Reaction Force Defeated!
Macigno Vella, Tratirne
29.09.31148 16:53 UMT
Bad news continues to come in from the Frontier, as Magistrate Opiter Genucius of the Frontier Reaction Force announced that his organization's attempt to retake the colony world of Battipaglia has failed.
The Magistrate outlined how he had tasked his best units to attempt to secure the planet and rescue any survivors, but the perfidious alien menace some have begun to call the Ascomanni appear to have completely wiped out the colonists!
In a press conference detailing these developments, Magistrate Genucius said: "Upon arrival, our forces discovered that the planet's capital of Battipaglia Prime had been razed to its foundations. While our forces deployed immediately to begin search and rescue operations, all attempts to locate survivors were futile."
After this horrific discovery, the brave men and women of the Reaction Force's response teams attempted to restore communications with the larger Republic. In uncertain circumstances, our courageous protectors departed for an outlying facility, only to discover that the colony's relay was completely destroyed.
As dark as the situation must have seemed, it would grow even worse for the heroic liberators as they returned to the ruins of the capital!
The RF's orderly column would be set upon by ghastly, brutish aliens, who charged headlong into the Umbrian formations. Barely clothed, and armed with only their bare hands, they fell upon our noble soldiers, falling in droves but nonetheless pressing on to satisfy their insatiable bloodlust!
As the vanguard reached the desolate remains of the capital, they would be cut off from the rest of the RF detachment.
It would be here that defeat would turn into disaster.
Just when they needed it most, the Reaction Force's soldiers would be deprived of the peerless courage and tactical brilliance of their leader, Prefect Aulus Festus. Gravely wounded in hand to hand combat, the battle dissolved into a complete rout without Festus's calm and steady leadership.
While the Reaction Force has confirmed that they took heavy losses in their attempts to free Battipaglia, our sources say that the news is even worse than that, with only a few of our young men and women making it back off the ruined world.
One bright spot to come from this horrible tragedy is that Prefect Festus appears to have survived his wounds. He released a short recording to the press, stating: "I have several months of physical therapy and recovery to surmount, but I will return to the battlefield as quickly as possible to avenge my fallen soldiers and drive off these foul creatures. The people of the Republic should rest assured knowing that these aliens will not get the better of us again!"
While only time will reveal the true extent of the casualties suffered in the Republic's first action in this new war, our thoughts and prayers go out to the brave men and women of the Frontier Reaction Force and the Umbrian Republic military.
May the gods keep them safe and grant them victory in these deeply uncertain times.