Rushing once more back to base, Ridge's previous calm had been completely shattered; nonetheless, he made sure not to show it to the others. Instead, to draw his mind away from despairing, he continuously thought about how they were so easily diverted.
The first thing he recalled was that the cannons themselves were placed suspiciously far; that was the first sign that should have tipped him off. After all, why would they place those cannons so far, rather than use them to not only defend that nest they destroyed, but also bombard the walls.
Of course, there also could have been a chance they didn't use it during the siege with the threat of the battleship. This demonstrated at the very least that they had brains, or whatever it was similar to a human brain; Ridge theorized that the battleship was the only variable that could effectively stop them. So the only real solution was to either strike when the battleship wasn't flying or draw it away with a valuable target, meaning the nest and cannons, luckily, because the battleship had previously been going back and forth with the new outpost, it was very hard to find a time when it had lowered and been parked, essentially.
Of course Ridge didn't actually know if the cannons were difficult to grow or manufacture, but for the group it was somewhat difficult, especially when needing to also manufacture the ammo. Perhaps this was what Becke had brought back to the enemy that let them come up with such a plan.
Five minutes passed quickly while he ruminated over strategy. The sight of the base shook him out of it. It was completely overrun. Fungi were crawling all over it; he didn't see any human remains, but knowing that these fungi would likely consume them, he didn't have much hope.
"Scan the base and try to find our people. If those Fungi took them hostage, we'll have to be careful with our next steps; if not, then let loose and destroy everything." He said with furrowed brows. The ship had a total of fifteen people himself included. The veltrite outpost had another four crew members who should still be safe. And the large mining outpost should be safe for now as well, though he didn't know if that small group of fifteen fungi soldiers from before were merely scouts to verify if there was such an outpost or the first of many waves.
Otherwise, it wouldn't make much sense to have such a small attack force when they had so many soldiers in reserve even now, despite the nest being destroyed. Clearly, another hidden one was still spewing out more.
Thinking this he accessed his wrist panel and sent out a mass message to not only the seven members at the outpost, but also to the four driving and working with the trailblazers and of course George, Caroline, Yayha, and everyone else.
'Meet at the Veltrite outpost if you are still alive and able to receive this message. Abandon the large mining outpost and use the trailblazers to attempt to drive all the way over to the meeting spot.
I repeat, abandon everything and meet at the Veltrite outpost. We will gather there for two days, maybe longer if we receive other messages. I plan to abandon this planet; we are outnumbered and outgunned, with not enough time to develop either.
-Commander Ridge'
As much as he would like to stay and fight on, Ridge knew it would only be a matter of time before they got completely killed off. So instead, he was going to opt for a retreat from the planet while taking as many stockpiled resources as they could. Luckily, the ship was always restocked fully with fresh water, and it even had food stored. Previously, when Becke had escaped, Ridge ordered the food to be moved from the cafeteria storage just in case of sabotage.
In hindsight, that order was a great move. As for moving off the planet, he essentially hoped to utilize the currently refined veltrite ore to repair or create a new large scanner which would allow for the battleship to, at the very least, scan an entire system given enough time. Of course, the information would be very vague until they got closer and focused the scan, but either way it should be enough to hopefully find a new planet.
"Commander, we picked up nothing on the scanners," Berkay said grimly after the crew scanned extensively.
"Understood, bomb everything," He replied.
With only slight hesitation from the crew, the cannons fired out once more, hitting everything: the houses, the main base, the water-purifying plant, generators and batteries, everything.
His heart ached at seeing such destruction, but seeing the fungi reply with green plasma cannons only confirmed in his mind that it was the right move.
To dodge the plasma cannons, the battleship flew clockwise around the base while continuing to fire its ten heavy cannons on the right side. Of course, since the ship was around 200 meters long, not everything could be dodged. Luckily, their armor held for now.
Explosions rang out across the entire base, and buildings blew up one after the other, including the now-abandoned construction site of what would have been the munitions factory. The greenhouse that still held growing plants was likewise blown up.
Seeing everything in ruins from the pictures he was getting, Ridge decisively ordered the battleship to retreat to the large mining outpost, which was five to ten minutes away. Leaving behind the still-screaming and on-fire fungi soldiers and cannons.
"Commander, you might want to take a look at this," one of the pilots said, sending over a picture within his helmet HUD that showed Becke standing and smiling up at the battleship while surrounded by flames.
Frowning and clenching his fist, Ridge let out a frustrated sigh and ignored it with all his power. He wanted to preserve the battleship's strength so that they could embark through space relatively smoothly; the longer they were kept here, the more damage they'd take from those plasma rounds.
With the large outpost being around an hour's walk from what used to be the main base, the battleship quickly made its way over, slowly descending and parking just outside of it in the large clearing made a while ago.
The crew members and two soldiers were still there; perhaps someone recommended they wait to be picked up, but either way Ridge was glad they waited. He needed every single hand he could get to pick up the stockpiled resources.
At some point during all their planning and transporting of resources to the main base, Ridge realized that because the two bases were still technically close together in the grand scheme of things, it would be best to hold the stockpile there. This was also one of the hidden reasons why Ridge wanted the wall to be reinforced, to increase security just in case. A good plan in hindsight once again.
When the ship got low enough to drop the elevator, Ridge was surprised to find that Caroline and Yayha, alongside the two officers from the strategy room, had made their way over. They weren't the only ones either; Hopi and Ryan were both there as well. This brought a smile to his face, but only faintly. After all, George was still MIA alongside twenty-five soldiers.
"Commander, good to see you again," Hopi smiled, holding what looked to be the aetherite crystal. Stunned, with his mouth slightly open, Ridge pointed it out and asked, "How in the world did you manage to grab that, and you as well, Ryan, did you hold that vat the entire time you guys were fleeing as well?"
Pointing at both scientists, Ridge could only shake his head in disbelief; somehow Ryan had managed to carry over with him one of the vats he had created in the laboratory, and Hopi apparently dismantled the aetherite generator in time to grab the crystal inside it.
"Eh, I personally didn't want all my research materials to be destroyed, so once the attack happened and George gave the order to retreat to the large outpost, I went for this baby first," Ryan replied, shaking the glass vat on his shoulder that was almost as tall as he was. Apparently it wasn't as heavy, though.
"For me, it's the same story; once the surprise attack was noticed, I decided to go for the crystal generator. I didn't know if the enemy could exploit it better than us, so I just took it in case it would be useful," Hopi also replied.
"What about you, Yayha and Caroline, what exactly happened?" Ridge said while glancing over at them both. They looked a little less like they were in a rush, but a mess nonetheless. More than likely from needing to rush through the forest and dense foliage.
"It was a total disaster," Yayha spoke first.
"We had planned to, after you guys passed over and began bombarding, take the remaining ammo and follow the trail to completely kill off survivors alongside George and the defending soldiers, but out of nowhere, while we were all gathered and preparing to leave, a large amount of fungi rushed out from the north, and green plasma cannons hit the wall, eventually creating a large hole and allowing them access to run wild," he paused.
Hopi interrupted before he could continue, "The lab is in the north, so we heard it and felt it first, leading to us grabbing what we could and rushing out, whilst also frantically sending messages out to inform people of the attack and the reason for the noise."
"Right, anyways we got the messages, and George hastily assembled the rest of the twenty-five soldiers to create a defensive line; we are unsure from there what happened as he ushered us away and basically ordered us to retreat to the large outpost," Yayha concluded while side-eyeing Hopi.
"My story is the same as theirs: preparing to follow your trail and then being surprise-attacked," Caroline added calmly, though Ridge could tell she was somewhat exhausted.
"Got it, for now gather all of these resources; we're gonna head out to the small outpost in the south and see if, after waiting for George and the others, they pop up. If not, we're getting off this planet," he concluded.