Her finger pressed against her lips, a clear signal for him to be silent. The helmet Carter placed on him was already scanning her, a native, roughly 19, though the red war paint covering her pastel white body made the scan last a couple seconds longer.

She motioned for him to follow. It would be easy to knock her gun out of the way, but curiosity got the better of him. After all, the helmet would warn him if an attack were imminent. Currently the probability of such an attack was at 16% and lowering.

Holding her breath, she dived into the shallow waters. Alarmed, Cash stared at the ripples. He was standing ankle-deep, so full submersion seemed ridiculous. While he gawked, her head popped out of the water, glaring. The barrel of her gun popped out next.

Groaning, Cash obeyed. He was growing more thankful for Carter giving him his helmet, especially when he dipped his head into the murky green swamp water.

He was surprised to discover that he had been standing just over the ledge to an underwater cave system. It definitely would have made for an awkward fall.

She swam surprisingly fast through the increasingly elaborate tunnels, meanwhile he was struggling to keep up even with breathable air readily available to him through his helmet.

Annoyed, the native girl swam back, grabbing Cash's arm tightly. With her pulling him along, they were already going twice as fast as they had been previously.

A message from Jack popped up on his helmet's interior. It read, "Where are you?" with about a dozen question marks.

Mouthing a reply, the connection became static. He was beginning to feel the effects of water pressure the deeper they got. Thankfully, before it got too unbearable, she hoisted him up into a narrow tunnel with actual air.

She held a hand to her chest as she coughed up water. Glaring at him, she merely stated, "Wait," in accented Matari.

Lifting his helmet off, the smell became putrid. It was difficult to suck in a single breath without gagging. Instincts took over, and he was already picking out the breathpiece from the helmet, and placing it over his face.

She returned shortly, dragging a deceased red soldier behind her. "Explain," she demanded, rifle agitatedly pointed at him once more.

"Red Order is a military organization with goals of colonizing every galaxy. Your planet has been secretly under their rule for a couple of years now. I imagine as your technology advances, their influence will become more apparent."

She cocked her head, not fully understanding. He was sure had he been wearing the helmet, that the probabilities of her attacking would've just skyrocketed.

"My team and I are here to stop them," he lied, hoping it would prevent her from killing him. While in reality, their only goal was to extract an operative of theirs, without being compromised. It seemed much too late for that last part.

"How can we help?" the native asked, peering at him with a curious gaze. She was no doubt trying to understand why he looked almost like them with his fading white face paint and plastic spiked ears.

"We?" Cash peered through the tunnel as two more Matari's came into view, illuminated by the glowing translucent spikes hanging from the ceiling.