Vanquisher: The Remnant

Chapter 6

Vartelm awoke in a sweat on his bunk. His mind had been jarred the night before, unpleasant thoughts filling his head and penetrating his sleep. He'd seen the face of a man he had once killed way back in the campaign on Casen. The look of shock on his face as Vartelm came up over the top of a hill he was hunkered behind stained his cortex. Vartelm hesitated to kill him, because it was his first time killing anyone in the line of duty. The man pleaded silently for mercy, and even though Vartelm couldn't see his face he could tell a pained visage came over his face. Vartelm could still feel himself pulling the trigger and watching the bullet enter the visor of the man, killing him on the spot. His body slumped down the hill now lifeless and unmoving.

Vartelm wiped the sweat from his brow and lifted the covers off his lower torso. He stood up and put on his battle dress. He had to report to Nova in a few minutes. Their infiltration plan was about to unfold. He slipped on his light grey undershirt as well as his dark grey dress coat. He then slipped on his matching pants, doing so after putting on his shirts to eliminate having to tuck them in after. He put on his belt as well, and clipped on his holster for his pistol. Following that he put on his shin-height combat boots and tied them. He grabbed his shotgun off the wall and slung it across his back. He then holstered his pistol he kept under all of his uniform pieces.

After a quick lookover in the mirror Vartelm departed his quarters. Nova wanted them to report in the mess hall. That's where he went. He walked in to find Nova, Khrelan, and the Orient pilot all sitting at a table fervently discussing their plan. Khrelan's sergeant was in the line getting food for all of them. Vartelm gave Nova a curt nod as he passed the table. He came up to the serving counter. He looked at the sergeant who glanced to his side to see who and arrived next to him. "Good morning," Vartelm said politely.

"Indeed it is," the sergeant replied smoothly. "I'm Diviak, but they usually just call me sergeant."

"My name's Vartelm," he said shaking the sergeant's hand. He picked up a tray afterwards. There were only a few people ahead of them, some of the officers that had been working through the night. The meal for the morning was tasteless waffles and banana slices.

Vartelm and the sergeant got their food after a few minutes and sat down with Nova and the others. Nova stopped talking immediately upon their arrival.

"What's the plan?" Vartelm inquired. He didn't care for greetings so he cut to the chase.

"Well we know the base plan but we don't have enough people to execute it. Now we really don't have a true plan per se, just a list of things we should do to take down the ship," Nova said, restating what he had already told to the others. The sergeant nodded as he distributed meals to everyone.

"So what you're saying is we need to recruit some more people. What're we going to tell them? You're signing up for a suicide mission?" Vartelm blurted.

"No, we tell them we're putting an end to the Remnant. With their 'indestructible' flagship out of the way crushing them will be a quick and easy campaign. There will be no need for suicide," Nova said smoothly. Khrelan buried his hand in his face.

"Going on a suicide mission doesn't mean we— whatever nevermind. Nova's right though. We are going to have to get more people to assist us with this," Vartelm admitted. "We also have to pick a leader for this little excursion. Nova is organizing this whole thing but even he admits he's unfit to lead."

Vartelm noticed Khrelan immediately got flushed. He seemed quite nervous. He looked up, "I'll do it."

"What? Are you sure Khrelan?" the sergeant blurted in bewilderment.

Khrelan hesitated on his response. To Vartelm he didn't seem sure and that worried him. But Khrelan agreed to after a moment of pure panic.

"Alright well that solves that problem," Zadra shrugged. Nova nodded in agreement. "Now we just need to recruit some more people."