With shaky hands, Thomel lifted up the glass and drank the room-temperature water, quenching his thirst.

Setting it down gently, he began to eat his salad, slowly stabbing at the leaves and then plopping them into his mouth.

It tasted like dirt; disgusting, sterile dirt.

But it’s all he could stomach, there was no way he would be eating any meat, at least not today.

Not while he still remembered Blue all chewed up and mangled, covered in digestive fluids with giant chunks of him missing.

Blue had his left and right arm completely ripped off, no doubt eaten by the golden scorpion, but Purple had been utterly brutalised.

The brotherhood reckoned that it was the camouflaged scorpion that got him, took him by surprise and then started to eat him, only stopping when it realised that there were other intruders.

In total three people had died, nobody ever found Yellow's body but it was just assumed that he was also killed, considering how his gun was found next to a pool of blood. Just in case he was still alive, they’d lift a disc behind for him.

Even when eating the salad Thomel couldn’t help but picture the leaves as shredded organs and broken limbs.

The dose of false sunlight he got probably helped with that, he should be fine once its boon’s effects had time to dissipate. At least that’s what he told himself.

Standing up, he left his meal half finished and exited the canteen, glancing sadly at the dispirited mass of brightly coloured people over in the corner as he did so.

It didn’t feel right for him to join them during the mourning process, it would be an intrusion, so he’d left them be.

The deaths during the security mission had been quick and violent, there was no use in dwelling on them when he had to fight for his life the very next day, if not that very next second.

It was just a different sort of death, he’d spent an hour searching for and recovering desecrated corpses.

Reaching what would count as the square of this place; the centre gathering area. He looked around.

There were four large, branching tunnels, lit up by bright white lights which shone reflectively off of the perfect, white walls.

It was still sickening, it felt like he was staring into a void if he looked at anything too long.

The main tunnel he’d just come out of led to the canteen and a bunch of unfinished and blocked-off rooms, future expansions left to fester.

The tunnel to his left led to the sleeping quarters, there wasn’t much of note that way, nor was there much behind him.

It was in the other two corridors that the vast majority of the installations were housed, the right one had showers, bathrooms and a number of unfinished rooms.

The one straight ahead of him was guarded by the most checkpoints, housed the armoury, the teleporting room, the containment rooms, and what he assumed was a hospital.

.

He also figured it was probably where the entrance to the surface was located, that is if this place even had one.

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But surely it had to, where were they getting the air from otherwise?

The tunnel in front of him was where he headed. He was going to take on another mission, get a gun, shoot his target, then sleep.

And hopefully in the process, he could forget about those mangled bodies.

The first few checkpoints consisted of an open blast door with two guards, each one stationed in a small box on either side.

They waved him through easily enough, they weren’t really there to run checks or anything, just to make sure that in the case of a lockdown, this section would be secure.

Striding past the next couple of checkpoints he made it to the manager's room and walked inside, there wasn’t that many hunters around, so he was able to quickly walk over to one of the free managers and ask them for a mission.

“Name and desired mission type.” She replied to him, with dead-fish eyes.

“Thomel, I want a solo mission and something that I’m able to do fast. You've got my stats on that screen so what’s the best one for me?”

“You can hunt down another yeti, though you’ll only be paid if you leave its body undamaged this time. Or you could choose to hunt down a minotaur and bring back their horns. You can also hunt down a jacath. The first option pays twenty thousand credits, the second pays twenty thousand, the third pays ten thousand.”

“I’ll go with the jacath.” Thomel said, he’d heard a sliver of information about them in passing and it seemed like the sort of mission he’d do exceptionally well at.

Picking up the nearby tablet, he started to scan the appearing information. He didn’t even know he was allowed to do this until after the security mission, however, given just how faulty the information could be,perhaps that was for the better since it meant he relied on it less.

The jacath was a mimic-like creature, it took on the appearance of a tree and would snare nearby animals and devour them. Two hunters had fallen to it so far and the greatest danger seemed to be just how well it blended in, with high-grade Tracking boons proving necessary to uncover it.

Figuring out why it was wanted was a guessing game, the yeti was fairly easy since it had such a lovely coat of fur but this was proving more difficult to understand.

It couldn’t be for fashion, surely?

So maybe it was for construction or science? one or the other., at least.

After a few minutes of reading he was done, there wasn’t a whole lot of information about the creature, he’d even re-read it twice to make sure everything would be fresh in his memory.

Heading out of the management room, he walked over to the armoury, going through another few checkpoints before he got inside it and purchased his weapon.

There were a number of automatic rifles around, each with varying prices and hordes of information about them. He didn’t care about the information though, only the price.

If it wasn’t for the fact the brotherhood had forcefully given him one of the sonic guns he probably wouldn’t have even bought a rifle, maybe a decent handgun at best.

Grabbing one of the cheapest ones he could find that didn’t look like it would blow up on him, he walked over to one of the workers and promptly paid for it alongside three magazines of Casco ammunition.

Of course, the bullets he bought were the explosive kind, they worked pretty well in just about any situation.

The last thing he bought was a few energy bars and two drink bottles filled with water.

He also handed the oxygen tank he’d been lugging around to the clerk as well, the rest of the stuff he kept.

The measly, few credits they gave him for the oxygen tank was pathetic but it was better than nothing.

It did ensure that he kept the clothes he had, the trenchcoat had some sort of armouring and even, if it didn’t, they were clean and nice.

There was no laundry room here for non-company standard clothing, you simply had to dispose of it or resell it.

At least with guns, you got to keep them at the armoury if you permanently bought them.

You could, of course, shower with the clothes and armour you had but there was only so much that could do to remove the stink and there was no real way to repair them.

Everyone here was combat-based and so, as far as he knew, there was nobody who had any boons related to repairing clothing, truly, it was a travesty.

Stepping through the final few checkpoints, he reached the teleportation room and headed into the rift after a nod from one of the scientists.