The Evergreen Files: Banshee; Book One
Chapter Five

A heavy smell of stale sweat and cigar smoke filled the nostrils of an aged man with dark brown skin, taking deep pleasing breaths of anticipation as he paced from one end of the bridge to the other. The glows of the single tier of control units in front of him outlined the skeletal figures of his thin crew. “Brothers. How long until they enter warp travel?” asked the man with a hoarse deep voice. One of the six skeletal figures answered without turning her head from the screen. “Captain, they should be entering warp within ten minutes, if our source is reliable and correct, we shall be able to snatch one of their ships.” said the skinny woman. Captain Zhou replied with a simple menacing grin.

After minutes of silence and bracing the coming storm, Zhou’s eyes widened with excitement as the timer reduced itself closer to zero. Zhou licked his lips, eager, but knowing if he fired too soon, he would miss the opportunity to steal such a priceless treasure. The fleet of degenerates lay still as a pack of wolves, poised to strike the hunted prey. The zero came, his smile increased, as his prize came ever closer.

“Fire.”

“Yes, Pilgrim.”

The lone ship sat in the void of space, it’s hull shining in the rays of the sun. The smooth hull in pristine condition except for the dark scarring of the fore starboard area of the lower hull, from where a seemingly rogue asteroid had collided with the ship during a warp jump. The surrounding void was deathly calm, the klaxon blurting throughout the ship, unheard in the cold vast heart of space.

“Engineers! Get the breach sealed! Get the comms back up! Casualty report!” roared the captain of the Pride of Lions. His voice breaking from the stress of the sudden break from warp travel. The chaotic bridge which constantly had the calm sense had been completely broken, a dead helmsman lay in the corner of the bridge, under a cream sheet, speckles of red beginning to appear over where the helmsman’s head was hidden. A medic began shouting over the radio to the captain, his voice trembling through static.

“Sir, we have seventy two crew confirmed dead, over two hundred injured! We need more medical staff, sir!”

after a moment Captain Commander Jeremy Simm asked a question that seemed unimportant to the rest of the crew.

“Where is Johansen? Where’s Chief?”

two of the passing bridge officers stopped and gave Simms a stone look, before one turned and vomited, their stomach finally giving in to the stress of the impacted exit from the warp.

“Chief Doctor Johansen is dead, sir.” came the shaking voice of the medic.

The two bridge officers shook their heads in distaste as the captain gave his next command.

“Son, you are now my chief medic.”

his order was met with only a long shudder as the metal of the ship complained loudly with a creak as an invisible wave harshly embraced the stranded ship within its arms.

A wave created by a large group of ships simultaneously exiting warp travel, knocking most of The Pride Of Lion’s crew from their stations as the Pride of Lions tried to right itself from the shock wave that tried to upend the vessel.

“Captain! We have seven unknown large contacts and seventeen small unknown contacts bearing one-three-seven and closing, sir!” screamed a watch officer monitoring the local void as he climbed back into his chair, recovering from the wave. Before Captain Simm could speak his orders, a barrage of E.M.P. missiles had been launched on an attack course for The Pride Of Lions.

Within seconds, The Pride of Lion’s power had been disabled.

“Get life support and weapons back online! Return fire, red alert, shields up when we have them, get everything back online!” bellowed the ever more panicking Captain Simms. “Life Support and Weapons are online sir! That’s all we could get!” returned a tactical officer after a handful of minutes passed.

The seventeen smaller unknown contacts moved fast, specks of blood red dust cutting through the void with superior speed to The Pride Of Lions guns, the rapid firing Hellsing Cannon’s could not keep up with the smaller craft. The larger seven ships, six blood red, one a navy blue, slowly crawling towards the battle. Simm took note of the slower ships and the odd coloured one. “All weapons channel attack to the larger ships! I want the blue one destroyed!”

Zhou sat in his large red leather throne on the bridge of his Magnificent ship, licking his lips with anticipation, savouring the coming taste of victory. The ship in his scope had taken minimal structural damage, but massive crew losses as he had planned. Small scorch marks stained the hull of The Pride Of Lions where the E.M.P. missiles had hit. Zhou’s mind began to wonder, ‘what colour shall I have my newest flag ship?’ he thought to himself. An unexpected quake erupted in his throne, shaking him back into the moment. “Captain. The enemy ship has gained power to its weapons. What shall we do? We cannot destroy her!” Zhou jumped to his feet, a new and sudden anger bulging through his narrow eyes. “send a Fire Ball at their bridge. I’m sure I will be able to afford a refit.” snapping his fingers together, he ordered his weapons team to fire a single Fire Ball aimed at the bridge of The Pride of Lions.

Smoke filled the nostrils of Simms, electrical corrosion and melted plastic had become the prominent scent of the room. A Radio operator was speaking as fast as he could into his device, repeating himself, over and over and over again. “This is The Pride of Lions, We are taking fire from unknown enemies, estimated twenty four ships, most of our systems are down, requesting assistance!” the room began to become more and more chaotic as the Bridge crew relayed messages to each other from parts of the ship, the crew becoming more aware of the ship wide damage. “All Bridge Crew, prepare to abandon this Bridge and move to the battle bridge. Weaver, send the command with a runner to the ship’s crew to get the room ready! And somebody, please try and get my ships A.I. back online...” Simm’s stomach filled with a lead weight as he saw an enormous electric blue fire ball gather size as it began hurtling towards him through the void.

Simms could only mutter a single word as his brain froze. “Move.”

Even though he spoke in an almost whisper, the entire bridge heard the muttered command. In unison, everybody hurriedly gathered their command consoles and began running for the door.

As Captain Simms stood at the mouth of the metal door ushering everyone through, as the blue ball gained more ground, closer, counting their numbers, ensuring his crew all escaped before him, once the room was clear, he began to seal the door, he became painfully aware of the proximity of the fire ball, as the room began to radiate the colour blue. Through the closing gap of the metal shutters he saw it. The blue fire struck the hardened glass view window.

Kyril blasted into the Bridge of the Evergreen, heaving heavily like a beast, having run from the L.R.W. to the Bridge as soon as he was made aware of the un-planned warp jump.

“Solomon!”

“Sorry, sir. Ship under fire, unknown party, about twenty four ships attacking. Closing in, exiting in 3 minutes.”

“Good lad! Red Alert, Shields up, Weapons ready! But Solomon, at least try and not break my ship!”

The command was already set to come into effect once they dropped out of warp to allow everybody to get to their posts, Kyril allowed himself a swell of pride as he admired how Solomon took charge. A good man to take the reins, after him.

The white blur of stars slowed as the ship came out of its warp travel, travelling at flank speed, they instantly saw the battle raging at some distance. A buzz and hum sounded from the weapons stations as they powered up and readied themselves. Kyril knew, from the moment he saw the numbers of the enemy that this was a set up. Too many enemies in a seemingly random patch of space, that just happened to be in the area of a ship hit during warp travel?

“Open fire the moment we are in range!” he shouted over his shoulder at the weapons crew. “Hellsing guns, Gyro Cannons, missiles, everything.” casting an eye to Solomon, giving him a curt nod, Solomon knew what he had to do. Solomon instantly removed himself from the room and began running down the corridors as Kyrils voice sounded through the ship wide channel. “All Hands, Red Alert, man your battle stations. Medical, prepare the bays to receive the crew of the Pride of Lions.” Kyril could see through the armoured glass that the Pride of Lions was a lost vessel. A ball of blue fire had engulfed the command bridge, the hull was beginning to take a pounding from the smaller ships as the larger vessels crawled closer, bombarding their stationary and defeated prey with more E.M.P. weapons.

Solomon was running through the red lit metal corridor, dodging maintenance crew, medical crew and security crew. He had to fire up the L.R.W. as a precaution, it could only be operated by a command capable officer. Ignoring the ache in his legs and chest as he sprinted down the final corridor, leading to the Secure Room, he was thrown from his feet with a sudden shift of gravity. The Evergreen had been hit by an Ion torpedo, the ship was for a moment uncontrollably thrown through space, it took only a second or so for the bridge crew to stabilise the ship, but that was enough to destabilise most of the crew. Solomon regained his footing and started down the flickering corridor once more. After a few minutes the Last Resort Weapon came into view, the large cylinder hulk of iron and wire began powering up, a gentle humming turned into a more prominent buzz as it became ready. It’s large cylinder glowing light blue as the energy collected itself. The red metal began to vibrate and get warm to touch. Solomon cocked his head to hear for the command, he hated this. Waiting inside the heart of the ship, not knowing if they were surrounded or winning. Doubt began entering his mind with every thud and bang he heard. He was to flick the red switch that his thumb had rested upon, firing a large concentrated Electronic Wave in all directions, disabling any ships near by, but keeping The Evergreen in working order.

Sandra had retreated to her cabin, knowing no safer place other than the bridge, but she knew full well, she would get in the way there, and she would not be welcome. The floor shuddered as weapons discharged from the hull of the ship. Small rounds smashing into the sides fore and aft. Sandra was now truly grateful she did not have a port hole window in her cabin. She had longed for a view from her bed of the beauty of the stars and nebulas of space. Now, she was glad that she was not on the outside wall of the ship and if a round penetrated the hull, she was at least safe. Cowering under her bed with the sheets wrapped around her, the shudders became more bone crunching. “Eve! What’s happening? I need you to tell me!” shouted Sandra, her voice trembling and breaking with fear. Tears had started leaking from her eyes uncontrollably as she gave into the anxiety, her stomach was filled with both flying objects and heavy weights as Eve’s answer never came. Sandra let out another frightful scream, her skin began to itch and burn as her world collapsed around her. As her vision began to turn black a sudden light blinded her. A hiss filled her ears as someone ran into her cabin. The light blinding her weeping eyes, Sandra could not make out the presence.

“Sandra, it’s all okay. You’ll be fine. Come on up, I’ve got you.” came a soft soothing voice of a woman. Sandra’s brain was working too fast on the itching and burning of her skin to concentrate on the voice. Without a second wasted, the woman pulled Sandra up and carried her to her bed.

“It’s okay Sandra, I’ve got you. You’ll be fine.”

The Evergreen glided though the constant barrages of small armaments fired from the attack vessels, occasionally destroying one of the fighter craft with the Hellsing Guns in their rapid fire. The Evergreen held strong, as it moved closer to The Pride Of Lions, who manually had to fire their weapons without targetting systems.

Kyril stood in between two helmsmen holding on to the backs of their chairs with whitened knuckles, bracing for unexpected impacts from the pirates constant barrage. “Try and make contact with Captain Simms, I hope he wasn’t inside the bridge with the ball of fire...” his voice trailed off as he scanned the blackened hull and smashed windows on a small view screen that had zoomed in on the charred remains. The inside of the bridge was scorched and lifeless. No electrics or humans could have survived a direct hit from the fire ball.

“Maintain course to The Pride of Lions, open fire on the nearest command ship” ordered Kyril to the entire bridge. With that command The Evergreen seemed to pick up more speed, even though she was already heading at full flank. The Evergreens weapons fell silent, taking aim as the slender vessel deflected more small armaments, moving closer to the nearest crimson ship. Kyril noted the optimal range as it approached and his temples bulged with anger as he gave the order, “Open fire.”

The Evergreen’s midnight blue hull reflected the deadly onslaught from the guns and missile launchers, hundreds of explosive rounds and missiles left their hollowed out launchers with an ear splitting shriek as they sailed through the void towards the pirates. Several missiles found their targets with all of their destructive power, the closest crimson ship veered hard to port as its port thrusters separated from the main body with the destructive blow given from The Evergreen.

Kyril allowed himself a slight smile of vengeance, “Fire on the next one!”

Captain Zhou stared in disbelief as he watched the crimson vessel lose control and begin to tear itself apart. His eyes darting past the crumpling wreckage, to The Evergreen’s almost invisible hull the midnight blue blending in excellently with the blackness of space, slightly charred and scarred, seemed a peaceful, but beautiful hunter to Zhou’s eyes. Momentarily held in a silent, frozen moment that lasted a life time to him, as he admired the slender shape of her body. The Evergreen’s pointed nose turning starboard, revealing it’s long thin neck, three thick lines of heavy cannons running down the length of the quarter mile neck. The guns came into full view of Zhou’s bridge, he quickly came back to his senses. “Full reverse thrust! Bring us down and about!” jumping to his flat feet, the stench of sweat becoming more potent.

The firepower of The Evergreen was seemingly too great to take on in a straight up fight, Zhou’s fleet wouldn’t stand a chance. A single barrage took out one of his command ships.

The quarter mile run of guns lined up to Zhou’s fleeing ship. Their muzzle’s flashed, the thunder shook even Zhou from his feet, He knew his doom was quickly approaching through the timeless void of space. “Emergency flank! Now!” he screamed through the warning klaxon. Every thruster on the ship capable of pointing up, had fired at full speed, the force of the sudden spill of energy into space forced most of the crew of Zhou’s ship lift off their chairs slightly. The incoming missiles missed the bow of Zhou’s hull by a little more than a centimetre. Zhou quickly regained his footing, his smile widening showing three missing teeth, his gums slightly rotted from the years of drug use. “Ready the big gun! Stun them! Stun them now! Cover our esca-” Zhou gleefully shouted before he was cut short by a second thunderous rumble shake the very heart of his ship.

“Zhou! Red Tide has gone! She must have been hit by the volley that missed us!” the skinny woman spat.

“Call the fleet, call a retreat. Let’s get out of here.” said Zhou, with defeat trembling his voice, as he slumped back into his throne, shudders shaking his bones.

Solomon stood with his key in the L.R.W. His thumb ready to press the button, a trickle of blood made its way down Solomon’s smooth face, The Evergreen’s structure began to settle down when E.V. broke the silence. “Lieutenant Gordon, Captain Sinderman has requested your presence on the Bridge.” Solomon swore softly to himself with great relief, thanked a god that he had no belief in, patted the armoured plating of the L.R.W. And smiled.

Solomon made his way as fast as his tiring legs could carry him. Bursting through the Bridge door. The smell of burning electrics polluted the air, a clearing fog drifted through the room as Solomon took in the surprising minimal damage to the bridge. “Kyril. We good?” asked Solomon, clearing his throat as he inhaled some of the electrical smoke. Kyril nodded, allowing himself a relieved sigh, rubbing the back of his greying head, “Reports to my chair in ten minutes, try hail The Pride Of Lions, Helm, take us to an intercept course and help them out.”

The Evergreen glided through the void, her new wounds black and dented, but secure.

“Pride Of Lions, please respond, we will be docking on the port side, please respond.” said Geoff into his head set dialling into the comms of The Pride Of Lions. As The Evergreen sailed within one hundred meters off The Pride Of Lions wrecked vessel, Geoff looked up in hope through his thick glasses, when his ear set crackled with static and the breakings of a voice.

“Evergr....officer.... com...nd bri....ne....Battle Bri...ge....eal...”

“Captain Sinderman, Sir!”

“Yes, Geoff”

“I have a broken connection to The Pride, she’s in a bad way, shall we prepare the boarding parties?”

“Make it so.”

The Evergreen pulled along side the charred hull of The Pride Of Lions, the past battle fresh in the minds of the crew as they observed the battered and beaten hull of their fallen sister ship.

Geoff straightened his glasses and pressed his mic close to his mouth. “Pride of Lions, please release your Docking clamps on entrance nineteen, we are ready to commence.” said Geoff but was met by only static. Kyril had moved behind him silently placing his hand of the head of Geoff’s chair, frowning as he thought about his orders. After five minutes of silence, Kyril rubbed his eyes with the palms of his ageing hands. “Dock anyway, send over a team of engineers to open the door. Send all available medical staff, along with the first, and second companies.” said Kyril in a monotone sigh, “Solomon. Somebody knew where that ship was during warp travel. Only the Captains and the Lieutenant Commander on the ships new the locations and routes. Keep an eye out.” Solomon left the bridge quickly, making his way down to the armoury. Even Solomon didn’t have knowledge of the specifics of the Warp Travel route, only where they jumped, and where they landed.

The First Company, in full midnight blue armour lined up outside entrance nineteen, with a team of engineers dressed in yellow armour, one hundred soldiers packed into a single corridor, leaving barely enough room to gasp for breath before the signalling siren blipped and turned green. “Docking bridge secure and airtight.” said one of the engineers as he slung a scorch gun over his shoulder and carried a cannister of fuel. “You two, come with me, the company will stay here, until we return. Last thing we need, is a rupture to take a whole company.” he said over his shoulder signalling to the two youngest engineers who exchanged nervous glances as they sheepishly followed. The team of engineers opened the door and entered the docking bridge. The engineer with the scorch gun looked over his shoulder once the team was clear of the door, “Come on, Erick, close the damn door!” spat Engineer Barnett as he set down the heavy fuel canister, “Yes sir, Sorry Chief” stammered the scrawny boy at the rear, his armour too wide for his tiny frame, the yellow, airtight material baggy over his arms and legs. Between the two, was a more bulkier boy, his armour still too large for him, the two junior engineers, only seventeen had recently graduated from their apprenticeships before joining the engineering crews of The Evergreen. The Engineering team approached the Battered door of Entrance nineteen and began working. Barnett fired up the scorch gun as the two boys fed the fuel, and kept the canister line straight.

Solomon walked towards the sealed door of The Evergreen, waiting for the light to turn green again, his company packed into a small corridor with extra medical teams mixed into their numbers, The full void armour was bulky, full face helmets sealed their faces from sight. Solomon glanced over the deep blue armoured heads of the one hundred soldiers, easily spotting the thirty white helmets of the medical staff, casting his eye to the end door, he noticed a medical staff member removing their helmet as they were speaking to a blonde woman who’s back was to Solomon, the blonde woman was not in armour and in breach of regulation, as it was a simple operation Solomon knew it was not a big deal, however it still irritated him. His squad usually toyed with him about the stick up his arse. Solomon let out a loud whistle and shouted over the heads of the crowd. “All non-armours, leave the corridor, boarding will commence shortly!” the woman quickly turned her head, it was Sandra, who returned a worried look at the soldiers now looking at her with slight grins across their faces, hidden behind their helmets, her eyes still puffy and bloodshot. The medical person had fully removed her helmet and let a flow of auburn hair loose, Solomon now understood why Sandra was there, trying to tag along with Lyra. “Medic without the helmet! Report to Me now!” shouted Solomon. Sandra quickly left, clearly saddened by the loss of chance for excitement, Lyra made her way through the hulking masses of the armoured soldiers towards Solomon. “Please keep your helmet on. You’re now part of my team, I have a spot, just for you. Should be fun. Perhaps Sandra could come along another time, eh?” said Solomon hopefully to Lyra who returned a confused look at Solomon that immediately caught his attention. Solomon returned the look to Lyra before asking. Lyra informed Solomon of Sandra’s panic and anxiety attack during the battle. “She’s going to be okay, she’ll just be out of it for a couple of hours with the medication, she was just asking if she could see me tonight.” Solomon’s irritation soon turned into sympathy for Sandra and annoyance at himself.

The light above the door turned green once again as the Engineers re-entered the corridor. “Door’s open, ready to enter, sir, just push the door open when you’re at the end. Oxygen is on, gravity is on, power is a little dodgy, I hope you brought batteries for your little flashlights!” said Engineer Barnette with a laugh that echoed as he pushed his way past the packed in soldiers. “Alpha, on me, the rest, you have your brief, let’s go get them.” said Solomon into his mic ensuring the whole company heard as well as their relay officer monitoring their armour camera feed and microphones.

The Pride of Lion’s corridor was blackened, a red warning light was flashing a little further down the corridor, catching the eye of Solomon’s team were ten people on the ground about half way down. Some lay perfectly still in obscure positions, whilst others lay propped up against the wall tending to their wounds, or weeping. Solomon and his team rushed to their aid with Lyra and her medical team quickly following at their heels. Five of the bodies showed no sign of life, two were seriously injured and needed taking back to the Evergreen immediately, the other three had minor wounds and were escorted back with the retreating medics and wounded comrades.

After half an hour of gathering of the wounded and marking the dead for cover, A familiar growl came into Solomon’s ear. “Solomon, Deeph here, we are securing the Battle Bridge, it is completely sealed. This will take some time.” Solomon nodded to an invisible speaker and answered ”Roger, we will continue en route to the Command Bridge.” Solomon stood for a moment, scanning over the debris and blood spatter over the floors and walls. “Murder” he muttered as he knelt over a young woman’s corpse, who’s last emotion was still clear on her once beautiful face, exulting fear.

After another hour, Solomon approached a charred sealed door with a blue glowing light above the head, Solomon knew this meant a breach into the merciless void was at the other side. Decius came up level with Solomon, the young man clearly not expecting his first smell of battle, be a massacre of a sister ship. The sickening feeling throwing itself around his stomach could be clearly seen with his body language, haunched and nervously looking at the floor, walls and the blood spatter. Solomon studied his surroundings, the walls leading to the Command Bridge are covered in scratches, gouges and dents, Solomon knew from this, that the door had not sealed when the breach ripped through the ship. A small smear of blood trailed from the wall and down towards and through the sealed metal door below the strobing blue breach light. “Decius, Kara, with me, mag-boots on. The rest, I want you behind the bulk head door down the corridor, we are going through.” said Solomon with a horse hatred in his voice. As the fifteen soldiers retreated, and with the five remaining medics out of sight, as Decius played with his boot straps, his gloved hand fumbling over the shining metal, Kara jolted her head to move a troublesome strand of hair from her visor, as she pressed a command into her wrist console, a low buzz and sucking sound filled her boots as they became magnetised to the metal ground, the cold room not effecting the seasoned soldier. Decius, still clearly struggling with the concept of beyond the door, as well as his mag boots, Kara scoffed and pulled at Decius’ wrist, slapping it with a stern look in her eyes, and pressed the wrist console to engage his boots. Decius thanked her with a whimper of embarrassment.

Solomon punched in a code at the door terminal, forcing the blue blinking light to change a solid green, and with a screech of metal as the door dragged its blood freckled body over the bent metal flag floor. There was a roar of vanishing air as it was mercilessly sucked from the room. Solomon and Kara swayed ever so slightly with the change in pressure, however, Decius almost fell over his ground stuck boots. The opening door complained and seized just over half way open, and refused to budge. The sucking noise continued as Solomon strode through the threshold and into the wrecked room. The once wooden panelled walls, burnt back to the bare metal bones, electrics hanging from their once confined beds. Charred consoles flanked the room, surrounding where the command chair had once stood behind the two helm seats, but now a melted metal mess, window holes missing their glass, the holes melted wider opened the room into the deadly void. Solomon let out a sigh as he hoped deeply that the crew escaped this horrible fate, but he knew deep down, from the scratches and blood smears, most will have not. Solomon’s ear crackled once again, intruded by the low hoarse voice of the Captain of the Second. “Solomon, Simms is dead. It’s a bad day.”

With a heavy heart, Solomon moved onwards, removing himself from the scorched and torn remnants of the bridge. Decius plodded along behind him, like a puppy following a grieving master, full knowledge of his mood, with very little than soft eyes and a joke to lessen the blow. “So, this guy walks into a bar with a dog...” Solomon spun instantly and collided his fist into Decius’ stomach plate, Decius fell to his knees, coughing and vomiting into his helmet. Kara then slapped the back of his helmet softly and playfully, then took the hand he had wrapped around his stomach, and pressed one of the many buttons. A harsh sucking noise, almost like a vacuum came from inside his helmet. His splutters and splatters became less frequent as his mask sucked out all the liquid and free roaming solid from his visor, leaving a red faced boy gasping for air. Solomon continued down the blood marked and dented hall, Decius following sheepishly behind him, making doubly sure to stand more than two arms length away from his commander, Kara followed not far behind once she re-sealed the Bridge, marked the door as searched, and sadly but respectfully patted the metal door.

Lucius sat at one of the technician consoles, eyes scanning over the various devices and buttons, glancing vaguely at one of the screens before he asked his question. “So. Which one of these blows up the bad guys?” most of the surviving bridge crew still sat at their consoles, trying to keep the Pride of Lions in order, but some seats had lost their human counterparts in the attack, and Lucius sat at one of the latter. “That, is a circuit board map reader, sir. It allows you to re-route power.” said the dirtied vague man sat next to the massive beast. “Oh. How disappointing.” retorted Lucius before lifting his hulking mass and filling his hands with a device he knew could kill. His large knife, glistening in the light of the Battle Bridge, some of the crew eyed him cautiously. He had himself bent the Battle Bridge door with a forcing tool, and then forced the door itself open with his own strength. Deeph is truly a feared man, and known by many due to his unusual temperament of brooding and easy amusement.