Chapter 218: TRA Alpha Satellite (2)

Angel’s Note

Before starting the chapter, here’s an image of the Earth’s atmosphere from NASA! I had thought you might need a refresher. Hihi. ?? (Just in case some of you need it because I did.)

Self Healing is one of Chun Yeowun’s abilities that automatically heals any injuries or wounds dealt to his body, prevents him from being poisoned and extracts the poison out of his body, and prevents him from being drunk or being put in an illusion.

Someone was flying in the sky, going above the Earth. The higher he went above, the more frequent the light flashed.

There were a lot of hurdles as he flew up. Amid those hurdles, Chun Yeowun was flying fast.

The conversation from the night before resurfaced in Chun Yeowun’s mind.

[If you want to enter the Star-Road, you have things that must be done first.]

[What is that?]

[You need to deal with the object controlling the sky in the satellite’s orbit.]

At Duke Joseph’s words, Director Hwang Myung-oh said,

[TRA!]

It referred to the Three Restricted Areas. The worst Alpha entity nestled in one of the TRAs was resolved by Chun Yeowun.

[What does that mean?]

[The area above us is included in the restricted area, my Lord.]

[The sky?]

One of those areas restricted was none other than the sky. To be precise, it was the thermosphere1 where the satellite could orbit.

[No, how are we going to get rid of it? We would have to fly higher than 500 kilometers from the Earth, regardless of whether the satellite should be.]

[Huh.]

[That would be impossible.]

The executives considered it impossible as it was already proven once before. Hundreds of satellites have been made by the nations on Earth to eliminate the dangerous entity located on the satellite.

Even if a single aircraft attempted to enter the troposphere2, some strange rays would block it.

[Lord Chun Ma! It is impossible. Even if we try, it would be tough to have a rocket enter that place.]

[This is why humans are like this.]

Duke Joseph and the commanders laughed at them.

Chun Woo-jin, who didn’t like the demons’ reaction, asked,

[Then, can you?]

[It will take some risk, but it can be done.]

[To get into the satellite orbit?]

Duke Joseph and the commanders seemed confident. They had the technology to handle the gate; how could there be no technology to advance into space?

Looking at them being confident, Chun Yeowun said,

[Then it’s simple. Did you say that the entities are six?]

[Yes.]

[We proceed at once.]

[Uh?]

[Duke Joseph, command the commanders and take down the five entities. I will remove one.]

At Chun Yeowun’s words, the sect members were puzzled.

Demons aren’t humans, so they could try this. But Chun Yeowun was a human and a martial artist; no matter how good he was, could he really touch the satellite orbit?

Then, their curiosity was answered.

Swoosh!

The vision of Chun Yeowun’s blacking rays turned blurry for a moment due to the use of unification of abilities with the Invisible Sword containing the Sky Demon Energy.

[Freezing. The current temperature is -100C.]

Chun Yeowun was flying at the height of 70 kilometers above the mesosphere3. It was the coldest part of the atmosphere. It was difficult to get warmth from the earth and solar heat from the sun since it was so far from the ground.

[Relieving the freezing.]

Papak!

Heat dissipated from Nano, and the freezing was cleared.

Chun Yeowun was worried about the Golden Gumiho hanging outside his suit.

“Hey, fox?”

— I’mmmm….Ffffff-Fine.

Fortunately, she seemed fine. She couldn’t get used to the speed of sound, not the temperature.

She was a yokai beast, so this must be nothing.

“It will turn challenging to breathe. Will you be fine?”

— A-aare you worried about me?

Despite not being able to close her eyes right, the fox asked excitedly. To which Chun Yeowun just shook his head.

Right now, this beast indeed looked like one.

— Tch.

“If you can’t stand me, go down.”

He thought she could actually descend to the ground alone.

With that, the Golden Gumiho answered.

— I can survive three days and nights in the deep sea without oxygen.

The Golden Gumiho could accumulate oxygen in her body. However, adapting to the thermosphere might be difficult as soon as the friction index disappears.

“You are so stubborn.”

— Huh. Still, two people going to the space like—

“Seeing how you speak, you must have adapted to the speed.”

— ???

“I will increase the speed.”

At Chun Yeowun’s words, the Golden Gumiho was terrified.

— Wait! Wait! Ahhhhhhh!

She tried to tell him to stop, but the speed was already enhanced as Chun Yeowun now moved at Mach4 14.

Of course, it was the nano suit that helped him.

A satellite low-orbit point at an altitude of 100 kilometers.

It was a place where the stars could be seen along with the round Earth.

It was an optimal point to see the place. The situation at the low-orbit point of the satellite was something that humans couldn’t even see.

Numerous mechanical fragments were all over the place. These shattered fragments were space debris created by the destruction of hundreds of satellites and space stations, something of the past.

Goo!

Numerous beams of light were fired from the cracks of such things. As if looking down at the situation, spheres were arranged in a row, constantly aiming for something. A massive fortress in the shape of a ship stood in the center of the spot where the light spheres were connected.

Earth’s name for this was the TRA Alpha Satellite.

It was a strategic weapon entity beyond the Gate that stole the sky from humans.

Pshhh!

There was a massive ship that acted as the head.

It was some dangerous entity for humans who had never approached it till this point. However, there was a big secret there.

Inside that ship were intelligent, four-armed beings twice the size of humans.

“BIHANGMULCHEGA DUUK BBALAJIGO ISUNIDA!”

[The flying object is getting faster!]

An entity looking at the monitor shouted.

At that, a six blue-eyed entity which seemed like the Captain said,

“AJICKDO GYOCHU SIKIJI MOHEDAGO?”

[It wasn’t shot down yet?]

“GU….GURUSUMNIDA.”

[W-we did.]

“KUK. DARUNGOSUN?”

[Shit! How about the others?]

“GUJJOCKDO. DASU BIHANG MULCHEDULGYA GYOJEON JUNIMNIDA!”

[They are also engaging the other multiple flying objects!]

They were conversing in a language that didn’t belong to Earth. They were beings with technology enough to occupy the space above a planet.

“What is the situation of each orbit?”5

Pik!

Numerous images were displayed on the ship’s large monitor. There, satellite Alpha instance ships were seen in orbits of Earth.

The ships were using their beams to repel what was coming onto them.

At that moment, someone yelled.

“Demon!”

The being who suddenly yelled had a different appearance from the others. It was a creature with an exotic appearance but a human in form. The only difference was the unique white wings on the back.

The Captain asked him.

“Is that someone you know?”

“Arisha’s clan.”

“Ah!”

At the white-winged one’s response, the Captain groaned. They knew that these were the nemesis of the white-winged ones who ruled them.

The identity of the white-winged ones was the Heaven clan or Talisha’s clan.

“Are they going to intervene?”

The Heaven clan’s member licked their lips and mumbled while looking at the monitor, and then one of the other ones looking at the monitor suddenly yelled.

“An unidentified object is approaching the satellite orbit!”

Pick!

It was being displayed on the large screen. They could see something black emitting a blue field and flying in at great speed.

‘What is that?’

The Heaven clan member seemed puzzled. Since Arisha’s clan had been their enemy for a very long time, they knew everything about the clan’s technology.

Yet, they couldn’t figure out what this mysterious being was.

‘Are they trying to mess with us?’

Unlike other satellites, the sight of this single object seemed more like a threat. It felt like someone was messing with them.

The Heaven clan member spoke in an unpleasant voice.

“Captain! Shoot him down quickly!”

The Captain with six eyes was flustered. Weren’t they also trying to shoot this one down?

Even though they were shooting beams, this entity was blocking everything, and it was annoying.

“Why aren’t you answering?”

“… soon we will enter the area where the space junk is gathered. We will take care of it there.”

The area with space junk.

It is the place where the fragments of the artificial satellites were floating. It was a place where vision was obscured.

“Huh! If something happens to us, Captain, you will be replaced.”

“U-Understand.”

At the warning of the Heaven clan member, the Captain bit his lip.

They were all helpless in front of them.

“Spawn the spacecraft.”

“Yes!”

At the command of the Captain, the first officer turned on something that looked like a microphone and gave the order.

“Prepare the craft to move.”

Wheing!

Flight runways appeared in response to the shout; they were a quadrupedal machine, a spacecraft, and a combat vehicle that could walk freely in space.

Clank!

Dozens of spacecraft were hung upside down on each runaway in the hangar6. One of the monitors shouted.

“Spacecraft ready to descend.”

The Captain shouted.

“The target is an unidentified aircraft heading over here. Turn the space junk into a grave.”

— Roger!

The subordinates shouted in unison.

Numerous voices were heard from the monitor. There were more than 1,000 spacecraft.

“Spacecraft, launch!”

Papapak!

The moment the command fell, 1000 of them attached to the runway moved simultaneously.

Swoosh!

It was spectacular to see them fly through the junk. The Heaven clan’s members nodded their heads, satisfied with their advance.

The Captain said in a confident voice,

“It’s only one object. It won’t be able to get past the junk. Bring up the screens of each craft.”

“Yes!”

Pik! Pik! Pik!

The view of those thousand ships was displayed on the ship’s large screen. They were sharing the sight with the main ship.

They began to move into the debris to raid the entity as they descended.

Then, the one monitoring shouted.

“The flying object reached the 900-kilometer mark.”

“… that is fast.”

It had already reached the space of debris.

The Captain grabbed the mic looking tensed, and ordered.

“Entered the range. Each craft, be prepared for—-”

The voice came from one of the pilots.

— C-Captain!

Pak!

The screen of the craft’s field of vision grew bigger. Numerous blue lights were caught on the camera. At first, it looked like a thousand—or maybe a hundred thousand lights shone.

“W-what is…”

The Heaven clan member was also shocked. At that time, an uncountable number of blue lights rushed at once.

Papapak!

Rays of blue light swept through the junk. The screams of pilots hiding in the debris could be heard through the speakers.

— Kuak!

— Ack!

On the screen, the view of the floating crafts changed to black.

Seeing that, the Captain shouted.

“W-what was that?”

“Hundreds of thousands of thermal energy emanated from below.”

At the cry of the monitoring object, the Captain thought it was absurd.

“W-what does that mean?”

It was absolutely incomprehensible.

It wasn’t like ships appeared, but where did the hundreds of thousands of sudden thermal energy come from?

Kwakwakwang!

Due to the explosion, the vision was obscured. As the crafts and satellites exploded, nothing could be seen.

Then the Heaven clan member said to the Captain,

“Incompetent bastards! It will come to us!”

The flustered Captain tried to make up an excuse.

“T-this is the first time we encountered something like this—”

“Shut up.”

The Heaven clan member got up from the seat.

One of the monitoring entities shouted.

“C-Captain!”

“What is it?”

“T-the screen!”

The Captain and the heaven clan looked at the monitor simultaneously. It wasn’t a low-altitude place.

It was the altitude above the ship.

The Heaven clan member coughed in anger.

“W-what is this….”

Many meteors were seen falling from a higher altitude from the ship’s location. Until recently, there was no such thing.

When a meteor shower suddenly fell, it was chaos.

“Reposition the mobile lasers to the rear!”

“Rear barrier operation!”

Wheing!

Weapons arranged to the left and right of the ship were usually made to keep the earth in check. If they couldn’t stop these meteors from ahead, they would also be taken down.

The Captain, who barely came to his senses, shouted.

“F-fire the laser….”

Kwaang!

And with a loud roar, the ship shook violently. The Captain, who was sitting on the chair, fell ahead.

“W-what?”

The meteor didn’t even hit them. This shock was from below.

Kwakwakwang!

Series of explosions right under them. And the floor cracked open, and something appeared inside the cockpit.

Bang!

‘!?’

The Heaven clan member looked at the Golden Gumiho and the man in a black suit. They thought it was an unidentified object, but this was a man.

“I-Intruder!”

“Catch him!”

As the ship shook, the entities inside had fallen down and tried to get up. However, the presence in a black suit lowered its hand.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Kuak!”

“Ack!”

All the entities inside were thrown to the floor without leaving one.

Bang!

“Ugh!”

The Heaven clan member tried to get up by holding the counter, but he couldn’t hide his shock.

‘W-what is that? Why is that monster in here?’

Thermosphere. Located between 80 and 700 kilometers (50 and 440 miles) above Earth’s surface is the thermosphere, whose lowest part contains the ionosphere. In this layer, temperatures increase with altitude due to the very low density of molecules found here. It is both cloud- and water vapor-free. The aurora borealis and aurora australis are sometimes seen here. The International Space Station orbits in the thermosphere. (NASA, 2019)?Troposphere. Earth’s troposphere extends from Earth’s surface to, on average, about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) in height, with its height lower at Earth’s poles and higher at the equator. (NASA, 2019). Reference?Mesosphere. Located between about 50 and 80 kilometers (31 and 50 miles) above Earth’s surface, the mesosphere gets progressively colder with altitude. In fact, the top of this layer is the coldest place found within the Earth system, with an average temperature of about minus 85 degrees Celsius (minus 120 degrees Fahrenheit). (NASA, 2019). Reference?Mach. It is used as a unit of measurement in stating the speed of a moving object in relation to the speed of sound. (COBUILD). Reference?Alien language turned to English for easy reading.?Hangar. It is a large building in which aircraft are kept. (COBUILD)?