With the group now together, the wave of enemies rushing out from the shadows of the wreckage slowly but surely began to dwindle until, finally, the last enemy was finished off by George, who had used a sword to cleave its head straight off. It seemed they died quite quickly when targeted near the heart and the head. Something Ridge and the other soldiers took quick note of when they had been fighting these things much earlier.
The group sat down panting and exhausted; the fighting, while seemingly quick, in fact, took around an hour to finish. It was quite lucky they still had a good amount of ammunition for the weapons left, not to mention the fact that the plasma rifles were quite good at penetrating more than one enemy at a time.
In Ridge's definition, though, finish wasn't quite the right word. After all, there still seemed to be some color left on the fungi, which indicated something was still alive. A convenient weakness of the enemy that he planned to exploit.
"This is no time to rest yet, men. The enemy isn't completely dead," Ridge exclaimed before the group could fully decompress and lower their guard.
The group immediately roused themselves, and although some let out murmurs of protest, they followed his orders and stood up. They formed an organized line in front of Ridge.
"Very good, here's the plan: six of you will be following Captain George in clearing the rest of the wreckage. Be thorough and keep an eye out for the vibrant orange, purple, and green colors of this fungus. The only way to tell if these things are completely dead is if they turn brown and wilted, so keep that in mind," He ordered aloud while pacing in front of the group.
Saluting, George, who was at the forefront of the group, spoke, "Following your orders, sir!"
"Very good. I will take the rest of the soldiers and follow a trail I spotted just northeast of here, heading into the forest. Taking care of the remnants is a top priority; however, don't hesitate to ask for reinforcements if you encounter trouble, and I can send a few men back," Ridge replied while nodding. "Let's move out!"
Breaking formation, the group of seven soldiers, including George, broke off and continued the original goal of sweeping the battlefield and ensuring the enemy was finished off.
Connecting to comms while travelling with the group of eleven trailing behind him, Ridge connected to George: "I almost forgot; make sure to scavenge for any weapons or valuable materials that haven't been destroyed by the cannons."
"Affirmative," he replied simply.
Now disconnected, Ridge then moved over to the comms to Yayha, who was in charge of the ship still hanging above them.
"A group of eleven soldiers will be following me into the forest northeast of this beach; sit tight with George and the others who are clearing the battlefield."
Beeping sounds emitted from his helmet, and a reply came quickly from Yayha, who was leisurely sipping some sort of liquid in a mug. "Copy that, Commander. We'll keep comms open if you need air support at any time."
"Affirmative."
Focusing his attention once more, Ridge began to follow the trail of blood or whatever it was, leading into the forest.
Crossing the threshold from the sand and now in tall trees, Ridge motioned for the other to be cautious, and they continued following the trail of crushed foliage and leaking blood.
The sky was still relatively bright, but with the treetops being so overgrown, once inside the forest, it was hard to tell day from night, if not for the distinguishable fact that night somehow got even darker, to the point where they could barely see in front of them.
The group continued deeper into the forest and continued snapping fallen sticks and crushing dried-out leaves until finally, they followed the traces all the way to a mound of dirt that surrounded a hole in the earth. It was a cave, and the trail of blood was leading straight into that dark abyss.
"Hm, create a small perimeter surrounding this cave and use the small mobile light to mark it out," Ridge said while taking note of the area around them. It was still bright enough out, but what irked him was the fact that there were still no signs of animals or the like, and not to mention, blindly entering this cave could be a catastrophe. Unfortunately, as soldiers, it was their job to take these risks, not to mention that if they left this one enemy alive, who knows what could happen.
In the meantime, while he was thinking the soldiers had laid out small lights into the ground and brightened the surrounding area considerably. With their task now done, they gathered once again and waited on Ridge's orders.
"Okay, we're gonna go in there, make sure to activate your flashlights on your helmets if you've got them, and also check all your equipment once more. I will contact the others and let them know our location before heading in," Ridge said firmly after some hesitation.
"Sir, yes sir!" The group responded.
These men were trained for danger; even in unknown situations like this, they were elite, so Ridge had faith that they could handle this.
Tapping on his wrist panel, he let out a signal burst to give their location with coordinates to the ship, and then entered the comms channel that was still online.
"This is Commander Ridge H.C Heart, do you copy?"
"It's nice and clear, Commander. We copy," Yayha responded.
"Invite George into the comms channel as well, if you could," Ridge responded while checking his flamethrower.
"Inviting... now," Yayha said slowly.
"George here."
"I've invited you into this discussion for a reason. We have encountered a cave while tracking down whatever it is that escaped. Obviously, we're gonna enter it. I've sent out our coordinates to the ship, so you know our exact location, but I wanted it to be known that while I'm gone, Yayha is in charge as always. Oh, and one more thing, for good measure, once you've finished clearing out the beach, don't be afraid to order the ship to let out one final volley," Ridge said extensively while finishing his last checks and turning the helmet lights on.
"Copy that, Commander. Be safe," George replied briefly; after all, he was still technically on a mission.
"Understood, sir. The suits are automatically transmitting your vitals, so if something happens, we should know right away and can come help if necessary," Yayha said.
"Copy, Commander Ridge. Going dark, I will get in touch with you all once this dreaded thing is taken care of." Ridge replied before cutting off the communications.
Nodding to the others who had finished their preparations earlier, he raised his rifle and continued forward into the cave.
Step by step, they no longer were standing on the foliage-covered forest floor, but rather hardened dirt and stone. The cave was lit up quite easily with their flashlights, and as they walked deeper into the cave, Ridge raised his hand into a fist to indicate for the group to halt.
Crouching down, he picked up a white, bone-looking object. "Looks like this was where the animals were, though that still doesn't explain how we didn't find any after settling here for some time already," he quietly murmured while using his helmet to see the bones leading further into the cave and in greater numbers than just this singular bone he picked up.
Getting up, he tossed the bone aside and signalled the group to continue. The cave itself was surprisingly wide, and while following the traces of blood, they began to go deeper and deeper until finally, Ridge heard sounds ahead. It was almost a crunching sound. Moving on, the cave began to wind and veer to the right, until finally the cave walls opened up more and more, leading into a wide cavern. In the center of this cavern, at the back of the walls, was a mass of fungus shaped like a human female, with a large appendage on her backside spewing out some type of egg-shaped fungi.
The crunching sounds they heard earlier were this creature eating an animal that looked sort of like a deer on the agricultural planet of Petania, only its blood was a sort of purple color. Looking closely, Ridge also noticed that the blood they were following led exactly to the fungus creature. It seemed to have been injured.
The creature, noticing the lights from their helmets, threw the carcass away and stopped spewing the eggs out. Instead, it let out a scream that almost seemed to have formed some sort of sound waves.
These sound waves hit the group directly and pushed them back just a bit; luckily, that sound was also quickly dampened automatically. A convenient feature of the suit indeed, Ridge thought with relief.
"Open fire!" He shouted out while pulling the trigger of the flamethrower and lighting everything up.
Screams from the creature continued to sound out, mixed with the flamethrower and plasma rifles being let off.
Through the flames, Ridge could see the enemy creating some type of barrier with its hand, using some type of energy shielding that he wasn't familiar with. Nonetheless, the plasma rifles and the flames seemed to put some strain on it, luckily.