The Pirate ships had sat themselves in the closest asteroid fields to reduce detection from The Gryph Fleet that was now arriving in full mass at Merriden, only six had remained behind whilst the others returned to their pillaging and plundering of distant traders and worlds. Aiming their sensors at Merriden, they could see the destruction caused by their weapon. Thousands of humans dead, hundreds of Gryphs dead. Zhou had aimed specifically at the human Red Sector to get revenge of The Evergreen's interference of him claiming his new flagship. The weapon had been altered many many times since they had fired it upon the Gryph ship afloat that Kyril and Solomon had found, the weapon was far stronger, faster and even more resilient to the weapons used conventionally. It simply didn't die as easy. "Captain..." came the old breaking voice of The Doctor "Scans report: the Human settlement is destroyed. The Gryph fired upon it themselves. The Weapon overwhelmed them far faster than we expected, Reports are showing that the Weapon has drastically multiplied and is seeking further prey, they will reach our target within the next two days." Zhou answered the Doctor with a curl of his malicious smile before addressing the ship. "My People! We shall be landing on the pathetic planet in four days, full force. Our attachment of six ships total will land and we will take Our objective!"
Solomon lay his head against the coffee machine with a sorrowful sigh, if it was not for his small flask containing a cup of hot coffee, his heart would have given in to despair with the coffee machine just refusing to work upon the bridge, not only had Captain Gee fallen, but his coffee had also met its end! "So, Lyra, anything new?" asked Solomon over the private radio to Lyra who had started once again checking her medical supplies, her crackling voice came back.
"Nah Sol, you?"
"Yep... their coffee machine is down... so are you going to allow me to take you on a coffee date when we get back?"
Lyra had her back to Solomon, but he could tell she was blushing. Helene Haywood, the teams radio officer then approached Solomon with a grave look on her face, even through her armoured helmet, her worry was blatant.
"Sir, we have lost contact with Third Company"
"Which squad?"
"All of them. The entire company. I can't raise any of them..."
"Call back all squads. Every squad is to retreat to the Docking Bay, the Seventh Company holds it, we will get a head count. Then we will see what the crack is. I'm not risking men getting picked off one by one like on that Gryph Ship. Let's pack up, and move out!"
Jake Syn sat upon a dull splintering wooden container, maintaining constant contact with his platoon commanders, his finger constantly stuck inside his ear, to hear better, when his radio operator approaching him, gasping for breath, relaying Solomon's orders between pants and splutters, Syn quickly recalled all his soldiers to fall back to the docking bay to form a defensive area. Gesturing to the pilots of the crafts to begin warming up their engines, just in case. His platoon began to spread out to all the entrance doors, simply to cover the retreat. Solomon took point of his platoons retreat, putting himself through the tight corners, the concealed entrances first, he wouldn't know it, but these actions are why his troop always followed him, loyal to their very soul to Solomon, because he never would ask them to do something he wasn't willing to do himself. Upon reaching the main atrium for the docking bay, the wide corridor allowed a large field of fire, the lights gave a clear view of anything heading their way. Solomon ordered a firing line be set up, called for boxes and hard objects to be hauled up from the docking bay just a few hundred meters behind them. It didn't take long for them to form a defence barricade from wooden boxes and metal containers, as Solomon placed the last wooden box, Decius called out for movement. A squad had appeared and was running towards the barricade, seeing the soldiers in blue at the barricade, they turned their backs, aimed their weapons down the open mouthed corridor, and strutted backwards towards Solomon. Three more squads followed soon after. After an hour, Syn came up behind Solomon, "What's left?" he asked in a low tone. Solomon held up four fingers, "Three more squads from the Second, and one more squad from me, Captain Deeph isn't back yet. But the entire Third company is missing" Syn nodded and returned to his position back at the docking bay, readying more make-shift barricades. Where was Lucius? He had been in radio silence since the order had been given, none of his sergeants had reported contacts, as they passed the forward barricade. Solomon had also ordered barricades to be made at the other entrances of the docking bay and have guards stationed there.