Orlock and the rare metal

The ground shook and Orlok covered his ears over the muffs with a grin as D Tunnel erupted in shockwaves. He spared a glance to his right and nodded to himself.

The seismic blast was a little stronger than expected but still well within what had been determined as safe parameters. He grinned as another set of quakes rumpled throughout the mine and broke out into hysterical laughter when Foreman Gump took a wrong step and wound up flat on his arse.

"Oh, yeah. I fucking love my job." He grinned to the corporate Exec standing behind him and the man flashed him a smile that was a teeth. Orlok was contracted with BastioCorp and really preferred working with them over the other megacorps.

They were still greedy and prone to grub at money whenever they got half a chance but they treated their workers alright and didn't act like shits just because they could.

Orlok felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see the Exec holding out a datapad, having typed out on it instead of trying to shout over the noise.

'Quake is a little bigger than i thought. We still good?' It read.

Orlok nodded and gestured to the mobile terminal he was operating out of, typing something out on it.

'Good. Small cavern just under a thousand meters below us, the sensors didn't pick it up and it's causing some of the seismic bombs to trigger a bit wonky but otherwise we're fine.' he typed back.

'Cavern? Weird, shouldn't be any around here. Anything good?' The exec typed and mimed money with his hands.

Orlok peered at the screen, taking a glance at the cavern below them. He raised an eyebrow at the readings, not seeing anything through the static. Luckily, he had the power of technology on his side.

It wasn't hard re configuring three of the underground quake ground buoys to boost the kinetic signals the small quake was giving off to show a better idea of what was going on, though he'd not be able to keep it up for long to due to power constraints.

The quake got back down to manageable levels just as Orlok caught a still of a small cavern, not bigger than three hundred cubic metres... that also seemed to be filled to the brim with large crystals.

His jaw almost dropped. If the density was anything to go by, most of the crystals consisted of pure Magnusite spikes. He wasn't familiar with the metal but he knew it was almost as valauble as gold per square inch... and there was an entire cavern of the stuff down below him.

Orlok felt the back of his neck begin to itch and he peered at the exec. The man had gotten distracted by one of the prettier secretaries and was laughing along at something she'd said. and hadn't seen the scans.

No one but him would be taking a look at those buoys for years, it wasn't company policy. His hand hovered over the button that'd delete the scan. The value of the information alone... He gulped.

He'd... he'd never have to get caught in another mining explosion...

Reality hit Orlok like a freight train and he smacked himself in the head. Mining was dangerous at the best of times and he'd rather not try fucking with the people who had paid for his medical bills and kept him fed and clothed after his dad died, even before he was old enough to sign his own contract.

He shook his head and turned to the Exec. He tapped the man on the shoulder. He couldn't remember what his name was but he turned back to Orlok and nodded.

"Yeah, suffice to say you're going to have to hand *a lot* of bonuses around here. You just struck it rich, Boss. Look." He pointed to the terminal and the man's jaw hit the floor.