Humanity Endures

Part 3 - Light's End | Chapter 6

Velan received the heroic textcomm just moments after he had leapt from the alien vessel, heading towards the welcoming hull of the human ship he had ordered to rescue his crew; he couldn't turn back, even if he wanted to. Unable to stop Jilszen from committing his heroic deed, and unwilling to do so, as his heroic maneuver would save many more lives, Velan simply dispatched his heartfelt thanks to all his soldiers who were sacrificing themselves, while he simultaneously contacted the Nemesis and instructed it to contribute to rescue operations across the system however it could. As he glided through the debris-filled void, barely-visible shards of metal bouncing off of his armored torso like somber, deathly rain, Velan glanced back at the sporadic stream of soldiers trailing behind him, and at the waning firefight visible on the alien ship beyond. To see such proud soldiers reduced to mentally shattered survivors — or worse, barely recognizable corpses — was a travesty, especially when so many had been a part of his beloved crew. In that moment, Velan swore on everything that mattered to him — his homeworld, his life, his species — to avenge the deaths of so many of his people, even though he suspected that when he was battling such a terrible foe, the scores would always be uneven.

Behind those evacuating, with his genetically-enhanced vision, Velan eyed Korthekar, his weapons not ceasing operation for an instant as he fought, providing invaluable support for the evacuation effort. Only once the last of the Nemesis's marines — not counting the doomed rear-guard — had made it through the breach, did Korthekar hurl a total of eight grenades into the alien horde before him, bolstering Jilszen's efforts, while further delaying the alien assault long enough for himself to escape the doomed ship. Velan knew that it must have been a terrible thing for Korthekar to leave his own soldiers, and his second-in-command, behind, effectively condemning them to death; in that moment, a grudge had been forged between Velan's marine officer and the aliens that would not be resolved until one of the two was dead. What remained of Velan's crew held the same grudge, and indeed, the same could be said for the rest of humanity; whatever was to happen in the coming war, Velan was certain that there would be no mercy, as there had been none over Light's End. In that precise moment, a blow from an alien fiend crushed Jilszen into gore, and a swarm of smaller aliens began shredding through whatever defenders remained.

Velan then tore his eyes away from the alien ship, and his doomed soldiers aboard it, not because he was too horrified to watch, and not out of lack of respect for Jilszen and his soldiers, but because he was mere seconds away from colliding violently with the rescue ship he had summoned. This was a ship named the "Poseidon," a moderately sized frigate and not too dissimilar from Velan's own craft, save that it was less modernized, less well-managed, and had suffered more damage during the most recent battle. Dispatching a textcomm to Xandra asking her to dock the Nemesis with the vessel so that Velan's remaining crew members could make their way back to their own warship, Velan clambered into the nearest open airlock, and, once it had pressurized, he, still dripping alien blood and biofluid, walked out into the relatively calm interior of the human-controlled ship. The air, filled with hasty, panicked discussion, was still more conducive to thought than an ambience filled with chilling silence, or, even worse, gunfire — as a result, Velan actually began to calm down. As he briefly reviewed the status of other boarding actions, however, this sense of calm disappeared; Velan discovered to his horror that most other boarding actions had suffered similarly to his own, and hundreds of thousands of marines had been slain across the fleet. Though many more humans had been murdered that day by the alien monstrosities, this additional transgression only compounded the grief and rage felt by many across the fleet — and, once word inevitably got out, by many across the Empire.

Velan, stumbling through the halls of his host vessel, a grim-faced Yelazar in tow, soon ran into Terxah and Falmenec, both of whom were futilely attempting to remove gore, both human and alien, from their own armored suits. As he approached the pair, Velan heard Falmenec remark, "This ship has potentially the worst contamination avoidance I've ever seen! Half of the crew are traipsing through the halls, spreading an unidentified alien liquid through the ship as they do so, and no one even bats an eye. This is insanity!"