After checking the remaining rooms and finding what appeared to be an elevator shaft, Carver and the rest of the marines exited the structure and regrouped with squads one and two.

Neither teams were successful in locating Butkus, but a member of squad one did notice a creature's tracks. The person who had found them was a man named Anthony Dipasquale. He was the one that had the nickname Deep, and hailed from one of the colonies called Horizon. He stood at a staggering height of five feet and eleven inches, and had hair that was similar to that of a buzzcut, but was an inch longer. His eyes were a yellowy-brown, and on the right side of his neck was the tattoo of the number three.

The reason why he had the number three on his neck was because he was the third one in his family to enlist in the marines and because he was the third born out of four.

As for the footprints he saw, they were big, but they were nowhere near as big as the two animals they had encountered earlier. They were about as big as a bear's paw, if not that, a little bigger.

There was a moment of discussion about this creature upon it being revealed to the members of squads three and four as their commanding officer told Archangel that they were ready for a pickup, but that conversation was short-lived. What was said was mostly speculation about what it was, and how it supposedly had a set of legs instead of multiple.

What caused the conversation to be so short-lived was because after their Lieutenant finished speaking with Archangel, he ordered four of them to retrieve their fallen comrades' bodies. It didn't sink in earlier, at least not for most of them due to everything that was going on at the time, but now that they were going to be leaving the area it had managed to sink in.

Two of their brothers in arms were dead, and with no one having no idea what happened to Butkus it might as well have been three. They gave the two of them a moment of silence and began to reminisce their times together, but even that didn't last long, for their leader had important information he needed to tell them.

"So we're basically going to be stranded here?" James sternly inquired with a serious look written on his face.

"Yes." His superior affirmed somewhat hesitantly.

"... Did we at least contact one of the fleets or somebody out there to let them know what happened to us?" Another marine questioned after a couple of seconds.

"I would assume so, but I'm not sure." The Lieutenant claimed before letting loose a sigh. "All I know is that the ship is in critical condition and having no choice but to land on the planet."

"... Has it already landed yet?" Carver asked after a solid ten seconds while some of the others voiced their disconcerts to one another.

"No, but it's about to, at least that's what Archangel claims." His superior professed as he looked at him.

"I see..." Was all Carver said in response to the information.

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Upon them coming to a stop, Yevgenny looked to one of the few crewmen onboard the bridge and asked them in a solemn voice. "Status?"

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"Uhhh, besides some of the plating coming off, our landing was pretty solid, sir." The crewman declared after doing a quick diagnostics. "Yeah, we had lost some of our armor plating, but that's about it, sir. Everything else appears to be fine."

After hearing this statement, Yevgenny bent over and let out the breath he had been holding since entering the planet's atmosphere. The Beatrix didn't have any wheels, so the only way they were able to land was by basically crashing into the planet in the most gentlest way possible.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to relax long, for another crewman said to him in a serious tone. "Now that we've successfully crashlanded, what do we now, sir?"

"Now we start fortifying the area, and make this our base of operations." Yevgenny answered in a resolute tone after straightening himself. "We don't know what's exactly out there, but we do know they're out there and it will only be a matter of time before they come looking for us. We need to be ready."

"Understood sir, I'll notify the Battalion Commanders about this." The crewman proclaimed which had earned himself an acknowledging nod from Yevgenny along with him saying. "Noted."

"Excuse me for my doubt, but do you really think someone is going to come looking for us?" Jenkins inquired with a small frown as he turned to look at his superior. "I know I wouldn't if I was in their position."

"That's because you're a wuss." Parker claimed in a slightly amused tone as he shot his co-pilot a quick look.

"How am I a wuss?" Jenkins practically demanded with a frown as he averted his gaze away from his Captain and glared at his fellow pilot. "I'm just saying that if I saw something come crashing down on my planet, be it a spaceship or a rock, I wouldn't be the one going to check it out. That's how you somehow end up getting impregnated!"

"And it's because of that reason alone you're a wuss." Parker stated in response with a smile while pointing his right index finger at him. "You don't have any sense of adventure, and would rather avoid investigating a crash site."

"No sense of adventure!?" Jenkins angrily yelled. "Bitch, I pilot a goddamn cruiser that's capable of unleashing some major destruction, I think that goes to show that I have a sense of adventure."

As Parker opened his mouth to make his comeback, Yevgenny spoke. "While I do appreciate the entertainment and whatnot, I must remind you that we still have a lot of work that needs to get done."

Knowing that their superior was basically telling them to shut the f up, the two ceased their semantics and apologized for their actions.

Not even bothering to give them a response, Yevgenny lifted his gaze a little and stared past the two of them. The landscape he saw through the window was beautiful, so beautiful in fact, it made him wonder if they should perhaps take a picture of it for commemoration.

"This type of scene isn't something you'd see back on Earth," Yevgenny thought as he gazed at the golden plains that lied in front of him. He had grown up on the streets of Brooklyn and hailed from a somewhat poor family, so the chances of seeing something like this on Earth were nonexistent.

And even then after becoming an officer of the navy, he still never saw got to see something pretty. Those beautiful and lovely places he had heard about when growing up weren't true, they were decent at best, but that was it.

"Yeah, we should definitely take a picture of this before this place gets ruined." He affirmed as his expression hardened. He didn't know how long they exactly had as mentioned earlier, but what he did know was that they weren't the only sentient beings on the planet. No, before entering the planet's atmosphere they picked up multiple UFO, which was something Yevgenny assumed to be satellites.

This of course was only one of the many things they picked up slash noticed, so he was certain that there was somebody or something inhabiting the planet.

With his expression becoming even more determined, Yevgenny looked to one of his subordinates and said with no traces of bullshit in his voice. "Ensign, be sure to take a picture of all of this before we begin fortifying the area. We won't be able to see it again down the road, and I want something to look back on from time to time."

"Yes, sir!" Was the response they gave him.