Part 65

During the transit back to Merriden IV, Solomon broke from his small depressive state and went to find Kyril, something was playing on his mind. Finding him in his personal quarters, Solomon entered unannounced which gave Kyril a fright and Solomon caught him hiding something behind his back. Kyrils room was very similar to Solomon's only slightly bigger with more screens build into the walls showing the many ship calibrations and measurements, and a map of the destination and locations, along with company orders and status. Solomon saw that the Seventh Company screen was red and names crossed out. Solomon placed himself in his commanders string chair, easing himself down slowly with an exaggerated sigh. "What's that Boss?" he asked tonelessly filled with disappointment still scratching his pride from the recent defeat, Kyril looked more tired than ever, slumping his shoulders with defeat, he brought his arms around slowly, finding one arm with a rubber tourniquet above his elbow, and a long needle filled with a blue liquid in the other hand. Solomon raised his eyebrows. "Addiction?" he asked like a disappointed father. "No, Sol... Cancer." wheezed Kyril softly. Solomon felt greater loss now than from the Luna Wars and even from the battle of the Infinity. That explains the decline of Kyril's physical appearance, Solomon had just suspected it was narcotic abuse or just old aged stress after everything they had been through over the years catching up with the old man. All the death they had seen, and dealt, all the gore they had been covered in. "How long?" asked Solomon and Kyril shrugged, "Diagnosed nine weeks ago, not a clue how long left... this stuff doesn't seem to work!" Kyril spat as his eyes filled with tears. The old man looked so helpless, all skin and bone, and snot, and tears. He straightened up after a few minutes of crying, and continued to ready his arm for his medicine, composing himself as an officer of the Navy once more, "Hope you don't mind..." he said gesturing to his needle and injected himself with a hiss. Solomon told Kyril he was always available to help the old man, smiled and asked if he would prefer to be alone, Kyril smiled but gave Solomon a job to do on the bridge. He could see that Kyril wanted the privacy at this moment. The Evergreen's plotted course brought it perfectly on spot at the Merriden space station, that was now a floating, orbiting junk pile. "Erm. Navigations, please check the co-ordinates, are we in the right spot?" asked Solomon sheepishly, seeing a planet in the distance, looking very similar to that of Merriden IV, "confirmed co-ordinates, we are where we should be. Checking surroundings now." came back the voice over the terminal on the side. Around The Evergreen floating about was massive melted hunks of junk, and in them sat the destroyed carcasses of the Human ships. Solomon began to slowly connect the dots, noticing the shape of one of the heaps of bent and melted metal "Kyril, get up here now!" ordered Solomon over the radio. But then two Gryph ships came into view, weapons primed. Solomon swore and the Bridge glowed red, "Ready weapons!" he commanded. The two Gryph ships suddenly exploded, scattering debris into the void, Solomon looked at the tactical officer with a questioning gaze, "Not us, Sir." he responded. And as Solomon cast his eyes back towards the emerald wrecks, multiple large ships, all different colours soared through the void, towards Merriden IV. Zhou danced from side to side gleefully as his vessel sailed through the wrecked Gryph ships and past The Evergreen, he wished their commander could see him, he cast them a joyful wave as he passed, he would come back for this prize.

Theo lay in a curled ball in the corner of his damp cell, the walls darker than ever, his eyes cried themselves dry, shivering with cold and the starting of an illness. He was almost glad for the drip drop of the water and its little puddle it created, for without it, there would only be silence for him. The silence would drive him insane. Suddenly there was a booming knock on the metal door, Theo hadn't even heard footsteps over his shivering. The metal door opened and complained with the work, casting a bright light upon Theo, blinding him. He cried out in anguish as two figures ran in and grabbed him roughly, and dragged him into the brilliant light.

"Do we wish to talk?" asked the deep smug voice of Arden as Theo was strapped into a hard stone chair. The torture would soon begin, he knew. "Why? Why are you doing this?" asked Theo fearfully, Arden simply shrugged, "I'm in charge of the safety of this system, and no Gryph has ever attacked another Gryph. You humans however, seem to attract my enemies, and if you know where we are, they will know where we are. So, you must go." he said cheerfully "D-do you want to know the first... first thing they told us, at t-training?" stammered Theo as Arden toyed with various tools, sharp, blunt and odd looking things. "hmm?" he said absently without looking up, his smile spreading as he selected his tool. "If you're ever captured..." started Theo as Arden brandished a spiralled sharp tool that resembled an over exaggerated drill with small spikes starting at the bottom needle, slowly getting larger until the reached the T shaped handle. "Surprise them with a laugh, and shock them with a smile!" spat Theo and began hysterically laughing with a madman grin upon his lips. And Arden began the torture. Starting with Theo's left thigh, he impaled the drill end slowly and began to turn, enjoying each and every spike that slowly made its way through Theo's leaking flesh.

The pain was unbearable, but still, Theo laughed until the point he passed out. This displeased Arden greatly that he injected Theo with a yellow liquid that brought him back instantly. "We cannot have you sleeping Human!" smiled Arden, "I am enjoying this too much to allow you to sleep!" Theo resumed his forced laughter after a couple of breaths to mask his cries of pain from the drill inside his leg. But his mind started to go, he could hear explosions in the distance, from his past maybe? From the fights he had taken part in? They sounded closer now. But Arden stopped and looked around, could he hear them too? He looked around curiously at the Gryph guards who simply shrugged off their weapons and held them to their chests. And then the gunfire started above them, this caused the guards to move closer to Arden to protect him. Arden sighed, "Always with interruptions!" he spat. Theo tried to focus on something, anything, but everything was blurry and red, "Hey, guys, if this is a bad time, I can come back later..." he said softly, trying his very best to allow his bravado to remain dominant, but then the door came flying through the air and hit the back of Theo's chair with such force, it shattered the stone chair and sent him flying. One of the guards was killed in the breaching explosion. And the other was killed almost straight after when seven figures came charging in, guns firing. Theo lay half dazed on the floor in the corner, his leg bleeding a rather large pool beneath him, he could make out the quaking figure of Arden as he knelt down almost crying. "Ah, Governor Arden, what a pleasure..." snarled the leading figure "Zhou sends his sympathies that he cannot attend . Nice to meet you, finally. It has been a fun chase." he said bluntly, placing the barrel of his gun on Arden's forehead and pulled the trigger, spraying his brain matter over the wall, and a little on Theo's face. One of the intruders called over to the pirate, gesturing at Theo's bleeding body on the floor. "Ah, shame..." he whispered and pointed his gun at Theo, pulling the trigger.