Unit 02 has found ourselves in the Marcelan Highlands, which has the reputation as being Castiria’s Communist heartland, chasing after Phalanx. We didn’t get to spend much time in the town we landed in, but the people didn’t look so different to those I’ve met in the Capital. And yet, the new government is hoping to target them with their paramilitary goon squad. I’ve seen or read this scenario play out dozens, if not hundreds, of times. I don’t know if it surprises me anymore, but it does drive me to continue my work on the United Belief. Maybe then, humanity could finally move beyond ideological oppression and these squabbles could stop.

We’ve already had our first clash with Phalanx, where we stopped them from attacking the Union town. In the scramble, there was one notable combatant that caught my attention. She was some Noble who was waxing poetic about how there was an entire generation of Castirians who have not set foot on their homeland, presenting Phalanx’s actions as a righteous crusade for this lost generation. I assume she was part of the exiled nobility who left Castiria after the last coup.

Her rhetoric felt hypocritical and hollow to me though. The reasons were twofold. First, her actions would be impacting Castirians who are in their homelands by either driving them out or killing them, which from my understanding is exactly what was done to her family and their ilk, thus perpetuating a cycle of harm but to people who are much more disenfranchised. Second, she’s working for the son of the man who pushed her family out, so she’s clearly not trying to get revenge against those who harmed her family.

The scope of Phalanx does trouble me though. Nobles, Hords, Castirians, Corcosan Separatists. What unites them all together? The Separatists seem “paid” for; they’re only involved because they think Phalanx will return their land to them. That’s a strangely optimistic hope, but I suppose they don’t have anywhere else to turn to. But why would the exiled nobles be working with everyone else? What do the Hordish members gain from being in the group? I’m missing something big here - this can’t just be about stopping unions, is it? Maybe it’s to do with property and land rights. The rich always seem to love land rights.