The Evergreen Files: Banshee; Book One
Chapter Eight

Two days after they had left the Gryph ship simply drifting through space and had left the creatures and their fallen brothers and sisters behind in their wake. Two more Warp points had been completed and the ships were well on their way to their fifth waypoint.

Two days of paperwork. Two days of Lyra and Sandra bickering about the creatures. “We should just exterminate them all!” Lyra would state “No, we should leave them be, they only defended themselves!” Sandra would return. Solomon saw Sandra’s point; after giving it some thought. They did not venture into the docking bay, they only attacked when they were deep inside the ship. Maybe that was what the creatures considered ‘theirs’ but also, Solomon strongly agreed with Lyra. Twenty four soldiers killed and one grievously wounded, left fighting for his life was too much for Solomon to just ‘leave them be’.

A week had passed since the catastrophe on the Gryph ship before bad news came to Kyril’s attention. “Sir, the Infinity has issued a ship wide quarantine, looks like reports of Influenza, sir.” said the communications specialist softly into Kyrils ear. Naturally Kyril wouldn’t report such a small thing back to Earth – too much paper work. Influenza was easily curable now, which did not sit well with him. How can something so easily cured be so wide spread? However, the Infinity would have to remain in High Orbit over Merriden IV for one month after the last symptom was shown. Kyril wouldn’t allow a small illness to them, like the flu to infect a whole planet that had no or little defence against that form of virus. “Ask if they would like to break quarantine and receive more medical staff from us.” asked Kyril, knowing Captain Gee would appreciate it, but decline the offer through pride, As he did.

Kyril had given orders over the last week to interview the ship’s entire crew about the murder of Doctor Fredrick. So far, no leads. The body could only be identified due to the name badge upon the breast of the bloodied jacket that wrapped the mutilated corpse.

Almost two weeks passed, with one more warp jump to complete before they can meet with the Grpyh outside the Planet of Merriden IV. When Kyril called Solomon into the Captains Conference Room, Kyril had been in there most of the day whilst Solomon sat on the Bridge directing The Evergreen’s resources. Lieutenant Sykes once again had tried to remove his coffee machine, so Solomon had Kyril say it was his personal gift to Solomon, and that she was not to touch it. The Conference Room was unusually cold for Kyril’s tastes when Solomon entered. “The Infinity has reported three deaths due to the Flu, which is strange, considering we have medication to destroy it overnight. They say they will stay here until they have sorted things out, and will join us at Merriden IV when they are ready.” said Kyril with a sigh. Solomon thought for a moment. The Infinity will only be four hours away from Merriden IV if they leave them here, but they will be on their own. Any messages will take way more than four hours to be acted upon. After an hour of debating, Kyril gazed upon the large metal clock hanging upon the wall above the door and sniffed. “It’s a bitcold in here...” he muttered to himself, before committing his decision.

The Convoy was to leave The Infinity here, on it’s own, at their Captain’s request, but Kyril ordered The Iron Fist to remain in high alert, ready to deploy itself accordingly to any distress calls from The Infinity, and have the rest follow when they could. This would reduce the action time to just four hours. If a call came through, The Iron Fist would instantly make way to its aid. Two ships were better than one, after all. Still uncertain of it, but it was the only call he could make. Could he risk relations with The Gryph, especially this close to their boarders? The Emperor would not allow it. The Emperor had a fixation to know the Gryph beyond anything else. Kyril had often questioned the bordering obsession to himself, Little did Kyril know, a fleet had already been sent to the Gryph System, many months ago, and been utterly destroyed within ten minutes of first contact, this information was kept secret by The Emperor himself and the High Command Council of Earth.

“Very well. We shall leave them.” sighed Solomon with a heavy heart. “I shall alert the fleet, I would recommend alerting Command.” Solomon walked from the room, to find Lieutenant Sykes once again playing with his coffee machine. “Sykes!” shouted Solomon as loud as his throat would allow, Lieutenant Sykes quickly scuttled off down the corridor like a cockroach suddenly found by light.

Solomon muttered harsh words about Sykes as he made himself another coffee, stronger than usual, with two sugars, instead of the one.

Soon Eve had brought the ship into faster than light travel to their final destination. ‘Not long’, Solomon thought, ‘not long until we are finally there’, Solomon would usually allow the excitement to creep into his emotions, but this journey had already cost them much.

One Ship.

Hundreds of lives lost.

And now, another ship left behind.

Over the smooth sounds of the warp engines humming through The Evergreen, Kyril came back onto the bridge, his face looking older with every decision, his hair more grey. Lowering himself into his command chair, Solomon remained in his own leather chair, sipping his coffee, ignoring Kyril. Solomon knew that Kyril’s hands were tied, but he couldn’t help feel a little resentment towards him. The room was how Solomon liked it, not humid, not hot, not cold, just right. The bald helmsmen was taking a break as his skinnier counterpart, the training helmsman checked the auto pilot diagnostics, quietly muttering to himself what he was reading, the thin glasses perched upon his skinny nose kept sliding down due the slimness of his nose and ill fitting glasses. “Captain, we will be arriving shortly. Five minutes, Sir.” he said abruptly, causing the balding Helmsman to jump into action at his helm, “Jesus, Tommy! I’ve told you before, give us more warning!” Scolded The Bald Helmsman “Captain, begin procedures.” Kyril had barely noticed the young trainee, lazily he pressed his chair console and began ordering the crew into their positions. His voice carried little emotion, he was growing tired.

The engines began to slow, and the stars became more stable. Merriden IV was within sight.

The remaining five ships eased out of warp travel, Merriden could be seen in the distance, thousands and thousands of kilometers away, An emerald fleet of ten ships sat, waiting, in close proximity to their meeting point, Kyril’s radio crackled as the command emerald ship connected. “Greetings, Humans. We are the Gryph. I am Governor Arden, with all of the generosity of my people, we welcome you, to one of our homes” came a strangely robotic voice over the radio.

The Bridge had suddenly fallen tense with the sudden entrance of the voice and equally sudden exit. “He seemed to speak English well.” said Kyril in a matter of fact tone as he rubbed his tired eyes. Looking around the room, the bright standard travelling lights always strained Kyrils eyes for the first few minutes, Kyril saw the tense faces of his crew, Solomon’s jaw had begun twitching as he read the reports crawling across his screen. Kyril looked more drained than usual, he lifted his heavy body from his chair and slowly walked towards his conference room, softly talking to Eve before the doors sealed. Solomon blinked, “I guess I have the bridge then...”

The Gryph emerald ships stood proud and intimidating, their destructive weapons, almost hidden within their smooth armoured hulls. They elegantly led the five ships towards the small defence station with a transparent ceiling and hull, the internals are brightly lit and the many rows of equipment with bodies sat at them working away. Ardens voice came through the crackle once more, sounding more human. “This is primary defence hub. Dock please, safely.” and like before, he was quickly gone.

It had taken the human convoy of ships over three hours to successfully find the docking ports that could house their ship size and lock in. Solomon was ready for a shot of a strong drink. It took until the next morning for their ships and personnel to be cleared for Merriden IV. The Grpyh wanted to search every room, every person and check every weapon aboard “Why are we being treated as a recent enemy?” quizzed Kyril in a stern, commanding voice, the security Gryph merely shrugged his pale shoulders and answered “Orders. Next.” in a bored monotone as he waved Kyril passed.

The landing craft was cramped, half full of people, half full of provisioned to begin the first camp. The inside was brightly lit, Solomon was wearing his full armour along with the two squads, just in case. Two hours it took for the craft to get through all the Gryph stops during the decent, ‘security barriers’ they kept calling them, Kyril had a better word. ‘Pain in the arse’ it had lightened the tense anxious mood of the shuttle with a snigger, of that Solomon was pleased. Before she boarded the ship, Sandra had held a briefing on the animals that live in the area of the chosen landing zone.

“Basically, think about our dinosaurs, some eat meat, some eat leaf, some are just greedy. Some will simply run, some will only hurt you if you pose a threat. Some, however, will tear you up, just because it’s a Monday morning.”

Dinosaurs. Solomon had to laugh, surely the planet the Gryph had colonised wouldn’t sustain such life? Solomon had no idea how wrong he was. Little did he know, the mockery of the creatures would cost him and his men dearly.

“Thirty Seconds!” shouted the pilot over the headsets worn by everyone as the transport slowed. Solomon felt the shudder as the vessel was lowered by the trained pilot to rest on the alien floor of Merriden IV. The hissing of the exit ramp forced the adrenaline in Solomon’s veins to double its efforts. The ramp opened. “Team One, on me!” shouted Solomon as he moved forwards and into the blinding light of the alien sun, the five men of the first team moved forward in their line formation once more to kneel at the base of the ramp, followed by the second team. Solomon had a quick sweep with his rifle raised at the surroundings. Palm trees scattered amongst the rolling hills with vast thick green leafed foliage. The sun was clear in the cloudless sky, not at full hight yet. No Gryph ships could be seen in the clear sky. Solomon knew by the height of the sun that is was still the early morning of this world. Glancing at his wrist console, the temperature was relatively cool, much to his relief, a warm day in his armour is always a long rough one. “Teams one through four, advance and form a perimeter.” ordered Solomon through the headset of his helmet, “Engineers, begin bringing out the equipment.”

After half an hour the shuttles had been emptied of their rations, equipment, building materials and soldiers, the six shuttles soon set back up to their mother ships in high orbit. Solomon squinted as he watched the transports disappear into the blue sky, “We’re alone for the next two hours, let’s start clearing this crap, and get building.” said Solomon as he heaved a large box of ammunition off a pile with Lyra and set off to the soldiers on the perimeter. As Solomon arrived with Lyra at the northern perimeter, three hundred meters from the landing point, the four soldiers there had dug half a meter down, forming their four fox holes into a small trench. Solomon and Lyra placed the box at the threshold of their dirt mound, the youngest had removed his helmet and nodded with a grateful smile before Solomon and Lyra set off back to repeat the action to the east, south and western perimeters.

They approached the Western Perimeter with their ammunition box when Lyra stopped so suddenly that Solomon jerked backwards with the box. “The Hell, Lyra?” asked Solomon, picked himself off the dusty ground, Lyra had already removed her white helmet and was staring in disbelief with her head tilted towards the sky. “Lyra?” asked Solomon impatiently before he saw the problem. The western perimeter soldiers were slowly walking backwards, towards the landing zone with their weapons raised high, towards the oversized, long necked creature, standing ten meters tall, Solomon looked in bewilderment as the creature made its way towards him, he was so distracted by the pale grey creature he didn’t hear the quick footsteps of the blue armoured figure of Sandra, gasping for breath “A Brachiosaurus?... here? no... it can’t be! We are too far north”

The team of four soldiers on the western perimeter had closed in on Solomon, still backing off, away from the creature, “Lower your weapons.” said Sandra softly, the soldiers quickly looked at her with fear and confusion, as if she was crazy, then looking at the open mouthed Solomon, who absently nodded to confirm the command. The men quickly disarmed themselves, much to their dislike. The large grey creature closed in slower than before, its head low, cautiously sniffing the air, judging the small puny humans. A rustle in the trees to the right caught the Brachiosaurus’ attention, as the creature turned its head, Solomon could see the intricate armouring of the spine where the colour turned almost as blue as his armour, the creature grunted and snarled, the noises made Solomon feel uncomfortable, the feeling was mutual amongst the soldiers as they peered into the trees fifty yards away. The Brachiosaurus backed away and began to turn fearfully, Solomon felt the need to raise his weapon. Suddenly, the trees separated as a large crimson predator charged through the foliage with an almighty roar that forced three soldiers staggering back and one to fall to the dirt with a fearful scream, Solomon instinctively opened fire and Lyra quickly drew her pistol and released her own barrage against the charging predator. The sudden crack of gunfire caused the Brachiosaurus to flee with a whimper and a defensive slash of its monstrous tail, throwing Lyra across the field with a crash.

The dark hulking mass of Lucius stomped across the threshold of the embarkation deck, grunting at the lack of speed from the transport crew as they re-loaded the landing craft. A well built young man ran towards the pacing grunting monster of a man, sweating, he breathlessly told Lucius the ships are ready. With a broad smile, Lucius ordered his company to board the fleet of transports. Lucius only feared one thing; missing out. He hated the fact Solomon was chosen as the first, he always liked been the first, you always get the juicier kills then. But, he shrugged to himself as he remembered transports full of foods and building materials, and relinquished his resentment of not been first.

The trip down was rough, low orbit launches always had so much turbulence to deal with. The second company had been thrown violently around inside their restraints. The Gryph had allowed the Evergreen to enter into the low orbit of the planet as the other ships dealt with the pain in the arse security checks. One by one the transports came down, to allow the decent of the rations and building material. Kyril sat brooding in his chair. He knew why they were doing this now. The landing party had to be small, if they did anything wrong, and the Gryph attacked, or we attacked them, the human reinforcements would only trickle down and the men on the ground would very likely be outnumbered.

Lucius, still impatient, waited for the pilot to make an announcement, it took a lifetime for the Captain of the Second to see his dream of the landing to come true. “Ten seconds!” came the distant voice of the pilot over the headset, Lucius kept his helmet upon his lap, he always hated wearing the heavy metal container on his head. “oh... hold on...” came the pilots voice as distant as the last time, Lucius glared at the ajar cockpit door, as if it had taken his favourite toy away. “we have a hot landing zone, rules of engagement from the ground: weapons free, weapons free” and without pause the lights turned from the warm bright light to the night battle red. The rear ramp opened quickly, showing a strange battlefield. blue figures scattered around the dust and grass, rations piled around the landing zone with gunfire echoing over the plains. Large crimson reptile creatures bled into the ground as the blue armoured figures scuttled around firing their weapons at the predators. At least fifty beasts lay dead and twenty more were trying to eat the soldiers of the first company. Lucius looked to the tree line and saw more crimson beasts shuffling the green sea of leaves. “Take us down! Now!” He spat at the pilot, who turned to argue about the location but quickly obliged after he caught a glimpse of the murderous scowl Lucius cast him through the gap in the ajar cockpit door. Without fear, Lucius jumped from the ramp with an almighty thud the second he was within a range that wouldn’t kill him.

With his weapon firing at the crimson beasts, his squads followed from the transport. As more blue ships dived closer to the surface, more soldiers joined the battle, within minutes, the entire second company was at full fighting strength, bringing themselves into a firing circle, they slowly expanded as they killed. Only breaking formation to grab a prone blue and sometimes bloodied body from the ground and drag it back to the centre where medical staff could work.

One of the larger predators noticed the gigantic blue figure of Lucius without his helmet and charged, roaring as it kicked up the dust with its enormous crimson feet, Lucius smiled with glee as he pulled his large combat knife from his breast plate, charging in kind, towards to the creature.

The crimson beast tried to bite at the running captain who dodged the attack easily, spinning on his heel as the creature ran past, he slashed his blade at the dinosaurs ankle. A fresh spray of blood spattered his face. Lucius, who smiled like an excited child smacked his lips as he tasted the animals blood. With a thunderous crash the beast collapsed and gave out a high shriek of a roar, and by the time it had begun to turn its large carnivorous head, Lucius had dug his blade deep into the creatures skull and it went limp, and silent. He had quite forgotten about the rest of is team as he relished his recent kill. A beast three times his size.

Small and slender emerald vessels came gliding from the distance with such grace, it would have held many spectators in awe struck envy, but this was a battle, and such things had no time to be admired. Twenty of the Gryph fighters came down so close to the surface, a crimson predator could easily had chewed them up, if they had not been distracted by the scuttling blue armoured humans. Each fighter, carrying a large barrel shaped device under its hull. Strategically dropping the barrels around the perimeter, this caused the predators, birds and even bugs that had been aimlessly buzzing around to flee desperately away from any of the containers. The only things left in the clearing as the dust settled, were the remains of the first company and many dead crimson beasts.

Lyra found Solomon laying motionless beneath a large ammunition crate, metal bent, wood splintered, and a trickle of blood making its way down his face. She gasped as she felt for his pulse, her fingers sliding on the slick blood around his neck, but she finally found it, slow and weak. ‘He’s in a bad way’, she thought and immediately began feeling his limbs for broken bones and internal bleeds.

A Medevac was called, this action caused The Evergreen to empty all the vessels within its belly that could carry even just two passengers and damn the Gryph’s security checks. The remnants of the First Company had to be withdrawn. The Third Company would have to take the place of Solomon’s soldiers as they were shipped back up to The Evergreen. Inside one of the bulky supply ships, Lyra was sat at Solomon’s side, a bed made from stacked beer crates held up his limp form, his helmet had been taken off and was placed upon one of the many storage shelves that were mainly now empty. Lyra had injected her patient with a cocktail of liquids, mainly steroids to stabilise him, but now she had to leave him, as she checked on the other six prone figures in the shadowy belly of a container that was hauled up by the transport. If Lyra looked out of the window, she would have seen the emerald fleet sending down their own convoys to support the humans down below, she would see that they still held the other human ships in high orbit, undergoing security. Captain Hyphon must be red in the face, having to deal with that scoundrel Winslow, jabbering and bitching in his ear about the situation. But she did not look through the window, her attention on her patients only broke when the ships intercom hissed with an open channel and heavy wet breathing.

“..Fin... little fingers.. um... very tasty... ous... re... you... bother... no... more...”

“Sorry, what was that? Did you say something?” came the voice of the pilot over the intercom clearly having heard the strange message, caution in her voice. “No, that wasn’t me...” said Lyra defensively, “Uh-Huh.” said the pilot, not believing her, and Lyra heard the Cockpit door mechanism lock and saw the Hull Intercom had become locked out. She could see The Evergreen and didn’t panic, knowing that she wouldn’t be locked out for long, once they saw she hadn’t gone crazy and proven that it wasn’t her on the intercom, she would be able to carry Solomon to the infirmary. Lyra hadn’t known that the pilot had called ahead, alerting the security teams and they were waiting for her. The ramp lowered and there stood four fully armoured soldiers with their rifles aimed at Lyra, a squad commander stood between her and the guns with his hands out in a calming manor. “Easy... Easy, Nurse...” he said softly, gesturing her to slowly come to him, his blue cap resting crookedly on his shaven scalp. “That, wasn’t me!” retorted Lyra defensively as she backed off into the darkened shuttle, When Solomon gave a soft groan the teams focused their rifles on him, and saw the wounded bodies laid upon makeshift beds. “Tricksie little fingers!” spat a little voice from the intercom, “Fingers in too many pies! Tasty pies! Dangerous to remember! You bother nobody any more!” the voice said getting higher and more manic towards the end. The soldiers illuminated the room and cleared out the wounded, searching every hatch, every corner and underneath every pile of bloodied cloth – nothing.

The Intercom of the vessel was limited to internal communications only, but the source couldn’t be found.

The corridor outside the medical bay of The Evergreen was deathly silent. A lone figure paced outside the glowing window of the infirmary, seven steps forward, turn, seven more steps. Upon reaching each end of the window the forever ageing figure of Kyril would allow himself a look inside. A glance upon the many wounded. Solomon had been brought here, Kyril could make out his bandaged form at the far end of the Infirmary, next to where Doctor Frederick’s desk used to be. Lyra had also come here after the questioning, she sat in the corner chair next to Solomons bed, her arm in a sling and a heavy bandage around her centre, giving her broken ribs some support. With her free hand, she was lightly dabbing Solomon’s brow with a damp cloth. Kyril raised an eyebrow at this sight, Lyra was gazing upon Solomon with not the concern of a nurse, but the the look of something more. When Solomon stirred, Lyra’s eyes glowed with the hope that he might wake up from the heavy blow that struck his head, to no avail. The Infirmary was full to the brim with soldiers of the first company with a small few of the second. Legs and arms placed in casts, small spatters of blood rested on the metal floor that the rushing and overworked medical staff had neglected to mop up whilst tending to the many needs and moans of the hurt and needy.

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