Chapter 144 - Onboarding

“Who’s that, fresh blood? Which zone is he from?” Randy, the younger boy who was caught bickering with Dom by Madam Sierra after the drill looked at his multi-terminal. The screen showed the black mask of Ceres with the blood crescent stroke.

“Says he’s from Zone 17! That’s crazy, isn’t the entire zone already brainwashed to hell or replaced by other outers? How did the ‘White Fang’ even find him?” Dom groaned, continuing to sweep the floor as part of their punishment for bickering in front of Sierra right after the drill.

“Hmm, looks like he’s being posted to combat logistics first, so can’t be too good. What kind of a rebel’s call sign is ‘Dumplings’ even? Sounds weird, like he’s trying too hard to be different. It doesn’t even match his mask.” Dom continued ranting.

“Weren’t we all like that on our first day of joining?” Randy replied.

“Really? Do you think your call sign ‘Flowing Water’ is edgy and cool? I didn’t even get to choose my callsign when I joined!” Dom complained.

[‘Snow Bunny’ and ‘Flowing Water’, report to the armoury on level 15, dock 3 for briefing.] An AI monotone voice echoed through the room.

“I don’t think that’s a bad call sign! It fits you perfectly!” Randy gave a thumbs up.

Just like this, word about Ceres’s entry into the rebellion spread all over the base. It died down fairly quickly, as nobody could spare the effort to wonder about every newcomer that joined the rebellion.

Ceres sat in a seminar-like room alone in his new rebel standardized uniform, which was a dark brown patterned camo designed to blend into the surface of Athen and much of the underground.

Right now, he was watching a presentation while yawning loudly, much to the ire of Sierra, who was told by the ‘White Fang’ to properly introduce the rebellion to Ceres. Ceres was the only one attending – the rest had already attended a separate introduction.

“AHEM! Like I was saying, the purpose of the rebellion is to overthrow the current administration of New Saint and subsequently the ownership of the planet, which is both controlled by the Five Families, namely Oliver Athen.”

A photo of Oliver Athen at the recent memorial ceremony for the riots was shown on a holographic projector. Ceres already knew all of this, so he barely paid attention.

Sierra’s eyebrow twitched slightly upon seeing Ceres’s aloof attitude, wondering why in the hell did the ‘White Fang’ even recruit such a person. She was well aware of ’17 Dumplings’ reputation as an exosuit designer, but to her, it was just a lucky shot.

She did not know about Ceres’s involvement in exposing the worm plague nor the traitor in the Queen’s Guards, as well as his identity as Ceres: merely his new agent name ‘Dumpling.’ A banal name, if you asked her.

Another image came up on the screen, showing Ceres in his final moments of the competition duel. “The spark for all of this began when Ceres was sabotaged despite being favoured to win the final duel.” Ceres started to pay more attention, especially since it was him on the screen.

“The subsequent reported death of Ceres sparked a city-wide outrage, especially among the outers who viewed Ceres as a chance to get back at the inners. As the death was reported by the Five Families, it is believed within the rebellion that Ceres may very well still be alive, but for what reason, we do not know.”

Ceres noted that even Sierra did not know about the ‘White Fang’s involvement with the vat he was found in. Just how many levels of secrecy did the rebellion need to have to protect itself? However, he soon noticed something abnormal.

“Seems like you really admire this uh... Ceres…” Ceres pointed out.

“Of course! His steadfast will and striving to achieve against all odds are what motivated me to join the rebellion in the first place. He is a beacon of all hope, a symbol of our continuous fight against the oppression by the Five Families. Even when facing an insurmountable wall, he still fought to the end with Chad, only losing because of cowardly betrayal!” Sierra went on a passion-fueled rant, speaking with enthusiasm.

Ceres was slightly taken aback, not because of Sierra’s blatant adoration of him, which felt a bit weird, but by another sentence she said. “Wait, I don’t think this uh… Ceres.. thought that Chad was an ‘insurmountable’ wall! It looked like an even duel!”

Sierra scoffed. “It was not even close based on the analysts. Even when I was watching it, it did not feel like Ceres was winning at all at the start! The odds were heavily against Ceres, which made his actions even greater!”

Ceres frowned. He truly did not believe that the odds were stacked against him when he fought Chad! At most it was a 60/40 fight to him, but not like the way Sierra was touting the duel. “Well, let’s just agree to disagree.”

Sierra let out an angry sigh. This was what she hated about newcomers to the rebellion, who were not aware of how great the Martyr was. “Moving on, the Martyr is the role model that every rebel should strive towards. Selfless, pure, always striving for justice and sacrifice for the weak among us!”

Ceres had already stopped listening, instead twiddling his fingers as he stared into what seemed like an empty space. Sierra was fuming within. “You, on the other hand, are currently the extreme opposite! You don’t even look like you’re interested in the rebellion at all! Why are you even here? Don’t think just because the ‘White Fang’ took a liking to you that you can throw your weight around.”

Ceres suddenly turned to stare directly at Sierra, causing her to suddenly take a step back involuntarily. She felt like she was being stared at by a predator, gazing at her.

“I’m here to save those who matter to me. This… Martyr, you call him? He is already gone. Dead. Even if he returns he would be a completely different person after six years. It’s nice to have a role model and all, but when do we actually get to the good stuff? I’m not going to sit here for a three-hour lecture. There are more important things to do.”

Sierra coughed slightly, regaining her posture as she glared at Ceres angrily. “Well fine then. Since you’re so eager to join the fight and ‘save people’, why don’t we perform your physical tests now?!” Sierra shut off the projection in a fit.

“No, I meant like the good stuff like the organization, logistics and how the missions are carried out…”  Ceres really wanted to know how the rebellion was organized, but Sierra was having none of it, too infuriated.

“No talkbacks! You’re now just a recruit in the cell group, but I’m your superior. Insubordination will result in corporal punishment. Now move!” Sierra ordered, with Ceres sighing and lazily saluting in response. This irked Sierra even more.

The two of them walked to a training chamber, with Sierra stomping furiously through the base. She ignored many of the other rebels she walked past, causing them to wonder what was she mad about. “It’s the first time I’ve seen Sierra get this pissed, is it the new recruit?”

“Must be, only time she’ll get so pissed is if they shit-talked the Martyr or something, though I doubt the recruit is that daring.”

Ceres walked along, oblivious to the gossip going around. He was more intrigued by the layout of the base and its design of it, as well as how many people were in it. He had already seen the entirety of the base once when he was at the hangar bay, but it would be good to know the layout which he couldn’t see clearly.

“To think that Ardan is the king of all of this…” Ceres smiled sadly to himself. He wondered what life would be like if he hadn’t lost the duel or got sabotaged.

“RECRUIT! STAND UP STRAIGHT!” A sudden yell shook Ceres out of his daydreaming, realizing that he was already in the training chamber.

The training chamber was full of equipment for various purposes. Gym equipment, coupled with dummy droids and a few VR pods all allowed the rebels to polish their skills in between missions. The entrance of Ceres already piqued the interest of many rebels who were already training there, especially when he had been personally scouted by the ‘White Fang’ himself, resulting in a sizeable amount of onlookers.

In the middle of the chamber was a burly man who was no doubt the officer in charge of the physical test, who was staring at Ceres in anger.

Sierra had already informed the officer to be tougher on Ceres, which he readily complied with. Even if it wasn’t an official order, the officer was already raring to go as he continuously had to hold back for new recruits.

Ceres stood up straight and saluted with a proper posture, his military orphanage days that was drilled into him coming back to the surface. The officer nodded and grunted in acknowledgement. “At least the kid has some manners in him unlike some of the newer recruits… I still won’t let him off easily!”

“To complete your introduction into the rebellion, you will have to undergo a physical test. You may think you’re ready for missions, but we will need to assess your suitability for different danger levels.”

“Danger levels?” Ceres asked.

“Yes, you will be ranked accordingly, and the rank will determine what type of missions you can take on. Minor, major and top-ranked are the broad three categories you can be placed into.”

Ceres nodded. He knew that if he wanted to participate in the big missions, which no doubt would involve rescuing his friends from the enforcers, he had to reach the top rank to gain the most support he could.

On the second floor of the training chamber, Sierra was already standing near a glass wall, watching Ceres from above. “This punk, he needs to be brought down a few notches! Just because he had been personally recruited by the ‘White Fang’ does not mean he can walk around like he’s better than everyone else.” She grumbled.

“Come on, relax a little! I haven’t seen you this worked up since the last big mission!” A lady sat on a chair next to Sierra, sipping on a cup of coffee. “He’s just a snobby manchild, the physical tests will easily kick the wind out of him.”

“You didn’t listen to him, Felicia! He’s probably the most arrogant recruit I have seen ever!” Sierra complained. “He even shit-talked about the Martyr!”

Felicia gasped. She too was a complete follower of the Martyr, having been personally defeated by him during the qualifiers for the competition more than six years ago as collateral. Since then, she has been an avid fan of Ceres, following his rise through the tournament and subsequent fall!

She too was an exosuit designer and was the leader of the exosuit repair team at the base. Staring down at Ceres warming up for the physical test, she felt a slight sense of deja-vu. “Hmm, why does he look so familiar? Have you seen him under the mask?”

“No, but I don’t need to see him to know he’s an asshole through and through. It doesn’t matter if he’s handsome or not. If I wanted that I’ll get a surgeon to fix his face.”

“Isn’t that why your ex left?”

“Shut it.”

Down in the chamber, Ceres was warming up, stretching his arms and legs and a few light skips and hops on the spot to get the blood flowing. He was going to punch his way to the top rank.

“Alright, I’m ready to go!” Ceres nodded to the training officer.

“Good, your first station is a punching machine!” The training officer was about to lead Ceres over when suddenly the ‘White Fang’ entered the training chamber, causing the rest of the onlookers to immediately salute.

“At ease, people. ‘Dumpling’, a quick word?” The ‘White Fang’ quickly dragged Ceres away, causing yet another wave of rumours to go around.

“Don’t tell me you’re thinking about acing the physical test! If you do that wouldn’t you be drawing more attention to yourself? We already went over this.” Ardan whispered angrily, knowing very well what Ceres was planning to do from his body posture.

“I want to participate in the big missions! You can’t have your best weapon working dumb missions.” Ceres complained. He was reluctant to take the long route, and he also wanted to shut that Sierra up once and for all.

“Every mission ran by the rebellion is important. Supply runs, field repair, and spying are all essential to the big picture. Can you just please take a low profile just for a while?” Ardan pleaded, with Ceres frowning.

Ardan sighed, knowing it was hard to convince Ceres. “Okay, you can ace a few of the stations, but overall, the maximum danger level you can qualify for is minor missions, okay? Just do ONE minor mission, and you can move on to the next rank and so on. That’s the fastest we can go.”

Reaching an agreement, the ‘White Fang’ left the training chamber while Ceres returned, noticeably less motivated than he was before. The other rebels who were also using the training chamber began to gossip once more.

“What do you think they talked about? Did the ‘White Fang’ encourage him?”

“Maybe they are a couple, and the ‘White Fang’ is worried about him overexerting himself. Quick, I need to write a book about this!”

“Do you need an artist? My hand’s pretty steady.”

“Hmm, no thanks. I can just generate some images on my multi.”

Ceres ignored the random waves of gossip, following the training officer to the punching machine. He noted that there was a leaderboard on it, ranking everyone who had already taken the punching test. There were one hundred thousand names on it, which gave Ceres a good grasp on the estimated number of personnel.

“Sierra ranked 200th….” Ceres muttered to himself. He noted that Ardan was nowhere to be found on the list, which probably made sense seeing that he was already the top dog.

“Alright recruit, you can begin anytime. The minimum qualification for minor missions is 51000 or better.”

Not everyone in the rebel base was to be posted out to missions. Many were simple clerks and logistics personnel who worked in the backlines, ensuring adequate supply and information for the rebels out in the field. A proper supply network was what truly won wars, not just strength and weapons alone.

Ceres pulled up his sleeves, revealing his lean muscles as he prepared his punch. Sierra suddenly noticed that Ceres’s body was a lot more toned than she previously expected. “Is this guy actually strong?”

“ARGHHHHH!” Ceres yelled as he punched the machine with all his strength. His agent call sign ‘Chaos’ slowly moved up from 100,000, climbing the ranks slowly until it hit 49,000th.

Sierra let out a sigh of relief, her heart almost shocked by the sudden yell of Ceres. Many of the onlookers were also slightly shocked, though they laughed when they saw the ranking. The way Ceres put his all into the machine felt like it did not match the result.

“Come on brother, if you yell harder maybe you’ll get a higher rank!” One of the other rebels joked.

“Good punch, recruit. You got two more tries if you want to get a higher rank!” The training officer said.

Ceres complied, giving his all to punch the machine two more times. Each time he yelled his heart out, seeming to exert every muscle in his body to deliver the punch.

However, each time the ranking only reached 49,000th, not moving any further.

The training officer shook his head in disappointment. “It’s okay, minor missions still form the backbone of the rebellion. If you get a better score on the other stations, you might have a chance to apply for major missions!”

Honestly, from the training officer’s point of view, it was an absolute disgrace for someone that the ‘White Fang’ personally recommended being this weak.

Ceres simply nodded weakly, unable to talk as his body looked like it was overexerting his strength.

“See? I told you the physical test would knock that kid out.” Felicia laughed as she watched Ceres slowly walk over to the other station, trying to catch his breath.

However, Sierra did not reply. Instead, her gaze was even more fixed on Ceres. “What’s the matter? Did you expect him to fail?” Felicia teased Sierra.

“If you punched a punching machine three times, would you be able to achieve the same result every single time?” Sierra asked Felicia.

“Hmm, I’m not that strong, so no, I’ll probably get tired by the second punch.”

“That’s the thing – he punched it three times and all three times had the exact same result, down to the millinewtons!” Sierra exclaimed. “It’s either he’s extremely lucky or he’s a master of body control.”

Felicia took another glance at the fumbling Ceres, who had just tripped over himself on the way to the next station. “Nah, think he was just lucky.”

The next series of stations were cleared without much fanfare – Ceres had barely just cleared each of the stations at exactly the necessary rank to be eligible to go for minor missions. The training officer did not feel anything wrong, only slightly disturbed at the seeming overexertion by Ceres with a mediocre result.

Many of the rebels in the training centre had come in the hopes of seeing how good the new agent was but were far more disappointed by the exhaustion visible from Ceres’s panting figure.

“I mean, he’s trying, but the results are just… you know…”

“Did the ‘White Fang’ recruit him for another reason? Maybe he was hired for brainy stuff.”

“Why would a person recruited for brainy stuff even try this hard at the physical tests? Look, he’s panting non-stop from doing simple side-steps with a rifle!”

Ceres smiled internally under the mask, noting the extreme success of his ‘act like a mediocre character’ plan.

Once the physical tests were over, the training officer duly noted the eligibility of ‘Dumpling’ to participate in minor missions. “Before we send you off on your first mission, we’re going to need to do a practical exercise. ‘Snow Bunny’ and ‘Flowing Water’ have already been assigned as your squad mates for this exercise. Meet them at the armoury.”

Ceres nodded, heading over to the armoury. The armoury was huge, hosting more than a thousand exosuits along with their accompanying weapons and gear. Rows upon rows of weapons and ordinances were displayed in their storage containers, while multiple squads were already gearing up for their next mission.

Most of the squads in the armoury were not slated to go out for a mission anytime soon, but the preparation was critical to the success of any mission.

It was here that the squads double-checked and triple-checked their equipment, ensuring they would be able to be deployed at a minute’s notice. This had been heavily drilled into them by the ‘White Fang’, though they were still lacking a bit.

On top of a few empty storage boxes in a corner of the armoury, Randy and Don were already sitting there, with Randy waving to Ceres. A very unlikely pair of friends, Randy was just barely nineteen while Don was more than fifty years old. Ceres was slightly taken aback by the pairing.

He wasn’t used to seeing such wide age gaps, but it was common in the rebellion. “Hey, new guy! Over here!”

Ceres walked over to them before suddenly Randy came up and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about the physical test, it’s just a number! In my heart, you’re number one for trying that hard! It almost brought me to tears!” Randy said with a sniffle.

Ceres took a closer look at Randy’s emotions and realized he was not lying. The young kid looked like he was truly crying for Ceres. “Wow, you seem very emotional…”

“Randy, stop torturing the new guy!” Don jumped off the storage boxes. “Ignore him, he’s very idealistic. A good young naïve kid, but a bit overbearing.”

Ceres nodded in response. Don seemed to be the more mature and realistic one. “What’s the squad exercise going to be?”

“Ah, the usual! It’s a simple VR exercise in Shattered Empire. Just a normal 50v50 match.”

Ceres nodded. It was not a surprise that Shattered Empire was being used for practice. It was a military simulator after all, though some of the players may be a bit too toxic or extreme, unlike real life.

Don tapped Ceres’s shoulder. “You see that squad there? That’s our opponent. Our agent ranking changes based on the squad test. Both of us are low-ranked and near the boundary line. If we lose this VR exercise or show poor performance, Randy might get kicked out of doing minor missions!”

“Isn’t that bad?” Ceres recoiled. “I don’t want to drag you guys down. I’m new, so I don’t know a lot of things.”

“Don’t worry!” Randy said happily as he sat back on the storage boxes, swinging his legs. “I’ve already been demoted a few times so it’s nothing new, I can just win the next one and get back again!”

Don slapped the back of Ceres. “Either way, we’re aiming to win this, so let’s work out a strategy!”