“Will this place ever have a day that’s not over 100 degrees?” Kelly grumbled as he attempted to fan himself with his helmet.

“Look on the bright side, a few more weeks and we’ll finally be off this rock.” Shaw reminded him.

“Well, it’s about damn time. I felt like I’d never see the day,” Black said.

“Echo this is Bishop, come in, over.”

“Receiving you sir, over,” Shaw replied.

“Someone forgot to tell the PAF Foxtrot would be coming in by boat at Askotiri to unload more supplies. They’re getting pissy and we need you to go and defuse the situation. Got that?”

“Affirmative sir, we’re on our way, out,” Shaw said. “Well, this ought to be fun.”

Hughes scoffed. “Provided they don’t shoot us,” He joked.

“I can’t believe we have to walk all the way there, I thought this was urgent,” Kelly said.

“Command doesn’t have many vehicles that they can spare for us, we just got the short end of the stick,” Shaw said.

They all looked up as a Blackhawk flew overhead. “Looks like they’ve got Corrik running people around on errands,” Hughes commented.

“Heh, poor bastard. I’m sure the PAF is getting fed up with us in their airspace by now,” Black said.

“Bishop, this is Charlie, shouldn’t that PAF squad have gotten here for their shift yet? Over.” Charlie asked.

“Wait one Charlie, over,” Bishop replied. There was a moment of silence that Echo squad didn’t really pay any attention to as they kept walking. “The PAF isn’t responding to any of our communications, we’ll keep trying to raise them but just sit tight for the moment, out.”

Everyone looked at each other, this was strange. But their thoughts were cut off by another radio transmission.

“Foxtrot to Bishop, flash! PAF is opening fire! I say again PAF is-” They cut off.

“Foxtrot? Foxtrot!? Repeat your last, over!” Bishop said.

“Bishop this is Golf, we’re being engaged by multiple PAF AA stations, what the hell is going on?” Corrik said.

“Unsure Golf, wait one!” Bishop answered.

A pair of PAF fighter jets shrieked overhead, and gunfire erupted across the island. Everyone looked at each other, unsure of what was going on or what to do.

“Alpha to Bishop, multiple armored assets converging on our position, requesting support, over!”

“Negative Alpha, we have no assets to spare at this time.”

“Bishop, this is Delta, a ZAF gunship just strafed us and a transport chopper just landed at our position.”

A PAF transport helicopter started hovering over Echo and started lowering to the ground.

“Get set for contact!” Shaw yelled. “Echo to Bishop, PAF troops are being dropped on our position, please advise, over!”

“Bishop to all callsigns, code red! I say again, code red! Pithorian and Zelorian forces are considered hostile, fall back and find somewhere safe to wait this out!”

The PAF troops all jumped out as the helicopter touched down on the ground, and as soon as they were all out, it lifted off again. Black dove to the ground, the adrenaline already surging through his body. He tried to line up a shot on a soldier’s head, but he was shaking too much to hold it, so he sprayed a few shots into his chest instead. A bullet landed in the grass right next to him, only missing his leg by a few millimeters. He dropped a few more, and the rest did the same. He stood up as the last one fell to the ground.

“Well, now what?” He asked.

“We’ve got to find somewhere to lay low,” Shaw said.

“There’s a cave somewhere in the cliffs on the west coast,” Hughes suggested.

“It’s a start I suppose, we’d better get moving.”

By the time they got to the cave, the sun was perfectly situated at the peak of its course, hovering directly above them. They probably would’ve gotten there earlier, but they had spent most of the time getting to the cave, staying out of sight of patrols. As the four men stepped into the cave, they all sat down, leaning against the jagged stone wall. The cave wasn’t all that big, it was really more like a deep divet in the cliff.

“What a day huh?” Black asked.

“Do we have a plan?” Kelly asked, looking at Shaw.

“Just to survive at the moment,” He said. “Wait a minute, do you still have that portable radio?” He asked.

Kelly nodded, taking it out of one of the pockets on his vest and handing it to Shaw. He switched it on and started fiddling with the knobs, trying to find the right station. He set it down on the ground as the sound of a voice faded in.

“-the help of the Zelorian Armed Forces has been more than helpful as of late, especially in light recent events involving NATO.” The thick greek accent of Colonel Manalakos was difficult to understand at first. “Speaking of which, the help of Zelorian Intelligence has helped us conclude our investigations into the NATO task force,” He continued. “After discovering military-grade NATO weapons and ammunition at several of the rebel strongholds that we have raided, we have concluded that NATO has been funding and supporting these rebels, including their attack on the courthouse to free the criminal Eros. Because of this, we have recognized them as a hostile force, and they will be attacked on sight.”

The crowd erupted, barraging the colonel with questions before quickly being settled down again. “Colonel Manalakos, are you worried about a military response from NATO?” One of the reporters asked.

“No, as a matter of fact, that brings me to my next bit of news. Many have been wondering what would become of our nation ever since we gained our independence, but those concerns can now be put to rest, as the nation of Pithoria will now become a territory of Zeloria.”

The crowd once again erupted, but Shaw shut the radio off.

“ Goddammit,” Black muttered.

“W- what are we gonna do? Do we have a plan?” Kelly asked, shifting his gaze to everyone in the room.

Shaw stood up and started pacing around the room. “For now, there’s nothing we can do except wait,” He said. “We can try to find anyone else that may have survived, but until then, all we can do is wait.”

“We’ll need food and water,” Hughes added. “These MRE’s can only get us so far.”

Shaw nodded. “Right, we can go out tomorrow, but let’s rest, for now, we’ll need it. We can watch in shifts.”

“I’ll take first watch,” Black said as he stood up and started walking toward the cave entrance.