Our faith in the Aerial Faith Plates was quite minuscule when we witnessed just how powerful they really were.

Seeing as this assembly appeared to be our only available means to getting across to the other island, a proper test run was in order. Shephard ran back over to the dig site to bring back a boulder to test the plates with. According to the instructional plaque, these plates could launch objects and personnel up to three thousand pounds and could automatically calibrate their force based on the amount of weight being put on it.

While the plaque said these plates were proven safe to use, it also mentioned that these were still experimental. Not the ideal to be left with, but options were very scarce out here. In no time at all, Shephard returned with the boulder in his arms, which had to weigh more than a hundred pounds at least.

"I dunno if it's the suit or the lower gravity, but I'm kind of a fan of this super strength," Shephard jibed, returning successfully with our test object cradled in his arms. We had noticed that we felt a little lighter since arriving in Xen, and the plaque next to the plates did forewarn the phenomenon of unpredictable "gravity fluctuation". As novel as it was to have enhanced strength, I was more unnerved by the idea that we could become heavier in an instant if what that plaque implied was true.

"Indeed, it sure makes you look impressive," I complimented, which ushered a receptive feeling from Shephard, "however, let's hope the gravity doesn't drop the moment we launch ourselves."

"Right. Wouldn't want to fall down to…I have no clue what could be down there. So, let's get with it."

There was said to be a five-second delay on the plates before they would launch, giving any accidental occupants time to get off before they would get catapulted into the sky against their will. When Shephard tossed the boulder onto the plates as delicately as he could, a little counter appeared on a rectangular screen just off to the sides of the plates, counting down from the number five to one. Shephard and I stood a fair distance back to wait and watch with anticipation, but it still came as quite a startle to us when the plates inevitably thrust up from the ground in the blink of an eye with a loud metallic shudder, sending the boulder flying horizontally into the cloud before vanishing as quickly as it took off.

"Jesus, that had force!" Shephard winced in disbelief as the plates' hydraulics gently began retracting back into the ground for another use. "Damn. Did you see how fast that thing flew? I'm surprised it didn't break apart from the sheer momentum! Or maybe it did somewhere in the cloud for all we know."

I was silent as I stared at the aerial faith plates with even greater trepidation. There was no way such a dangerous and heedless method of transport was true and tested, but then again, this was an Aperture Science installation. They weren't exactly sticklers for conventional safety standards if it meant quicker results, and unfortunately for me and Shephard, we were at the mercy of those standards.

"What do you suppose we do, Shephard?" I asked, very much open to a second opinion.

"Well…I don't think we have much of a choice, do we?" he said, reluctantly resigned to the unfortunate prospect.

I resentfully agreed. As unstable and dangerous as our path would be in this forsaken dimension, we needed to utilise what was being provided for us by the absent team of researchers who performed in this chaotic realm daily―assuming that 'days' were even an occurrence in Xen. With a heavy heart, I too resigned myself to this unfortunate reality that we were to become projectiles if we wished to make substantial progress to the relay station.

"No. It appears we don't," I said unhappily, staring at the readied aerial faith plates. "I guess now we'll have to decide who gets catapulted first."

"I will," Shephard volunteered with no hesitation.

"Are you sure?"

"As I ever am," Shephard replied, already motioning towards the plates. "There's another giant net on the other end to catch me, right? And if not, I'm sure my suit can take the brunt if I crash into rocks. It might not work anymore past that, but I'll at least be alive―give or take a broken rib."

"I value your optimism, even if it coaxes you into literally flying heedlessly into potential death," I said, watching Shephard stand before the plates, making sure his pack was secured and crossing his arms over his rifle. He then turned to me with a mollifying roll of his shoulders.

"Well, it's always seemed to work for me. So far, anyway," Shephard reasoned. "Besides, it ain't a lady's place to be the guinea pig. That's what a grunt like me is for."

"How gallant of you," I crossed my eyes, indeed charmed by his sincerity, though fretful for his safety. "Though, I would very much like it if you don't get shattered to pieces while doing this―especially when knowing you're doing this for me."

Without giving it any more thought for the sake of keeping dissuasion away―a fact I knew from my psychic senses―Shephard then hopped onto the plates, and the five-second countdown on the meter officially began. My tail curled inwards once this happened while Shephard turned to look at me. "Well, as folk in my neck of Arizona would say," he began, "Give it your all. And if that don't work, give it even more of your―SHIIIIIIIIIIIII―!"

That was all that Shephard had time to say as he got flung over the ledge and vanished within the dense clouds in an instant, his hollering becoming more distant with each second. I was very spooked when this happened, and immediately began fearing for Shephard's life. There was absolutely no way of telling where he was going, and I was on the verge of panic when the fear threatened to overtake me, which was enabled by the fact that I could still hear Shephard screaming through our comms (though fortunately for my ears, the audio output on our comms could only peak at a certain decibel).

I was seconds away from impulsively jumping onto the plates that launched my friend until I heard Shephard grunt like he had just been punched in the stomach before the close-range signal fizzled out entirely, indicating that he was officially out of range from communications until one of us manually transmitted the long-range signal―which I did in a heartbeat.

Pressing my finger against the corresponding button near my helmet's right temple, I hollered out, "Shephard! What happened? Are you all right?!" No reply for at least four tense seconds. "Shephard! You're out of range! Use your long-range frequency if you can hear me!"

"Yeah! Yeah, Krysy, I read ya!" Shephard answered back, sounding drowsy, but otherwise very much alive. I sighed like I had just finished a sprint I was so relieved to hear his voice. "Shit, that was exhilarating. Scary, but quick."

"I'm so pleased to hear that you're fine, my friend," I said with great relief. "Where did you land?"

"Well, there's another giant net here like we assumed over her in Quadlings Island," he assessed, still sounding a bit winded. "Hop on over. This scary-ass method appears to work," Shephard encouraged. "Don't worry about the plates, they're actually not that…uh…"

I could pick up a sharp decline in his tone, sounding almost like he just came across something he wished he hadn't.

"Corporal?" I asked, keeping my finger firm against the button on my helmet.

"Uhm…yeah, nothing alarming, Pop-Tart. Just a little…misunder―FU―!"

Shephard's feed then abruptly cut off, leaving my ears to ponder amongst the static coming from the binaural receivers. "Shephard?!" I yelled, pleading for any kind of feedback. I did get some a few seconds later, though it arrived in the form of distant rapid gunfire coming from where Shephard was catapulted. He was under attack.

With zero hesitation, I hopped onto the aerial faith plates and began the countdown. I deployed my staff and held it abreast, ready for immediate action once I landed and prepared for anything that may greet me. In one moment, I was standing on solid ground, and the very next, I was suddenly forced into the air at astonishing speed, and my legs were miraculously not smushed into pieces as one would assume physics would dictate. Then again, when was Xen ever known for adherence to any natural law?

I soared through the dense cloud at a fierce speed, almost a staggering forty miles an hour if my judgment was correct. After flying through the thick cloud cover for about twice the length of the faith plates' timer countdown, I very soon found myself breaking through the seemingly endless grey veil entirely, allowing me to see myself hurdling straight towards an identical giant net assembly as muzzle flashes lit up the open area just below me, enclosed in the base of a circular cliff that rose about ten stories high. I braced myself for the impact before slamming into the elastic material of the giant net, flawlessly cancelling my momentum before gingerly pushing me off so that I would land on a large cushioned mat identical to the one in New Little Munchkin Land.

I quickly rolled myself off the mat and straight into a fighting stance as I quickly assessed the situation at hand. Following the muzzle flashes, I saw Shephard several metres away fending off several large, and very aggressive beasts. I didn't have the patience to observe their details in my rush to aid my desperate partner, but I was able to see that they were bipedal with massive hoofed bowed reddish legs, pale upper bodies and long tails with diamond-shaped tips.

Getting shot at by gunfire appeared to anger these creatures more than it hurt them, and they were trying to charge Shephard over the ledge with him narrowly avoiding their attacks. One of them was close to trampling my friend with its razor-sharp hoofed foot until I leapt in and punted the tip of my staff straight into the side of its bright red head, causing it to spin around in disarray before collapsing onto the ground. Its three other friends recoiled in surprise at my intervention and took a few pre-emptive steps back, making startled wet clicking sounds with their hearty throats.

Now standing in between them and Shephard with my staff at the ready with fire blazing in its open spearhead, I finally got to have a closer look at these Xenian residents. They were unsettling creatures; they were over half the size of my horse friend Dahlia and appeared to have no arms are any upper limbs whatsoever. Their foreheads were massive with shiny red domes that almost looked like exposed bone with thin red frills flaring up the back of their heads. Their gaping jaws were lined with razor-sharp teeth and had three milky-white eyes on both sides of their heads.

These alien beasts paced anxiously before me as they registered me as a threat, releasing wet rattly roars at me as they stomped their hoofed feet angrily while seemingly unphased by my magic fire. They appeared to be smart enough to focus only on me, which wasn't ideal for someone like me who innately wanted peaceful resolutions where no party got hurt. Still, what was coming next was nothing I wasn't used to.

Just then, Shephard quickly regrouped himself and reequipped his M4. "You lead 'em out, I'll 'nade them!" he ordered. I required no further evaluation of his impromptu plan thanks to my psychics. A bit brutal and messy for my taste, but seeing that these creatures had an apparent resistance to bullets, I understood Shephard's mindset.

Early on in my fight with these beasts, I realised rather quickly that their massive and hard foreheads were used for charging. They were also frighteningly fast on their feet; I barely managed to dodge their advances by the narrow thickness of a fur strand. While their hides were thick and durable, getting repeatedly bashed bluntly with my staff proved a major annoyance to them as they chased me around this campsite, getting even more furious as I leapt and nimbly manoeuvred around their blind spots to strike where they seemed the most vulnerable: their eyes, most obviously.

I wasn't the one having all the fun, of course. Two of the five "chargers" stayed behind to give Shephard a beatdown. While they did manage to strike and injure him with him being slower and bulkier than me, he did manage to successfully kill both of them, although it cost him the expense of emptying almost two precious magazine cartridges. Having lured my lot to a further distance away from my friend, I decided it was time to fulfil his plan, but I needed to perform one last move to ensure its success.

I led my aggressors towards the cliff face on the other of this open clearing. I had put some distance between me and them by tripping them over by waking them in their ankles with a few precise strikes, which made them absolutely furious with me. Before they could all hope to ram me against the wall and into a bloody pulp, I channelled my inner acrobat a little more and performed a backflip after making a high wall skip, soaring right over my befuddled enemies.

While they were confused, I grabbed my staff in both hands and thrust all my willpower into creating a devastating ground-pound spell, and that was precisely what my armless, hardheaded pursuers received after thrusting my staff's hilt straight into the ground before my feet could land, sending a powerful tremor coursing through the rock that knocked the chargers right off their hooved feet and left them scrambling in disorientation.

"You're open!" I hollered to Shephard, not wasting a second as I shot to my feet and ran out of range.

"Fire in the hole!" Shephard announced right before firing his rifle's grenade chamber, sending the loaded shell careening straight towards the trio of debilitated beasts. I stopped and turned around just in time to see the fiery explosion combust right where the chargers were, sending dust, bits of rubble, and many large giblets flying out in all directions, squirting volumes of yellow blood as they flew. I instinctively had my hand covering my eyes as the debris settled across this clearing before lowering it to see the aftermath of the blast.

A smouldering crater of dust and mangled chargers blown to bits, nearly unrecognisable heaps of what used to be exotic wildlife. I didn't cherish such an outcome, but I preferred navigating this realm without any dangers around me, and so did my friend. It was a free-for-all in this dimension in virtually every sense.

"Aye-yi-yi…" Shephard crackled through our close-range comm in exasperation, sliding down the rock he was leaning against before plopping down on his bum. "Was kinda hoping we wouldn't run into anything horrible this early on. Guess I wanted too much," he sighed, tired but content with the outcome we got.

"You're not alone," I reassured, strolling towards him as I retracted my staff before clipping it back onto my waist. "Wonderful shot you did there, Corporal."

"Don't mention it," Shephard gestured a little hand signal to me.

"Are you hurt? Do you need any first aid?"

"Nah, I'm just a little bruised up. Don't worry," Shephard reassured, twisting his arm stiffly. "I think I should thank my suit for that. Probably wouldn't have an arm right now otherwise."

"Glad to see you still have it," I said, having an insatiable desire to sit down on that rock Shephard was currently leaning against after performing that effective but taxing ground-pound spell, so I did. We both just sat where we were in reflective silence for a minute, savouring this moment of respite before moving forward. We both needed to appreciate moments like this, for we both had a hunch that we would seldom have these in the border world.