As both of the sun's emerged from the horizon, the sky had turned a hue of purple. The black sands also took a slight purple shade, yet not enough to overpower the blackness.
Dense pink clouds covered the skies, just enough to obscure the rings of the planet.
Meanwhile , inside the truck, Aven was covered in a cold sweat.
A pitch black gaping maw was closing in on him, his body frozen in place and unable to move.
'Move!'
Desperately, he struggled to move his body. Yet he couldn't, wouldn't budge an inch.
'Move, damn it!'
As the maw kept coming closer and closer to him, his body somewhat wiggled free, and he tried turn around.
Yet no sooner did he turn around did something grab his foot and cause him to stumble onto the sand.
Turning around in panic he saw Brook, her face covered in a unhealthy green hue, her eyes hollow and rotten. Pus oozed out her body and she clawed at him, trying to take a bite out of him.
"NOOOO!"
With a scream and a stabbing pain in his chest, he woke up from the Nightmare.
The first thing he noticed was that the vehicles engine had stopped, and following that he saw Victor wasn't in the truck.
Taking a peek outside, through the metal plate with slits where the windshield should be, he saw Victor working on the engine. Looking behind him he saw both Brook and Martin asleep, yet both were an unhealthy shade of white.
Seeing Brook still alive, he sighed in relief and offered a prayer. "Thank the Emperor. Please, please let her be fine, oh emperor."
As the pain in his chest slowly subsided, he rubbed his temples before taking a deep breath to compose himself.
Then, feeling a bit better, he decided to head outside and check in on Victor.
Carefully opening the door, as to not make noise, he felt his boots sink into the black metallic sand.
Arriving next to Victor, he asked while looking at him performing maintenance. "Need help?"
"Nah, almost done. A piece of shrapnel cut into the side of the engine, but it only got a cable and scratched a bit of other stuff, which made her turn off a few times. And in fact..."
He slammed the hood of the car down with a smile. "I'm done, let's see if Mary is still with us."
Both turned to look at 'Mary', the truck of their archeotech scavanger gang.
Although not the most impressive vehicle, it still was a 7 meter long, 3 meter tall and 3 meter wide steel beast. The windshield was reinforced by two massive steel plates leaving only a tiny slit to look out from, and the back of the truck was like a brick, with gun ports lining the sides for an easy time defending.
With the additional feature of 6 wheels instead of the typical 4, it was a very good exploration vehicle, far better than what most other gangs had.
That is why it had spent hundreds of years in the service used by dozens, if not hundreds, of different scavanger groups. The countless scars that covered the metal, as well as the rust covering parts of the vehicle were a testament to the age of this beast.
As for how Victor had gotten the vehicle, it was inherited from his father after he had passed away, just like how he had gotten it from his father, who took it from a ganger boss of the underhive.
For a good while, both of them looked fondly at the vehicle. One as a memento from his father. The other as a safe heaven he had spent 6 years with, having sought after a home, a place to call his own.
Snapping out of his reverie, Aven turned to look at Victor, remembering the fuel issue, frowning.
"How much do we have left in the tank?"
Calmly, Victor replied. "Three hours. If we don't find the ruins, or fuel, by then we're going to be in deep shit."
Yet Aven could tell he was putting up a front, and he himself was anxious as well. With a light punch to the shoulder, Aven decided to distract Victor, by annoying him.
"Neck deep in grox shit?" Avens follow up joke made him roll his eyes.
"Probs deeper."
"What if we encounter other cities scavs?" Aven suddenly asked.
"Well, if they give us some fuel nicely we'll pay." Victor smiled, before he did a neck slitting motion. "Otherwise we're going to blast a hole in them and take what we can, I'm not going to die in this god forsaken desert just some shit for brains idiot finds Mary one day. I'm going to retire as a damn noble, like my father had wanted, and I'm gona turn Mary into a mobile fortress after that."
" Hahahaha, you? A noble?"
"Cmon it aint that outlandish!" Victor said with a sheepish grin. "If that dumbass called Yazon can get to the rank of city ruler then I can get myself a noble title!"
"Yeah, yeah." Aven just smiled.
"Speaking of..." Victor turned to look towards Aven, a serious expression on his face. "Does she know about your grand plan yet?"
"Oh shut it, when it's time it's time man." Now it was Avens turn to be embarrassed.
"Aven, I'm telling you this as your friend," Victor crossed his arms. "You're already an 18 year old man, you both should be having families by now if we go by the hive standard. Honestly, just tell her you like her, if it works it works."
"I'll do it if we get out of this alive, alright?"
"Alright, I'll let you off the hook this once then." Victor said, before he turned to look towards the sky. "Although... If we end up in a storm, it's not very likely anyone is going to come out alive, even with all the fuel in the world."
"I only heard the storms are bad in this region, not the specifics about why they are bad." Aven raised his hands. "Care to enlighten me, oh great Explorer."
"See how the sand is metallic?" Victor said while pointing at the sand, to which Aven just nodded. "Well, during a storm, there's usually massive amounts of lightning being generated. The metallic sand in the air, the clouds, everything together turns into a hell of lightning. That's why this place is also called white hell. There was a regiment of planet defense forces that got caught by one such storm. The only things they found of that bunch were half molten vehicles and some ash."
"Remind me, why did we sign up for this shit?"
"Pays well. Way too damn well." Victor shrugged.
"Well... Good enough as a reason. I guess."
Not speaking another word, they both got into the truck from different sides, before the truck drove off.
Not long after, a different vehicle arrived at the area where they had been just now. First it stopped for a moment, right where they had been parked, before it drove off after them again.