If that was what she felt, there was nothing I could say about it. "You said that you'd take stock of the situation in a month. Was that a lie?" I asked her. "No. It was a real promise. I'll be back there in a month. When I see how fucked it's gotten, we're going to move in there and put boots to asses." I smirked and said "He might have the emotional intelligence of a kid, but his brain is legitimately one of the most advanced super computers we'll ever see. If he swore that seriously to take care of it, he can do it. You really think he's going to fail." She smirked back. "It's just like you said earlier. I'd be a fool if I took a kid like that seriously. He'll be lead around by the nose like all of them have been from the start." "I certainly hope not. I obviously want some of the cyborgs to be allies. Killing all 13 clans is going to be ridiculously hard. Especially with all the money and weapons we gave to them." That pissed her off. "The fuck did you do!?" I raised my hands in defense. "Only to the Advocates." I added quickly. It was taking all she had not to swing at me. "They have one fucking month! That's it!"
Knowing that she was not the type to play around, I thanked her. Nicoletta just glared at me. "I can't fucking believe this. Those feckless cunts are sitting on a massive stockpile of weapons and credits. No wonder they have the smuggling and trafficking problem. It's a thieves' paradise." she scolded. I raised an eyebrow. "I don't believe that is the case. The cyborgs are coded down to their cores to be subversive in their goals to bring their Progenitors here. I doubt that the PEP units leading their clans are as gullible as the AEP units." She had a mocking expression on her face. "You didn't see what I saw. Those freaky weapons were in crates and there were goons all over them. Crates with the same logo as your little music studio now that I think about it. It only took me till now to put 2 and 2 together." I frowned. "Well. Frederica made me break all the alliances we had with them. They won't be getting any more from us until they can come to the table." I mumbled. "Yeah. We'll see. Either they'll be run out of their own transmission hub in an uprising or they're all complicit with criminals.
Neither option was great. I sighed and said "Well, an uprising suits us fine. If they are as despicable as they seem, we can bomb the shit out of them and then occupy the transmission hub for ourselves." Nicoletta scoffed. "Oh. I thought you wanted them as allies." she said. "I want allies. I hate Magnetic Clan and I pissed off both the Heat and Cold Clans by killing their AEP units. I don't need liabilities that will only hold us back now. Especially when your Major Watts is only going to be in charge of the eastern quadrant. We gave up a good thing with those alliances. Void Clan is way more trouble than it is worth. Provably so. Especially when the only goal is keeping it out of the Conqueror faction's hands." "So, we're in agreement. We should just light them up." she said. I shook my head. "No. I meant what I said. I still want to wait a month. If they can't keep their own territory together, fuck them. If the clan actually wins out, there's no need to risk your men taking the settlement. We still have no clue how to get down there." I told her. Bringing up her men gave her pause. She cared.
