Hardened (A Yogscast Fanfiction)

20

I used the back of my coat sleeve to wipe the sweat off of my forehead. I had been working hard and skipping out on sleep to finish this task I was set out to do, and I had only a few more parts to attach before it was complete.

I gave a small shout and pumped my fist in the air when I completed the tunnel bore, quickly stopping my celebration to shove rails and coal into the machine as it powered up. I watched with trepidation as the bore head started to spin, and felt a smile play across my lips as it placed a rail down and started churning up the stone in it's grinder and spitting it back out into the chest cart behind it.

I looked towards the other three tunnel bores and filled them as well, the small room suddenly filled with deafening sound as all four of them began working on their present tunnel. I even had the chance to decorate it with a nice wooden floor and ceiling, since I was so tired of seeing cold stone and concrete everywhere.

I dashed through the glass door of the lift, traveled up through the secret area, and ran past the liquid tanks. "Smiffy!" I called, spotting him in the launch bay working on some kind of missile. I took the steps two at a time, sliding to a stop in front of him as he opened the doors for me.

"What?" he asked quickly, panic rising in his voice, "What's wrong? What happened?"

All three of them had been on edge the past couple of weeks, and I probably should have been more sensitive about shouting his name as if something alarming was happening. Again, they kept me in the dark about what was making them so jumpy, but the name 'flux buddies' has been floating around the compound. I assumed it was some rival company, but I hadn't heard that they had caused any major damage yet, so I kept my curiosity in check. I was sure Ross would tell me what I needed to know, and the state of my safety wasn't really a concern when I worked on their weaponry everyday and saw how much explosives and firepower they actually had.

"Nothing's wrong," I quickly clarified tugging on his shirt sleeve, "I just have something important to show you!" I started to pull him up the stairs and towards the lift, and he seemed to follow me reluctantly, as if I were wasting his time.

I pressed the hidden button on the wall and we started traveling down towards the new room I had dug out. "What is this?" he asked, the spot where is eyebrows should be turning up in confusion as we watched the previously bottom level disappear through the glass.

I just grinned at him and waiting for the lift to stop. "Remember when you told me we needed faster material production?" I asked, practically bouncing with excitement.

"Not... really..." he muttered, looking around the dark lift.

I sighed. "Well, you know how I made all those upgraded machines for better processing?" I asked him, tugging at him sleeve again.

"Uh yeah," he answered.

"Well I kept having to go back into the mine for more ores, and it was really slowing my progress," I watched the orange glass appear at our feet in front of us, and drew out my words so the new room was revealed at the right moment, "Sooo, I decided that we needed a better system." I opened the doors in front of us and ran out ahead, turning around and motioning to the tunnel bores with my hands. "Tada!" I added for affect.

His mouth gaped open and the shocked look on his face made me giggle. "Woah, what?" he asked, stepping off the lift, "You did all this?"

"You told me to," I pointed out.

"Kirby," he muttered, still a bit stunned as he walked over to the first tunnel where the bore was already disappearing into the darkness, "When I said build some tunnel bores... I kinda meant it as a joke..." He rubbed at his mouth with the palm of his hand as he paced past the other three mining tunnels.