🚀Sages's journey

Chapter 1: The Sage's Journey

122 years into the Neo Shodai journey and Diri had had enough. She, like all Sages on the Neo Shodai Ark, was genetically modified as a young adult to be stronger, smarter, and live longer than the average Shodai in order to spend her life protecting the Neo Shodai once they awoke from stasis. But that was just it: Diri had already lived an entire Shodai lifespan on the Ark and still she had not even begun her mission. She was a woman of action, someone who was better at executing plans than ideating them. Yet on the Ark she could do nothing but prepare. The Neo Shodai slept peacefully in cryosleep, all of their vital levels monitored by the Ark’s AI, Solis. She trained with her Everai to be ready to touch ground on a new planet once Solid found one that could sustain life. it seemed as if she was just going through the motions, waiting for something to happen that would show her her true purpose. That’s when the alert went off.

Chapter 2: New World, New Treats

Pontos was meticulously going over the collected history of the Shodai that the High Council had compiled for the Sages when he heard the alert. Solis had scanned about 11 planets in the last 67 years, none of which were viable to become the new Neo Shodai homeworld. Each one had a host of problems, ranging from unbreathable air quality to lacking any natural resources. Then, in stardate 122 GD, it happened: Solis had found a new planet with an 81% chance of successfully sustaining life. Jirel had been gone for many years by this point in the journey, but his wisdom rang loud in Pontos’ mind as he suited up to go planetside: that it was their responsibility to not just find a new planet where the Neo Shodai could survive, but to create a harmonious society that would make the new planet a true homeworld. Together with his Everai Maku and 3 other Sages, Pontos boarded the small shuttle ship and headed for the unknown planet.

When the shuttle touched down the team of Sages and their Everai reported back to Solis that they had safely landed. The strange planet was covered in a dense, heavy fog and the particular location Solis had programmed the shuttle to land in was near a body of water. The Sages’ Everai were equipped with smaller, more sensitive models of the Ark’s planet scanning tech, so Pontos made sure to start taking samples immediately for the Sages back on the ark to start analyzing. Perhaps one of his fellow Sages could find a useful flora for agriculture, textiles, or medicine. Some of the Sages’ had huffed and puffed about data collection, but Pontos didn’t mind: in fact he found it therapeutic to walk the planet, scanning all sorts of plant life along the way.

As the team gathered data, Diri heard it first: a sloshing sounds coming from the water. By the time the rest of the team was aware, it was too late. A hideous creature covered in scales and slime leapt out of the water and attacked Pontos. Remembering their training with Duo, Diri and her Everai Sana immediately engaged the monster in combat. As Sana went toe to toe with the beast and did her best to keep it from attacking the other Sages, Diri unsheathed her sword and waited for the perfect moment to slide beneath the creature and cut open it’s exposed underbelly.

Once the monster had been neutralized Diri ran to Pontos to assess his wounds. While the Shodai High Counsel designed the Sages to be tougher and more resilient, they had no idea what kind of threats the Sages would encounter on their journey beyond the known universe. The beast that attacked Pontos seemed to latch on to his ribcage with some kind of suction bite, and the wound looked to be infected with some kind of venom. Although Diri worried about what other new dangers they might encounter, as she began to tend to Pontos a part of her couldn’t help but feel pride in her work: finally, she could get her hands dirty.

Chapter 3: Finding Purpose

Diri began to put all of her knowledge accumulated over her years on the Ark into action as she went to work on Pontos’ injuries. With Jirel’s help, Diri had outfitted her Everai Sana with customized medical modifications that essentially turned the warrior into a mobile clinic. Diri and Sana laid Pontos out on a table back on the shuttle. Within minutes, Pontos’ wound was cleaned, sterilized, and prepped for surgery. That’s when Diri realized that the wound was re-infecting itself. Upon further inspection Diri concluded that whatever strange poison the beast had injected Pontos with left microscopic spores behind, meaning a typical wound cleaning wouldn’t suffice. Diri closed her eyes, took a breath, and began to cycle through her encyclopedic knowledge for an answer. Quickly, she used a quick acting topical anesthetic she had developed on the Ark, took a plasma knife off of Sana’s gauntlet, and sliced off the top layer of Pontos’ skin. Sana then used her enhanced Everai vision to zoom into the fresh cut and find any traces of the poisonous spores. Once Diri and Sana had removed all of the poison, Diri used an advanced healing gel of her own design that increased Pontos’ natural healing factor, leaving him with nothing but a scar. Outside the ship, the other Sages took a small sample of the creature’s carcass to examine back on the Ark: even in the heat of battle, the prime directive of data collection was top of mind for the team. Maku and Pontos thanked Diri and Sana for their quick thinking and incredible skill.

Over the next 600 years many more stories of deadly encounters and hostile planets would be added to the Sage’s history. But this one, their first exploratory mission on a new planet, would remain their most memorable. It was here that she saw Diri saw her true purpose: keeping the Sage’s alive long enough to find a new homeworld for the Neo Shodai. She and Sana continued to develop their medical techniques and tools, while also becoming fierce warriors who not only healed their partners but defended them from danger. What would have been life-ending injuries for the Sages would become mere battle scars, and all of Diri’s efforts would eventually pay off when the Sages finally found a new home: the planet known as Rena. And to her surprise, the last Sage to survive by her side and shape the very foundation of the Neo Shodai society would be none other than the bookish scholar she saved on that very first mission. But that is a different story…