[Unlocked Codex: Exocrine]
The moment the Exocrine was killed, the tension that had been gripping Marcus finally eased.
The Psychic Flying Knives, which had been harvesting the lives of Hormagaunts and Gun Worms in the hall, also lost their power and fell to the ground.
Marcus, standing in place, staggered two steps, then held his head and found a pile of rubble to lean against.
The side effects of forcibly driving his Mind Power were now violently assaulting him.
It was as if someone was stirring Marcus's brain with a mixer at full throttle; waves of intense pain surged like a tide.
Suddenly, Marcus felt a warm sensation in his nose.
Reaching up, he found a significant amount of blood flowing from his nostrils.
Fortunately, Marcus's superhuman physique, enhanced twice, was now taking effect.
After just a few minutes, the severe headache slowly subsided, and the minor wounds on his body had already healed completely.
Just as Marcus was about to prop himself up with his Hellgun, a broad, armored hand reached out to him and pulled him up.
"Keep moving forward. The data center isn't far ahead."
After pulling Marcus up, Titus said briefly.
After a short rest, everyone left the crumbling Central Hub Hall and entered the dark passage behind the hall.
Fortunately, after the intense battle just now, there were no Tyranid attacks for a long stretch of the road ahead.
After traveling some distance, dozens of mechanical servitor corpses suddenly fell from an inverted cargo container above their heads.
These servitors' bodies were generally covered in large patches of blood, and their limbs seemed to have been twisted in some way.
Even Gadriel, who usually didn't care much about mortal lives, found it somewhat unbearable.
"Why are the Adeptus Mechanicus guys consuming so many human lives? What research are they conducting, exactly?"
Chairon sneered.
"I'm not surprised by this at all. The Adeptus Mechanicus is happy to turn themselves into monsters, and they're just as keen on turning others into monsters."
Strictly speaking, the Adeptus Mechanicus is not a subordinate force of the Imperium of Man; they are merely allies.
Over the past tens of thousands of years, the Adeptus Mechanicus has secretly conducted many researches behind the Empire's back, often leading to great disasters.
And the Astartes often play the role of cleaning up their messes.
This is also why many Astartes Chapters do not particularly like the Adeptus Mechanicus.
After continuing for some distance, opening several sealed doors, and ascending several hundred meters by elevator.
Everyone finally arrived at their target destination for this operation—the data center.
Next to the data center, there was also a huge, still-operating hyper-combustion reactor, radiating high temperatures.
"Why would the Adeptus Mechanicus put the data center next to a hyper-combustion reactor? Aren't they afraid all this important data will be blown to smithereens?"
Marcus couldn't help but complain.
"Generally speaking, data for such important facilities has backups. Great Sage Belisarius Cawl had one, but it was damaged during the Thunderhawk crash.
Moreover, with the Adeptus Mechanicus's routine maintenance, the reactor generally won't have any major problems.
Only when the facility is completely overrun, like the current situation, does the reactor risk exploding.
At that point, the Adeptus Mechanicus wouldn't mind unleashing the omnissiah's wrath upon the enemy."
Titus, familiar with the Adeptus Mechanicus's ways, explained as he led everyone forward.
Chairon looked at the hyper-combustion reactor not far away and said:
"But once the reactor melts down, this entire facility will collapse. Tens of thousands of tons of steel will directly crash into the Hive City from ten thousand meters up, which would be a catastrophe. We need to shut down the reactor after we get the data."
With no Tyranid attacks along the way, everyone quickly reached a Cogitator access terminal.
Titus stepped forward, skillfully lit the incense and candles, and awakened the machine spirit within the Cogitator.
As the screen lit up, Titus stated his identity.
"Sergeant Titus, Second Company, Ultramarines."
"Enter your command."
"Locate Morias Leuze."
The Cogitator system's screen flashed red.
"Access denied."
Titus took out the access key Acheran had given him and inserted it into the terminal port.
"Access ritual approved. Locating."
The Cogitator terminal screen flashed green, and after a brief localization, the machine spirit reported Morias Leuze's current location.
"Avarax…
Central Hive…
Sassen Temple…"
Not only that, but the screen also indicated Morias Leuze's current vital signs, showing that he was still alive.
Now that his location had been pinpointed, Chairon prepared to call for a Thunderhawk for extraction.
"Wait," Titus suddenly interjected.
Certain information on the Cogitator screen had caught his attention.
"Open file: aurora Project."
"Registering request intent."
A complex data stream flashed by, and several words immediately drew Titus's gaze.
"Open file: Re-establish Sequence."
At this point, Gadriel, standing nearby, looked at Titus and reminded him, "Brother, those are classified files."
However, Titus did not stop scanning the files.
Soon, an icon popped up on the Cogitator screen.
And what was on it, Titus would never forget in his life.
"psychic disaster energy source."
Next to it, the Adeptus Mechanicus's entire process of recovering the psychic disaster energy source fragments from Glaia and restoring them was meticulously detailed.
Seeing this, even Titus couldn't help but curse at those oil-soaked tech-priests.
Titus himself had been imprisoned in the Holy Hammer Chapter's Inquisitorial stasis field for over a century because of this very thing, and he had missed the opportunity to become the next Chapter Master of the Ultramarines.
And now, seeing that the Adeptus Mechanicus had once again foolishly repaired this thing, Titus immediately became furious.
"It should have been destroyed! Those damned Adeptus Mechanicus!"
Titus barely managed to calm his anger slightly and continued to question the machine spirit.
"Display the artifact's current location."
Before the machine spirit could reply, the Cogitator screen flashed with intense red light, and a line of huge red text filled the entire screen.
"Warning: Hyper-combustion reactor unstable, imminent meltdown!"
Immediately afterward, everyone felt a violent tremor.
They instantly looked at the hyper-combustion reactor's location and discovered that a large group of Tyranid, appearing from unknown places, were attacking the hyper-combustion reactor.
Cannon fodder units like Hormagaunts and Gun Worms, under the command of a Tyranid Warrior, were throwing their flesh and blood bodies at the reactor core.