Chapter 146 - Justification for Justice

“Kitana, protect the family! Don’t worry I’ll come back soon. Get your mum and brother out of here!” A man’s voice yelled before he was grabbed by a multitude of hands, ripping him limb from him right in front of a young girl holding a baby boy.

Kitana jolted awake with a sharp scream, her back drenched in sweat as she panted heavily. She quickly looked around her, her mind still locked in the nightmare she had just experienced.

The holographic wall clock showed that it’s only been four hours since she arrived and verified the year and date, causing her to let out a sigh of relief.

She was in her own room, which had been kept properly by her mum. The apartment was large enough for each of them to have their own room and even their own personal toilet, something she did not enjoy in her old flat.

“That damn dream again…” Kitana cursed under her breath as she decided to get up and take a quick shower. The shower set was not the latest model that applied gaseous cleaning to quickly clean the user in less than 3 minutes, instead being one of the older water models.

“Need to upgrade the showers…” Kitana frowned. She had been too used to the rapid gaseous cleaning showers used by the enforcers, but she decided to relax and enjoy the water shower.

As she exited the shower rubbing her face with a towel, she instinctively reached out with her left hand to grab her Keeper’s mustard suit, but soon realized that she was not in the enforcer’s base but at home.

It had just only really hit her that she was now home, and she was really on leave. Somehow a part of her just did not sit right with her like this. There were still cases to solve, and criminals to catch.

She took a deep breath, calming herself down. “Come on Kitana, just relax. You earned this.” Grabbing her old pyjamas, she lay down on the bed, trying to rest.

Despite the self-consolation, Kitana knew the job was not looking good. The incidents in Rockhold and the increase in smuggling all pointed to something dangerous looming on the horizon, even though every mission she took was aimed at preventing that from happening.

She felt insignificant, unable to change the course of anything even if she tried her best. While she was still brooding deep in thought, she could hear her mum mumbling something outside.

Kitana tiptoed her way to the room door, peeking out to see what her mum was doing. In front of the ‘family wall’, her mum was kneeling in front of a picture of Kitana’s father.

“John, your daughter is back. I still believe you’re alive, that you’re out there somewhere, helping others like you always do. All I ask for is that you please come back soon…” The mum begged.

Kitana’s heart clenched as she saw her mom begin to sob.

The nightmare she just woke up from was her last traumatic memory of her father saving the family from the rioters. Her father was not an enforcer but was just a normal miner who did everything he could to support his family.

Kitana had always assumed in her heart that her father was long dead from the most recent riots, but ‘officially’ her father was considered missing.

Her mum on the other hand still held out hope that he was still alive and out there somewhere.

Kitana knew from some favours she pulled through the enforcers. that her mum had still been waiting an hour every day at her parents’ favourite dating spot, where they first met. Her mum would sit there, continuously looking out hoping for her father’s return.

Kitana’s mum was not the only one. Countless other inners suffered at the hands of the outers during the riots. Her story was just one of thousands of families torn apart.

She knew better than her mum, however – the violent outers would never let a guy like her father survive with them. Not with the way she saw them act during the riots.

Not with the way they tried to kill their entire family.

Kitana felt sorrow for her mum, but she did not accept the same viewpoint as her mother.

Instead of wallowing in hope, Kitana had already lost hope and implemented action. This was why when she got the offer to become an enforcer, she jumped on the opportunity immediately.

Justice and order did not come without action. Someone has to do it.

“Sister..?” Kieran was awake as well, noticing Kitana peeking through the room door.

Immediately Kitana’s face lightened up, using her hand to silently motion for Kieran to remain quiet and come over to her room.

Kieran obediently waddled over to the room, before Kitana closed the door as silently as she could. Kitana turned to face Kieran, who simply stared at her. The two fell into a slightly awkward silence, as Kitana’s brain was racing for conversation ideas.

“Fuck me, nothing comes to mind. What should I talk about?” Kitana swore to herself. She was never really good at interpersonal relations, which was probably a reason why the rest of the Keepers treated her with fear and distanced respect.

She noticed Kieran still holding the model of the Athen Defender exosuit. “You really like exosuits huh?”

“Yep!” Kieran nodded his head vigorously. “I want to wear exosuits one day and fly amongst the stars! I’ll fight in glorious battles across the Neadrsa Fields and venture into the Beyond!”

Kitana was slightly taken aback by the precise declaration but played along anyway. “Looks like you got everything planned out already. If you have any questions about piloting exosuits like that model, you can ask me!” She pointed to herself proudly.

“Huh? You can use exosuits?” Kieran asked with a hint of confusion.

“Yes! In fact, I’ve spent more than two thousand hours inside an exosuit so far.”

“No, you’re lying!” Kieran shook his head. “Exosuit users don’t go anywhere without their exosuits!”

Kitana was stunned, not sure how to explain the idea of restricted equipment and her inability to bring out such an expensive exosuit to her home just to show.

“Also! Exosuit users are always part of grand space battles! If you’re here, you can’t be a real exosuit user!” Kieran pointed confidently.

She wondered what kind of comic or holo-series Kieran was watching, but she could already infer that many depictions of exosuit pilots were of the more famous ones across the Loeric Empire and the greater part of human-controlled space.

Many of the holo-shows and films naturally pounced on glorious war stories by legendary figures across the galaxy, fighting against gruesome aliens and humongous warships, blowing them up from within!

“cough… I too have been part of such grand space battles!” Kitana tried to defend herself, not sure why she felt so attacked by the naïve accusations of her seven-year-old brother. “But even every great exosuit user has something they fight for, and you’re the reason why I fight those space battles!”

“Me?”

“Yes! A great exosuit user both does their job well and takes care of who matters to them the most. You and Mum matter the most to me, which gives me the strength to keep doing my job!”

It took a bit more explaining over a few minutes, but eventually, Kieran got around to accepting the fact that Kitana was a bonafide exosuit user.

“Tell me more about the space battles you fought!”

Kitana was about to tell a few stories when she realized the only space battle, she had truly been involved in was when the rebellion raided them more than a year ago. “Hmm, how about instead of telling you, I’ll show you!”

“You have an exosuit here? I’m already almost done with this one…” Kieran pointed at the model of the Athen Defender in his hand.

“No, but you haven’t opened all my gifts yet right?” Kitana smiled, walking over to the pile of gift boxes in her room and passed a hefty box to Kieran. “What are you waiting for? Open it!”

Kieran assumed it was another cool exosuit model, but as he saw the packaging within he got even more excited.

“It’s the latest VR headset! YES! Finally, I can show this off to my friends!” Kieran gasped with surprise.

VR was only usually effective on users who had a nerval jack. Anyone younger had to deal with a lower fidelity and senses. However, their body also had to be restricted by using nerval drugs to prevent them from accidentally hitting themselves.

Most nerval drugs were proven to be detrimental to young kids like Kieran, but no sane business was going to give up such a large market, especially when kids were more likely to become addicted to the VR games they played.

Rawes Industries had since developed a headset that allowed young kids to experience the VR world while releasing non-harmful radio waves that made the body slightly more sluggish, preventing them from coming into sudden physical injury.

Kitana still had to take measures to make sure Kieran didn’t move around too much when he was wearing the headset, so the VR headset came along with a few weights that would be tied around the arms of the kid to ensure that when he tried to move his physical body too much, the weight would change variably to ensure the body remains fixed in the calibrated position.

Kitana quickly got Kieran to lie down in the bed, calibrating the weights with the headset on. It went without saying that Kieran could not do this alone, nor did Rawes Industries intend for young kids to enter the VR world without such parental supervision! This was the real reason that led to the increase in sales all over Athen.

Once the weights were calibrated, Kitana quickly synchronized the VR headset with her own personal VR pod. She too had her VR pod next to her bed, as did every well-to-do resident of the inner zones. “Kieran, I want you to shout immediately in case anything feels off to you, okay?”

Kieran nodded, with Kitana immediately logging into the VR pod. The nerval plug locked into place with the nape of her neck, allowing her to dive into the console of the VR. Kieran’s VR headset lit up too, allowing him to view the VR world as though he was truly there. The headset then picked up the brainwaves of his brain when he wanted to move, simulating the motion.

After the initial calibration of brainwaves, Kieran was already able to enjoy basic functionality in the empty white world of VR, jumping around. “This already looks amazing!” Kieran had already forgotten the feeling of his actual body, but the headset was calibrated to detect such a thought too, at which point the synchronization will break off as an emergency procedure.

All of these was part of governmental regulations, ensuring VR headset does not kill their users despite being a fad with it in the early 2300s.

Kitana logged into her favourite game – ‘Shattered Empire’.

In order to protect her family she trained from young in the VR pod to fight, originally aspiring to join the military. The number of hours she put into the game was near enough for her to enter the professional league. The number of chat bans she got for hate speech was remarkable as well.

Kitana’s avatar loaded into the lobby, being her body except with a blank face, preventing others from tracing her looks. It was a common action amongst those who played VR games, ensuring that their avatars looked nothing like their original self to prevent doxing.

She had not played Shattered Empire for a year now, so she stopped to take in all the sights once more as the nostalgia hit her slightly. For Kieran, he was tagged along as an observer, able to walk around freely with Kitana but unable to interact with anything.

Thousands of other players were gathered in the large lobby, waiting for the next match or simply using the lobby to hang out. Many guilds were recruiting, and some were even offering their boosting services.

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“Sis, what’s a sex toy?” Kieran asked innocently, making Kitana realize that she did not turn on child mode. She quickly turned on the profanity filter and blood filter, or else her mum might kill her for exposing Kieran to such content. However, the fact that Kieran finally called her ‘Sis’ instead of the formal ‘Sister’ already sent happy tingles into her brain.

“Don’t worry about it, you’ll learn about it when you grow up. Cough cough… do you see all the other exosuits over there in the virtual shop? Let’s go and check them out!” Kitana tried to divert Kieran’s attention, which worked instantly.

As Kieran excitedly inspected all the premium exosuits in the virtual shop, Kitana immediately pulled out the matchmaking system. “Hmm, I want to impress Kieran, so let’s just choose a low-rank match. Maybe a 50v50 small scale, otherwise Kieran might get too distracted from me.”

Queuing up, she joined Kieran and did a trial for the premium exosuits, allowing her to wear the exosuit. Kieran was awed by the design of some of the exosuits, and was even more convinced that Kitana was a real exosuit wearer since she could easily demonstrate all the weapons on the exosuit!

“Here’s the standard military rifleman exosuit ‘Iron Bullet’, but it’s customized to look like a phoenix. It has extremely fast thrusters that allow rapid positioning, modified for players who rely on outmanoeuvring their opponents in shootouts rather than firepower…” Kitana explained the exosuit to Kieran, who obviously did not understand and bobbed his head excitedly.

Suddenly, the match was ready, and Kitana was warped to the staging ground for the battle. It turned out to be a moon base, something Kitana was not really experienced in. “Wow, space!” Kieran laughed happily as he bounced up and down from the lower gravity.

It was a simple unranked match, so there was plenty of joking and taunting between the two teams. Kitana smiled as she felt as though she was back in her element while ensuring that the chat filter was on for Kieran.

Kieran could not interact with anyone or anything other than the ground, so he quickly became bored. “Sis, when do I get to fight in the battle?”

“Only when you’re 13 years old, Kieran. You need to grow up first. For now, let me show you how a top-tier exosuit wearer like me wins!” Kitana proudly declared, getting Kieran even more excited.

She pulled out the loadout menu, explaining to Kieran what she was thinking when she chose her exosuit and loadout. Kitana was the most comfortable in a rifleman exosuit, so she chose the same modified ‘Iron Bullet’ exosuit that she tried on at the shop.

“Sis, you look like a phoenix!” Kieran jumped around Kitana as the exosuit appeared on her body. The decal of the exosuit was red and yellow flame logos and designs, and when the thrusters fired blue it looked extremely cool.

Kitana usually would have gone for a more subdued tone, as such a decal would be tantamount to asking the enemy to focus on you, but she also had the objective of showing off to Kieran!

Knowing that flashy movements would be what Kieran expected from battles in space, she turned her entire loadout into mobility, ensuring that she could rapidly accelerate in almost any direction. “Feels more like I’m an aerial assault exosuit at this rate.”

Theoretically, with the lower gravity, she could easily ‘fly’, but she knew her exosuit was not as good as a real aerial exosuit at dodging shots. She decided to invest a little more into defence, making sure her shield was more than what was usually necessary as well as purchasing a disposable barrier shield. “Can’t have myself dying in the first engagement when I’m trying to show off.”

Soon, the battle was about to commence.

“The objective is to blow up the base, and we need to destroy these three reactors to do so!” Kitana pointed out to Kieran, who was not too clear on what was supposed to happen until Kitana dumbed it down even further for him.

The starting point for the attackers was on an orbiting ship and the attackers could land anywhere they wanted to. In a real-life confrontation, the attackers might have landed on the other side and set up a proper supply network before engaging, but this was ‘Shattered Empire’.

[Battle Commencing: Time Limit – 30 minutes till Defenders win. BEGIN!]

Kitana rushed forward solo right out of the ship, diving from orbit as her back thruster burned blue, accelerating her towards the ground. Kieran was tied to her as an observer, but he felt the same rush and adrenaline, screaming in excitement.

Hundreds of defender lasers and bullets rushed forward to greet her, prompting her to deploy her only disposable barrier shield under her.

There was no sound in space, but the vibrations from the impacts on the shields travelled through her exosuits, rocking the shield violently and threatening to flip as she fell. She fired her thrusters to counteract the rotational momentum being imparted by the numerous hits.

Her attacking team were no slouches either, each diving in their own unique way. The attackers began to bombard the base as well, wearing down the overall asteroid base shield from high above by dropping bombs and firing large energy cannons. One rich player even brought an entire large mech suit down, threatening to immediately ‘pop’ the base’s shield.

However, the defenders did not lack rich players too.

An opposing mech suit rushed up into the air to block them, fighting between the two of them. Kitana was not about to get involved in a battle over whose bank account was bigger, so she focused on landing on the moon first.

The surface quickly rushed towards Kitana, and the figures of the defenders slowly became more and more visible. Firing her thrusters and controlling the trajectory of her descent, she aimed her damaged barrier shield at a squad of three defenders hiding in a moon crater before kicking off the shield towards them.

The shield slammed against the unprepared defender, while Kitana used her thrusters to suddenly break into a hover, wielding her rifle and immediately firing off precise shots. Within a few seconds of engagement, Kitana had already wiped out the squad with her deft movements, securing the moon crater.

“WOW!” Kieran cheered as Kitana quickly checked the bodies of the defenders, seeing if they had any ordinance left. She had funnelled her starting match funds into her exosuit, and her only usable item was the barrier shield, which was now already broken beyond repair.

“Nice found a few smoke grenades!” Kitana smiled, before loading the grenades into her exosuit’s waist. The sounds of battle became even more intense as the attackers too gradually landed into other craters.

Kitana peeped over the edge of the crater before quickly dodging back as a sniper shot whizzed over the tip of her helmet. Kieran yelped in fear when he saw that shot and closed his eyes, thinking Kitana would be dead. But as he reopened his eyes, Kitana was doing fine, lying low in the crater.

“Come on, I won’t die that easily!” Kitana gripped her rifle in her right hand while activating a smoke grenade. The lack of atmosphere caused the dust released from the grenade to immediately expand into a shroud due to the difference in pressure, blocking the sniper shot while Kitana left the crater, heading over to another crater where there was a friendly squad of attackers.

Sliding into position next to the squad, there was no need for words to be exchanged. Kitana began firing back with potshots, suppressing some of the defenders as more attackers landed from above. Once they built up a substantial force, they began to push the defenders more aggressively.

With Kitana leading the charge, her quick reactions and deft movements gave an air of professionalism and cold-killer vibes, so the attackers quickly rallied behind her, pushing deeper into the asteroid base.

“Isn’t your sister amazing?” Kitana asked, to which Kieran nodded vigorously.

“Sis, can I go watch another player for a bit?” Kieran suddenly asked out of nowhere.

“Huh? Who?” Kitana was stunned.

Was she not performing well? She felt like her performance was far beyond anyone else on the attacker team – but she has yet to check the rankings. How could anyone be better than her when she was the literal cream of the crop in the Keepers?

“I want to watch SentientHamster189! He’s the top-ranked on the defender team!”