The Martial Unity

In many ways, Sage Gurren couldn’t help but feel that the introduction of mass breakthroughs had ruined Martial Art, even if it had made it much stronger on the whole. At the very least, he didn’t appreciate having his status diluted to such an extent, and he wasn’t even one of the more egotistical Martial Artists in existence. Regardless, what was done was done. He simply focused on the mission as it commenced soon enough.

“Please comply with seating procedures.” An automated voice within the spacecraft remarked as the pilot took his seat in the cockpit. “Seat fastening confirmed. Dispatch commencing in two minutes.”

When the pilot took his seat at the very forefront of the spacecraft, he began hitting several buttons across the control panel.

VMMM…

The spacecraft vibrated as its engine roared with power. Spacecraft didn’t make use of more advanced propulsion technologies simply because they were too small to do so. They relied on more elementary forms of thrust that involved spewing ignited flammable gas.

“Dispatch initiated.”

“Take-off.”

FWOOSH!

A powerful streak of flames emerged from the thrusters positioned at the rear-end of the spaceship, which exited the Pioneer I, moving through the star system at an increasingly accelerating pace as its velocities began reaching extremely high levels, moving at many hundreds of times the speed of sound

The pilot needed special esoteric technological systems that altered inertia in order to allow him to withstand the excessive acceleration. The Martial Sages, of course, could withstand it just fine; they were accustomed to accelerating even faster in combat.

The journey took hours despite the target planet being situated rather close to the landing point of the Pioneer I in the Serun I star system. By the time they arrived, one could see the planet from the window of the spaceship.

Gurren’s eyes widened as he beheld an alien planet for the first time in his entire life. It was a rich whitish-brown, containing unfathomable depths beyond what felt like a gassy exterior. The atmosphere of the planet was strangely thick despite the dangerous solar flares that he had thought would have snuffed out any meaningful atmosphere. The red dwarf star that the planet orbited was a feisty one that should have stripped away all the gases above ground.

And yet, there was an opaqueness that could only be associated with a thick atmosphere. Based on what he had read, this was supposed to be an anomaly from their previous estimations. “Remarkable…” Gurren murmured under his breath. “They were somehow wrong about this. I wonder how.”

None of the people on the ship shared his enthusiasm. The pilot simply did his job, steering the spacecraft into an orbit around the planet as he activated the planetary scanning systems that the spacecraft was equipped with. Other spacecraft had also been assigned to the same planet, allowing for a coordinated deep-dive scan of the entire planet with different kinds of sensors, too.

The data was being transmitted live to the Pioneer I omni-ship, where its scientists would also study and analyze it, sending it back to the headquarters of Project Interstellar, which would decide what to do with the information. Yet, that wasn’t the only part of the survey, certainly not. A deep-dive survey would require on-the-ground surveying agents. That was what the Martial Sages were there for.

“Planetary conditions fall within Sage-Survivability parameters,” the voice of a woman emerged from the speaker within the spacecraft. “Commence Sage unit deployment.”

“Confirmed,” the pilot turned towards the Martial Sages. “It’s time for you guys to get going. Stick to protocols and your training. Maintain active communication and surveillance. Good luck. Prepare for deployment.”

The Martial Sages sharpened their eyes as they nodded, stiffening their bodies. They had trained for six years for this within Sol, using the terrestrial planets within their solar system as a training ground for exploring exoplanets within the time that came.”

VMMMM

Their seats began lowering into a hatch beneath the floor of the compartment, where the seat unfurled from beneath them, allowing them to stand on another surface.

A glass surface.

One that allowed them to see the Serun Planera I planet beneath their feet.

That was their destination.

“Dispatch hatch opening in three, two, one, and go.”

WHOOSH

The glass trap door beneath their feet was opened as the Martial Sages were let out into the vacuum of space. They slowly floated downwards at an increasing velocity towards the planet, pulled by its heavy gravity.

Their training kicked in. Falling into a planet wasn’t something that Martial Sages normally did, so it required active training on how to best deal with it. They immediately straightened their bodies vertically relative to the surface of the planet they were falling towards, falling straight down like pillars. This was to minimize friction early on when their breathing techniques were ineffective due to the thinner atmosphere at higher.

FWOOSH!

As they fell deeper and deeper into Serun Planera I, the heat began rising with the friction from their exosuits with their rising velocities. The planet’s curvature began to reduce as they drew closer and closer to the surface of the planet.

The turbulence grew extreme, making their descent extremely rocky despite the minimization of the friction. The sky began growing more visible to them as they fully entered the system of the planet. A strangely greenish-yellow hue spread across the sky of the planet, a color very different from that of the sky of Gaia.

FWOOSH!!!

Soon enough, they reached terminal velocity.

That was when they acted.

They activated the Gaseous Input-Output Pressure Management System, a piece of technology invented to allow Martial Sages to retain their breathing techniques through their exosuits in an atmosphere that couldn’t sustain their lives. The force they exerted into their exosuits with their breathing was cleanly transmitted to gases outside their suit, allowing them to use many of the breathing techniques that they normally did, like on Gaia in alien atmospheres.

They applied their breathing techniques to increase the density of air beneath their feet, allowing them to use a technique that was bread and butter for Martial Artists.

They sky-walked through the exotic sky of an alien world.