Revenge's Timing
Revenge, Damn It!
The Steel Fangs mercenary camp was literally a nightmare.
Blue energy beams and missiles rained down from every direction, fired by Nesis Corporation mechs.
The old, battered machines of the mercenary unit were helpless, exploding or spewing black smoke before turning into scrap heaps.
There was one odd detail, though.
The corporate bastards weren’t finishing the job.
“Damn it! What the hell is this?!”
Detch shook his cockpit controls wildly and roared.
[Three o’clock! Reinforcements incoming!]
[Nesis bastards! Why the hell are they suddenly attacking?!]
Constant screams and howls poured from the communication channels.
Detch gritted his teeth.
“It’s Jinwoo’s fault! That bastard!”
It had to be him.
The guy had taken Alexander Valentine’s job and somehow pissed off Nesis.
That spark had landed on their unit.
They’d never expected him to simply cut the channel and pretend he knew nothing.
“Goddamn bastard…”
Fury blurred his vision, but he couldn’t die here.
He grabbed the last straw and switched to another channel.
To Alexander Valentine.
The bastard who’d murdered his family.
“Valentine! Nesis is attacking us! This is all because of that job, right? Because of that Driller bastard?!”
Even in his panic, Detch’s shout didn’t faze the old man.
“No idea? You’re full of crap. Our unit’s about to be wiped out!”
Detch’s anger flared at the old fox’s greed, even in this moment.
But he had no choice but to cling on.
“Damn it!”
Panting, he suddenly noticed something strange.
Nesis’s attacks were ruthless, but they were going for mechs’ mobility first, not the pilots’ lives.
“They’re not trying to kill us! They want us alive! They’re not trying to destroy the machines—they’re trying to disable them!”
He hastily sent the coordinates of the current battle zone to Valentine.
“We need help. Right now! If they’re taking prisoners, they’ll keep us here for questioning instead of leaving.”
“Understood.”
The moment the channel cut, Valentine called Jinwoo.
“I just received a new one.”
Valentine attached the intel he’d gotten from Detch and said,
******
“Drag them out!”
The Steel Fangs camp was already completely in Nesis’s grip.
Traces of the brutal battle littered the place.
Black smoke rose from the wreckage of destroyed mechs, carrying a greasy smell that choked the sky. Only a few survivors remained.
“You filthy bastards, you dared touch a corporation?”
Detch and the others, hands bound with ropes, were dragged out in a line.
Fear and rage mixed on their faces.
Detch had barely escaped the wreckage, his entire body covered in dust and oil.
“Fuck. What happened to the boss?”
That was the last he’d seen—watching the lead mechs get knocked down by a few Nesis units and then being captured.
Since he wasn’t taken prisoner, he must be dead.
Detch let out a long sigh.
“Shut your mouth and follow.”
The Nesis soldiers forced the survivors to their knees in a neat line in front of a ruined building wall.
The facility they’d once built for training had now become a place for questioning.
“One at a time, starting from the beginning.”
A man in black combat gear stepped inside and glanced at the data pad.
“Understood. First up is you, kid.”
A young mercenary was roughly pulled to a chair and sat down.
“Name, affiliation, rank.”
The interrogator didn’t look away from the pad.
“Roni. Steel Fangs mercenary unit… normal mercenary.”
“Tell me everything you know about the man named Jinwoo. How long have you been with your unit?”
“Jinwoo? First time I’ve heard the name. What the hell kind of stunt is this from the start?!”
“You’re lying.”
The interrogator’s voice dropped.
“The Alexander Valentine job record clearly lists a Steel Fangs mercenary named Jinwoo. I’ll ask again. Tell me everything you know about him.”
“It’s true! We don’t know anything about…”
Before he could finish, the Nesis soldier beside him slammed a fist into his gut.
“You bastard…”
Detch’s body twisted in agony as the one-sided beating continued.
“Time’s short. Next.”
The interrogation moved with cold efficiency.
Repeating the same questions yielded nothing but the fact that Jinwoo was an external collaborator—no other useful information.
“Useless. Tsk. Might as well kill them all.”
His gaze finally landed on Detch.
“One spark of life left in you, even now. You’ve got backup, huh?”
“Backup? Bullshit. I’m pissed off because you corporations are so oppressive.”
“Evidence is right in front of you and you’re still pretending not to know? Thanks to you little worms, we lost key personnel and missed the main objective.”
The interrogator signaled with his eyes. A soldier stepped forward, grabbed Detch by the hair, and lifted his head.
Yet Detch’s eyes remained defiant.
“You don’t have to say anything. Your deaths are already decided.”
The interrogator pulled a pistol from his holster and walked closer.
“What are you—”
The soldier yanked Detch’s jaw open and forced the barrel of the gun inside his mouth.
“Ugh… ugh…”
Detch thrashed and shook his head wildly, but the interrogator smiled, as if daring him to do more.
“You know what? This gun wasn’t made for killing. It’s only for torture.”
“Ugh!”
“Ever heard of the magnifying glass kids used to burn ants when they were little? This is exactly like that.”
His finger on the trigger froze at the sound of a voice in his ear.
“What?”
[Ambush! It’s an ambush!]
[Red energy mecha detected! It’s the Asura! The one Berse mentioned!]
Kwaaang—!
The moment the words left his mouth, a massive explosion rocked the building.
“Heh! You really had backup!”
Detch yanked the gun from the interrogator’s hand and gave the order.
“What are you doing?! Get everyone out there! You’re going to let the main target escape?!”
“Yes! Understood!”
The soldiers rushed out and climbed into their cockpits. The interrogator followed, still on the line.
“Can you hear me, Berse?”
“I can.”
“Are you ready for revenge?”
“Of course. Just give the order and I’ll launch immediately.”
“Good. Launch at once.”
Before the words even left his mouth, the hangar doors on the transport ship opened. The mysterious mecha finished its final checks and launched.
*********
“Timing is perfect.”
Jinwoo quietly muttered, watching multiple enemy signals pop up on the Asura’s HUD.
He’d considered rejecting Valentine’s request to rescue the Steel Fangs, but this might actually be a chance to cover his tracks.
Plus, taking the job triggered a new quest.
Steel Fangs Rescue Operation
📍 Location: [Steel Fangs Camp]
🎁 Reward: [150,000 CR + major increase in Alexander Valentine’s trust + minor reputation boost in Terminus]
• Primary Objective: Rescue surviving Steel Fangs mercenaries
• Secondary Objective: Defeat Nesis forces in the area
• Special Objective: Destroy Nesis special mechs
The special reward item caught his eye—**Skill Enhancement Token**.
It was worth chasing.
He quickly ignited the boosters and aimed the particle accelerator rifle at the glowing red dot on the HUD.
Zwaaaang—! Kwoooom—!
-[mech damage] HP
“Ambush!”
“Enemy mechs confirmed! That’s the Asura Berse mentioned!”
“Asura? I thought the name was trash, but the gear is trash too! Particle accelerator rifles? That’s a waste of energy!”
The enemies had anticipated him perfectly.
Two Stingers tried to flank from both sides.
Kinetic Flow activated. Reaction load at 110%.
Jinwoo shot upward, dodging the encirclement, and rammed straight into one Stinger.
Clang—!
The particle bunker deployed, the heavy hyper-alloy spike piercing straight through the cockpit.
Kwaaang!
The left Stinger tried to dodge, but Jinwoo’s short booster burst flipped it sideways and buried the spike deep.
“Damn it! You can still fire?!”
Clang—!
Another weak cry as the particle bunker fired again.
Kuuuung—!
The Stinger’s side armor tore like paper, and a massive explosion ripped from inside.
“Status update! Three Stingers destroyed.”
“Scatter! Push them with firepower!”
The Stingers that charged at him faltered and split apart, unleashing a hail of bullets and beam rifles.
Zwaaaang! Kwoom!
The precision strike assistant system laid bare every weak point.
Real-time position changes based on load and status made it complicated, but the particle accelerator’s speed was terrifying.
One by one, the mechs were pierced through.
“Damn… too strong.”
“Kyyyyyyak!”
Two Stingers crashed to the ground.
“Warning! Reactor overheating.”
“I used the particle bunker too many times in a row.”
He canceled the Kinetic Flow skill, and a system message flashed instantly.
“Reactor stabilized.”
“That’s enough…”
“Massive energy signature detected from above.”
Jinwoo’s gaze snapped upward at the sudden system message.
“Captain Kyle’s revenge, you goddamn bastard!”
“That’s—”
He remembered the shape of that mecha.
The one piloted by an enhanced human during the Ikarus battle.
“Don’t know who Captain Kyle is…”
A grin formed as he watched the massive mecha hurtling downward at full speed.
“Perfect timing.”
Clang—!
The heavy spike was ready to deploy.