Chapter 152 - Ambush

Three heavy exosuits suddenly burst into action around Ceres, two leaping from their hiding positions between the stacks of crates and another from above.

“Those useless enforcers. Luckily, I was well prepared in advance. The lesson learnt is to never trust others!” Regan grinned as he ran away deeper into the factory, letting the three heavy exosuits clash with Ceres.

Ceres was already prepared, having seen them in advance. Almost nothing in the factory was hidden from him, even the fleeing Regan. He dodged out of the way, easily avoiding the pincer attack.

The three heavy exosuits were set up as a squad: one heavy brawler and two heavy assaults. The heavy brawler was effectively a brawler exosuit except it had two large circular shields grafted to its fists, allowing it to slam and protect simultaneously.

The heavy assaults were all equipped with an energy rifle along with an entire slew of grenades that could blow up an entire town. None of them was lacking in armour, making it impossible for Ceres to break through the armour with his pitiful energy rifle in a short amount of time.

Ceres grimaced as the heavy brawler continuously kept close to him, pressuring him. Ceres could immediately tell that the specifications of these exosuits were on a whole another level. “Which mercenary outfit are you guys from?”

The three heavy exosuits did not reply, staying professional and continuously cornering Ceres, forcing him to dodge and weave through the factory.

Sparks and machines were continuously destroyed as energy shots seared their way through, chasing Ceres doggedly.

Ceres racked his brains, trying to think of a way to fight against the heavy exosuits. His spear was too weak, and his energy rifle was useless. “Guess I have no choice but to run!”

Fighting here with the black-scale armour would risk his exposure.

He had already slightly exposed himself with the way he took down the enforcer squad, and he had no doubt that eventually, the enforcers would come looking. The longer he stayed in this factory, the higher the chance of failure.

He immediately began to retreat, kicking a large stack of crates over and causing a large domino effect across the entire factory, with the crates of exosuit parts falling onto the assembly line and damaging machines.

The ensuing wreckage caught the three heavy exosuits off guard, allowing Ceres to quickly escape the factory.

Outside, he quickly ran down the street, but not before grabbing the still-unconscious lead enforcer.

With two hands, he hauled the Athen Defender onto his shoulder, running towards Don and Randy, who were starting to recover. “Don, get in the enforcer’s hovercar, quick!”

Don nodded, quickly hoisting the wounded Randy before limping over as fast as he could. Their own rebel hovercar was already damaged, so they had no choice but to grab the enforcer’s hovercar. Ceres hopped in through the hole in the roof, unlocking the hovercar from within using the dead’s driver fingerprints to allow Don to place Randy inside.

The enforcer’s hovercar roared to life, with Ceres maximizing the throttle and causing the hovercar to speed off far beyond it’s speed limit. Don immediately got to work, whipping out his multi-scanner to find the default tracker that was built into every enforcer’s hovercar. “Found it!”

Don immediately pulled out his rifle and shot the tracker to pieces. “We’re clear now, thank god.” He slumped against the wall of the hovercar, looking at Randy’s wounded body. “Wasn’t this supposed to be a minor rank mission?!”

Ceres frowned. Due to his innate ability to absorb electromagnetic radiation, he could still sense some form of transmission slowly emitting in the hovervan, though it was not very precise. “There’s still a tracker present here, somewhere.”

“What?!” Don now trusted Ceres wholeheartedly, especially after how Ceres managed to pull them out of that mess. He took out his scanner again, diligently checking every corner and scanning the spectrum.

“I don’t see anything…. Wait it’s on the Athen Defender!” He flipped the unconscious Athen Defender over, the scanner reporting that there was a tracker embedded in the chest armour.

Setting the hovervans to automatic mode, Ceres quickly clambered over to the back, taking out his spear and shortening it to form a sort of small handheld spearhead.

With a screeching sound, he carved as hard as he could, gaining notch after notch into the armour before he finally managed to dig out the tracker, a small little chip with a patch antenna on it. It was crushed by Ceres immediately.

“If we stay in the air too long, we’re going to be spotted immediately by the satellites. How far to the nearest tunnel?” Ceres asked.

The orbital observation capabilities were nothing to scoff at, and he had no doubt that the enforcers could very clearly see one of their own patrol hovercars deviating far off course.

The ‘White Fang’ had a dozen pre-defined secret tunnels that led to an intermediate safehouse, facilitating surface operations. “It’s going to take ten minutes, the nearest one is the Abela Forest!”

The Abela Forest was an extremely dense forest, which was perfect for the rebellion to hide in. The intense flora was a stark contrast to the wide savannah plains that surrounded New Saint, defining a new ecosystem region on Athen. Many of the plants here thrived in the high heat of the surface, somehow flourishing under the intense light from the star during the day.

At night, the temperature in the forest was much warmer than in the open plains. However, it was unsuitable for human habitation as too much work needed to be done to clear a proper foundation. It was also teeming with hostile wildlife that many small colonist groups simply did not have the time or money to contend with.

The Abela Forest was not desirable at all as well, as it had almost no mineral veins here at all, as though it was a specially created zone. Some humans attributed it to a special research project conducted by the former slovesa owners of the planet, but it now remained as a case study on unique flora untouched by humans.

“Too long, fly for five minutes and drop into the forest, we’ll make the rest of the way on foot,” Ceres ordered, to which Don complied.

Ceres wasn’t the leader of the squad, but he had definitely earned it by sheer strength and competence. Don wasn’t about to argue with a guy who could take down three Athen Defenders on his own.

Five minutes later, Ceres and Don were trekking uphill through the dense forest, with Don carrying Randy while Ceres carried the unconscious Athen Defender.

“Why are you even still carrying that guy? Shouldn’t we kill him and be done with it?” Don said while he panted.

“He holds valuable information about the newly militarized enforcers, and it’s not every day you get to capture an almost intact Athen Defender. We need to see what upgrades and how the enforcers are changing from within,” Ceres explained. Through his time in the rebellion, he had been made acutely aware of how far behind the rebellion was in terms of fully understanding their opponent. It could be said that he was the only one who had fully disassembled a Keeper exosuit before.

It was surprising that Halyon was treated as a high-value source of information by the rebels, which spoke volumes about their lack of information. Ceres intended to bring this lead enforcer back as yet another possible source of information of future trends.

Don nodded, but in his head, he was still wondering how in the world did Ceres get this kind of skill. The sudden show of strength was too much for his head. “Was he just playing house with us? Either way, I’m not complaining as long as I’m still alive.” He was at least grateful that Ceres seemed to have brought out everything to save them, which meant a lot to him.

“Thanks for saving us, I don’t know why you’ve been hiding your strength in the rebellion, but thank you.” Don bowed his head, to which Ceres shook his head vigorously. “I’m not hiding my strength for ego or fun, I was requested to.”

“By who?”

“That I can’t say, yet. I promise I’ll tell you everything in the future.” Ceres couldn’t reveal that it was Ardan who told him to stay under the radar. “For now, keep this a secret and just say we got lucky.”

Don nodded in agreement. What he did not know was that this wasn’t even the extent of the things that Ceres was hiding. If he had seen the black-scale armour in action he might have lost his mind immediately.

Ceres felt good about saving his comrades. Though he was still held back due to being unable to reveal his strength fully, it was a lot better than the battle for the temple, in which he did not utilize his full strength and caused the town chief to be heavily injured in turn.

He looked at the sleeping Randy, who had been fed with anaesthetics. Perhaps if he fought back earlier with his full strength, Randy wouldn’t be this badly hurt. However, he knew that if he showed off the black armour, the potential troubles would be much worse than this.

Ceres was grateful that at least all three of them were still alive despite the disastrous outcome of the mission.

“So, how do you feel about failing your first mission? Looks like you’re not going to get the chance to impress Sierra.” Don tried cracking a joke to change the atmosphere, causing Ceres to be confused.

“Huh? Why do I want to impress Sierra?”

“Don’t need to act all dumb, we all know what’s going on between you two,” Don said with a knowing face, but he suddenly noticed something high above in the air, far beyond the towering trees. “Did you see something up there?”

Ceres looked up as he continued trekking. “Yea, there’s one drop-pod coming in from orbit straight for us.” He could see the tiny ‘star’ streaking across the sky, seemingly coming towards them.

“What?!” Don was surprised. “How can you even see that far and clearly?”

“Wait, then what did you see?” Ceres was confused.

“I saw some sort of humanoid figure leaping across the trees,” Don whispered over. “Multiple of them, in fact.”

Ceres immediately activated his vision, trying to spot all living forms. However, he was soon overwhelmed by the sheer scale of wildlife present in the area. A single tree had millions of lifeforms on it in the form of exotic insects and beetles. This blocked him from seeing anything in the forest at all, as each tree looked like a multi-coloured pillar that almost blinded him.

“We need to move faster, this is too dangerous, and the longer we stay here, the closer that drop-pod gets.” Ceres urged Don to move faster.

***

The drop-pod landed with a bang, the three doors sliding open with a pneumatic hiss to reveal three Athen Defender drones dropping to the ground with a thud. The drones moved forward into the forest, spotting the stolen enforcer hovercar. They aimed the rifles up, surrounding the hovercar with precise synchronization. It was as though they were all controlled by a single person, moving in tandem.

“They already ditched it. Most likely they already have escaped into the forest. Requesting orbital thermal imagery.” A Keeper spoke into his mic as he remained in the armoured drop-pod. It was standard protocol for a Keeper to let the drones do the dirty work, while the Keeper remained safe. The drones were replaceable after all.

The Athen Defender drones scanned the area, checking for any footprints. They soon found a single-file trail of footprints leading deep into the forest. The Keeper decided to wait for the thermal imaging before proceeding. While the drones were replaceable, his career record was not.

Every failed mission or loss of a drone would be a bad stain on his record, resulting in him either being demoted or simply left out of missions. The worst thing that could happen is his salary being docked. “No, no, no way. I’m going to do this by the book as slowly as possible.”

Soon, the thermal imagery came in, showing plenty of lifeforms. The Abela Forest was host to plenty of humanoid animals, making it hard for the Keeper to determine which one was human.

However, thanks to the neural networks employed by the command centre, the form of Ceres and Don carrying human bodies was quickly spotted out as an anomaly.

“Found them. About a few kilometres away. They are moving pretty fast.” A sudden series of energy shots rang out through the forest, along with a few stray shots shooting up into the empty sky and dissipating in the atmosphere.

The Keeper quickly grabbed his rifle and exited the drop-pod, signalling to his drones to chase in the direction of gunfire as he raced to join them. At their top speed, the exosuits managed to cross five kilometres in less than five minutes.

After running through the forest for about fifteen minutes, the Keeper’s squad finally came across three dead wildlife. It was the Keeper’s first time in the Abela Forest, and actually his first time out of the inner zones in New Saint, though he would never admit it. “What the hell is this?”

The dead humanoid lifeform looked like a cross between a wolf and a monkey, seemingly like a werewolf if it wasn’t for the additional pair of eyes along with an elongated snout with a tongue as long as its body. All of its limbs were equally designed, as though it did not differentiate between them for walking or running. Each of the limbs had three talons at the end, seemingly used for climbing and killing.

[INFO: It is a humanoid lifeform native to the planet Athen but restricted to the Abela Forest. Codename ‘A-348’ is a nocturnal hunter that uses its long tongue to snare its prey while its four limbs are able to chop anything apart. The tongue is able to regenerate in a matter of days even when cut off. Colloquially known as ‘Orauos’, it is the primary fascination of many exobiologists in Athen, though none have been known to survive in captivity beyond the Abela Forest.]

The Keeper’s exosuit read off a dictionary to him, but it made him even more scared. It looked like he wasn’t the only hunter in this forest.

The squad of drones continued to track the footprints, moving quietly this time.

As he moved, the Keeper watched a video of a recorded attack by the Oraous, being extremely brutal and efficient. It managed to kill close to three guards of a well-known mercenary outfit in the early days of Athen colonization.

The Keeper wasn’t sure if he could fend off such an unknown enemy, but the rebels seemed to be able to. “For them to able to defeat three of the Oraous, they must be extremely skilled.”

The Keeper could also tell that from the thermal imaging, the rebels were seemingly carrying the body of their colleagues as well, making him wonder how did they even fight them off?

Out of nowhere, a lashing tongue suddenly wrapped itself around one of the Keeper’s drones, with the Keeper immediately kicking into combat mode. The other two drones immediately sliced out the tongue, while the Keeper himself immediately scanned the surroundings for lifeforms. “Shit, I’m surrounded!”

Nine Oraous had positioned themselves all around him, clinging onto the high trees and screeching. The first attacking Oraous recoiled as its tongue was sliced off, but it still committed to the attack, unleashing its talons.

The fight was brutal, with the Keeper continuously focusing hard, allowing him to take down three Oraous. Suddenly, his scanner picked up more than ten lifeforms heading towards him. “What the? Where are they coming from?”

Though the Oraous were fearsome, they were no match against the cold unfeeling steel of the Keeper’s drones, who fought unwaveringly and stoically against the Oraous. The damage on the drones began to build up over time, even as the Keeper desperately tried to rotate the drones around to different positions to spread the damage incurred evenly.

“God dammit, if I can’t kill some stupid monkeys, the rest of the Keepers would laugh at me!” The Keeper yelled, pulling out all the stops. He even threw a few grenades, blasting five of the Oraous to bits.

One of the Oraous managed to land his talons onto him, damaging the back of his exosuits and ripping out his communication module. “Fuck off!” The Keeper swung his elbow back, crushing the snout of the Oraous in before he finished it off with a shot of his rifle. The brawl became increasingly more and more close quarters.

The Keeper drones’ began to fall one by one, until the fight was finally over. The Keeper stood victorious, breathing heavily as his exosuit was heavily scarred by the scratch marks of the Oraous.

Only one of the Athen Defender drones was left standing, but its’ mobility was already severely compromised.

The Keeper double-checked his exosuit systems, realizing that the shield and communications module was severely compromised. The armour was also weakened so much that a single energy shot would hurt him badly.

“Damn it, how did the rebels even get through this forest? I can’t go on any further, I have to retreat!” Before he could do anything, however, his scanner lit up with two lifeforms heading towards him. “Huh? More Oraous?”

But instead of a long sticky tongue, a long metal spear was flung towards the Athen Defender drone! The Keeper’s reaction was far too slow, so the drone was immediately impaled by the spear against a nearby tree, disabling, while a triple burst of energy shots hit the Keeper squarely in the chest, knocking him stumbling back.

It was Ceres and Don. Don quickly threw a device towards the Keeper, latching it onto the armour before it suddenly send a rapid shock through the exosuit.

It was the same device that disabled the armoured rebel hovercar, though the Keeper exosuit would have required more to be able to take it down. The circuits built in the exosuit easily filtered out the high current and dissipated it, allowing the Keeper to recover immediately and fire back at Don.

Don yelped and dodged out of the way, rolling in the grass behind a tree, while Ceres leapt and stepped off a tree trunk before lunging from above towards the Keeper, delivering a fast punch.

The punch hit the Keeper right on the helmet, but the internal defence of the exosuit allowed him to withstand the hit. The Keeper immediately used his right hand to deliver an uppercut to Ceres’s chin, hoping to incapacitate him with a direct concussion.

However, instead of being sent flying into the air, the Keeper’s fist was stopped right at Ceres’s chin, as though it had hit a hard wall.

Instead, the Keeper felt the pain recoil into his fist, causing him to yell in pain. “Sorry, that first punch wasn’t my best, I’ll do better now!” Ceres grinned under the mask.

Grabbing the Keeper’s helmet with his left hand, he nocked back his right hand and delivered a strong punch. The punch was so strong that it immediately fragmented the helmet like a crumpling bumper of a hovercar, causing it to snap apart to reveal the Keeper’s bloodied face.

No one could survive such a punch without the defence of the exosuit, so the remaining force immediately knocked the Keeper out cold. The struggling drone that was still impaled on the tree immediately stopped functioning as though it was turned off.

Don just stared at Ceres in awe, looking at the knocked-out Keeper who collapsed to the floor on his knees and the destroyed drones scattered around. “Are you some kind of martial arts god?”