Chapter 131 – Who’s the Queen?

The hovercar spiralled downwards out of control, crashing into an abandoned district with collapsed pre-fab buildings and dilapidated homes.

Due to the sturdy construction of the hovercar, the hovercar did not explode but instead managed to dampen the force enough for the survival of its passengers.

However, the buildings and loose power lines left all around the district were ripped apart by the crashing hovercar, causing sparks and setting off electrical fires all over the area.

The hovercar skidded on the road, kicking up a large cloud of dirt and dust while power cables mounted on poles swung free and caused electric arcs, before it finally came to a jerking halt, a smouldering wreck on the street.

Ceres groaned as he tried to unstrap himself, fumbling with the seatbelt. He looked around and noticed everyone else was unconscious in the hovercar except him, which surprised him. “Didn’t know my body was strong enough to survive a crash from that height.”

Instead of continuing to fumble, he simply tore the seatbelt with his bare hands before falling to the ground.

The hovercar had been flipped upside down, so he now was walking on the roof of the hovercar. Rather than cowering inside the hovercar, he quickly grabbed Saater’s rifle which had fallen on the floor.

He noticed the two aerial exosuits that had broken in lying on the floor. He leaned down to inspect the exosuit, flipping them over to check the design.

“A heavily modified variant of the Iron Raider, hmm…” Ceres recalled the exosuit from his very first monthly Gladius tournament. This did not give him a lot of details, as the exosuit was widely distributed.

The two attackers were already dead, however, the impact of the landing killed them as they were not strapped down and suffered full force. There was no possibility of him wearing their exosuits, as he could see the spine was already crushed to pieces.

With a strong front kick, he broke the crushed wreckage of the hovercar door, sending chunks of twisted metal flying all over as he stepped out onto the crash site.

Ceres did not wait around, instead immediately running off into a nearby dark alley between collapsed buildings, disappearing from sight.

Julia clutched her head in pain a few minutes later, waking up from the crash. “Sa…Saater, you there?” Julia’s body had multiple cuts on her due to the shattering of the hovercar’s glass, but she ignored it and tried to look into the passenger seats.

She immediately saw Saater and Niko unconscious but had no sign of Ceres. All she noticed was certain indications that someone had forced their way into the hovercar and taken Ceres! The seatbelt was cut, and the crushed door had been flung open. “What the..”

Julia shook her head. “Maybe this was all part of 17 Dumpling’s plan to escape us?” Julia learnt from a very early age to never assume and always prepare for the worst, but she had still not prepared for such a large-scale ambush.

It was inconceivable for any outfit to attack the Queen’s Guards so brazenly like that. “Either they have unlimited guts, or they have a very strong sponsor!” Julia did not put it past Bee Strathon to have been the one to initiate such an attack.

While there was a treaty between the Queen and Manager Olson to not fight within Rockhold, nothing in the treaty prevented either of them from hiring external groups to attack each other directly.

However, Julia suddenly heard the low hum of aerial exosuits approaching the hovercar, with audible footsteps of a single attacker approaching the hovercar.

“Shit, they’re back!” Julia cursed as she quickly pulled out a backup pistol from her holster, her previous rifle already crushed in the middle by the hovercar’s impact.

She remained silent as she tried to play dead, but the approaching attacker didn’t bother checking the front two seats where Julia was. Instead, they went straight into the back driver compartment, looking around.

[Sir, the target isn’t here. They must have swapped the hovercars.]The approaching attacker muttered on his communications channel, apparently talking to someone else. He seemed to be waiting for orders, while Julia kept watching with one eye slightly open, trying to make out where the attacker was from.

Now that she had the time to identify the aerial exosuit, she noticed that it was a design she had never seen before in Athen. None of the markings or logos on the exosuit also showed any form of allegiance to any known faction. It was a covert squad that was targeting them.

[Yes sir, the secondary target is here. Extracting now.] The attacker quickly undid the seatbelt on Niko, causing him to fall into his arms. Niko was slumped unconscious while the attacker carried him out of the hovercar.

However, Julia suddenly heard a loud scuffle and shots being fired around the hovercar. The attacker quickly dropped Niko, readying his own rifle and aiming out of the hovercar, trying to discern the enemy. Julia felt a slight rush of excitement at the prospect of reinforcements arriving.

Instead of hearing a barrage of gunfire, intermittent screams and yells were heard, before finally silence. The attacker had barely fired a shot over the last minute, but the sounds had already ceased. [Sir, requesting backup. Under ambush by an unknown enemy.]

Just as he finished saying that, Julia witness a black scaly claw reach at the attacker’s neck before pulling him out of the hovercar, snapping the neck cleanly in the process. “What..what the fuck was that!?” Julia almost shouted out loud but kept her cool as she continued playing dead.

She did not dare to open her mouth nor move a single inch, afraid that whatever wiped out that covert squad was still out there. Sweat rolled down her forehead as she tried to breathe as softly as possible.

Soon, the sound of other hovercars began to approach the crash site as well. Julia still did not budge, unsure of whether whoever is coming is an enemy or friend. Was the monster still around?

However, a familiar voice began to waft in from nearby. “Julia? Julia!”

“Rei, I’m here!” Julia suddenly yelled as loud as she could upon hearing her ally’s voice. A team of the Queen’s Guards immediately got to work, entering the hovercar and rescuing the three of them, cutting through the wreckage with plasma cutters and carrying them out.

“You look like you’ve been through hell.” Rei joked as he carried Julia out onto a hover-stretcher, before pushing her over to a hover-ambulance.

“17 Dumplings, the exosuit designer, he’s missing!” Julia tried to sit up on the stretcher, but she couldn’t muster the strength to.

“You mean this guy?” Rei pointed at an unconscious man, who was sitting in an ambulance handcuffed but a Queen’s Guard was trying desperately to break the cuffs off.

“Thank god.” Julia heaved a sigh of relief.

Whoever the unknown entity was, it had saved them and Ceres from being kidnapped for god knows what reason. Julia didn’t like her current helpless situation. “I’ve been playing caretaker for far too long. Time to get some real body training in.”

Rei sniggered as he pushed her stretcher into the ambulance. “You sure about that? The reason you can’t get a date is because of your arms, lady.”

“Can’t date guys when I’m busy trying to survive hovercar crashes.”

“Whatever floats your boat.” Rei sat in the ambulance next to Julia, closing the doors and banging the wall twice. The ambulances began to lift upwards, flying towards the Queen’s Tower. This time, there were more than thirty escort hovercars surrounding the ambulances.

“Who attacked us?” Julia asked.

“Honestly? No clue. No traces, no markings. It’s a dark mercenary outfit for sure, but I haven’t found any deep indication of which one they belong to.”

“Their tech, it’s a pretty high level for a place like this. Nobody just pulls thirty aerial exosuits out of their ass along with a full suite of anti-air machine guns. Heavily modified too.”

“We’ll get to the bottom of this for sure, but just rest for now Julia. The Queen will be coming to meet you soon.”

“Right. Saater and the boy Niko, they alright?”

“Much better than you are. You took the worst of it, being at the front.” Rei pressed his finger on a wound on Julia’s waist, causing her to wince in pain. “How about you focus on yourself now and stop playing babysitter for once.”

“Fuck you, once I get back to the Queen’s Tower, I’m going to figure out who hired that dark mercenary outfit. Who the hell dares to attack us on our turf?!” Julia said angrily but suddenly felt slightly woozy as Rei injected anaesthesia into her shoulder.

“Oh no you’re not. You’re going to rest well. Take it as doctor’s orders.”

“Fu..ck.. you’re not even a real doctor….” Julia dozed off.

***

Ceres was now lying on a nice comfortable bed, probably the best bed he had since he escaped the vat a year ago.

He pretended like he was still unconscious, his eyes close but his mind still able to view his surroundings’ emotions via his H.T. mode. He couldn’t really map walls, ceilings, or corners, but he could definitely detect living beings.

He could not see the details of the room in this vision mode, everything that wasn’t alive being pitch black.

What he could see was two guards standing at the door and a doctor next to his beds who seemed to be reading something. Ceres noticed a lone female lady approaching the room from what he assumed was a hallway, tracking her movement from afar.

As she approached the room, the two guards bowed down at her, causing Ceres to suddenly tense up.

It’s the Queen. He did not even see other Queen’s Guards members bow to Julia, and he had already memorized Julia’s outline.

Ceres immediately played dead, acting like he was unconscious while the doctor continued fumbling with a medical interface, checking Ceres’s vitals. Lucky for Ceres, his brain activity was not being scanned, otherwise, he would have already been revealed as awake.

The Queen entered the room, walking right up to the doctor.

“How is he? Any permanent damage?” Her voice was modulated heavily, as though she wanted to mask her original voice.

“No, ma’am, his vitals are all good. Wounds are all superficial. In fact, his body is extremely strong and healthy which is quite rare down here. Increased muscle density, skin was so tough to the point it was hard for me to even get a needle in. I wonder how he got the wounds in the first place… No signs of implants apart from the nerval jack as well. If you want, I can continue to investigate where …”

“No need. Leave us.” The Queen suddenly interrupted the doctor, motioning with her hand towards the door. The doctor didn’t argue back, immediately bowing before scampering out of the room.

“That means you two as well.” She pointed at the two guards at the door.

“But ma’am, you yourself declared a state of emergency. We don’t even know where this man comes from. Let us remain for your sake.” One of the guards said.

“Are you suggesting that I will not be able to handle an injured young man lying on a bed?” The Queen glared at them, causing them to tense up.

“N…no, ma’am. We’ll wait outside.” The two guards quickly bowed and left the room, though they didn’t stay far away from the door.

The Queen seemed to be taking something out from her pockets, but Ceres could not see what it was without opening his eyes. “Maybe I need to augment myself to be able to view actual inanimate stuff as well…”

A loud humming sound reverberated through the room, seemingly stemming from a device on the Queen’s hands. She placed the device down on a nearby bedside table, before sitting down where the doctor was previously sitting.

A few minutes of silence passed, making Ceres wonder what the hell the Queen was doing.

“How long are you going to play dead?” The Queen suddenly remarked.

Ceres’s heart clenched, but he didn’t move a single inch. For all he knew, it might be just a ploy to check if he was really awake. Responding now would be playing right into her hands, it was better to continue pretending to be unconscious.

“Seems like you picked up a few tricks after all these years huh? Six years…” The voice modulation suddenly turned off, revealing a more feminine voice.

This time, Ceres couldn’t help opening his eyes a bit. Why did the Queen’s voice sound so familiar?

As he opened his eyes, he suddenly received a tight slap from the Queen, reverberating his black mask. “Why the fuck did you even come back, you bitch?”

Ceres immediately sat up straight, not pretending anymore. He took a good look at the Queen.

The Queen wore a red trench coat along with sleek black pants and combat boots. Her short white hair accentuated the neon visor that covered her eyes. Her body was toned and lean, while her body posture emitted pure confidence.

She frowned at Ceres who simply stared at her in confusion.

“Sorry, do I know you..?” Ceres asked timidly.

Before the Queen could slap him again, he quickly dodged and rolled out of the bed, recovering into a fighting posture – but it wasn’t fast enough as the Queen performed a sweeping kick, knocking him down onto the floor.

“It’s Cardenia, bitch. Glad you remember me. Have you had fun playing dead for six years and fucking me over?”

“Cardenia… Hawthorn? What the hell are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be off-world?” Ceres groaned as Cardenia delivered yet another brutal kick to Ceres’s stomach.

“Didn’t expect me to be alive huh?” Cardenia smirked as she stopped beating Ceres, returning back to her seat and crossing her legs. “I didn’t expect you to still be alive either. Imagine my surprise when someone with the name ’17 Dumplings’ suddenly appeared on my turf. A bit too obvious if you ask me.”

Ceres recalled that Cardenia had met him right behind the dumpling store on Zone 17. “Right, forgot about that…” He honestly thought only his friends would remember, not the former owner of the planet.

“But.. how are you the Queen?” Ceres grunted, struggling to get up from the floor into a sitting position. He gingerly rubbed his stomach, wondering if he would have received the same damage had he activated his armour. For such a sleek lady as Cardenia, the force she delivered was quite unimaginable.

All members including former members were augmented, thanks to the Dynasties’ resources. Not counting Ceres’s unique gimmicks, Cardenia might beat Ceres in a straight-up strength competition.

“Oh? Why don’t you tell me what you thought happened to me?” Cardenia smiled as she leaned back on the chair.

“You were implicated in the scandal, so wasn’t it pretty much game over for you? Everyone I talked to said you were off-world.”

“Well, here I am, ruling this slice of the gutter.” Cardenia stood up, pacing the room. “But I’m more interested in you. I did not expect you to show up of all people. If anything, I wished you were dead.”

“What?! Why?” Ceres exclaimed.

“Because you and you alone are the sole reason why I’m in this shit hole!” Cardenia yelled with sudden fury, frightening Ceres into submission. In Ceres’s mind, Cardenia was still subconsciously the owner of the planet to him.

“You singlehandedly ruined my wager and brought me to ruin. All you had to do was win. Were you working for them?” Cardenia accused.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Of course, I wanted to win. But someone backstabbed me. In fact, for a moment, I even suspected you!”

“Me?! Why would I sabotage myself?” Cardenia scoffed incredulously as she glared into Ceres’s eyes. “It’s pretty obvious Doctor Wu and Oliver Athen are the ones supporting you, am I right?”

“What?” Ceres was confused. Why in the world would Oliver Athen support him? Does being in a coma for five years count as support?

“You probably spent the last five years living your life of luxury under them, now you’re on a mission from the enforcers to root me out, huh? Well, I’m not going down that easy!” Cardenia lifted up her fist.

“WAIT STOP!” Ceres held his hands out. “There’s a lot of misunderstanding here, please just let me explain!”

“And let you buy time?”

“Think about why you even bothered to bring someone named ’17 Dumplings’ to you. Both you and I are lacking information, so it’ll benefit both of us to share!” Ceres quickly tried to negotiate.

“Hmm….” Cardenia pondered as she walked around the room, her boots clicking against the floor. She returned to her chair, leaning back again. “Well? Start talking.”

“Can you guarantee that you are Cardenia first and that I am safe here?” Ceres cautiously asked.

“Hmph, looks like someone finally grew up. You know our patron contract is still valid, so shouldn’t you be under my command after proving my identity?” Cardenia took an emblem of the Dynasty of Hawthorn, with her name engraved on it.

It was the same emblem shown to Ceres when Cardenia first met him.

The emblem glowed as she held it, marking her as the original DNA-coded owner of the emblem. It was unique to every member, so Ceres was now fairly convinced that the lady in front of him was definitely her or have impersonated her DNA so perfectly it fooled the emblem.

“Contracts don’t work on deceased citizens, ma’am.” Ceres sheepishly smiled.