Left-click to choose a card when asked.
You have three bars. One is the affection your settlement has for you, one is the amount of tech you have gathered and one is the amount of tech left to discover.
If the affection bar falls to zero, your settlement will abandon you.
When the amount of tech left goes to zero, a massive battle will occur between the different settlements, the winner of which being the one with the highest amount of tech gathered.