So while the writing was very evocative, and I liked the strength of the imagery especially in the early paragraphs with the descriptions of the landing, I think this story ultimately wound up not fully conveying a sense of the narrator's character. The whole story was a commander reflecting on the nature of his past mistakes - but I was left wondering how he really viewed them and himself. In one paragraph he casually dismisses the deaths of his men as "easily replaceable", but later on he seems to regard the deaths of the colonists with regret, which didn't gel for me. He seems resigned to his fate, but I would have liked to know more about what he thinks his *actual* failure was - or if he believes he didn't meaningfully fail and he's being unfairly treated. Basically I came to the end of the piece without a clear understanding of how Seltioch feels about the history he's reflecting on, and I think the story could be tighter in that regard.

Very strong writing here! Your prose flows together very solidly, with some really good detail. For example, I liked that he not only killed his first alien on Antiles III, but that he killed the alien "with a wrench", hinting at a lot of other untold stories in his past.

If I had to nitpick, I'd just say you might have benefited from a little more editing (a few places where things weren't capitalized, and some misplaced punctuation). The ending also doesn't really resolve the "not all debts can be repaid" line, but all of this can be chalked up to the constraints of the jam, I'm sure!

Overall, I loved your word choices ("forsaken ball of mud", ""lusting after the reward", etc) and the way you portrayed the downfall of this power-hungry, selfish commander.