Ok, not good. Not good at all.

We've had to increase our patrols in the area since most of our security detail has been reassigned elsewhere. The 'Mech bay, for once, seems rather cavernous now. Only a lance of 'Mechs is on active status, and we've got two of the Legionnaires in final systems position—which means that if the crap hits the fan, we can field two of them in any battle. We're feverishly trying to get the next two ready—O'Reilly wants to ship them off with the next smuggler's ship to another Corean facility far far away from New Avalon. Once we can get these offworld, the AFFS can get some serious replacements built up. I think we've got the process boiled down enough that any decently equipped facility can crank out Legionnaires like no-one's business.

I'm not entirely sure leaving only a skeleton defense here is wise, but I think we're relying heavily on secrecy now as our biggest weapon. Word of Blake sorties in the area has decreased drastically and from what some of the officers have been whispering, it's like that across the planet. Something's brewing, and I doubt it's the retreat of the Robbies.

So because of our heightened alert, they've reactivated some of us as certified MechWarriors. Pops has been slotted into the standard rotation now—even though his age really precludes any type of combat, they're desperate. I'm supposed to see the Major later today and I suspect I'm going to get reinstated as well. Despite the pins in my leg and my auditory imbalancing problem. If that's the case, then they really are gearing up for something, as they've never left this place with such scant protection since the days of the civil war, when they stripped everything to throw at Katherine.

It's unsettling.

I'm concerned, because it may mean that I'm thrown back into a cockpit again, which means combat, which means possible death, which means we may never see the end of this war, which means we can't be together.

I'm rather frightened, Millie. And, I suspect, I think I understand what you deal with every time you crawl into your cockpit.

Godspeed, dear heart.

Love you lots.

Robert