The notification for my winnings had barely pinged on my terminal when Jinx's damn alarm rudely drowned it out.
No congratulations, no small talk—just a thermal scan of the area around my shipping container.
Three massive red silhouettes radiating intense heat were closing in from three directions, prowling like hungry beasts.
Mechs!
"Warning! Three illegally modified industrial mechs!" Jinx's encrypted text flashed next, stuttering onto the screen as if choked out. "It's the Brotherhood! They want you dead!"
I didn't even have time to see how many zeros were in my winnings. Joy? What the hell was that? In the Rust Belt, good news is nothing more than a teaser for even bigger trouble.
I shut off the terminal. My oil-streaked face stared back from the dark screen, my eyes as cold as the vacuum of deep space.
The Brotherhood.
The biggest black-market bookies in the Rust Belt, and its most ruthless executioners. My victory during that "unexpected server glitch" had clearly cost them a fortune.
Good.
I peered out through a rusted crack in the container wall. The night was like a rag soaked in engine oil—filthy and heavy. In the shadow of the scrap heaps, my container was nothing but an iron coffin waiting to be buried.
The first mech was a modified heavy loader. The end of its massive mechanical arm had been replaced with an industrial cutting torch crackling with blue arcs. The air sizzled as it was scorched, giving off an acrid smell of ozone.
The second was a tracked excavator. Its bucket had been swapped for a spiked hydraulic demolition hammer. Every step it took sent a tremor through the ground, like a rampaging steel rhino.
The third was the leader—a smaller industrial bot, but its arms were fitted with military-grade high-voltage prods. They crackled with a terrifying snap, like a viper striking.
They left their public channel wide open, a cocky voice echoing through the night air over a layer of static.
"Hey, sweetheart! Heard you're a real pro on the track? Why don't you come out and play with the big boys?"
Another voice let out a coarse laugh. "Boss's orders: flatten her and that heap of scrap metal into a pancake! We need to give the boys who lost their shirts some satisfaction!"
They thought I was just meat on the chopping block.
A bloodthirsty smirk curled the corner of my mouth.
You think this is your hunting ground?
Wrong.
This is my junkyard. This is my turf.I slipped silently into the cockpit of the "Wrench." I didn't start the engine, only switched on the power. In the darkness of the cockpit, the faint glow of a few screens illuminated my cold face.
"Their mechs have electronic jammers!" Jinx's warning continued to flash. "It'll mess with your sensors! I'm trying to stabilize the system, but I can't hold it for long!"
Before she even finished, a green progress bar I knew all too well flashed across my main screen—cold and efficient. It was the program from my father's data terminal. Running automatically like an invisible wall, it instantly neutralized most of the interference, stabilizing the flickering static on my screen.
This terminal... what exactly was it? There was no time to dwell on it; voices from outside cut through my thoughts.
"Boss, she's hiding in the container like a cockroach!" a lackey's voice called out.
"Then crack her shell open!" the leader barked impatiently. "Use the cutting torch! Burn through that door!"
The mech equipped with the cutting torch stomped toward my container. A ghostly blue flame ignited at the tip of its mechanical arm. The intense heat distorted the air around it, and the door of my container began to groan under the searing heat.
Now!
I slammed my hand down on a grease-stained red button!
*BOOM!*
A deafening explosion!
Beside the container, the massive metal tank I'd buried long ago—filled with high-concentration methane—detonated!
A massive fireball, choked with yellow-green smoke, erupted toward the sky like a filthy flower blooming from hell. The shockwave of the blast violently flipped the cutting mech over, sending it crashing into the heaps of scrap.
"Argh! What the hell was that?!"
"I can't see! My sensors are nothing but static!"
"Cough... what is that smell?! Fuck!"
A thick, putrid smoke instantly blanketed the area. In that moment, their optical and thermal sensors were rendered useless.
But it didn't matter to me.
My "Engineer's Eye" pierced through the smoke, clearly revealing the energy flows, hydraulic lines, and every structural weakness within their mechs. To me, they looked like nothing more than three skeletons moving in slow motion.
"Now!"
I floored the accelerator.
The long-suppressed roar of the "Harvest-7" engine erupted like an awakening beast."The Wrench" didn't charge out the front door. Instead, it used its shoulder to ram through the container's floor. Like a raging bull, it burst from the ground through an underground maintenance tunnel I'd dug long ago!
My target wasn't the overturned cutter mech, nor the demolition hammer floundering in the smoke.
I had only one target—the leader!
The engineering mech equipped with the high-voltage shockers!
"What?!"
The leader clearly hadn't expected me to burst from the ground. Panicked, he swiveled his torso, trying to aim his shockers at me.
Too late.
I had no intention of keeping my distance! The first rule of "Wrench Combat": Never give your enemy a chance to take a second shot!
With an agility that defied its massive bulk, "The Wrench" ducked sharply, evading the swinging shock-arm. In the same motion, the entire frame launched forward like a cannonball, slamming violently into his chest!
*CLANG—!*
The deafening crash of metal on metal was ear-splitting enough to set my teeth on edge!
I didn't draw the giant wrench from my back. For trash like this, I didn't need it.
"The Wrench's" right arm shot up. Five thick alloy fingers clamped down like a giant vise, locking onto his mech's left shoulder!
"What are you doing?! Let go of me!" His terrified scream came from the cockpit.
What am I doing?
Taking you apart!
Through my "Engineer's Eye," the hydraulic lines, power drive shafts, and alloy fatigue points in his left shoulder joint were as clear as an anatomical diagram in a textbook!
I applied sudden force! The engine's torque output hit its limit!
*CRACK—!*
The spine-tingling sound of shearing metal!
With brute force and raw violence, I ripped his entire left arm clean off its shoulder! Blue hydraulic fluid sprayed everywhere like a severed artery, splattering across my cockpit screen!
"Aaahhh! My arm!" He squealed like a stuck pig.
I wasn't done yet!
I released his shoulder. My left mechanical arm shot out like lightning, seizing his right arm—the one with the shocker still crackling with energy!
Then, I twisted at the waist. Redlining the engine!
Like a ruthless scrapper, "The Wrench" gripped his right arm and smashed it violently against his own cockpit!
*BANG!*
The reinforced glass of the cockpit instantly spiderwebbed!
"No! Don't!"
*BANG!*
A second hit!
The cracks deepened; it was on the verge of shattering!
"I surrender! I surrender!" He broke down completely, his voice filled with terror and despair.Just then, the mech equipped with the demolition hammer finally regained its bearings in the smoke, roaring as it charged toward me.
"Let go of our boss!"
The massive demolition hammer swung toward my back with a shrieking wind!
Without even turning my head, I took that severed arm—still connected to the shocker—and flung it backward like I was tossing out trash!
The charging mech didn't have time to dodge; the massive severed arm hit it square in the chest!
"Zzzzt—!"
High-voltage current surged through its entire frame instantly! The mech convulsed wildly, large sparks bursting from its joints. Then, with a heavy *thud*, it toppled over stiffly, completely dead.
One minute.
Less than a minute.
Three menacing, illegally modified mechs: one flipped over, one paralyzed by electricity, and the leader reduced to scrap.
I released my grip, and the leader's mech—now left with only one arm—crashed to its knees before me with a loud *clang*.
I walked the *Wrench* over. Its massive metal foot crushed the communication antenna atop his cockpit, then stomped heavily onto the cockpit door.
*Creak—creak—*
The spiderwebbed glass groaned, on the verge of shattering, looking like it would cave in at any moment.
"Hey." I opened the public channel, my voice dead cold. "Who was it that said they were going to flatten me into a pancake just now?"
Inside the cockpit, the thug was trembling so hard he couldn't even speak.
I didn't bother wasting any more words.
Using the *Wrench*'s mechanical hand, I violently ripped off his teetering cockpit door, just like tearing open a tin can!
I jumped down from the *Wrench* and walked up to him.
He was curled up in the pilot's seat like a chicken on the chopping block, the stench of urine wafting from his crotch.
I grabbed him by the collar, dragged him out of the seat, and threw him onto the cold metal deck. On his arm, a black tattoo of a double-headed snake wrapped around a gear was exposed.
"Who sent you?" I stared into his eyes, enunciating every word.
"It... it was the 'Brotherhood'..." he stammered, trembling. "It was our boss... because of you... the house lost too much money..."
"Is that all?"
"I... I don't know anything else! I just know the boss told us to take care of you! Please, let me go! I'll never do it again!"
I looked at his face, twisted with fear, and felt nothing but ice in my heart.
Take care of me?
I let go, letting him slump to the ground like a pile of sludge.
They'll be back.Next time, it probably wouldn't be three scrap-heap engineering mechs coming for me. It would be professional assassins, deadlier weapons.
I looked up at the brilliant lights of the city center in the distance. That was another world. A world that was once beyond my reach. Now, I had one foot inside, but the other was being dragged firmly through the mud by local kingpins like the "Brotherhood."
As long as I kept competing, these attacks wouldn't stop.
A fierce flame ignited within my chest.
You don't want me to live?
Then I'm going to live.
Not only will I live, but I will stand at the very top, where everyone can see me!
Just as I was about to turn back to the cockpit, Jinx's encrypted comms popped up again, interrupting my train of thought.
"Vex, something's wrong."
Her text carried an urgency and gravity I had never seen before.
"I just intercepted an internal encrypted transmission from the Brotherhood. This isn't simple revenge."
My heart plummeted.
"They've issued an internal bounty," Jinx's text continued to flash, every word hitting like a sledgehammer. "It's not on your head."
"The target of the bounty is—your mech, the *Wrench*."
I froze.
"Bring it in intact. Must be brought back without damage."
I whipped around to look at the *Wrench* standing behind me, scarred and covered in grease and hydraulic fluid.
My mech?
A piece of junk cobbled together from trash? What could possibly be worth all this trouble, worth putting a bounty on?
Jinx's final line of text was like a cold knife, piercing through any wishful thinking I had left.
"Vex, they aren't trying to kill you. They want your mech!"