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As Chanyeol stared out of the shielded opening of the docking bay, his eyes cast down at the planet below, he thought back on how he'd ended up where he was. EXO Planet #9, as it was officially and boringly named, wasn't exactly a hotbed of activity. Certain sections of the planet had been found to contain useful resources to be mined, so while the eastern hemisphere had been terraformed and populated by nearly a million people, the western wastes had been left in their natural states to preserve some of the planet. Chanyeol never spent much time on the surface, though, unless he was on loan to one of the mechanical crews who needed someone with his area of expertise: advanced robotics, computer programming and diagnostics, and mechanical engineering. All of it had made him an excellent candidate for the mecha program, something he'd dreamed of going into since he'd been a little kid. Originally he'd hoped to be a pilot, fascinated with space and the thrilling opportunity to fly through it. When puberty and tragedy had struck him with too much height to fit the standard cockpit and nerve integration systems, he'd put everything into studying to be mechanic instead. He still couldn't' help gazing out into space, no matter how much he knew that he'd never be able to get as close to it as a suit pilot. The planet below was a beautiful swirl of colors, and even if he'd only been down there a few times, he vividly remembered the soft purple skies and shockingly yellow rocks that were commonly nestled among the blue foliage, giving hints about the geological characteristics of the ground beneath.
He felt a smack on his back that threatened to send him tumbling dangerously close to the thick plasma barrier that was holding all of the air in and the vacuum of space out. Shrieking as he fell forward, the same hand yanked on the back of his jumpsuit to immediately pull him back to safety.
"Saved your life," Jongdae said, beaming at him with a giant smile that Chanyeol suspected would be visible even if he were still wearing his pilot's helmet.
"Dude, fuck, you could've shoved me out into space!" Chanyeol squawked, trying really hard but ultimately failing not to smile; he couldn't help it, Jongdae's laughter was always so contagious.
"Big tall targets like you shouldn't stand so close to the edge," Jongdae said in a voice that wavered on the edge of impersonating their squad leader, Junmyeon, when he liked to lecture them about docking bay safety. "Plus there are safer views of the surface from, like, every other window on this entire station."
Brushing imaginary dust from one sleeve, Chanyeol crossed his arms over his chest. "Yeah, but none of those windows are this big," he said, flinging his arm out dramatically to highlight the massive dock entrance that gave them a clear view of half the planet below. "Anyways, you guys got back early. Where's Kyungsoo?"
Jongdae snorted but ignored the sound logic of Chanyeol's excellent argument. "He got back fifteen minutes ago while you were mooning over the view. Had to get Sehun to debrief him on the run since you muted your comms."
Squawking for the second time in as many minutes, Chanyeol took off sprinting towards his and Kyungsooo's dedicated suit rig. Jongdae hadn't been lying; there it was, the pitch black paint that seemed to suck up the light around it despite the chips here and there that gave away the true red color beneath. It hung from its harness that sprouted seven dozen or so wires connecting from the main input cord at the top and down to various ports all over the suit. He'd missed the satisfaction of seeing each wire find its port magnetically and snap into place without having to lift a finger, an upgrade he'd spent weeks perfecting last year and still never tired of seeing in action. Jogging around the ankles of the suit, he saw no sign of its pilot but did spot an intruder in his mechanic's station.
"Beat it, kid," he said as he puffed up to his full height. Chanyeol got so used to being around the shorter suit pilots that he often forgot what it was like to be around another tall man until Sehun gave him grief. "He's gone, your services aren't needed anymore, and don't touch my stuff."
Straightening up from where he'd been crouched over a tablet monitor, Sehun regarded him levelly with an expression of total impassivity. It was stupid to be intimidated by someone younger and technically shorter than him, but he was the only human on board who came close to challenging Chanyeol's status as the tallest. "My services wouldn't have been needed in the first place if you were focused on your job," he pointed out before tossing the tablet towards Chanyeol who, thankfully, caught it. "Kyungsoo's a good pilot, there are plenty of mechanics who want to work with him if you're too busy."
Chanyeol opened his mouth to reply, something that was sure to be witty and an excellent comeback, when he was interrupted by Baekhyun appearing from behind Sehun and smacking him on the back of the head. "Don't you think about leaving me mechanic-less again, Oh Sehun," he said as he grabbed at the end of one sleeve of Sehun's jumpsuit he'd half peeled off and tied around his waist. "Hey Chanyeol, Kyungsoo said he was skipping dinner and heading to the barracks," Baekhyun added over his shoulder as he literally pulled Sehun away while scolding him for implying that he might join a different team and how he should have plugged in Baekhyun's suit before skipping off to help someone else.
Smiling after them, Chanyeol cleared up his station and shut everything off other than a background program to run diagnostics on Kyungsoo's suit while it recharged. It really was their suit, since he'd built it and Kyungsoo piloted it, but they hadn't been able to decide on a name yet; Kyungsoo determinedly referred to it as 6112 due to its registered number in the mecha database, but Chanyeol longs for cool names like those that belonged to the units in stories, or at least the other suits in their squad. He was contemplating this as he made his way to the mess hall, piling two trays up with food and carrying them back out without even glancing at the tables occupied by other pilots, mechanics, and various station staff members. Even though he was deep in thought on the topic of names, he managed to weave through the hallways without running into anyone or, more importantly, spilling any food from the plates he carried. Once he reached the barracks, he turned down the path towards the private quarters designated for flight pairs. He and Kyungsoo had lucked out by scoring one of the corner rooms and the end of the hallway, away from the noise of some of the other teams. It also meant double the amount of windows, and when Chanyeol pressed his ass to the door panel to scan his access card, he found Kyungsoo sitting on his bed in front of one of those exact window Chanyeol had been thinking about.
"Heard you were skipping the mess, so I brought some to you," Chanyeol said cheerfully, leaning over to set a tray down on the bed next to Kyungsoo.
Turning his attention from the window, Kyungsoo looked up at him and smiled before stretching up and giving him a kiss. "Better late than never," he said, gathering his legs up beneath him and resting the tray across his knees, effectively inviting Chanyeol to sit on the bed with him since he'd made enough room.
Chanyeol scoffed a little, slurping up some noodles from his own tray and licking his lips. "You were back way sooner than expected! Plus, you'd mute your comms, too, if you had Junmyeon chattering away in your ear."
Looking unimpressed, Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow. "I do have him chattering away in my ear, along with Baekhyun and Jongdae. You'd hurry back, too, if you had to deal with that."
Unable to argue with that, Chanyeol nodded and focused on his food for a while, sneaking glances at Kyungsoo to make sure he was both eating and enjoying the food. "So, how did the Virus handle today?"
"Chanyeol," Kyungsoo sighed, rolling his eyes over the rim of his glass as he drank.
"What? Everyone else has a cool name for their units! It's been a year and you haven't approved one," Chanyeol whined, attempting to pull his cutest puppy pout on Kyungsoo, though it failed to land when he refused to make eye contact.
"That's because they're all stupid."
"Morning Star is not stupid," Chanyeol said emphatically only to be shot down by Kyungsoo's unenthused expression. "What about Terminator?"
"What? We don't terminate anything," Kyungsoo pointed out with a frown.
Grumbling, Chanyeol tapped at his chin with a utensil. "Morpheus?"
"No, Chanyeol, no movie references."
"But you understood that one this time," Chanyeol said with a triumphant grin.
They argued about names over dinner—Infinity Buster sounds like a C-rated comic book series—until Chanyeol ran out of both serious suggestions and stupid ideas. Having cleared the trays to the second bed that they hadn't used in nearly a year, they laid down together on the bed that perfectly aligned with one of the windows. Chanyeol pressed close to the glass with Kyungsoo crowding behind him and running his fingers through Chanyeol's long brown hair.
"You need a trim," Kyungsoo mumbled thoughtfully behind him as they both looked out on the planet below. Kyungsoo was one of the only people really understood Chanyeol's obsession with space, and it was one of the reasons they'd started dating in the first place.
Tilting his head back, he looked up at Kyungsoo where he was propped up on one arm, reaching awkwardly to rub his hand over the black stubble of his hair. "Shit, you too, I think it might start getting caught in something if you're not careful."
Kyungsoo laughed as he batted away Chanyeol's hand, catching it and forcing it to rest against Chanyeol's chest as he hugged him from behind. "It gets in my eyes if it's too long, and it's not like I can just unhook my suit to push it back."
"Baekhyun manages to do it with long hair," Chanyeol pointed out even though he couldn't care less if Kyungsoo was bald or if he had dreadlocks.
"Baekhyun is an anomaly," Kyungsoo replied simply, and Chanyeol didn't have any reason to argue.
They lapsed into silence for some time, just gazing out at the surface below and all of the stars beyond it. The sun was in the opposite direction from their side of the space station, the section dedicated to solar panels to harvest as much natural energy as possible to charge all of the mecha suits. It gave them a beautiful view at all hours of the day, though, and Chanyeol could easily get as lost staring down at the planet as he could staring up into Kyungsoo's eyes.
"I forgot, I brought you something."
Chanyeol instantly perked up at that, always curious when something struck Kyungsoo enough to inspire him to bring it home. Twisting in Kyungsoo's arms, he silently wiggled with excitement until Kyungsoo gave up with a laugh and slipped from the bed to go find his prize. When he returned with a rock, Chanyeol had to admit he was mildly disappointed.
"You shouldn't have," he said with a crooked sort of smile, reaching for it when Kyungsoo offered it out to him. It weighed far more than it looked, and he nearly dropped it as soon it was handed over to him. "Where the hell did you find this?"
"It was on the outside of the station near one of the solar panels," Kyungsoo replied as he crawled back onto the bed, reaching out and prompting Chanyeol to turn it over. One side had a thick crack running through it, and the inside glowed a faint blue. When Chanyeol lifted it closer to his eye, he could see that the hollow inside was covered in crystals. "We found a couple bigger ones that appeared to have cracked open on impact. I skipped dinner to take them to one of the labs for analysis. Nothing dangerous like radiation, but they have some kind of effect on electronics. Fried the transformer and control panel for the shield system."
Chanyeol shivered at that, imagining something so small and yet so heavy crashing through any number of the delicate systems that kept the station safe and operational. "So weird that they didn't set off any alarms when they hit," he mumbled.
As if on cue, the lights dimmed and sirens began to wail through the barracks.
Kyungsoo was already off the bed and pulling on his shoes while Chanyeol stumbled to follow, still confused about what the emergency would be. In other systems, mecha stations had to deal with keeping the peace between various species or fight and capture criminals, but the most that ever happened in their system was a cargo ship requesting to dock for refueling. Still, even though the alarms had never been used, Chanyeol remembered the training drill enough that he was ready a split second after Kyungsoo, running behind him through the halls and back towards the docking bay.
As they skidded into the cavernous room, it was clear that hell had broken loose. Pilots stood in their flight suits, helmets held under their arms, and yet no one was jumping into their suits. Looking around, Chanyeol realized that several of them still had yet to be fully plugged in so that they could recharge and reset. He glanced at Kyungsoo, then at their suit hung and fully plugged in, and then over towards the main group of people standing in the center where he guessed Junmyeon would be.
"Get dressed and warm her up," he told Kyungsoo, reaching out to gently grab his bald head and pull it close enough to kiss his forehead. "I'll get the brief."
Jogging towards the crowd, Chanyeol elbowed his way through the mix of pilots, mechanics, and trainees. "Captain," he shouted over the confusion, finally making his way to Junmyeon who was talking to a frantic Sehun who seemed to be apologizing for something. "What the fuck is happening?"
Junmyeon spotted Chanyeol and barked orders for everyone to clear out and man their stations awaiting ordered. Once the way had been slightly cleared, Junmyeon grabbed at Chanyeol's sleeve to pull him close. "An asteroid shower came out of nowhere, the material scrambles electrical signals so it didn't come up on our scans," he explained as he half lead, half pushed Chanyeol towards his mechanic's station. "All our heavy suits just came back from a run, half of them haven't recharged or even been plugged in," he said, glancing at Sehun's station where the mechanic was hanging from a service harness and frantically plugging wires into ports.
"So? The shields can handle astroids—" he began to say before remembering what Kyungsoo had mentioned about the systems being knocked out.
"They were knocked out recently, a patrol just found it earlier today," Junmyeon explained unnecessarily. "Droids are working on the fix, but it won't do any good if they or the solar panels get knocked out into space. We need a heavy to shield them while they finish up their work."
Chanyeol felt his stomach turn to ice. He'd been able to mention that his suit had to be at least half charged, thanks to his magnetic coupling upgrade he'd only just completed. But the thought of sending Kyungsoo out alone to defend the station terrified him with the possibilities. It didn't take much internal deliberation, though, considering they'd likely all die if absolutely nothing were done.
"Our suit is charged," he said with confidence he didn't really have, reaching for a tablet and bringing his workstation to life. Diagnostics popped up, all in the green, and the suit's charge indicator flashed at seventy-three percent. "Enough, at least. Kyungsoo's running the boot protocols now."
Junmyeon seemed to relax, his grip on Chanyeol's sleeve falling away. "Fucking genius," he said with a thin smile as he nodded up to the custom harness that obviously stood out from the rest. "You should patent that if we survive."
"Yes sir," Chanyeol mumbled, focused on doing what he could to speed the process of getting Kyungsoo back up and running. "When I become a billionaire, I'll pay back all of the money I got for parts by hacking the budget.
Junmyeon's expression turned stormy. "What the f—"
The station rocked with a sudden impact, the lights of the docking back flickering. "Not now, captain, I'll take the punishment later."
Satisfied at least that they had a plan of attack, Junmyeon ran off to bark orders at several other suit teams. Above Chanyeol, the mechanical pop of wires disengaging from their ports drew his eyes up and towards the cockpit. Inside he could see Kyungsoo, flicking switches and settling into his pilot's chair that would also connect him to the controls. It was beautiful engineering, something that still amazed Chanyeol most days; today was not the time to be distracted by the wonders of the universe. Shoving his communication link into his ear, he double tapped it to bring the feed to life and then altered the settings on his tablet to focus it down to just between him and Kyungsoo.
"How's it going?" he asked unnecessarily since he had all the information on the screen in his hands.
"Almost ready. What's the brief?" Kyungsoo asked, voice somewhat distracted as the sound of systems whirred to life in the background. After Chanyeol had filled him in, he swore softly over the link. "Human mecha shield is a pretty shitty promotion."
"I shouldn't have said anything," Chanyeol said, instantly regretting the fact that he'd volunteered Kyungsoo for the dangerous mission while he'd be relatively safe inside of the station.
"No, you were right to. We're the only functioning unit right now, it's our responsibility. Plus, 6112's built pretty tough, right?" Chanyeol could practically hear the forced smile behind the words.
"I'm sending you with a portable shield generator anyways," Chanyeol said, scrambling through his piles of supplies until he uncovered a crate too heavy for him to lift. Clearing enough space on all sides, he caught Kyungsoo's attention and then pointed down to the metal box. "Take it with you and I can remotely activate it. Should give you some cover as long as nothing too big hits you."
The station rocked beneath them again, and Chanyeol quickly finished the rest of the systems check that would put Kyungsoo in the clear. "Promise to come back in one piece, alright?" he said as Kyungsoo engaged the drive protocol and stepped clear of the harness. "We still need to name her."
What followed was a blur. Kyungsoo walked to the edge of the docking bay, just like he would on any other day, and jumped out into space before engaging his thrusters. Then he was gone from sight, and Chanyeol scrambled to bring up feeds on his monitor displays while keeping the suit controls on hand via tablet. Outside appeared calm until Kyungsoo reached the sun side of the station where, visible in the distance, a group of asteroids barreled towards the station. Kyungsoo was quick to find the shield systems that was crawling with maintenance droids, and Chanyeol activated the shield generator. It wasn't enough to cover the entire work area, so Kyungsoo was forced to hold it in one hand and turn his back to physically shield the rest. The first wave of asteroids harmlessly bounced off, considering the sheer size of the mecha suit, but soon the rocks were growing in size and weight. Chanyeol tuned out the sounds of the other mechanics and pilots still shouting through the docking bay, focusing instead on orders from Kyungsoo or anything else he could do to help him endure. While pilots couldn't technically feel pain via their suits, the strain of various activities did wear on them physically, and soon sweat was beading on Kyungsoo's face.
"The droids almost have the shield back online," Chanyeol said after tapping into various feeds to check progress, both from the droid diagnostics lab and the main systems computer. "You're almost there, Kyungsoo, just a bit more."
A second later and he could see through several camera angles that the shields had been activated, hugging close enough to the station to keep it and the droids safe while leaving Kyungsoo totally open to the large asteroids now raining down on him.
"Get the fuck out of there," he shouted into the comms, closing the droid feeds and focusing back in on Kyungsoo. As he turned, they both caught sight of an asteroid speeding towards him too late to react. It hit the chest of the suit with a sickening crack that Chanyeol could hear ringing through Kyungsoo's comms, and he only hoped that the electromagnetic interference hadn't been unleashed from inside. Enough of a shock could scramble the systems and, at the very worst, knock out life support. "Kyungsoo!"
The camera feed and communications link both went dead.
Chanyeol screamed as he frantically tapped the screen of his tablet, trying at first to get a feed back online before he opened comms to other teams. "Is anyone fucking charge? Kyungsoo's dead in the water."
Yixing's voice came to him over the link. "Minseok's the closest to a functional charge, and he's still five minutes away from start up."
"So seven minutes. He may not have seven minutes," Chanyeol shouted, desperately trying to get a read on the remote diagnostics but the code was going crazy. He was filled with the urge to throw it and yet tightly clung to it in the hopes he could do something, anything. "Life support might have failed, we need to send something after him. A transport ship could tow him in and—"
"You know that we can't risk a ship in this kind of asteroid storm, they can't dodge so many variables," came Junmyeon's voice, all the more intolerable with how calm he sounded. "We'll send a suit out when Minseok is booted and—"
"That's not good enough!" Chanyeol shouted before yanking out his comm link and throwing it down on his desk. Breathing hard, he heard footsteps coming over and stopping beside him.
"Chanyeol—" A hand rested on his shoulder.
"Fucking don't, Sehun," Chanyeol said, shaking off the hand and moving to walk off in the opposite direction. When the hand grabbed at his sleeve, he turned to glare at the other mechanic. "What do—"
"Look," Sehun said simply, pushing him towards the docky bay doors.
Beyond the plasma barrier, Chanyeol could see a black mass struggling closer, flashes of red catching light off the planet below. As the suit got closer, Chanyeol could see that it was running on a single thruster from one foot, most of the other systems gone dark. Breaking away from Sehun, he sprinted towards the bay entrance, careful to keep a distance from the trajectory of the suit but determined to be the first one there. It was far from a graceful entry, the dead leg trailing below the body catching on the edge of the bay door and scraping chunks off of the thigh and shin. Chanyeol didn't even care about the damage, barely waiting for it to land insofar as the single thruster turned off and the suit collapsed into a heap on its side in the center of the docking bay.
"Kyungsoo!" Chanyeol shouted, climbing up on arm and towards the chest.
A long, jagged crack ran down the glass of the cockpit and splintered off in several directions, making it impossible to see anything inside. Hands shaking as they scrambled to find the latch to engage the emergency open for the cockpit, Chanyeol finally found it and pulled with every ounce of strength he had. At first the cockpit unsealed with a hiss—a good sign of pressurized air still held inside—and then buckled strangely with the change in air pressure. Chanyeol ducked just in time to avoid the outward explosion of glass, though a piece caught him on the cheek and sliced a hot gash into the skin. Ignoring it, he straightened back up to look down at Kyungsoo inside. His helmet was cracked from where it appeared to have hit the side of the cockpit. One of his legs dangled at an uncomfortable angle, the same one as had been damaged on the suit, but his chest rose and fell in steady breaths.
"Oh fuck," Chanyeol sighed, legs threatening to buckle with relief. "Medic!" he screamed over his shoulder before turning back around to climb into the cockpit and carefully pull Kyungsoo from his harness.
"Chanyeol?" His voice was faint, but as Chanyeol pulled the helmet off of his head, he appeared to be uninjured apart from the leg.
"I'm here," he said as he continued unplugging him from the suit and carefully held him in his arms. "Fuck, you had me scared. Everything went dead on the feed and I thought—"
Kyungsoo hummed softly, resting his forehead against Chanyeol's shoulder as he carried him down and gently laid him on the floor. "You think too much," he mumbled, looking up at Chanyeol with a faint smile and then closing his eyes.
A choked laugh bubbled up, surprising Chanyeol with his ability to feel anything other than unbridled relief at the moment. "One of us has to, hero."
A blur of motion and action surrounded them as medics arrived to first scan Kyungsoo and then transfer him to a gurney. Chanyeol stayed with him the whole way to the medical bay until he was told to wait outside, and as soon as Kyungsoo's leg had been set he was right there sitting next to his hospital bed. He was out for nearly a day—shock from so much damage to the suit as well as the strain of piloting a damaged unit, all while suffering a broken limb. When he woke up the following day, Chanyeol was half asleep with his head on the bed next to Kyungsoo's hand, and it was the gentle play of fingers through his hair that pulled him back to wakefulness.
"You're awake," he stated intelligently as he turned his head, wanting to encourage the touch but still be able to look up at Kyungsoo.
"You're barely awake," Kyungsoo countered, "And hurt." His voice was soft, not quite weak but lacking the usual quiet strength that Chanyeol was used to hearing in it. His eyes lingered just beneath Chanyeol's left eye, and it wasn't until he gently traced the scab there that Chanyeol even remembered he'd been injured. "Is everyone okay?"
Chanyeol nodded, reaching for Kyungsoo's hand to thread their fingers together as he sat up and arched his back to pop his spine. "Thanks to you. The suit is totaled, though."
Which is how Chanyeol got around to distracting Kyungsoo, and himself, with a mobile display of the suit to show all the damage it had sustained as well as an outline of improvements and modifications he'd been wanting to try for months. Kyungsoo reached for the display as Chanyeol showed him the back of the suit, the black paint scraped off all over the shoulders and spine where the brunt of the asteroids had hit.
"It looks like wings," Kyungsoo said in the midst of Chanyeol's engineering rambling. He traced his finger over the glass of the tablet, and as Chanyeol's eyes followed the pattern, he had to agree. "Phoenix."
"Uh, what? Maybe you really do have a concussion," Chanyeol half joked, reaching towards the call button to summon a doctor.
Kyungsoo stilled his hand, and the soft huff of laughter that followed eased Chanyeol's concern. "I meant for a name."
Chanyeol raised both eyebrows at that. "Oh, now you're going to suggest names?"
Shrugging, Kyungsoo laid the display aside and reached instead for Chanyeol's hand. "A mythical firebird that's born from the ashes of its previous life. That's pretty badass."
Chanyeol hummed, pretending he had to think it over when really it was a badass name and he was just thrilled to imagine Kyungsoo finally agreed on something other than the serial number.
"You could paint red wings on the back."
"Sold," Chanyeol said practically before Kyungsoo could finish his sentence. "Phoenix. I like the sound of that," he said with a smile and he leaned in to kiss Kyungsoo's knuckles. "Just promise me, no more dancing in asteroid storms."
Kyungsoo squeezed his hand tightly, rubbing his thumb over the back of Chanyeol's hand. "I promise as long as you install magnetic ports on every dock's harness."
"Deal," Chanyeol said, standing up from the chair he'd occupied and crowding onto the bed next to Kyungsoo. After a few moments of silence, he hummed. "Think I can convince you to grow out your hair as part of this deal?"