“Do we still have no idea who these assholes are?” Mason demanded, bursting through the door of the Resolute’s small briefing room and almost taking the thing off its mechanism with his shoulder. It groaned in protest and Bennett’s expression set, no doubt adding the door to his many list of maintenence requirements because of the fact these little Starfleet ships really were not designed for large people.

“No.” Allen said from the other side of the room where he was lounging as he read through one of the multitude of padds that surrounded him like a satellite system.

“No? As in nothing? Or no, as in you’re still looking?” Sometimes getting information out of Allen was like getting blood out of a stone. He rubbed a hand over the close cropped hair on his head as he dropped into his chair at the head of the table, earning himself another look from Bennett as the thing squeaked. 

“What?” Allen flicked an irritated glance up, as though the entire briefing was nothing more than an inconvenience designed to keep him away from his reading. “Oh. Still looking. With the sensor readings and analysing the wreckage—“

He trailed off, something on screen catching his eye. Silence fell around the room. Rennox looked uncomfortable, RJ leaned back in his chair to study the ceiling and Kovash picked under her nails with a blade what was nowhere near standard issue.

Mason glared at her to put it away and cleared his throat pointedly. “Is there a second part to that sentence, Mr. Allen?”

Allen glanced up again, looking a little startled as though he’d forgotten he was in the middle of a room of people.

“Wreckage?” Mason added helpfully. Sometimes, he really wondered what he’d done to deserve this lot… it was like herding ferrets at times. But, they did make up for it by being amazing when the shit hit the fan.

“Wreckage?” Allen blinked then his expression cleared. “Ah, yes boss! Analysis indicates this group got themselves into a bit of a tangle with someone else. Definite evidence of Starfleet weaponry damage. If I was a betting man, then I’d guess at a Defiant.”

Mason’s eyebrow winged up but he didn’t argue. After the encounter with the Devore, Allen just… knew things. If he said the enemy had been in an incident with a Defiant, then they had.

He frowned. “What? Here? Was there any evidence of another fleet ship in the system recently?”

That didn’t fit. The Resolute had kept getting stuck like a fly rolling along flypaper as it hit each system, so it would stand to reason that any other ship would as well. Especially something like a Defiant, without any of the fancy upgrades Allen and Bennett theorised would allow free movement through whatever the hell the Blackout was.

“Nope. None.”

He rubbed at his beard, the short strands prickling his fingers. “So that wasn’t here. They ran into a Defiant someplace else. But where? How?”

“I may have some info on that.” RJ leaned forward and Mason’s gaze narrowed on him. They still weren’t talking properly after that incident in Thorne’s office; the one where the playboy had disappeared and the new, capable RJ Reese-Riggs had emerged.

“Do tell.”

“The Huginn and Munnin were almost out of the system when the apeture opened.” RJ leaned back in his chair, looping one leg carelessly over the other, his whole posture relaxed in the same way as a big cat watching prey.

“Huginn and Munnin?” Bennett asked with a frown.

“The two traders in the fight,” the red-haired captain replied. “They’re Riggs company vessels.”

Mason suppressed his snort. How did he know those two heavily armed traders were going to be something to do with RJ’s family company?

“They caught everything. Seven of the enemy ships came through, but according to Huginn’s captain, it looked like they were being chased. They were running from something.”

Interesting. Mason leaned back in his chair, got a warning groan and sat up straighter. Seriously, did every chair weld on this ship organise it so they failed at the same time?

“Presumably from our Defiant friend. And if they were running from underspace to here, then that would mean that there’s a starfleet presence in underspace. That’s interesting. Okay, what are we looking at here in the system?”

Andrews cleared his throat. “Pretty much a total loss, boss. The orbital platforms are screwed and the dock is a total loss. I’ve been in touch with both planetary governments. They have ship to orbit capabilities and they’re doing their best to recover escape pods and the like, but it’s not a rescue mission at this point.”

Like every other system they’d been in. Mason sighed heavily. “Did the ships fire on the planets themselves? Or just off planet assets?”

“Just off-planet. Both governments assure me that they have surface to space defence capability should they come back.” Andrews replied in a calm voice, his reply indicating that he knew the direction Mason’s thoughts would head into.

Defence. Protection of life. Mason might want to take the fight right to these assholes, but he was a Starfleet captain, which meant there where were other considerations to take into account.

There were always other considerations to take into account.

Sometimes he really missed the simplicity of a battlefield where you knew your enemy inside out. Where it came down to one thing, you or him. He snapped out of it as Andrews spoke again.

“Plus,” Andrews added. “Both planets have deep cave systems they can move their population into should the worst happen. Apparently, historically that’s where they made their homes, so they’re prepping for that as a worse case scenario.”

“Excellent. At least they’re not completely defenceless.” He tapped his fingers against the arm of his chair as he thought.

None of the systems they’d come through had shown any evidence of planetary bombardment. It just looked like the enemy was hitting any space-held defences and assets. Which meant they were keeping each planet locked to its surface. Was that the plan? If so, why? What did they gain from the hit and run tactic?

“Huginn and Munnin can’t go anywhere,” RJ added. “So I’ve ordered them to stay in the system for the time being. Aya will have my ass for it but…” He shrugged. “They can’t reach her at the moment. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”

He did snort at that. He’d love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. He’d met RJ’s sister once. Small and delicate, she was also as hard as nails and had her older brother totally wrapped around her little finger. She was also, as far as he knew, the new CEO of the Riggs Transport Company, which meant she made the decisions. 

“Okay, then we have a plan.”

Kovash looked up, the pout from being told to put her toy away sliding off her face, interest written all over her features. He knew that look, she was itching for a fight just as much as he was. “We do?”

“Yeah. We can’t let that Defiant have all the fun, now can we?” He grinned. “As soon as that aperture opens up again, then fuck it, we’re taking the fight to them.”