Much to the Imperium’s disgust, the Tau are constantly improving their technology. Battlesuits, weaponry and even the simplest mechanical components are constantly being revised and reappraised. For the Tau, there is no pinnacle of perfection, only brief plateaus of reflection before the quest for improvement leads them steeply upwards once more. Indeed, the Tau language does not contain a word for ‘completion’ – at least, not in the same sense that humans understand it.

鈦星人在不斷提升自己的科技，這令人類帝國對其極為厭惡。戰(zhàn)斗服，武器，甚至是最簡單的機械部件都在被鈦星人不斷修改和重新評估。對鈦星人而言，完美的至臻狀態(tài)是不存在的，只存在（用于）反思的短暫穩(wěn)定期，然后便是追求改進的階段——這令它們（的技術(shù)水平）再度陡然提升。事實上，鈦星人的語言中都沒有“完成，結(jié)束”這類詞匯——至少與人類所理解的含義并不相同。

The rail rifle is an excellent case in point. Rail technology has been crucial to the Fire caste’s mission since before the Second Sphere Expansion, providing devastating anti-armour weaponry for XV88 Broadside teams and Hammerhead Gunships. The theory behind the technology is simple enough: a linear accelerator propels a solid shot at hypervelocity, delivering a high-energy impact with impressive accuracy. Even before the First Sphere Expansion had drawn to a close, Earth caste scientists turned their efforts to further refining rail technology, the goal being to create a version compact and durable enough for use by a Fire caste infantryman. Thus did the development of the rail rifle begin.

磁軌步槍就是一個極好的例子。早在第二次天穹擴張之前，磁軌技術(shù)對于火氏族（完成）的任務(wù)便是至關(guān)重要的，它為XV88炮擊戰(zhàn)斗服小隊和錘頭鯊炮艇提供了毀滅性的反裝甲武器。這種技術(shù)背后的原理非常簡單：用一臺線性加速器以超高速度推動固態(tài)子彈，以驚人的準確度進行高能撞擊。哪怕在第一次天穹擴張接近尾聲之前，土氏族的科學(xué)家們便在盡力改進磁軌科技，其目標是要創(chuàng)造出某種緊湊且輕便到足以讓火氏族步兵單人使用的武器。磁軌步槍的開發(fā)便是由此開始。

Success was not immediately forthcoming. Early rail weapons required substantial shielding in order to avoid flooding their Hammerheads and battlesuits with harmful levels of radiation. These shields were inevitably formed of super-dense metal alloys, and contributed greatly to the mass of the weapon. Even when the payload of the prototype rail rifle was reduced, allowing a comparable reduction in power requirements, the weapon was too heavy to be carried by fewer than three Fire Warriors, and was therefore relegated to seldom-used defensive emplacements.

但成功也并非是即刻到來的。早期的磁軌武器需要（安裝）大量的屏蔽盾，以避免錘頭鯊炮艇和戰(zhàn)斗服被有害水平的輻射所淹沒。這些屏蔽盾必然是由極度致密的合金鑄造成，并大幅度增加了武器重量。盡管磁軌步槍原型機減少了有效荷載，以此相應(yīng)減少了能量需求，但這種武器仍然過于沉重，至少三名火戰(zhàn)士才能將其抬動，也因此而被發(fā)配去了那些幾乎從不被使用的防御炮位。

Progress was slow for many years. The Earth caste reduced the rail rifle’s bulk by increments, but never by enough to meet their stated objective. Nevertheless, their labours were not wasted, as many of these refinements were retro-fitted onto existing Hammerhead and Broadside railguns. Even though the goal of a shas’la-portable rail rifle was still some way off, rail technology as a whole was becoming more compact, more accurate and cheaper to produce with every year that passed.

在很多年的時間中，研發(fā)進程都是緩慢的。土氏族逐漸縮減了磁軌步槍的體積，但始終不足以達到既定目標。但無論如何，他們的努力并未白費，許多改進措施都被用于翻新現(xiàn)存錘頭鯊與炮擊戰(zhàn)斗服的磁軌炮。盡管離實現(xiàn)創(chuàng)造出沙司’拉（單人）便攜式磁軌步槍的目標還有一段距離，但磁軌技術(shù)在整體上正變得愈發(fā)小型緊湊化，隨著時間逐年過去，磁軌武器變得更加精準，生產(chǎn)成本也變得更低。

The breakthrough finally came in the Second Sphere Expansion, during the campaign known to the Imperium as the Damocles Gulf Crusade. Here, the Tau were faced with better-equipped enemy than any they had faced before, and the resulting conflict spurred unprecedented advancement in all fields of scientific endeavour. Amongst the developments was a new ceramic, named or’es’var – literally ‘mighty bulwark’. Originally conceived as an ablative hull material to counteract the devastating effects of the Imperium’s fleet-borne nova cannons, the material was soon discovered to have unparalleled radiation absorption across a wide spectrum – and better than that, it was light, almost weightless.

突破最終在第二次天穹擴張中到來，成果獲取于被人類稱為“達摩克利斯深淵遠征”的戰(zhàn)役期間。在這場戰(zhàn)爭中，鈦星人所面對的敵人比以往任何對手都更為裝備精良，由此產(chǎn)生的沖突促使其在所有科學(xué)領(lǐng)域都取得了前所未有的進步。這些發(fā)展成果中就包括某種新型陶瓷材料，其被命名為奧爾’艾斯’瓦爾——字面意思上的“強硬壁壘”。鈦星人對其最初的設(shè)想是用作船體燒蝕材料，用于抵消人類帝國艦載新星炮的毀滅性（殺傷）效果，但他們很快發(fā)現(xiàn)，這種材料在寬光譜上具有無與倫比的輻射吸收能力，而且它質(zhì)量很輕，幾乎就是毫無重量。

With the way forward finally revealed, the Earth caste presented the Fire caste with the first prototype rail rifles. At first, the relatively slow rate of fire, the still-imposing bulk of the weapon and the then unstable targeting mechanism did not meet the stringent?demands of the Ethereal and Fire castes. Nevertheless, the conflict with the Imperium presented a wealth of opportunity for improvement. At last, Fire caste command cleared the weapon for use in Pathfinder vanguard and reconnaissance teams. Earth caste fabrication plants were swiftly re-tasked, and the first mass-produced rail rifles began to enter military service. This iteration of the rail rifle could not punch through a battle tank’s armour so effectively as the larger railguns, but it made a mockery of anything up to and including XV88 Broadside armour.

隨著前進道路最終被揭示，土氏族向火氏族展示了第一批磁軌步槍原型機。最初，這些武器相對較低的射速、仍舊龐大的體積和尚不穩(wěn)定的瞄準機件還滿足不了以太和火氏族的嚴格要求。不過，與人類帝國的沖突為其提供了大量進行改進提升的機會。最終，火氏族指揮部正式批準尋路者先鋒和偵查小隊使用此類武器。土氏族制造廠很快被重新分配任務(wù)，首批量產(chǎn)型磁軌步槍開始用于軍事行動。新一代的磁軌步槍擊穿戰(zhàn)斗坦克裝甲的效率和更大型的磁軌炮相當，但它（的體積重量）嘲弄了至今為止的其他所有磁軌武器，甚至也包括XV88炮擊戰(zhàn)斗服。

Now, centuries later, the rail rifle is a common sight in Pathfinder teams, though it has not yet fully supplanted the pulse carbine. Indeed, Fire caste doctrine dictates that rail rifles never be fielded to the exclusion of all other weaponry. Even though the current models are considerably more reliable than the initial prototypes, they are still prone to occasional misfires or targeting system failures. These mishaps occur rarely – perhaps once in ten thousand firings – but until this minor unreliability is rectified, the Fire caste will consider the rail rifle an augmentation to Pathfinder teams, rather than a mainstay weapon.

在數(shù)個世紀之后的現(xiàn)在，盡管磁軌步槍還未能完全取代脈沖卡賓槍，但也是尋路者小隊中的常見武器。事實上，火氏族的信條規(guī)定：決不能只使用磁軌步槍，而將其他所有武器排除在外。盡管目前的磁軌槍型號比最初的原型機要可靠得多，但它們?nèi)匀灰子谂紶柊l(fā)生走火誤射或瞄準系統(tǒng)故障。這種意外事故很罕見——或許在一萬次開火中才會出現(xiàn)一次，但是在這類微小的不可靠性問題被糾正之前，火氏族仍會認為磁軌步槍只是尋路者小隊的增強型裝備，而非主力武器。

Whilst the rail rifle officially remains exclusive to Pathfinder teams, there are persistent rumours that more compact versions of the weapon are currently being trialled by Fire Warrior cadres on the Tau Empire’s eastern fringe. It is difficult to say whether there is any truth to these tales, though it is certainly the Earth caste’s avowed intent to oversee further refinement to the weapon. Their next goal is to evolve the rail rifle to a point where its killing power is comparable with its larger, Broadside-mounted cousins. From there, who can say where the Earth caste’s ingenuity will lead?

雖然在官方說法中，磁軌步槍是尋路者小隊的專用武器，但一直有傳言稱：在鈦帝國東部邊境處，火戰(zhàn)士獵核們目前正在測試某種更為緊湊的磁軌步槍。很難說這些故事是否真實，但很確定的一點是：土氏族公開宣稱要監(jiān)督對于此種武器的進一步改進。他們的下一個目標是發(fā)展改進磁軌步槍，令其殺傷力能媲美它們那些安裝在炮擊戰(zhàn)斗服上的更大型表親。誰又知道土氏族的才智能將這種武器的發(fā)展領(lǐng)向何方呢？