We had one shot at this huge negotiation. We had our major conference room ready for this moment. Paul, Brett, Hunter and I were on our side. Frederica and 2 of her closest companions were on the other end of the table. As we were facing off, I decided to go first. I cleared my throat and everyone turned to look at me. "We don't have a lot of time, so we need to cut to the chase. Lt. Frederica Galleon. We have some really important information that we want to give you. But we are going to need some really big assurances from you and the government." She smirked and said "We've had you guys on our radar for over a year. What's to stop us from pulling out every secret from you and burning this place to the ground." I just looked at her and said "Because you'd lose. Simple as that. Otherwise you would have done it by now. That attack by the AEP unit was unacceptable. We're here at the table right now, but we are not stupid. We want total diplomatic immunity from any crimes that have occurred in the last 3 years and going forward in our partnerships." She just chuckled. "No way."
It was not the end of our time. I smirked back. "I've heard some real information. Surface level stuff. Would you like to hear it?" I said. Her eyes shifted to her companion to the left. He nodded slightly. "Sure. Go ahead." she said in a neutral tone. I went on to detail the differences of the 3 cyborg factions and the 13 transmission hubs. The info was not very important to us. It was to them. They had no clue that they needed to be looking for 13 separate hubs instead of one large base. "So you're saying that you know where they are?" the companion on her right asked. I shrugged. "I didn't say that. But I will tell you about that recent attack. Like I said earlier, those fuckers just fucked up big time with killing our people." I said. After that I went all in on the origin of Magnetic Clan. I then held up a drive. "Hunter here was on death row, but we broke him out. He was able to finally decrypt some major communications between the transmission hub of this region and that AEP unit that hates humans so much that he even turned on us. You're going to make the deal with us if you want your first hub."
Negotiating back and forth took hours. We fought for a formalized deal in writing and to get off for all past and future crimes. Not just for ourselves, but for our vassal clan members too. I was not going to leave anyone behind. It was the opposite for Frederica and her crew. She wanted gentlemen's agreements for the 4 of us since we were not cyborgs. Her companions also wanted us to give over the drive and everything we knew about the other major clans. Even the Advocate faction clans were going to be targeted. That was not going to work for us. Firstly, if nothing was written down on paper, there was no way to hold anyone to their word. Second, we would never sell out our vassals and allies. Why would we take a deal that betrays our own clan? They were not getting the drive until we got those papers. She got up in frustration and decided to take a break. we let her go to the roof to get the fresh air she needed. If it came down to it, we could kill her and just wait for the replacement. When she came back to the table, she said that she needed to talk with her higher ups about it. Perfect.
