War Journal

March 16th 1056 AF(After Fall of earth)

Sergeant Topoe,

The War started today. I was in my barracks with my squad, in the 123rd regiment, Pacific Battalion on Star Cruiser Libertad. We all know that the Miners are responsible for Earth falling apart but it’s hard to believe that even now that we have over a hundred worlds to live on people can’t find a place to live where they don’t have to fight. At least to the point where wars like this one won’t happen. We were deployed to Ios IV last month to put down a small insurrection by some religious fanatics that believed human kind was supposed to have disappeared with Earth and were trying to take over a star port to get back to Earth. I don’t know what they really wanted, getting back to Earth and all. I’m sure they know that with Earths collapse and then Mars there was no place in the system to set up even a small colony. Maybe they were going to die like they believed we all should have? I don’t know.

We’re not being told what sparked this new conflict. Our Captain told us he believes it was started with a discovery on some forgotten planet in Legacy System but can’t confirm for himself or us if that’s true. It seems to me that it’s at least part of the truth. We were ordered to stay on the Libertad until further notice and we all felt the Libertad jump to hyperspace just after we received our orders. I’ll never get used to the feeling of the Jump. It’s like a sudden feeling of standing next to yourself, watching your body have a brief hard time keeping balance. But that doesn’t matter. Everyone in the universe knows what a Jump feels like.

I guess I’ll have to be honest with myself with this journal. I’ve never kept one before and I don’t really know why I’m starting now. They told us in training that we should keep one just because it can help with keeping track of details and make debriefings easier. Also I had one Drill Sergeant who told me that it helps keep you sane to write down all the shit you see and get it out of your head. I think I can believe that now that I’ve had some experience with war. At this moment I am twenty-two years old. I joined the Marines when I was nineteen and was promoted to Sergeant just two weeks ago. I am an only son of Janet and Derrish Topoe and was born on January 6th 1034 AF. I was told by the same Drill Sergeant I mentioned earlier that I shouldn’t put too much personal information in my journal, that it could be found and used against me, so the only additional piece of my past I’ll put here is that my parents home planet doesn’t follow the old Earth Standard Calendar anymore. I don’t think any planets do now. They just keep an eye on it because it is what The United Congress uses for its military. I think that’s vague enough to keep my Sergeant happy. I think that’s it for now. We’re being told to go in to hiber’ (hibernation) for the rest of the jump. It’s only a three day jump from where we are but the Captain doesn’t want us getting edgy or asking too many questions I think.

March 19th 1056 AF

We came out of hiber’ six hours ago and with a quick meal in the stomach and a chance to shower off the layer of grim that forms on a body in hiber’ we headed for our briefing. I’m not too fond of the feeling of lost time and displacement that comes from hiber’ but a three day stint isn’t too bad. My trip from training to Pacific Battalion was six months and that left me a little messed up for a few days. This one will only take another hour or so to get rid of.

It looks like the Captain was right. Briefing let us know that we had just entered the Legacy System and we’re on our way to the fourth planet that they keep calling Legacy IV. I wonder why they stopped giving names to planets, just naming the system followed by what number that planet is from the Sun? Probably because there are more than a thousand planets now that are colonized. I couldn’t come up with that many names if I was given the rest of my life, but back to the subject. We will be the first ship in system by four to five hours and our task for the moment is to check the system for any Miner presence then us Marines will land on Legacy IV and see what there is to see. Private Choi says that the system was named after some lost colony ship from Earth days that was sent to this System and that we’re headed to find the remains of their ship. Choi likes history a lot so I’m not surprised he knows this without having to check the data banks. Still, I think that if it’s true and we are heading to dig up some colony remains from over a thousand years ago there’s probably something that’s supposed to be on that ship, something Congress doesn’t want the Miners to have. Guess we’ll find out when we get our pre-mission briefing. Briefing, briefing, briefing. I think they would start briefing us on how to use the head if we didn’t already show that ability back in training.

I now have exactly thirteen minutes before gear up and drop. Pre-mission briefing wasn’t very informative and we found no trace of Miners in the System but they’re taking no risks. I’m guessing they left drones out all over the System to constantly check for any ships coming into the System. The next Congress ships should be in system within the hour and have additional marines on ground with us in eight. They’re setting us down just east of a small plateau next to the tallest mountains I’ll probably ever see. Captain told us the mountain range that almost circles the planets equator has peaks high enough to be right at the top of the planet’s atmosphere and are hit with meteors regularly. We are going in hot even though they say there’s nothing living down there but I feel better about being on any surface with the full gear of a Marine Recon unit. Choi, again, tells us that the training and weapons we have enable one Marine Recon unit to be able to completely isolate and subdue even a major city. I can almost believe that except that we don’t ever fight entire cities and the Miners version of a Marine Recon is almost an exact clone of us.

March 20th 1056 AF

Well its evening now and we’ve been on the surface of Legacy IV for just over twenty-four hours. Just before we launched from the Libertad Chio looked up the planets revolutions and orbit. He found something very surprising, Legacy IV is only three hundredths of a second slower than Earth’s revolution was. If he’s right then this Planet is the closet to earth norm of any anyone has found. I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m going to try and put down all that happened in the last day. I’m sure anyone who reads this in the future, maybe my future kids, will be bored by my lack of any action so far. Maybe if I get another leave soon I’ll sit down and write of my experience in Ios System.

Our Squad was the only one sent down so it’s just the nine of us. We loaded into our Lander full of adrenaline and excited for something other than the inside of the Cruiser. The drop was normal. The few minutes of weightlessness followed by a few minutes of terror of entry in to the upper atmosphere, you’d think all those scientists working on flight for so long would have figured out a way to enter atmosphere without all the bumping around and loud roar, then the smooth flight down to the surface. Our pilot, Lieutenant Delie, talked the whole way down like we were having a conversation in some café somewhere. I think I’ve heard of her before. I can only vaguely remember what I heard but I think she’s the most decorated pilot in the fleet. I wonder why she got put on our Cruiser. We always get the most dangerous missions and I’d have thought Fleet Command would want her safe. They’re always telling us about heroes of the fleet and I’m sure Delie is on that list somewhere if it’s her I’m thinking of. Whatever. We probably won’t see her again. By the time the rest of the fleet arrives and we get off this rock they’ll have the big Carriers with S-Landers that can take two hundred soldiers and all their gear off the surface. The normal Landers are only used for insertions into hostile locations, which makes me wonder why they made us land and start the search for whatever it is we’re looking for before the rest of the fleet arrives. If there’s no Miner’s in system why the rush, unless they know the Miner’s are coming.

After we landed Sergeant Hille and I organized the unloading of our gear which really isn’t much, took less than five minutes, and moved the Squad away from the Lander so Delie could return to the Cruiser. She said something about doing a quick run around the area to get a scan of the surface for Command so she’ll probably be in range for the next couple of hours if we run into anything that requires an evac. After that, we’re on our own until the rest of the Marines get here. We quickly set up a camp in a shallow valley next to our drop point and right in front of the cave we’re supposed to be scouting. Hille and I decided to get a feel for the area around us before we entered the cave and sent out two sets of two to cover the area around us and get a mental feel for the land to share with the rest of us when they returned. We sent a sniper with both teams, our Squad being lucky that we had three snipers, the two designated snipers out scouting still and me. I passed all the tests for snipers just before I was sent to this unit and have the ability with my Level 3 rating to sense any sentient life within the range of my Long-Rifle, just under eight miles. It’s an amazing weapon. With the scouts out and the rest of us dug in, getting our camp defendable and as comfortable as possible. Now we just sit and wait for the scouts to get back, share what they found, then head down the cave in the morning.

March 21st 1056 AF

It’s four thirty in the morning, and we heard from Delie just over an hour ago. Bad news. Delie had at least a level 7 telepath reach her from the cruiser telling her to get out of atmosphere and make a run for the rest of the Fleets command Carrier. A Miner fleet came in system just before Congress’ fleet and was going to beat our fleet to the planet. She didn’t know what held up our fleet getting to the system as they were over a day late. The Libertad is going to try and stall the Miners with their forty fighters and the laser-burst missile banks that covered the cruiser. Delie had serious doubts about the Libertad slowing the Miners down at all but was booking it off planet with only a quick fly by to let us know what was happening. I think I would have rather not known. Now the whole squad is up, looking at the sky, watching for any signs of the battle in space. We all knew that the Libertad wouldn’t last long against the whole Miner fleet.