Thank you for the feedback! I mostly didn’t want to have to press the issue if the PCs wanted to hold onto the drill. The primary in-universe reasoning I had was that the dig site would be the safest place to deploy the drill. Dmitri’s capture is primarily intended to motivate the PCs to fight in the dig site, but if the PCs want to deploy the drill elsewhere, I see no reason to stop them other than “this is the map and combat I prepared”. Combat 2 should likely happen regardless, for the reasons outlined in the sidebar “Elevator, Going Up”.
I may make adjustments to this in a future version, to make it clear to a GM that they can allow alternative deployment locations or simply solidifying an in-universe reason for why the drill needs deployed in the dig site (or even just explicitly have Dmitri hold onto it for the reasons you stated). Thank you again for the feedback; I’ll take note of it for future revisions!