13-003 was so close with the soldiers that they even gave him a nickname. It was rare outside of our clan for them to be named. Even 13-001 and 13-002 had pride in their monikers and refused to be called anything else. The same was true for all the AEP units from major clans that I had met. Because he was like a puppy, they called him Dawg. 13-003 was not human after all. Everyone here had been briefed on the AEPs. Since they knew that he was a big cyborg with a childlike personality, they had messed with him sometimes. This was one example. Naming him after a literal animal had been a little mean spirited. However, 13-003 had been so excited about his name. It rubbed off and all of the soldiers called him that. They both had to keep it going now. Now, it was used with affection. Dawg was pretty helpful in doing some of the heavy lifting and with us this time. He had the same power to teleport as 13-001 had. Funnily enough, Dawg had sometimes relieved them when they were tired by transforming to look like them so they could sneak off to rest. They were real friends.
Dawg would be the one coming with us. I was fine with that. From what Major Watt's commandos told him, it was a long fight down in the transmission hub chamber. The cyborgs did not play around. Countless PEP units would come down in waves to kill us off. It was not the only difficulty. They were all capped at level 15, but that did not mean that the weapons they were using was not going to get more advanced. The closest ones would come with their bare hands as they were just doing their normal routines. Then Cold Clan would bring the guns and gadgets they had. The transmission hub also had access to the PEA units in the region, so they would be fighting us with all they had too. PEAs were level 35. Cold Clan would also bring both of their special X-frames. Those were level 40. After that were the AEP units. Each of them were level 65. That was not a big scare for us at all. We had a ton of them backing us up. Parker, Kyan, Chase, Rebecca and Hannah with us. They wanted to fight. This was part of their duties as cyborgs. Dawg and 13-001 would be teleporting us there.
Getting briefed on the situation was extremely important. We had to know what was down there. We also needed information on what we were going in there with. That was one of the reasons Major Watts was so annoyed with the delays. It risked the whole scenario changing on us. Besides Major Watts, Brett and I, there would be some rank and soldiers coming as well. We had a whole stockpile of our own weaponry that the military had been playing with. Void Clan could only use military issue weapons here. Everything we gave them passed into the hands of the military. Major Watts favored the rifles that shot toxic bullets and the shotgun that fired incendiary slugs, so he was taking them into the battlefield with him. Along with a fuck ton of ammo for them. For his sidearm, he was bringing in a handgun that shot acid coated bullets. He was out to kill cyborgs and he wanted it to hurt. Dawg could only bring a pair of automatic rifles and a machine gun. I was not going to use my cheat rifle down there if so many humans were going to be able to see. People would ask too many questions it.
