Two ships had remained in orbit above Merriden IV as the rest of the pirate fleet descended to cause chaos. Zhou was a coward at heart. Gladly dishing out death and horrors of war as his mood wanted, but never putting himself in the front of the fighting. His ship would sit in orbit with a bodyguard, waiting until his objectives had been completed before going down himself to collect his prize. The bridge of the pirate lead ship was ecstatic. Giddy bodies moved with high spirits around their stations, the steel floor vibrated with the engines fighting the gravitation pull of the planet below, keeping the murderous ship in orbit, Zhou stood at the large reinforced screen window that stretched the width of the bridge, eyeing The Evergreen maliciously, smiling to himself. The blue ship hadn't moved since Zhou had arrived, The Evergreen simply sat out of range of any weapons and watched.
Lucius roared like a wild beast, complete with the drool flying from his clenched teeth, it took a whole team of medical staff to hold the hulking mass of muscle that was Captain Lucius Deeph. They cried out as their struggle felt futile. His spasms threw nurses from their feet, the tubes they had inserted into his body to stabilize him had quickly come loose, as if fleeing from the man, knowing their doom approached. The Nurses white tunics soon supported freckles of crimson as the tubes acted like snakes and freely slivered in the air, spitting the blood from their open mouths from the transfusion pack. The Captain has suffered greatly from the Banshee encounter, but better than his company. "Captain Lucius Deeph has four broken ribs, a ruptured kidney, a collapsed lung, broken jaw, broken femur, seven slipped spinal disks, nineteen stab wounds that are non fatal and a sprained ankle." said the nurse who'd come away to talk with Solomon, who blinked in turn. "Jesus." he breathed, "How long until he's all sorted out?" The nurse, checking her watch began to turn and walk back to her patient, "If he keeps this up, days. If he behaves himself, maybe three hours, but will have a bit of a limp and a lot of bruises, a full recovery, perhaps eight days." Solomon knew that untreated, this would bring the fierce captain to look upon as a victim to the dark empty eye sockets of the reaper that usually followed Lucius into battle collecting souls streaming within his wake, but with the technology of the ship and a medical crew, he could make a full recovery in less time than it takes to get a drop ship ready for combat. Solomon let the medical struggle for a minute longer before walking up to the struggling captain snarled and swore at the very people trying to help him, they couldn't hold him still long enough to get a clear needle strike into his veins to sedate him. Solomon got to his friends side, smiled, and punched the beast in the centre of his face, as hard as he could. The hulking man fell silent and still. "You're welcome." said Solomon politely as he walked away shaking his hand and flexing away the pain of a bruised knuckle. The captain lay still and unconscious as the medical staff began placing the tubes in correctly and reinforcing the incision with the tough bonding medical tape so it wouldn't come away as easy next time. Soon, Lucius began snoring softly. Solomon brooded as he walked through the corridors of his beautiful Evergreen, the recently lost haunting his mind. So many friends gone. He knew many of the fallen, and he had to leave his friends behind. They had waiting long enough, more than two days for anyone to get to the bridge of the Infinity and signal them, they confirmed power was still active there before they launched the destruction upon their ship. Sometimes though, that's just how war is. Unfair. A Bitch. Solomon had suffered a loss like this only once before, during the Luna Rebellion, but at least they had been able to recover their fallen comrades from the battle grounds and bury them with honours, now, it would be just an empty coffin, and a shot of booze poured into the soil. Entering his cabin, and sitting in his string chair, his thoughts turned to Kyril, who still commanded, still stood on the bridge, giving orders, with a count down timer ticking away his life. "we all have that" he mused to himself, "never know when our times up, I suppose." he sat and stared in to the wall. "Is there something trouble your mind, Lieutenant?" came a silky and familiar voice from the speaker in the ceiling, usually where Eve's voice comes from. "If so, come to the observation deck and come and see." the voice was of Lyra. Solomon knew what he would see from the observation deck. A planet under siege and two enemy ships in low orbit, just out of range, perhaps she had something to cheer him up. His mood still remained darkened by the losses as he made his way to the observation deck, the crew he met on the way, made room for him, not speaking a word, they knew the telltales of an officer in a foul mood and they had the experience to know not to interact unless ordered to. Their coveralls mostly stained with oil and filth from crawling through small maintenance vents and hatches, repairing and servicing various systems that allowed the ship to function as a whole. The door to the observation deck soon came into view, just another door, metal plating and grey. It opened sideways with a hiss and there stood Lyra, looking out into the void, towards the planet. The view was beautiful, Solomon had to admit that and allow it to break through of his dark thinking slightly. There she stood, with the planet just to the right of her, The Island that Red Sector Zero-One was located could be seen from here, even from this distance, the conflict was obvious. Black smoke flowed into the atmosphere and clouded the area, almost taking on the form of a black flower, blooming its petals across the continent.