Cash was the only one among them not wearing a stealth suit. Instead, he was disguised as a native of the planet their mission took place on, Rainheart, known for its mossy swamps, dense forests, and extensive caves.

Aside from the bugs crawling across his mostly bare skin, the part he hated most about being the decoy was that he couldn't respond to anything his team said, their speech cleverly disguised as insect noises through their stealth suits.

The moss-clad path squished underneath his wooden spiked shoes, one of the few perks of his role. The rest of them were much more prone to slipping since their tracks had to be virtually nonexistent.

"Shut up," he muttered in response to their clicks, his earpiece picking up and translating Carter's voice saying, "Watch how easily Cash breaks character," followed by snickering.

Carter was famously known among their squad as the 'tar cook' since everything he ever made for them was suspiciously chewy. Still, none of them volunteered for the job, so the tar cook remained.

A glint of crimson caught Cash's eye. His earpiece quickly translated the sudden onslaught of insect noises to curses from his team. Casually, he switched paths, hoping the soldier hadn't noticed him.

Nonetheless, the crimson grew clearer as the soldier's pace quickened. His armor was far more equipped to trek through the swamp than theirs was in stealth mode.

"You there, hold on a second!" the soldier called out as he neared. Since he was in plain view now, there was no use in pretending not to notice him.

Responding in the Matari's native tongue, Cash prayed he wouldn't be able to manually translate. Sure enough, the soldier was already clicking on his translator.

"What are you doing here?" their enemy questioned, voice clear as day.

"I hunt Grungles," Cash responded, entering the role of a clueless Matari swamp-dweller.

"This is private territory," the soldier's voice was firm, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"No private territory. I hunt Grungles here every morning," Cash retorted, heating up the conversation. He hoped the soldier would choose the easy route, and let him continue about his business. The chances of anyone spotting a Red Order camp who wasn't trained to look for it was close to zero.

Light shimmered around a fading figure, momentarily revealing Carter.

"What was that?" the soldier demanded, reaching for a button on his wrist, one that would alert every troop in the vicinity of their location.

"What was what?" Cash responded, but it was already too late.

Just as his finger landed on the button, he was knocked over by their fearless leader, Jack Scatterblade.