Having spent an hour driving through the desert and having barely gotten any sleep, Victor was visibly worn out.
"Want me to take over?" Aven asked.
Victor just shook his head, eyes slightly bloodshot.
"Come on, you repaired Mary and have barely gotten any sleep the past days, lets just switch and you rest for a bit." Once again, concern was apparent in Aven's voice.
"I can hang on." Victor replied dryly.
Poking him in the temple, Aven spoke. "Your eyes have been closing constantly, what if you fall asleep behind the wheel? Even if it's just dunes, it's still dangerous."
"Ugh... You noticed?"
"I got working eyes, so slow it down and let's swap."
"I... Fine." knowing he was in the wrong, he finally agreed.
After the vehicle came to a gradual stop, both of them swapped places.
Before Aven could even stop on the pedal, Mary was shaken by an impact.
TING!
Their expressions changed.
Not hesitating, both of them grabbed their respective weapons, while Brook and Martin were already up by now.
Victor grabbed his autogun, the extra range making it more useful than lasguns in deserts, where dust and sand affected them. Brook and Martin had local lasgun variants, sturdy and reliable weapons, far easier to use and maintain than autoguns.
All had around 100 meters effective range.
As for Aven, he was armed with a hunting rifle. A hunting rifle with a bigger caliber and fared far better against armor compared to the usual auto-or-lasguns.
Not hesitating, Aven stepped on the pedal, while Victor nervously went to the back to see what they were dealing with.
Opening one of the view ports, Victor looked out at the black desert, towards a distant dust cloud that was approaching them rapidly.
Sticking his gun out of the narrow port, he looked through the scope towards the cloud. Soon enough, the vehicles flew out from behind a dune.
Three Tauros buggies, used usually by the armies of the Imperium for scouting. Or in this case, by those who live in the underworld. These ones in particular ware armed with autocannons.
"We got raiders!" Victor shouted.
The other 3 faces turned sour.
Martin groaned from the behind him. "Does this desert ever run out of those bastards?"
"It'd be too boring without em, plus, they may hand us some fuel." Victor smiled.
"Unless we blow em to kingdom come. Then we get nothing." Aven yelled while driving.
After a moment, Victor said calmly. "Martin, grab the wheel, Aven, show us a good performance."
"Aye, captain." both replied.
Swapping with Martin while Mary was on the move, Aven moved to the back of the vehicle.
Opening a gun port to the side, the sounds of metal shells raining on Mary kept resounding.
As for why they weren't too worried? Mary's armor was the thickness of a fist, normal weapons wouldn't do anything against her.
Taking a quick peek, the three Tauros were rapidly closing in.
Deciding to wait for a better opportunity, Aven retreated and closed the gun port.
The chase lasted for a few minutes, before Martin managed to find a relatively flat area of the desert. "We're soon gona run outta fuel, and no better spot than this!"
By now, the 3 Tauros were trying to encircle them, like a pack of wolves hunting a large beast.
One of them was on the left, one on the right, and one behind them.
Even if they were experienced scavangers, a few minutes of bullet storm were nerve-wrecking.
Suddenly, Aven stuck his rifle out of a gun port.
Holding his breath, he took aim.
'The engine at the front.'
He pulled the trigger.
With a loud bang, the hunting rifle shot out a streak of light.
... Into the back of the Tauros.
'Shi-'
A massive explosion occurred.
Before he could react, the entire buggy was blasted to high heaven, the shot having probably penetrated into the fuel tanks or ammo reserve.
Not daring to meet the faces of his comrades out of sheer embarrassment, he went to the back of Mary.
Once more opening a gun port, he stuck out his gun.
And as soon as he tried aiming, the Tauros started zig-zagging to throw off his aim.
'Cute.' he thought, before he pulled the trigger.
Another streak of light.
It landed into the engine, disabling the vehicle.
"Perfect!" He shouted while moving to the right side of Mary.
"Nice! One more!" Victor yelled.
Brook and Victor weren't idling, instead they went to the back to finish off the raiders in the second car.
However, he couldn't open the port on the right as the autocannon kept shelling this side of Mary. If by some bad luck the shell went into the gun port...
He waited, ready for the firing to stop.
Yet he soon noticed the firing sounds were getting closer.
"Fuck you!" Martin suddenly shouted.
And before Aven could react, Martin turned right sharply.
'OH MY-' Aven thought, before he was thrown off balance, together with Brook and Victor.
Mary shook heavily, yet the sound of crushed and squealing metal and screams of humans from outside drowning out everything.
Coming to a stop, three pairs of eyes turned to Martin.
"MAAAAARTIIIIIIIIIIIIIN?" Victor's annoyed voice rang out.
"It looked like they had grenades, so I did this instinctively. Sorry." Martin replied from the drivers seat.
"Why are you grinning then?" Victor asked, still scowling.
"They were stupid! Ahem... Anyways, let's see if these dumbasses had any fuel on them. Or anything useful for that matter."
"Sigh... You stay behind, and drive us to the first Tauros. Aven, you're on scavange duty. And be careful of traps."
"Gotcha." Aven replied, before he opened the door to the side. Climbing out and standing on the side of Mary, he looked at the Black desert.
And took a deep breath. He smiled afterwards.
For having won yet another battle. Of having survived yet another day.
'This makes it the 30th encounter since I came here. Maybe I can even call myself a veteran scavanger now?' he thought quietly to himself.
With Mary parking close to the first Tauros, Aven jumped down.
After a quick scrounging, he did find a day's worth of fuel in a reserve canister, but left everything else untouched. After all, nobody knew what was booby trapped and what wasn't, other than the original owners.
The second and third vehicle had nothing in terms of fuel or valuables either. The second had a few raiders with holes or missing limbs, and the third vehicle itself was, together with its occupants, squashed by Mary.
Returning to Mary, Aven felt somewhat relieved at the extra fuel.
Having refuelled Mary somewhat, Victor pulled out a device from the drivers seat. However, before he could check what the weather would be like, he heard a distant rumbling.
Now visibly nervous, he opened Aven's hatch and stuck his head out. To the right of them, a massive storm was brewing.
The entirety of the horizon was shifting into a deep, dark gray. The rolling clouds were the least scary part however...
Rumbleeeeeeee...
... As the lightning snakes that started occurring more frequently were far more worrying.
"Martin, step on it. And away from the thunder, or we're in deep shit!"
"Don't gotta tell me twice!" Martin yelled back, before Mary started moving.
"Why does that even happen?" Aven asked.
Closing the hatch, Victor dropped back into the seat. "Nobody knows, but sure as hell it can annihilate anyone and anything in its way."
"Even the thing that attacked the caravan?" Brook asked suddenly.
After a moment, Victor simply said. "I don't know, all that's known about the flying thing is that it annihilated a few caravans. As for the storm..." He suddenly cut off, frowning.
"And? Don't leave us hanging!" Martin said.
Taking a deep breath, Victor continued. "While there's plenty of reports of things being molten by the sheer amount of lightning in the storm, there's also a lot of other things that just vanish."
"That sounds great. I'm guessing the few that returned were insane or mutated heavily?" Aven said while frowning.
"No, Aven. Nothing, not even a trace was found of entire armies... Even entire villages which were supposedly equipped to deal with the lightning disappeared overnight, like they never existed. Its only commonly known as the Voidstorm, and that it only haunts the Black Desert."
Taking a deep breath, his face turned grave." Whether its some freak of nature phenomenon, or something much worse, nobody knows."
Upon finishing his sentence, the atmosphere turned much gloomier.
Seeing that, a sad smile soon spread on Victors face.
"If... If this storm catches up... I'm sorry, I..."
"Bah, you didn't know a Voidstorm would pop up. You helped all of us get through other terrible thinfs, and this time it won't be any different." Aven said.
"And even if something happens, nobody is going to blame you, Victor." Martin continued.
"We all signed up for this, and we're gona stick together through this." Brook spoke while looking at the storm in the distance.
Martin drove at full speed for the next hour, yet the storm kept creeping closer. Soon enough, they were engulfed by the sands that were stirred up by the unending wind, the visibility outside reduced to practically zero.
By now, the air itself felt completely different. Not just charged with electricity, but with a perverse chill that crept into one's bones- one's very soul.
"HEY! SOMETHING'S AHEAD!" Martin's shout interrupted the silence, prompting the crew to see what it was.
With their weapons ready, they got to the front of Mary and looked outside.
Yet they didn't see anything.
Before they could ask Martin any questions, he stepped on the brake, causing Mary to slide accross the metallic sand.
Finally coming to a stop, they looked at him confusedly, while he kept looking through the slits.
A tense moment passed, before Victor broke the silence. "Oh... By the emperor..."
Brook and Aven kept looking outside, trying to see what it was. Finally, they both saw it.
Through the thick sand flying outside, a barely visible shape stuck out from the "dune".
Like palace gates, a closed entrance to something was right in front of them, far larger than Mary and leading into the depths of the desert.
"Do we... go in?" Aven whispered.
"The bulk of the storm is gonna catch us anyway, you bet I wanna take any chance I can get!" Martin said, before opening the door and jumping down.
"Hey-" annoyed at his recklessness, Victor wanted to stop him.
Yet after thinking about it, he jumped down together with him. 'We don't really have any other options, the storm is going to eat us alive soon. One last bet...'
"We'll try to open it, so get Mary inside when possible. And be ready for anything." He said from the ground, before heading to the entrance.
Brook and Aven were left, looking at the two of them.
For a while, they kept running around the entrance trying to figure out how to open it, Martin taking the left side while Victor took the right.
Tense minutes passed, the sounds of thunder coming ever closer.
Finally, Martin shouted, having found what appeared to be a cogitator.
"HAAAAA! OPEN!"
With a horribly loud creaking sound, the massive door opened a tiny crack. Then, after a moment, the doors started sliding to the sides, widening the gap more and more.
When the opening was wide enough, Aven stepped on the pedal, driving before the entrance.
With the sounds of shuffling, both Victor and Martin had gotten back up, looking at the endless concrete tunnel leading into the dark.
Not giving them time to think, the klaxon inside the tunnel let out an ear piercing noise, and the gates started closing once again.
"Step on it!" Victor yelled, and Aven obeyed, accelerating forward.
Seconds later, and Mary passed through the gates of the bunker just as they slammed shut once more, leaving them stranded in the darkness.