The Bow Wave of Fate

命運(yùn)的艏波

As the seas drain at the approach of a tsunami, so an event of such import as the betrayal of the Calth Conjunction was foreshadowed by numerous portents, few of which were noted at the time but which in retrospect are telling of its cataclysmic scale. Vox operators, for example, reported abnormal interference on a wide spectrum of channels, including distant chanting, eerie whispering and intermittent screams. Tragically, the Ultramarines had followed the Edict of Nikaea and relegated their Librarians to the line, and many of these individuals reponed later that they had experienced a range of inexplicable effects, including auditory and visual aberrations, and profound feelings of impending horror. Only in the aftermath of the Battle of Calth would the Ultramarines rescind the edict, in recognition of the manifest necessity of maintaining a cadre of warriors who could warn of the approach of such dire events.

就像海水會(huì)在海嘯逼近時(shí)（后退）排空那樣，在如同考斯集結(jié)地的背叛這般重大的事件發(fā)生之前，也會(huì)出現(xiàn)諸多預(yù)兆；雖然在當(dāng)時(shí)，這些現(xiàn)象中只有極少數(shù)會(huì)被注意到，但當(dāng)我們回想起來(lái)，便知曉其都說(shuō)明了考斯事件的災(zāi)難性規(guī)模。例如，音頻通訊器操作員們就報(bào)告稱，某條廣譜通信頻道上出現(xiàn)了異常干擾，其中的雜音包括遙遠(yuǎn)的誦經(jīng)聲、詭異的低語(yǔ)聲和斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的嚎叫聲。但悲劇的是，極限戰(zhàn)士們已經(jīng)遵守了尼凱亞法令，將智庫(kù)們?nèi)甲筮w至前線部隊(duì)；其中的很多人之后都回憶稱，自己受到了一系列無(wú)法解釋的影響，包括視覺(jué)聽(tīng)覺(jué)失?，F(xiàn)象，以及對(duì)于恐怖事件即將發(fā)生的深切感覺(jué)。但直到考斯之戰(zhàn)結(jié)束后，極限戰(zhàn)士們才會(huì)廢除法令，他們承認(rèn)了保有一支智庫(kù)隊(duì)伍的明顯必要性——后者能對(duì)此類可怕事件的到來(lái)發(fā)出警告。

The Warp Flasks

亞空間之瓶

For the duration of the Calth war, the Loyalist formations were plagued by an inability to communicate between themselves. The destruction of both key orbital and surface facilities in the opening stages of the attack had utterly destroyed the vox network that had once allowed instantaneous communication between Imperial units anywhere on the surface of Calth or even in high orbit. Short range lowband vox transmissions were garbled beyond recognition by the worsening solar interference and the bizarre interruption of distant chanting and sibilant whispers. Despite this, the Word Bearers seem to have maintained the cohesion of their forces, displaying few signs that they experienced the same problems which bedevilled the Ultramarines.

在考斯之戰(zhàn)期間，忠誠(chéng)派編隊(duì)們飽受軍團(tuán)內(nèi)部無(wú)法通訊這一問(wèn)題的掣肘。在進(jìn)攻的開(kāi)始階段，懷言者便破壞了（考斯）軌道與地表上的關(guān)鍵設(shè)施，此舉徹底摧毀了（當(dāng)?shù)氐模┮纛l通訊網(wǎng)絡(luò)——這套系統(tǒng)曾允許位于考斯地表，甚至是高空軌道上任意地點(diǎn)的帝國(guó)部隊(duì)們之間進(jìn)行即時(shí)通訊。而由于持續(xù)加劇的恒星（活動(dòng)）干擾，以及遙遠(yuǎn)誦經(jīng)聲與嘶嘶低語(yǔ)聲所造成的詭異中斷，短距離低頻段語(yǔ)音通訊也混亂到無(wú)法被辯識(shí)。但盡管如此，懷言者的部隊(duì)似乎仍保持著連貫性，幾乎沒(méi)有跡象表明他們經(jīng)歷了困擾著極限戰(zhàn)士的相同問(wèn)題。

Artefacts recovered from Calth suggest they employed a device that operated by transmitting communications through the Warp, thus bypassing the interference which ruined more conventional communications devices. The few accounts of those artefacts recovered from the archives of the Word Bearers hint at their operation; most tellingly in fragments of almost ritualistic verse that speak of enslaved symbiotic warp entities and ritualistic psychic disciplines that predate the arrival of the Imperium on Colchis.

那些從考斯回收的制品表明：懷言者們使用了一種通過(guò)亞空間傳輸通訊信息的裝置，由此避免了那種破壞傳統(tǒng)通信設(shè)備的干擾。帝國(guó)從懷言者的檔案庫(kù)中回收了極少數(shù)關(guān)于此類制品的報(bào)告，這些資料暗示了其運(yùn)作機(jī)能；最能說(shuō)明問(wèn)題的是某些近乎儀式性的詩(shī)歌片段，其中提及了被奴役的亞空間共生實(shí)體，以及儀式性的精神訓(xùn)練，這些內(nèi)容起源于人類帝國(guó)到達(dá)科爾奇斯之前的歲月中。