Confused at first, Tymon simply stared with his mouth slightly agape but it rapidly dawned on him what she had just said;

"Wh- Your name?" he eventually stammered up, but the answer that Kae-lith'a would bestow upon him sidestepped his awkward inquiry;

"Stop bleating and help me!" she demanded as she suddenly darted her hand into the mud with no hesitation and started to wade it around within the viscous stuff. Tymon was about to shout back at the yelling eldar but he quickly noticed that there was desperation behind her voice this time, not arrogance. With that he quickly realised what she was trying to achieve and was about to do the same thing despite his unprotected hands, but this realisation only brought forth a minor hesitation as he eventually dove his own pair into the muck. It was freezing cold, offering resistance no matter what direction Tymon moved his hand in but it was a resistance he could overcome. Eventually his blind hand found something, it felt slick to the touch, strangely shaped, interrupted? When he felt the item, it seemed as though a part of it was missing, as though something had cleaved it in half. Nevertheless, he pulled the item up with haste and was immediately hit with a repulsion at it;

"Eugh.." He dropped the item once he realised what it was and allowed it to sink back into the mud he had just fished it out of; it was a black leg, its skin the same colour as the hounds they had just fought off. That's when he started to feel as though something was missing, for some moments he could not put his proverbial finger on it while Kae-lith'a continued to dash her hands around the ground, but he was quick to realise its rather blatant absence.

"Frack, my lasgun" he muttered under his breath and quickly, his mind was overcome with paranoia as his heart started to beat faster with every passing second. Before he did anything further, his eyes darted towards Kae-lith'a who, just as he saw her, shouted something in her native language which sounded suspiciously like a curse. He did not answer, instead sending his hands right back into the ground as he started to frantically search for his own lost item this time, but quickly he calmed down when one lucky hand of his met a perfectly cylindrical object, clearly a lasgun barrel. Relief overcame him when he managed to fish out his now incredibly muddy weapon, taking the rifle into his hands before shaking it to shed some of the mud from it. That's when it dawned on him how lucky he was to be armed right now; He was wounded, not to the point of incapacitation but to the point where the care and medical assistance of a second person, however inexperienced, would be ideal. A sudden and disgusted screech from his co survivor would end up rapidly derailing this paranoid train of thought however, after which she would let something fall back into the mud with a wet thud. Tymon turned to look at his co-survivor who was facing away from him, almost completely motionless save for the gentle raising and lowering of her torso;

"You okay?" he asked, preparing to shoulder his lasgun only for his new injury to remind him of its presence with a harsh sting. For seconds she would remain silent, until she released a quick sigh alongside an embarrassed answer of; "Yes"

At that moment however, Tymon was met with relief that he would not have to stave off another wave of split-jaws, carefully slinging the lasgun over his uninjured shoulder to avoid aggravating his bite wound, he was greeted by a view of Kae-lith'a now facing a different direction with both hands wrist deep and blindly wading further. The sight itched the part of his mind that felt guilt, but also the part that saw her as the enemy. She was vulnerable and despite the fact that he was injured, a part of him was confident that he could take the shot and end her little reign of tyranny.
Tyranny?

His thoughts rapidly wandered in the opposite direction of the notion of shooting her, she was in the same position as he was, in fact hers was likely worse at this point. Then came another desperate scream accompanied by a wave of what were presumably eldar expletives as she pulled her hands out of the ground. She looked exasperated with all hope having been freshly drained from her face and she could do nothing but stare forwards for a moment as mud dripped from her armoured gloves. They both simply stood there for what felt like minutes to the eldar, seemingly unable to do anything else as the sounds indigenous to the planet replaced those that came from them until they were both startled by a deep, angered roar. Kae-lith'a was quick to ready her weapon in preparation for another fight, the fear and exasperation being largely wiped off her face in an instant while Tymon began to untangle the weapon from his submissive shoulder, quickly regretting putting it there.

"What now…" he asked, his bastion of composure slowly but steadily crumbling as he readied his weapon. Then it roared again and something crashed, sounding like a hollow metal pipe was struck with another. The pair were confused at first, then another similar crashing sound and…
An explosion?

The sound was muffled by the middle distance but followed closely by another roar, this one sounding pained. The guardsman's mind began to race while Kae-lith'a's began to methodically consider the possibilities, then Tymon quickly began to unzip his survival kit, keeping his lasgun secure with his left hand. From the kit he brandished his dataslate and selected the option to 'uplink to fleetcom' after navigating its less than intuitive menu.

Could it really be?

Kae-lith'a caught on as the creature roared again in the distance with another metallic crash and quickly pointed her weapon at him, fear slowly creeping back onto her face at the possibility that there may still be imperial forces on this planet.

'UPLINK TO FLEETCOM FAILED', the option to retry was quick to appear on the low resolution display as an almost dejected looking Tymon put the device back into his kit, then he was greeted with the barrel of her weapon staring him down. The guardsman froze;

"What are you doing?" he asked, slowly but still with some degree of haste. The creature roared again but she answered, her now firm voice still having a slight tremble to it;

"Are there others…" The weapon was unwavering.

"Other what?" He stammered up, his now free hand going to take the handle of his lasgun before she jutted her weapon forwards and aggressively asked;

"Other Mon'Keigh!" It took the soldier a moment to process what she was asking before stammering up a response;

"No I was just~" He interrupted himself, realising the direction that response was going in.

"There are no others here…" He went to fish out his tablet again as Kae-lith'a's aim trailed his hand.

"Watch…" He selected the option to uplink with fleet command and again, was greeted once more by the unfeeling error message and showed the screen to her.

"Look…" She glanced at the screen but simply answered;

"I do not understand that!" Impatience was slowly coming forth in her voice again, and so Tymon spoke the words out loud.

"Uplink to fleetcom failed! It means that there's no one else here!" His demeanour was slowly changing to match hers but between it there was confusion.

What the frack exploded then.

Then his mind made a terrible realisation, one that called forth a heart stopping fear. Kae-lith'a however was still paranoid, understanding well enough what he was saying but remaining unconvinced.

"Prospector three" Tymon eventually muttered, the fear on his face now manifesting in his voice. Her aim wavered as he spoke and in doing so, he planted the seeds of that same fear within her.

"What?" was the only quieting word she spoke.

"We have to go back…" he continued, his voice donning that same fearful demeanour as he began to stuff the tablet once again back into his survival kit.

"Do not move!" That gun was still trained on his face.

"But something's attacking prospector three!" He shot back as he started securing his survival kit. Kae-lith'a on the other hand remained quiet, sceptical, only for it to dawn on her as well, although without the same gravitas that Tymons fear was forcing upon him. That's when her interrogative attitude towards the guardsman began to dissipate as he started to fumble with his survival kit again, despite just having secured it. Then he stopped;

"What's the way back!" The haste in his voice was palpable and he was ready to run in whatever direction she gave him, but she would not oblige, her expression still mildly stricken with fear.

"Knife ear if that's prospector three we're both fracked!"

Knife. Ear.

The words stung her once again as Tymon unwittingly reverted to using her old nickname but he was making a valid point, the pair had moved many of her items to prospector 3 and if it was being attacked…

Both options had the potential to be incredibly undesirable; go to prospector 3 and risk getting gunned down by other imperial soldiers, or don't go and almost certainly freeze to death over a few nights. Seeing it like this however made the choice obvious;

She glanced at her surroundings and quickly identified which direction they needed to head in just before another crash resonated through the air;

"There" she pointed in a seemingly random direction but the guardsman did not hesitate, before she knew it he was moving as fast as the ground allowed him in the direction she gave him and seconds after, she followed suit.

A dozen minutes and what seemed like miles later, an out of breath Tymon finally started nearing the solidifying ground upon which prospector 3 was set up as his legs begged him for a break with a burning pain throughout his calves and shins, but he would not listen. As soon as the solid ground allowed it, he tried to break into a sprint, but his bite wound and rapidly tiring legs held him back, nevertheless he was within visual range of the temporary command post and that was when the fears that drove him to this exertion were realised. Slowly his sight refocused and after a few harsh blinks, he saw the four makeshift structures of prospector 3, the structures that were now completely wrecked. Tymon stumbled to a halt as for moments he refused to believe his eyes, but that thinly veiled bout of delusional hope dissipated as quickly as it arose.

"NO!" the once again, hopelessly screwed guardsman cried out at the top of his breathless voice. Kae-lith'a was many metres behind him, but close enough to hear his pained exclamation at full volume and before she could even see what Tymon was screaming about, her legs buckled; the exertion hitting her physiology differently as sharp pains through her bones brought her to her knees. She tilted her head up to see the back of the guardsman, one hand against his head while the wounded one was awkwardly elevated, his knees bent slightly as every rapid breath inched his back up and down before he too fell to his knees and allowed his lasgun to fall also. The tents had been ruined, the first one having its framework bent and twisted as though something struck it from above to form a V-shape out of the roof, the second one having its fabric ripped off and hanging from one of the trees while the last one was simply flattened. Then there was the stockpile; the crates no longer stacked and many now crushed, either in place or into the ground and while some looked as though they could be salvaged, the rest were in varying states of disrepair with some having their contents strewn about the surrounding area. After a quick rational analysis between the cacophony of terrified and hopeless thoughts in his mind, he snatched back a modicum of that lost hope when he realised some of the crates were intact. Maybe, just maybe, whatever had caused this damage left the water and ration crates untouched and so he clambered back to his burning legs and jogged his way over as quickly as they allowed it.

Kae-lith'a saw his desperation as he staggered his way towards the ruined encampment and was about to join, only for her legs to buckle once more.

"Wait!" She shouted, but he would not heed her desperate request as she slowly got back to her feet. Tymon was already at the demolished stockpile, attempting to examine the damage done by their unseen adversary, staggering from crate to crate;

'Heating elements', the crate had been caved in, crushed like a big tin can.

'Lasgun maintenance kits/comps' buried 5 feet sideways into the ground somehow.

'Rangefinders' seemingly untouched save for a dent, but what use would a rangefinder be to him now.

'Preserved H2O' tossed against a tree with a great alien grip mark against its corner, opened and empty. That sight hurt him like a dagger being stabbed and twisted into his hopes until he noticed that many bottles were scattered around him, some of which were even still closed. While Tymon was quickly inspecting the damage however, Kae-lith'a went to the tent they both slept in to see if the items she and Tymon had brought here were still intact and surely enough, they were unscathed, not that they were of particularly much help in this situation; a damaged solar collector, a limited amount of medical supplies, some hydrators and a single pellet dispenser was all she had to her name in this moment, save for her weapon, its munition and her chainsword.

"FRACK!" She was startled by Tymons sudden scream and peaked her head out of the caved-in tent to see Tymon kneeling before a particularly badly damaged crate which was jutting awkwardly out of the ground, the letter and i being the only ones visible yet still creased and twisted with the crate itself. Quickly she approached Tymon, her legs still weary and heavy from the harsh return journey.

"What is.." she saw the letters and was moments before attempting to pronounce the fraction of a word before Tymon interjected with a quiet and almost deranged sounding chuckle.

"My rations" was what followed as he tried to throw his arms into the air, but only one would obey while the other sent a defiant sting through his shoulder. There was little to nothing she could say in that moment save for the tiniest part of her that wanted to throw a snide remark about something to do with Karma. Even if she could muster the words for such a remark however, she refused to and rapidly buried that thought. Tymon seemed to have other ideas however;

Another deranged chuckle wrestled itself from his vocal chords.

"You happy now?" he almost shouted, straining his neck to face her. She was taken aback by his comment, even recoiling slightly but Tymon got to his feet and turned towards her.

"Now we're both fracked!" This time he was shouting and any diminished sympathy Kae-lith'a had for the guardsman was starting to dissipate, just like his deranged smile.

"I'm actually gonna starve on this smelly.. Rotten.." his words grew louder, more aggressive and ultimately this part of his tirade culminated in him turning around and delivering a rough kick against the botched crate.

"FRACK YOU!" he continued, addressing no one in particular;

"And of all things to be stuck on here with.. It's an eldar!" That final remark ensured that what little sympathy remained for him was gone completely and her patience once again started to wear thin.

"I should not have helped you!" Kae-lith'a hissed with a volume and madness that was rising to match his own.

"You helped me?!" Tymon retorted.

"Yes! With the~" she interrupted herself, harshly pointing vaguely in the direction they came from.

"Right yeah and who was it who made sure you didn't freeze to death overnight?!" He smugly yet still derangedly shot back.

"You created that problem!" she answered, tripping over her own words for a moment, but with a vigour that combated his. Tymon could only scoff at her response however.

"It would be better if you are not alive!"

"Believe me that's seeming like the best option right now!" the guardsman threw back, but his response failed to make any sense to her so with nothing further to add, she dismissively turned around and spoke something in her native tongue.

Of course you make no sense you stupid, beligerent, imbecillic~

"Oh shut your mouth!" He screamed, Kae-lith'a turned around.

"Shut your mouth!"

The next few seconds were silent and saw nothing but Kae-lith'a, now saddled with the anger and irritation that Tymon had caused, walking off to the opposite end of the camp and leaving the guardsman alone with his hopelessly buried crate.

He would remain there for another dozen minutes, eventually sitting down and leaning against the damaged crate, continuing to do little more than contemplate his new status quo and try to figure out how he would survive now. The thought of hunting and cooking the local wildlife came to mind, but it was quickly countered by the fact that the animals here may not even be edible let alone nutritious to human or eldar physiology. Before long however, the weary Tymon got to his feet and made his way back to his initial resting point where his weapon remained. Picking it up with his uninjured hand, he returned to the encampment and into the damaged tent where he saw Kae-lith'a sitting down by her unscathed belongings. She had her legs tucked up against her chest and her head pointed upwards with closed eyes but Tymon ignored her, opting instead to walk over to where the heater lay tipped over on one of their medical stretcher beds. The eldar was brought out of her meditative trance by the sound of Tymons boots trudging past her and towards the device and when she saw him, he was crouching down by the heater. She heard it clatter slightly as he put it upright and, with a sigh of relief, stood back up again only to hit his head against the lowermost part of the bent framework. The eldar would say nothing at the unintentional display of clumsiness and had altogether very little to say considering their previous conversation, Tymon on the other hand poked and prodded at the newly formed social ice with an awkward and quiet answer to nothing of;

"I'm.. just.. Checking the heater…" There was a quick pause between each phrase but before she could say anything in return, he was already making his way out the way he came in, ducking his head to avoid the damaged tent. Her eyes tracked him as he almost sluggishly trudged his way back out of the damaged tent before she returned herself back to her meditative state and began once again to engage with, sort through and process the emotions that were discordantly dancing through her mind.

Tymon's next objective however, was much more confined to the physical world around him; take inventory. While the task daunted him just as much as the crushed 'nutrition brick' crate, his mind simply refused to let him feel any of the resulting apprehension. Instead, like a mindless servitor, he pulled his dataslate out of the now damp smelling survival kit;

"Oh frack.." He had completely forgotten about the damp T-shirt currently finding itself right at home in his pack, so when he removed it he was unsurprised at both the stench and state of the item of clothing. Nevertheless, he put it down on the closest crate he could find; ironically the now slightly deformed 'Vox equipment' crate that was apparently cast aside, his long ranged vox box however was apparently nowhere to be seen, nevermind it however, on to the next salvageable item. To the end of listing everything he had to his name, he pulled out his dataslate and brought with it the distinct smell of both plastic and undried body-odour ridden t-shirts, not that it mattered; the device booted up without a hitch and now displayed the lowered battery capacity of 84%.

Another thing to add to the list of my gakked situation.

Quickly, Tymon navigated the menu onto the 'objectives' tab and created a new one. It would not be a new objective however, he was only using the function to create a list; one that for the time being would not have medical supplies on it because the next crate he came across was its corresponding one, crushed to about half of its original size with a great alien footprint down the middle. Even if the items inside were still usable, the locking mechanism was destroyed and forcing it open would likely damage its contents anyhow.

Onto the next; munitions, and it seemed intact. Sure it had clearly received its fair share of being knocked about but the damage was relatively minor, so when he opened it the little bit of hope he had been given was affirmed, the munitions were mostly undamaged; lasgun energy packs, grenades, flamer fuel, launcher grenades, although the latter pair were not of any use to him yet. He noted this down in the 'objective' he had called 'inventory' before wandering onto the next crate and repeating the process as the sun began to set.

When Kae-lith'a finally finished meditating, the air had already grown colder and the sky darker, but in place of her emotionally wrought mind was one free of the chaos; a mindset that saw her once again ready to face the deceptively fearsome planet and all that came with it. Tymon however, was in no such space; sure he kept his cool, but his inventory list was remarkably short of numerous now essential items; the situation, to him at least, felt almost entirely hopeless, almost being the objective word however and that is what was keeping Tymon going. Once she was out of the half collapsed tent, she would see him leaning against the ruined nutrition brick crate staring down at the small but bright display, occasionally tapping pressing the buttons along its side. Some part of her tried to be angry at the imperial guardsman, but she could not; their situations, despite his crushed once bountiful outpost were identical now and for once, her rational side agreed with her emotional side not to scream him down for being in a situation he had no control over. She sighed quietly, but with the cooling evening came a largely quiet wildlife that allowed Tymon to hear her. Briefly he looked up at his co-survivor;

"Hey" Tymon wasn't expecting a reply, but regardless she approached and tried to look over at his screen, listing dozens of characters in the foreign language she was forced to speak. For a moment the device unsettled her as she was reminded of the earlier possibility of some of his friends still being on the planet, but unintentionally, he managed to alleviate those fears;

"Our inventory… One and a half ration packs, what's in here" He gestured to his survival kit; "and a few bottles of water" As he went through the list, he pointed at the various 'objectives' he made on his list and from what little she could tell, there was no hint of imperial forces being on the planet.

"That is.. Not much" Tymon nodded. "And the heater will be finished after tonight" he continued. Their previous conversation about the plasma microgenerator came to mind, however brief it was;

"We can still make more power, the generator" Kae-lith'a trailed off after gesturing towards the pile. Tymon glanced around, it was nowhere to be seen and his earlier sarcasm saw a return;

"Yeah do you see it anywhere?" He stammered slightly with a grin, the tone of voice annoyed her but she kept her cool and seemingly with good reason, because Tymon explained what he meant;

"I saw a plasma scorch-mark on a tree and I'm pretty sure that was the generator" He trailed off again, looking back down at the tablet before intently tapping a few buttons on his dataslate;

"I do have an idea though" There was a slight vigour in his voice and it caught her attention;

"The slate lists the current whereabouts of other teams" He paused to show her a vast list of survey and scout teams alongside another prospector base and they all listed; 'off-world', all apart from the top four of the list, each listing as 'contact lost' and better still, two were within the map area still saved to the slate.

Tymon treaded carefully as he explained;

"That means that they never actually made it off the planet, but their signals stopped here and here" It did not seem to put his eldar co-survivor on alert, instead she replied positively;

"We can go tomorrow" She glanced at Tymon; "To find more power"
"I was thinking the same thing" A sense of satisfaction crept into Tymons thoughts when they were finally on a similar page;

All it took was the threat of starvation.

The thought tickled his funny bone, the amusement was stopped in its tracks however as Kae-lith'a changed the topic entirely;

"Tymon, you said you want respect, that you're not like servi.." she interrupted herself, trying to recall what the guardsman had said;

"Servitor.. Yeah" Kae-lith'a had no difficulty understanding what the term meant and before she continued she took a seat beside him;

"Well I want it too, the.. Loudness the.." She paused for a moment but Tymon got the idea and, for a split second the propaganda returned; how the eldar saw them as nothing, how the eldar believed they were above the world but in an instant, the living example in front of him disproved that. No one was above anyone here, they were both gakked, but not irreversibly.

"Yeah, it was uncalled for" He turned away, before looking back at her; "I was a bit.. You know.." He gestured around him before facing whatever was in front of him again;

"And this" He tapped the skin-seal "is a death sentence if I do nothing about it on this planet"

"We can look for more of.." as was becoming habitual, she trailed off, pointing at the covered injury, expecting Tymon to get the message;

"They'll probably have something" He said, then there was a pause and with this newfound and quieter silence, came the gentle sting of this planet's night breeze.

"We should go to bed" Tymon pointed out, before trying to meet Kae-lith'a's eyes.

"Lets work together from now on though.. Okay?" With that, he reached the hand he still had full control over around and towards his co-survivor. It confused Kae-lith'a for a moment, but she had read somewhere that a handshake was of some significance to the mon'keigh as a race, so she met his hand with her own and grinned ever so slightly.

"Yes" It was short and succinct, but it spoke volumes and for once, Tymon wasn't worrying that she had some evil plan for him in mind, that there was a reason for her keeping him alive.

Following this, the night beckoned once again and this time with an even colder breeze, demanding that they retreat to their dwindling refuge under the heater and so they abided by this order, set up the heater and laid down on the stretchers for the second time and just as they did, Tymon's stomach growled, quietly but notably.