The rest of the expedition's first night in the new world came and went without further incidents. The next day came as the unfamiliar star rose to illuminate the sky. The camp came to life with the expedition members basking in the early morning dew like they wished they could back home.

Andre found the sunrise itself to be rather disappointing as it lacked the breathtaking colors the toxic atmosphere of Earth produced which was probably a good thing. Unlike the other members he had been able to experience mornings back home outside of an environment suit, so the event didn't feel as magical to him.

He walked down the hill camp alongside Lisa and two other operators. His job was to find and bring back as many supply containers as possible while they planned to secure the camp. The incident at the river last night had proven that the surrounding wilderness was far from safe.

They parted ways upon reaching the base of the mountain. The operators were planning on patrolling in a circle around camp to secure the direct vicinity. While he was going towards last night's wind direction as he expected the supply containers to either overshoot or undershoot the landing site, so it was wise to look either towards or opposite the wind.

The workers were already well into starting their day as the start of a long trench was already visible from the base of the hill. Some of them probably couldn't sleep last night and decided to start digging in the dark.

He himself didn't sleep but he had little need to unless he overexerted himself his body had lost the need. With a compass in his hand and the antenna of the container locator jutting out of his bag he started his search.

It didn't take long before the locator picked up a signal and started beeping to inform him that he was close to a container after all there were a thousand of them currently spread out in this place. It was another green hydroponics container literally the one they least required in the current situation. At least it means they will have more food by the end of the month.

Andre grabbed at the corner of the container and pulled out the chain that was attached there. There was no way they could send a full-size truck into the portal as the maintenance requirement would quickly render it useless so the containers were designed with a flat underside so they can be pulled by the smaller vehicles purpose built for the expedition.

They currently haven't found any of the containers containing such vehicles, but he was a viable replacement. That was what he thought until he started pulling the chain. His prosthetic leg creaked under the weight of the container. It was made of thaumaturgic steel but there was only so much magic could do when it came to strengthening such thin steel while also keeping its joints capable of movement.

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Once he felt that his prosthetic leg had started to deform Andre stopped what he was doing immediately. Kasimira had told him there were spares in his personal container but even that was currently nowhere to be found.

Andre frowned; he had assumed he could move the containers without issue. His decision had not taken his prosthetics into account. He had predicted the issue of decreased mobility in combat but completely overlooked the far lower weight bearing strength of the prosthetic when compared to his good leg. He was starting to realize that his abilities were much more compromised than he initially thought. If he had bothered to test himself after healing back on Earth, he would have noticed these issues long ago.

He quickly changed his plans from dragging the containers back to just marking their location. He opened his bag and took out the folder containing the details of the expedition. One of the printouts inside was an aerial drone photo of the planned campsite and its surroundings.

Taking out a compass and ball point pen he determined his rough location on the aerial photo and placed an ‘X’. even if he couldn't move the entire container they could revisit and take what they needed in the future. After noting his location he proceeded with his search.

Several hours into his search with the sun high into the sky Andre was starting to worry. He had found a dozen more containers but they all contained either cement, hydroponics, or lab equipment. He was beginning to realize a trend.

If his fears were correct then the general location of the containers landing was roughly determined by their weight and its distribution which meant similar containers landed close to each other or around the same path. It meant once they found a container they could expect all containers of the same weight and construction. Each type of container was slightly modified to better house its contents which probably also affected where it landed.

This was a problem as this meant that any container type they have yet to find could virtually be anywhere in the vast wilderness. This included the weapons containers which he expected they will need sometime soon. This was an even bigger problem for the unique portal segments as they were of varying weight and balance which meant finding one part of the portal did not equate to finding the others.

It feels like every passing hour they discover the six month deadline was becoming less achievable than they thought previously. At this rate they would need to comb through a hundred kilometer radius around the camp to find the required materials to build the portal.

On earth searching an area that large was not even a challenge as they could just request help from one of the thousands of satellites in orbit. But that wasn't an option in this foreign world and the surveillance drones they had brought were also among the missing equipment.

Andre decided to terminate his search early and head back to camp. He had to inform Sergei of his observations as if he was correct they would need a miracle to achieve their goals on time.