Since the last time I had seen him, he had gotten his upgrade. He was still upset that I defeated him and punished him in front of all his clanmates. He still tried to tower over me as an intimidation tactic. It obviously did not work on me. "I want to fight you again, Brianne. It is impossible for a human without modifications to beat me like that. You had to have cheated." he said as he began poking and prodding at me. I sighed as I yanked my arm away from him. "I don't know about all that. I really did beat you in front of everyone." I said. That just made 04 upset. "Fight me again already!" he demanded. 04 from Erosion Clan also appeared. "Hello, Brianne. Thank you for the upgrades." He actually looked really happy to see me. I smiled warmly at him and said "You're welcome. I'm glad that you're no longer scared of humans." Erosion 04 nodded his head. "My other clanmates told me about everything the humans in your clan have done for us. You're really nice to AEP units." That was true. I treated AEP units in Volition Clan really well. This was very well known. Magnetic 04 just frowned at us.
Cameron and Hunter also came up to us. Cameron lost the tattoos. He was specifically told to lose them from Cold Clan. While we were the ones to nominate him for the job, it was the Cold Clan leadership that had to give their blessing. They did not want to be represented by a deviant. Cameron did not care. It was just a rearrangement of his nanites. Simple and very easy to accomplish. Sonic Clan sent Alex and he was taking charge of the others here. For some reason or another, Alex was presenting as a female right now. If Alex wanted to look like that, that was up to them. Alex came over to us and began to engage us in some conversation. Hunter really needed to be encouraged. He was still nervous about what was going to happen. "I hope that all of the traps are gone by the time we get down there." he said. I put my hands on his shoulders. "I think there may be traps. But that does not mean that you guys will be unprepared to handle them. You are really strong. I know the syndicate was very scary. You're going down to the transmission hub with all of the others and strong humans."
Everyone rallied around to help soothe Hunter's nerves. AEP solidarity was strong among them. It also helped the goals of the coalition if they got along on this mission. I called over one of the commandos. He just pointed to himself. I nodded and told him to bring his buddies over. The 3 slowly made their way over to us. "Is something the matter over here?" I nodded my head. "Yes. We go on at 8. But there is a bit of a problem here." I detailed it for them and the remedy. They shrugged and said "Thanks for the update." one of them said. They were going to walk off. I stopped them by saying "Before you go, you should probably talk with the AEP units here. Tactically, it is a crucial part of the coalition-military-syndicate partnership that this goes well. You can compare your weapons and think of ways the can assist you as you all make your way down." They really did not look like they wanted to fraternize with cyborgs. The AEPs were all looking at them curiously. One of them sighed and approached. He pulled out a rifle from his back and showed it to the others. The AEPs all gathered around.
