With the threat dealt with, Axton once again turned on his access to open communication, only to be met with bickering between the two sub-factions from the Company/ Guild that had assisted in the destruction of that previous threat. He could tell from the tone of their voice and by the fact that they were making their War Suits make exaggerated movements that they were not seriously fighting.

Instead, they were just putting on a performance, even if their audience was mostly just themselves. The words spoken between the two sub-groups would have been fighting words if they actually meant them, but even the most oblivious idiot could tell that this was all just theatre.

Eventually, though, they all had to do something else, and so Axton stepped in to break up the ‘fight’. Franken stepped between the two leaders of the groups and kept them farther apart. Yes, he knew they were not going to attack each other, or at least not attack each other in any serious way, but since these people loved theatre and hammy roleplay so much he might as well use it to redirect their efforts elsewhere.

“I could have sworn that the subjects of the great nation of Wei were more disciplined than this.” Axton said, putting as much effort as he could into acting like the others around him. “Did Lord Cao Cao really have a cousin that was so quick to lash out at anyone, even his current allies? Does your nation and its people really have skin so thin?”

At this, the people of ‘Wei’ calmed themselves, though they were obviously calm from the beginning and merely were playing a part that they had given themselves. A little laughter came from the ‘Kurds’, which prompted Axton to chastise them as well.

“And you, noble sons and daughters of the great land of Kurdistan, seem to have equally thin skins. You are allied to these men of Wei, yet you seek to undermine them at every opportunity, proclaiming your own glory to the heavens while making yourselves look like nothing more than backstabbers and arrogant fools. Have you no sense of shame? Does your beloved homeland truly breed such children?”

Hey, this was kinda fun!

“I hoped that men and women such as yourselves, from such great and wondrous lands of brilliance, would understand that there are greater threats to deal with right now, and that stroking your own egos will result in a great fall. We are trapped here with each other, and to avoid us all falling by the cruel machinations of those that put us here, it would be wise for us to work together. Cast aside your petty squabbles and disdain for each other for the moment, and join me in the glory that will come by making our way out of this deathtrap without losing a single person!”

At this, there was silence for a time, but as Axton and Franken moved out of the way, the two leaders of the sub-factions approached and directed their War Suits to shake hands.

“You speak the truth. I would forever shame myself and my family if I were to allow such overwhelming pride lead to my own defeat. I take your words to heart, foreigner, and act accordingly. Though these Kurds are different from us, they will no doubt help us leave this vile hole alive. I, the noble cousin of Lord Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun, will place my faith in the strength of our bonds, even if only for now.”

“And I, the great Saladin, will prove that my people are worthy of trust and respect. It would indeed be an act of self-destructive foolhardiness to fight amongst ourselves while we are at the mercy of such callously cruel and capricious forces. I shall cooperate with those present to ensure that we all escape from this place alive and ready for the fight ahead. We fight as one, for glory and honor, and for the sake of those we care for.”

Axton made Franken nod, and then used his War Suit to point ahead.

“The path behind us is blocked, but the path ahead is filled with great danger. We will not survive if we do not fight as one, so we must make doubly sure that no blade from the dark can destroy us from within. For now, I will advise all of you to leave your War Suits with me, so that I may repair them and show to you a truth that has been hidden in plain sight.”

At this, Axton popped open Franekn’s cockpit and let himself be at the mercy of those around him. Just like last time, though, it seemed that those who shared this place with him had a sense of honor. They, too, opened their War Suits up and came out to look their newest temporary ally in the face, and boy howdy, were they a colorful crew of people.

Of course, there were those who dressed normally. But these people were those unaffiliated with the gang from the ‘Kurds and Wei’ Company. Those guys, on the other hand, wore one of two different sets of attire, with some differences here and there.

The ‘Kurds’ wore clothing the likes of which would be seen in the armies of the Abbasid Caliphate, though the amount of deviation from the actual historically accurate baseline was, without a doubt, all over the place. It was more like looking at a mix of a hack-and-slash beat-‘em-up game set during that distant time and soldiers from a sci-fi RTS, and the members of the ‘Wei’ faction were not that different.

They wore a cross between stylized gear from a game like Dynasty Warriors or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but with aspects of high future clothing trends mixed in. They were.. well, calling them exotic would be one hell of an understatement to be sure.

“Now then,” Axton said as he finished processing the levels that these people went to in order to play their self-appointed parts. “I do hope we can talk normally instead of, you know, the way we had been up till now. Is that fine?”

The two ‘sub-factions’ looked at each other and then burst out laughing.

“Was it really that corny? I thought it was just my own opinion!”

As the group began to joke and mess with each other, Axton felt a bit of tension and stress leave him. These people were ones he could work with, but he wondered if they would even buy the truth that he intended to sell them. He also needed to make sure that no other third parties were watching them or listening in. He nodded to Thomas, who began to rake the environment with gunfire until the both of them were sure that any spy tech was either destroyed or damaged, whether it was even there or not.

“Now that we don’t have unneeded eyes and ears on us, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.” Axton said.

“Eh, we’ve had enough fun for now, so give us the bad news first.”

Oh, they might regret that statement….

“Well,” Axton began, “the bad news is that the IFF tags we were forced to put on our War Suits are actually backdoors that people can use to fuck around with our Suits, and not just their sensors.”

“Oh, that’s bad…”

“And it gets worse,” Thomas added as his Suit broadcasted his voice from inside of Spider-Can. “They can even remotely control your Suit and force you to do what they want. Hell, they can even just shut your Suit off at will.”

Worried grumblings followed that statement, but Axton knew how to cheer them up.

“And the good news is that I found a few improvised workarounds to deal with this issue. If I have a bit of time and space, I may even be able to prevent those hacked tags from alerting the people trying to fuck with us that anything is even remotely wrong. And that, more than anything else, is why I asked you to get out of your Suits and power them down.”

“And we need to keep it secret once we power back up, right?” asked an unaffiliated Player.

Axton nodded and gave the old line that nearly everyone had heard at some point in some iteration or another.

“Loose lips sink ships, so keep your mouth closed regarding this, okay? Now, please, allow me to show you how a real SuitMaker does his job. Do you guys have any reasonable requests for augments?”