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{Archivist's notes: These pages were collected from the diary of Colonel Derek Rayne, Martian veteran. They begin December, 2296.}

I used to think the ass-backwards end of the solar system was Venus.

I visited once - the place was utter hell. The temperature was always twenty or thirty degrees beyond my personal tolerance. The space stations are even built specifically for maintaining comfortable temperature, but they never work right. Everything's always breaking down because of the sunlight, or because of the difference between the sunlight or the shade, or because of the accelerative stress of launching so many heavy skippers back and forth from the planet's surface.

Oh, don't get me started on the planet's surface. Thank god I've never been there.

Venus, though - it was rough. Rough physically, mostly, but the officers who served there were pretty rough too. You got nasty, after too much exposure to that place. No wonder they put the prisons there.

But it's not the worst place in the solar system.

For me, the worst is Chicago.

You laugh, don't you? Chicago is a nice city. Everyone says so. It's one of the best remaining on the North American continent. The rest are starting to look a little run down around the edges, especially with the wartime economy.

Do you know about the military base there?

Do you know what they do on that military base?

It's the biggest in the country. The most personnel. The most veterans of the war.

Veterans of this war are some of the most screwed-up people this side of the seventh circle of hell. They did crappy things for crappy reasons, and it caught up with them, eventually. No one figured on having a war, in this day and age, that was decided by a ground battle, and by ground forces. We threw all our might into navies. Space navies. And instead we slaughtered each other for years.

I suppose you've heard of the Battle of Toridia. You might even celebrate it.

I'm sorry. I'm not the type to wax maudlin. It's this damn city. It makes you philosophical, living between human creations - these skyscrapers - that dwarf humans so well that they block out the sun. The only redeeming feature is the lake. The military base is right next to the lake - all the easier to launch the skippers, from base to the station in orbit, once a day, when it hits the right location.

You know, I doubt this will ever leave my hands. I'm not even really sure who I'm writing to. Probably those nice men who go through my room every day when I'm gone. Well, check it out, guys. You can read all the state secrets you want from my journal. Your state took over my state anyway.

I never thought there'd be a time that I stick to a cause as long as I have. Wish me luck; I've been here six months, as something that you Earthers still won't call a 'prisoner of war', and I haven't given up yet. And you can keep trying.

- Derek Rayne