Hissing sounded from his flamethrower, indicating it needed to be cooled down before being fired again.
"Make sure to stagger your firing; don't let up on the pressure. This shield will break eventually," He shouted out to the others, who immediately stopped firing all at once and instead started staggering their fire rate. This also helped to conserve ammo and increase the precision of their shots.
The soldiers at this point had moved away from the entrance of the cavern and moved on both sides of the cave behind stalagmites for cover. While waiting for his gun to cool down, Ridge, who had also taken cover, took the time to observe the enemy. Behind the energy shielding that was starting to dim, he noticed that of the two human-like hand shapes this creature had, one of them was holding the shielding up, but the other was seemingly reaching behind its back.
Before Ridge could make sense of what it was, the creature let out a long screech once again. This time the suits had a much harder time dampening the sound, and in fact some suits started to malfunction.
Suddenly, one of the soldiers on the right let out a scream of pain. Ridge looked over with a frown and noticed quickly that he was bleeding from his ears. Before he could say anything, the creature had pulled out a vine-like whip and swung it with great speed towards the now discombobulated man.
Ridge, noticing the movement, shouted out, "Look out!"
It was in vain; the man couldn't hear any longer, and the whip hit him with great force. It tore open the suit and slammed him into the cavern walls, breaking apart stone and crushing him to death.
The creature immediately stopped its shielding and attacked another soldier; luckily, this time he was able to react quickly by throwing himself into cover behind a stalagmite. Breaking the stalagmite in half, the creature screeched once more and continued its offensives. By the time Ridge's gun could cool down, one more soldier had been killed after being trapped by fallen stone from the whip's damage and not being able to move. This allowed the creature to move over and tear him in half with the full force of its whip.
Frowning, he finally stood up from behind his cover, and he unleashed the flames once more. Screeching, the creature once again put up its shielding. During this time, the other soldiers who had been firing their plasma rifles also began to concentrate on firing on one specific shot unconsciously. Even without the orders of Ridge, they all figured they could maximise the damage if it was one specific point getting hit rather than all over.
Very similar in principle to when they were in the battleship fighting the enemy on the beach and attempting to break through the shielding.
Luckily, the flamethrower was much more effective than even the plasma rifles, and it was able to hold down the creature effectively. Soon, cracking sounds could be heard, and with a loud screech, the shielding of the creature broke like glass. Shattered, the flames immediately poured in and covered its entire body.
Hissing and melting flesh, or fungi in this case, caused the screeches to become more like screams of pain. Not letting up, the plasma rifles of the remaining soldiers, with scary precision, targeted the head, and finally, after a minute or two, the screaming died down, and the flames completely consumed the enemy, burning it into ashes.
Clenching his teeth and moving closer and closer until it was turned into ash, Ridge finally let up and let out a breath of frustration. They had lost two soldiers, and even the death of the perpetrator led to there being no satisfying feeling of revenge.
"Gather the bodies of our brothers; let's get out of here," He said solemnly.
"Commander, what about these things over here?" a soldier exclaimed while waving Ridge over to the back of the cavern where they first spotted the creature.
Crouching down, he examined the eggs that the creature left behind. Due to the fighting, they seemed to have been broken open. The exterior of the eggs was green, but browning at this point, indicating they were dying. The inside of the egg was vaguely similar to reptilian eggs and had an almost orange goo that covered a baby-like figure similar to those they fought on the beach.
Frowning, he waved the others back and used his flamethrower to completely burn them to crisps.
"Looks like this is how our enemies multiply their numbers," he said after burning the eggs to ashes to be safe, even if they were already dying.
One of the soldiers' bodies had been buried under rubble, and so Ridge and the others took a good hour just to recover a body. The other one was cut in half and also partially covered in rubble.
The group almost always had stretchers that could carry the injured from the battlefield, so they simply assembled a couple of them on the spot, carried the two pieces, and used a rain cover to wrap them. With both bodies now on the stretcher, Ridge waved his hand. "Let's return."
Walking through the cave once more, they eventually entered the forest once more; this time it was even darker, considering they had been fighting for some time down there. As soon as he hit the open air, Ridge opened the comms channel and connected with the ship once again.
"Commander! How are things?" Yayha answered.
"Good and bad. The good news is we took care of a pretty strong enemy; the bad news is we lost two in the process of doing so, even though it was injured by the ship's cannons already," He said in a serious tone.
A moment of silence elapsed. "Understood. Do you need a crew for evac? or medics for the injured?" Yayha answered back.
"We'll meet up on the beach once more. How's the progress with George?" Ridge asked while directing the soldiers to move out once more, carrying the bodies to the beach. They simply left the deployable lights they had put down surrounding the cave. It was one of the few resources in abundance at the base, surprisingly enough.
"I'll let him speak for himself," Yayha said before connecting George to the communication.
"Commander, the job is finished, and we have no casualties. There were a few stragglers like you feared, but we took care of them with relative ease. We also managed to acquire five kinetic rifles within the wreckage, though one of them is lightly damaged, so four are in working condition," He reported.
"Great news and excellent work. Create a secure perimeter around the elevator of the ship and wait for our return," Ridge responded.
"Understood, George out." The communications cut off, and Yayha came back online. "Would you like me to notify home base to prepare for a send-off for our fallen comrades?"
"Yes, even though it's our job and the risk of death is accepted, I think they deserve a proper send-off, even on foreign lands such as these," Ridge said quietly.
"I understand, Yayha out."
The group returned to the beach after some time in silence and nodding at George's group, who were silent as well. They got on to the elevator and set the two bodies down.
Letting out a sigh, Ridge pressed a button, and the group began to ascend. Once they reached the top, they picked the bodies up. "The rest of you, head over to the armory and relax your bodies; it's been a bit of a stressful day," he said.
"Copy that, sir," a few soldiers replied; the rest nodded and quietly left to unload their equipment. Walking with the four carrying the body, they eventually entered the ship's clinic, where a doctor was present. Setting them down on the bed, the other four left; however, Ridge stood there for a moment in silence, looking at his men's dead bodies. Breaking his daze, he left to unload his equipment and walked to the bridge.
Entering, the others sat up from their seats and saluted.
"At ease," he said after giving a quick salute and sat down on the commander's chair. "Let's head back."
"Yes, sir," one of the pilots responded. From then on, Yayha, Caroline, and even George sat in silence with the rest of the crew until they eventually made it back to base. Setting the ship down, and with a bit of turbulence, they were home. At least what Ridge classified as "home".
There wasn't much to speak about, so after some checks of the system and the transport of the equipment, the crew once again exited the ship via the elevator. Of course, there were still a few crew members besides the fallen ones who didn't depart. They were stationed permanently on the ship this time, essentially to clean and care for it whenever necessary. A very boring job realistically, but they didn't complain.
The other group who weren't permanently stationed there, which obviously included Ridge, Yayha, George, and Caroline, as well as the soldiers and some ordinary crew members, made their way on the dirt path back towards the base. With the two bodies in tow, they were welcomed back by the rest of the crew who were left behind for this mission, with a solemn atmosphere enveloping them all.