More blood, guts, off the screen minor character deaths, no major ones though rest assured

Baekhyun and Minseok stand at the outskirts of the line as the rest of the passengers go through the machine. And when they're done, the rest of the crew that didn’t have immediate business to take care of inside the quarantine zone head in next. Yixing and Kris had gone in earlier to help the captain, but Minseok and Baekhyun were allowed to take a moment to catch their breaths, and now they are the last three to head in, including the little girl.

Baekhyun walks into the large sleek machine so it can take an array of tests to determine if he’s been infected or not, taking blood samples, and conducting a 360 scan on him. He eventually gets an all-clear and then Minseok sends the little girl in after him and they both hold their breath, but she pings clear too and waddles over to Baekhyun for him to pick up. And last but not least, Minseok walks into the machine as it hums to life again, producing results a minute later, as the digital screen gives him the green pass, and now everyone has finally made it over to the other side.

The inside of the quarantine zone isn’t much to look at, it’s like a very large gym, with no windows, and the rooms, walls, and ceiling, are painted pitch black. There is also a control room situated in the corner, elevated from the ground and with stairs leading up to it, but besides that its just an empty black box. Baekhyun thinks, it’s black because is a comforting color which reminds one of space, since planets carry so much danger, from dead and infected, to natural disasters, etc— space is quiet and peaceful and doesn't have these problems. Well it wasn't supposed to, Baekhyun thinks as he can still hear faint screeching behind the door, and he shivers. Currently people are packed into the area like sardines though, and even picking their way to a less crowded spot is hard.

Minseok puts an arm around him and they steer themselves close to the control room where all the other crew are sitting around, and Baekhyun spots Yixing who’s pushing through the crowd and making his way towards them. He beams when he is finally at their side. He makes sure they are okay and smiles apologetically when he tells Minseok that the Captain is calling for him. Minseok nods and heads up to the control center, handing the little girl into Baekhyun’s arms again from when she’d wriggled into his earlier, and leaves his friends with a smile. 

Yixing looks at the little girl, “Did her parents turn”, he asks sadly as he pats her head, and she nuzzles more into Baekhyun's chest.

“No idea”, Baekhyun says hugging her closer, “I just found her in a room with the surrounding her. I don’t know if they are dead or alive.”

“Was it close to the quarantine zone?” Yixing asks, and Baekhyun nods,

“Then there's a chance she might have slipped away in all the commotion and gotten lost since there aren't any passenger rooms close by. Her mom or dad might still be alive and around.” Yixing says, and Baekhyun hopes so, as he nods hugging her, and she in return, brings her little arms around his neck. He looks at the sea of people gathered in the huge area, sitting or lying on the floor, and he hopes Yixing is right. His eyes then drift up to the control room, and he sees Minseok through one of the windows, talking to Kris and the captain. They were probably planning the rescue operation for the ship, and Baekhyun looks warily back down at Yixing, who smiles just as tiredly at him. They finally make it the rest of the short distance to the area where the crew are sitting- right under the control room- and take a seat themselves too. Yixing and him chat softly for a few minutes, Baekhyun filling him in on what had happened; why he hadn't woken up, how scared he had been before Minseok showed up, and then all the running around after they thought the doors had permanently shut on them.

Yixing in turn tells him how they had all looked around while they were escaping, all of them— Minseok, Kris, Kyungsoo and himself trying to spot him, but he wasn't there so they had feared the worst. And then they heard Sunlee talking to another crewmember about him, when he hadn't known they were behind him, and Minseok just snapped then and forced the other to fuss up. And after that Minseok ran to look for him and they had tried to stop him but Minseok said it was his fault and he would bring Baekhyun back. Yixing is close to tears when he hugs Baekhyun softly saying he's glad Minseok had gone back, and he's glad he's safe. Baekhyun returns the hug and they stay like that for a few minutes before finally separating.
They are still talking when Minseok returns and Yixing is being called upstairs again so he leaves Baekhyun with a warm smile and a knowing look, and Minseok looks puzzled but doesn’t question it. 

“Is she okay?” he asks, sitting next to Baekhyun. And the young pilot nods.

“Sleeping” he says, looking over at Minseok. He feels so much right now after hearing from Yixing what Minseok had done for him. How he had gone back for Baekhyun on just a chance that he might be alive. Baekhyun feels like his chest is too full of love right now and like he might not be able to contain it all so he takes a quiet breath and just focuses on Minseok instead. Looking at a face that is tired and worn, with frazzled and messy hair, but Minseok still so, so, beautiful. He was always beautiful. Is always beautiful.

They sit in silence for a while, both of them leaning against the wall with their eyes closed.

The tiredness is creeping on Baekhyun so he almost falls asleep before Minseok’s voice cuts in. 

“You did well out there today by the way. You wouldn't think this was your first time seeing the dead.” Minseok says and Baekhyun hums, turning his face to look at the other man.

“It wasn't,” he says, and Minseok opens his eyes in surprise and looks over. “I thought you had been in the academy since you were a little boy.” Minseok exclaims and Baekhyun nods.

“I…” Baekhyun begins, unsure of how to start, so he looks at the crowds of people. I was from the planet Athena when the sickness spread and people were attacked.

Minseok’s eyes widen because there are very few people in the galaxy who haven't heard of planet Athena. Athena was one of the worst cases of a planet becoming infested by dead ever. While most places have an outbreak ranging anywhere from 50-1000 mac. At Athena however, by the time rescue ships arrived, the living to infected population ratio had become 4:10. Once a rescue happens, most planets are finally reclaimed, and all the dead are eventually finished off. And after enough time passes, checks are done to make sure it is indeed habitable, so people can be reintroduced to the land. However, Athena is one of those rare planets, that was just left to rot in the universe, because only some sort of large scale recovery mission could even begin to kill the amount of dead that currently lived there- and it just wasn't worth the losses. Athena was now a lost planet.

“By the time the fighter planes arrived, and took in the state of the planet, some of the armies from the galactic forces considered retreating and leaving us few survivors to succumb to our fates. They didn't think we were worth it. But the Two Moons had refused to leave us then, and I don't remember a lot when they came, but I remember the few people we had left alive in my town, trying to make a run for it to the ship. My mom and me included, but we encountered a whole load of dead and… and I don't remember a lot but I remember being alone, close to a burning building, crying because my mom had ran in another direction to get the dead away from me. She had told me to run to the ships, but I could only cry, and I remember seeing a dead coming towards me and I was so scared. But then a fighter was suddenly there. He shot the dead down and rescued me, and he took me back onto the Two Moons… I don't remember a lot after that. We stopped at other cities, more people were rescued, though there weren't a lot, and finally we were taken to a new planet.” 

Baekhyun sighs, and when he looks up, Minseok looks stony faced and Baekhyun tries to force himself to smile, but he honestly feels just as ty inside. “We were all brought over to Zeon then, where I stayed at the local orphanage for a few months, before I decided I wanted to train at the academy and become a hero like the people on the Two Moons instead. The Two Moons saved me… and I’ll always remember that.” he says smiling and stares into Minseok’s deep brown eyes. They don't say anything again for a while, but then Minseok almost shamefully looks away.

“That’s…” he tries to fish for the right words, unsure of what to say. He's in awe of Baekhyun’s will to join the fight, of the very things that took his home and people away, but he's also sad for the things Baekhyun had to endure. Finally he frowns a little as he says, “You came here with so many aspirations, and your reasons for joining are so… pure. But instead you were bullied, and Jowon almost had us locked outside just because he was a little scared. Are your illusions of us as heroes shattered now?” he whispers, and Baekhyun pauses at that, before he finally lets himself smile.

“Children always look at things through rose colored lenses anyways,” he says quietly. “Besides. Even though everyone on this ship isn't exactly like I had thought, some of them definitely were. And there were some, even better than I had hoped ” He says looking at Minseok his voice growing quieter. And soon he's whispering, so only the two of them can hear. And they silently stare at each other for a long time.

“You came back for me.” Baekhyun mentions, his voice raw.

“But I didn't stop them from hurting you though.” Minseok counters without missing a beat, or looking away.

“You were trying in your own way Minseok. I understand. And I’m not mad.”

“You could have died tonight if you didn't know your way around a blaster Baekhyun.” He utters, finally choking up too, and Baekhyun wriggles closer to the older.

“But I do and i'm okay Minseok hyung. We both are. It's okay.” and Baekhyun leans his head on Minseok’s shoulder.


Minseok’s gaze looks far away, and Baekhyun closes his eyes. It's been a tiring few weeks, and with the addition of all of this, adds to the pressure and anxiety. They lost a lot of people tonight. People that were supposedly safe, but something went wrong and they suffered a nightmare for a second time. A lot of them died living that nightmare, and Baekhyun sighs hugging the little girl in his arms closer to his chest and shutting his eyes. He doesn't want to think anymore he can't. He falls asleep just a few minutes after.

Baekhyun rouses awake from a dreamless when he hears a voice talking and he wakes up disoriented. His lap is empty and Minseok is gone from his side. Baekhyun panics for a second before he recognizes the captain’s voice speaking through the loudspeakers, and he sees Yixing holding the little girl a little further away. She's wide awake and playing with his hair.

Baekhyun gets up with sore legs and a slight migraine as he shakes his head listening to the captain.

“— A plan has been set and the fighters will soon be dispatched. The operation to reclaim the ship will begin at nine sharp. I know everyone is tired and scared, but we are taking the utmost care to plan this mission and bring soon bring everyone some good news. This was Captain Minhyuk signing off.” and the Captain finished as the static cut off.

Baekhyun looked over at Yixing just as the older turned to him and he smiled and made his way over.

“Hey.” he said ruffling Baekhyun’s hair when the younger yawned. “She woke up and was being fussy, but I thought you could use some more sleep so I took her off your hands for a bit.” Yixing says, and Baekhyun smiles gratefully as the little girl makes grabby hands at Baekhyun so he takes her into his lap again. 

“Thanks hyung.” he says, but Yixing just waves him off. “I hope she didn't bother you too much.” he adds, through her curls, and Yixing chuckles. “Nah.” he shakes his head smiling. Just then they hear the creaking of metal from the stairs of the control room, and Kris is coming down so Yixing waves to let him know where they are and he’s soon joining them.

He groans tiredly resting his cheek on top of Yixing’s head and releases a big breath of air. 

“Hard time?” Baekhyun asks as he smiles at him pityingly. Kris was probably the only one, besides the captain, who probably hadn't gotten a break since the invasion had happened. Safety was the third mates department, so Kris had probably been with the captain the entire time, planning and arranging the whole rescue, and he was also probably due back soon. 

Kris snorts at his statement, and closes his eyes going silent. “I can't believe this happened though.” he finally whispers after a couple of minutes. He’s still in the same position, but his hand goes to grab fistfuls of Yixing’s fighter suit to keep him grounded, and his voice wavers thick with emotion. “It was my duty to keep the passengers safe and I failed. People managed to slip on with the infection, and I didn’t know anything at all until it was too late, and so many people had died. And now even more fighters are going to go out there and risk their lives.” 

And it wasn't that the Two Moons didn’t encounter death often. When they are travelling and picking up people from planets with the infected, they regularly send out fighters that aren't sure of they are going to make it back or not. However, it was a first, that the one place they believed they could finally be free from the death and decay, was now also unsafe.

Yixing rubs at Kris’s arm trying to soothe him. “Kris this isn't your fault, okay? How were you supposed to know a passenger had the sickness when everyone close to him didn’t? And on top of that, the machines also didn't detect anything, so you couldn’t have known. Something like this was only bound to happen Kris. Space has been too peaceful for too many years.” And Kris still looks really upset, but he relaxes a little more in Yixing’s hold.

They all sit around like that before Kris finally takes a deep breath straightening up. “Alright well we should all go upstairs, the rescue mission will start soon and we are all a part of it.” and Baekhyun gapes, because he had no idea he was on the team too.

“W— wait, I!” he begins, and Kris smiles tiredly. 

“Yeah the Captain chose you specifically, he thinks you would be the best for the job.” And Baekhyun is shocked, but he’s needed, so he nods. Yixing hands the little girl over to another crewmember, and then they all head upstairs.

+++++

They arrive into the control room, and it’s a medium sized room, with a large table in the middle, and small screens lining all four walls. There are also desks that go all the way around, and numerous of headphones with mikes attached, resting on them, and plugged into the control panels in front. He doesn't have time to really look though, because Kris is immediately tugging him and Yixing towards the large group surrounding the table at the center, and the captain is sitting on it, addressing the crew. Kris spots Minseok and Kyungsoo standing at edges so he pulls them all towards them, and Minseok nods at them, but Kyungsoo immediately pulls Baekhyun into a quick hug before letting go. “I'm so glad you're safe.” he whispers earnestly, and Baekhyun squeezes his hand in return smiling at him for a second, before they both face forward again. The captain is only answering questions right now, but when the last of the few crew who is assigned to this rescue mission arrive the captain claps his hands to start.

“Alright men. This is a mission to retake the ship and this is how it’s going to work. We have split the ship into sections on the map, and we are sending out a pair of shooters to each section. Some places we might send out more than one pair, depending on how dangerous it is, but we will let you know. Now your guys’s job is to help the shooters. Each person here gets a pair of shooters, and your job is to be their eyes and ears, and help them get to the section they are assigned, and help clear up that section. The areas are the places you know best, so that's why you guys have been specifically chosen out of the rest of the crew. For example Kyungsoo is head chef and he knows the kitchen inside and out, so he was obviously appointed to cover and clear the area of the cafeteria. Though it's a large area so he will get to other cooks and their shooters to help him. Your goal is to get the fighter to the area as safely as possible, and only exterminate dead that are in or close to your path. When you get to your designated area then you and your fighters are required to exterminate all dead from that area and call it clear. Is that understood?” and everyone nods, and Baekhyun steels his nerves as the Captain runs through other details, and then finally hands out assignments. Baekhyun is obviously charged with the area around the front of the ship, so the cockpit and rooms around it and he looks over and Minseok, Yixing, and Kris, and they are all charged with the galley where the most dead were and he shivers.

Why the Captain picked Baekhyun, he doesn't understand. It wasn't training because he could have sat at someone's side while a more advanced senior pilot ran two lives through dead infested corridors. And Baekhyun doesn't believe that he knows the frontal ship of the area any better then a senior pilot would. He is still a newbie, and he shouldn't be part of an operation that is so important when there are pilots who are above him and can do the job just as well.

Baekhyun can’t stop thinking about it, and it's driving him up a wall as he sits in his seat in front of set of screens and jitters. Eventually he can’t take it so he nervously walks over to the Captain and stutters out his thoughts. 

Minhyuk tries to fight a tired smile off his face, and Baekhyun is sure the other would give a big belly laugh if it weren’t for the grim circumstances, so instead he takes Baekhyun to the side of the room and asks him why he thinks this.

“Make it quick though pilot.” Minhyuk says looking back, “We have an operation to run, there are people dying out there.”

“I—I know.” Baekhyun stumbles. “I just… I hope you didn't choose me just because Minseok and the other mates told you about what happened. I don’t want to take this mission when there is probably someone better suited, and more senior then me” Baekhyun says quickly, all in one rush, and Minhyuk raises his eyebrows at him, but turns on his heel and walks towards the control panel smirking.

“Hurry up pilot, and get back to duty,” he dismisses him just like that, “like I said we don't have time to waste. Also if your impression of me is that I would simply choose you on a whim because you were bullied, and thus endanger the safety of my other men, then your opinion of me must be pretty sad.” he says giving Baekhyun a playful frown and Baekhyun blushes suddenly embarrassed and Minhyuk laughs a little before he sighs. “Baekhyun you're the best choice because your level headed, smart, and quick-witted, and you also just ran through those corridors they are going to run through, so you know where to go and not to go best. I truly think you're the best match for this job, and maybe I might not have chosen you if you hadn't made half that trip here without Minseok. You’re right. The other pilots are as informed as you about the northstar, and could do an equally could job as you. However what they did gave you leverage, and so they only have themselves to blame for your opportunity above theirs. Now do your job well pilot and don't disappoint okay?” he finished with a fond smile. And Baekhyun immediately stood straight and saluted, “Yes sir!”

Minhyuk smiles one last time before turning and leaving, and everyone is ready by now so Baekhyun quickly returns to his seat beside two other people who will be around close proximity to where he is- they are stationed at the crew dorms- and Baekhyun nods at them.

Everyone flits through the cameras to survey the areas their fighters are about to head off to, and the best route to get there, before finally setting to the screen where this will all begin. The cameras show the gate keeping the dead out of the quarantine zone isn't as busy as it was earlier. But there are still quite a few dead, lining the huge doors trying to get in. Baekhyun scrubs through his own screens, quickly solidifying the route he's going to take and if there are any dead there, but even though the screens are empty now, he knows that the moment the fighters go off and shots are ringing, the dead are going to be in a frenzy from the sounds and smell of live flesh.

Finally the Captain speaks. “Ready everyone?” he asks. “I already explained this, but I’m going to say it once more so pay attention. The shooters are already aware of the area they are in charge of, so you just need to direct them there, help be a second eye for them, and be their support. If they are struggling, send for back up. Talk to each other, and talk to your shooters. And guys. I know you know, but I need to tell you again. These are real people in these suits, real people fighting out there to protect those in here… and you might see some of those people die tonight, but be strong. You need to be strong for them. And then get back out there and fight again. For those that give up their lives tonight, they give them up to protect this ship, and people, and the other fighters, so keep fighting.” And everyone nods their heads solemnly.

“Okay then, take your positions.” and Baekhyun sits tensely in his seat. He steals a glance and Minseok, Yixing, and Kris, who are a few seats to his right, and then back at Kyungsoo who is behind him, before quickly staring at his monitors again. They look ready to fight, so he will to. 

He stares at the screen where all the fighters are suited up by the doors and he counts thirty of them. And he hopes thirty come back, but he knows it's hard. Minhyuk tells them he’s going to turn their intercom devices on now, and they all put their headphones on, and Baekhyun takes a deep breath. The switch goes off and there's static for a second before Baekhyun hears breathing, so he clears his throat. He hears indistinct voices in the back of other people talking to their fighters too, but Baekhyun focuses. 

“Hello men. I’m Pilot Byun Baekhyun, and I’m going to be your aide on the mission to