**Author's note: Soooooo…Sorry about the month long wait. Was caught up with school work…again. The Balmera chapters aren't really my favorite either so I was kinda unmotivated to reread them and edit them. I was also getting kinda distracted re-watching one of my favorite animes, Assassination Classroom…But anyways! Ah, Season 5…I'm gonna rant about it down below, so if you haven't watched it yet, **SPOILER ALERT** for after the chapter.
**I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender!
Lance had gotten carried away with his attempts to swoon Nyma. He had taken her on a joyride in Blue, only to end up being handcuffed to a tree and helplessly watch as Nyma and Rolo stole his lion right in front of him. Fortunately, the right leg of Voltron was quickly recovered thanks to Keith's exceptional flying skills in Red, and Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer were left on the moon, their ship actually damaged this time.
"Told ya I wasn't judging a book by its cover," Mari smirked, nudging her brother twice in the ribs, and Shiro gave her an unamused look. They were finally heading towards the Balmera and the team had gathered on the bridge of the Castle to discuss their plan of action.
"Technically I told you that I wasn't judging a book by its cover first…" Hunk muttered and she cast him an annoyed scowl.
"Okay, enough already! Both of you were right, the rest of us were wrong. We get it!" Lance huffed, slouching and folding his arms angrily over his chest.
"Someone's still hurting from his most recent rejection," Pidge noted and he pouted, grumbling indiscernibly under his breath.
"We'll be arriving at the Balmera soon," Allura announced. "Liberating these Balmerans from Zarkon's grasp will not be easy."
"So, what's the plan?" Lance asked, perking up immediately at the change of subject. "We go in there and just...pow, pow, pow! And free the prisoners?"
"What was that noise?" Keith raised a quizzical eyebrow in his direction.
"Laser guns," Lance replied, giving him a sly smile.
"No, Lance, I think you mean…POW! POW! POW!…POW!" Hunk said, imitating several cannon blasts.
"That sounds like fireworks," the Blue Paladin disagreed.
"Technically, they're more like...ba-choo, ba-choo, ba-choo!" Pidge chimed in, making a finger gun with her hands and pretending to fire it with each 'ba-choo'.
"Okay, enough with the bad sound effects," Shiro sighed. Then after a moment he added, "Besides, it's more like...blam, blam, blam!"
"What?"
"You're crazy."
"No way."
"Wrong."
"This is stupid."
"Everyone, focus," Allura urged, steering the group back on track.
"Besides, we can't just shoot at the Galra," Hunk said in all seriousness. "This Balmera, it's, like, alive. And from what we've seen, it doesn't look very good."
"Yes, it's an atrocity what the Galra have been doing to this grand beast," Coran agreed, bringing up a thermal image of the dying creature. "Stealing its crystals, its very life force, without ever performing the energy rejuvenation ceremonies to heal it."
"After seeing Shay's people enslaved, it made me realize how bad Zarkon really is. And we're the only ones who can stop him," Hunk insisted determinedly.
"Okay, so we can't go into the tunnels guns blazing," Shiro summed up. "Plan B. We figure out how to draw the Galra up to the surface and battle them out there."
"So we smoke them out," Mari nodded. "And how are we gonna do that without endangering the Balmerans beneath the surface?"
"We can attack all of this big exterior mining stuff," Hunk suggested. "The Galra troops will have to come out to defend it. We beat them up, head down to the tunnels, boom! Voltron saves the day."
"But how will we know how many are left down in the tunnels?" Keith pointed out.
"We can track the Galra and the Balmerans using Biothermal Life Indicator Point Technology," Allura smiled as she brought up a hologram of a small oval-shaped tracking device.
"Oh, BLIP tech!" Pidge exclaimed, examining the hologram with great interest. When the princess gave her a confused look, she explained simply, "It's an acronym."
"One of you will need to fly around the Balmera and drop sensors into the shafts on each side," Allura said. "Then we'll be able to see where the Galra and the Balmerans are. There are already sensors built into your suits."
"I can do it," Pidge volunteered. "I just modified the Green Lion with the invisible maze's cloaking ability. I should be able to fly around unnoticed."
"That's their main power generator," Coran noted, pulling a picture of it up on screen. "If you take that down, it will severely weaken their defenses."
"Mari, Coran, and I will stay in cloud cover and give tactical support," Allura explained. "With the Castle's defenses weakened from Sendak's crystal, we won't be of much help to you."
"I'll take out the power generator," Shiro decided. "Keith, Lance, Hunk, you take out these big mining rigs around the area."
"Yeah! Okay, let's do this!" Hunk cheered. "Let's go kick some alien butt!"
Waiting on standby in the Castle was, as expected, not enjoyable. It had been almost a full varga since the paladins had gone down to the Balmera's surface with their lions, and there was still no word on whether or not they had found Shay. Coran and Allura occupied themselves with relaying instructions to the ground team on how to navigate through the inside of the Balmera, but Mari could only sit anxiously in the Black Paladin's chair and watch the action down below from the holoscreens being projected above Coran's control panel. The four space mice were curled up in her lap, perfectly content with using her as a cushion as they dozed, completely oblivious to the mission at hand.
Drumming her fingers against the arm rests, Mari sighed softly to herself and slumped in her seat. Watching the Earthling from her control platform, Allura frowned in disapproval.
"This is no time be taking a nap, Mari," she scolded and Mari instantly jolted in annoyance.
"I wasn't falling asleep," she huffed in reply, casting the princess a dry look over her shoulder. "I'm just bored. I feel so useless sitting here and waiting for this mission to be completed. Isn't there anything I can be doing to help you guys?"
Allura's expression softened and she smiled sadly, causing Mari to internally groan. With that pitiful look, she already knew that the next words coming out of the princess's mouth would be along the lines of "Thank you for the offer, but Coran and I already have everything under control." But before Allura could even voice her reply, the entire ship violently jolted forward, the sudden movement nearly knocking the Alteans off of their feet and almost causing Mari to fall out of her chair. The space mice were less fortunate though, and ended up tumbling to the floor in a series of startled squeaks.
"Looks like we've got company," Mari grimaced as a flurry of Galra fighters zipped past the Castle and began to pelt the ship with laser blasts. Multiple warning alarms began to go off and Allura nearly threw herself on top of her control pillars.
"Particle barrier up!" she called out and the protective energy shield was activated, surrounding the Castle from all sides. The countless beams of enemy fire exploded against the forcefield, each impact shaking the entire ship in the process.
"Is there anything I can do now?" Mari asked, having to shout to be heard over the din of of the attack.
"I'll prepare a defense drone for you," Allura relented, hurrying to activate one. "It will allow you to take down some of these fighters from the safety of the Castle, but it won't nearly be enough to destroy this entire fleet. You can buy us some time until the paladins return."
Then, as if on cue, Lance piped up over the comms, "Allura, can you please come get us?"
"How do you expect her to do that, genius?" Keith scoffed in the background.
"I don't know, maybe they got teleporters or something."
"Do you have teleporters on this ship?" Mari inquired of the two Alteans hopefully.
"I'm afraid not," Coran replied grimly. "Wouldn't that be something though? Ah, teleporters."
Your race made sentient lion ships, pods that can heal any kind of species from near death, and units to store and view memories, but you couldn't make teleporters? Mari thought dryly to herself as she watched him fret about his control panel.
"We're quite occupied at the moment," Allura grunted in response to Lance, and she winced as another critical blast shook the entire Castle. "We're completely surrounded by Galra ships and we're taking heavy fire!"
"Princess, our particle barrier won't last much longer!" Coran warned as his screens flashed red.
"Paladins, you need to get out of there as soon as you can!" Allura insisted. "Mari will be using a drone to hold them off for now, but we will need your assistance!"
"This is it! We're going to die in here," Lance groaned miserably. "I can say bye-bye to that parade."
"Get it together, guys," Shiro urged. "Allura, we'll get there as soon as we can. Mari, listen to the princess and do your best getting rid of as many of those fighters as you can."
"Yes sir," she confirmed before the comms went silent.
"The defense drone is ready," Allura said, and several screens along with two holographic joysticks materialized in front of Mari. She firmly grasped the controls with both hands and the outside chaos appeared in front of her on her display.
"Use those controllers to move around and shoot," the princess instructed.
"Got it," Mari nodded, and she thrust the controls forward. A black and white disk-shaped drone immediately shot out from the Castle, its sights set on the nearest enemy fighter. Pressing the buttons to fire, a barrage of purple laser beams shot out of the drone, each one landing a direct hit on the Galran fighter before the tiny ship was destroyed in a fiery explosion.
"Nice," Mari grinned in approval as she moved onto her next target. "This is just like a video game."
During her last year of middle school, she had gone through a video gaming phase. Aaren and Magdalena had gotten her and Jia hooked on their Mercury Game Flux, and almost every weekend they'd goof off by playing new games on it. But as Mari entered high school and began to seriously prepare for her desired future at the Garrison, her addiction to the pastime quickly faded and it was replaced with studying, more martial arts lessons, and the occasional race once she had learned about drifting. She hadn't touched a controller in years until now, and despite the fact that she wasn't actually playing a video game—that this was real life and their lives were truly being endangered by hostile alien ships—a familiar and childish glee overcame her nonetheless.
She cut through the enemy fighters as fast and efficiently as she possibly could without getting herself destroyed. But even with the drone's speed and accuracy, it still wasn't enough to stop the entire fleet. Relentless blasts continued to pelt the Altean ship, weakening the particle barrier with every explosive collision.
Suddenly, several ships broke away from the cluster and they made a beeline for the Balmera before disappearing into the openings along the surface. "They're heading down into the tunnels!" Coran gasped. "They're going to steal the lions!"
"Don't worry, I've got them," Mari said, and she began to steer her drone away from the fleet to pursue the rogue Galra fighters.
"No! Continue to defend the Castle," Allura hurriedly ordered and the defense drone came to an abrupt halt.
"So you don't want me to save the lions?" Mari looked at the princess in irritation, and Allura simply frowned in reply.
"I need you to stay here and deplete as much of the Galra's firepower as you can," she instructed sternly.
"But—"
"Listen to the princess, Mari!" Coran fretfully pleaded, and she huffed before guiding her drone back to the main fight.
"Paladins, the lions are in danger. You must get back to them immediately!" Allura began to address the others via their comms just as another blaring alarm was set off. "What is it now, Coran?"
"Princess, something's locked onto us," her advisor relayed and a massive Galran battleship appeared in front of them, its sights trained on the Castle of Lions.
"I don't think my tiny drone is gonna be able to beat that cruiser," Mari said, the dread beginning to build as she struggled to keep the smaller fighters at bay.
"Paladins, do you copy?" Allura asked, her increasing panic causing her voice to quiver ever so slightly. "There's a battle cruiser locked onto us. If it fires with its ion cannon, I don't know if we can survive."
"We're trying, Allura," Lance tried to reassure her. "Shay's pressing her hand against a wall, which apparently sends vibrations to the other rock people, who vibrate back or something? Hand talking? I guess the answer to your question is, 'Yes, we copy'."
Another volley of shots from the Galran fighters exploded against the particle barrier, and the entire Castle shook violently once again. The controls in Mari's hands fazed in and out of focus and the defense drone sparked dangerously.
"You might wanna wrap it up down there," Mari pressed, biting her lower lip anxiously. "I don't think I can hold off the rest of this fleet for much longer."
"Just hold out a few more minutes, Mari," Shiro urged. "We're on our way up."
Suddenly, a fighter shot past the drone and reared up behind it before pelting the small defense bot with relentless enemy fire. It took less than a second for the damaged drone to combust and be ripped to shreds, the controls and screen in front of Mari blipping out of existence.
"And I'm dead," she groaned, slumping in her seat in defeat. "Sorry bro, but we don't have a few more minutes to spare here."
"That's fine. We're coming out!"
The five lions shot out of the Balmera and sprang into action, obliterating Galran fighter after fighter as they defended the Castle. The sky was set alight with bursts of orange and yellow light as the enemy ships exploded, but just as quickly as they had been destroyed, they were replaced by new swarms. The lions were outnumbered and very much distracted, so the enemy cruiser took this opportunity to strike.
"It's charging its ion cannon!" Coran warned the princess as his screens zeroed in on the hefty artillery the enemy cruiser was packing.
"Divert all shields to the bow," Allura ordered and he quickly obliged, rearranging the particle barrier so that it was protecting the very front of the ship. The ion cannon fired not a second later and the high-energy beam slammed into the Castle's shield, the sheer power and intensity of blast shaking the whole ship and setting off the ship's 'EXTREME DANGER' alarms.
"Paladins, I need you immediately!" the princess alerted the others. "Five more ticks and we're finished!"
"Okay, team, let's form Voltron!" Shiro instructed and the rest of the paladins responded with an enthusiastic "Yeah!"
With Voltron assembled, the paladins proceeded to push the entire Galran warship further up in the air, diverting the ion cannon blast off of the Castle's particle barrier.
Coran turned to Allura quickly and shouted, "Right now is our chance, Princess!"
"Full power on the blasters!" she commanded and the targeting systems immediately materialized and aligned on her screen. "Locked onto target. Fire!"
The particle barrier collapsed and the bow of the ship was illuminated as a blue beam of pure energy shot from the Castle and sailed straight through the Galran warship. The resulting explosion was so powerful, it set off a chain reaction, obliterating the entire cruiser along with the rest of the surrounding fleet.
"Whoa!" Mari exclaimed, shielding her eyes from the intense light of the fiery detonation. "This ship is packing some major artillery!"
The princess cracked a tired yet relieved smile. "Thank you for your help, Mari," she said. "And thank you for following orders. If you hadn't been here to alleviate some of the damage we were taking, I'm not sure we would've lasted long enough for the paladins to arrive, let alone be able to fire our own blasters."
Mari smiled slightly. "It was no problem," she said, standing to stretch her tense limbs and joints. "Just glad I could finally help with something."
"Mission accomplished," Keith summed up over the comms.
"Thank God," Mari sighed in relief.
"And just in the tick of time," Allura said. "The Castle's defenses are battered and will need to fully recharge."
Suddenly, another alarm was triggered and the ship delved into high alert mode once more, every screen on the bridge flashing red repeatedly in warning.
"Oh great," Mari groaned, crossing her arms angrily over her chest. "What now?"
"There's an unknown object incoming!" Coran relayed and everyone's gaze locked onto the massive meteor-like structure careening through the cloudy atmosphere. "It's about to crash into the Balmera!"
The fireball slammed into the ground, stirring up clouds of dirt and sending chunks of rock flying, causing the already deeply wounded Balmera to moan in even more pain. Minutes later, when the dust had begun to settle, the team got a good look at what had plummeted into the mighty crystal-giving beast: a gigantic pod of Galran design, no doubt harboring some sort of nasty present from Zarkon himself.
"We can't get a break, can we?" Mari muttered to herself just as the coffin-like structure hissed and fell open.
**Please feel free to drop a comment/review down below! They're always appreciated and I'll do my best to respond to them :D
**WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!**
I liked Season 5 (heck, I like all the seasons), but I feel like too much was going on in such a short amount of time. In just 6 episodes, soooooo much stuff happened! Pidge and Matt found their father, Zarkon died, we learned more about Lotor's birth, Sendak's back, something is seriously wrong with Shiro, Lance got more character development (YAY!), Keith found his mama (YAY!), Lotor's the new emperor, and there's this whole thing with the white lion and the legendary land of Altean alchemy. I'm also kinda annoyed that Keith's kamikaze attempt from Season 4 wasn't acknowledged at all (cuz that whole scene had me shook when I first watched it). But that reprogrammed fun-bot was hilarious xD
I still have so many questions though! xD What happened to the comet ships and the rest of the comet chunk? How did Krolia meet Keith's dad and why did she leave them? Will that new type of quintessence play a larger role in the series? And (like the rest of the fandom, I'm sure) what the quiznak is up with Shiro?! Everything will most likely be answered in the upcoming seasons, so I'm excited for that. Hunk deserves some more love and character development too :D
