I have passed much of the time in a remote command holograph net, directing the flights of aircraft that we have dispatched to eradicate the remaining humans on the surface. The tedium and detachedness of it made me squirm in anticipation of actually reaching the surface to fight, but I know that restraint is necessary. Such is the responsibility of leadership. In all truth, I have missed little by remaining on board the Purity of Spirit, as the remnants of human resistance have been too sparse and disorganised to warrant any ground contact. The main settlements were destroyed by orbital bombardment in the hours after our arrival, and since then the whole exercise has been a case of searching out the remaining enemy and directing aircraft strikes or orbital weapons fire to their location.
Collateral damage is irrelevant here.
Nothing on this world is of any worth to us. They taint whatever they touch. To alleviate the monotony, I accompanied one of the reconnaissance flights yesterday, deferring command of the operation temporarily to Amgac. Yet I have a haunting feeling that this battlefield may have been our easiest, and that victory in this war will cost us more than victory over this rock. Our sweep of the system has successfully located all but one of the remaining human vessels.