Ceres Chaos [Exosuit Progression]

“Can’t believe ‘outers’ are that dumb! Now give up all your weapons and resources nicely, we won’t hurt you. Don’t make us break all your limbs, this may be a VR server but I guarantee you it’s not going to be pretty.” Maise grinned as she stood far behind the four-man group, who had one person wearing an exosuit.

It was a tall lean guy, who didn’t particularly look muscular or fat. He had glasses on, which was surprising considering that even orphans like him would have chosen to undergo cheap gene therapy to fix myopia.

Ceres assumed it was most likely a fashion statement or something ridiculous. He never really knew what went through an inner's mind.

He was more impressed with the fact that a fully functional exosuit was available in the qualifiers.

Ceres and his team had been operating on more of an assumption rather than facts, assuming that exosuits would be available in this area. The guy wearing the exosuit served as a walking example.

“Hello ‘outers’, my name is Jasin Wu, you may refer to me as Leader Wu for the rest of this second stage, as you are now part of my group. Understand?” The exosuit wearer bowed slightly with a mocking expression, obviously not intending to take no for an answer.

He seemed extremely confident, sure that with the sheer firepower at his disposal, he would be able to easily take out any renegade elements.

“Why did you betray us Maise? I thought we were fellow outers!” Ceres shouted with fury, as he got up. He tried to reach for his vibra-spear at the side but a laser hit the spear, causing it to be knocked away from his hand with a sudden force.

“Don’t try anything funny, else you’re out of the competition. I could easily end you right here and now, but I have plans for you.” Jasin smirked, his energy pistol still hot from the laser that was just fired.

“I was never an outer Ceres, I’m an inner! I will never be as dreadful and dirty as you stinky outers, who even dare to participate in such a competition.” Maise smiled proudly.

A look of realization played across Ceres’ face, causing him to tremble with fury. The 10 members of Jasin Wu’s team laughed at Ceres when seeing him about to tear up. They were amused seeing him that upset.

“Drop all your weapons, I at least have more etiquette than an 'outer' to do so,” Jasin spoke with authority, though condescendingly as the others continued laughing.

“Maise, can I ask you a few more questions before I surrender?” Ceres dejectedly asked, the fury seeming to dissipate from his body. His shoulders slumped as he looked depressed.

“Fuck you, outer, I don’t need to answer questions from you!” Maise shouted back, moving forward with the rest of the group as they all started inching closer towards Ceres’s team. Erik, Braton and Trissa all tensed up, still trying to get over the sudden betrayal.

The visible shock rolling through their faces gave the ten men group more confidence, prompting Jasin Wu to walk forward with Maise too.

An evil smirk was on all their faces as they thought about the assumed points they would earn from this kill.

“What makes you think that outers call themselves outers, and why would there ever be a Zone 20 Military Orphanage?” Ceres smiled.

Maise stood dead in her tracks, her brain rapidly calculating what Ceres had just asked. Before she could warn her team, a click sound was heard and she suddenly transformed into a ball of exploding fire.

The rest of her members also blew up, as the bulky bandages placed on the three girls by Ceres’ team were laden with explosives.

The four-man group at the front of the entrance were immediately blown apart by the force of the explosion, while Jasin Wu was sent flying towards Ceres in a ragdoll version as he was leading the front.

The exosuit could barely survive the heat and force of the explosion, its exterior searing hot. Marks of shoddy repairs within the internals surfaced as he got closer to Ceres, who prepared to attack.

The two flanking groups were dazzled by the explosion and shocked at the sudden turn of events. A wider grin replaced the creepy smile on Trissa’s face as she immediately took out an energy pistol and a vibra-knife, dashing in solo into one flanking group, while Braton immediately leapt into the other, pummelling the flankers.

Erik started shooting with precision, supporting Trissa who was laughing as she sliced an inner’s neck from edge to edge with her knife while shooting another flanker in the head.

Ceres immediately grabbed his vibra-knife from his belt and stabbed it into Jasin Wu’s back, who was hurtling towards him due to the explosion.

The inertia and knife almost tore through Jasin Wu’s body as Ceres grounded himself like a rock with his body, causing Jasin to drop in front of Ceres with blood spurting out of the back, the knife wound cutting deep into his organs and filling up his lungs.

Ceres kicked Jasin’s body, flipping him over with his feet before kneeling next to his body. Jasin tried to ask something, but blood was filling his vocal cords, throat and lungs, causing him to sputter blood onto his chin again as he struggled to even utter a word.

Ceres didn’t even bother quipping Jasin as he died, instead focusing on dismantling the exosuit off his body and any other valuables. He didn’t want the battle to potentially damage the exosuit, since it was the only working example they have seen so far.

On the other side of the battle, Erik, Braton and Trissa were all doing fine. Braton and Erik were just casually knocking out people, not going overboard while rummaging through the enemy items for any valuable materials or resources. Trissa, however, was using her knife to slice open pockets instead of using her hands for unknown reasons.

“Good job Team Dumpling, great execution of Plan O,” Ceres smiled as the team rejoiced over the successful baiting of arrogant inners who could try to pull off a fake outer identity to trick them.

Jasin’s eyes were still wide open, still watching the impeccable coordination between the outers. He regretted trying to trap the wrong group and also his luck.

Little did he know that it wouldn’t have worked on any other team from the same military orphanage either. They had already practised it beforehand.

***

Cardenia heaved a sigh of relief as she slumped into her chair. Senia sighed dejectedly as she just lost a bet with Cardenia over whether Ceres’ team would have lost the engagement.

“I don’t understand, Ceres knew this was going to happen, but how? How was he so sure that it was a trap? And how was he confident that he could have handled any number that showed up? It could have been 10 more or even 20 more” Senia grabbed her head in shock.

“Senia, Senia, you’ve been living up here for so long that it seems like you’ve forgotten how ordinary people live on the ground.” Zachary shook his head mockingly.

“The ‘outers’ are so jaded with how inners treat them that it’s almost like they are two different races. Look at how 12-year-old kids treat each other to know that it is just but a microcosm of how the entire planet, no the entire Empire works. The system needs to change.” A dark expression appeared on the Prince’s face.

“Careful, Imperial Prince Zachary, what you just said could be used as evidence for treason against the Emperor and his ‘system’,” Cardenia spoke seriously, to which Zachary just laughed it off, treating it as nothing important.

Zachary’s face lightened up. “Of course as Prince, I have a higher standing than others, but that doesn’t mean I have to look down on them and bully them! On this planet, I feel like I’m in a well where the ‘inners’ really got it out for the ‘outers’, I wonder why, or how this all started… are there not better things to care about?”

Cardenia partially agreed, but it was only because she actually didn’t care about anything other than herself and her own life. Inners and outers made no difference to her as long as she achieved her goals, and right now one of them was the wager with Principal Oliver Athen. She also wasn't about to openly admit that part of this divide was the intentional handiwork of the previous owners of the planet.

She had to get three other students into the top four of the exosuit refining competition, and right now Erik and Ceres were right up her alley.

“I’m starting to think that all four of them are extremely good, I must look more into Zone 17 Military Orphanage and how are they producing all these great talents that are comparable to inner schools. Too bad Braton and Trissa are not exosuit repairers, otherwise, I would’ve gotten my complete set already! Erik is slightly lacking though, so I might not select him.” Cardenia thought to herself.

She watched as Ceres led his team through the industrial district with the ‘donated’ exosuit from Jasin Wu, scavenging more factory and mining exosuits from the industrial district.

Over the next day, they managed to trace the path their enemies took to find more exosuits for the rest of the team. During the night they retrofitted the exosuits into their speciality, with Erik being a dedicated rifleman, while Braton got a loader suit designed as a brawler. The factories whirred to life as Erik and Ceres worked non-stop to outfit the team.

Ceres made an aerial suit for Trissa using remodelled jet engines and propellant thrusters that he found from a starship yard nearby, while he ditched Jasin’s ragged exosuit for a generic mining suit that he retrofitted into a spearman suit, with the arms jacked with additional drivers for stronger thrusts.

He noted that spears were particularly good in these qualifiers due to the additional thrusting range he had, providing an advantage when fighting against slovesa. They didn't particularly have thick armour, so the spearhead could easily penetrate their rocky skin as long as he had enough thrusting force.

The suits were all models that Ceres had never seen before, and they wouldn’t be recognizable after he modded them anyway as they were all previously intended for menial work. The modifications he made did not really touch the base frame either, simply add-ons or strap-on modules.

If a master exosuit repairer were to view Erik and Ceres's work, it would have maybe gotten a 3 out of 10, maybe 4 because of their young age.

But Ceres didn't mind. As long as it worked and his team could use it, nothing else mattered. Battlefield functionality was more important than perfection.

“His speciality was previously unarmed combat with grenades, seeing him use a spear is putting him much higher in books!” Cardenia exclaimed with shock, prompting her to immediately start sending out people to look for instructors for Ceres.

As long as Ceres made it past the qualifiers, Cardenia was determined to catch him for her own purposes.

***

A week has passed in the VR world since the second stage had begun. Ceres and his team had expanded to sixteen people, which were made up of the other orphans who were found over time scattered across the map.

They all gathered in the factory that was now churning out ammo and weapons thanks to the remodification of Ceres and Erik.

They couldn’t produce any more energy weapons, but simple melee weapons were okay. Explosive grenades were also provided by Ceres, who was also creating high-explosive mines and detonators intended to be used on the spawner.

He effectively jury-rigged components and spare batteries from the remnants of factories nearby before combining them into a simple explosive payload.

“Alright everyone, listen up! it’s time to end the second stage. We’ve already located the spawner, so we’re going to launch an assault on it in three hours. You have all been split into groups of four, so check your grouping and follow your leaders. First squad is me, second is Erik, third: Braton, fourth: Trissa” Ceres took charge of the operation naturally, seeing as he led the only intact group so far.

The rest of the orphans did not form their own squads unlike Ceres, so they deferred to him. It did not matter who was in control, as long as it followed the military orphanage standard.

The squad were split into speciality, meaning Erik was the ranged squad, Braton was melee defence, and Trissa was air control. Ceres’ squad was the only well-rounded one, as their job was to blow up the spawner.

The factory floor became busy as everyone double-checked their equipment and weapons, re-reading up on contingency plans and more.

The orphans were all already trained in similar war games and military exercises being from a military orphanage. Execution of simple war plans was almost a no-brainer for them. Squad tactics flowed through their blood, enabling them to focus on the mission.

They moved out in separate groups along different streets heading towards the spawner that was tucked in the outskirts of the city, amid a dusty large hovercar park.

As the squad got into position, they kept in contact with other using their multis, each squad carrying a wireless router plus a backup. Communication was key in organizing such a large team.

The spawner looked like a giant hermit crab’s shell, except it was charcoal black and adorned with different dark red coloured jewel-like holes that made it seem like a fungal growth, the colours pulsating on a pattern. A looming feeling encroached on the orphans, who had never really experienced it before in real life.

It towered up to 30 meters tall, with a foundation the size of a warehouse.

It had a single opening at the base while close to fifty low-class slovesa were guarding it, supported by at least 700 hundred small drones and five large drones.

Large amounts of smoke were puffing out of various holes in the shell, while small drones kept popping out at the base at a rate of 1 every ten seconds. It truly lived up to its name as a spawner.

The now-called Team Zone 17 of sixteen orphans had been eliminating swarms and slovesa patrols around the perimeter over the past few days, leaving the remaining small drones as the only swarm nearby that was produced over the past few hours.

The slovesa knew that they were getting picked off individually too, forcing them to group up together to protect the spawner. They assembled near the main entrance of the spawner, prepared to defend against the rush, though they did not know where the attack was coming from.

Already a few small drones were spiralling out in a patrol pattern through the air, trying to broaden their perimeter search. The orphans hid in their respective locations, eyeing the encroaching drones warily from below.

"Any sign of the middle-class slovesa?" Ceres asked in the comms. Ceres knew that the spawner definitely had a leader of some sort, and was extremely wary about it. The entire plan revolved around its location.

[No, I think it might be occupied in the spawner. We should attack now in a blitz before it comes out to check!]

Having reached the critical phase in the war plan, Ceres decided it was time to act.

“Team Zone 17, Formation E, move!” Ceres shouted into his multi, prompting Braton’s squad to rush directly towards the low-class slovesa.

Shouting a large war cry, Braton’s team, the defence squad, each carried a tower shield in each hand, running forward like barbarians doing a brazen war charge.

The swarm of small drones swerved to face them, aborting their patrol and immediately darted in a swarm formation towards Braton, intending to use their high speed to outmanoeuvre the defence squad.

The defence squad immediately stuck the lower third of the tower shields into the ground facing the swarm, forming a barricade wall that was neck high.

Two members immediately used their body to reinforce the wall, resisting the impacts of the swarm's attacks, while Braton and the last member was performing rapid punches to knock out as many small drones as possible that tried to flank the barrier.

The low-class slovesa noticed the crudely made knuckledusters on Braton, causing them to focus all their attacks on the defence squad.

A barrage of beams blasted the tower shields, the defence team barely holding on.

Braton kept punching, knocking out dozens of small drones while taking every respite he had to taunt the slovesa by waving his knuckleduster that was made from their dead cores.

At the same time, Erik’s squad brought up the rear behind Braton, preventing the swarm from fully encircling the defence squad, while Trissa’s squad dropped homemade grenades from above and engaged the five large drones in combat, darting around the sky as a light show flared up.

Ceres’ squad started to swing all the way around, planning to enter the spawner where the structure is the weakest and blow it in a single move.

There wasn’t an entrance at the back, but they already had their distraction - all they had was to make their own.

As the rest of the slovesa were taunted by Braton, the squad moved into the flank of the spawner. One member took out a laser cutter found in the industrial district and started to cut into the wall.

The spawner shook with an uncanny vibration as though it was hurt by the cutting, causing a few of the low-class slovesa to turn around and run back towards the spawner.

The laser cutter cut out a hole in the wall, into which Ceres put as many explosives as he could before making the squad retreat.

As he retreated, the low-class slovesa who returned to chase them were caught in the ensuing explosion. Ceres ducked instinctively as small pieces of rock blasted everywhere, pelting the surrounding area.

The explosives blew a hole in the spawner wall, forming a new entry point for Ceres's squad! "Go, go, go! Get in there and blow up the place before the middle-class slovesa shows up!"

Ceres hoped that the original distraction caused by Braton would pull the middle-class slovesa out of the spawner.

As the squad dashed through the new entrance, the inside walls of the spawner were like a hollowed-out bee hive, albeit in that same dark red colour as the holes outside, where various drones were being formed in each cell.

Instead of splitting up and spreading the explosives as planned, the squad froze as they stared into the centre of the hive.

In the centre, a middle-class slovesa who was most likely the highest ranked in the spawner turned and started to dash towards them without warning, the ends of its three arms forming into sharp claws.

"Shit, it was waiting for us here!" Ceres cursed.

The middle-class slovesa was a league above the low-class slovesa and was at least two to three times the size. The composition of the rocks that made up its body was much harder and tense with the joints between the rocks also harder to break.

A middle-class could even form new limbs or telepathically control drones during a fight. Already a few dozen of the small drones started to move back into the hive from outside, pressuring the members of the squad with their low-powered beams.

The three other members of the squad broke off in all directions, stepping on the walls of the various cells and giving away as many ‘presents’ as they could. Their job was to blow up the entire spawner from within.

"HEY! OVER HERE YOU IDIOT!" Ceres took on the burden of keeping the middle-class slovesa occupied, using his vibra-spear to block the three claws that began to swipe at him.

He positioned himself strategically, blocking off the middle-class slovesa from approaching any of his squad, and attacking whenever the slovesa tried to leave.

His spearman exosuit gave him additional strength and defensive plating to withstand a few minor attacks, but he knew that a single good swipe would immediately kill him or maim him permanently on any part of his body.

Dodging and parrying, Ceres brought his NEIR level up to his personal peak of 1.8, boosting his reactions and senses, allowing him to read the motions of the middle-class slovesa.

He was still being pressured, as he has been in the second stage for almost a week now but has yet to rest his NEIR level to normal levels in the real world.

He had always kept it halfway to his peak during normal times and at his peak during combat, but the continued stress was eating away at him.