Republic Military Retreats from Battipaglia
Macigno Vella, Tratirne
23.10.31149 04:31 UMT
The last Umbrian soldiers touched off from the shattered remains of Battipaglia Prime in the early hours of the morning UMT today, as the Republic's military officially abandoned the planet, leaving it securely in the possession of the extraterrestrial adversaries, dubbed the Ascomanni.
The retreat from the Frontier world caps a nearly eleven month long campaign that has seen a handful of victories and a torrent of defeats, which has seen the number of dead, wounded, and missing surge beyond two hundred and fifty thousand soldiers.
The campaign's initial phases proved promising. The Republic established a strongly fortified bridgehead around the ruins of the colony's capital, and it experienced initial successes in its encounters with the alien attackers.
As the conflict entered Battipaglia's thick and expansive jungles, the conflict would quickly turn against the URA forces. The alien menace drove the Army back into an increasingly restricted perimeter around their beachhead. Attempts to break out and overcome the enemy blockade were only temporarily effective, and any gains on the ground were lost as quickly as they had been obtained.
Analysts say that the turning point came when the first Ascomanni warships appeared in the system. This initial attack took the Navy completely by surprise and inflicted considerable damage on a series of scattered patrols. Larger and larger formations began to appear in system, and the URN could no longer guarantee the lines of supply for the forces planetside.
Oddly enough, the Ascomanni chose not to press their success, allowing the Republic to evacuate the planet unmolested.
The reason for this remain unclear, as sources in the intelligence community believe that the alien invaders have significant naval capabilities that have not been fully employed to date.
What comes next is equally uncertain. The War Council has shared that it is reinforcing nearby worlds with additional troops, but broader questions involving how the Republic will conduct its first interplanetary conflict remain unanswered.
As attempts at diplomacy fail and the military regroups, one thing that is clear is that the war will likely continue into the foreseeable future, claiming more victims as the Republic seeks to end the Ascomanni aggression.