Katya watched the rust-coloured clouds scudding across blue sky through the tint of her visor, lying on her back where she had fallen amongst the sand dunes. Inside her helmet the lynx's breath was ragged and sharp. Sweat beaded on her cheeks as the heat from the sun was slowly eating through the cooling units of her pilot suit, she could already feel the scorching hot sand prickling under her back.
"Pilot... landing in... battleground... I suggest you... lay low, and... wait for me..." As the radio crackled to life Katya started in surprise and gasped, then narrowed her eyes... For a moment it had sounded like her co-pilot, but through the crackling and static she instead made out the name 'Ray Blackburn'. The lynx growled as she pushed herself into a sitting position and looked around through the shimmering heat, muttering to herself. "A Tester? Well, that could be good or bad news... It could also be a trap..." Katya then activated her radio and replied in a hoarse voice. "Good to hear from you Blackburn. Thank Frack someone found me..." She gave a groan of pain as she tried to move her leg from under the tangle of parachute and wreckage, then fell back, exhausted. "...I'm not going anywhere in a hurry."