Hey Millie,

Thought I’d start this ‘journal thing’ to keep my thoughts somewhat coherent. I think it’s just as much for me as it is for you (thanks for the suggestion, by the way), considering all the stress and strain everyone’s under. With the Project kicking into high gear at this point, I find I barely have time to think outside of schematics, myomer compression rates, and circuit board leads.

Spending my down time writing my thoughts down to you is a hell of a lot better than waiting to see if the Word’s gonna stumble over this place or not. I mean, I can appreciate the secrecy – and considering Corean’s had this place hidden for almost fifty years, they obviously know something I don’t – but I really, really wish they’d found a better place than underneath a fish cannery.

And, not to be morbid, but if I do end up on the receiving end of one of those Blakist bastard’s bombardment salvos one day, at least you’ll have something to remember me by.

I’m really hating this moratorium on communications. Though I am glad it’s not planet-wide, I still don’t like it. Considering that they just upgraded this site’s importance in the chain – the Old Man was actually here last week! – and that the Legion Project is just about done…though that’s what O’Reilly says. Me? Not so sure. There’s a huge problem with the torque put out by that rotary….but I’m not going to bore you with details. Suffice to say it just really sucks not being able to communicate with the rest of the world, even though standard broadcasting hasn’t been completely affected by the Word. Well, except for the loss of the HPG a few years back. THAT really sucks. Can you imagine what it would be like if the rest of the Suns lost interstellar comms?

I understand the need for secrecy, though. I mean, standard DMI procedure here is that we have to keep it quiet so we don’t get triangulated. They’re hyper-paranoid now…but I guess if they weren’t, we’d be fodder for one of those rumored Blakist prison ships in orbit.

So for now, it’s “official communications only”, so hopefully one day soon we’ll exchange our journals and help fill in the gaps.

I guess we have to do the best we can with what we’ve got, right?

Oh, guess what? Pops made it back okay! Arrived about a month ago on a smuggler’s shuttle from Panpour that managed to avoid the remaining Blakist ships. Not that it’s that hard – their orbital patterns are becoming predictable, according to Major O’Leary. Though I’m pretty sure it’s easier to sneak in a small Dropper than an invasion fleet – look what happened to the Light Guards back in early ’69. (Wow, has it been two years already?)

Anyway, Pops said that those morons at Jalastar finally got the coolant feed right for the 9-D9’s new plasma gun. Made an armored tube that loops outside the elbow joint, rather than through it, plus they grooved the plating so that its snug to the arm and not jutting out to get snagged on. The binding in the joint was restricting the coolant flow and shutting down the weapon – not a good thing in the middle of a firefight. Of course, like you don’t know that. I mean, you’ve been with Reinhardt and his Guard for what, seven years now? I’m actually kinda thrilled you’re a competent Cennie pilot – gives us something else to talk about besides your crazy brother.

Pops seemed kinda subdued. I bugged him about it enough over rations, found out that there was a DMI agent on the smuggler, too. A good friend of Pops, from the way he talked. Seems that they’ve had some lead on his son, some archived newsfeed out of Epsilon Eridani had him in the background in one of the governor’s press conference.

God, I love that old man. You know, he brought back a fossilized ruudin escotarpi for me? Goes all the way to Panpour and still finds time to bring me back something for my collection. He reminds me of my grandpa, back before the FedCom fiasco. Always made sure he brought me something from every world he visited, whether on duty or not. I still have that ‘truth stone’ he found on Proserpina during one of their raids back in the ‘20’s.

Anyway, Pops clearly seems distraught over this news. I know he hadn’t heard from Geoff in over ten years – ever since ComStar split up. I always thought he stayed with ComStar, the way Pops talked about him. I know they were estranged and all, due to some stupid argument they had. Considering how stubborn he is with these Cennie prototypes, and the fact that he never backs down when we argue (and lately, it’s been about the TagCo feeds to the rotary guidance – it’s just not working right with the stabilizer mount), I’m pretty sure that argument’s still unresolved. I figured Geoff would’ve remained with the Com Guards, considering how much of a good kid he was. You can tell that just by watching Pops’ face when he reminisces. So it pretty well shook him up that he’s apparently on the Blakist’s side, now.

Damned Word. I’m still not understanding why they’re here. And why we’re not all radioactive cinders. The newsfeeds we’ve pulled from various smugglers and other operatives tell of other worlds getting slagged by them – Tharkad for one. And we heard recently about Outreach and Altair. So why not here? I just don’t understand….

Not like I’m asking for it! I’m rather thankful that we’ve not seen anything worse than what happened to the NAIS. Fortunately, several of our project leaders weren’t there when it got flattened – though we’ve heard that the Cavaliers bought it right outside campus. We know several of the professors and officials made it away safely – they were able to escape through the subterranean transportation tubes. In fact, we rescued several 2nd Cadre survivors soon after the NAIS got flattened; they’d managed to get a couple of APC’s into the system and make their way here.

I know we guarded that entryway for a while after that but Major O’Reilly finally decided to collapse the tunnel, in case the Blakists managed to find it. Excavation will be a pain, but if we get that far it means we won the war here. Something to look forward to, I guess. Much like rebuilding Avalon City.

Well, it’s getting late. Better wind this down for now – I’m hearing the “lights out” warning. Power’s been spotty since the Word blew up the New Canton power facility. You’d think with our underground backup this wouldn’t be a problem, but it seems our wonderful designers back during the Third War only routed the main power buffers to the manufacturing center. Which, incidentally, still smells like fish. Gotta love the fact that to keep appearances, they have to cover all the senses. Nothing like the feeling of squirming around in a knee actuator with the pungent smell of Avalonian salmon wafting by.

So the living quarters are hooked to the New Canton line. “Why” really escapes me at this point…but I’ve been told our electricians are laying in a new conduit, so this is more an inconvenience than anything.

I’m back on lead in six hours – we’re hoping to spin up the gyro today and see if the new frame stabilizer will work. The last one failed pretty badly, our mock stress test nearly twisted the rotary right out of its mounting. I’m thinking it’s a torsion-shear problem, wanna run some more numbers by Mike in the morning.

I’ll write more later. And Millie? Love ya lots.

Robert