He first returned to his room and grabbed his suit, ensuring that he left nothing behind. He walked down to the elevator. The flamethrower had been lost, so for now he would have to just use a knife.
Using Caroline's machine, they could probably make some swords now that he thought about it. Even if the handles were going to be a bit rough without any wood or other material, in reality, just having something sharp would be good enough.
It was also a simple enough design that needed only a couple of metal units. An advantage of being on an asteroid without an atmosphere, though, was that they could see everything, not to mention the scanner, so they wouldn't need the swords for now anyway.
A few minutes later, he saw a gathering of men and women in suits. Spotting Caroline, Ridge walked up and greeted her. "Where's Yayha?" he asked.
"Looking for more people around the ship. You asked for every able-bodied person, so I guess he's just ensuring no one was missed," she answered.
"Anyways, I have all the plans needed this time, so once we touch down we can quickly get our industry running, and we will be more than capable of getting many things done at once," she added.
"That's the plan. This time around, I don't plan on building up so slowly; once we find and utilize an ice deposit to purify water and get our food source secure, we'll go crazy, so make sure you can keep up," he said, smiling.
She let out a chuckle. Yayha, in the meantime, finally made it back with a few more men who hadn't gotten the message, clearly. Walking in front of the group, Ridge got their attention by shouting, "ATTENTION!"
Hearing him, the crowd quickly gathered and straightened themselves. Arms to the side of their bodies.
"Alright, at ease. I won't take up much time; the plan is simple: we're gonna go down there, assemble machinery, get it running, and build an HQ. This time there is no atmosphere, meaning suits become much more important. Take great care in watching your suit and ensuring nothing critical gets damaged.
This is not only for your own safety, but so we don't need to waste resources manufacturing new suits. The good thing is that these current ones can take a beating, so just pay attention. Finally, once we are up and running and the HQ building is finished, we will be creating a large artificial glass dome on the surface and putting Caribs within it. I don't expect a lot of you to know about this animal, but what you do need to know is that we will soon have meat to eat, rather than just the same bland rations we've been eating for months," he paused. The crowd seemed to have become much more fired up at the mention of a change in diet. Especially meat. They hadn't tasted actual meat in who knows how long, even prior to the ambush.
"Now then, let's get to work, follow orders, and report anything that needs reporting, move out!" Ridge finished.
With everyone that was descending suited up, Ridge checked his own equipment once more with the help of Caroline and, when the checks finished, pressed the button lowering the elevator. Inside their suits, the first thing everyone noticed was how still everything felt.
With no atmosphere and, in turn, no wind, the ground seemed to have been completely frozen in time. Looking down as the elevator lowered, he did notice, however, that the landing gear for the battleship did stir up some dust and chunks of what were likely loose rocks floating away into space.
"Make sure you're cautious about your movements when we land; the gravity here is likely much weaker than what we experienced on Stira-1," he said.
It took a minute to get down, but once they made it, the entire crew got to work immediately. They moved rapidly with the mining equipment pieces they brought down with them to the marked spot of ore. The ship, or rather Berkay, chose their landing position with two factors in mind. The topography and resources.
The area the ship landed in avoided any large crater impacts and instead opted for more flat land, which wasn't entirely possible since the size of the asteroid, producing its own gravity, warped it into an oval shape, similar to most planets, but luckily they managed to find a good enough spot. Utilizing the scanner and cross-referencing some data, they found a landing spot with an ice deposit and a regular metal deposit nearby, and of course some spots here and there that were more densely filled with the materials needed to create glass.
There were no enemies here, so the only thing Ridge could do was follow around the others and take orders from Caroline and her engineers, who were directing others on how to assemble and construct the machines.
He didn't complain; once they got started, he immersed himself fully in completing it.
An hour turned into two; the first machines were already up and running, courtesy of needing only to assemble them. The machine on the ship had also at some point been brought down, just for ease of use. It would take charge mostly in helping to shape the framing for the HQ.
Caroline, having checked off the first part of her list, merely left one engineer with a few crew members and had them continue running operations before she immediately jumped into building said HQ. With the previous stockpile grabbed, at least most of it, Ridge authorized her to go all out.
Instead of opting for the slow build-up approach, this time Ridge didn't want to wait so long. The glass dome for their food supply needed to be completed fast, and one of the most important components to that, besides refining the materials on the asteroid, was power.
Once the HQ got set up, with the help of Hopi and the old blueprint for the generator, they would be able to start up their initial power system. The machines mining and refining luckily were self-sufficient with their own solar panels attached, but they weren't large enough to power a whole base as they had done previously. The ship also had its own power supply that they could probably connect to for the base, but that would require taking the battleship apart pretty much, which Ridge was not willing to do.
Around a kilometer away from the machines and the ship itself was a slight indentation in the surface of the asteroid. It was a crater, and it was also the chosen spot for the HQ, where metal beams were seen already being built up. Ridge had learned some things here and there about building while on Stira-1, so he opted to help lead the project alongside Yayha, who seemed to be more at a loss.
He clumsily followed Ridge's orders and screwed what needed to be screwed, which made him competent enough, but in reality, as smart as he seemed, he could only helplessly look around like a lost puppy for help once those tasks were done.
Ridge, seeing this, smiled every time and shook his head. They were, at the moment, installing one side of the southern wall. Their job was to simply assemble the metal beams in a frame and lift it; luckily, with a few men and the asteroid's own gravity, it wouldn't be too hard. Yayha had somehow managed to trip himself in the process multiple times, even accidentally jumping too high once or twice when trying to climb the frame once they lifted it and lined it up.
This arrangement was the same on every side of the building; Caroline was directing the others with utmost competency and occasionally checked in on Ridge and his group to ensure nothing was wrong. Another hour passed, and finally, with one last check from her, they lifted the frame with the others all at the same time. Nodding at some of the crew members who were at the back holding tools once the frames were made, Caroline, with her own tools, jumped up, utilizing the low gravity and positioning herself to connect the multiple frames. The others followed suit.
"Keep everything in place; once we get these corners connected, you can stop holding," She shouted while turning her visor darker. Sparks flashed out, and a bright light was created as she slowly welded the pieces of metal together. Having been warned, Ridge and Yayha knew not to look, but could only wait as the walls were being connected. Gravity helped, but it was still heavy metal, and keeping it upright took considerable effort.
What felt like ages passed by, and Caroline stopped her work, inspecting it to ensure it had no damage. Nodding to herself, she looked down and shouted once more, "Finished, you can rest now."
With a collective sigh of exhaustion, the five holding the southern wall sat down on the asteroid floor and caught their breath. It was a good thing they had a sufficient oxygen supply, as well as a heat regulator; otherwise, I'd be sweating bullets right now, Ridge thought to himself.