My greatest thanks to Cornova, who permitted me to write in this universe.

This is the first story that I've published, so reviews are appreciated! If I make a mistake, whether it be grammatical or lore-wise, please let me know and I'll fix it. I'm excited to write, so please let me know how I'm doing.

The temperature of the cabin steadily rose with the Orrean heat the moment the plane slipped out of the runway. The cool interior of the tunnel vanished in a heartbeat as it slipped above the endless sand dunes, finally exposed to the unrelenting heat that was associated with the region's deserts. For the scientists, researchers, and generally privileged personnel, it was a nightmarish temperature to bear. For the security, soldiers, and personnel that kept the eggheads in line and working, it hardly made them sweat. They had been tempered by training in this heat; nearly all of the company's elite members were shipped to Orre to be tested for their grit.

Orre's deserts were a dream for the select few. If it is training or undisturbed testing, one could do nearly anything and stay under the radar- the local populace rarely strayed from the normal traveling routes and the expanding military had no reason to visit their nook near the base of the mountain. The privacy they could gain had been a reason why the company had wanted the region, and with the rebuilding of Orre's political spectrum post-Cipher they had taken the opportunity to quietly slip in. It wasn't long before the region recovered, but it had been long enough. It could finally heal from the terror and civil strife Cipher had instilled, and soon it had slipped into memory as more threats arose.

The recent series of global disasters was one such problem that worried the company. Their paranoia had kept them at DEFCON 3 for over two years now, and their research sector had been put into the leading priority to try to find and stop any more situations from escalating. But this voyage had little to do with the world's health. It was all greed.

Alexander caught himself before he drifted away into things he had no control over. He shook his head once to disband the thoughts and refocused his attention away from the diminishing dunes well below him. As he did, Alexander was suddenly aware that he had the attention of the chief director and the leading scientist. He didn't know their names; it wasn't disclosed and a simple 'sir' was more than enough to please them anyway.

It definitely mattered to please Chief- the man was taller than him by half a foot and every square inch of him was packed with enough muscle to impress a machamp. He sported a trimmed beard and if one looked hard enough you could see grey creeping in. It was a testimate to his experience, it was rare for someone to be around along enough to face the trials of age while employed.

As for the scientist, Alexander didn't know him, and he didn't care. He was just another lapdog. The man sported no facial hair, but while his structure wasn't as large as Chief- or any of the other guards- he still sported enough muscle to make him drastically stick out from the rest of the science team. The only telling factor that he was apart of the team was his disdainful attitude towards nearly every other employee.

Both men had been idly talking until that moment, and the scientist looked away sharply. Chief continued talking and Alexander felt his stomach drop. His hand twitched slightly, a nervous tick that he had never been able to suppress. He raised his arm and gave a sharp salute; his posture hadn't yet relaxed from the briefing so he was still stiff and at attention. The cabin began to cool as the altitude increased, leaving only the heat produced by the plane's reactor to keep the temperatures from dropping too far. The plane needed more than fossils fuels to power the engines, and the sheer amount of heat produced could replace a temperature control system. That might have been the reason why Alexander felt a sudden chill slip through his armor when Chief addressed him.

"Newbie, come on over here for a minute."

Aside from the minor twitch, Alexander kept his composure firm and professional, squashing rising emotions as he left his post by a door leading into another room walled off from the rest of the cabin. As he walked forward he steeled himself, and soon he was planted in front of the chief, hands firmly at his sides as he looked up at the man.

"Yes, sir?"

"You looked distracted during the briefing, could you relay to us what you are here for?"

Alexander didn't need a moment to think before replying. "Our primary objective in Alola is to retrieve information from the Aether Foundation about our funding and their research. We are to also try and help improve their containment procedures in regards to last year's breach." Alexander paused for a moment. "I am to help with the secondary objective of obtaining an ark system from the alolan government. An advanced security team is required, and I was requested to be there to help keep things diplomatic if the problem arises."

The chief nodded and gave a sidelong glance at his companion, who had begun to frown. Alexander felt a small jolt of electricity flow up his arm from his transceiver and ignored it. He would talk to Kara when he was finished. "The kid's reliable Conner."

Conner nodded briskly before another scientist called for him beyond the door Alexander had been guarding. He sped off at Chief's dismissal, pointedly ignoring Alexander as he left the two of them alone.

"Although, you do have a long list of incident reports kid; care to explain them to me?"

Alexander had been expecting a question about his prior team. HQ had interrogated him for a week about the incident that lead to their mutiny, and Alexander felt that they had not been satisfied with his answer. It didn't help that they had been ordering other grunts to question him and report back if the story changed. Kara wasn't even needed to know that. The company most likely wanted to make an example out of him still, they just couldn't because he had followed protocol following the breach. Alexander's response took longer than he would have liked, but it was still quick. "I've had a fair share of misfortune working in the field, that's all sir."

Chief stood silent, and as it dragged on Alexander felt the knot in his stomach tighten as the steel in the man's eyes seemed to harden. "I don't want your history to mark mine. If you so much as seem to do anything that isn't strictly related to the mission or from HQ I'll lock you in the cargo hold and leave you there. Dismissed."

Alexander nodded once and went back to his post. The knot in his stomach slowly lessened as Chief walked farther along the cabin to talk with other members of the security team, who all greeted him with a salute as he approached. Alexander felt another jolt up his arm and finally looked down at his augmented transceiver.

The device didn't seem to exist in the world yet, but by the company's standards, it was old. The device was originally for communications, but the engineering department had turned it into a universal tool equipped with location tracking, media storage, and a slew of other basic tools. It was commonly used in the field, but users had to be careful to avoid having it studied if they were to be captured. The device had a kill switch, and if that failed the rotom that was assigned to the device would overload it.

Currently, his rotom, Kara, was blocking the entire interface. "You've had a large increase in cortisol in your system since my last diagnosis, do you wish to tell me what is wrong?"

Kara hadn't been there for the end of Alexander's team, the moment he had seen an opening he had transferred her back to HQ to relay the situation and to send in fire support as their plans went sideways. She didn't know how it ended beside from the official report, and the longer Alexander looked at her, the quicker he realized that she must have been interrogated too.

Any words on his lips died and he remained silent. He trusted Kara only so much, he had learned the hard way what happens when you fully trust corporate programming.

Alexander physically winced at the thought. It had taken him months to realize that Kara was more than ones and zeros. He had just barely lowered his walls and somehow Kara had gotten to him. Now here they were, still partners years later.

A stronger jolt shot up his arm and Alexander snarked. "It'll take more than that if you want to bother me." Kara dropped the customary veil at the challenge and her more bold nature came out.

"Was that a challenge?" Alexander's eyes widened as he felt Kara building up a more potent charge. He fumbled for a hasty response. He had been zapped so often by Kara that he had slowly developed a tolerance for the shocks, but she could still pack a mean punch if she wanted to. Right before he could utter a word Kara began to chuckle and the energy dispersed to the rest of the device. Alexander's heart slowed as he relaxed, scowling at Kara. "What?"

"You need to improve your jokes." he muttered as another grunt walked by. They made eye contact and Alexander broke it first, looking back as two of the scientists got in an argument beyond the door he stood beside. Kara waited until the man was out of earshot and continued.

"You still can't tell when I'm playing?"

Alexander bowed his head before shoving his arms to his sides. "Yes." he huffed, intending to end the conversation there. Kara's silence didn't last as long as he had hoped.

"HQ thinks that whatever happened on that mountain will affect your efficiency in the bigger missions." Alexander's attempts at rebuilding himself crumbled as he flinched again, which didn't escape Kara. "If you want to talk, I won't record it."

"I don't want to talk about Sinnoh." He caught on to what she said and paled slightly. "Word goes around quickly, something big enough to freak out the company doesn't go unnoticed."

Especially if they accidentally funded it. Alexander added in his head. The thought quickly lead him somewhere darker and Alexander couldn't stop himself.

"Kara, tell me how many times the company has-" Alexander choked and set his jaw, fear forcing him to not finish the question. Kara noticed his heartbeat spike and hesitated before purging the last couple minutes from her record. There was a small pang of guilt as she did so, there was a time when he would talk openly with her, and she stabbed him in the back.

It kept him alive. A stray charge slipped through and Kara frowned. It bothered her that reasons why it had been a waste of time slipped in after the thought. Deflating she zapped him to gain his attention.

Before she could say anything the cabin suddenly grew quiet. Alexander looked around the cabin and noticed another guard peering out a window. He craned his neck and realized that the wing on his side was rapidly vanishing, panel by panel. Within the second the entire wing was translucent, and it quickly spread to the rest of the plane's exterior.

The engines seemed to cut out when Alexander noticed a speck appear on the horizon. In time he watched it turn into two, then four. As they got closer the sun glinted off of metal and it clicked that they were orrean fighter jets. The company believed they weren't the only ones worried about the rise of near global disasters. It was assumed that they had decided that there was a large need for increased national security, and not a repeat of the region's prior history with other regions. It was certain that the developments had made traveling in Orre more difficult to go unnoticed, thus leading to the Sinnohvian refractive plating that greatly improved the stealth technology within the company.

The jets were probably a part of a training exercise, but it wasn't addressed in the hearing. Nor was it a part of the planned flight. He watched as they grew closer until the silver angels flashed by, vanishing underneath the undetected vessel and continuing on their way.

A sigh that had been held in escaped Alexander's lips. This aircraft had no offense, and-

The lightning storm that was Chief stormed pass and up towards the cockpit before he could finish the thought. His voice boomed off of the walls so harshly that the echoes seemed to be yelling at each other as the pilots were thrashed by the giant's rage.

Alexander winced as somehow Chief got even louder as the disquisition continued. It was no contest that he was louder than the plane, the engines were still running silently. It was luck that the jets didn't hear them and turn back to investigate. The storm eventually ceased and Chief stomped out of the cockpit, his face still crested in a snarl. Alexander's armor clinked against each other as he stood rigid. As he passed Alexander heard Chief mutter about how the pilots were too busy worrying about their next flight to pay attention to this one.

A relieved sigh escaped Alexander and it remained silent for a couple minutes. It was broken when the two scientists started arguing again, and this time Alexander couldn't help but listen as it went on. Kara didn't try to restart the conversation, much to Alexander's relief, and instead opted to listen to the arguments as well. By the time they reached the ocean and left Orre behind, Alexander learned that Alola had a long history with anomalies- the better understanding of them was on the scientists' minds, and they had to beg in order to get the funding to put together an expedition to meet their informant.

It wasn't surprising for Alexander to learn that a grassroots operation was funded. Extended surveillance of the region was guaranteed if they could infiltrate the region's government. It was simple. They were already heavily invested in the Aether foundation for a defense program that the company had helped fund. All the ground work had been laid out for them to just walk on into power. Judging by how excited the scientists were getting they were more invested with the whole plethora of undiscovered research to be conducted. It sounded like they would be in the paradise region for longer than Alexander originally planned. The security detail was originally meant to escort the team around the region for a couple days and leave when they settled in. HQ had suddenly decided to randomly select some of the detail to stay behind for better security and future operations, and low and behold, Alexander was the first name to be selected. Chief was second.

While learning about ultra space was fascinating, a couple hours of the nonstop chatter had soured Alexander's opinion in the matter. He honestly was surprised that they could repeat the same information for so long. There was a breaking point when he decided that he might be able to freeze them out if he could find the heating vents for the room. The only thing that kept him from acting on the urge was the Chief's looming presence throughout the cabin and the fact he would have to fill out another petty incident report.

Kara, on the other hand, had remained quiet the whole time. She absorbed the flow of information like it was the last power source for miles, analyzing and researching what was being discussed and rapidly educating herself on the topic. She would have weighed in, but that wasn't her place, even when one of the scientists started using data incorrectly in an argument. She didn't notice Alexander's spiraling mood until the Chief walked past and he took a step forward.

"Sir, do you think it is feasible for me to research a possible third objective?"

Chief stopped midstep and turned sharply. "Newbie..." He warned.

Alexander didn't hesitate to try and reason. "The region has a large variety of gems called Z-crystals, they appear to be worth researching and obtaining for the company. They are similar to mega stones." Chief remained a silent stormcloud, "They could be mega stones for all we know, but with fewer impurities. There isn't any research into them Sir, the company owns few and the science team might be interested in them as a side project."

There was a long silence as Chief seemed to visibly fight something in his head. It broke over to the rest of the world when Chief turned his head towards the door and barked. "Connor!"

The conversations in the room where snipped at the bud and the scientist all but stumbled out of the room. His posture wasn't perfect like Alexander's, but the man wasn't ruled by him and could get away with it since respecting the security wasn't required.

"Yes?"

Alexander had to keep his hand from twitching again as Chief gave him a once over. "I want your opinion on what he told me before I act. Newbie, start over."

Alexander barely managed to open his mouth when Conner interrupted. "What could this child tell me tha-"

Chief raised a hand that seemed to cut the sound from Connor's voice. Alexander hesitantly started over and repeated his idea. When he finished Connor looked at him blankly. Slowly his eyebrows sank and he looked over at Chief. He eventually shifted his eyes to the floor and nodded. "That isn't a bad notion." he muttered to himself. Connor looked back to Chief and continued. "The grunt isn't wrong, we don't have much information on those."

"Will it be a problem to go in that direction?"

Connor absent mindlessly shook his head and began to walk through the door he came out of. "No, no. It should be considered." He stopped before he reached the door, looking at a watch strapped to his wrist. "We have a couple more minutes before we reach the airport." He turned back to the two near-equally tall men before him. "I'll look into it." If there was any form of praise Alexander received, it came as Connor looked him over with a lack of contempt.

As the door shut Alexander reached over and grasped the underside of his transceiver, near the compartment with the kill switch. It was another habit he had when he was nervous, and he didn't notice he did it. It seemed that he already was prepared for the fallout.

Kara felt the contact and it brought her back to the first couple of months that she had been with him. It was a bad habit of his that had never gone away; the exact area his hand was on had a perfect imprint from all the times he had squeezed it subconsciously when he was younger.

Both had their attention ripped back to Chief when he latched onto Alexander, one hand laced into his armor, the other clamped down on his neck. The floor left his feet as he was lifted up and slammed against the wall behind him, his helmet batted against the metal.

"How dare you go against my direct order!" Spittle landed on his face as fury dictated Chief. He pulled him back and slammed him against the wall again, the sound of his helmet sharp as it clattered against bare metal. Alexander couldn't breathe, and instinct lead him further into trouble when he grasped Chief's wrist that held his neck. He felt the heat rising off the man in waves, and he was airborne for a brief moment as Chief threw him against the floor. Alexander felt his spine pop in a couple places and shook his head, keeping his attention on his commander.

Alexander should have known. He had enough warning from the pilots that this man had a violent temper and he had to just go and poke at it anyways. It was a good first step for being on his partner's good side. "I knew you wouldn't even make it out of the day!"

Chief advanced on him and Alexander kept still, he had been in this waltz many times before. Trying to flee would just piss him more, and there wasn't anywhere he could go anyways. He braced himself for the next reign of strikes and felt electricity course up his arm. It was so unexpected that he was struck mute by the action.

Kara had been present at many beatings similar to the upcoming one and done nothing before. He couldn't blame her, she'd be scrapped if she tried to intervene. For a moment Alexander felt fear; not from Chief, who fully intended to pummel his sorry ass into paste, but for Kara, who seemed to have suddenly hit a breaking point that he didn't think she had.

Whatever Kara planned, she was going through with it as the shock suddenly coursed throughout Alexander's whole body, causing him to grunt and strain against the surge. The energy burned through his veins and seemed to magnify tenfold as Chief approached, and Alexander seized as he lost control of his limbs, his sight, his hearing. Little archs of electricity shot along his flesh and into the floor. It stopped as soon as it came, leaving him spasming on the floor.

Alexander rolled and he vomited, losing his brief arm control and falling into his own mess. Everything was cloudy, his veins had not experienced a shock like that in some time and throbbed, adding to a rapidly growing headache that threatened to crack open his skull. He had to force his eyes open; slam his fists into the floor to keep himself from slipping into the darkness circulating his vision. Fighting the spasms he pushed himself to his knees and finally managed to look over at Chief.

Alexander's mind cleared enough for him to hear a high pitched whine. He turned his head and saw Chief standing ridged, his hair on end and mouth open in a snarl. His attention wasn't focused on Alexander anymore as he stiffly smashed his hand into his own transceiver, which was shooting sparks. Alexander watched with horrid fascination as the panel covering the kill switch sprung open. The transceiver's locks released and Chief threw the device with as much force as he could across the cabin and between some seats, jerking to a knee as he did so.

The whine suddenly grew to a pitch that pierced through the rest of Alexander's foggy mind, snapping him out of his daze. He watched the screen emit a blinding glow that ended so quickly that he couldn't be certain if he had seen it at all because in the next moment the whole device exploded into flames: the screen vaporizing into dust as a rocket of sparks engulfed it and the seating. The light the explosion emitted was glaring, leaving spots to dance across his vision. The rocket shot past Alexander and farther down the cabin, barely missing the room where the scientists where. By the sounds of it, the scientists were having their own issues as frantic shouting broke out throughout the cabin.

The plane shuddered underneath Alexander and Chief's booming, authoritative voice was lost as the shouting throughout the cabin turned into screams. There was a tremendous thud down below in the cargo hold and something hit the floor, causing the steel to warp and knock some seats from their fastening. Chief staggered from the impact and fell against the wall, grabbing a pipe above him as the plane rocked.

The floor suddenly turned a sharp degree, throwing Alexander into a row of seats beside Chief. The lights above them grew harsh and some blew from the surge, raining glass. Connor came stumbling out of the room with blood on his uniform and was shoved aside by a scientist that had been behind him. A hellish screech broke through the din and Alexander turned to see the copilot jerk out of the cockpit. Little archs of energy shot off of him and scorched the walls as he finally succumbed to the pain, falling to his knees as his clothes caught fire. An arch of electricity shot from his arm and to his headgear, fusing it into his head as his eyes finally shot from his skull. His own personal transceiver finally blew, amputating his arm from the rest of his mottled body. A new rocket of sparks shot from the corpse, striking the ceiling and burrowing into it. What lights that remained disintegrated as uncontrolled electricity shot through them, frying nearly everything on the plane as the overload hit critical. Pipes in the ceiling burst as their contents were super-heated, and the rocket deflected off of something and went sideways.

The more frantic scientist made two steps into the rest of the cabin before that streak of energy shot past him and struck the wall. The metal softened and the entire structure of the plane shuddered as it breached. The air pressure changed so suddenly that the scientist never had a chance. The air was sucked out of the plane, dragging the unfortunate soul with it. The scientist hit the breached area and for a brief second, he was the plug keeping the rest of the air in. The screeching of the engines blocked out the pained screams as his spine snapped. The man folded and was sucked through the rest of the way.

Chief managed to reach out and grab Connor by his leg as he shot by, not having anything to tether him to Chief was lifted from the wall; the pipe nearly breaking under the weight of the two men.

The roar of the wind deafened Alexander, who was slightly farther from the breach than Chief. He reached down and grabbed ahold of a seatbelt flailing in the wind and managed to tie himself down. He simultaneously groping for one of Chief's legs, snagging it as well; pulling him down and away. Chief dragged Connor from the brink just in time as the copilot's corpse went airborne, missing Connor by an inch. The wall of the cabin opposite of them groaned and the windows shattered, pieces of the stealth plating tearing free and thrown to the wind like feathers.

The descent from the sky grew faster as all control was lost. The engines cut out as they overloaded and burst, leaving smoke streaking behind the plane as it spiraled. The shift in gravity caused the pipe Chief was holding to finally break, sending them into the cabin's ceiling. They bounced before smashing into the cockpit wall. The roll would have thrown Alexander too if he had not used the seatbelt. After that, he couldn't tell what happened as he felt the floor jerk once as something heavy struck it one last time. There was an ear-shattering groan that cut through the wind, the screaming engines, and everything else. The shearing steel was scarcely muffled, but Alexander turned his head in time to see the back half of the plane suddenly tear free. Through the shock, Alexander noted faintly that he had been standing on the other half of the plane seconds ago, outside of the room that held some of the most intelligent minds regarding ultraspace that the company had.

Within a blink it was gone: replaced by blue skies, trailing smoke, and cargo as it was freed from its confines.

In that moment he was deaf, there was nothing else to hear beside the wind carving into his ears and against his flesh. His death grip on the seat beside him ended abruptly as the entire row it was attached to tore free from the floor, nearly taking his arm with it. Alexander's seat was next, the ones opposite from him were already gone, and he could feel his start to give way to the void. He tore his head from the skies and turned to Chief.

Chief was busy forcing an ashen Connor into a grey backpack to notice Alexander at first. He grabbed the scientist by the collar and the man tried to push him off. Chief snarled something and grabbed a cord sticking out of the pack. He jerked on it and Connor's face filled with terror as the pack expanded. Fabric shot out and immediately caught the wind, lifting Connor off his feet. He was screaming as he shot past Alexander, and Chief watched him until he passed Alexander. Their eyes made contact at that point, and Alexander saw shock flicker in the man's eyes as he registered that he was still in the plane. He broke eye contact to look at a compartment at his feet and shook his head. He suddenly leapt from his spot, not looking at Alexander as he shot by.

Alexander watched numbly as he flew past; his parachute deploying and hurtling him out of the doomed aircraft. The spiraling grew more intense as vertigo began to blur the lines of an otherwise clear image. Chief quickly became nothing in the blue as blood rushed to Alexander's head. Darkness began to claim the colors, and the last one Alexander could coherently make out was a streak of green as he faded out of existence.


There wasn't time. Maybe if he had seen him sooner there might've been a chance. Chief had narrowly saved Connor, who had wasted precious seconds trying to resist. It didn't help that he handled him like a toddler; the man's pride somehow could emerge in the worst of times. There just wasn't the time to save the newest member of his team. There wasn't another parachute in the compartment and the other compartments were out of reach.

Try as he might Chief couldn't get Alexander's look out of his head. Couldn't stop looking at the clock that ticked away at his chance of living. He was going to hell already, what would another lost life do?

Floating through the air Chief had plenty of time to run excuses through his head, how every other choice would have left him dead. It didn't matter. The rising smoke from Melemele's forest seemed to jeer at him as he drifted closer to it. He could be there right now instead, but he had chosen a kid's life over his own.

HQ had sent the eighteen-year-old with a warning label. The kid was a risk to the company: he had seen too much, was seen too much. Chief couldn't figure out why the kid was around, and he wasn't paid to ask. Looking at the wreck HQ didn't have to worry anymore about the kid.

Chief glowered at the forest below him. He had about ten minutes before he would be on the ground; Connor maybe thirty if he remembered to control his flight path. It was still plenty of time to go over every reason why he was the world's worst piece of shit.

A metal box fell past Chief and vanished into the trees. He looked up but couldn't see past his chute so he went to look back to the rising smoke. His eyes traveled over a dark plume as he did, causing him to do a double take. He jerked around and caught sight of another column rising into the sky. Scanning the horizon he could see multiple rising tendrils across the island. One nearly clotted out the sky, and Chief visibly shook as he realized that the origin of it was the Hau'oli city airport. A second orange mushroom started rising from the area and Chief forgot his surroundings as he watched it expand upwards.

A tremor worked up his arms and Chief didn't try to hide it. What was happening?

The longer he watched the smoke rise, the more he realized that what happened to the plane wasn't isolated. The whole island was affected. A knot formed in Chief's stomach and he looked back to the plane's wreckage. His only form of communication had exploded; he couldn't report back to HQ. Another larger box tumbled past and Chief watched it fall. A light bulb went off. There might be something in the cargo.

He had looked at what they were transporting and remembered that there was a communication array. If most of it was there he could contact HQ and report the incident. They would send in reinforcements to extract Connor, the man was their last chance at developing their own technology, he was too valuable to be left in the hot zone.

Until then, there might not be enough time to gather what was needed. He might be able to hide the more expensive cargo, but the rest he would have to destroy to keep the company hidden when the crash was investigated. Looking back at the smoke he frowned. There would be time.

Chief looked to the ground below him, looking for a clearing to land. He had a plan now, time was against it. He quickly navigated his way towards a field before noticing that he was going too fast. Chief tucked his legs as he hit the ground, flattening a swath of flowers as he hit the ground and was dragged a dozen more yards before the parachute finally slowed enough for him to regain control. He threw off his pack the moment he could and turned to the sky, looking for Connor.

He managed to spot him about a mile above him, rapidly closing the distance. Connor hit the ground in a much more graceful manner, but as he tried to stop he tripped over something in the grass and fell flat on his face. He didn't rise immediately, enjoying the feeling of the ground against his face. He must have felt Chief's eye on him because he shot up, brushing off grass and brightly colored flowers as he stormed over. He stopped in front of Chief, the darkness etched into his face enough for Chief to actually raise an eyebrow.

"I'm expecting a thank you."

Connor slowly raised his arms and stopped halfway, his hands curling into fists as he tried to restrain himself. He shook them violently and snarled. "What?!"

Chief would have laughed but their predicament was fresh on his mind. "We need to get to the wreckage. There might be some surviving communications in the cargo, but we need to be moving."

Connor seemed to freeze, his fists lowered to his sides as he gave an incredulous glare. "Most of it is in the ocean!"

Chief shook his head. "I loaded it, the communication array was at the front of the plane." He started walking as he continued. "You're coming along, I need help moving shit."

Connor watched Chief's back as he made his way to the forest. He contemplated heading for Hau'oli but his feet started in the direction alongside Chief. He knew he couldn't run as fast as Chief, and the man would drag him along regardless if he was awake or not.

Thanks for reading this far! Tell me how I'm doing, is there anything I need to work on or improve? I'd love to hear feedback.