The Evergreen Files: Banshee; Book One
Chapter Fourteen

Kyril sat at his command chair, The Infinity within his sights, offset, derelict and lifeless. The bridge of The Evergreen was alive with bodies, the double sensory watch had tried to contact both The Hopeful and The Infinity to no avail, Solomon sighed as Kyril ordered the boarding parties to assemble in the landing craft and docking bridges. Solomon began on his route to the armoury, within the hour, his company was ready at docking bridge three. Captain Deeph readied the second company at docking bridge seven, Captain Tricks readied his third company at docking bridge two. Captain Syn of the seventh company was deploying with the landing craft. All other companies are to be held in reserve.

Kyrils plan was a simple one. Secure the Infinity, get weapons and engines back online, see what happened to the crew. Split teams over the two ships to allow them to man it and bring it back to Merriden IV.

Sandra sat inside the crammed full corridor, with a deep breath, she was finally getting familiar to the constant anxiety of combat, the brightly lit metal corridor was filled to the brim with midnight blue armoured soldiers, still supporting their red striped helms from Merriden IV’s Red Sector, all still oblivious to its falling to the Banshee. The corridor’s environmental setting was set to keep the area cooled due to the high amount of bodies present, overworking, it still couldn’t manage to deliver. The humidity of the corridor was beginning to cause Sandra to sweat, Lyra stood at her side, humming softly as she checked her medical bags and pockets for her equipment and then the syringes and bandages that are attached to her chest plate, all five platoons of the first company had assembled in the corridor once again, one hundred soldiers, some battle hardened, some not so much. The level of experience of the soldiers working together as a single entity, as one body is the only thing that would ensure their survival into the bleak deathly corpse of The Infinity that they planned to board.

The Infinity had become infected through a single wounded soldier. His heart had stopped during the flight out of the Gryph Ship from where he was wounded and one of the flight crew performed C.P.R. on the soldier, the mouth to mouth procedure is what doomed The Infinity. The crewman, once back, filed his report and went back to his quarters, where he hugged his beautiful little daughter, kissed his wife, passing the infection on to her, who incidentally was having an affair, looking for a better excuse of a man, that valued her above his work and their average daughter, who then passed it on to her secret lover, who passed it onto his many flings of the night, thus spreading the Banshee infection like wild fire. People started off with flu like symptoms that would not budge, spreading the infection through sneezes and water droplets in coughing, even with all their medications aboard the ship, they couldn’t stop it, then The Wounded Soldier turned, and vanished without a trace, soon people started going missing, one or two at a time, then soon it was whole work rooms. then started the death, bodies found in the corridors, or in staff rooms late at night, gutted and sliced open, soon after, everybody killed had turned into the pale killing machines dealing death.

Solomon couldn’t help his mind wondering where The Hopeful was only breaking his thought once the boarding light changed colour to a crimson red with a dull beep, and so Solomon and the other three companies walked to their doom.

Errol paced up and down with his pistol still within his grasp and a datapad in his other hand. Breathing slowly as he walked. He had killed the traitor Winslow. The evidence that he had been secretly mounting to get Winslow a death sentence for treason, now was Errol’s only hope of not getting the death sentence himself! But it now had vanished! He needed the whole file. He had found small imprints of the data inserted into standardised reports. Muttering to himself the report he was reading upon the slim datapad searching for words that did not belong as the crew worked in his stead. The Judgement had gone for the rescue of The Iron Fist and The Vengeful, just to find, an E.M.P. strike had disabled them, The Judgement provided their ships with new circuit boards to repair the damaged and melted electronics, Errol couldn’t finish reading the report with his mind whirling around, his crew eyed him nervously as if he was quietly picking out his next victim as he looked around at them, they did not know of the evidence he was so desperately searching for. “Sir!” cried a tactical officer.

“We have a signature, incoming! Bearing three, nine, two, two, three!”

“On screen.”

“Sir, it’s just one signature, all the pirate ships retreated once they fired at the planet, are they coming back?”

“We shall see, son. We shall see”

The Bridge light had lowered and a large screen that showed the co-ordinates the tactical officer had shouted. The stars began to turn black in the centre and suddenly appeared the slender frame of The Hopeful, perfectly glistening from the distant sun, Errol ordered his crew to contact them immediately. “Errol, what the hell happened?” came the confused voice of Captain Shu of The Hopeful over the Bridge comms. Captain Errol quickly interrogated Captain Shu over her return. It only took fifteen minutes to complete and for Errol to no longer feel guilty about executing Winslow. Shu told Errol that Winslow had sent them to new co-ordinates and await further instruction, that never came, she knew nothing of The Infinity going dark. It was only when the Gryph distress signal was intercepted from the space station that The Hopeful returned. They had never been sent to The Infinity.

Solomon strode through the dark metal corridor of The Infinity, blood spatter stained everywhere, claws etched into the wall and floors, his weapon raised, with his squad at his rear, his heart beating heavily in his armoured chest, Decius began to mutter a prayer under his breath, that came clearly over the radio. The Infinity had been attacked, that much was clear. By Pirates? Solomon knew it wasn’t. He thought of the only creature he knew that could cut open the reinforced breach doors that sealed rooms from the corridors as if they had been constructed from thin tin. His mind was cast fearfully back to the beach, the cold blue eyes. The dripping needle teeth, the soul chilling hiss. The Banshee. First Squad moved up slowly, The First Company had splintered into squads to cover more ground quicker, Solomon knew this was a risky move, but had to follow Kyril’s orders. Solomon had been charged with securing the Bridge once more, the rest of his company had smaller objectives, sweeping the rooms of the first three decks of The Infinity and looking for survivors, although they were not hopeful in the fruits of the mission. Deeph’s Second Company had been been charged with securing the Medical Bay’s of the fourth deck, and securing all the rooms from decks five to six. Syn was charged with securing the docking bays of deck seven and securing the Engine rooms of deck eight, Captain Tricks and the Third Company had been given the job of clearing the living quarters at the rear of the ship that ran a narrow column down six of the decks and was privately sealed. All companies and squads had to make the assessment of whether or not, the Infinity could be salvaged and taken back to Merriden IV.

Solomon walked down the never ending corridors, following the dead unpowered signs, no longer carrying light, towards the bridge, Solomon’s breathing intensified once he reached the Bridge corridor and found the Breach Door, designed the exact same way of The Evergreen, made with the exact same material, torn apart, slithers of the door lay upon the floor, soaked in a dark liquid, Solomon could only take for blood, Bullet holes scattered across the walls and Solomon could see inside the Bridge. Wrenching at the sight inside. Captain Gee’s Body, or at least the upper half sat sprawled upon the Helm consoles, with a large smile carved into his cheeks by claws or blades. Decius let out a whimper of fear before composing himself to the soldier he wished he was. Entering the room, the squad spread out, stepping over the remains of Captain Gee’s lower half, a foot here, a knee there, god knows what hanging from the ceiling. Solomon radioed his findings to Kyril and the other companies. Decius was by the window and signalled Solomon to come closer to see Syn and the Seventh company arrive on the Starboard side in their bulky blue landing craft. The coldness of the void of space, penetrated, even through Solomon’s armour and the bridge reinforced glass, with a shudder, he turned his back on his landing comrades and ordered Captain Gee’s body and the bridge to be cleaned, and made workable.

Captain Tricks company dived deeper into The Infinity, their weapons raised constantly. Relentlessly clearing crew room after crew room, until they came to the entrance to the crew quarters of the fourth deck. The corridors had the image of battle and slaughter upon their skin. Tricks ordered his platoon to secure the rooms, First room, clear. Second room, clear. Third room, clear. Upon reaching the fourth room, Captain Tricks breached and entered, and found the body of a young woman, clutching a bottle of clear liquid, a syringe still attached to her vein of her left forearm. Tricks ordered his medic in, as the white helmeted man knelt at her side, her long blonde hair, glistened with damp, her skin had taken a pale complexion, obviously she had died some time ago, “Sir,” came the medic, “she’s dead, but there are strange things on the end of her fingers, they look like calcium deposits, forming a claw like finger... I’ve never seen that in a dead person before. Or living, even in-” The medic was cut short, like his throat. The dead woman suddenly sprung into life, quicker than Tricks had even thought humanly possible. She lunged at him and pierced his heart with her talons. “You Bitch” Coughed Captain Tricks breathlessly as blood began to wet his lips, and with a satisfied hiss, she sunk her needle teeth into the dead Captains neck, without a sound, as the Captain and Medic could not react to her speed, no warning was given to the other soldiers, who continued to move down the other rooms, searching, until she ended their lives too. She killed nearly the entire platoon before a single shot had been fired. The shot missed, and she ended the shooters life.

The Pirate ships had sat themselves in the closest asteroid fields to reduce detection from The Gryph Fleet that was now arriving in full mass at Merriden, only six had remained behind whilst the others returned to their pillaging and plundering of distant traders and worlds. Aiming their sensors at Merriden, they could see the destruction caused by their weapon. Thousands of humans dead, hundreds of Gryphs dead. Zhou had aimed specifically at the human Red Sector to get revenge of The Evergreen’s interference of him claiming his new flagship. The weapon had been altered many many times since they had fired it upon the Gryph ship afloat that Kyril and Solomon had found, the weapon was far stronger, faster and even more resilient to the weapons used conventionally. It simply didn’t die as easy. “Captain...” came the old breaking voice of The Doctor “Scans report: the Human settlement is destroyed. The Gryph fired upon it themselves. The Weapon overwhelmed them far faster than we expected, Reports are showing that the Weapon has drastically multiplied and is seeking further prey, they will reach our target within the next two days.” Zhou answered the Doctor with a curl of his malicious smile before addressing the ship. “My People! We shall be landing on the pathetic planet in four days, full force. Our attachment of six ships total will land and we will take Our objective!”

Solomon lay his head against the coffee machine with a sorrowful sigh, if it was not for his small flask containing a cup of hot coffee, his heart would have given in to despair with the coffee machine just refusing to work upon the bridge, not only had Captain Gee fallen, but his coffee had also met its end! “So, Lyra, anything new?” asked Solomon over the private radio to Lyra who had started once again checking her medical supplies, her crackling voice came back.

“Nah Sol, you?”

“Yep... their coffee machine is down... so are you going to allow me to take you on a coffee date when we get back?”

Lyra had her back to Solomon, but he could tell she was blushing. Helene Haywood, the teams radio officer then approached Solomon with a grave look on her face, even through her armoured helmet, her worry was blatant.

“Sir, we have lost contact with Third Company”

“Which squad?”

“All of them. The entire company. I can’t raise any of them...”

“Call back all squads. Every squad is to retreat to the Docking Bay, the Seventh Company holds it, we will get a head count. Then we will see what the crack is. I’m not risking men getting picked off one by one like on that Gryph Ship. Let’s pack up, and move out!”

Jake Syn sat upon a dull splintering wooden container, maintaining constant contact with his platoon commanders, his finger constantly stuck inside his ear, to hear better, when his radio operator approaching him, gasping for breath, relaying Solomon’s orders between pants and splutters, Syn quickly recalled all his soldiers to fall back to the docking bay to form a defensive area. Gesturing to the pilots of the crafts to begin warming up their engines, just in case. His platoon began to spread out to all the entrance doors, simply to cover the retreat. Solomon took point of his platoons retreat, putting himself through the tight corners, the concealed entrances first, he wouldn’t know it, but these actions are why his troop always followed him, loyal to their very soul to Solomon, because he never would ask them to do something he wasn’t willing to do himself. Upon reaching the main atrium for the docking bay, the wide corridor allowed a large field of fire, the lights gave a clear view of anything heading their way. Solomon ordered a firing line be set up, called for boxes and hard objects to be hauled up from the docking bay just a few hundred meters behind them. It didn’t take long for them to form a defence barricade from wooden boxes and metal containers, as Solomon placed the last wooden box, Decius called out for movement. A squad had appeared and was running towards the barricade, seeing the soldiers in blue at the barricade, they turned their backs, aimed their weapons down the open mouthed corridor, and strutted backwards towards Solomon. Three more squads followed soon after. After an hour, Syn came up behind Solomon, “What’s left?” he asked in a low tone. Solomon held up four fingers, “Three more squads from the Second, and one more squad from me, Captain Deeph isn’t back yet. But the entire Third company is missing” Syn nodded and returned to his position back at the docking bay, readying more make-shift barricades. Where was Lucius? He had been in radio silence since the order had been given, none of his sergeants had reported contacts, as they passed the forward barricade. Solomon had also ordered barricades to be made at the other entrances of the docking bay and have guards stationed there.

Theo sat upon the dew speckled knoll with Merrion, sharing the last of their rations as the alien sun rose over the mountains topping with snow. Nothing showed the slaughter they had endured not too long ago. The light breeze softly kissed the exposed skin of their necks and faces, Theo sighed with a sorrowful dread of the memories of his fallen comrades and the hateful Banshees. Merrion nursed his left arm that had been bandaged in a thin sling that he had broken in the fleeing from Jones as she turned, and the command crew of Sector Zero One as they tried to kill him. A village of Nordflea sat at the base of the next hill, no defence walls could be seen, the grass was beautiful and emerald, their buildings numerous and narrow, only a single level above ground and made of curved stones that had moss growing on them, most of them ran under the soil, all had concealed tunnels joining each building together, allowing The Gryph to travel between buildings quickly and undetected above ground. The Gryph relied heavily on ranged weaponry and hit and run tactics, their battle armour was thin and light to allow them to move swiftly. As Theo and Merrion approached Nordflea, the blue beam from a Gryph weapon whizzed towards them, kicking up dirt and soil as the warning shot made contact with the earth at their feet, “Stand!” called the unmistakably foreign accent of a Gryph, “Stand and tell!” three Gryph came out of what seemed like a grass hill just to the left of the entrance road, it was actually a well covered guard bunker that blended perfectly with the moss covered buildings. Theo and Merrion hastily lowered their weapons and placed their hands in the air, gesturing peace or surrender. After they shared their experience of Red Sector Zero One with the guards, they had their arms tied and heads hooded. The Gryph had taken them prisoner. Theo’s fears soon commanded his sensors. Surely he was about to be executed or tortured; was all his brain would allow him to think. What scared him the most, he didn’t know which one he preferred. With his heart beating quickly and heavily in his breast, the damp smell of oil and dry blood filled his nostrils, the head bag stank, or was it the room he had been lead into. Feeling the hard floor beneath his feet change to a hollow grate that echoed in the small area, he felt the mechanics of the room descend. He was inside an elevator clearly, going down, into the sub floors. Into their torture chambers. Theo heard the Gryph talking in their own tongue, cackling maliciously, probably with excitement at the new ways they had planned to inflict pain and death onto Theo. “Merrion!” whispered Theo and was answered with a butt of a rifle in between his shoulders. “Your friend no here. Leave message, I am sure he will not get.” said the Gryph to his right with another laugh. Theo recalled what Jack had said about the Gryph. Theo found himself repeating his friends earlier racism “Pale bastards.” he spat and was again struck with the end of a rifle. Jack was right not to trust them. The Gryph surely had this planned for the humans all along. The elevator stopped suddenly with a bounce on the stopping springs, with that information, Theo knew he was on the lowest sub-floor. With another hit between his shoulders, he slowly walked forward, feeling with his feet for objects in his path when he felt his captors arms slip in between his and lift him slightly, forcing him forward with greater speed. Until he was forced to sit in a cold hard metal chair.

“Now, Human. What Name?”

“Corporal Theo Richmond, Red Seven-Three”

“What your job?”

“Corporal Theo Richmond, Red Seven-Three”

“What your job!”

“Corporal Theo Richmond, Re...”

Theo was struck at the back of the head with the butt of the rifle

“Answer Commander!” spat the guard

Theo breathed heavily with defiance, “I. Will. Not. Consort. With. Alien. Traitors!” every word forced through gritted teeth. He could feel the warm wet blood flow down the back of his head where he had been struck. “Traitor? We defend ourself. You attack us. Bring us bad enemy that destroy space station!” spat the commanding Gryph. If only they removed his hood, so he could see where the Gryph were, Theo very much wanted to spit in their faces.

The door to the room opened with a creak and quick but light steps rushed passed Theo and the unknown figure spoke to the one of the Gryph, who seemed to hum with agreement.

“So, you hold back secret fleet. Come to us in friendship, and then reveal your secret, destroy our orbital defence, but misfire and attack your own forces! Ha! I have never seen such stupidity from a space bound race. But, say that... perhaps you seek revenge for the first fleet you sent? Hmm?” he asked purposefully. Theo did not understand. First fleet? He was in the first fleet. What revenge was this mad alien talking about?

“I am in the First fleet...”

“No, you are the second Human fleet to come. We destroy the first one.”

“No. we are the first fleet to come here.”

“Stupid human” said the commander and spoke in his native tongue as the guard behind Theo struck him again, knocking him out.

The Cell he was now calling home, was small, smaller than a double bed. With just enough room to curl into a corner and sleep. The smell was horrific. Damp walls that had some form of plant life growing on their skins and gave of a putrid stink. Well, at least he had been given the gift of sight again and with a sigh, he sat into the driest corner where some straw like bedding had been tossed messily on to the ground. In the little room, there was a small slit in the stone at the far end, opposite the door, the gap was no more than two inch tall but six inches long, allowed just enough light in to feed the putrid smelling plants with their daily requirement of sunlight. At least Theo could see if it was night or day. Two nights of imprisonment, two nights of sleeping restlessly upon a straw corner, two nights of the dreams of freedom, walking through the long grass, feeling the soft bristle of the flowers against his legs and fingers. Two nights of loneliness was all the Gryph allowed him before they breached his new home with shields and batons, calling wildly and beating him savagely, finally slipping the damp blood stinking hood over his head once more. The air around him soon turned cool with a kissing breeze, Theo felt the fear at once, but it soon turned to paralysis when they halted him in his tracks. Was this it? Execution time? Presently, the hood was lifted and Theo was pushed on his knees. “Corporal Theo Richmond, of Red Seven Three. cast your eyes upon the beautiful sky of my world and see what is happening!” cried the Gryph commander in a crisp white padded suit “I have asked my men to try use your language, to help speed things along.” Theo slowly looked up, seeing the few stars in the clear night sky, mostly the black void was visible. “Governor Arden, The fleet has left and our ships are in position.” said one of the guards to the commander. He looked at Theo with a malicious smile, full of hatred and joy, but simply pointed at the sky, Theo looked up and saw four large blue balls light up the black void. “Fun show, no?” asked Arden darkly before ordering the guard to cover his head once more, the guard did as he was ordered without hesitation and bagged Theo’s head in the blood hood and dragged him back to his cell as Arden folded his arms behind his back and looked up to the blue balls with admiration. What was the point of that? Were they trialling a new weapon? Or was he simply flexing his muscles and demonstrating to Theo just the level of command he held, that he had no boss to consider, that he had no limits on what he could do to him?

Captain Errol sat in his fresh clean chair, thinking of what to do next. What was best? They had almost finished repairing all the electrical systems of The Iron Fist and The Vengeful. The Hopeful had sped up the tedious repairs upon their arrival, they had kept a battle spread formation as they floated through the void, in case the pirates made another go at them. A young man handed Errol a data slate with new positions of the Gryph fleet upon its skin, “Ah... they’ve decided to help now have they? Now that we are nearly bloody finished!” said Errol as he handed the datapad back and walked over to the helm screen to see the Gryph ships moving into a line position to their starboard. Errol cocked his head and saw they had stopped in a perfect line, facing directly at the human ships. Errol raised an eye brow and turned to ask a question to the tactical officer, however, he never did, the klaxon fired and the bridge auto security systems turned the bridge red, Errol cast his eyes back to the Gryph ships to see a large blue ball of plasma hurtling towards him. Not even thirty seconds had passed from Errol turning to ask a question to when the plasma smashed against The Judgement, tearing apart the bridge and ending the lives of the crew, Three more plasma balls had been fired at the other three human ships, equally tearing their hulls and melting their crew. The Gryph had betrayed them. The Mission had failed. Blood spilled over arrogance, pride and stupidity.

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