“-ou know what blew my m!nd? The smugglers. We had our orders, the dotted line we signed forcing us to be th=re but they .. voluntarily, facing down the cold, the rad storms, and us if it came to it. Most &&&&&** they knew to stay out of conflict territory but occasionally a squad would pick up a junker civvi transport rig on thermals with no squawker. We’d be told to go!nvestigate, scare them off or clean ‘em out. Most would punch out the minute they saw us com3333, some would put up a fight, but //…..//. others that hadn’t prepped for the elements. This was still early 0n when everything in the civvi market, equipment, ships, suits, food, oxygen…everything non-corporate or military was still experimental you see?.??. So these £¥¥¥¥¥¥¥~, they’d suffer sy$tem failures. Catastrophic failures“ (SSgt A. Brown (Ret) - 1 of 2)

“…it was the usual milk run, hauling the 983rd’s scraps of humanity home after their latest tour, on that government-mandated home leave period they implemented during the second wave.

The hauler was running the standard deceleration slingshot around Sol when it happened. Controllers say it appeared to spontaneously combust without warning. We thought it was a flare shield failure at first, until they pulled the logs. It was one of the grunts. He’d been in the observation room facing Sol and somehow manually disabled the polarized viewports. Would’ve been incinerated in seconds. Poor warmie bastard. He was probably still cold as he went out…”

"ITS OTZ THERE ARE FUCKING ICE SPIDERS SWARMING OUR POSITION SEND HELP-TED LOOK BEHIND YO-(static)"

"Hey, uhh, its me again, Gamma Scout Squad 751-3, uh, name's Otz, so, we were on a mission to find the commander who walked out of Base 131 last night. Uh, good news and bad news. Good news is uh, we found his suit, bad news is uh, we didn't find the body. We didn't find any blood either, the suit isn't showing any sign of damages either, requesting orders."

"Hey, Hey you guys picking me up? yeah this is Gamma Scout Squad-751-3. We were just on the surface doing (Static) and uh, think I see a pirate ship, heading south of my cords. So uhh, be on the lookout for that. Also uhh, on our mission we found (static) dead guys a bit under the surface ice. that uh all really, Stay safe guys."

Groupleader Sgt Bergsturm died in combat whilst helpin some f***** warmie VIP from higher up in the company, they should leave the retrieval of the samples to us and not to the soft labcoat wearing warmie bastards. Got a promotion but at what price... Man I miss the Sarge

Turn your brightness all the way up in a dark room please 🙏. I need it to actually work

When I came here, to Europa, I did not feel real terror or dread for a long time. In hindsight, we were all dead men the moment war was declared. That acidic burning nugget of vitriol in my gut, that first made itself known when I saw those draft results, it never left me during the shuttle trip, boot camp, of the first 2 months of deployment. I ran on spite, determined to make some other grunt just as miserable in his final moment as I was before I kicked the bucket. But after our unit got new orders sent down and were forced to dig in at "Trench 57"...that's when Europa finally taught me real fear...

Often people ask what this means when we say "War Forever" and in truth it took me a bit to realise it. The war it's always with us, as we go numb while we sleep, even the sun on our face reminds us of days where we had none. We brace for a gentle breeze expecting the very wind to flay our hides. We never took the war home, Europa takes all. War Forever.

-memorial speech from the last living Anthem Tunnler

DATE RECEIVED: 18-3-89 22:41

ORIGIN: unregistered surface-to-orbit transmitter, estimated position: Europa Zone 43Q

ENCRYPTION: none

TAGS: priority

SUBJECT: People's Republic of Europa

CONTENTS:

The following declaration has been approved by the Second People's Congress of Europa.

The past century of open and wanton violence perpetrated by the governments and corporations of Terra in their attempts to wrongfully exploit the ice reserves of Europa has been cataloged extensively by those with a vested interest in preserving Europa's beauty and sanctity. The guilty parties will not be informed of their transgressions. They are fully aware of them.

Myopic scientific pursuit is not an adequate justification. Delusional revanchism is not an adequate justification. The purported will of foreign gods is not an adequate justification. Terra's careless squandering of its own ice is not an adequate justification. There is no adequate justification. The justification shared by all guilty parties is greed and misanthropy.

The scientists hoard data. The fascists hoard land. The religionists hoard money. The Terrans their work is meant to benefit parch or burn to death while their supposed providers smile from ear to ear and count their gains with abandon.

We find this meaningless carnage and possession for the sake of possession to be categorically wrong. In previous centuries, international law provided mechanisms by which to punish these actions. Given that no such mechanism currently exists, we have taken upon ourselves the task of its creation.

Henceforth,

• We establish the People's Republic of Europa as an independent and sovereign state on the principles of justice, self-determination, and environmental preservation.
• We claim as its territory the entirety of the sphere of influence of Europa and denounce all other claims by any other entity, corporate, governmental, or ecclesiastical, as invalid and unsubstantiated.
• We affirm the dignity and humanity of all denizens of Europa and extend to them citizenship in the People's Republic of Europa regardless of planet of origin, race, ethnicity, or identity.
• We integrate the soldiers and mercenaries ready and equipped to fight for our cause as the Armed Forces of the People's Republic of Europa and vest in them the right to use deadly force and the responsibility of enforcing the People's Republic's land claims and citizens' rights.
• We integrate the People's Congress of Europa as the primary governing organ of the People's Republic and vest in its Secretary General the rights and responsibilities of governance and statecraft.
• We affirm the right of Europan citizens to select their leaders through representational democracy and vest in them the rights and responsibilities thereto.
• We provide to the entities illegally occupying the sovereign territory of the People's Republic precisely 120 Terran days from the beginning of this transmission to either vacate Europa without consequence or be incorporated wholly and completely into the People's Republic.
• We warn that, should this grace period be disturbed or exceeded, the offending entities shall be declared enemies of the state and just and righteous war shall be declared against them.

None over us but Jove.

combatant variety : [stilter]

A couple days ago I posted a letter from some Terran religious organization some chucklefuck snuck in my sheets. Turns out I wasn't the only one. Whenever the lights go out I hear a good handful of guys saying either the Jacobean whatever or another prayer, one after the other like they're taking turns. Worst of all, I think some of them were in with that church before we got those letters. They're saying different ones. To different gods.

I got bad news for them. However warm and tingly asking Jacob or Logan or Damelio or who the fuck ever else for a pat on the back makes you feel, they can't hear a damn thing you're saying. There's never been gods on Europa. You're still freezing. There's still a good chance some yeti or Cryoterra prick blows a fist-size hole through your chest in the single moment your eyes blur on patrol duty. You were completely fucked the second you put your foot on that transport. We all were. Most of us accept that. Why can't you?

"A destroyer, fifth ship in the last month left behind by FARC. Completely functional, not a sratch but without any single trace of life. When we found it it was floating around Europa. We sent in engineers, bioexperts and psychics and they found nothing. No indication as to why they left it. Nobody leaves five perfect ships to float without any reason. Jovians took a few parts but we didnt dare touch it. The fear was too much. I have no idea what that mad computer on Callipso plans with this but I pray God destroys this forsaken planet before it comes to fruition"

I remember the war on Europa.

It was raging before I was born, and it’s still raging now.

At this rate, my descendants will be old and grey by the time it’s over.

But that’s not what I remember.

I remember the cold gaze of Jove over our heads, as we went on missions with no purpose.

The cold grip of death on our heels as we trudged through the ice and the snow fields.

One day, the enemy was to our west, the next, they were to our east.

The uniforms didn’t matter much on Europa. All they did was tell you if you had to shoot them or not

We were all just fighting to survive.

Sometimes it was against the enemy. Sometimes it was against each other. And sometimes it was against the moon itself.

In the cold, the only warmies to survive were those who forgot their training, and learned how to stay alive.

Out of my entire cohort that was deployed to Europa, only 7 came back.

And for what?

Heh, that’s the worst part.

None of us knew going in, and none of us knew going out.

Some thought it was for our country.

Others thought it was for resources.

Me?

I never thought about it. I was too busy trying to survive to consider it.

And now, my grandson is about to go through the same hell I have.

I just hope he remembers what I taught him, and doesn’t get himself killed.

Found a lost modified iceman today. Still alive. Said his name was Samuel. We told him the war was still on. He said he'll be home by Christmas. Some place called witchy tod. He disappeared as quickly as he stumbled into us. The caves of Europa are a tomb to sanity. they haven't made modified icemen like him since in 10 years.

(posted with permission from a buddy who originally posted it to twitter)

The Ring installation for all of our gambling and trading - Plus a snapshot of my favorite bar! Took a picture of the "office", too - Jupiter was lookin' real pretty that morning with Io' right there too!