[GZG News Fiction] NAC Marines gain access to Bradley

NAC Marines Fight to Gain Access to the City of Bradley Thursday, May 8, 2183

BRADLEY, Fliescher II (INN) -- According to an INN correspondent
accompanying the 136th Gloucestershire Regiment, NAC Marines battled FSE and
LLAR forces
Wednesday to establish control of a north-south route accessing the
southern section of this city after four years of hard fighting.

The latest skirmish followed a day in which LLAR mercenaries killed and
wounded over a dozen Marines in what a senior NAC officer called "the sharpest
engagement of the war this year." In addition, 13 soldiers from the NAC's 3rd
Royal Maintenance Unit were unaccounted for, and several soldiers were shown
on vidcasts from the LLAR as prisoners.

The INN reporter said troop carriers from the maintenance unit capable of
holding up to a dozen Marines were hit with infantry anti-vehicle
rockets on Tuesday. Witnesses to the troop carrier attack said at least 20
Marines were killed outright.

But at a NAC Central Command briefing in Riverside on Wednesday, General Daryl
Bishop said the number of dead was less than that.

"I can tell you for a fact that we are definitely missing 13 soldiers who are
unaccounted for, some of whom ended up on the LLAR vidcast," he said. "We do
have a number of killed in the action outside of Bradley and a number of
wounded. On the other hand, we can account for 62 dead or wounded enemy
fighters."

Bishop said the enemy soldiers were composed primarily of LLAR mercenary
forces with a few FSE platoons scattered about, and that the engagement was
one of the "few times that we've seen the FSE forces fight this year."

"But our Marines were successful. They defeated the enemy, and we have entered
the city," he said.

The Marines destroyed at least eighteen tanks, several antiaircraft and
artillery batteries "along with a number of infantry," Bishop said.

In Bradley, FSE General Gaston Malot said LLAR and FSE forces have turned back
dozens of attempts by NAC troops to capture the city, destroying over 170
tanks and armored personnel carriers in the process. He indicated that the
current incursion into Bradley would be repulsed in due time.

The Marines entered the city Wednesday afternoon after the 13 soldiers were
captured in an LLAR ambush on a NAC supply convoy.

After that attack, the captured soldiers were shown on LLAR vidcast out of
Bradley. Two of them, including a female soldier, appeared to be wounded. Some
pictures showed what were said to be dead NAC soldiers, some of whom appeared
to have been shot in the forehead.

On New Albion, Crown Prince Randall Ferguson said any LLAR units involved in
mistreating prisoners "will be treated as war criminals," and Bishop said
showing POWs on the vidcasts was a "clear violation" of the UNSC Conventions.

Alberto Borecelli, one of the FSE's ambassadors to the United Nations, said
that the FSE follows the interstellar guidelines for the humane treatment of
POWs.

"We will respect carefully the international humanitarian law and the UNSC
Conventions," he said. "I hope that the NAC Army will respect [this] also." He
would not discuss the LLAR position on POWs. The LLAR ambassador was
unavailable for comment.