Chapter 145 - Yet Another Ranking System

[Winner: Kitana.]

The automated voice echoed through the testing chamber, where there were more than five Keepers knocked out and scattered pieces of Athen Defender drones were littered all across the floor, the parts sparking with electrical arcs. A single Keeper stood in the midst of all the carnage, with a whimpering Keeper at her feet, clutching a wounded arm.

Dozens of dummy modular structural blocks were scored with thousands of burnt scars, some still sizzling from the recent fight. The blocks receded into the floor, causing the layout of the chamber to be flat again, revealing the injured Keepers who had been wounded or suffered a blunt injury.

Kitana took a deep breath before exhaling, wiping the blood off her helmet as she leaned against ‘KIER’, her designated Keeper Drone. The red-striped exosuit drone loomed over the rest of the room, more than a meter taller than Kitana. It had received heavy upgrades over the year, including increased weaponry, defence shields and mobility improvements.

Many of these upgrades were soft-locked for the fight, forcing Kitana to fight at a weaker combat level than she would have liked. However, none of the Keepers she fought had even come close to knocking out Kier or herself.

As she watched the medics come in to move the wounded Keepers off the chamber, she sighed, shaking her head.

[That’s the last batch, Kitana. Good work.] A voice spoke directly into her helmet. It was Maddy, her superior.

“Do I really have to choose two of them? I think I’m getting used to working solo.”

[Orders from above. Every 1st generation Keeper has to lead a squad of 2ndgeneration Keepers. You don’t have a choice.]

Kitana let out a snort. “You mean I’m a babysitter now.”

[More help is always good, Kitana. Besides, choosing them now before you go on leave would serve as a good motivator for them to train up to their level.]

She was reminded of her shore leave – it’s already been a year since the disastrous mission that lost her the lives of her squad. Every enforcer was entitled to a month of leave every year per regulations. It’s been a long time since she’s seen her family back in the inner zones.

Kitana pulled up a list of all the Keepers she’s beaten so far. She had been fighting in the testing chamber non-stop, assessing every single 2nd generation Keeper.

Close to a hundred mugshots appeared in front of her on her helmet’s heads up display, with her simply using her nerval jack to swipe. It felt like it was some form of dating app.

“Too weak, nope. How did this guy even get into the Keepers?”

“Too scatterbrained, despite his strength. Easily distracted, nope.”

“Too talkative, nope.”

[At this rate are you even going to choose someone?] Maddy sighed.

Kitana swiped with rapid speed, eventually choosing two of them. “This two.”

[Are you sure? That girl has been written up multiple times, while the boy barely talks.]

“That’s fine, I need strong individuals who can follow me. They fit the bill.”

[Alright, I’ll let them know. You’re clear to go for your leave now. You can meet them later.]

“Thank you, sir.” Kitana walked out of the chamber with Kier, heading through the base. As she walked past many of the other staff members of the base, they avoided her with fear, seeing the menacing ‘KIER’ behind her and acting like a bodyguard.

Any of the Keepers who walked past immediately saluted her with respect, while other enforcer units only nodded at her. She had pretty much defeated everyone who was part of a combat unit in the base, save for Maddy himself. Kitana had no problems with how people treated her – as long as she could do her job properly.

After sending KIER back to the drone storage room, she entered her living quarters, which were still fairly bare-bones. Only the very essentials were here.

Thanks to her rank as squad leader and title of the strongest Keeper, she had her own room, which did not feature many luxuries due to the limited space on the base.

A single bed draped in army green blankets with a small table and a cupboard was all the room had. There wasn’t much room to move around or much to do, so Kitana simply headed to her cupboard and started checking if there was anything she wanted to bring back.

On the small table, a small computer terminal lit up on a proximity sensor, displaying the time of her shuttle’s departure.

[Two hours till departure, please ensure you have all your personal belongings with you. The room may be repurposed for another staff member during your leave.]

Kitana chuckled, looking back at the cupboard. It was extremely bare save for the generic Keeper mustard suits that they all wore, grey and dreary. At the base of the cupboard, a few trinkets were lying around, an assortment of different mission mementoes.

Kitana bent down to pick up one of them, smiling to herself. It was a bullet she pulled out of Halyon’s leg on their very first mission together. “Back then, we were so young and naïve…” She gripped it tighter, reliving her memories of her old squad.

Not many 1stGeneration Keepers survived their missions. Out of the original 100 Keepers, there were only 40 left, and a batch of them was sent to Strathon for some unknown research mission. Her other squad member, Eris had been sent on that mission.

Kitana heard that it was a long-term mission, so she was told to expect Eris to only return more than three years later.

“We’ll be reunited again, no doubt.” She still held onto hope that Halyon was still alive, especially when she knew that Drone C survived the self-destruction of the lab.

Keeping the bullet in her pocket, she began to pack up the rest of her stuff. “Well there wasn’t much, to begin with – I wasn’t in this room most of the time anyway.”

She headed to the hangar bay, seeing the regular shuttle offloading the usual supplies. The space base wasn’t sustainable on its own, so regular supply missions from the surface ferried resources and staff members to and fro.

In fact, there was a daily shuttle to and from the planet’s surface, allowing staff members to treat the work like a normal job, though many chose to stay in the base for various reasons.

Kitana did not have a choice on whether to stay or not in the base – all Keepers had to remain in the space base unless ordered otherwise.

The hangar bay was bustling with activity – as the main base for them to enforce the law in space, naturally, the enforcers dealt with a myriad of confusing cases.

Kitana walked briskly, noticing a lot of human smuggling vessels being detained and searched. “The rate of smuggling is somehow increasing, are the security forces not doing anything at all?”

It wasn’t part of the job scope of the enforcers of Athen to police the border of the Strathon System, but they still had to protect their orbits.

However, the surge in smuggling vessels all pointed to an obvious lack of deterrence by the Dynasty of Hawthorn, whose private security forces were responsible for the star system’s border control.

Kitana sighed. It was far beyond her position to worry about such things, but all the signs she had seen so far both in space and on the surface. She hated it very much, as these issues eventually affected the missions she undertook, specifically making it much much harder.

“How are we even supposed to squash the rebellion when we are already stretched this thin?” Kitana complained but decided to not chase it too much. She was now officially on leave after all!

Kitana eventually made it to the daily shuttle.

The shuttle was a simple design – able to carry 17 passengers and designed for re-entry via a simple energy shield to dissipate the high heat. It wasn’t anywhere near as posh as the private ones that the Dynasties used, but it got the job done.

Maddy was waiting for Kitana at the entrance to the shuttle, waving her over. “A great year Kitana. 29 missions completed with 100% success.”

“You’re missing the first mission.” Kitana frowned.

“Well that’s more than a year ago already, so I’m right. Don’t let it get to you, I’ve noticed you’ve been getting more and more burnt out from the increasing missions.” Maddy patted her on the shoulder. “Get a good rest, I’ll see you in a few weeks. Don’t play too hard.”

Kitana nodded, before boarding the shuttle alone. No one else was heading to the surface, so Kitana had the entire passenger section to herself, sitting at a seat near a window before strapping herself in.

The automated safety instructions for the passengers began to play on the intercom as the shuttle’s door closed. Kitana wasn’t even listening, instead thinking about what Maddy said.

It was true she was getting slightly burnt out. She’s been throwing herself headfirst into missions non-stop one right after the other. Part of it was a desperate attempt at finding a way to search for Halyon; another part was trying to redeem her mission failure for the capture of Drone C.

Twice she had come across Drone C – twice she had been forced to retreat with nothing to show for it.

Kitana took pride in her job, so any mission failure weighed heavily on her. “Maddy’s right though, I need to take a break and refocus.”

The shuttle began to hover, slowly inching out of the hangar bay as it cleared safety checks.

Entering a small airlock, the air around the shuttle began to be sucked back into the base before the airlock opened again, revealing the vast darkness of space with the sparse glittering of trade ships going to and fro to the space station.

Kitana looked out of the window, watching the bright brown surface of Athen as the shuttle activated its thrusters, entering a re-entry orbit precisely calculated by the onboard computer’s AI. Such an AI was already considered the basic functionality of any shuttle, so there was no need for any human drivers at all.

The shuttle accelerated fast, knocking Kitana back into her seat, but she was used to such forces. The seat’s material absorbed as much of the impact as possible, but it did not reach the same comfort level as what the Dynasties used. Kitana gritted her teeth and recalled her high acceleration training as the shuttle began to hit the atmosphere.

Slowing down immensely due to the friction with the atmosphere, the energy shield of the atmosphere helped to protect the shuttle from the extreme heat, while Kitana was continuously rocked back and forth due to the poor design of the shuttle. “Better tell Maddy to upgrade the damn shuttle, it’s becoming more of a rust bucket now.”

Soon, the shuttle finally slowed down to supersonic speeds, travelling quickly towards New Saint. [Destination: Zone 1 Central Landing Zone.]

In New Saint, there was only a single landing zone right smack in the middle of the city, so Kitana did not have a choice at all. All legal ships coming from space had to usually go past the space station for inspection first before heading to the surface, but thanks to Kitana’s job, she was able to get a free pass direct to the city.

The shuttle slowed down more before coming to a hover over an empty landing pad, joining the throng of supply and passenger shuttles that were docked on the surface. Thanks to New Saint’s layout, the centre of the city was completely underground, allowing ships to land directly on the surface right above.

With a loud clang, the shuttle’s magnetic docking pads locked with the landing pad, securing down in case of extreme weather conditions.

[Thank you for flying with Creastilla Airways. Please remember to take all your belongings.] The shuttle doors opened with a pneumatic hiss, allowing Kitana to step out into the bright surface, a gust of wind hitting her face directly as the heat seared the ground and her.

It’s been a long time since she’s been on the surface, more than six months since she uprooted that rebel mine operation that was smuggling weapons. She could already feel her skin getting hot just from the reflection of heat from the surface, so she quickly took her belongings and walked briskly out onto the landing pad.

The landing zone was huge, with close to hundreds of thousands of humans and automated robots working in the heat, servicing ships or refuelling them. Kitana squinted her eyes as she walked off the shuttle, while a worker controlled four other automated drones to begin regular maintenance of the shuttle.

Many of the ships had unique designs, representing some of the richest in the upper-class society who had their own personalized cruise liner and designated landing pad, allowing them for much quicker entry and departure from Athen. One notable example was the Dynasty of Hawthorn’s personalized landing pad, with their emblem still clearly displayed in the centre of the pad.

Kitana didn’t care about who owned the planet: a job was a job to her.

A private hovercar was already waiting for her, arranged by the enforcers. Thanks to the budget placed by Oliver, the Keepers were the most well-funded enforcer unit in the city, hence the VIP treatment so far. Kitana took it in her stride, entering the automated hovercar.

[Destination?]

“Hmm, Zone 5 Saintess Street, North Junction. I should buy a gift for my family first before returning.”

[Confirmed.]

Kitana could hardly hold back her excitement as she leaned into the comfortable leather seat. It’s been so long since she saw her family, so she needed to appear with a bang. “What kind of gift would they like?”

The hovercar headed towards one of the open shafts that were more than two kilometres wide, hovering over the entrance before slowly descending into the shaft. Thousands of supply hovervans and hovercars entered this way, forming a logistic network that fuelled the economy of Athen as a whole.

Along the walls of the shaft, enforcers were posted on certain levels to scan and spot any signs of smuggling, as well as conduct random spot checks if necessary. Kitana did not have to worry about that, her hovercar was already pre-allocated to quickly descend faster and faster.

Reaching the bottom of the shaft, the hovercar automatically chose one of the 36 tunnels that were circularly distributed along the wall before accelerating. The tunnel was a short one, after which the hovercar immediately joined a bustling highway of hovercars which soared far above Zone 1, heading towards the other Zones.

Kitana looked out of the window, watching the cramped buildings that seemed to grow all over the cavern. Its walls and ceilings had buildings supported by Floa, allowing it to counteract gravity and maximise space in the highly popular Zone 1. This was where all the trade happened and where most of the city’s administrative functions and ministries were located. It was accurate to call this the most important hub of Athen.

“Well, I’ll never earn enough to even rent a place here.” Kitana sighed. Anyone living in Zone 1 was part of the upper class, living the ‘good’ life. She was aware of even better living conditions elsewhere in the Loeric Empire, but for a local-born inner like her, Zone 1 was like a dream for her.

The hovercar soon entered yet another tunnel heading towards the adjacent Zone 5. Soon, the hovercar reached its destination, hovering over the roof of a building which had a designated hovercar landing pad. [Destination reached.]

“Thank you, wait here for ten minutes.”

[Confirmed. An additional fee will be charged to Maddy Seras.]

Kitana smirked, before hopping out of the hovercar. Within ten minutes, she returned with two hands full of shopping bags, filled with gifts that had holographic messages for her family on their wrapped paper. “Destination, Zone 8 Garden Row, Block 17. Make it quick if you can.”

[Confirmed. Additional surcharge will be applied.]

“Yes, whatever. Charge it to Maddy Seras with the note ‘Work Bonus’.”

Kitana quickly checked the presents one last time as the hovercar sped towards the destination. “Oh no, maybe I should have gotten more presents? What if this isn’t enough? Wait maybe they will be okay with this…”

Before she could resolve her indecisiveness, the hovercar had already reached its destination, landing on the roof of an apartment building that was covered in grass. The place looked like a utopian retirement home, where there were plenty of parks and open green spaces for families to enjoy. Kitana dismissed the hovercar, heading into the apartment building.

Knocking on the door of a unit three times, she could already hear the sound of tiny footsteps running to answer. The door opened to reveal a tiny little boy of seven years old. “Who are you?”

Kitana almost faltered upon hearing that, before recovering and smiling gently. “It’s me! Your sister, Kitana. I’m back! Did you miss me?”

“Huh? I don’t have a sister.” The little boy replied, a confused expression on his face.

“Kieran, stop answering the door when any random stranger just knocks on…” An older lady came out to the door, gasping as she saw Kitana.

“Hi Mum, surprise!” Kitana smiled.

“Kitana, oh my dear!” The mum immediately ran forward to hug Kitana tightly, almost causing her to drop the presents. “Are you on leave? How long is your leave? Are you staying with us? Do you have a boyfriend? You look so pale, have you been eating properly?”

“Mum, too many questions! Let me enter first! Can I at least put down my stuff?” Kitana laughed as the mum let go of her, letting her into the house.

“Mummy, why are you letting a stranger into the house? I thought you usually shout at them!” Kieran pouted.

“Don’t be stupid, this is your sister! Say hello to her. She’s the reason why we’re even living in such a nice place!” The mum slapped Kieran on the shoulder. Kieran winced at the hit, rubbing her shoulder as he still glanced warily at Kitana. A sharp glare from the mum finally forced him to acknowledge Kitana.

“Hello, Sister.”

Kitana smiled as she squatted down to pat her little brother’s head. “It’s fine, I got you plenty of presents! You would love all these new toys I got you.”

“Really? Can I open them now?” Kieran jumped up and down excitedly, immediately running off the moment Kitana put the first gift box into his hand. As far as he could tell, anyone giving him presents was a good person, sister or not.

Kitana took a look around the apartment unit. It felt like nothing much had changed in the apartment since last year, everything was still roughly the same.

Bright artificial light shined in through the glass windows that stretched from ceiling to floor, illuminating the marble floor layout of the house and the white synthetic sofa and black coffee table.

The interior of the living room was filled with greenery: vines and potted plants dotted the standalone shelves along the wall, watering directly by a hidden automated system along with a dedicated UV grow light above them.

The vines drooped around a wall she affectionately called the ‘family wall’. It was filled with holographic moving memories of all the festivals, events and attractions that her family had gone to. She noticed a few new additions of her mum and Kieran at the museum in Zone 1, smiling to herself.

“Sorry dear, kids forget so fast nowadays. With all of the newfangled VR games and whatnot, it’s even hard for me to connect with him. I’ve been trying to use an automated chatbot to practice, but it’s not really working out…” The mum sighed as she patted Kitana’s shoulder.

“It’s fine, I kind of expected this.” Kitana shook her head. Generational gaps were a real thing that has always plagued human society, especially with the non-stop advancement of human technology. Kitana could already tell that she herself did not even know what topics or games did Kieran like.

“WOW, THIS IS AWESOME!” Kieran ran out with a model of the Athen Defender exosuit in his hand. It was one of the most expensive detailed models Kitana could find in the shop, but she bought it without hesitation for Kieran. Courtesy of Maddy Seras’s account, of course.

Kitana chuckled to herself, rubbing her head of Kieran. “Glad you like it!”

“Kieran. Say ‘thank you’ to your sister! You know she pilots one of these models everyday so you can have a good education?” The mum berated Kieran for his manners.

“Mum, don’t scold him. I’ll be here for a few weeks at least, so that’s more than enough time to bond together.”