After some time had passed, thesmall fleet of dropships of the 81st were fast approaching Tarin, maneuvering around a vast mess of shredded starship debris from past battles, the airspace over No Man's Land was a deathtrap for any pilot who came unprepared and lacked the training, most fortunate for the 81st Battalion that their pilots knew what they were doing, unfortunately, they were unprepared for what was to come next.

Caris, not exactly comfortable in his seat, especially not having a clear idea on the outside, lifted the restraints and slowly made his approach to the cockpit, quietly watching from the back of the cockpit, gripping tightly to the co-pilots seat's cushions, observing the outside as the group flew in a close formation, it was both comforting and unnerving that nothing happened yet, that he thought both he and his troops were going in intact, but he knew all too well that the enemy was planning something. Within the instant, one of the dropships furthest ahead of the group was hit by by an unseen Graser beam as it exploded in a brief, but blinding light, before Caris could utter a word, another explosion rocked the dropship as his ship was damaged, the left wing, and thurster, was blown off from the main body of the aircraft, sending it spiraling down towards the surface, the pilots struggled to maintain altitude as they sped closer to Nishir, but overshot their landing as the dropship sped further and further away from the city and into the wastelands, deep in the middle of enemy formations as they made their advance towards the City.

The dropship came crashing down as it kicked up a sandstorm, pieces of the ship's hull peeling off from the heavy friction. The "landing" was not exactly pleasant for Caris, as he was sent ricocheting from within the ship, thankfully, his armor took most of the beating, but was left cut up and bleeding from the experience. 

He laid on the floor moaning, sore from the pain, the few soldiers that were still conscience hastily lifted off their racks and rushed to their captain's aid, lifting him and placing him against the wall.  The effect of the crash had set in as the same soldiers soon collapsed onto the floor, visions becoming more and more blurry. "Oh gods..." Caris mumbled as he came to. "Status!" he mustered the strength to call out his men. An assortment of varied confirmations were heard was heard, seemed everyone was fine, upon closer inspection however, around seven were confirmed dead. Caris stumbled and tripped as he stood up, holding onto the wall as he checked the cockpit, the pilots meeting the same fate, the broken glass and console stained with their blood. "Damn it.."

In the moment, Caris and his present soldiers had all forgotten that they were in the middle of a warzone, the typical sounds of war echoing. "Oh Gods this hurts.." Caris cried out, and was silent for a moment, before facing his men. "Gather your gear and haul ass, we got a long day ahead of us." He scanned his surviving soldiers and pointed towards a pair of fellow Ishkaans. "I need you support me on our trip...I'm not in the best shape to walk on my own for long..." Both nodded, Caris then turning to a human soldier. "You, we need to assess our situation, go checked for any hostiles." 

The soldier replied with a simple "Sir!" before crawling out of the downed dropship, the sun beaming down, blinding him for a brief moment before taking notice of a Union AMMP lumbering over the arid landscape, a sight that would be his last as his head exploded in a bloody mess, his brothers-in-arms caught off-guard at his sudden death. "By the Prophet! We got godsdamn snipers!" 

Well, the situation had certainly escalated, not only have they crashed in No Man's Land, lost quite a few men, elements of the 81st Battalion were now pinned down by an unknown sniper, and from the rather gruesome way their comrade died, this sniper was armed with a Conk-grade Graser Rifle, meaning none of them were safe.