Chapter Text
Monday, Oct. 6, 16 A.B. (After Breach)/2025 C.E.; off the coast of Busan, South Korea
"Oh! Over there, is that it?"
Yerim turned from the helicopter window, eyes sparkling. Her pre-enlistment haircut gave her a totally different air—fresh, sporty, and a little fey. Instead of the enduring, sometimes-sullen thing she'd become in the mines at Ulleungdo, toughened beyond her years, she genuinely looked her age: just fifteen, amazed by her first flight.
"Hyuna-unnie—"
Yoojin almost choked on his own spit. Unnie?! Yerim was calling Moon Hyuna unnie?!
"—is that 'Breakwater Lambda'?"
As Hyuna laughed through their headsets, Yoojin scrambled to correct his ward. "Yerim-ah, please talk to Marshal Moon-nim a little more respectfully..."
"Hey now, Helicopter Dad. I don't mind." Hyuna glanced up from the controls to wink at them, then continued to make flying a helicopter look easy.
As the woman at the helm of the entire Korean MONSTer Association, there was no reason for her to pilot the chopper herself. She could, and probably should, have had a subordinate fly the three of them to their destination—heck, Yoojin wouldn't have minded saving money (and delaying the inevitable) by taking normal transit routes.
But that was Moon Hyuna for you. From athlete to MONSTer pilot, and then from pilot to commander, she'd always charted her own course with seemingly effortless aplomb. If, as Yerim insisted, all cool girls and women were unnies, naturally Hyuna had to be. Even if she was older than Yoojin, who'd put up with "ahjussi" from Yerim all these years.
She continued, answering Yerim's question, "You're right, kid. That's KMA HQ down there—where you'll be sleeping, eating, and training your butt off until we beat those Bulgasari bas... ahem. Those Bulgasari bad boys once and for all." The way Hyuna's lips twitched as she caught Yoojin's expression suggested she was stifling more laughter. Well, if she didn't want him to glare at her, she should watch her language around Yerim. Fifteen was an impressionable age!
Ignoring the way Yerim was rolling her eyes at him for Hyuna's approval, Yoojin turned to his own window. The colossal, forbidding complex of hangars, training fields, docks, enormous metalworking facilities, labs, and dormitories that comprised Breakwater Lambda came into view beneath them.
Before the alien creatures known as Bulgasari attacked from another dimension, this stretch of shore was once home to the Busan Naval Base. Once the complex was handed over to the KMA, they had to majorly build up its infrastructure to house their war machines. What worked for KDX-III class destroyer ships didn't exactly meet the needs of even a small fleet of giant robots.
Mechs and MONSTers.
Yoojin's fingers tightened on the straps of his seat harness. It wasn't too late to take back his agreement and turn around. As Yerim's guardian, he still had a say in protecting her, no matter what was happening in the world. He had half a mind to grab her, kick out the helicopter door, and yank open their parachutes. Farewell, Marshal-nim, let's meet again in another life.
But when he glanced at her from the corner of his eye, Yerim was pressed to the glass again, wonder and excitement transforming a face that had already worn too much unhappiness for its youth.
He couldn't ignore what she'd told him. Yerim wanted to pilot. She wanted to save the world. Instead of remaining shielded but helpless, just because she was young, she'd snuck behind his back to take a screening test for pilot candidates. He'd always told her she had potential; now she knew for sure. And she wanted to convert that untapped power into real strength to protect herself and her family, lashing out with mana and meters-long limbs of steel.
She'd told him that, looking him straight in the eye as they stood in their tiny, dingy apartment on Ulleungdo, the only place they could afford on their combined mining wages. She'd stared at him that fiercely, chin raised, fists balled, to defend the lousy life that was all he'd been able to give her these five years.
What was Yoojin supposed to say to that?
Maybe she wouldn't find a compatible neurosync partner. Maybe, in the course of her training, the KMA would decide she was too young after all and quietly discharge her from the association. Maybe some other pilot duo would slam their MONSTer into the Bulgasari hive—the existence of which was purely hypothetical, almost wishful, because a hive would give humanity something to target proactively. Maybe some miracle genius would stop more wormholes from opening into Earth, and Yerim would never see action.
And maybe what happened five years ago would be undone and he would see his brother again. Maybe wishes were fishes and tomorrow he'd wake to a lifetime supply of hoe.
"Yerim-ah," he said, forcing his hands to his sides, "remember that I'll be Park Yoojin while we're here, okay? We don't need people asking why I'm accompanying you."
Like she'd done the first time he'd made this request, Yerim gave him a strange look. "...Yeah. Of course, ahjussi. Oh, wait, should I not call you ahjussi? I... well, you're not really old enough to be my dad, but, uh, maybe an uncle...?"
Yoojin remembered the one uncle of hers he'd met. "No. No, it's fine." He waved his hands. "The names can be a coincidence, we don't have to be related. Just don't look surprised when I introduce myself that way, yeah?"
Though she drooped a little when he said they didn't have to be related, Yerim nodded. "Yeah. You got it, ahjussi."
Hyuna graciously said nothing, just guided the helicopter down for a perfect landing on the bustling tarmac.
Someone tall stood waiting for them, an unruffled, still figure amidst the thundering of trucks and shouted orders. The first one to disembark was Yerim, who all but flew down the stairs built into the helicopter door, as if something of their airborne voyage remained buoyant within her. See? Impressionable. She took so much into herself.
The waiting figure's one visible eye curved with a smile.
"Candidate Park Yerim, I presume?"
At least, Yoojin thought he said something like that. The rotary blades were still whirling overhead, winding down slowly after the long trip from Ulleungdo to Breakwater Lambda. Grumbling silently to himself, he picked up his crutches and began to follow, but Hyuna got to him first.
"Hyung-nim."
"..."
"You sure you're okay with this?"
"You already took Yerim-ie's measure, right? She's made up her mind. Nothing I say will talk her out of it." He made to maneuver around her, but Hyuna put out an arm to stop him.
"I'm not talking about her, hyung-nim. Are you okay, being back here?"
A silence untouched by the surrounding chaos stretched between them.
"Not really, no." Stiffly—it had been a long trip, that was all—Yoojin shrugged. "And I'm not actually okay with launching a middle schooler at killer aliens in a fancy tin can, either, thanks for asking. But none of us have a choice at this point, do we? That's what you were telling me before we left."
Hyuna's mouth slimmed into a grave line.
Before she could reply, he added, "I have to be here. She's... only fifteen, you know."
Fifteen. That was two whole years younger than...
His bad leg gave a warning twitch.
Tearing his eyes from Hyuna, Yoojin looked past her and out the door, where Yerim was talking to the large, foreign-looking man. How did he pull off such a genteel look while wearing an eyepatch? Yerim had her hands on her hips and her head cocked; sassing him, no doubt. The man's smile seemed genuine, though.
"She's a kid. She needs someone to notice things she hasn't been taught yet to look out for; she needs someone to advocate for her well-being and safety. Yeah, Hyuna-ssi, I know you won't treat her like she's expendable or like some kind of mech part—interchangeable. You were a pilot. You know what it's like.
"But you're the Marshal now. You're responsible for everyone here, not just our Yerim-ie." Yoojin shrugged. "And I'm nobody. Nobody but her legal guardian, anyway. It's only due to your special permission that I can be here... and again, thank you, really." That part, at least, he meant. "I just mean, of course I'm gonna stay here with her."
Though Hyuna let her hand fall, she still didn't seem satisfied. She folded her arms and kept frowning at him. "You're not nobody, hyung-nim. You're welcome to a position in Command, if you want it."
Command? Was she crazy? He was a disabled civilian! Who would take him even halfway seriously, besides maybe Yerim?
"...Hah, yeah, um. That's kind of you, but no. Thanks. Who's that guy talking to Yerim-ie, anyway?"
Sighing at the blatant redirection, Moon Hyuna finally turned her sharp, understanding gaze away. Then she sighed again, louder, and tromped down the air-stairs. The rotor had stopped turning, so Yoojin could hear outside now.
"Yo, Sung Hyunje. Stop pestering new recruits."
"Marshal Moon-nim."
The fair-haired man lifted his curved eyes, and recognition shot through Yoojin like a spasm.
Sung Hyunje. Chairman of the Sesung Corporation, the chaebol whose affiliated units in electronics, telecoms, metalwork, and heavy industries provided for the lion's share of MONSTers and other mechs. Sung Hyunje, who was formerly a world-renowned neural engineer.
Sung Hyunje, who used his knowledge, skills, and wealth to invent the Multi-Operator Neurosync system and then the Multi-Operator Neurosynced Tanks shortly afterwards.
M.O.N.S.T.
MONSTers. The enormous mechs that each took at least two highest-caliber pilots blessed with mana and mental agility to move. The only weapons humanity could wield effectively against the biggest, strongest enemy Bulgasari.
Shit, seriously! That Sung Hyunje? The guy had just as much power as a civilian in the KMA as Moon Hyuna did as the Marshal! Actually, crap, hadn't he actually enlisted and served as an active pilot for a second, recently? Was he among the top brass now?
Please, Yerim-ah, for your own sake, promise you didn't say anything rude!
As Yoojin froze at the top of the steps, Sung Hyunje's smile widened. "He doesn't look like a new recruit," he observed mildly.
"That ahjussi's my legal guardian, other ahjussi," Yerim immediately chimed in, brusque and protective. Nooo, Yerim-ah, polite! Be polite! "I'm so powerful, the KMA's praying I'll find a compatible neurosync match so they can pop me in a MONSTer right away. But I'm a minor, too, so they let me bring someone along to take care of me." She leaned in close and poked Sung Hyunje in the chest, right in the center of his tie. "You better not bother him, either, Sesung-ahjussi, or I'll take him, and my business, elsewhere."
God help him. Yerim knew who she was talking to, and she was still acting like... really, some kind of thug. Shooting a desperate glance Hyuna's way proved fruitless. She was literally stoppering her mouth with her knuckles to keep from laughing.
Thankfully, Sung Hyunje didn't seem inclined to take offense. He merely dipped his head to Yerim, his eye peacefully closed. Freed from that paralyzing gaze, Yoojin hurriedly hobbled down the steps. "Rest assured, Candidate Park, I have neither reason nor desire to distress your custodian. In fact, someone capable of raising a young person with as much potential as you..."
His eye opened again, and once more, Yoojin stopped. He'd never even met the man before, but he felt seen. Too seen, like an X-ray exposure held to light, every old break and deadened or damaged nerve revealed in high definition. He could feel the hairs on his arms rise.
"...Shouldn't we make his stay as pleasant and comfortable as possible, to thank him for his years of service?"
Yoojin suppressed a shudder and pasted a friendly look on his face instead. "There's no need to go out of your way, ah... Chairman Sung Hyunje-nim, isn't it?"
"I'm considered a corvette captain in this context, but yes. Not that we stand on ceremony much here, under Marshal Moon-nim's comfortable brand of leadership." Hyunje beamed at her, and Yoojin was gratified to see that Hyuna, too, had to hide a disgusted expression. Not that she hid it well. The man continued, "And your name is..."
"Park Yoojin."
He bowed politely from his crutches as Yerim nodded, round-eyed and earnest. Well, okay, don't overplay it, kiddo.
"As Yerim-ie said, I'm her guardian. It's nice to meet you, sir. Please look after both of us well, of course, but we're not expecting special treatment—I mean, treatment any more special than we already have." Yoojin put on his best disarming, self-aware smile. See, it was fine, he knew his place. He was an exception, an exception, contingent on Yerim's potential as a pilot. "This is a military installation and all. It's enough to give consideration to Yerim-ie's age."
The color of Sung Hyunje's singular eye—how could he describe it? Hazel or amber, maybe. It were far too light to call brown, but so vivid, an artisan could have cast it in gold. The brightness of the sun in a human iris. "Of course. Candidate Park is the youngest pilot candidate to join the KMA since its inception." That molten eye flicked towards Moon Hyuna. "Every one of us in leadership has taken that fact to heart."
Unsure what all this talk about her really meant, Yerim shifted her weight from foot to foot, but none of the adults chose to expand on that. The gravity of deploying their nation's future—no, the future of the world—in a gambit to survive such a desperate now was their weight to carry. She'd have burdens enough once she walked through the hangar doors and became a pilot candidate for real.
Moon Hyuna put a hand on Yoojin's shoulder. "They're all getting younger, hy—Helicopter Dad. Yerim-ie's the only one under eighteen in this batch of newbies, but we didn't get anyone over twenty-three, either. It's the smallest group of recruits yet, too."
They were running out of options. Earth was running out of time. Had Yoojin not known that, he would never have agreed to let Yerim enlist, not even with every concession and stipulation he could think of. Each Bulgasari outbreak came sooner after the last, grew in sheer numbers, and threw stronger and stranger ugly bastards at their defenses. Researchers worldwide were getting better at predicting when and where the wormholes would open, but that wouldn't prevent the inevitable. Eventually, the alien invaders would simply overrun them all.
He took a deep breath, smiled at Hyuna, and stepped out of her grip. "Well, this is no way to welcome Korea's next ace MONSTer pilot to the resistance."
Yoojin moved past Hyuna, past Sung Hyunje's penetrating gaze, to retake his place at Yerim's side.
"Ready to knock 'em dead, kiddo?"
Yerim straightened her shoulders, young and slim and ready to turn all her grief and rage into Bulgasari carnage.
"Let's get one thing straight, ahjussi. Hyuna-unnie, other ahjussi." She looked each of them in the eye, then pointed to herself with her thumb. "I'm not next. I'm now."