Vanquisher: The Remnant

Chapter 10

"Do you see anything?" Vartelm whispered in Khrelan's ear.

Khrelan looked up from his scope. He was trying his hardest not to get angry with Vartelm, but he was very close. "For the fourth time; no! I don't see anything. Why don't you try looking for yourself if you're that curious."

"I'm sorry, it's just I don't have a fancy scope like you do," Vartelm replied with an inkling of snobbiness.

"Fine. Go talk to Nova. He'll give you a scoped rifle, ok?" Khrelan offered. He thought it was odd that Vartelm was being the way he was, but he figured it was just an internal nervousness showing through in strange emotions. Vartelm stood and left Khrelan, walking over to Nova while keeping his head low.

"I've got movement," a soldier stated to Khrelan's left. "A group of people headed into the ship."

Khrelan hastily peered into his scope. The soldier was right. A group of what Khrelan presumed to be soldier were headed into the ship. It was only a matter of time before they came back out empty handed. Khrelan awaited their return from inside the ship, and as he sat he noticed two figures climbing the outside of the ship. The lead one seemed to be having no issues making his way up the ship, but the follower was slipping every few seconds. He managed to recover until he got about a third of the way up the top half of the ship. He then lost his grip and slid down the topside, struggling to catch himself. The lead figure turned and watched as his partner disappeared over the edge of the ship. Khrelan looked on as the man fell to his death, his body impacting the ground a few seconds later. The figure still on the surface of the ship stopped for a second to grieve and then kept forward. He found a hole in the top of the ship and dropped in, cutting off Khrelan's line of sight to him. Khrelan stood and stayed down along the ridge until he reached Nova.

"What is it?" Nova snapped. "I'm busy waiting for our little friends to come out."

"Did you see what was happening up on top of the ship? Two men were climbing up the top instead of going in like the rest," Khrelan gestured to the massive hole in the top of the ship. "That's where one dropped in. The other fell to his death."

"The one that survived is Sigma. He's Colmor's pet. He does all of the dirty work while Colmor sits and relaxes in leisure. If we can take him out Colmor will be devastated."

"Any word from our pilot friends? They said they were going to get reinforcements right?"

"To be completely honest, I don't know. Vartelm can tell you more about that. I'm going to get back to watching our friends. You should too," Nova stated, turning his visor back to his scope.

"One more thing," Khrelan said looking back over the ship.

"Yes?"

"When do we attack? We need to get the optimal jump on them if we have any chance of taking them out."

Nova sighed, "Yeah. We attack on my mark. Got it?"

"Roger," Khrelan stood and returned to his post. The cool breeze blowing over his back unsettled him. It was as if the weather knew what was to come and was not happy about it. The waiting dragged on for what seemed like hours, until the first soldiers began emerging from the empty carcass of the ship. Khrelan turned his head to face Nova and they locked eyes. Nova gave a slight, curt nod and turned back to his rifle, letting off the first shots. Khrelan followed suit, letting off a fusillade of gunfire in the direction of the enemy. The rest of the soldiers with Khrelan began firing. The soldiers exiting the ship were either hit by the sudden gunfire or they had just a millisecond to duck out of the line of fire. Soldiers' heads turned, attempting to find the source of the bullets. Man after man fell, being gunned down by some unknown origin. Nova ducked down as a spout of dirt rose up in front of him. Khrelan heard bullets now soaring over him and colliding with the hill. Khrelan peered up over the hill and began firing his rifle once more attempting to take down as many Remnant soldiers as possible.