Kragg and Nis had to descend quite a few levels to get to the mines. The way down was not something sensible, like stairs or an elevator, but rather steep, dirt-covered cliffs. Kragg, of course, had no issue climbing down. As an ant normally wouldn't. Nis, on the other hand, was ill-equipped for the task.
To distract himself from how much his hands hurt from climbing, he took some time to inspect his surroundings. The thing that stuck out the most was that the ants didn't have houses. Speaking with Kragg and observing Kragg interact with other ants, Nis understood that the bugs were remarkably similar to humans in terms of intelligence, so he found it odd that they didn't have homes.
'Honestly, it's pretty disturbing that some bug could even be moderately close to me in intelligence. They lack the thousands of years of human knowledge that we have, though, so I don't think they will be outdoing me anytime soon.'
Nis understood that their society catered to their needs. The ants didn't need individual houses; the colony provided enough shelter for the entire race. Combined with the fact that the ant's carapace was much more durable than human skin and that the ant lacked the same sense of privacy humans had, made the thought of houses seem asinine. They would just be a waste of resources.
Nis also discovered that Kragg called everyone brother or sister. It wasn't just some quirk he had, either; everyone was actually a descendant of the Queen, so objectively, they were all related. There were also a lot more sisters than brothers, which was also similar to how the ants on Earth were.
'This is all starting to give me a headache. Do the ants also get headaches? I'll try to get Kragg to tell me later.'
***
The mines were on one of the lower levels, positioned at the outer edges of the colony. Kragg and Nis closed in on the miners deep in the tunnels with relative ease. Nis thought that he would have to weasel his way through security or some guards, but there was nothing of the sort.
With the miners now in view, it was easy to tell that they were not in any form of panic. They just continued working like a well-oiled machine. The miners used a combination of their claws and simple tools to dig with terrifying efficiency. A few ants were dragging simple carts made out of stone, filled with some luminescent yellow stones. Nis thought that dragging a cart made of stone sounded like hell, but the ant had no trouble with it.
Looking back at the miners in the areas where they were working, there were a few small fixtures attached to the wall. They seemed to emit light of varying degrees depending on the area. When Nis passed one, he heard a low hiss and crackle coming from it.
Nis took a few moments to clear the puzzled look from his face and turn to Kragg.
"I was expecting them to be a bit more... panicked? But they're doing just fine."
"Why were you expecting such a thing, brother? Miners are true to their name. Some small disturbance would not disrupt something so true to their purpose."
Kragg looked oddly smug, or proud, maybe when speaking about them.
"Uh-huh... Well, why are you—we here, then?"
"We are here to relay the order to continue as per usual, and that the defense force will need a bit more blast than usual. Oh, and make sure there have been no incidents, of course."
With that, Kragg left Nis alone while he went to speak to the head miner. This was Nis's opportunity to squeeze some more info out of the other miners. He approached the group of miners, rubbing his hands together like some cheap scammer who had found a goldmine. He was about to call out to them, but stopped to think for a moment.
'How do I call out to them? Hey guys? No, that doesn't sound like how they speak. It's a mixed group of men and women, too. Kragg seems to just go with brothers in this situation, even though there are more females than males. How odd.'
Nis put on a bright smile and raised his voice.
"Hello, brothers!"
A group of close to fifteen miners all turned to look at Nis simultaneously. The look on their faces couldn't be described as pleasant. It seems they didn't enjoy some unknown ant disturbing their work.
"What do you want, brother? We have work to do."
"Just want to get a better grasp on the situation from you guys. How's the product?"
'Whatever the product is.'
A few of the ants just shook their heads and went back to their work. The ones who continued looking towards Nis seemed incredibly confused by his wording.
"You mean the Blast? It's fine. There hasn't been much shaking here, so none of it has gone off."
Nis's smile twitched a little after hearing that.
'Blast? Go off? Like explosives?'
"That's good, I was worried about that."
'I may not have been worried before, but now I am.'
Nis scrambled to think of something to continue the conversation. He wanted to get them talking of their own volition, but that seemed like a pipe dream at this point.
"Have you heard of the Queen's new orders yet?"
At that moment, all the miners dropped what they were doing, some quite literally, and turned to face Nis. One Spoke up.
" The Queen gave some orders? About what? Out with it, brother! Does it have something to do with the blast? Has she found some new use for it? Something more than mining, lighting, and weapons. Come on, hurry up, brother!"
The one speaking got close enough to Nis to grab his shirt a little. Nis backed away quickly and squeezed out a few words.
"Ah, umm, just that the defense force will need some more blast, and some other stuff. If you haven't heard, then I'm sure someone will be alone to inform you soon."
The ant who grabbed Nis cursed loudly and backed away. The others grumbled under their breath and returned to their work.
'Point taken. Don't talk about the queen lightly, it will drive them feral.'
Nis was wiping some sweat from his forehead. Having to converse with people amicably is a lot harder than making fun of them, for Nis, it seemed. Pressing any further wouldn't be beneficial currently, so Nis decided to go find Kragg again. Maybe he would overhear something worthwhile in his conversations.
Just as Nis started to turn towards the entrance, a loud boom resounded from above, and the ground started to shake wildly.
***
The grounds shook and boomed for a second time. Nis nearly fell over but caught his balance and went into a defensive stance. Nis looked around to check on the miners. He was shocked to see nothing had changed. No one was alarmed. One of the older female miners looked at him and chuckled.
"Don't worry, little brother. It's just some blast going off somewhere underground, probably."
Nis was going to refute the name, little brother, but the booming continued. Until he could finally see it.
Even though it was deep underground, there before his eyes, was the pale-yellow sky. For a moment, Nis felt that seeing the sky was refreshing. Then the dreadful reality set in. The light only lasted for a few moments. Then, it was quickly replaced by a lightless void.
All life in the mines became motionless, as if the void had frozen them in time. The void then split open, revealing a single bloodshot eye. It was only a single eye, but to Nis, it looked gigantic even though it was so far away.
The eye moved to scan the area it had unearthed. Nis and the miners were still frozen in terror, just hoping that, somehow, being still would make them invisible. The eye closed as if finishing its mission, returning to the pure void. Nis let out a sigh. The miners quickly followed, sighing and swearing in relief.
'Just what in the hell was that thing? It doesn't matter right now, let's get the hell out of—'
Before Nis could finish his thought, another boom sounded throughout the mines. Everyone's eyes shot back towards the breach, still there was nothing but the void, looming. For some reason, even though it was just the void, the booming sound was continually ringing. Except, Nis realized something, the void wasn't just looming. He yelled in an attempt to alert the others.
"It's moving closer. Run away, quickly!"
Immediately after Nis finished, his leg started to move as fast as they could take him. That was at least his intention. Soon after Nis started running, he stopped. Something was wrong; no one else was moving. Most were just blankly staring into the void, the others had fallen to the ground in shock. Nis wasn't sure if they were just too scared to listen to him, or if no one cared to listen.
At that moment, two ants came deeper into the tunnel, hearing Nis's yell. They were Kragg and the Head Miner.
The void was still inching closer, crushing rocks in its path and having them rain down from above. Nis had backed far enough away to reach where Kragg and the Head Miner were standing. He was still walking backwards slowly. His mouth was agape, and he was sweating heavily.
'I—I couldn't have done more, right? The bastards didn't listen to me. I can't carry them out one by one. I guess they were a lost cause from the start.'
The void was almost upon the beach when another voice reached out to the miners.
"Brothers, why are you just sitting there?! We must go... the queen awaits."
Kragg had stepped forward and called out to them. All the miners who were previously stuck frozen in fear snapped awake. Many of them screamed in shock. Others screamed with resolve.
"Yes, brother, the queen awaits!"
Those who were still standing started to sprint away. Some even ran past Kragg and Nis. Those that were on the ground stumbled to get up, even crawling just to start moving even slightly faster.
Everyone started moving, and it was all thanks to Kragg.
'He did it. The lost causes are saved. Haha, I knew Kragg was a good guy.'
Feelings of happiness started to creep into Nis's heart. Their deaths were of no loss to him and would not hurt him in any way. But an innocent life saved was always a reason to celebrate, whether they are related to you or not. Unfortunately, those feelings of happiness couldn't last more than a second. There was still one, one of the miners who had fallen to the ground was still there. Slightly deeper into the mines, a bit past the breach, was what looked like a slightly younger ant attempting to stand but failing repeatedly. Fear had robbed him of that simple ability. The young ant screamed towards the others.
"Wait, wait, brothers. Please, please don't leave me behind! Why, why won't they move? Please, please move! I need to go... the queen awaits."
At that moment, the void passed beyond the breach.