Looking at the map, George and Ridge both rotated it and pointed out specific points where they could place at least a few of the scanners right away.
Ridge opted to ignore the west for now, just because it was much more isolated and they had previously managed to purify it early on. Not to mention the vast body of water ended up acting as an environmental cover, perfect for them, not so much for the enemy.
"We can perhaps try and build a corridor to funnel the enemy through unknowingly," George suggested, pointing out that the northern mountain range and high cliffs acted as a deterrent as well.
"The problem with that is they have already gotten close to the base, at least close enough to consistently have scouts skulking about in the forests; they won't just let us build out anything for free," Ridge replied while rubbing his chin.
"Instead, we can try to covertly set up the sensors further northeast and east, where they are likely to be located; in this way we can get the information we need to arrange some kind of defense or even proactive plan while utilizing the environment to our favor," he continued.
"Perhaps maybe even using the tall trees to ambush any forces travelling through there. Using guerrilla warfare tactics, we should be able to pick them off as they come. Though given enough time, I imagine they will be able to grow their numbers much quicker than we can, so we won't be able to sustain a war of attrition with them," Ridge said.
The discussion between the two of them went on for what felt like an hour, maybe longer; by the time they had finished, it was already turning dark, so it appears the hour turned into multiple hours.
Through this meeting, the two of them had decided to first set down and activate the sensors within two kilometers of the base. The sensors themselves were capable of scanning five kilometers, so they would clear out some of the fog obscuring the base at the very start; once those were established, the next plan of action would be to carefully avoid enemies and move further and further east to place sensors and carefully hide them.
The sensors in this way would eventually manage to scan either the fungi's main base, or at the very least a forward base created to stage this soon-to-be war, and by hiding the sensors it ensured they wouldn't find and destroy them, even if they didn't know their purpose.
During this meeting, Caroline had also scavenged parts from the base and created a small but effective data center, utilizing high-capacity storage drives on server racks. More than capable of aggregating and organizing the data gained from the sensors and establishing stable and secure data links. It had also been put into the main command room slightly further in the back away from the sand table, to ensure total safety. Of course, if its purpose was discovered, it would inevitably be a target alongside the command room itself, but until that day came, the current setup would have to do.
With the data center set up with surprising speed, this also meant that Ridge and George would be able to send out their men quite quickly. Which they did; they distributed three devices for each member of their small groups to carry and place. They were also given instructions to eventually split up and place their sensors before regrouping and returning. Even small groups of three would be much easier to discover than just a single person.
Luckily, everyone seemed to have paid attention during the technical classes in their youth, so no one asked questions about how to use it like George.
The sky continued turning darker and darker; the ship, periodically returning, would scan two kilometers out, which was the current range for its small-scale scanners, and in doing so update the sand table that Ridge and George were paying all their attention to.
The groups of men sent out spread out carefully, and their blue dots indicated their movements and the fact that they were still alive. Luckily, whenever the ship had returned to refresh the sand table, there seemed to be no enemies. Which to both men was quite astonishing, considering it was late at night already and typically enemy scouts would be present.
Regardless of their surprise, the operation so far was going smoothly, that is, until the map got updated again when the H.C Heart parked up at its usual spot after finishing all daily tasks.
Red dots, one after another, started popping up; they counted one, then five, then twenty. Looking across the table, Ridge looked up at George with a grim face.
George stopped leaning forward and left for the door. "I'll have the soldiers post up on the wall and also make sure every cannon is prepped to fire."
Ridge merely nodded, staying in place to keep watch of the board. A few of the officers also left with George, but a couple remained in place, just in case he needed them for something else.
Not long after George had walked out, Ridge noticed that one of the blue dots had seemingly gone straight through the red ones, as if they were just passing by each other. Then data seemed to have been sent in, and the area surrounding that blue dot, five kilometers in size, had been surveyed. Raising his brow, Ridge noticed quickly not only the group of red dots still marching past, but also an aggregate of them, all gathered what he could only calculate to be around five to six kilometers from the base.
It was very likely to be the enemy base. Caroline had walked in alongside Yahya; they had both been busy most of the day supervising the differing constructions within the base and outside of it. Now they were free to join in the discussions of their survival.
Seeing the mass of red dots, Yahya let out a sigh. "Heh, looks like they were closer than we expected."
Shaking her head, Caroline remained silent. Tsking his tongue, Ridge replied, "Yeah, though on the plus side, being so close, we should be able to utilize the battleship, at least in this instance, to directly bombard them relatively safely."
"Caroline, how goes the progress on the munitions factory?" he asked, changing topics quickly.
"Good enough; it'll still take a few more days to complete construction and then probably another day after which to get things up and running," she replied swiftly. "But once we get this up and running, we should be fine for an extended war so long as our supply lines aren't cut off from the large mining outpost. We also do need more kinetic rifles, though, so within that munitions factory I am going to attempt to create a second assembly line solely for the rifles using the metals and resources found on this planet."
"Perfect, once we get this war machine up and running, we can take the fight to these parasites," he replied while watching the red dots continue to move forward towards the base. It looked to him like they were going to attack now.
Turning to the officer on his right, Ridge spoke some orders, "Send a message out to all soldiers on the wall that the enemy is around forty minutes out."
The officer quickly used their wrist panel and relayed the orders. Although he could technically do this himself, by allowing for the others to relay the orders, he could focus on tracking the enemy and coming up with strategies if need be. It was a matter solely of convenience.
Speaking of strategy, the swiftness of the enemy completely erased any and really all plans that George and he had come up with all day. This was war, though; changes can happen just like that, within minutes or even seconds.
On the wall, George had received the message and had the men all gather on the north eastern side of the wall. Their total forces sat around twenty at the base, with ten sent out to plant the scanner devices. The ten sent out all opted for knives for self-defence, meaning all twenty soldiers not sent out had plasma rifles and a few kinetic rifles. Of course there was also a machine gunner and his RMG-18, perfect for mowing down what would be the first assault.
The wall itself for the eastern section of the base was 110 meters long; he had strategically placed two to three soldiers in small groups with ten to fifteen meters of separation from another group. He did this utilizing twelve soldiers, then put four soldiers in reserve; these guys held the kinetic rifles; they would, at any point within the battle, reinforce the groups under the heaviest pressure and act flexibly across the entire wall.
In total, this was sixteen soldiers; he had left two officers to stay with Ridge to help with strategy and send out messages, and another two were stationed at the large mining outpost with the engineer and a few crew members making sure ore was still being refined and put to use.
The Battleship had also, at some point, quickly floated over from its parking spot in the east and was once again floating above the main base, waiting to be put into use by Berkay and some regular crew members flying it. As soon as they landed and were preparing to disembark from the ship, they received alerts from the base, so they quickly got the ship started up again.
Of course, since there were still crews working on both the veltrite outpost out south and now the munitions factory below them, in reality the battleship was only capable of maybe half of its original firepower. Manpower shortages were especially felt during times like these.