"Damn it, after all that, it's still like this!"
As the elevator ascended, Titus couldn't help but punch the railing in front of him.
"Titus, don't keep us in the dark," Gadriel said with a frown.
"It has nothing to do with you."
"You blame Captain Acheran for concealing information about the Aurora, but you're doing the same to us."
"I paid the price for being loose-lipped." Titus said coldly, seemingly recalling some past events.
"So you don't trust us?" Gadriel finally voiced the doubt that had been nagging him.
"Titus, calm down, unless you want to incur the wrath of the Chaplain." Chairon promptly interrupted their conversation.
Suddenly, the elevator fell silent.
"We are all fighting for the Imperium and the Emperor; just focus on the task at hand." Seeing the situation was amiss, Lieutenant Marcus Aurelius couldn't help but say a few words.
Titus turned to look at Marcus; for some reason, a voice in his mind was guiding him to reveal everything. The first time he met Marcus, it was this voice that guided him to accept the other party. And this voice was extremely subtle, only subconsciously influencing Titus's actions. Even Titus himself didn't realize he was being influenced.
"Psychic disaster." After taking a deep breath, Titus uttered the phrase he held dear to his heart.
"I once fought Orks on a planet called Graia to protect the psychic disaster weapon system designed by the Adeptus Mechanicus. An Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos, manipulated by the Chaos Gods, deceived us, making us believe that the psychic disaster could destroy the invading greenskin Orks. But in the end, when the psychic disaster activated, it only opened a Warp Rift, summoning the Chaos Gods."
Seeing that Titus was finally willing to reveal some past information, Chairon and Gadriel immediately listened intently. However, Lieutenant Marcus Aurelius, standing in the corner of the elevator, had a bewildered expression behind his helmet.
No, buddy? I just stood up to mediate for you guys, so why are you self-destructing??? This wasn't in the original game's plot!!!
Just as Marcus was utterly bewildered by Titus's self-destruction, Titus continued: "The energy source used by the Aurora Facility is the energy source of the psychic disaster weapon system. I had destroyed it in the past, but those reckless fools from the Adeptus Mechanicus repaired it again. In any case, there's a high probability that the Aurora Facility will summon the Chaos Gods once activated. We must be prepared."
After listening to Titus's account, Chairon immediately said: "If what you say is true, why would Captain Acheran still insist on activating the Aurora Facility?"
Gadriel immediately reacted and explained: "Because this is a gamble, and an experiment; the Imperial forces within the Recidious System can no longer repel the endless Tyranids, so they can only go all out and gamble that the Aurora Facility can eliminate the Tyranids. Even if the Chaos Gods are truly summoned afterward, the Imperium will have the energy to deal with them."
"But the premise for all of this is that the Aurora Facility can truly eliminate the Tyranids, otherwise the Imperium will only be caught in a two-front war, struggling to cope." Titus voiced the situation he had been worrying about.
In the corner of the elevator, Marcus finally awoke from his bewildered state. Before this, he had been careful not to do anything that would affect the original game's plot development. And now, Titus's sudden self-destruction directly disrupted Marcus's planned rhythm. Logically speaking, he had only said two insignificant sentences, so how could it cause such a significant deviation in the plot?
Almost instantly, Marcus thought of someone.
"Could it be the invisible hand of the Emprah at work?"
After hesitating for a moment, Marcus, standing in the corner, spoke up: "So, are we still going to look for Morias Leuze? He should be the one who activates the Aurora Facility; once he returns, Captain Acheran should order the activation of the Aurora Facility."
"That's not something we should be considering, Lieutenant Marcus Aurelius; since Captain Acheran made the decision, it means other Commanders in the Imperial fleet also participated in the discussion; this is their unified decision." Titus looked at Marcus and said helplessly.
Upon hearing Titus's reply, Marcus's hanging heart temporarily settled. Although in the original game, Titus ultimately carried out Acheran's mission, Marcus was still a little worried that Titus might act impulsively and send Morias Leuze to meet the Omnissiah ahead of schedule. That way, he wouldn't be able to access the psychic disaster energy source as planned, let alone recover it.
"Perhaps the Adeptus Mechanicus has improved the Aurora Facility and it won't summon the Chaos Gods anymore?" Gadriel couldn't help but say. If the Aurora Facility could truly achieve its intended effect, then Imperial casualties in the Recidious System would be greatly reduced.
"Chaos invasions are always without warning; regardless of the outcome, we must be prepared to deal with the Chaos Gods." Titus, who had dealt with Chaos many times, warned.
As they spoke, the elevator had already reached the Severian's hangar. Before boarding the thunderhawk to the Central Hive on Avarax, everyone first went to Magos Galio to resupply weapons and ammunition. Furthermore, Marcus also managed to get some special equipment from Galio.
Although Marcus was a veteran player of the original game, Astartes 2 itself focused on PVE content. So Marcus had only played through the campaign twice and only had a general understanding of the plot. More detailed information, such as which special units or BOSS units would appear in which room, was already blurry in his memory.
But there was one thing Marcus remembered very clearly: in the upcoming operation, Titus and the others would encounter the Enhanced Neurothrope(zoanthrope), an extremely troublesome BOSS-level unit. That was a BOSS-level unit far more troublesome than the Exocrine; its psychic power far exceeded that of a neurothrope. Moreover, the Zoanthrope usually commanded a large number of Tyranid Warriors and lower-level Tyranid, and one wrong move could lead to being surrounded. Before transmigrating, Marcus had died at the hands of this guy at least a dozen times, most of which were from being ganged up on.
With the precedent of the Exocrine, Marcus knew that the Zoanthrope's difficulty might exceed his expectations. Therefore, he had preemptively acquired two melta bombs from Magos Galio. And he replaced the plasma pistol in his hand with a version that had a longer charge time and greater power. However, in contrast, the risk of explosion also increased.