“Well, if everyone is here in one piece, then I guess I have Mr Fightmaster to thank for that.” Gavin Mitchell’s volume was loud enough to cause both Amber and Rosa to wince in pain, despite a few hours of sleep, breakfast, and a visit to sickbay. The latter of which was mostly useless as Dr Terax was once more in a ‘suffer your self-imposed agonies’ state of being.

“So thank you, Stirling,” Mitchell continued as he entered into the small briefing room. It resembled a lecture hall, with seating enough for thirty, ranks of seats rising slightly so those behind could see forward easily enough. Every other member of Silver Team sat in the front row nursing a drink of some variety save for Brek. “This is going to be a bit of a long one. I just came out of a two-hour meeting with Commanders Kendris and Gantzmann and Lieutenant Ch’tkk’va going over a collection of rather interesting New Maquis intelligence and we’ve got ourselves a mission courtesy of our friends over on the Republic.”

“The New Maquis are primarily an issue in the former DMZ,” Brek stated. “Have they extended operations into the Expanse?”

“They did,” Mitchell answered as he took the podium, setting a padd down with a slight clatter. “It looks like their one and only operation in the Expanse so far was for a specific reason, and that reason is why we’re going to go and say hello. Specifically us.” He cast his gaze over the other four members assembled. “It would appear our good work on Handl Dryf has earned us this assignment.”

“Do good work, get rewarded with more work,” Rosa muttered.

“If you can’t handle a joke, Rosa, the door is over there.” Mitchell smirked as he waited for the Orion woman with her thick Australian accent to chuckle, nod in concession and then continued. “Besides, aside from that dance with the Borg, we haven’t done much else lately besides training.”

“Could we not mention the Borg, please?” pleaded Amber. “Or goddamn cleaning robots.”

“If Republic was handling the matter previously, why are we now on it?” Stirling asked. “Would it not make more sense for them to continue?”

“Normally yes,” Mitchell answered. “But from what I was told, Republic is too close to this. The New Maquis are likely pretty familiar with standard Starfleet doctrine and our target has a bodyguard that’s familiar with the Republic’s XO’s way of doing things. So we’re going to switch things up a bit.”

“By following standard doctrine?” Rosa asked.

Mitchell nodded his head, made a point of picking up his padd, examining it for a second and then tossing it gently away. It spun as it flew, hitting the floor and sliding into the wall opposite the door into the briefing room. “Think of the rules and regulations as more…guidelines.”

“Oh ho!” Rosa exclaimed.

“That is to say,” Mitchell continued, “we’ll be following the spirit of the rules. The letter of them too when we can. The New Maquis may very well be looking for Starfleet. I’ve been told this bodyguard is definitely looking for anything Commander Sadovu might attempt. So, in that light, we’re subbing in.”

“And if things go wrong, we’ve got Captain Theodoras’ typical stubbornness and Atlantis to come bail us out,” Amber added. “So, is this information gathering? Extraction?”

“Information primarily, but seize opportunities as they arise.” Mitchell sighed as he went to retrieve his padd, the display of throwing the rules away a little too in the moment and now coming back to bite him. A tap as he walked back caused the wall behind the podium to come to life with a map of the Badlands. “Starfleet Intelligence is aware of a New Maquis base in the Badlands called New Barataria. They’re not entirely sure what it entails, but have deduced it’s acting as a hub for cells. New recruits, ship repairs, trade and R&R all in one place. We’re going to go in and see if we can’t learn anything about the whereabouts of a Doctor T’Halla Shreln. Anything else we learn is brownie points with SI.”

“Get in, rub shoulders, steal secrets, get out?” Rosa asked. “Certainly beats playing escort for the captain.”

“That and it is likely the New Maquis would have better information on a ship’s senior officers than anyone else,” Stirling added. “We are, no insult to anyone, likely to be unknowns to the New Maquis.”

“Ouch,” Amber responded.

“It’s a logical supposition to make,” Brek said, reinforcing Stirling’s point. “Unless they have an agent within Starfleet and are able to do background checks, we should be relatively unknown to them.”

“Well, that cheery thought aside, let’s get into the briefing. I want everyone to know what I’m allowed to share and we’ve got a bit to cover.” Mitchell zoomed the map of the Badlands in closer, a single blue blip appearing in the sea of roiling orange. “This is New Barataria…”