{"id":2539,"date":"2023-08-19T14:47:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-19T21:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/?p=2539"},"modified":"2023-08-22T13:33:48","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T20:33:48","slug":"letters-from-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/19\/letters-from-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters From School"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

prompt: Write a story in the form of a letter, or multiple letters back and forth.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

available at Reedsy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dearest sister,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have arrived, and it is beyond everything we\u2019ve heard. The crowds and noise of the city would be overwhelming if I hadn\u2019t spent so long doing language training at Holger Station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The air smells weird here. I\u2019ve been assured it\u2019s perfectly safe, but there are so many different chemicals that once I get used to one scent, another comes along. The strongest come from the eateries, the odors of cooking pouring out to the streets to entice customers in, but as I\u2019m not used to the food, it\u2019s just strange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was met at the port by Lt. Stephen Marks. He\u2019s been an absolute gentleman. After he got me set up in my quarters, he took me out for dinner and introduced me to tacos. I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect, but they were flavorful and filling, once I got over the mix of several strong flavors all at once. He has promised to ensure I get as full education an in all the world\u2019s cuisines and cultures as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m still nervous about the course, but I have a few days before it starts to get myself settled and get to know some of the other students. To think that I\u2019m the first of our people to attend \u2014 it\u2019s a big honor, but you know how I feel about that sort of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll be cutting this letter short, though, as I need to get some rest after the trip and try to \u201cget my internal clock set to local time,\u201d as Stephen puts it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give my love to matron. Your loving sister,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little sister,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s good to hear that you arrived safely. The danger is over, at least until it\u2019s time to come back home. I have no doubt the officer you\u2019re already on a first name basis with, ~Stephen~, will keep you safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know I\u2019m just teasing. But just in case you ~do~ end up getting involved, you have to promise to tell me if the rumors are true. The ones about human males, I mean. Skies be damned, tell me the truth about ~all~ the rumors, but first the one about the males. I crack myself up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need to take holos of ~everything~. I\u2019m not the only curious person around here. How does it feel to be surrounded by a bunch of humans? Do they trip over you? How do you keep from getting your tails stepped on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as the \u201cbig honor\u201d goes, you\u2019re a war hero whether you want it or not. And before you start with that stupid ~I just did what anybody would do~ nonsense, NO YOU DIDN\u2019T! You did exactly the right thing at the right time and kept an invading army from taking our home. My silly ass would\u2019ve just run away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why you\u2019re the youngest Commadorer in the army, and I sell fur care products and groom strangers for pay. By the way, I sent you some of the new fur shine I told you about before. You don\u2019t take enough care of yourself, and since I\u2019m not there to groom you, you have to promise to use it when it gets there. If you don\u2019t I\u2019ll slap you ~so hard~. And then I\u2019ll run, because you can thrash your big sister\u2019s tails. No respect for your elders. It\u2019s so sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I know matron wanted you to go into business, but I\u2019m glad you\u2019re in the military instead. I agree with what the Minister of State or whatever said when you got your Super Value Medal. If you hadn\u2019t been there, we\u2019d all be slaves to the Grogant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll light a candle for you and send your love at matron\u2019s grave when I go tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuddles and grooms for my beloved little sister, the savior of Meelak and all Mataka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dearest sister,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are forever a source of exasperation. If you want to know about the \u201crumor\u201d as you put it, pick up your Xeno Biology book from the class you failed and look it up. You\u2019ll find the answer in the section about Terran mammals (which includes humans.) By the way, yes, most<\/em> Terran mammal males have their gonads suspended outside their abdomens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not going to argue with you about hero or not anymore, it\u2019s not worth the hassle. But I don\u2019t know what a \u201cCommadorer\u201d is. I\u2019m the youngest Commander<\/em> in the Army. Also, the Minister of State had nothing to do with my Commendation for Supreme Valor<\/em>, (\u201cSuper Value Medal\u201d? really? what am I, a sale?) \u2014 that was the Director of Military Affairs<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, the humans don\u2019t step on my tails or trip over me. We\u2019re about the same size as a human child and they seem to instinctively watch out for people our size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first few days of the course were all classroom stuff, but still intense. It turns out that the humans have different militaries that all send officers to this course, along with some civilians as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have a force that fights only on the ground (Army), one that fights in the air (Air Force), one dedicated to fighting on and in the water, how weird is that? (Navy \u2014 that\u2019s where Stephen is from), one dedicated to fighting in space (Space Force), one that specializes in moving from water or space to land or ship-boarding in both places, (Marines), and even a force that only engages in electronic warfare, (Cyber Force.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, I was confused. How could they keep all the different services coordinated? That\u2019s what this course is about: coordinating the efforts of the different services, civilian organizations, and even militaries from other worlds in a war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a lot I need to catch up on in terms of tactics, but it\u2019s engrossing. I was thoroughly embarrassed, though, to find out that the battle of Meelak was taught as a prime example of a \u201chold and delay\u201d action. The instructor then had a question-and-answer period, where I<\/em> had to answer the questions. I honestly didn\u2019t know what I was doing most of the time during Meelak. I just made it up as I went since the Commander was dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got the fur shine today. Thank you, my fur was getting dry. Just because I don\u2019t spend two hours every morning grooming my fur, though, doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m a slob. Seriously, a full treatment every few days is plenty. I\u2019m not trying to be a model. Besides, you<\/em> got all the looks in the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I need to turn in. We\u2019re heading out early in the morning to begin a training exercise involving all the different services. Stephen will be on a ship \u2014 as in a water<\/em> ship, while I\u2019ll be working with an Army mechanized infantry unit. They\u2019ve outfitted me with a modified, smaller version of their uniform (with a hole for my tails) and a civilian pack that\u2019s more suited to my size. They even found a plate carrier and plates small enough for me but, skies above, all this stuff is heavy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I probably won\u2019t have a chance to send another letter until the end of the course, as the next few weeks will be spent on the exercise, which takes place all over the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All my love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little sister,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t care what your award is called, it\u2019s awesome and you\u2019re awesome. My award is that I have the ~best sister in the whole galaxy~!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know when you\u2019ll get this, since you said you\u2019ll be moving all over the place, but I\u2019m thinking of you every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You were right about the bio book, it even had drawings. WEIRD!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lezl has been reading your letters, by the way, and says hi. She also said you called me dumb in your last letter but I didn\u2019t see it anywhere. That just made her LAUGH at me! I think she made that up just to tease. Thanks for admitting that I\u2019m the prettier one, though. You\u2019re ~so sweet~!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounds like the humans are overdoing it on the different militaries. Kind of like using fur shine, then washing with deep rinse, then doing a steam treatment, and then, whatever. You get what I mean. It\u2019s good we just have the army and you are the ~Commander~!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have fun exercising, and I can\u2019t wait to hear how it went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuddles and grooms,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dearest sister,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, allow me to correct something you said. I am not The<\/em> Commander of the Army, I am A<\/em> Commander in the Army. I\u2019m in charge of a cohort, what the Terran Army calls a company. In this course, though, we get the chance to take command of an entire brigade combat team, (about the same size as what we call a major combat group), and coordinate with the other services\u2019 teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s not that I was out exercising<\/em>, (although I got plenty of that), the training simulation is called an exercise. We are fighting (with fake rounds) the Opposing Force (OPFOR) made up of other units from the human militaries. While the OPFOR was meant to be generic, the units and tactics they used were exactly like the Grogant. If we\u2019d had this sort of training and cohesion, we could\u2019ve driven them back in half the time, without having to resort to orbital bombardment of three whole cities to get rid of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, we \u201cwon\u201d the exercise and defeated the OPFOR in a matter of weeks. The training ended with live fire demonstrations of the human \u201crods from god\u201d which is what they call heavy tungsten rods released from orbit with no guidance or explosives. They are far more precise and cause less surrounding damage than our own orbital bombardment, but still more than enough to demolish a Grogant carrier spike ship with full shields. (How they got one that works is beyond me, and I know better than to ask.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The different militaries: yes, it does somewhat seem like they\u2019ve overcomplicated it, but it all works together so well that it makes our own Army look somewhat lackluster. Imagine if the major combat groups and cohorts only focused on one type of warfare. Just one thing, rather than being expected to provide ship-board security, then do a boarding action, then defend on the ground, then drive armor, then use artillery, then work to repair vehicles, and so on. We\u2019d be much<\/em> better at it if we specialized in one job. In this case, the humans have the right of it. Considering that only deep space navigators and trans-light pilots are specialized, we\u2019re all just sort of okay at everything and an expert at nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing that surprised me was that your letter got here as quickly as it did. The humans have logistics down to a science. It\u2019s been made clear to me through the exercise that logistics are what makes or breaks a military and can decide battles and even wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would\u2019ve written back sooner but was too busy. Even though it was for training, it was exhausting and hard. They have a saying that exactly translated is, \u201cDon\u2019t use only half your haunches while training. How you train is how you will fight.\u201d I think the first part of that means give it your all. The humans have a lot of saying involving their haunches; maybe because they don\u2019t have tails. Who knows?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, I\u2019m heading home tomorrow, so I should be there no more than a day or two after this letter reaches you. I\u2019m bringing home my certificate from the Terran Joint and Combined Warfighting School, a host of things to teach to my higher-ups in the Army, an honorary commission as a Captain in the Terran Army, and contacts of some new friends. Sorry, I only managed to make about three hundred holos, I know you\u2019ll complain it\u2019s not enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See you soon, dear sister,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

prompt: Write a story in the form of a letter, or multiple letters back and forth. available at Reedsy Dearest sister, I have arrived, and it is beyond everything we\u2019ve heard. The crowds and noise …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[208],"tags":[210,228,209],"class_list":["post-2539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trunk-stories","tag-fiction","tag-science-fiction","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pxT7i-EX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2539"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2541,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2539\/revisions\/2541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}