Chapter Two: The Rooftop Fabricator

[SUCCESS PROBABILITY FALLS FROM 81% TO 39%.] “Show me the design.” Diagrams filled the air. Zhou had repaired drones for seven years. Where others saw incomprehensible geometry, he saw leverage, material limits, and failure points. Refraction's design demanded extreme reliability and triple redundancy. “Remove two backups. Let the drones use the tower's sprinkler water as dynamic rotor shielding. They don't need to come home.” [PROJECTED UNIT LOSS: 94%.] “Machines aren't people. Do it.” The golden cube paused. [APPROVED.] Light pierced the scrap. Carbon fiber flowed like black sugar. Broken copper spun itself into threads; battery casings separated into floating clouds of particles. The bay created no matter.