The Battle of Dharvel

Alarms blared through the halls of the Castle of Lions. Shiro woke with a start and dove out of bed. He was just grabbing for his armor when Allura's voice sounded over the alarms.

"Paladins, report to the bridge. Our alarm was a little . . . premature."

Shiro, as usual, was the first to the bridge, where Allura and Coran were waiting. Coran bounced from consul to consul, apparently trying to dredge up all the information he could on – whatever it was he was researching. Allura was in the process of summoning a wormhole.

Shiro glanced at the sensor display, but saw no sign of Galra. They certainly weren't under attack, so why were the alarms still ringing? Walking to the center consul, he switched them off.

"Thanks, Number One!" hollered Coran, then lowered his voice abruptly as he realized he no longer had to yell to be heard. "Eh – sorry about that."

Shiro started to ask what was wrong, but just then the bridge door opened and Pidge and Hunk entered. Hunk was yawning desperately and trying not to, but
Pidge stopped just inside the door, looking fully alert. Shiro strongly suspected that she hadn't yet made it to bed.

Before anyone could speak, the door hissed open again and Lance and Keith burst in, vying for position. As Pidge had not managed to get out of the way, Lance accidentally banged into her, waved his arms wildly for balance, and fell against Hunk.

"Lance!" shouted Pidge.

"It was Keith's fault!" protested the blue paladin, folding his arms with a huge frown on his face.

Keith smirked.

Shiro tried very hard not to sigh. Those two – their constant squabbling was getting ridiculous.

"We're all here, Princess," said Pidge. "What's up?"

Coran raised an eyebrow at her. "Remember that coding we worked on yesterday?"

"Yeah, uh – oh. Yeah."

Shiro glanced from one to the other. "What coding, exactly?"

Pidge gave him an apologetic smile. "I wanted to set up a code that would automatically alert us when we got a distress signal, so we'd be ready to act the minute we reached whoever needed help."

"Which," said Coran, twisting his mustache, "would have been great if we'd remembered to add a sort of timer."

"So, uh, I take it we received a distress signal," said Hunk. "The alarm worked, didn't it?"

"Yes," said Allura, glancing over her shoulder at them. "But we won't reach the planet it came from for nearly four vargas."

Lance groaned, fell back against the wall, and slid to a sitting position. "Man, and now I'm too awake to go back to sleep."

"Sorry," said Pidge, removing her helmet and putting on her glasses. "Who called for help, Princess?"

"The king of Dharvel. It's a small planet on the outskirts of the Kiwi system, and it seems –"

"Kiwi as in fruit?" said Hunk.

Allura looked at him, and Hunk grinned sheepishly, bouncing his index fingers together. "I'm hungry."

"– And it seems," she continued, "that a Galran fleet is moving towards them."

Shiro moved closer to the star chart. "But the rest of the system has been under Galra rule for a while. Why are they only now conquering the outermost planet?"

Coran appeared next to him. "Probably because it's so small and has no special
resources. Dharvel's one of those self-sufficient little places – they don't even trade with the other planets in their system!"

Keith frowned. "So – why are the Galra attacking at all?"

"Probably because they know we're around," said Lance, crossing his arms behind his head. "Maybe they're afraid the Dharvel people will join us."

"Dharvellans, and no," said Allura. "More likely than not the system was just placed under the rule of a new warlord, who doesn't like to see a free planet under his jurisdiction."

Coran scrolled up on his datapad and read for a moment. "You're right, Princess! The original warlord was just transferred, which means the new one is probably one of those aggressvie types."

"That's bad, right?" said Hunk.

"Well – maybe," said Shiro. "If he's aggressive enough, he might just bring his whole fleet with him, which means it'll be a lot easier to take him down permanently."

"And then we could free the whole system instead of just one planet!" said Lance, jumping to his feet and waving his arms. "Yeah!"

"It's possible," admitted Allura. "There are only four planets in all."

"We won't have time to free each one personally," said Coran, consulting his 'ticker' thoughtfully. "As a matter of fact, we'll have just enough time to pop in, free Dharvel and destroy the fleet, and pop out. Kolivan's expecting us at Olkarion."

"Oh, yeah, forgot about that," said Lance.

"Still," said Shiro. "With the fleet gone, the planets should be able to start organizing their resistance. At the very least, they won't have to worry about being bombarded if they decide to revolt."

Allura nodded. "Exactly."

"Until then," Coran added, "you might as well get some rest. You'll want your heads on straight so you can form Voltron!"

"I think by now I could do it in my sleep," said Lance.

"Coran's right," said Keith.

Lance spun on him. "Oh, Coran's right! Well, YOU were on the training deck when the alarms went off!"

"I didn't know we'd have a mission!" Keith snapped, arms stiff at his sides.

"That's enough!" ordered Shiro. "If you can't get along with each other for your own sakes, you need to do it for everyone else's sake. Now, both of you: get some rest. I don't want to catch you anywhere in the castle but your rooms for the next three vargas. Pidge, Hunk, same with you."

The four younger paladins left the bridge, and the door shut behind them. Shiro waited for a moment, then brought up one of the hall monitors. Pidge and Hunk were walking between the other two, and Lance and Keith were studiously ignoring each other.

"Aw, come on, guys!" said Hunk.

Lance glanced at Keith and said, snootily, "I guess maybe we should stop arguing so much."

"Then maybe you should stop jumping on me every time I talk," said Keith.

Pidge opened her mouth to intervene, but Lance talked over her. "All I did was make a perfectly reasonable comment!"

This time, Shiro did sigh.

It turned out that the Galran commander was aggressive. Coran and Pidge compared notes as the lions darted in and out between the battlecruisers, and Coran told them that the entire system's fleet, with the exception of three supercruisers, was currently engaged in the battle.

"We'll start with the ones closest to the planet," Shiro decided. "Hunk, go after the cruisers. Lance, cover him."

"Will do!" The blue and yellow lions veered off, already wreaking havoc among the droid fighters that surrounded them.

"Pidge, cover me. Keith, your lion's the fastest. You take out fighters and stay ready to assist whoever needs it."

"Got it."

The battle, as so many others they had fought in recently, promised to be short. The fleet was large, but nowhere near large enough to pose a real threat to the lions.

"I found those lost supercruisers!" Coran called suddenly.

"What does that mean?" grunted Shiro, who was busy keeping his lion steady as Black's jawblade sliced through one of the five remaining cruisers.

Allura's voice came over the comms. "Scans show that three supercruisers have already landed!"

"We've gotta get down there," said Keith, pulling his lion into an intricate maneuver that decommissioned six fighters.

"Uh, yeah, no kidding," Hunk replied. "Three supercruisers'll hold a lot of droids."

"The Galra are moving towards the capital already!" said Coran. "You'll have to hurry if you want to fight them without having to keep the civilians out of the way!"

Shiro banked right, heading for the planet. "We'll have to split up. Lance, Keith, Pidge – get rid of those remaining ships. Hunk, you and I will keep the Galra busy until the others can join us."

As they approached the planet surface, Hunk charged up Yellow's special armor. Shiro wondered if he was planning to plow through the droids, but Hunk literally smashed his lion into the hull of the nearest supercruiser.

"This should keep them from escaping," he said in a pleased voice. "Least for now, anyway. I mean, technically they could still take off, but they'd have to rerout their systems around the damaged area unless they wanted an explosion. Maybe I should make a few more holes, just to make sure?"

"Good idea, Hunk." Shiro targeted a nearby squadron of droids and fired short blasts at them, keeping a sharp eye out for any nearby natives as he did so, but there didn't seem to be any around. He hoped Allura had been able to warn them in time – although he supposed that having supercruisers land just outside town would be warning enough for just about anyone.

Pidge let out a yell that crackled in his helmet, then broke off with an "Oof!"

"Pidge?" he called.

"I'm – good. Ow. Just got slammed into another ship by this . . . really big . . . laser beam. OW."

"Take it easy," he cautioned. "You cover Keith and Lance. Let their lions deal with the bigger ships."

Lance let out a whoop. "Last cruiser, here we come! Be with you in two ticks, Shiro!"

"Good. We took out the remaining droids here, but it looks like a lot of them made it into the city. I don't want to destroy the cruisers unless I have to – an explosion like that would kill a lot of people."

"They're all disabled," Hunk reported. "Should we leave our lions here and board the cruisers? Make sure there's no one aboard?"

"We'll wait for the others first. Allura?"

"There are definitely Galra still aboard, but your primary concern needs to be the city and its inhabitants. Get to the castle and keep the royal family safe. If the Galran commander captures them, he'll use them as leverage to get the Dharvellans to surrender."

Coran piped in. "Sending you the city schematics now! You'll have to go on foot to catch the Galra by surprise."

A map popped up on Shiro's display, and he studied it for a moment, then transferred it to his wrist consul. The green, red, and blue lions landed beside him just then, and Hunk followed a moment after.

"I hope we're not splitting up for this next part," said Hunk. "My bayard's great, but not in a town . . ."

"We'll stay together, don't worry," Shiro replied, exiting his lion.

"I've warned the citizens to stay inside," Allura told them. "That should make your job easier."

"Thanks," said Shiro. "That'll help a lot."

He surveyed his teammates for a moment. Lance had his sniper gun out and was bouncing from foot to foot, eager to start. Hunk glanced around uncertainly, his own bayard braced against his chestplate. Keith stood perfectly still, his sword stiff in his hand, which made him look rather like a statue, and Pidge was pressing a hand to her head.

"You okay, Pidge?"

"I'll be fine. That last hit jostled me around a lot."

He hesitated, wondering whether he should send her back, and she snapped to attention, summoning her bayard. "It's just a headache, Shiro! I'm fine!"

He nodded, thinking to himself amusedly that she had switched from 'I'll be fine' to 'I'm fine' the moment it looked like she might be sent back. She looked all right, though, and they might need everyone to get through to the castle.

"Hunk, you and Pidge stay in back. We'll keep you guys out of the fight as much as possible."

Hunk looked regretfully at his large gun and nodded.

"Feel free to jump in if we need it, though. Pidge, keep an eye out for anyone behind us."

She brought up her wrist consul and beeped away for a minute. "Okay, my suit's sensors are all focused behind us."

He raised an eyebrow – he hadn't even thought that suit's sensors might be directional. Trust Pidge to know that.

"I'll lead us in. Keith, Lance, stay up front."

Keith immediately moved to Shiro's side, and Lance stayed just behind him and to the right, his gun aiming at the sky for safety. From here, Keith, positioned between the other two paladins, could easily take out nearby enemies threatening either Shiro or Lance, and Lance, in turn, could take out the more distant ones before they reached the group.

Shiro couldn't help himself. "How is it that you guys work so flawlessly together when we're on a mission, and can't get along at all when we're not?"

There was a ringing silence for a few ticks as they moved through the empty streets. Shiro distinctly heard the princess chuckling to herself at his question.

Predictably, no one actually answered him. Maybe they didn't have an answer at all . . .

"Where are all the droids?" Lance asked instead.

"Hold on a tick," Coran said. "It looks – yes! A good deal of them have congregated in the marketplace, about three spinvill's to your right."

"Uh," said Hunk. "Does anyone know what a spinvill is?"

"No," said Keith.

"I got this," said Pidge, pulling up her consul. "Shiro, send me your map."

He did so, and she muttered to herself, running various calculations. Personally, Shiro had already decided that the large square marked on the map was the marketplace – they seemed to be pretty much the same the universe over – but better safe than sorry.

"You're going to have to detour and take them out," said Allura. "If the Galran warlord decides to slaughter the civilians, he has his droids ready, right in the middle of the city."

"Use the castle," said Lance. "The marketplace is wide open, right?"

"Excellent idea, Lance!" she exclaimed. "Coran, ready the small lasers and prepare to attack. We're entering the atmosphere."

"A spinvill," said Pidge, shutting down her consul, "is about the same as a quarter of a mile. And we're about half a mi – I mean, two spinvill's away from the castle right now."

"Good job," said Shiro. "All right, everyone, let's get over there."