Fire-in-the-hole!
TITLE: Fire in the Hole!
AUTHOR: Rose0mary
RATING: K plus
VERSE: Pre-war. Prime and Animated, Pre War.
CONTENT: None. Prison setting
Pairing: None beyond platonic friendship.
SUMMARY: Fire-Damp: A dangerous gas mixture found in coal mines, that is explosive (when mixed with air/oxygen and open flames). Usually consists of methane or other hydrocarbons - On earth at least. Can one survive such an experience at ground zero?
Breakdown swung the pick-ax. His job was to swing the pick-ax. Create a crack in the rock, widen the crack so it became a crevice, and pull out loose rocks, shoving them to the side and onto the ground, where other mechs (cart handlers) could gather the raw ore and transport it away. Breakdown knew his place in the system. Mechs sentenced to energon mines had specific duties.
Their work could be accomplished by drones, as extracting the raw ore demanded little more than brute strength. Sometimes Breakdown wished he was a drone, sometimes he wished he was elsewhere - most of the time he wished his stint in the labor-camp was over.
A lone, broken end of an energon crystal tumbled through the air, following the rocks that had hidden the fragment. Breakdown snatched the pale glowing crystal out of the air before it struck the ground. He broke the rhythm of swinging only long enough his pick-ax to subspace the tiny thing, before resuming the repetitious movement.
The act was noticed by the mech behind him. Bulkhead saying nothing (talking took too much effort and wasted energy), settled for a glare. Most of the diggers and bucket handlers gathered fragments of crystal shards and other small-rocks that might hold even a fragment of energy to savor later. Since most of the mineworkers lacked frame catches and similar unobtrusive storage devices, if their gleanings couldn't be held in a clenched servo it couldn't be saved and eaten after their shift ended.
Resuming the steady pulse of striking the rock-wall with his pick-ax, Breakdown ignored the others - he said nothing when others picked up discarded flakes of crystal that would have otherwise been crushed underfoot. Their rations never fueled any of them enough, always leaving them hungry for more energon - and once their shift ended, their allotted ration consumed, they crashed, their bodies going into stasis, to retain what energy remained after a long orn of digging, hauling and smashing.
The only mechs who got enough were the supervisors - the rare mechs in the place who were not conscripted or framed in courts, or blamed of wrong-doing, or of neary-empty status when ordered to the mines. The supervisors were allowed to escape from the clouds of clinging dust granules, and suffered from no processor damage caused by metal pellets that made it past their intact internal filter screens, and remained the few who had no rock-fragments in their heads or in their joints, making every motion sheer agony. The supervisors did the planning, dictated the expansion, ordered the quotas to be made, and watched for 'thieves' who were only skimming enough raw crystal from their harvesting to sustain their bodies for another joor. The supervisors and managers cared nothing for the overworked, underfed laborers - if the minors and other workers failed to meet their quotas by the end of the shift, they were held up in the mines until the quota was finished.
Shoving the crumbling wall aside, Breakdown resigned himself to more joors before the break would come. This rock wall was giving way too readily - the ore in this slag would take more energon to process than it would release. The metals were too low in content to be worth the extraction process. It would be a very long duty shift.
Arm, in position to strike the soft rock face again, froze in midfall. Breakdown sent more power to his optics, lighting the wall.
The greater illumination revealed he did see what he thought he saw. A hole.
Breakdown released the transformation of his left arm, so the pick-ax again became a hand. "Hey, Bulkhead" he called as loudly as he dared. He could have half-shouted and the words would have been distorted and twisted by the clanging from the other work-gangs nearby. Precautions were the name of survival.
The dark green mech stopped pulverizing the boulders rolled his way. "What?"
"Come here"
"This had better be worth it, Breakdown." The mech shoved himself closer. "What am I looking at?"
"See that dark spot? The black that won't go away, no matter how much light hits it?"
Bulkhead looked, repeating the same visual scan Breakdown had done. "Oh, no. We've broken through to an old stripped mine."
Breakdown vented. "Worse."
"What can be worse than an exploited cavern?"
"This." Breakdown's hand had converted to a pick-ax again, and his strike was true. It grazed Bulkhead's sledgehammer, creating a flash of sparks.
Their world erupted in a blast of fire.
TRANSFORMERS COMMERCIAL BREAK ...... TRANSFORMERS COMMERCIAL BREAK ........ TRANSFORMERS COMMERCIAL BREAK ..... TRANSFORMERS COMMERCIAL BREAK
From the surface, energon mine 676 spewed forth a cloud of dust. All activity in the surrounding area stopped, and as one, everyone looked at the rapidly expanding dust cloud.
Those near any and every access shaft backed away. Wary mechs watched and waited for a sinkhole to appear. AS the ground caved in, it might expose whole energon crystals - or give better access to a metal vain after the shifting rocks settled.
A mine collapse was a very real event - they happened on too frequently occasions. More frequently than mine-failure, when the land proved to have NO valuable elements and was abandoned, leaving behind a stripped labyrinth of artificial tunnels, cave-ins and dead-ends caused by rockslides.
The mouth of the energon mine collapsed, burrying ore extractors who failed to move far enough away, sending a second cloud of dust and slag up in the air.
The collapse didn't stop there - once the rocks at the main entrance gave way, the main cavern's walls bucked, and fell, tearing the roof open. While the first wave of rocks settled, the branches shook and fractured, exposing the dark mine tunnels to the surface.
it did not take that long for the entry mine system to implode. Beneath the new ceiling turned floor, countless mechs lay stunned, and even more equipment lay buried - most of it crushed. Not every new knoll indicated a minor underneath.
Before the dust scattered to the four winds, one slightly - larger pile of rubble shifted and two mechs stood up.
"BREAKDOWN!" screeched Fink, the site supervisor. "This is the sixth fire-damp you've set off! I won't have another one - consider your pay from the last vorn docked, and future pay held off until this mine is cleaned up and restarted"
Bulkhead sat on the nearest rock. "An energon farm isn't sounding so bad right about now."
Breakdwon vented, sending wads of particles flying. He stood up and started shoving the raw ore around. The other mechs, slowly recovering from the surprise of being buried (astonished at being relatively untouched by the tones of rubble covering their frames), got up and assisted in clearing out the main paths. Most of them had been around previous fire-damp explosions before - and they'd all heard of Fink, who punished every mech who survived the event, pushing the work gangs and other, nearby laborers until they collapsed from exhaustion.
"You'll get to the energon farm one day, Bulkhead." Breakdown stated with certainty as the ores were sent rolling to the slag heaps nearby. "Might even do better there, as a life-long worker, than a vorn-worker here."
AUTHOR: Rose0mary
RATING: K plus
VERSE: Pre-war. Prime and Animated, Pre War.
CONTENT: None. Prison setting
Pairing: None beyond platonic friendship.
SUMMARY: Fire-Damp: A dangerous gas mixture found in coal mines, that is explosive (when mixed with air/oxygen and open flames). Usually consists of methane or other hydrocarbons - On earth at least. Can one survive such an experience at ground zero?
Breakdown swung the pick-ax. His job was to swing the pick-ax. Create a crack in the rock, widen the crack so it became a crevice, and pull out loose rocks, shoving them to the side and onto the ground, where other mechs (cart handlers) could gather the raw ore and transport it away. Breakdown knew his place in the system. Mechs sentenced to energon mines had specific duties.
Their work could be accomplished by drones, as extracting the raw ore demanded little more than brute strength. Sometimes Breakdown wished he was a drone, sometimes he wished he was elsewhere - most of the time he wished his stint in the labor-camp was over.
A lone, broken end of an energon crystal tumbled through the air, following the rocks that had hidden the fragment. Breakdown snatched the pale glowing crystal out of the air before it struck the ground. He broke the rhythm of swinging only long enough his pick-ax to subspace the tiny thing, before resuming the repetitious movement.
The act was noticed by the mech behind him. Bulkhead saying nothing (talking took too much effort and wasted energy), settled for a glare. Most of the diggers and bucket handlers gathered fragments of crystal shards and other small-rocks that might hold even a fragment of energy to savor later. Since most of the mineworkers lacked frame catches and similar unobtrusive storage devices, if their gleanings couldn't be held in a clenched servo it couldn't be saved and eaten after their shift ended.
Resuming the steady pulse of striking the rock-wall with his pick-ax, Breakdown ignored the others - he said nothing when others picked up discarded flakes of crystal that would have otherwise been crushed underfoot. Their rations never fueled any of them enough, always leaving them hungry for more energon - and once their shift ended, their allotted ration consumed, they crashed, their bodies going into stasis, to retain what energy remained after a long orn of digging, hauling and smashing.
The only mechs who got enough were the supervisors - the rare mechs in the place who were not conscripted or framed in courts, or blamed of wrong-doing, or of neary-empty status when ordered to the mines. The supervisors were allowed to escape from the clouds of clinging dust granules, and suffered from no processor damage caused by metal pellets that made it past their intact internal filter screens, and remained the few who had no rock-fragments in their heads or in their joints, making every motion sheer agony. The supervisors did the planning, dictated the expansion, ordered the quotas to be made, and watched for 'thieves' who were only skimming enough raw crystal from their harvesting to sustain their bodies for another joor. The supervisors and managers cared nothing for the overworked, underfed laborers - if the minors and other workers failed to meet their quotas by the end of the shift, they were held up in the mines until the quota was finished.
Shoving the crumbling wall aside, Breakdown resigned himself to more joors before the break would come. This rock wall was giving way too readily - the ore in this slag would take more energon to process than it would release. The metals were too low in content to be worth the extraction process. It would be a very long duty shift.
Arm, in position to strike the soft rock face again, froze in midfall. Breakdown sent more power to his optics, lighting the wall.
The greater illumination revealed he did see what he thought he saw. A hole.
Breakdown released the transformation of his left arm, so the pick-ax again became a hand. "Hey, Bulkhead" he called as loudly as he dared. He could have half-shouted and the words would have been distorted and twisted by the clanging from the other work-gangs nearby. Precautions were the name of survival.
The dark green mech stopped pulverizing the boulders rolled his way. "What?"
"Come here"
"This had better be worth it, Breakdown." The mech shoved himself closer. "What am I looking at?"
"See that dark spot? The black that won't go away, no matter how much light hits it?"
Bulkhead looked, repeating the same visual scan Breakdown had done. "Oh, no. We've broken through to an old stripped mine."
Breakdown vented. "Worse."
"What can be worse than an exploited cavern?"
"This." Breakdown's hand had converted to a pick-ax again, and his strike was true. It grazed Bulkhead's sledgehammer, creating a flash of sparks.
Their world erupted in a blast of fire.
TRANSFORMERS COMMERCIAL BREAK ...... TRANSFORMERS COMMERCIAL BREAK ........ TRANSFORMERS COMMERCIAL BREAK ..... TRANSFORMERS COMMERCIAL BREAK
From the surface, energon mine 676 spewed forth a cloud of dust. All activity in the surrounding area stopped, and as one, everyone looked at the rapidly expanding dust cloud.
Those near any and every access shaft backed away. Wary mechs watched and waited for a sinkhole to appear. AS the ground caved in, it might expose whole energon crystals - or give better access to a metal vain after the shifting rocks settled.
A mine collapse was a very real event - they happened on too frequently occasions. More frequently than mine-failure, when the land proved to have NO valuable elements and was abandoned, leaving behind a stripped labyrinth of artificial tunnels, cave-ins and dead-ends caused by rockslides.
The mouth of the energon mine collapsed, burrying ore extractors who failed to move far enough away, sending a second cloud of dust and slag up in the air.
The collapse didn't stop there - once the rocks at the main entrance gave way, the main cavern's walls bucked, and fell, tearing the roof open. While the first wave of rocks settled, the branches shook and fractured, exposing the dark mine tunnels to the surface.
it did not take that long for the entry mine system to implode. Beneath the new ceiling turned floor, countless mechs lay stunned, and even more equipment lay buried - most of it crushed. Not every new knoll indicated a minor underneath.
Before the dust scattered to the four winds, one slightly - larger pile of rubble shifted and two mechs stood up.
"BREAKDOWN!" screeched Fink, the site supervisor. "This is the sixth fire-damp you've set off! I won't have another one - consider your pay from the last vorn docked, and future pay held off until this mine is cleaned up and restarted"
Bulkhead sat on the nearest rock. "An energon farm isn't sounding so bad right about now."
Breakdwon vented, sending wads of particles flying. He stood up and started shoving the raw ore around. The other mechs, slowly recovering from the surprise of being buried (astonished at being relatively untouched by the tones of rubble covering their frames), got up and assisted in clearing out the main paths. Most of them had been around previous fire-damp explosions before - and they'd all heard of Fink, who punished every mech who survived the event, pushing the work gangs and other, nearby laborers until they collapsed from exhaustion.
"You'll get to the energon farm one day, Bulkhead." Breakdown stated with certainty as the ores were sent rolling to the slag heaps nearby. "Might even do better there, as a life-long worker, than a vorn-worker here."