"Don't you have a home to go to?" Drifter wanted to know.

Deputy Commander Sloane, who had any number of other places she could be, glanced up from her assortment of reports and screens. She'd set up her battle station right in the middle of Drifter's ship and showed no signs of leaving. "I'm busy," she said. Her Ghost, hovering above her left shoulder, bobbed in agreement. "Either contribute, or leave."

"That's my line," Drifter groused, but he pulled up one of the more stable chairs anyway, dropping himself into it where he could scan over the things she had spread out. "Hive?"

"It's always Hive," Sloane said tiredly.

"Unless it's Taken."

"Unless it's Taken," she agreed, then remembered she was angry with him, scowling across the way. "Were you going to help?"

Drifter held his hands up, exaggerated his 'I wasn't doing nothing, ma'am' expression. "I might have a few pieces of intel."

"Right," Sloane said. "Well, you go ahead and volunteer those when they seem relevant. I'm thinking Xivu Arath has to be first. Savathûn likes the long game anyway, and Xivu Arath's eager for a fight. She'll hit us first, and we don't want to be trying to unwind some kind of trap while Xivu's throwing swords."

"She's real into swords."

"Helpful." Sloane tapped her fingers against the rickety card table. "If Xivu Arath gets going, it'll be hard to stop her without also powering her up by fighting. So we hit her first, ideally, if we can find the right place before she starts killing."

Drawn in despite himself, Drifter squinted at Sloane's notes. A blue-line map of the Dreadnaught in three dimensions, half-complete—a few little notes off to the side ranking Hive constructs and likely locations for Xivu Arath's plots. SWORDS was underlined heavily. "Surprise attack still feels like an attack to me," he said in a moment, warming up to being helpful.

"It sure is." Sloane blew out a frustrated breath. "She's not what she was. Not since Eris cut her off. But we still don't have time for an elegant, pacifist solution. Which is why my best thought is not to target her directly. We target her targets – find where she plans to hit, deprive her of kills and tithes by taking them down first. And if it does come to straight-on combat, make whatever we do quick and clean, none of the glory-in-battle nonsense she likes." She shrugged, not particularly happy. "It's got flaws, but it's something."

"Not the worst plan I've heard," Drifter said honestly. He rocked his chair onto one leg, swinging it over the pivot point carelessly. "You think all this is gonna work?"

Sloane looked up at him, fixing him with the sort of gaze that looked through him. He had the sense that he had her full attention. "I don't know," she said. "But I know we have to give it our best if we have any shot at it working. You trust Eris, don't you?"

"'Course I do."

Sloane deliberated visibly for a moment or two. "Then it will work," she said finally.

"Sure," Drifter said, ignoring the sheer volume of things she clearly hadn't said. "All right. Guess I'm already dealt in anyway. Got any use for a list of places the Lucent Brood's been sighted?"

"Always."