It didn't take long for everyone to pack up everything they could, including the refinery and some mining parts. Other than those things, Ridge also had the group completely dismantle and destroy, to the best of their ability, everything that could be useful for the enemy.
He naturally understood that it was only a matter of time before they found this base too, so instead of letting them potentially have something that they worked so hard to build, he would rather see it destroyed and scavenged for parts.
Shaking his head, he continued with the crew grabbing everything they could before boarding the battleship once more. Caroline and Yayha had both joined Ridge on the bridge while the others all got into position in case they needed to fire the cannons once more. Of course, the scientists also returned once more to the clinic room that they had used previously.
Apparently, Ryan had finished the initial resource-gathering stage of his artificial animal project and wanted to get started right away. Unfortunately, they didn't manage to find the other gender of the animal carcass they brought back a bit ago, but Ryan simply told Ridge that it wasn't entirely necessary, just something that would make it easier to eventually have them actually reproduce themselves once they had been artificially grown.
"Commander, what's the next step?" Caroline asked as Ridge sat down once more on the commander's seat.
"Well, that depends really. I think for now we'll wait a day or two for any signs or messages from the soldiers and George. If we don't get anything within that time, we'll send one more message out informing any survivors that we are leaving." He paused. "As much as I'd like to stay and fight on, and also not leave anyone behind, in reality, the circumstances just don't line up favorably for us here.
Because of this, my thoughts are being pulled towards finding another planet within this system and utilizing whatever resources we find to build up once more, and this time maybe even grow our population with artificial humans. Over time we will have an army and the resources needed to return here and obliterate these fungi things."
Hearing him, Caroline nodded along. Before hearing about artificial humans, the topic itself seemed to put a pause on her actions, but nonetheless she understood his reasoning for it. Ridge, of course, noticed this, but he didn't say anything. For all the years that they worked together, he knew Caroline was more of a supporter of the new coro federation rather than the old one that exploited such technology.
It was really just a matter of principles on her part; according to her own words, the process itself was a taboo against the natural order of the world. He honestly had no idea what that meant exactly, but he more or less understood it as she didn't view artificial humans as natural and a part of the world.
One of the more radical opinions the new coro federation had adopted within certain political factions, so to speak, though, from what Ridge read before the ambush, was gaining more and more popularity, and some leading members of said political faction had already begun proposing the idea of essentially purging all artificial humans that were already grown and still alive. After all, the artificial humans seemed to have grown up like any other natural one, so they had their own ideas and political stances too. This led to some not supporting the old federation's views and living through the catastrophic war.
Whether that meant killing them or something else, he didn't know; humans still didn't know anything about the soul, but the artificial humans seemed to have one once they had been brought into the world and showed the same level of consciousness, even within glass vats as anyone else, so Ridge couldn't say he agreed with her thoughts. At any rate, it isn't important now, he thought.
"Got it, I'll just draw up as many blueprints and plans of things we may need during this time, in this way, plus what we already have, I won't need to draw from scratch, buildings and factories that you might ask for," she replied, half-smiling, interrupting his thoughts.
"Oh, before I forget, Caroline, once we get to the second outpost, I want you to piece together the refinery once again and immediately start refining the veltrite. With enough of it, I think we can repair the large scanner on the battleship, which will help immensely," he told her just before she got up to go do her own thing within the ship.
"No problem," she said before leaving.
Ridge watched her leave before turning to Yayha. "Do you think there's any way for George to have survived?"
"No, Commander, we can of course wish and hope that he made it out unscathed, but from what I saw, they were likely surrounded and killed completely. After all, you saw their numbers yourself, I'm sure, when you returned with the battleship," Yayha said seriously, making sure to take his time thinking about it.
Ridge nodded and ordered the pilots to lift off and take them to the second outpost. This time, rather than the relatively speedy five to ten minutes of flight from the main base to the first outpost, the veltrite deposit was around twenty-six kilometers away from their current location.
Meaning it would take around half an hour for the ship to fly there. Resting the back of his head on the commander's chair, Ridge closed his eyes and constantly replayed today's events. He was quite disappointed in himself; almost every decision he made was playing into the enemy's hands, or whatever they had.
Yayha, who had been exhausted already from the rushed retreat, had returned to his room, either to take a nap or get some sleep; it wasn't something Ridge felt he needed to concern himself with.
Time passed with no disturbance, and nothing picked up on the scanners. They eventually crossed over the tall trees forest and made it above the rocky terrain. During this time, he had also received a message from the trailblazer crew.
'Commander, we have received your message and will promptly discontinue the road. We may take a little longer to get to the outpost simply because the trailblazers aren't exactly slim enough to always fit through the trees, but it shouldn't take too long.
We'll keep in touch.'
It wasn't an under attack message, so Ridge promptly saved it and sent an affirmative reply back. He didn't really expect them to arrive very quickly just because the retreat order was so sudden, not to mention the vehicles themselves, while not absolutely massive, weren't exactly scouting vehicles that could drive perfectly on all terrains.
With that settled, He waited once more for them to officially arrive at the outpost.
Five minutes later....
"Landing procedures initiating," One of the pilots said abruptly. Ridge, who had closed his eyes for a second, opened them once more and saw that the ship was starting to lower itself.
Standing up he walked to the window and looked down where he just barely over the ship managed to see the outpost.
It still didn't look complete, but because they had a good amount of people here, the wall was mostly done, only missing a few metal panels, and the mining equipment was already up and running. The refinery, on the other hand, didn't look to be complete, but from where he was, Ridge wasn't able to tell.
They landed the battleship on top of a rocky opening that didn't even need to be cleared; it was almost a natural landing platform, he thought to himself.
"Good work, boys," He stated aloud while walking away from the window to the pilots who had landed the ship steadily. Berkay remained on the bridge just in case. The Ship had more than enough power to keep itself powered up at all times, so Ridge didn't mind that they were playing it safe, especially after all that happened.
Joining him on the ground were Caroline and some engineers, as well as ten or so crew members and the soldiers who had been pulled from the main fighting early on, giving them the option to retreat.
Another heavy loss, besides the potential loss of life, was the weapons. In fact, Ridge didn't even grab his flamethrower when he got onto the ship. The only thing he had on him was a knife. There were still two plasma rifles being used by the guards who were sent to the first outpost, so there was that at least. He could only sigh and move on.
"Welcome back, Commander. We got the message and immediately threw all our efforts into making sure the equipment was manufactured first before the wall to get things running," One of the crew members that they had left behind said, welcoming the group in.
"Good. From now on, we're gonna focus all our efforts on mining this veltrite while waiting for any news from the others. Ignore the wall and any other projects here. We can just rely on the battleship for everything else," Ridge replied while walking in.
"Copy," The crew member replied before fading back into the background, getting to work on mining operations.
Caroline was already directing the men to set up the refinery literally within range of the battleship's elevator, presumably so they could pack up and leave quickly if anything happened.
The two-day timeline was set, and for now all Ridge could do was wait and hope.