嚴(yán)重）程度才變得清晰起來。在Taracanis世界，圣像號(hào)再次出現(xiàn)并發(fā)送了那條陰森的信息，但在此之前，它炸毀軌道上的一座對(duì)接站，殘骸墜落到星球地表，殺死了一萬三千人。在Shear世界，遠(yuǎn)程探測(cè)器觀察到二十艘主力級(jí)戰(zhàn)艦之間的一場(chǎng)野蠻虛空戰(zhàn)斗，他們恐怖的火光照亮了帝國(guó)使節(jié)堡壘的神秘屏障護(hù)盾，持續(xù)時(shí)間超過了九個(gè)小時(shí)；之后，這些不為人知也未能被辨別出的飛船再次消失在了夜空深處?！昂诎堤焯谩笔澜缟峡毡豢吹搅撕谏娘w船，同時(shí)在Zavarich星系邊境，一艘多瑪爾級(jí)大型貨運(yùn)艦在前往被指定的亞空間中轉(zhuǎn)點(diǎn)時(shí)消失得無影無蹤——船上運(yùn)輸?shù)募庸I(yíng)養(yǎng)物足夠供養(yǎng)數(shù)百萬人。隨著關(guān)于這些事件的信息傳播開來，Moab世界上也爆發(fā)了反抗暴動(dòng)，在為期五周的鎮(zhèn)壓行動(dòng)與全球范圍軍事戒嚴(yán)狀態(tài)的刺激下，星球當(dāng)局血腥進(jìn)攻了那些高呼戰(zhàn)帥之名的暴民們。

It was to this fever of rumour and baleful repon that confirmed word of the Dropsite Massacre came at last and overdue, like a death blow to a wounded man. Panic erupted amid the ruling classes of a score of threatened worlds in the Cyclops Cluster, factionalism long simmering came to the fore, and worlds long used to operating largely independently from each other became isolationist and insular, distrusting their own neighbours and withdrawing troops and ships from their tithe to the Imperialis Armada's overall plan of defence. Almost unheeded, other stranger reports came to the attention of some Imperial Commanders and authorities, but in a rising climate of distrust and paranoia were either ignored or simply not shared onwards: reports of a deadly race between Loyalist and Traitor for the sanctuary of the underground hives of distant Keopsis before the solar fires of its angry sun scorched its surface in its endless cycle of life and death. Of a great dragon-prowed battle barge, perhaps once emerald and gold, now blasted nearly cinder-black, taking on supplies at a feral world near Fellwatch Keep, but departing before interceptor vessels could draw close. Of the most direly portentous report —that of a deadly plague erupting on Hialis within hours of an unknown comet appearing in the heavens of the recently contacted feudal world— was nothing inferred or was anyone forewarned. Everywhere, crackdowns against unrest were brutally enforced, trade links grew thin, emergency laws were enacted, workers were conscripted to militias, industry began to grind slow, and everywhere rumour and fear began to overtake the dream of unity. The Cyclops Cluster as a coherent structure within the Imperium began slowly to unravel.

就在謠言與惡毒評(píng)論四起的狀況下，關(guān)于登陸點(diǎn)大屠殺的確切消息才最終姍姍來遲，如同向一個(gè)受傷的人發(fā)出了致命一擊。獨(dú)眼巨人星群中數(shù)十個(gè)遭受威脅的世界的統(tǒng)治階層都陷入了恐慌，長(zhǎng)期醞釀的派系主義走到前臺(tái)，長(zhǎng)期以來相互獨(dú)立運(yùn)作的世界們變得孤立保守，他們不再信任自己的鄰居，并從用于帝國(guó)艦隊(duì)整體防御計(jì)劃的什一稅中撤回了艦船和部隊(duì)。幾乎沒有人注意到，其他一些奇怪的報(bào)告引起了某些帝國(guó)指揮官和當(dāng)局的注意，但在不信任和偏執(zhí)的氛圍不斷加劇的情況下，這些信息要么被忽視，要么干脆未被分享:在遙遠(yuǎn)的Keopsis世界上，忠誠(chéng)派和叛軍們?yōu)闋?zhēng)奪地下巢都的避難所而展開了致命的爭(zhēng)斗，之后他們頭頂上暴怒的太陽釋放出了恒星（耀斑）火焰，在無休止的生死輪回中烤焦了星球地表；一艘巨大的龍首（樣式）戰(zhàn)列母艦在Fellwatch要塞附近的荒蠻世界上獲取了補(bǔ)給——它曾經(jīng)或許噴涂著翡翠綠色和金色，但現(xiàn)在幾乎被炸成了煤渣黑色，但在截?fù)襞灤軌蚪咏埃銊?dòng)身離開了。其中最恐怖的一份預(yù)示性報(bào)告是：一顆彗星出現(xiàn)在了最近與帝國(guó)接觸過的封建世界Hialis 的天空中，數(shù)小時(shí)后該世界上爆發(fā)了一場(chǎng)致命瘟疫——此事未得到暗示，也沒有任何人得到事先警告。各地都?xì)埧岬劓?zhèn)壓騷亂，貿(mào)易聯(lián)系變得稀少，緊急狀態(tài)法案也被頒布，工人們征募為民兵，工業(yè)生產(chǎn)開始減緩，謠言和恐懼開始在各處取代統(tǒng)一的夢(mèng)想。作為帝國(guó)內(nèi)部一個(gè)有凝聚力的結(jié)構(gòu)體，獨(dú)眼巨人星群開始慢慢瓦解了。

And so the name of Horus, once almost a talisman in itself of protection for the common man and woman, was now a byword for a terror that dare not be named.

荷魯斯，這個(gè)名字曾經(jīng)幾乎是護(hù)佑普通人類的護(hù)身符，現(xiàn)在則是一種無人膽敢說出其名諱的恐懼的代名詞。