Lori didn't recognize the pilot. Wilt usually flew out of hangar bay three, but she had still been worried that she might run into him. She had to put in a last minute sick day request to avoid coming into work, but no one had challenged her.

Hux arrived exactly at 1000 and didn't spare any time in greeting before stepping onto the upsilon shuttle. Lori followed behind, doing what she could not to stand out.

No one questioned that the general was taking an aid to an important meeting. More than a few of the junior officers had been stuck with the role before. As far as they were concerned, the job mostly consisted of being asked for impossibly specific information with no time to find it, and then being yelled at when they inevitably failed.

The loading ramp retracted when the only two passengers stepped aboard. Despite the door to the cockpit being shut, neither said a word to the other until the ship had left the hangar.

When they did. They spoke in hushed tones.

"Hey, Armie, we'll figure this out."

Hux knew she was trying to be comforting, but he wasn't in the mood to be in a good mood.

Lori understood that, but she didn't see the point in being miserable just for the sake of it.

"What's the plan?" she went on, "I get that we're silencing Cardinal, but how do you want it done."

Shooting him and being done with it sounds ideal, the general thought to himself. Knowing that that would only cause more problems, Hux went with his second choice.

"Quietly. We can't afford open confrontation, not in front of the rest of High Command. I'll do what I can in the meeting, but I need you to find the other copies and destroy them. Reputable as he may be, no one will risk siding with Cardinal if he can't produce proof."

Lori didn't really know where to start in finding the other disks, but she also knew that not finding them wasn't an option.

"Understood," she was cobbling together a plan with each word, "I got an idea, but I might have to be heavy handed with my general's aid position."

Hux knew he didn't have to worry about what Lori might be up to. The trust was new to him, but it felt like an old comfort.

"Do what you must. I trust you."

Lori heard the significance in the Hux's words. More often than not, people only went with her plans because they had no other choice. Even then, she had been no stranger to asking forgiveness rather than permission. The knowledge that Hux would demand neither from her moved her almost as much as the three small words they had shared in her bedroom.

She looked at the general. He tried to keep the impression that he wasn't worried, but she could see doubt eating at him.

"Thank you," she told him, voice low and soft, "I promise I won't disappoint."

He looked back to her, mood lifting despite his stubborn decision to be miserable, "You haven't yet."

The ship rocked slightly. The pilot's voice came crackling over the intercom, "ETA is 20 minutes."

Neither of them had realized how long they had been sitting in silence before beginning their talk.

Lori gave a huff that could have been a laugh under different conditions, "You know, one of these days we won't have to go running off just when things start heating up."

Hux smirked, "I look forward to it."

.***.***.***.***.

The Absolution was just as Lori remembered it. Despite living on resurgent-class ships for the last month she had only seen them from the outside once. The figure was just as imposing now as it had been the first time, but she said nothing for it.

When Hux looked to the ship he saw the tiny differences it had compared to the Finalizer. None of them inspired awe or anything else that he could pretend was positive.

The landing was smooth. When the general and his aid left the ship, no one suspected anything was out of the ordinary. Hux had been assigned back to his father's old quarters. Whether or not this was more of a slight than it usually was or if it meant that Cardinal hadn't read the report yet, the general wasn't sure. Lori had been assigned, much to her amusement, to the previously empty room she had hidden in durring her week as a stowaway. The two parted ways with little ceremony, each with their own plans with what to do with the rest of the day.

Not a second after Lori made it to her suite did she find a message waiting for on her data pad. Hux had forwarded her a list of attendees for the meeting. Most names she only recognized from reports and random chatter, she didn't expect to find any leads among them any ways.

Before her short term roommate appeared, Lori slipped back out of the door. The plan had been for Hank to arrive in hangar bay two. It only made sense that his contact would be there. She only had one day to find the conspiracy aboard the Absolution, but Lori had always enjoyed a challenge.

.***.***.***.***.

General Hux found himself alone in the commander's suite. He had wasted no time in sending a list of names and ranks to Lori. He hoped it would be of some use, but he doubted it. Looking over the names himself, he tried desperately to come up with a plan for them.

General Enric Pryde would be there, to Hux's distain. He'd served under the empire so many years ago, and claimed to have fought beside Darth Vader himself on one occasion. Never mind that he was head-strong and entertained –and even encouraged- Snoke's ideas about the force.

Captain Canady would be there as well. Honorable to a fault, he had never been fond of the younger Hux. The feeling was mutual and Armitage only tolerated him because he was more than capable as a dreadnaught commander.

Hux didn't expect to see Phasma on the list. She had been on special assignment, and if he weren't mistaken she still should be. Not actually part of High Command, there was only one reason he could think of for her to be invited.

Phasma had been the trigger woman for the hit on Brendol. She had supplied the beetle and been the one to release it into his quarters.

This could only mean that Cardinal knew.

Hux searched the list for any potential allies. Two more imperial era officers would be there. That left a total of four elders compared to Hux, Phasma, and two others that had only just gained a seat in High Command.

Before Hux had too long to worry about it, a knock came from the door. Gritting his teeth, he went to answer it.

Captain Cardinal stood with a straight back and his head held high. Armor a bright red, Hux was left to glare down at the man's unexpressive helmet.

"General Hux." He carried an air of formality to his words.

"Cardinal." The general did not.

"May I come in."

Hux didn't miss that it was more a demand than a question. He didn't think that the captain would be so brazen as to kill him for revenge, but the thought still pricked at the back of his mind.

"No."

There was a slight tilt of the Stormtroopers helmet, "this conversation isn't fit for the hallway."

Hux knew better than to take the captains words as a peace offering. He had come here with an accusation of murder on his lips. Unlike Lori, this wouldn't turn into a point of bonding for the two men.

Still, Hux had to remind himself that the captain didn't actually know that Hux was aware that he had read the report. There was no reason that Hux should be extra guarded, as far as the captain knew.

"Is that so?" he went on being as obtuse as Cardinal should have come to expect, but he didn't give a hint as to what he knew.

"Yes." Cardinal answered simply, his word carrying a hint of static from the voice regulator in his helmet.

Hux pretended to consider his options for a moment. In reality he was wondering if there were some way he could talk the captain down. Or better yet, find out where he had stored the report and its spare copies.

"Very well, enter if you must." Hux stepped back to let Cardinal into the room.

The red-clad man didn't sit, instead opting to stand at the end of the bar. He said nothing, and Hux was about to make a harsh comment before the captain puled a small disk from a pouch on his belt. He placed it on the counter, his blank helmet showing none of the twisting emotions beneath.

Hux kept his real thoughts from his features, instead letting simple annoyance take the lead, "I take it you have something you'd like to share."

The captain tapped a gloved finger against the table, "Dated four years ago. Concerning the Death of Brendol Hux."

The edge of Hux's mouth twitched with an angry retort. The trooper took his own meaning from it and took off his helmet. He wanted to look the murderer of his mentor, and the only father figure he had ever known, in the eye.

"Did you expect some sort of reaction from me, Cardinal?"

Captain Cardinal didn't shout, but only barely, "You murdered Brendol! I always knew you were a cruel piece of shit, but your own father?"

"And he deserved it. Is that what you want to hear?" Hux knew better than to expect the understanding he had found in Lori. He hated the trooper and his blinding optimism. He loathed that Cardinal had found a father where he couldn't.

"He was a great man, I don't know why he was cursed with something like you for a son." Cardinal looked Armitage in the eye, hatred boiling over and twisting his features.

Any thought of cleverly finding the rest of the copies, or of talking the captain down was long gone from Hux's mind. Really, the captain was lucky that Hux didn't carry a side arm with him. Left with nothing physical to strike out with, Hux went with the cruelest things he could possibly say.

"Cardinal, you're an idiot. My father knew it, and so do I. He only kept you along because you're so hopelessly easy to manipulate. And when you had outlived your usefulness he replaced you with Phasma without a second thought."

Phasma had taken over as Brendol's personal body guard less than a year before his death. Cardinal had felt deep pangs of jealously when he saw that she had earned her own set of custom armor from Brendol, but he refused to let the younger Hux's words get to him.

"He handpicked me on Jakku, trained me himself." He spat back, "I was infinitely loyal. From the time I first put on this armor, he trusted me to keep him safe. He designed it himself because he said red was a color of power. Every moment he spent in my company, he knew he was safe."

"Well you obviously didn't do a very good job, because he's dead." Hux's words came out with a scoff.

"Because of you!" now Cardinal shouted, "Why? Why did you kill him? Was it for power? Was it because you're just sick and broken?"

"My reasons are my own. I wouldn't expect you to understand besides." No one did, except for Lori.

That wasn't enough of an explanation for Cardinal, "Oh, I get it. You're not just a spoiled brat, you're an evil patricidal maniac."

"Enough!" the general took a step forward.

"Oh, you don't like it when people see you for who you really are? The rest of High Command will hear about this. Damn it, Hux, they'll all hear about your crimes."

"And not one of them will believe a word you say. A lowly captain's word against a generals, you're nothing Cardinal. You were nothing on Jekku, and you're nothing in the First Order. Nothing besides father's second biggest mistake."

"His biggest mistake being you." The captain thought he was lashing out, but it was nothing Hux hadn't already told himself.

"Get out of my quarters, Cardinal." The general grinned something twisted and evil, "Before I decide you're as big a nuisance as father was."

"You get one chance to tell them before I do. You better take it, or I'll force the confession out of you."

"Really? A threat? I thought you held yourself to a higher standard than that."

He picked up his helmet, but left the data disk, "take the time to read over your crimes. I hope they tear you up inside, but I don't think creatures like you know how to feel remorse."

The general let the captain go.

He could feel just as well as anyone else on the ship. Anger, rage, loathing. On the rare occasion that remorse was called for he could even muster that. But now, now the general was left to plot. Dwelling on every bitter emotion that had slipped out of the dark corners of his mind, he decided it wasn't just enough to silence the captain.

Armitage was going to brake the man.