RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 169

They looked over the information sent by Lucius before they started and began to observe the environment around them. The forest had trees with very thick barks, and these weren’t very long. The higher gravity caused the trees to be much bulkier and thicker than the ones that were seen in Asklepian.

“This is quite different from Asklepian,” said Robert to Balthazar as he began to notice the trees and environment. It was his first time in a forest in another planet. Let alone Asklepian, where he learned about the indigenous flora and fauna, he couldn’t recognize many of the species he saw at the forest.

“Yes, it would be quite different from the ones at the backyard in home,” said Balthazar thinking of the trees and the woody area behind the Blyth mansion. “The gravity, atmosphere and elements in the planet are different from those of Asklepian.”

“Backyard?” asked Robert. “Ya. That is true. Our backyard is considered to have a large variety of trees that were brought from all over Asklepian and other places, but these are quite different,” said Robert agreeing with Balthazar as he touched the trees.

“Environment plays a lot of factor and we can expect the trees to be much sturdier than the ones at home. It is best that we try to cut a few trees, climbing, etc.,. here before getting deeper,” said Balthazar as he pulled out a rope from his backpack and put it on his belt.

He climbed up the tree and began to record the terrain with the help of the scanners on his suit. It was a common feature for most exploratory suits. He had the basic training for exploratory activities when he was posted to the armed forces at the edge of alliance territory and making a 3d map of the terrain was the first thing to do for any exploratory expedition.

He also made Robert do the same just for the sake of practice. It was not only best to do this in a forest area but also for any new urban areas. It would be always useful to figure out traps or ambush points based on the data. Balthazar wanted to make sure that his cousin also understands it and gets the habit of mapping any new area.

“It is best if we keep mapping the area regularly. The both of us will take chances to do this. It is best that one of use the sensors to map while other is collecting a sample or examining something. Best to save time unless we find that a situation might be dangerous,” said Balthazar as he started to lead Robert through forest.

Balthazar already began to think of the further steps that they would need to take for an exploration. They would also need to have a method for having water and food to drink and maintain their energy. He had already gone through the manual he got and found that he could use the water found on the planet, he just needed to pass them through a filter box in the case before consuming. The same was valid for food. He had a bit of dried food and pills available in the case along with bandages and other materials for first aid.

But the thing was that it was suggested to them in the manual to not depend completely on the dried food as it was in small amounts and that they needed to procure their own if they wanted to stay on the planet for more than 12 hours.

So, he started to remember the edible plants and animals that he could eat. He decided to look for vegetarian food rather than animals as animals would have to be killed and dead animals would have a lingering scent which would attract a lot of other predators. It would just be an unnecessary burden.

“Check the list of all the edible list of plant. It is best if we concentrate on vegetarian food. Usually, it is best to look for fruits or so in forests, but in higher gravity planets, you don’t get fruits,” said Balthazar.

“No fruits? I thought fruits are best options and some fungi in a forest. You can’t get cereals or vegetables easily in these places, right?” asked Robert surprised.

“Ok. You can consider them as fruits, but they are like nuts. They keep getting harder with increase in gravity. So, you would find them harder to feel and even plucking them,” said Balthazar.

“I guess that I should have expected that. From a botanical perspective, nuts are a kind of fruit and fruits always have an outer skin with the interior is soft,” agreed Robert. “We can also hunt for smaller beasts. I can see a list of beasts in this info which could be used to cook.”

“No. Bad option. Only kill for meat when you have enough members and strength to keep away other predators. It is recommended to follow that as long as the number of your group are less than four,” said Balthazar. “Military training,” he added in explanation.

“You have been in such situations before?” asked Robert surprised. He had known that his cousin had joined the military, but he had thought that he was in engineering division before he was fast tracked into fighting at the alliance border.

“Not really. I just commanded men to do some exploration a few times and had training for it. But I know the basics for safe exploration due to those experiences. There have always been stories where beasts caused damages when the guys were cooking,” said Balthazar with a nod.

“Ok. But thinking about it, I just got another idea,” said Robert. “If this could be used to lure other beasts, we can use it with traps. Gather a bunch of beasts and make a quick kill of the beasts.”

“Haha. That was also tried to kill beasts in large numbers. Actually, quite a common strategy,” said Balthazar. “But killing a number of beasts at a time will cause a lot of damage on to the beasts. Fine for clearing up forest areas, but not great if you want the meat or materials from them. It will also attract more beasts due to the dead ones and their screams. So, not a good option with only the two of us.”

“Fine,” said Robert a bit disappointed that Balthazar didn’t agree with his plan. “Then, would we have this issue when we catch any game?” asked Robert.

“Yes. That is our biggest problem in this trial. I actually want to concentrate on getting the flora specified in the list, but at least the beasts leave a proper tracks and other signs in the forest which could be used to track them, but we need to be really lucky for getting hands on the plants in the list,” said Balthazar explaining the advantages and disadvantages of gathering the resources.

“So, what do we do?” asked Robert entirely confused about the entire thing.

“It actually depends on you,” said Balthazar. “It actually better as we are wearing combat suits. It would have been much harder without them. We best keep a good lookout for all species in the list, but the main issue is your maneuverability. It is quite hard to move through the forest on the ground.”

“You expect me to go all ape in the forest?” asked Robert.

“No don’t need to go all ape, but certain amount of ability to move through the treetops is expected to avoid beasts. Most carnivorous beasts aren’t that fast on the treetops and the ones that are don’t travel in groups, which we could use to our advantage if you practice a bit,” said Balthazar.

“You understand that I am a doctor, right? I know about the general behavior of beasts in a forest from zoology lessons at college,” said Robert irritated by Balthazar. His irritation was mostly due to Balthazar’s suggestion to travel on treetops which he found ridiculous rather than Balthazar’s explanation of beasts.

“Yes. I do. But you still never even thought of using the treetops to escape right?” asked back Balthazar in a calm tone which stumped Robert and he didn’t have any retort.

“You have a lot of knowledge about the species found here. You would probably recognize them faster than me and also more clearly differentiate between species,” continued Balthazar. “But you haven’t ever studied or trained from the perspective of safety. You are again a very good doctor and will be the first one I consult in case of an injury, but you have the perspective of a proper citizen in an urban area. You need to change that.”

“Oh! Come on. This is a very rare scenario. It isn’t like I will be repeating this again in my life,” said Robert not considering Balthazar’s words seriously.

“No. It might no longer be so after you become an elder,” said Balthazar.

“I have a very clear idea of my work and duties once I become an elder. Even exploratory missions would just need me at a managerial level and someone else would be doing the actual explorations. I don’t need to worry of these things,” said Robert waving his hand.

“Even I know that. I am a colonel and I had to manage many things in my service. But there are a few things which the job description fails to clearly portray is the fact that you need to know these skills to fulfil your other duties,” said Balthazar.

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t trust anyone. Everyone has weaknesses and though you have trustworthy people around you, there is a chance that they can be influenced. Being a leader of a small team of scientists and doctors researching something is different from this. They usually won’t have to trouble with security till they achieve significant results, but that is not the same for a position which gives you the ability to gather resource/ material wealth or armed forces,” said Balthazar.

“So, what? You are training me here?” asked Robert. “I am pretty sure that Lucius, Richard and the others are better than you in that aspect. Lucius also trains you.”

“No. I am not training you. Lucius is definitely the better option. Training to defend oneself isn’t my thing,” said Balthazar. “I want to give you an idea of how it would be to remain separate from the rest of your friends while leading them. You have had a recent experience of betrayal. I don’t need to remind you that.”

“That is why I am training so hard to be able to defend myself,” retorted Robert. He was getting angrier by the second unable to understand what his cousin was talking about.

“That is good and a part of the solution. But as a doctor you should understand that prevention is better than cure.”

“What are going on about?”

“Ok. I kind of moved away from the main topic at hand. As you told yourself you were alone when you fought Max. There might be more attempts on your life in future. You should know to escape when you are in danger. So, you should practice moving on difficult terrain with ease and also make a habit of mapping the area around you to use its features to your advantage,” said Balthazar quickly.

“Oh. Ok. I understand that. If I am not strong enough to fight, I should at least be capable enough to escape. But what was the other crap about being an elder as a different type of leader or something like that? You did say something like that which went over my head,” asked Robert.

“Ya. I did ramble around a bit out of context. It wasn’t my intention, just that betrayal was something I experienced even before Max. I used to think that I ran a pretty tight organization at the citadel, but I failed dismally.”

“Rambling again.”

“OK. I want to talk about organization. You are not a lead researcher who has all his funds and money arranged by others now. You will be an elder. You need to make sure that you know well about your subordinates and be on guard against betrayal,” said Balthazar.

“I am..” started Robert but Balthazar put his hand up covering Roberts helmet to stop him.

“Let me finish. You need to know them a bit personally not just professionally. Only then, you will be able to know their weaknesses. It is commonly told in many leadership seminars to have a personal connection so that their performance would improve, but that is secondary for organizations which hold arms. It is essential to know them personally so that you would be able to immediately perceive if someone is plotting something behind your back,” said Balthazar.

“That is a viable method to keep safe and I know that you like to know your people personally, but I don’t think it is the best option for me,” said Robert. “It didn’t help you much either. You even lost your girlfriend even after all your paranoia.”

“Wait. What? What girlfriend?” asked Balthazar surprised.

“You know. That lady lieutenant colonel Jane. It is being told that she was the only of your lieutenants that you had trusted with the information about the attack,” said Robert. “Sorry, about her death.”

“Hahaha,” laughed Balthazar surprised by the turn of events. He had told people that she had been helping him with the dealing the attack, but never expected that some would think her to be his girlfriend.

“You idiot! She was never my girlfriend. She was one of the people who allied with the Nirbaadh pirates and was responsible for the attacks. I just made her out to be a hero because of the blast. Else, I would have been beaten the truth out of her,” said Balthazar.

“No way! What about the commendations she received on death?”

“Just a false trial to prevent my enemies from looking closely at me and finding out the details of my actual source of information.”

“You thought that far ahead about your friends in the hospital?” asked Robert surprised. He felt that his brother was a lot more calculated than he knew.

“Of course, it is the same thing. You need to protect your resources too as a leader. Else, you wouldn’t be able to be a good one for any decent duration of time,” answered Balthazar.

“It would be hard to do all that. It is like micromanaging. I doubt my men would like to work under me if I do so,” said Robert who was still not convinced with Balthazar’s suggestion. It was true that micromanaging is despised by many as they felt that their privacy is being invaded.

“Idiot. No one is asking you to micromanage. Just be close to them personally. You don’t go and correct or supervise every small thing. You will notice your people making mistakes, but you don’t keep correcting them. Give them time to realize on their own, else they will never learn to improve. Never suggest, just be aware of things and stay above them. Even if you feel strongly that they could do better, you don’t go and inform them directly unless it is being repeated,” said Balthazar.

“Forget those things for now. Focus on the task at hand. Moving on treetops. It is good that you have a combat suit and wouldn’t sustain severe injuries from falls,” continued Balthazar. He forced him up a tree and only after they began starting to move ahead.

“Keep a lookout from the trees. Inform me if you find anything. Today, you will be the scout, while I gather and fight,” said Balthazar. “After 12 hours, we will see change it if you want.”