>>6119204It goes on for a while. Ink tries to pay attention. Something about counter-capture thrusts and sallies and secondary fallbacks. A part of her categorises the information, as always. But another part is too occupied staring down at the map. All that red. Closing in. One long semi-circle, spreading across the horizon. A little nucleus of blue around which perimeter patrols swirl. Tiny, comparatively. She just has to hope its enough.
" And . . .There. " She hears it now, too, the distant
BORK BORK BORK. Isenfrii must have an ear for them. A little while later a tired looking scraghound bounds through the guards, comes to a panting halt and snaps around the tent. The commander slides off of his folding chair and throws a small bit of jerky offhandedly, trading meat for a penned report delivered by a four pawed courier. Ink wouldn't have credited scraghounds with the capability to act as couriers before she came out here but the system works. The hound flops over in the shade of the tent, gnawing awayIsenfrii scans the paper. Takes a step back to the map and adjusts the position of a few tokens. Seems satisfied, though looking down at it, the strategical picture doesn't exactly seem improved by the fact that a few of the blues ones (hers! sort of! If she's the employer!) end up in the middle of a small red camp near the edge.
But that's why she hired a professional. Maybe there's some higher order operational victory in letting your own pieces be captured by the enemy.
" Good news? "
" Acceptable conditional ones. It adjusts the timetable, harsh though it already is. "
Ink feels it, then. The surge of sudden excitement.
" How much? I still need three more days. Four, if it works slow, but we're making progress so three should be-- " Isenfrii cuts her off, not rudely, but with a small nudge of a token. A little blue mass inside a sea of red.
" I believe I can provide four days, Miss Ink, though some of it we will have to delegate to my bannermen. "
" Shouldn't you be, I don't know, overseeing the strategical picture? Rallying troopers? I confess I don't entirely know what a commander *does* "
Isenfriis smile stays right where it is.
" As I keep telling my officers, a good commander does a lot but perhaps a great commander can get away with doing very little. "
" And you are . . ."
" A habitual workaholic "
" I don't think that's particular reassuring, given the topic "
" I never claimed to be great. I think you hired me and mine for my charm "
" Commander, I do need those three days. Four, if at all possible. Then afterwards, most of our problems should be resolved "
" Fascinating "
" What is? "
" I find myself wondering how a single woman and her four associates will 'resolve' a situation after more time has passed, in the middle of the Wastes, beset by an antagonist force that has not identified itself or issued terms, while our supply situation worsens. Very rarely do things improve simply because time marches on "
