6. The New Year: The New Opinion

1 January 2014: Erotes V

Today, those on Earth celebrate the coming of the Terran New Year, however, another 322 days will pass before us Martians have completed our own orbit around Sol. It is just another day for the Martians of the Imperium, and it is not the time for celebration.

It has been a couple of weeks since RE forces under the command of Faner succumbed to the counter-attack led by the Martian 1st and Martian 7th armies, and much of Erotes V is destroyed. The enemy's retreat had been costly to Imperium infrastructure, with the enemy initiating a scorched-earth policy in the final moments of our assault. Buildings were demolished, and any valuable materials were destroyed en masse. Based on how things looked, the Imperium would likely have to allocate large amounts of supplies and bio-metal to assist in the repairs. The Adrestia has said that it will still take many more weeks before Erotes V is brought back to 100% functionality.

In the meantime, the Martian 1st Army has garrisoned itself in and around the area to oversee the rehabilitation of the area. It is slow progress. Even now we still find the occasional bodies among the rocks and fallen machinery. Things are mundane, but they are pretty quiet. It's a welcome change compared to the constant fighting that has been raging here on Mars and on other parts of the Sol System. The Martian 7th definitely haven't had this kind of luxury.

They left for Charon on the 18th of December and arrived on Christmas Eve, a few days after the Martian 8th had arrived to assist the Martian 2nd and the SSSR troops that were already in combat. From the reports given, Charon has definitely lived up to its Greek namesake. The arrival of the Martian 7th, managed to slowly push Faner back, however, not without great cost. The RE, SSSR, and Imperium have lost large numbers of troops in the battlefields in the area. Since the 24 of December, there has been an estimate of an additional 19,000 Imperium dead in the fighting that has occurred. Faner's RE has lost roughly 22,000 troops, SSSR: 33,000. As of now, Faner's RE has control of 31% of Charon's surface, relatively good compared to when they had control of nearly 43% earlier in 2013.

However the improvement, there has been this lingering thought in my head. Hostilities on Charon began back in October 2013. It has been roughly 3 months since then and progress has been slow and bloody. We have 3 Imperium armies fighting on the surface along the SSSR's military, yet we're not seeing enough gains for our involvement. There hasn't been any talk of any more reinforcements being sent to Charon either. I think it's becoming clear to High Command that this conflict is becoming more trouble than it is worth. We have yet to have heard information about support from our other allies, from the Goomba regime to the BZSH about assisting in the fighting on Charon. The BZSH has previously pledged support in the form of their experimental Hydra units, but nothing more has been specified. I think, along with many others within the Imperium, that fighting on foreign soil in areas that do not reflect our own interests and do not involve the assistance of our own supposed "allies" should no longer be our modus operandi. This holds especially true with all the fighting that has occurred within the last year.

In the Zooka conflict, millions died. Then, shortly after the end of that, we ended up with the invasion of the RE under Faner. In addition, daily we enter combat with nomadic groups that lurk their way into Imperium territories throughout the Sol System, and they must be dealt with as well. Thousands upon thousands are falling on different worlds, some of which do not even belong to the Imperium. While we have remained undefeated in every war thus far, their toll is still taken upon us and even we need time to recover.

Alexei Giovanni, Captain of the 4th Platoon, Martian 1st Army