Exposed and Measured

袒露真心，權(quán)衡利弊

Even as the bombardment cruisers and troop transports of?the Alpha Legion and Iron Warriors moved into position high above Mezoa, Cassian Dracos, some measure of mobility restored to his Dreadnought shell by the arcane self-repair systems Vulkan had invested it with, led his Disciples of the Flames into the central forge-fane of?Mezoa. There, the twice-dead master of the XVIIIth Legion met with the Norn-regents of Mezoa, a triad of ancient magos-sisters so interlinked by complex neural interface technology that they formed a single intelligence which directed the vast fiefdom of Mezoa. Their meeting is immortalised in the data-archives of Mezoa, the fire-blackened and battered shell of the Dragon Revenant confronting the emaciated forms of the Norn-regents, each of the three suspended spider-like in the complex web of?technology that linked them to thralls across Mezoa, and flanked by a cohort of?towering Domitar-automata. Yet at Dracos' approach the emotionless war machines fell back in halting steps, and even the stern?trio of venerable tech-magi seemed taken aback.

就在阿爾法與鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)的轟炸巡洋艦和部隊(duì)運(yùn)輸機(jī)于梅左阿高空（軌道）就位時(shí)，卡西安 德拉庫斯（得益于伏爾甘賦予其無畏機(jī)體的神秘自我修復(fù)系統(tǒng)，他已經(jīng)恢復(fù)出了一定程度的移動(dòng)能力）率領(lǐng)自己的烈火門徒走入了中央鑄造神殿。在這里，經(jīng)歷過兩次死亡的第十八軍團(tuán)之主會(huì)見了梅左阿的三尊攝政——后者是三位古老的賢者姐妹，她們用復(fù)雜的神經(jīng)接口結(jié)束將彼此極為緊密地連接起來，以至于形成了指揮掌管著梅左阿廣闊封地的單一智能。這次會(huì)面（的信息）被永恒保存在了梅左阿的數(shù)據(jù)檔案館中：機(jī)體被烈火燒得焦黑且破爛不堪的復(fù)仇之龍，面見了軀體枯瘦的三尊攝政——每位賢者都猶如一只被懸吊在空中的蜘蛛狀生物，她們身處一套復(fù)雜的技術(shù)網(wǎng)絡(luò)中，被與梅左阿上的所有奴仆連接在一起。一支由高大的多米塔爾型機(jī)兵組成的大隊(duì)護(hù)衛(wèi)在攝政們的兩側(cè)。然而當(dāng)?shù)吕扑菇咏鼤r(shí)，這些毫無情感的戰(zhàn)爭機(jī)器踉蹌著后退了幾步，就連三位德高望重的嚴(yán)肅科技賢者似乎也吃了一驚。

There the ancient Terran warlord spoke of his visions, of the trials he had endured as he lay entombed within the dark heart of Isstvan V and of his search for Vulkan; a tale of woe and sacrifice that echoed the schismatic creed honoured by the magos of Mezoa. This simple similarity of belief seems a slim basis for the accord that followed, with Cassian Dracos feted as a living avatar of?the Machine God by the dour tech-adepts of Mezoa, granted high station in the Taghmata formed for its defence and marked as a sign of impending victory; Later, scholars have wondered at the sudden acceptance Dracos met with the diverse groups he encountered, some even positing that Isstvan's position at the heart of?one of the greatest warp storms ever encountered may have had an effect on the entombed Dreadnought more significant than previously thought.

這位古老的泰拉戰(zhàn)將談到了自己的愿景，講述了他被埋入伊斯特萬五號(hào)黑暗地下時(shí)所忍受的考驗(yàn)，以及他搜尋伏爾甘的經(jīng)過；這個(gè)關(guān)于苦難和犧牲的故事正與梅左阿賢者們推崇的分離信條相呼應(yīng)。這種信念上的簡單相似性似乎就是雙方之后能達(dá)成一致的薄弱基礎(chǔ)；梅左阿陰郁的技術(shù)教士將卡西安 德拉庫斯尊奉為了活生生的萬機(jī)神化身，他們在組成星球防御力量的機(jī)神禁衛(wèi)軍中贈(zèng)予了復(fù)仇之龍一個(gè)高級（指揮）席位，并視其為勝利即將到來的標(biāo)志。遇到德拉科斯的不同群體都突然接納了他，后來的學(xué)者們也對此感到驚詫，某些人甚至認(rèn)為：由于伊斯特萬星系處在人類遭遇過的規(guī)模最大亞空間風(fēng)暴的核心處，其對這臺(tái)被埋于地下的無畏機(jī)甲造成的影響可能比人們之前認(rèn)為的更顯著。

Attended by the most skilled of Mezoa's forge wrights, Cassian Dracos withdrew to the hidden depths of Mezoa, there to receive the benedictions of the Machine God and be restored to his former glory. With the dropcraft of the Traitor forces blackening the sky with their numbers even as their lord retired, Xiaphas Jurr led the Disciples of the Flames as they joined the warriors who stood ready to defend Mezoa. With them were the cybernetic monsters and towering automata of?the Taghmata Mezoa, all veterans of centuries of xenos raids, as well as the 891st Lethe Cohort of the Solar Auxilia, and forty-eight Imperial Fists Legionaries whose flight from the fighting on Manachea had left them stranded at Mezoa. In total, some 12000?men-under-arms and took up positions to repel the coming storm, including a great mass of combat-automata, soul-shorn adsecularis auxilia and Knights of House Hermetika.

在技藝最精湛的梅左阿鑄爐工匠陪同下，卡西安 德拉庫斯撤往了梅左阿隱蔽的地下深處，他將在那里接受萬機(jī)神的祝福，恢復(fù)起往日的榮光樣貌。此刻，數(shù)量龐大到遮天蔽日的叛軍空降艇也殺向地表；而就在他們主人撤退的同時(shí)，夏法斯 朱爾也率領(lǐng)著烈火門徒加入到準(zhǔn)備保衛(wèi)梅左阿的勇士隊(duì)伍中。梅左阿的守軍包括：機(jī)神禁衛(wèi)軍的智控怪物和高大的戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)兵——它們都是對抗過數(shù)個(gè)世紀(jì)異形掠襲的老兵，Lethe第891太陽軍兵團(tuán)，28名帝國之拳軍團(tuán)戰(zhàn)士——他們從Manachea聯(lián)盟戰(zhàn)爭中逃出生天，之后被困在了梅左阿。這總計(jì)12000名武裝人員——其中包括大量戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)兵、無魂無魄的技術(shù)契奴輔助軍與赫爾梅提卡家族的騎士——各就各位，抵抗著即將到來的風(fēng)暴。

Of the earliest stages of the third invasion of defiant Mezoa, the greatest wealth of?information comes from the war chronicles of Narik Dreygur, de-facto commander of the Iron Warriors 114th Grand Battalion. The first wave of the invasion was a vast throng of?drop ships carrying thousands upon thousands of pact-conscripts from Moab and turncoat Imperial Army troopers, all considered eminently expendable by Autilon Skorr and the other commanders of?the Traitor armada. These fallen souls were met not by the blast of?defence cannon or flights of slaved Mechanicum droneinterceptors, but by the wrath of Mezoa itself?as the great subduction furnaces sunk into the planet's volatile mantle were used to hurl vast projectiles of magma and bedrock skyward. Against such weapons the Traitor dropcraft had no protection, and casualties were devastating, indeed the tactical purpose of?this first wave seems to have been more to provoke just such an attack as to establish a true beachhead. Those few drop ships that made it to the ash-choked surface of?Mezoa were quickly decimated by cohorts of vicious Vorax battle-automata, the few survivors scattered into the hellish interior of Mezoa where none are known to have survived.

對于第三次梅左阿入侵行動(dòng)的最早期階段，鋼鐵勇士第114大營實(shí)質(zhì)上的指揮官——納雷克 德雷古爾的戰(zhàn)爭編年史提供了最豐富的信息。第一波入侵部隊(duì)是巨量的空降艇，其上運(yùn)載著成千上萬來自Moab的契約奴兵和叛變的帝國軍士兵——在奧帝龍 斯考爾和叛軍艦隊(duì)其他指揮官看來，這些凡人都是完全可供消耗的炮灰。但這些墮落的靈魂所遭受的并非防御火炮的轟擊或受奴役的機(jī)械神教無人截?fù)魴C(jī)的進(jìn)攻，而梅左阿自身的怒火——浸入到星球地幔的巨大的潛沉熔爐，被用于將巨大的巖漿團(tuán)與基巖塊拋向天空。在這種武器面前，叛軍的空降艇們毫無防衛(wèi)，遭受了毀滅性傷亡。事實(shí)上，叛軍第一波攻勢的戰(zhàn)術(shù)目的，似乎更像是為了引起這樣一次進(jìn)攻，以便建立起真正的橋頭堡。只有極少數(shù)空降艇成功降落到遍布嗆人灰燼的梅左阿地表，但也很快就被兇惡的沃拉克斯型戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)兵組成的中隊(duì)摧毀了，極少數(shù)幸存者分散到了地獄般的梅左阿內(nèi)陸地區(qū)，無人知道該如何生存在那里。

Having correctly anticipated that the Mezoan adepts could not maintain a constant bombardment without compromising the tectonic stability of?their own world, Autilon Skorr dispatched the 114th Grand Battalion as the core of the second wave. Grounding amid the corpses and blackened wreckage of?the first wave, Dreygur and the grim veterans of the Iron Warriors, having weathered the more conventional anti-aircraft fire with minimal losses, were informed by Autilon Skorr of?the Alpha Legion that any attempts to evacuate the planet's surface would be met by the guns of?the fleet. With no option but victory, the Iron Warriors and those auxiliaries landed alongside them met the onrushing Loyalist counter-attack, quickly converting their drop ships into makeshift bastions. The battlefield lit by erupting magma-geysers and blanketed by Mezoa's ever-present ash clouds, the Iron Warriors fought with a ferocity that equalled any of Angron's berserker Legionaries, demanding a steep price in lives for each of?them who fell. In the climactic battle of?the first day, Narik Dreygur fought and slew Valtus Moran, a champion of?the Imperial Fists, who had reached Mezoa, the battle-automata under his command tearing apart his corpse as the Loyalist forces quit the field.

但奧帝龍 斯考爾已經(jīng)正確地預(yù)測到：梅左阿的教士們無法在不損壞該世界結(jié)構(gòu)穩(wěn)定性的情況下進(jìn)行持續(xù)轟炸，他派出了第114大營作為第二波攻勢的核心。納雷克 德雷古爾和麾下冷酷的鋼鐵勇士老兵們一道，降落在了第一波進(jìn)攻部隊(duì)中士兵的尸體與燒焦的殘骸中，他們在損失最小的情況下經(jīng)受住了常規(guī)防空火力進(jìn)攻；奧帝龍 斯考爾通知他們：從星球地表撤退逃離的任何嘗試，都將引來艦炮的轟擊。鋼鐵勇士們和降落在其周圍的輔助軍部隊(duì)別無他選，只能取勝；他們遭受了忠誠派的猛烈反擊，很快便將己方的空降艇轉(zhuǎn)用作了臨時(shí)堡壘。戰(zhàn)場先是被噴涌而出的熔巖所點(diǎn)亮，繼而又被梅左阿永恒的灰燼云所覆蓋。鋼鐵勇士們以堪比安格隆麾下狂戰(zhàn)士們的兇暴奮戰(zhàn)著，對于倒下的每一位兄弟，他們都要讓敵方付出慘痛的傷亡。在第一天戰(zhàn)斗的高潮階段，德雷古爾與逃亡到梅左阿的帝國之拳軍團(tuán)勇士——瓦爾圖斯 莫蘭對決并殺死了他，當(dāng)忠誠派部隊(duì)撤出戰(zhàn)場時(shí)，納雷克麾下的戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)兵撕碎了莫蘭的尸體。

The Iron Warriors had paid in the lives of?their brethren to secure a safe landing zone for the remainder of the Traitor armada, and soon the ash plains at the edges of the great forge-fanes of Mezoa were awash in the footsoldiers of the Warmaster. Sokar class stormbirds, among the largest craft that could be safely landed on the fragile surface of Mezoa, were used to project an interconnected canopy of void shields above the vast encampment, a shield that was regularly tested by the ground-shaking impact of slabs of?lava-coated bedrock. With both sides firmly entrenched, the Traitor forces used their advantage in numbers to press the attack on Mezoa's forge-fanes and their artillery trains, attempting to reduce the walls and fortifications to rubble from afar, while Autilon Skorr drove his massed auxilia into the breaches to force a hole in the defences. The Iron Warriors were committed wherever the enemy seemed strongest, suffering mounting casualties to blunt the ferocious assault of?tbe Mezoan magos'automata cohorts, while the Alpha Legion operated as headhunters and raiders, taking advantage of?the distraction provided by the massed assaults of their fellows to strike at vulnerable command installations and isolated command units.

通過犧牲自己兄弟們的生命，鋼鐵勇士們?yōu)榕衍娕炾?duì)的其他部隊(duì)確保了一片安全的登陸區(qū)，戰(zhàn)帥的步兵們很快就淹沒了巨大鑄造神殿邊緣處的灰燼平原。能夠安全降落在梅左阿脆弱地表的最大型飛行器之一——索卡爾型風(fēng)暴鳥炮艇被派出，用于在這片巨大營區(qū)的上空投射出一道相互連接的虛空盾穹頂——這種護(hù)盾被證明能夠阻擋覆蓋著熔巖的基巖塊那地動(dòng)山搖的撞擊。在雙方都牢牢站穩(wěn)腳跟后，叛軍倚仗己方的人數(shù)優(yōu)勢，向梅左阿的鑄造神殿與火炮隊(duì)列群發(fā)起進(jìn)攻，試圖從遠(yuǎn)距離將城墻和防御工事夷為平地；同時(shí)奧帝龍 斯考爾驅(qū)趕自己麾下的大量輔助軍部隊(duì)沖向缺口處，想在敵軍防線上撕開口子。鋼鐵勇士們被派往敵人最強(qiáng)大的區(qū)域，承受著不斷增加的傷亡，以削弱梅左阿賢者們手中機(jī)兵大隊(duì)的兇猛攻擊；而阿爾法軍團(tuán)則作為獵頭者與掠襲者來行動(dòng)，利用同伴們的大規(guī)模進(jìn)攻對敵方造成的分心效果，襲擊脆弱的指揮設(shè)施與孤立的指揮單位。

The Loyalist forces did not sit idle while Autilon Skorr prosecuted his assault. While the heavy infantry of the Lethe Solar Auxilia units and Mechanicum siege-automata held the walls of Mezoa's spired forge-fanes, the Disciples of the Flames, operating in demicompanies of fifty men and reinforced by the remaining Imperial Fists, engaged in a series of spoiling attacks. As these assault forces sallied forth from the protection of the heavily fortified defences, the tech-adepts of?Mezoa collapsed entire regions of?the planet's crust, burying sections of the enemy's lines in tidal waves of magma and allowing the Legiones Astartes to engage isolated pockets of the foe. Elsewhere, suicide cohorts of automata and adsecularis drew detachments of the Traitor host out into the open where the tech-magi could obliterate friend and foe alike with blasts of magma.

但在奧帝龍 斯考爾發(fā)動(dòng)襲擊的同時(shí)，忠誠派們也并未坐以待斃。Lethe太陽軍部隊(duì)的重步兵和機(jī)械神教攻城機(jī)兵堅(jiān)守著梅左阿尖塔鑄造神殿的城墻，同時(shí)烈火門徒們編為五十人一組的半連編隊(duì)，在剩余帝國之拳部隊(duì)的增援下，進(jìn)行了一系列破壞性襲擊。當(dāng)這些突擊隊(duì)從戒備森嚴(yán)的防御工事中突圍而出時(shí)，梅左阿的技術(shù)教士們便會(huì)令整片區(qū)域的地殼崩塌，將敵人的部分防線淹沒于巖漿波潮中，讓阿斯塔特軍團(tuán)戰(zhàn)士們與陷入孤立的敵人們交戰(zhàn)。在其他戰(zhàn)場上，自動(dòng)機(jī)兵與技術(shù)契奴組成自殺部隊(duì)，將叛軍分隊(duì)引到開闊地帶，讓技術(shù)賢者們用巖漿轟炸將敵我雙方一并毀滅。

As with all things, the Mechanicum adepts of Mezoa kept detailed records of the fallen, both allied and enemy,the resulting equations informing all of their strategies, and despite the small victories that had been claimed against the Traitor horde, the cold logic of war did not favour Mezoa.

就像他們處理所有事項(xiàng)那樣，梅左阿的機(jī)械神教教士對敵我雙方的死者都進(jìn)行了詳細(xì)記錄，由此生成的方程式為他們的戰(zhàn)略提供了依據(jù)；盡管他們在對抗叛軍部隊(duì)的戰(zhàn)斗中獲取了小小勝利，但冷酷的戰(zhàn)爭邏輯并不偏愛梅左阿守軍。

An Oath Fulfilled

履行誓言

For nine days Autilon Skorr directed the Traitor host in an unrelenting siege of the spired halls of Mezoa. Bombardment cruisers in high orbit rained down kinetic cluster munitions, and the Mezoan tech-priests responded with the white-hot blood of Mezoa itself?launching chunks of the mantle skyward and filling the air with fragments of?burning rock. The already torturous landscape of Mezoa buckled, venting scalding clouds of ash and steam that scoured entire battlefields clean, and tides of magma that engulfed armoured columns. Autilon Skorr brought hell to Mezoa.

在九天的時(shí)間里，奧帝龍 斯考爾一直在指揮叛軍部隊(duì)朝梅左阿的尖塔神殿發(fā)動(dòng)無情圍攻。位于高空軌道的轟炸巡洋艦密集投下動(dòng)能集束彈藥，梅左阿技術(shù)教士們則用梅左阿自身的白熾血液還擊，他們將大塊的地幔拋向空中，令空氣中都充滿了熊熊燃燒的巖石碎片。梅左阿本就倍受折磨的地貌變得扭曲猙獰，灰塵與水汽噴涌而出，形成的滾燙云團(tuán)將整片戰(zhàn)場沖刷干凈，巖漿波潮也吞沒了裝甲縱隊(duì)。奧帝龍 斯考爾將地獄帶到了梅左阿。

From the fortified walls of the Mezoan forge-fanes, Xiaphas Jurr and the remaining Disciples of the Flames bore witness to the slow reduction of the Forge World's defences. With no hope of reinforcement, isolated as Mezoa was by the expansion of Horus' dark empire, there seemed little hope of victory. Despite this, it was quickly made obvious that regardless of the inescapable logic of their defeat, the defenders of Mezoa had no intention of surrendering. The Norn-regents had decreed that until the last automata fell, the battle for Mezoa would not end. Each Traitor attack was met by stubborn resistance, and while defeat might be inevitable, it would not be swift in arriving, a fact that would ill-please the Warmaster. This truth was not unknown to Autilon Skorr who, like most of the ambitious Legion officers that had thrown in their lot with the Warmaster, was eager to join the assault on Terra. Rather than wait for the eventual fall of?Mezoa, Autilon Skorr intended to bring the Forge World to its knees with a single strike, hoping that the swift fall of the Loyalist Forge World would secure him a return to the favour of both Horus and his own inscrutable Primarch.

從梅左阿鑄造神殿加固強(qiáng)化過的城墻上，夏法斯 朱爾和剩余的烈火門徒們目睹著鑄造世界防線的緩慢縮減。由于梅左阿已經(jīng)被荷魯斯黑暗帝國的擴(kuò)張所孤立出來，他們無望獲得增援，獲勝的希望似乎是微乎其微。但盡管如此，忠誠派們很快就明確表示：雖然失敗是不可避免的邏輯推論結(jié)果，但他們無意投降。奧帝龍 斯考爾也知道這個(gè)真相，就像大多數(shù)投奔荷魯斯的野心勃勃阿斯塔特軍官那樣，他熱衷于加入進(jìn)攻泰拉的行動(dòng)。奧帝龍 斯考爾不想等待梅左阿世界的（緩慢）最終淪陷，他打算通過一擊就讓整個(gè)鑄造世界屈服，希望這場快速攻陷忠誠派鑄造世界的戰(zhàn)役能讓其重新獲得荷魯斯與自己那位神秘莫測原體的青睞。

The remains of the Iron Warriors 114th Grand Battalion were committed en masse to a frontal assault on the defences of Tertial-05, one of the key defence bastions on the outskirts of the main forge spire. The attack went ahead despite the protests of Consul Dreygur of the Iron Warriors, who only agreed to lead his men at the assurance of Autilon Skorr that the Alpha Legion would support the assault. The Iron Warriors struck the defences of Tertial-05 like a hammer blow, waves of heavy infantry advancing under heavy fire unflinchingly despite the casualties inflicted upon them. The assault quickly drew in defending units from across the battle zone, as Loyalist commanders reinforced the weakening defences. As the fighting ground on, the Iron Warriors were eventually brought to a halt, bogged down amongst the outer defences of Tertial-05 and surrounded by Loyalist units in a murderous crossfire. Dreygur ordered his warriors to set up makeshift defences and dig in in the Loyalist positions they had captured, his automata cohorts moving to counterattack wherever the Loyalists threatened to overwhelm the thinning Iron Warriors lines. Encoded vox-signals, later retrieved and deciphered by the magos of Mezoa, were transmitted to the Alpha Legion, calling on them to begin the second wave of the assault, but no answer was ever received by the embattled Iron Warriors who could not survive without support.

鋼鐵勇士第114大營的殘部被全體派出，去正面進(jìn)攻Tertial-05堡壘的防線——其是位于鑄造主塔邊緣區(qū)域的關(guān)鍵防御要塞之一。盡管鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)領(lǐng)事德雷古爾提出抗議，但行動(dòng)仍舊進(jìn)行，不過德雷古爾同意出戰(zhàn)的前提是奧帝龍 斯考爾保證阿爾法軍團(tuán)會(huì)提供支援。鋼鐵勇士們?nèi)缤劐N般攻向了Tertial-05堡壘的防線，盡管傷亡慘重，但這些身披重甲的步兵仍然前仆后繼，頂著猛烈的炮火前進(jìn)。而隨著忠誠派指揮官們增強(qiáng)了此處被削弱的防線，這場進(jìn)攻迅速吸引了來自戰(zhàn)區(qū)各處的守軍部隊(duì)。隨著戰(zhàn)事推進(jìn)，鋼鐵勇士們也最終陷入停滯，他們在Tertial-05堡壘的外層防線中陷入困境，并被忠誠派兇猛的交叉火力所包圍。德雷古爾命令戰(zhàn)士們構(gòu)筑臨時(shí)防御工事，并在其攻占的忠誠派陣地上深挖戰(zhàn)壕；他的自動(dòng)機(jī)兵大隊(duì)們不斷奔走于薄化中的防線各處，在忠誠派對其陣線造成壓倒性威脅的各處發(fā)起反擊。鋼鐵勇士們向阿爾法軍團(tuán)發(fā)送了加密音頻通信信號(hào)（梅左阿賢者們之后將其找回并解密），呼叫對方開始發(fā)動(dòng)第二波進(jìn)攻；倘若沒有支援，這些四面楚歌的鋼鐵勇士將無法幸存，但他們并未得到任何答復(fù)。