Chapter 3: Yome
A rage-filled expression colored the young Vanguard's face beneath her mask as she stared down at Arbus.
The Vanguard, Yome Kyun, was a Red Mornan who always gave her all in every task she undertook.
She did not understand the concept of moderation, always striving to be the best and surpass her peers at everything.
That drive had made her the only Red Mornan in recent history to earn a Heart Shard before becoming a Vanguard.
As a Red Mornan, being underestimated was practically tied to their fate.
This was simply how life worked for them—being the weakest members of the most prominent species in the universe.
For most civilian Reds, this treatment wasn't entirely negative. They were usually handled with more care than other races, depending on where they lived.
But for those like Yome who joined the Renegades, it was a nearly insurmountable obstacle.
Only about half of Red Mornan recruits ever advanced beyond the rank of Sentry. The remainder never progressed to Commander. Only one exception had occurred in recent history, and even then, it hadn't lasted long.
Yome had made a promise a long time ago that she was determined to keep, no matter what. That was why she had worked so hard when she reached the rank of Knight—to advance as fast as possible.
After two years of distinguished service, her Vanguard leader had recommended her for the Heart Shard process far earlier than most.
Such rushed recommendations were common for every connected Renegade and were usually not given much thought. But for some reason, hers was accepted.
That had surprised her greatly.
Shortly after that incident, she underwent the Heart Shard infusion. As always, implanting a Heart Shard into a Renegade's very heart was an almost unbearable process.
She endured it, fighting through the pain as best she could, feeling as the heart essence began pulsing through her veins.
There'd been a high chance of the process failing, like it had for over seventy percent of Renegades who underwent it. A small percentage of them even died afterward, unable to recover from the strain of the operation.
Thankfully for her, it had been a success. Her synergy with the Heart Shard was simply outstanding.
She'd joined the unique one percent of Renegades who gained an ability immediately after the Heart Shard fusion was complete.
Not even the Red Mornan hailed as a genius prodigy and role model for Red Mornans everywhere had achieved that.
Afterward, she went on to complete increasingly dangerous missions with her new ability until she was promoted to Vanguard.
She'd selected her new team slowly from the most competent and hard-working Red Mornan standby knights she could find.
Everything had gone relatively well for them at the start. They had been assigned several low-risk jobs that other Vanguard teams passed up for one minor reason or another.
Yome had expected something like that, considering how much people looked down on their team. She didn't mind for the time being.
That was until recently, when her worst-case scenario had become a reality.
Instead of using them to handle the tasks nobody wanted like before, the Renegades had changed tactics.
They suddenly began using them as cannon fodder, deploying their team first on more dangerous missions for months on end.
She was furious about the sudden change that placed her team in more danger than they were capable of handling at the moment.
That was why she always forced herself to give even more than a hundred percent to make sure her team survived each and every mission.
She was always the first to dive into danger if needed, taking on the deadliest threats herself rather than risking her comrades.
Each mission felt harder and more deadly than the last, which slowly burnt her out, despite her overwhelming motivation. It made her despise the organization more than she already did, especially the Renegade captain she was assigned under, who seemed to especially have problems with her team.
Their last mission had been particularly vile.
They were ordered to eliminate a cult of Human worshipers looking to join the Second Chance group after they'd somehow gotten their hands on Renegade technology.
Caster, the team's designated pilot, had almost lost his life in that fight. A blast had caught him off guard, burning through his suit and leaving him with wounds that would take weeks to heal.
The part of the mission that affected her the most was when they were forced to kill teenage members of the cult.
The teens had no intention of surrendering and instead rushed at them with the same fanatical hatred as their elders.
She felt the guilt eating her up inside as she killed each of them herself, sparing her team of that burden despite their protests.
The terrified look in their eyes in their last moments still haunted her.
She'd thought that it would be their last mission for the foreseeable future.
She had even filed a formal request for recovery time.
Unfortunately for her, she was wrong.
The orders for their next mission had arrived only one week later—today.
And it was the worst one yet.
Her team had been ordered to travel to Terytl-B, a planet that had been wiped out by a human a few hours earlier.
Yome had found it hard to believe at first. She had never imagined a human would attack this star system again, not for a few hundred years at least, considering the Sentinel stationed here now.
Their mission was to meet up with the lone survivor of the massacre—a half-Tarokian.
The documents also stated that this survivor was half-human.
That had come as a shock to Yome. A half-human being a Renegade was something she hadn't heard of since the execution of the Sword Saint almost a decade ago.
She'd already been uneasy about going on a mission involving a human at her current strength. But now she had to also worry about a half-human and the fact that it could be a trap.
The half-human Renegade was claiming to have already killed the full-blooded human in his report. Yome thought that to simply be impossible.
She'd wondered if the half-human sentry was simply working with Ronin now, maybe in an attempt to get the Renegades to send in a battalion of Vanguard teams and medical personnel to get massacred in one fell swoop.
It seemed like a pointless endeavor, but that was something the Reincarnator Ronin was capable of according to his file.
Yome had felt indignant.
The Renegades were indeed playing it smart by only sending one team. She just wished it wasn't her team taking that bait.
Despite everything she had gone through to get to this point, there was a high chance of her and her team dying today.
***
Arbus exhaled slowly before responding.
"Arbus, just Arbus."
His eyes were fixed on the weapon Yome still had aimed at him.
There was no panic in his gaze.
His demeanor made Yome feel like it wouldn't matter if she fired.
'Is he suicidal?' she thought.
Her frown deepened. "Sentry Arbus of Tarok. Identification number N-0-A-1-S-23000000."
"Who is responsible for the massacre of the populace of Terytl-B?" Yome questioned, her tone as cold as ice.
Her mind was still stuck on what she had seen earlier.
When her team arrived on Terytl-B, their expressions had shifted to one of shock and horror.
The amount of death they had witnessed everywhere their ship passed was hard for even her to believe.
Lifeless bodies of the Mornans, Remartas, aTers, and the myriads of other species that had once lived here littered the terrain.
The report didn't seem so impossible to them anymore. From the looks of the corpses, it seemed the human had taken his time with slaughtering everyone as gruesomely as possible.
Seeing the carnage up close had put Yome in a terrible and bitter mood.
It had reminded her of why the entire universe despised the human race.
They were heartless creatures that believed other species' lives had no value in comparison to their own.
They looked down on those born in this universe, treating them like animals to be played with and slaughtered on a whim.
She found it hard to control her rage at the sight of the half-human. The possibility of him working with Ronin was still high.
Arbus's eyes widened at her words, his mouth hanging open.
He glanced away from Yome, his gaze falling as his expression became somber.
"So it's true then? He... really massacred everyone," the half-human muttered in a dispirited tone.
Yome didn't say anything else. She lowered her weapon, simply observing his reaction.
Several moments passed as she watched Arbus hide his face behind the palm of his hands.
"Ronan was responsible. The human that I killed," he replied sluggishly.
"...And where is the corpse of Ronin now?" Yome asked from within the mask.
Arbus slowly looked up, then pointed over to a heap of bodies. "Right there."
Yome and the knights looked over to where Arbus gestured. One of the Knights moved, jogging over to find the body.
Yome raised a hand, ordering him to halt as she warped over to it herself, a purple glow surrounding her form.
When she teleported over, she immediately noticed the mangled and bloody mess of a body draped in a dark hanfu with golden patterns, its skull blown apart.
She scanned it thoroughly with the Aurnex device attached to her wrist, her eyes boring into the corpse accusingly.
Several minutes passed as the device ran various tests on the corpse for confirmation.
It let out a high-pitched beep when it was done, giving Yome the all-clear.
Yome let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, straightening as she observed the state of the body again.
It was hard for her to believe that a simple sentry had done this to a full-blooded human without a Heart Shard.
She turned back to Arbus a few seconds later, her gaze softer than before.
From the state of Ronin's body, it was easy for her to tell the amount of hatred his killer would have had for him.
She didn't think it would be right to treat him as if he was the perpetrator of this tragedy.
She'd already confirmed that what he'd reported was, in fact, the truth.
But it did not change the fact that she hated the idea of a half-human becoming a Renegade again.
Yome took out a secure comm device as she relayed everything she had learned to the Captain overseeing the mission.
She typed in a series of additional confirmation codes they'd given her for extra security before other Vanguard ships were dispatched. They would bring along countless medics and recovery teams to search for any possible survivors on the planet and handle the bodies of the deceased.
The battalion had been stationed near one of the planet's moons, which made it easier for them to arrive quickly if needed.
Yome knew that this event had been a defining incident that would resonate through the star system in the coming days and months.
"We've secured the last surviving Renegade, sir. What are our new orders?" she asked, watching Arbus from the corner of her eye.
The towering white Mornan captain in charge of this mission and Yome's unit sighed deeply after Yome's confirmation. "How cruel..." he said, his heavy voice reverberating through the communication chambers of his command ship.
His fists clenched tightly as he spoke into the comms again.
"...Well done, Vanguard Yome. You completed your mission admirably. The other teams can take care of everything else now. Since Ronin's death has been confirmed, I'll inform the commanders on standby that they can return to their stations on the other planets."
"...As for your squad," there was a pause on the line. "I'm afraid your mission isn't quite over yet, as much as I'd like to give you the break you asked for," he said apologetically.
Yome gritted her teeth slightly as her fist tightened.
"...What are our next orders, sir?"
The Captain continued.
"We've received an official message from the Sentinel himself. Arbus, the half-human, is to be brought to him immediately. He also personally asked for your squad to be the one to do it."
"That's your next mission."
Yome's eyes widened at the commander's words.
Almost no one below the rank of a Commander ever received a direct summon from a Sentinel.
Although, given the circumstances, she could understand why this time.
She just didn't understand why he had also asked for her team specifically.
Shortly after, they prepared to depart as she led Arbus into the Vanguard ship.