Humanity Endures

Part 6 - The Cesspit | Chapter 2

Velan sat, thinking, his grief having been calmed by excessive time and channelled into hatred of the aliens. His intoxication had been calmed by aptly-named intoxication suppressant. The fires that fuelled him as he left the Capital Complex had been reduced to embers after the chaos of Light's End, but if there was anything that staring out into the uncaring gold of the Remnant for three straight days, that looking into the faces of his living crew members, and seeing the faces of the dead, had made Velan feel, it was that the blood-debt of his fallen crew members deserved to be repaid — and that he would be the one to repay it.

The Nemesis had nearly arrived at Kalithihar, and Velan couldn't be more eager to breach into the system; for the first time in a long time, his crew sighted a vast number of human ships, and, comfortingly, they were swarming around the location of Kalithihar within the Remnant — clearly, at least some other humans lived. The number of military warships surrounding Kalithihar indicated that the world was prepared for the current crisis; as Velan saw queues of civilian ships waiting to enter the system, he was glad to see that the planet was also taking security from infiltrators seriously. Velan's arrival at the planet presented great opportunity: not only would he be able to repair his ship and replenish his crew at the world, and not only would he be able to learn what Kalithihar intended to do with him, but he would be able to discover the status of the rest of the galaxy and its ongoing war effort. Velan been in the Remnant, detached from the rest of the Empire, for too long — for all he knew, half the galaxy could have fallen to the alien menace in the days he had been absent, and this knowledge of his own ignorance only served to unnerve him further. Nervously stroking the handle of his holstered sidearm, Velan continued to dutifully monitor the positions of all of his crew members within his ship, seeing to it that they obeyed his orders, which instructed them to move around in groups for the sake of mutual protection. If there were any aliens amongst his crew, hidden behind human-looking, human-acting masks, he wanted to limit their ability to strike at his crew as much as he could, though in all honesty, as much as he could wasn't much.

Kalithihar was but a few minutes away; the space around Velan's ship was dominated by patrolling military battlegroups, weaponized Remnant-based space stations, the occasional super-freighter carrying war-supplies, and a large number of what he could only guess were refugee ships — the war against the alien had only just begun, and yet, its effects were visible everywhere. The Kalithiharian patrols seemed to ignore his vessel upon seeing who's ship it was, and Velan, unwilling to wait in a line after having gone through Light's End, accepted this and moved on. The bridge of the Nemesis, contrary to what one might expect, was already fully staffed — Light's End had successfully removed any apathy his crew may have held with their duties, and thus, the sight of crew leisurely streaming into the bridge minutes before a breach was likely a sight Velan would never see again. If this was because his crew would pay more attention, or because he and his crew would soon perish along with the rest of humanity, Velan could not say, but Velan felt the truth of this realization; this would have terrified him, if his ability to fear had not already been exhausted by other events. Now, horrors and terrors were merely concerning trifles when viewed by his weary mind.

Another textcomm from Terxah then reached Velan, the sudden message startling Velan to the point where his surprised hands, one of which was holding his coil-pistol, clasped shut; the one holding his weapon accidentally squeezed the trigger of his sidearm. The weapon's safety was on, thankfully, but the experience left Velan a panting wreck for a few seconds nevertheless; once he had recovered, Velan, knowing from the textcomm that his ship was ready to breach back into normal space on his command, gave the command to do so a moment later. Time had quickly become a valuable resource, and Velan had no intention of wasting it.

"Beginning breach," Terxah called out, "I'm looking forward to seeing a human planet again."

Velan cursed under his breath — if there was anything that Terxah should have avoided doing, it was tempting the universe's cruel sense of humor by saying such a thing. Velan hoped as strongly as he could that on the other end of his Remnant breach there was indeed a human system, something that was probable, judging by the amount of human traffic in the Remnant, but, having come from Light's End, Velan was conditioned to expect nothing but the worst.