"The bodies of our fallen brothers have been patched up as best they could be. In two hours, we will arrange a burning of their bodies and send them off to the great unknown," Ridge spoke aloud as he approached the group.
Moving forward, the crowd split apart and watched on as Ridge and the others returned to base. No one spoke, and no one made a single sound; it was just a quiet that filled the air. Although the journey had been difficult and the ambush led to around half of the initial crew being killed, they didn't really have the time to properly mourn, and the send-off with the escape pod was the best they could do.
These deaths were the catalysts for them to finally slow down and realize the situation they were in. Far from home, far from their families, and nowhere to be sent back to when they die, with no notification to let their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and loved ones know. It's all a part of the job, sure, but these small things helped reassure them.
The group eventually dispersed, and the others who had been fighting had gone back to rest for a couple of hours before the funeral. Ridge wasn't one of them; he called on the leaders of the base, including Lind, whom he classified as head scientist at this point, Caroline, the chief engineer, Yayha, his vice commander, and finally George, the captain of the soldiers.
Within one of the designated conference or meeting rooms, Ridge sat down and gestured for the others to do the same. He was carrying with him his helmet, and as soon as the others did so, he pulled out a chip-like object from his helmet and into a projector of sorts on the table that separated them.
"This is footage my helmet recorded when we were down there in that cave," He explained as the footage became clear. "Following the trail of blood, we managed to track it here, and after entering, we lost the communications signal, as expected. Here is what we saw first thing once we entered deeper and eventually into a cavern," He explained before pausing right when they first entered the cave, and the creature was eating and laying eggs.
"Hm, that's interesting; it's laying eggs while eating, perhaps there's some kind of energy requirement," Lind stated while examining the now-paused photo.
"Looks pretty reminiscent of a female body as well, besides the large backside that kinda resembles a spider," George added while rubbing his chin. The other two remained silent.
"Indeed, what's interesting is that it's something much more unique-looking than the usual creatures we fight. In fact, let me fast-forward this a bit more," Ridge explained while fast-forwarding the footage to show what was in the eggs.
"These were what was lying inside the eggs. In my opinion, this must be how they grow their numbers and would explain how there were so many enemies on the beach rather than just our own soldiers being infected, like how we're used to."
"I see, I understand now; this must be essentially a queen ant," Lind interjected.
"A queen ant?" Yayha asked.
"Queen ants usually lay eggs, and from those eggs little workers appear. Those workers in turn gather food for the queen to lay more eggs and grow the nest. Of course, within the nest there are bound to be soldiers and the like. These creatures could also be territorial, which is why they are seemingly hellbent on attacking us humans whenever we are spotted," She explained.
"Interesting, how should we designate these new enemies then? The more information we can organize and file about them, the better chance we have of making sure we can survive when fighting them," Ridge asked.
"Well, let's write this down first, "Lind said while opening up her wrist panel to create a file. "This creature you encountered within the cave, we can designate a leader class of the Fungi species. Let's call it Queen Fungi for the sake of convenience. The worker Fungi are very likely what we encountered on the beach, so once again, for convenience, we'll just call them as such, and finally, the zombie-like ones we can call parasitic fungi since they infect humans and take over our bodies," she stated while writing it down.
"There was also something else on the ship a while ago that I encountered. It seemed to have put me to sleep or in a daze and created a dream within my own head that seemed quite real," Ridge added.
"Ok then, we'll call it a dreamer fungi, probably some type of soldier class within their species," Lind replied quickly.
"Very creative names, Lind," George chuckled.
"Better than nothing," she responded with a deadpan tone. Clearing his throat awkwardly, George nodded.
"Alright, that's all we needed to do. The mission itself has all of us involved, so no need to do a briefing on other information we already know. Get a quick rest; we'll have this funeral in a bit and send off our fallen brothers," Ridge said while sitting up and grabbing his helmet.
"Got it, sir," Caroline replied. George and Yayha also followed suit and gave him a salute before leaving.
Ridge himself returned to his room and began to unload his suit and gear. Taking a quick shower with his head down, he simply let the water run over him for a minute or two longer than usual and let out a breath before shutting it off and getting dressed.
The time to the funeral passed quickly enough, and finally the entire base gathered one by one at the now designated graveyard of the base in the south near the road to the mining outpost.
Walking out and to the front of the crowd, Ridge made his way over and waited for everyone to be present. It was also starting to get dark out, so he had some others put up more of those lights to light the area up.
Clearing his throat aloud, the murmuring crowd stopped talking, and silence filled the air once more as he stood in front of the group and the two bodies.
"Hank and Atlas were respected soldiers of the federation, and if I were to use one simple word to describe them, it would be selfless. They thought of others before themselves, and although they knew the risks when enlisting, they still joined up. Today's sacrifice is something that weighs heavily on all of us, I'm sure," he paused. "In fact, not just today's sacrifice, but ever since we got sucked into this hellhole."
"I don't plan to let these losses bring me down. No, I plan to honor them. I plan to survive for them. In fact, I plan to get out of this hellhole to return their tags and, as sad as it may be, let their families have closure. So I finish with this: survive; don't let these two men and the many others before them die in vain. Ten-Hut!" he shouted out.
The group formed up quickly and saluted the fallen bodies; Ridge followed suit after walking to the side to join them. George made his way over to the dead bodies with Ridge's flamethrower and gave one last salute before burning their bodies to ashes. The standard send-off when stranded in unknown space.
The tombstones were then erected, carved from stone leftover within the mining outpost. A few of the group, after watching the ashes fly off with the wind, walked over to kneel beside the grave to say some words and pay respect. Ridge didn't stay; he returned to his room and let out a heavy breath that he had seemingly been holding in for a while.
A knocking sound interrupted his brooding; he opened the door. It was Caroline.
"How's it going, Commander?" She asked outside his door.
"It's alright, just disappointed is all. I've always been cautious, but losing people like this is always a bit of a heartbreak, especially when I always try to be cautious, but it's part of the job, I suppose," he replied in a low voice. "How are you?"
"Well, I'm good enough, I guess. I only really knew Hank in passing, but we never really conversed deeply, and Atlas, we simply exchanged greetings when passing by each other, so I only really feel a sense of desolation. Maybe?" she replied, shrugging her shoulders.
An awkward silence fell between the two of them before Ridge spoke once more, "I better get some rest; I'll see you tomorrow, and we can perhaps exchange some more ideas about the defense of the camp."
"Of course, I'll let you get some rest," she said with a slightly strained smile. Just before Ridge could shut the door, she quickly turned around. "And hey, everything's going to be alright, Commander."
Nodding to her, he closed the door and went back to his bed to lie down. Staring at the ceiling, after some time, he eventually closed his eyes and went to sleep.