Chapter 134 - Creeping Discomfort

Halyon stared in awe as the elevator brought him up along the Queen’s Tower, his face planted on the glass. “I never got to go to the ceiling when I was living in the inner zone!” He still wore his arena cleaner medical suit, though it was a clean set.

“Shut it, kid, you’re making me look bad.” An old man wearing a formal suit was adjusting his blazer and checking his hair in the glass. “Finally, I get the recognition I deserve. Thank God that overpowered monster who upended my life is no longer around.”

The lift doors opened to reveal Ceres waiting for them, grinning widely, while Assistant A’s face paled greatly. “You… what are you doing here! Are you going to stop me from seeing the Queen?!”

“Seeing the Queen? What for? I called you guys here to help me. Anyway, this will be the last time you will be coming up to the upper floors. We need to go to the basement.”

“What?!” Assistant A was shocked as Ceres entered the lift and sent it down straight to the basement. Assistant A could only clutch his own multi-terminal, re-reading the invitation from the Queen’s Guards. “Fuck, you told them to send this?”

“No talking unless it’s important.”

“My emotions and expectations are important!”

“I’ll let the Queen see you if you do this right.” Ceres said nonchalantly.

“I’m all yours!” The old man suddenly saluted rigidly.

The trio reached the room where all the aerial exosuit parts were laid out, along with the various dead bodies of the attackers still slowly decomposing.

“Seriously? Did you bring us in to dispose of the bodies? Did we not do enough of that in the arena already?” Halyon groaned while Assistant A yelped as he saw the dead bodies, hiding behind Halyon and gripping his pants.

“Hey, what the fuck is wrong with you?” Halyon tried to shake him off, but he held on tightly as he could.

“I’m afraid of dead bodies, I’ve never seen one before!” Assistant A whimpered.

“You? The arena’s exosuit repairer? Afraid of dead bodies?! You literally sent people to their deaths in ill-prepared exosuits that can barely move.” Halyon scolded him, shoving Assistant’s A snivelling face away from him.

“Out of sight, out of mind.” Assistant A kept tapping his forehead, chest and then his left and right shoulders in a repeating sequence, but Ceres had no clue what the hell he was doing.

“Shut up. Get in there now.” Ceres didn’t have time to play around, grabbing Assistant A by the collar and dragging him, along with Halyon who staggered as Assistant A did not let go of his legs.

They entered the room, while Ceres managed to invoke enough fear in Assistant A in order to finally get him to let go. “Halyon, I need your help to go through the bodies – make sure I didn’t leave anything out. Assistant A, it pains me to say this, but I need your knowledge on where these parts are from." Ceres explained to the two of them what he was trying to do here.

This was the reason Ceres had to call them in.

As much as Ceres despised Assistant A, he still understood that he had been ‘someone’ in the exosuit design industry at least sometime in the past. Hopefully, he would be able to pick up something that Ceres missed.

As for Halyon, he had been working this entire time in the medical team instead of body disposal – Ceres accounted for the fact that Halyon would have experienced more advanced implants and devices, especially if the fighters survived.

The dead bodies that Ceres had handled in the arena more often than not had low-tech implants that partially played a role in their deaths.

Halyon immediately got to it. All sense of rebelling or trying to escape Ceres had long left his mind, he was now a true subordinate. Halyon rationalized it as sticking with the strongest human around – he still had no doubt Ceres was the best chance at survival around here. By sticking with him, Halyon had a chance of surviving much more than if he went back to the Keepers.

Assistant A however, had been on a sort of rollercoaster. Hearing the news of Ceres being invited to the Queen and subsequently being attacked en route made him slightly rejoice. As much as he respected Ceres for his skill, he still retained a bit of ego and pride, which especially swelled when he heard the news.

Just when he thought he had finally reclaimed his position as arena exosuit repairer, he has now stuck with Ceres again!

“Stop pouting and get to work. Do you recognize any of these parts?” Ceres prodded Assistant A, who dejectedly moved over to the table where the exosuit parts had been laid out. The moment he laid eyes on the parts, his eyes twinkled, no longer worried about the dead bodies or depressed about Ceres’s return.

“These are from the attackers?” Assistant A asked.

“Yep, did you find out something?”

“These parts were handcrafted, which means they were made by an exosuit designer by hand from scratch. Naturally, you would never see any of these parts before. It’s a complete custom design!” He explained as he started to move over the dead bodies, having lost all fear as curiosity took over him.

It turned out that each of the aerial exosuits was actually manually manufactured by a single individual rather than a corporation in a production line. Great care was taken to make sure that each part was untraceable and had zero markings. Assistant A carefully inspected each part, measuring the dimensions and checking the edges.

“It’s no wonder you could not figure out much at all. Though you may have great skill and strength, you have not perceived enough about exosuit design methodologies and general focus.” Assistant A suddenly assumed the role of a wise old man, shocking Ceres.

Ceres observed the old man carefully through the H.T. mode, noticing there was no longer a swirl of emotions denoting mental instability. It was like a dementia patient had suddenly gain a bout of clarity. Had he regained his self-proclaimed capabilities all of a sudden?

“Observe this part carefully, and imagine you were in the shoes of the one to make it.” He tossed a part to Ceres, a specific armour piece that was meant for the back.

The back of the exosuit was one of the most important – it held the spine that served as the backbone for all nerval-based communication within the suit. Usually, the power supply and batteries were also placed in the back, forming a sort of weak point.

Armour there had to be thick and defensive, yet nimble enough to allow the user to perform flexible movements without injuring themselves.

Ceres noticed that the armour piece was very carefully moulded and that each subsequent armour piece that made up a layer of armour that was in direct contact with the user’s skin was moulded to the body. “I don’t see how that’s anything special – any mass manufacturing line could be tailored to match individual preferences. They could have used a body mould or a scanner to easily outline the body.”

“Ah, but the armour pieces here are fully customized. No one armour piece is the same among all the attackers, and even the material used for each armour piece has a unique composition to account for the heat generation and expected movement range for each individual. The entire layer is also designed to support his specific combat posture as well, providing additional support far beyond what any mass-produced exosuit can do!”

A flash of understanding appeared in Ceres’s eyes, as he pieced all of the information together. He quickly double-checked the other bodies to ensure that the armour pieces were all unique to prove Assistant’s A theory. True enough, every armour piece was unique, and a great deal of care was given to each soldier.

“Okay, so a lot of effort was put into custom-making these exosuits. But this doesn’t bring us any closer to who made the exosuits for these attackers. It seems to be too much work for a dark mercenary outfit that might die.”

“Oh, but it does. The exosuit designer must have spent a good amount of time with the soldiers in order for him to understand perfectly what the soldiers need in their support.”

“So you’re saying they have an in-house exosuit designer plus the facilities to make it all in-house, and it’s being done within Rockhold?” Ceres asked.

“Based on your prior research on the parts that have neither entered nor left Rockhold, I find it more believable that the exosuit designer currently resides within Rockhold itself rather than outside. The attackers would have to regroup and repair if their plan succeeded. This means they have a base of operations nearby.”

“Right under the Queen’s nose?”

“Sometimes the best place to hide is right next to the enemy, where they will never suspect a thing.”

Ceres was impressed at the deduction capabilities of the seemingly senile man. He slightly felt bad calling him Assistant A now.

“One more thing. I noticed a clear difference in the level of treatment between the weapon systems of the exosuit and the rest of the exosuit. It looks as if the exosuit had been made to perfection, but suddenly forcibly downgraded to reduce the strength of its weapon systems.” Assistant A pondered, scratching his beard.

“Meaning there are two exosuit designers? Maybe they are in charge of offence and defence separately.”

“It could be, or it could also be an act of sabotage by the same designer in charge of the entire project.”

“That’s a very wild speculation. Why would he even do that, jeopardize his own work?”

Assistant A looked even more dejected than when he brought it up. “Sometimes the exosuit designer can only speak through his work due to circumstances…”

Ceres sensed a sort of emotion of depression and sadness as he watched Assistant A recall a terrible memory, but he had no time for taking a trip down there just yet. “Ok, so a perfectionist exosuit designer who sabotages his own work, or maybe two exosuit designers, except one is much much worse than the other.”

Assistant A nodded. “Interestingly enough, I only have heard of one such perfectionist exosuit designer in Rockhold. In fact, it is the same in-house Queen’s Guards exosuit designer – the one who designed the Mirage Gunner for Saater!”

***

“Our in-house exosuit designer? She’s away on a long-term mission. We do have another one though. Why?” Cardenia leaned back in her chair, staring at the trio in front of her. She still had her visor on and her voice was heavily modulated, so Halyon and Assistant A did not know her identity. They didn’t dare to ask either.

“There’s a slight chance that the attacker’s aerial exosuit is made by that exosuit designer,” Ceres explained their findings.

“Nope, no way.” The Queen immediately rejected their line of reasoning.

“What? Why?” Assistant A was a bit angered that his perfect deduction had been rejected so easily.

“Who the hell are you?”

“I am Ian Hardington, and I believe you owe us an explanation.” The old man stuck out his chest with inflated pride, but it quickly deflated when the Queen stared at him without saying anything. Instead, she turned to Ceres.

“One, she’s my most trusted subordinate out of everyone in the Queen’s Guard. Two, I have been receiving weekly updates from her on a secure channel. Good try, but it has to be someone else.”

Ceres was curious to find out who was this trusted exosuit designer. He tried to get a sign from the Queen on who it was, but her face showed no emotions or reactions, making him unable to get any information out of her.

“Julia and Saater may have a lead on your worms, however. They are currently at the armoury waiting for you. Meet up with them.” The Queen ordered, sending the trio out of her office.

As soon as they left the office, however, the Queen pondered over it for a moment before calling someone. “Rei, what’s the latest update on our exosuit designer? Any issues?”

“No issues, ma’am. She just reported that she’s facing some difficulties, but does not require any backup.”

“Hmm… keep me informed.” The Queen frowned as she shut off the communications.

As for the trio, they were not in a good mood. “What a terrible Queen!” Assistant A frowned as they got into the lift, sending them to the armoury level. “She hardly put me in her eyes! Mind you, I used to be the boss of a large exosuit design..”

Ceres and Halyon blocked out the same regurgitated story in their minds. Instead, Halyon leaned over to Ceres, whispering in his ear. “Man, that Queen is reaaally sexy. How did you get so close to her?! Did you invoke some romantic feelings in her?”

“What? How can you even suggest that?” Ceres was not into Cardenia’s kind at all. “As a matter of fact, if I really wanted to, my body and personality are more than enough to make any number of ladies fall in love with me.”

“Okay, virgin,” Halyon muttered as the lift doors opened. Ceres groaned, not being able to explain to Halyon and Assistant A that he knew what was the Queen’s real identity, and that he would never dream of doing anything with her.

They headed towards the armoury, which was an entire hangar bay filled with military vehicles and rows upon rows of weapons placed in secure storage racks.

Julia waved them over, and they were instructed to gear up in whatever suited them. If Ceres had a choice, he would pretty much go barehanded thanks to the strength of his black armour, but he decided to wear a basic exosuit anyway and limit his strength.

He had already been the target of one kidnapping, and so far the other side had no qualms about how they went about it.

There was a good chance that by acting weak, he could lure other attackers out! This time though, he had to remind himself not to kill them instantly, so he could keep them for interrogation.

He quickly chose a default rifleman exosuit, a standardized exosuit for the Queen’s Guards that did not excel in any particular area, but at least it got the job done.

Seeing himself in the mirror with the Queen’s emblem on his right chest, Ceres sighed. Why did it feel like he was straying further and further away from his original goal of finding his friends?

Once done, they boarded an armoured hovercar, speeding out of the hangar bay as they drifted over the neon city.

“I’m surprised Rockhold can still function as a small city.” Ceres casually mentioned. Cardenia had already explained the origins of Rockhold to him during their exchange.

Originally an attempt at a new city by other colonists, an accident on the only shaft to the surface effectively cut off most of the logistics available to the budding Rockhold. Instead of trying to fix the problems, however, the richer colonists plundered everything they could from Rockhold before migrating to the main city of Athen.

This left behind millions of impoverished and starving people who originally followed in the hopes of being a part of a new city. Chaos and internal struggle soon ensued as gangs formed, fighting for control of what was left of the supply chain.

Though that was more than a hundred years ago, the gangs still remained in effective control of the various districts of Rockhold. Naturally, multiple routes to the surface and to the city of Athen existed now, thanks to heavy corporate investment by Bee Strathon as well as ingenuity and perseverance by the gangs.

Despite Cardenia having dominated the area, she did not completely suppress each and every single gang member that existed before her. She neither had the willpower nor the strength to chase after such small rats. Hence a sort of tenuous balance was struck, with the smaller gangs knowing that the Queen’s Guards could come crashing down on them anytime they crossed the line.

To Ceres who had spent most of his life in the military orphanage and the city of Athen, it was originally inconceivable to him how criminal gangs in Rockhold could just live in the open without fear of the law.