The Evergreen Files: Banshee; Book One
Chapter Seven

Kyril slumped back in to his command chair, weakness suddenly seemed to overpower him as his eyes fluttered as a dizzy spell momentarily impaired him. Solomon thought he saw something small and white slip from his fingers between his lips and swallowed hard. Kyril breathed heavily for a moment, and Solomon had to take a double take of his commander, making sure he was accurately seeing what his eyes told him was happening in front of him. No one else on the bridge seemed to notice. Had Solomon seen what looked like a pill? Was Kyril looking weak or was it just Solomon’s eyes deceiving him? Perhaps the stress was getting to him a little bit… he made a mental note to see doctor Fredericks when his shift ended, then remembered of the doctors demise and allowed his thoughts to change from the waiting vessel ahead to the doctors scene. ‘Who would go to the trouble of removing skin, teeth, hands, feet and nearly all the blood? To prevent their identity from being discovered. Obviously’ Solomon thought to himself, ‘but then, why leave the name tag in his jacket pocket?’ Solomon’s brow furrowed as he thought deeper to himself before he was interrupted. “Come now Lieutenant Commander Gordon, quick as you like lad!” shouted Kyril with much recovered energy.

Solomon nodded in acknowledgement and announced the red alert over the ships broadcast system, and the klaxtons sounded. The Bridge crew watched in disbelief as the battle security teams stormed into the room, weapons slung over their shoulders, their faces vanished, obstructed by the intimidating combat helmets, visors covering their once kind eyes, bringing their weapons to their chests, they stood guard around the perimeter of the room. Four armed guards on each side of the rear of the bridge.

Kyril eyed the other ship angrily for a long moment before tilting his head, as if to get a better angle of the vessel. A puzzled look upon his face quickly replaced the anger. “Is that thing working?” he asked aloud, the helmsman took a glance back at Kyril with a worried face and shrugged. “Sir, ten more kilometres and we will be in scanning range.” said a tactical officer on the second tier. The security team standing as statues, unmoving, unflinching.

The bridge crew held their breaths as the Evergreen’s sensors played across the unidentified ships hull. “Sir, what we are reading from the ship so far is... non-human design... no engine activity... no signals what-so-ever other than auxiliary power and gravity is operational.” said the tactical officer on the second tier. Solomon turned to him with a tense face, “Any life signs?” asked Solomon. “unable to tell at this time, sir.” said the Tactical officer not taking his eyes from his monitor, “But another thirty kilometres, maybe... a deeper more detailed scan could replace something” he quickly added. Kyril lowered himself once more into his seat, “Can our scans even replace their type of life?” The Crew and looked at him with puzzled expressions. Kyril quickly explained that it’s obviously an alien ship as pointed out by the Tactical Officer built by an unknown race, perhaps the Evergreen sensors were not accustomed to their specifics, or maybe they had a shielding that hid the life from the scans. Little did he know that what lay aboard that ship, could not be classed as ‘living’.

The unknown vessel was now only six kilometres away, and nothing. No life signs, no alteration in its drifting course, no signals at all. The Evergreen held its position. Kyril scratched his greying stubbly chin with his thinning talons. “Solomon, I want you to take two platoons aboard, take two platoons from the Infinity, too. Let them choose which. Find out what you can, and make contact if possible.” Kyril’s voice had become coarse with strain from the past few days. Solomon nodded and went to leave but was stopped by Kyril giving one last order. “Engage only if engaged first. I know, they’re bad rules of engagement but, we could do with one less enemy out here...”.

The Evergreen remained still as a hunter at two kilometres from the unknown vessel with the Infinity a kilometre below and in boarding formation. Solomon had selected first and fifth platoons of the first company. Lieutenant Jake Enderson was to lead the second landing craft into the cargo hold with the first landing craft lead by Solomon himself. The Infinity had selected Captain Byron Halliwell of their first company, first platoon, and Lieutenant Yren Chi of the first company, fourth platoon. All four landing craft would land in what seemed to be the main cargo hold of the alien vessel to establish a non-aggressive entrance, entering through the conventional way of the cargo holds where, if there is life, they can deal with the encounter accordingly. All commanders had briefed their soldiers as their bulky drop craft lifted their heavy full bellies off their launch pads, screeching into the void of space, Solomon could see the alien ship more clearly now through the pilot’s screen than he could in the bridge. The ship was long and sleek, almost aerodynamic looking. It’s nose pointing like a beak. A large bulky cylinder hung beneath a tiny wing on both the starboard and port sides, it’s emerald skin glistened from the distant sun. the four platoons began gliding through the black cold void safely hidden in their Storm IV transport ships. Two ships left each star cruiser, two midnight blue, two silver. within the belly of the blue ship that left The Evergreen, the lights had been dimmed to battle brightness to allow the pilots optimal vision, Solomon sat in his leading seat, looking back upon the other thirteen souls that sat, staring back at him. Clear anxious looks and worry could be seen on some, excitement could be read on others, but one face caught Solomon’s gaze, an auburn haired woman who sat in the centre looking down with her chin stumped on her armoured chest, playing with her helmet on her lap. Solomon expected to see Lyra as the most anxious and worried of them all. This was in fact, her first combat drop. And a combat drop it was to be dealt as. They are invading an alien ship after all. Solomon had almost missed Sandra sat next to Lyra in full battle armour, glistening even from the far away command consoles in the cockpit, her helmet had been securely fastened by Lyra before boarding. Solomon only recognised her by the sparkle in her eye and the stray strand of blonde hair that had fallen in front of her eye visor.

Solomon allowed his mind to venture once more. ‘Was this too early for the pair of them to be assigned to an outgoing mission?’ his voice seemed to echo inside his head when he thought to himself inside his helmet, Lyra seemed relatively calm, showing no signs of discomfort with the ahead assignment, but Sandra, her yes showed the anxiety of not knowing what was ahead. This was more her job than this was Lyra’s. Lyra was only along to give medical attention if needed, and if it was a derelict ship, no medical staff would be required, but Sandra’s job was to learn the new species, see about a language, learn their ways.

Solomon had them both assigned to his team, he was in need of a good medic after his previous one had finally retired before the voyage began. He had assigned Sandra because she knew the most about the alien species that they where travelling to visit on Merriden IV, so who better to take aboard to meet a new alien? Although space was a particularly empty void, the bulky storm IV shuttle still suffered shudders and sudden turbulence jumps from it’s engines. The loading bay of the alien ship came into the pilots range. “Closing in, fifteen seconds!” he shouted over his shoulder. Solomon nodded and tapped the top of his skull to signal the crew to secure their helmets as he had started. Most, had served in the army longer than Solomon and had already began attaching their helmets before he gave the order.

The soldiers stood in line file, huddled close together facing the lowering ramp, Solomon at their front, with two men at either side of him, he knew he didn’t need to voice any orders for a landing such as this. The soldiers knew their place. They knew their purpose. The Pilot had confirmed no movement or activity of any kind from the outside. As the Ramp fell suddenly, the dull red light dazzled green with a high pitched buzz, Solomon and the other four soldiers ran forward down to the base of the ramp and kneeling with their weapons at their shoulders, ready to fire. The next five soldiers spilled out seconds after Solomon’s knee touched the floor of the alien ship, of the five men, the central one stood behind Solomon with his weapon raised as the two soldiers to his left moved to the left, and the two to his right moved to the right, running two meter past the ramp and kneeling, again with their weapons raised. The cargo hold of the ship was deserted. In fact, it looked like it had not been used in quite a while. Solomon signals for the exited soldiers of his squad to stand as Sergeant Bulg’s squad moved down the ramp with Sandra wondering out at her own accord, gazing around, taking in the new surroundings.

The other shuttles spilling out their troops was such a magnificence sight, thought Solomon, midnight blue armour pouring out of the other shuttle from The Evergreen, and silver armour pouring out of the silver shuttles of The Infinity.

Looking around, Solomon came across the machinery, slender and tall, but looking very brittle in its neglected state. “Pirates?” he heard Sergeant Bulg whisper over the intercom on Solomon’s private channel. Solomon shook his head in response. “Look around...” he said. “see if you can replace anything of value.” The room was longer than it was wide, but the ceiling was only two decks high. The walls had began to rust long ago, the oxygen in the room was surprising to the invading human, these aliens must also breath oxygen as Solomon confirmed the atmosphere was breathable. The exterior of the ship was almost new without the natural corrosion of the air. The rusty metal floor grate gave a shallow thud as the soldiers walked over their corroding bodies. “Infinity Team One!” said Solomon, “your area is the lower sections of the ship, Infinity Team Two, you’re the engine rooms. Evergreen Team two, you’re personnel sections, Evergreen Team One, we are heading to the Bridge. Let’s see what we get. Most valuable replace gets free drinks for a month.” The ship ached and moaned with its old rusty insides, The ship had been clearly abandoned for some time, Solomon’s team had found evidence of weapon impacts on the walls in the corridors, spatters of a strange dried up liquid, they assumed was blood here and there, but no bodies.

This ship clearly had history, and bad history always seemed to want to repeat itself. No need to worry about it, Solomon thought to himself, clutching his rifle a little tighter.

The corridor to the Bridge mirrored much of the corridors they had already investigated. Rusty, bloody, shot up and bodiless. Solomon felt, if he removed his helmet he would be greeted by a rotten and musty smell of iron and bacteria, not very pleasant! The once emerald door had taken a lot of damage. Bullet holes and explosive residue was visible on the skin. It’s metal pane flaked and dying, like most of the cadaver space vessel. Solomon and two of his team forced the door open and Lyra examined a blood stain and was explaining something to Sandra. Solomon was glad of the basic helmet differences in the teams of The Evergreen, Command had a golden stripe on the top centre of their helmet, medical had a full white helmet, infantry had a full midnight blue helmet and Civilian had a red stripe in the centre of the top with a blue bodied helmet, Sandra had the red stripe and Lyra had a white helmet, they both knelt in the corner, in conversation, gesturing towards the blood splatters and bullet holes. The Bridge door complained as it was forced opened, resenting the movement, it’s mechanisms shattered, causing the door to almost fly off in Solomon’s hands. The Bridge was bloodier and mustier than the rest of the ship that they had passed. Here was a single corpse, with clear tear marks in the clothing and flesh, pale skinned, almost human looking, with a long oval head with the back of its skull missing. “A Gryph?” breathed Sandra when she laid her eyes upon the corpse. Solomon quickly advised the boarding teams that the ship was a Gryph ship and not to engage any native crew they encounter, and to try to make a peaceful contact.

“Sergeant Bulg, expand our search over this deck, I want all the rooms searching!” said Solomon to Joseph Bulg who had remained at the entrance to the Bridge with his team of six soldiers securing the only entrance. His freckled features still visible through the helmet visor, his lanky frame could handle more than its fair share. Bulg nodded and signalled his soldiers to expand into the darkness of the corridor. “Corporal Krypt, secure the door. Keep an eye open.” ordered Solomon, “Private Schniebler, get to work on the consoles. I want all the info.” with his teams working away, Solomon began impatiently pacing as he informed Kyril of the information they had already gathered about the Gryph ship. The corpse of the Gryph lay on its back over the far console that peered into the void of space, mouth gaping open.

Captain Byron had already secured most of his objective, the lower sections of the ship had been as lifeless as the rest. A butchers yard and shooting gallery without any corpses. Byron had lost communications with Solomon and the Evergreen teams upon diving deeper than two decks, which was considered acceptable due to the alien design and foreign material not allowing their communications to travel through. He still had contact with his second squad, under Lieutenant Chi. “Yren, what’s your position?” asked Byron, his voice sounding metallic through his helmet radio. Byron never had to wait long for Yren to reply, “Just entering the engine room, sir!” she said breathlessly. Her voice was beginning to show signs of static interference from the structure of the ship. Byron continued to secure the lifeless section of the vessel. The corridors had begun to become less and less corroded, however, the lights had started flickering in rooms. Thankfully, the corridor lights remained solid. Byron knew, Solomon would keep the main walkways fuelled with power from the Bridge. “Sir.” crackled Yren’s voice inside Byron’s ear. “Sir, something is down here... perhaps a survivor... oh my god!” came her voice quietly over the static. “Yren, repeat that!” spat Byron impatiently, halting his movement, but ordering his squad to secure the next room with his hand. “Lieutenant! Repeat!” no answer came for what felt like a lifetime. After a few long minutes, the radio answered Byron’s question with gunfire drowning out a male voice. “Captain, Lieutenant Chi is dead! There’s loads of them! We’re cut off! We need he-” the man was cut off abruptly and Byron stood silent for a moment, shock over taking his body. The ship was not as lifeless as they had thought.

Byron sent a soldier to the Bridge, to replace Solomon’s team or at least inform him of the attack when he got close enough to use his radio. Sprinting with the rest of his unit as fast as their legs could carry them down the cold metal corridor. It took them only ten minutes to replace the first body. Sprawled, limply and covered in blood over the threshold of the Engineer room, his helmet visor slashed open, revealing a deeply cut face, and showing his jaw bone. “oh no, Jack...” Byron said, instantly recognising the young man of Chi’s team. Byron didn’t call the medic to his side, knowing that Jack was already dead, the amount of blood on the metal floor, drowning the rust. Jack’s body had been torn, multiple times, his left leg was ripped off from the knee, his chest had been ripped open, exposing some of his organs, even through his thick armour. Byron raised his weapon and headed into the room with the cover of two other soldiers, whilst the medic took Jack’s dog tags as they passed. As Captain Byron advanced he tried the two squads of The Evergreen again and again, until he almost fell over another corpse. Corporal Ada Dean. A once beautiful young woman, who had constantly dyed her short hair blue, now, her hair ran crimson, matted with gore, her helmet had completely been torn from its air tight screw slot around her neck. Byron breathed heavily, counting the empty shell casings on the floor. Noticing two types of empty casings, one that didn’t match the gun Ada used. She didn’t die alone. He took some comfort in that thought. Byron ignored the medic sneaking in to see Ada. Taking her dog tags as well, he pointed out her legs. Torn to shreds; like Jacks. “I know, Malaco, I’ve seen them.” breathed Byron, an experienced veteran Captain, twenty years in the military, nothing could have prepared him for the gore he found upon that derelict ship. Malaco straightened up with a sigh of sorrow, he had liked Ada, Very much. Fabian and Richard came up behind them, weapons raised, their silver armour catching any light wanting to be mirrored.

Fabian and Richard froze only two meters in front of Byron. Their weapons searching, left and right. Up and down. Not breathing. Only searching. Byron noticed the sudden tension with the two men. Raising his own rifle, making a signal to the rest of his squad to move up. Before he reached the two spooked men, Byron himself froze with cold fear. He heard it.

‘drip, drip, drip, hiss’

frantically, his eyes darting from shadow to shadow. To replace the source. The dripping was followed by a subtle breathing and then a sharp hissing. Then, Byron saw it. The wet glistening blood dripping from a grey body cramped inside the damaged vent just in front of the squad, just above the throat of its victim, sat a wide smiling mouth of needle glass teeth, surrounded by the pale skin of a long oval head. Electric blue eyes leered at Byron from the pale figure. Slowly rising its lanky body, ribs almost protruding from it’s greasy glistening skin. “Open fire!” cried Byron as his first bullet left the chamber of his rifle. The creature was welcomed to its second group of humans by a brutal barrage of lead bullets, leaving the muzzles of the rifles in a constant volley from angry, scared soldiers in reflective silver armour. “There!” spat Medic Malaco as he fired his weapon down the corridor from where they had entered. Two more of the creatures had appeared from the shadows, but only one was pale. The other had a skin complexion slightly more tanned than the other two. “The hell!?” shouted Byron as he saw the tanned creature was wearing torn and reduced remnants of the silver armour of his comrades. Enraged by the insult cast by the tanned creature trying to wear their armour. “Private! Grenade that son of a bitch!” screamed Byron

Solomon sat in a clean chair in the Bridge, trying to raise Kyril on the Evergreen. “Great, nothing. And... no coffee in sight. Bloody aliens.” said Solomon kicking his feat up on the dead console. Sandra sat with her legs crossed in the corner of the room with her data pad on the speckled floor, her eyes quickly whizzing from left to right, soaking all the information in from the data she had been supplied with by Private Schniebler. Solomon ordered that the power be re-routed to feed the main corridor lights and loading bay where their landing shuttles sat, with their three man defence teams. Corporal Krypt stood to a sudden tension with his weapon half raised, cocking his head to get a better hearing of the situation. Heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor, loud enough to capture Solomon’s attention in the Bridge. “Corporal?” asked Solomon over the room, Corporal Krypt swiftly held a hand up to Solomon, gesturing him to be quiet. Solomon got to his feet quickly with his weapon. Sandra remained in her corner, oblivious. Lyra moved behind a console and packed away her medical bag, eyeing the door nervously as she finished with loading her pistol. Sandra remained oblivious still, until after the situation vanished with the rest of the squad.

The footsteps came closer, heavier, faster. Corporal Krypt raised his weapon ready to fire. Finger on the trigger, eager to replace a flesh target. Suddenly a shine of silver armour advanced through the dark abyss of the corridor. Corporal Krypt instantly lowered his weapon at his comrade. Lukas Johnson stood panting, breathlessly in the door way of the Bridge, his sweat adding droplets onto his armour. With a growing audience and without waiting to catch his breath, he reported the conversation between Lieutenant Chi and Captain Byron before he was ordered away. Solomon immediately ordered all squads to converge on the engine room and use extreme prejudiced. Jake Enderson’s squads arrived at the scene first, in range enough to hear the last shots of Captain Byron’s team echo through the dark corridors before silence waited for his team. “flash bang” whispered Enderson as Corporal Millfield drew up close, tossing the grenade into the room of thick darkness, the room looked as if it had been filled with tar until the grenade went off. With a crack and flash, the piercing white light caused countless screams and hisses to erupt through the door threshold. Enderson’s teams advanced methodically, three man lines, ten paces and stop with weapons raised, wait for the next line to overtake with another then paces, then repeat. It took only a few minutes before they found the bodies of the strange grey creatures. Their blood was running a luminous blue, giving the corridors and rooms a sinister blue characteristic. Amongst the carpet of grey bodies, a few slightly more tanned bodies could be seen. It was not long until Enderson’s teams found the corpses of The Infinity. Solomon arrived soon after.

Taking a defensive formation in the butchers room Solomon ordered his men to collect the bodies of The Infinity for identification and then removal. Six bodies had been slumped against a wall with a long light shining upon their pale, lifeless, faces. The seventh gave out a groan and whimper. “Marc!” cried Lukas. The only remaining Infinity team member. “Sandy! Can you hear me!” he asked frantically reaching into Corporal Sands medical waist bag. Blood dripped of the wounded man’s gingerly face. Eyes barely open, his mouth wordlessly muttering. Lyra was instantly at his side, injecting a small dose of morphine into his blood soaked leg, “He needs immediate medical!” she called over to Solomon who was more concerned with something else. Subtle breathing with a sharp hiss, with a glisten of sharp needle teeth protruding from the shadows of the corridor ahead. Keeping his voice low, as to not startle the stalking creatures, Solomon gave his orders. “No-body fire... No-body make any sudden movements. Just carry on searching the near by bodies. Lyra, get him ready to go.” he said calmly. It would not be long before a creature ventured too close. It was watching them, curious, but thirsty. The thing brought itself into the flash-light glare of the team and was welcomed with a burst of gunfire as its skin glistened in the flash-light, Solomon barked one more order. “Move!” and he kept shouting it as they ran.

The teams covered each other with unrelenting firepower as they retreated through the flickering corridors, with the creatures stalking their every move in the darkness of shadows from various rooms, most of the time, only the gunfire would illuminate their pale bodies. Their blue eyes stalked them from rooms that the soldiers had already cleared, how did they hide so well?

The Docking Area was calm and showed no signs of panic. The Evergreen’s Shuttle Pilot, had decided to stretch her legs. With a stifling yawn, the tall brunette woman did not wander far from her trusty shuttle, twisting her back and stretching her arms, she eventually heard the first gunshot. Drawing her own pistol and scanning the surrounding area, she began running back to the shuttle “Ready to lift off, ASAP!” she cried as the idle crew began to pick themselves up once hearing the coming battle.

It didn’t take long for the first members of the soldiers to pour into the Docking Area. Quickly forming a retreat line meters from the door, covering the fleeing soldiers. The pilot saw a bloodied body been carried by a young man before she fired up the screaming engines. The other three shuttles followed suit. Solomon fell into the room wildly firing his weapon, swearing into the darkness of the corridor. As the soldiers ran to their shuttles, the retreat line held strong, waiting, ready to release their bullets, but the creatures never came. “Line! Fall back! In order!” cried Solomon, the men retreated and boarded their shuttles. The creatures still did not come. “Pilot!” shouted Solomon “Get us the hell out of here! Kyril! Ready the weapons and destroy this damn ship!” with the shuttles bounding through the void of space towards their cruisers, the transmissions came through with static. “No Lieutenant Commander, this ship belongs to the Gryph. We will not fire upon it. Orders.” came Sinderman’s voice calmly through the crackle of static.