**Author:** Oski_Polski --- ![](rising_tensions.png) SPECIALIST: FILIP WATOSZEK  LOCATION: CRACOW, POLAND DAY: MAY 13th 2043 And here we are, Cracow. This city has history, but it also changed a lot over the time.  Our backup HQ is stationed here, in case Danzig fell to enemy hands or to nature. I still don't know why I was summoned here. But it seems I wasn't the only one. I saw commanders of other units in the city among the civillians and soldiers. I know some of them personally. They all came from different provinces, they had different political opinions, yet they all were able to come together in order to survive in the darkest hour.  While I was on the way I came across some towns. We had to make many changes with our route, as nature didn't leave much on the roads after forest fires and floods. For example, we came across small town of Rybnik. Before the forest fires there was huge power station. The luck of residents seemed to be really small. During the blackout huge explosion occured there, which forced the population to evacuate. Town is empty since then, sometimes military uses it as a temporaly base, but because of destruction it rarely happens. I finally made it to the Old City in Cracow. Sometimes when you forget about our reality, view like this is truly amazing. Makes you forget we live in a fucked up world which is destined to die. I made it to the HQ, but we have to wait for main command to arrive and set things up. While waiting I noticed my old friend and his unit. Former Corporal Jakub Wojtek, Leader of 39th Silesian Infantry Regiment. Often they are nicknamed "Green Devils" from their uniforms.  This unit came from Rybnik I was talking about just a second ago. Luckily for them, they were away and didn't had to experience chaos erupt in their own hometown.  Jakub is a straight guy, although he and some of his members like Fred, Michta and Krzysztof tend to like alcohol a lot which led them to some trouble before.  My other friend by the name of Dawid Machnik was commanding his own unit, 56th Greater Polish Infantry Regiment, often nicnamed "Steadfast Shooters". They were respected among other units, mostly because they were effective and cheap.  They came from Krotoszyn, which was hit by forest fires in 2041. Town was mostly turned to ashes, although people still tend to live in areas not affected by the fire.  There was also 1 more guy I don't know much about. His name is Oskar although his surname is still unknown for me as he likes to stay in the shadows, away from random people's attention.  He's in charge of 44th Silesian Special Group. This group is unknown for me, they are Special Forces I could say. Only person I fully know is Jakub Wiczyński, youngest member of their team. He's not allowed to say much about their unit, as majority of their information is classified, even their place of origin.  All I know is that they are very effective.  We were talking for quite some time with each other. Despite time not being the best, we still can talk like normal people.  I asked them about this meeting, nobody knows what's going on, we'll find out once the meeting starts. It's been an hour already, black military truck just pulled over and it's crew started unloading some monitors and devices. We knew it's gonna be very serious meeting, something probably has gone wrong. But we're still waiting for permission to come inside.  God, we are wasting our time here, our units probably are in combat right now and we are standing here in the middle of Cracow, waiting for something to happen.  After 40 minutes we finally got permission to come in. Command was waiting there, it was a bit claustrophobic with more than 20 people in small room.  Turns out Americans arrival got delayed, it will be around a week before their forces can cross German-Polish border. Apparently rouge No-Pats who work for either Russia or their own buisnesses set up pretty heavy resistance. Before Americans can crush them down, we are fighting on our own. Let me remind you, we are fighting against a superpower as a No-Pats, we have around 210 000 battle ready No-Pat soldiers with old equipment and Russia has millions of soldiers and new and better technology. What keeps us afloat is bad decision making of Russian command. It doesn't mean they won't overwhelm us in the coming weeks when we start running out of ammunition.  This was very bad news for us, it meant that we have to fight harder if we want to save the people and end this damn war. Then, all of a sudden, air raid sirens were heard all over the city.  "What the fuck?" I said. Then I rushed outside to see AA Defence Systems being set up on the rooftops of civillian buildings. Then all I hear is gunfire from those AA's. When I looked to the direction they were firing at, I understood what's going on. Russians launched rocket strike on the city. Civillians and soldiers started running for safety amidst the chaos. I went back into the HQ and went down to the bunker. After 30 seconds sirens and explosions stopped. I came back outside to see that it was over quickly. Our AA Defences managed to hold off the attack. Only damage I saw were broken windows and some dust. Command was forced to get out of the city in case another strikes come.  I'm back in my staff car on my way back to Pstrąże. To see my regiment after this situation… **Next:** [[Polish Crisis - Winning with Nature | Winning with Nature]]