Cave-In

[knux400]

You fill out the form and hand it back to Ortho, making sure to mention your ENHANCED HEADPIECE with both DIGITAL and PRINT PHOTOGRAPHY capabilities.

"Okay... Roll-E, I guess? You kind of put three different names here but whatever."

Ortho leads you into their office, scribbles down some more notes and forms, then takes you out the back door again.

"We haven't done any mining at this facility for years, nowadays the building is mostly used for storage and administration stuff. But the company has the rights to a bunch of different quarries out here in the..."

They gesture vaguely to the fields of mud stretching in every direction. All of the larger flora have been cut down, leaving stumps and half-grown saplings.

"That. Great view, huh?"
"Well, with no obstructions, the view is actually pretty amazing. The scenery is pretty drab, though."

Ortho chuckles. "Suppose so."

They step into a small offroad vehicle with two seats and a large flatbed area.

"Everyone else is down at the site already. We got a little sidetracked what with the paperwork and all. Hop in."

You oblige, stepping into the passenger seat. It's a bit awkward, but you fold your legs underneath yourself in some sort of a sitting position.

"We're heading to site... 13-A, near the west edge of our land claim. There's a new cave system we found about 9 miles down. We haven't been in there at all yet, so we're sending you guys to scout it out and see if it's worth our while."

A pang of worry rises through you. It's a new feeling, and it takes you a moment to compose yourself.

"Isn't the maximum regulation depth supposed to be 8.5 miles? I hear it's unsafe beyond that."

Ortho sighs.

"Legally I'm not supposed to respond to that, but we're in a buggy in the middle of the mudfields, so no one's going to hear me telling you this- we've actually been going below regulation depth for years now. Mr. Stone has been having some issues getting his hands on more land, so it's cheaper and easier to just dig deeper into the plots we've got."

You're not sure, but the inflection Ortho gives to that name makes it seem like they're not fond of this Mr. Stone person at all.

"He's got us all equipped with some kind of experimental horror-finding tech he bought off a lab in the big city. I don't know how he got his hands on it, but it works. It's basically just this wand that starts beeping whenever it picks up horror radiation. It's company property, so we're not allowed to have them modded onto us, as convenient as that would be. I was dubious too, but we've never run into any horrors as long as we keep those things around and turn back when we're supposed to. The only incidents we've had are ones like a few months ago, when the batteries ran out on one of the wands and no one on the crew noticed. Apart from that it's been smooth sailing.

You sit silently, still unsettled. Ortho seems to notice.

"Between you and me, I tried anonymously reporting this to the MMSA, but nothing came of it. Except Mr. Stone got really upset and threatened to fire the guy who told on him."

"So don't rat me out, 'kay?"

Ortho leans in close and whispers comically, their tone slightly jovial. You're still not much for humor, but you appreciate their attempt at cheering you up.

"Gotcha. You're safe with me."
"Good. We're still a few minutes out, you got any questions? Anything you want to talk about? I know it's hard to do the whole social thing at your age, so I'm good if you want to just sit."