A few hours later, in the dark expanse of space, Alex's ship came out of the warp tunnel.
Not far ahead of the spaceship was a huge star system.
There were three stars situated in the middle, each one emitting a bright, yellow light.
Alex slowly opened his eyes. His blue pupils appeared deep and mysterious.
He had spent the last few hours in meditation, deciding to give his body some rest and calm his mind before he arrived at Ceres-9.
He was going to be arriving at a Planet full of chaos and strife as soon as he landed, so this would probably be the last bit of peace and quiet he could get for a while.
Noticing that Alex had finally opened his eyes, the Pilot spoke. "We're about to arrive at our destination. I was going to call you if you didn't wake up sooner."
Alex smiled, looking out the window. "I was only meditating. Besides, I didn't miss anything interesting."
The pilot just nodded at this.
He was just here for a job, he wasn't here to argue with some kid.
"Upon arrival, you should head to the defensive forces. They will tell you where to go from there."
"Hmm." Alex nodded.
This was his first mission, so it was better to watch and listen to the more experienced fighters there.
He was there to kill beasts, but he didn't want to be responsible for the deaths of any people.
Soon, the ship reached the space surrounding Ceres-9, and he got a good view of the planet from above.
Before humans had colonised this planet, it used to be tidally locked.
This meant that it didn't spin on its axis like Earth did, so one side was always facing the three suns, and one side was always facing away.
This made for quite a unique climate on the surface of the planet.
As well as the fact that some of the beast bodies were huge, like dozens of metres huge.
A couple thousand of them piled up against each other was easily noticeable even from hundreds of miles above in the sky.
The ship landed smoothly, and Alex stepped out into the warm, dusty air of Ceres-9.
The unfiltered, dirty air hit him immediately as he let out a few coughs before his body became accustomed to it.
He didn't really need air to live anymore thanks to the fact that his heart had combined with his energy core, eliminating the need for an Oxygenated medium to carry energy across his body, with his energy core taking up that role.
But even this air left him feeling disgusted.
The captain of the ship that took him here took off not too long after, leaving Alex officially stranded on this planet until the Floodgate crisis was over.
Either that, or he could choose to abandon the mission, earning a fine from the university and a bad reputation amongst the Mission hall.
After a few minutes of walking, Alex neared a small town turned military base, and was approached by a local military officer, who quickly briefed him on the situation.
"Another mercenary? Great! We can do with every helping hand we can get. The floodgate is located at about 500 kilometres north of this position. We've set up a forward operating base nearby, but the beasts coming through are just never ending. We are almost overwhelmed."
Alex nodded. He was prepared to fight at any time.
He had come to this place looking for a good fight, but most importantly he was here to farm the beasts!
"Tell me your name, rank, and affiliation and I'll add you to the database and issue you a Floodgate emblem. This emblem will be what we use to track your contribution, and will be what your organisation will use to issue you your respective reward."
The military officer explained the basics to Alex, and Alex obliged.
"The name's Alex, I'm a Mutant D- rank from Capital Prime university."
"..."
The Military officer looked at Alex like he was stupid.
'What the hell is this weakling doing here?' He thought.