HH6节译：Xana入侵行动（1）

The Edge of Empire

帝国的边境

By the year 009.M31, the entire galaxy was riven by the horror of civil war. The fire that had been ignited at Isstvan had spread to consume worlds without number, while the blight of the Ruinstorm continued to howl, throwing all long-range communications awry, and warp travel over any great distance became dangerous and unpredictable at best, and all but impossible at its worst. Despite these difficulties, the war only grew more intense as thrust and counter-thrust between Loyalist and Traitor did little but create ever-greater swells of destruction and carnage without pressing either side on to ultimate victory. The galaxy burned.

当时间来到009.M31，整个银河都被内战造成的恐怖所撕裂。于伊斯特万星系被点燃的战火扩散开来，吞噬了无数世界，同时毁灭风暴也仍在继续咆哮，所有长距离通讯都偏离扭曲，至于任何跨越遥远距离的亚空间航行，最好的情况是变得危险且不可预测，最坏的情况则是变得完全不可能。尽管面临这些困难，叛军和忠诚派之间的（相互）猛攻和反击还是造成越来越严重的破坏和屠杀，但没有任何一方取得最终胜利，战争也只是随之而变得愈发激烈。银河在燃烧。

In this far-spanning conflict however, not every world had chosen a side；or for that matter had such a decision been thrust upon them, either through expediency or violence. There were many worlds that through quirk of galactic geography or simple lack of strategic consequence had been spared direct conflict, while others had gone so far as to secede themselves entirely from the fighting, preferring independence or professed neutrality.Some worlds and domains however had simply done little to evidence loyalty or opposition to either cause, and into this last camp the powerful and isolated Forge World of Xana had fallen.

但在这场囊括了大量区域的冲突中，并非所有世界都选边站队；或者它们并未因暴力胁迫或出于权宜之计而做出这种决定。由于处在银河系中地理环境怪异区域或仅仅是缺乏战略重要性，很多世界都逃过了直接冲突，其他世界甚至完全退出了战斗，倾向于追求独立或自称中立。但某些世界和区域几乎没有采取任何动作来表明自己对交战双方的支持或反对，强大且孤立的铸造世界Xana就属于这最后一个阵营。

Occidentem Thule

极西之地

The Forge World of Xana was a potent and storied example of its kind, an Ultima- II grade faculty rated as one of the most capable Forge Worlds of the Imperium, and unmatched in its region of the galaxy. It comprised a main planetary sphere, Xana II, with a number of inhabited moons and extensive mobile sub-faculties in the form of void and gas mining installations scattered throughout the debris belts and turbulent atmosphere of the macro-magnitude gas giant, Xana I, around which the Forge World orbited. Its position was on the very far tip of the galactic arm of the western fringe, granting it the title on the star charts of the Carta Imperialis as 'Occidentem Thule'—the last great port on the edge of the inter-galactic abyss. To the crews of the Imperial fleet whose long range patrols used Xana as their furthest outpost of reach, it bore another more evocative name, “the Port of Bones”一 a reference of uncertain origin, but perhaps developed from the ossuary-white and grey-black livery of its ruling magos.

Xana是最为强大和传奇的铸造世界之一，它极限—2级的等级表明其是帝国中最具生产力的铸造世界之一。该铸造世界包括一颗主行星——Xana II、多颗有人居住的卫星以及大量移动的次级设施——其主要是散落在碎片环带和气体巨星Xana I激烈涌动的大气层中的虚空矿站和气矿采集装置，它们都围绕在铸造世界的轨道上。该地区处在帝国的西侧边境，位于银河悬臂极其遥远的末端，此处在帝国宪章的星际海图中被称为“极西之地”——银河系间深渊边缘处的最后一个大型港口。在那些将Xana用作离自身最近的边境哨站的帝国远距离巡逻舰队中，船员们用某个更能唤起人们记忆的名字称呼这颗铸造世界——“白骨港”。这个名称的起源已无法确定，但或许是根据统治Xana的贤者们所穿着的骨白和灰黑两色制服而来。

Long the subject of sinister rumour around its finding and inclusion into the Imperium during one of the darkest episodes of the Great Crusade's early history, Xana's masters were notoriously independent and politically long-estranged from Mars. Xana's privilege was bought largely with the vast outpourings of its forges to fuel and arm the ongoing Great Crusade, and expediency was the mother of the pact which bought the Forge World into the Imperium by negotiation with the emissaries of the Emperor, rather than the full auspices of Mars. While the forges of distant Xana issued forth provender and munitions in vast quantities, it was largely left alone.

长期以来，都有大量关于Xana世界的险恶谣言，其主题是该铸造世界的发现（过程）及其在大远征早期历史中最黑暗的时间段被纳入帝国这件事。Xana的主宰者们也是出了名的独立自主，而且在政治上与火星长期不和。Xana的特权是通过其铸炉的大量产出换来的——这些铸炉为进行中的大远征提供着武器和燃料。作为权宜之计，Xana加入帝国是通过与帝皇的特使们进行谈判，而且接受火星的赞助支援。同时Xana的铸炉还对外大量输送军粮和弹药，所以这个遥远的铸造世界在很大程度上独立着。

Isolation and Evasion

孤立和逃避

As the Horus Heresy suddenly and bloodily unfolded, Xana's isolation only increased and it was a situation its ruling synod of magos, known as the Vodian Consistory, did little to attempt to outwardly alleviate, choosing initially neither faction to favour, avowing, at least publicly, that the matter was an 'internal matter of the Great Crusade's military’ in which they had no direct involvement. Even before the coming of the Ruinstorm, scheduled freight convoys from Xana to ports both Loyalist and Traitor in allegiance had dwindled in frequency and were finally suspended altogether. This was despite Rogue Trader vessels, Chartist Voyagers and other far flung agencies reporting that the system appeared relatively accessible via the Empyrean, as far as it was from the fury of the great storm fronts of the Warp which had riven the galaxy's core. Repeated requests, impeachments, demands and even threats from Terra and the Warmaster were both met with the same chill response of stated regret and blank courtesy. Such regrets, conveyed this time through a courier warp-probe that forced its way to the Terran security fleet cordon two years after it had been launched in 006.M31, were cold comfort alongside its report of the complete loss through empyreal storm of an entire macro-ark convoy and its naval escort squadron out of Olmec almost within sight of Xana. It became later known to Loyalist sources via captured logs that similar condolences had been proffered in the following year to the Warmaster for a Traitor-oathed Rogue Trader fleet lost trying to reach Xana in distinctly similar circumstances.

随着荷鲁斯叛乱突然且血腥地展开，Xana的孤立只是愈发增强，对于此刻的局势，统治该铸造世界的贤者议会——监铸教廷基本没有试图在表面上减轻战祸，他们最初的选择是两派都不支持；他们至少公开宣称，这场战争是“大远征军事力量间的内部事务”，与Xana没有直接关系。哪怕在毁灭风暴到来之前，定期货运飞船从Xana驶往忠诚派和叛军双方港口的频率就已经降低了，最后则是完全停止。尽管行商浪人、星图绘制航行者和其他遥远的机构部门都报告称：通过至高天（航道）抵达Xana星系是相对可行的，这片区域遥远到避开了那股撕裂银河核心的狂怒亚空间风暴，但对于来自泰拉和战帅两方的多次请求、控告、要求甚至是威胁，Xana都做出了同样的冷漠回应：表示遗憾，并且致以冷淡的客套。Xana在006.M31发射了一台亚空间探测器作为信使，该仪器于两年后强行抵达了泰拉安保舰队的警戒线内；信使探测器中的文件是冷淡的安慰辞令，同时文件中还附带了一份报告：在至高天的风暴当中，一整支巨型方舟舰队和它们的海军护航中队完全消失在了Olmec区域——此地几乎就在Xana的监视范围之内。而通过之后捕获到的日志信息，忠诚派们得知：在接下来的一年中，Xana也向战帅表示了类似的吊唁——某支宣誓效忠于叛军的行商浪人舰队在试图接近Xana的过程中也遭遇到了类似情况。

Whether either side fully believed the explanations given for their lost fleets remains something of a moot point, as suspicions dawned that Xana was on no side in the conflict other than its own and was perhaps no longer content to merely sit aside from the conflict until a clear victor emerged. Evidence for this stance presented itself to the intellencers of both major factions when in late 008.M30,attackers tentatively identified as being Xana-allied Taghmata forces struck the contested mining world of Guilders Grave on the edge of the Vicidax Sector, driving off the Traitor-aligned naval blockade before going on to Massacre the Loyalist militia defenders and looting the surviving planetary vaults of rare metallic elements and macro-mining engines before departing again, leaving little more than ruin in their wake.

至于参战双方是否完全相信Xana对其舰队损失所做出的解释，这仍是一个有待商榷的问题；但人们开始怀疑Xana在这场冲突中只是在考虑自身利益，它不支持忠诚派或叛军中的任何一方，而且这个铸造世界或许也不再满足于在这场战争中袖手旁观，坐等某个明确获胜方的出现。两大阵营的情报人员也都获取到了表明Xana立场的证据：在008.M30末期，一群暂时被确认为Xana盟友的机神禁卫军的袭击者攻击了位于Vicidax星区边境处的采矿世界Guilders Grave——当时交战双方正在争夺该世界，它们先是击退了与叛军结盟的海军封锁舰队，之后又继续屠杀了忠诚派民兵守军，并在离开前劫掠了该星球幸存的仓库中存储着的稀有金属和巨型采矿引擎，只在自己身后留下一堆废墟。

As the war went on with no clear avenue of victory in sight, both sides now looked to the increasingly bellicose and active Forge World of Xana with renewed interest. Spies and probe ships sent to skirt the edge of the system revealed clearly that dozens of macrotransports and freighters were now partially concealed in the rocky debris belt which ringed the gas giant of Xana I, and between them and the Forge World of Xana II was a constant traffic of cargo loaders and freight lighters. The conclusion drawn from this was that in their years of isolation since the war's outbreak, the forges of Xana had not been idle and evidence began to amass that a vast and well-guarded stockpile of munitions and war machines had been built up in the system, and readied as if for shipment to a client, but to what end or to whom remained unclear.

战争仍在持续，而双方都看不到取胜的明确途径，于是他们都带着重新产生的兴趣看向了日益好战且活跃的铸造世界Xana。被派往星系边缘的间谍和侦测舰清楚地发现：环绕着气体巨星Xana I的岩质碎片环带中部分隐藏着数十艘巨型运输舰和货船，货运船和运输驳船不断在铸造世界Xana II和这些飞船间来回往返。人们由此得出结论：在战争爆发之后的数年孤立时期中，Xana的铸炉并未被闲置，而且越来越多的证据表明，该星系中储备了大量受到严密保护的弹药和战争机器；这些货物已经整装待发，似乎是要运送给客户，但客户是谁、他们购买这些货物有什么目的，人们不得而知。

Upon learning of this development and mindful of the fate of Guilders Grave, Rogal Dorn, Praetorian of Terra, issued a communique to Xana via warp-courier vessel, an open proclamation declaring the Forge World of Xana Traitoris Perdita and under sentence of death. At the same time, a more covert Loyalist offer was made via intermediaries of the Sigillite for the remission of this sentence in return for its renewed absolute allegiance and the deliverance of its stockpiles of war materiel immediately to the Loyalist build-up in the Segmentum Solar.

一经了解到这种进展状况并得知了Guilders Grave的命运,泰拉禁卫官——罗格 多恩便通过一艘亚空间信使船向Xana发布了一份公报，这份公告宣布铸造世界Xana犯有叛国罪，并宣布对其处以死刑。但就在同时，某个更为隐秘的忠诚派人士提议通过掌印者的中间人来赦免Xana的刑罚，以此换取该铸造世界对于泰拉重新的绝对效忠，并令其将自身储存的战争物资立即交付给集结在太阳星域的忠诚派部队。

The Warmaster, however, was to offer a more subtle and honeyed bargain.

然而战帅将会提供一份更为微妙且令其喜悦的交易。

The Feathered Messenger

披羽的信使

The first ambassador sent by Horus to Xana after Dorn's judgement was an unexpected one. Assessing perhaps correctly that an overt show of empty force would avail him nothing at this time and that a Priest of Mars would be even less welcome on Xana than one of his warlords, Horus had instead sent one of the lodge priests of Davin. Identified by Loyalist agents as one 'Unvacar Noon', an individual bedecked in strange feathered raiment and the bones of the dead, he offered the Lords of Xana more than threats and intimidation; on behalf of his master, he offered power.

在多恩的判决下达之后，荷鲁斯派出的第一位特使是个未曾意料的人物。荷鲁斯做出了或许正确的判断，他认为在此刻公开展示武力对自己无益，自己麾下的一位战将也比火星的牧师们更受Xana的欢迎，于是战帅派出了自己麾下的某位达文结社牧师。忠诚派特工将此人确认为“满阳正午”，他穿着用奇怪羽毛做成的衣物，佩戴着死者的骨头。这位特使向Xana领主们提供的不仅是威胁和恐吓；他还代表自己的主人提供了权力。

Much as with Sarum and Cyclothrathe, other 'renegade' Forge Worlds distrustful of Mars that the Warmaster had enticed into his cause with the lure of petty empire building and freedom of experimentation, he offered a new treaty of alliance whose accords Xana's ruling Vodian Consistory would find more to their liking than the old. By this new pact Xana would serve his 'new Imperium' just as it had the old, but where they had been used and bled dry callously in the past by a master who cared nothing for their power or prosperity, under Horus they would flourish and be rewarded.

与Sarum和Cyclothrathe极其类似，战帅用建立小型帝国（的许可）和自由实验引诱那些不信任火星的“变节”铸造世界加入自己的派系，他提出了一份新的联盟条约，而统治Xana的监铸教廷会发现该份新条约将比旧的那份更合他们的意。根据这份协议，Xana将会如同曾经侍奉旧主人那样侍奉“新帝国”；但在过去，Xana只是被一个毫不关心其权力和繁荣的主人无情地利用和榨干，而在荷鲁斯统治下的新帝国，它将会茁壮成长并得到奖赏。

Gone would be the petty restrictions of the Emperor's technological edicts —blocks put in place to avert the spectre of the terrors of Old Night— and gone would be the dead hand of Machine Cult dogma一if they so desired, so long as they offered up their weapons and war machines to the Traitors' cause with abundance. The details would prove more torturous and elaborate to finalise, but in secret an agreement was reached, even while in false faith the Lords of Xana continued to equally secretly deal with Malcador's emissaries to the contrary. So the Archmagos of the Vodian Consistory sought to play one side against the other, right to the bitter end.

帝皇对于技术法令颁布的琐碎限制将不复存在——设置这些障碍是为了让人类避开旧夜时代那些可怕的幽灵，而且这些限制的撤销也将摧毁机械教派的教条——只要那些变节铸造世界们愿意为叛军提供大量的武器和战争机器。最终敲定这些细节将会是一项更为艰难其复杂的工作，但就在Xana的领主们虚伪地继续与马卡多的特使们进行密谈的同时，他们就已经在背地里（与战帅）达成了协议。所以监铸教廷的大贤者们试图加入一方来对抗另一方，直到迎来痛苦的结局。

Flashpoint

一触即发

By the closing divisions of 009.M31, the bargain between Xana and the Warmaster's proxies was in its final stages of conclusion. It was, in the ancient manner, to be sealed with an exchange of gifts. Though the transfer of billions of tonnes of arms and armour would be part of Xana's fealty to Horus, these first gifts the Vodian Consistory would present would be unique and incomparable. They would be worthy of one who meant to be master of the galaxy entire; Xana would gift Horus with the power of Ordinatus.

等到009.M31年末，Xana和战帅代理人之间的交易已经到了最后的签订阶段。按照古老的方式，双方的会谈将以交换礼物作结。尽管提供数十亿吨武器和装甲载具是Xana对荷鲁斯效忠的一部分，但监铸教廷送给战帅的第一批礼物将是独一无二且无与伦比的。这些礼物配得上一位意图成为整个银河主宰的人物；Xana要把将军炮的力量献给荷鲁斯。

Ulator

乌拉托

The Ordinatus classification held the most powerful and arcane mobile weapons platforms in the Mechanicum's arsenal. They were city-burners and fortress breakers without compare, and whether armed with magna-beam lance, matter-cyclone or rad-conflagrator, each was mounted on huge tracked reactor units for mobility and heavily shielded from attack, allowing them to traverse and survive on the most hellish battlefield. Each was a work of deadly artifice and ancient power. Much like the Titans whose firepower they often outstripped, the Ordinatus varied in scale and potency; From the truly colossal, unique and unreplicable relics of the Dark Age of Technology, the Ordinatus Primaris, such as the Mars and Endymion whose power was legendary, even compared to the god machines of the great Legio Titanicus, to the lesser but still gargantuan and deadly Ordinatus Minoris sub-classes. The Minoris were, at the height of the Great Crusade, within the reach of only the most potent Forge Worlds to construct, and only then in the most limited numbers. Such were the gifts that Xana offered; no less than three such terrifying weapons of the Ordinatus Ulator pattern, fully battle ready and armed with devastating sonic destructor weapons. These were Titankillers, slaughterers of armies, each powerful enough to turn the tide of a battle at a stroke, and in potency far beyond any super-heavy tank and dwarfing the firepower of even the mighty Diamatine siege-guns that had fallen into the grasp of the Iron Warriors earlier in the Horus Heresy.

将军炮是机械神教武库中最为强悍且玄奥的移动武器平台。它们是无可比拟的城市焚灭者和要塞突破者，而且无论其装备的武器是巨型光矛、旋风炸弹或辐射焚烧炮，每台将军炮都是安装在巨大的反应堆供能履带牵引机上，以此来获得机动性和强大的进攻防御力，这允许它们穿越最为地狱般险恶的战场并幸存下来。每台将军炮都是由致命的技艺和古老的力量所构成的杰作。将军炮的火力通常都超越了泰坦，但与泰坦颇为类似的一点是，它们的规模和威力也各不相同；从极其庞大、独一无二且不可替代的黑暗科技时代遗物——诸如火星型和安迪密恩型之类拥有甚至能比拟泰坦修会神之机械的大将军炮，到虽然（相对）较小但仍然巨大且致命的次级型号——小将军炮，都包含在内。在大远征的高潮时期，只有那些最强大的铸造世界才能建造出小将军炮，而且只能按最有限的数量进行建造。这就是Xana提供的礼物;至少三门此类可怕的乌拉托将军炮类型武器，完全做好了战斗准备，装备有毁灭性的声波毁灭武器。这些武器是泰坦杀手和军队屠杀者，每一台都强大到能一击改变战争走向，其威力远超任何超重型坦克，甚至能令强大的迪亚马丁级攻城炮的火力相形见绌——这种武器早在荷鲁斯叛乱时期便被钢铁勇士军团所掌握。

These Ordinatus, named Mithrax, Nepothax and Ashurax after Ancient Terran deities long dead of worship, were first to be demonstrated before the Warmaster's chosen emissary at the Forge World's own proving grounds on the moon of Xana-Tisiphone, then afterwards, their ceremonial handover would act as a symbolic sealing of Xana's loyalty to Horus. That this trio of mighty weapons would be given over to Horus himself to dispose of as he saw fit was both a potent asset to gift the Warmaster with, and also it might be seen as a coded barb thrust in the side of the Traitor Mechanicum Fabricator-general Kelbor Hal, who though he sat high in Horus' cause, had never himself made such a direct gift, keeping those few Ordinatus he and his satraps had at their disposal firmly under Mechanicum control. By this act Xana's lords sought perhaps to set the groundwork to become Mars' rivals in the Traitors' cause, not simply a subordinate Mechanicum force.

这些将军炮的名称取材自长期失传的古代泰拉宗教中的神明们：米萨拉克斯、涅博萨克斯和阿苏拉克斯。这批礼物首先要在战帅选定的特使面前进行展示，地点就定在铸造世界自身位于Xana-Tisiphone卫星上的试验场，之后双方将进行交接仪式，以此象征Xana对于荷鲁斯的效忠。这三台强大的武器将由荷鲁斯本人用于他认为合适的场合，它们既是Xana赠予战帅的强悍战争资产，也可能会被视为插在叛变的机械神教铸造将军凯尔博 哈尔身边的暗刺——虽然后者在荷鲁斯派系中地位崇高，但他本人却从未如此直接地赠予过战帅礼物，而是将他和他手下高官们手中的极少数将军炮坚决地置于机械神教的控制下。通过这一举动，Xana的领主们或许能奠定自己在叛军派系中与火星分庭抗礼的基础，而非仅仅成为一支从属的机械神教势力。

The Emissary of the Uncrowned King 

无冕之王的特使

The hand of the Warmaster in the final matter of the alliance with Xana was to be no priest of Davin alone, but one of his own warlords, one of his own blood; Raxhal Koraddon—a chieftain of the Reavers raised to captaincy for his bloody endeavours during the scouring of the Sons of Horus Legion of its Loyalists on the ash-strewn ruins of Isstvan III.

最终将会来与Xana进行缔结盟约仪式的战帅使者不仅有达文牧师，还会有荷鲁斯麾下的某位战将——也是原体的某位血亲子嗣；这名星际战士名为拉萨尔 科拉顿，在荷鲁斯之子军团于伊斯特万三号遍布灰烬的废墟中清洗自己内部忠诚派的过程中，这位劫掠者首领被拔擢为了连长。

Koraddon had in the years of war that followed Isstvan III gained a fierce reputation, first during the Dropsite Massacre and later in leading a score of Dark Compliance actions for his Primarch across the northern reaches of the Segmentum Obscurus. Koraddon's ruthless and prideful reputation preceded him, as did knowledge that he was looked upon with favour by Horus, making him an honoured, if threatening choice to serve as the Warmaster's emissary in the matter. The vessel which bore him to the Xana System was no less a display of power; the Geryon class Grand Cruiser Cicatrice Tyrannis, taken as a prize by the Traitors during the Battle of Port Maw earlier in the war, her once white and golden hull now scorched black and pitted by the fires of untold void battles since her fall from grace. With the Cicatrice came an escorting squadron of eight frigates of various types and four Isos class fleet tenders. These latter vessels were small, armed, warp-capable transport ships designed to ferry vital supplies to warships in frontline service, but who bore now a far stranger and more macabre cargo; the Warmaster's gift to the Lords of Xana. Carried within these ships were hundreds of locked and armoured cargo pods, within which travelled the wreckage of Isstvan, of Momed and of Autosarat, and unknown other battlefields where the Sons of Horus had met their brother Legiones Astartes in blood and triumphed. The legacy of the dead was to be the Warmaster's gift to Xana.

在伊斯特万三号暴行之后数年的战争中，科拉顿获得了凶恶的名声，他先是参与了登陆点大屠杀，之后又在朦胧星域北部边境各处为自己的原体领导了十数场黑暗归顺行动。科拉顿无情且傲慢的名声先于他到达了，正如他知道自己受到荷鲁斯的青睐那样，让他在这件事中担任荷鲁斯的特使是一个荣耀而非带有威胁性的选择。载着他前往Xana星系的飞船同样是战帅力量的展示；这艘名为“创痕暴君”的巨人级超大型巡洋舰是叛军们在这场战争早期的巨口港之战中夺取的战利品，它曾经白金两色的船体现在被烧得焦黑，而自从落入敌手后所经历的难以形容的虚空战火也令其表面变得坑坑洼洼。陪同创痕暴君号前来的是由八艘各式型号的护卫舰组成的护航中队，以及四艘伊索斯型舰队补给船——它们是拥有亚空间航行能力的小型武装运输船，用于为在前线服役的战舰们运送重要物资，但这四艘船现在运输的是某种远为诡异且恐怖的货物：战帅送给Xana领主们的礼物。这些运输船装载了数百个上锁的装甲货物吊舱，舱中运输的是来自伊斯特万、Momed、Autosarat和其他未知战场上的尸体残骸——荷鲁斯之子们在这些战场上与自己的兄弟军团发生血战并夺得胜利。这些死者的遗物便是战帅赠给Xana的礼物。

Sealed in these containers were the fallen of those Legions the Sons of Horus had fought, and along with them a ruin of broken tanks and sundered war machines, shattered arms and rent armour—the charnel remains of a dozen Loyalist Legions. This was a carrion feast of technology and gene-craft priceless to the Lords of Xana; to them it was no mere detritus of battle, but a treasure store of lore and techno-arcana for those with the skill to decipher its secrets and who cared nothing for the writ of Mars, nor what the Emperor had forbidden them to study.

封装在集装箱中的货物是那些与荷鲁斯之子们交战过的军团战士的尸体，以及破损坦克和被撕裂战争机器、破碎的武器和锈烂的动力甲——这是来自十数个忠诚派军团阴森可怕的残尸与残骸。对Xana的领主们而言，这是一顿关于科技和基因技术的无价腐肉盛宴；监铸教廷有能力破解其中的秘密，而且毫不在意火星的命令，也不在乎帝皇禁止他们研究哪些内容，对他们而言这份礼物不仅是战争的碎片，更是储存着知识与技术奥秘的宝库。

Unwelcome Guests

不速之客

Even as the Cicatrice Tyrannis and her escorts entered close orbit of the immense gas giant Xana I on final approach to the Forge World itself the auspex grid of the outer planetary system came alive with emergency signals and alarms. Perilously close to the gravity-shadow of the system's inner sphere, realspace ripped open and the brute and barbed shapes of scores of warships forced their way out of the Warp. The tracking augers and void-cogitators of Xana's sleepless defensive engine-minds swept the intruders and quickly analysed the fleet, and came to the absolute conclusions of hostility and swung into baleful wakefulness.No fewer than five capital class vessels were identified, Imperial in origin and Loyalist in allegiance, with no effort made to hide who or what they were. At their head was a vessel immediately identified as the Amphion, one of the mighty Gloriana class battleships and an example of the type which often provided the flagships of the Legiones Astartes themselves, outfitted as a pure device of void-born firepower, and one of the lynchpins of the Solar fleet itself.With these capital ships came a slew of smaller escort craft and a dozen transport craft whose anomalously over-powered emissions marked them as one thing only to the cold intellect of the machine-spirits; fire ships, loaded with warheads and volatiles designed to inflict catastrophic damage in suicide attacks against their targets. Machine-spirits conferred with magos, and with blinding speed beyond human comprehension was data analysed, checked and re-analysed, conclusions drawn and tested, re-submitted and issued as directive. This then was Dorn's judgement come at last, or at least part of it, the make-up and composition of the powerful fleet indicated a raid-in-force, not an invasion, with its target the waiting fleet of loaded macro-conveyers, protected within Xana I's debris rings.

就在创痕暴君号和它的护航舰队进入气体巨星Xana I的近空轨道并最终接近铸造世界的时候，星系外环的鸟卜仪网络发出了紧急状况信号和警报。现实空间被撕裂开，数十艘凶猛的刺状战舰冲出了亚空间，它们与内环星球引力阴影的距离接近到了危险地步。Xana无休无眠的防御引擎系统启动了追踪占卜仪和虚空沉思者，扫描并分析了这支入侵舰队。在得出了来者属于敌对势力的绝对结论，防御系统突然变得十分警惕。防御系统辨别出该舰队中有不少于五艘主力舰，而且都是来自帝国或者忠于帝国的盟友，它们毫不掩饰自己的身份。行驶在最前方的飞船很快被识别为安非昂号——它是一艘强大的荣光女王级战列舰，此类舰船通常都被提供给阿斯塔特军团作为旗舰使用；安非昂号配备着纯粹强悍的虚空火力，也是太阳系舰队的核心之一。随同这些主力舰前来的是大量的小型护航舰和十数艘运输船，这些飞船散发出的异常过载排放物令机魂的冷酷智力将它们识别了纵火船；此类飞船上装载着弹头和挥发物质，通过自杀式袭击对目标造成灾难性破坏。机魂与贤者们进行了商讨，双方以凡人无法理解的超高速度对数据进行分析、检查和再分析，结论被得出并进行测试验证，重新提交后被作为命令发布出来。Xana贤者们的结论是：此次进攻是多恩的最终审判，或至少是审判行动的一部分，这支强大舰队的构成和配置表明其执行的是一次大规模突袭行动，而非入侵行动；其目标是被保护在Xana I碎片环带内侧那支整装待发的巨型运输舰队。

Terra had decided that if they were not to have the bounty of Xana's forges for themselves, then none would, and calculated that the risk of deploying several potent heavy units from Terra's own defence armada was worth the reward this mission of destruction entailed.

泰拉已经做出了决定：如果他们自己不能得到Xana铸炉所出产的大量物资，那么其他人就也不能得到；帝国计算出，这次破坏任务所带来的回报值得让他们冒从泰拉防御舰队部署出多艘强大重型战舰的风险。

With faultless precession, the defenders of Xana rose to meet their aggressors; squadrons of frigate-sized machine sapient hunterkillers and scores of autonomous weapons platforms rose from within the vaporous depths of Xana I's atmosphere to protect their master's wealth and spat their payloads with synchronised fury, sending hundreds of void torpedoes hurling towards their target, the plasma drives of the shark-like hunter-killers blazing in their wake. From tneir own stations on allotted patrol routes across the planetary system, Xana's own interstellar warships, battle-arks and attack carriers in the main, far larger than the local defensive vessels, awoke and burned at maximum thrust to intercept the Loyalist assault force, which despite the bravery and skill of its Navigators who had dropped the force into realspace close enough to be hours rather than days distant from their intended target, still able to contest the attack before it reached its goal, or at the least close a lethal trap behind the intruders. Calculations were checked and tactical projections run and re-run thousands of times in bare seconds, secondary waves of munitions roared forth from the surface of the Forge World of Xana II itself and its own sentinel void-battle servitors —mechanical Kraken the size of strike cruisers—broke from their steel shells like hollow moons and powered towards the fray; As the white blood cells of a human body swarm and overwhelm an invading virus, so would the war machines of Xana swarm and overwhelm this unexpected attack, no matter its power.

Xana的守军以无可挑剔的姿态应战侵略者;驱逐舰尺寸的聪慧机械猎杀者和数十个自动武器平台从Xana I雾状大气的深处升起，前来保护其主人的财富，并带着同步的怒火喷射出自身装载的弹药。这些武器朝敌人发射出数百枚虚空鱼雷，等离子推进器在那些鲨鱼状猎杀者的身后闪着火光。Xana自身的星际战舰（这些飞船主要是战斗方舟和突击航母，体积远大于当地的防御舰船）也从位于行星系统的指定巡逻路线上的站点醒来，它们以最大的推力前去拦截忠诚派进攻部队。尽管忠诚派舰队的导航者们勇敢且技巧高超，他们将部队投入到距离目标足够近的现实空间，让舰队能用数小时而非数天的时间便抵达其意图的目标处，但Xana舰队仍然能够在攻击部队抵达目标之前便与之对抗，或者至少在入侵者们身后收紧致命陷阱的口袋。计算结果被检查，战术预测也在短短几秒钟内便被反复运行数千次，第二波炮弹也从铸造世界Xana II的地表呼啸而出，星球自身的哨戒用虚空战斗机仆——打击巡洋舰尺寸的机械扭曲巨兽也从自己那空洞卫星般的钢壳中挣脱出来，向着战场进发;就像人体的白细胞会蜂拥向入侵的病毒并将之压倒那样，Xana的战争机器也会成群拥向敌人并压倒这突如其来的攻击，无论对方力量如何。