Ceres Chaos [Exosuit Progression]

“It might be a group of humans from the Chosen,” Oswa warned. “Beware, they possess mystical relics and powers unknown - Stay vigilant!”

“I got it. Stay here.” Ceres moved forward towards the grodaw farm while Oswa waited behind.

Ceres did not know if it was a Chosen or not, but with his ability to utilize his H.T. mode at will, he could find out easily.

He scanned the surroundings, noticing that many of the grodaws had already fled the area. Only a few remained hidden in the corners and shadows of the cavern – apparently terrified of something in the hut.

Ceres could now see clearly a humanoid shape in the hut in the posture of eating. The H.T. mode was fairly limited and could only give him the shape of the living organism itself, not what is it wearing or wielding. It had no way of showing whether it was a Chosen or not as well.

Ceres walked slowly up to the hut’s door, ready to sprint and attack immediately if the humanoid inside suddenly turned hostile.

Minimizing the noise of his footsteps as much as he could, Ceres got closer to the hut. However, due to the nature of the heavy exosuit, it was impossible to avoid the crunching sounds his feet made with the ground.

The humanoid figure was alarmed by the sounds of the heavy exosuit’s steps, immediately standing up and moving into a firing position, the two hands seemingly gripping something. Ceres knew he held the absolute advantage in terms of information, being able to see the outline of the human through the wall. The hue of the humanoid slowly became redder as it became more hostile.

“Wait, I know that position,” Ceres exclaimed to himself. It was similar to how the Keepers fought in the research lab.

Quickly using the chance to scan all around him in H.T. mode again, he did not notice any ambush nor any other humans hiding nearby apart from Oswa.

He still did not let his guard down, recalling that a few of the exosuits that were with the Keepers did not reveal any colour in his new vision mode. He could be ambushed by automated drones and he would have no way of knowing beforehand.

The Keeper in the house slowly moved near the door, his rifle at the ready. Ceres had no ranged weapons at all, so he prepared to sprint for the moment the door opened. With his brain being at a heightened activity, the heavy exosuit processor immediately prepared to swap into combat mode at any given time.

Ceres was confident that his armour could take a few shots from the rifle since it was made out of the mawsie armour shell.

Ceres could suddenly see a bright flash of red from the Keeper, indicating that the Keeper was about to launch an attack. That one-second advantage enabled Ceres to instantly get a head start.

[Combat Mode initiated.]

The heat radiators at the back of Ceres vibrated intensely expanded its flaps while the entire exosuit went into combat mode, allowing Ceres to sprint towards the door in a few jumps just as it flung wide open. He used the small shield mounted on his left arm to shield his helmet, while readying his spiked mace in his right hand.

The Keeper inside immediately fired more than five bullets towards Ceres with the automatic firing mode of his rifle, but the kinetic bullets barely made a dent in the cobalt blue armour of the armshield.

Ceres closed the gap in less than two seconds, grabbing the Keeper’s rifle with his left hand. Shocked at the impossible speed of Ceres’s heavy exosuit, the Keeper could not react in time as Ceres smashed the rifle with his spiked mace.

The hit fully crushed the rifle in half as it was flung out of the Keeper’s grip, before Ceres elbowed the Keeper in the chest with the same right arm, causing the Keeper to instinctually gag and stumble back.

The Keeper fell over backwards, falling on the floor of the small cabin. Flipping his body, He scrambled around the cabin to look for an exit, but the door was the only option, and Ceres was blocking it from the outside.

Quickly pulling out a spare energy pistol, the Keeper fired off at the armour till it overheated but realized the heat could barely burn through the copious layers of armour.

“Are we done?” Ceres asked.

He was not afraid of the Keeper escaping, but he himself realized he could not enter the cabin due to the size of his exosuit. He noticed the number ‘6’ on the Keeper’s exosuit, recalling that it was the one that attacked him in the lab. “Finally, someone who knows something.”

Running out of options, the Keeper finally decided to drop his pistol and raise his hands up in surrender.

“Good choice. Take off your exosuit.” Ceres said.

A dry voice betraying the Keeper’s roots as an inner echoed from the speakers of the pinned exosuit. “And let you beat me to death? Yeah, no chance. How about you turn off your exosuit too and we can work something out”

Ceres smiled as he could read the emotions of the Keeper, sensing a ploy.

“Sure.” Ceres stepped back from the door in two long strides and disabled his exosuit, opening the heavy exosuit and stepping out of it. Just as he stepped out of it, the Keeper immediately dashed out of the cabin before running off towards the tunnel opposite of Oswa.

“Dumbass, I’ll be back to wipe your ass lat…what the fuck?!” The Keeper barely made three strides before he turned around to gloat, only to see Ceres easily keeping up with him in his standard protective town suit and sinister black mask, his right hand still holding the heavy spiked mace like a light toy even without the help of the heavy exosuit.

Before the Keeper could run any further, Ceres caught up and smacked the Keeper’s exosuit helmet with his mace, sending the Keeper tumbling and sprawling onto the ground. Struggling to get up, the Keeper couldn’t understand how Ceres was able to catch him without an exosuit.

“What did you say just now?” Ceres smirked as he walked over, lifting the spiked mace on his shoulders. The Keeper felt as though an apex predator was staring directly at his soul when he met Ceres’s eyes through the mask, causing him to shudder in fear and recalculate his odds of escape.

***

“I don’t know anything! Let me off please!” An old man screamed as a dark black exosuit with red stripes crushed his feet by stomping, causing the fragmented bone pieces to pierce through the skin and blood to seep out from the multiple wounds.

A female Keeper sat quietly watching the scene, sitting in a chair opposite the old man. “KIER, that’s enough.”

KIER complied, backing off slowly as the female Keeper leaned closer, staring intently at the old man who whimpered as the blood oozed.

“I’m only going to ask this once again. Who and where is Bonfire? Where is Drone C being hidden? Who are the intended recipients of these rifles? How are you connected to the rebellion? What is Outpost S-A-17827’s role in the supply chain?”

Despite the intense pain and suffering, the old man spat at her face, the spit a mix of blood and saliva that stained the visor of her Keeper exosuit.

“Outpost Kah-Yul has nothing to do with the rebellion. You’re all just hunting dogs! I have no idea what any of those names mean. Who paid you to do this? Bee Strathon? We’re a legitimate mining operation! I gave up my life and blood for this small mining company - they are framing us just because we found the ore vein.” The old man cursed at the Keeper.

The female Keeper gripped the old man’s thighs, the metallic fingers digging blood as it punctured deep. “Don’t play dumb. We got a tip from reputable sources that you’re harbouring rebels in your mining company. And there’s clear cut evidence. I doubt a mining company of fifty people needs three thousand energy rifles that are not accounted for in your inventory. Stashed away nicely too. Plead guilty and you’ll only have to spend fifteen years in jail.”

The old man grimaced as he could feel the sting of the exosuit’s fingers in his thighs.

“IT’S A PLANT! How many times do I have to say it?! We’ve been set up by Bee Strathon! Check who sent you guys the tip, idiots. You couldn’t find a single rebel in the last three days you were here! You Keepers are the dumbest things to ever happen to Athen! I’m not part of the rebe…” The old man shouted in anger and pain, but he suddenly could not shout any longer as his head went flying, cut cleanly off by KIER.

The blood splattered onto a crowd of humans who were cowering behind the old man as well, causing screams to echo in the dark warehouse. The female Keeper gripped the dead old man’s thigh hard, lifting the body and flinging it to the side like a ragdoll.

“THE NEXT ONE THAT SCREAMS IS DEAD!” The Keeper bellowed through her exosuit speakers. Five white Athen Defender exosuits surrounded the group of humans, their rifles trained on them. “KIER, get the last one who screamed.”

The red-striped black exosuit didn’t nod, but immediately stepped through the group of humans and grabbed a little girl of seven years old up, snatching her from the mother who desperately tried to claw back the daughter. Three immediate gunshots rang out from the surrounding exosuits, killing the mother in a swift motion.

“Obstruction of justice is punishable by death.” The Keeper calmly said.

No one in the group screamed any more, all simply sniffling as they stared at the white Athen Defender exosuits, who seemed to be inhuman. The movement of the exosuits all felt rigid, with only The Keeper being the most human-like.

The little girl was placed on the chair opposite the Keeper, the chair already soaked with the blood of the previous three victims. Tears streamed down her face as she barely held in the urge to scream in panic from the sudden death of her mother, on the verge of hyperventilating.

She was clearly in shock, afraid that she would die or cause more people to die around her.

“Hey little girl, don’t be afraid.” The Keeper said quietly as she knelt down. “I’m only here to catch the bad guys. Now, you must have seen something or some people around here. Maybe you even heard about something along the lines of plotting to kill enforcers and overthrow the government. If you point to those people, I will let everybody else off, how about that?”

“You killed my mom!” The girl said while barely able to hold back her sobbing and shaking. The Keeper merely smiled in return, when her multi-terminal began ringing.

“Keep thinking about it okay? I’ll give you two minutes. I expect an answer by then.” The Keeper walked away to receive the call.

[Keeper 23, Kitana, status report.] A slick voice emitted into the Keeper’s helmet.

[Keeper 23 reporting in. All fifty employees and family members of the Outpost Kah-Yul mining operation under temporary detainment. No signs of the five enforcers that were previously sent to this area, assumed to be killed by the outpost members. Suspects are now being questioned. Large amounts of rifles were found as well. So far, no other leads found.] Kitana replied.

[Roger. Cleanup crew on its way. How’s KIER?]

Kitana stared at the red-striped, black exosuit. KIER had been her longest partner over the last few years or so since she started as a Keeper. Every other drone was disposable to her, but not KIER.

[He’s fine, but more importantly when will my application to hunt down Drone C again be approved?]

[You’re just in luck, orders from the higher ups just came down specifically for you to hunt him down. You are the only one left on Athen that saw him, so the top brass has put their hopes on you.]

Kitana almost gripped her hand to the point of crushing the hand armour upon hearing that. They had gone in as a group of three Keepers, but only two of them had made it out. She cursed internally as she recalled how Halyon had fallen to his death during the self-destruction of the research lab as they escaped, swearing to catch that weird alien who escaped the vat also known as Drone C.

[Don’t worry Kitana, maybe Halyon is still alive. Soon you will be posted to Rockhold City and begin your search from there. The analysts all have agreed that if Drone C were to have surfaced, that’s the most likely point of contact.] The slick voice continued.

[Are you sure the gangs there are going to allow this? I don’t think the Queen will be that happy about us snooping around without jurisdiction.] Kitana asked.

[We have an agreement with them. As long as you don’t directly hamper their operations and only target the rebellion, you have full authority in the area.]

[I want improved replacements also. These current partners are not good enough to take Drone C down.] Kitana looked at the white Athen Defender exosuits that she controlled, who had clear signs of wear and tear all over their armour.

[Approved. Finish up over there and head back to the nearest depot.] The call ended, with Kitana taking her seat again opposite the little girl. She removed her helmet this time, allowing the girl to see her short brunette hair and a respirator mask characteristic of an inner’s disdain for surface air.

Kitana’s eyes did not show any happiness nor delight, only a deep gaze searching for vengeance.

“So, have you decided?” Kitana checked the time on her wrist. “It’s been about two minutes, and I have to go soon.”

The little girl raised and pointed her finger at Kitana in anger. “You’re the bad guys! No one else here is – give me back my mother!”

Kitana smiled gently in response, though the little girl could not see through the respirator mask.

“I like you. You remind me of myself when I was younger. Let’s do it this way. I’m going to start doing something special. And if you want me to stop, just tell me who are those involved in the smuggling of the rifles and the killing of the previous enforcers.”

“No!”

“Great, I’m glad we’re on the same page. Let’s begin.”

One of the white Athen Defender exosuit immediately fired a single gunshot, causing a loud yell of pain as the bullet tore through the thigh of a young man. The little girl could not turn to see who was shot, her eyes tightly closed as she could only listen to the screams.

Kitana kept a cold smile on her face as she stared at the little girl, who was already in extreme distress.

After ten seconds, another gunshot was heard. The little girl flinched as she could no longer bear to watch, biting her lips as she stayed silent, the dried blood on the chair slowly leaving marks on her clothes.

After the next nine seconds, another gunshot. The little girl began to look around, but all she saw was people in the group shaking their heads at her, even though three people now laid on the ground squirming in pain. Their pleading eyes

Eight seconds, a shot. Seven seconds, another gunshot. “Stop! Stop!” The little girl shouted at Kitana.

Kitana’s expression didn’t change. Six seconds, bang. Five seconds, the frequency of gunshots was becoming faster and faster. At four seconds the little girl could not handle it anymore.

“It was Alith, Porla and Gak!”

Kitana finally smiled wider, the gunshots stopping. The white Athen Defender exosuits immediately moved forward, grabbing the three people mentioned and dragging them off. “KIER, get their family as well.”

The three people struggled as they were dragged off and thrown into a container along with their families.

“ATTACK!” A few of the humans used the chance when the others were being dragged off to rush at Kitana, attacking her with their cuffed arms.

The remainder of the group immediately tried to flee in all directions, running with their restraints in place or crawling on the ground despite their gunshot wounds. The white Athen Defender exosuits immediately began to chase, restraining the runners.

Kitana immediately retaliated, getting off the chair and kicking it towards the people charging her. Breaking the arms of those attacking her, she showed no gaps in close combat, being able to handle herself against more than ten attackers.

Her empowered exosuit gave her an unfair advantage over the humans who had no weapons or exosuits at all, easily crushing their limbs and necks and ripping their heads off.

As she finished off the last assailant, she noticed the little girl running away, but the girl tripped and fell over. Kitana slowly walked over to the terrified girl, pulling out a pistol from her holster.

[Command, key suspects captured, but multiple secondary suspects currently resisting detainment. Permission to execute.]

[Permission granted. Happy hunting, Keeper 23.]

***

“Let me beat him up for chasing all the grodaws away!” Oswa moved forward to smack the Keeper, but Ceres stopped him.

“Name?” Ceres sat on the ground opposite the tied-up and disarmed Keeper, who was only wearing a basic grey overall, similar to a flight suit. His exosuit was already left in its open state at the side, far away to prevent him from using it.

“Fuck you, you ain’t getting shit out of me.” The Keeper spat towards Ceres’s face, who quickly dodged it. Before the Keeper could react, a quick tight slap came, the force almost sending the Keeper’s head spinning and his long black hair all over the place.

“Okay, okay I’ll talk! Don’t hurt me!”

“Well, that was easy. Name?”

“Halyon. But that’s all I can tell you, the rest is classifie.. WAIT DON’T HIT ME!” Before the next slap came in, Halyon already flinched in response, his eyes closed.

He slightly pried his eyes open, noticing Ceres simply smiling at him.

“You fucking rebel, how dare you trick me?” Halyon cursed.

Ceres was slightly excited. This could be his first source of information regarding the rebellion. Now that he had captured an enforcer, he could potentially extract some details from him. “Why do you think I’m a rebel?” Ceres entertained him.

“Isn’t everyone living at this depth a rebel or criminal of some form? There’s no other reason to hide and scurry around like rats this far away from New Saint and every other legitimate outpost. And I’ve already seen you at the rebel’s research lab.” Halyon smirked.

“Interesting. What was your mission at the research lab? You guys were talking about finding Drone C..?”

“That’s classified, if I told you I’ll have to kill… OKAY OKAY STOP!” Halyon flinched involuntarily again as Ceres simply raised his hand to scratch his neck, making Halyon feel like a fool. “Yes, we were finding Drone C. Did not expect you to be Drone C though. You don’t look alien anymore – are you an alien transformer or something?”

“Why is my label Drone C? There were plenty of other humans in other vats at the research lab too, why me specifically?” Ceres asked.

“All we were told from the higher-ups is that you’re a high-priority rebel weapon that needed to be confiscated. The underlying sentiment is that you were some sort of superhuman that the rebels were relying on to overthrow us. We previously held you in detainment. From the looks of it, it seems about right. But you’re not invincible. Eventually, the Keepers will catch you easily.”

“What are Keepers?” Oswa asked curiously.

Halyon stared at Ceres and Oswa like they were idiots. “Are you kidding? Have you guys been living under a rock for the last five years? Even if you’re old you should keep up with the times.”

“It’s my turn to beat him.” Oswa walked over with his herding staff, lifting it high above his head. Halyon only smirked, knowing the old man was weaker than Ceres.

“Oh yea? Give it a try, you old cun… OW OW OW STOP STOP STOP!”