Ceres Chaos [Exosuit Progression]

Ceres had to put all of his efforts into fighting Bronco, who despite his prior surprise, regained his focus and fought Ceres seriously with the air of a veteran soldier.

This entire time, Ceres had been trying to invoke fear directly in Bronco, but for some unknown reason, the emotions were heavily suppressed as though something in Bronco’s body was blocking it.

Ceres had assumed that he would have a significant advantage thanks to his newfound ability, but it turned out to be difficult instead.

What he did not know was that Bronco relied on the stimulant that was produced in Athen locally. Ceres was determined to find out what caused such an effect, hoping to capture Bronco and investigate closely.

However, it was not going to be that easy.

None of the soldiers was weak – each of them battle-hardened through multiple stints in the past as part of the Legions.

Ceres finally understood what Goras meant about the fake slovesas in the temple being only 30% of the power. Any one of these soldiers could take out a middle-class slovesa with ease in a one-on-one situation.

The real threat from the slovesas came when they had a drone swarm backing them up. What the slovesa lacked in strength they made it up for in quantity. Though that was not true for the first Uniter or Goras.

Ceres finally separated from Bronco, both of them creating some distance between them.

Bronco broke off his blunt knife, drawing two additional knives from hidden compartments on his thigh and holding one in each hand. The knifes glowed red hot as they drew energy from the exosuit, vibrating intensely.

“You guys must be either a dark mercenary outfit or the rebellion. Who hired you? Do you know whom you’re fighting?” Bronco questioned as the two of them circled each other, even as the battle raged on around them.

Ceres did not reply, instead holding his spiked mace up at the ready. Replying any further would only expose him even more.

“No matter, once I capture you, I’ll know everything.” In a blink, Bronco rushed at Ceres, slashing and spinning in a flurry

The wave of attacks left Ceres on the defensive. “His exosuit is pretty good, is this the in-house Bee Strathon design?”

Many mega-corporations kept their armed forces’ equipment as a top-level secret, so it was no wonder Ceres would not be able to recognize it. The performance of the exosuit was far beyond his heavy exosuit, and the armour plating and fit were of much better quality too.

Ceres observed the attacks of Bronco, while he nimbly dodged and blocked with his spiked mace. The veteran soldier was gradually edging his way in, controlling the fight while Ceres tried to find an opening.

The vibra-knifes grated against the spiked mace as they clashed, causing a loud shrieking sound before Ceres used strength to push Bronco back and away. He quickly glanced at his mace, realizing that it was deeply cut.

Bronco saw the cut, gaining confidence that he had the tools to break through the cobalt-blue metal.

With the objective of stripping Ceres’s exosuit to shreds, Bronco continuously sliced and slashed around Ceres. Ceres could not avoid the attacks forever, eventually being riddled with slash marks all over his metal armour, with a few significant dents and gashes all over the plates.

Seeing that he had the upper hand, Bronco became bolder, pouncing on every amateur mistake Ceres made. Every counterattack Ceres attempted was also dodged or parried by Bronco.

He was a professional soldier who had been in the industry for forty years. To his eyes, it was as though he was fighting an amateur, though he stayed wary of Ceres’s speed and strength. “He must be using some sort of stimulant.” Bronco was aware that anything could happen in the underground.

Soon, the first armour plate was broken through, falling off Ceres’s heavy exosuit and revealing the inner frame.

“Chance!” Bronco suddenly fired a few combat thrusters on his exosuit, accelerating him as he quickly exploited the opening.

However, Ceres was waiting for this moment, rushing towards Bronco instead of trying to avoid the hit, throwing him off.

Due to the sudden moment of confusion, Ceres managed to grab Bronco by the shoulder, holding him in place with his left hand while his right hand immediately swung the spiked mace at him.

A sudden repulsive force emitted from Bronco’s exosuit, allowing him to break free from the tight grip before the swing of the spiked mace hit him.

With his thrusters still active, he launched into the air, somersaulting back onto the ground.

But just before he hit the ground, he looked up only to see Ceres already in front of him, swinging the spiked mace again down on him.

The speed of the heavy exosuit far exceeded what Bronco has expected of such a type. “Aren’t they supposed to be relatively immobile and bulky?!”

Unable to dodge, he could only block with his right arm, which immediately cracked under the intense weight and strength of Ceres despite the quality of the Bee Strathon exosuit.

His entire forearm was destroyed, the electronic components and armour plates fragmenting into pieces that were flung everywhere.

However, Bronco did not recoil in pain, the X-12 stimulant numbing down his emotions. At the same time, his left hand stabbed Ceres with a knife, accurately penetrating the inner frame and damaging Ceres’ right arm’s main motor, causing it to be unable to move.

Ceres quickly kicked Bronco away with his leg before he could get stabbed again, using his nerval jack to check the condition of his exosuit.

“Fuck me, the entire right arm is totalled, I should have designed redundancies…” Due to the lack of equipment and components in the town, Ceres was not able to implement many safety features that he would like to have. With the right arm motor being destroyed, he was now at a disadvantage.

Bronco recovered to a fighting stance, before suddenly decisively chopping off the remnants of his crushed bloodied forearm.

“Looks like I’m finally getting a prosthetic.” He did not mind that he lost his arms, as the company would always provide compensation for limbs.

What he did mind was how Ceres was making it hard for him to complete the mission.

He wondered how he was going to secure the temple with his missing arm. As he quickly glanced at the rest of the battlefield, he realized that it was a losing fight.

Halyon did not have the upper hand against the two soldiers, but it was a dragged fight as well.

However, the Chosen were actively losing against the rest of the town’s soldiers. The town chief was doing his absolute best to stall and block Paska, though he seemed to be reaching his limits.

Despite knowing that they would be heavily punished for failing the mission, his life was far more important than that. He also had a duty to keep the other two soldiers that followed him alive.

Bronco sighed, before sending the retreat command to the two soldiers and Paska. “Looks like the Queen’s Guards would own the temple now… Serves Olson right for underestimating the defenders…”

“No, no no! We’re so close!” Paska yelled as he kicked against the town chief’s shield, who was sent backwards a few steps before stabilizing. The town chief’s face was already half covered with blood, and multiple wounds on his body while Paska was almost unhurt.

As a cyborg, Paska had a natural advantage over the town chief, who only had augmented prosthetic limbs. The clear difference in manufacturing and design became apparent, as Paska’s Bee Strathon upgrades far outclassed the instructor’s homemade ones.

Ceres did not have the skills or the time to build a custom exosuit for the town chief before the attack, which is why Halyon received a new exosuit instead of the town chief. Halyon’s exosuit design had already been reverse-engineered by Ceres.

Before Paska could continue attacking, the rest of the Chosen began to retreat without his orders, following the three Bee Strathon soldiers who were already fleeing with the help of their thrusters.

However, before Bronco could retreat, Ceres suddenly chased up and attacked him, swinging with the mace. Bronco did not falter, nimbly dodging while rapidly stepping backwards and preventing Ceres from leaping towards the soldiers retreating behind him.

“Oh, so you want to lose your other arm too?” Bronco used his remaining arm to throw a vibra-knife with his full force, shooting forward like a dart, which Ceres caught with his disabled right arm.

“What?!” Bronco exclaimed but he did not stick around for the answer, immediately boosting his thrusters to the maximum and fleeing down the tunnel from which they came. Whomever this exosuit pilot was, he had to tell Manager Olson immediately if they wanted to retake the temple.

At the sight of this, Ceres finally stopped chasing. The battle was won, but at what cost?

Ceres didn’t stop moving, instead quickly running over to the town chief, who collapsed on the floor with Mercer and Captain Kai next to him.

“Chief! Stay with us, get the medics here ASAP!” Captain Kai roared.

As Ceres ran towards the town chief, he could see that the rest of the soldiers did not come out of the fight unscathed. A few of them had died, and some of them were heavily wounded as well. Ceres could clearly see the emotions fade as the heavily wounded gave up their will to live.

As a medical team quickly ran over, Ceres was already there, taking off his exosuit before rushing to the town chief. Ceres did not know what to say. He had killed a good amount of Chosen but never had someone he knew personally injured as badly as the town chief was.

Ceres could sense a weak swirl of regret and spite in the town chief, the colours slowly ebbing away.

The town chief weakly glanced at him and the multiple wounds he had suffered on his body. “Never thought I’ll get this hurt here in this damned underground… cough… that Paska was a tough son of a bitch.”

“You’re not going to die.” Ceres declared as he grabbed the town chief’s hand. What could he do or say in this sort of situation? He tried to invoke the same emotions the town chief already had, but it only boosted the strength of the colours slightly. Ceres hoped that it would be enough.

The medic who arrived quickly injected a pain reliever and immediately injected a blood tube to replace the lost blood. The town chief still bore a pained expression, looking at Captain Kai, Mercer and Ceres who were all gathered around him.

“Of course, I’m not going to die, you would wish that huh?” He weakly joked, before coughing up some blood. He gripped Ceres’s hand hard as he looked Ceres in the eyes. “You have to go now, if Bee Strathon figures out who you are they are going to come down with everything they got.”

“But…”

“Think of the town, Ceres. The longer you stay, the harder it gets. Don’t worry about me… huff… I’m a strong fucker. I got through your shit once, I’ll do it again if I have to. GO!” The town chief coughed up even more blood.

The medic quickly pushed them away, trying to treat the town chief. “Is he going to be okay?” Mercer asked worriedly.

“He won’t die, but this might take a heavy toll on his body. He was already extremely injured when he first came here. I’m not even sure if he’ll be able to fight again.” Captain Kai frowned.

Ceres regretted his actions during the battle.

If he had been stronger, he could use his ability to influence the entire battlefield while fighting off Bronco. “I need to get stronger, I’m not even strong enough to fight a battle of this level and win yet, how can I hope to fight against Oliver and the enforcers?”

In truth, he was, but he did not want to show his armour form to the town nor to the Bee Strathon soldiers. Only Paska and Halyon had seen it before. If he activated his armour form he might have been able to defeat the three soldiers comfortably.

Ceres realized that the deaths of the town’s soldiers were partially due to him hiding his strength. They paid the price with their lives.

This hit Ceres heavily, causing him to seriously consider the town chief’s advice and leave the town for good. Staying around seemed to have caused the town more trouble than he had anticipated. “Maybe it’s time to head to Rockhold…”

He glanced back at the temple. This was probably the last time he would ever get close to the temple.

“Halyon, tell the rest that we’re going into the temple quickly, and tell them not to wait for us no matter what happens,” Ceres told Halyon quietly at the side.

Before Halyon could disagree with him entering the temple, a sudden rumbling sound emitted from the temple, vibrating the entire cavern heavily.

The door lit up brightly in blue lights, forming a kaleidoscope of flashing colours that alternated through the cavern. Ceres could barely keep his eyes open, but a voice resonated within his body like it did in the temple.

[Transfer initiated.]

A loud bang was heard before the temple suddenly collapsed as though it had been demolished from within, crumbling into rubble.

The resulting cloud of dust rushed through the entire cavern, with everyone desperately trying to shield themselves. The defenders’ wall vibrated violently, the entire cavern rippling in tandem with the shockwaves

Before they knew it, the temple’s main door was in ruins, no longer functional and the temple behind it a veritable pile of dirt and rock that looked impossible to dig through. The temple had collapsed on itself.

It happened so fast, Ceres and Halyon were left agape. “You wanted me to go in there with you?” Halyon asked incredulously as he patted the dust of his exosuit.

“What the…” Ceres was shocked at the collapse. What the hell did Goras do in the temple?

***

The capital planet of the slovesa empire was a barren world with no atmosphere. The slovesa did not need an atmosphere to survive, though they might run out of energy relatively fast in a vacuum when trying to counteract the loss of heat from their core or when trying to cool their body.

Though it was not the original planet of the slovesa, the large barren planet served as the perfect place to receive energy from the twin stars that continuously irradiated the planet’s surface. Reflecting mirrors concentrated and focused the radiation from the stars to various industries.

The magnetic field of the planet had been heavily suppressed, and the industries enjoyed the immense particle radiation. It was as though the surface of the planet was designed like a small portion of a Dyson sphere, granting almost unlimited energy to the population.

The radiation collectors were highly tempered, able to withstand continuous irradiation over the course of a century before needing to be changed.

It was here where the First Uniter declared the empire, uniting the slovesa. The capital planet, known as Iroans was the closest planet to the stars, and it was tidally locked.

Iroans was not originally barren. Instead, it had been terraformed by the slovesa from a lush, green planet, not unlike Ancient Earth. The slovesa had evolved to be able to inhabit space without the need for an artificial atmosphere, relying solely on radiation as their energy source.

This also meant that the slovesa could not stray too far away from the stars. Any slovesa would eventually die in the void of deep space, too far away from the radiation of the stars.

However, the heat was an issue on Iroans, so no one stayed permanently on the sunlit portion. Instead, they all lived on the dark side, with the energy transmitted to them through long cables or wirelessly via orbiting satellites.

On the dark side, humongous rock formations formed the basis of their cities. With their manipulation ability of metal and rock much higher than any human construction company could hope to achieve in a few days, even an ordinary low-rank slovesa can easily mould his ‘house’ which was essentially a cave in a rock formation that towered up to 4 kilometres in the sky.

The most defining feature of Iroans however, was the gigantic plateau that had been raised up to above 8 kilometres. It was close to 800 kilometres wide in a square shape.

This was the Uniter’s palace zone. It was the most expensive place to live, and require a special permit to enter.

An exclusive zone that was far above the rest of the city, the low-rank slovesa citizens treated it as a special place.

It was here where most of the governmental functions of the slovesa empire were, along with high members of slovesa society as well as the top senators.

A throng of servants and helpers also lived in dorms here, tending to the massive crystal gardens that everyone seemed to have in their almost infinite backyard. It was like a high-class city on its own, a private area.

While it was usually relatively quiet and peaceful, today it was extremely busy, with diplomatic slovesa starships flitting back and forth between the orbital spaceport.

The starships were shaped like drops of liquid metal, easily moving under the lack of atmosphere. To the humans, they were known as “droplets”, or more colloquially among the grunt soldiers of the Legions : “Oh Fuck It’s A Bigshot High-Rank Slovesa.”

A single slovesa droplet landed on a large landing area near a towering crystal palace. It landed bottom first, with a slick ramp and door allowing its passenger to exit comfortably. A servant slovesa bowed deeply, using its two right arms to salute on its chest. “Senator Torias, I hope your flight has been pleasant.”

A glowing red high-class slovesa stepped out onto the landing area, as though his body was continuously overheating.

However, it was instead the nature of the exotic that he had integrated into his body, allowing him to maintain a weird state of heat without any of the other composite metal in his body from melting or becoming vaporized.

If one were to touch the surface of his body, one would find it to be cool to the touch. This was Senator Torias, representative of a star system currently under siege by the humans.

“Hmph, I hope I’m not the first here.” Senator Torias grunted.

“Yes sir, the other senators are already gathered in the meeting hall.”

The servant led the way for Senator Torias and his entourage, entering the large crystal palace. Inside it was glittering non-stop, making it look like a wonderland.

However, Senator Torias had a grim mood. He was not here today to play around. There was a war to be won.

The meeting hall was built like a senate, with a single large throne being the focal point. This was where the Uniter sat during empire-wide meetings such as the one today.

Senator Torias walked with purpose along the walls before sitting in front of one of the numerous crystal terminals allocated to him.

Already, other slovesas were already here before him, and they all recognized each other. Each of the senators’ represented a single star system, speaking for the citizens there. They wielded enormous powers, able to move legions of slovesas with a single word.

As time passed, more and more of the senators moved in. Not only senators attended, but major military generals, as well as ministers, attended as well. Soon the hall was filled, buzzing with conversation albeit via electromagnetic radiation.

Unlike the other chatty senators, Senator Torias remained stern and firm, staring at the empty Uniter Throne.

Soon, a loud clear ring echoed through the crystal palace, announcing the arrival of the Uniter.