They were all waiting for more missions, but I had none for them. The other clans in Dwan Town were scrambling to take the PEA missions as soon as they appeared. It did not matter to me. This was just to get the main teams up and running with memory chips. There probably won't be any for a while. Especially with PBJ Clan leading the continent in successful PEA missions. Keith was sucking sour grapes because he knew that I was exploiting the system. "You and all of your toys don't have really grit like my kids. They could take any of yours on and win." That was probably true. "So what? They are cyborgs. Not even hybrids like all my kids. Even if they got blown over by your beautiful kids, that won't change that they would be seen as higher value. I guess if your kids manage to knock them off, there would be some fame in that though." Keith frowned at me. "So, you admit my kids are better than your clan's units." he said, not getting it. He can to insult and argue with me. "Of course I feel that way. We're brothers! Your kids are my nieces and nephews. Alexei is better than my clan."
I then gave Keith a wink. "He's Niko's precious son, so he guards him jealously. He only comes here to use the pods to heal injuries after tough missions." I added. Keith glared at me. "For. The. Last. Time. We're hole brothers!" he snapped. I smirked. I caught him in a mistake. I raised the bar so he matched me where I actually wanted. I saw on his face that he had been tricked. "How did you do that!?" he demanded. "Because you know it to be true, deep down." I said. He punched me in the gut as he gathered his youngest child. They then left for the evening. The Cold Clan AEP units came a couple of hours later. The had a trio of PEA units with them. I looked at them and said "What brings you here to our humble clan building? You're welcome to any of our facilities." 04-001 said "We were sent by our Clan to congratulate you on the success of your PEA units." I said "It's them that deserve the credit. They suffered and did their best. Let me gather them in the dojo." Once I did, they got their praise directly. There were some backhanded compliments thrown at me for being human though.
No one stood up for me. That stung just a little bit. Since you are the best our region has to offer, we have a region-specific mission for you." 04-003 said. I perked up and so did the others. They had been craving a mission as of late. "As you know, the deaths of 05-001 and 10-001 was an amazing feat for a human. However, Brianne has inadvertently brought several agencies of the government into our territory. We had been trying to frustrate their investigations, but one of our clan's PEP units were caught and destroyed. The situation was become untenable. We need to involve more drastic measures." 04-001 set the scene. "That is where you PEA units come in. I think you can handle it. You'll go in and decapitate their leadership." I had a question. "Won't assassinating their leaders only prove that we are at fault and are actively hostile? We will only get them to bring the hammer down." I said calmly. They turned to me. "It is not a concern that they think we are hostile. We are hostile to them. I also think it rich that you, the cause of the problems, are criticizing. Where is your solution?"
Looking at them, I said "We need to play ball. There is an expression where I am from. 'Sometimes you have to go along to get along.' If we sit down in a neutral area and explain it was Toxic and Water Clans, we'd kill 3 birds with one stone. They get off of our back for now so we can get back to researching. They aim their attention to a rival faction. Water and Toxic Clans are finally punished for fucking with Researcher faction clans. I don't see a big downside here." They scoffed and said "And if they decide to kill first and ask questions later?" 04-002 asked. I stepped forward. "PBJ Clan will undertake that risk. We already have our memory chips. It's worth a shot." I told them. They just looked at me. "If that the case, you can try it your way. But if progress is not made in a decent amount of time, we will be back." 04-001 said with a predatory smile. 04-002 added "At that point, we won't be asking for you to volunteer. You will be assigned the assassinations at random." "Totally understandable. I will escort you out." I said firmly. They were miffed that I was kicking them out. That was too bad.
