Back In the Saddle

[Ethan Talon]

The sun was still below the horizon. A soft line of gray to the east indicated the inevitability the sun's arrival. He was in his uniform sans the jacket. That was hanging on the back of his chair in the kitchen.

He stomped the muck from his boots and entered the house through the back door and into the kitchen. Mrs. Ackers was already cooking breakfast. The scents of frying eggs, and coffee filled the house.

"Morning," Ethan greeted sleepily.

"Oh, good morning dear!" Mrs. Ackers said over her shoulder from the stove. He couldn't believe the woman was already up.

Ethan when to the cupboard and pulled out a mug, which he filled with coffee. "Are you why there's no eggs in the coop?"

"Of course dear," she replied without looking up. She flipped the eggs into a plate, and started laying in thick slices of bacon.

Like his mom, Ethan used coffee like a warp core uses antimatter. And soon the sleep lifted from his brain. "You didn't need to do all this. I could have grabbed something at base."

"Nonsense!" She exclaimed. "I don't tell you how to do your job, don't tell me how to do mine."

Ethan shook his head and sat down at the table, "Fair enough."

"You two should be on your honeymoon, not heading into work."

Ethan sighed. He felt the same way, but fate had conspired otherwise. "I know, but when war is declared I can't very well be visiting the Galatian Hot Springs can I?"

"Yes you can!" Mrs Ackers said. "It's not every day you marry your childhood sweetheart."

Ethan grinned, "I'm a lucky man Mrs. Ackers. Not only for Trinity, but having you around too. You're not my mom, bit you certainly fill that void."

"Well, thank you dear!"

[Trinity Talon]

Trinity came down the stairs in just her uniform blouse and black sheer tights with her skirt and pumps in hand. "Mrs. Ackers, do you know where the sewing kit is? I wrecked the zipper." she said and glanced at Ethan. "Because some husbands forget to take all the laundry out of the hamper on wash day..." she cleared her throat. She bent over at the waist directly in his line of sight and smirked as she slipped her shoes on. "Breakfast smells wonderful."

"I think I saw that kit Angel left in the top left drawer by the sink." Olivia said as she walked into the kitchen and slipped off her sunglasses. "Bust another zipper?"

"Yeah, I need to talk to the quartermaster, these zipper pulls are garbage. Flew out of my hand when it snapped off." Trinity said and pecked Ethan on the cheek. "I could just go in with the tights... my jacket covers me like a dress anyway... but I think my husband wouldn't get any work done. And it would distract the men."

"And a few of the women." Olivia teased. "Private O'Reilly took a pass at me at the reception."

"Me too. She was so drunk it was actually comical to watch. Found her shoes finally, one was in the horse trough and the other was on the roof of the pig shelter. No idea how they got on opposite sides of the ranch." Trinity said and filled her mug with coffee and then rummaged through the sewing kit. "Ah ha... this'll do." she pulled out a zipper repair kit and a new pull with a little pink 'bling' on the tab. "No one will notice this."

"So you two still haven't honeymooned yet... huh?" Olivia shook her head. "Was a war going on when I married my Ethan, didn't stop us from taking an extended weekend."

"We'll go eventually... besides, it's not like our wedding night was boring by any stretch." Trinity said as she worked on the zipper while she spoke. "Grandpa Nick may need the support, so the Corps has to be ready. First time in our career we actually had this many people under our command. It's kinda nice actually... can actually accomplish something." she fixed the zipper in a matter of a couple of minutes and tested it out before sliding it on and tucking her blouse in. "That's better. By the way... Olivia, I'm going to borrow Lana for the afternoon. I need someone to entertain Colonel Mear's daughter during his visit, he's borrowing one of our fighter simulators, one of his recruits overloaded the circuits on his and it won't power up. And he need to re certify like... today. Reminds me of my dad, he'd take me on trips when mom was on mission or he got 'Trinity-sick' and got super clingy."

"Your grandfather was like that too. He'd have 'I need my girls days', would not take no for answer from mother. So... speaking of children..." Olivia stole a piece of bacon from Trinity's plate and grinned. "When are you going to get your own? And when are they going to show up from the future?"

"Don't even tease that..." Trinity winced. "It'll happen now probably... thanks Auntie O. Although... it's entirely possible we never see a future kid because our generation actually fixed stuff. Right?"

[Ethan Talon]

David Sackett entered the kitchen from outside rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He was wearing a shiny new Lt. Colonel's uniform trimmed with yellow piping to indicate he was mechanized cavalry.

"Morning," Ethan greeted.

"Morning,," David replied. "I talked to Old Bill. I've got him, and Charlie riding up to the north pasture to check the fence. And I'm having Colt take the rest of the boys... and girls," he added hastily, "to round up the herd, and start moving them there. The grass is getting a bit thin in the east pasture."

Ethan nodded, "Good. Let's send Jack Dempsey over to town to get a couple bags of grain." The horses, and the cattle that were in the barn were fed a combination of oats, barely, rolled corn, and molasses.

"Yeah, I'll tell him," David said.

"Bad time for a war," Ehtna grumbled. "We need out last cutting done, and she should be doing our market roundup next month. Well, at least we aren't calving."

"Or branding," David added.

"Well, we can't go too far into the winter. We can't afford to feed the entire herd. Maybe dad can help us out. He should be nearly full strength."

David shrugged, "We have the man power, what we lack is experience."

"I'll see what he can do. David, you will need to report to Colonel Macdonald today. He'll be in charge while Trinity and I are away. I don't think Dougal will have much trouble with Boris White Ell and Sam Two Treea, but you never know."

Ethan bit into a piece of bacon and leaned back on his chair holding his coffee with is left hand while it rested on the table, "Trinity and I will be going Sal'dori today."

Sal'dori was a Narlin settlement made up of refugees from the Imperium War. While Talaria was under Imperium control the village was the center of Narlin resistance, and when the war ended many remained, and a few even moved there. There were many experienced fighters, and Ethan needed another regiment, and hopefully one ready to be deployed if nessicary.

[Trinity Talon]

"We should probably introduce ourselves as the Sandoval-Talons." Trinity suggested. "You know how they treat your mother." she snapped her fingers. "Which reminds me..." she tapped the piercing behind her left ear and her hair turned from its usual straight, dark brown, to a lighter and slightly curlier shade of auburn. "Trying to minimize the amount of 'Lei' in me. Rina Lee-Chung was doing a piece there and they pretty much ignored her because she resembled my grandmother too much. She DOES look like her." sipping her coffee she sighed.

"You know Ethan, David... if you think we won't be able to operate at usual capacity... it's not the worst thing. As long as our livestock is taken care of and the ranch doesn't fall into disrepair." she closed her eyes and bit her lower lip. "The Colonel... my great-grandfather Leo. He's giving us the proceeds from the private security company he sold off. It's enough, by my estimate, to keep the ranch alive for at least five years if we don't sell a single thing. Can still pay our men, keep the place up, make sure our animals are fed and taken care of. He was impressed by what you guys did and what you do. As am I but... he also knows a war could end all this. So... don't worry about the money, just make sure whatever we need is taken care of. We lose income, we lose income. Just take care of the livestock and our crops."

[Ethan Talon]

"We still need to get those steers to market. Let's not breed the cows this year. We don't have time for it anyway. Next summer we can sell most of our hay to offset our costs. Your berry fields pay for this place anyway."

Ethan stood, and put his plate into the sink and kissed Mrs. Ackers on the cheek. Returning to his chair, he didn't sit down, and pulled on his uniform jacket. You two ready?

[Trinity Talon]

"I'm ready now." Trinity said as she stood up and fixed her blouse and pulled her jacket on. "God, I love seeing you in that uniform." she said with a sigh as she looked at Ethan. "So who's driving?"

[Ethan Talon]

"No need. Rank has priviledge, and doubly so," Ethan added and pulled on his forage cap.

David stood from the table stuffing the last of the bacon in his mouth, and nodded to Ethan.


Ethan opened his communicator, "Transporter control this is General Talon."

"Go ahead," a mouse like voice said over the communicator.

"Three to beam to Camp Grant HQ."

"One moment please," that same voice squeaked. Moments later they were all standing in the main quad of Camp Grant's main building complex. Several NCOs and a few officers walked by saluting the party.

The sun was up to reveal a beautiful morning. White puffy clouds floated luxuriously in a blue sky. Fresh cut grass hung in the air, and the two flags on the flag pole fluttered in the breeze: the Terra Alpha Marine Corps flag below the Flag of the Alliance.

Off to the parade ground one of the regiments were marching in formation to the banging of drums and the high pitched whale of bagpipes. Kilted flag bearers lead the formation. One of those flags was a modified white St. Andrew's Cross on a blue background. The battle standard of the 78th Vulunteer Infantry Regiment.

"Well, Dougal's got his people out early."

[Trinity Talon]

"He's taken to getting his people up really early." Trinity replied as she slipped on her sunglasses. "I get some reports before even I wake up. And I'm up at like 3...4... Dougal doesn't have augment in him, he can't make do on 3 hours like I can." she shrugged her shoulders. "To each his own I suppose." glancing at her watch she hummed. "I'm not hearing the dulcet tones of troop carrier shuttles. The Maori division from the Kitea was going to be training here today. So... where's your first stop, my staff gets worried when I show up too early and they start getting overly nervous. Am I THAT intimidating?"

[Ethan Talon]

"In war sometimes two or three hours is all you get," Ethan said. "We need to schedule some war games to get everyone used to field maneuvers." He glanced at his cousin. "That garage has your vehicles. ATVs, a couple of armored personnel carriers, and some transport sleds. Get your people organized into it. The personnel carriers will need gunners, and drivers." He checked his chronometer. Let's plan on a meeting with the heads of the regiments in one hour."

David nodded, "Sure thing boss."

He started to turn away when Ethan stopped him, "Oh, Colonel... we best keep it professional from here on out."

"Yes sir. Of course sir." With a salute David was off to inspect his new toys.

Ethan chuckled after him. "He's going to be a kid on Christmas when he walks into that garage. Remind me to thank your mom, and your uncle."

[Trinity Talon]

"Oh the stuff they gave us is beautiful. It'll be a shame to see it come back all dinged and dirty and battle worn eventually. But half the fun is putting those dings and dents into them. Means they went in hard, came out harder and survived." Trinity said and applied the gloss to her lipstick to keep it from budging off. "I also need the department heads to get me their staffing budgets by the end of the day, otherwise, no one gets paid on time. Billy in Ops is a great guy but he really dumped a load of crap on us with the way he had the staffing budget set up. If the budgetary committee saw it, we'd be the ones scrubbing latrines and raking leaves." she glanced around and pecked his cheek. "We'll meet up before we head to the Narlins, I want to call them before we show up. I don't like having weapons drawn when we roll up."