The Martial Unity

Chapter 4343: Suits

When Ria walked into the exosuit inventory chamber, she found herself staring at numerous exo-Martial suits that could provide her with the security that she could possibly need. The Esoterist had been generous, stocking up on virtually every kind of exosuit there was, all to increase the chances of their success in each operation.

She walked across what was essentially a mini-showroom of empty exosuits that simply floated in the air, each of which had associated information packages that explained each suit thoroughly. Of course, she was hardly a good judge by herself. She simply plugged the environmental data that they had gathered from the Stellarch’s surveillance apparatus into the artificial intelligence of the mainframe, requesting it to provide her with the most apt exosuits.

[Absolutely, Miss Ria. I shall compile a shortlist of your best options based on the data that you have provided. According to my estimations, because of the high atmospheric pressure and high gravity, the unbreathable atmosphere, along with the presence of potentially harmful lifeforms, and the requirement of stealth due to the target world being an infected world, these are the two best options out of the available exosuits in your inventory.]

It provided her with the profiles of two exosuits that she quickly skimmed.

[Armester V6. An exosuit designed for heavy planets with high gravity and grueling atmospheric conditions. This was part of the initial recommended package based on the existing available information on Planet ’Pinky’. It is most hardened for such environments, while being able to provide remarkably high stealth with limited traceability. However, it does have a higher energy signature and can be detected by advanced thermal senses and infrared scanning.]

The Armester V6 was a very thick gray, metallic exosuit that was closer to a suit of armor than a spacesuit meant for extraterrestrial environments to survive pathwalker combat. It was powered by antimatter cells that ran advanced artificial intelligence systems that essentially neutralized the discomfort and strain that were associated with heavy planets and quasi-gas giants. It was designed for long-term presence, to ensure that the radically different environment didn’t cause any long-term adverse effects on the body, going as far as to make the gravitational pull on the body equal it was exactly equal to that of one g.

It even had advanced threat detection systems for such environments since radically different environments often cause sensory confusion in pathwalkers, due to the fact that their senses were honed for a completely different environment.

It was made by Exottire, the same company that she had bought her first high-end exo-Martial suit several months ago, the Water Integument, one of their premium brands. It was certainly something that she considered, but one of its downsides was that it had high energy consumption.

It required a steady flow of antimatter to sustain its energy consumption.

She wasn’t sure if it was wise to take such an energy-hungry suit into a manifold. She immediately moved on to the next option at her disposal.

[Spyioneer B6.1 gas-giant class exo-Martian suit. One of many classes of a high-end product line made up of a lightweight invintium alloy. Despite being designed for high-end environments, it is as light as a regular exo-Martial suit. It doesn’t provide great supplementary features, and its stealth is limited to sound, heat, seismic signatures, and odor. It does not make the user invisible, but it can change color and blend in with the black-body radiation of the environment, making it more difficult to spot across long distances. It also has a limited sensory apparatus, forcing the Martial Artist to do the hard lifting. But because the frame is made up of a material with high tensile strength, it can withstand a lot of punishment. Consequently, it has a very low energy consumption rate. Perfect for operations where operational support may be limited or unreliable.]

The Spyioneer was sleeker. Its default color was a standard white, but its surface was covered in meta-material that could change color based on density. One of the few autonomous programs that the suit had was detecting the black-body radiation of the environment, and alternating the density of the chromatodynamic meta-material to mimic it as much as possible.

This was something that she found more viable. Given that they weren’t dealing with a highly advanced civilization that had a very robust planetary surveillance apparatus. She didn’t need to go hardcore with the stealth and constantly worry about energy.

”I’ll go with this one,” she decided. ”As for the rest, I’ll have to coordinate them with the team.”

The five came together quickly after having made their choice of the basics at their disposal. Even with the incomplete information that they had at their disposal, they had enough to plan out the basics of the operation that they were going to mount. Thankfully, most of them had enough experience with operations into exoplanets, having spent enough time in the frontier undertaking such operations by themselves or also with other teams.

”The biggest issue, from what I can see,” Ria pointed at the hologram featuring the detailed scans already conducted by the Spyioneer. ”Will be the firestorms. If they are every entropic anomaly as I fear, then...”

Her eyes sharpened.

”Entering the manifold will be a turbulent affair.”

Around the table in the meeting, the other four looked at the documented firestorms that raged at the points where entropic anomalies had been detected. So far, they had only spotted two entropic anomaly points, but the odds of firestorms overlapping these points seemed so low that it didn’t seem like a mere coincidence.

”If we have to navigate these firestorms, we will need to have navigation gear,” Sternon remarked thoughtfully, leaning forward thoughtfully. ”These storms span nearly a hundred kilometers, and the energy flux is high enough that we can get lost and never emerge. Even with our combat prowess, it won’t be easy to deal with. Especially when we’re on a planet with an unbreathable atmosphere, and our suits don’t have endless durability.”

What especially concerned him was if the exosuits of his friends malfunctioned in the extreme environments on top of the stresses of pathwalker power.