Preston slogs back to the shore as carefully as he can, desperately trying to avoid patrolling drones since he doesn’t have Becky to pick them off for him. Then again, given the improbable range to her bow, he isn’t sure that arrows from heaven might not save him if it came to that. But still, he tries to avoid the need for any help from above (up the slope of the volcano, that is) by avoiding trouble. Along the way he finds a couple of good sized stones to take along with him.

Back at the beach he finds where they had cached their diving gear and gets his tank and mask and fins he wades out to near the limit of the data cable before using the stones to help sink him to the sandy ground beneath the waves — it is not too rough, and down a meter and a half if it a little less hostile. Now he just prays that he can breath well enough while in hot sim. He resolves to drop into AR regularly to make sure he isn’t drowning.

* Oleg: This is the stupidest place I’ve ever gone into hot sim
* Gamma: Beats waking up dead from an assault drone
* Oleg: Assuming something doesn’t bite some limbs off
* Coleman: Time to stop stalling and start hacking.

With a mental sigh, he jumped in.