The Martial Unity

The conclusion of the briefing marked the beginning of the deployment process. Pathwalkers immediately suited up, arming themselves with the necessary and relevant gear.

CLACK

Ria fitted a belt around her waist, carrying food pills, healing potions, and stamina potions. “And done.”

She turned towards her friends in their bunker as they equipped themselves with the necessary gear. Runark wore his EvoArmor Suit proudly, feeling the surge of power that came with it.

“I’m still not sure how to feel about that armor,” Sternon remarked with a queasy expression at looking at a flesh suit made up with cells from his race. “Oh well, as long as it functions well, I suppose I should take it as a compliment.”

He wore a more conventional exosuit with minimal properties outside of its robust core system. He hadn’t had the opportunity to build the necessary wealth to purchase any of the more advanced high-fangled exosuits that more premium and high-end companies like Exottire sold on the market. And he certainly didn’t have a loaded aunt who was willing to foot the bill.

CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE…

They turned towards Siliscia, whose body rapidly became covered with creepers and leaves, emerging from her body. The Nature Path was not entirely powerless in the absence of an environment of nature, after all. The elves had mastered the art of storing a piece of flora within them, in what was known as the Inner Realm. She soon came to resemble a dryad, with a body covered in leaves and stems, reaching all the way to her neck.

Misha donned her hemotech exosuit, one that she had engineered herself, covering herself in semisolid non-newtonian blood that even had a faint trace of exotic matter within it.

They were ready.

The deployment order was delivered soon to their neural inlays. They rapidly dispatched to the designated dispatch hatch doors in the Blood Arc, along with a large crowd of pathwalkers who also made their way to the bottom of the hull of the Blood Arc, where they prepared for orbital deployment.

Most pathwalkers could directly be launched onto the surface of a planet without needing pods or other spacecrafts, thanks to their superhuman power. This made deployment easy and manageable, but it also meant that they would be on their own when they reached the surface of the planet. Even as they made their way to the dispatch system, they couldn’t help but feel the air around them grow more tense. The atmosphere amid the pathwalkers as they prepared themselves for orbital deployment grew more and more tense.

STEP

Even as each of them took their stand on a glass hatch door that featured Planet Amadeus III in the distance, they couldn’t help but feel a tinge of nervousness that tingled at their skin. No one exchanged a word even as groups of five stood on massive hatches waiting to be released towards the planet. They had briefed regarding the intelligence gathered on just how powerful the homoarachnoid creatures were. Not a single person could help but feel incredibly nervous and concerned about trying to secure land on such a heavily infested planet with aliens on their own home turf. The air grew even more tense as they received an additional update from the Blood Arc Pathwalker Management Division. It made the air even more tense.

Ria couldn’t help but take a deep breath, trying to keep her nerves cool. The air was colored with the odor of metal, along with the clinical odor characteristic of air filteration systems that kept moisture low to prevent rust and bacterial growth. The environment around them was dimly lit, with a handful of lights that cut against the darkness of the orbital deployment system at the bottom of the hull of the Blood Arc.

The sounds of unsteady shuffling only added to the nervousness.

All of them were just moments away from being thrust into an extremely dangerous alien planet that had already taken down dozens of human warships despite a massive terrestrial disadvantage. “We’ll be fine.”

Sternon’s low voice drew her attention. She turned towards him to her side, gazing at his translucent face. The darkness made it difficult to discern his expression. Yet, she could sense his certainty and confidence, contrasting with the nervousness she could sense from the minds of most other people around them.

She smiled at him with a nod.

Soon enough, the time had arrived.

[Orbital Deployment commencing.]

VMMM

They inhaled deeply as a wave of vibrations passed through their feet.

And the door they were standing on was opened unceremoniously.

Just like that.

CLACK

They were let out into outer space, being flushed out by the dispersing air pressure that fled into the vacuum of outer space. The Blood Arc activated a gravitation warp field that pressed against the molecules of their body, pushing them towards the planet at an accelerating pace.

After all, it would take them forever if they just fell towards Planet Amadeus III at a slow pace, given the fact that the Blood Arc had actively maintained its distance from the planet to ensure that the homoarachnoids would not be able to latch onto the fleet carrier with their esoteric web fluid and pull them in the way they had with many other warships.

VMMM…!

Ria felt a surge of energy, excitement, and nervousness as she was accelerated faster and faster, at thousands of times the speed of sound, towards the planet. They glided through space at an entirely unhindered pace, turned into ballistic projectiles, and zoomed through outer space at a heightened pace.

And yet, she was weightless in outer space. A freeing sense of boundlessness and liberty overtook her entire body. There was no gravity pulling at her, yet. There was no atmosphere holding her back. She merely felt the intense light of the binary star system at the center of the Strehegeld Star System on her body. It was one of the most liberating sensations she enjoyed. Partly why she loved being deployed to planets from orbit. She could never get enough of it. Sometimes she considered just having herself launched across the infinite vastness of outer space at the speed of light. She considered just embarking on the emptiness of the universe in an endless journey, unfettered by anything, simply enjoying this feeling of weightlessness and boundlessness.