You consider the next place to go. For exploring inside the factory, the storage room stands out as the most interesting. You say as much, posting across the screen that you should check it out.

Of course, that means he will need to look into it himself, since you can't even squeeze into the room past all the crates in the way. Tendou narrows his eyes, but ends up shrugging, then answering Mouse over comms.

“Let's check out that storage room. We never actually looked around in there earlier, I want to see if there's anything we missed.”

She stays silent for a few moments, before finally coming back with, “Like some Hex, to murder us on foot...?” Tendou shudders instantly, heart rate spiking up before he shakes himself. That is how he nearly died just before finding you after all.

“No way,” he rebuffs her. “We'd have drawn them out with that battler earlier. Even if we get super unlucky and there's a smaller one that activates, we can just run back to our frames before it gets moving.

Mouse just gives another pause, then sighs, “You're so optimistic...”

Of course, you've already started walking while the pair was bantering, so you're nearly there by the time they finish. You kneeling down so Tendou can hop down, and Mouse leaving her Arctic Fox standing upright, using her zipline to drop down to the ground. It hangs there for when she gets back.

“Alright, let's go check out this place,” she begins, the pair walking over to one of the narrow pathways that lead between the stacks of crates. “Fair warning,” she goes on as they enter, so you only catch her, “if anything attacks, I'm running. So you better keep up,” before the rest of their conversation vanishes with them, into the crates, with only faint echoes making it back out.

You wait for a few minutes. If only you had some way to keep an eye on things like this, it would be very helpful. Just hearing brief descriptions of what Tendou saw after the fact never paints too clear a picture, even a small camera of some sort, for you to review afterard would help. You would at least be able to gather information directly, instead of needing Tendou to relay it secondhand.

As it stands, the best you can do is sweep the room with your radar. As expected, the previously-shoddy, now-damaged device returns absolutely nothing of worth. It doesn't stand any chance of locating the two tiny humans amid the masses of metal. It can barely outline the overarching shape of the crates themselves.

Needless to say, it is useless, not even good for distracting yourself. So, all you can do is wait. And wait...

After more than ten minutes, there's finally some disturbance, some sound making its way out to you. Unfortunately, another ten seconds proves it to be the pair of humans screaming and sprinting out into the open space at your feet. A tiny Hex dashes out of the narrow gap after them. It trips and flails, rolling across the floor in a tangle of metal limbs.

In the lead, Mouse grabs onto her zipline, shooting quickly up toward her cockpit.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

But before she can make it, Tendou leaps directly into your cockpit. He grabs one control handle even as he's landing in the seat, and in a single move, you swat down on the Hex with your palm. It crunches flat.

Your pilot soon comes to his senses, panting and staring at the puddle of robot left on the ground once you retract your hand.

“Let's check the storage room, on foot!” Mouse shouts angrily once she sees the danger has passed. She flops backward, stretching out on her seat, while Tendou slumps forward, resting his arms on his legs and letting his head hang tiredly.

You have to wait a minute for him to recover before you can get a summary of what they saw.

Understandably, it was a maze of paths through the high stacked metal crates, with little to see for most of it, until they got further inside and things opened up a little more. There were some open crates with wide varieties of metal and electrical components, and a complex conveyor system for transporting them into the area north of the storage room, where you saw all of the heavy machinery used for doing the actual construction the factory is known for. Whatever resources are needed for a job, it must source them from here.

They also found an area containing piles of barrels rather than crates. None of those were open, so they couldn't identify what were in them. A short distance from there, they also spotted some extremely large tanks in one corner, which Mouse claimed to be the kind used to store BP – your immensely valuable reactor fuel.

However, a small robot was slouched the tanks, which the unlucky pair only noticed when they got closer, right as it was taken over by the Hex and attacked them...

“At least we made it out fine...” Tendou sighs. “Like I told Mouse, we just had to run. The Hex clearly need time to... acclimate?” he says the last word like a question, unsure if that's the right way to put it. “It's like... because they just took over the robot, they need to get used to the body first, before they can move well. I've noticed that with every one we've seen. That's definitely the best time to take them out.”

Agreed. Unless you can keep them from turning into Hex in the first place, of course.

He nods back, both of you on the same page on there. Finished talking, he grabs the controls, turning and walking over to the Arctic Fox so he can speak to Mouse, who's still resting.

“Hey, now that we dealt with that, you want to go check out that BP storage?” he asks.

“I...” She raises a hand tiredly, sighs, and drops it again, all without sitting up in her seat. After heaving one big breath, she finally does sit up so she can meet his eyes. “Fine, fine, let's go.”

They head off together once more, and you wait again. This time, they only remain in the room for a few minutes before returning. Without a single word between them, they climb back into their own rays, and make a beeline for the rest of the party.

“Everyone!” Mouse calls over open comms as soon as you're within range. “We found BP. A lot of it.”

That gets the team to follow as you both lead the way back to the storage room, Mouse explaining as you move. “There are BP tanks buried all the way in the back of the storage room. Most of them are empty, but one still has a lot in there. We're going to need help with it.”

“How much is 'a lot' though?” Gardenia asks.

“I don't know. Hundreds? Thousands?” Mouse sounds hysterical. “I don't even know how we're going to get it all out of the tank.

“We can't take all of it,” Takashi cuts in. “I'm fine with topping off, but a factory this size is going to need fuel to run.”

“Hey, speak for yourself,” Gardenia scoffs. “I'm here to get paid, and there's nothing in my contract that says I can't loot until the reinforcements get here. If there's really that much BP, it's worth more than all the frames we salvaged added together.”

The group continues to argue, even as you arrive at the storage room, and they dismount, all heading in. Once more, you can only wait for them to return. And it's taking a lot longer than the pair's earlier scouting trip...