Chapter 158 - Azure Tiger (Patreon)

The word of the design duel began to spread after the squad ended their briefing meeting.

“What? Someone is challenging the White Fang’s modified exosuit? Who would be that stupid?”

“Apparently it’s a new high-rank agent, ‘Dumpling’. Maybe they are like master and disciple?”

“Oh, I think it’s much more than that. The last time I saw them together at the training centre, I saw bolts of lightning and tense love between them I swear.”

Ceres returned to his new personal bunk that he moved into ever since he became a high-rank agent. Due to the limited space in the base, his bunk was relatively cramped, forcing him to crouch to enter the low door.

It was a simple bed and a shower, that was it. No table, no chair, no cupboard. Ceres did not really have many belongings either, and what he saw from others was that they didn’t too.

Most of them were displaced outers after all – what belongings did they really have? Perhaps keepsakes and memoirs, but nothing a small duffel bag couldn’t hold.

Either way, Ceres planned to design a brand new exosuit that would triumph over the boy’s modified swordsman exosuit. He also planned to have that new exosuit be his personalized exosuit for the mission, so he had to design with that in mind as well.

This would be his second time designing an exosuit for himself. The last time took more than a week, partly because he had to manufacture the material himself which took a lot of work out of him.

The reason he was so confident in the ‘two days’ deadline was that he had already seen the assembling capacity of the exosuit department, with the tons of components and spare parts available including workbenches.

“Okay, let’s set the design goals first.” Ceres spoke to himself as he sat down on the bed, pulling out his multi-terminal to begin designing.

Opening up an inbuilt design software on the multi-terminal, he loaded up the Victorious Revolt. To be quite frank, he hated having to personalize his exosuit around this. He would much rather design the frame around his body from scratch.

However, the rebellion had streamlined the repair process to only fix Victorious Revolt-related parts, and Ceres wasn’t about to spend the next week manufacturing all his backup parts alone. He still had to handle the squad’s parts as well!

Ceres considered the flaws that he had already spotted in the opponent’s exosuit, which he only discovered later was called the Azure Tiger

The Azure Tiger was a swordsman exosuit aimed at delivering strike power and enough armour to defend himself. It was well-defended in almost every direction, and it was near impossible to attack the back of a swordsman either way unless Ceres went full stealth – which he wasn’t about to.

However, Ceres already marked a few weak spots on the exosuit – namely the legs, the power delivery system, and the radiators.

It seems that in the process of the modification, Ardan had left out improving the legs, causing them to have to bear the additional armour and hydraulic systems as additional weight, stressing the frame further.

Sure, the legs were armour-plated, but Ceres already calculated the specific spots to strike in order to damage the frame internally. The armour plate served only to disperse incoming lasers or energy beams, yet it offered almost no resistance to blunt attacks.

For the power delivery system, Ceres identified overall that there was no backup system. In fact, the way the power system was wired seemed to be overly reliant on the entire circuit being completely connected. Any disruption and the majority of the exosuit would falter almost instantly. This was a rookie mistake, and something Ceres did not expect Ardan to make.

He soon realized Ardan actually never had the chance to properly practice exosuit design and repair as he had through the graduation competition, which may be the reason why such an issue occurred in the first place. The rebel agents were not aware enough to fix this issue, and it was apparent in their fervent adoration of the White Fang that they won’t fix it even if they saw it.

Lastly, the radiators were thoroughly insufficient. The heat build-up within the exosuit caused by the full armour plating would almost cook the pilot. Ceres was slightly surprised that the Azure Tiger had actually seen real combat on a solo mission, so he was surprised. “That won’t work in space though.”

The weakness of the radiators was not that exploitable during the duel, but Ceres was planning to disable or damage them to begin slowly eroding the Azure Tiger from within.

However, all of these flaws rested on his ability to exploit them. The Azure Tiger was still a well-armoured medium exosuit capable of fending off multiple enemies both ranged and melee.

The reason why it could fend off ranged enemies was due to the nature of the boy’s special ability, which seems to be able to refract energy beams. Ceres wondered whether it worked on solid objects which had significantly more particles than an energy beam, but he had no options available to test it.

“This means I’m only left with going melee as an option.” Ceres pondered. This came into direct conflict with what he wanted to achieve for his own personal exosuit.

Seeing as they were about to enter zero-g combat, it made sense to have an exosuit designed completely around ranged combat for that purpose.

This was the main issue with exosuit design: one could never design a one-fits-all blueprint. Any such exosuit would require advanced technology beyond his reach that the rebellion did not possess!

Perhaps a Dynasty exosuit might be able to achieve these two different design requirements, but Ceres could not. “Let’s focus on beating Azure Tiger first then.” Ceres sighed as he ditched the previous design goal of it being his personal exosuit.

He activated three displays of all the add-ons and modules available for the Victorious Revolt. They were separated into categories like offensive, defensive and mobility. The three usually overlapped, but Ceres was content to spend some time digging into the details of the modules.

[Virlo Pharmas Combat Enhancer 13 – A competitor to the rising X-12 stimulant, the serum drastically increases focus, allowing the user to experience heightened senses for up to five seconds. The injection can be triggered to activate automatically given the scenario. While the duration pales in comparison to the one-hour duration offered by the X-12 stimulant, the side effects are less apparent and the dosage required is smaller. WARNING: Do not take more than four times the advised dosage in less than an hour.]

Ceres pulled up a 3D rendering of the stimulant module, recalling how he had fought something similar during the defence of the temple against Bee Strathon. “The stimulant the soldier was using had a much longer duration than five seconds, so it must have been the X-12 stimulant…”

He remembered the video he watched in the secret research lab of Doctor Theria, where the stimulant was used to placate the A-689 worm. Ceres was not inclined towards relying on stimulants, seeing as he did not know how the black goo in his body would react. “Better not deal with any biological stuff.”

[Mounted Turret – Right Shoulder Version: A variation of the White Fang’s own design, this requires a NEIR level of 1.5 or higher, as well as compatibility with utilizing an additional arm. Please come down to the exosuit department for a test before purchasing]

Ceres chuckled, recognizing the mounted turret arm that he fought against during his very first combat duel. “He really has a penchant for additional arms…”

Reading the NEIR requirement again, he actually realized he never did a proper grading of his NEIR level. It was not necessary for low-rank agents at the time, who were only performing logistical missions most of the time.

Either way, he wasn’t planning to use the additional arm. It would be an additional load on his nerval interface that he did not want to entertain.

One hour passed just like this, as Ceres continuously filtered out modules as he went down the list, selecting a few that suited his goals.

To beat the Azure Tiger, he needed the following:

1. High mobility

2. A melee weapon that can stay out of reach of the sword or best it.

3. EMP capabilities that can disrupt the power flow of an exosuit.

“This sounds eerily similar…” Ceres thought to himself. The modules he had all chosen so far fit the high mobility goal, but now he needed to choose the weapon.

He was definitely not going toe to toe with a boy who was obviously well-versed in the sword. A spear would do fine as it was the weapon Ceres was the most comfortable with, but Ceres had no doubt that the boy was also doing research on him. He could not expect the opponent to remain ignorant.

“The heavy mace I designed from before was meant for crushing wildlife…” Ceres dismissed the concept of the mace, checking other possible weapons. “Something that can deal blunt damage at a range, while being able to transfer an electromagnetic pulse…”

Ceres couldn’t think of any such weapon nor did he see any. “Maybe I should just get a taser.” He decided to head to the exosuit department to check out the range of weapons for himself.

The exosuit department was as busy as before, even more so as the other squads began putting in their orders for the modifications and parts. The factory-like floor was already bursting with activity, the sounds of metal, welding, multi-meter beepings and consistent typing on a few old mechanical keyboards could be heard. The occasional clang of a dropped tool rang out clear as day, followed by a tirade from a nearby supervisor.

A few primary exosuit repairers from the other squads were already there in person, using temporary workbenches and crafting stations. They performed their modifications with handheld tools, examining and checking the connections while a holographic screen continuously ran diagnostics through the spine of the exosuit, ensuring functionality.

Ceres walked through the crowded factory floor, hoping to avoid attention as he tried to get past the armoury, where most of the weapons in storage were held. However, someone immediately spotted him, walking straight towards him.

“Hello, ‘Dumpling’. Stirred up quite a storm yet again, hmm?” Felicia remarked as Ceres was stopped by her, the only person he knew in the exosuit department. She looked pretty carefree, but Ceres could notice that she was also dedicated part of her attention to ensuring nothing broke or went wrong in the factory.

“I’m looking for the range of melee weapons that the department has, can I view the armoury?” Ceres asked, even though he knew the armoury was already open.

“Oh? Trying to find a solution to beat the Azure Tiger? Sure! I love seeing new innovations. Are you sure you have experience in exosuit design though?” Felicia asked curiously.

“I may have repaired a few exosuits in Rockhold…” Ceres coughed slightly, trying to mask his experience with the stint he did in Rockhold.

“Hmm… okay, go ahead. If you don’t find the weapon you’re looking for, let me know. We have a few more in storage that might pique your interest.” Felicia smiled.

Ceres nodded, before moving on to the armoury. He wondered why Felicia was so interested in helping him. Perhaps she just wanted to see an exosuit design duel, but Ceres ultimately saw pure curiosity in her.

Many of the other repairers that he walked past also exhibited the same curiosity, as expected of an agent who was directly recruited by the White Fang. Ceres ignored their glances, walking towards a towering rack of weapons of all types.

Varying sizes of rifles were hung on display racks stretching all the way to the ceiling, with the largest being a heavy knight shoulder-mounted cannon, the size of a car. Ceres was amazed at the assortment of weapons.

He had already seen the weapons in the holographic list in his bunk, but seeing it in person added a visible physical scale and size to it – a sort of presence to it. However, Ceres was not interested in ranged weapons, paying attention to the melee weapon section.

Unlike the ranged weapon category, melee weapons were noticeably less underserved. No one in the right mind would attempt to master a melee weapon in an age of lasers and energy beams that can kill people from kilometres away, but they were still critical in close-quarter combat, and extremely useful in long-duration combat scenarios where ammunition and energy were scarce.

The silence of their kills was another factor as well, hence many of the frequent visitors were lone wolves infiltrators and commando-type agents. In fact, among the few people browsing the armoury and testing the weapons out in person against a heavily chipped concrete block, Ceres spotted Tyson, the designated hacker from Squad C.

“Here to find a weapon to beat Riker?” Tyson smiled genially when Ceres approached him. “At least you’re not using any ranged weapons – I heard he’s practically immune to them.”

Ceres nodded, casually adding the name Riker into his memory while internally cursing as to why he forgot to ask for the name in the first place. “Any suggestions on types of weapons?”

Tyson scratched his smooth chin with his mechanical hand, the sounds of minor clicking echoing through the expansive armoury along with the consistent clanging of weapon testing.

“My combat style is more of espionage and stealth rather than a head-on confrontation. If it was me, I would set EMP mines all over the field before I even got into contact with him, though that’s not possible in the duel. Otherwise, I would never fight him head-on, so I don’t have other ideas right now for you.”

Tyson was a hacker, so it went without saying that he didn’t like head-on confrontations. He prefers to tilt the odds in his favour by manipulating the environment or even hacking the opponent’s nerval interface outright without them knowing. This concept gave Ceres a sort of inspiration, something he would save as a trump card during the duel.

However, it did not solve the problem of the weapon to be used. Ceres needed something that can easily keep Riker at arm’s length, so it had to be longer than a sword at least.

A range of spears was available, but Ceres did not want to rely on the spear. Riker was probably already expecting Ceres to use a spear based on his mission record.

He saw a few staffs, machetes, twin vibra-knifes and batons, but none of them really fit the bill. The staff was identical to the spear unless Ceres managed to get his hand on a staff like Paska’s, though that was wishful thinking.

“There’s an additional section of weapons behind that door that has no owner and was not mass-produced. They were more like the spoils of war from rebel agents who had done some missions on the outskirts.” Tyson pointed to a sealed door at the end of the armoury.

The rebellion did not just simply contest the enforcers, they also tried to garner support from the other citizens beyond the border of New Saint. This meant sometimes serving as their ‘police’ force to spread the word of their movement, seeing as the New Saint enforcers nor the private forces of the Dynasty of Hawthorn put in much effort to stop the crimes that occurred to smaller outposts and colonist groups.

It is from these raids of criminal groups or marauder gangs that the armoury was able to assemble the spoils of war. They served as interesting artefacts and weapons that will not be standardized, but there have been cases of top-rank agents who will adopt the weapon.

Ceres was hearing this for the first time, his interest piqued. He returned to Felicia who gladly opened the armoury for him. “Any weapon taken from here would need the approval of the White Fang and me. Some of them are extremely dangerous, and the restrictions will not be removed on them until you have been approved.”

The door slid open to reveal a modest storage room, with black cases with clear written labels on the outside. Ceres was slightly surprised at the ease with which Felicia had opened the armoury just for him, considering that he was a newbie high-rank agent.

“Oh, I just felt like you needed a fair chance. Riker took his current sword from here in case you did not know, so if you want a shot at winning, you probably need to either take something from here or gain some inspiration. Have fun!”

Felicia left Ceres to it. He was taken aback by the comment about the sword. Ceres had previously assumed that it was a simple sword, but it appears now that it probably had some exotic property.

He recalled his mace made of mawsie metal, which was heavily laced with the defensive exotic ‘Sturore’ at a percentage far beyond anything other armour made on Athen. Maybe Riker’s sword had Floa integrated into it for a lighter touch, meaning the sword could be swung at incredible speeds.

Ceres began checking the weapons present in the storage room. Each of the black cases could not be opened without Felicia’s and Ardan’s approval, so he had to make do with the holographic representation and a few images of what the weapon looked like, combined with a description of how the rebellion got the weapon.

[Bone-Liquification Stake – Laced with an unknown exotic sourced from the Beyond, this stake is able to slowly dissolve the normal bone structure of a human without affecting any other parts. The time for complete dissolvent is three-months. The weapon was recovered from an assassin’s hideout in the Teras Sands, though the assassin has not been found.]

[Unknown Greatsword – Wielded previously by a genetically modified monstrosity defending a criminal outpost, the greatsword is somehow able to withstand its own weight while retaining a sharp edge despite the number of attacks it has endured. No normal human can handle this weapon, not even one wearing a heavy exosuit.]

[Mysterious Gauntlet – A metal gauntlet with three gems embedded inside, it was retrieved from a drug den in Rockhold, where the deceased owner claimed that snapping it would randomly remove 50% of every sexually transmitted disease he had contracted. Upon further inspection of the owner’s body, it would seem this was untrue, as his medical history only showed a non-stop growth of conflicting diseases that somehow reached an equilibrium in his system.]

Ceres almost facepalmed and was about to vocally complain when he read further. “What? The gauntlet can’t be melted?!” As enticing as the description sounded, it didn’t fit what he wanted.

He went through a few more exquisite weapons – most were exotic modifications of the same range of weapons, but nothing fit his bill. It wasn’t until he walked over to a larger black case that he began to feel something… different…

Ceres ran his hand over the black surface of the case, the sensation slowly increasing as he drew nearer to the end of the case. The black goo within his body began to stir slightly, but not as violently as the time when he extracted the black goo from within Halyon’s Keeper exosuit.

[Keeper’s Warhammer – A weapon wielded by the first generation Keeper drone, ‘Drone A’. The warhammer is heavily modified but is extremely heavy. No normal human can wield this weapon. It is unknown how ‘Drone A’ was able to wield such a weapon like a toy, but further inspection and scans into the interior design of the warhammer was unsuccessful. To be dismantled in the future where possible.]

“Drone A…..” Ceres muttered. Didn’t the Keepers refer to him as Drone C once before? Did this mean his predecessor? The reaction he felt from the weapon seemed to indicate that this ‘Drone A’ had also integrated the black goo somehow.