Ceres Chaos [Exosuit Progression]

If you're wondering where the mass release of five chapters are for the 400 followers goal, i was informed that it was technically manipulation of followers numbers, so its not public anymore. I will still release five chapters enmasse, but the goal is only now visible on Discord. There are also goals for number of discord members, so there's that.

So here's the last time you'll see the goals.

Goals for Ceres's Chaos(RR):

  1) 400 Followers - Mass Release Five Chapters (achieved 02/02/2023)

  2) 800 Followers - Mass Release Five Chapters

  3) 1000 Followers - Mass Release Three Chapters

Goals for Discord Server:

  1) 25 Members (excluding other authors) - Release One Chapter

  2) 50 Members (excluding other authors) - Release Two Chapters

  3) 100 Members (excluding other authors) - Release Three Chapters.

Mass release of chapters are subject to shoutout swaps and stuff. Currently shoutout swaps are scheduled until 10th Feb, so no mass releases until then.

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Don't worry, there's no more cringy self interview questions...

Arc 1: Orphanage or conversely Oliver's Gambit is completed! I don't have a official working name for the Arc 1, though i usually refer to it as those two names with my beta readers (yes they have read halfway of Arc 2)

The objective of the Arc was to start off with an upbeat tone, a story of hope and expectation from the future, but as some of my more astute readers have noticed, it's been a slow degrading slide in terms of plot.

By the time you get to the duel, you get this sinking feeling that what could Ceres possibly do to the turn the tables that has been stacked against him? And realistically, the answer is 'nothing'.

I always felt that the space opera series always started off from the captain's chair or from an admiral viewpoint. Or maybe the leader of a nation etc. I instead prefer stories or shows that start from the normal citizens, before moving up through the ranks to stand at the top. This is why Ceres started this way.

I designed the main character after a few traits, most notably focused, smart and adaptive. However, the converse of this is general apathy to what is happening around him. Ceres had his goal clear cut - win the competition, which made him slightly blind to what was the consequences of his actions. While there was always going to be a riot regardless of who won, the way that the duel ended was made even worse.

The original story was actually designed to be 30 chapters maximum, but there was so much to write to flesh the world in the way I really wanted it to. I want it to be a city or a planet the reader can truly imagine living in, working there, paying taxes (:O) and so on. Most readers don't like the style in which I describe the economy or how the city functions, citing things like 'show don't tell', but that's how I see the world IRL myself. There are some things which i have to tell, and can't just 'show'.

You also notice throughout Arc 1 that the society is still plagued by the same issues that exists in today's society despite being set in the far future (yes the year 3000 is far). I'm a firm believer that humans can not evolve or culturally change as fast as technology can exponentially. Throughout the subsequent arcs you will find different star nations and perspectives on how humanity tries to fix/solve/combat this problem in either mild or very drastic ways, though this is not the focus of Arc 2.

I already mentioned before that I don't believe in plot armour, so naturally his friends are at risk too. I am not adverse to killing them off, but the way I write my story is that the actions each character takes are extremely logical or believable.

How i plot the story course is by first determining what the main character wants to do, what would the villains or supporting characters do in response to that, and so on. The characters really drive the story, and I find myself fighting to get the characters back on track whenever possible. This also means the villains are not pushovers - they know exactly what they are doing and how to do it. Just like real life.

Obviously Ceres still survives to the end, so you can say 'hey that's plot armour', but will the Ceres at the end of the story really be the same as the Ceres you saw at the start?

Feel free to comment below what you felt about Arc 1, anything you would prefer to change and so on.

Regarding technicals - I am always open to go back and edit any misrepresented scientific terms, or especially if I got the scale of the combat and numbers wrong. I really want to make this world a believable one, so comment below or DM me on any inconsistencies you really felt strongly about. You must justify it as much as possible if you can.

Exotics are my version of handwavium, but they are not magical WOW stones they can do everything, they have very specific uses and always costs something to activate. Either its a cost of volume, energy or something else. Restrictions > power

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Arc 2 is about the aftermath of the competition - what's the next steps of New Saint? Will Athen finally be united?

What happened to the mass riots? Did Ceres come out okay? What exactly happens next? What happened to all the characters? Why is Oliver doing all of this? What is Zachary's end goal? What does Doctor Wu intend to do with Ceres? What happened to Cardenia? Is Mrs Qiu okay?

Arc 2 will bring a closer look at the overall structure of the planet beyond the city itself. Hints about Rockhold, the Abela Forest and various mining outposts have been already shown. Athen was also previously a slovesa controlled planet, so there's a plot along those lines too. (ALIENS YEAAA)

One major thing I'll be trying my hardest to do is emphasis logistics. I feel that stories like 'Star Wars' who talk about rebellion don't really take into scale about how hard it is to run a supply network chain under a hostile administration. Sure, maybe readers want 'bam, MC git gud and take this and make it work like magic' but that's not how this story goes.

Of course there's progression for our dear MC - there were complaints that it was slow in Arc 1, but you can be guaranteed a qualitative jump in strength + a unique power. (it is not power of friendship). It is unusual for RR novels to only show what the unique power of the MC is after 75 chapters, but it's kinda of working?

Things you can expect
1. A deeper look into the slovesa ( ALIENS WOOOOOOOOO)

2. Politics

3. Rebellion

4. Revenge

5. Base Building

6. Intricate Space Combat (finally actual space opera instead of planet focused?)

6.1 Actual realistic space ship with the following budgets attempted to be taken into account

-Mass budget

-Thermal budget (anybody find the small exhaust vent on the Death Star? no? Any radiators?)

-Power budget

-Velocity Propulsion management (because a ship shouldn't be able to fire a MAC cannon at 40% the speed of light and not budge or just 'inertial dampener')

-Actual communications and link budget (this one i'm confident in)

-Coding (oh god it's hackerman)

-Stealth in space (no it's not just 'make body smol')

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A few quotes from Arc 2 (not in sequence):

"You can cry for morals all you want, but at the end of the day it isn’t morals that kept me alive all this time.”

“How strong of an energy shield did he fucking put in! Who the hell designed this exosuit?!”

“WHY WON’T THE ALIEN GIVE ME AN HONORABLE DEATH!”

“Oliver, do we understand each other now?”

“You’re a bad surface dweller! Why would you keep your promises? All surface dwellers are degenerates and have zero moral compass. My grandfather was right, all the surface dwellers are compulsive liars and cronies!”

“I veto your call for an emergency council. The humans pose no threat to the slovesa empire.”

[Begin extraction of organs for designated deposit. Implants to be segregated accordingly.]

“I always thought you were a innocent naïve boy who really just wanted to win the competition.”

“Someone is testing a new form of biological weapon in Rockhold, and I intend to stop it. However, certain forces like the Queen’s Guards are not that gracious to let me help.”

“For them to able to defeat three of the Oraous, they must be extremely skilled.”

“Alright, you’re not on vacation. Get into your exosuits. This container wall is the only thing between us and cold hard vacuum”

“It seems you already have these information… spit it out, what do you want from us? Stop trying to twist us around, we’re not idiots.”

“Did Zachary really think that we were not going to try and stop him?”

“Are you going to come clean, or am I going to have to slice your skin open?”

“You fucking rebel scum, I’ll bite your ass off if it’s the last thing I do…”

Only one of these quotes is by Ceres, can you guess which one? Tell me in the comments or on Discord!

M.G.Driver

Anything you would like to see in Arc 2? Write in the comments and you might have the chance to see it in a last minute edit!

Every follow, favorite and rating counts!

Can't wait to read Arc 2? Arc 2 already has a hundred chapters - Read up to 10 advanced chapters on Patreon!

For a limited time until 15th Feb, you can read an additional two chapters ahead (12 ch - mostly due to a screwup I made) This will be fixed during the next mass release for 400 followers.

Every unreleased chapter is still subject to change - if you want to nudge the story in the direction you want, join Discord! You get to do direct feedback as well on all the plotholes.