Regardless, it would prove to be an immense asset. Ridge, still watching the sandboard, soon saw each dot slowly activate their devices. The surroundings of the base were becoming clearer; luckily, aside from what he could only assume was the enemy's base in the east, there were no other scans of large numbers of enemies, just dots here and there, likely scouts.
With their objectives done, the operation was mostly a success. Ridge rated it as such because he watched intently as the first dot he spotted by the enemy completely disappeared. It was likely they found his hiding spot and killed him. Frowning, he looked to the army approaching. Their speed didn't seem to be very fast; however, he noticed quite quickly that a group of what he counted to be fifteen were breaking off from the larger group in the east, and moving directly south, towards the mining outpost. Becke had likely told them of the outpost.
"Send a message out to the men in the larger outpost and let them know that fifteen enemies are likely going to be approaching them soon, within thirty minutes," he ordered urgently.
"Sent, sir. Any more orders?" one of the officers said.
"No, just keep ready; soon enough, if there are no changes, I'll personally go to the battlefield and help defend the wall. I want the two of you to constantly keep an eye on the map with Yayha and Caroline here.
Both of them nodded, and Ridge continued watching.
The estimated time ticked down on the wall; for the soldiers, it wasn't the waiting that made them nervous, but rather a faint howl and screeching in the distance that let them know they were approaching. George, seeing them become unnerved, opened the communications channel and said, "Don't be nervous now, men! We are the line that prevents the others behind us from dying and fizzling out into nothing. Did we land on this planet and build such a base just for the first wave of enemies to kill us?"
"No, we survived because we are hardened veterans of the Coro federation! We fight on because we have families to return to and questions to ask!" he continued loudly.
"Do you want to be reduced to nothing! Do you want to be killed by alien scum! I say no! What say you?" he shouted out over comms.
Becoming invigorated, they shouted back, "No!No!No!"
Satisfied, George smiled and spoke once more, "Then let's kill this scum!"
As if right on time, the shouts and screams of the enemy appeared within the open fields outside the base, and one after another charged out screeching. They all looked identical, bearing no resemblance to humans; rather, they seemed to be mashed-together plants and fungus with a humanoid shape.
Raising their plasma rifles, the men waited for the enemy to get close; George raised his own weapon, took aim, and gave the signal, "OPEN FIRE!"
Sizzles and crackles sounded out as the plasma rounds burst into the enemy line, sometimes passing through one fungus into the next. That was simply the power of plasma, especially once the range got closer and closer. Besides the plasma rifles, George had also placed the machine gunner on one of the small towers atop the wall in the northeast and told them to go wild.
Bullets rang out and sprayed down into the crowd of charging enemies, nonethelss this firing line didn't deter them. Soon enough, they were within five hundred meters of the wall, continuing their charge, pushing slowly forward. It seemed as if the enemy could keep charging forever without a care in the world for the casualties they were taking.
Occasionally, while firing, some of the soldiers would need to reload; this created the perfect opportunity for the fungi to get closer and closer. George, of course, saw this and quickly recognized that it would be a problem; even with the gap between squads and the slight crossfire he set up, it would seem they were still short of manpower to achieve total perfection.
He sent out a message to Berkay and had them aim at the back of the enemy's lines to slow their charge down. Creating a nice opening for the men to reload and take care of the frontline still charging.
Receiving the order, Berkay above them had the crew aim and fire a salvo from five of the heavy cannons out of the ten from the right side of the ship. Once the cannons confirmed targets, they fired together at once.
Booming sounds emitted from the ship, and down on the ground the back line of the fungus got absolutely obliterated. The flames from the shells even caught fire on some of the fungus themselves. Screeches sounded out as they burned, and George looked on in satisfaction while grinning. The first round of cannon fire established the exact fire wall he was hoping for.
Ridge, still inside the strategy room, looked on as large swathes of the enemy dots disappeared; he also noted with some satisfaction that nine of the ten scouts were close to the base and would soon be safe. Smiling, he was just about to speak before something caught his eye. On the map, besides the small detachment of enemies, he noticed that the stream of red from their scanners was still coming, and in even greater numbers from the enemy base.
"We need to take care of that detachment; then we can perhaps attempt a flyover with the battleship with some more of the crew, bringing it up to full firing capacity," Caroline pointed out.
"With this stream of reinforcements, I don't know if we will even have enough ammunition to fight them all off, and as soon as they close in, I think we all here already know how that will go," she continued grimly.
"Certainly. Yayha," Ridge replied. Hearing his name, Yayha quickly stood straight, both hands to his sides.
"Keep track of enemy movements with Caroline here and send me any updates. I'm gonna take the battleship and quickly make our way over to the large outpost and take care of that small detachment. Once done with that, I plan to go over to the Veltrite outpost and grab some of the men stationed there who are currently building it up, and then check out the enemy's base, hopefully destroying it and allowing us to finish the remaining on our scanners," Ridge explained.
It wasn't a complicated plan, but in reality, if he didn't move fast enough, the enemy was likely to continue growing and eventually overrun them, so he needed to move now.
"Yes sir!" Yayha saluted. Returning the salute, Ridge nodded to Caroline and left.
Outside, he saw that the sky was getting darker, but the lights from the plasma rifles on the eastern wall, as well as the insistent flashes of yellow and white from the rattling of the machine gun,n lit up the darkness.
Sending a message to Berkay, he made his way over to the east, where some of the crew were still laboring hard at work to construct the munitions factory, lit up only by the surrounding mobile lights. It was with such urgency that he felt they could probably be done with the work within a day or two max. Astonishing what imminent death can do, he thought darkly.
Berkay, having received his message, piloted the battleship with its automated systems directly over him and sent down the elevator. Getting on, he pressed a few buttons and boarded the ship.
It only took him a few minutes, maybe a little longer, to navigate the ship while jogging and enter the elevator taking him to the bridge. Letting out a breath, he waited a second or two before the doors opened and he continued. Finally, he entered the actual bridge and sat down on the commander's chair, greeting the others already sitting down, now operating the many systems of the ship.
"Commander, your orders," Berkay asked.
"Take us to the large mining outpost. We need to take care of a small detachment of enemies. Once we're done there, we will go to the veltrite outpost and grab the crew members there to bring the ship up to full firing capacity," He quickly spoke.
"Re-routing ship, now," One of the pilots said while sliding their fingers across a screen in front of them. The ship rotated quickly and fired its back engines towards the large mining outpost. This movement was naturally noticed by George, whose face was previously smiling, now turning darker. Before he could reprimand Berkay, though, he got a message from one of the officers from the strategy room.
'Important!
The commander is taking the ship to take care of a small detachment of enemies; he will then grab the crew at the second outpost and fly over to the enemy's base to cut off their reinforcements.
Also, as a warning, the enemy is still coming in on our sensors, numbering from a simple glance close to a hundred already. Prepare yourselves.'
Twitching at the number of enemies, he shook his head and let out a breath of frustration. Opening comms, he ordered the two cannons on the corners of the eastern wall to begin firing. He previously didn't want to use them quite yet, simply because they didn't fire explosive rounds like the ship's heavy cannons; rather, they fired mostly slugs of metal. They can still do a good amount of damage from the sheer kinetic energy of it, but not as much as the ship. Furthermore, he wanted to preserve the limited ammunition that they managed to create for them. A bigger target could appear, and he wanted to make sure they had the firepower if it did.