“Anexion is available.” He replied curtly.

“It is? Tell me more!” Volly enthusiastically questioned, her eyes widening while a smile blossomed on her face.

“A monitoring station has failed to report back. So far thirty of the forty-five spots have been filled. Payment is three hundred thousand credits.” The manager elaborated slightly.

“We’ll take it!” Volly hurriedly said. Smile still stuck firmly on her face.

“Two hunters?” He asked indifferently.

“Yes.” She said, nodding her head up and down like her life depended on it.

“Report to the teleportation room in forty-five minutes.”

Thomel wanted to ask what was going on but he kept his mouth shut, whatever this mission was it paid unbelievably well and time seemed to be of the essence.

The moment he and Volly started walking away and hurrying to the armoury, was when he started to pester her with questions.

“What was that all about?”

“A big payday, that’s what. It’s not as challenging as I’d like but there’s just something about going to Anexion that makes up for it, I guess it’s the wonder at just what we can accomplish.”

“Volly I have no idea what’s going on, I’m running on dregs here.”

“We talked a bit about the dead planet didn’t we?”

“Yeah, I recall you guys mentioning something about it and then you all moved on and told me I’d figure it out, why? Is the planet we’re going to the dead one?”

“Calling it a dead planet might not be right, it is dead don’t get me wrong, just not in the way you expect.”

“Well then tell me.” He groaned, why was she in such a puckish mood today, normally she was straightforward.

“It’s a dead planet filled with… Take a guess.?”

“Dead things?”

“Well we tend to call them undead things, you’ve heard of zombies, right?”

Thomel stared at her blankly, he’d have stood still if she hadn’t yanked him along behind herself.

“Are you joking right now? Aren’t the undead among the most dangerous threats we can face?”

“Well I mean yeah, why do you think the pay’s so good?” She said with a chuckle.

“Volly please, what’s happening?”

“Well, me and you alongside twenty-eight other hunters will be going to inspect a monitoring station, maybe kill a monster or two. Then we’ll wait while the hanger-ons do whatever it is they need to do. Then we head back and get paid. Simple, right?”

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“No not sim-.” Thomel paused. “Well actually yeah it is rather simple, that’s the problem. What are we fighting, how are we fighting, who are these hanger-ons. What exactly are we trying to achieve? Have you done this before and if so how did it go?”

Once he got started Thomel couldn’t stop, he spewed aggrieved question after aggrieved question, not even giving Volly a single second to respond.

“Listen, listen, listen. Calm down and chill out, okay?”Volly interjected, exhaustedly.

“Last time someone said something like that three people ended up dead.” Thomel retorted..

“Happens all the time, it’s why you need to chill out. Taking everything seriously just means you break easily… Uhh like swords, if you make a super stern and unyielding blade, it’s not a good weapon, it’ll just be a brittle piece of steel. A good sword has to be fairly pliable, that way when you stab it into something you can easily pull it back out and there’s less chance of it getting broken.”

“Umm… okay.” Thomel said, changing his mind about saying he didn’t understand.

That might have been the way people did it back in medieval times but in the modern day enchantments fixed that issue pretty handily.

But he wasn’t in the mood to have it explained to him in great detail about why that’s what made a good sword so he just accepted it.

“So, you going to answer any of my questions?”

“Nope! Because we’re here.”

Letting go of him, Volly spread her arms and gestured broadly at the armoury’s open blast doors.

“Now let's go in, got something neat to show you.” She chirpily spoke, grabbing ahold of him again and marching into the awaiting armoury.

She let him go once she spotted a free cleric and after shooting him a stern look, left him alone by an aisle filled with grenades.

While he waited for her to be done talking with the cleric, Thomel rubbed at his eyes and for what he assumed was the fourth time this day, considered just leaving and going to sleep.

But that was three hundred thousand credits he would be giving up if he did, now he had some actual proper motivation to do this mission.

Volly hadn’t seemed too worried about it either and surely she wouldn’t send him into something he couldn’t deal with.

That thought rang hollow though, it felt like he was a gambler trying to convince himself that the dealer had his best interests at heart when they said “Just one more game.”

There were thirty of them being dispatched to do this mission and she was the sort of person to only ever get this excited when the situation was dangerous.

“Right, come on.” She said, walking back over towards him.

Holding his hands up in defeat, he moved toward her, preferring to walk rather than be dragged this time.

Satisfied, she didn’t grab onto him like he was a child near a highway and instead chose to let him keep his dignity and mobility.

Following her as she walked, Thomel wondered just what her level was. If she could manhandle him so easily she must either have a great boon or triple his level at the bare minimum.

Then again it could just be her class helping her out. His class made shooting, tracking, butchering and everything else related to hunting easier.

Having a brute class probably meant that she was just naturally better at physical things than he was.

Idle in his thoughts, he was promptly shocked when a door he’d mistaken for part of the wall suddenly slid open and Volly strode in

“Time for you to understand why this place is the armoury.” She called behind herself, smiling as she walked through it