As he reached the top of the ladder, Lucas cautiously stuck the scanner over the edge.

I don’t see anything besides burnt up trees, dirt, and solar panels. Maybe they wandered away.

“I’m not going to count on that,” replied Lucas as he cautiously climbed over the ledge around the outside of the roof and onto the short ladder back to the roof itself. “I’m going to go ahead and be and prepared for mutant squirrels.”

Do you think they are hiding in the trees?

“You are the one who is viewing the area through the high-resolution 3D Scanner. You tell me.”

I don’t see any.

“In that case, please direct me to the first solar panel that is producing power, but not producing much power.”

Ten meters due north and you come to a panel that is barely producing current.

Turning to head towards the panel, Lucas said in awe, “That is unique.”

I don’t see anything unique about trees which have been burnt back to just being trunks.

“You would if you opened your eyes and looked at them.”

As Lucas panned the scanner along the line of the roof, Rose finally understood. There are no roots.

“Yup. With all the green stuff burnt away, it is plain as day that the trunks just magically disappear into the roof. Oh sure, there's a ton of dirt that has drifted up here and let the smaller vegetation grow, but there is some seriously crazy stuff going on to allow these trees to exist.”

How do you think they pulled this off? Do you suppose there is a constant string of nanobots flowing from wherever the roots are to these tree trunks? Why would they even waste the Nanobots on that? Do you think someone basically glued telephone poles to the roof and then used the Nanobots to turn them into trees?

“Honestly, I don’t have any idea how they pulled it off. I just know we will need to undo it later.” Moving towards the panel, Lucas continued, “What am I looking for on this panel? I may understand my basic science, but Solar Panels are a bit beyond basic science.”

Check over the panel for loose or damaged wiring. Look for any black marks to show where the panel was arcing. We are getting some power but check the fuse anyway. If it is just barely holding on, we might still get a trickle even if the fuse has mostly blown. Check the surface of the panel for cracks. Check to see how much of the light is getting through to the photovoltaic cells, be it still being in the shade or covered in dirt. If all those things are OK, the problem has got to be where the panel wiring all comes together.

Quietly Lucas moved to inspect the panel. Checking the fuse first, “Fuse is OK,” said Lucas. Following the fuse, Lucas checked the wiring, “Wiring appears to be mostly OK. There is some damage to the wiring. There is exposed copper visible. There doesn’t seem to be anything contacting the copper so theoretically it should be OK.”

I’ll make a note on those repairs. Those wires will need replacing at some point. Or I guess you could wrap the wire in electrical tape next time you go to the roof. Should have mentioned it sooner, but I have a bunch of the stuff in storage. In retrospect, I should have told you to get some tools from my room too. A wattmeter would probably be nice right now.

“We have a wattmeter in the server room, and you didn’t have one of the bots bring it to me before you sent me up here?”

Oops.

Sighing, Lucas retorted “I guess we'll just see how much I can actually get done up here before I go retrieve that, the electrical tape, and whatever other useful items you might be able to point me to for these repairs.”

Meekly, Rose responded I will point you to all the right tools after you get back down here safely.

As Lucas climbed up the side of the scaffolding to inspect the panel’s surface, Lucas asked “Rose, can you keep an eye out for me. I don’t know if or when the squirrels are coming back and the next thing I’ve got to check is the panel’s surface.”

I can do that.

“Thanks’ Rose.” As Lucas made it to the top of the panel, Lucas wasn’t even able to see the solar cells of the panel. “Rose, I think the surface is intact, but I can’t see it very well. This panel is pretty much covered in Ash. I’ll bet there is a layer of dirt underneath that. How you are getting anything from this solar panel at all is a mystery to me.”

Lucas, incoming. I see 13 squirrels coming out of the woodwork about fifty meters from us.

“Locations?”

Eight are climbing down trees and five seem to be coming out from under solar panels. The ones coming out from under the panels will get to you first. The ones on the trees are further away.

“Suggestions?”

Probably fight. They are overgrown squirrels. They can’t be much more dangerous than the Rats or the Goblins.

Turning, Lucas cast “Icebolt” at the closest squirrel. Much to his surprise, the squirrel fell over dead from that single hit. “Rose, these things basically have no hit points. I don’t want to kill them. They could probably be useful as guard squirrels or something if we can train them and I don’t have anything I can do with their meat at the moment. Can you ensure the barrier around the outside of the base will let them out?”

I could use a lot of the non-meat materials on that dead one for repairs. That being said. The barrier is already configured to allow anyone to exit, but only to allow you entrance. I’m guessing the rest of the squirrels used that to get ahead of the flames and into the forest before the branches and greenery burnt away. There probably isn’t a route that these remaining squirrels can use to get off the roof.

“I mean to help them with that,” replied Lucas as he ran back towards the ladder.

Turning Lucas prepared to face the first squirrel. Knowing it had next to no hitpoints, Lucas didn’t grab his knives or prepare a spell. As the lead squirrel leaped at him, Lucas grabbed the squirrel and spun it off the roof. Without any time to check the results, and knowing he had a way onto the roof being built by Rose, Lucas shouted to Rose “I’m going to try and knock them off the roof. Worst comes to worst I drag the dead bodies into range of your Nanobots, and you break them down into raw materials. Best case scenario, they are still alive, and I can store them somewhere alive until I need them. Heck, maybe we can even tame them.”

As the next two squirrels were running at Lucas, Rose replied, I’m going to doubt our ability to tame them. They are monsters at this point, I doubt they have any submit left in their bodies.

As the squirrels reached Lucas, he stumbled. Reactively, Lucas kicked a squirrel as it jumped at him. As the squirrel went flying over the edge of the building, Lucas commented “These are even lighter than I thought. I wonder how far I can punt one of them off the side of the roof?”

Jumping up, Lucas lined up on the second squirrel and kicked it the way a soccer player kicks off for a corner kick. *Wham.* As Lucas looked on, the squirrel went flying, but it didn’t look like it would clear ledge around the outside of the roof and then *Splat* the squirrel smacked into the wall. The squirrel exploded on contact spraying the roof in squirrel guts.

Turning back to the ten remaining squirrels, the squirrels had frozen after seeing this. As they stood there not moving, Lucas said, “I know it’s not a thing, but I think I just procc’d a fear effect on these squirrels.”

It does seem that way. Maybe talk to them? Who knows what sort of mutations they have.

“Hello,” said Lucas to the squirrels. “I don’t want to hurt any of you, but I need you off my roof. I can either do to you what I did to the first three, or I can carry you down the ladder one at a time.”

Chittering to themselves, after a few moments, one of the squirrels slowly stepped forward. Lucas said “Pleased to meet you, I can’t understand what you are saying, assuming you are saying something specific, but I would be happy to get you off the roof. I’m going to pick you up, but I am going to have to carry you over my shoulder. You are too big to carry any other way.”

Scooping down, Lucas picked up the squirrel. This one was the size of a small golden retriever. Lucas turned and walked towards the ladder. Attempting to climb up, Lucas was unable to progress very far before slipping because of the lack of free hands. Setting down the squirrel, Lucas said. “Rose, I know you were in the process of building Roof access internally. What’s the status on that?”

I am just finishing up. About 200 meters in, you will see the access door. It’s a hatch since I can’t build into the space over the roof for some reason. When you open the hatch there is a stairway down instead of a ladder.

“Would you mind terribly if I herded these squirrels through the base? I promised to get them off the roof, and I would prefer to do that without killing them.”

I will close the Blast door between levels 0 and level 1. Then if they are a problem, they are your problem giggled Rose.

“I can deal with that.” Turning to face the Squirrels Lucas said, “Change of plans, I’m going to take you through the base so I don’t have to carry you down the ladder. You can all come at once.” Turning his back on the squirrels, Lucas started walking.

The squirrels started chittering. Lucas thought it kind of sounded like when he had overheard a couple arguing in a foreign language at a restaurant. He had no idea what they are saying, but you can get the gist from the tone of voice. Turning, Lucas said “Look, I understand that you don’t trust me seeing as I burnt down your forest and just killed three of your… I don’t know… pack. How about I take the volunteer through the inside of the base, and then you can see him safe when he comes out the main door?”

That seemed to appease the squirrels, as they looked at them and cocked their heads the way a dog does when it is trying to understand exactly what their master wants. Slowly, the squirrel started towards Lucas.

Turning his back, Lucas continued towards the hatch Rose had called out to him.

A few minutes and a brief search later, and Lucas found the hatch. “Next time try not to build the hatch under so much dirt,” laughed Lucas.

Pulling open the door, the Squirrel walked into the Dungeon.