Rareth approached the Agent, looking down onto her with a stern expression. “I intend to finish this quickly, and I will not wait on you. I trust that you will be able to map the cave system as we move through? If you fall behind, return to the camp and wait for me. Otherwise, follow my path and keep watch for any dangers.”

With that, Rareth waited no longer. The rest of the Human soldiers were setting up their camp’s defenses, while the scientists were finally able to rest their feet. Even if nothing else was accomplished here, this break would help the civilians to keep up their pace once they started to move again. 

Rareth followed along the edge of the river, into the entrance to the cavern, and just as she promised, she was moving quickly. In such tight quarters, it was not as if she could move as fast as her body was capable, but she had still not been lying about the fact that her pace would be difficult to keep. They did not have to go too deep for the ambient light from the outside to fade. She could illuminate their path with lights built into her suit, though even in complete darkness, she would have had no trouble navigating. Her echolocation implant was even more effective within the cavern than it was outdoors. The pulses of sound traveled far down the cave ahead, tracing out all the potential paths ahead long before she could see them. She could decide ahead of time which way she wanted to go, without stopping or slowing her pace at any point.