It was dark, very dark. Not a single ray of light pierced the darkness. Then i understood i had my eyes closed. I opened them and saw blood red lights coming from a single source. It then registered to me that i was not alone in the small cramped room. A body was laying half a meter to my left. I tried to move but as soon as i tried to get my feet under myself i felt a burning pain pierce through my leg. I groaned, atleast i think i did, i didnt hear anything but i felt my mouth moving.

My throat was as dry as the saharan desert. I quickly reached for my hip to retrieve my water flask. I grabbed it and ripped it from my belt, quickly opening the lid and drinking from it.

'Nothing, why is there nothing in my flask? I could have sworn i filled it before i took off in my sparrow.'

I brought the flask to my face level and saw the problem, a sizable piece of shrapnell had torn through the flask.

'Im not even mad anymore, if that piece had pierced the flask, i would have bled out by now.'

I pushed myself off the wall and landed with my head in the lap of the other man. Up close i could clearly see that the man was dead. A pen sized hole in your skull with metal sticking out tends to do that to people. But then i saw something on his hip: another water flask. I quickly took it and drank a nice amount of the contents.

With my thirst satiated i could feel my hearing returning. Probably from all the swallowing. Now that i had satiated my immediate needs and had retained the ability to hear, I started to look over my leg and wondered why it hurt to move it.

The leg was thankfully fine in the sense that it was not bleeding but my right calf was totally purple.

'Goddamnit, i guess i didnt get out of that crash uscrathed'

My name is Valmar Oakfield. Flight lieutennant of the EDF. Shot down during operation UPPERCUT. The "brilliant" plan cooked up by the remmnants of the European defence force and NATO forces in Europe to counterract the aliens that had landed in Bern and had made it the base of their European theatre of war.

To be truthful, the operation was doomed from the start. Everyone knew, but noone cared, everyone was tired of running and hiding. Everyone wanted to finally do something to hurt the invaders, not hide and bide their time as General Hide Belli ordered them to do before all communications with Brussels was lost. The city was a ghost town now.

Of the 20 000 soldiers that took part in the operation, only a small percentage were armed with weapons that were capable of reasonably taking out the invaders, namely their own weapons. Everyone else had the good old chemical propelled rifles

There was no real battle, the special operations teams did not manage to open a window in the enemy anti air battery lines. So when I and the rest of the pilots came in with the first wave of troops and vehicles, we were shot down in seconds.

I was transporting a Blitz class light tank under my rails and had its crew and 5 army grunts onboard.

when i was hit i lost my tail rotor so i spinned out. Most of the grunts got spewed out of the chopper by the centrifugal force because they had unclipped themselves to get down to the groun faster. I guess they succeded, they certainly did get to the ground faster than normal.

when i crashed i crawled out of the mangled remains of my chopper and dragged one of the tanks crewmen into the tank. I intended to go after the other survivors but some of the enemy must have seen me moving and had shot a rocket at the tank. The last thing i remember is trying to climb out of the hatch and seeing it rush towards my face.

I am too scared to make any noise as i remember that i am in a dead tank in enemy occupied territory. Suddenly the radio makes a sound.

"Any*zzzzz*on th*zzz* cha*zzzz*-group at ra*zz* point sac*zzzzzzzzzz*.

After the female voice cuts out I immediatelly start thinking.

'Rally point sac. Rally point sac. I dont remember being a rally point by that name. Although maybe they mean rally point sacramento.'

I pull back the sleeve of my uniform and look at the smartwatch which i set to display a map that i had downloaded to it. To my dismay the smartwatch was warped beyond recognition. At places it was melted and at places it has pieces totally missing.

"Damnit" I say to myself. "Gotta find another way topinpoint my location"

I stand up and push the hatch that leads out of the tank, only to curse as i realised that it was jammed shut.