With the amount of action I've been seeing in the last few weeks, I've started a journal, so I can document the daily trials we all go through in order to take down the Bane. If anyone finds these records, please understand that they are from my point of view, I'm no writer, just a soldier fighting with the AFS.

The last three days were perhaps the most action packed I've seen in this struggle so far. I was paired with a close friend, another receptive by the name of Krys.

Krys and I spent a great deal of time in the Kardash Atta Colony. Those Atta are some of the most frightening creatures I've seen since joining the AFS. A chill runs down my spin every time I think of those bugs. They look like a cross between an earth spider, and an earth ant. With one notable exception, they are massive. At least one and a half times my height. Even under sustained machine gun fire, or using our cryogenic shotguns (Atta have been found to have a weakness for the cold) they take a very long time to kill.

We worked hard and managed to complete all but one objective at the Atta Colony, and the thought of going back was giving me some awful nightmares. I had to get Krys to give me something to help me sleep (Krys has Specialist training, and can use the tools we have to repair our armor and heal us).

The first time we went to the Colony we couldn't find one of the Lightbender infiltrators. I felt we had failed, but Krys assured me that these Bane are hard to find, they use subterfuge to their advantage, and we had been horribly spooked by having to kill so many Atta.

I shudder just thinking about those bugs. I never want to go back, but I know that we must go into a Hive in the near future, over in Torden Incline. This planet seems cursed! I miss the gentle rolling green hills, flowers, and singing birds (or some sort of winged creature) that we saw back on Foreas. I look forward to shipping out to a new planet, I know I won't miss Arieki.

--Serendipity