Bodies Fall

From what Will has mentioned, the expectation was that the main thrust of the UAS incursion would come essentially at the center of the border. That's why it nearly caught our people off guard last night as a major offensive pushed through the far southern region only a hundred and fifty miles from the Gulf Coast. 

Defending such a vast area is difficult, but attacking entrenched defenders is harder, lucky for us. I don't have solid numbers on the death counts and don't know if the fight is still going on at present. I know for sure that at least two hundred members of our unified forces fell in the early hours, more than twice that number of UAS soldiers died. 

Things aren't quite so bad here, but Haven is having to deal with its own problems. Still. The weather seems to have leveled out into comfortable Spring conditions, and while we've managed to make most of our protected area free of zombies, the plateau in numbers we were hoping for didn't happen. They're still coming, and more of them at that, which makes for some rough days here at home. 

It was such a long and harsh winter that we were sort of hoping for an easy start to this season. Ah, well. Bitching about the work doesn't make the work go away. 

So far we've been fortunate here. While the southern guard have taken hits and lost people, most of the communities left behind have managed fairly well against the undead inundating our land and gathering around our homes. If I seem dismissive of the losses suffered by our forces, please don't think that. 

It's just that I'm not there. I could paint you pictures based on what I've heard--not much in the way of details as communications are laggy and sporadic--but doing so by necessity would force me to fill in major gaps, to lie somewhat, and to tint the entire thing with my own perceptions. The hardest part about not being out there for me is the need to report the general status of the war within the confines of my own moral obligation not to hide or massage the truth. 

I'm here, they're there, and being so far away creates a certain amount of intellectual and emotional distance. Without doubt, the horrors of war are being seen by many. I've been in battles before, watched some men weep while trying to hold their guts inside them while others desperately tried to repair the damage. I've never seen it on this scale, however. It's kind of hard to even imagine how terrible things on the front lines are right now, even though the majority of both sides aren't actively engaged in combat. It's even harder to imagine just how bad it's going to get when that does happen. 

As always, I will report what I know when I know it and always with permission to do so. I will not, however, turn this blog into any kind of propaganda machine. I haven't been asked to do so, I should point out. Not that I've had a lot of free time between defending from the undead to get asked for such a thing. I just won't let this space become a mouthpiece for motivating the people who read it into becoming angry killing machines that stop seeing their enemies as human beings. 

I know, I know. That would make it easier for Union soldiers to kill them. Which is exactly why I won't do it. Why I encourage everyone who has any influence at all not to do it. remember what we're fighting for, the ideals we carry with us and live by day to day, just as much as who we're fighting against. It seems like such a small detail, but it's a damned important one.