hh3节译：欺诈之色

The Colour of Deceit

The question of the Alpha Legion's livery and heraldry of arms is also a matter of some contention in the study of this Traitor Legions history. It is the case that over the centuries-long conflict of the Great Crusade, all of the grey-clad Legions that first departed Terra changed in appearance to some degree —some very dramatically so— as the consequences of the long war and campaigning took their toll, and most tellingly after they were reunited with their Primarchs. It is also the case that given that an armed force such as a Space Marine Legion numbers in the tens of thousands strong and is often scattered across the vast distances of interstellar void, true uniformity or conformity of livery and appearance is impossible, even for a Legion so stratified and structured as perhaps the Ultramarines or the Iron Warriors.

在关于阿尔法这个叛徒军团的研究中，他们的动力甲配色和武器装备上的纹章是个备受争论的话题。在大远征数个世纪的冲突中，那些最早出发在泰拉，身着灰色动力甲的阿斯塔特军团们在某种程度上改变了自己的外表，某些（甚至）非常显著——这是漫长的战争对他们造成伤亡后的结果，这种现象在军团与原体团聚之后最为明显。我们也要考虑到：星际战士军团人数有数万之众，而且他们通常也是分散在群星虚空中的广阔区域，彼此距离遥远，真的要求他们的外表和标志保持一致是不可能的，哪怕对于诸如极限战士和钢铁勇士这般等级化和结构化的军团而言也是如此。

These factors, however, do not account for the wide variance displayed by the Alpha Legion, and instead it is likely more deliberate misdirection and secrecy plays its part. Variously and without recourse to time period or progression, the Alpha Legion has been witnessed in liveries of pale grey, gleaming steel, veridian, dull bronze, sable, indigo, amaranth and azure blue——both in main and combination. It has been variously recorded as displaying Principia Belicosa standardised rank and unit signifiers, elaborate stylised reptilian iconography of unknown meaning, and the complex logos-teknika forms favoured by the Emperor-shattered Pan pacific Empire on Ancient Terra. It has also gone into battle without emblems or markings of any kind; a faceless, anonymous army of killers without distinction or division in its ranks.

但是这些因素并不能解释阿尔法军团外表与标志的大量变化，相反，更有可能是他们的故意误导和保密手段在起作用。在各个时间段或进程中，人们曾目击到阿尔法军团使用过浅灰色、亮钢色、绿色、暗青铜色、黑色、靛蓝色、紫红色和天蓝色等多种配色——既有单一色调的情况，也有彼此组合的情况。各种各样的记录表明：阿尔法军团展示出过基础军典的标准化部队与单位能指符号，意义不明的精心设计的爬行动物肖像符号，以及古老泰拉上被帝皇毁灭的泛太平洋帝国所偏好的复杂的理性—技术形式图案。阿尔法军团在战斗中也没有任何种类的徽章或标记;他们没有区别和分歧，是一支身份不明的杀手之军。

If any deeper meaning is held by these changes and masquerades beyond their use to confuse the enemy and confound those who would study the Legion and know its ways, one of the most outlandish and disturbing explanations is that not even the Alpha Legion itself knew its true shape and form. This theory, postulated since the Horus Heresy, contends that only Alpharius knew the true extent of his Legion and its domains, its strength and its reach, and perhaps then even he knew it only imperfectly. By this token the Alpha Legion had become unknowable; a self-sustaining, selfreplicating force, a weapon that had transcended the flesh of the Legionaries that made it up and the hand that wielded it. It would be a force whose limits and extent would forever be unknown, even unto itself, and therefore ultimately unstoppable as no enemy or influence could ever hope to fully infiltrate or overcome it from within.

如果说这些变化和伪装除了用于迷惑敌人、困扰那些将会了解阿尔法军团并知晓他们的战争之道以外，还有哪些更深刻的含义的话，那最古怪和令人不安的解释之一就是：甚至阿尔法军团本身都不知道它的真实形状和形式。这种理论是自从荷鲁斯叛乱时期便被提出的假设，它认为只有阿尔法瑞斯本人才知道阿尔法军团及其封疆的真实大小和范围，而且甚至可能原体本人都不是完全了解其中的情况。这样一来，阿尔法军团就是一支不为人（具体所）知的军团;它是一支自给自足又自我复制的部队，是一种超越了构成他的军团战士们和其掌控者的武器。这是一支（自身）限制和实力范围永远不会为人所知的部队，甚至对其自身也是如此，因此阿尔法军团最终是无法被阻挡的，因为没有任何敌人或势力能够从内部完全渗透或克服他们。

It was and is indeed the case, that even before the Horus Heresy, entire generations of Alpha Legion warriors could have been trained, fought and died in ignorance of their own Legion's wider operations, purposes and goals. Entire Expeditionary fleets could have operated never knowing the existence of mirror images of themselves, each believing that they were the only Alpha Legion bearing that name. The implications of such a colossal deceit are staggering, if true.

这曾是事实，而且现在亦然：甚至早在荷鲁斯叛乱之前，就有整整数代阿尔法军团战士可以在不知道自己军团更宏大行动、目的和目标的情况下受训、战斗和牺牲。整整数支远征探索舰队可以在豪不知晓自己镜像（兄弟们）存在的情况下运作，每支部队都认为自己就是身负阿尔法军团之名的阿斯塔特军团。倘若一切属实，那么这一巨大骗局的影响是惊人的。