Chapter 5
General Hammer was back in his office at the main STRI-KR HQ, making his report to his superiors on the BNL Starliner "Horus." While speaking to them, Hammer hung his head low and sighed. This sigh was not ignored. "Is something troubling you, General?" asked the voice. Hammer stayed quiet for a moment, then took a deep breath. "Yes, in fact there is something troubling me." he responded. "This entire operation is one of the biggest complex messes I've ever been a part of! You order me to eliminate the people that have been causing problems yet you provide me with some of the worst tools imaginable! That and you want waste time torturing them as punishment?! Who cares how much you sadistic fucks want them to suffer, just let us kill them so we can be rid of them!" "General Hammer, you will refrain from using words like those towards us!" boomed the voice. This didn't stop Hammer from ranting. His voice began to increase in volume as he went on. The anger resonated in his voice.
"If only you had kept some nuclear warheads live, we could've dealt with all of this much quicker! But no! You needed every ounce of uranium we had for those ridiculous Starliners!" he continued. "Also, why did you even feel the need to continue with Operation Cleanup?! Just to make your public think you care?! They're too ignorant to know that you're lying to them anyways, so why waste all of these resources?! That and they never gave a damn about their planet seeing as they left it so quickly for those Starliners! You built entire fleets of Wall-Es and other cleanup robots, just for photographic documentation of progress, wasting precious resources for maybe better STRI-KRs or new weaponry so we can exterminate these filthy sub-humans without trouble!" Hammer paused, breathing heavily. The voice on the other end was silent as well. "Everything you have done is so absurd that I am absolutely dumbfounded!" Hammer continued in a much more calm tone, yet still appalled. "You tried to construct an entire web of lies just to cover your name, while all your doing is just chasing your tail!"
"Are you done, general?" calmly asked the voice. Hammer didn't respond. "As of now, Victor Hammer, you are relieved of command indefinitely" the voice ordered without hesitation. The transmission ceased. Hammer knew they were going to say this, and he had already begun blocking any updates coming from the Starliners. If he hadn't, the STRI-KRs would have turned against him and had him executed. "Fuck you, Forthwright." snarled Hammer. "And fuck that puppet you call your 'brother.' It's time we start doing things MY way." A few minutes later, after gathering up some papers and blueprints that he had drawn up during his spare time, he called in a few lead STRI-KRs. As soon as they arrived, Hammer wasted no time. "You, round up a squad and gather up as many ballistic missiles and launchers at any BNL base that you can track down. I'll bring you all up to speed once we find anything." The STRI-KR saluted him and dismissed himself. Hammer handed another STRI-KR the papers he had. "You, get these blueprints to the factory in South Africa immediately!" ordered Hammer to the second STRI-KR as he gave it the blueprints. "Also, make sure all facilities block transmissions from the Starliner Horus." "What are these?" asked the STRI-KR. "You're new upgrades, that's what." Hammer explained. "What of the prisoners in the camps?" asked the other STRI-KR. Hammer looked out at the torture camp from his watchtower windows. "Don't capture anymore humans. We'll keep torturing these until they're dead." ordered Hammer. The two STRI-KRs exited his office to execute the orders. Hammer sat back in his chair and began smoking a fresh cigar.
Slayer had been very quiet since he and Rusty had started driving back to the campsite. The thoughts of his friend 1467 raced through his head. "I shouldn't have escaped..." muttered Slayer. "There really wasn't anything you could've done, Slayer, if you were there." said Rusty. "They would've been alive if I was still there!" Slayer argued under his breath. "I could've annihilated those damn-" "No! You wouldn't have lasted a second!" Rusty interrupted. "They would've crushed you like an ant!" Neither of them said a word afterwards as they grew closer to the camp.
The camera bot that had followed them had begun to lose power, and collapsed to the ground as the old truck sped away towards the camp. The camera bot aimed its lenses to the campsite, which was still visible in the horizon. It began sending the file to the main base. After the file was sent, the robot's power fizzled out.
General Hammer was still in his watchtower when a chirp from his messenger sounded. He approached the screen and watched the video that the camera bot had recorded. He watched from when Slayer and Rusty jumped into their truck in the video all the way until the camera bot's power had been drained and stopped recording. "That must be the rogue." he thought. "And look who he's led me to! Talk about killing two birds with one stone!" Without hesitation, Hammer tracked down where the signal had come from, and narrowed in on where the camera bot died. Using this information, he pinpointed where the gang's current base of operations was located. Hammer grabbed a radio mic to contact the STRI-KRs. "Attention Squads 30 to 40," he called, "Another gang has been located, sending coordinates now!" Hammer sends the STRI-KRs the coordinates. The Squads got the message clearly and already knew what to do. Each squad flew off to the gang's base, ready to kill.
Rusty stopped the truck by Dynamo's barrack. Slayer jumped out along with Rusty. Captain and Dynamo approached the two, but Slayer didn't stop to speak to them. He just passed by them towards Rusty's tent. "Where the hell are the Wall-Es?!" asked Captain. Slayer didn't respond. "They're all dead," answered Rusty. "Don't bother him, he just watched a good friend die." Dynamo didn't say a word. He looked back towards Rusty's tent and felt bad for the robot. Captain didn't seem to care as she crossed her arms and gave Rusty a disappointed look. "Well genius, got any other bright ideas?" asked Captain sarcastically.
A few moments later, the guard in the crow's nest of the bus gate saw a small army of STRI-KRs approaching the camp. "STRI-KRs!" he called. "They're coming!" Everyone heard what he had said and began scrambling. "Everyone to your battle stations, now!" ordered Captain. The Talons scrambled behind their cars, boxes and other obstructions while loading their rifles and other weapons. Slayer rushed out of the tent with his rifle and ran up next to Dynamo behind a random obstruction.
The STRI-KRs blasted the bus into pieces and began rushing into the camp, like water rushing out of a broken dam. Both armies began firing at each other, with the STRI-KRs picking off the marauders fast. Some hid behind their cars, which the STRI-KRs blasted into a cloud of fire, killing the humans nearby. A STRI-KR began to fly overhead, but Slayer shot it down before it could kill anybody else. It crashed back to the ground right next to the ground. Slayer quickly pulled off its gun arm and threw it to Dynamo. "Use it!" called Slayer "Bullets won't work well against those things!" Dynamo quickly picked up the gun and began firing away at the STRI-KRs, killing more much faster than his rifle could. "Use their guns!" Dynamo called to the rest of The Talons
The Talons quickly began using the gun arms of dead STRI-KRs against the rest of the STRI-KRs, making the battle cease much quicker. The Talons got up from behind their obstructions and began surveying the scene. STRI-KRs lay on the ground with blast holes gaping from their bodies and heads. Other gang members laid dead on the ground as well, the soil now contaminated with their blood. Captain was in utter shock and dismay, but that changed very quickly.
Without warning, she suddenly turned towards Slayer and began firing at him viciously. Slayer began dodging her attacks. He was nearly shot until Rusty ran up and tried holding her back. "Captain, stop! He had nothing to do with it!" Rusty said. Captain freed herself from Rusty's grasp, punched him in the jaw and knee kicked him in his stomach, dropping him to the ground. Rusty curled and grabbed his stomach in pain. Blood began slowly drooling out of his mouth. Dynamo and the rest of the Talons didn't dare go near her. Slayer had begun running off before she began firing again. "I'll fucking kill you if I ever see you again, you little bastard!" she shouted. Slayer had gotten away and disappeared over the horizon. Captain turned to the rest of the group. "Take down your tents and get them on Dynamo's truck, we're outta here!" she barked.
Back at the STRI-KRs' base, a STRI-KR was checking the tracking signal coming from the squads they sent. Hammer was standing next to it. "Lost the signal, sir." the STRI-KR told Hammer. "That's alright" responded Hammer. "Now we know where another gang is stationed. We only gave them a taste of what's to come." Another STRI-KR floated in. "Sir, our squads have obtained ballistic missiles and several launchers still intact! They're on their way back to base" it said. "Excellent work, have them transported here immediately!" Hammer ordered. "These fucking marauders are dead now!"
