《Munitorum》节译：链锯剑
From the scrap-metal madness pieced together by barbaric Ork warriors, to the sacred designs churned out by Adeptus Mechanicus manufactories, the galaxy is no stranger to the throaty growl of revving chainswords.
从野蛮的兽人战士用废旧金属拼凑成的疯狂造物，到机械修会制造厂大批量生产的神圣型号武器，银河众生对于旋刃链锯剑那低沉的咆哮并不陌生。
Chainswords are not subtle weapons. Wielding one is a statement in its own right: they are horrific tools of war, designed to bite, tear and eviscerate where more primitive blades merely cut and slice. A chainsword brings the weight of intimidation with its obvious effectiveness, and it promises pain before death.
链锯剑并非机巧的武器，使用这种武器本身就是一种声明：它是恐怖的战争工具，被设计用于割穿、撕裂和开膛破肚，而更原始刀剑在同类情况中只能切砍。链锯剑的明显（杀伤）效果能造成威慑力，它预示着死亡前的痛苦。
On worlds claimed by Humanity, these blades are items of status for criminals and high-ranking gang fighters, as well as weapons of lethal (and crowd-pleasing) necessity for indentured gladiators.
在被人类所占有的世界上，这些利刃是罪犯和高级帮派打手们的身份象征，而且也是契奴角斗士的必备武器——这种装备是致命的，而且能取悦观众们。
Among Mankind’s endless armies, the ubiquitous chainsword has found a home in the arsenal of many Imperial Guard officers, as well as serving as the weapon of choice for countless warriors among the Adeptus Astartes, since the ancient era of the Space Marine Legions in the Great Crusade.
在人类无尽的军队中，链锯剑是无处不在的，它在很多帝国卫队军官们的武库中找到了一席之地，也是阿斯塔特修会中无数战士们的武器选择——自从星际战士军团征战于大远征中的古老时代，便是如此。
In alien hands, chainblades take more exotic forms despite obeying the same function. An orkish ‘chain-choppa’ will have none of an eldar chainsabre’s bone-sung elegance, and little of the reliability of a Space Marine’s mass-produced weapon, but it will carve flesh and shed blood with the same eagerness.
而异形手中的链锯刀剑虽然功能相同，却有着更奇异的形态。欧克兽人的“链锯砍刀”并无艾尔达链锯军刀那灵骨吟唱出的优雅，也几乎没有星际战士手中那大规模生产出的武器的可靠性，但它也能以同样的热切砍开皮肉，令敌人鲜血横流。
Origins and Variants
起源和改型
Like many examples of human invention, the chainsword’s many variants seem to have their roots in the shrouded heresies of the Dark Age of Technology. Accordingly, it saw consistent use in the armoured fists of techno-barbarians during the Age of Strife, and among the Emperor’s own armies during his Thunder Warriors’ brutal conquest of Terra.
就像诸多的人类发明那样，链锯剑的很多改型似乎都植根自黑暗科技时代那被隐藏的异端理论中。因此，科技野蛮人在纷争纪元持续使用着它，而在雷霆战士们野蛮征服泰拉的过程中，帝皇本人的大军也挥舞着链锯剑。
But chainswords have been wielded by inhuman hands for aeons. Several xenos races have borne such blades into battle even in the ages where Mankind could only look up to the stars with spears in their filthy hands. Tech-Priest foundry masters have speculated, down the centuries, that it is simply a natural evolution of the sword’s design: from bronze to iron; from iron to steel; from steel to chain-teeth; and from chain-teeth to a weapon wreathed in an energy field - such as the Imperial power sword.
但非人类物种们也在极其漫长的岁月里使用着链锯剑。哪怕在人类还只能用脏污的双手握住长矛，抬头仰望星空之时，很多异形种族便已经用链锯剑进行厮杀了。几个世纪以来，司掌铸造的技术神甫预测认为，刀剑设计的自然演变就是如此：由青铜变为生铁，有生铁变为钢材，由钢材变为链锯齿，再由链锯齿变为包裹在能量场中的武器——比如帝国的动力剑。
But doubt remains. More than one Martian magos has devoted their life’s work to researching the primeval origins of chainweapons; mostly likely as an inspiration stolen from an alien race, in a war that may never be remembered. If this theorem ever bears fruit, it is distinctly possible that the galaxy’s first wielders of chainswords were jade-clad warriors of the ancient Eldar.
但疑惑仍旧存在。用一生时间来研究链锯武器远古起源的火星贤者不止一位；其灵感很可能是偷取自某个异星人种族，此事发生在某场可能永远都不会被记起的战争中。如果该理论曾有得出结论的话，那么银河系中最早的链锯剑使用者很可能就是身穿翠绿色甲胄的古艾尔达战士。
As befitting the galaxy’s most common type of chainweapon, chainswords come in hundreds upon hundreds of styles, patterns, and local variants. Two-handed blades are often referred to as ‘eviscerators’, but these immense weapons come in almost as many variants as their more common counterparts.
作为银河系中最常见的链锯武器类型，链锯剑有成百上千种风格、型号和当地改型。双手链锯剑通常被称为“开膛剑”，但这种大型武器的改型，也和它那些更为常见的同类们同样众多。
Every Space Marine Chapter will forge its own blades with subtle differences to those of its brethren, just as every forge world produces its tried and tested signature weapons, based on its preferred schematics.
每个星际战士战团都会铸造自己的链锯剑，而这些链锯剑之间有着微妙的区别的，就像每个铸造世界都会依据自己偏好的图表，生产出经受了测试与考验的个性化武器。
The most common template for any Imperial chainsword is the Mk. Xf ‘Hell’s Teeth’ pattern, with thousands of minor variations seeing use throughout Mankind’s endless armies. Chapters such as the Flesh Tearers, the Marines Errant, the Minotaurs, and the Blood Eagles have made no secret of their own named pattern chainblades, usually divergent in matters of decoration and reverence. Unsurprisingly, one of the most dramatic Imperial variant is also found among the Adeptus Astartes: the so-called ‘Krakentooth’ frost blade of the Space Wolves, with its chain-teeth supposedly formed from the fangs of the sea monsters blighting the oceans of their homeworld.
帝国链锯剑最为常见的模板是5f“地狱之牙”型，人类无尽的军队使用着它的数千个改型。诸如血肉撕裂者、游侠骑士和血鹰等战团都毫不掩饰地使用着自己命名的链锯剑型号，这些武器在装饰和崇敬（含义）上通常有着不同之处。而不出意料地，我们也能在阿斯塔特修会中发现最令人印象深刻的帝国链锯剑改型之一：太空野狼所谓的“克拉肯之牙”——霜刃剑，人们推测其锯齿是用肆虐在战团母星大洋中的海怪的长牙制成的。
Battle and Maintenance
战斗与保养
Despite their relative ease of manufacture, few weapons require as much maintenance as the Imperial chainsword. Fortunately the maintenance is of a mundane nature - easily performed by any ganger or warrior - rather than something like plasma technology, which inevitably requires the sacred insight of a tech-priest in order to keep it functioning over time. Replacement teeth-tracks are found in vast crates alongside lasgun power packs in every Imperial Guard drop zone, as well as being similarly stored aboard every Space Marine Thunderhawk Gunship.
虽然它们的铸造（过程）相对简单，但只有极少数武器需要和链锯剑同样众多的保养维护。幸运的是，链锯剑的维护是很简单的（任何帮派打手或战士都能轻易完成），而非如同电浆技术那般复杂——后者的维护需要技术神甫的神圣监督，以确保其功能仍旧保持正常。在帝国卫队的所有空投区内，人们都能在巨大的板条箱中发现替换用的链锯齿，而激光枪的能量包就放在一旁；它也同样会被储存在每一架星际战士雷鹰炮艇上。
The first concern is that even the most well-forged chainsword will blunt quickly against heavy armour, especially the dense, ablative layers bolted onto an orkish warlord, or the tainted ceramite of a Traitor Marine. Chainswords lack the heavy cutting weight of chainaxes and their bulkier ilk, and are better served to cleaving through the joints of heavy suits of armour.
我们首先要关注的一点是：在对抗厚重的装甲，尤其是螺固在兽人军阀身上那致密的烧蚀装甲层，或者是叛徒星际战士被玷污的陶钢甲胄时，哪怕是铸造最为精良的链锯剑也会很快变钝。不同于链锯斧及其笨重的同类，链锯剑没有沉重的劈砍重量，而是更适合用于切开厚重甲胄的关节处。
Secondly, chainswords are thirsty weapons. Some variants are much more efficient in terms of fuel consumption, but those that aren’t powered by self-sustaining energy generators drink promethium fuel no differently to countless other low-tech Imperial machines, and emit the same crude, oily reek as any tank’s engine.
其次，链锯剑是一种饥渴的武器。一些改型在能量消耗方面要高效得多，但在对于钷素燃料的消耗上，那些没有自我维持型能量发电机的为其供能的链锯剑，也与无数其他低科技的帝国机器毫无区别，而且也会像所有坦克引擎那样散发出粗制油腻的恶臭。
The final concern is one of skill. Chainswords can ‘throw’ teeth when they’re used in poorly executed parries, slapped blade-to-blade with other chainweapons, or simply wielded with all the precision of a club. While teeth are easily replaced and repaired, it is not uncommon for battles between chainsword duel lists to end with both the victor’s and the loser’s blades missing several teeth, especially if the fighters wore heavy armour. Ork weapons, especially those with chain-teeth made from the alien ‘ivory’ of an Ork’s own sharpened fangs, are especially vulnerable to this kind of degradation. Anyone with a modicum of experience wielding one of these weapons knows to parry with the reinforced flat of the blade, rather than catch a blow on the toothed, moving edge.
最后一个关注点是使用技艺。当使用者以拙劣的招架与其他链锯武器进行剑斗，或者纯粹是像挥舞棍棒那样使用武器的话，链锯剑就会“脱落”锯齿。尽管锯齿易于更换和维修，但当一场链锯剑决斗结束时，胜负双方的佩剑都经常会失去很多锯齿，尤其是在决斗者们身穿厚重甲胄的情况下。欧克兽人的武器，尤其是安装了用欧克自己磨锋利了的利齿制成的异星“尖牙”的那些，在面对此种毁坏时就尤为脆弱。任何有过些许使用此类武器经验的人都知道：要用加固过的平坦剑背去格挡，而非用转动着的锯齿剑锋去硬抗进攻。
These issues of durability rarely apply off the battlefield. A hive ganger or sump-waste outlaw can own a chainsword his entire life without suffering the same degenerative annoyances as an Assault Marine of the Adeptus Astartes, because – like any weapon – a chainsword’s use depends entirely on context. When used as intended against lightly armoured foes, a chainsword is lethality incarnate.
但这些耐久性问题很少出现于战场之外的情况中。链锯剑被巢都帮派打手和废水沟中的法外狂徒用上一辈子，也不会遭受与阿斯塔特修会中突击星际战士手中佩剑同样的损坏烦恼，因为就像任何武器那样，链锯剑的使用（寿命）完全取决于环境。当链锯剑被用于对付轻甲敌人时，它就是致命的化身。
No other blade in existence cuts flesh with the same vicious, ravening hunger as a chainsword. A fighter’s strength will add to the blow’s devastating effects, but where other melee weapons may rely purely on strength, a chainsword makes for a perfect duelling weapon; just as effective when wielded with grace and speed over brawn. Once the teeth even graze flesh, their motorised bite hooks deeper and saws through muscle, sinew and bone with the same, surgical ease.
在现存的其他刀剑中，没有哪种能和链锯剑一样野蛮残忍地切开皮肉。使用者的力量会增强链锯剑的破坏效果，但在其他近战武器可能纯粹依赖力量的情况下，链锯剑又是一种完美的决斗武器；当被优雅而快速地挥舞时，它也同样有效。锯齿一旦接触到皮肉，它们的机动咬合（动作）就会钩住更深层的组织，并如同做手术那样轻松锯穿肌肉、肌腱和骨骼。
Just as nothing cuts meat and bone like a chainsword, nothing bleeds like a chainsword wound. Enemies losing arms and legs to these weapons (a practice commonly called ‘limbing’ by Imperial Guard veterans with unpleasant smiles) can look forward to one of the bloodiest battlefield deaths imaginable, as their life pours out through the uncauterised, mangled stump of flesh that remains in place of a whole limb.
没有武器能像链锯剑那般切开皮肉骨骼，同样的，也没有创口会造成链锯剑伤那样的出血效果。被这种武器夺去手臂或大腿（帝国卫队的老兵通常会称之为“肢解”，并在说话时露出不怀好意的微笑）的敌人能预料到：自己将经历可想象的最为血腥战场死法之一，生命力会从他们未被灼烧消毒且受损严重的残肢处喷涌而出。
