In the Mines of the Celestial Tower.
"Hey! Move that drill over here! I need this cleared so that I can get a better scan."
"Yo shut the hell up you blorgeist!"
"I know you aren't speaking Graham you fat Slupnoik!"
Several men in overalls and covered in copious amounts of dust cursed at each other as the numerous lights all over the mines did their thing.
The generator humming rhythmically the grey colored men laughed at each other while they manipulated the numerous pieces of technology.
Graham pressed a few buttons and manipulating a few of the levers, the large drill head of the vehicle in front of them whirred to life.
Large spikes protruding from the head, bits of stone and dust flew into the air as the men standing besides the machine chattered underneath the loud grind of metal against stone.
"So how is the kid doing?"
"Which one?"
"Gee wickers Johnny, I wonder which kid I'm talking about."
"Yeah yeah, cut the sarcasm."
Waving off his friend, Johnny adjusted the mask on his face and stared at the scene in front of him through green tinted goggles.
"Well the same old same old, wife is still worrying about me still doing this job, kid is still in their nappy vomiting, my poor wife is probably trying to clean up the little brown stain"
"I can see you smiling you know?"
"Shut the void up Max"
"Hah!"
Laughing Max picked up the scanner in his hands as he gestured for Graham to stop the drill "That's enough!"
"So how's your love life Max?"
Johnny rolled his shoulders as he picked up the pair of green binoculars and fitted them over his green tinted goggles.
"Heh, You wouldn't believe it." Smirking audibly underneath his mask, Max walked forwards to the space that Graham had just cleared, a large circular bore hole in the wall revealing a large vein of a silvery metal glimmering in the light.
"Try me."
Still observing the bore hole, the scanner used up the aether charge in its battery and projected a blue screen that hugged the wall,
Leaving behind a series of grid lines in the silvery colored metal he laughed to himself.
"I got myself a girl."
"What!? The forever alone Max finally got a girl!"
Dismounting from the top of the drill machine, Graham shouted loudly as he hopped besides Max, his interested voice speaking volumes.
"Oi oi oi, I need you guys to stop the chatter and pack up, the upper brass wants us to evaluate five more areas by the end of the day."
A different man approaching within a frame of metal, the large bag on their back hummed audibly as every movement of their limbs ground with the sound of pneumatics.
Followed by two others, they wielded weapons as Graham spoke up to the newcomer.
"C'mon spoilsport, you can't tell me you aren't interested in Max's lovelife? Because hear this, the forever along got himself a girl!"
"...I can't lie I'm a bit interested cap'n"
"See! She agrees with me!"
"...Fine, but you gotta pack up here before you can continue."
"Heh, you got it cap'n" Performing a mock salute, the Graham instantly hopped his way back towards the drill, firing up the engine that was placed on standby.
Treads grinding against the ground, the lights hanging in the ceiling shook slightly upon its movement, casting shadows onto the ground
Max and Johnny on the other hand took out a slip of pre inked paper and began to scribble onto it, using Johnny's back as a surface.
Black lines drawn onto the papers surface, the charcoal lines engraved themselves into the soft papers surface as Max swiftly folded the paper and stuffed it into his breast pocket.
"Now that we're done can we continue?"
"Yeah yeah." Rolling his eyes from underneath the welding mask, the leader of the new three gestured "Just make sure to stay in the machine, the beasts of the rifts are more violent today."
"Yeah yeah." mirroring the man, Johnny waved his hands while all of them boarded the drill.
"Welcome to my crib!"
Joyful voice echoing the small innards of the Aether mechanical drill, the blue light filled its insides as Graham began to flip several switches and pulled the levers at the sides of his seat.
"Anyways! Hold on while I get us to where we need to go!"
Laughing to himself, Johnny leant his back against the shaking machine, the rumbles ringing through his skull as he stared at Max.
"So how did the forever alone Maidenless Max ever get a woman?"
Laughing to himself Max laughed to himself quietly as he felt the gazes of all the people focus onto his next words.
He even felt the ears of their driver trying to listen in over the distinct hum of the engines.
Did they get quieter?
Nevertheless Max slowly opened his mouth. "So I was just visiting the bar like any other day until-"
*GRRRROOWWLLLL gggggrrrrroooowwwwllll growl-g-r-o-w-l
A loud growl echoed against the walls of the cave ominously, piercing the metal shell of the Drill and causing all of the people within the drill to fall silent instantaneously
"...What the hell was that?"
Welding mask wearer silently moved towards the door, taking off the sword on his waist. "I don't know and I don't want to find out."
The rest of the ride happened in silence.
That growling noise didn't come again.
---
"...Everything is fine?"
Like Eva had just said, everything seemed to go against their preconceived notions of this place being a bloody mess of guts and rubble.
In fact, despite the lights in the mineshafts that they were previously in being off, they were blazing brightly here.
Which actually made sense when taking into account the fact that the flux dust had the really cool effect of turning every piece of machinery it comes in contact with into a buggy sparking mess.
As it turns out mixing old and brand new parts with different endurance levels wasn't a good idea if you wanted to use tech in the long term.
Shocker I know, the sounds of tech strippers screaming in the background of Ester's mind he gave a confused look to Eva.
Because even if everything was normal this clashed with the preconceived notion that things shouldn't be normal in the slightest.
There was a literal cave in and for reasons unknown the people within didn't bother to signal the surface of the situation through the various communication lines placed underneath.
UNLESS they physically couldn't
It certainly leant weight to the argument that there was a problem in the mines that the Seismic Scanners couldn't detect.
Especially so since only the sound of the generators humming nearby could be heard.
Glancing at each other, they were set on moving out of the darkness and into the light only to pause at an incredibly loud hum that filled the air.
*ZZzZzZzzZZzZZZzzzZZZZzz
[Let's just stay right here.]
"I agree."
Whispering into their patent pending Echo Communicators, the light in the tunnels flickered for a brief moment as the source of the dull buzz appeared.
'Buzz bug.'
Appearing like a crab, Buzz bugs had a large behind that buzzed noisily as their buzz saw shaped stomach ground up anything that entered through its mouth.
It was honestly terrifying since they were the very definition of omnivore as they devoured everything that they got their claws on given the chance.
In fact, if it weren't for the fact that they only fed on things specifically inorganic/ inanimate people would've exterminated the little freaks long ago
It certainly helped that their existence was crucial in making sure that the dump didn't overflow and turn into a monster heap.
Aether wasn't that helpful in that regard
The thing was, this place was neither a dump or a place where Buzz bugs appeared, in fact, this was the furthest place they should've appeared.
Especially since these buzz bugs were the first thing to be eradicated when establishing a tower around a node.
"What the void is that thing doing here?"
Whispering to Eva she whispered back in a similar state of confusion.
[Why are you asking me? I don't know either.]
Watching the buzz bug chew on something, the large bodied crab with a mouth large enough to fit an adult human being, the series of serrated teeth buzzed for a brief movement before it waddled off, large abdomen and all.
Listening to the sound of a literal bag of walking teeth disappear into the distance, only the buzz of the generators overlapping with its guts they looked at each other.
"This is definitely not the best situation."
[Your telling me.]
Now knowing why there wasn't any equipment lying around they glanced at each other and creeped out into the light.
Only to realize said light was flickering dangerously.
'What the?'
Tilting his head the memory of the Buzz bug that had just blipped into his mind.
[Oh no]
Proving why they were siblings Eva turned her head to Ester's, her brown eyes peering through the film.
Being of the same mind Ester instantly broke into a sprint, manipulating the various untested functions embedded within his arm with his mind.
"I guess today's the day that we test this!"
[Wait what are you doing!]
Ignoring Eva's cry of surprise piercing his ear with an unpleasant shriek of static, Ester set on trying to recall what his arm had built within.
It certainly didn't help that they completed this item in a state of near unconsciousness and it definitely didn't help that Ester was very prone to forgetting things that he had just recalled earlier.
It was a surprisingly common phenomenon to memory flies albeit this time was just due to Ester's brain.
'But I remember that my arm is still able to do this!'
Mentally shouting as his footsteps rang out against the ground, the sound of something being ground up sounded in his ears.
Catching sight of the Buzz bug when he turned the corner the lights connected by numerous wires in the ceiling flickered briefly.
Showing its wide behind, the sound of steel being ground up by its indiscrimanatory gut he opened up the inside of his arm.
'Oh Architects this feels weird.'
Eyes trembling as the vivid sensation of his arm opened up, the inner support structure called a bone revealed itself in all of its glowing glory.
Funnily enough, most batteries nowadays also had the emergency eject button when they were suffussed with excess Aether in the case of overload.
"So goodbye!"
Voice echoing in the mines the Buzzbug turned its head at the noise
*ZzzZZ?
Tilting its head in confusion as it tried to remove itself from the insides of the generator Ester pressed the expel button.
*VWOOOSH
Blue light suddenly piercing the air in front of him, the condensed blue Aether within his bones instantly took the shape of a cone in front of him,
*ZZZZZZ-!!!
Scream filling the air, the distinct hum of its guts churning constantly stopped soon after.
'There were definitely more efficient ways to go through this but Architects that was cool as all void.'
Smiling Ester felt the inexplicable tiredness in his left arm.
Something that he never thought he would experience again after that day.
"What the hell are you doing!"
"Oh hi Eva"
"Don't you hi Eva me!"
Slapping Ester over the head, his left arm flailed around uselessly as all of the stored Aether in his forearm had disappeared.
"Did you really use all of the battery in one go!?"
Staring in disbelief at the arm that was still exposing its aether bones, she gave Ester a disbelieving gaze.
"You are impossible."
"Heh"
"I shall murder you in your sleep."
"And I shall go to my grave knowing you did it."
"I hate you with every fibre of my being."
"I hate you with every fibre and metal of my being."
"Hardy har har."
"Yes.
+++
Tree