"Understood sir, um...is this partially because of posse comitatus?"

"No, not this time because of the Enforcement Acts, this is because of the fact that quite frankly while the Coast Guard could be put under Navy jurisdiction by me I need you state side and the Navy could very well send you over seas. I do have a few Navy personnel still on hand in Louisiana but the Coast Guard has a bigger presence this time despite their smaller size"

"How many Navy personnel?"

"Just over 500 and most will be manning the base and one ship"

"Okay Coast Guard is better this time"

"Exactly, though it's still odd that you mention the posse comitatus and I mentioned the Enforcement Acts since it's a whole state in trouble instead of just African Americans"

"The EDC amendment sir"

"Right, forgot about that amendment"

"Though the Coast Guard doesn't fall under that act because of who they are under and the fact that while they are part of the armed forces they also enforce maritime law and regulations"

"Well in any case, all of you are needed where I tell you you are, your flights go out tonight and you're to report in immediately once you get to your locations"

"Yes sir"

"Oh and Kerenai one more thing, your family sent a message to me in code, unfortunately even translated it doesn't make much sense to me or my aids"

"Let me see"

Allison reads it and sighs heavily

"And this is what happens when I'm out of contact for almost two months seeing as how my contact methods are one way I decided to let them know I'm alive by deliberately using my false identity to buy supplies whenever possible, unfortunately that's not considered contact to them in this situation, all it does is let them know I'm alive"

"Why haven't you called them since you got here?"

"Unsecure lines, I left my cell phone back in Dallas and when John almost used a cell phone I got onto him about it seeing as how I destroyed his early on because of suspected tracking by said phone"

"And I agreed with her once I understood why she'd done what she had especially since I didn't know at the time that she'd deliberately left her own behind for that exact reason"

"Okay that's it, I thought you had me switch the systems long ago"

"I did, and I knew you had, unfortunately the place we were staying at had a problem with said Morse code system and shut it down going back to the old system, they've been working on the repairs since the day we got there, as for while we were traveling, well considering our method of travel we weren't in any one place long enough to truly make contact, even one way"

"Well that certainly would complicate matters, but why are they only now making contact with me?"

"That I don't know, but they contacted me now and I want to know what you want to do"

"Tell them I'm alive and that any future contact is to be in English, though I do understand that stress made them forget, there are a few personal things that you don't need to know about but the main thing is that they were trying to get in contact with me and reverted to using you and also used Cybertronian without thinking about it"

"Will do, and I'll handle the hotel issue as well, I should have been told about it actually long ago"

"Yes you should have, might have to send them to the police for interrogation because they're being really slow in doing the repairs, we actually had to hound them to do something the first day and they barely do anything, granted once was because of an electrical fire but the rest of the time...I'm quite frankly worried about people staying there"

"I'll take care of it"

"So, time to go since airport security can be a pain"

"Not my fault"

"Oh I know why it's so complicated and a pain but that doesn't mean I have to be fond of such things"

"True enough, now get going I know you don't have much time to deal with airport security"

"Right, good thing all of us keep go bags on hand just in case"

"How did you manage that while on the run?"

"We didn't, we made them after we got here and knew we were safe and had time to do so"

"Which means Kerenai and Tonto don't have uniforms"

"Don't worry about that Dan, the President can always authorize emergency requisition"

"She's right, that I can certainly do, but I actually don't need to, Kerenai do you remember when you were told about Tonto surviving his apparent death by shooting?"

"Yes I remember, I pranked you but good, though with unintentional consequences"

"Not your fault we didn't know I was allergic to the food, well anyways I got Tonto a spare uniform while he was with me before you were separated once more and I got your spare uniform while you were in Europe"

"You got our measurements and made sure we had spare uniforms at your place just in case"

"Exactly"

"And I get the feeling that you're going to make sure that any future President's do the same"

"Yes, all President's are informed about your...unique circumstances with aging for security reasons"

"But of course, well we really need to get going now"

"Give me five minutes for your uniforms and I'll let you go"

Five minutes later and they were headed to the airport for their various directions per their Presidential orders

"See you guys back in Texas"

"Austin?"

"Dallas"

"Houston, I have my reasons for that by the way"

"Fine Dan"

What they didn't know was that while Austin was the state capitol Dan knew that Houston would be the hardest of the fights because of it's size so it was better to converge there since they would probably be fighting for that city last. Each of their flights were called and they separated per their orders, when Allison herself got to the Coast Guard she had three weeks of integration training primarily because of the fact that Allison was...problematic in their minds with how she did things not understanding that a month and a half of travel in secret affects people, because in all honesty while the four had gotten back to a sense of normality in that they weren't as hyper vigilant as before all of them were still more vigilant than even a soldier on duty normally would be, and those reflexes caused Allison problems in that she almost hurt her fellow squad members a few times in between activities, and her natural ability to get into a zone when doing shooting or katas didn't help matters either. The other reason actions weren't taken was because shortly after they arrived the enemy made another attack and had regained the ground they had lost in all three states and as such the states needed to regain the ground they had lost and that took timing and groups that none of them were involved in due to location

"Kerenai, we got our marching orders"

"Finally, I was wondering when I'd get involved in the fight"

"We take Galveston first, and go from there"

"Works for me"

And so Dan's mental prediction proved true as to where they would be able to reunite since Galveston was a problem for Allison's team because of the fact that the enemy somehow managed to adapt to naval warfare which meant that the Coast Guard had to fight every inch of the way with very minimal Navy support

"Okay that took way too much time in my mind"

"You're right, we need to hurry if we're going to help with the fight for Houston"

The fight for Houston ultimately took even longer than the fight for Galveston but eventually the fighting was over and the state of Texas was free once more

"Hey you guys"

"Hey Kerenai, well, time for rebuilding"

"Yeah, our plans are going to be on the back burn for a while"

"Well we did say twenty to thirty years before joining the EDC so that will work fine in regards to the rebuilding"

(Sighs) "this is going to take a lot of work, the government of Texas will need to be reestablished, law enforcement also needs work, hopefully some survived by taking to hiding who they are but it will still take time, and let's not get into the infrastructure that needs rebuilding"

"That is going to take at least a decade and things will never be the same"

"Then we'd best get to it"

The rebuilding was begun the next day and in daylight it was discovered that the damage wasn't quite as severe as originally believed, but it was still bad enough that it would take at least five years to be completed, and that was for Houston alone, at least in regards to the infrastructure. The government of Texas had actually gone into physical hiding, actually leaving the state at the last minute seeking sanctuary in Hawaii, though they were in contact with a secret resistance primarily made up of police officers and as such knew when it was finally safe to return home, having the majority of the police alive, both for the city and as the State Police helped matters in the minds of Allison and John, because that meant that not as many Texas Rangers were needed to be trained up again, though they deputized certain police officers in each city temporarily as per what was allowed in the state constitution to help regain order, including police academy cadets. As such within a year law and order was completely reestablished, even if getting around was still problematic whenever using cars, horses were less of a problem as a means of transportation because of the condition of the roads

"It's weird that horses are the primary means of travel once more"

"I know Dan, but people are still being taught to drive for the day that cars are the primary means of transportation once more"

"I know, and all of us keep up our driving skills because of that very reason, but still it's nice to be riding horses on a regular basis again"

"For now we have to get to Houston, me because I need to get a prisoner and you because of some sort of legal thing from your job"

"Right, get up boy"

They eventually get to their destinations and Allison made sure her prisoner was as secure as they could be, however what Allison didn't know was that the prisoner had no thoughts of escape for two reasons, one of which she would find out once they were back in Dallas. The first reason was because they knew escape was useless since a manhunt would be started and with the way things were right now they wouldn't get very far. The second and more important reason in their minds was because they were an FBI agent in deep cover and had been since shortly before the whole mess happened with Texas, and they really needed to get in contact with the FBI now due to issues, but with the communication infrastructure still primarily in Morse code in Texas they felt it better that being logged in as arrested in Dallas was the best way to go since for some reason Houston was having computer issues

"So, Dallas huh?"

"Yes Dallas"

"Could you at least loosen these cuffs slightly?"

"Nope, not unless they start cutting off circulation, I am not letting you escape"

"All things considered that would be a really stupid move right now, but I won't fight you on this"

They eventually got back to Dallas and due to her security clearance as soon as she made a report about who she had arrested she got an alert that only came up if another government agency was on the alert for that particular name in connection to being arrested and what the alert said shocked her extremely, actually causing her to go back to the cell block and ask to speak to her prisoner in a private room

"Why didn't you tell me you were an FBI agent on deep cover assignment?"

"Orders, I have very few people I am allowed to reveal myself to, the exceptions are two Texas Rangers called Allison Kerenai and John Reid plus a few other Dallas officers and a couple of FBI agents, but otherwise I can't tell anyone who I really am"

(Sighs) "I should have identified myself to you when I got you, my name is Allison Kerenai, now I need to know if you deliberately got arrested to alert the FBI to the fact that you were alive"

"No, it's something else, but with the fact that we're mostly still Morse code in Texas I felt it better to leave actual communication beyond status alerts to in person"

"Well at least they're not being surprised completely about your name popping up because otherwise they would be wondering why someone is using a dead agents undercover name"

"I know, that's exactly why I did things the way I did"

"What about during the trouble in Texas?"

"That was a complicated pain in the neck"

"I don't doubt it"

"I expect someone from the agency to come talk to me in a day or so"

"Quick question, did you arrange this code before or during your undercover assignment?"

"Before because of the fact that I might have been forced to use unsecure cell phones in my undercover work so only status reports were permitted over the phone, anything else like further orders are always in person"

"How does that work?"

"We have our ways"

"Okay"

"So what now?"

"Now you let me know if you need my protection before the agency gets here to talk to you, I'm certain that they'll make their own arrangements once they talk to you but until then you're under my protection, if you need moving I will be the one doing it"

"Understood Kerenai, are you going to be the one to escort me back to my cell?"

"Yes, I might as well"

Once the "prisoner" was back in their cell she went back to the office and everyone asked what her hurry was when she left