Secret War: The Annihilation Plague (Part 2)

Chapter 2

Karmen fought the urge to roll her eyes and tore her attention from Attelus to Inquisitor Enandra. She knew almost everyone in the room besides Attelus could read her annoyance, but she hardly cared; she'd never been great at hiding her emotions; she had that in common with Attelus. Karmen bit her tongue; she wanted to tell him to get the frig over it; Elandria was dead and had been so for three years now. Elandria was now an enemy, and if he hesitated even for a millisecond...

During those six months on Omnartus, as Taryst waged that war against Brutis Bones and gangs, Karmen had been inside the minds of Attelus and Elandria many times. Attelus' attraction and growing affection towards Elandria was as unsubtle as it was annoying. Still, he also was slowly finding a strong friendship with the rest of his "squad" made of Taryst's direct employees Garrakson, Torris, Callague and Jarvus. Despite the constant drudgery and repetition of trying to find a way to track down Brutis Bones and the almost daily brutal skirmishes with Moody Hammers. Attelus had found the friendships he'd spent years looking for, although he only knew this deep in his subconscious, his crush on Elandria and misery of being a disposable pawn dominating his thoughts.

It was one of the reasons Karmen had asked Taryst to elevate him. An offer Attelus had refused. Despite how much she looked, though Karmen couldn't find the reason why Attelus was a mercenary as six years prior, she had tried to erase his memories of his traumatising time living in the ruins of Varander as an animalistic scavenger, then as a warrior killing Chaos patrols for their supplies so he wouldn't become an assassin but the historian he truly wished to be. She'd succeeded in erasing those memories, including their meeting and their fight against the enemy. Still, she couldn't find why the motivation to become a mercenary hadn't gone with them no matter how hard she looked.

And Elandria, well, Elandria was interesting. She was in a constant state of cognitive dissonance. She was meant to be a brainwashed assassin beyond the concepts of "love" or even "attraction", but she didn't just have a crush on Taryst, which she left out on her sleeve, too bad for her Taryst wasn't playing on her side.

Or actually, she was lucky. But she was...in love with Attelus. It was why she allowed him to call her "El" where she wouldn't have allowed anyone else do it. This "love" she tried to hide behind a wall of anger and resentment toward Attelus. But that anger and resentment were actually toward herself, as she believed she should've been above it.

It didn't help that everyone saw how they felt toward each other, and Garrakson would tease them about it. In fact, almost every young woman who worked in Taryst's organisation had some sort of crush on Attelus, frigging Adelana included. It was annoying. While Karmen was in an induced coma, she heard that after Attelus attempted to sacrifice himself to save people from a rampaging arco-flagellant, she was so upset, she emotionally tortured him by refusing to tell him if he managed to save the people or not, having lost his memory of the fight. That was likely her twisted way to express her upset and anxiety at almost losing him and trying to make sure he'd never do such a thing ever again. She was also taken up in pretending to be far more ignorant and unobservant than what she really was.

Karmen glanced at Tathe, and he nodded. Tathe then explained that daemons had begun to appear among the Resurrected's ranks, the accursed Bloodletters, but the flame troopers he'd sent to take point by then had taken care of them, mostly. But it wasn't taking long for their promethium to run out. Tathe was also forced to fight an old friend of his, a Marangerian Captain Valketh, power sword to power sword. Tathe praised Dellenger the most, though; his skill in close quarters combat was so great that if it weren't for him, the casualties would've been far, far worse. In hindsight, Tathe had never seen the scout fight so effectively in all the years they'd served together, almost as if Dellenger had been holding back until then. Dellenger seemed almost inhuman then. Tathe soon found he was fighting not just the captain but a Resurrected former Velrosian scout and a cultist. He would've been overwhelmed and impaled on the scout's bayonet if Scout-Sergeant Adreen didn't sacrifice herself.