Distant stars clouded the black void and a far away nebula could be just seen off to the left of Lyra, the colours spiralled and mixed together, dusted with stars. Solomon placed himself to Lyra's side, her beauty as striking as ever. Her auburn hair plaited into place and twisting to her shoulder. "The Evergreen can take those two, right?" she asked bluntly. The void darkened her features as she spoke. Solomon looked pointedly towards the two enemy vessels that sat just out of weapons range. "hmm" acknowledged the Lieutenant Commander as he recollected the past battle with the pirates over The Pride Of Lions, as the Evergreen smashed her glorious way through their lines and destroyed a number of the fast fighters and some of Zhou's cruisers burst apart. The seemingly distant memory of victory made his heart swell with pride and inspiration for the call of battle. "Yeah, we could take them." said Solomon with a smile, trying not to entirely brag about the might of his Evergreen. The void between the two pirate ships remained empty for a while, nothing stirred on either ship. Then a score of fast movers slid out from the larger ships belly, and began moving through the void towards the second ship and back again, as if moving things unknown from one body to another. The smaller ship, unknown to the crew of The Evergreen, was in fact a fighter and bomber carrier, primarily for void vessels but held a small contingent of atmosphere capable aircraft, of which was currently deployed on the planet to harass the human and Gryph forces. "Suit up." said Solomon bluntly before walking away and giving his orders to his company to arm themselves through the radio. Lyra called out to him, asking where he was going, "To the Bridge." he called back without turning. Kyril slouched with his head supported by his hands, only lifting his head fully when a member of his crew approached to give a report of some kind. He felt weak. Too weak to command with true authority, he kept catching glances from the bridge members who looked up him with worry, pity and some with uncertainty. The data that had been handed to him was readouts of the two enemy ships sitting in high orbit, unconfirmed number of life, unconfirmed anything really except that they are indeed there and made of hardened material and shielded from their scanners somehow. Kyril looked up at the ensign with annoyance. "we have spent nearly three hours scanning those ships, just for out scanners to basically confirm what my eyes confirmed three hours ago? That they are bloody there!" he rose his body to its feet as his voice increased in volume towards the end of his sentence. "get me something that I can work wi-" he was cut off with a splutter and cough that forced him to double over, the ensign, young in years tried to catch his commander and very nearly missed. He helped Kyril back into his chair and Kyril repaid him with a swift dismissing wave of his hand as he worked his way to the end of the cough. Working up the flem from his lungs and spitting it into a cloth, he then put it in the cloth filled bin next to his chair, folding it neatly to conceal the small amount of blood that had now stained it.
A hissing sound announced the entrance of another body to the bridge, the familiar sound of Solomon lowering himself in to the chair next to Kyril and his heavy head made the old man sigh and rub his eyes in frustration. "We need to attack, sir." said Solomon plainly. Kyril lifted his aged head, his stubble had grown and become more unkept and gazed over at Solomon in disbelief. More exhaustion flowed over his form before the answer left his mouth and his vision failed him, his thin and frail form smashed into the floor with a fleshy thud. "Medical!" cried Solomon as he rushed, kneeling to his prone and motionless father figure, checking for his pulse, only to be firmly pushed aside by the medical officer on duty. Solomon looked up, all the staff were staring back at the prone commander, he looked past the helmsmen and into the void, that like Kyrils disposed cloths supported speckles of red. A gasp came from a tactical officer as she noticed them too and peered desperately into her scope monitor. "Sir! We have incoming contacts! Multiple small fast movers!" she called out "Contact, one of the smaller vessel is breaking away from high orbit and heading for us!" shouted another tactical officer. As if perfectly timed, the carrier had taken its fancy to the Evergreen as the pirates inside grew restless, bored and bloodthirsty. Zhou cursed as the captain of the other ship raced to take his prize. The fighters poured from the bowels of the surging ship and charged towards the stationary Evergreen, every single pilot grinning maliciously as the adrenaline flowed through their hateful veins.