Ceres Chaos [Exosuit Progression]

Ceres rushed down a tunnel with his heavy exosuit, moving as fast as he could as he checked his map to make sure he was heading in the right direction.

He had to clear the way for the supply convoy to make sure they don’t get ambushed, so he had his H.T. mode on all the way.

Ceres was the only one who could move this fast, so he naturally was the best option to reach the expedition first. Why wouldn’t the town accept the help of a genetically enhanced human when they had the option to?

Zhang and the others had to stay behind to upgrade their combat armour and weapons first before heading out.

Halyon too was left behind because he had his Keeper’s exosuit ripped apart by Ceres for scientific purposes, so he would be joining the supply convoy later. Ceres only hoped Halyon would not betray them, but he trusted the paranoid Zhang to keep an eye out for Halyon doing anything funny.

Ceres was the advance party, running through the shortest-distance tunnel network and clearing any obstacles or debris that may block the supply convoy. He could see every living thing within a consistent one-kilometre range while moving, which was very handy in a deep underground system.

Ceres mused that it probably would be useless in long-range battle, but he was not expecting anybody to snipe him from more than one kilometre.

But just as he said it, he instinctively dodged a bullet that came hurtling down the straight five-kilometre tunnel that had been dug by the expedition.

Sprinting even faster, he rushed towards where the bullet was shot from as more bullets came at him. He dodged a few while the rest deflected off his exosuit, as the ten-meter-wide tunnel did not offer a lot of room to dodge laterally.

Soon, he came into sight of the group. Twenty humans wearing tribal attire with weird glyphs tattooed to their bodies, wielding combat armour and energy rifles that looked out of place in terms of technology. Only one of them had a sniper rifle, and Ceres could already see them communicating rapidly with each other.

Ceres knew that these ‘Chosen’ were the ones attacking the expedition, so he rushed forward with the aim to restrain them. Ceres had never killed a human before himself, and he wasn’t planning to either way. Sure, he killed ‘virtual’ humans before in Shattered Empire, but that was different.

The anticipation of his first real battle against other humans started to build up within him, and he uncontrollably grinned to himself. How strong could he be? He started to consider ways to restrain them.

As Ceres focused back on the twenty Chosen, he noticed that there was extreme hostility emitting from them with a tinge of fear in them.

There was a real killing sense, something Ceres had never experienced before himself. He was facing a group of feral cannibalistic humans out to murder him and eat him.

The flight or fight reaction triggered within Ceres, but he suppressed it immediately. If anything, this was his first life-or-death battle. He may be overestimating himself with how strong he was. Maybe he should retreat first and plan.

“Focus Ceres, if you don’t do it now, the expedition will die!” Ceres gritted his teeth as he continued running straight, resolving to fight.

He was slowly getting within range of the Chosen, able to hear their shouts and conversation.

“Quick, the humanoid mawsie coming!”

“Kill it before it kills us!”

“What monster has the underground spawned now?”

A hail of bullets began to shower Ceres, forcing him to slow down. His heavy armour might be great for defence, but it was not invincible. He could already see some of the energy beams chipping off the armour slowly but gradually, causing cracks and fragments to shatter and the heat to accumulate on the surface.

Ceres scanned the area, noticing there was nowhere for him to hide. It was a straight circular tunnel, with the only cover being the sandbags and rocks the Chosen themselves had set up in front of him, though it was not enough to cover him with the exosuit.

He decided to try a diplomatic method, activating his speaker. “Hello, friends, perhaps we don’t have to fight?”

“What?! The monster speaks! Kill it!”

Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, the Chosen became even more vigorous in their shooting. A few of them rushed forward with spears and swords, fending him off from the sandbags and preventing him from getting close.

Ceres frowned and tried to find a way to get the Chosen to stop, but soon he noticed a few cages with piles of human bones inside, the flesh and blood still fresh in it. Only a single human was alive inside, his legs missing while he bleed continuously, staining the standard town’s protective suit. His eyes barely registered Ceres fighting nearby.

A dark realization hit Ceres – the Chosen were eating a messenger sent by the expedition.

A silent rage began to build within Ceres, and all thoughts about reaching a diplomatic solution with them were thrown out the window, especially how badly the messenger was treated as a food source.

Ceres had also seen the severe wounds the first messenger had suffered in town, with him now understanding that the rest of the messengers had been intercepted and eaten alive.

Suddenly, the black goo inside him pulsated, causing his chest to cramp up all of a sudden at the same moment the Chosen warriors lunged at him. A flood of endorphins surged into his brain, causing him to forget all his worries or contemplations about killing a human accidentally. Instead, he felt like he had been injected with a stimulant, amplifying his rage even more.

This was the law of the underground, a far cry from the safety of New Saint. It’s kill or be killed in the underground.

“Die!” A brave Chosen warrior charged with a downward sword slash, with Ceres instinctively blocking with his small shield on his left arm and counterattacking with his right fist at full strength, punching the warrior. This basic move was drilled into him since he attended the orphanage.

The punch was far stronger than expected, sending the warrior flying before he slammed into the wall, the sound of bones cracking audible. The warrior’s organs could not handle the shock, his stomach unnaturally compressed with blood gushing out of a large wound. Ceres could tell that the warrior was dying, or dead, and his outline seemed to glow even brighter – no longer hostile but fearful.

Fear of death.

The horror and shock on their face were palpable, with Ceres roaring as he took out his spiked mace and swung downwards at the first.

The first tried to block with his energy rifle, but it snapped cleanly in half as the mace smashed his head into a gory paste, the eyes and the body collapsing to the floor with a splat while Ceres maniacally swung at the others who tried to escape, crushing their limbs and bodies.

The energy beams and spear stab barely fazed him, with Ceres going on a veritable rampage.

Ceres felt a battle rush every time just before he killed someone, and it felt like a cathartic release to him. It was as though he had been injected with 15 stimulants and drank two bottles of liquor in a split second, an all-time high.

He kept smashing the dead bodies of the humans in anger, in revenge for the messengers of the expedition.

Whatever prior worries he had about killing other humans were long gone. At least not those who had devolved into cannibalism.

After a good five minutes of smashing long dead human paste, Ceres finally recovered himself, blinking his eyes in shock. “What did I just do?”

He stared in horror at the brain paste dripping off the spiked mace and the mashed human bodies and organs flattened to the floor by his cobalt blue armoured feet. His armour was beyond coated in blood splashes.

Ceres started to hyperventilate as he looked around him and saw the massacre that he just committed, fifteen humans brutally killed.

As much as they were cannibals, Ceres did not know he had it in him to do such a thing.

“What the fuck happened to me?” Ceres clearly recalled everything he did, but the scariest part about was that he felt that HE wanted to do it.

It was not even a split personality, it’s like a part of his brain was specifically modified when he knew there was a battle happening.

The thought and the gruesome sight of what he did caused him to immediately remove his helmet and puke on the floor, retching out his insides.

Ceres felt disgusted at himself. Even now he could still recall the high he felt, and every time he did he could feel his personality slightly changing.

Of course, he tried to rationalize that he was saving the expedition messengers, but he could have just restrained the cannibals instead of stooping to their level.

Suddenly, his body slightly pulsated again, and his prior emotions of self-hatred and disgust suddenly disappeared. It was as though he had been doused with a clear bucket of ice-cold water that surgically removed that specific emotion.

“What even is this black goo?!” Ceres became afraid of himself, wanting to not proceed any further till he verified what was going on with his body. However, the expedition could not wait. He needed to go down to the expedition and save them from the evil humans who should be butchered and slowly stripped layer by layer down to their very bones.

Ceres slapped his face and took a deep breath.

Instead of proceeding further, he walked to a nearby small crevice and forced himself to sit down. He breathed slowly, trying to calm his violent angry mind down. Was he developing a different personality out of nowhere? The black goo seemed to be amplifying his emotions.

He needed to take more time to explore his condition further and whether it could be controlled. If he could harness it or figure out why it happens, it would be way better than being introduced as a bipolar human prone to rage. He had three days even if he ran at maximum speed before he reached the expedition, so he was going to use the time to practice controlling the emotions.

Ceres suddenly recalled the messenger who was still trapped in the cage, which was the original reason for his rage. “Hey, are you okay? Stay with me!” He stepped through the bones in the cage, grabbing the shoulder of the messenger.

However, the messenger had already passed away before Ceres even killed the first Chosen, the signs all too clear through Ceres’s H.T. mode.

A simmering rage built within Ceres, him making a clear choice and steeling his resolve as he prepared to move even deeper.

***

Yan dropped the welding gun as another explosion rocked the expedition’s camp. “Yan, relax. They won’t break through our barricade.” The lead engineer Cuo picked up the welding gun and handed it back to Yan.

“What’s the point of me even repairing this metal plate? It’s just going to get broken down in the next few hours. I’ve already patched more than 50 holes on this one alone!” Yan was exhausted. The expedition camp had already suffered a few losses over the week-long siege, and they were cut off on all sides.

Right now, they had a metal barricade formed around the expedition camp, with their backs against the ancient temple. The Chosen had been assaulting them for completely no reason and Yan too had to fight back herself.

However, the expedition did not possess any ranged weapons, so they had to sit and hide behind the metal barricade. The Chosen had tried storming the barricade, but the expedition members were more than proficient in fending off melee attacks.

It was not normal for the Chosen to have such ranged weapons and the expedition was having a hard time because of it.

“Don’t worry, we have a negotiation later. Hopefully, we can negotiate a truce and get out of here.” Cuo patted her on the back before heading elsewhere on the metal barricade, no doubt to weld and secure another panel.

Yan looked out beyond the barricade, watching the enemies gathered in the distance. The enemies were not afraid of exposing themselves in line of sight, as the expedition had no ranged weapons.

Yan sighed. If only they had left the vicinity of the temple earlier, they might not have been trapped here.

She finished up her welding job and was about to leave when she spotted the leader of the expedition, Misa walked out of the camp towards where the Chosen were waiting. She was accompanied by Ren, the captain of the expedition’s guards.

From the horde of enemies in the distance, a trio moved forwards.

Sitting on top of a domesticated mawsie, the bald leader was dressed in white shaman robes, a ‘Y’ tattooed in blue on his forehead as he was flanked by two fiercely looking warriors, their tribal tattoos and clothing clashing with the modern energy rifles they held.

Misa stood facing the enemy leader, her arms crossed.

The leader sat comfortably onto the mawsie before nodding towards Misa. “Greetings, expedition leader. Thank you for agreeing to this negotiation.”

Ren stared at the mawsie before looking at the leader, smirking. “I thought all you Chosen don’t talk to food, so it’s surprising that you’re talking to us.”

“As arrogant as always. Living in your comfortable Bunker 13 and demeaning the rest of us. So diplomatic. Don’t forget that we are the Chosen! And I, I am its leader, Paska. You will do well to remember that.”

“Oh, yea? I’ll remember to etch that onto your dead body!” Ren grinned but Misa placed her hand in front of Ren’s face, stopping him.

“Enough. Why are you even attacking us?” Misa growled.

The leader Paska was stunned, including the two tribal warriors, before the three of them burst out into laughter. “You… you really don’t know. How secluded must you have been in your tiny bunker, unaware of the miracles around you. You don’t deserve the ancient temple!” Paska suddenly raged.

“So you’re attacking us because you want to take the ancient temple from us?” Misa asked.

“IT WAS ALWAYS OURS!” Paska pointed angrily at Misa. “YOU WERE THE ONES WHO DRILLED INTO OUR TERRITORY AND PLUNDERED OUR RESOURCES AT WILL! Running through our homes and pillaging our people. And you ask us why we attack you? Hilarious! If I took a 10-meter-wide drill and drilled a tunnel through your entire town, maybe you will feel a sliver of how we have felt for the last century.”

“You have no claim to this area, and you guys were fighting over it either way!” Misa rebutted. “In fact, I’m surprised there’s actually a leader, seeing as all the tribes were vastly divided before.”

Paska smiled sinisterly. “As for that, I must thank you for that. In our entire history, only one person – our former king - has triggered the ancient temple. When the different tribes heard the call of the temple, I finally had the legitimacy to fully reunite the tribes under one banner while we trailed your forces.”

Misa wanted to say that they did not activate the temple themselves but decided not to. Saying so would make the ‘Chosen’ more likely to eat them. She intend to pretend like she still had a card in play.

Paska raised his hand. “Now here are the conditions: leave the ancient temple immediately, but all your supplies and equipment will be left here. Only the one who activated the ancient temple must be left behind.”

“Well, we had quite a few people near the ancient temple when it activated, so it will take some time to find out exactly who it is. It may not be the result of only one person as well.”

“NO! It can only be one person – the reincarnation of our former king. Either way, you have three days to choose the person. If no action is taken then, do not blame me if you find your head on a dinner plate...” The trio walked back to their side, while Misa and Ren returned to the expedition camp under the hostile eyes of the Chosen.

“No way you’re going to accept their conditions, right? You know even if we left everything behind, we will still be hunted down by them. I don’t believe their leader has all of them on a tight leash.” Ren asked when they returned.

“Of course not. Leaving everything behind here is a death sentence to the town. If only we had ranged weapons like them! Fucking Rockhold, what in the world did they trade them for?” Misa complained.

It was no use worrying about it – right now the expedition was in a pinch. By her calculations, Misa estimated the enemy forces to be more than double them, and with more than enough modern ranged weapons.

They were sitting ducks behind the barricade, and eventually, more and more people will start dying. Misa had to find a way to stop it beforehand. “We have to drag it out for more than three days. If we can hold out for a week, maybe the town’s rescue team will make it time.”

Ren shook his head. “Even if the rescue team does come, only Captain Kai can make a difference. And the enemy has already cut off the supply route, how can he alone breakthrough?”

The two of them walked through the town towards the command tent, staring at the faces of the expedition members. Misa could clearly see the fatigue and despair hanging like a fog around the camp. “There’s only one viable solution I can think about,” Misa muttered. “Call Yan into the command tent, she’s critical to this plan.”

A few minutes later, Misa explained everything to Yan. “Wait, are you crazy? You want us to break open the ancient temple door? What if we trigger something else that we don’t know?”

“We don’t have a choice!” Misa yelled, before calming herself down and resting her hand on Yan’s shoulder.

“Sorry for yelling, but please understand this is the only way out. Even if the town sends a rescue team, it’s impossible for them to make it through the ambushes and traps laid by the Chosen! They must have cut us off from the town by now with their sheer numbers. Don’t forget they have energy weapons – not even Captain Kai can go up against that without the right equipment.”

Yan pondered, realizing Misa was right. They were truly cornered by the enemy. The only hope now was to enter the ancient temple and hope that they could find another exit.

“But how are we going to break down the door? It might have been activated for a while, but right now nobody has seen the door move.”

“It might be opened now, but if not, we’ll just have to use our 10-meter-wide drill machine to force our way through. We haven’t tried that yet, and we might be able to. Otherwise, we can set a few mining charges and try that too.” Misa motioned outside of the tent.

They did have plenty of options to try and open the door, but both of them knew that the moment they did something to the door, the ‘Chosen’ would attack immediately.

They needed to plan this out over the next three days. “Call all the leaders into the command tent,” Misa ordered Yan.

The leaders gathered and started to organize a plan to pack up everything and move what they could carry into the ancient temple.

“Once we’re in the temple, we’ll collapse the entrance so they can’t enter. We’ll blow up every other mining equipment that we’re not bringing with us so they can’t use it to chase us.” Misa stated.

Though the town had spent a lot of their trade value to obtain that drilling machine, this plan now was the only viable one on the table. Misa began giving out orders to the various leaders.

“Lead Engineer Cuo, mark everything we can carry into the temple either via truck or by hand. If it’s too much of a burden, drop it. Pack them all into boxes and load what we’re not using now into the trucks.”

“Head Scientist Mo, start analyzing the material of the temple and try to peek inside if you can. Mark every essential sensor, throw away the rest.”

“Logistics Leader Lin, organize how we’re going to move into the temple. Split the equipment up into separate trucks so a single loss of a truck does not mean we’re crippled inside the temple.”

“Captain Ren, your men need to stall as long as possible once we open up the temple door. Have a retreat plan ready so you can enter the temple too.”

“Yan, you’re in charge of planning the entry into the temple. Set up a progressive plan that uses everything we can to get that door open in sequence. Explosives, if that fails then hand-drills, then big drill etc.”

“No one is allowed to die over the next three days, the fate of our town depends on us!”