By the second day on Mars, every Colony ship that brought all eight hundred people, had now converted into our housing units in which we will live in for however long we are staying there for. Most of the Industrial Mining Lasers have been set up on their target mining areas are powering up to get ready to drill down through the Martian crust. Even though Mars is only nearly half the size of Earth, its crust is almost twice as thick as Earth's crust, so there are more potential hazards along the way, but also greater potential to find what resources we are looking for.
The reason why we are mining is blatantly obvious; we are here for natural metals that Earth no longer has. Though the resources that World War III was started over would likely be oil and other things along those lines, Earth metals were also being depleted and it was getting more and more difficult to find them. But, with Mars being a planet, not yet mined by Humanity, it makes for the perfect place to get what we need to ensure Mankind's survival. But, in any event, I began to make my way down to the area where the Industrial Mining Lasers were set up for Base-Camp two and they were also under the watchful eye of Paul.
"Paul, good to see you again." I said genuinely. He gave me a disgruntled look, but it slightly faded soon after.
"Hey Walter. Something I can do for you?" he asked.
"No, just checking in to see how things are progressing." I said.
"Did you feel the ground shaking as you got closer to the mining lasers?"
"No, why?"
"Then we are not progressing even a little." he said in a very distraught tone.
"Hey, relax Paul. This machinery is practically ancient. The fact that you got them to turn on is a miracle in of itself. Don't stress yourself, you're doing an excellent job Paul. There's no need to rush here. Remember; safety first."
He let out a deep sigh. "You're right. I'm sorry, it's just that, I'm not used to dealing with things not working after I try to fix them. I may be head engineer, but I'm not familiar with this type of machine. I've never worked with one before, nor have many of the other guys. Few people are still alive today who have any kind of experience with them." he said.
"True enough. But hey, practice makes perfect, right?"
"Yeah. I suppose it does." he said, seemingly in a lighter mood than before.
Eventually, we got all of the mining lasers working at full capacity. When Paul had asked me if I felt the ground shaking when I walked over to him, I figured that the mining lasers would make the ground shake a bit. But, after we did eventually get them started up and drilling down, I was completely shocked as to how much these things shook the ground. Even when I was in my housing unit, I could still feel a slight vibration coming from the Industrial Mining Lasers. These things were no joke, they were getting the job done in very good time. They were cutting about about two hundred meters every hour, completely liquefying the ground beneath the laser itself. We would have everything we needed and be out of here in no time!
