The first thing I did was go straight to the leadership of Heat Clan. I told them that we had to cut the pageantry. "We need to get these XX-frames in the air. Now." I said. It was a very bad thing to draw this out. "Fine. You can go ahead with your first XX-frame if it means so much to you. It is a worthy prologue to our full glory today." he said in response. That was fine with me. Fighter and Battler were up first. PBJ Clan did not have a very strong tie to them. It was a simple thing to send them up first. They got ready as the rest of the faction partied on another floor. Everyone was focusing on other things in the hanger. It was pretty chaotic, but at least things were moving along towards launching into space. The launch was standard and successful. The major clan leaders did not want to go. Both Robin and Sterling would be up next then. Robin and Sterling were essential to who PBJ Clan was from the age of AEPs. The same could be said for Tracie and Barbara. When they left the clan to go into space, it would be a much different space in the clan. I was not sure how I would feel when they left.
Robin and Sterling had just been launched when the alarm began blaring out. There was a wave of commandos that tried to fight. Paul, Brett and I had to fight. This was not something we could back down from. Our AEP units were going to be stranded in space if we gave up. It took several hours in-game to clear them all out. We did our best to keep the leadership safe. If they went down, there would not be an opportunity for them to open the warp gate needed for their Progenitors to come through to our space. The government of the continent threw a whole lot at them at the hanger to take them out. It was much too late. There were already 3 XX-frames in space at this point. When they were done fighting the commandos and all the soldiers, we had a ton of causalities among the PEP units. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make. Their lives were not all that important to me. The leaders of the clans got their XX-frame ready to launch. Their AEP units were ready to go up. They were much more willing to hurry up the process. No one knew if they would be back for another round in here.
Having a great launch with pomp and circumstance was not as important now as it was for them to get in the air and then space. Once they launched, it was such a clear victory for the Researcher faction that no other could try to contest it. When it shot up into the air it was a great sight. "We have liftoff!" the cool coalition leader yelled out loud. Everyone in the hangar complex began cheering wildly. We had a clear radio connection to them from an underground mission control tower off to the right of the command center and viewing theatre. We had them do a large lap around the town and then straight up into outer space. It took them 10 minutes to travel through the vacuum of space before they cut the power off to their rockets. It looked like they were ready for the next step. Everyone around me were really excited. We could hear when the leader got on the intercom with them. "Alright. It is time to send them stellar coordinates and create the warp bridge." There was a big minute of silence before the whole goldenrod yellow XX-frame began to glow with bright, vibrant green light.
