The Evergreen Files: Banshee; Book One
Chapter Nineteen

And so the remaining six survivors made their way through the shrouded, fog laden sea of green woodland, with ever increasing speed, feeling the danger of their surroundings seemingly intent on suffocating the very air from their lungs.

Over the hills, no more than a mile ahead of them, the door to the bridge of The Evergreen opened with the resistance of a rusted wreck. Scraping along the fragments of debris left from the crash, the consoles sparking, revealing the little life they still held on to with clenched fists of iron will. With the door open, not needing any pass codes to enter, the security system offline, along with almost everything, the man sniffed as he made his way to a console at the far right side.

Creaking echoed through the halls of The Evergreen as she complained, the aches throughout her body worsening. The man found the panel that he was seeking, and removed the facing, revealing various cables, some of which had melted, no doubt because of an overload caused by the crash. After isolating the power he prepared to do his work, using his knife, he stripped the cables of their melted sheathing. Spending some time making them safe, he began to re-wire the console. “There.” he muttered to himself, “That should do it...” and he allowed the small measure of power left clinging to the wrecked systems through into the console he had worked on. A couple of small sparks spat out at him, forcing him to unexpectedly to fall back from his knees. “Thank you, Theo. My systems have been in a bad state since the impact.” came the soothing voice of Eve, slightly jiddery in places as she arranged her voice modules into order. “I am detecting multiple friendlies aboard, I am giving them instructions to accompany you on the bridge.” Theo stood back and smiled.

Solomon checked his watch, nightfall was soon to be had on this side of the planet. He estimated that they had roughly an hour before darkness engulfed them. He prayed that they would replace the wreckage shelter before then. Increasing his pace, the small group followed suit, detecting the urgency, they did not protest with the almost jogging speed of which Solomon now kept, even with their injuries, they knew it would probably mean their death if they didn’t keep up to their leading figure. The sun was setting quicker than Solomon anticipated and already the ground was becoming harder to read, causing most of the group to trip and fall. Solomon begrudgingly conceded to their pleas and agreed to allow them to rest until dawn. They would need to arrange watches throughout the night.

The Gryph pilot that eventually introduced himself as Byryl volunteered to make their make-shift camp, Solomon agreed and told the two crewmen to help him. Sykra and Lyra ventured out together to collect wood for a small fire, the two crew members decided to make comfortable of the patch of earth they now found to be home for the night, casting glances of concern to each other when their eyes met. Eager to be safe together at their home back on earth.

Solomon paced slowly around the perimeter of the camp, always keeping it in his line of sight, Noting the exhaustion in Byryl’s features, guilt spiked inside his stomach, had he pushed the poor alien too far? Forcing Sykra to effectively drag him most of the way, his broken bent leg bleeding through the bandages that dressed the wound. Trying to shake the feeling, he turned and scanned for the horizon, the fog seemed thinner now, he could make out the end of the forest. “Safer in the trees.” he stated to himself, brushing away the idea of pressing on. If the group had suffered less, he would have forced them on further. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise? Perhaps, their rest will allow them good fortune tomorrow, and raise spirits as exhaustion will be lessened.

Sykra returned first with arms full of broken sticks, lush with green leaves, Byryl clapped with enthusiasm and cheered “Yes Sykra! We be warm at night, because of you!” but the couple sat across from him raised their eyebrows, and both rolled their eyes.”Hey!” barked Byryl, “You no do that! He is helping! I do not see your human back yet!” he scoffed. Patting the arm of his hurt partner, the crewman got to his feet, “Oh honey, all that stuff will do, is give off puffs of smoke thicker than this fog and smell worse than your arse.” he said with a hint of sass. His voice showing the roughness of the previous days, his husband pulled at his hand, with a concerned look, “I’ll need you unhurt” he said with a soft smile as Arnold knelt back beside him and ran his fingers through his husband’s hair, returning his smile.

Lyra chose her fire wood carefully, her father used to take her camping before he passed, he always told her, “the deader it is, the better it burns and the less smoke it gives off.” after nearly half an hour, she had a mere seven thick sticks, not enough. Checking in the brush, she rummaged through the fallen leaves and still living branches that stooped low, by the time she found a good enough branch to burn, the soil had soaked her knees and shins, with a huff, she got back to her feet, happy with her replace, and looked around for more, and then she saw it. Through the thinning fog, and just close enough to see the silhouette against the darkening sky. “Sol!” she called out urgently.

Solomon, relieving himself against a particularly thick tree with low hanging branches wide from the bark, surrounding him like a sort of shield from the world that had fallen to chaos, had a moment of solitude, and enjoyed the silence, not even the insects made their calls. Breaking his moment alone, Lyra’s call came to his ears like a hot branding iron. Before he could think, he found his hands reaching for his weapon and his legs running in the direction of the call. Breaking through the low drooping branch shield, he ran until he found Lyra, standing on a small grassy verge with several think pieces of wood in her arms, raising his weapon and sweeping the area ahead to see what the cause of alarm was, until he paused, frozen stiff. He saw it too. The Evergreen.

Lyra looked at Solomon and gave out a small chuckle and blushed, Solomon returned the gesture with a cheer, feeling she was relieved at the sight of their ship, only to meet her eyes as she looked him up and down, blushing. Then he realised, he never put himself away after he relieved himself against the tree before she called out to him, his hands like lighting tried to put his member away, fumbling with the embarrassment it took him far longer than he liked, then it came as a realisation to him that Lyra had already seen all of him, granted it was a fair few months ago now since their last dance together.

Solomon and Lyra returned to their little camp, and rallied the survivors and made their way to the Ship, that was only a few hundred meters past the tree line. Lyra found two strong branches and strapped Byryl’s leg inside them to make a splint. This allowed him to move on his own at least.

Theo opened the virtual ship map, that pinpointed life signs across The Evergreen, easily replaceing the six small blue dots moving along the lower decks, the blue dots gave him little hope, then he found four more in the landing decks holding their position. Considering the hilariously large amount of red dots roaming the corridors of the ship, Theo considered his options “Eve, can I have a count of contacts aboard, please?” asked Theo, his voice croaking with the stress of the last few days. “ten confirmed Friendlies. six Human, Evergreen Members, and four Gryph. Unfortunately I cannot identify the other ninety seven other entities.” Theo breathed heavily as he saw that three of those unidentified entities had made their happy little way to the deck that held the bridge. According to the map, one entity was directly outside the door. “Eve... how accurate is this map of yours, and your readings?” whispered Theo, not wishing to make noise. “accurate to a meter. What you see, is accurate.” came her voice, soothingly – but she was aware of the danger, and voiced this throughout the entire ship, where the speakers still worked. This found it’s way to Solomon, who with great relief called out to his thought to be dead friend “Eve! You beautiful circuit board! How are you still functional?” he cheered, Eve’s response came quickly, but the speaker distorted her once smooth voice. “Sergeant Theo Richmond of The Judgement repaired my power leak, and is currently holding in the bridge.” with raised eyebrows at the Judgement for having a survivor Solomon once again increased his speed to the bridge.”Eve, are there any other survivors aboard?” he called, making his way down the darkened corridor, flash lights lighting up the length intermittently as they moved with their bodies, some panelling hung from the ceiling, accompanied by loose cables, hanging like veins. Eve answered with uncertainty, “apologies Lieutenant Commander, but I have suffered damage to most of my systems and I am unable to entirely identify entities within myself. I can confirm that including your number and Sergeant Richmond, I have eleven friendlies aboard, the only two I can positively identify are yourself and Sergeant Richmond due to your armour identification chip, however not all of my sensors are working and identification is frequently a problem.”

Solomon paused to think for a moment, taking in the his surroundings. If the path was clear, he could make it up to the bridge in about ten minutes. “are the other four friendlies in the bridge with Richmond?” he asked eventually. After a few moments of creaking and complaining from the ships superstructure, Eve finally answered. “Negative, the other four friendlies are in the Landing Deck, however, ninety seven unidentified entities are in various positions throughout the vessel. Sixteen of which are currently residing within the faster route to the bridge.” Solomon thought about asking specifics on the entities, but smiled, realising the pointlessness of asking what an unidentified unknown entity is. Then he thought of a much better action. “Eve, are the four friendlies still in the Landing Deck?” he waited as she confirmed this, “Excellent, what are they doing there?” he asked more enthusiastically, Eve came back quicker than before, “Unknown, my communication is too damaged in that area, they seem to want to remain there. I have attempted contact multiple times without success.”

Solomon considered his options, he knew the bridge was a dead end physically, but it could offer him many more options. The Landing deck may have a functional vessel they could escape on, but with an impact such as the Evergreen had suffered, he doubted this as a viable option. He decided on the bridge, unable to split his small force because of the injuries many of them had suffered. Byryl complained as his support slipped on the bent and broken metal floor, putting some weight on his broken leg.

Eve’s voice spoke through all the ship speakers again, “Internal Automatic Defence system now active All Personnel must have a valid identification chip on their person at all times to avoid destruction.” and before Solomon could take another step, powerful dull gunshots echoed throughout the entirety of The Evergreen, followed by inhuman wails and screams of agony, almost drowned out by the ferocity of the defence system, seemingly from behind them somewhere.

A turret tried to lower itself from its ceiling cavity, but the bent metal prevented it a smooth exit, Solomon saw it break free and drop into it’s firing position, as it pivoted to the group of six, Solomon quickly placed himself in front of them, spreading his arms wide, knowing, he had been identified by The Evergreen, but the others had not. The turret turned slightly in either direction to try and get a shot without hitting the identified officer. Solomon told them to slowly go backwards until they turned the corner, keeping out of the turrets sights by staying behind him. Solomon hoped that the turret in the corridor he was railroading the group into had received as much damage as the corridor had, and ceased to function. “Eve, can you please not shoot us?” asked Lyra as she held onto Solomon’s waist and backed up, “Unfortunately, unidentified friendly speaker, I can tell the difference between hostile and friend, the auto cannons cannot, other than through an identification chip, of which my sensors to detect are not fully functional. I have no control over them, they have been deployed manually by Sergeant Richmond, and I have lost communication with the bridge, exactly thirteen point five seconds after the deployment of the Internal Auto Defence System.”

The corridor they had previously walked down was in bad shape. The metal work walls and floor bent to obscure angles, and the ceiling vents almost all had fallen to the ground. Arnold stood at the back, his husband in front, he put his head cautiously around the corner, hoping he would still have a head after seeing what was around it. Nothing happened. He couldn’t really make anything specific out in the darkness, so he brought out more of his body into the corridor so he could bring his light to bear and shine it down, he saw the gun. And the gun seemed to see him, spinning on it’s slightly bent crane that held it to the ceiling mount, it had a clear shot. Arnold froze, not sure if he couldn’t move because he was already dead, or was stuck in place by the fear of realisation of his death. The turret had his frozen form in its sights, but did not shoot.

“Maybe it’s finally ID’d me?” he said shakily revealing more and more of himself to the turret, the muzzle followed his every move. Letting out a nervous laugh as he edged closer, his husband poked his head around the corner, the turret still did not fire. Fully entering the corridor, the weapon twitched between the two targets, pivoting on its slightly bent mounting. As Arnold stood closer to the turret, he could hear mechanical clicking away from above the defensive turret, getting closer, he could then make out the small digital screen just below the targetting lens, it read “Zero – Loading 99%.” Arnold Blinked and then saw a bright light as the defence turret barked back into life, it had finished reloading and now cut down the two enemies that lay directly in its path. Sykra and Byryl were next around the corner, Byryl fell back, taking Sykra with him, sprayed with the hot wet blood spatter of Arnold and his husband as their bodies, shredded from the fast paced firepower from the defence turret, they cowered. Lyra turned to see the blood hit the wall, followed by sparks from shells hitting the wall after they shredded through the two bodies. Solomon held his ground, fearful of the panic that the action behind would surely cause, and was prepared for the turret in front of them to open fire, shredding all of them in to a hole punched mess. As the gunfire echo ceased to reverberate off the walls, One of the men’s dying gurgle could be heard in his harsh breaths as he painfully passed in to death.

They were trapped. Like rats in a run. One gun in the corridor behind them, and one only a few meters in front of them around the corner, with the outstretched body of Solomon to protect them.

A figure crept between shadows, not making a sound as its feet pressed against the grated floor, or when it pressed its back against a corner to check down a corridor. The silent intruder moved with uncertainty in the terrain, but with the confidence of one of a life of ever adapting skills that have been honed and put to perfect effect. Turning one corner to replace an auto defence turret, spinning to the source of the movement, and then searching. It saw nothing. The figure paid the defence weapon no attention more than identifying it, and moved on further into The Evergreen. A flash from a sparking power disruption glistened against the face of the intruder, the turret following the movement, slow and calculated, but seeing nothing to engage. But then, it sensed more movement, from where it first encountered the shadow. Six more figures skulked behind the lead intruder, the turret switching between them quickly, but still unable to lock onto a target and kill.

Further into the bent and broken Evergreen, one of the figures asked the lead intruder a question, keeping their voice as a whisper “How much further, Zhou?”