The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 6

Aoloa put on the wetsuit in distaste. "I don't appreciate sea missions," he stated to no one in particular. The rest of the colony was scowling as well, but it was important they practice underwater maneuvers on a regular basis. Slipping his helmet into place, he soon saw the HUD indicate the rebreather was online.

The pod dove into their pool first, suitless, and lead them to their target: a sunken vessel a few miles away from their base. By the markings, Aoloa could tell it was a Chinese sub, but he wasn't sure how long it had been there.

"How long do we have to explore it?" he sent via their comms.

"Based on the behavior of fish around it, there's plenty of oxygen in the water, but you're still going to have to be careful." Aoloa sent a mental impression of confusion. "It'll go stale quickly. Just bug out when the HUD warns you."

With that, the pod began using their welding equipment to cut open the sub for the rest of the team. It didn't take long before they were all swimming through the hole. There were areas with air they had to walk through, but whatever had been done to sink it had been quite effective.

"Okay, we need to get to the armory. Apparently, when the nuclear core was stripped out, some odd equipment was observed in there. We get to haul it out. Clear?"

A chorus of affirmatives came from the rest of the colony. They quickly made their way to the weapons chamber, and cut the doors open to get inside. Sure enough, there were the usual guns, but there were some modified harpoons, as well. What's with this?

They collected them, after a cursory inspection, and quickly made their way back out to the open ocean. It was as they were passing a doorway that his suit blipped on motion he decided not to ignore. With a brief hand gesture, they all stopped.

They were next to the door of the mess hall. Shifting his optics through various ranges revealed nothing. "Kaimana, can I get a few pulses from around the ship?"

Rather than confirm the request, his helmet merely registered the three ultrasonic pulses, rattling around through the sub, and revealing a possible oddity inside. "Again, there's something in here with us."

The pulses revealed something definitely in there, which began moving erratically. "We're moving in. I think this is what we're really after."

The colony slipped in, weapons drawn, and quickly established coverage, but they could also see where the thing had left. Shifting his attention to the map on his HUD, he began issuing orders for each member via the comms. They would surround whatever it was and capture it. Every member would see the target in red, now.

That done, Aoloa took point to steer the thing in the direction he wanted. It took a little work, but by acting alternately confused and certain, he was able to control its motion while his team surrounded it.

"Now!"

They rushed in, revealing their presence and causing it to panic. When they cornered it, they found a scaled person wearing a work suit, gills in its neck working steadily. They only needed to present their weapons to get it to surrender and allow itself to be taken out of the sub.

---

Back at the pool, their "guest" smiled as he kicked his feet in the water, breathing air quite comfortably. "You guys did a great job catching me. I'm impressed!"

"And you are?" Moana asked softly, despite her size.

"Holokai, but I've always wanted to go by Jack. I'm from the next island over. They said they had a few interesting teams over here, and wanted to see how you'd react."

"So this was just a training mission?"

Commander Clarke's voice barked, "Correct!" from behind them.

Aoloa slumped his shoulders in defeat. "Why do you always do this to us?" he muttered.

"Because you lot are the most undisciplined of my troops! You're effective, don't get me wrong, but undisciplined. I'm glad you managed to bring Jack in unharmed. I was wondering if he'd need surgery."

"Commander, a wounded prisoner can't be interrogated as quickly. Worse, it predisposes a prisoner to view us as the enemy, making them less cooperative."

Jack piped up, "You guys look funny enough, as it is. I think any normal person would be terrified by you. Have you looked at your claws? Seriously!"

Aoloa, and several others, looked at their fingers, some even extending their nails out. It was Mele who finally said, "What? We keep them sharp. Just ask the mutts upstairs," which got a few chuckles.

"Watch the news feeds more carefully. I mean, I know I don't look human, but you guys are much better."

Aoloa shrugged. "So, does this little test mean other countries have bio-engineering as well?"

Clarke nodded. "We have to assume they do. The military applications are obvious, and not all countries are pleased with our state. Given that, it's best to assume they are still in an arms race with us at all possible levels."

"Great, so our live missions will just get harder."

Their commander smiled. "That's what you signed up for, boy."

Aoloa glared at the commander. "We didn't sign up, and you know it."