Ceres Chaos [Exosuit Progression]

“So in short, he wanted you to destroy your family’s greenhouse?” Lisa asked as the group of five sat together for lunch.

“Yup! He couldn’t even comprehend that our greenhouse isn’t designed just for the agricultural industry, it’s also for the tourist industry! Putting a big ugly factory within the greenhouse would be ridiculously stupid! If he told me that the factory was going to be outside, then maybe I would have considered it a bit.” Ardan sat down angrily, poking at his food with his fork.

“There are benefits to the factory being inside the greenhouse, it would be a lot better in terms of delivery of goods and so on. Shipments take time and being right next to the farm would help a lot.” Erik said.

Transportation timings were a huge part of how cities were developed, a far cry from the sprawling mess that ancient humans used to make before. Now, city planning was an extremely precise science that has multiple layouts tried and tested against trillions of citizens.

“Don’t forget that putting a factory in the greenhouse means spending money to pipe the residual chemicals out! It’s not even a smart or logical deal! How on earth did this get traction in other star nations?! Anyway, that’s the last we’ll see of that guy. Even if every other greenhouse joins him, I will still refuse to join!” Ardan replied.

He was still mad that he was treated like a pushover just because he was a kid.

***

“Thank you for coming to visit us, Mr Watson, we hope you found your stay pleasant.” The butler drone voiced before unceremoniously throwing him out of the mansion. The senior manager of the greenhouse was waiting for him, his face unfazed at the treatment Mr Watson got from Ardan.

“You told me he would be an easy catch! Why did he reject me in such a brutal way, and why did his parents authorize him to this level? Couldn’t you have tried to prep him for this? I expected him to be easier to convince than his parents!” Watson cursed at the senior manager who started to escort him out of the greenhouse.

“I didn’t know you would piss him off so much, maybe you should start working on your business pitch. It’s obviously not working.” The senior manager shrugged. “Now there’s nothing much we can do, you literally busted the entire operation! I’m all clear, but I don’t know how you’re going to inform your boss later, which I wish you the best of luck for.”

A shiver ran down Watson’s spine, who recalled exactly what kind of situation he was in and how terrifying his boss was.

Under no circumstances can he let his boss know that he failed again for the third time this year. His anger slowly being suppressed and channelled into cold calculative thoughts, he mulled over his options in silence as the two of them walked towards the greenhouse exit.

“Wait, what did you say about the pitch?” Watson suddenly glared at the senior manager.

“Nothing. All I said was that it was absolute trash. I don’t even know how you convinced the other greenhouses. I’m even slightly ashamed of myself for even considering teaming up with you!” Sighing, the senior manager shook his head in pity.

He had been bribed by Mr Watson with gifts and extravagant lunches – though all the manager promised was a meeting with the owner of the greenhouse.

As far as he was concerned, he did his part, Watson blew it. Nothing was on him.

“There’s nothing wrong with the business pitch, that kid is just an idiot who fawns over useless things such as the environment! Who cares about such banal stuff when there are billions of profits to make?! This shit isn’t over yet, and don’t you dare turn off your multi, I’ll be in touch.” Watson finally revealed a grin, chuckling to himself as he walked out of the greenhouse exit, the pneumatic doors slowly sealing after him.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you and I are done! Don’t expect any help from me.” The senior manager sneered, before leaving Watson alone outside of the greenhouse exit. Watson’s smile only got wider, but he soon recalled how badly Ardan had treated him.

His fury soared, along with his blood pressure that almost caused veins to pop on his face. He quickly took out a few pills and popped them into his mouth, storming off down the pavement towards the loop train station.

“Fuck that kid, talking down to me!” Watson kicked a passing automatic trash can drone out of anger. He walked down the commercial district, where shoppers went about the high street to browse and hang out.

As he walked through the crowd, two young men naturally started to walk next to him, joining him through the dense sea of humans heading to the loop train station.

They looked like regular young healthy adults, with a simple polo-tee and jeans. Fashion came and went in cycles, and in the outer zones on the surface, people prefer simple non-smart clothing as it was easier to maintain.

“What’s the next step, boss? Blackmail seems pretty effective. It worked on the last one.” The first young men spoke quietly next to him.

“Or maybe a simple slice could work too? Haven’t tried it yet but would be a nice change of pace.” The second young man murmured below the audible din of the crowd, a conversation that only the three of them could hear.

“Stupid idiots, killing anyone will go against our agreement with Oliver Athen! Don’t forget we have to play by their rules for now. Blackmail will be tough against that Fye family, they have quite a clean honest business.” Watson pondered as they walked towards the loop train, hunched over as he was thinking hard about how he could salvage the situation.

If his boss finds out in three days that he didn’t manage to clinch the deal or at least get a favourable response, it would be his head on the table.

“Boss, honestly, I don’t think the business pitch is good enough. We basically had to work around it for all the greenhouses that have joined us so far. What’s the point in even trying to pitch?” The first young men whispered to Watson, who slapped him away.

“Idiots, this business works! Our top boss already implemented it in other advanced states, it’s only these lowlifes here that can’t see beyond their feet. What’s the point of wasting all that space for small posh crops and dumb tourists? Efficiency is the name of the game in this day and age, and always has been! It’s just sad that all of these greenhouses are owned by idiots, but once they all join the organization, they’ll know what they have been missing out on!” Watson cursed at them.

“I’ve decided. Tonight, plan A is in effect. Complete it by morning tomorrow. No killing, and nothing else. ONLY plan A!” Watson finally stood up straight up, while the two young men simply nodded and slowly drifted away from him, eventually making a U-turn.

Watson took out his multi-terminal, sending a message to the anonymous hotline for the public enforcers.

***

Erik woke up to the sound of shouting and crackling flames in the middle of the night. “Did this castle have an ancient fireplace or something? That’s wicked.” Erik was about to turn to try and sleep again before Braton barged into the room, grabbing Erik by the shoulders and shaking him.

“Wake up you idiot, the command centre is on fire!” Braton roared. The shout shook Erik out of his groggy sleep. The years of military drills kicked in.

Erik’s eyes were now wide open, and he quickly followed Braton out into the open, watching the command centre completely up in fire. Lisa and Trissa were donning fireproof mustard suits and carrying people out, while Ardan was coordinating the fire response team.

Ardan had lost any semblance to the young teenager that was playing cards and board games in the room just earlier, taking on a leadership role in its entirety.

In another area, the senior manager was scurrying around, sending countless commands to the drones and activating the fire response drill.

Greenhouses that grew crops naturally had to be prepared for potential fires, and the drones already had a routine programmed into them to counter such an issue.

Reusing the routine that was used to water large plots of land, large hover-drones approached the command centre from all angles with huge, pressurized water cannons and carbon dioxide gas, blasting the fire away.

The command centre soon had all its oxygen purged, not allowing the fire to burn any longer outside. Soon, the fire outside died down, while small fires were still active in separate rooms.

The damage was not light. The walls were entirely blackened, and countless worker’s terminals were damaged. Ardan did not even know about the state of the storage room, where they held the seeds for next year’s crop rotation. If those burnt down too, it would be a disaster.

Ardan’s mind raced as he stared at the blackened walls of the command centre, each room coated in ashes as both plants, paperwork and electronics were burnt to a crisp. How did the fire start? Who sounded the alarm? Was everyone accounted for?

Recalling the shady deal that Mr Watson tried to push on him earlier in the day, he suddenly came to an epiphany. “Lockdown the greenhouse! No one gets in or out of the dome! Everyone gathers in the square to make sure we got everyone!”

Being the owner’s representative, naturally, the workers listened to him, carrying out his orders dutifully. With the lockdown procedure initiated, the greenhouse’s entrances, exits and gaps were all locked tight.

No one could get in or out without Ardan’s permission. Even the exits were biometrically tied to Ardan being the overriding command.

Ardan thought carefully about the entire incident, finally having enough time to consider the possibilities.

“This must be a planned arson related to Watson! I need to find evidence that they did it, otherwise, I will have nothing to go on. It could also very well be one of the competitors trying to undermine us. Or maybe it was just a simple mistake – but I highly doubt this!”

Everyone started to gather in the square, with the senior manager, the butler drone and his group of friends closer to him. The senior manager was sweating buckets, cursing under his breath that such a thing happened under his shift – and in front of Ardan too.

How would he ever explain himself to Ardan’s parents? He recalled the message he got from Mr Watson before all this began, and he wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead.

He started to calculate his remaining financials and how soon he could disappear when suddenly Ardan patted him on the back.

“Good job manager, it seems like nobody got hurt in the fire. Thank you for the timely response. First and foremost, is everyone accounted for here?” Ardan smiled.

“We’re still counting, but it looks like it’s almost everyone here.” The senior manager hastily replied.

“Who sounded the fire alarm, or was it automatic?”

“It wasn’t me that initiated the fire alarm. It was a young man who first spotted the fire going off in the drone maintenance workshop.”

“Great, where is this young man? I must thank him for saving the command centre from being completely burnt down!”

“Ah, he…erm… I don’t actually think he’s here…?” The senior manager squinted into the crowd, not recognizing any of the faces to be the ones he was looking for.

Ardan swivelled to his group of five. “The guy must still be in the command centre. He is either the instigator or he’s legitimately trapped. We’ll go in and spread out!” The other four nodded their heads, easily accepting Ardan’s command. Despite Ardan being much younger, he was obviously in a better position here to command others.

His sturdiness in actual scenarios awed Erik, who always thought of him as a regular rich kid, but now he knew that Ardan had to deal with such issues regularly when his parents weren’t around to support him.

They usually trained together in Shattered Empire too, the VR game, so it wasn’t a big deal to just work as a team again.

Wearing the fireproof mustard suit and a gas filter mask just in case, the group entered the building and spread out alongside the workers who also joined the rescue effort, trying to find the young man. Braton and Lisa raced each other to see who could find the guy first, while Erik and Trissa consciously went their separate ways.

“Ardan, you should stay outside, we need you to coordinate the searching,” Erik said to Ardan before leaving.

Ardan shook his head. “The manager here can handle the coordination. I too am a member of the team! I’m not going to let my workers die under my watch!” Ardan entered the building, not wanting to lead from behind.

He too had his pride in being an independent man, so he went his own separate way from the others. The senior manager sent one worker to cover Ardan in case things went wrong. He couldn’t afford to have the young master of the greenhouse die under his watch.

The worker following Ardan helped out, picking up tracks and signs of movement. The two worked together to trace the steps of the missing young men around the large hallways.

The command centre was huge, and it was only thanks to the drones that they managed to suffocate the air inside the command centre to put out the fire. A few small flames were still ongoing, but it was nothing that they couldn’t put out.

They had been walking in a specific direction to where the fire shelter was in the building, but Ardan suddenly realized something.

Instead of heading towards the drone maintenance workshop where the fire alarm started previously, he started to head in the opposite direction – aiming for the exit of the command centre at the back.

If anyone wanted to get away quickly, it was that location. The worker tried to keep up with him, unable to stay with Ardan as he dashed.

As he walked into the exit of the command centre, it was a loading bay where hover trucks would come in and pick up drones or shipments of crops here. Scanning around the large loading bay, he noticed very quickly that this entire place was untouched by the fire, probably not by luck.

If the arsonist intended to cripple the greenhouse, this should be one of the primary objectives, yet it was untouched. Burning the seeds here would be good enough, but yet they did not do so… He slowly walked around, trying to check if anyone was here.

“Mr Fye, you’re too fast!” The worker from before managed to catch up with him, huffing as he tried to catch his breath. Ardan ignored him and focused on the surroundings, his mind racing.

“Assuming that this fire is related to Watson, he must be able to bypass the greenhouse gates and doors. In order to do that, he must have inside help. Most likely the young men trapped in the command centre were the inside help!” Ardan thought as he walked through the large warehouse shelves that had rows on rows of packed drones in storage.

The shelves towered above him as he walked through the aisle and looked, trying to find any signs of movement.

“Mr Fye, this place may be untouched by the fire, but I highly doubt he would have come here. He must have been following the fire drill and heading to the fire shelter.” The worker tried to reason with Ardan, who continued scanning.

Ardan suddenly thought of something. Spinning to face the worker, he questioned him: “Why are you trying so hard to stop me from searching the shelves here?”

“I’m just being logical, Mr Fye! Why would he choose to hide in this area from the fire? Assuming the fire came here, the subsequent explosions caused by the packed drones and batteries would have made it worse for him. No way he would be hiding here!” The worker gestured wildly with his hand, while Ardan squinted even harder.

Pulling up his multi-terminal, Ardan opened a video channel with the senior manager. “Manager, any news?” The senior manager was seen on the other end of the video channel barking orders at different groups, but his face was slightly startled when Ardan asked him there. Hurriedly, he replied.

“No, no one has found him yet. The command centre’s structural integrity is quite compromised now, so some groups have had a few close calls. We found a few other survivors, but not the young man! He should be in your area somewhere!”

“Good, can you connect me to my butler drone? I need to review some footage.”

The senior manager froze for a moment, his eyes darting, seemingly looking behind Ardan, before making the connection. But before the connection could close, a human figure appeared above and pushed an object off the top of the shelves – it was a packed drone! Folded up in its default compact mode, it fell straight down towards Ardan like a rock, forcing him to dodge instinctively.

The worker that accompanied Ardan suddenly lunged at him, grabbing him from behind, while the human figure dropped down and took out a tranquillizer patch, slapping it on Ardan’s forehead while Ardan struggled to break free.

The tranquillizer worked so fast that Ardan was already fast asleep before he could even formulate a sentence. Lifting his limp body, the worker carried him on his back while dashing out of the loading bay towards the exit together with the human figure.