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Chapter 54 - Beheading

An hour later, the thunderhawk gunship arrived in the Severian's hangar.

During this time, Leuze had clearly understood the death of Great Sage Nochik and the responsibility he would have to bear afterward—activating the Aurora Facility. Furthermore, Chairon and Gadriel also learned from Leuze that Titus was the Company Captain of the Second Company a hundred years ago. Shocked, they were also very curious as to why a Company Captain would disappear for a hundred years and serve in the Deathwatch, only to return recently and be demoted to Company Sergeant.

After a brief rest, Titus and the others headed to the bridge, preparing to report to Acheran. As for Marcus, he was stopped by an Astartes.

"The Battle Group Chaplain wants to see you."

Marcus was not surprised. He was already a suspect, and now that Chaos traitors had appeared in the star system, it was only natural for Leandros to want to see him.

Nodding, Marcus followed the Astartes to a nearby prayer room.

As soon as he entered the prayer room, Marcus saw Leandros giving a pre-battle speech and blessing to a group of Astartes. Marcus stood silently to the side.

"With what shall we serve Him?"

"With our bodies, our blood, and our burning wrath!"

Beneath the Emperor's idol, the kneeling Astartes responded in unison.

"Why do we serve Him?"

"Because He is the Light of Humanity; in a galaxy filled with deceit and terror, He represents the only truth! All who defy His will shall be torn to shreds!"

"How shall we serve Him?"

"Crush the enemy's armies, burn the unclean enemy to ashes! Make the filthy xenomorphs and shameful traitors disappear from the world!"

"In the Emperor's name!"

Leandros on the platform suddenly slammed his staff onto the ground. The Astartes below raised their arms and cheered.

"For the Imperium, for the Emperor, for Ultramar!"

"FOR THE EMPEROR!"

Even though Marcus wasn't particularly fond of this rhetoric, he still had to admit that Leandros, as a Battle Group Chaplain, possessed superb oratorical skills and fulfilled his responsibilities very well. He couldn't help but shout 'For the Emperor' himself.

The sermon ended, and more than a dozen Astartes left the prayer room in an orderly fashion. Marcus walked up to Leandros.

"Chaplain, you wanted to see me?"

Leandros turned his head to look at Marcus. "Lieutenant, according to the battle report, there are signs of heretical forces appearing throughout the Hive City."

"Yes, during our recent operation with Sergeant Titus, we encountered despicable traitors and..." He spat the word like venom. "Heretics!"

Leandros gazed at Marcus through his pale skull mask. "Describe everything you encountered, starting from when you met the heretics."

Marcus didn't hesitate, meticulously recounting everything that happened after entering the Department of Internal Affairs Building and encountering the heretics. This included the Exocrine and the Spore Mine disrupting the battlefield, only omitting the fact that he controlled the Tyranid warbeasts.

After listening to Marcus's account, Leandros was silent for a moment, then surprisingly turned to inquire about Titus's situation. "Did Sergeant Titus show any unusual behavior after approaching those blasphemous altars?"

Marcus understood; compared to himself, Titus was the one Leandros cared about most.

"Master Titus showed no abnormalities when he came into contact with those heretical creations. Brother Chairon, Sergeant Gadriel, and Sergeant Valerius, who were present, can all testify to this."

Upon hearing Marcus's answer, Leandros stopped speaking. Marcus also didn't know what this Chaplain was thinking. Even in the original game, Leandros's role wasn't extensive. No one knew what he had experienced to become a Battle Group Chaplain after betraying his Company Captain.

"Chaos has invaded the holy land of the Imperium. Tell me, Lieutenant, has the Great God-Emperor granted you any new revelations?" Leandros's expression was solemn as he looked at the Emperor's statue nearby and said in a deep voice.

After pondering for a moment, Marcus slowly spoke. "Not long ago, I vaguely felt some calls, urging me to stop the Chaos invasion." Marcus did not mention the second dream he had, but still revealed some information. "But I am not certain whether this is the will of the Emperor or a ploy of Chaos." Marcus also said honestly.

Leandros nodded: "Lieutenant, I need to conduct a new Chaos detection on you."

"As you command, Master."

Leandros was decisive in his actions and immediately held a brief detection ceremony there. Ten minutes later, the detection concluded. The result was still the same as before; there were no signs of Chaos corruption.

"Lieutenant, the Chaos Gods have invaded. You must fulfill the duty the Emperor has given you."

"Naturally, I will carry out the Emperor's will and slaughter all xenos and heretics." Marcus's tone was serious, and he thought to himself: "And incidentally, increase my bestiary entries and claim system rewards."

After leaving the prayer room, Marcus did not go to the bridge to meet up with Titus and the others, but instead went to Magos Galio's location.

According to the plot development, Titus would next go to the Starseer Relay Station, so that the Starseers could forcefully break through the Hive Mind's Warp shadow and the risk of demonic possession, and call for Calgar to come.

And in order to successfully reach the Starseer Relay Station, Titus would send two "chosen" squads, Talasa Squad and Veridian Squad. They would respectively carry out the mission of decapitating the Tyranid Hive Tyrant to temporarily disrupt the synaptic link of the Tyranid in the Central Hive and throw them into chaos, and the mission of eliminating the demon host and restoring the obstructed communication.

Marcus, on the other hand, set his sights on the mission to decapitate the Tyranid Hive Tyrant.

However, just thinking about this, Marcus couldn't help but complain. "Who gave Titus and Acheran such confidence to send only three people to eliminate a unit like a Tyranid Hive Tyrant? Was it Roboute Guilliman?"

In the original game, this plotline was made into PVE content, "Decapitation." It was also the most frequently played level by all players because of its short duration. The poor Tyranid Hive Tyrant would be killed tens of thousands of times a day by players. Before crossing over, Marcus was one of these level-grinding players; at least a hundred Tyranid Hive Tyrants had died by his hand.

In the original game, the Talasa Combat Squad first used bombs to collapse a giant statue, severely wounding the Tyranid Hive Tyrant, and only then successfully decapitated it. But now Marcus was in a real world, and although it was quite humorous to talk about logic in the Warhammer Universe, killing a Tyranid Hive Tyrant with just three Astartes was still incredibly difficult.

In order to obtain the Tyranid Hive Tyrant's bestiary entry and hatch a Tyrant Xenomorph, Marcus decided to take a gamble and join the Talasa Combat Squad to decapitate the Tyranid Hive Tyrant. And before that, he needed to go to Magos Galio to update his equipment.

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