[CODEWORD CLASSIFIED: ARES]
August 15th 2015
From: ‘GEN. Robert Stokes’ [REDACTED]
To: ‘Board of Directors, Central Defence Administration’ [REDACTED]
Subject: [CODEWORD CLASSIFIED: ARES]
Gentlemen, I fear I might regret sending this out the moment I hit the button but recent events and findings have deemed it necessary.
Let me first address the situation of the artefact we have located in Nevada. Significance unknown, the Board decided and decreed that a simple extraction be carried out. Bring the artefact back to [REDACTED] and assess the situation from there. Such a low-risk mission, we have done this with one man before, sometimes two if we expect heavy resistance.
I’m looking through the requested resources by the Board right now. And quite frankly, sirs, this is simply ridiculous. You’re sending 50 of MY men into a desert to bring back a mere object. Regardless of significance, don’t you think this is a bit of overkill? Not only are you requesting 50 marines, but 3 Apaches, 10 Hummers and 3 MBTs? Perhaps, however, what intrigues, nay, disturbs me the most is what I see on the top of the list: Me. My name, right there, along with all these other, valuable resources you’re wasting away on this one operation.
I have served with the USMC for the last 35 years of my life. I have fought and I have watched my fellow men, my fellow brothers die in battle. We say we’re winning, the world THINKS we’re stopping more conflicts from breaking out. They THINK our nation is, as one of my Privates once told me, “kicking asses and taking names”, but they don’t know the truth, do they? We are losing men, sirs, we are. We’re fertilizing the soils of countless countries with the blood of our men. Not to mention the rising tensions with [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. We are spread thin, on a front that we should have taken ages ago. I have raised this issue countless of times and multiple SEC-CONs and I have never gotten an answer. Yet, I have earned the utmost respect from leaders around the world, a fact, as the Board put it, you told me during out last ‘chat’.
So much for respect, then, if you’re holding back what seems to be critical mission information from me? Because it is clear now, this is not just a simple extraction mission. Formalities be damned, something big is going down and you’re not letting me know, yet, you send me on the mission. Call it what you will, but this is a sham, a sign of utter disregard of everything I’ve done. Something’s amiss here and I assure you, for the safety of my men, I will get to the bottom of this.
Hell, I notice the lack of the UN’s Seal on the Requisition form. I do hope the Board of Directors know this is an act of treason and could present a great risk to the public portrayal of the United States of America. I hope whatever it is you are up to is worth it.
I’m going in expecting nothing. After all, as you’ve stated in this form, this operation has been classified as low-risk. But I swear, should any one of my men get killed in this mission, I will put a bullet into each one of your heads.
Consider this my letter of resignation.
Robert Stokes
[REDACTED]- Rank revoked till further notice.
Oh and by the way, the Private I quoted. Do not bother attempting a court martial on him. Died in 2011; in the Georgia Skirmishes. I sincerely hope that the Board deems that just punishment for that kid, his wife and their newborn daughter. No matter, that can be easily rectified once the Board meets him in Hell. I’ll tell him to be nice when I meet him.
August 16th 2015
From: [REDACTED]
To: ‘GEN. Robert Stokes’ [REDACTED]
Subject: RE: [CODEWORD CLASSIFIED: ARES]
“All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.” – Maya Angelou
The Board has plans to end all your concerns, General. In the ways you want it, in fact. Do not worry.
