They were allowed to just leave. Keith was confused. "We are rivals. Are you really going to let us go?" he asked. I said "Of course. You are family to me. I'm not going to kill you. Just like with Niko. Things are still going to be the same though. I will kick your ass if you try to attack me or members of the clan." Both of them got on the elevator. Before it closed, I held it open. "So I'll see you guys tomorrow, right?" I asked. Keith scoffed and said "Yeah. I still need a place for her to be and train before she can join my clan." I let the doors close. It was not the most popular decision that I could make. I was the clan engineer though. I had nothing to fear from any rank and file member. What I said goes. Only Paul and Brett could go against the rules I set in place. I made sure that we did not step on each other's toes too much. As humans, we needed a united front to keep the cyborgs under us in line. Even ones that were allied to us could try to be manipulative. Ryder tried it with me when we were alone. Just allowing him to leave made some of them upset. I told them I would make sure nothing leaked.
Another 2 weeks passed and all of the vassals were getting busy. The ones in female X-frames had to stay inside to give it power. The males were all free to go run their businesses. Once the 9 weeks were up, they all would be able to donate one of their AEP units to the cause of piloting the XX-frame. Once that happened, a member of each clan would go to the Foundry together of a group to make sure it got done. Our base was going under very intense renovations to fit them. It was a giant undertaking to fit 1 under the ground. To do 8 meant we needed more generators and much more space than we had for archwings. It was so big that it was technically out of the town limits. That became a bit of a problem for us. Due to the territorial concerns of the transmission hubs, 2 hangars were in Lightning Clan territory. It was an oversight on our part. That tipped them off to exactly what we were planning. The clan sent 07-001 and 002 to check it out. Since they were Advocates, we saw no problem with letting them see. They scolded us, but there was nothing they could do about it.
When 07-002 asked to requisition them, Paul Brett and I asked if he was malfunctioning. "This is in our territory. You can't build here. We just want to use these hangars for our missions when we need them." I asked "If you all want them so bad, what are you willing to pay for it. We can always build more hangars on our side of the border. If you want to use these 2, instead of blowing them up or something, that will cost you." They offered an alliance for them. That was a good start. Brett wrapped his shoulder around them and looked at us. He said "Can I talk to them in private? I think I can work something out." I crossed my arms. "If that something is cum, no thanks. Be serious. We can get something really cool." Paul said. I thought about it. "Give us some electric X-frames please. 1 male and 1 female model at least." I said out loud. They had to commune with their hub. They did this by walking over to their side of the border and plugging into each other's chest port. After 10 minutes they accepted it. They would send a crew here to build something as an annex to their clan over it.
It was expected that we would build a wall in-between their new hangars and ours. That was something that they were really serious about. We did so. We found that they built a series of wind mills. Wind mills used the wind to spin turbines that generated electricity. Using their own infrastructure, they had an office that allowed them to control the output and send the power down the powerlines to their camp. There were still lots of monsters out there, but that would just spawn more missions for their members to go clear them. It was a win win as long as they were strong enough to take them out. It solved one problem. However, it caused another 2 problems to spring up in its place. Those were Cold Clan and Pierce Clan. They had embargoed us against Void Clan. Taking in Lightning Clan was seen as an insult and cowardly run around. After investigating, they found the hangars. Even with a small annex, it was way too far for them to guard 100% of the time. When they found it, they were pissed. Now they had something to use to definitely beat them back. They now complained to us.
