Lt. Michael S. Anders' Journal

It's been an unreasonably-long time since I've had a moment to post. We've been doing a lot of extra patrols and I've especially been pulling duty on a lot of them. I think they're grooming me for Miramar, but I'm not 100% sure about that. I miss Ellie so much it physically hurts at times, so anything that takes me stateside again in the near future is something I'll embrace.

Local geopolitics remains turbulent and strange. When I'm not on patrol I've been getting grabbed for some impromptu-diplomacy with locals who prefer to deal with a married man and/or someone connected to the Mastersons, or my father's companies. It's a little odd. I feel up to the challenge but I'm still puzzling out a lot of the undercurrents.

The squadron celebrated my birthday with me, but not having Ellie with me felt incredibly wrong. I hope next year, if I'm not back in the States, I can at least get leave to be with her on that day.