"KATE"! Her name was ripped from my lips so forcefully it was visceral. The last of the dirt clods hit the ground around me, smoke still softly drifting from the crater where I had been standing five seconds earlier.
"Shit, shit, shit". I looked around. I could feel her, knew she was still alive but that was it. The relationship you develop with your Neo is on a truly subconscious level and it gears more towards your Neo than yourself. It was meant to allow the Neo to instantly respond to their handlers thoughts before a command was even necessary. The info I got back was minimal, and right now I was terrified because all I knew was Kate was alive. We were on what should have been a normal boring patrol on a planet where nothing happens so why had I just taken incoming fire from a damn Thelpot. The Thelpot's, allies of the Skinnies, hadn't even been seen in this damn sector.
My suit had alerted me to the incoming pulse rocket moments before it hit, and I had barely had time to shove Kate hard and dive behind a patch of what passed for scrub brush on this planet. As I came out of my roll though, Kate wasn't in my line of sight and I had no idea what was going on or why I had been fired upon. Using the circuit selector built into my scout suit, I bit down twice in quick succession to bring up the all hands emergency circuit.
"Command, Command, Command, this is Scout Echo Whiskey One. I am under attack coordinates 39.0.01 tack -74.31.52". I repeated the command as I reached for my scout rifle and checked my HUD to see if I could get a location on Kate. She was located back in the direction of the crater, but that didn't make sense as I knew I had pushed her, not all to gently, specifically to clear her out from the area. I bit down once hard to bring up Kate's direct circuit. "Neo one one Zulu. Do you read? Damnit Kate answer me". Stark silence was my only reply.
The brush I was hunkered down behind, like everything else on this planet, was an awful shade of violet. I chanced a quick glance over the top of the plant to try to pinpoint the location of the Thelpot warrior I had seen, knowing it wouldn't stay still for long. There it was two clicks out and moving towards a low cluster of hills. I quickly sighted along my rifle and fired a shot. Its quick gait was brought to an immediate halt and I did a quick survey of the surrounding area, knowing it wouldn't be going anywhere soon, not with its spinal cord severed. I noted nothing else in the area and launched myself quickly back towards the crater, albeit more controlled than when I had left. Mid jump my helmet chirped and I went back over to my all hands comm circuit just in time to hear the tail end of a message "… report status, MI in route to your position". As I slowly drifted down to the crater, I immediately spotted Kate and realized why she hadn't responded.