"K, stop fiddling with that busted sniper of yours and check out my big baby. I'm telling you, a real man should be using this!"
In the Badlands, near the border, a black, Russian-made Kaukaz Bratsk U4020 truck was speeding across the wilderness.
As an armored transport truck positioned similarly to a Behemoth, although its exterior looked a bit shabby, its practicality was in no way inferior.
Its massive front-wheel drive allowed it to accelerate recklessly on dirt roads even while carrying a tank. Perhaps, in some ways, using this kind of truck to traverse the Badlands was even more durable and reliable than a Behemoth.
Its only drawbacks were perhaps the outdated bulletproof armor of the cockpit and its internal network systems.
At this moment, an elite merc squad was using this vehicle to head to a designated location to lie in ambush.
K, a retired sniper and the leader of the merc squad, looked helplessly at the heavy weapons specialist beside him, who was incessantly showing off a large missile launcher he was hugging. He sighed, "I say, Dave, you've been playing with that for days. Haven't you had enough?"
"Damn, this is high-grade stuff I rarely got to play with even back in the army!"
Dave looked at the big baby in his hands, lovingly stroking its barrel. It was a device that, at first glance, resembled a man-portable rocket launcher.
But in fact, it was a miniature missile launcher that used electromagnetic propulsion and could perform a secondary ignition in mid-air.
Compared to a standard man-portable rocket launcher, its greatest advantage was its ability to launch covertly from beyond the line of sight, precisely striking any target within a 3-15 kilometer range. After launch, the missile would first accelerate upwards before entering a high-altitude cruise.
At this point, the user only needed to use the launcher's built-in visual guidance system. Through the visual sharing provided by the neural link, they could connect to the missile's camera via their cyberoptics for aerodyne targeting. Once the target was confirmed, the missile would automatically lock on and strike.
With power far exceeding that of a man-portable rocket and a strike speed of over Mach 1 after locking on, it could be said to surpass the anti-air capabilities of the vast majority of infantry fighting vehicles.
"I'd rather hope we don't have to use it."
Another merc sitting beside them shrugged. The Militech M251s Ajax in his hands was painted in desert camouflage. His desert camo fatigues and standard full-coverage helmet combat suit made him look every bit as impressive as any elite soldier.
"Don't jinx it. If we don't get a chance to use it, I'll have to give this thing back to Faraday. That guy is so damn stingy, wanting to take back the gear he issues."
As Dave spoke, the two mercs in the driver and passenger seats both laughed and cursed, "Don't you fucking jinx us, you little shit. You're safe and sound behind a bulletproof steel plate. If we get ambushed, this Russian piece of junk's cockpit would probably get pierced by a single round of Armor-Piercing Ammunition."
"I was talking about the other team failing. Hey, K, I heard Maine is going to be rolling with another merc team. What's the word?"
Dave turned his head to look at K.
"This was his own choice," K said coldly, holding his modified Nekomata. "If the mission gets to the point where we have to take over, Faraday's orders are to make sure they all die."
"Heh, I'd love to see the look of regret on that guy's face."
As Dave was speaking, he suddenly heard something strange. He narrowed his eyes and immediately turned to look at the merc in the passenger seat. By now, the merc's expression had already turned grim.
"Quiet! Prepare for combat!"
The passenger-seat merc's cyberoptics flashed. He rolled down the window, stuck his head out, and scanned their surroundings. His cyberoptics and auditory system were both chromed, giving him a detection range far beyond that of a normal person when activated.
"Unidentified flying objects approaching from three o'clock, 2.1 kilometers out!"
"K!"
The merc in the driver's seat didn't hesitate, yanking the wheel to the left and slamming the accelerator to the floor.
"Bait reconnaissance dro..." Before Dave could finish, he saw K swiftly open the truck's rear door, revealing a firing port. K dropped to one knee and raised his sniper rifle.
His custom Tsunami Defense Systems sniper rifle had no scope, because K's scope was his cyberoptics. As his cyberoptics zoomed in on the target flying toward them from high in the distance, K cursed, "Drones!"
He immediately pressed the charge-shot button on his sniper rifle, but then, a dense cluster of tiny black dots, visible to the naked eye, made him catch his breath.
"It's a kamikaze drone swarm! Step on it! Did we bring any small EMPs?" K turned his head to ask, but Dave had already opened a case. "No, just two EMP grenades."
"Then grab a machine gun and start firing!" K ordered, firing a shot that blew a distant drone to pieces.
But against the dense drone swarm, his single, precise shot had little effect.
"Son of a bitch," Dave cursed. He flexed his arms, hoisted a heavy machine gun, and stood at the rear door. His Gorilla Arms strained as he pulled the trigger, and a roar of bullets flew toward the sky full of drones.
The merc in the passenger seat jacked his neural link into the vehicle system. The truck's folded-up, mounted machine gun popped its armored cover and began firing upward.
Even so, a few drones from the dense swarm still broke through the curtain of fire and landed on their pickup truck.
The armored plating held against the explosions, but the immense impact still left the mercs in the back dizzy, their chests tight with nausea and their minds foggy. Fortunately, Dave was quick enough to slam the rear door shut, preventing any drones from getting inside.
"Nine o'clock, vehicles approaching fast. Be careful! We're being ambushed! Enemies from two directions!"
The driver fought off his dizziness, but even with the pedal to the floor, the truck wasn't as fast as he'd hoped. Its massive power allowed it to traverse the Badlands without issue, but a truck like this had its limits when it came to speed.
Compared to the two APCs now rapidly closing in, the gap between them was shrinking at a visible rate.
The passenger-seat merc tried to control the vehicle-mounted machine gun, but the next moment, the window suddenly shattered with a loud crack. Something whizzed past his ear, and the truck gave a sudden lurch and began to shake violently.
The merc in the passenger seat turned his head and couldn't help but roar, "Sniper!"
The driver was already slumped silently over the steering wheel, his head blasted into a pulp of flesh and gore. After piercing the driver, the bullet had nearly skewered the passenger as well.
The merc in the passenger seat had no time for grief or disgust. With a swift movement, he wrenched the vehicle around, turning the rear to face the approaching car and giving the three mercs in the back a clear line of fire.
However, just as they turned, Dave let out a terrified shout, "Rocket launcher!"
He only had time to pull the rear armored door shut before a massive explosion rocked the back of the vehicle. The tires were completely blown out, and a hole was blasted straight through the rear door.
Shattered armor fragments flew everywhere. The burly Dave blocked eighty percent of them, and one piece even lodged itself in his head. Fortunately, his Subdermal Armor allowed him to survive, but even so, Dave was wracked with excruciating pain.
Gritting his teeth, he activated his Pain Editor, lowering the sensation to ten percent, then injected himself with a shot of adrenaline.
"Time to go all out! I'm gonna fire my big baby!"
He grabbed his missile launcher and was about to open the door, but K stopped him. "Let them come closer," K said, his expression cold. "TJ, use your Sandevistan."
"Dammit, I knew we should've driven our own car. This piece of junk doesn't even have firing ports!"
Dave cursed, grabbing a machine gun and clenching his jaw as he listened to the clang of machine-gun fire peppering the armor.
The merc holding the Ajax tossed his gun aside. Two Mantis Blades sprang from his arms, his cyberoptics glowing ominously. "Then let them in and we'll fight!"
K also put down his sniper rifle. He, too, was equipped with a Sandevistan. They called themselves elites not out of arrogant self-importance, but because they had the chrome to back it up.
The merc who had taken over as the driver panted, "We don't have a choice but to let them get close. The rear tires are completely shot. Goddamn Faraday, we've been set up!"
"Wait... I think it's that merc crew, the Kindling Squad!?" The merc focused his gaze, then spoke with a mix of anger and shock, "We're being attacked by our own people?"
"There are no 'own people'!" K instantly understood the crucial point and immediately called Maine, but the call didn't connect.
Without a second thought, K also sent a message to Faraday to report the situation. But then, he saw the back door suddenly get yanked open by a hand.
A dark figure abruptly appeared at the rear of the vehicle. It was a white-haired woman, sprinting at full speed!
V's Mantis Blades sprang from her arms. By now, the wide-open cargo bay of the truck was being saturated by Rebecca's heavy machine-gun fire. Inside, all the mercs activated their operating systems at once.
Dave's Berserk OS flared to life, but it was useless. His bulky frame made him the most conspicuous target in Rebecca's eyes, and under her arm's control, the heavy machine gun might as well have had no recoil.
With Rebecca also having activated her Berserk OS and Kerenzikov, Dave had nowhere to hide in the cramped compartment. In a second, he was riddled with holes.
K and another merc leaped down directly, K wielding a short blade the length of his forearm, while the other merc used Mantis Blades on both hands. The three of them clashed in a blur of motion, moving at a speed completely imperceptible to the naked eye.
To avoid friendly fire, Rebecca had to abandon the idea of helping V with the heavy machine gun. She continued to lay down suppressive fire on the driver's seat until she tore through it, riddling the merc with bullets and killing him right where he sat.
"Mercer!" Rebecca yelled.
Mercer's voice, however, remained calm. "Already breached one of the cyberware's permissions."
The moment he finished speaking, one of the two mercs flanking V, the one with the Mantis Blades, suddenly went weak at the knees and collapsed to the ground.
V's laughter was swept away by the wind. With a casual kick, she sent the merc's head flying like a soccer ball.
K felt his scalp tingle and a chill run down his spine.
They were all equipped with military-grade ICE cyberware! How could one of them have their cyberware permissions hacked in just over a second?
What kind of fucking joke was this?
"Where are you looking?" V's voice suddenly appeared by his ear.
In K's vision, V's already incredible speed abruptly and bizarrely increased another notch. The next moment, a pair of Mantis Blades, accompanied by V's cold smirk, became the last memory of his life.
V effortlessly deactivated her Sandevistan. With a casual flick, she flung K's body, which had been impaled on her two heated Mantis Blades, away.
"Clean up the battlefield."
Mercer spoke from the back seat, his tone relaxed as he praised over the team comms, "Nice shot with the sniper."
"Hehe, the chip program you wrote is seriously badass, man. It's just like playing a game. Just point the crosshairs and fire."
In the other vehicle, Pilar cockily lowered the Nekomata in his hands, then rubbed them together excitedly. "I wonder what kind of goodies these guys were using."
The tactic Mercer had chosen was very simple: feign an attack with drones from the enemy's three o'clock to draw their attention, while he and the team set up an ambush from the nine o'clock position, using a reverse slope for cover.
Once the enemy moved closer to him to evade the drones, they would charge out in the APC and attack.
Pilar's precise shot that took out the driver, along with Rebecca blowing out the tires with a rocket launcher, made the assault exceptionally smooth. The moment the enemy was forced to disembark and fight head-on, they had already lost any real threat to Mercer's team.
Once they closed the distance, V only needed to delay the enemy for one to two seconds, and Mercer could guarantee he'd hack one of them.
In the modified, bulletproof netrunner van where Pilar was, Kiwi and Lucy also breathed a sigh of relief, unplugging the cables connected to the drone control system.
"I feel like the swarm's control still isn't precise enough. We wasted too many of them against that kind of suppressive fire," Kiwi commented.
"I think we could involve a more intelligent AI," Lucy suggested directly.
Mercer nodded. "I'll have Morning Star see how to solve this problem later. The main thing is, it felt fine when I was using it myself."
"Hah," Lucy shot him a speechless glance. Do you have any idea how many things your brain can control at once?
Mercer spread his hands and said, "Alright, hurry up and see if there's anything valuable. We'll loot it and get out of here. We have to be ready before the Biotechnica people arrive at the ambush point."
"Whoa, look at this!" Pilar suddenly exclaimed.
From the back of the truck, he picked up something that looked like an oversized single-person rocket launcher.
"Holy shit, it's a good thing we chose to ambush them. If we'd taken a hit from this from a few kilometers away, we'd all be toast!"
Pilar clicked his tongue in amazement as he held the weapon, studying it for a moment before saying, "This thing is a goddamn missile launcher!"
"Let me see, let me see!" Rebecca loved high-powered weapons like this.
Pilar continued to rummage around and finally picked up a large sniper rifle. "Damn, a custom Tsunami Defense Systems Ashura? This thing looks twice the size of a regular Ashura!"
"An anti-materiel sniper rifle. This thing is specifically for taking out APCs," V also marveled, then happened to find an Ajax herself.
She played around with the Ajax. "Not bad. It's custom too. Zeiss scope, modified Militech folding grip. Suits me well. I'm taking it."
"You take this knife, too," Mercer said, picking up K's short blade from the ground and examining it for a moment. "Arasaka nanoblade. It's no less sharp than Mantis Blades. If your Mantis Blades ever have a mechanical failure, you won't have to resort to using your hands again."
Just like that, the group stripped the merc squad's gear clean.
Then, a message box popped up in Mercer's cyberoptics.
[Maine: Faraday is contacting me, asking why we attacked our own people. I didn't answer. What should I say?]
[A: I'll call him.]
Mercer waved to the others and returned to the netrunner van. In the back seat, a suit of pitch-black armor lay quietly piled in a corner.
Considering its power consumption, Mercer had chosen not to use it against this group of mercs, saving it for the Biotechnica convoy instead.
He walked over to the armor and gestured to Lucy, signaling for her help.
At the same time, he made a call to Faraday.
The moment the video call connected, Faraday glared at Mercer, his face full of rage. "A, you'd better give me..."
Before he could finish, Mercer roared, "Faraday! What the hell are you playing at? Why was there another group of unidentified armed combatants at the ambush point? If we hadn't scouted ahead and discovered them, do you have any idea what they were carrying? A missile launcher! If we had just blindly gone in and taken a hit from that, it would have been all over!"
Faced with Mercer's tactic of accusing first, Faraday was initially so angry he almost laughed. Then he said, "Why didn't you contact me beforehand?"
"Contact you? Because of this crew that suddenly appeared, we missed our preset ambush zone and time. Now we have to rush to the second ambush point. You tell me where I would have found the time to contact you?"
Mercer retorted, putting on a cold expression as he stared at him. "You have to give me an explanation for this. Were they your people? I remember we agreed this gig was ours!"
"This was just a backup plan!" Faraday's confidence faltered for a moment, and he silently cursed that guy named K for messing things up.
I sent you to provide support, to be a second layer of insurance. How could you run straight into Mercer's people?
"A backup plan? If it was a backup plan to support us, why didn't you say so beforehand? I think it was more likely meant to silence us! Faraday, I'm warning you, I'll continue with this gig, but you'd better give me an explanation and compensation afterward. If you think we're like any other merc crew you can toy with and use as your doormat, then you've guessed wrong."
Mercer stared fiercely at Faraday on the screen, saying menacingly, "This isn't over. We'll have a good long chat after the gig is done."
He abruptly ended the video call.
Lucy watched Mercer take off his mask, a relaxed expression appearing on his face, and she couldn't help but smile. "What did he say?"
"He looked like he was about to explode, but he deserves it," Mercer said nonchalantly, then added with excitement, "Remember to attach the armor on both arms extra tight, or my hands won't fit into the hand controls."
"I'm just saying," V said, standing at the door and looking at him with a hint of envy, "why not just let me use this thing? You don't have any close-combat experience. What if something goes wrong?"
Mercer just laughed as he watched Lucy and Kiwi armor him up from either side. "Come on, you're just envious."
"Screw you, I'm worried about you!" V rolled her eyes. "Have you forgotten how many times you've crash-landed while practicing with this thing over the past few days?"
"Not a big deal. I can drift in this thing now," Mercer said, extending his hand confidently. His left hand was now covered in armor, looking just like the oversized Gorilla Arms Rebecca wore in the anime.
The black exoskeleton armor stood 2.2 meters tall, and its two massive arms hung down to his knees, looking incredibly powerful.
The gravitational field generators in its palms exuded a sci-fi sense of power. It wasn't just V and Mercer; even Kyoko and Lucy had spent the last few days sizing up the suit.
Mercer had hidden the strain of interfacing with the machine. His mental fortitude was already superhuman. Even with the load maxed out during a ten-minute combat simulation, the worst he felt was his brain getting a little "cooked," but it wasn't a major issue.
As for problems like an onset of Cyberpsychosis, Mercer felt nothing at all.
He truly felt nothing. Whenever the neural load increased, he actually felt himself becoming calmer, his thoughts operating more efficiently, just like during an Overclock, his brain constantly running at full power.
He felt that the only possibility was burning out his own brain, not losing his sanity and going mad.
In a way, Mercer thought he might be even more suited for being fully chromed than V. Adam Smasher? Even the brainiacs couldn't even compare to him.
Lucy patted his back, the armor clanging twice. "Sit down. Time to put on your leg armor."
Mercer obediently sat down. Pilar and Rebecca had already cleaned up the battlefield, thrown everything into the netrunner van, and then called out, "We need to get going!"
"V, you and Rebecca stay in the APC. When the time comes, wait for a round of covering fire. I'll go clear the way, then you two can take the opportunity to coordinate with Maine, break in from the rear to sweep the battlefield, and make sure no one gets away."
Mercer said.
V nodded and punched him in the chest, the black external armor clanging crisply. "Fine, but we have a deal. After this is over, you have to let me play with this thing too."
"Of course, of course," Mercer said with a grin.
When the time came, he would just remove all the overclocked components and let her use it as an assisted armor, like the Militech Centaur.
In Mercer's opinion, the design philosophy behind this suit of armor had some merit. At the very least, the four compression thrusters on its back that could actually make a person fly truly fulfilled his fantasy of an "armored warrior."
Make the armor a few sizes bigger and it would be a Gundam; a few sizes smaller and it would be Iron Man. As Mercer saw it, there was a lot of research potential in this thing.
If everyone could wear a custom-tailored suit of armor one day, then damn it, who in Night City could possibly stop them?
V glanced at him but didn't say much, quickly leading Rebecca back to the APC, while Pilar got back into the netrunner van and stepped on the gas.
They had to race against time to get back to the designated ambush point on the outskirts of Night City.
Mercer sat in the van. Despite having practiced repeatedly, it still took Lucy and Kiwi a full five minutes to help him put on the suit of armor.
He took off his mask and put on the helmet. The full-coverage helmet began displaying various parameters before his eyes. After a quick check, Mercer switched the machine to standby mode.
Now, wearing the exoskeleton, he was abruptly transformed into a black mecha warrior. Even just sitting, he filled more than half of the netrunner van.
"Did you check it?" Lucy asked, holding a laptop connected by a cable to the exoskeleton armor, still cautiously going through the checklist.
"Relax, it's fine." Mercer raised his hand, and the mechanical hydraulics hissed. The neural link felt like controlling two bodies with different latencies simultaneously, but Mercer was able to master this sense of dislocation with practiced ease.
He spread his palm open. Just the act of uncurling his five fingers looked like he could crush Lucy's head. "See? Scary, right?"
"Alright, you're acting like a child," Lucy said, unplugging the cable before sitting to the side, anxiously watching the scenery outside through the feed from the vehicle's camera on her screen.
Mercer reached out and gently tapped her on the head. "Why so nervous?"
"How can I not be nervous? You're a netrunner..." Lucy sighed. "Forget it, I've said this many times before."
"It's okay, just trust him," Kiwi said with a smile, not looking particularly worried. "We've prepared so much. With a deliberate plan against an unsuspecting target, the probability of failure is low."
"...Yeah." Lucy gently bit her lower lip.
The van quickly returned to the main road, speeding along the highway.
Rushing as fast as they could, they still managed to arrive at the outskirts near Night City five minutes before the Biotechnica convoy.
This was the southern side of the city, near the familiar Biotechnica Flats.
"Are the Aldecaldos in position?" Mercer opened the voice comms.
Panam's voice came through. "Don't worry! Should we block the road now?"
"Just about. Block it. Cut off the traffic flow first," Mercer gave the order.
"No problem. Scorpion! Go get ready to block the road!" After giving the command, Panam looked at Mercer's fully armored form in the video call. "Don't you get yourself killed, kid. If things go south, just run. We can get you out anytime."
"Relax, I won't be the one running," Mercer said with a smile, giving her a thumbs-up.
Then, Panam nodded and hung up to start blocking the road.
They called it a roadblock, but it was really just an artificially created traffic jam. Panam would order some of the Aldecaldos to fake a car crash, then park a few vehicles sideways in the middle of the road and start arguing. This was to prevent innocent civilians from getting caught in the crossfire.
Ambushing dozens of geared-up soldiers was no small skirmish in modern warfare. Even during all-out war, the defense or assault of a single stronghold often involved only twenty to thirty people.
Unlike the large-scale army battles of ancient times, in the current era of integrated information and firepower, massive armored assaults were simply not cost-effective unless they were unmanned.
At the same time, Maine's voice came through. "Convoy spotted! No Basilisk, but the Behemoth is still there. I suspect the two Centaurs are there too."
"Understood. Have Sasha contact the Aldecaldos and tell them to start blocking the traffic behind Biotechnica. Our goal is to end this fight within five minutes."
Naturally, the road had to be blocked on both sides, one to block the way out of the city, and the other to block the way into the city from near the checkpoint.
The methods for each side were different, however. On the route from the checkpoint to Night City, the Aldecaldos would disguise themselves as NCPD, using fake police cars to set up a roadblock and let only the Biotechnica convoy pass.
"ETA to your position is three minutes, A. Be careful," Maine's voice was grave.
"No problem," Mercer said with a light laugh. "When this job's done, I'll have you all over to my place for dinner."
"...Don't say things like that before a job," Maine said helplessly. "Are you doing this on purpose?"
"Hahaha! Don't be so serious. Lighten up." Mercer genuinely wasn't the least bit nervous.
On the contrary, his heart was pounding. The excitement sent adrenaline coursing through him.
Just two minutes later, the distant convoy finally emerged as silhouettes in the middle of the road.
The Biotechnica and Militech convoy, arranged in a long line, approached the highway where Mercer was.
Leading the way were two small APCs, followed by a large, modified Militech APC. Further back were three Militech Behemoths and three APCs bearing the Biotechnica logo.
"Mines have been placed," Pilar's voice finally chimed in.
"Get ready to move!"
Mercer had already gotten out of his car and was standing on the side of the highway, waiting for the convoy to arrive.
He stretched his arms and legs, watching as Pilar's vehicle made a turn, drove onto the dirt path beside the road, and headed into the Badlands.
Their job was to attack the convoy from a distance with drones and rocket launchers. Mercer's job was to hit them head-on.
As for Maine, V, and Rebecca, they were disguised in a private car, tailing the convoy from a safe distance. Once the firefight started up front, they would charge in from the rear.
As for the missile launcher, Mercer didn't plan on using it, mainly because he was unsure of how to operate it or its exact power. Rather than fumbling with a brand-new toy to attack the convoy, it was better to stick to the original plan.
He stood quietly by the side of the road, waiting for the right moment.
The first thing he heard was the sound of drones. Buzzing drones suddenly shot out from the side of the road, making a beeline for the distant convoy. Then, the lead vehicle of the convoy ran over a mine and was blown sky-high.
At that moment, on the Badlands plains beside the road, Pilar excitedly aimed the multi-barreled rocket launcher he had preset there at the convoy.
"Taste my big baby!"
He let out a loud laugh and pulled the trigger. The multi-shot rocket launcher, modified and pieced together from several single-use rocket launchers, fired sequentially like a rocket artillery system, blasting toward the locked-on armored vehicles.
Only the three Behemoths were intentionally spared.
The Biotechnica and Militech convoy had, in fact, already reacted the moment they noticed the drones. A large number of soldiers quickly used the APCs as cover to form a counter-attack position, while the vehicle-mounted machine guns and portable anti-air missiles on the APCs were also brought to bear.
For a time, artillery boomed and bullets sprayed. The sky was instantly blasted red. Even from a kilometer away, Mercer could feel the sudden, intense blast of wind and the smell of gunpowder.
Of the nine rockets Pilar fired, only three hit the enemy's position. The other six were intercepted directly in mid-air.
The enemy's anti-air missiles were extremely accurate. Against single-use rockets with limited flight speed, it was like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. If a Basilisk had been here, its automated anti-missile system alone could have probably intercepted all the missiles.
But while they could defend against the missiles, the large number of swarm drones Mercer had prepared long ago still broke through their defenses.
One by one, the small drones zipped through the rain of bullets. Although more than half were shot down along the way, the small portion that did hit still caused massive personnel and vehicle losses for Militech.
Two APCs were directly set ablaze. Though they didn't explode, they lost power and their vehicle-mounted machine guns.
The soldiers, however, were the most helpless against the drones. They could only do their best to shoot them down from behind cover, but when a drone got in their faces, all they could do was pray that a comrade next to them would shield them from the brunt of the explosion.
In just the first exchange, the convoy of over forty soldiers and nine vehicles had lost more than half its strength.
"Mercer! You're up!" Pilar's voice came through the comms, the whistle of bullets audible in the background. "Fuck, I gotta get out of here. Those morons are about to blast me with their vehicle-mounted missiles!"
"Don't worry, I'm on my way," Mercer's voice remained calm.
The compression thrusters on his armored back suddenly let out a somewhat piercing hum. Then, with a slight push from his feet, he leaped into the air. In an instant, he transformed into a shooting star, rocketing toward the distant convoy like a missile.
As his fully enclosed helmet began to highlight the enemies for him, the Militech and Biotechnica personnel immediately noticed another unidentified flying object that had suddenly appeared.
Once they got a clear look at what exactly was flying in the sky, the Militech agent in command shouted in a voice tinged with disbelief, "Enable targeting on the vehicle-mounted missiles! Shoot him down!"
The moment the swarm of small missiles flew toward Mercer, he simply raised his hand.
As a blue electromagnetic light flashed in the air, the small missiles streaking in from the distance seemed to be held in place by invisible hands, frozen in the sky. Even the incoming bullets seemed to hit an invisible wall of air, stopping dead in their tracks.
Then, Mercer reached out his hand and gave it a slight twist.
"Holy fuck!" The lead Militech agent could only stare wide-eyed, dumbfounded at the scene.
Meanwhile, Mercer looked at the bullets and missiles that had turned around in front of him, tutting as he glanced at the power display before his face.
This single maneuver, which seemed incredibly preem, had drained 30% of his armor's power.
But thankfully, the enemy was completely stunned, even unconsciously taking their fingers off the trigger. How the hell were they supposed to fight this?
Beneath his helmet, the corners of Mercer's mouth curled up.
Next...
It was time for the long-awaited combat test Arasaka had been looking forward to!