Chapter 54

Master Will,

I'm writing this in place of your sister. She's alive, but hasn't returned from her last mission. Don't worry, she gave us permission to write if we wanted long ago, but we just read the letters you exchanged with her rather than write on our own.

As you can guess Willow and Erica are trapped on the continent controlled by the Sa'arm. They were there trying to help rescue first company as well as about half of Wadi's infantry. (I'm sorry, I really don't know what they call the unit.). The first I learned about it was when the siren sounded. Fabio had the island's admin pod fitted with a siren that sounds when and if the company has an immediate need to gather. I had been floating in the lagoon with Willow. (Yes, nothing came in this time, although a day later a large fish that looked like a giant barracuda washed up on the beach; seriously this thing was over twenty feet long and had a mouth that was some sixteen inches of needle sharp teeth. It could have killed someone if it attacked.) Anyways, the standing orders regarding the siren is that all members are to gather in an amphitheatre that Fabio had built. We don't actually use it for anything, although Louisa has threatened to have the younger concubines put on Shakespearian plays. (with all girl casts even.) But anyway, I accompanied Willow to the briefing. The news was that first company had tried to set up a base camp on the far side of the continent from the Sa'arm. This was some two thousand miles away; and far out of range of any weapon we knew about, or at least that's what I understood. However, the commander hadn't counted on the Sa'arm deciding to march across the continent to attack them.

The company rushed to their tanks. Willow and Erica were talking about having to head out to get between the sa'arm and their base in an effort to get them to turn around and relieve the pressure on the base long enough that the survivors could be evacuated.

They left on a fast assault shuttle while the rest of the unit loaded their tanks on the landing craft that are used normally. We don't have regular communications with them while they are away, so once the landing craft left all the concubines tend to drift to their home pods. If you are a Civil Service Officer and supposed to be concerned about the well-being of concubines you might suggest that we be kept better informed. The waiting for your master or mistress to come home is unbelievably stressful. I know Willow has written about all of the things we are doing, but I can tell you that once the tanks leave, all we want to do is gather on top of Erica and Willows bed and hold each other. And we know that should something go horribly wrong we won't end up in some kind of brothel. Some of the first company tanks crews didn't have wills, and those concubines have wound up staying in a single pod and stacked up since we don't really have enough people here to justify having a full brothel yet. I found out that the ship we came out on was the only one to make a delivery of colonists to Wadi. With the casualties we've had there are about nine hundred forty households. Fabio has said that replacements are supposed to arrive shortly, but he isn't sure how many troops we will receive.