The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 46

Hokulani reconfigured their comms units while Aoloa caught them up on their adventures and reconfigured the genetic expressions balance on their nanites. It would take a while for their bodies to express the new balance, but it would come. Having four of them would make them safer, especially with Hanale being a fairly tough male already, and Keaka being an effective fighter as well.

Hanale eyed Aoloa. "So it really is you."

"Yes."

Hanale sprung on Aoloa, only to get his face slashed open and kicked back several feet. Next thing he knew, Aoloa's fangs were at his throat, his body pinned to the ground. "I yield. I yield."

Aoloa stood back up. "Don't do that again," he advised sternly. "You'll be able to hold your own when your body rebalances, but right now it would be way to easy for me to hurt you."

Hanale just nodded, eyes a bit wider. "I saw you take on those packs, but now I understand how. They were holding us back to keep us mostly human."

"There are side effects of being less human, though. We cannot walk openly in towns or cities without getting reported and hunted. Speaking is harder. You also view other creatures more as threat vs prey. We're always ready for combat, now." He paused for a moment. "You won't view humans as your own kind."

Keaka perked up at that. "Then, why not kill them, rule over them?"

"There are too many, and we don't want to be at war with all of humanity. We want to be left alone to just live our lives. We also want to make sure our colony is safe, though. We're a colony. We owe you."

Hanale eyed them for a bit, then sighed. "After you 'died', I took over leading the colony. There were a lot of questions about what happened, though. Commander Clarke promised the friend-or-foe settings on the berserkers would be recalibrated to prevent an accident like that again, but even the pack was wary of them.

"Only Lopaka didn't seem upset about what had happened. He acted the part, but it didn't touch his eyes like it did us. You guys missing hurt us. Then something happened and we stopped getting missions. Completely. We were just stuck sitting around with nothing to do.

"It wasn't long after that Lopaka disappeared with half the colony. Nobody knew where he went, or how he left. Kawai said they'd gone for a swim and never come back. Immediately after that, Kawikani was called up to Commander Clarke's office and never returned."

Hanale looked upset before he continued. "We were stuck. The only members that had missions anymore were the pod, and they've always been kind of odd. When the two of us were given the chance to be in a mission a couple days ago, we jumped at the chance. We didn't know we'd be hostages. They still have Mele and Kaholo. They still have the pack and cast and the remaining berserkers."

Aoloa nodded. "We think Lopaka's around here someplace. The problem is, the UPS knows we're here, too. Right now, we need to lay low while you to adapt. We'll teach you how to hunt and survive better. Their technology won't help them much around here. There's too much wildlife and tree cover for them to find us via satellite."

Keaka nodded, followed by Hanale. Hokulani added, "I'll try to figure out a safe way to get in contact with Lopaka. We could really use his help with some of this stuff."

"Sounds good. I'll start teaching these kittens how to hunt."

With that, they started working on the skills they'd need to survive together.