Five Years
Jorgan misses his wife.
He misses her laughter, her smile, her god-awful jokes that make him groan. He doesn't miss her cooking, but he does miss teasing her about it.
He's not used to being alone, and he doesn't like it. Vik was the first one to bail - no surprise there - but Yuun's desertion came as a blow. The skinny little Gand just up and vanished one night, leaving behind nothing - no explanation, no indication that he ever existed. If he ever sees that warbling little twig again, he'll be hard-pressed not to snap him in two.
Meanwhile, Forex transferred to the Press Corps six months in.
It's been a year, and Jorgan misses his wife.
He and Dorne spent every spare second trying to fight the KIA-declaration - almost got him a psych discharge, after he shouted down some spineless data-spouter because dammit, his wife had survived worse things than an exploding battle cruiser, and it was impossible that his wife had died because Marr hadn't bothered to keep his shields up. But eventually, he has to cave, grudgingly settling for the knowledge that when his wife comes back, she'll get her stripes - and her backpay. He sends the occasional message to Elara, living somewhere on Coruscant after being drummed out of the service, but she never responds.
It's been two years, and Jorgan misses his wife.
The old Havoc is gone, scattered in the wind. Saresh is being as manipulative and useless as ever. So he takes matters into his own hands, shaping his new squad in her image, impressing upon them the importance of loyalty, tenacity, determination beyond the norm. None of them could match his wife, but they damn well tried - especially Kanner.
Eventually he gets fed up with Saresh's poodoo and marches off to Zakuul himself - only to find that his squad has followed him. Working together, they do their best to cause the Eternal Throne all manner of grief, but nothing they do seems to stick.
There's a commotion in the capital city - some kind of blackout, followed by a ship crashing somewhere. He sends Xaban to take a look, but she doesn't find any survivors. Exiles or dissidents, she guesses, shot down by Skytroopers trying to escape. He isn't so sure - the chaos caused, combined with disproportionately low casualty numbers, has the Major - Colonel - written all over it. But nothing happens after that, and he begins to give up hope that his wife is still alive.
Then he sees her - different armor, same overly-modified assault cannon - stalking purposefully towards the rendezvous coordinates. Even through the scopes, he can see the new scars and scorch marks on her armor, the cut above one eye, and he can barely believe it.
Saresh would have to get those stripes and backpay ready.
Confession time. I posted this on my Tumblr a while ago, but just now got around to posting it here. Many apologies, my friends.