Snippet #2374720

The radio clipped to Seth’s belt cracked suddenly, an incomprehensible jumble of mostly static and the imprecise articulation of the man working in the shaft closest to Seth, and then faded out. The suddenness of the sound had caused Seth’s hands to twitch on his tools, and the contact with the rock face had scored a deep graze into his knuckles. The pain flared brightly, then faded too, and Seth took several deep breaths before he retrieved his chisel and continued to work.

Incompetent idiots. They knew that the radios everyone carried as demanded by protocol were notoriously unreliable compared with the ones set into the helmets of their suits, yet the older guys continued to use them.
Curiosity stimulated, Seth glanced across the icons on his visor. “Send message to base,” he spoke to his suit, calm quiet voice echoing only slightly in the mine. “Ask them what the hell that was about.” The suit beeped in confirmation that the message had been sent, and Seth got back to work. For a moment, the only sound in the thin shaft was of the Hyrokka dropping rhythmically into the bucket, and the clicking of Seth’s tools.

Then: “Seth, do you copy?”
Frowning, Seth set down his tools again. “Affirmative,” he replied concisely. “What’s up?”
A long sigh came through the intercom at his breach of radio-protocol, and Seth grinned momentarily. “As of yet, we are unsure,” came the unexpected reply. “We had a blip on our radar, but nothing more since. We will keep you informed.” The icon blinked closed, signaling the end of the frustratingly vague conversation, and Seth was more than interested by now.
Glancing down into the bucket, Seth’s experienced eye deduced that he had more than enough of a take for the moment, so gathering his tools, he closed his hands over the bucket and began to inch back along to the main shaft of the cavern.