Ceres Chaos [Exosuit Progression]

Paska looked on as his warriors worked at digging away at the rubble that covered the ancient temple’s main door hole. He sat in a dignified manner within the abandoned expedition command tent, eating a roasted human heart with a knife and fork on a table.

Around him were cages keeping their ‘food supplies’ – which were captives from errant tribes, some of the townspeople left behind and old warriors who were unable to fight any longer.

There was no greater honour than being honourably sacrificed and then eaten by the tribe. The tribe considered it the greatest sacrifice one could make for his own people.

Two warriors wearing combat armour and helmets dragged another tribal woman who was cuffed into the command tent just as Paska was finishing up his meal. She was wounded and her feet were raw with blisters showing that she had run a long distance recently.

“What’s this about now?” Paska eyed the warriors warily.

“Sir, we caught this woman trying to instigate her tribe to rebel against you.” The two warriors bowed with respect.

Paska looked at the woman’s expression of hatred, smiling as he recognized the circular symbol in on her forehead.

All the Chosen had been split into various tribes, and the one way they knew each other was via the symbol carved on their forehead. “Ah, it’s such a shame that a tribe of great warriors would be dishonoured by their own females.”

“You sent my brothers and sons to their deaths for a meaningless reason. Why are they assigned to stop the rescue team from the town and not the holy mission of entering the ancient temple?”

Paska narrowed his eyes. “This is news, I have not heard of anyone assigned there dying. Where is the messenger who told you this?”

“I am the messenger!” The woman roared! “How could you expect us to stop such a monster? It was only because my brethren bought time for me which is why I could come here earlier. You knew this was going to happen and it was all a ploy to weaken my tribe.”

Paska frowned. He truly did not have such a plan in place. In fact, the reason why he placed their tribe there was because they were the weakest – wasn’t the majority of the town’s strength hidden in their expedition? He had even provided their tribe with ranged weapons. “Hold on, you said a monster?”

“Yes, a humanoid monster towering 2.1 meters, wielding a spiked mace and his skin was like a blue metal. It had no eyes but one could feel the fear as though an apex predator was staring into their very soul. Not even a mutant mawsie could illicit such a primal fear in us. Only that fear kept me alive and running non-stop.” The woman deflated into a horrified expression as she recalled the massacre.

Standing up and pacing around the command tent, he pondered what this meant. How could such a strong humanoid monster appear right now? Paska wondered if it was actually a rare mutant human or mawsie, but the coincidence was too uncanny.

He suspected it was sent by the town or someone supporting the town, seeing as he had never heard of such a monster description before, not even through word-of-mouth.

“A blue metal… maybe an exosuit? The town can’t possibly afford an exosuit, however, much less maintain it…”

As he was thinking, however, the women suddenly leapt forward and lunged at Paska with a hidden knife. Paska immediately dodged the attack, but the two warriors started to attack him with knives as well. Flipping the table with one leg, Paska kicked it towards the two warriors, forcing them to back away as the table crashed onto the floor.

“You, you were in cahoots. Why are you attacking me?” Paska’s eyes squinted.

The two warriors took off their helmets, revealing that they had the same circle symbol tattooed on their forehead, signifying them to be the same tribe as the woman. “Paska, you are not fit to be the leader anymore. Your cowardly plots has led to the decimation of our tribe. You are not worthy - today you die!”

The trio began to attack Paska from all directions, but Paska dodged all of them smoothly, his white shaman robes fluttering gracefully.

Paska looked like he was dancing as he weaved amongst them, reaching his shaman staff that was placed nearby. “You can’t hope to beat all three of us! Even if you call for help, they won’t get here on time.” One of the warriors smirked.

However, instead of Paska surrending like they expected, a large grin appeared on Paska’s face. “You think I became the leader because of just my intelligence?!”

The warrior blinked and suddenly Paska was in front of them, lifting up his staff above his head and smacking downwards in one fluid fashion.

The warrior tried to defend himself with his arm, but the impact of the staff cleanly fractured his arm, causing him to scream out loud as Paska quickly kicked his chest, sending the warrior flying and slamming into a cage filled with shocked human captives.

The remaining warrior and woman’s faces blanched as they saw the kicked warrior collapse. How was Paska so strong when he looked so weak?

“As a leader, people from all tribes challenge me every day, yet I still remain leader – do you know why?” Paska walked forward towards the woman menacingly.

The remaining warrior lunged towards Paska with a desperate warcry, but was swatted away by the shaman staff hitting his neck and cracking it precisely, causing him to choke and gag as his windpipe was broken when he landed on the floor, convulsing.

The woman screamed as she rushed forward with her knife held in her two hands, intending to stab Paska from the front. Paska simply swung the staff downwards with a strong swing, knocking down the woman, who still struggled to get up.

“I AM THE CHOSEN! Not you, not your stupid weak tribe, not anyone else, but ME!” Paska grabbed her by the head and slammed her body onto the command tent’s table.

He then picked up his previous knife next to his dinner plate, aiming it at the neck of the woman and leaned closer to her struggling face. “Now, you will tell me exactly what happened when you saw that humanoid monster, and maybe I’ll only eat your legs alive.”

***

“Leader, I apologize for not vetting the guards assigned to the command tent. I will take full responsibility for this.” Four warriors bowed in shame outside the command tent as Paska exited.

“It matters not to me. I do not need your protection, but keep the food in proper cages now. Bring Uron to me.” Paska ordered.

“Yes, Leader” The warriors scrambled, three entering the tent to keep the dead body while one ran to call Uron. Food preservation was the top priority in the harsh environment in which they have spent their entire lives.

Soon, a burly strong warrior approached Paska, kneeling before him. “Chief Uron, at your service.”

“Uron, how goes the entry into the temple?”

“We expect to enter within three hours. The final pieces of rubble are being moved away now. Through the gaps, however, we see no sign of the expedition.”

“Of course, it’s been two days since they entered,” Paska replied. “I have no doubt that they have entered deeper into the holy temple, desecrating everything inside. Once we enter, we must give chase to stop the heretics from damaging the temple any further.”

“Yes, Leader. We will prepare to enter in three hours with our strongest warriors.”

“How many warriors do we still have left?”

“We have about a hundred warriors capable of fighting.”

“Redirect thirty warriors to defend outside the ancient temple. Make sure they are not all from the same tribe.” Paska ordered.

Uron frowned. “Leader, these thirty warriors will not be pleased that they cannot enter the ancient temple.”

“Eventually everyone will be able to enter the temple, but now a monster is soon approaching us. It is our holy duty to stop anyone who tries to get in our way. Do you agree?”

“Yes, Leader, I will assign the thirty warriors.” Uron bowed his head before getting up and leaving.

Paska frowned as he worried about the ‘monster’ approaching. He had finally managed to piece together from the woman’s testimony that the monster was actually an exosuit.

But he knew that the town nor anyone in the ‘Chosen’ had the capability to pilot an exosuit. Most humans born at these depths simply did not have a nerval jack installed, so it was impossible.

The only remaining reason is Rockhold City sending an exosuit to stop them. Paska was more surprised that Rockhold City had somehow managed to find out that he had been trading with Bee Strathon for the weapons.

None of the other Chosen had also figured out yet that Paska had sold off most of the holy artefacts and exotic metals that each tribe had collected in exchange for weapons and his enhancements. He knew there was an entire world to conquer above his head, and he knew the strength he got from uniting the tribes would not be anywhere close to enough.

It was then a case of extreme luck that the ancient temple decided to resonate and cause a tremor at a good time, allowing Paska to direct all the tribes’ attention to getting the temple back. And if they found even more holy artefacts in the temple, all the tribes would have long forgotten about their old artefacts.

One of the conditions of the trade was that Paska had to reveal the location of such artefacts to Bee Strathon, but Paska had only revealed a few non-essential locations.

He would never give away the exact location of the ancient temple until he had plundered it all and obtained all its secrets for himself.

He did not care why such a large mining organization needed the artefacts, but he did not rule out the possibility that Bee Strathon might have reneged on the deal and sent the exosuit down.

“No, that’s impossible, it’s coming from the wrong direction.”

Regardless, he needed to stall that exosuit and prevent it from getting into the ancient temple. Even if the exosuit returns with the location, by the time another team comes to the temple, Paska would have wiped it clean by then.

Three hours later, the zealous warriors of the ‘Chosen’ rushed into the temple with Uron leading the charge.

They would have rushed in all the way if it were not for the sight of the glowing blue spheres on stone braziers all across the hall. Uron gasped in delight: “We have been blessed! This temple is filled with holy artefacts!”

The warriors did not rush any longer, instead bowing and walking respectfully as though they had truly entered a holy land. Every blue sphere they passed had them bowing and slowing down like tourists viewing a painting.

Paska joined the warriors from behind and was noticeably irked by the idling of the warriors.

“Chosen! We have our entire lifetimes to admire such holy and divine artefacts in the future, but right now the enemies are plundering the true treasures further in the temple! Are you willing to relinquish the other artefacts deeper within?!”

This reminded them and shook them out of their stupor. “NO!” The warriors shouted loudly before quickly hushing themselves down, as though they were caught talking too loud during a worship session. They moved quickly through the first hall, supported by the flashlights attached to the rifles they carried.

As a flashlight’s beam flicked across a wall, Paska realized that large murals or more specifically large carvings were etched on the walls, depicting a story. However, the carving stretched far up high into the darkness and the flashlights were unable to reach that far.

He had no time to worry about that, however – the enemy was stealing what he deserved. His seventy warriors quickly rushed to the final hall. As they entered the final hall, they finally noticed the expedition camped outside a large inner door that was slightly ajar, with obvious signs of entry.

“HERETICS - How dare you plunder what belongs to the ‘Chosen’? Attack!” Paska roared and rushed forward himself with the warriors, the energy beams and bullets peppering the expedition’s makeshift barricade, behind which a few expedition members were waiting with their spears and swords in hand.

“Shit, they’re here already. Misa, go in with the rest, we’ll stall them!” Ren roared as he readied his spear, crouching behind a barricade panel.

“But the first exploration team hasn’t returned yet. It’s too dangerous!” Lin, the logistic officer replied.

“Either you go in now and maybe die, or you stay out here and die for sure. I can handle this - GET IN!” Ren shouted as he stabbed a warrior who leapt over the barricade.

Misa nodded, quickly grabbing Lin and entering the inner door with a few others. There were only 15 people left outside the inner door, who were determined to stop the advance of the human tribes.

“DON’T YOU DARE ENTER!” Paska yelled as he charged towards the temple door, fending off the attacks from the spears.

It quickly became a hectic melee brawl, making it impossible for the rifles to fire without hitting their allies. The ‘Chosen’ were not that callous to jeopardize their own battle strength.

“Uron, stay here and clean up the resistance. Ten of you, follow me in!” Paska ordered in the midst of the brawl, trying to get to the temple when Ren suddenly leapt out to block his path.

“OH NO, YOU DON’T!” Ren shouted as he threw a few quick spear jabs at Paska, who easily dodged them before sweeping Ren’s legs with his staff and knocking him down.

Paska didn’t bother finishing him off, entering the inner door with the ten other warriors. Ren cursed as he saw them enter, but he had no time to act as Uron immediately swung down hard on him with a giant two-handed axe.

Ren rolled out of the way, and immediately became surrounded by three warriors with one-handed axes including Uron, who was close to 1.5 times the size of everyone else. Ren gripped his spear and rushed forward without hesitation.

This was a life-or-death situation, and if he surrendered he would be eaten alive.

Ren stabbed forward at the closest warrior, who used his left arm to block the jab. The spearhead jabbed deep into the arm, but the injured warrior grinned and quickly used his right hand to swing his axe downwards, chopping off the shaft of the spear while the two other warriors also attacked Ren.

Ren let go of the spear shaft and dodged downwards towards the left as the other two axes chopped down on his previous location.

He used his left hand and quickly unsheathed a machete from his hips, swinging it at the injured warrior’s leg and cutting deep to the bone, causing the warrior to roar in pain and drop his axe as he stumbled back.

Grabbing the axe out of the air as it dropped, Ren immediately fended off the remaining two warriors, parrying each of their attacks in sequence as they swung at him non-stop.

Uron simply looked on, not interested in participating.

Ren gritted his teeth and fought with all his might, finally rendering the remaining two warriors incapable of fighting when suddenly Uron lunged forward with a big horizontal swing of his giant two-handed axe, almost chopping off Ren’s head as he barely dodged.

“You are a true warrior, waiting for your comrades to wear me out before taking an easy kill huh?” Ren spat out a mouthful of blood as he held two stolen axes up, one in each hand. His arms were already visibly shaking from the lack of strength, but he still stood strong, carefully circling Uron.

Uron smiled as he gripped the giant two-handed axe with both hands “There is no honour in the underground during battle, only survival or defeat!”