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 find 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 find 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.