Fortune seemed to be on their side, because Ridge was once again able to enjoy a peaceful rest without being disturbed. He woke up in the morning to the carcass still facing the tent wall, then got up and stretched. Yawning, he made his way to the tent exit, making sure to grab the carcass with him.
Whilst he was taking down and wrapping up his tent, the others woke up one after the other.
"Nothing of note happened during the last watch, obviously," The scout who was on last watch said to the just-waking-up group.
"Got it," Ridge replied somewhat quietly while clearing his throat. Despite his sleep schedule, he really wasn't much of a morning person, so it was quite good that his voice was still able to emit some resemblance of words instead of gibberish as he slowly woke up.
The tents weren't massive, so it took the group merely ten minutes in total to pack them all up.
One of the others grabbed the carcass this time for the start of their walk, so Ridge simply led the way, making sure to clear any massive amount of foliage that could get in the way.
Glancing at his wrist panel, he used the signal emitting from the base as a compass and slowly positioned them to head northeast. He had also, at some point, gotten a message from Caroline. While leading the way, he read through it.
'I will more than likely wait for you to return to base before sending anything out to secure those deposits. The trailblazers are the only vehicle at our disposal that's able to travel that far anyway within a few hours, but that's also if a road was already built, so in reality we won't be able to send anything but ground troops; the only other vehicles we have access to are the four CTM-6 Haulers for moving cargo in the battleship, but they're only good for ten hours before needing to be charged again under heavy use and can only carry two metric tons at a time; they were also only really usable if they had a decent enough road to travel on.
So we'll have to think of something when you get back.'
Whilst leading the group and still paying attention, Ridge began to think out a plan for how they would deal with these deposits. Unlike the deposit nearby they found within a week of landing, these would be much more difficult to deal with, especially in terms of transporting the materials back. The rocky terrain was also another variable; since most of it was stone and bedrock rather than dirt or gravel, the trailblazers would have a hard time constructing infrastructure like roads, and with no roads, transportation becomes infinitely more difficult.
One option he was considering was perhaps using the battleship to transport them. To be more specific, they would create another outpost like the large one they created, which was staffed with five people, including the one engineer who was constantly training them, and once the stockpile reached a certain amount, they would then use the battleship to bring it all back at once. In this way, they could use the haulers much more effectively instead of moving them down an imaginary road they would need to build, which could take hours compared to a few minutes.
The biggest downside he could think of right off the bat with this plan, though, was that, while the battleship could traverse a day's walk in around ten minutes or less, the actual preparation for it to take off and then come back down would take at the very least a couple of hours. Even for a battleship, repeated use could also wear it down as well. The ship was one of the group's biggest trump cards when fighting the fungi, so he didn't want to use it too much and cause some kind of problem unless necessary.
The second option or plan he thought of was just taking the slower route. Using the trailblazers, they could probably theoretically create a road even through the rock and bedrock as well as the trees and foliage, of course, but it would take around four weeks even when using both of them in shifts twenty-four seven. Of course, the math could be wrong in his head, so he would just have to revise the plan and the details with the others, but either way the downside to this plan was just that it would take quite a bit of time.
The way back was a similar experience to when they went north; there wasn't any change in scenery for a long while, and they occasionally stopped while travelling to eat or drink. Generally speaking, they could have kept moving while doing those things, but they also needed to take their helmets off, so Ridge figured they could just use the time as a small break.
Since they were carrying the carcass back as well and traversing through the thick foliage and long grass on the forest floor at this point, it was also more needed than Ridge first thought. He wasn't gonna complain; by his estimates, they were maybe a few hours away from home base at this point. They were making good time anyway.
The reason he was able to estimate their time of return at this point was because of some of the old markings he left behind when he went along scouting a while ago.
Thank you, old me, he thought to himself while smirking.
Three hours later, they entered the area surrounding the large mining outpost, which had been effectively cleared out for security reasons primarily. The first thing that Ridge had noticed was that the wall was being worked on by at least ten people. The cobbled-together wooden wall that he first saw was slowly but surely being transformed into a metal one similar to the home base. This was certainly a good thing; it looked like Caroline and the others weren't just sitting on their hands doing nothing.
As they passed by, a few of the workers that were resting greeted the group, but stared on as they departed. It was most certainly due to the carcass they were carrying. He didn't see their reaction, though, as he moved past the outpost and onto the road quite quickly.
"From here it's about another hour's walk, men; let's keep it up. I'll take the carcass the rest of the way here as well," He said while grabbing the carcass a scout handed over.
Settling it firmly on his shoulder, he walked and walked. Eventually they saw the familiar sight of the gate and its guards. Before they could enter, though, the group was stopped.
Holding up his hand, the guard approached the group. "Standard protocol, what with Becke having escaped and all. Sorry, Commander, just show me your wrist panel id's."
Understanding, Ridge shifted the carcass as the guard watched on with raised brows, and he showed him his wrist.
The check didn't take long, so they were soon after let into the base. Once again, the perks of the biological lock on the wrist panels were shown.
"Great work, rest up all of you, and maybe get a good shower or two in before going to bed," he joked.
"Haha, don't worry, Captain. We will. I would recommend the same to you as well; we weren't the ones who slept with an animal carcass after all," one of the scouts cheekily replied.
Shaking his head while smiling, he waved them off and took the animal to the laboratory.
On his walk over, he didn't see Caroline or anyone else, for that matter, just the usual soldiers patrolling and some regular crew members going about their day. Once he got to the laboratory, he entered quickly to drop it off so he could take a shower and rest.
The usual people were inside, Hopi and Ryan, though this time there were also two more people. The faces were familiar to him, but not the names. It looked like they were being taught.
Seeing him walk in first, Ryan stopped what he was doing and walked on over as soon as he saw the carcass.
"Put it in the room you put the other stuff, sir," He said while keeping a close eye on the body. Hopi was the one primarily teaching the two people, so he quickly abandoned her to check out what Ridge brought over with that thought in mind.
Ridge nodded and brought it over to the white room where some new machines were set up, as well as some new glass pods of some kind. Walking in with him, Ryan saw his interest in the new equipment and walked over to pat it. "These new incubator vats were created with some of the recycled material of other things within the battleship a while back. The only two we currently have available. It was used to study the plant life you brought back, as well as the starch plants we managed to cultivate. In fact, this second one," he pointed out to the other one, "Is being used for the starch plants still; I'm attempting to improve it even further."
"Uh-huh, well, good. I am just gonna leave this here, study this animal, and bring back any relevant information for me when you're done. I need to take a shower," Ridge replied tiredly.
"No problem, I can take it from here. Go back and rest," he answered. Ridge needed nothing more to be said; he quickly left the room and passed by Hopi, who waved at him quickly before returning to teach the two crew members about what he could only assume was science.
After being decontaminated, he left the laboratory and made his way over to the main building.