Chapter 89

Marissa, Will,

Erica is back!!! She was actually waiting for me when I arrived on Wadi. I hadn't even heard that the trial had occurred when we left Ishtar, but District Command made sure the trial was quick and just.

At least that's what Erica tells me. I spent the last four weeks miserable because my love was in the brig and was going to be forced to defend herself against a charge of mutiny and assault on a superior officer. I'll grant that Major Lynch was superior in something, but that was in being a complete prick, not in commanding others.

Sorry, I'll probably be more than a bit giddy. Erica is sleeping right now. I made sure she felt very loved and understood just how much I missed her, and then the rest of our household joined in. They left Erica covered in sweat and other fluids before they just cuddled her and held her while she finally cried herself to sleep. I held her as well, but the fact that my love is home has me feeling too energetic to sleep so I snuck out to write this letter.

Well, I'm not alone. Violet is giving me a shoulder rub, but it's a languid one. The orgy definitely sated our need for sex and now it's about being close to each other. The fear that I had lost Erica cannot be the same as how Bree and Violet felt each time they saw my tank loaded onto a transport and heading out to do battle, but now I can say I have some inkling of just how much of an emotional impact there is on concubines. Will, you wrote about wanting to improve the system. This is more important than adding strength to tank armor or building a better bomb. I can already kill Sa'arm in bunches when I go out to do battle. That's actually the easy part.

The hard part will be keeping concubines happy, secure and loving. I can't tell you how blessed I have been to have loving concubines, but I know a huge part of that has been the fact that I have a truly wonderful partner in Erica. She has been the yin to my yang and helped balance the many emotional forces that might have otherwise torn our household apart. My family has been blessed stability and strength.

There is a lot to say, and I'm puzzling over the order. Violet is suggesting that I start at the beginning, but even then I'm a bit lost. I mean, I believe I ended the last letter as Freya was entering the Ursus system. If so, I guess I can try to give my impression of the battle.

Actually Violet just smacked me in the back of the head. She noticed your comment at the start of your letter. All I can say is that it is a typo. I'm a Gunnery Sergeant. Not a Gunner Sergeant. It's E-7 if you want to look up the rank, but since we don't really have a pay system I'm not sure that matters. Colonel Frost explained it to me in a bit more detail while Freya was maneuvering into teleport range. Basically, I'm now considered the senior sergeant in all of 2nd Panzer. And that means I'm trusted to know what to do even if I don't officially give the orders. It's a lot of responsibility to put on a girl who just turned fifteen. And I should note, that while I know your math it often off, you are at least sixteen now. It's been more than ten months since I got picked up and you are fifteen months older than me, so even if you had been picked up on your birthday, you'd be at least sixteen by now. I know that time gets a bit screwy since each planet has it's own day and night cycle, but I can do that much math.

Meanwhile, I did say I'd try to go step by step after leaving Ishtar. And that means I should describe my impressions of the battle in the Ursus system we visited.

Long.

That's about all I can say.

I know I wrote that I was going to wait in the Gunner's ready room. Imagine a room with a bunch of couches and not much else. There were a few concubines wandering around. Most would just sit on a couch and stare at the ceiling while listening to the gunner's communications. The gunners on Freya are a loud and boisterous group, quite happy to shout and joke during the lulls in the fighting, but surprisingly clear and precise when the situation demands it. I can't speak for how good they are compared to other ships, but I can say they impressed me. From what I picked up from the chatter, Freya ended up taking on two of the towed Lares type carriers that the Sa'arm use occasionally. That's a huge number of ships, but the gunners were able to take all of the fighters the carriers launched out and then take out the carriers. They only had four guns go down, and only one of those was due to the death of the gunner. I do remember that Este, the leader of the gunners was unhappy with their performance. (I think her rank is Commander, but no one ever used that. She was always Einherjar One or Este. But the whole group was like that. The gunners are divided into groups called Vanir, Aesir, Jarl and Thane, and they use that and their number rather than names while in combat. It was impersonal, but definitely fit the situation.)

So I didn't end up joining the fight this time. Instead, I sat in the ready room and listened. The ship was only hit a few times, and no one seemed panicked during the fight. Captain Walker was even more impressive during the battle than she is the rest of the time. She never raised her voice. Somehow even though all she could do is guide the ship through the system, she seemed to take charge of everything and give the proper instructions whenever they were required.

Anyway, we passed through the system rather rapidly. I guess the mission was basically a smash mission rather than something more serious. I just got to ear-witness the battle while the concubines waited for the return of their owners. I can say the return turned into a rather rocking party, although I snuck out before the orgy started. I was still emotionally torn up by Erica's unfair arrest.