The entire base was up and running, and after moving in, the crew alongside Ridge had settled for one more night before a new course of action would be planned. Lying atop the bed within one of the single rooms that he had chosen, Ridge had begun to think about the future.
He didn't actually believe they would be able to escape this planet and return to their home solar system. Although he wasn't the sharpest tool in the box, he knew that wormholes and things of that nature were incredibly rare to encounter, especially more than once. Not to mention, he wasn't exactly sure the ship could withstand that kind of pressure more than once.
This planet, although somewhat desolate, should be able to hold them for years to come. Although it wasn't home, it would have to do for now.
Closing his eyes to rest, Ridge was just on the cusp of falling asleep when, all of a sudden, a member of his crew hurriedly knocked on the door.
'Knock Knock Knock'
Hearing the urgency in the knocks, Ridge opened his eyes and got up from his bed quickly to open the door. After the door opened with a whoosh, he saw the crew member who was frantically knocking at his door.
"Sir, another ship has crash-landed on this planet, just north of us. We not only saw it, but we also picked up its signal from our own ship!"
Hearing the crew member frantically explain the situation, Ridge nudged his head back in slight surprise. Here he was talking about a wormhole being rare, yet lo and behold, another ship might have just joined them and encountered the same situation.
"Notify the soldiers about this and have them group up at the front of the station. I need to get my equipment!" Ridge replied quickly, then, without seeing the crew member out, he moved to get his full suit on and also grab his flamethrower.
The crew member also left quickly, and after a few minutes of getting ready, Ridge followed suit. While essentially running through the corridors of the newly built station, some of the other crew members had come out of their rooms or stopped what they were doing to watch the commotion. One of the Crew members who had come out from their rooms was Berkay. Not long ago, he had come down from the ship and was starting to settle in.
"Commander, is there something wrong?" He asked quickly while joining Ridge in his run.
"No, not necessarily with us, but there was a second ship that has appeared on the planet, and from what I know now, it's likely to have crash-landed somewhere up north as we speak," Ridge said while continuing his run.
Berkay was surprised and stayed silent for the rest of their run to the front of the station. The station, while not small, also wasn't massive, so after a few minutes of running, they had made it to the entrance.
There waiting for them were the six soldiers, George, Morad, Hank, Sonny, Falley, and Zee. With them was also Caroline, and an engineer under her named Peter. Besides these guys, there was also a small group of other crew members who had come out from the station after hearing the commotion.
With three guns and two swords Ridge didn't want the group to be too big so when he got up to others he immiedately dispersed the crowd, "Besides the soldiers and two engineers with us right now, the rest of you disperse and get back to work, before you go though, long story short so your curiosity is cured, there was a ship that has crash landed up north and we will scout for any surviors. Now back to work!"
Hearing him, the crowd began to return to their work, although not without murmuring to each other about the other ship. Once they had left fully and returned to the station, Ridge signaled for the group to get a bit further from the entrance so they weren't blocking the way.
Following Ridge, the group of around nine people then walked just a couple of minutes away.
"Alright, here's the plan, I am going to leave a soldier here with one of the plasma rifles so that the base isn't completely undefended, the other five will follow to scout out the fallen ship and see if we cant find surviors, Caroline, I am going to have you guys follow us just in case we could use your expertise with any sort of engineering the ship could have."
While explaining, he took the time to look around for a moment and saw that there were no medics present, only berkay, the navigator.
"Hm, berkay, I am gonna need you to stay at the base with Yayha to make sure people don't go haywire while we're gone, and also, if you don't mind, get one of our medics here," Berkay, hearing this from Ridge wasn't suprised or offended so he just nodded and walked back into the station to get a medic.
"Are you sure just a small group of us would be enough to rescue who knows how many people from the other ship?" Caroline asked not long after Berkay left.
"Yes, although we are a rather small group, any bigger wouldn't make sense. We simply don't have enough weapons to protect that many people on the journey there and then on the journey back. Not to mention, if this is a federation ship, the pilots should know how to land relatively safely, so we won't need to be dragging out many bodies and injured people across the forest. Hopefully, we can pick up weapons from that ship as well," Ridge answered.
"Got it, also, do you think that ship could have encountered those infected like we did?" Caroline asked somewhat fearfully.
Pursing his lips, Ridge answered back, "Most likely, otherwise I don't see how the ship would be crashing. Even if it took some damage from a wormhole or warp of some kind, when considering our own ship, while we were badly damaged, everything was mostly intact and allowed us to land safely."
Nodding to him, Caroline seemed satisfied with his answer, and while the group also began to ready their ammunition, Berkay brought back one of the medics.
"Lind was the first doctor I saw while heading towards the designated clinic commander," Berkay said while saluting.
Lind, walking behind him, also followed suit and asked, "What's the reason I'm here exactly, Commander?"
"At ease, you're gonna follow our group to a downed spaceship that has apparently crash-landed not even an hour ago up north."
"Understood, I will get my equipment and myself ready in ten minutes, give or take," Lind replied, and without asking any more questions, she left.
"Well, that was surprisingly easy, thank you, berkay, for grabbing her as well. You can get back to work now. The rest of you go and get your supplies." Ridge ordered while dismissing the crowd and having them grab supplies. While they were doing that, he simply double-checked his equipment and waited for the others to join him before setting out.
The reason he himself wasn't rushing was simply because he had a ready-made pack with all the necessary supplies that would be needed for a scouting mission like this. It always helps to be prepared.
The soldiers were the first to come back since they were specifically trained to be faster in these situations. They were followed by Caroline and the other engineer, Peter, and finally, after a little over ten minutes, the doctor was ready to go.
"Alright, let's not waste any more time loitering around."
Leading the way, he marked the location on his panel using a sort of localized GPS that they had set up while working on the base and set off.
Up north were only trees and mountain ranges, so Ridge wasn't too worried about wildlife, but he advised the others to be cautious and watch where they stepped. A couple of drones were dispatched and led the way while cutting the vegetation on the ground that got too high for humans to walk through; the noise they made could also be used to scare off anything nearby. Of course, this could also be a double-edged sword, but Ridge was willing to take that risk simply because he didn't want to do the cutting himself. Lazy for sure, but it preserves his strength and allows him to keep a better lookout.
It was at times like these that Ridge thanked god for technological innovation being so prominent in the federation.
Passing the gigantic trees that seemed to have no end when looking up, the group of nine had walked past the same sight for what seemed like ages, until finally they had arrived at a mountain range.
Even though he had been looking up all this time to ensure there were no animals in the trees, Ridge had not been so astonished by the height of things until he had caught sight of the mountains on this planet. At this moment, despite the view only being essentially a rocky cliff, he couldn't help but feel a sense of awe building up within him as he looked up.
As all things do, however, he was eventually brought back down to his body and realized they would have to climb said cliff.
"Ugh, why couldn't they just crash land somewhere off the mountain and not directly towards it?" George said while sighing.
"Ha, as if life was ever so easy," Caroline replied.
George, hearing this, just simply tsked his tongue and looked at Ridge, "Well, what now, Commander? Are we climbing this thing?"
"Of course, make sure everything is strapped to your body. We are gonna have to climb for a little while." Hearing Ridge say this, the group let out a collective sigh of grief, but regardless, they began strapping things to their body, and a couple of the soldiers also collected and shrunk the drones.
Stretching his arms and neck a bit, Ridge strapped the flamethrower on his back where magnets kept it in place, and walking up to the cliff, he began the climb, one arm after the other.
Another good thing to come from technological innovation was that the spacesuits were also essentially what one would call an exosuit. Which meant that every single person would feel their body strength seemingly enhanced, and their body weight lighten. Ridge really had to hand it to the inventors of the federation; they really knew how to make an all-purpose suit. Due to this fact, the climbing didn't actually put too much stress on his body.
While he was thanking the inventors and climbing, the others followed right after him.
"Communication on," Ridge said aloud, "Communication being established, channel has been created."
Hearing the suit's AI voice, he nodded and waited for the others to join him. Which, of course, they did as soon as the channel was established. He had said it loud enough for them to hear, so they luckily got the message and activated their own communicators.
"Keep an eye out for falling rocks while you're climbing and try to avoid being directly under someone, unless you've attached a bolt or anchor to the rocks."
"Got it, no worries, let's just hope the climb isn't never-ending," Caroline replied.
"Shouldn't be that long now, I think I see the top of the cliff actually," Ridge said while looking up.
"Oh really, well then, thank God for that, I was starting to get tired here," Caroline said while seemingly smiling, "Well, this is why we train our body folks, instead of sitting around doing nothing," Lind, the doctor, replied quickly.
Hearing this, Caroline simply quietly remarked back, "Jeez, doc, give me a break."
Ridge let out a small chuckle and focused his attention on the top of the cliff they were climbing. To be honest, he had been unsure if what he saw was the top of the cliff or just a ledge, but luckily, it really was the top. Holding on with one sturdy hand, he looked at the time displayed on his panel and saw that they had actually been climbing for around twenty minutes straight.
"Hm, didn't feel a thing," Ridge quietly murmured to himself.
Moving upwards, he grabbed the ledge and pulled up. What he saw was surprisingly the ship they were looking for, and not only that, he saw something else too.