Now that we knew, I went over their heads and gave a copy straight to Heat Clan and Radioactive Clan. Mason made sure a copy got to Void Clan. Because we had 2 ambassadors, I had no doubt that Wind and Magnetic Clan got wind of this as well. To appease them, we sent Greta over there. Heat Clan demanded that we stop activity relating to it. "We do not want to get into conflict with the Conqueror Faction over this. We are a juicy target now that we have this." The best thing to do is to keep it hidden and secret. None of mentioned that we gave it out to several clans. That would not go over well with them. It was only 3 days later when Radioactive Clan just asked them to collaborate on making one outright. Heat Clan were extremely pissed off. I was spared from most of their wrath by telling them that the cost to make one at this point was extremely high. While X-frames were in the 10 million range at the start, it went down in the Next Stage. It then got inflated by the rarity. The XX-frames were going to be in the 5 billion range now. It also had to be made in the Foundry. Very pricey.
However, we had unlimited money. We could afford to make as many as we wanted. The problem was that none of us had the skill needed to get past this stage. I had to pass it off to Mason in his lab. We gave him so many levels in hacking for this. It took him a week straight to get only pieces of information. It was going to be 25 feet tall and it was going to be either a 1 or 2 seat variant. That was all he got from it. That was pretty cool though. We tried to see if working on it unlocked more things on the whiteboard in the lab. It did not. It seemed the librarians were right on this one. New blueprints were simply not going to drop for us until we got our faction to control 9 of the transmission hubs. Paul and Bret could not help. If they spawned in the blueprints, the Sages would be on us immediately. This was already a fluke of the system. A giant oversight that could not be planned for. We did not need any more scrutiny on us at the moment. We had only just got back to our home base. Speaking of the big transmission hubs, I made sure that Water Clan was in our sights. I never forgot about them.
With the Conquerors at 8 transmission hubs, they were close to this achievement. I did not want that in their hands. I also wanted to fucking teach them a lesson for what they had said and did to us. Water Clan had to pay for this. I had Robin, Barbara and Tracie willing to come. Sterling and Ashley wanted in on this. Connie and Peyton too. I let them all come along. The more the merrier. It would also make hacking the hub easier on their bodies. It was said that the blowback from attacking a hub could be brutal. That was why you needed 3 AEP units in the first place. Paul and Brett were also coming because they wanted to cause lots of havoc. We set out in a van and went to the lake where Water Clan was. I knew exactly where their clan building was. I did not know where their transmission hub was, but that could come to us after we killed them all. It would be a handful during the battle on their home turf anyway. Once we got their, the clan members were immediately aggressive. Paul got us started by shooting one of the mouthier ones in the face. We were all off of the leash from there.
Our battle was fierce. Water Clan hated us, so they was fighting with reckless abandon as well. Countless civilians on the beach became collateral damage as it was clear neither side could or would back down even a little. It was a foregone conclusion that PBJ Clan was going to win. Once we had cleaned up all the clan members, it was time to search for the transmission hub. The AEP units could sense it and took us to the changing booths. Their little shack was on top of the hub. In one of the stall, there was a hidden latch to open up the trapdoor. At the bottom of the trapdoor was an oppressive red light. The AEP units were able to navigate the long metal bridge and get to the main computer. They opened the ports in their chests and pulled out long, thin, red wires. Using them, they plugged into the transmission hub and got to work. It only took them 13 minutes for the red light to disappear from the area. We were plunged in darkness. That only lasted a moment though. It soon became flooded with a calming green light. The AEP units were a bit shaky on their feet, but they could still fight.
