(?) Mechanical Clan Drops Nothing
"..."
Annie was furious—absolutely furious!
She'd deliberately missed with her shot, after all, so she wouldn't blow that pretty purple-and-white Mechanical Clan unit to smithereens. She'd wanted to salvage a battery pack or something.
But when she went to inspect the unit, Laki told her she couldn't?
Apparently, the Mechanical Clan's units used different drive mechanisms and control systems from the ones humans operated. What's more, their units seemed to contain certain backdoors and tracking nanobots belonging to the Mechanical Clan. The human side could only study the technology as a reference; it was best not to use it directly, or they'd be taking a serious risk.
So, after learning that she'd wasted half the night, Annie got angry and promptly gave up!
On the way back, she stowed her unit, climbed into the back seat of one of the off-road vehicles, hogged the space, and promptly fell fast asleep. She couldn't be bothered to respond when Li Boli and the others tried to talk to her on the way home, either.
That was right!
Annie, Li Boli, and the alien "refugee" pilot Kira had all stowed their units and were now riding back in the vehicles belonging to Li Kui and the other members of the search team.
They had no choice but to leave!
After all, the incident involved an alien human faction and the terrifying Mechanical Clan. The enormous commotion and flashes of fire had already drawn plenty of steel beasts closer, and more were prowling nearby. On top of that, they'd spent over two hours searching without finding any survivors. Knowing they couldn't afford to delay any longer, everyone agreed to retreat for now, report what had happened to the mayor and the others at the Iron Nest settlement, and decide