Chapter 84

Dear Willow and family,

I got your letter that you wrote just after the one from Phoebe just after I posted my reply to Phoebe (though I did address it to you) I'm hoping that this missive finds you well. Gods what a mess an incompetent commander can make of things! My only hope is that the general or admiral in the area relieves the good colonel of his command.

I hope that my asking questions about how your fight is going doesn't distract you from what you need to do. I also hope that my ideas about gear and weapons are not a distraction. Yet for all of me I cannot see how I can keep from thinking that there has to be better weapons and methods of fighting the Sa'arm. Maybe to some people that seems odd, but to me it would be a horrid thing to think that I didn't expend every effort toward that goal. After all if all that is left of humanity and the Confederacy is what is hidden on worlds where the Sa'arm cannot survive then what use is it to survive, somewhat like over hunted mice in a world full of cats. At least until the Sa'arm finally eat themselves out of existence.

I just got your letter telling me about Erica's tiff with Major asshat. Yeah I said that! There's a reason that people like that end up dead, shot in the back while retreating ... Anyway there's not much I can do from here except remind you to drop a message drone (again) requesting that you be present when the hearing is held. An interesting thought occurred to me though. Where is the AI that you were in contact with via your implant? Somewhere there should be at least an audible recording of everything you experienced. Did your tank have a line of sight of the altercation with any of your cams? If so be sure to preserve the recording(s) not that I should have to tell you any of this. But as distressed as you sound I only wish I'd studied the law yet more and could rush to the defense of your lover. Not that I could because I'm under orders to go the opposite direction. Not that I doubt that there is yet another of Atlantis-At's ships out gathering up yet more orphaned concubines. If your experience is any indication there will be a huge number of them who have been willed to people who live on Atlantis-At.

I hate to think it but there may even be commands that offer up orphaned concubines to worlds like Atlantis or Thul, which is a planet that I've heard is currently locked in an iceage. In other words, places that we suspect that the Sa'arm will find either hard or impossible to colonize.

Getting back to the asshats who ran your latest fiasco, let me ask this: Isn't there some sort of SOP that says that you never try to hold ground against the Sa'arm? After all the behavior of the Sa'arm in the face of resistance is well documented. Unless ... it suddenly occurred to me that the colonel and major asshat believed that the could hold the position long enough to wear the Sa'arm down even in the face of their known natural ability as sappers? If that is so maybe the pair of them should be scheduled for a CAP reevaluation! Not that you have any influence in that area. However, because I do have some film from some of the helmet cameras that were involved in the battle that led to the abandonment of Darling Downs I can say that the person who attempted a static defense against the Sa'arm in this case ought to have his chain of command exploring whether or not his colon is directly connected to his brain! After all it is apparent to me at least that the man is suffering from a cranial-rectal inversion...

As a Civil Service Officer I can say without hesitation that I'm just seeing the edges of the sort of chaos that a commander of this caliber leaves in his wake. And considering the chaos that the Sa'arm leave in their wake I can say that we need to have the best and brightest as well as the most flexible of commanders fighting the Sa'arm or we most certainly will end up mice in the kitchen with a house full of cats!