The third and final group inside the ship finally made their way out and regrouped with the others who were waiting with Ridge near the drag mark on the ground.
The other soldiers didn't really have much to add regarding the details other than the fact that whatever picked up the bodies or something else seemed to have only momentarily dropped them before holding them up again. This could indicate that the animal or thing wasn't huge in size or anything much bigger than a human, generally speaking.
This insight, even if only a small amount of information, was quite helpful in slowly figuring out what picked up the bodies, so Ridge was quite grateful to himself for picking these soldiers with recon and tracking experience.
"As you expected, Commander, there wasn't much inside at all. The two bodies you mentioned also weren't there," One of the soldiers from the ship said after walking over.
Nodding, "Okay, these tracks should be good enough to find out what happened. At the very least, we'll find some type of living creature on this planet that we can bring back to base for the researchers to study it," he answered.
"This cliffside, similar to the one we avoided previously, has a small cave-like hole on the right side of it there. It was partially covered in greenery, so I didn't notice it at first glance, but it could be where the bodies were taken," he pointed out. "I also haven't seen any other tracks around the perimeter, so this is our only lead."
Although Ridge wasn't actually sure if they had burned the bodies or not, he had a feeling this drag mark, whatever it was, could lead them to some of the wildlife on this planet. After all, they were still figuring out the food situation. If this planet had no animals or other fruits and vegetables around that could be eaten, then they likely wouldn't last long enough for their laboratory to brew up some sort of biology magic to grow and consume healthily over a long period of time.
The starch project was certainly a good start, but it was only capable of diminishing the rate at which they consumed their normal rations instead of being a long-term solution.
Slightly shaking his head from these thoughts, Ridge waved his hand and the eleven of them walked over to the cliffside, although rather than it being a cliffside it was more a mountainside.
As usual, the group had suits equipped so the climbing wouldn't really be a problem, although they more likely than not would be slightly exhausted.
Ridge figured once they got up there they could rest for a bit before preparing to do anything drastic.
"Let's go," he said.
Initiating the climb, the others followed after him; luckily, there were plenty of crevices that they could wedge their gloved hands in for a relatively stable climb. Scaling the mountain took a decent amount of effort, and one of the soldiers accidentally used too much strength when grabbing onto a protruding rock.
'CRACK'
It broke off from the mountain, and tiny pieces of rock resembling gravel fell with it. Luckily for the soldier and the others, there was no one below him, and his other hand was still in a relatively stable position to rescue himself without the other hand.
Letting out a breath of relief, "I'm fine; clearly didn't pay attention to the climbing courses during academy," he joked.
Hearing him joke, the rest of the group chuckled. Ridge, of course, had the same reaction, but he also made sure to give them a warning afterward: "Make sure you pay attention to where you're grabbing, and at the very least, please make sure you have a steady grip on the mountainside with at least one hand before going to grab another spot."
The group acknowledged his warnings, and they all continued. Being the first of the pack, so to speak, Ridge was able to reach a part of the mountain wall that plateaued slightly first. At least enough for him to sit somewhat comfortably without fearing a fall. While catching his breath, he looked out from the mountain past the downed ship and towards tall trees. The view in front of him was actually quite amazing.
A violet colored sky that was only slightly cloudy, and with his current, he could even see off into the distance where a grey opening in the forest allowed him to spot the base very faintly and, to the east of it, the parked ship. They almost resembled small dots on the horizon at this distance. Other than the sky, he noticed the numerous trees and even the body of water to the west of the base; though it was similar to the base despite being rather large in area, it was only a dot on the horizon. Perhaps if he climbed higher, he would see more.
Something Ridge had noticed quite early on as well was that, despite the fact that the star on this planet was "out," the sky never really changed colors from its typical violet. He chalked it up to some sort of atmosphere thing; unfortunately, he never studied these things, so he just waited for the others to come up after he caught his breath.
One by one they arrived and sat down with breaths of slight exhaustion. Of course, they also helped up the others who were still climbing. It wasn't exactly necessary, but it was ingrained within them to help each other out no matter what. The many academies on Eserus made sure of that.
A few minutes later, with everyone rested and ready with their guns out, Ridge signalled for them to continue and walk alongside this ridge to where he spotted the hole. The irony of his name being the same was not lost on him, though after some teasing when he was younger, he got used to it.
The side of the mountain was a reddish color mixed with gray, so the greenery that he saw covering the hole made it easy to find. It appeared that although the entire mountainside did have some vine-like plants, they weren't as heavily grown, which only helped. It also indicated that there was perhaps a greater source of nutrients for them, like fecal matter from an animal. Though perhaps it was something else, since he seemed to recall carnivorous animals' fecal matter didn't really work as fertilizer.
Making it to the entrance was the easy part; Ridge crouched down just to the side of the actual hole and made sure the other made no noise. Then, he listened.
He was attempting to hear for some scuffling sounds of animals or whatever it was moving. Unfortunately, the only thing he managed to hear was the wind. The greenery slightly blocked the entrance, so he pulled his sword out and cleared it. The hacking sounds likely would disturb whatever it was that was inside if the cave was shallow. If not, he would need to clear it out anyway for them to enter, so he just took advantage of that to once again listen in silence for any other sound after finishing the task of clearing.
"Nothing. This hole must be an actual cave and probably goes deeper in than I thought; we'll have to check it out. I'll take point and lead with the sword; this way, in case anything charges or ambushes us inside, the first thing they'll taste is the cold alloy of my sword," he said while turning around.
They then entered the cave one after another. The entrance was big enough for them to fit, but small enough that they had to stay crouched while entering deeper.
Switching his helmet lights on, Ridge pointed them out towards the darkness and only saw the cave continuing deeper into the mountain. The plants that he saw at the entrance were replaced with grey rock. He did notice, though, that the ground they were walking on had some marks of something being dragged.
Moving forward, he followed the path until his light finally showed that there was a left turn to take. Holding his sword steady, he slowly but surely inched over while crouched. The others were also following behind in silence.
The wind at the entrance of the cave had, at this point, died down, and the light from the entrance was also slowly dimming the further in they got.
Leading, sword first, he rotated to the left and saw with his own light that the cave continued with no actual end in sight, nor a creature or bodies.
"This was definitely dug out by some type of creature. There's no way a cave could be formed inside a mountain with no type of erosion, especially this one that deliberately seems like a path," He said after shaking his head.
"Very likely," one of the others replied in agreement.
Letting out a sigh of frustration, Ridge moved on. "Let's get going then. Hopefully whatever dug this hole out took the time to expand it so we don't have to keep crouching; this can't be good for my back," He joked.
The others let out small chuckles and moved through the narrow passageway at a much quicker pace.