Tilting your head, you glance to your left and crack your eyes open. “No sign of them... does that strike you as odd?”

Buddy looked at you. “Only on the other side of the door? How can you tell?”

“This panel is interfaced with a local node of the noosphere. I'm connected to the cameras on the network.” You feel your lips twitch, and you press your lips together to stop them. “I'm not seeing anything on the cameras, and...” You close your eyes, performing an unnecessary double-check of the camera feeds, as if your memory wasn't flawless. “The fans I can see on the feeds are moving. The footage isn't being manipulated... or so I think.”

“Might just mean we lost ‘em.” Buddy offered.“ You turned right into the hallway before I saw you. That corridor you were in continues straight for a time- it doesn’t turn right. And we went straight and parallel to that. That means the corridor this door is connected to likely isn't directly connected.”

“That's true.” You send an impulse down the plug, reaching up to the plug on the back of your head as the spirit responds, pulling the cable free as the door hissed and began to roll into the frame. “The alternative is staying here, otherwise.” You wince a little as the plug comes free, a disconcerting feeling of the inside of your skull sliding thudding into you. It felt like you had just clenched down on one of your teeth, an odd, numb throb accompanied by sudden coolness on the inside of the socket as the plug left it.

You glance at the plug as it falls to the side, the reel inside the panel quickly pulling it back in. Your lips curl up again, then you glance at Buddy, try to force your expression more neutral and immediately fail as you break out into a full grin.

Buddy spares you only a brief glance, instead opting to take the lead and step through the doorway, a pistol you couldn't recall him drawing suddenly in his hand. “You all good, A-4?”

You fight against your smile. “I'm fine. I've just never done that before.”

“I thought you were a technomat or something?”

“I was... nearly one.” You glance aside, your grin still remaining high. “This is probably as close as I'll get. It's... nice.”

“I dunno, A-4. If my last enginseer was anything to go by, the Mechanicus will take anyone, no matter how badly they frak it up.” Buddy stopped near a turn in the corridor, carefully leaning around the corner before turning past it. “How confident are you in a firefight?”

You suddenly remember your own pistol, reaching under your gown and removing it from the holster on your bodyglove. There was a sinking feeling in your chest, and you flipped the pistol over in your hand to reveal... yes. There was still no power cell within it. You had forgotten to replace it. You sigh.

“Something wrong?”

“My laspistol doesn't have a power supply."

“I've only got the one stubber, I'm afraid.”