The castle's sirens blared alongside pulsing red lights. Try as he might, Coran couldn't pull the ship out of the steep plummet that sent them hurtling towards an unknown planet. The bow of the ship punched through the planet's green atmosphere.
"We're just about through the first layer of atmosphere, Princess! Any further and there's no way to pull her out! We're going to crash." Coran's brow was wet with sweat. He put his heart and body into trying to get the castle upright.
Every act of desperation on his part would be for naught. Allura felt the ship shudder as it punched through the atmosphere. Engine and thrusters shot. Energy low. Their descent was too steep and too fast to pull out now. They were caught in the planet's super powerful gravitational pull. Thanks to the planets three moons orbiting it, its pull was stronger than any other they visited. They had only a few layers of atmosphere to go before the pull was too strong. They'd crash. If any survived, they might not be able to form Voltron ever again.
But it wasn't just this that haunted her. She could see the paladins doing their best under the worst circumstances. Though they'd known each other for a short time, these humans were slowly becoming more like her family. Besides Coran and her mice friends, they were the only ones she had left in all the galaxies. It was either them or the castle.
"Prepare to abandon ship. Take only what you need. Head to the lions!" Allura ordered.
From the control panel, Coran looked over his shoulder at her, mouth agape.
"Princess..."
"The universe needs the lions more than they need another ship." Allura bit her lip. "It's only a castle."
Except it wasn't. This was her family's castle, had been for untold generations. She never thought she would be the last of the Alteans to command this ship, the last to roam its halls. Her father ruled from here until his last breath. She would've been crowned queen here had Fate been kinder. There were so many memories here. But memories and nostalgia wasn't enough to keep the universe safe or be able to stop Zarkon. It wasn't with a light heart that she gave the command, however if she and the paladins were to live long enough to accomplish what needed to be done, one castle was a worthy-enough sacrifice.
"Wait!" Pidge pulled up the schematics onto the screen. "I've got a better idea. It's risky, but we'll be able to save the castle from being destroyed."
The ship shuffled through another layer.
Allura, "Make it quick!"
She trusted Pidge with her life. If she had an idea, Allura was going to listen.
"I need Hunk and Shiro to come with me." Pidge had already donned her helmet and started for the loading docks for the lions.
The other two paladins followed shortly after. Pidge's schematics showed a rough map of what they could do. They would need a lot of strength from the lions to be able to do, but if it worked, they'd be safe.
"Hold onto to something! We're almost through this layer!"
"I need you guys to get under the castle and really put your backs into it. I'll get on top of the stern. We need to redistribute the weight."
"But if we continue our descent, we'll be crushed," Shiro warned.
"Not if you guys use your thrusters at the right time. Just wait for my signal!"
The yellow and black Lion dove under the ship and positioned themselves where Pidge determined they needed to be to start with. Despite engines located at the stern, most of the ship's weight was pushed towards the middle. Because of its design, the weigh shifted, making it impossible to right the ship. The ship burned most of its fuel trying to escape a Galra infantry unit. It had been small and the lions took out plenty of their ships, but the castle took the brunt force of the assault. They had been wandering in space, slowly depleting their fuel in search for a Balmara planet. They'd steered a little too close to this planet and got caught in its magnetic fields. Coran hadn't accounted for the third moon hidden behind the larger one. The planet's gravitational pull was too strong. Unlike earth's moon, these three bad boys came with a little extra oomph. They strengthened the planet's magnetic fields and gravity to where it was too sensitive for anything that came it too fast. Like they were.
"Are you in position?" Pidge called over the intercom.
"Almost," answered Shiro.
"Hunk, I need you a few feet a little to your left."
"On it!" The Yellow Lion moved more to his left.
"Right. Good. Everybody's in position. On my signal, put the pedal to the metal and turn up your thrusters as hard as you can!"
"Roger!" Shiro and Hunk replied in unison.
Few ticks went by. Another tick and they'd fully punch through the first layer of atmosphere. The thick green became diluted as other cosmic gases swirled around it. The sky appeared mint green as they continued to plummet further and further down.
The ship shuddered as it entered the second layer.
"Pidge!" Hunk panicked.
"Now! Engage thrusters!"
The lions already knew what she was up to. All three thrusters were engaged before any of the paladins had touched the buttons. Fire flew from the giant metal paws. The force of the thrusters tilted the bow skyward.
"Harder!"
"We'll give it all we've got, Pidge!"
The black and yellow lion pushed their backs into the ship's belly. Resisting, the ship groaned as if it was going to split in half. Pidge had her lion grab the stern with its teeth help shift the weight a little more. Sweat beaded down the side of her face.
Just a...bit more!
Teeth gnashed against each other. All three of them had eyes slammed shut from the force and the exertion. The ship continued to groan as the weight shifted. They could feel it. With thrusters burning at full strength, the castle's descending speed slowed. The atmospheres swam around them.
While the others cheered at Pidge's brilliance, they still weren't done yet. The planet's surface was a few hundred thousand feet below them, and Pidge wasn't sure how much longer those thrusters would be able to hold up. The lions and the ship descended roughly.
The ground shook beneath them as the ship settled. Metal continued to moan as its weight shifted once the ship stood upright. Pidge, Shiro, and Hunk waited inside their lions until all seemed okay and the castle remained standing. To be seen, there was minimum damage to the ship's hull and the engine from their efforts. It might take weeks to repair all of that, possibly longer when you considered the equipment they had on hand. It might not have been enough until they found somewhere with spare parts. Yet, they sighed with relief. A few fixer-uppers was far better than the alternative. Hopping out of their vehicles, they joined the others in inspecting the damage.
"It honestly doesn't look as bad it appears. We can scrounge for parts in the castle. It should hold us up until we can find a planet that can spare of few pieces," said Hunk as he examined a scorched piece of engine.
"The hull of the castle looks like it's got some dents. Nothing a little elbow grease won't cure!" Coran was already stretching and winding his arms up for some exercise.
With that taken care of, the real question remained. Where were they? It was a planet with two suns and three moons. It had a green atmosphere that seemed pretty safe for both Altean and earthling lungs to breathe. The air smelled sweet though tinged with an arid dryness not too dissimilar to the earthling's desert. Apart from shrubs, tall withered grasses, and hot pink cacti, there wasn't much life to behold. Gusts of winds blew tumble weeds across the red-orange expanse as far as the eye could see. It wasn't a flat desert by any means. Not very far, staggering mountains and hills climbed towards the pale viridian skies. Even from this distance the cliffs were impossible to traverse on foot. Their steep, jagged faces would make the most experienced climber sprint for flat ground.
"What kind of planet did we land on? I've never seen a desert like it before." Said Lance, half wondering, half in awe of its beauty in its brutality.
Coran pulled out a square device from his back pocket. With a few taps of his fingers, the device beeped and glowed with a bluish light from its screen.
"According to the map, we've landed on what's known as Parsi Five. It's a largely desert planet with an ocean that reaches high tide every one hundred years when those three moons align. We won't run into too many people. Parsi Five is mostly inhabited by nomads...with the occasional village interspersed between. The second sun isn't very hot, but we're going to get dry very quickly." Coran finished reading off the information on a device in his hand.
With the authority of general addressing his troops, Shiro turned to the lot, "By the looks of it, we're going to be here a while. This is desert territory, so everybody needs to help out conserving water. We don't know if this planet has water rain and we could be miles from a clean, running source. Hunk and Pidge, go see how much we have on reserve. Calculate how much we can spare right now and levy out that to everybody. I don't want to see anybody getting dehydrated out here."
"On it!" Hunk and Pidge headed back inside the ship.
Evidently, space travel didn't require as much water as one would think. What they had stored up would provide for the next several weeks, not that any of them hoped they'd be stranded here for that long. The landscape was more dry than hot. Bristling winds carried sand everywhere and dust particles so sharp they cut against any uncovered flesh. Nothing too dramatic but by the time both suns had set behind the mountains, everybody had small cuts on their faces and necks.
"Why couldn't we get stranded on a planet that's mostly water?" Lance complained. He ruffled his short hair, scattered bits of sand all over the floor. "All this sand's going to ruin my hair."
"We've got a few repairs to make, but I think we shouldn't be here for more than a week."
"A week!" Lance bemoaned.
"Don't get your space suit in a bunch. It's not like the rest of us are looking forward spending time here." Keith brushed past him, dumping sand out of his helmet as he went.
"You're telling me!" Pidge groaned. "I've got sand in my keyboard. It's going to take all night to clear it out."
"Time to secure the perimeter. Who's up for first watch?" Coran looked at the paladins hoping for some willing volunteers.
"What for? We're in the middle of the desert?" Asked Lance.
"Yes, but Parsi Five isn't without its dangers. Desert-dwelling barbarians, spies, bandits. We can't be too careful out here."
"He's right," Allura shook her hair free from the tight bun she had pulled her into. "We don't know if the people here will be so...welcoming. Judging by the information we gathered from our scanners, this planet doesn't have a lot of technological advances. We don't want to draw attention to ourselves and startle the Parsis."
"Don't spook the locals, gotcha," Hunk added.
Six pairs of eyes landed on Lance. He looked about him confused, wondering why they had all turned their attention on him.
"What? Why's everybody lookin' at me for?"
"Because usually you're the one who goes looking for trouble," answered Keith.
"Name one time!"
"How about when you let like alien chick steal the blue lion from you?" Said Pidge.
Lance opened his mouth for a rebuttal though Shiro had other ideas.
"We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. We've got quite a bit of down time on our hands, now's a good time for some training. We may not be able to use the lions, but it couldn't hurt to brush up on some combat skills. Let's get some rest while we've got it. Who knows when those suns will rise."
While the seven members of the ship settled down for much needed rest, somewhere far beyond the mountains another slept under the star-strewn skies. However, unlike the paladins, this one did not rest soundly.
A dark cavern yawned before her eyes. She could smell the must of the damp earth and taste the salt. The atmosphere tasted of earth and metal, ancient metal. Her pointed ears perked when she heard the sound of a wild animal growling at her. She didn't tremble at the sound. She was more concerned as to why she wasn't afraid of this sound.
She stepped closer into the cavern. A electric blue shield hid the source of the growling before it shuddered out of existence. A great white lion towered over her. A rumble from its engine purred as she neared it as if this machine knew who she was and welcomed her. She stepped closer still, bewildered at her lack of fear. It wasn't courage that spurred her. As she approached, she could sense something familiar about this metal lion.
Reaching her hand out, she touched one of its massive legs with her fingertips. At once, the eyes glowed yellow, bursting into life. She was surrounded by white light before snapping awake.
Ix Chel sat up in her sleeping bag, panting. Sweat trickled down her brow even as the planet's surface cooled. Bits of her hair stuck to her face. Not far from her, a mass of close-shaven fur stirred from its sleep. Her goliath, a lion-like beast covered in silvery-gray fur and a cropped white mane, rumbled in complaint.
They had been traveling for some time and had crossed through the mountains. Ix Chel and her traveling companion were dead tired by the time the suns set. The surface rapidly cooled. She heard a disturbance coming from behind the mountains but was too tired to investigate. It was probably yet another ship that had got itself stranded here on the planet after getting sucked into its gravitational pull. With any luck, they'd be gone before third moon grew full. As she laid back down to sleep, she could see the fuzzy soft yellowish glow of the third moon hiding behind the larger one. Ix Chel gave a small prayer to Ay, the moon god, in hopes that he would make the trespassers leave quickly.