Well, they had a possible, and good, reason for why their memories were blank, and a good warning about form and function. 02 was glad that her mask had not malfunctioned, stuck either open or closed. Beyond that, however, she could not have said if it was working properly. That might be something they would have to test, if they could remember how.

For now, however, she listened to the rest of the explanation, still frowning behind her mask, finding it strange to think of such an all consuming war when she could not even imagine what her life was like without it. No matter, then, it was their life from now on, if they were to ask these children of the Mother for their help, then abandoning them was no great display of gratitude. She supposed that meant they had chosen a side. Just as well, neutrality did not sit well with her, when she liked one side so little.

Even better, the old machine offered them a map, and a goal. Now, they had something to work towards. She was already in ready agreement with 01’s opinion as the other girl began talking. But with the last statement, she couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her. Somewhat distorted, it still emerged as genuine amusement, and she was grinning where they couldn’t see. “Are you awake now? It is nice to see.”

But a hand still dropped to rest on a knife’s hilt as she turned back to the old machine, inclining her body in a gratefully exaggerated nod by way of acknowledgement. “It is good enough to have a goal and explanation. Thank you. Well, shall we then, sisters?” It felt right to call them that, even if she wasn’t the least bit certain of their actual relations. She didn’t care. “Let’s remember the route.”

No. 3 stood quietly with her arms crossed as the little old robot told his story. It certainly gave her quite a history lesson, and she could sympathize with the plight of the machines. What creature, mechanical or not, wouldn't fight to preserve its existence? And the Varden... now that she heard the story, it seemed her hatred of them was justified and not just instinctual. Still, it didn't give her much of an idea of what exactly she was. Different factions... had they equipped her with this strange equipment? Was she trained to kill the Varden? Or was she built, somehow, even though she was flesh and blood? Was she even human? Now, all they had to go on was that tower.

"Well, it seems we have our next destination, then," she said, uncrossing her arms. She smiled and gave a small chuckle hearing No. 1's enthusiasm. "Haha, I never wanted to run in the first place. Let's go give the Varden something to be afraid of, shall we?" She didn't address the machines. It just seemed odd showing warmth toward something made of metal, and yet she felt the creatures shouldn't be hunted and destroyed. In a way, she felt a desire to protect them. "We'll find out what happened to your scout," she said, finally turning to the old machine. "And if there is anything left to save, we'll bring him back."

She smiled when No. 2 called them sisters. She seemed to be the most withdrawn of the three of them, so it seemed odd coming from her, but it definitely sounded right. "Yes, let's go, sisters."

The machine nodded to them. "I would accompany you if I could, but... well, as I said. You can call me GF. That is what I'm called anyway, I know not why. Such memories have long since eluded me." He nodded to them, before moving back to his place to sit. "The scout will also be able to give you something that can keep you in contact with us, if you wish. Until then, please be safe. No matter how strong you may be, you do not know the limits of your strength. Fighting the Varden head on may very well be far beyond your strength. Be cautious, and do not try to take on an entire city on your own."

With his parting words, the girls would be pointed in the right direction to leave, back the way they came, and through a different exit that wouldn't drop them right back where they started, but instead, on the street near the tower that was already their goal. All they needed to do was head out, and climb themselves a tower, whether inside, or outside. It was a pretty large building after all. Likely able to house hundreds, if not thousands of people.

Making sure her hood was firmly on her head to protect her scalp from the drizzle, from what she assumed must be condensation falling from the top of the dome now, she squinted and found the large tower. A large, looming monolith that was their destination and projector of dangerous vibes.

"Well, there it is, sisters." She said, looking back at the two of them. She licked her lips, as if she had just eaten something unpleasant.

"Sisters? Seems a bit cultish, if I'm honest. Sis, maybe; or ladies?" She put a hand up to her chin, irony and humor creeping into her voice while still making the complaint.

"We should come up with a team name at some point." The blonde said confidentally. Varden had a strange name- sounded like a real person's name. They'd need a cool name to strike fear into the hearts of villains everywhere.

"'Sisters'," She said in a mockingly formal voice, laughing at her own joke and then clearing her throat. "Are we, uh, ready to move?"

It was strange, the blonde thought, that she didn't know what to call the two of them. They needed call signs in battle besides 'sister'. She wanted to think of a name for herself, and for the others to come up with good names. As this thought crossed her mind, her blue eyes flicked between the two of them, biting her lower lip as she thought about that particular conundrum. What's in a name, anyway?

“Yes.”

She was ready to go. She couldn’t hear anything to suggest they had unwelcome company waiting for them, though the rain and walls admittedly dampened quite a bit of any potential noise. Talk about names and teams and cults could come later, though… They probably should discuss these things sooner rather than later. But 02 found herself unwilling to stall their forward momentum for something as intangible as a word. Nor did she think she’d need to know how to introduce their group to anyone beyond violence or as messengers sent by GF. She didn’t really want anyone else to know them. Or… to know about them.

But now wasn’t the time. “Think as we go. In your head.”

Fiddling with her mask as she spoke, 02 was relearning where more of its controls were, though she couldn’t quite remember what each did yet. It felt like if she kept following the tracks of muscle memory they’d lead her somewhere. Though it likely wasn’t the best time to experiment. “To the door? I don’t hear anything like those Varden nearby.”

No. 3 couldn't help but chuckle as her blonde sister debated what they ought to call themselves. A team name was probably the least of their worries right now, and whether she said "sis" or "sister" seemed irrelevant. Words were merely a convenience, and as long as people agreed to call things by the same name, nothing else really mattered. It almost seemed childish to ruminate over such things, but at the same time it was endearing. If anything, the quirk made her more fond of her sister, as if she managed to cling to something precious. "I'll leave the creativity up to you," she said, patting No. 1 on the back. "My only suggestion is that if we name ourselves, it ought to be something that strikes fear into the Varden."

With that she turned to No. 2 and gave her a nod. "Yes, let's go. We have nothing to gain by waiting." However, as they approached the tower, she felt the nanobots buzzing inside of her. They were replicating, preparing for some pre-programmed procedure. "I... I think I should scout ahead," she said, after a moment's hesitation. "You two stick together. I'll let you know if I see any danger, then we can attack as a unit if I find anything."

She took a breath and decided to allow the nanobots to carry out their task. She wasn't sure what they were doing, but it felt right to just let them do it. No. 3 didn't notice what happened, but her sisters would see an electric flicker, and then nothing. No.3 became completely invisible; only a distortion of space and the raindrops running along her body gave any indication of where she stood. She darted towards the tower, her feet falling silently against the ground. She didn't have to think to do so. Her muscles knew where to place her feet to make as little noise as possible. She crouched low, seeking cover in shadows as she approached the tower with a rapidity that surprised her. She kept an eye out for any Varden and tried to assess what security and obstacles were blocking their way to the tower. Once she had this information, she would return to her sisters.

There wasn't a whole lot going on. At least not down at street level. High above, at least every ten seconds a dropship would cross over the road above the buildings. The shortest building was still ten stories tall, and there were very few alleyways between them. No soldiers were in sight, but the sky was clearly swarming with the dropships. Perhaps the Varden were paranoid, and were making sure they checked every single place they could from the air before setting foot on the ground. Even the team that had been dropped off near the pods was gone, which could be seen a ways down the road.

The tower looked, empty. The lights were on in the main lobby with many glass doors on the front side. The door was even open, if 03 were to check such a thing. But this tower was definitely big. It went up what looked like a hundred floors, and while it would be possible to climb from the outside, it might not be the safest bet. At the same time, 03 couldn't see what awaited them inside past the lobby. For all they knew the entire tower could be swarming with Varden. Then again, all was quiet, and the dropships overhead seemed less than interested in the building. It was probably a safe bet to do either option, as there wasn't any sign of anything, or anyone having gone inside.

For example, with the rain, there would no doubt be footprints leading inside. Which there were clearly none.

The blonde was disappointed by her friends lack of enthusiasm for what she viewed as quite an important topic. Still, she'd wow them with something awesome, someday. The Varden had a cool name. Might be the name of their leader, or something. What if they needed to call each other's names in battle? Or, perhaps, those friendly robots needed to know their callsign? This was certainly up their on the priority list.

As the tower approached, she couldn't help but look up at the top with awe. It went on forever. Her neck craned up to see the top, her mouth fell open and her hoodie fell off. Rain got onto her face and, blinking, looked back down at the concrete and raised her hoodie again.

Her friend turned invisible. The hoodied-woman took a step back in surprise. "Woah, that's, really impressive." She said.

"Hello?" She asked the open night air. Hmm. Well, she would call her name, but, she didn't have one! It was already becoming an inconvenience.

Eventually, her wayward friend came back and reported on the situation.

"Uh, okay. It's a big tower...I think I could climb up some of it. Look in through the windows, or something. If that's what you guys needed. Or a secret entrance. Vent- or something." She was just thinking up ideas at this point, re-enforcing this with a shrug.

"Otherwise, we might just need to walk in the front door, but that would probably get them pissed at us." This was important, they needed to find that scout at the top of the tower. The back of her mind was confident in her ability to climb a decent way up the side of the concrete and glass skyscraper, but that might not be the best course of action, even if she were capable of doing so.

Although she did not like waiting, and had so far acted in the moment to pull the other two along with her, 02 could not say that she wasn’t glad when 03 offered to do some scouting. She didn’t like to hesitate, but caution and uncertainty were still catching at her thoughts, making her second guess every choice simply because they didn’t have all the details. In fact, they had… almost none of them.

So, a bit of scouting before stepping into yet another unknown seemed prudent. And, though she didn’t step back, her eyebrows nearly disappeared in surprise as she stared at the place where their companion had been. Sharing a glance with 01, she could only shrug helplessly. The ability was perfect for the purpose, and she couldn’t even be sure she was following 03 with her ears. Just the faintest of scuffing sounds now and again wasn’t much to go on. Ducking back down to keep out of sight in case they were visible from the sky as another dropship went by, she was wondering if the invisibility was a universal trait, or unique to their newly made scout, when the one in question came back.

She didn’t think she could do any sort of disappearing act, so she shook her head and focused herself back to the mission. Neither choice, of more scouting from outside or walking inside and out of the rain, seemed the best option, but she could only think of the two. Unless one of them could suddenly fly, there was no other way to reach the top, and flying would have meant sharing space with all those dropships anyways, so she really shouldn’t have-Nevermind!

“Too long either way. Some chance the tower was left lights on when everyone else went.” Their arrival did seem to have stirred everything up. “But no contact with GF means something’s interfering, doesn’t it? If it wasn’t the us crashing… Climb outside and they might see you from up there.” In other words, there was no good choice, but she thought she might prefer the one where they didn’t draw in too many people if they ran into trouble. “A ship sees you, they call more ships. Inside… It’s probably narrow, they should be more restricted. I say we go in, and you go back to being invisible, in case.”

No. 3 nodded at her sister's assessment. "Right. Trying to climb from the outside will just get us seen by one of those ships. Though, if they sound alarms while we're inside the tower, we could end up trapped." She let out a little sigh. "Screw it. I'm tired cowering like a scared child. Let's march in there and bring the fight to them." She felt her nanobots buzzing, getting ready to manufacture more blades for her. "We'll stay quiet if we can, but I'm not going to avoid trouble any more. It's about time we kill some of these Varden."

With that, her she snapped her invisibility back on and dashed into the open front doors of the tower. If it was a trap, good. She had some frustration to vent. A small blade appeared in each of her hands. She gripped them loosely, ready to let them fly at a moment's notice. Yes, it felt more natural to throw them than to stab someone with them, though she would do that too if necessary. Her eyes darted left and right, scanning for any source of life. Woe be to the first Varden whose head popped up, for he would just as quickly find a blade lodged in his skull.

Indeed, the airships overhead were scanning all around with their search lights at the buildings around them. Every other one that passed overhead was shining its lights onto the tower they had to climb, so it would probably be suicide to try and climb the outside. Well, as far as they knew anyways. Not knowing the limit of their powers didn't give them much information on what they could, and could not handle. But for the moment, none of that mattered as it seemed they would take the more cautious approach and go through the interior of the building.

Inside the lobby it was pretty clean, with a single desk and a few comfortable looking chairs and sofas here and there, like a lobby of sorts. Yet it didn't seem like anything familiar to the girls, but what certainly did was the stairway that would take them upwards.

From then on... to be honest, no matter what the girls did whether they snuck through the tower one floor at a time, or if they stormed through as quickly as possible, they would encounter nobody, not a soul to be found. The place truly was abandoned, or perhaps the better way of putting it was evacuated.

It wasn't until they reached the top that they would have anything noteworthy happening, as they found their way out onto the roof of the building. The view was... certainly something else. They could see the entire city from the top of this building, and it was massive. Easily a few million people lived in this city, and buildings of all sizes littered the land. They could see in the night, from the lights of the city, that it was one giant circle, and the dome they had been told about above, reaching far over the city to protect it. What little they could see of the land beyond matched the description they had been given. Barren, and dusty looking.

But the main thing to note, was a massive spire in the center of the city, that reached not just up to the dome, but through it, sticking well out the top and into the sky. Whatever it was, it was certainly important.

And then, when they got back on the mission at hand to look around for any missing robots... they wouldn't have to look far before finding a little robot, about as tall as the rest, hanging upsidedown tangled up in wires. It seemed he had fallen off an antenna atop the tower, and gotten himself tangled up in all kinds of cables. He had a large bucket head, with two large round eyes that looked like nerdy glasses. Although for the moment, he didn't seem responsive, eyes closed, and body unmoving. But the golden light of his core still shined, telling the girls he wasn't dead. Just... inactive.

It was odd to see such a large building, well-lit, air conditioned, totally empty and abandoned. Despite the fact that it was the first building she could ever recall being in, the blonde was still off-put by the quiet. She might have even preferred to be fighting something. One thing she noticed was how little water was left behind in her wake- the suit was water-resistant and most of it rolled off her body outside and quickly pooled off of her as she entered the polished indoors.

Eventually, they found their way to the top, taking in the awesome spectacle of the domed city, before finding their contact. Currently de-activated, the robo was upside down in a tangle of wires.

"Hey, buddy," the blonde approached first, "You okay?" Taking a step forward, she quickly tried detangling the wires, using her powers to apply additional force where necessary.

No. 3 was on edge for the entire trek through the tower. She felt like this whole thing was some kind of trap or setup. Her eyes kept darting to dark corners that she would hide behind if she were to ambush someone. Yet, each time there was nothing. Why would the Varden abandon a tower like this? Surely there was at least some kind of skeleton crew, or security staff keeping things operational. They approached the roof and she gripped her knives with white knuckles, ready to bombard the ambush party that was inevitably waiting for them.

However, there were no threats. No. 3 wished she could say that calmed her down, but that just made her more anxious. As No. 1 untangled the little robot, she decided to take a peak at the city. Some might call the sight beautiful. Perhaps once No. 3 would have thought the same. But now, her mind was frantic. She wanted to analyze and remember all the major roads and where they were in relation to each other. Where were the largest buildings and what were the quickest paths to get there? She noted the spire and all the different paths that led to it. She watched the ships flying below her, making not of their patterns. She furrowed her brow in concentration until her head hurt. But eventually, she couldn't take any more in, and stepped away from the edge, making her way back to No. 1 who was at work untangling the robot.

"It looks deactivated," she said. "Does it seem like it's damaged to you?" She walked over and cut some of the wires away.

They went in and… she almost found it disappointing. Or maybe more disconcerting. The emptiness of the hallways. The immediate quiet. After all the tense worrying, it seemed… anticlimactic. Welcome relief, but still odd.

When they made it up to the roof without incident, following the buildings simple layout, 02 found herself glad that there were no more stairs. It was monotonous to climb so many all at once, and glad to finally be outside again. The expectations of enemies jumping out of the shadows at any moment, rushing from behind closed doors, or waiting for them on the next floor left her feeling wrung out when she realized there really was no one else there with them. Though the ships were still around, they seemed to be focused more on the ground around the crashsite than on the tops of buildings. That was her first priority, but it looked like if they didn’t make too much fuss up here, they shouldn’t be noticed too quickly.

Good. So, next, they should look for-ah! Was that? It seemed they’d found the scout. The poor, haphazardly constructed thing looked rather sad hanging there. Was this misfortune caused by their crash? Or had the robot gotten itself tangled trying to do… something else? “Careful. Wires might be important.” Or dangerous. Though how they might know what this tangle did, she wasn’t sure, but given as there were still lights on in the buildings around them, she had the feeling that these ones would still be doing whatever job they were meant for as well.

She helped by holding the robot up, loosening the tangle for 01, though she wasn’t really paying attention to the task, her eyes constantly wandering away from what their hands were doing and back up to the view. Following the big dome to the hole in the sky they’d made. Wondering about the spire looking so domineering. It really was a good view from here. She would try to make use of the moment once they’d freed this little guy.

“No idea.” All the robots she’d seen so far looked somewhat worn out or lackadaisically put together, given the materials used. Of course, she could not say that this wasn’t usual, though she felt it might not have been the general situation before the robots had to start fixing themselves. It made sense though, if no one wanted to help them, that they’d have fewer options. Still, it did mean that she wasn’t sure what might indicate damage on these things. Maybe a big dent? “How do you… wake robots?”

The little machine did look damaged in obvious ways, but as they suspected it was very difficult to tell what was actual damage, and what was just 'natural' for them, if that word could be used. This machine's body was made up of rusted pipes, broken gears, and broken metal containers. Its head for example looked like a big metal bowl with an antenna sticking out, and all overs its body little holes could be found. It looked more as if rust had eaten away at the body making these holes, and it wasn't crazy to imagine that the parts that made up its body were this damage before being attached to the little guy.

But they would have less time to wonder about how to awaken it, as after tampering with it for a bit, making it shift side to side, its eyes, which looked like big bulbs, would slowly brighten up to glow with the same golden light in its core, before it eyed the three of them, and almost instantly went into a panic, flailing in the cables. And then that panic swiftly turned into illogical bravery.

"AH, VARDEN... ARMORLESS VARDEN!!! YOU WANT TO FIGHT? I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON! C'MERE AND GIVE ME ALL YOU GOT, I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT A MACHINE CAN DO!" it swung back and forth in the cables, making it very difficult to try and untangle or free from it, but that swinging and wriggling on top of the fact the girls had already been working on untangling it in the first place suddenly released the machine, sending it flying through the air from its own movements as it went right past the girls in an arc over their heads, and landed right on its head with a loud ~CLUNK~. And there it simply rested, lying on its back, arms and legs sprawled out as it stared up into the sky in defeat. Accepting its fate at the hand of the Varden just like that as it came to the end of its emotional roller-coaster, if the mechanical logic it was following could be considered emotions.

Of course it had no way to understand they had come to 'rescue' it, rather than kill it like it suspected. "Woe is me... been up here for thirty years and haven't ever been spotted. Then the glass breaks and now I die. I miss just being a core stuck in the mud with no body. Those were the days..."

The cables seemed to be attached to some equipment up on top of the entryway to the stairwell they had come out of, including an antenna, a radio of some sort... the girls wouldn't know exactly what these things were, but they could get a sense that it was common knowledge what they were and what their purpose was. One of the cables on the radio had been pulled out, which was no doubt why contact had been cut.

The blonde backed off. The robot, now awake, was actually quite cute. It flailed around, shouting bravely at it's percieved attackers before crumpling into a heap.

"Hey, well geez, dude, don't give up so easily. You didn't even hit us." She laughed, kneeling down next to him.

"We're not Varden. We're here to help. That old guy, the old robot, leader of that group sent us. Uh, 'GF'. They're concerned about you, y'know?" She frowned, poking him in his metallic shoulder.

"You haven't been found out. Yeah, the glass is broken, but we can get you outta here, easy peasy. There's no one around." She paused. Concern for the little man has overriden her concern for the mission as of yet. Still, she idly commented on the strange cables and communication equipment, keeping her eyes on the little robot. She turned her head a little bit so they could more clearly hear her.

"Any a' you guys know what any of these gizmos are?" The blonde asked.

No. 3 just cocked an eyebrow as the little robot railed and flailed at them, utterly ineffectually. She stood back and let the little guy tire himself out until he thunked to the ground in defeat. He said some odd things about being a core in the mud, but that didn't particularly concern her. The old robot has told her that this scout could have some information for them. "30 years? Well, if nothing else he's devoted to his work," she said giving her blonde sister a smile. "I don't have any idea what these devices are for, but I suppose our little friend here could tell us."

She leaned over the "defeated" robot. "You've been here for 30 years, so you must know something. What is this building and why are there no Varden in it? What were you scouting for? How did you end up in a tangled mess?" She hoped she didn't bombard the robot with too much, but thus far the machines didn't seem averse to talking.

When the robot started up, 02 had been glad, though she wasn’t sure what it was they’d done to fix it. Perhaps it had fixed itself.

She was far less pleased when it began flailing about with hard little arms and legs. One, probably accidental rap on her fingers and she pulled her hands back, taking away his support and stepping out of reach. Watching it, she did have to admit it was somewhat amusing, how it appeared to be attempting violence, given the words it was spouting. Less amusing was the volume, and she winced, quickly diverting her gaze to their surroundings to make sure it wasn’t so loud other people might hear it. They were on top of a tall building though, and with the rain… She doubted they’d have to worry, but she’d watch the ships just in case.

01 could deal with the hysterical robot. Dealing with robots seemed to be a skill of hers. Or she was simply more gregarious. Whatever the reason…

Her amber eyes remained turned outward as the conversation took up a little more calmly, gaze sweeping half the sky as she listened in. She didn’t turn around at the question addressed to them either, simply shrugged. She hadn’t had a chance to look at the items to which the cables were attached, and she doubted she’d need to know. Either the robot would, they weren’t important, or… “Will they still work with the wires cut?”

The little machine blinked its eyes, the lights of the big, glasses looking bulbs visibly disappearing and reappearing, as if the core was actually using them as a means to see. Whatever their cores were, they seemed capable of making use of things in very diverse ways, such as using light bulbs as eyes, and actually being able to see from them. It squinted, some shutters closing over its eyes as it pulled itself up, and looked closely at the three, one at a time. First to 01, then 03, and lastly to 02.

"Not Varden you say? You certainly look like Varden. Why should I believe you are any different, and you don't just want me to lead you back home? Ah but you know GF? Well you couldn't know of him without already having been home yes? Okay, I will believe you. Perhaps my life is not over just yet." He pulled himself up, and dusted himself off, although all this managed to do was scrape some rust off. "What, wires cut, oh yes I must have... uhm, nothing to worry about, certainly. I can fix it!"

He wobbled over to the wires, and went around behind the structure they were on, only to appear on top a moment later, having climbed up from behind. He started pulling up the wires, and sorting them out one by one, working on the radio box specifically. "This building? Yes it should be empty. The Varden, they use it for, housing. Comfort, most likely. When a Varden travels, for example, from the other end of the city, to this side. Their journey can take an entire day to get here. They do not wish to turn around and make the trip again to return right away. They stay here instead. But they should have left. I wouldn't know, I was... indisposed."

It drooped a bit. "Truth be told, when the glass broke, it was very sudden. There was a spark of light in the sky, and I was trying to look up to see what it could have been. Then, things came crashing through the glass. It was rather surprising. I may have, fell from the shock. My leg, got wrapped up in the cables somehow. Must have yanked them from the box when I fell too, and then after a few hours of dangling, and having no clue what was going on, I decided to simply power down for a while. That if someone was going to find me, there was little I could do powered up that could not be done while powered down. Helpless, to say the least. Oh, yes I ma getting sidetracked. If something broke through the barrier, this place could become unsafe. The outside, you see, it's not safe. The air, Varden can't breath it. You can't breath it either, I would wager. Varden or not!" He noted one of them wearing a mask. "Certainly one of you has the right idea! But there is more to it than that. Do you know of the Varden? What they are? Raised as soldiers! But everything else too. Varden are given freedom, and choice. They can be what they want. A construction worker, a store clerk, a dancer or an artist! But they are coded to be soldiers. It is in their blood you see. If something goes wrong, every Varden in the city can be recalled and reformed. They all know it, it's no secret. Every single Varden, no matter how they live their life, can be turned into a fully functional soldier just like that. It would just take the right, event... for them to do it."

Of course he had gotten confirmation they didn't know everything about the Varden. He didn't simply start rambling off exposition without purpose. "The light, it must have been the barrier no doubt. Something fell through it, and then shattered the glass next. There are no Varden who would help us... each and every one of them is waiting for a war against machines that will never come. Look at us... do you think we can fight? GF, GF yes! You mentioned him. He could fight. One day, long ago. It has been a long time. But once, he was different. He was the only warrior among us. Able to fight so many Varden at once, they couldn't stop him! He found us, one by one. Brought us here. Hmm, am I rambling again?"

Rambling seemed to be a part of his work process as just then the radio he was working on sparked to life. "Ah hah, there we are! It is done." The machine picked something up, and clicked it onto its body followed by a quick "Tower, checking in. Yes... mhm, uh huh. Oh really. Is that so. I see, yes yes... what? Oh, nothing to worry about. Mishap. All is well." The one sided conversation continued for a short time, before he looked up at the three. "Oh, yes, certainly." He took some more of the small devices, and held it out to them. "Here, put these in your ear. Not too deep! We took these from the Varden. Communication devices. You should be able to contact me anytime you need to, wherever it is you are going next... And I can patch you through to GF, for example so you can speak to him if you want, or, need to. Yes, sorry, rambling again. Uhm, questions, yes! He said to share information with you. What, do you need to know?"

With the whole city around them, the one thing that stood out most was that spire in the center, and the light at the top which seemed to be spilling into the sky above.

With a whole world before them, new potential allies, and no doubt a wealth of information in this little machine who had been atop this tower, or at least had regularly been atop it, for thirty years... the one question would no doubt nag at all three girl's minds.

Why were they here, and what were they supposed to do?

As the robot explained the purpose of the empty building, 02 decided it was reasonable to find it so empty then. If it wasn’t a defensible or strategic location, there was no reason not to abandon it for the more obviously armoured ships in an uncertain situation. She was absently trying to count the ones in the half of the dome that she was looking towards while listening in, but the numbers became less important the longer the robot rambled. Not because it wasn’t a good idea to know, but because it was offering them information she had not thought of. Something rather… worrying.

And amusing, that it didn’t know they were the things that had crashed through the glass. She wondered if they should apologize for that, but didn’t know whose fault it was. She didn’t feel like she should apologize for anything that might not be her fault, or in her control.

Of more concern, was the revelation that the streets hadn’t been evacuated because people were in danger. The empty windows with their lights still on hadn’t been abandoned in a rush for safety, but because all those people, maybe… everyone in this city, would become those soldiers that made her gut twist. She didn’t like that thought. And her gaze grew sharper as she eyed the ships until the robot distracted her with its handouts. Inspecting the item curiously, 02 hesitantly did as she was told, after glancing towards the other two, just to see what they thought. She had to remove the mask and headpiece first, and she didn’t like that. But being able to speak with the robots more directly seemed a good idea.

At the question turning the conversation back over to them, she tilted her head a moment and then asked the first two thoughts that came into her mind. “Is every civilian a Varden soldier?” Lifting her arm to point towards the spire, she didn’t give him a chance to begin another ramble. “What is that?”