Several drones died after they shut down before the Robotech soldiers realized that the robots had indeed stopped fighting. A few started to ask what was happening when the message from the computer came through their audio pickups loud and clear. The two scientists stopped pulling circuits, unsure of what to do.

"Please wait!" The computer repeated, "I wish to surrender to your commanding officer."

"I'll be buggered, it knows the bloody King's English!" Patrick exclaimed.

"Better than you do apparently," muttered Kelli, as several other comments flooded the net.

"Everyone shut up!" Mike yelled, stepping forward from his position by the scientists.

"We accept your surrender," Mike said, looking at Sorin who was struggling to stand up, "Is there something we can talk to rather than just calling into the air?"

"Yes, I could reactivate an engineer drone to be my mouth," the computer answered. Mike agreed and an engineer drone rose from the debris and floated near him. Mike helped a limping Sorin toward the drone.

As Mike and the Captain discussed the terms of the factories surrender, some of the other Robotech soldiers entered the chamber, some in mecha, some just on foot. David's Excalibur entered and he shouted over tacnet and the external audios, "Don't listen to it! Destroy it! Now!"

The drone spun to face the Excalibur and spoke, "You presume too much, human! I could just as easily continue fighting as surrender."

"But you're losing," Sorin stated bluntly.

The drone turned to Sorin, "Yes, I know, but I am learning how to fight you and more of you would surely die. You've lost as many troops in the last five minutes as you did from your boarding to your arrival outside. I also have the ability to destroy this factory with enough power to annihilate your vessels in space and damage the moon below. However, I would prefer not to do that, I have no wish to die. I also believe that you have enough intelligence not to force me to that extreme."

Mike said, "We will not do that. Now if you all will stop interrupting us . . ." The drone went back to Mike and Sorin and they moved away from the rest of the troops.

On top of the Gladiator, Hans had helped Wendy get the escape hatch open and get down to the deck. He converted back to Cycle mode and pulled his helmet off and looked to see if Wendy was all right. When he did, he saw her dark hair mussed from hours inside a helmet and tears running down her face. Hans glanced around, not sure what to do. Finally he put his arms around her. "I thought I was going to die," she managed between sobs into his armored chest.

The White Knights were finally closing on the computer. They had followed Max Team's path easily enough, the trail of destroyed drones made it almost child's play. They had also seen a large number of silent, inert assault drones, frozen in their journey to the computer. A few active work drones and engineer drones had ignored the white mecha as they went about their routine maintenance work. Captain Hynes and his men had seen the results of the fight at the fold system and the drones working to repair the fold computer (they were quickly dispatched), but none of what they saw prepared them for the total devastation in the computer chamber. Hynes stepped gingerly through the remains of countless drones and approached the two Hovertanks that were still covering the battlefield. The rest of the Knights wandered about the area, several of them dismounting to get a closer look at the mess. Amazingly, the only destroyed Robotech mecha they saw were the downed Alpha, an Armored Veritech and a Cyclone.

One Gladiator driver pulled off his helmet and moved to examine a seemingly empty suit of green and white CVR-3 body armor and a matching Cyclone nearby. Empty, he thought, because he couldn't see a helmet. However, when he looked closer, he saw that the armor was indeed occupied. He spun away and promptly added his breakfast to a convenient pile of debris.

Hynes transformed to Guardian mode and climbed out of the cockpit. He walked up to the Hovertanks and returned the salutes of the now dismounted Hovertankers. He glanced around again and addressed the female tanker, "Any of your officers left alive?"

Ann look up at the Captain is a daze, completely overwhelmed by the ferocity of the battle. The male tanker came to her rescue, informing Hynes that Captain Sorin and Lieutenant Connors were in the Computer Chamber. Hynes nodded and walked toward the computer casing.

Inside, Mike and Sorin were close to reaching an agreement with the computer. The computer had analyzed the human mecha and could reproduce it easily. It could also manufacture the larger warships at a slower pace. It had more than sufficient Protoculture reserves which it would make available to the REF for whatever they deemed necessary. Mike and Sorin felt they could guarantee the computer its ability to retain independent control of the factory, after all, the factory was the computers 'home'.

"I think it would be good for you to have a liaison for your dealings with the REF command," Sorin said. "Lieutenant Connors and I could recommend some officers who would be suitable."

The drone appeared to mull over Sorin's suggestion and said, "Yes. That would be prudent."

"We don't want another General Edwards building up his own private army," Mike said. His father had died in the battle at Doctor Lang's research building when Edward's renegade army had left Tirol for Optera nearly 5 years ago.

"Don't worry, I know how to deal with self-serving military political types. My former superiors were the Robotech Masters," the drone replied.

They all fell silent as they pondered what they had done, then Sorin looked up at the drone and quietly asked, "How do we know you'll keep your word?"

The drone replied after a moment in an equally hushed tone, "How do I know you will keep yours?"

"We trust each other, or we trust no one, and we are back where we started," Mike said. He extended an open hand, "I choose to trust. Otherwise, everything we have fought for, and our comrades have died for, will have been for nothing."

Sorin also extended an open hand and the drone shook them in turn.

"I would appreciate it if your engineers there would begin replacing my chips, or failing that, to allow my drones to do it," the drone said to Sorin. Sorin nodded and instructed the scientists to replace the chips.

Sorin turned to Mike, "Lieutenant, take your team, and what's left of Arrow and Yellow and return to Bismarck. I'll stay here with the Knights until a liaison staff can be set up." Mike nodded and turned away.