The survivors had no choice but to rush back into the mine a few miles away as the giant mollusk continued to turn the six-mile-long ship into a horrible rendition of Earth's modern art. Fate met Tom and Sergeant Robert there, and the latter went about reorganizing guard and hunting groups along with contacting Mystar to inform them of what happened.
When the man trudged back into the mine and gathered the survivors up, he looked as if he was told they'd die there. When he shared the news, Fate realized Robert had an appropriate expression on his face.
"Command says we're stuck here until they find a way to deal with the giant kraken in the sky," he told them. "Estimation is anywhere from five months to a year. We are gonna have to work together to survive this. All of us."
He looked at those who had come from the Phoenix, those who weren't there the first time they had to do this. The men and women in question grimaced but didn't seem like they'd disagree with the order.
After that, Sergeant Robert had them completely close off the entrance and reinforce it as much as they could with metal from the few machines still intact. With the fifteen hundred extra mouths to feed, on top of the eight hundred from the Kraken transport, they needed to expand into six extra caverns to accommodate the larger population.
During their expansion, they had to drive many of the creatures inside farther into the mine. They also found a few glowing mushrooms, and after testing them for poison with a survival kit a soldier had, they started making arrangements to farm them.
The remains of the moles they killed last time they were stuck here, they used for various things. The bones they used as makeshift bars to bar off tunnels, the hides they used for large rugs to sleep a little more comfortably on, and the teeth and claws they for whatever games they could think of, marking them and carving them for dice and such.
Two months in, they had hunted the underground creatures so much that the hunting parties had to travel for miles through tunnels before they could find something to kill. At this point, anyone that could grow a beard wore one now, as they had nothing to shave with except now-dull knives. Sergeant Roberts decided to organize mining parties to attempt to find more mines and more food.
Half a month later, they finally broke into another mine, this one filled with hundreds more mining machines, tools, and even a large stockpile of nonperishable foods and other foods preserved in deep freeze. It had several buildings inside, one with pool tables and knife-throwing games, several offices, and even beds.
The beds were what the explorers were most excited about, besides the food. The cavern-dwellers had been sleeping on mole hide rugs or bare dirt for too long. They used the hover carts they found inside – large pallets that hovered off the ground and could hold several tons each –to ferry the food back.
They were relatively fast, able to move at over sixty miles an hour with a full load. When they got back, it was decided to use the hover carts to move people and materials back and forth between the mines.
Then Sergeant Robert sent a team, which included Fate and Tom, back to the mine two to break down the machinery down to barricade more tunnels, as they now had an entire mine's worth of new ones, along with several still unblocked in the original mine. When the dismantling team made it back, Tom went off to explore a few more tunnels with a small group.
It didn't take long before Tom's group came running back into the machine-filled cavern with excited looks on their faces. When asked what got them so animated, Tom explained that they found a large farm in one of the tunnels.
He said that it was common for mines in mining worlds like this to have farms to feed their workers, as transporting food was extraordinarily costly. It had a water reservoir bigger than the Phoenix and was entirely automated by several hovering robots.
When they came back and delivered the news, the entirety of mine one shook with the force of the cheers. Sergeant Roberts was visibly relieved, as food and water were the biggest issues they had.
"Thank God for plot armor," Tom said.
"What makes you think we have plot armor?" asked Fate.
Tom looked at Fate like the latter was stupid. "That second mine was abandoned since the ore dried up but wasn't abandoned long enough for Excar-Corp to come get everything back. Chances are this Cragost attack has prevented them from claiming their stuff. If that isn't plot armor, I don't know what is."
Fate grunted, then went to help install more barricades in the tunnels.
Three months in, Sergeant Robert and Fate chanced going outside to contact Mystar for a status update. The information they received inspired a small amount of hope.
"The boys in the lab think they have an idea that'll work. They've been testing it extensively for the last month, and they're still working out kinks and such. With any luck, the thing will be ready within three more months. Think you'll last that long?"
"With that new mine we found, I'm sure we can last another five if we need to, but any longer than that is pushing it."
"Is the Octoloss still there?" The scientists at Mystar had decided to name the massive octopus an Octoloss.
Robert squinted into the sky. Currently, it was night.
"… I don't see it, but then again, we didn't see it before it wrecked the Phoenix neither. I'd play it safe and assume the thing's still lurking around somewhere."
"Alright, then. Stay safe." The call ended. Robert looked over at Fate.
"Three more months… This is gonna be a pain in the ass, isn't it?"
Fate's mask was still on, but his eyes crinkled, which told Robert that the bastard was smiling.