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Corporal Somebody, Memoirs, Publication Blocked by Colonial High Command

It didn't take us long to realize that fighting machines would be nothing like fighting humans. But that

realization took us long enough, and Gods know how many lives were lost before we learned thatlesson. Colonial Marines have it drilled into their skulls from day one, as boots, We look after our

own! That mantra was our greatest asset, and our greatest weakness. That's what seperates us from

them. A toaster gets hit, it's ignored by it's pals. I guess they drag it off later, repair or recycle it or frak-knows what. But humans, now, humans are different. Each human being... frak, how do I explain this?

It's not all that complex a notion, but I've never tried to put it into words. Not out loud, anyways. Eachhuman being is important. You never think about it, but when it comes right down to it, a human life

is... worth more than another. How many times have you checked the news feeds to see that some

hiker's gotten lost in the mountains of Geminon, or some kids spelunking somewhere never came back?They'll get hundreds of volunteers for a search party, and sometimes two or three of them won't come

back. But Each. Frakking. Time. There'll be just as many volunteers. Something about us, man. The

needs of the individual outweigh the needs of the collective.

The machines knew this from the start. Frak, standard Colonial military procedures were

PROGRAMMED into them! They LITERALLY knew our playbook. Is it any surprise that we took

such heavy casualties in the first year of the war? Afterward, the pundits and armchair admirals, theyraked us over the coals for being 'Woefully unprepared against Such a clear and present danger.

Gutless shits. Where were they when Universal Conscription hit? Don't get me wrong, the AoC was a

huge step forwards, and without it, we'd have lost the war in no time at all, but the lawyers and thepoliticos and the rich all seemed to weasel their way into power, and out of danger. Some things never

change. So the rich bought theirs sons and daughters out of military service and payed some por slum

kids to take their places, and the poor bore the brunt of it.

Now there's some frakking irony for you. Some poor kids from the hell-holes on Tauron, from families

that couldn't have even Dreamed of affording a Domestic 'bot, wind up in the trenches or jungles or

whatever, fighting for their lives against these frakking things.

The Colonial Marine Corps had called me up, along with a few million others like me, soon after the

Articles of Colonization were signed.

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By all reports, the Cylon rebellion was instantaneous across all twelve worlds.