Traveling to base was slow going because of the size of the group and effort required to maintain formation with all of the other teams. Baekhyun headed EXO’s formation, to the left of which flew the cargo and passenger shuttles. Infinite’s formation headed the entire party, while BTOB’s formation flew to the shuttles’ left and Secret’s formation brought up the rear. It was a standard setup, with stronger teams taking the front and back, and each team formation headed by a melee fighter.

It was slow going, but the communication channels were open to all the teams, and though conversation between thirty people was a bit chaotic, it was also very interesting.

They talked mostly about the recent events, and a few speculated on what the Chinese would do next. Many didn’t like the rumors about abandoning Earth to defend the bases in space--they thought it was their responsibility to protect ground bases and cities as well. The minority that supported a retreat to space talked a lot about joint military strikes and being spread too far over Earth. Baekhyun personally wanted any option that would get him into his first real battle, and it seemed that their transfer to UNPC’s main base was the way to get there--journeying straight into the thick of things.

…

When they arrived at the base, Chen was astounded by its sheer size. Built onto a large asteroid, it contained wings for every regiment of the UNPC, as well as a civilian-style observation deck and a glass atrium with gravity plates.  As they walked from SM’s hangar to the dorms on the third floor Chen even saw some children playing in the transplanted grass of the atrium.

“What are they doing here?” he asked Sunhwa, who was walking with them since the TS dorms were near the SM dorms.

“Some engineers have been working under UNPC for so long that they’ve started families. They can’t always go back and forth to Earth though, so they all live here. They have a civilian sector for the families,” she explained.

“So the children were born here?”

“That’s about right.” Sunhwa waved as Secret turned into a separate hallway. “I’ll see you later. I think we’re in a training exercise together.”

As he claimed his things from the pile unceremoniously dumped outside the dorm door, Chen wondered what it was like to live a whole life away from Earth, without any of the age-old conflicts that came with it.

…

The food wasn’t nearly as good as it usually was at SM, and Xiumin picked at his food before finally pushing it away.

“Are you done?” Luhan asked, his spoon.

“Yeah,” Xiumin replied, standing. “Want to head to the training arena early?”

“Okay. I don’t know where it is though. Do you?”

“Yeah. Hoya told me where it was yesterday.”

Luhan stood and they both left the cafeteria, weaving through the crowds beginning to file inside.

“Do you know what other teams are in the exercise?” Luhan asked as they walked towards the training arena.

“Probably novice groups,” Xiumin said. “BTOB? They flew with us here yesterday.”

Luhan shrugged. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. It’s bound to be boring anyway.”

…

Time Control swerved to the right to avoid a rain of bullets and stopped short, arm flashing upwards in defense as it encountered an enemy suit.

“Stop replying on your mech, Luhan,” came a voice from Luhan’s headset. “You should have been out of the way before the automatic defense systems came into play.”

Luhan mmhmmed in response and tried to concentrate harder, fingers flexing around the controls. Swiping a tongue around his dry mouth, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes, waiting for the next round of obstacles. He avoided the missiles easily and flew high over the simulation city to the rendezvous point with Acqua.

When they proceeded together towards an enemy base, Luhan realized how much better he was during simulations than during actual battle--when a fight wasn’t for real, he had nothing to lose, so he had no fear and he succeeded. So it ended up that he was a lot better on paper than he was in practice. When he was out in the air or in space, he just froze up and reacted slower, hit weaker, thought worse. He supposed, though, that the only remedy for that would be more training, more work, and more time. He knew that he would succeed.

…

The next few days were tedious and reminded Suho way too much of his trainee days. There was constant training, constant testing, constant checking to make sure EXO was in top condition. It was almost like SM was preparing them for something big, but Suho couldn’t imagine what that could be--their first deployment was done and over with, and had been since April.

Meanwhile, more and more teams flooded into the UNPC’s main base, so many that command had to open the second cafeteria and put another power generator online. About a week after EXO arrived at the base, TVXQ like the bedraggled survivors of a horrible storm were the first SM team besides EXO to arrive. They brought stories of fighting in the Pacific and pleas for further protection against the Chinese. Not long after SHINee arrived close on their heels, rumors began to circulate that there was a mole in the UNPC feeding information to the Chinese--how else had the first attack coincided directly with EXO’s first patrol?

These rumors made EXO’s members something like celebrities, and there were always new teams coming up to the members during meals and asking, dazed, what a real battle had been like, and the first battle of a war to boot. EXO-M’s members weren’t too happy to answer the questions, but EXO-K was happy to fabricate fantastic stories of adventure to appease the others. Though Suho was always there too, nodding along to Baekhyun’s wild tales and Jongin’s loud interjections, he couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong, like he should be more scared for what was coming.

“Suho hyung.” Tao was holding onto the doorframe, frowning. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Suho asked, sitting up in bed.

“Explosions.”

…

As Tao and Suho rushed outside of the dorm the explosions grew louder and louder. SM was one of the UNPC’s first regiments, so its dorms were closest to the center of the base, and it only took the two a few minutes to make their way, along with the rest of the crowds, to the WM hangar.

“What’s going on?” Suho asked a nearby pilot, a girl Tao didn’t recognize.

“B1A4 just arrived from Earth,” she replied. “We’re expecting a declaration of war from Russia anytime now.”

“What? Why?” D.O. demanded, having just arrived at the hangar.

“Russian mobile suits were waiting for them when they exited Earth’s atmosphere. We had to deploy snipers from 4Minute to distract them while B1A4 got away. It’s a mess right now--they don’t even know if the suits are salvageable.”

“Are the pilots okay?” Suho wanted to know.

“Oh yeah,” she said. “WM’s pilot safety mechanisms are really good. They’ll probably be out of commission for at least a few weeks though. That kind of damage to their mechs can’t be easy to fix.”

…

When he spotted a commotion ahead D.O. tapped Suho on the arm to let him know he was leaving and started making his way through the crowd to the window looking directly into the hangar. The last pilot had just been pulled from the wreckage of the cockpit. He looked uninjured to D.O, but his slumped shoulders and dragging feet didn’t seem right to D.O.

“All pilots please report to your commanders!” came a shout from near the door to the command room. “Everyone else return to your work! There will be an announcement shortly!”

Even more commotion broke out, and D.O. spotted Kai and Sehun nearby. He waved to them and started to follow them to SM’s hangar.

“Some serious ’s about to go down,” Sehun commented. “Russia’s probably using the same excuse as China--we’re expanding into their territory.”

“Why do we keep talking about stupid things like this?” Kai complained. “Let’s just defeat them and we can get back to our own lives.”

“You really think we can beat them?” D.O. asked, disbelieving.

“We have to beat them,” Kai replied simply.

…

Sehun was right, it turned out. Russia had declared war on the same grounds as China, and the UNPC was pulling out of Earth even more quickly that before. The day after B1A4 arrived, KARA, MBLAQ, A-Pink, and BAP arrived at the base. Only a week afterwards command declared that all UNPC teams were on the base, leaving bases on Earth undefended. Neither Russia nor China struck again, but the top brass began the tedious process of deploying teams to each of its space bases.

Kai waited anxiously to be deployed along with SM’s other teams, but only Super Junior was sent to garrison SM’s base. Command wanted the majority of their strength at base, for some strategic reasons Kai couldn’t comprehend. War had been declared--why not hunt down the enemy and destroy it?

It didn’t matter though. Training intensified until his thumbs ached and his head swarmed with flight considerations before bed. Reports flooded in of fighting on Earth increasing and of Russian and Chinese troops re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. No one knew what to make of it. Were they fleeing? Had the UNPC won? What was going on?

Finally one day as Kai took Black Hole through a complicated flight pattern in the training arena, Kris’s face appeared on his screen.

“Breaking news. Better head back inside,” he said.

…

“What are we looking at?” Xiumin asked as they huddled around a cafeteria table, looking at a tablet.

Kris didn’t himself know what they were looking at. It was quite clearly the picture of a battlefield, but what battle had occurred? And why did it concern them? Kris could make out trees and mountaintops in the distance--the battle had taken place on Earth, far from them.

“He’ll explain in a moment,” Taemin said.

“This is what has just been named the Battle of Samana,” Key said. “Russian and Chinese forces began fighting off the coast of the city of Samana. Soon after fighting broke out in the American Islands and St. Martin as well.”

“No one knows why,” Onew interjected.

“Right,” Key agreed. “But the EU and the United States took offense and now they’re fighting there too.”

“The islands are really small and the debris from battle will take a long time to clean up, not to mention how many civilians will be killed accidentally,” Minho added.

“Wait,” Lay said. “Why hasn’t command told us this yet?”

“They don’t want us to know,” Taemin said.

…

“What did you say?” Lay asked. “They don’t want us to know?”

“Exactly,” Onew said. “They’re not going to do anything about it. Apparently we should be thankful that they aren’t attacking us and just wait up here for something else to happen.”

“But...it’s our duty to intervene,” Chanyeol said slowly. “Isn’t it?”

“It is,” Key agreed. “So why aren’t we doing anything?”

“You know what I think?” Jonghyun asked suddenly. “The UNPC, Russia, and China are all working together. This whole war thing is all an excuse to get the UNPC out of its responsibilities on Earth and into a powerful position in space. The base is so close to the space colonies that it’ll be no problem to occupy them and begin a nation in space.”

“You got that idea from Changmin,” Taemin accused.

“So what if I did?” Jonghyun defended. “Maybe it’s true. Why else were the attacks against us so perfect? Why else did they suddenly stop attacking us right now, when all of us are in space?”

“Don’t get carried away,” Minho warned. “We haven’t decided anything yet.”

“Maybe we should, is all I’m saying,” Jonghyun said.

…

After that day, all activity was tainted by a faint undertone of suspicion. Everyone was constantly debating the pros and cons of intervening in the Caribbean, voices hushed when officers passed by. More experienced groups continued to sneak information from Earth inside, and EXO listened to reports of burned towns and dead children, more fighting and more deceit.

More than anything, Chanyeol couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of being taken advantage of. Command always seemed to take their pilots for granted, making all the decisions and leaving the grunt work to the teams underneath them. He didn’t know a lot about politics or military tactics, but he did know that what he signed up for wasn’t this. He had signed up for glory and fame, dispensing justice and protecting the world.

And the more than he talked with other teams, both older and younger ones, the more he began to agree with the suggestions made. He began to wonder what would happen if all the pilots of the UNPC confronted their commanders, demanded an intervention in the Caribbean. If command agreed, they would win. If not, command was still outnumbered and outmatched--they would still win.

He said as much to Sehun and Kai one day over lunch. He was pleasantly surprised to find that they agreed with him. Kai even told him of the plans he had heard older teams making, plans to finally make a unified stand.

…

Sehun was rather close to one of EXO’s commanding officers, and sometimes they ate together.

“Hyung,” he asked one day, a week after the fighting in the Caribbean began. “Are we ever going back to Earth?”

“Why do you want to know that?” Myungdae replied suspiciously.

“I kind of miss the sunshine and the fresh air, you know?”

Myungdae relaxed back into his chair. “Don’t you worry about that. The colonies have plenty of those things if we ever go there. And you’ll get used to it up in space pretty soon anyway.”

“But it’s different, isn’t it? The real thing and an imitation up here in space?”

“Why do you care anyway? We’re here in space because we’re better than what’s left on Earth. We’re the beginning of something new, so be grateful, kid.”

At that moment Sehun knew that command would never back down. They would never intervene of their own volition, and they would go down fighting if need be.