Chapter 68

Dear Marissa, Will and company,

Wow, I put it like that and you sound like some stuffy old corporation. Although in some ways that fits the letters you send me. "I'm Will Murphy, I build the tools to fight the Sa'arm." Of course, if they filmed you surrounded by your babies and ladies, it might inspire a few young boys to take school just a bit more seriously. You could do more good there probably.

Sorry to be my usual irreverent self, but I need to relax a bit after the last week. Third Company's luck ran out. We lost two tanks while turning another Sa'arm gathering drive away from the jungles on Alpha Continent. (I don't name the continents. Someone higher up than me called them Alpha and Beta and refuses to allow us to rename them. – We have scheduled a vote regarding that which we will hold in a few weeks.) Anyways, we lost tanks six and eight. We were supposed to be a diversionary force, to allow the Roughnecks to sneak in and use some of your newer drones on the Sa'arm. (The things still don't have that great of range, but the Roughnecks found some ways to make them effective.) the problem was that as always our plan did not survive contact with the enemy. In this case the Sa'arm were far more aggressive in their response than we expected. We knew that their gathering parties had grown from fifty to more than two hundred, and expected that there would be some warriors in the group, but up to this point the response to our enticement attacks has been slow.

This time the moment Third Company opened fire, we attracted fire from more than half of the Sa'arm in the gathering party. The group was mostly warriors, and unlike in the past when our tanks were only hit a few times before we got out of range, every tank in the group was hit multiple times. Tank Six lost its engine. Eddie (the driver and commander) abandoned the tank and managed to grab onto Tank Seven, but Dave and Oscar remained behind to keep firing at the Sa'arm. The turret fired back for the next few minutes as additional Sa'arm warriors started to swarm in from the direction of their base. They fought bravely, but the conclusion was inevitable and finally the remaining ammunition was struck by a Sa'arm weapon. The tank vanished in a fireball as we continued to flee.

We actually thought we'd managed to get away, but a new force of Sa'arm boiled up out of a canyon. They smashed into tank eight and sliced through the armor with that unholy mining tool they use. Erica and I managed to pick up Patrick, the loader, but Steven and Greg were killed in the attack.

In fact we probably would have lost more, had not the Roughnecks jumped in early. I know you wonder about if our tactics can work in other environments. Well the Roughnecks have fought the Sa'arm on a hot, dry planet with lots of open grasslands. These men and women know the Sa'arm and have learned tactics that work. The group uses jump packs. They are like backpacks, but use some of the Confed anti-gravity technology to allow the members to run and jump at high speeds. They move in low altitude bounding leaps. A platoon of infantry from the unit appeared behind the Sa'arm and at close range started shooting them with the grenade version of your drone. This was not a fight at range. Instead, they had left three members hidden on a ridgeline to "paint" the Sa'arm as the rest of the platoon bounded through them, shooting at will and throwing grenades at any Sa'arm that appeared to be gathering others nearby.

It turns out that this little diversion may have started the largest battle on Wadi so far. I don't have the final numbers, but for the Second Panzer the final count was 9 tanks destroyed, 28 crew killed, and 21 tanks damaged. Yes, every tank in the unit came out too badly damaged to return to battle. Mine is actually one of the least damaged, but we were out of action for five days. Consecutive hits on the right side had damaged the tread driving motors. They seized up when we came to a stop on the recovery craft. But the damage to the armor was so severe that it took two days before the mechanics could even get at the motors to remove them. I think a huge part of the problem was just the extent of the damage both to the tanks and to our morale. We needed a week off after the fight.

The other units also took casualties. The Wadi Infantry lost an entire company to a Sa'arm battery. They started using some kind of flechette weapon. I heard later that they have used a similar weapon against the ships in Borneo sector. Whatever it was and wherever they discovered it, unarmored infantry cannot survive against the stuff. It rips through cover and even can rip armor. One of First Company's tanks was with the infantry and it was lost with all crew. The flechettes sliced through the armor as if it wasn't there. Everyone is trying to figure out where it came from.

Don't worry too much about that for Erica and me. One thing we did a long time ago was reinforce our armor. When the lost tank was recovered we asked about the damage. The reinforcement we are using is a layered composite honeycomb. It does add a bit of weight, but Erica and I felt it necessary since we do make a lot of solo patrols. Well, the First Company tank had similar reinforcement around the engine compartment. The flechettes had clearly struck in that area, but failed to penetrate. Major Fabio, (yes he got promoted) commanded that all third company tanks have their armor upgraded during the repair cycle. The mechanics complained. (I think this composite is a huge reason why it took so long to fix damage.) The good news is that our lost comrades did have wills, although I think Eddie and Patrick are a bit embarrassed to have six concubines each now. They are going to pair up when we get two replacement tanks, although we are still looking for a gunner for them.

It does look like Third Company will be getting a coed tank. With all the casualties, it was decided to promote several of the trainee tankers and give them tanks. I don't know about some of my old friends, but Carol, Dennis and Kate. Carol drives, Kate is the gunner, and Dennis will load. Sadly, as I kind of predicted only Steve and Mary will remain a couple, but they aren't in our unit. Martin is going to First Company while Lisa and Carl are going to Second in separate tanks. The other relationships didn't survive the pressures of training.

As for what Erica and I are doing right with our concubines? If we knew we'd try to bottle it. Seriously, other than sitting at the end of most days and sipping tea while we talk with Louisa and any concubines who want to watch the sunset with us, there isn't any organized meetings. And this one isn't organized, its just something we do. Of course, Louisa is an insightful and meddling old biddy. She knows if someone is down, and could give lessons in conducting interrogations. Every time one of our concubines gets a bit too depressed, she manages to get them to show up for a sundown siesta and then coaxes them to tell us everything.