Being someone who had fought me before, he knew that it was not wise to get into combat with us without a plan. And that was before we executed the AEP units just for being on our turf. He glared at us. "Fine. I'll have a duel with you. A single one on one fight. When I win, you have to join us and be our vassal." he said. Paul looked him up and down. "And what do we get when we win?" he asked. "You won't win, stupid human! But if you do, I'll... be yours." 12-001 snarled. He absolutely hated all of us. It was clear to see. We simply did not care. Paul smirked and cracked his knuckles, one fist at a time. "Alright. When do you want to fight?" 12-001 took a step back. "Of course not now! Next week." he said. Paul rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Get out of here then." he said as he shooed them away. They were annoyed but left us. We had a bit of a breather. Paul had bought some time for ourselves. That was good. Frederica got back to us the day before the supposed fight. This draft was much better but not perfect. All of us, vassals included would get immunity. We would have to pay them.
Also, we would be officially contracted with them. That gave us protection from all human factions that were also against us. The anti-cyborg syndicates, reprogrammers and scrappers would not be able to hurt us. If they tried, the full weight of the government would fall on them. The downside was that we could not ally with enemies of the government. That meant our deals and support of the Advocates and Researchers would end. I asked if they would be down for allying with Advocates after we took down Magnetic Clan. "Conquerors have 6 out of 13 transmission hubs. Having 5 that won't actively try to fuck with you would be good." I proposed. She thought about it for a minute. Frederica pulled out a phone. She called up Major Henry Watts. He was her commanding officer. I got to make my case directly to him. He said "Listen. I'm only responsible for the east of the continent. I could try to ask the others to chill out with them, but it would be on them." It was a start. "Will you let the Advocate factions in the east go if they agree to cooperate with you!?" I asked then. He had to think on it.
Eventually, he said "I guess that we could hear them out." I just rolled my eyes at that non statement. "We can't have contracts with any maybes in it. I need you to put it down in writing that part of our contractual obligations is to be the go between the Advocates and you guys." There was silence on the other end of the line. "We'll bring you another contract when it gets cleared from legal." he said. That was when he hung up the phone. I looked over at Frederica. "As a show of good faith, do you want to see a duel? Paul is going to be fighting 12-001." Her right eyebrow raised. "Are you insane?" she asked calmly. Paul smirked. "No. Just insanely strong. Why do you think they keep coming over here to fuck with us specifically? That's because they can't control us. We're the officers of the clan. No matter how many times they ask, we don't give into them. The PEP units here want to submit, but we are the ones that get to decide." he said. She and her companions were all shocked. They must not have realized just how strong or important we were. She said "I will go. Where are we going!?"
