[I'll be the architect of your doom HAH!] Raising her hands and mimicking Ester's words, Eva doubled over and nearly fell off of her chair in the process.
"Shut it" Growling at Eva, despite the threat audible in his voice, it didn't work as effectively when its speaker was flushed to his ears, something Eva noticed as she doubled over in even more laughter.
[I'll be the Architect of your doom! Oh Architects I'm dying!]
Somehow making her speaker wheeze with laughter, Ester debated the merits and demerits of taking her speaker away from her just so that he didn't have to listen to her laughter.
Then he realized that demerits outweighed the merits.
The mere fact that he had to manually detach all of her nerves to shut her up was a demerit on its own nevermind the fact that he would have to put her under.
Then he had to reattach it later...
'I guess I have to deal with this laughter for now.'
Eva's hooting laughter hollered out from behind him as she finally fell from her chair causing Ester's forehead to gain an angry blood vessel.
'She's making this decision harder than it needs to be though.'
Glaring at her as she laughed on the ground with tears streaming from his eyes, Ester truly wondered if he could create a specialized sealing ward to shut her up.
---
As it turned out, warding such a small thing although not on the level of difficulty as the Gravitator ward was still hellishly difficult.
And without any fueled Aether crystals, such an endeavor was fated to only end in failure.
'I don't want to start pissing blood for another day at the least.'
[Oh. Oh wow] Wiping the tears from her eyes after a full five minutes of laughter, Ester stared darkly at Eva, prompting a weak laugh from her. [Who knew that Mister One arm could say something so what's the word...]
Tapping her mouth piece with what Ester figured was a smug smile if she had a mouth of her own to use, Ester flicked her forehead eliciting a small whine.
[Owww....] She whined covering her forehead, a sad high pitched whine sounding in his ears when he raised his finger up again with threatening intent.
Ester sighed before lowering his hands, crossing his arms, drumming his metallic fingers against his arm in an oddly comforting rhythm. "I see that you've gotten at speaking now that you don't have to account for all that stuttering."
"Last I heard from you, it was still a bland monotone voice as lifeless as your soul." Ester pointed out, a surprised hiss of laughter echoing from within Eva's throat
[I know right? With this new-old speaker that's been fixed up since your... Unconventional warding techniques] Eva pointedly stared at Ester until he looked away. [I am able to mask the lifeless emotions of my soul with all the joy and whimsy I can code!]
Clapping her hands, if she still had a mouth, Ester felt like she would be grinning like the madwoman that she was.
"Anyways, faking the empty feeling in your soul aside, how do you do it?"
[Be so pretty? Or be so smart? I accept both as an answer by the way.] Eva tilted her head cheekily, her eyes glimmering with a desire to tease him whatever the answer.
It seemed she wasn't going to be forgetting his words in that room anytime soon.
Rubbing his face and feeling the cold, hard sensation of metal and letting it pull him back to reality, Ester admitted. "Both. But the one I'm trying to ask about is how you're so smart."
[Eh?]
"How do you handle reading all of that Runic code?" Looking pointedly at the number of brand new monitors right behind Eva acclimating to Eva's head interface, she snapped out of her confusion and followed his gaze, turning her head and acknowledging what he was saying
[Ah. That] She pulled herself up to her new swivel worthy chair looted from the communication center and spun it towards the piloting systems. [Well just like how I'm good with runes, you're good with glyphs.]
Eva's eyes roamed the multitude of screens scrolling deeper and deeper as it ran the Cipher Eva had put into it some time ago. [You say that I'm smart for understanding Runes, but I think that you're actually the smart one]
"Really? You think I'm smart?" Grinning as he leaned over her new chair, she quickly adjusted so that he could comfortably lay his head atop of hers. "Why do you think I'm smart?"
[Don't push it.] Voice coming out somewhat muted as she typed quickly from below him, Ester chuckled just before he shuddered as a strange sensation ran up from his spine.
Snapping his head up and looking around with a mute wariness, Eva sensed his sudden movement and looked up, her eyes confused as she looked up as well. [What happened?]
"I..." Still keeping his head on a swivel while feeling a strange tickling sensation from his neck, he clenched and unclenched his left hand. "I don't know."
Feeling the metal sheets of the Driller shudder to life from underneath his feet, he shifted uneasily on his feet as his eyes roamed the inside of the Driller.
As their own little home, it was big enough for their needs.
Roof at a height where he only needed to worry about bumps if he jumped up a bit, the flickering lights from various bulbs and fixtures illuminated the small space.
With only the one entrance that was the door on his right, the fridge magnet setup continued to do its duty and hold up his bag and collector, the collectors many sub arms hanging limply.
It had once served to help him dismantle things, but without a constant Aether supply it turned into an extra bit of weight.
Nowadays he only activated set portions of it to scavenge through the hulls of whatever thing he happened upon using batteries scavenged from wherever.
To his left was his personal desk, a place where warding, repairs and tinkering happened, sometimes by themselves and sometimes all at once. The tools hanging off of the wall save for a few which he had set aside while repairing what he vaguely recalled was a replacement joint.
Up above him in the shape of a box shaped hole was a large ventilation system meant to ventilate the entire machine and allow access to its inner workings.
They had repurposed it to also accommodate their sleeping quarters.
Further back was the engine room where the things vital for their survival lay including but not limited to the Water leeching and purification room, Kitchen and food storage.
Which reminded him, they hadn't eaten for two days, it should be fine to tuck into their food stores now.
Quashing the uneasy feeling in his chest, Ester stretched his arms and felt the ceiling above him. "...Since we're already moving, do you want something to eat? I can grind something into that slush you like"
[That's... not me moving the Driller.]
"What?" Turning to give Eva a strange look, she made a big show of pressing a button on her runeboard right before the shaking underneath him intensified.
[This is me moving the driller.]
"...What?"
*Crack!
Snapping his head to the side where the loud sound of something breaking entered his ears, swiftly following the sound were hundreds if not for thousands of little thuds striking the roof.
"[Cave in!]"
Hurriedly revving the Driller to life, Eva slammed her hands onto the controls as the Driller drove swiftly out of the Communication centers confines.
Glancing at a monitor connected to the Drillers outside cameras, Ester confirmed that the Communication Center that they were previously in had suffered from a large section of steel rock breaking through its walls, the large steel rock penetrating the ceiling and allowing numerous plastic rocks to collide against their vehicle.
"For fucks sake this place is weak" Cursing whoever built this place underneath his breath, Eva shouted loudly.
[Hold on tight!]
Shifting gears with the lever in front of her, the Driller groaned with age as it switched to a higher gear, the engines roaring to life as it forwards.
But despite all of the noise from the engine roaring with anger as it forced more power into its wheels, Eva pulled up a diagram of the entire machine and immediately noticed a problem which she shouted at Ester.
[Disconnect the upper wheels!]
"Yeah!" Having seen the same problem as her in the same moment, Ester had already grabbed the scavenging tools from his workbench and was crawling into the little cubby hole above them.
Shuffling forwards, Ester heard the distinct sound of plastic rocks clanging against the machines shell, the sound of the upper wheels squealing as they found little purchase on the air surrounding them.
This wouldn't have been a problem if they were currently underground, but as luck would have it, the Communication Center had found itself in an open cave system that had a vast amount of open space.
Open space that caused the upper wheels to become useless as they leeched power from the wheels trying to bring them further and further away from danger.
"Where the hell are you?" Muttering underneath his breath, Ester's eyes widened as he found the thing he was looking for.
'There you are.'
Pulling out his Inner Aether to fuel the device in his hands and feeling the pain in his legs from where it was ripped away, Ester saw the miniature buzz saw hum with life.
Blue light shining on its edges, Ester swiftly cut through the lock he had put around it a long time ago, turning off the buzz saw just as quickly as his mechanical hand reached over to the valve.
Twisting it in one smooth motion, Ester heard the squeal of the upper wheels shut off, another jolt bringing the Driller forwards as the power was redirected straight into the lower wheels.
"Yes! It worked!" Grinning at the fact that the power was seamlessly transferred from the upper wheels to the lower ones, Ester's smile froze on his face at what happened in the next moment
*THUD
"Architects above!" Flinching in surprise a dent suddenly appeared above him, a hands breadth away from implanting a piece of metal into his forehead, Eva's strained voice echoed from below him.
[Ester! Get back here!]
"What's happening!?"
Hurriedly popping his head back down briefly shaken by the near death experience, Eva screamed as the entire Driller swerved to the right.
[I don't know where the void I'm goiNNG!?] Hurriedly spinning the wheel around and turning the Driller in a sharp right, Eva briefly floated left
And having just dropped down from above, Ester briefly floated through the air before slamming into the collector hanging on with the help of a bunch of fridge magnets now dislodged from where they were engraved.
"Ack!"
[Ester!?]
Hearing the loud bang but being unable to look backwards, Eva shouted worriedly as she maneuvered the Driller amongst falling chunks of stone slamming into the ground everywhere around them.
[Ester! What the void happened back there!?]
Voice penetrating the roar of the engines going at full throttle as plastic and metal slammed against the Driller's roof, Ester hurriedly got up whilst holding his injured side, his hand digging into the grooves where the magnets previously were as Eva controlled the Driller with several jolting movements.
"I'm fine back here!" Grimacing as a chunk of shirt gave away to a bloodied wound that was decidedly not fine, Ester nevertheless ignored it in favor of not dying underneath hundreds upon thousands of tons of rock that could break every single bone in his body while rendering it into a red white slurry
'Think positive thoughts Ester. Like surviving to suffer another day!'
Hurriedly limping over to the gravitator, Eva screamed as a particularly large chunk of rock slammed right in front of her path.
[Hurry!]
"Hurrying!"
Grabbing the sides of the Gravitator to steady himself as another jolt nearly sent him stumbling onto something that would probably aggravate the wound, he realized that this thing was probably useless in this scenario.
As much as it was a good locator, it couldn't exactly locate an exit could it?
A flash of inspiration flitted through his mind as a glint appeared in Ester's eyes 'Maybe it can actually!'
[Whatever the void your doing you better hurry!]
"Doing it!" Grabbing the side of the Gravitator and rapidly typing into its accompanying runeboard, despite how often he said that he disliked Runes, Ester was still skilled enough to code something basic.
In this case, that something basic was detecting empty space all around them and locating the largest mass of empty space.
Guess what was the largest open space?
"Got it!"
Slamming his finger onto the enter key, a three dimensional map unfolded onto the accompanying monitor detailing every single bit of empty space around them.
The monitor lagged somewhat as it struggled to compute whatever data it was receiving, but that was why Ester put a size limit and a distance limit, couldn't exactly map out their surroundings if everything breaks.
Eye snapping to and fro from the map, Eva nodded her head seriously. [Got it my ass! Help me find the way out of here! I can't see shit!]
"Oh yeah!" Belatedly realizing that keeping them alive through a masterful amount of hand eye coordination and mentally mapping where they needed to go next was probably a bit to much to multitask, Ester limped towards the monitor where a small grey star marked their position.
"Right!"
[Going left!]
Hearing the loud crash of a rock and seeing it take up a massive portion of the front facing cameras, Ester briefly floated right as the force lifted him up off of his feet.
[Next path!?]
Shouting desperately as her eyes turned into pinpricks, the lights above flickering frantically, Ester hurriedly held onto her waist before she could fly off from one bad turn.
"The left after this one! That's the closest path!" Ester shouted, his voice carrying into Eva's panicked ears as she instantly darted into the first left she saw.
"Wrong pat- This right!"
Clinging onto the chair that Eva was on and making sure that she wouldn't fly off and lose control of the Driller with how sharp of a turn she continued to make while simultaneously anchoring himself to the ground, Ester thanked his past self for having the foresight to anchor the Swivel chair to the ground as he briefly glanced at the 3D map then at the monitors in front of him.
It was the physical manifestation of disaster.
On every monitor and on every outwards facing camera, the cave system continued to collapse in on itself, the Earth splitting apart to rain down loose trash, scrap and plastic down onto them.
On the rear most facing camera, Ester could barely make out the Communication center being buried underneath three large pieces of a ship right before the Driller ducked right into a tunnel.
And with the tunnel bearing a worrying amount of cracks on its sides, Ester tore his gaze away from the rear facing cameras and hoped that the engine wouldn't explode before they escaped from this cave in.
A flash of a large boulder smashed into a camera rendering one of the monitors a mess of staticky grey.
Then something flashed in front of him.
A massive mangled and broken truck dislodged from its place slammed into the path in front of them causing the Driller to slam into it and flip over right before they were crushed to death.
"I- Hug the right wall!?" Shouting instinctively with a note of confusion in his voice, thankfully, Eva didn't seem to catch this hint of confusion as she followed his words instantly, the Driller hugging the right wall as a massive mangled and broken truck dislodged from the ceiling and slammed onto the path that they were heading on earlier.
[I didn't even see that! Nice catch!] Eva shouted, her mechanical voice slipping into his confused mind. [I'd hug you but I'm a bit occupied at the moment!]
"I- Yeah!" Still holding onto Eva while forcefully preventing the swivel worthy chair from swiveling, Ester's eyes continually slammed from the 3D map to the numerous screen monitors like a game of Pong.
Flashes of something happening soon intertwined with his commands, the paths which would've led to their doom from the caves collapsing in on themselves being avoided as they got closer and closer to the surface.
"We're nearly there!"
[We're nearly there!?]
"Yeah! Just at this bend right here-" Eyes darting from the Gravitator readings to the few remaining monitors not reduced to a staticky blinking mess from the many boulders slamming into the Driller and no doubt leaving behind numerous scars onto its steel body, another flash of something appeared in his eyes.
The ground opened up underneath the vehicle, its wheels moved much to fast to stop as it tripped over the large gash in the ground, flipping through the air and slamming into the nearby walls right before they were crushed.
Eyes widening as he mentally processed the image in his mind, Ester shouted out a warning.
But in the moment that it took for Ester to process the image, it was to late.
Feeling his body lift up and off of the ground not from the sharp turns Eva made the Driller do but from the Driller itself floating through the air, Ester instinctively spun Eva round so that she would now be facing his chest.
Then everything went black
+++
Currently surviving on suboptimal sleep levels
Tree