"Wake up!" A muffled sound could be heard only faintly as Jason was starting to regain his senses.

An ache took control of his body and he could feel his muscles shake uncontrollably due to shock. Memories of the nauseating spin started to flood back to the forefront of his mind.

"Jason, wake up!" He heard the voice again, a recognisable voice. He slowly opened his eyes, adjusting to the brightness the clouds produced from various reflections around the planet. As he looked around his blurred vision eventually started to focus on the dented and scratched helmet of a soldier. Only the helmet was upside down.

He tried to take his mind off the aches his body was exhibiting.

"Corporal Scharn is awake!" The voice in front of him shouted with enthusiasm.

He recognised the voice. It was Aurora in front of him. Why was she upside down? As he examined his surroundings and as the intense feeling of blood rushed to his head, it dawned on him, that he was still strapped in his seat and the dropship had landed inverted.

He reached for his arm, the aching throughout his body was uncomfortable, but not significant enough that he found it difficult to reach. Pressing a button on his suit he felt his body start to relax as liquid oozed into his spinal cord. Within seconds the shaking from his muscles gradually subsided along with the aching. Apart from a cracked rib that was reasonably uncomfortable, he was quite fortunate to be relatively unscathed.

"Jason are you ok?" Aurora asked, holding his head in her hand.

"Yeah, get me down." he mumbled, frustrated by the blood rushing to his head.

Aurora steadied her posture to hopefully try and reduce the fall that Jason was undoubtedly going to experience. "Ready?"

Jason nodded.

She released the strap.

He landed with a great thump. "God dammit." He winced as he got up holding his chest. Despite the improvement in technology, the painkillers couldn't completely remove the pain.

Now he was in a position to assess the situation.

Looking around he realised quickly that the only light was coming from the massive hole sustained during the rapid descent to the ground, though most of it was embedded deep into the dusty surface. Someone had managed to push the exit ramp open, not fully but enough to get considerably more light in.

No light was coming from the cockpit. It was just a twisted mess of metal and rocks. It was certain that the two pilots were dead, likely crushed by the impact into the ground.

Apart from it wasn't the ground.

Taking a closer look outside it had become apparent that they had landed heavily on the side of a mountain.

Looking back inside he then realised how fortunate he had been. He spotted four lifeless bodies, one directly opposite him. A couple were even missing limbs as parts of the twisted hull had pierced them in several ways.

He looked away quickly as he could feel an uneasiness in his stomach. Fortunately, stims had once again automatically administered themselves to stop him from re-examining his previous dinner.

He looked once again remembering what his father had told him about the unfortunate nature of war. Some of these soldiers had trained these past few months to become an elite fighting force only to fail at the first hurdle. Whether it was fate or a higher power or simply bad luck, it didn't seem fair to take the life of these people so prematurely.

"You ok?" Aurora asked knowing that he was trying to stop himself from being sick. The same feeling she had been experiencing moments before.

"Yeah," Jason responded but with little conviction "we need to assess the situation."

"Follow me." Aurora instructed.

Jason followed Aurora through the hull breach to examine the devastation that the ship had left. The ground left indents along the rocky dusty floor of the mountain as it had crash-landed into the side of it. The indents were blackened and charred from the high temperatures caused by metallic and rocky friction. Parts of the ship could be seen at a distance, the parts that didn't survive the initial impact.

A few metres from the hull the dejected set of soldiers sat around looking despondent from the recent events. A couple of the soldiers had been placed in stasis pods, their current physical condition was quite dire and would need investigating at the earliest opportunity.

As Aurora and Jason walked toward the rest of the crew they stood to their feet. It looked like there was an element of confusion around the camp.

"Who's in charge?" Jason asked, "where's Lieutenant Daniels?"

Aurora pointed towards one of the pods. "He's in critical condition at the moment. Severe internal bleeding which we've managed to slow down, but we'd give him no more than 24 hours to live."

"Staff Sergeant Huitenan, Sergeant Gainsford, Sergeant Schwartz?" Jason questioned again.

"Huitenan and Schwartz are KIA on the drop ship, we lost Gainsford on the trip down here."

Jason initially didn't know how to respond. That meant the entire command team on the dropship had been lost on their trip down here. An unbelievable set of bad luck.

"That would make me in charge!" A voice piped up by one of the pods.

Jason turned to see Westwood pushing for responsibility. Due to still gaining his bearings on the terrible loss of life he didn't initially contest.

"Get me a map, first we need to find out where we are in comparison to the drop zone." Ordered Westwood.

One of the soldiers ran over to Westwood and prepared a view of the current layout. "We are here Corporal." He pointed to the red dot that appeared a kilometre above sea level on a mountainside. "The Drop Zone is here" The map panned across for a second or two across various landscapes quickly. "Some 500 kilometres off target."

There was silence again. They had veered so far off target that it would take them approximately seven full days of travel on foot to reach their destination.

Westwood thought for a minute and sighed before standing in a straight posture hoping to confirm his authority. "We head out in five."

Everyone started to prepare their gear hesitantly. There didn't seem to be much conviction in following those orders.

"Delay that order" Jason eventually responded looking intently at the Lieutenant's pod.

"Scharn, what are you doing?" Westwood argued.

He looked around at the situation. It was extremely dire. Miles away from their expected destination, likely to be deep in enemy territory and surrounded by injured and dejected colleagues. He looked at Aurora then towards the Lieutenant's pod then finally at the crash site.

"Value life" was what he was instructed by the Lieutenant after completing the impossible mission. He wanted to, no, he had to get everyone still alive back home.

The Lieutenant was certain to die under Westwood's instructions, and others may be gone too after a long hike across enemy terrain.

"Show me the map." Instructed Jason.

The holographic map was displayed once more with the red dot displaying their current position. Jason panned the map around in various directions finally choosing the one route that was the least expected. Up the mountain.

"We should head to this point." He instructed, zooming the map at a small crater near the peak of the mountain. Based on the information the map was giving, there was a building located right in the centre.

Westwood looked at the map and screwed his nose up. "Are you mad?" He pointed towards Jason and then towards the map. "That facility was the first contact outpost and has been out of commission for years. There's only one way out of there and that's back down the mountain. We'd be trapped."

"With The Lieutenant and Gisseux both critical there is no way they would survive a trek of 500 kilometres. Plus we are deep behind enemy lines, we would undoubtedly be attacked and with our numbers it's unlikely we would be able to survive in open warfare. The outpost is above the clouds which means we would be able to call for medevac."

"A medevac?" Scoffed Westwood. "There's no way the communication tower would be working, besides, they are practically dead anyway, we might as well save the rest of the team as much as we can."

That made Jason angry, really angry "This isn't a fucking democracy Westwood. As per article 738.5 of the USM articles of war, the earliest ranked member of the highest rank assumes authority and responsibility for all remaining survivors. As I received my rank of Corporal before you, that responsibility befalls me and with that my word is law!"

Westwood didn't like that response. "You got your rank two weeks before me, that doesn't count."

"Unfortunately it does." Aurora pipped up, with various other members around them nodding in confirmation.

Westwood appeared to be taken back by the support Jason had amassed. He had thought he would gain popular support, so through either misunderstanding the respect they had for Jason or their determination to follow the rules, there was no way he could win this argument.

"Then let it be my duty to inform you that it is a fool's errand. We should travel lightly and quietly to the FOB. We may even find other survivors along the way." Westwood protested.

Jason tried to hide his smile. "Your protest has been acknowledged and denied."

He knew this conversation was now wasting the time he needed to get them moving. The trek to the outpost would take 4 hours, and every minute would be crucial to the survival of the Lieutenant and Gisseux.

"What's that?" He pointed toward a blob moving slowly on the map.

"A large moving body, most likely a group of hostiles." guessed the soldier responsible for the map.

There was also a very small chance that they were friendly but the chance that the enemy would be investigating the downed dropship would be high, Jason knew it was best not to leave it to chance.

"Pendergast, go and investigate. I only want to know who they are, estimate numbers and how quickly they travel." Jason ordered.

Aurora nodded "Yes Corporal" she acknowledged.

Jason grabbed hold of her arm just as she was about to leave. "And be careful." He said genuinely.

Aurora smiled as she grabbed her rifle and turned to run down the mountain path.

Jason then turned to the rest of the unit to make sure that they followed his instructions quickly and precisely. Time was of the essence and he was under the impression that the large unit on the map was hostile.

"Westwood, Jackson, grab dog tags and prepare to scuttle the drop ship. Marks, Malegwa, ready the pods for transport. Vandervoort you'll be taking point, we're heading for that outpost at a quickened pace. Everyone get ready to leave in ten."

Without even having to encourage the other soldiers to move they all started mechanically fulfilling their tasks, Jason had only been in charge for mere moments but it seemed that he already had the support and respect of his peers. He would have smiled if his next task had been less morbid. He planned to help Westwood and Jackson to grab dog tags, not real dog tags, but memory discs which every soldier carried on their person should they be killed. This 'dog tag' could then be given to their next of kin.

It was a grotesque task, sifting through the remains of his once colleagues or superiors to grab their tokens, but there was no way they could take their bodies on the road ahead.

As he knelt down beside what remained of the Sergeant he started to appreciate his current situation. The ship had spun and crashed on the opposite side to where he had sat hence why he was relatively unscathed. Most of the people that sat on the side the Sergeant did were either dead or severely injured, including the Lieutenant. With the way the ship had been spinning it was pure luck that he was still alive.

"Scharn, the last explosive is set, we're ready to go." Westwood informed snapping Jason out of his thoughts.

Checking the remains of the Sergeant he managed to find his 'dog tag' and placed it into one of his top pockets. He stood up and looked up towards the two soldiers with him. It was important to focus on the now and the near future and not the catastrophic past. All the remaining soldiers were now his responsibility and he was determined to bring them all home alive.

Exiting the ship he was greeted by Aurora who was ready to give him an update.

"It's the enemy alright, heading this way." She panted "I'm guessing around a hundred soldiers probably about six hours behind us. I'd suggest we make a move now." She looked concerned, probably knowing that they were greatly outnumbered and they were effectively walking to a dead end, but she trusted Jason to make the right decision.

Jason looked towards Westwood to see if he would challenge his decision to continue up the mountain, but it seemed that any fight had left him, possibly due to the same traumatising sights that Jason had seen in the dropship.

Jason had to have complete conviction in his decision. All eyes were on him now and he had to make it appear that he had complete confidence in his choices.

"Crazy Tigers, move out, double time!" Ordered Jason.

The unit started jogging up the mountain path in the hope to gain a little space between them and the enemy. After a few minutes, while clambering over some rocks, an explosion went off behind them. A plume of smoke ascended into the sky and merged with the clouds, any evidence of the dropship would now be in ruins along with the stench of death inside it.

Now it was his number one objective to make sure that the Crazy Tigers were not moving from one death trap to another.