"Holy crap, check out the size of that thing!" exclaimed Hunk, pointing to a gargantuan, dark object just in vision of the omnispex.
The rest of the crew were awestruck. Only Pidge and Shiro seemed to be stuck in thought, Lance blindly speaking first like usual.
"What in the world…"
"I think it's some kind of… ship." Pidge straightened her heavy-set glasses closer to her face.
The ship was titanic, like nothing they'd ever seen before. It was a dead hulk of curved, battered space junk, glimmering amidst the black.
There was no movement, the blob of strange, alien metal freely drifting through the emptiness of a thousand stars.
"Whatever it is, it's sure not Galra."
Coran piped up suddenly, his voice quivering slightly. "There's a uh… a distress signal? I think? There's certainly a lot of beeping."
Shiro's eyes gleamed as he spoke, "Then we have to check it out. If they're survivors from a Galra attack, we have to help them."
Hunk shook his head.
"Looks kinda… spooky, you know… Maybe we could just… give it a pass?"
"Not an option. If there's people to save, we have to go."
"Yeah, you scaredy-cat. Let's pack our torches and get down to business!" Lance's cocky smile lit up as he spoke.
Pidge and Keith said nothing. They passed a glance at eachother, silent distress worn on their faces.
Not like we have a choice.

The lions circled the strange, shifting surface of the derelict ship. It seemed to move and shudder to the touch of their engines, bio-mechanical wiring shaking uncomfortably. The tortured frame of the ship didn't seem to have any visible entrances, and was scarred all over from what looked like centuries of wear.
It was shaped like a blocky half-moon, rounded at the edges with strange, ribbed symbols that looked out of place, even for something so alien.

The torches of the Lions of Voltron barely lit up the black, feeding the dead void of colour across its titanic hull.
Pidge was the first to speak. "We… really shouldn't be here. This doesn't look like anything we've seen in this galaxy."
Lance followed "Well, maybe we're the first to see it! There could be like, ancient treasure or something!"
Hunk's voice quivered out "I think… I think Pidge is right. Let's just go home… please?"
The Black Lion's massive energy blade fanned out of its silver-tongued lips, cutting sudden, heavy-handed slashes into the wreckage of the hull. Shiro lead from the front.
"Come on everyone, let's get inside.
We might not know what's out there, but if there's even a chance there are people here, we have to take it."

The walls crawled with life.
From the moment they'd left the warm cockpits of their towering Guardian Lions, it was clear.
Every part of the winding, ribbed corridors seemed like the insides of some colossal, long-dead beast.
They waded through its arteries, stalked carefully through their veins.
The monsters' heart bled, as glowing slime oozed from the walls they stood in.

The air was warm, yet breathable. It stuck to the lungs with every inhale and exhale.
The vibrant uniforms of the Voltron force shone in the darkness, exemplary stand-outs in fields of infinite grey.

Each winding corridor they stepped through seemed like it was made for something much larger.
Hunk tilted his head upwards, staring at the strange protrusions from the ceiling.
"Ooooooooh MAN. You could stack like, three Shiros at least in this thing!"
Pidge's confusion was palpable. "I don't think Shiros are a good unit of measurement."
Their torches cut beams through the dark, grey goop forming webbing around cylindrical chambers.

"Life signs are up ahead." Shiro pointed a few mechanical fingers toward another shaft, blocked behind mountains of the same formless, grey masses.
Keith pulled his energy sword, whirring into angry, glistening blue life. "Let's get to work."

Cutting through the disgusting, organic fabric was brutally time-consuming. It seemed to thicken the deeper they got, between slashes and short, controlled bursts of gunfire. Even Pidge did all she could, firing her glowing green grapple into the shapeless mud and pulling until great chunks ripped free.

They pulled away more and more, until Hunk started screaming.
They'd ripped a body away.
It was Galra, clearly shaped into the strange webbing. It was long-dead, a hole blasted straight through the front of their chest. Something covered their face.
"I uh… Guys… I need an adult here…"
Pidge and Lance recoiled, Keith taking a knee as Shiro scanned the body.
"That doesn't look like a mask you guys've seen, does it?"
"It looks kinda like a… a hand?"
It was bone-white, covering everything but the bald head of what appeared to be a Galra officer. Its long fingers wrapped around its head in a long-forgotten death-grip, the smell of decay fresh on the air.

Keith looked upwards, into the room they'd unearthed. It was an entire Galra patrol.
"Pidge, I hate asking this but… could you check the body? Shiro and I'll go on ahead, see if there's anything still alive down here."
Hunk's knees clanked together as he stood, shaking. "Uh, what about me and Lance?"
"Uh… Wanna come with, or stay put?"
"I'll stay here and… and… guard Pidge. Yeah. I'll keep watch."
Lance sprinted ahead, just slightly further forward than Keith. He walked into the next room in full first.
"Have fun on 'guard duty' buddy, I'm getting right into the acti—"

The room was even more heavily covered in goo than the outsides, strange green liquid oozing like infested pores. Strange, oblong orbs sat in the centre of the chamber, covered in the same gloom that had beset the entire ship. They had large, x-shaped slits in the top, and the bodies of the Galra littered the floor.

There was no blood, no tell-tale viscera from a struggle.
Their eyes dipped and darted across the room. Soft squelches could be heard in the distance, low and menacing. Some of the strange devices in the centre had opened and toppled, their tops burst and open.
Could they be… eggs?

Pidge's voice lit up the intercom suddenly, her tone thick with worry.
"Uh, guys… They weren't shot. Ribcage burst from the inside."
The thought of horror spread across the team.
"Something came out of them?"
"I don't know for sure. But I don't think we should be here any longer than we have to be. You got any life out there Shiro?"
"Nothing. It says the room's full of life signatures but… I'm only counting us here.
Dead Galra patrol up ahead, but that's it."
Keith started up again. "What's the point even going here for nothing?"
Lance slapped his back lightly, "Yeah, well, I'd rather get off with just mental scarring instead of physical, alright?"

A shrill shriek erupted from the corridor ahead, echoing over and over through the titanic walls of the ship. It bounced off every wall for what felt like a thousand times, monstrous howls roiling from the dark.
"I think I found out what the life is here, guys…"
As one, the waist-high cylinders in the centre of the room began shuddering, animating into horrific life.
They split open with the horrific squelch of goo streaming apart, orifices loudly opening.
Skittering could be heard from within. Something had awakened here.
The shrieks in the distance came closer, closer. Always closer and closer, until it was as if their warm breath echoed through the room, just out of sight.
Their torches couldn't cut through the blackness in front of them, hearing wet skittering throughout the massive chamber. They must have been on the walls, or in them.

Pidge ran in first, weapon gleaming in a soft emerald light. Hunk followed cautiously, shouldering the massive cannon that materialised before him. Lance and Keith stood shoulder to shoulder, Shiro's Galra-tech arm pulsing purple with hidden power.
"I think it's time to go."
"Pidge, you first. Hunk behind. We'll cover you as best we can."
The chamber in the centre suddenly burst with movement, the eggs in the centre detonating with a loud squelch. The hand-shaped creatures lept from the husks of the eggs with a speed unseen among anything they'd faced before.
"Paladins, get down!"

Lance and Keith just barely escaped the small creatures, spattering them against the wall in a wave of smoking, green viscera. Shiro grabbed it in his mechanical arm with a roar, hurtling the inhuman beast back to the darkness from where it came.

Pidge and Hunk were already in motion. They barely had time to react, let alone counter. Their thin, spindly hands had wrapped around their heads in seconds, long, spine-like tails wrapping around their necks and constricting hard. They dropped to the cold, hard floor in moments, their helmets shattering as the strange beings grappled at their faces.
"Pidge! Hunk! Oh god, we've gotta get outta here."
Shiro took command as best he could, barking orders to Lance and Keith as they grabbed the wounded Hunk and Pidge. The creatures had a death-grip on their faces, nothing coming off no matter how hard they pulled.

They sprinted to their lions, the hurried screams of a thousand alien voices behind their bootheels.