Chapter 140 - The Traitor

Julia flew the hovercar, circling the now half-damaged Queen’s Tower. The tower was still structurally standing, but the damage was very much visible. A sizeable chunk of the middle floors was blown out, billowing with thick black smoke and sparks of flame, making it seem like a monster took a single chomp out of it.

“The timing is too precise…” Saater mumbled. He was also involved in the previous hovercar attack, so both he and Julia were slightly aware that there must be a traitor among the Queen’s Guards and one with the ability to cause such mayhem.

However, they couldn’t think of anyone who would do such a thing. All the higher-ups of the Queen’s Guards have worked together through thick and thin, following the Queen all the way up to the top of Rockhold. Their bonds of friendship could be said to be even thicker than blood.

“Most likely, it isn’t a single person who instigated this, but a group of spies.” Julia surmised. She found it possible that a few dozen hostile spies embedded in the Queen’s Guards could pull such a tactic off for sure. The Queen’s Guards themselves have done it to their competitors before.

However, this time the scale of the destruction and attack was far more intense, and stray energy beams and bullets could be seen from the rampaging battle in the damaged tower. “Quick, we need to reinforce Rei!” Julia quickly flew the hovercar in.

As they got closer to the tower trying to look for a place to drop off among the rubble, three missiles suddenly shot from within the tower, accurately locking onto their hovercar.

“Hold on!” Julia immediately sent the hovercar into a nosedive in an attempt to avoid the incoming missiles, crash-landing right onto an exposed hangar bay and skidding along the floor to a screeching halt. With haste, the two quickly got out of the hovercar just as the missiles flew in and blew up the hovercar, sending them flying across the hangar bay.

Saater had pain arcing throughout his entire body as the explosion slammed him onto the floor. However, adrenaline allowed him to immediately recover, heading over to Julia who was slightly shaken. Both of them were wearing their exosuits, so the damage was light, but the blunt force wasn’t.

“Last call from Rei was on the floor below, let’s go.” Julia quickly recovered, ignoring the pain and quickly heading to an emergency stairwell.

The stairwell was littered with dead Queen Guards, all of whom seemed to have been killed by gunfire and fragmentation. Julia and Saater readied their weapons, storming the stairwell quickly before reaching the lower floor.

Down the corridor from the stairwell, a large firefight was going on. A dozen attackers were shooting and lobbing grenades at the Queen’s Guards soldiers, a few of whom were unarmed as they were only working in a civilian capacity.

Julia and Saater had appeared behind the enemy, giving them a chance to flank and relieve the pressure. “Take them all out!” Julia roared as the two of them charged in.

With the effect of the Mirage Gunner, the enemies’ electrical sensors started to malfunction, causing them to miss shots. At the same time, Saater activated every trick he had, smoke generator and stealth panels before firing at the enemy from behind.

For Julia, her exosuit was a brawler exosuit, so there were no hidden tricks, only strength. Her powerful large fists blocked a few return shots from the enemy who had immediately turned to fight her as she closed the gap, before unleashing a massive punch that immediately killed one of the attackers.

With the top two combatants in the Queen’s Guards now flanking them, the remaining attackers regrouped and began to retreat, jumping out of the building and activating their thrusters intermittently, allowing them to glide to the ground slowly.

“Shit!” Julia roared, thinking that the attackers would stay behind and that she might have a chance to interrogate one of them. She did not expect that the attackers would be so professional as to immediately cut their losses and retreat.

“Julia! Rei’s hurt!” Saater yelled, forcing Julia to give up any thoughts of chasing them. For now, they had to regroup and help the wounded.

Rei was badly wounded with a couple of wounds on his arms and stomach, receiving emergency treatment from a medic. When he was taken out, the chain of command collapsed in the tower, leaving the Queen’s Guards in chaos.

With Julia’s return, she quickly put people in place, restoring a sense of authority and decision-making back again. However, other areas of the tower were still under attack.

“Julia, this was a really bad hit. None of our hangar bays can function properly without repairs. There are still hostile forces on some of the other floors.” Saater summarized.

The hangar bay on the middle floors seemed to be the main target of the attackers, but Julia still could not find out where the Queen had gone. “Julia…” Rei weakly groaned as he stumbled over, wrapped in bandages and woozy from the painkillers.

“Rei, where’s the Queen? who attacked us?” Julia asked desperately as well.

“I was separated from her during the attack, the last place I saw her was in the basement.”

“The basement?” Julia frowned. That was the floor that was recently dedicated to Ceres for his investigation. Why was Rei down there as well, seeing as he was not assigned to the investigation?

However, time was of the essence. If the Queen had been kidnapped or killed, it would spell disaster for the Queen’s Guards. Already a dizzying amount of terrible scenarios ran through Julia’s head. Even if Julia took over the Queen’s Guards, she did not have the leverage to hold the organization together.

“Rei, you need to rest. Saater and I can handle it.” Julia tried to get Rei to lie down, but he slapped her hand away.

“You and I both are pillars of the Queen’s Guards. If I fall due to such a small injury, it would be an extreme shame to the reputation of the Queen’s Guards.” Rei was stubborn about leading Julia to where he last saw the Queen.

Julia finally relented, before deciding to bring a few soldiers along in case they ran into other attackers. They took a long way down the emergency stairwell that was thankfully designed as a separate structure from the main tower and was not damaged, allowing them to quickly reach the basement.

“What were you doing down here, Rei?” Saater could not help asking, as he did not recall Rei being part of the investigation, so it seemed to have no reason that he would follow the Queen.

“The Queen asked for my help right after you guys called in for reinforcements, hence I met her in the basement. It was at the same time we were attacked too. Who the hell is behind the attackers?” Rei angrily said.

Julia didn’t reply, continuing to head through the basement. The previous investigation room that Ceres used to dissect and disassembled had been blown apart in a fierce explosion, leaving only rubble and debris behind with all the evidence destroyed. The computer was badly damaged too, and the data seemed to have been wiped. “Looks like the attackers targeted here as well.”

“Yes, I got separated from the Queen here. I barely made it out alive myself.” Rei nodded.

Saater glanced at Julia, who slightly nodded. The group of soldiers split up, trying to find a trace of where the Queen went. Julia walked into the ruined room, acting as though she was trying to find remnants of the firefight.

She paced the room a bit, continuously tapping her foot in a specific sequence as though she was impatient. “There’s nothing here at all! Are you sure she was here?”

“Yes, I’m positive. Maybe they already kidnapped her? But she might have had a secret hiding place here as well…” Rei said.

Suddenly, Julia and Saater aimed their rifles at Rei, frightening him. “You’re the traitor aren’t you?! You guys, arrest him!” Julia ordered the soldiers who followed them.

“What are you talking about!?” Rei immediately raised his hands in surrender, his face frightened. “Julia, think carefully, I’m your long-time friend!”

“You were the one who leaked the information of our investigation and let those attackers in. You’re the main suspect.” Saater agreed with Julia. He ordered the soldiers again to arrest Rei, but they didn’t listen, instead raising their weapons and aiming them at Julia and Saater.

A small grin appeared on Rei’s face as he slowly put his hands down, no longer afraid. Julia was stunned, yet she already expected something similar. It was a group of traitors.

“Okay, spare me the suspense and just tell me where the Queen is. No one here is going to answer you about anything.” Rei spoke in a controlling fashion, as though he was in control of the scenario from the start.

He ordered the soldiers to disarm Julia and Saater, but before they could even move, a sudden blast sent a piece of blackened wall flying outwards, smashing into three soldiers.

A dark red exosuit with yellow accents stepped out, sleek and dangerous. A single vibra-knife was in her left hand while neon blue strips glowed with ferocity through the smoke.

“Oh, you will answer me about everything, Rei.” It was the Queen.

Donning her personal exosuit known as the Violet Dusk, the dark red exosuit was designed as a medium-class infiltrator exosuit capable of space battles. The exosuit was a hybrid design, the right arm capable of fine shooting and control, while the left hand was bulkier and designed for melee combat as well as shielding.

“Shit, kill her!” A firefight immediately broke out, but the Queen’s personal defence shield was stronger than expected.

With a red afterglow, the hyper-efficient thrusters at the back glowed blue as she accelerated in an instant, dashing towards Rei and immediately stabbing Rei in the thigh with the vibra-knife.

The other soldiers were not let off easily as well, as the Violet Dusk pulled out a custom kinetic pistol from a holster on her waist and began blasting off their heads with its right arm. The force of the bullet easily ripped through the standardized helmets of the Queen’s Guards, killing them in an instant with no respite.

With the help of Julia and Saater fighting back, Rei and the soldiers were quickly overwhelmed, half of them dying in a few minutes. The Violet Dusk was leagues above all the other exosuits here, its movement like a blur, untraceable.

Rei dropped to the floor, coughing blood as he suffered yet another slash from the Queen on his leg, unable to stand any longer. “But how…?”

“No one here is going to answer anything, but you.” The Queen grabbed Rei by his head before flinging him to the wall, smashing him in and causing a dent. “Well done Julia and Saater.”

Saater was completely lost, but Julia nodded as though this was all expected. Julia already knew that the Queen had a secret hideout here, and her tapping of the foot when she paced the room was a signal to the Queen that they were ready to fight.

Only Julia would know the hidden code, established only between the two of them. Rei was hoping he could use Julia to lure the Queen out in a sense of false safety, but he did not expect Julia and Saater to suspect him so fast.

While the Queen interrogated Rei, Saater couldn’t help asking Julia: “Wait, you already knew Rei was the traitor?”

“I did not believe it myself, but the fact is that the moment we called for reinforcements, we were attacked. This meant either our call was intercepted, or the traitor heard about it. Rei stated that he was in the basement, but stuck in the firefight at the top. That’s impossible. Knowing Rei, he should have easily defeated the attackers in an instant, but we took more than twenty minutes to get here and he was still fighting.” Julia explained.

Julia herself was internally in turmoil, unable to console herself. She and Rei went all the way back as friends, even before the Queen’s Guards were formed. Rei had even rescued her from the disastrous ambush on the convoy.

Was Rei the one who planned everything?! For him to betray even her really made her depressed.

“I’m not going to tell you anything, you filthy rich bitch.” Rei spat a mixture of saliva and blood on the floor.

“Is that what this is about? How petty.” The Queen’s modulated voice echoed eerily in the ruined room.

“How about you take off your helmet and tell them who you really are, hmm? All this time you’ve been hiding and acting like you’re one of us, playing house while secretly you look down on us.”

“Nice try, but I already know you’re doing this because the enforcers offered you a deal. You’re aiming at taking over Rockhold, hmm?” The Queen sneered.

Rei’s heart tightened slightly, but he continued acting as though it did not faze him. “Don’t the two of you want to know who the Queen really is? How she came out of nowhere and decimated the other organizations?”

Julia shook her head. She was absolutely loyal to the Queen, regardless of her identity. After all that the Queen had done for her in the past, Julia did not care who the Queen was.

Saater also was the same, having risen out of poverty thanks to the Queen. Rei smiled sadly as he saw the reaction of the two people. “Well, let me tell you then, it’s…”

Before Rei could finish, The Queen took her vibra-knife and cleanly chopped Rei’s head off. “Anyone who betrays the organization, especially for the enforcers, will be punishable by death.”

The remaining half of the soldiers who had surrendered froze in fear, seeing Rei dying so easily. They quickly spilt the beans on who paid them.

The stories of each soldier differed greatly, but the Queen was able to quickly piece them together to form a cohesive story. Now that the traitor had been weeded out, there were more important things to focus on, like nailing the base of the attackers who bombed the Queen’s Tower.

“Where’s Ceres?” The Queen asked.

Julia had an expression of ‘oh shit we forgot’ when she heard that. The three of them immediately ran off to find Ceres and Halyon in a spare hovercar.

“Do you think they really tried to attack the enemy’s base with just the two of them?” Saater asked worriedly. While he was not particularly fond of Ceres, he still considered him to be an ally.

The Queen was not worried as she fiddled with a few personal settings on her Violet Dusk exosuit. “If I’m not wrong, ’17 Dumplings’ alone will be enough to clear the entire base.”

Julia became even more curious. How strong was ’17 Dumplings’?

As the hovercar came close to the enemies’ base, they saw an alleyway where a door had been ripped apart. “Holy shit, looks like some monster fought his way into the base.” The three of them inspected the elevator, where there was a hole torn apart in the middle of the floor.

Taking the elevator down, they quickly came across a series of brutally killed bodies, all donning the same exosuit scheme as the attackers. “Well looks like it’s all coming together. The organization behind this base was targeting us for a long time it seems.” Julia surmised.

It took a few minutes for the three of them to find Ceres, but it was fairly easy as they simply followed the trail of blood and carnage. Julia and Saater were not sure how in the world Ceres was able to make it this far alone, but somehow he did it.

“Is he some kind of experimental soldier or a transcendent?” Saater kept asking the Queen.

“No, he’s just a kid with a few tiny problems.” The Queen shook her head, not willing to reveal it.

Ceres was leaning against the wall outside the observation room, still awake but he no longer had the black goo armour on him, wearing his normal clothes. “Took you guys long enough…” Ceres panted. His recovery was extremely low, but now that the three of them were here, he would be able to recover slightly faster thanks to their emotions.

“What happened here?” The Queen looked around the area, noticing a fierce fight and what looked to be a big explosion that caused Ceres to end up in this state.

“I lost the Brood Host because I fought against a Keeper. Most likely the enforcers know about me now.” Ceres immediately told the Queen, causing her to frown inside behind the helmet of the Violet Dusk.

If the enforcers now knew about Ceres being here, most likely their involvement in Rockhold was going to increase a lot more. Keeping Ceres with her was now like a ticking time bomb, as she too would be under intense pressure from the enforcers.

She still wanted to hold onto to Ceres, but now that he had been revealed, the benefits far outweighed the downsides. She was still a wanted criminal by the enforcers, especially her main identity as Cardenia Hawthorn.

“Did you find out who’s in charge of the lab?” Cardenia asked.

Ceres tossed over a memory chip of the spy camera he found. “Knock yourself out.” Catching it in her arm, she quickly took a glance over the video within.

“Doctor Theria… With a Keeper? This would make good blackmail material against the enforcers… ” Cardenia muttered. However, it was not enough to stop the enforcers from bearing down on Rockhold.

She knew the enforcers had always wanted to supplant her position with someone loyal to them. It just made simple economic sense, since the Five Families also profited from the large amount of illegal activity that Rockhold had.

Cutting out the middleman, which was her in this case, would be something Cardenia would have done herself if she was in their position.

Now that Cardenia was aware that she had just crushed one of the enforcer’s pet projects, it made her position even more dangerous and gave the enforcers even more impetus to do something against her.

Perhaps there might be a battle for control of Rockhold in the future, but that was just a suspicion.

She took another glance at Ceres, weighing the pros and cons of keeping him, before finally shaking her head.

While Cardenia had some hints earlier on that the issue was related to the enforcers, she did not know that it was this entwined. “You really are a magnet for chaos.”

The Queen quickly pulled Julia aside. “I want you and Saater to bring him out of Rockhold immediately. It’s too dangerous for him to remain here, and with the amount of damage we took from the attack, we don’t have the capacity to withstand the incoming pressure from the enforcers and handle him at the same time. We should use him as bait by planting him somewhere else.”

“Out of Rockhold? To where?”

“To the ‘White Fang’.”