Eight figures travelled through the depths of space zipping past meteors, comets and debris of long destroyed asteroids. They had been travelling in space for several months now. The journey was soon to end as their destination came into view, a small grey planet in the outer region of its star system. In a short while they make their way to the planet and land close to its equator.

LOCATION : UNEXPLORED PLANET

They had finally made their way here thought Juruno relieved. They had just landed on their target planet and the first thing he did was to observe the landscape before him. The land was barren and ashy, and generally flat for a long distance from where he stood. The sky was a gloomy sight, blanketed by a thick grey haze. Lighting was very dim due to the haze and sufficient light only streaked in from a few spots the haze was broken. Far beyond the flatlands stood incredibly large, oddly shaped rock formations. They were shaped liked nails and the smallest of them was nothing less than ten kilometers in height. So tall they blocked out the little bit of light that came through and cast enormous shadows on the flat lands. He and the seven others he came with were now the first humans to set foot on this unexplored planet. The others who had come with him stood around fifty meters away in a single group. Juruno had come here with the mission of "acquiring" this planet as many voyagers like himself had done in the past.

Voyagers. Those who traversed the stars. Their reason for embarking on such journeys? To find planets just like this one.

For several thousand years, humanity had travelled through out the galaxy in search of planets to inhabit and acquire resources. And one of the biggest factors that made this possible was the existence of voyagers. Humans with the ability to wield drive energy, granting them physical abilities and powers far beyond what any normal person could dream of. They've been known to exist for as long as the oldest records humanity possesed could tell. Their ability to move at high speeds and survive in space for long periods made it possible to get to other planets in feasible time. Not only that but unexplored planets were unchartered territory and could prove to be very dangerous. The most popular problems being powerful beasts and danger zones which voyagers, because of their abilities were capable of handling. Voyagers also had resistance to many things that would normally affect a normal human like disease, extreme cold or heat and generally harsh conditions. These attributes of voyagers made them the optimal tool for the expansion of the human race.

After observing the area, Juruno walked down to where the other people who had accompanied him where standing.

"Nothing threatening in the area so far," said Juruno "you can carry out your survey."

They were setting up a base which they'd work from. One them heard Juruno and simply nodded his head in acknowledgement. These people were members of the SSA which was an acronym STAR SEEKERS ALLIANCE. The SSA was one of the most prominent organizations in the galaxy, having existed long before Centros and even the major voyager clans and were the ones to pioneer humanity's expansion. In today's time they were the ones in charge of assessing planets for acquiring. They also had every known planet and region catalogued with necessary details about them. Their self imposed duty is maintaining everything necessary for an interstellar society to survive.

The members of the SSA who came with him were voyagers too but they weren't so battle oriented and rather had high resistances for harsh conditions as a lot of SSA members did. Which was why Juruno had accompanied them to this planet. The SSA had put in a request to the Vaeverons, the voyager clan Juruno belonged to, to send them a capable voyager to assist in acquiring the planet. And out of the numerous voyagers the Vaeverons boasted of he was chosen to assist the SSA, something he wasn't too happy about.

His job was to protect the SSA voyagers as they carried out their work. It seemed like a simple task but a lot depended on him and he felt the weight of his responsibility. An unknown planet meant unpredictable possibilities. He was constantly on edge, looking out for danger. What would happen if a beast powerful enough to live in tier two danger zone attacked? He wouldn't be able to handle it. Could he lead them to safety? Even if they survived, if he failed the mission it would speak bad of the clan. There wasn't really any other option beyond completing the mission successfully. He steeled his mind and tried to mask his concerns and continued to observe the area. After a while one of them notified him that they were ready to move. They never really spoke on anything besides mission related issues, which meant he had no one to talk to for several months. The talk might have helped calm him a bit.

He stayed at a distance from them while they carried out their work, making sure they weren't bothered. The SSA members would move around, checking for various things like the quality of air and availability of water among others. But this time this aspect of the survey would be short as the planet wasn't targeted for habitation but rather for resources. One important part of surveying unexplored planets was checking for intelligent life or "otherworlders" as they were commonly referred to. But they likely wouldn't find any like many others before them. In all the time humanity had ventured to new planets and regions they were yet to find intelligent life like themselves.

Once they had completed their survey, the SSA members headed back to their base. At their base stood several oval shaped objects that the SSA voyagers had brought with them, each one as large as a very small building. They were made of a very special material which was designed to withstand space travel. Within them was equipments they would use while on the planet. One of them had already been opened up, it had contained their survey equipment and other items for setting up their base. And the rest of them were yet to be opened, within them were the the parts for setting up a warp gate.

Warp gates. The existence of this technology was just as important to humanity's expansion as voyagers were. Voyagers could traverse space but normal humans couldn't and this is were warp gates came into play. A warp gate was a device that allowed people and objects to be teleported from one point to another by a complex control space itself. But warp gates couldn't just take one anywhere they liked but could only transport you to the site of another warp gate. When voyagers got to a planet their first duty was to set up a warp gate on it, connecting the planet to the existing network of warp gates. That way you could transport to and from the planet easily which allowed humans and items to be transported in bulk without going through space directly. This technology was also made by the SSA a very long time ago and they are generally the only ones capable of crafting it.

Once they were done setting up the warp gate communications would be up and transport would be possible. That would mark the end of the mission and Juruno would finally be able to leave. It took them a few hours to accomplish this. They were now testing the gate for issues by transporting items from their end while communicating with people on the other end on the state of the transported items. It seemed like it was working fine.

The mission could be declared a success at this point and Juruno prepared to leave. The several month long, anxiety filled mission had finally come to an end to Juruno's relief. Just as he was about leaving he felt a buzz on his left arm. It was coming from his gauntlet, the small device every voyager carried with them. It was actually a bracelet rather than a gauntlet, around fifteen centimeters in length and had a screen you could touch. He brought his arm up to his face to see what the buzz was for. There was an incoming call from "Li", a name he recognized. She was a Vaeveron clan member just like him and he'd seen her a few times.

A call? Right after I completed the mission. What does she want?

He tapped a button on the screen to pick the call and immediately a voice came from the gauntlet.

Juruno. Is that you Juruno, can you hear me?

"Yes, I can hear you clearly." replied Juruno.

Ok, good. I've been trying to contact you for half a day now. Are you done with the mission?

"The mission went smoothly and the gate has been set up."

Perfect, I have a message for you. THE Vaeveron would like to see you once you're done.

THE Vaeveron?. This was how clan heads of the prominent clans were addressed, as if to say that they were the true bearers of the name. What could the clan head need him for? And just as he was about resting from his several month long mission. But he didn't express his displeasure and simply responded "I'll head back immediately."

Good work she said finally and terminated the call. His rest would have to be put on hold for now. Juruno walked down to the warp gate. It looked just like every other warp gate did, three floating parts that formed a large ring about six meters in diameter. The parts looked like some very complex piece of machinery and each part was separated by a small gap from the other. In front of the ring was a cuboid stand with a screen resting on the top of it. The screen displayed buttons for putting in co-ordinates of wherever the user wanted to go. Juruno tapped on the screen several times then waited for the warp gate to activate. A quick second later the gate came to life with a whir and casted a beam of light on him. In a flash he was instantly transported, jumping through space to his destination, planet Merval.