HH荷鲁斯叛乱14《异端初现》渣翻1

写在前面，各位好，我是一名锤粉，自19年因为朋友推荐以及几何关于战锤的节目而进入云锤圈（不买棋子，不上桌），看到各位翻译庭大佬的词条和小说的辛勤劳动，也想加入翻译庭大佬的行列，故选出一本目前还没在网络上找到的全本汉化荷鲁斯之乱小说14《异端初现》。但是呢，本人英语水平实在堪忧，翻译的一切基础都是在匮乏的战锤背景知识以及线上翻译进行自我加工出来的，所以翻译水平自然是漏洞百出，故我将采取中英对照的文本格式进行翻译，欢迎战锤40K翻译庭大佬指导指正。欢迎大家对具体内容进行讨论。
小说封面It is a time of legend.
Mighty heroes battle for the right to rule the galaxy. The vast armies of the Emperor of Earth have conquered the galaxy in a Great Crusade – the myriad alien races have been smashed by the Emperor’s elite warriors and wiped from the faceof history.

The dawn of a new age of supremacy for humanity beckons.
Gleaming citadels of marble and gold celebrate the many victories of the Emperor. Triumphs are raised on a million worlds to record the epic deeds of his most powerful and deadly warriors.
First and foremost amongst these are the primarchs, superheroic beings who have led the Emperor’s armies of Space Marines in victory after victory. They are unstoppable and magnificent, the pinnacle of the Emperor’s genetic experimentation. The Space Marines are the mightiest human warriors the galaxy has ever known, each capable of besting a hundred normal men or more in combat.

Organised into vast armies of tens of thousands called Legions, the Space Marines and their primarch leaders conquer the galaxy in the name of the Emperor.
Chief amongst the primarchs is Horus, called the Glorious, the Brightest Star, favourite of the Emperor, and like a son unto him. He is the Warmaster, the commander-in-chief of the Emperor’s military might, subjugator of a thousand thousand worlds and conqueror of the galaxy. He is a warrior without peer, a diplomat supreme.

As the flames of war spread through the Imperium,mankind’s champions will all be put to the ultimate test.
荷鲁斯叛乱
这是一个传奇的时代。
人类群雄争夺银河的控制权。帝皇的强大军队在大远征中征服了银河系-，众多外星种族被帝皇的精英战士粉碎，并从历史上抹去了。
人类至上的新时代在向人类缓步走来
由岩石和钢铁铸造的堡垒，在在赞美帝皇的丰功伟绩。在数百万的世界树立起功勋墙和荣耀建筑，以记录帝皇最强大和致命的战士的史诗般的事迹。
其中最重要的是原体，首功之人，他带领星际战士从一个胜利走向另一个胜利。他们勇敢，无畏，是帝皇基因实验的巅峰。星际战士是人类历史已知的最强大的士兵，每名士兵都是可以以一敌百的超级战争机器。
数万名这样的战士组成名为”军团”的庞大的军事组织，星际战士与原体以帝皇的名义征服着银河系，原体之首荷鲁斯，集万荣于一身，是皇帝最看重的子嗣，视其为亲生骨肉。他是“战帅”，是人类帝国军事力量的持有者，是银河群星的征服者，是伟大的军事家和政治家。

随着战火在人类帝国蔓延，战帅又能经受何种考验呢？
登场人物（，我只能翻译我知道的名字，舰队长官名称和凡人辅助军军职名称恕暂不做翻译）
原体们
洛迦。奥瑞利安 怀言者军团之主
罗保特。基里曼 极限战士军团之主
红魔马格努斯 千疮之子军团之主
克拉克斯 暗鸦守卫军团之主
康拉德柯兹 午夜领主军团之主
费努斯。马努斯 钢铁之手军团之主
佩图拉博 钢铁勇士军团之主
怀言者军团
科尔法隆 怀言者1连长
艾瑞巴斯 怀言者首席牧师
DEUMOS 锯齿太阳连队连长
安格尔。泰 怀言者7连长
XAPHEN 7连牧师
CYRENE VALANTION, 完美之城幸存者，受祝女士
PART ONE
GREY
FORTY-THREE YEARS BEFORE THE EVENTS OF ISSTVAN V
Kill me then, “Emperor”. Better to die in freedom’s twilight than draw breath at the dawn of tyranny. May the gods grant me my last wish: that my spirit lingers long enough to laugh when your faithless kingdom at last falls apart.’

— Daival Shan, Terran separatist warlord, at hisexecution.
‘If a man gathers ten thousand suns in his hands… If a man seeds a hundred thousand worlds with his sons and daughters, granting them custody of the galaxy itself… If a man guides a million vessels between the infinite stars with amere thought… Then I pray you tell me, if you areable, how such a man is anything less than a god.’
— Lorgar Aurelian, Primarch of the Word Bearers
‘There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.’

— Nikollo Makiavelli, Ancient Eurasian philosopher
第一部分
灰色
伊斯塔万V登陆点大屠杀四十三年之前
“杀了我吧，伪帝，死在自由曙光来临之前，总比死在你的暴政之下要好，愿诸神能够实现我最后的愿望：在我死后我的灵魂会笑着看着你的暴政瓦解。”
人类分离主义军阀 Daival Shan被执行死刑之前
如果一个男人拥有数万个太阳的力量，如果他与他的子嗣征服了数万个星球，如果他仅凭着思想就能引领数万的舰船征服银河寰宇之间，那么请你告诉我，如果你是这个人的话你会认为自己不如一个神吗?
真言持有者，怀言者军团之主洛迦。奥瑞利安
‘There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.’
— Nikollo Makiavelli, Ancient Eurasian philosopher（马基雅维利的格言，请原谅我找不到恰当的中文翻译，故暂不作翻译。）

PROLOGUE
The Grey Warrior
HIS SISTERS WEPT when the Legion came for him. At the time, he couldn’t understand why. There was no greater honour than to be chosen, so their sorrow made no sense.
The grey warrior’s voice was a machine’s rasp, deep and laden with static as he spoke from behind a death mask. He demanded to know the boy’s name.
Before the mother answered him, she asked a question of her own. It was her way to stand straight and strong, never to be bowed by the things she saw. It was a strength she had passed on to her son, and would stay in his blood despitethe many changes to come.

She asked the question with a smile. ‘I will tell you his name, warrior. But first, will you tell me yours?’
The grey warrior looked down upon the family, meeting the eyes of the parents only once before he stole their child.
‘Erebus,’ he intoned. ‘My name is Erebus.’
‘Thank you, Lord Erebus. This is my son,’ she gestured to her boy. ‘Argel Tal.’
序幕
灰色战士
当军团找到他时，他在哭泣。 他不明白这是为什么。 没有比这更大的荣誉了，所以他的悲伤时毫无理由的。
这名灰色的战士的声音是如此的粗糙，充满了电子音的嘈杂。 他要求知道男孩的名字。
在母亲回答战士问题之前，她问了一个他的问题。 这是她的思维方式，永远不会相信眼见为实。 这是她教给她儿子的一种思维方式，尽管或多或少有些变化，但这种思维方式永远留在他儿子的血脉中/她笑着问这个问题。 ‘我会告诉你他的名字，战士。 但是首先，你能告诉我你的名字吗？’

这位灰色的战士低头看看他眼前的这个家庭，这是他带走这个男孩之前只有一次见到他的父母的时候。
“ 艾瑞巴斯，”他轻声说道。 ‘我叫艾瑞巴斯。’
‘谢谢你，艾瑞巴斯大人。 这是我的儿子，’她对男孩示意。 “安格尔泰”。’
I
False Angels
I remember the Day of Judgement.
Can you imagine looking up and seeing the stars fall from the sky? Can you imagine the heavens themselves raining fire upon the world below?
You say you can picture it. I don’t believe you. I’m not speaking of war. I’m not speaking of promethium’s stinging oil-scent, or the burningchemical reek of flames born from missile fire. Forget battle’s crude pains and the sensory assault of orbital bombardment. I am not speakingof mundane savagery – the incendiary ills men inflict upon other men.

I speak of judgement. Divine judgement.
The wrath of a god who looks upon the works of an entire world, and what he sees turns his heart sour. In his disgust, he sends flights of angels to deliver damnation. In his rage, he seeds the skies with fire and rains destruction upon the upturned faces of six billion worshippers.
Now tell me again. Tell me again that you can imagine seeing the stars fall from the sky. Tell me you can imagine heaven weeping fire upon the land below, and a city burning so bright that all sight is scorched from your eyes as you watch it die.

The Day of Judgement stole my eyes, but I can still illuminate you. I remember it all, and why wouldn’t I? It was the last thing I ever saw.
hey came to us in skyborne vultures of blue iron and white fire.
And they called themselves the XIII Legion. The Warrior-Kings of Ultramar.
We did not use those names. As they marched us from our homes, as they butchered those who daredto fight back, and as they poured divine annihilation upon everything we had built…
We called them false angels.

You came to me asking how my faith survived the Day of Judgement. I will tell you a secret. When the stars fell, when the seas boiled and the earth burned, my faith didn’t die. That is when I began to believe.
God was real, and he hated us.
Excerpted from ‘The Pilgrimage’, by Cyrene Valantion
一
伪天使
我记得审判日。
您能想象看到星星从天上掉下来吗？您能想象天堂本身向下面的世界降下怒火吗？
你说你可以想象。不相信我所说的战争。我不是在讲钜素刺鼻的气味，也不是导弹发射的火焰所燃烧的化学气味。忘记战斗所带来的疲惫感和轨道轰炸的感觉吧，我不是在谈论世俗的野蛮战争行为-我是在说一个男人对他的子嗣造成的伤害。

我说的是审判。神的审判。
看看帝皇的愤怒，他的行为，他自己感到愧疚，但也感到厌恶。他派出极限战士来表达他的愤怒。地面的60亿信徒看着从天际而来的愤怒摧毁了一切。
现在再告诉我。再次告诉我，您可以想象看到星星从天上掉下来。告诉我，您可以想象天堂在下面的土地上燃烧着大火，一座城市燃烧得如此明亮，以至于当您注视死亡时，视线内所有的一切都被烧焦了。
审判日偷走了我的眼睛，但我仍然可以感化你。我都记得，为什么不呢？这是我见过的最后一件事。
当极限战士的蓝色白边的舰船找到我们时。
他们称自己为十三军团。极限战士。
我们没有使用这些名称。 当他们从他们的家园向我们进军时，他们屠杀了胆敢反抗的人，他们把毁灭之力倾倒在我们建立的一切上时，我们称他们为伪天使。
你来问我，我的信仰如何在审判日幸存下来。 我会告诉你一个秘密。 当星星坠落，当大海沸腾，当大地燃烧时，我的信仰没有消失。 那是我真正相信他的时候。
帝皇是如此的真实，但是他恨我们。
摘录自审判日唯一幸存者，受祝女士的记录
ONE

The Perfect City
False Angels
Day of Judgement
THE FIRST FALLING star came down in the heart of the perfect city.
The crowds were always dense and boisterous in the plaza’s midnight markets, yet everything fell silent when the sky wept fiery trails and the stars fell to earth in a stately drift.
The crowds parted, forming a ring around the hugearrival as it came down. Only when it came closer could the people see the truth. It wasn’t a star at all. It wasn’t formed of fire – it was breathing it from howling engines.

A smoke cloud drifted out from the downed craft, stinking of scorched oil and off-world chemicals. The ship’s hull was viciously avian, a raptor’s body of cobalt blue and dull gold. Its underbelly gleamed orange, bright with the hissing heat of orbital descent.
Cyrene Valantion was one of the gathered crowd, and three weeks shy of her eighteenth birthday. Whispers started up around her – whispers that became chants, chants that became prayers.
Jagged thunder echoed from nearby streets and plazas – the grumble of great engines and wheezing boosters. More of the stars-that-were-not-stars came raining down from heaven. The very air rattled with the hum of so many engines. Each breath tasted of exhaust.

（1）
完美之城
伪天使
审判日
一颗闪亮的星星坠落到城市的中心。
在午夜市场的宽阔广场上，人们是密集而喧嚣的，天空留下行星进入大气层燃烧的痕迹，而当行星庄严的落到地面时，人们又变得寂静无比。
人群分散开，向着行星坠落的方位围成了一个圈。只有离的更近，人们才能看到从天上掉下来的是什么。这根本不是星星。它的火焰不是自然形成，而是由这个造物的呼啸的引擎喷射出来的。
一团烟雾从这个坠落的人为造物的底部冒出，散发出刺鼻的化学合成燃料的特有气味气味。那个人造物是登陆舰（翻译有猛禽的意思，请原谅我并不清船只的具体型号，故不做具体翻译），登录船有着蓝色和暗金色的涂装。它的腹部微光闪烁着橙色的警示灯，在轨道下降的嘶嘶声中明亮。
Cyrene Valantion（本词汇多次出现，我推测就是后来的受祝女士，故以后都翻译做受祝女士）在聚集的人群当中，距离她18岁生日已经三周过去了。在她周围低沉的耳语，耳语变成了圣歌，圣歌变成了祈祷。
登录船下降的声音从附近的街道和广场传来–巨大的发动机的喘息的助推器巨大噪音。从天上出现了更多的登录船。这么多引擎发出的嗡嗡声使空气非常震撼。每次呼吸都能闻到浓郁的燃料燃烧后产生的气味

The dark-hulled emissary from the sky was emblazoned with the symbol of the Holy Eagle, fire-blackened from its dive through the atmosphere. Cyrene’s vision twinned, blurring between what she was seeing now and what she’d seen in artistic renderings in childhood. She wasfar from being one of the faithful, but she knew this craft, elaborately brought to life in pictures of vibrant inks on scrolls of parchment.Such imagery was scattered throughout the scriptures.
And she knew why the elders in the crowd were weeping and chanting. They recognised it too, butnot merely from the holy codices. Decades ago, they’d borne witness to the same vehicles arriving from heaven.

Cyrene watched as people fell to their knees, lifting their hands to the starry skies and weeping in prayer.
‘They have returned,’ one old woman was murmuring. She spared a moment from her obeisanceto claw at Cyrene’s flowing shuhlrobe. ‘On your knees, ignorant whore!’
By now, the whole crowd was chanting. When the old woman reached for her leg again, Cyrene shookherself free of the hag’s wrinkled talon.
‘Please don’t touch me,’ Cyrene said. It was tradition never to touch those who wore red shuhlrobes without first gaining the maiden’s permission. In her fervency, the old woman ignored the ancient custom. Her fingernails raked the younger woman’s skin through the street dress’s thin silk.

从天而降的空降仓装饰着帝国双头鹰的浮雕，它在大气层燃烧的过程中被熏黑了。 受祝女士想到童年时在艺术作品上看到的类似的东西。她远不是忠实的信徒之一，但她知道眼前的的造物，与在羊皮卷轴上描述的东西是一样的。
她知道人群中的长者为什么在哭泣和欢呼。，而不是从古老的文献记录中知道这些的。几十年前，这些古老的长者们看到从天上降下相同的东西。
受祝女士看着人们跪下，举手向繁星点点的天空哭泣。
“他们回来了，”一位老妇人喃喃地说。她拉扯着受祝女士的红色袍子。 ‘跪下，无知的姑娘！’
现在，整个人群都在高呼。当老妇再次伸手时，受祝女士摆脱了摆脱了那只皱巴巴的手。
受祝女士说：“请不要碰我。”在未获得少女的允许之前，永远不要触摸穿着红色长袍的人。这位老妇人热情洋溢地忽略了古老的习俗。老妇人粗糙的手触摸到受祝女士的红色袍子和皮肤。
‘On your knees. They have returned!’
Cyrene went for the qattariknife strapped to hernaked thigh. Slender, ornamented steel gleamed amber in the firelight reflected from the sky-craft.

‘Don’t. Touch. Me.’
With a hissed curse, the old woman returned to her prayers.
Cyrene took a deep breath, seeking to slow her frenetic pulse. The air heated her throat, prickling at her tongue with the charcoal spice of thruster smoke. So they had returned. The angels of the God-Emperor had returned to the perfect city.
She didn’t feel the rush of reverence. Nor did she fall to her knees and thank the God-Emperor for his angels’ second coming. Cyrene Valantion stared at the vulture hull of the iron craft, while one question burned behind her eyes.

‘They have returned,’ the old woman murmured again. ‘They have returned to us.’
‘Yes,’ said Cyrene. ‘But why?’
Movement from the craft came without warning. Thick doors clanged wide and a ramp juddered downon squealing pneumatics. Between gasps and nervous weeping, the worshipful chanting grew louder. The people intoned prayers from the Word,and the last of those standing finally dropped totheir knees. Cyrene was the only person left on her feet.
The first of the angels stepped from the thinningsmoke cloud. Cyrene stared at the figure, her eyes narrowing despite the exalted rightness of the moment. A sliver of ice wormed through her blood.

As if one girl’s whispered protest could possibly change what was happening, she breathed a single word.
‘Wait.’
The angel’s heavy armour was at immediate odds with the images from scripture. It stood unadorned by the holy parchments that should detail its holiness in flowing script, nor was itclad in the winter-grey of the God-Emperor’s true angels. This one’s armour, like the craft it emerged from, was a deep and beautiful cobalt,trimmed with bronze so polished it gleamed close to gold. Its eyes were slanted red slits in a stoic facemask.

‘Wait…’ Cyrene said again, louder this time. ‘These are not the Bearers of the Word.’
The old woman hissed at her blasphemy, and spat on her bare feet. Cyrene ignored her. Her gaze never left the warrior armoured in cobalt, so subtly and distinctly different from the scriptures she’d been forced to study as a child.
The angel’s brethren emerged from the dark interior of their landing craft and descended to the plaza. All wore armour of the same blue. All of them carried great weapons too heavy for a mortal man to lift unaided.

‘跪下。他们回来了！’
受祝女士褪去绑在裸露的大腿上的qattariknife（不知道啥意思）。空降船的警示灯一闪一闪的反射出了琥珀色的光芒。
'别。再。摸我了。'受祝女士再次警告老妇人
老妇人小声咒骂着，回到了自己的祈祷中。
受祝女士深吸了一口气，试图减缓她的狂热脉搏。空气加热了她的喉咙，钜素燃料烧灼产生的气体料刺着她的舌头。他们回来了。帝皇与他的军队再次回到了完美之城。
她没有感到敬畏。她没有下跪，感谢帝皇的第二次降临。受祝女士盯着钢铁铸造的船体，一个问题在她心中一闪而过。
“他们回来了，”老妇人再次喃喃地说。 ‘他们已经回到我们身边。’
”是的。”受祝女士说。 '但为什么？'
空降仓嗡嗡作响。厚重的仓门缓慢打开，舱体对外的坡道缓缓升起，液压气动杆缓慢的工作中。在喘息和紧张的哭泣之间，顶礼膜拜的呼喊声越来越大。人们从话语中祈祷，更多的人跪下了。 受祝女士是唯一还站立的人。
第一批星际战士从空降仓中走出，受祝女士凝视着他们，尽管眼前的人很高大，但是他们缓步走来，逐渐缩小。受祝女士仿佛知道接下来要发生的事，她心中默念着。

缓步走出的天使沉重的盔甲似乎与经书中展示的军团标志并不一样，他们的盔甲并没有被神圣的羊皮纸卷所装饰，也没有怀言者军团的灰色涂装配色盔甲，他们的盔甲似乎更加沉重而美丽，装饰着青铜的浮雕装饰，经过抛光，整体显得金光闪闪，仿佛是由黄金打造的军队一般，他们的面具眼睛的部分露出红色的光芒。
“等等”受祝女士说道，这次声音比以往更大了“他们不是怀言者”
老妇人对她狂妄的言论低声诅咒着，向受祝女士赤裸的双脚吐口水，受祝女士并没有理睬她，她的目光从未离开那些高大的天使，这些天使的着装与她学习的经文当中描述的天使有极大的不同。
很快，星际战士的同僚从登录船中陆续走出，走到广场中央，这群人穿着蓝色的盔甲，他们所有人都手持重型武器，那是凡人无法独自操作的重型武器。
They are not the Bearers of the Word,’ she raised her voice above the chanting. Several people kneeling around her replied with harsh whispers and potent curses. Cyrene was drawing breath to call out the accusation a third time when the angels, moving in inhuman unison, raisedtheir weapons and aimed into the crowd of worshippers. The sight stole the breath from her throat.

The first angel spoke, its voice deep and raw, filtered through hidden speakers in its facemask.
‘People of Monarchia, capital city of Forty-Seven Ten, hear these words. We, the warriors of the XIII Legion, are oathed to this moment, honour-sworn to this duty. We come bearing the Emperor’s decree to the tenth world brought to compliance by the Forty-Seventh Expedition of humanity’s Great Crusade.’
All the while, the dozen angels kept their weapons aimed at the kneeling civilians. Cyrene could see the muzzles were as charred as the vulture craft’s hull, darkened from firing shells of monstrous size.

‘Your compliance with the Imperium of the Man has held for sixty-one years. With the greatest regret, the Emperor of Mankind demands that all living souls abandon the city of Monarchia immediately. Moments ago, your planetary leaderswere given the same warning. This city is to be evacuated within six days. On the final day, yourplanetary leaders will be allowed to send a single distress call.’
“他们不是怀言者”她在顶礼膜拜的人群中声音高声说出此等话语，跪在她周边的人用刺耳的低语诅咒着她。缓步走来的天使行动一致，缓慢的举起武器瞄准着广场上跪拜的信徒们，受祝女士摒息凝视着他们，缓慢着吸了口气。

走在前头的星际战士说话了，声音低沉而原始，面罩上的扬声器确保所有人都听的见“第四十七远征舰队在此。我们，第十三军团的战士们，在此行使职权，并在此地生效，我们遵循帝皇的颁布的第十条法令，由第四十七远征舰队遵从执行”
就在此刻，十几位星际战士一直将武器瞄准着下跪的平民，受祝女士看着那些因为发射大口径爆弹的焦黑的枪口。
你们已经在此生活了61年，但是很遗憾，帝皇要求所有活着的人立刻放弃完美之城。片刻之前，星球的统治者也接到了同样的警告。我们给予6天的疏散撤离时间，在最后一天，行星总督将许可发送一个求救灵能通讯。
The crowd kept silent, but their stares were now of confusion and disbelief, not reverence. As if sensing a drift in their attention, the angel aimed its weapon into the air and fired a single shot. The gunshot banged like a thunder peal rolling around a valley, storm-loud in the silence.

‘No one is to remain in Monarchia by dawn of the seventh day. Go now to your homes. Gather your belongings. Evacuate the city. Resistance will be met with bloodshed.’
‘Where will we go?’ a female voice called from the transfixed crowd. ‘This is our home!’
The first angel turned his weapon, aiming directly at Cyrene. It took several seconds for the young woman to realise she’d been the one to speak. It took much less time for those near her to break and flee, leaving her in an ever-expanding patch of sudden isolation.

The angel repeated its words, its emotionless inflection no different from before. ‘No one is to remain in Monarchia by dawn of the seventh day. Go now to your homes. Gather your belongings. Evacuate the city. Resistance will be met with bloodshed.’
Cyrene swallowed, saying nothing more. Cries and jeers rang out from the crowd. A bottle crashed against one of the angels’ helms, shattering into glass rain, and as several others shouted out demands to know what was happening, Cyrene turned and ran. Where the crowd wasn’t already fleeing with her, she forced her way through the press of people.

人群保持着沉默，他们的眼中满是困惑与怀疑，而不再有崇敬。仿佛他们的注意力飘忽到不知什么的地方，星际战士将武器对准了空中并开了一枪。枪声像雷声般在山谷中隆隆回响，在寂静的广场中犹如炸雷一般。
‘没有人可以在第七天凌晨还留在自己的家中。现在都回家去。整理携带你们的行李。疏散整座城市。抵抗必将流血！’
“我们要去哪里？”不知所措的人群一位女士。 ‘这是我们的家！’
那位星际战士转过武器，直接瞄准了那位女士。那位年轻的女士花了好几秒才意识到武器是瞄准的自己。与她相近的人花了更少的时间意识到这些，并用来远离这位女士，这使她被迅速被人群隔离开来。星际战士刚刚重复了一遍刚才说的话，他的表述毫无情感，也与刚才的表述没有什么明显的不同。 ‘没有人可以在第七天凌晨还留在家中。现在就去你家中。收集您的个人物品。疏散城市。如抵抗必将流血。’
受祝女士吞咽了一下，仅此而已。人群中传出哭声和嘲笑声。一个酒瓶飞到了一位天使的头盔上，摔成碎片，另外几人大声喊着要知道发生了什么事受祝女士转身跑了。人群还还没有消散，她强迫自己不去看迷茫的人群。
The throaty chatter of the angels’ weapons started up a handful of seconds later, as the God-Emperor’s messengers opened fire on the rioting crowd.

THREE DAYS LATER, Cyrene was still in the city.
Like many of the people calling Monarchia home, Cyrene’s dusky skin was a legacy of her ancestors’ lives in the equatorial deserts, and she had handsome eyes of a light brown that were rather like burnt auburn. Sun-lightened hazel hair fell in tumbling locks over her shoulders.
At least, her more infatuated lovers described her in such terms.
This was the picture her mind painted, though sheno longer saw it when she looked in the mirror. Now her eyes were ringed from two nights without sleep, and her mouth was soured by dehydration.

Exactly how things had come to this point remained a mystery. Across the city, resistance to the invaders had been ferocious for the hour or so it had lasted. The greatest massacre had taken place at the Tophet Gate, when the protestsbecame a riot, and the riot became a battlefield.Cyrene watched from the haven of a nearby church,though there hadn’t been much to see. Citizens cut down and culled, all for the crime of daring to defend their homes.
A battle tank of cobalt and bronze fired at the Tophet Gate itself, and though the slaughter was a tragedy, this was raw desecration. Grinding thedead beneath its treads, the tank fired a salvo at the towering structure. Its cannons left pain-scars across Cyrene’s sight, but she couldn’t look away.

几秒钟后，帝皇的军队向反抗的人群开火了，广场上响彻着爆弹枪的枪声。
三天后，完美之城还竖立着。
就像许多人将称为家一样，受祝女士的黝黑的皮肤来自与居住在赤道的祖先留下的基因，她有着淡褐色的美丽眼睛。淡褐色头发在她的肩膀上垂落下来。
她更期望恋人能用这样的话语描述她的面容。
这是她在脑海中想到的的画面，她也没有再照过镜子。现在，两天两夜没有睡觉的她，她的眼睛愈发疲惫，她的嘴角因缺水而泛白。
事情究竟如何发展到现在仍然是一个谜。在整个城市中，对入侵者的抵抗持续了一个小时左右。最大的屠杀发生在托菲特门（Tophet Gate），当时因抗议活动爆发了骚乱，骚乱变成了屠杀。受祝女士从附近教堂的隐蔽处旁注视着发生的一切，尽管没什么可看的。抵抗的民众被就地处决，都是为了捍卫自己的家园。
一辆战车向托菲特门开火，尽管这次屠杀是一场悲剧，但这纯粹是亵渎。坦克将建筑的菱角碾平，冲向更高的废墟当中。它的大炮使受祝女士眼中布满泪水，但是她无法移开视线。
he Tophet Gate fell, its marble bulk breaking into segments after it pounded into the plaza. A fortune in white stone and gold leaf, a monument to the God-Emperor’s true angels, shattered by invaders claiming to be loyal to the Imperium.

Cyrene could make out the unmoving bodies of fallen statues, toppled from the fallen gate. Sheknew them well, having attended many midnight markets in Tophet Plaza. Each time, marble angelshad stared down at her from their places carved into the gate’s surface. Slanted, featureless eyes watched without blinking. Wingless suits of armour were rendered with exquisite skill in the smooth stone. These were not the false, featheredangels of ancient Terran myth, but holiness incarnate – the angels of death – formed in the fearful aspect of the God-Emperor. His shadows, his sons, the Bearers of the Word.

Through the dust, heretic silhouettes drifted closer to the tank. ‘The Warrior-Kings of Ultramar’, Cyrene had murmured in that moment. ‘The XIII Legion.’
Blasphemers, all. Their resemblance to the Bearers of the Word only compounded their impurity.
Planetary vox was down. She’d heard from a street vendor that the invaders destroyed all of Khur’s satellites before they came through the clouds. True or not, contact with other cities –even within Monarchia itself – was limited to word of mouth.

托普特门（Tophet Gate）倒下后，大理石的基座在战车的撞击下碎成无数块。由白色的石头和金属，是帝皇的丰碑，被自称忠于帝国的侵略者击溃。
受祝女士可以辨认出从倒下的大门倾倒下来的倒下的雕像。这些雕像树立在过完美之城的许多午夜市场周围，。大理石雕刻的造物无数次俯视着受祝女士。朴实无华的眼睛并没有眨过。在光滑的石头上熟练地雕刻了无翼盔甲。这些不是古代人类神话长满羽毛和长角的怪力乱神，而是在帝皇的-死亡的使者。他的影子，他的儿子，怀言者之主。
穿过尘土，残存的雕像离坦克更近了。赛琳娜在那段时间喃喃地说：“奥特拉玛之主”。 ‘十三军团。’
他们全都是亵渎者。他们与怀言者的相似之处只能更凸显他们的邪恶。
科尔奇斯的卫星不见了。她从街头小贩那里听说，入侵者摧毁了所有科尔奇斯的卫星，不管是真的还是不是，与其他城市的联系（甚至在Monarchia内部）也仅限于口口相传。