While grabbing up all of the prisoners and leading them to the squad of guards I ask GW-3N the question of if she wanted to go with them back to the tower. Thankfully she say that she would rather not go back and wished to stay here with me. After that we wish all of them - minus Red - fair well and send them on their way.

And with that, it's just me, GW-3N, and my drones left in the factory. I decided that I should probably get back to work I send off my remaining drones from the expedition to go back to what they were doing before, which was slowly getting through the rubble by the stairs. Looking over to my current stockpile of resources, currently stored in the storage room, I have more than enough to make a few drones.

Deciding to do just that, I put on queue 2 of those moose drones so that they could start shipping over our newly acquired resources from the Tower tribe and the various drone corpses I left behind. Hopefully, they don't get attacked by the flock of birds.

Checking back over to the rubble removal project I find that the drones are making wonderful progress and should be done by nightfall which should is quite soon as I left on the venture to the Tower tribe at noon. Unfortunately that all this rubble has not had much use for me since it is mostly made of concrete.

Deciding that I should be doing something productive I start heaving up the larger pieces of the rubble and walking over to place them outside. My efforts seem to have sped up the process by a considerable amount as the ants crush the last of the small debris.

Well then, it's time for an expedition. Looking over to the selection of drones currently here right now I find that I have 2 of my ants and 8 spiders at my disposal for the moment. This is probably enough to dissuade anything from attacking.

Ascending the newly cleared stairway, it takes but a few moments to arrive at the second floor. The room that I am immediately confronted with was large and rectangular, with the short side being the entrance I came from. Along the walls of the room were 4 doors split between both sides. On the opposite wall from the entrance was the collapsed walkway to the other section of the factory.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

In the center of the room was a large pile of segmented drone corpses laying about which looked as if someone took a bunch of robots and broke them into pieces so they could become something that vaguely fit the description of a puzzle. Assuming this to just be some sort of waste pile which for some reason was not thrown away or repurposed and so made my way to one of the many doors lining the walls.

Making my to the left most door I open it to find nothing at all. I stood there slightly confused before opening another just to find it empty as well. Continuing to open the doors I found that each one was containing near nothing of use asides from the occasional metal scrap until I reached the last door.

I tentatively open the door, and to my relief, it reveals a ladder. Climbing up the ladder and pushing up the hatch I find myself on the roof of the factory with two things immediately in front of me. The first being a few rows of small solar panels checkered across the roof. The second thing was a tall tower that looked to be some sort of communications array which was unfortunately slightly damaged from lack of regular maintenance.

Calling up my spiders, they immediately begin to do their jobs and start fixing up the array with the bits and pieces around the roof. Unfortunately, my ant guards seem to be struggling to get onto the roof so I guess they are just going to stay there.

Inspecting the solar panels further, I realize that they are in fact still functioning and are sending their collected power over to a set of batteries connected to the rest of the factory. So that's why I have some power in my medium drone works and core. I kinda forgot about that they needed power so I guess that answers that un-asked question.

A dozen minutes of playing fetch with the ants, which they surprisingly enjoy, later and the spiders message me that they are done with repairs. Giving one last pat to the ants, I climb up the ladder once more and walk over to the tower. Looking around I find a cable that seemed to have been purposefully unplugged and a nearby socket. Plugging the cable in, the tower whirls to life and the radar dishes on it begin to shift and turn, searching for any messages.

After a few moments of silence, I conclude that no one is sending any signals so I decide to send my own. Grabbing a nearby speaker phone I click the button to begin broadcasting my voice.

"Hello Hello. Can anybody hear me? If you do please respond."

Clicking off the broadcasting button I hear naught but silence in response to me. Trying again, I get the same result of nothing.

I'm about to try again but a notification pops up in front of me before I can do so.

"A hostile AI has detected your signals. Prepare."