This part was for us to play on the defensive. Next week was for us to go on the attack. Now we had to stop the Players against the PEP units from finding out all of their locations. That would of course mean protecting PEP units from the various government agents and rouge reprogrammers. While any PEP unit could give clues to the locations, those in Libra Force could spill what the "Next Stage" was if captured by a hacker of at least 20. Phobia was a syndicate that was the main antagonistic force against Libra Force. You could kill all of their guys and make sure the Libra Force PEP units went into hiding. You could also go to the main cities and assassinate all the agents and high leveled reprogrammers. Paul and Brett did not care about the search and rescue mission. Now that they were aware of the importance of this part of the questline, they were going to do that. What was the point of being Devils if they could not flex their power once in a while. I took Sunny, Lucy, Maroon, Ryder and Cecil with me. The others wanted to help them out too. Claire, Alex and Alexis went with Brett.
Under the circumstances Paul decided to go with Orange, Sparks and Katie. Erin and Finian had some time off from the police station, but they would much rather finally get their own X-frames. Finian went with the XF-09M model. Erin took the plans for the XF-02F. I wished them luck. Rosalyn was going to help us hold down the fort at the cab depot. Mason was content to work in his lab doing whatever he pleased while the Red Grind was closed until they got back. I was wandering through the town I loved when I was bumped into by Emil. He wanted to tell me to be careful. "The police are sniffing around the library now. Mandy and Nathan can only do so much to hold them back from finding anything." "If it's such a problem, why doesn't the hub just give out an assassination mission? They'd probably be gone after a few heads roll." I asked. Emil said "Use your head, you idiot! We're in a very delicate situation right now. The more we fight, the more they close in on us. The best option is to lay low for a little while." It was probably fine. The big cities was where all the action was.
It was no skin off my back to take it easy. Brett and Paul were making a mess of Neo-Rutten and Volta Cities. All of us did what was recommended. We stayed low except for the depot. The drivers went about their jobs as the customers were in the back seat and the PEP units were covered up. We could not keep everyone inside, or it would look suspicious. The Red Grind had no staff, so it had to be closed for the time being. We did something else to make sure that the PEP units were used to being near Mason. I moved Mason downstairs to the clan building. None of the PEP units wanted to be near him. However after the first few times, they were able to talk to him on neutral terms. It took Mason constantly brown nosing them and genuinely expressing his respect and love for the PEP units. "My cousin's family had one of the first generation PEP units. Our parents were really busy, so he was like a big brother and a nanny all at once." he said. That got him several points, especially with Sunny and Lucy. Maroon, Ryder and Cecil were guarded. However, they were cooler with him.
