When the temperature on the planet's surface dropped to sixty degrees, the Transport Aircraft parked in the Hangar were started up again.
Half the Automated Sentries were deployed to the surface, heading for the former Hive City.
Although the entire upper Hive City had melted into a heap of ruins, Iax still wanted to see whether any usable equipment remained.
After all, the ship carried a limited amount of equipment. Using it to run an entire planet simply wasn't realistic.
Nor could a nano-swarm weighing only a few dozen kilograms build a proper automated factory.
After all, Iax had no STC data for a standard factory.
When Iax was first designed, no one had imagined that the standard factories found everywhere across Federation territory would one day become so rare.
Relying on those few dozen kilograms of nano-swarm, he probably wouldn't meet his expansion goals even after decades.
Fortunately, these Sentinels had already been used as mechanical laborers once before, and their limbs had been modified. Although each had only one standard humanoid hand, their immense strength and all-cutting Particle Swords made excellent tools.
The melted structures of the upper Hive City were cut apart with Particle Swords, then lifted away by several Sentinels working together.
Chunks of oddly shaped, melted metal scrap were tossed aside.
The Hive City's underground structures gradually emerged.
Unfortunately, those underground structures had suffered severe damage from geological upheavals. The metal smelting plants scattered throughout the Hive City had become heaps of scrap after their controls failed. Molten metal had solidified inside all manner of equipment, destroying any value it might have had.
Clearly, every Imperial Facility on this planet was now a pile of scrap metal.
With no other choice, Iax first retrieved the deployed Automated Sentries, then set the ship on course for