Chapter 89: Chapter 86 – First Exosuit Design

“You want to ‘farm’ the mawsies? How is that even possible? They are extremely aggressive! Who can even hope to tame them?” Zhang asked skeptically. He had experienced expeditions in the past where they fought multiple mawsies as a team, naturally he did not believe they could be tamed.

“Do you remember the standard procedure when fighting a mawsie?” Ceres asked.

“Yes, we shoot at the joints of the claws along with the base of the tail if it’s exposed.”

“Now say we shoot the claws and tails off, would the mawsie still be alive?”

“Of course, it’s one of the main reasons why they are so dangerous, because they can still charge at you with their main body…. Oh... I see where this is going,” Zhang said with a knowing smile.

The instructor was dumbfounded: “You want to keep a disabled mawsie alive so it can grow more?”

“Specifically, I believe their claws and limbs can be slowly regrown, given enough nutrition. This needs to be tested. So, the solution is actually a combination of both your ideas: We sell half of the metal, use the remaining half to capture disabled mawsies, and have a steady supply of both food for humans and metal. It’s a win-win!” Ceres said.

“I think for this project, we should only take in relatively young smaller mawsies, who have more growth potential. Older mawsies would have a harder time regrowing limbs. With the project, we could study more into the reproduction of mawsies and maybe start to reproduce them in captivity. Boy, I still don’t know your name, but you got a good brain on you.” Zhang complimented the unnamed surface dweller that was Ceres.

“I never heard of mawsie regrowing their claws however – you’ll have to prove this first too. How long does the process take as well? If I have to feed it three humans’ worth of food a day in order to get a single claw in three years, it’s not worth it.” The instructor pointed out the flaws.

“We’ll work through it. We’ll get the first few sets of prosthetics and weapons up and running. If I have my own completed exosuit, I can explore the natural habitat of the mawsies safely and learn more.” Ceres replied. He wasn’t about to fight mawsies near their natural habitat of lava with his bare body. He was not even sure he could handle them in a group without an exosuit.

The instructor nodded. “Good plan. I won’t sell the metal yet, as we’re not entirely in the critical state yet. But try not to make any wide scale plans that uses more than half the supply – I need that supply as a backup budget in case things go awry. Especially if your test fails.”

After finalizing a few more details on future tasks, Ceres and Zhang eventually left the chief’s office, with Ceres bringing Zhang home. The day-night cycle in the cavern was artificially created, with the main lighting turned off while roadside lights remained dim.

“Despite what happened today, I still don’t trust you.” Zhang suddenly said as Ceres brought him into his house.

“Because you’re a surface dweller, and all surface dwellers eventually turn bad, one way or another! Even if they don’t, they bring bad luck around them. It’s a guaranteed fact.” Zhang declared as he sat on his bed.

Ceres rolled his eyes, already accustomed to the natural paranoia and craziness coming from Zhang. Somehow, he felt like the instructor also told him something similar of Ceres being a bad omen.

***

The next few days moved by quick as Ceres engrossed himself in the design of the prosthetic while he learnt from Zhang how to operate the furnace and the metal 3D printer to its optimum.

Using the borrowed multi-terminal, Ceres quickly drafted up a few iterations of arms, taking into account of their weight too. Multiple holographic blueprints were projected into the air, allowing Ceres and Zhang to deftly make adjustments to the design.

To allow the arms to move, he found spare servo motors of different sizes that could serve as the joints of the arms and the hands, allowing the prosthetic to articulate like a muscle while the hands retained fine control.

The multi-terminal was not strong enough to run stress simulations, so Ceres had no choice but to continuously output prototypes and do fatigue testing on it. He used normal iron first as a rough gauge of if the design made sense, using Zhang as a model as he continuously fitted multiple prototype versions on Zhang’s arms, testing its length and gauging its movement.

“Hey, I didn’t sign up to be a mannequin!”

This proved to be quite a hurdle for Ceres. When he previously did exosuit repair in the riots, it was only the basic and it was simple to restore it to its original specifications and dimension that was fitted for it’s pilot. During the competition, he may have modified the limbs as well, but he knew his body extremely well.

Making prosthetics for somebody else was equivalent to designing exosuit arms for another person, something which Ceres had never done before. He absorbed as much information as he could as well as feedback from Zhang.

Zhang was not an expert in exosuits, but he could easily tell if a design was either too weak in the joints or would crack under its own weight in different positions with just a simple glance.

One of the design issues they encountered early on was the weight issue. In order to solve it, Zhang and Ceres spent many hours to iterate what was the specific thickness of the metal required to provide adequate defence, as making an entire prosthetic arm out of it was far too heavy.

Zhang taught Ceres how to potentially layer different metals and create a composite material that might have equal or better properties. The solution was to only place a relatively thinner layer of the cobalt blue metal over a steel layer to serve as the armour, while the bulk of the arm frame would be made out of a fibreglass nylon composite, allowing it to remain lightweight as possible while providing adequate defence.

The two slowly worked together towards a final design iteration, while laying the electrical wires through the arm frame and connected it to a spare exosuit processor. Running a basic neural code that was already hardcoded, he was about to try and connect into Zhang’s nerval jack when he suddenly realized Zhang didn’t have one.

“What? What’s a nerval jack? Why the hell do I need one? Can’t you just slap it on my arm?” Zhang complained, while Ceres was lost for words. This was a major obstacle. No one other than the town chief (the instructor) and Ceres had a nerval jack!

Lucky for them, the instructor was an expert in battlefield surgery, giving Ceres pointers as he redesigned the prosthetic to be attached directly to the nerves of Zhang’s arm. The entire workshop was filled with screaming thanks to the general lack of anaesthesia.

To serve as the power source, they mounted a bulky rechargeable battery near the shoulder blade, allowing for long term prosthetic use of up to two days. It was one of the lower quality batteries with a poor energy-to-weight ratio, as batteries on the surface had already progressed far beyond such meagre capacities.

A simple modern coin-cell battery could power an hovercar for seven days, but the town did not have anything of that standard.

The final product looked like a pair of arms with wires twisted from a large bunch into a single nerval jack connector. The arm frame was black, while Ceres welded the new composite metal to the exterior of the arm frame. The arm now had a shiny cobalt blue finish that sparkled.

***

Two weeks later, Ceres watched in horror the town square as the instructor jumped around the area with his new prosthetics like a horny bunny, cackling away. “What have I unleashed?”

A crowd of townspeople also watched from a safe distance, marvelling at the new prosthetics which allowed the . The large rock golem statue loomed over the town square, as though it was watching an ant dance around it.

Ceres had manufactured the first batch of prosthetic limbs and weapons for twenty people – they were all now testing it, but the main recipient who was extremely excited was naturally the instructor.

“FINALLY, I’M FREE OF THAT OFFICE! HAHAHAHAH.” The instructor yelled while testing the limits of the new prosthetics, punching away and kicking at the air.

Zhang cursed as he sat in his wheelchair. He still retained his legs but they have lost strength over the years, causing him to be unable to stand for long periods of time. He watched as the instructor pranced around, wondering if he should amputate his legs to replace them with prosthetics.

He had already received a new pair of arms, though his was the one of the earlier designs, while the instructor had received the final design. Like a kid who wanted the latest phone, Zhang just could not sit still. “Boy, make me a new pair of arms next! You have to repay me for what I taught you so far.”

“Didn’t I make a few for you?”

“YOU USED ME AS A MANNIQUIN! NONE OF THOSE PROTOTYPES WORKED!”

The instructor heard it and dashed over, gloating down at Zhang. “Did I hear wrongly? The man who wants to boost the town defences and weapons is asking for a new pair of arms, to burn through the metal supply? What a hypocrite! You’re just jealous my arm looks and works better than yours.”

The two got into yet another an argumentative fight while Ceres sighed at the side, wondering what the hell he was doing with his life.

He stood quietly at the corner while the townspeople gathered closer to the instructor, trying to get a better view of the prosthetics. Soon, Oswa and Captain Kai walked up to join him.

“That’s impressive, Ceres. After watching you demolish the mawsies, I did not take you to be an excellent exosuit designer as well.” Captain Kai complimented.

“I’m not a designer, in fact this is probably my first time designing limbs for other people. I have a lot more work to do,” Ceres shook his head.

“It’s good enough. What’s next on the list?”

“Well, I have to make an exosuit myself. We’re planning to domesticate the mawsies, so I’ll have to venture out into their natural habitat and do some research myself.”

Ceres still did not trust his own body. Sure, the black armour was strong enough to fight another exosuit, but if he was not even able to control it, then how could he rely on it? Also, having an exosuit would prevent others from suspecting his abilities. It wasn’t nice to walk around looking like an alien freak.

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“Okay, you can escort me on the way back to the grodaw farm as well. How soon till you’re ready?” Oswa asked.

“I estimate about another two weeks, is that alright?”

“That’s fine, I planned to stay for a month. We loaded enough food in the dispenser for the worms so we should be okay.”

Ceres nodded, while the instructor and Zhang continued shouting and screaming at each other. Yet despite the angry event, there was only a sense of happiness and jovial celebration amongst the town as the new prosthetics represented hope.

“I have to ask you for a favour as well, Ceres,” Captain Kai asked respectfully. “It won’t take up too much of your time. I would like for one of the children to learn from you, if possible. For both combat and engineering.”

Ceres was slightly startled, not expecting someone to request him to teach. The last time he was asked to be a mentor, it was more of a façade to become friends rather than an actual teacher student relationship. Was he really qualified to teach anyone?

He was about to reject it when he suddenly realized the intentions behind Captain Kai’s request. If he did not teach anyone in the town, would they be able to continue producing the prosthetics after he was gone?

Ceres highly doubted anyone had his level of design capabilities now in the town. Perhaps the instructor could do it, but he was already far too busy managing the town and was more suited to teaching combat instead. However, Ceres still agreed, with plans to push the burden of combat training to the instructor.

“Sure, but I won’t have a lot of time over the next two weeks, since I’m rushing the exosuit project. Whoever is learning from me will only have to watch what Zhang and I will be doing.”

“That’s perfectly fine. We have a severe lack of combat and technical expertise in the town, and it has already been degrading over time. Your handover of some of the knowledge to our children already helps us in the long run, thank you again.” Captain Kai bowed respectfully to Ceres, while Ceres tried to stop him.

“Don’t bow to me, you’re more than twenty-years older than me!” Ceres sighed. “Since I’m on a time crunch, I’ll make a move back to the workshop first. Send the kid over anytime.”

Heading back to the workshop, Ceres realized that he needed something like a mask. His identity was far too obvious now, and he never thought about it before. “I’ve been walking around in the open like a dumb idiot!”

“Why the hell do you even need a mask? Aha, you’re a terrible surface-dweller right? I knew it! But can you make my new arms first please?” Zhang smiled with a wide grin, as though he had finally caught Ceres in the act.

Ignoring Zhang, Ceres began to consider what the mask should be. The purpose of the mask was very obvious – if the enforcers ever came into town, or just even someone who was remotely related to them walked past him while he was out of town, it will reveal his position immediately.

“Better hide my face, my looks are too good and easy to recognize. I’m a bona fide celebrity now.” Ceres knew the shape of his face well, but should the mask be a full-face mask, or it could be something like a gas mask which only covered the lower half of his face?

Eventually, he determined on a full-face mask, as it was safer. He did not know what sort of algorithms the enforcers had that could match his face just from the upper half.

Designing the mask, he decided to make it completely black and out of a thin sheet of the mawsie metal. “Gotta be durable, at least it won’t crack or break in an instant.”

“It might break your nose if someone punches hard though,” Zhang quipped.

The full black mask seemed to be a match with the black armour that intermittently appeared on him. “Should fit, but maybe the exact shade of black is slightly off.” Feeling like there wasn’t enough flair, Ceres was thinking about adding some design to it.

Ceres began to ask a few people who were walking past. Xi and the six-year-old girl An came by to visit, with An being intrigued by the mask.

“Hmm, a mask to conceal your face… I think just plain black is fine right? Anything else is too distinguishable,” Xi pointed out.

“Yes, I thought so too…” Ceres nodded in agreement, turning to look at the half completed black mask, which suddenly had a large red ‘C’ painted over the mask like a brush stroke.

An stood nearby with her right finger dipped in red paint. “An, quick, wipe it off! Don’t paint on other people’s stuff!” Xi hastily went to grab An, who simply wiped her finger on Xi’s lab coat, slightly frustrating her even more.

“Wait, it feels a bit better now…” Ceres looked at the mask. It looked more like a crescent brush stroke rather than a ‘C’.

“C is for the Chosen!” An proudly stated, apparently painting the letter based on what she learned previously. She tried to paint some of the other tools and tables lying around, but Xi held a tight grip on her.

Ceres still didn’t know who or what the Chosen was.“Well, coincidentally, C stands for Ceres, so I’ll take it.” Ceres smiled weakly. Wearing the mask, he suddenly realized something incredibly important. “God damn it, I forgot the eye slots.”

Suddenly for a brief moment, his vision swapped into monochrome vision for a while, allowing him to see the outline of Xi and An briefly even though the mask was solid. “What…?” Ceres shook his head, but his vision was back to normal. “Huh, that’s weird…”

Quickly adding in the eye slots, he recalled he was on a tight timeline for his exosuit design. Thanking Xi and An, he returned to his proper work, this time wearing the mask to get used to it. It was a bit restrictive at the start, but he soon felt like it was second nature after a few more adjustments.

Focusing back on the exosuit design, Ceres reopened the prosthetic arms and legs design on his multi-terminal and checked out the design. He intended to reuse a large part of it for his exosuit project, as it will save time for him as well.

“The problem is that the prosthetic arms are actually too light, and they might not be able to handle what my body can produce now.”

Ceres was aware that his current body was strong but did not fully understand how much he could actually withstand or carry. Could he perform the same as Chad and move the entire exosuit without motors? Or should he have motors to split half of the load? There wasn’t a proper testing machine in the town to accurately measure.

If he decided to have motors, the power source had to be able to keep up as well. Ceres naturally intended for the exosuit to preferably made completely out of the new metal, including the frame.

He pictured the use of the exosuit to allow him to brave any dangers and high temperatures that were the norm in the subterranean environment.

Having such a strong heavy armour exosuit would also allow him to take a lot more hits. Unlike his speed-focused style on the surface, things were a lot more serious in this hostile environment.

A single injury could be the difference between life or death, and with the area being naturally cramped, it was hard for a speed-focused exosuit to excel.

Instead, Ceres decided to recall everything he learnt during his training with the instructor on how a heavy exosuit worked. This time, he could use a smaller power source as his body was naturally strong enough to overcome some of the shortcomings of the exosuit, which allowed him to place more armour and additional modules.

“What should be the main weapon?” Ceres pondered as he considered his options. It was an obvious fact that he would move about 50% slower while wearing the exosuit. However, this was equivalent to his speed during the competition, thanks to the unknown augmentations that his body had received.

In terms of power, he did not intend to be too heavily reliant on the power source, so energy-based weapons were all ruled out.

He was also limited by the availability of certain components, such as kinetic bullets and rifle parts. Ceres did not know enough about designing a gun to hunt mawsie or defend himself, so he was much more inclined towards melee weapons.

A dagger would not work well as a main weapon, seeing how he was about to move a lot slower. A spear proved effective, but only when he had been fighting the mawsies one-on-one in a single file formation, where they were coming straight at him.

In a normal scenario, he could be attacked from any direction, so his turning speed and ability to leverage the weapon at hand to defend himself should be relatively fast.

He was fighting creatures more than humans too, and judging by the mawsies, it seemed that most of the creatures underground had quite a solid armour system – at least strong enough to resist the underground pressure and the high temperatures.

In short, the weapon should be able to be swung fast and rapidly, while being able to crack through hard armour easily. Using these requirements, Ceres decided to use a short spiked mace as his main weapon of choice, as it had better smashing power than a spear or a sword.

A hammer or warhammer was not out of the question either, but a spiked mace allowed him to perform backhand attacks without having to change the orientation of the weapon.

His backup weapon was to be a pickaxe, as it doubled as a penetrating weapon and a mining tool. He may have to collect samples from the natural habitat of the mawsie to better understand what they ate and how they reproduce.

To provide additional defence, he decided to design a small round shield made of the same new metal to serve as a way to hold creatures at bay while he smashed them.

Ceres quickly drew out a rough sketch of how the weapon should be, knowing that he would have to make a few prototypes before knowing what was the final design that truly fit him.