Alex and Mira weaved through the throngs of students, their eyes scanning for an empty terminal.


    The sheer size of the mission hall was overwhelming, practically a ce to show off the university''s immense wealth and humanity''s grasp of technology.


    The floor seemed to stretch endlessly, filled with rows upon rows of terminals, each one upied by a student intently browsing through the mission listings.


    "There," Mira pointed to an empty terminal near the end of the hall.


    They hurried over, which didn''t take long at all with their speed, slipping into the seats and activating the screen.


    The terminal hummed to life, disying a user interface that was simple but efficient.


    "Alright, let''s see what we''ve got." Alex said, his fingers already pping across the keys of the holographic keyboard.


    He quickly applied a filter to only show the missions rted to Floodgates.


    These were high stakes missions, crucial for maintaining the safety of the federation, but Alex was more interested in killing beasts and harvesting Soul orbs, with the whole saving whole poptions of people thing being a side benefit to this.


    Alex and Mira had both experienced a flood gate mission before.


    They were rifts, cracks in space that allowed dangerous beasts from the Primordial Expanse to spill out into inhabited areas, and clearing them was vital work.


    Mira watched as the list popted with avable Floodgate missions.


    The missions varied in difficulty and location, but all promised substantial rewards.


    "Here''s an interesting one, and it''s right next to us as well! It''s in the Proxima Star system, less than 5 light years away from us. A D+ rank floodgate opened up on New Earth, and the military forces there need back up as they don''t have enough fighters to clear the beasts."


    Alex and Mira looked at each other as they both wanted this mission for themselves.


    But they both also wanted to go out on these missions alone…


    Since this was the case, there was only one way to settle it.


    "Rock. Paper. Scissors. Shoot!"


    Miranded on paper, while Alexnded on rock.


    That settled that debate, Mira would get this mission.


    They continued looking through the list of Floodgate missions for one that Alex could pick, but they noticed something peculiar.


    "Hey, there''s another Floodgate mission in the Proxima Star system! This one''s on a different to the one I''ve epted."


    Alex opened up the information of the Mission Mira was on about, and inspected the details.


    "It''s a C- ranked Floodgate!" Alex eximed. This excited Alex the most.


    The higher the rank of the Floodgate he went to, the higher the rank of beasts that came out of it.


    This was a given.


    Without any hesitation, Alex epted this mission.


    In the mission introduction, it said that the Floodgate opened up on a with a little over 1 billion humans popting it.


    The highest ranked awakened on this was only a C+ ranked awakened, and Alex didn''t even know if he was Ordinary ss or Mutant ss.


    The highest ranked beast that had been reported to havee through was C+ rank as well, which the C+ ranked human had taken care of.


    ''He''s at least capable of killing beasts of the same rank as him.'' Alex noted.


    ***


    After they were finished in the mission hall, Alex and Mira left the Capital building and made their way over to the Spaceport.


    "We won''t see each other again for months…" Mira spoke, a little sad about the fact that she was going to be separated from Alex for so long again.


    It was her decision, but that didn''t mean she wasn''t saddened by it.


    Mira''s flight off the was first, so she departed soon after, leaving Alex to his own devices.


    Besides, they were taking missions in the same star system so it wasn''t like they were going to be that far from each other.


    Alex approached the gate where the captain of the ship, a stern looking man with a military demeanour, was waiting.


    "Mission to Proxima system?" He asked, ncing at hismunicator.


    "Yes, sir." Alex confirmed.


    The captain nodded and adjusted the controls on his panel.


    The gate separating Alex from the ship opened, and he entered the ship and sat down where the Captain prompted.


    ***


    As Mira''s ship disappeared, Alex watched through the viewport as it took off and disappeared into the starry expanse.


    The reality of his separation from Mira settled in, but he knew this was necessary for both him and Mira.


    Alex''s ship hummed with the familiar sounds of engines powering up. He nced around the interior, noting the efficient design and the small cabin.


    The ship soon took off, and Alex looked out of the window at the familiar sight of the city he had just left behind.


    ''I''ll be back soon enough.'' He thought.


    His thoughts weren''t wrong either, as the star system he was going to, Proxima system, was only a few light years away from the Sr system where he had been staying this whole time.


    Only a few seconds after they lifted off, Mars was but a small dot in the distance as the ship''s eleration increased rapidly until they left the Sr system, where the Captain jumped the ship into Warp space.


    It would only be a few hours before they arrived at their destination.


    From that point on, it would be down to Alex toplete the mission.


    Along with any other students or mercenaries that had epted the same mission and made their way over as well, of course.


    Alex settled into his seat, the slight vibration of the ship''s engines aforting reminder that he was about to leave and take on his first mission since he had joined Capital Prime as a student.


    He looked down at hismunicator, and skimmed through the details of his mission.


    The he was headed to, Ceres-9, had reported increasing amounts of beastsing over from the other side of the Floodgate.