"What's the plan now?" Cissel asked, seeing John finally stand still for the first time in hours. "Is there anything else left to scavenge?"
"We need lots of wires," John said, turning to her with a sharp glint in his eye. "These machines run on electricity. To link the sensors, motors, and power cells, we need to do it right. Let's gather every wire we can pull out of these wrecks!"
"Fine!" Cissel rolled her eyes, her irritation growing in direct proportion to how John made these impossible tasks look like simple chores.
They spent the next hour meticulously gathering every scrap of wiring they could find. They stripped the internal parts of the shattered D-1000s, collecting everything from thick, heavy-duty power cables to delicate threads only a few centimetres long.
By the time John finally signalled that they had enough and headed back to the base, Lanmar was hauling a massive, tangled nest of copper and fibre optics.
"Wow! You actually made it bigger!"
