本文节选自 Darius Hinks 所著英文背景书《Liber Xenologis》，该译文作为练习仅为个人与交流使用，不用作商业用途。 

许多异形学家都想破解赫鲁德之谜，然而（与之相关的）报告却千差万别，以至于很难将事实与虚构区分开来*。对于其身体外观的描述很少能够达成一致，而唯一有迹可循的事实是：与赫鲁德人的遭遇大都发生在维护层、以及我们帝国虚空舰各层甲板的通风出入口之间。我认为，在一艘像战列巡洋舰这样的庞然大物上，一名异形学家也许能够逃过检测，甚至还能在黑暗中茁壮成长。

Various xenologists have tried to decipher the riddle of the Hrud, but reports vary wildly making it hard to seprete fact from fiction.* The descriptions of their physical appearance seldom agree and only fact occurs with any regularity: most of the encounters with hurds occur on maintenance floor and in the access vents between the decks of our own Imperial void ships. In a ship as monolithic as a battle crusier I suppose it might be possible for a xenologist to escape detection and even thrive in the darkness.

(资料图片)

关于我要进行科学研究的消息已经传遍了绝壁星的街头巷尾，所以各色人等带着各种可信的故事前来与我一叙。由于一个前契约船工讲述的故事与我笔下所记录的赫鲁德人若合符节，所以我在下面附上了一段简短的摘录：

Word of my investigations has spread across Precipice and various individuals have approached me with stories of varying plausibility. A former indentured crewman told a tale that chimed with my notes on the hrud, so I have included a brief extract below:

“我是一个打捞员。溺护甲板、隔热桅杆和轮机甲板之间的爬行通道都由我来负责。五英里长的爬行通道。我有好几年没跟人说话了。当你如此孤独的时候，你必须得和什么东西谈一谈，所以我就跟影子聊上了。要知道，在爬行通道里，能够维持运转的照明球并不多。那里的大部分地方都笼罩在阴影之中。有时候，它们还会滑稽地动上几下，仿佛就好像听到了我在说什么似的。

I was a salvage hand. Responsible for the crawlerways between Uxorum deck, the thermal protection masts and the starboard enginarium decks. Five miles of crawlerway. And no one to talk to for years on end. When you're alone that much, you have to talk to something, so I talked to the shadows. Not many working glow-globes in the crawlerways, see. It's mostly shadow. And they moved funny sometimes, like they heard what I was sayin.

你会觉得我发疯了，但经年累月之后，我开始把影子当成了朋友。我甚至给它们留下了礼物。一些引擎先知不要的碎片。而且礼物居然消失了！我发誓！它们被影子带到什么地方去了。然后有一天，斯卡迪斯准尉从上面下到了爬行通道里，然后他狠狠地揍了我一顿。只有王座才知道是谁惹得他如此生气。这一眼就看得出来。只见他拿着棘轮向我扑了过来，就好像要杀了我一样。

You'll think I'm cracked, but after years of it, I started to think of the shadows as friends. I even left them gifts. Bits of scrap the enginseers wouldn't want. And the gifts would vanish! I swear it! The shadows took them somewhere. Then one day Warrant Officer Scaldis came down the crawlerway and set about me with a vengeance. Throne knows who got him so het up. It don't take much. He went at me with a ratchet like he meant to kill me.

然后事情就发生了。如果你愿意的话，尽管叫我疯子好了，但我知道（那时）我看到了什么。其中有一个影子，它把自己展了开了那么一丁点。速度很快。它朝斯卡迪斯冲了过去，然后他就冷冰冰地倒了下来。影子里面有什么东西。我发誓。那家伙身材高大，衣衫褴褛，它的四肢全都弯曲错位，仿佛就像断了似的。我只看了一下，它就折回了黑暗之中。在惊慌失措地把斯卡迪斯扶起之后，我担心他会搞些什么事情出来，但事情怪就怪在这里。他看上去变老了——全身都变得皱巴巴的——而且他的眼中充满了恐惧。那家伙再也没有来过爬行通道。而我也再也未曾见过那个影中之人。

And then it happened. Call me cracked if you like, but I know what I saw. One of the shadows sort of unfolded itself. Moving fast. It rushed Scaldis and he went down cold. And there was something in the shadow. I swear it. Something tall, wearing rotten rags and its limbs all bending wrong, like they were broken. I only saw it once then it folded back into the darkness. I panicked and helped Scaldis up, worried about what he'd do, but it was the weirdest thing. He looked older - all shrivelled like - and there was such terror in his eyes. He never came back to the crawlerways. And I never saw the shadow man again neither.

*甚至连它们的名字都不是很准确。最早的报告称其为“赫鲁德夜行战士”，这里的赫鲁德似乎指的是它们的家园世界，而非这个物种的名字。

*Even their name seems to be misnomer. The earliest reports describe them as 'the nocturnal warriors of Hrud', which would seem to imply that hrud refers to their home world rather than being the name of the species.

赫鲁德夜行战士是赫鲁德人初次登场时的名字注意看他的左侧

赫鲁德人的小贴士：

I.在与佩图拉博就如何用时间静置装置打击赫鲁德人时，时间贤者祖里恩曾提出过一个大胆的假设：对方可能不是异形，而是来自未来的人类。

“我的许多兄弟将它们视为异形……但还有另外一种可能，我很想测试一下。”

'Many of my brothers see them as xenos… But there is another possibility, one I would dearly like to test.'

“哪种可能？”

'Which is?'

“那就是赫鲁德人根本不是异形，” 祖里恩如此说道，“而是某种人类的分支，也许（他们）来自遥远的未来，也许来自时间本身的终结。”

'That the hrud are not aliens at all,' said Tzurin, 'but some strain of humanity, perhaps from the far distant future, maybe the end of time itself.'

佩图拉博顿时脸色一沉：“这太疯狂了。如果是那样的话，他们为什么要来这儿？”

Perturabo scowled. 'That is madness. If that were so, why would they come here?'

“谁知道呢？” 祖里恩如此说道，“在漫长而又黑暗的前路上，谁知道有什么样恐怖之物在等着呢？也许他们知道我们的时代会迎来和平，所以他们就聚集于此，准备享受帝国将要带给银河的稳定安泰。”

'Who can tell?' said Tzurin. 'Who knows what horrors await in the long, dark reaches ahead? Perhaps they see peace coming in our time, and gather here to enjoy the stability that the Imperium shall bring to the galaxy.'

“那么他们就是一群蠢材。我看不见和平，” 原体轻声嘀咕道，“非常好，祖里恩。我也十分重视追求知识。你可以继续测试并收集你的样本。但是，如果我认为你的兴趣对战斗造成了任何形式的危害的话，我会亲手宰了你。”

'Then they are fools. I see no peace,' the primarch muttered. 'Very well, Tzurin. The pursuit of knowledge is dear to my heart also. You may proceed and gather your samples. But if I believe the battle to be in any way jeopardised by your interests, I will kill you myself.'

II.然而除了基本的形态之外，赫鲁德人在外表上跟人类没有分相似之处。

在那宽阔的面孔上眨着（一双）黑色的巨眼，它的脸上还有厚厚的粘液，那是从其皮肤上的黑色毛孔中流出来的。它的下颚在嘴角那里抽动着。（它的）皮肤非常潮湿。它既没有头发，也没有表情，从它的眼里看不到灵魂的光芒。除了四肢和脑袋的基本形态之外，它完全就是个异形。它全身上下都裹在臭气熏天的长袍之中，但由于它们的一侧已经被烧掉了，因此露出了（位于其下的）铰接式铠甲，这件铠甲与其灵活的肢体紧密地贴合在一起。它举起了自己的利剑，但它也受到了力场的影响，只见剑体周围的光芒不受控制地摇摆了起来，然后就此熄灭。

Huge black eyes blinked in a broad face thick with mucous streaming from dark pores in its flesh. Mandibles twitched in the corners of its mouth. The skin was repellently moist. It had no hair, no expression, no soul-light in its eyes. The basic form of four limbs and a head aside, it was utterly alien. Stinking robes swathed it head to foot, but on one side they had been burned away, revealing articulated armour closely fitted to its flexible limbs. It lifted its sword, but it too was affected by the field, and the sheen of light around it wavered uncontrollably before puttering out.

III.赫鲁德武士会使用一种威力相当恐怖的熔熵光剑：它既可以扭转时空（1），也可以在物理上断玉分金（2）。

（1）赫鲁德武士尖叫着从空中展身而现，它们每个人都拿着一对光剑，剑上的熔熵就像烟雾一样。它们闪烁着，从一个地方跳到了另一个地方，朝其所在方位倾泻而去的弹药要么就是徒劳无功地击中了稀薄的空气，要么就是在引爆之前便被对方与生俱来的时间力场消耗掉了。

Screeching hrud warriors appeared from folds in the air, each wielding twinned blades of light that smoked with entropic dissolution. They flickered and leapt from place to place, the munitions poured in their direction hitting naught but thin air, or wasted by the beings' native time fields before they could detonate.

军团四面楚歌。

The Legion was embattled on all sides.

赫鲁德人正在往洞穴里涌来，对方的时间武器效果就像撕裂他的战友一样撕裂了福特莱顿的感知。事情偏离了常轨。福特莱顿的战争时不时就会停止下来，取而代之的则是一种令人晕头转向的混乱感。许多钢铁勇士战死了，从绝望的战斗中掷身而出，然后再度复返，他们的凝聚力被打得粉碎。武器一碰到赫鲁德人的利刃就会变成碎片。被超自然的利剑刺穿的战士们就此四散爆裂，他们的躯体被扭成了不可名状的样子。其他人的年纪开始反向倒退，他们先是一下子变得精力充沛，然后便在痛苦中死去了，因为他们的身体对植入物产生了严重的排斥反应。

The hrud were pouring into the cavern, the effects of their temporal weaponry ripping apart Fortreidon's perception as efficiently as it dismembered his comrades. Events broke from their normal flow. Fortreidon's war ceased to proceed from moment to moment, but was instead broken into a disorienting jumble. Many Iron Warriors died, thrown from the middle of desperate combat and then back again, their concentration broken. Weapons fell to pieces as they encountered hrud blades. Warriors speared by unearthly swords exploded, their bodies forced into impossible shapes. Others aged backwards, flushed with vigour for a second, before dying in agony as their bodies gorily rejected their implants.

（2）福特雷登周围的同伴纷纷被杀。巴丹倒了下去，一柄汲命之剑将他砍成了两截。当他倒地之时，其身着的盔甲裂成了氧化的碎片，而他的骨头（更是）化成了粉末。

Fortreidon's company were slain around him. Bardan fell, cut in half by a blade that sucked the life from him.

IV.不管是生灵还是死物，一旦接触到赫鲁德人的时间力场，都会惨遭摧残。

那里有一大群赫鲁德。全面战争的喧嚣将这个巨大的房间塞得满满当当。一场齐心协力的装甲突击越过了地面，然后从一团闪烁的形体中杀了过去，到处都响起了爆炸之声。正如福特雷登所见到的那样，一辆提丰攻城坦克被外形模糊不清的赫鲁德人团团围住了。那里发出了一道闪光，然后它们便离开了，其身后只留下了一具锈蚀的车架。一支无畏机甲方阵从后面冲了上来，但是由聚焦的时间漩涡所形成的灼热之刺将他们尽数击倒，他们由里到外地腐烂了起来。氧化作用削弱了他们的底盘，无畏就这样坍了下去，然后，一层薄粥一般的有机质从他们的石椁中洒了出来。

There the hrud were legion. The chamber was vast, and filled with the tumult of full-scale war. Explosions boomed everywhere as a concerted armoured assault pushed its way across the floor through a mass of flickering shapes. As Fortreidon watched, a Typhon siege tank was mobbed by the indistinct outlines of the hrud. There was a flash, and they stepped away, leaving a rusted skeleton behind. A phalanx of Dreadnoughts rushed out from behind only to be felled by searing stabs of focused temporal vortices that rotted them from the inside out. Their chassis collapsed, thinned by oxidation, and a thin, organic gruei spilled onto the ground from their sarcophagi.

V.火焰武器可以对赫鲁德人造成很好的杀伤效果。

火焰疯狂地闪烁着，它们围着生物猝然而舞。赫鲁德人的熵力场极大地加快了氧气的消耗，火焰很快就燃烧殆尽了。

Flames flickered into an insane, jerking dance around the creatures. The consumption of oxygen was radically accelerated by the hrud's entropic fields, and the fires burned themselves out quickly.

然而这并不足以拯救异形。基努斯·凯勒芬再度扣动了扳机，他将一股火焰喷到了异形的身上。对方那臭气熏天的分层式外袍在熊熊燃钷的袭击下冒出了蒸汽，当蒸腾的水汽达到燃烧温度时，它们一下子就被点燃了。

It was not enough to save the xenos. Genus Kellephon squeezed his trigger again, sending another blast of flame over the aliens. Their stinking, layered robes steamed under the assault of burning promethium, igniting suddenly as their moisture boiled off and they reached combustion temperature.

一个垂死的赫鲁德人发出了尖叫，那声音闻所未闻。它的声音让人想起了世界之生的最后一刻，或是终末之星的寂灭之时。这是时间本尊的死亡之啸。

A dying hrud screamed like nothing should. The sound of it brought to mind the last, ticking seconds of a world's life, or the ultimate exhaustion of the final star. It was the death scream of time itself.

VI.强力的能量武器可以对赫鲁德人造成恐怖的击杀效果。

狼蛛的机魂发现了赫鲁德人的存在，然后就此开火。激光弹命中了敌人的熵力场。经过加速的光芒突破了所有物理的限制，将两个生物撕成了碎片。（激光）炮再度开火。另一个赫鲁德人死的稍微像样一点，它的隐匿覆层上被烧出了四个整齐的洞孔

The Tarantulas' machine-spirits registered the hrud's presence and opened fire. The laser shots hit the entropic fields of the enemy. Sped up past all physical constraints, the light exploded, tearing two of the creatures apart. The guns fired again. Another hrud went down less dramatically, four neat holes burned through its concealing layers.

VIII.当然，只要愿意付出代价，也能用其它方式杀死赫鲁德人。

然而赫鲁德人不是无敌的。它们会死。爆矢弹可以杀掉它们，利剑也行，（即使用）双手也能勒住异形的细脖子。

But the hrud were not invincible. They could die. Bolts slew them, as did swords, and hands locked around thin alien necks. 

IX.人工静滞力场可以压制赫鲁德人的时空扭曲能力。

光之漩涡就像鞭笞一样从洞窟中一掠而过，在那里，相互碰撞时间流把身陷绝境的倒霉蛋们统统撕成了碎片。力场稳定了下来。赫鲁德人的扭曲效应被打消了，因为静滞力场在压倒对方生理机能的同时，还驱散了笼罩在它们身周的熵波。

Vortices of light whipped across the cavern where competing temporal currents clashed, tearing apart those unfortunate to be caught in the worst of it. The field stabilised. The distorting effects of the hrud were banished as the stasis field overwhelmed their biology, banishing the entropic waves that surrounded them.

PS-1：不过投放静滞力场时需要对赫鲁德人的扭曲作用进行精心的测算，不然的话，轻则自己的部队遭殃，重则整个星球都有可能会被撕成碎片。

You will need to precisely calculate the distortion effect of the hrud, or you risk trapping your Legion in a null time field or blowing the entire planet to pieces. 

X.一万一千多年后（1），钛星人也用类似的战术（2）击败了入侵瓦施'雅家门的赫鲁德人——不过它们的数量应该远远少于钢铁勇士所面对的迁徙大军（3）。

赫鲁德人蹂躏了钛星人的家门世界瓦施'雅。成千上万的火战士惨遭杀害，因为赫鲁德人的时熵力场在数小时之内就让他们老了几十岁。幸存下来的钛星人进行了撤退，然后重新集结。他们的指挥官启动了“化身”战斗协议，作战机蜂和XV8危机战斗服被一波又一波地放了出去。它们的超级合金可以抵抗赫鲁德人的凋零光环，这些带着火焰喷射器和热熔爆能枪的自动机兵将肆虐的异形从瓦施'雅的地表上清除了出去，这些躬身耸肩的生物被赶得逃回了宇宙的深处。

The Hrud ravage the T'au sept world of Vash'ya. Thousands of Fire Warriors are slain as the Hrud's bizarre chrono-entropicfields cause them to age several decades in a matter of hours. The surviving T'au retreat and regroup. Their Commander initiates combat protocol 'Avatar', unleashing waves of combat drones and remotely operated XV8 Crisis Battlesuits. Their super-alloys resistant to the Hrud's withering aura, these automated warriors scour the alien infestation from the surface of Vash'ya with flamers and fusion blasters, sending the hunched creatures fleeing into the depths of space.

（1）古甘恩星系（Gugann System）之战爆发于999.M30，而瓦施'雅之战发生于第三次扩张结束之后（999.M41）, 所以两者相差了大约一万一千多年。

（2）除了火焰武器和能量武器之外，钛星人很可能还在此役中投入了时间武器—— 因为他们的制式时间武器在743.999.M41就已经正式投入使用了，其产生的时间流能够对载具①和有生作战部队②造成惊人的杀伤。

①现在，敌方的炮艇最多只需几秒钟的功夫就可以脱战了。在对方暴露位置后，两个中队的阳鲨轰炸机从巨型山脊的盲区中冒了出来，它们优雅的棕褐色机身背对着太阳疾飞而至。那是悖律中队，它们下挂的炸弹列阵装的并不是由普通型号所搭载的、基于等离子的脉冲炸弹，而是能够在时间流上制造漏洞的不稳定静滞力场。危险，影阳如此想到，但是极其有效。

The enemy gunships were seconds away now, at most. Out from the blind edge of the giant ridge where they had exposed their position came two squadrons of Sun Shark bombers, their elegant tan hulls flying with the sun behind their tails. Paradox squadrons, their underslung bomb arrays fitted not with the plasma-based pulse bombs standard to their kind, but unstable stasis fields that could introduce a glitch into the timestream itself. dangerous, thought Shadowsun, but extremely effective.

帝国的炮艇群向置身于开阔地上的钛星人发射了一波导弹。低沉的爆炸声响彻废土荒野，黑色的页岩如同雨点一般洒向危机战斗服。由于醉心于山脊之下的猎物，炮艇群没有注意到向它们掩杀过来的悖律中队。影阳注视着她的轰炸机群，它们切入了一条拦截航线，然后把局部静滞化的异象投向敌方的飞行器。

The Imperial gunships loosed a salvo of missiles towards the tau out in the open, the dull thump of detonations blasting Crisis battlesuits across the wastes in showers of black shale.Intent on their prey on the plain beneath the ridge, the gunships did not notice the Paradox squadrons converging on their position. Shadowsun watched intently as her bombers cut an intercept course, dropping localised stasis anomalies towards the enemy craft.

一道眼花缭乱的光芒于瞬间闪现，帝国炮艇周围的时空开始膨胀。巨大的飞行器被冻结了一秒钟之久，它们的引擎怒吼着，在交替往复的现实中艰难地跋涉着。然后，包裹着炮艇的时间泡沫纷纷破裂，四艘炮艇全都呼啸着、以数米之差越过了山脊的顶端，一头插进了碎裂的大地之中。

There was a flare of eye-watering unlight for a second, and the fabric of space-time bulged around the Imperial gunships. For a second the giant aircraft froze, the angry bellow of their engines stuttering in and out of existence. Then, as the bubble of time that had encapsulated them popped, all four of the aircraft roared over the top of the ridge, missing it by metres and ploughing nose-first into the hard, cracked earth. 

②为了发动第二波攻击，她的阳鲨中队开始在山脊的边缘地带再度集结。它们从低空越过了那些帝国炮艇的残骸，鸠'戎'刹就躲在它们的后面。只见阳鲨机群将更多的时空异象炸弹投了下去，每一枚都迸出了一道闪烁的白光。虽然影阳压根就不知道土氏究竟是怎么鼓捣出这种武器的——尽管她自己在静滞中沉睡了许多年——但是它们的效果毋庸置疑。欧伊·肯·雍将一段低空突袭的镜头传了过来，在时间的催化下，每一艘炮艇残骸都变成了锈蚀的碎片，而附近的战士全都化成了匐倒在泛黄动力甲中的白骨。

At the lip of the ridge, her Sun Shark squadrons had rallied for another attack run. They were coming back in low over the wrecked Imperial gunships and the gue'ron'sha sheltering in their lee. One by one the Sun Sharks dropped more of their temporal anomaly bombs, each detonating with a shimmering burst of white light. In truth Shadowsun did not understand how the earth caste had devised such weapons – despite the fact she had slept in stasis herself for many long years – but their efficacy was beyond question. Oe-ken-yon’s telesensors blipped footage of a low blitz that force-aged each gunship’s wreckage into rusting scrap and left the warriors nearby as slumped skeletons inside yellowed suits of armour. 

（3）从时熵力场的特性③和老化速度来看，入侵瓦施'雅家门的赫鲁德人在数量上要远远少于钢铁勇士当年遇到的赫鲁德迁徙大军——因为后者一下子就能让星际战士老化致死④。

③我从你的计算中得知，位错效应会随着赫鲁德现身的数量而显著增加。

I see from your calculations that the dislocation effects increase dramatically with the number of hrud present.

④“事情有些不对劲。” 哈拉基斯如此说道。他环视着档案堆的边缘，然后一边咳嗽，一边为自己抓了一份。他的爆矢枪在地上摔成了碎片，他凝视着举起的双手，不敢相信自己身上发生了什么。，

'Something's wrong,' said Harrakis. He peered around the edge of the archive stack and snatched himself back, choking. His bolter fell to the ground in pieces, and he held up his hands, staring at them, not believing what was happening to him.

“还有其他人在！”他气喘吁吁地说道。其拳套上外露的陶钢正在不断的粒化，仿佛就好像在风雨中遗弃了五千年似的。它们在哈拉基斯的手上变成了碎屑，里面的肉体就这样露了出来。它开始起皱下陷。肌肉变软了，手指因退行性疾病而缠结到了一起。他的皮肤变薄了，上面还出现了肝色的斑点，他的静脉呈现出醒目的蓝色，里面的脉搏一下子就弱了下去。

'More of them!' he gasped. The bare ceramite of his gauntlets was pitting, as if left out in the elements for five thousand years. They crumbled around his hands, exposing the flesh within. It wrinkled and sagged. Muscles melted away, fingers became knotted with degenerative disease. His skin thinned and became liver spotted, and his veins stood out blue, the pulse in them weakening by the moment.

哈拉基斯的尖叫变成了可怕的咯咯声。他倒了下去，只见灰尘从铠甲的裂缝里倾泻而出。

Harrakis' screams became hideous gurgles. He fell down, dust pouring from the rents opening up in his armour.

不到一秒钟，哈拉基斯就死了。

Harrakis death took place in less than a second.

PS-2：这也许就是战斗服的超级合金能够抵抗凋零光环的原因。

XI.钛星人和赫鲁德人并非完全敌对，后者偶尔也会以佣兵之身受雇于钛星人。

两个躲在暗处的赫鲁德人一边指着我的方向，一边用他们的奇言怪语相互嘶鸣。我这才意识到我们是多么的势单力薄。我们几乎和整个酒吧怼上了。

The two hrud are hiding in the shadows, hissing at each other in their strange language and pointing in my direction. It's then that I realise just how outnumbered we are. It's pretty much us against the whole bar.

PS-3：有时钛星人甚至还会雇佣兽人。

“神圣王座上的皇帝呀！” 谭雅悄悄地咒骂道。我们全都惊讶地朝她看了过去，她悄悄地朝房间的另一端点了点头。在那里，就像我不会认错自己的脸一样，坐着一群血腥的兽人。实际上，他们有五个人，这些身材魁梧绿皮并没有搭理我们，而是专心致志地盯着他们当中的两个正在进行某种比赛的家伙。他们生来就是战士，我曾经与兽人几度交手，差点就没能活下来讲述这番经历。

'Emperor on his holy throne!' curses Tanya quietly. We all look at her with surprise and she surreptitiously nods towards the far side of the room.There, as unmistakable as my own face, sits a group of bloody orks. Five of them in fact, the burly greenskins ignoring us, concentrating instead on two of their number who are having some kind of contest. Born warriors, I've fought orks on a couple of occasions, and barely lived to tell the tale.

资料来源：

Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook · 3rd Edition

Codex：Tau Empire · 8th Edition 

Last Chancers novel series · Kill Team· Gav Thorpe.

Liber Xenologis · Darius Hinks 

The Primarchs series · Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia· Guy Haley

标签： 臭气熏天 超级合金 能量武器