Nothing can shame me more than being exiled from the United Earth.

But, I don’t care about that anymore. I’ve changed, made a vow to take revenge against those bastards who exiled me.

Eight years ago, Earth was invaded by human from another universe. They invaded Earth in the name of Premir Empire. To fight against a new threat, Earth stood united and formed the United Earth.

Countries stood together as one. Earth prevailed against the Premir Empire by combining every single military strength on Earth, forming the United Earth Defense Force or U.E.D.F. for short.

My father was a part of it. People often told that he had done heroic deeds during the Premir Invasion.

However, some believed that he was a traitor, a spy working with the Premir Empire. I don’t know what happened during the past. I was eight years old. Why would I know about the details of the invasion? All I knew was, Earth being invaded by the Premir Empire.

With the accusations of my father being a spy of the Premir Empire accumulating, the U.E.D.F. couldn’t take any risk, so they sentenced him to his death.

It could be just me, but it seemed like they wanted to dispose my father as quickly as they could. It was as if they were trying to hide something...

In the end, father was branded as a traitor. The public now recognize my father not as a hero, but as a traitor to the Earth instead. As his son, I was given the same treatment that my father was dealt with. As for me only being ten years old, I couldn’t be sentenced to death, so they exiled me for the rest of my life, hoping that I would drop dead.

My relatives didn’t even try to defend me,

None of them did,

Not even one,

I was abandoned.

I snapped out of my reverie when I heard a shout, “Hey, Metal Legs! It’s time for your next job.”

A woman who is in her mid-twenties barged into the room I was napping in, with a weirdly designed tattoo on her left cheek. Her right eye seems to be robotic. I heard that she had lost her eye during the Premir Invasion years ago. She was wearing her old, but functional Argonite-suit. I spotted a pistol holstered on her right side. I became curious of what the job is going to be as I saw her all armed up like that.

She casually dropped an access card on the table just beside the door and walked away. That’s Nina, the sadistic woman who loves to send her men to the death’s door. She’s the boss of the mercenary group that I’m a part of, known as the Dusk Wings.

I took the access card and quickly rushed to the armory.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

As soon as I entered the armory, “Suit up, maggots!” she said as she looked at the people gathered.

I survived by taking on jobs as a mercenary and had done all sorts of them: bodyguards, assassinations, drugs and weapon smugglings – to put it simply, I had done all sort of illegal business.

Nina picked me up when I had nowhere to go, trained me and I had to work for her company in return of her feeding me.

She was merciless, but her merciless was what kept me kicking.

“We got a job! And we’re leaving in 5,” said Nina but she didn’t even brief us about it and suddenly just headed somewhere else.

“Oh, look who’s here! Metal Legs,” said a guy who is sitting on an ammunition box.

I glared at him and said nothing.

“Thinking you’re tough shit here. You piss me off!” He remarked snidely, sneering at me.

I didn’t respond to him again. My silence was enough to infuriate him, so he leaped off the ammunition box and in quick long strides, he was in front of me and smashed his fist into my face.

What was meant to be an attempt of provoking the traitor’s son quickly turned into a bloody brawl. Fists were flying, bodies were thrown and bruises were quickly developing.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang the room, interrupting the brawl and the armory became silent.

Following the silence, Nina shouted, “Hey! What the hell do you think you’re all doing?” Nina snapped, walking up to us with a smoking gun in hand. “We’re departing soon, get your shit together!”

“Hmph, this kid was getting cocky with me, I was just putting him in his place,” explained the guy.

He was trying to pin the blame on me.

“You’re totally going to get killed if he fought you seriously,” Nina warned him with a challenging tone.

The man stood quiet, speechless…

Nina is known to many as a dangerous fighter. I heard that once, she had massacred an army of U.E.D.F. all alone. Now that is an impressive feat and because of that, many feared and respected Nina.

She’s totally not someone to pick a fight with. In fact, she taught me the skills required to survive in this cruel world.

“Now, suit the fuck up. The ride should be coming soon,” ordered Nina.

As I was suiting up, I could make out the sound of a transport helicopter.

“That’s our ride, boys! Let’s go!” Nina shouted to the mercenaries, withdrawing her pistol.

I quickly boarded the helicopter after grabbing my rifle and holstering my sidearm on my right waist.

After everyone boarded the helicopter, Nina briefed us about the mission. Turns out that Dusk Wings was hired as guards for a private facility, which wasn’t a complicated job.

Approximately 26 minutes later…

We landed at the facility and everyone was quickly sent to their stations after Nina told us that she’s heading for the Command Center. I was stationed on the rooftop of the facility.

We weren’t told of what the facility is. It wasn’t necessary for us to know. We only do what we were paid to do.

As I stood on the rooftop, I could see that the roof had vent exits, a rooftop garden and a swimming pool.

“What kind of facility is this?” I mumbled to myself.

After some time had passed, I began to feel bored. I looked at my surroundings, hoping that they would amuse me somehow.

I spotted some of my comrades patrolling the ground level of the facility and also a few odd structures around the facility. I couldn’t see well because of the dark night. Oddly enough, those structures seem to be unpowered and abandoned.

I suddenly became curious about them…

I then shoved away those thoughts as they aren’t important to me. Seeing how there was nothing to be entertained with, I looked up the sky.

The radiant starry sky was a brilliant view to behold…

But then, a Star Rift suddenly appears on the starry sky.