HH1节译：恐怖武器

It is of note that the Death Guard under Monarion quickly became associated with the use of alchem and radiation weaponry to a greater extent than any other Legion, further darkening their reputation with their battle-brothers. Simply put, the use of toxic gas, crawl-burning Phosphex and contaminated rad-shells did not rankle their Legions honour as it did for some, while Mortarion himself was a master of such weapons and student of the most horrific arts of war, and had no compunction in their use against any that threatened humanity. Furthermore while Space Marine physiology was engineered to be resilient to such poisons and taints, the Death Guard were more so. Exposure to a pathogen or toxin that would kill an unprotected human in seconds might only inconvenience or impair a member of the Legiones Astartes, but to a Death Guard, it often did nothing at all. This led the XIVth Legion to be more and more frequently deployed into battle in warzones where hellish and lethal conditions—be they atomic, bacteriological or chemical in nature—were present, and in which they would then excel. The Great Crusade was, after all, launched to conquer worlds not destroy them, unless there was no alternative, but in such warzones, already hopelessly contaminated and unsuited for human life, the usual caveats and protocols restricting the use of contaminate weapons by the Emperor's command did not often apply. This resulted in a kind of self-fulfilling fate for the Legion, as they were ever more associated with the most nightmarish of wars and in them the use of the most terrible weapons.

值得注意的是，相比于其他任何军团，莫塔里安指挥下的死亡军团对于炼金学和辐射武器的使用到达了一个更大的范围，这让他们的名声在战斗兄弟间变得更为黑暗。简单来说，使用毒气、火焰会四处蔓延的磷火炸弹和污染环境的辐射炮弹并不会让死亡守卫军团像某些军团那样荣誉受损，同时莫塔里安本人也是使用此类武器的大师，以及最为恐怖的战术的研习者，而且他对使用此类武器对付那些威胁到人类的敌人的作法毫无愧意。另外，星际战士们都接受过了生理改造，获得了对于辐射和（有毒）污染的抗性，而死亡守卫们的抗性尤为强悍。当暴露在能于数秒内杀死一名无防护凡人的病原体或毒素中时，（一般的）阿斯塔特军团战士可能只会感到不适或受到损伤，但对死亡守卫军团战士们而言，这通常不会造成任何损害。这导致第十四军团被越来越频繁地派往那些有着地狱般致命环境的战场进行战斗——无论这些战场的自然环境中是充满原子辐射、存在危险细菌的还是遍布化学毒素，而他们之后也将会擅长在此类战场上作战。毕竟，帝皇发动大远征是为了征服世界而不是摧毁它们，除非别无选择，但在这些已经被严重污染且不适合人类生存的战区中，帝皇所下达关于限制使用有毒污染武器的警告和协议并不经常适用。这就让死亡守卫军团陷入了一种自我应验式的宿命：他们越是陷入到最为恐怖的战争中，就越是在战争中使用最为可怕的武器。

A timbre of horror and charnel taint seemed to adhere to the Death Guard then, long before the Heresy was born, and they came to be to some extent shunned and suspected by their fellow Legions in a way the Dusk Raiders bad never been, although in truth how much this was to do with their sinister Primarch rather than the Legion itself is debatable. Mortarion himself kept little company with his fellow Primarchs, save for Horus and Curze upon occasion beings perhaps in some way more likened to himself than the rest, and by others such as Perturabo and Lion El'jonson he was actively shunned. It is said by some sources that long before he actively betrayed his second father, Mortarion and his Death Guard came under suspicion to the extent that watchful Corax and the resolute Guilliman had separately brought their misgivings to the Emperor in person as to both the Death Guard's operations and just where its macabre and secretive masters loyalties lay; If this is true then the Emperor dismissed their concerns as unfounded, and in this he was tragically mistaken and the dark destiny of the XIVth Legion and its Primarch prefigured.

在大叛乱爆发很久之前，死亡守卫们身上似乎就弥漫着一股恐怖和阴森腐坏的气息。他们在某种程度上受到了其他军团的排斥和怀疑，而这是他们在黄昏突袭者时期从未经历过的，但事实上，这种现象在多大程度上与他们邪恶的原体有关，又在多大程度上与军团本身相关，是一个有待商榷的问题。除了偶尔与荷鲁斯和科兹交往，莫塔利安本人很少和自己的其他兄弟们为伍——也许在众兄弟中，相比之下，牧狼之神和午夜幽魂在某种程度上与死亡之主更为类似；而对于佩图拉博和莱昂 艾尔庄森之类的其他人，莫塔里安则是极力回避。某些资料声称：在莫塔里安与死亡守卫军团主动背叛帝皇很久之前，他们就在某种程度上受到了怀疑，警惕的克拉克斯和意志坚决的基里曼就曾分别上疏帝皇本人，表达自己对于死亡守卫军团的所作所为，以及第十四军团那位神秘且恐怖的主宰者——莫塔里安所忠诚对象的疑虑；如果这是真的，那么帝皇就是忽视他们的担忧，认为这是毫无根据的。人类之主在这一点上悲剧性地犯了错误，（因为）第十四军团及其原体的黑暗命运已经被预示了。