Chapter 3:
A few hours had passed since the team left southernmost Illinois. Maneuvering through the trashy ruins of Chicago proved to be a challenge, but thankfully they weren't attacked. After exiting the city and entering the baron wastelands of garbage and sand, all vehicles punched into gear like bats flying out of the depths of hell. The sand and small bits of trash from the roads flew out from behind their off-road tires, creating a beige cloud of dust that rose towards the skies and soon dissipated.
Each vehicle's navigators and gunners kept their eyes glued to the horizon. The gunners in the Gatecrasher's trailer did the same. All that could be seen outside was mounds of trash and sand covering the landscapes as they drove further from the desolate city of Chicago. Slayer was checking if everything was well in the trailer, while Darrin sat in the cabin, watching out the window of the truck while Bone took control of the truck. Slayer soon entered the cab. "How are we looking, lieutenant?" Slayer asked Bone. "Steady she goes, sir," replied Bone. "Nothing important from the other drivers as well." "Very good," Slayer replied. He then sat next to Darrin in the cab and pulled out a small table that slid out the side of the walls of the truck. "Ok, Darrin, get that map out," Slayer said. "Let's get down to business." Darrin pulled out the map and laid it down onto the table.
Elsewhere on a nearby rocky ridge, three STRI-KR squads' transports stood, covered in camouflage sheets. Alpha was looking out at the edge and saw the semi and the other six cars racing down the roads. "Our first catch of the day," said Alpha. Another STRI-KR was watching them next to Alpha. "That's the truck!" the STRI-KR exclaimed. "What about the truck?" Alpha asked. "That's the same truck that broke through our base in 2109! I'm willing to bet that damn Wall-E is in there too!" the STRI-KR growled. "Start up the trucks," ordered Alpha. "And take no prisoners!" Quickly, the STRI-KRs pulled the camouflage off the trucks and started their engines. The diesel motors growled as they drove towards the convoy. The gunners in each of the vehicles to the right and in Gatecrasher's trailer saw the transports rushing towards them. "STRI-KRs coming from the south-east!" called one of the gunners via shortwave radio. Slayer looked out the window. "Was wondering when these bastards were gonna come out to play!" Slayer growled. He turned to Bone. "Floor it and don't stop for anything!" "Yes, sir!" answered Bone with determination.
The trucks raced after the convoy like an army of war-hungry barbarians riding their stallions into battle, and in no time were following behind the convoy. Small laser machine guns appeared out the sides of the cabs and commenced firing at the vehicles. Gatecrasher wasn't affected by the small laser blasts, but the other cars wouldn't be so lucky if they were in the line of fire, so they began to spread out and avoid any attacks while their gunners prepared their defenses. An all-out laser war broke out between the two groups as they raced through the flat trash covered wastelands, each pulling off spectacular driving maneuvers to either avoid or commence attacks, with the exception of the Gatecrasher.
One of the STRI-KR transports had driven over a mound of garbage, launching it into the air like a ramp, and landed directly in front of the Gatecrasher. Bone activated the small laser cannons in the front plow, blasting the STRI-KR transport to oblivion. He didn't hesitate to lay his foot down onto the pedal and break through the flaming wreck, splitting it like a knife through butter. Behind the semi, the modified cars battled fiercely against the transports, dodging attacks and returning fire to keep the armed transports away. A transport, fitted with a turret on top of it, fired off a gigantic laser blast. After striking the ground, the explosion it caused hit directly in front of the car, causing it to barrel roll to the left and crash on its hood. The driver and gunner were alright and desperately tried to climb out, but one of the transports had driven over the vehicle, grinding it with the metal spiked wheels under its cab and flattening it along with the marauders as it drove on.
A gunner in the trailer of the Gatecrasher scrambled into a cockpit that controlled a turret in the rear on top of the trailer. Meanwhile a few STRI-KRs flew towards the semi to disable the turret. The gunners weren't quick enough to shoot them down as they made their way to the semi. Slayer quickly scrambled out of the cab and jumped onto the roof of the truck and shot down the two STRI-KRs as they began to screw with the turret. He saw several more flying towards them and began to shoot them down like ducks. Afterwards he knocked on the turret to speak to the gunner from inside. "You're all clear!" Slayer called. He backed off as the turret began shooting at the transports, causing them to swerve around to dodge attacks, while a couple unlucky trucks were brutally shot down.
Slayer looked on at the transports for a minute, and had gotten an idea. He called out to one of his vehicles nearby to come closer. He then jumped onto one of the cars, hanging off the driver side. "Get me closer to that transport!" he told the driver. The driver slowly backed up closer, dodging shots from the other transports. The gunner fired back, desperately trying to protect the vehicle and Slayer from being shot down. Soon, the car made it close enough to one of the trucks. Slayer jumped onto the side of the transport and climbed up to its roof and began blasting the STRI-KRs coming out of the truck, while the car below sped back up towards the pack to avoid the laser blasts.
Slayer managed to destroy the turret on top of the truck. He turned around to hijack the truck, when suddenly, Alpha flew out of the truck and faced him. Slayer flinched back, surprised and bewildered. He had never seen a STRI-KR like this one. "So you're the son-of-a-bitch that killed Hammer!" Alpha growled. Both of his mini turrets shot out of his arms and began firing in Slayer's direction. Slayer dodged the fire and took cover behind the turret. He turned to fire back, but found that his gun had run out of ammo. Alpha stopped firing, realizing he was out of ammo, and retracted his guns.
"Fool," Alpha laughed. "Powerless without your firearm!" In a flash, his katana blades shot out from the tops of his arms. Slayer's eyes widened with more surprise and worry. "I'll at least make it a fair fight," Alpha said. He dashed towards Slayer with both blades aimed right at the Wall-E, but Slayer jumped right out of Alpha's way. Alpha swerved to face Slayer and swung his katanas like a samurai. All Slayer could do was dodge his attacks, each swing of the blades grew closer to Slayer until the blades were only millimeters away from slicing the Wall-E. Slayer managed to grab a hold of one of Alpha's arms to deflect the attack. He struggled to hold his arm back as Alpha raised his other arm to strike him down.
The wind suddenly began to pick up a little, but this wasn't from the trucks speeding up. A red light on Slayer's chest began to blink and the built-in alarm began beeping through the tiny speakers, right as Alpha was about to swing his sword into the Wall-E. Alpha looked at the light confused, distracting him, giving Slayer the chance to shove him away, into the broken turret on the transport. Slayer turned forward, and there, almost out of nowhere, was one of the largest sandstorms he had ever seen. It didn't look like it was moving towards them, it was just there. The storm was larger than anything imaginable, almost unworldly. Lightning flickered inside the clouds of the raging sandstorm. Frantically, he climbed back down the transport before Alpha had gotten back up. The car that brought Slayer to the transport had come back to pick him up and race him back to the Gatecrasher.
Slayer quickly jumped back into the trailer of the semi and rushed next to Bone, with his alarm still going off. "We're trapped!" Bone said. "STRI-KRs on our tail and a sandstorm right in front of us, whatever next?!" complained Darrin. "Keep going!" Slayer ordered, trying to ignore the alarm. Everyone glued their eyes to Slayer. "What are you insane?!" Bone replied. "Don't question me, just go!" Slayer commanded aggressively. "We'll be ripped apart if we go in there!" Bone argued frantically. "We're gonna have to turn around!" Bone began to turn the wheel, when Slayer suddenly gripped the wheel hard, stopping Bone from turning. "Let go of the wheel then, lieutenant!" Slayer ordered angrily. Bone tried fighting back for control but Slayer easily removed him from the driver's seat. "Hold him back!" Slayer ordered his crew. His crew, not wanting to start any conflict with him, did as they were told as Bone struggled. "What the hell are you thinking?!" Bone cried. "He's gonna kill us all!"
Slayer locked the throttle down, which pushed the pedal down to keep the truck going as his treads couldn't reach them, turned the truck back forward and picked up the mic to a radio. "General Slayer to all drivers, activate your sand shields," he ordered. "We're going in lock, stock and barrel!" Slayer flipped a switch, as the windows and all vents closed. Four sheilded cameras, two on either side of the cab, one at the front and one at the back, were activated at the same time. Slayer punched the throttle along with the other cars. "Brace yourselves!" he called. The STRI-KRs watched as they sped on. Alpha had climbed back into the transport and locked the hatch. "They must be crazy to go into that storm!" one STRI-KR commented. Alpha silently agreed, but wasn't ready to back down. "Sandstorms don't concern me! Drive on!" he ordered. "I want that robot's head!"
All the vehicles drove right into the raging storm. Sand and debris flew everywhere, hitting against the cars with such force. Tornadoes were spinning and lightning struck the ground all around them. Slayer looked at the screen showing the STRI-KR trucks still on their tail, but looked as if they were slowed down by the storm. It was clear that they were not fit to handle a storm of such magnitude. Slayer hoped the same couldn't be said for his drivers. The other cars began to be pushed around by the heavy winds, shoving them further back from the semi. Slayer got back on the radio. "All drivers, try going ahead!" he ordered. "We'll try getting rid of the transports!"
The drivers immediately twisted open a valve connected to a nitrous tank next to their seats, causing the motors to rev up tremendously. Fire spit from their chrome pipes as they sped back up to and passed the armored semi. "Step on it!" barked Alpha inside the cab of the truck in front. "Forget the other cars and go after that eighteen-wheeler!" A couple of the trucks from the left floored their throttles and raced towards the truck, without acknowledging the risk of their motors combusting. One truck was not so fortunate, as the front grille began to catch on fire and the cab exploded, destroying yet another transport.
The other truck managed to get alongside the left of the Gatecrasher and started shoving itself to the right in an attempt to stop the truck, just as one of the large tornadoes was coming into view on the left. Both vehicles were already in a safe distance to pass the vortex, but Slayer decided to turn towards it a little more, pushing the transport into the tornado. The STRI-KR transport was lifted off the ground just as Slayer quickly turned away from it. The transport was torn to shreds as if it were made from paper-mache along with the STRI-KRs inside it. Alpha and the others witnessed the carnage and moved a bit further from the tornadoes. "We can still blast them from here!" Alpha exclaimed. "We can't!" replied one of the STRI-KRs. "The sand jammed our guns!" Alpha looked back out the window, watching as the Gatecrasher and other cars were speeding off into the distance. He knew they couldn't go any further. "Stop the trucks" he ordered, disappointingly. "We'll have to wait until this storm dies down." The trucks came to a complete stop and had lowered themselves to the ground so that the storms couldn't lift them up easily. Alpha continued to watch the vehicles race away until all they could see were dust clouds. "This robot's more brave than I thought." Alpha commented. One STRI-KR was looking at a radar. "This storm won't pass for another few hours, sir." it said. Alpha didn't respond and just kept staring out the windscreen. "Game on, Slayer!" he muttered.