Donghyun made his way down the gleaming silver hallway, his footsteps echoing into adjacent corridors and sending personnel scurrying from his path. A few cast questioning glances over their shoulders as they went, but none stopped to question him as he neared the Chief's deck. He was, after all, too high-ranking for them to speak to, and from his purposeful stride, they could tell he was on a mission.

Little could they know how important said mission was. 

Sixteen years ago the vessel known as the HWSS Ghunne set sail from its home port of Lirs, only one in a hundred ship fleet leaving their home planet of Broig behind in search for a new home. A terrible sickness had swept across Broig, bringing sicknesses and death to too many of their people. It had taken years for the scientists to learn what the cause was, and by the time they had been able to pinpoint that the poison came from the pollen of a plant, it was too late. The plant had taken over Broig, growing fast a mutating quickly in an almost intelligent attack on the Nysh race. Finally they had resigned themselves to the fact that they had to leave their planet and find a new one.

Donghyun had been but a young boy when the ships left port, but he had joined the Fleet as soon as he was of age and had climbed in the ranks with his cunning and hard work. When he'd been appointed to the HWSS Ghunne as an Air Lieutenant of his own ship, his family had been ecstatic but sad to see him go. His dreams were just beginning, though, so he went without complaint and with excitement in his step, leaving them behind on their homeship of Bohea.

Arriving at his destination, the tall young man ran his passcard on the scanner and waited for the door to admit him. When he entered the room it was to the sight of three more officers of the Fleet gathered around a projection on the table, as well as one priest in his dark red robes. The priest cast him a covert smile, one that Donghyun had to fight not to acknowledge. They had known one another as children and it was with surprise that Donghyun had resumed their friendship when he learned that Haewon was the priest serving the Ghunne. 

"Sir," Donghyun said, sharply saluting the older man whose black uniform was decorated with more silver buttons on the shoulders than Donghyun could even begin to covet. Each button showed how many worlds the man had been directly involved in conquering, and the young Air Lieutenant had yet to even gain one.

The older man looked up at him with a hint of annoyance in his bright blue eyes. "You're late, Lee," he growled, and Donghyun merely dropped his head in acknowledgement.

"Yes sir, I apologize." He could have added more in, excuses about how he hadn't even been informed of the meeting until after it had begun, but he knew that the Chief of Air would see them as just that: excuses. Haewon cast him a questioning look, but he ignored it, focusing on his commander and hoping that he hadn't missed too much.

One of the other Lieutenants gave Donghyun an exasperated look that he let slide off of him, knowing that the older man would find any excuse to heckle the younger Lieutenant. Donghyun had risen in the ranks quickly and there were many who thought he was too young for his position, the two Lieutenants present included in that list. He pushed their irritation aside and looked down at the map on the projection table.

An image of a planet floated there, its surface covered in oceans and forests and plains, and after a moment Donghyun realized what the readings on the scale along the side of the projection meant. He raised his own bright blue eyes to meet those of the Chief, whose bright smile was almost predatory. 

"Yes, boy," he nearly purred, "We've found us a new home."

Haewon moved closer to the table, stepping in to stand next to Donghyun but not touching him. It would not do for them to be seen friendly with one another in public. It would only lead to one or both of them being transferred elsewhere. The Nysh people were a stoic race, keeping emotion out of their daily lives and looking down on any who dared to show too much outside of their homes. The priest reached a hand down to draw a slender, black lined finger through the projection.

"The goddess will be happy here," he said softly, and Donghyun noted the way that Lieutenant Ku's eyes narrowed at the young priest.

"How can you tell?" Obviously the older man had something against Haewon; why else would he openly question what a priest of Zoagi said? Donghyun shook his head ever so slightly at the offense in the older man's tone, but the priest merely cast the ques