Chapter 153 - Rising Morale

Sierra sighed as she sat in the command centre in front of her terminal. Two dozen controllers and operators were in front of her, scurrying about like busy ants as they handled the missions and recent events occurring all over the nearby area.

“Ma’am, we just lost contact with another rebel squad. They missed their regular check-in five times so far. The mission was a minor rank infiltration mission of a Bee Strathon mining operation.” One of the operators turned around from her terminal to look at Sierra.

“Do not attempt extraction. Mark the squad down as missing for now.” Sierra ordered. “Log this in the operational log for future reference, with their last check-in as a transcript.”

“Yes ma’am.” The operator returned to work, while Sierra pulled out the operational log for the last three days. “Close to 15% of our rebel squads have been lost or missing, while we can barely win against a full enforcer squad…” She mumbled to herself.

She pulled up a report from another squad which had found itself in conflict with an enforcer squad deep underground when securing a known slovesa ruin. It resulted in more than three-quarters of the rebel squad dying despite having a numerical advantage against the enforcer squad. The enforcer squad was made up of three Keepers.

The Keepers were the main elite enemy that Sierra had placed a heavy focus on. They had limited information on it, and that’s even including what Halyon had told to them. Despite Halyon’s information, he had left the Keepers more than a year ago, so his information was not up to date at all.

“The capabilities of the Keepers are increasing, and so are their numbers…” Rumours of a 2nd Generation Keepers have been going around, making Sierra even warier. The recent report she was currently looking at was exactly the result of a conflict with the 2nd Generation Keepers.

The ‘White Fang’ somehow managed to obtain the detailed schematics of the 1st Generation Keeper exosuit from an unknown source at the same time ‘Dumpling’ joined, but Sierra didn’t think ‘Dumpling’ had the chops to actually obtain such a critical element.

Right now, no one in the rebellion had any understanding of how the 2nd Generation Keeper exosuit worked, where its weaknesses were and so on. The sparse amount of Athen Defender exosuits they had captured did not help to glimpse any idea of how to win against the new Keepers and they have yet to test what they’ve learnt against a real 1st Generation Keeper.

There were a few critical-rank rebel agents in the ‘White Fang’ that could theoretically beat a Keeper with his drones head-on, but they were precious assets. Based on Sierra’s estimates alone, it seemed that there were going to be more than a thousand 2nd Generation Keepers alone.

It was a far cry from the previous hundred Keepers that they were fighting against, and they were only one rebel cell. This meant that they were only contesting approximately five Keepers at any given time, allowing Sierra to deploy the critical-rank rebel agents against them to force a stalemate.

Now, however, the 2nd Generation Keepers could easily overwhelm them in a direct confrontation.

The reports from the command center continued to stream in over a few hours, as it was obvious that the enforcers were beginning to clamp down on the supply lines of the rebellion everywhere.

The ‘White Fang’ was not different from the other rebel cells, suffering greatly as it was forced to recall its members or outright abort missions.

Many suppliers also immediately changed sides in exchange for a pardon, effectively cutting off the rebellion’s lifeline.

Every day was only getting worse. “Hopefully the upcoming prison break will be the turning point for the rebellion,” Sierra mumbled to herself. If things continued for more than a month at this pace, the rebellion might cease to exist.

Suddenly, loud sounds of cheering and celebrating could be heard from outside the command centre.

“What’s going on? Isn’t the nutri-paste competition cancelled?” Sierra asked. She had pre-emptively cancelled the annual nutri-paste competition to reduce wastage and conserve supplies. How were people celebrating in such a dire situation?

“Ma’am, it looks like one of the minor-rank rebel squads have returned to the hangar bay.”

Sierra sighed. “Are we so down on our morale that we have to cheer this much just for the success of a minor-rank mission?” She decided to head out of the command centre just to see what the fuss was all about.

The command’s centre exit led to a narrow hallway which ended on the top floor of the hangar bay, showing a crowd gathering around a rebel squad at one of the docks, cheering loud enough for it to echo across the expansive hangar bay. “Which squad is it?”

“Ma’am, it’s ‘Snow Bunny’, ‘Flowing Water’ and ‘Dumpling’.”

Her eyebrows immediately twitch upon recalling ‘Dumpling’ nonchalant attitude towards her presentation, even dissing the Martyr.

“What’s all this cheering for?!” Sierra yelled with a loud voice, causing the cheering to die down as she reached the dock in which the squad had returned.

“It’s good that a rebel squad has returned, but it’s no reason for all of you to throw such a nuisance. You’re delaying your assigned tasks and disturbing the others in the rebel base!”

Sierra walked forwards angrily, causing the crowd to immediately part ways to allow her to reach ‘Dumpling’. She was about to scold ‘Dumpling’ for instigating such a large event when what she saw caused the words to be stuck in her throat.

“Wha…. That’s an entire Athen Defender exosuit!” Sierra gasped, seeing the unconscious Athen Defender exosuit in the hovercar that the squad took back to the base from the safe house in the Abela Forest.

It was a huge win, especially with the recent militarization of the enforcers. Sierra was already reeling from the implications of having such intelligence.

“Complete with a human body inside. Don’t worry, I made sure he’s alive.” Ceres nodded.

The crowd took notice of Sierra’s shocked expression, immediately cheering again.

“Take that you stupid enforcers! Who said we can’t beat them? We can even capture them wholesale!”

The crowd was even more riled up as the recovering Randy exaggerated the stories of Ceres’s fighting skills even far more beyond what happened, with Don simply silently nodding at the side.

Sierra couldn’t believe the story that Randy was telling, but it progressively got even more shocking.

“That’s not all!” Don smiled as he reached into the hovercar and grabbed another restrained exosuit out. “Behold! A 2ndGeneration Keeper!”

This sent the crowd into a frenzy, and Sierra almost couldn’t stop herself from smiling. Just as she was about to praise the squad for such a big achievement, she notice ‘Dumpling’ somehow looking at her expectantly, though she imagined a smug grinning expression behind the black mask.

The thought immediately pissed her off, causing her to get angry and disperse the crowd through threats of corporeal punishments.

She quickly got a team to bring the two captured enforcers to the medical bay. Such highly-valued sources of information needed to be kept alive.

[‘Dumpling’, ‘Flowing Water’ and ‘Snow Bunny’, please report to the ‘White Fang’ office for debriefing on successfully capturing a 2ndGeneration Keeper and an Athen Defender.] An announcement rang out through the rebel base, causing everyone listening to be stunned.

Those that did not see it in person at the hangar bay were stunned in disbelief. Everyone knew that after the press conference of Oliver, the 2nd Generation Keepers have been out in force, contesting their squads. Many had friends who were considered dead or missing out in the field, so the announcement was a huge shock.

Randy walked smugly towards the office, waving at the other rebels who decided not to wave back. “I’m a bonafide celebrity now! It won’t be long before I become the top-ranked rebel agent!”

“Shut up, ‘Dumpling’ practically did everything for us, we shouldn’t be sharing the spotlight with him.” Don slapped the back of Randy, who winced. His wounds were still hurting slightly, but he was well enough to walk around. Such was the miracle of modern medicine.

They entered the office proudly, seeing the ‘White Fang’ sitting in his chair with Sierra standing behind him.

“On behalf of the rebellion, I must thank you for such a tremendous achievement despite the current circumstances. To be able to capture a Keeper with just the three of you is an almost impossible feat.” The ‘White Fang’ said with pride.

“Thank you! It was all in a day’s work!” Randy proudly inflated his chest.

“As part of such an outstanding achievement and due to our current situation, I have decided to promote each of you to major-rank agents. While taking down a Keeper is usually synonymous with top-rank agents, the fact remains that you actually failed your main mission, which was to retrieve the shipment of exosuit parts.”

Don flinched, knowing the mission failure was partly his fault. He had been too comfortable with the mission, having known Regan for close to two years now. He should have been more aware of the changes in the planet and subsequently in the sneaky Regan.

Don suddenly grabbed Randy’s wrist and lifted it. “The both of us refuse the promotion. The truth of the matter is that ‘Dumpling’ was the main reason why any of this even worked out the way it did.”

“What?! I want to be a major-rank agent!” Randy tried to pull his wrist away, but Don gripped it even harder.

“Don’t you remember how badly hurt you were against a single Athen Defender?” Don whispered angrily.

The reminder shocked Randy, making him recall the dread and trembling he felt when he had known his death was coming. He fell silent, eventually nodding in agreement with Don.

“Okay, I will not force you to take on the promotion if you feel you are not ready. The promotion is open to you whenever. How about you, ‘Dumpling’?” The ‘White Fang’ asked.

“I accept.” Ceres immediately replied.

“Good, we will debrief the three of you separately. For now, I’ll like to have a word with our newest major-rank agent. Sierra, please bring the two of them to the debriefing area first and update the agent list accordingly.”

Sierra was stunned. This was the third time the ‘White Fang’ has asked her away when he was talking with ‘Dumpling’. She recalled the history of the ’17 Dumplings’ but she could not pinpoint any relationship with the ‘White Fang’ at all!

She complied however, leading Don and Randy out of the office. As the door slammed shut, the ‘White Fang’ let out an agonizing groan.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay under the radar?! Why would you do such an irresponsible thing?” Ardan accused Ceres.

“Ardan, be honest with me. Is the rebellion about to fail?” Ceres asked directly.

He did not know the specifics of what was happening internally, but the press conference was known to everyone and the continuous aggression and increased activity from the Keepers and enforcers was apparent.

Through his unique ability to sense emotions, he could already directly see that Ardan was plagued with frustration and nervousness since the press conference.

The insecurity amongst the rebels was at an all-time high, none of them knowing if the rebellion would still be around the next day.

Ceres had thus decided to make a big event, and he was extremely lucky that they only decided to send a single Keeper over. He had manipulated the emotions of the Oraous in the forest, invoking their fear and subsequently their anger when they got closer to the Keeper.

Ardan sighed. “I forgot about your damn ability. Can’t really hide anything from you anymore huh?”

“If the rebellion is about to collapse, there’s no point hiding my skills anymore. We have to go all out.” Ceres said.

“You’re right. At our current estimate, the rebellion would collapse in just a little more than a month. That’s the point where our supplies would be at dangerous levels, and we won’t have the budget to purchase from our suppliers anymore. Not to mention our suppliers are all turning on us as well.” Ardan stood up from his chair, pacing around the room.

“The attack in Rockhold has also seriously jeopardized the Queen, or should I say Cardenia? She can no longer provide the necessary supplies for us to operate seeing as she has bigger problems of her own. About thirty percent of our supplies come through her, so it’s looking bad for us.”

“But there’s a silver lining. The enforcers are now currently hellbent on squashing our supply lines permanently, and that involves taking over Rockhold as well. There are more factors involved, like the Five Families wanting to control the flow of illegal trade for their own benefit rather than pay the middleman.”

“This means that Rockhold is currently a large diversion for us, which allows us to attack another target of our choice without too much resistance.” Ardan tapped the table, swiping up a holographic image of a rocky asteroid.

“The prison break,” Ceres said, to which Ardan nodded.

“Exactly. This will be the do-or-die battle for the rebellion. It’s either this, or we all die in a slow burn, continuously being eaten away at the edges by the enforcers. If we managed to release the hundreds of thousands of prisoners, it will damage the reputation of the enforcers and destabilize the support that they have.”

Ceres frowned. “Not all those prisoners are people who will join us, right?”

“We don’t really have a choice. We need to gather everyone who is dissatisfied with the current regime. All of the prisoners theoretically should have some sort of agenda against the Five Families. So while they may not submit to us, releasing them will give the enforcers a hell of a time.”

Ceres frowned. “This sounds like a very desperate attempt. The way you pitched it to me earlier was that the prison break was specifically to save our own people.” He was referring to Braton and Lisa but knew that the rebellion probably organized it to save their own captured agents as well.

“Things have changed, and you and I both know it. If we don’t do this, the rebellion will slowly bleed away as Oliver begins his campaign to stabilize the planet. We need to create more opposition to him to prevent him from establishing his own legitimacy at all costs. This means having to compromise, Ceres. This is the nature of the world.” Ardan spoke with certainty.

The past five years with the rebellion have taught him about the harsh nature of the world, and how to survive.

If Ardan had stuck to his morals, he would have never made it to where he was today in the rebellion. Flexibility was the rule of the game, and Ardan stuck to it well.

If he didn’t, how could he have saved Ceres?

However, Ceres could not so easily agree to a mission like this. He could already see the large repercussions, as much as he understood where Ardan was coming from.

“You’re talking about releasing god knows what in that prison. That could be rapists, mass murderers, convicted Brood Hosts and so on.” Ceres argued back. He knew the prison did not just only hold rebels and former rioters, but everyone who had run foul of the laws of Athen.

Releasing them back into society just to simply act as a distraction is a terrible idea from Ceres’s point of view. What if the released criminals go on to inflict untold crimes on the general populace?

He had just made a commitment to consider the impact of his actions, and the idea of releasing every single prisoner was not something to take lightly.

Ardan didn’t flinch, pulling out a series of graphs that all showed a declining trend. “You probably know this since you decided to pull off such a big stunt to raise morale, but let me make it clear to you – if this prison break does not happen, it would be literally impossible to save the rebellion as it is now. Without the distraction and additional ‘help’, we won’t be able to survive the slow death.”

“Maybe if the rebellion can only survive by relying on criminals, then we’ve been doing it wrong the entire time.” Ceres fought back. “Maybe the rebellion as it is deserves to die in its current form and find other means of support.”

Ardan gripped the table tightly. “You may be right, but logistics and supply chains are not built on morals. You don’t seem to care that the ‘Victorious Revolt’ exosuit you’re wearing right now was bought through the Queen’s Guards, who had been engaged in the illegal trafficking of everything. Stop being so naïve, Ceres. Even if you disagree with the mission, it’s happening with or without you. I’m not about to let this rebellion die. Don’t you want to take revenge for Mr Qiu? For what they’ve done!”

“But not like this – you’re talking about collateral damage. Not all the inners are at fault!”

Ardan slammed the table in anger. “These ‘innocent’ inners are the ones facilitating everything! Their tacit approval and lack of initiative to fight against the status quo are exactly what keep Oliver in power. Don’t you see? No one is innocent in this whole fucked up world! They VOTED FOR HIM!”

“They don’t know the truth! You can’t blame them!”

“They don’t WANT to know the truth! Have you not seen the way your inner ‘friend’ Halyon tried to twist the facts to fit his worldview?!”

Ceres was stunned. Perhaps this was the first time the two of them had actually argued about something sincerely.

“You’ve changed, Ardan.” Ceres softly said.

“And you haven’t. I thought your ‘adventure’ through the underground city of Rockhold would have told you the truth of this brutal world. Society is changing around us, whether we like it or not. If we don’t change our methods, then the world will simply break us. And I will NOT break until our friends are saved.” Ardan said stoically, assuming an authoritative tone.

“It looks like you’re not ready to discuss the mission. I will not force you to join the mission, but it will be another two weeks until it commences. You have three days to tell me your final decision. If you don’t join the prison break, you’ll be fighting in Rockhold.” Ardan sat back in his chair, turning away from Ceres.

Ceres sighed, leaving the office slightly angrily. Of course, he wanted to take revenge for what’s happened, but knowing the scale of the damage that he was about to facilitate made him pause.

It was a bit of a shock to see Ardan nonchalantly decide to release criminals so irresponsibly. He understood the logic behind wanting to spread chaos through the society to buy time for the rebellion and also to exploit cracks in the administration to carry out a coup, but wouldn’t this mean that the innocent citizens would suffer heavily?

“But if we don’t release the criminals, the rebellion would eventually die and more outer citizens would suffer…” The worm plague may have been stopped in Rockhold but plenty of other university projects were still going on. The Relocation Program was obviously a front for the University to collect willing research subjects for human trials.

If and when the enforcers attack Rockhold, more and more civilians would be subjected to the same human trials.

Was it okay to commit lesser evil to stop a bigger evil? Is he even fit to be the final moral arbitrator on what was lesser and what was bigger? This plagued Ceres for a while as he walked back through the base, heading back to his bunk.

He recalled his massacre of the tribal humans, who had attacked him first and were the aggressors towards the town in the subterranean layer.

Was it right for him to have even done that, even if they were cannibals? At the time, he was caught up in the heat of the moment, having to save the townspeople. Perhaps there was another solution, but even he couldn’t think of a nice safe solution after.

The internal contradictions began to torment him from within. Ceres didn’t think he could find a solution that soon. Revenge or morals? Could he even find a middle ground?