1jesus: Thank you.

Haro654: I could, but don't worry. I've got an idea for a Bleach story.

Linkonpark100: Tell me about it. At first it sounded like a good idea, but then I decided that it wasn't going to work.

SulliMike23: That's okay. I've got an idea for the series.

LoamyCoffee: Thanks, and I've got an idea for Bleach.

Guest (Dead-Man): Yeah, I found out that that wasn't going to work. So, I dropped it.

ShadowUzumaki55: Thanks, and I hope you like the chapter. Also, for Bleach, I've got something special for it.

Serpentdragon: Thanks. Yeah, I'm not the best with grammar and I hope that with each story I'll get better. I'm glad that you find Marcus to fit well in the story. Even though the story is about him and his adventure with the Paladins, I didn't want him to take up too much of the spotlight. And I'll likely deviate more from the canon in the later chapters.

kival737101: I know. I've just haven't had the time to sit down and watch anything new lately.

FrancisVamp0822: Yeah, it felt like a filler episode to me. Thanks for your honest review.

Guest (Kamen Rider W): Yeah, I don't think there's ever really been a male OC based story for Bleach. Well, not one that replaces Ichigo. As for the harem, I'll likely and in a current cat lady.

Dracus7: Do you consider these lists as spam? And seriously, did you even read the AN from the last chapter? But I'm going to try and be nice here. I will not do any of these stories. Now that I've said that, I hope that'll you'll understand. Because I really don't want to do any of them!

Also, the Witcher and RWBY idea is no longer something I want to do.

Guest: I just came out this another chapter for that story.

Guest: The third battery is still inside of RC. If I remember correctly, it wasn't taken out. The Blue Lion fill the second battery with quintessence, and Coran repaired the third battery.

Spiral-Voltron-Zero0Q1: Thanks!

planotexas2: right now


Moore's Logbook:

My neuralink with RC is improving—we were stronger together. It has to be, because we were on our way to the Balmera. We're going to free the alien named Shay and her family from the Galra. Freeing the dying planet from Zarkon will be the first official combat mission we'll ever have in our war against the tyrant.


"Battle of the Balmera—Part 1"

In his room, Marcus was sleeping soundly. He still had his armor on, as he laid on his back with his helmet off. While it was unconformable at first, even after removing the bulky jump kit, ammo pouches and chest rig, he didn't want to take off the armor as they were approaching their destination. After leaving the criminals on the moon, basically leaving them to fate, they were on the way to the Balmera. Allura decided that the team should use this time to sleep before they get to the planet. Hunk was against it, wanting to get to Shay as quickly as possible, eventually agreed after a yawn.

When was the last time any of them got any sleep?

A smile spread on his lips as the young Pilot dreamt of Harmony. However, he was startled awake by the sound of the ship's alarms blaring. "Paladins, Marcus, we're approaching the Balmera," Allura said over the intercom.

Marcus jumped off the bed and put on all of his equipment. He then grabbed his Wingman hand-cannon, a few grenades, the V-47 Flatline, ammo clips, reached for his Data-Knife…but he saw it wasn't on his desk. He looked around the room. Where did it go? Even it if was destroyed, he still kept it to hopefully fix it.

"Marcus, we're waiting for you."

Marcus grabbed his helmet and put it on. When the HUB was online, he contacted the Bridge. "Sorry, on my way," he said, before leaving the room.

When he reached the Bridge and entered, Marcus saw the others standing behind Allura. In front of them was the Balmera as the Castle of Lions approached it. Allura and the other heard the sound of the doors sliding up and turned to see Marcus approaching. "Good, we're all here," Allura said with a smile, before turning her expression to a serious one. "We'll be arriving at the Balmera soon. Liberating these Balmerans from Zarkon's grasp will not be easy."

Marcus nodded and pointed to the living planet. "So, that's the Balmera," he asked, seeing how it looked like it was dying. It reminded the team of planets that were drained of all of its resources by the IMC. Destroying the ecosystem and taking everything before leaving it dead. With no hope of recovering.

"So, what's the plan," Lance asked. "We go in there and just—Pow, pow, pow!" He then started imitating laser fire, making shooting gestures with his hands. He then pretended to holster his 'blaster' "—And free the prisoners?"

Keith and Marcus stared at him oddly with raised eyebrows. "What the hell was that noise," asked the Red Paladin.

Lance smirked. "Laser guns."

"No, Lance, I think you mean—" Hunk joined in by crouching his knees and imitated a huge laser cannon with while arm gestures. "—Pow!"

"That sounds like fireworks," Marcus said, confused as to why this was even a thing.

"Technically, they're more like—ba-choo, ba-choo, ba-choo!" Now Pidge was getting into it, imitating firing a small laser gun.

"Okay, enough with the bad sound effects." Shiro ordered. "... Besides, it's more like— blam, blam, blam!" He then dramatically got on one knee and started shooting an invisible laser gun.

"What?" Keith exclaimed, holding out his

"You're crazy," Pidge said.

"No way." Lance crossed his arms.

"Nuh—Wrong." Hunk hand his hands on his hips.

They were a little startled when the intercom made a Star Wars laser sound. All were quiet, before RC said, "That's what a short burst of static electricity created from a laser blaster sounds like."

"You just used that for a movie!" Marcus exclaimed.

Having reached her limit, Allura closed her eyes in irritation and scowled. "Paladins, focus," she snapped, finally reining the team in to focus on their mission.

"Besides, we can't just shoot at the Galra. This Balmera, it's, like, alive," Hunk stated, remembering how it was in extremely poor health. "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 said, pulling up a holographic screen of the Balmera that showed its thermals. It showed red in the middle, with a yellow outline, then green and blue. "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," the Yellow Paladin said, staring at the Balmera in determination. "And we're the only ones who can stop him."

"Okay, so we can't go into the tunnels guns blazing," Marcus said, turning to Allura and the Paladins. "Then we'll need a Plan B. My guess is that we draw the Galra up to the surface and battle them out there."

"Wait, I know!" Hunk proclaimed, before a cartoon of his plan appeared. "If we attack all of this big mining stuff on the surface, the Galra troops will have to come out to defend it. Then we beat them up, head down to the tunnels, Voltron saves the day."

"But how will we know how many are left down in the tunnels?" Keith questioned, bring up a good point.

"We can track the Galra and the Balmerans using Biothermal Life Indicator Point Technology," Allura said, pulling up a holographic display of a tripod device.

"Oh, BLIP tech!" Pidge exclaimed. She heard silence from the princess, and looked at her. Seeing that Allura did not understand and stared at the Green Paladin silently. "... It's an acronym?"

Allura turned back to the subject. "One of you will need to fly around the Balmera and drop sensors into the shafts on each side," she said. The holographic screen shifted and was displayed on the window. Showing the team, a map of the Balmera's tunnels, imitating the plan. "Then we'll be able to see where the Galra and the Balmerans are. There are already sensors built into your suits. Including you helmet, Marcus."

"I can do it," Pidge said. "I just modified the Green Lion with the invisible maze's cloaking ability. I should be able to fly around unnoticed."

Coran then brought up an image of the Balmera's surface on the screen. Showing a large Galra structure. "That's their main power generator. If you take that down, it will severely weaken their defenses."

"We'll stay in cloud cover and give tactical support," Allura said, summoning a small holographic display of the Castleship. "With the Castle's defenses weakened from Sendak's Crystal, we won't be of much help to you."

"We'll be facing resistance from the Galra when we attack," Marcus said, crossing his arms.

"Right, I'll take out the power generator. Keith, Lance, Hunk, Marcus, you take out these big mining rigs around the area. And if anyone gets in our way, we take them down."

"Yeah! Okay, let's do this! Let's go kick some alien butt!" Hunk shouted, throwing a fist up. The Paladins went to their seats to get into their Lions, and Marcus turned to go to the hangar and get to his Titan.

Allura stopped him by calling to him. "Marcus, wait." The Pilot stopped and looked at her, as the princess walked up to him. She held out her hand and using her advance technology, Allura summoned a weapon. But it wasn't just any weapon, it was Marcus's Data-Knife.

"Is that…" Marcus looked in amazement at his once destroyed knife.

"I know that knife is important to you as a Pilot, so I took it upon myself to repair it," Allura explained as she handled the knife to him. "And made a few modifications."

Marcus stared at his knife in wonder. The blade looked brand new. But then a realization entered his head and he turned to her with a dirty look. "Wait, did you sneak into my room and stole this?"

Allura blushed lightly and looked away in embarrassment. "I…well, it was just…" She cleared her throat and refrained herself. "I was just making sure that everyone's ready for the battle ahead."

"Right, so what do you mean by modification?"

She smirked and press a small button near his fingers. This caused the blade of the Data-Knife started to glow bright blue and then extended to the length of a short sword. Marcus was taken aback by this. It was just like Haxus's energy sword, but instead of a crude looking energy blade, the Data-Knife's blue blade kept it clean and lethal shape. Now it was longer.

"Ooo~!" The Paladins and Coran looked in amazement at the blue blade, though Lance looked jealous.

"Now you'll be able to fight against the Galra in melee combat," Allura said with a smile of determination. Marcus deactivated the energy blade, turning it back into the normal blade, and sheathing it.


Soon, the ship entered into the atmosphere of the Balmera. Walking into the hangar, Marcus went over to RC. With the Castleship having no special hangar for the Titan to preform Titanfall—which was similar to how drop pods are deployed; being launched out of a starship hangar bay at hyper-sonic velocities, Allura opened the bay doors open for the Pilot to fly out of.

The Paladins were already prepared to launch. All they were waiting for was the Pilot to get into his Titan. "You think the Balmerans will have a parade for us after we've freed everybody," Lance asked with a smug smirk over the comm, pressing a couple buttons on his dashboard.

RC kneeled and opened her hatch. As Marcus climbed into the Titan and took his seat, Keith responded to Lance. "It's not about the glory, Lance. It's about freeing prisoners from Zarkon," he said.

RC stood up and the hatch closed. "Controls transferred to Pilot."

"No, I know. I know. But still. When they—" His victory musings were cut short when the Blue Lion launched forward, jolting Lance.

The five Lions of Voltron took flight out Castleship.

"Let's go!" With control over RC and hangar door up, Marcus rushed towards the opening and jump high off the edge. He activated the thrusters and was now flying after the Lions. It was time to put everything he's been training for to the test.

The Lions and Titan flew down towards the Balmera's surface, breaking through the clouds. As they descended, the Galra structures began firing an intense assault of lasers. There was also a large tower with three diamond-shaped lasers that were together to create a Y-shape star. The lasers fired together, sending out a flat laser bolt in the same shape.

"This is it. Get your heads in the game," Shiro said, as they all started taking evasive action to dodge the lasers. "Remember, the Balmera is a living creature. Make sure you pinpoint only the Galra installations and not its surface."

The Lions and Titan separated ways. Shiro headed straight for the generator. Lance, Hunk, Keith, and Marcus began their attack on the mining rigs.

Pidge split off from the team to do her mission. "Initiating cloak." A moment later, the Green Lion turned invisible and flew low to the ground. As the Green Paladin flew over the holes, she dropped the BLIP drones into them.

Marcus moved around the laser bolts with grace and skill. The Titan then flew low to the surface, then grabbed the Chaingun. Flying between the mining rigs as fast speeds, Marcus started shooting the structures. Destroying them as he pasted.

Lance also dodged the lasers, before taking out several cannons with pin-point accuracy. Shooting them with the Blue Lion's tail cannon.

Hunk's strategy was simpler, and that was to use the powerful strength and durability of the Yellow Lion to body slam more Galra weaponry to pieces.

Shiro flew towards the power generator. But with no known weapons that his Lion had, there was no way that he could successfully attack it. "How do I take this thing down?" He wondered. Just then, the Black Lion displayed a holoscreen of a blade weapon that would be located in the jaws of the robot. "What's that? Jaw blade? Okay! Let's do this!"

Pushing the handles forward, Shiro summoned the dual-bladed weapon as it appeared in the Lion's.

He flew towards the power generator. Flying along the arcs powering the generator, the Black Lion slashed through each one. Once it was done, he flew up away, as the structure exploded.

Meanwhile, Pidge was finishing her mission. Once she deployed the last BLIP drones, the Green Paladin contacted the Castleship. "All sensors delivered." Allura and Coran saw a hologram in the Bridge that showed the inner tunnel system of the Balmera, with a drone in the middle.

"We still have to take out that big one!" Marcus said to the others. Dodging another large laser attack.

Keith was able to dodge the same blast. Then the Red Lion suddenly opened its mouth and shot out a powerful heat ray. It melted through the cannon's tower entirely, as Keith looked shocked and excited. "Whoa! Did you guys just see that? I got fire powers!"

"Hey! I want that!" Lance pouted in jealously.

Marcus was about to retort, but then the weakened tower started to buckle and collapse under its weight. Falling over towards the Balmera's surface and threatening it harm. "Oh no!" He flew towards it.

Going under the tower, he put away the Chaingun and placed both hands on it. Using RC's powerful thrusters, he tried to push the tower up. Grunting, he struggled to even stop its momentum.

"Hey, we can't let this thing hurt the Balmera!" Hunk exclaimed, and came over to help. Using the Lion's back to push, he tried to help the Pilot to get the tower upright.

As the others looked onwards, Lance said, "I think my Lion knows what to do!" He went towards the tower.

"Whatever you're going to do, do it fast!" Marcus yelled.

Just like the Red Lion, the Blue Lion opened its mouth. Activating a weapon within it. This time, it shot a freeze ray that coated the fallen tower in ice. Marcus and Hunk got out of the way and watched as the ice prevented the tower from collapse.

"Ha-Aw, snap! These rays are super cool, just like me!" Lance gloated with a smug look.

"Hostiles eliminated," RC said.

"Great job, team!" Shiro complemented all five of them, as the Lions landed on top of the frozen tower. The Titan dropped down onto it and stood with them. Now all that was left was to wait for the Galra forces to counter attack them.

But after the end of the battle, all remains silent on the Balmera.

Marcus scanned the area. "Where are all the troops," he asked.

"Paladin Hunk, your report of this planet stated that there was a large enemy presence when you first arrived."

Hunk sent a video transmission to Marcus on his HUD. "Yeah, I remember seeing a lot of Galra guys down in the mines."

As she looked at the map of the Balmera, Allura saw something that caused her to contact the team. "We've located a hangar full of Galra Destroyers just below the surface," she said with urgency. Marcus gasped. Why were there those Galra Titans doing here? "Someone has to take those out before they can launch."

"They're luring us down, but we have no choice," Shiro told them before giving the team their next orders. "Marcus, take Keith and Lance with you to hit the hangar. Hunk headed towards the prison to rescue Shay and the other Balmerans. Pidge and I will track down the Galra soldiers."

As Shiro launched off the ice, Marcus flew off as well. "Let's go!"

"Yes, sir!" Keith followed after the Titan

"Ten-four!" Lance was right behind him.

"On it!" Pidge followed Shiro.

"Let's do this!" Hunk went in the direction of the prisoners.


At Zarkon's Central Command System, a Galran soldier named Thace approached Prorok to inform him about news that just came in from the Balmera "Commander Prorok, we have word from the troops on Balmera X-95 Vox. The informants were right. Voltron is there," he told his commander.

Prorok was pleased with this news. "Excellent. Everything is going according to plan."

"How do you wish to proceed? Should we inform Emperor Zarkon?"

"Contact Subcommander Ylvik," Prorok ordered his subordinate when he faced him. "His fleet is awaiting my command. Tell him it's time to attack and to have his best Destroy pilot ready. I will update the Emperor."


Dropping down to the bottom of mine shafts, each Paladin left their Lion, before deploying their speeders to navigate the tunnels. To protect themselves, the Lions activated their force field. With no speeder of his own, and figuring it was better not to take her, Marcus jumped out of RC and had her go out of the tunnel to protect the Castleship if it was attacked. Currently he was riding on the back of Keith's speeder.

When they reached their destination, Keith and Lance stopped. Marcus jumped off the red speeder as the two Paladins got out. He followed them with his Flatline and the three of them got some rocks. Scoping out the Galra hangar, they saw that there were hundreds of Destroyers.

Marcus then saw a same flying platform that was carrying something. Pressing a small button on the side of his helmet, Marcus's HUD view zoomed in for a closer look. His eyes widened behind the visor when he saw that it was carrying a crystal to a Destroyer. Hovering over the war machine, it lowered the crystal by a crane into a tub inside the Destroyer.

The Destroyer's lights powered up, and Marcus quickly sent Allura a video transmission that showed her what he was seeing. "Allura, Coran, we found the Destroyers," he said, looking at another flying platform that was installing another crystal into a Destroyer.

Allura and Coran

"I think this is why the Galra are mining this place," Marcus said as Coran and Allura watched from the bridge.

Allura stared in shock. "They're using the Balmera's crystals to power their Destroyers," she said with a scared tone. Using the Balmera's crystal to power warships was one thing, but to have them power Destroyers? That meant that the Galra were using this Balmera to bring their readied robots to give them their power cores.

And if the Balmera was close to death, then the number of Destroyers that the Galra had were more than she initially thought.

Marcus, Keith, and Lance

"Do what you can to stop those Destroyers from getting out!" Allura ordered over the comms.

Keith pointed to some of the Sentries that were standing guard in the hangar. "The entire hangar's only being guarded by a few Sentries," he said, before standing up and readying his Bayard. "Let's go!"

He very nearly rushed in to attack, if it wasn't for Lance. "Whoa, w-w-whoa, whoa!" Lance grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Causing Keith to land on the ground. "Cool your jets, Keith! Don't you remember all that stuff about this Balmera thing being a sensitive animal?" Lance remained the hotheaded Paladin.

When remembering, Keith looked a little dumbfounded. "Oh, right," he said before putting his hand on his chin.

"Yeah, so we can't just blow things up like a psycho." Lance said, getting glared at by Keith.

"Oh, you got a better idea?" Keith shot back.

"I do," Lance explained, pointing at one of two long, thin platforms that acted as bridges between where the three were and to where the control room was. "We sneak into the control room to shut down the bay doors." He pointed up at the bay doors at the ceiling. "That'll trap the robots in."

"That—!" Marcus was about to argue, but then his eyes widened. At first, he was also ready to attack, but was then surprised by Lance's tactical insight and admittedly better plan. "... Actually... is a better idea. Wow, I never though I'd ever say that. Like ever."

Lance's smirk dropped and he looked a little annoyed. "Thank you, Marcus."

The Pilot and Paladins started sneaking across the platform towards the hangar's control room.

Allura and Coran

Back on the ship, Coran monitored the map as the Castleship tracked everyone's movements using the BLIP Tech. "Allura, Coran, w-what's my location?" asked Hunk, prompting Coran to look at where the Paladin's yellow indicator was. "All these tunnels look the same. I can't remember where the prison is."

"You're on the right path," Coran said, twirling his mustache. "Turn right at the next tunnel. Once you get there, you'll have to disable the energy doors. Be careful. It looks like it's heavily guarded."

Marcus, Keith, and Lance

Inside the control room was a lone Sentry that was monitoring and working the controls from a single console. However, above its head, the whispering voices of Lance, Keith and Marcus arguing could be heard.

"No, no. It's over here."

"I know what I'm doing."

"Okay, I'm ready."

As the Sentry was standing in place, it didn't seem to hear the blade of Keith's Bayard katar stab into the ceil. Like butter, it sliced a hole in the ceiling above the Sentry. When the blade pulled out, that's when the robot heard it and looked up.

Right before Marcus kicked the hole in, crushing the Sentry underneath its weight. Then Lance and Keith entered the control room. "Keep an eye out for those guards," Lance told them and went up to the console. "I'll see if I can find a way to shut the hangar doors."

Keith and Marcus nodded and stood watch. Looking out at the Sentries down below. Lance inspected the computer console. However, there's just one problem. All the controls were in Galra, and he couldn't make heads or tails of it. Lance tried his luck and started to press some buttons. But nothing was working.

He groaned and turned to the others. "Ah, I don't know what I'm doing here. It's all Galra gibberish."

"Let me see," said Keith, walking over to the panel.

Marcus was on one knee as he looked out at the hangar. He looked over to Keith as he inspected the console. The Red Paladin then noticed a large rectangular button with some kind of Galra symbol. Keith stared at it for a moment, and for a second, he felt like he could understand what it said. He put his hand on the hand print, activating the bay doors that started whirring as it slowly closed.

Marcus looked at Keith in surprise with Lance. "How'd you do that," asked the Pilot.

"I just put my hand on the hand print," Keith answered with a shrug.

Hunk

Hunk looked at his speeder's holoscreen. He was getting closer to the prison's energy door entrance. This was it. It was time to save Shay.

As he reached the prison inside the mines, the Galra Sentries were starting to flee, but some remained. Standing on a cliff, they fired at him. Hunk dodged some of the lasers before bringing the speeder to a halt. Hunk then exited out of his speeder and got behind it was a grunt. He looked over the edge as the Sentries hit the vehicle, before activating his Bayard.

Putting out of cover, he opened fire on the Sentries. Destroying them in an explosion. "Yeah!" Hunk yelled in victory, before a severed hand of one of the robots landed near him. "That was way too easy. I definitely don't have a good feeling about this."

Pushing aside his instincts telling him that this was likely a trap, Hunk grabbed hand and put it on the handprint scanner. This unlocked the prison energy doors, causing them to go do.

Entering into the dark tunnels of the prison, Hunk ran down into the darkness, while panting. He stopped when he saw a platoon of Sentries leaving the prison down a different tunnel. He looked in the direction they can from and saw the prison that the Balmerans were kept in. The Yellow Paladin hurried over to them and used the Galra hand to shut down the partial barrier.

Upon noticing that it was down, the Balmerans turned to Hunk. Shay's father, mother, and grandmother were happy to see him. "Hunk, you have returned!" The father said, as they stood to greet him.

Hunk smiled and greeted him by holding hands. "I promised I'd be back. We're here to help. Where's Shay?"

"Our life may not have been perfect, but our family was whole," said the only person not happy to see Hunk; Rax. He sat on a rock and glared angrily at Hunk. "Your arrival has left us imprisoned and torn apart. As soon as your attack started, they took her away to the core of the Balmera. For all we know, she could be gone for good."

"Paladins, are you there?" Allura's voice came on the radio. "The Galra troops are moving down the tunnels. It looks like they're going down toward the center."

"They must be headed to the core of the Balmera," Hunk said, before leaving the Balmerans in a hurry to get to his speeder. "That's where they're holding Shay."

Marcus, Keith, and Lance

As the hangar doors were closing, Marcus and the two Paladins with him heard RC on the radio. "Everyone be advised, it is a likely probability that they're drawing you into an ambush. But to uphold the mission of saving the Balmeran Shay, then we have no other opinions."

"She's right." Shiro then said. "Lance, Keith, Marcus get to the core. I think we're going to need everyone together to get through this firefight."

"Copy that. We're on our way," Marcus responded as the hangar was now completely closed. The three of them got up, with the Pilot and Lance going to the door, while Keith stayed a moment to slash the computer, destroying it. As Keith ran out, he ran past Lance, who summoned his Bayard laser rifle and shot the panel to the door. The door slid shut, and would hopefully not open again.

The three teammates then ran together to the core.

Pidge

Just like Shiro, Pidge was deep in the tunnels while making her way to the Balmera's core. Riding in her speeder, it seemed like an easy task, but then she gasped and stopped the vehicle. In front of her was a tunnel that was too small for the speeder to access.

"Looks like you're in an area where the tunnels are too narrow for your speeder." Allura said to her, as Pidge got out of the speeder.

"Yeah. Proceeding on foot." Pidge jumped out of the ride and started walking along the path.

But then she saw shadows against the wall, and they were approaching. "There's someone here," Pidge said, hiding against the wall.

"Looking into it." Allura said.

But as the footsteps were getting closer, Pidge knew that she couldn't wait for Allura anymore. She activated her Bayard, and ran out of cover to attack.

"Pidge, no! Those are Balmerans!" Allura's call came not a moment too soon, making Pidge stop to see that the princess was right. They were only children carrying a lantern.

Pidge breathed out a sigh of relief and greeted them with a smile and wave.

But the moment was gone when the fragile living planet suddenly began to cry in pain and rumble. The Balmera whimpered and ran away. One of them tripped and fell on the ground. But tunnel ceiling began to collapse, with a massive rock started to break off.

Pidge ran towards the child and used her jetpack to grab them before the rock could crush them. When she let the kid go, the Balmerans hugged each other. "Don't worry," Pidge said to them before contacting the others. "Hey, team, be careful. The Balmera is very unstable."

Marcus, Keith, and Lance

Marcus, Keith, and Lance heard her as they ran down a tunnel. But then stopped when they saw a squad of four Sentries. The robots noticed them and started shooting. The humans jumped out of the way and got to cover on each side. Keith and Marcus on the right, and Lance on the left.

Then the Balmera started to cry in pain, and Marcus saw that it was the because of the Sentries' laser shots were hitting the walls of the planet. "Their shooting is destroying the Balmera. We gotta do something!"

The poor planet's cries were getting louder. Lance then saw that Marcus was about to shoot back, but stopped him by yelling, "Well, we can't shoot back! It'll just make it worse."

Marcus cursed and looked around to figure out a plan. When the robots stopped shooting, and the Balmera continued to tremble, the Pilot saw that there was a cliff that he could use to get the jump on the enemy. "I got an idea," he said before turning and climbing up a ladder. "Distract them!"

"Distract them how?" Keith asked. Lance though for a moment, before coming up with an idea.

He jumped out of his cover and started dancing tauntingly while waving his arms. "Na-na Na-na boo-boo!" Keith and even the Sentries (somehow) sweat-dropped. But they took the bait, and Lance defended himself with his shield as the Sentries fired at him. Keith jumped in with his shield to help him.

Seeing his chance, Marcus jumped down from above. Activating his new Data Knife's energy blade. Planting his foot into the face of one of the Sentries, Marcus knocked it over and crushed the head into the ground, as he slashed across the chest of the nearest robot. He then rushed towards the third Sentry and stabbed into it. Then pulled out his Wingman and shot off the head of the last robot.

Keith and Lance deactivated their shields and looked at the Pilot with wide eyes. Amazed that he was able to actually take them all out in under five seconds!

Marcus gave them a thumbs up.

Hunk

Carrying his Bayard cannon, Hunk rushed to the core of the Balmera while yelling a battle cry. Prepared to fight for his life to save Shay. However, when he entered the large core of the planet, there was no one but the Balmeran girl is inside. Muzzled and hanging from the ceiling.

"Shay! You're alive!" Hunk exclaimed, getting her attention. When she saw that it was Hunk, she shook her head and tried to say something. But all that came out were muffled moans.

Hunk didn't notice and aimed the cannon at the wire keeping her up. Shooting Shay free and then used his jetpack to catch her as she fell. As he set her down on her feet, Shiro entered the chamber. "Where are the Galra," he asked, looking around and then saw Pidge entering from another tunnel. "If this is an ambush, they should be here waiting for us."

Suddenly the doors to the room started to close shut. Keith, Lance, and Marcus walked into the core before their door shut behind them, surprising them.

"Not an ambush. More like a trap," Hunk said, as Shay tried to get the muzzle off.

"Whatever it is, keep your guard up," Keith said, as the group gathered together.

"The Galra, they gained knowledge that you would return to the Balmera," Shay explained to the heroes.

"How?" Marcus demanded. "Who could have possibly known that we were heading here to save you?"

"I know not," She replied to the Pilot, before looking down in shame. "But they set this trap just for you. I was the bait."

"Rolo!" Hunk exclaimed in anger. "Those liars must have told Zarkon."

"We'll figure that out later," Shiro said, turning his back towards everyone and looked around the core. "We have to figure out how to get out of here."

"Pilot, do you copy, over?" RC's voice was heard over the comms. But there was a lot of static and it sounded like a fight was going on in the background.

Marcus quickly answered the call. "RC? What's going on?"


"We're completely surrounded by Galra ships and the Castle's taking heavy fire!" RC said, shooting down more fighters that were chasing after her. Just about a few seconds after the team got trapped underground, a massive squadron of Galra fighter jets came out of nowhere and started attacking the Castleship. RC's been doing everything she can to take out as many of them as she could. Which led to her getting chased after by some of the fighters.

She quickly stopped and flew backwards, letting the Galra go pass her. Locking on to them with her missiles, she destroyed them. After that, RC turned around towards the Castle. They were trapped by the fighters with only the energy barrier to protect them. Unable to retaliate with their weakened ship.

"RC, do what you can to get rid of those fighters," Allura said from then Bridge, as the ship was rocked by the hits they were taking. She saw Titan fly towards the fighters and began attacking again, as alarms blared all around them and red lights flashed. "Marcus, where are you and the Paladins."

"We're trapped in the core," Marcus said. By his tone, she could tell he's frustrated for not being able to help. "It wasn't an ambush, it was a trap!"

"Princess, our particle barrier won't last much longer!" Coran shouted.

Allura was sweating. Unable to retaliate with their weakened ship, and with RC struggling to do what she could to protect the ship, the princess knew that every passing moment, their particle barrier will collapse and leave them defenseless. "Marcus, Paladins, you need to get out of there as soon as you can!"


At the core of the Balmera, Lance looked dejected. "This is it! We're going to die in here," he lamented with comically teary eyes. "I can say bye-bye to that parade."

His team gave him unimpressed and annoyed looks, while Shay was confused.

Marcus punched him in the back of the head. "We're not going to die! We just need to get it together," he said, before contacting the Princess and his Titan. "Allura, we'll get there as soon as we can. RC, until then, do what you can to protect her."

"Copy that, Pilot."

As Lance pouted and nursed his head, Shay stepped forward. "Perhaps my people can help us get out," she said. They all watched as she walked over to what looked like the heart—or the core of the Balmera. Placing her hand on it. "This is how we communicate. The Balmera senses our vibrations and sends a message to those in the tunnels."

Keith wasn't the only one who was skeptical, as Shay looked at them. "Are you sure someone will be able to hear your... hand from all the way down here?" The Red Paladin asked.

"The Balmera will deliver the message," Shay replied with great confidence in her home's abilities. She then closed her eyes, and focused on the message to send out. To everyone's amazement, the Balmera softly moaned its whale-like groan and the area around her hand glows. Even Marcus opened his visors to see it with his own eyes.


As the Balmera continued to moan, Shay's the message was sent all throughout the tunnels. Including the one that Rax and his family were in. As they walked somberly towards where ever the path led them, Rax stopped when he heard the moaning and felt the Balmera sending a message. Then his family felt it, and gasped. Rax placed his hand on the ground and it glowed.

He gasped and said, ""It's a message from Shay."

"She's alive!" His father breathed in joy.

"The Paladins of Voltron went to the core of the Balmera to save Shay... and now they are all trapped." He finished the message by looking up at his family.

Upon hearing the last part, all hope was taken from the family. "Then we are all doomed," said the father.

As Rax stood up, his heart became filled with guilt and shame. "This is all my fault. I conspired against them, and because of my actions, Shay was imprisoned. The big yellow one was right. If we ever hope to be free, we must take action."

The family looked at him with surprise. Action. Against Zarkon and his forces? "But how can we rise up against our Galra overlords," asked the father.

"What choice do we have?" Rax asked, walking up to his father. "They have stolen all of the Crystals from our Balmera. Our lives are worthless to them now."

His father was still hesitant to go through with it. "But Balmerans have never fought."

Rax looked at his feet. "You taught me that without family, we have nothing," he said, before looking up at his father. His heart filled with a new sense of determination. "The Galra have taken Shay. How can we do nothing while the Paladins sacrifice everything to save us? We must do our part!"


Meanwhile, at Zarkon's Command Ship. Prorok approached the Emperor in his throne room. He kneeled before him and said with confidence, "Lord Zarkon, I have news to report. News that will likely please you, my Emperor."

Zarkon said "Proceed."

"I have the Voltron Paladins trapped on a Balmera in the Javeeno star system. I've ordered a fleet to capture the Lions and destroy the Altean Castle."

But this did not please Zarkon in the slightest. It only enraged him. "You fool! You dare make plans without informing me?"

"Forgive me, Emperor... but I saw an opportunity and I took it for the glory of the Galra Empire," he said, calmly. However, he was just trying to suppress his nerves.

"I suspect that you are seeking your own glory, Prorok. But you do not realize Voltron's power."


Back at the Balmera, RC was flying above the squad of Galra fighters and shooting down at them. 20 mm round ripped through the fighters as she tried protecting the Castleship. But then she stopped when noticing seven jets veering off and heading down to the surface.

RC radioed the Castle. "Princess, seven fighters have broken off and are heading down to the surface."

Coran gasped. "They're going to steal the Lions!"

"RC, stop them!" Allura shouted on the comms. In an instant, the Titan went straight after the fighters. "Paladins, the Lions are in danger! You must get back to them immediately!"

The Castleship's alarms suddenly blared, and Coran then saw something on his console and started to get him scared. "Princess, something's locked onto us." As RC flew after the fighters and was able to shoot down one of them, her sensors picked up the same thing. She stopped in midair and turned back around.

The situation could not have become more dire—on the Bridge, Allura froze in fear when a massive Galra warship appeared out of the abyss of space. Dwarfing her Castle with its size as it drifted towards the Alteans.

"Princess, I'm moving to intercept the warship." RC informed Allura, before flying towards the Galra. Only to be rammed from the side by a Destroyer.

"RC!" Allura yelled, watching as the Titan was carried away towards the surface of the Balmera.

The Destroyer grabbed RC by the arm and threw her at a rock formation. RC's body broke through it, before bouncing off the ground with some thuds, before coming to a skidding stop. As the Titan began to get up, with her shields returning to 100% after taking a hard landing, her sensors blared.

She used her thrusters and flew out of the way of a large double-bladed ax, with glowing purple energy blades, could be brought down on her. The Titan got back on her feet and looked at her attacker. This Destroyer wasn't like the other ones. It wasn't as bulky like an Ogre. Instead, it was slimmer and nibbler like a Stryder-class Titan. It had the same purple colors of the Galra with the bright purple visor on its chest. With no gun, it had the large axe.

The hatch opened, and the elite Destroyer pilot stood up from inside. "So, you're the Titan that the Emperor's interested in? Alright then. Let's have some fun, machine." The Galran sat back down in his Destroyer and the hatch closed. Grabbed the ax with both hands, he charged at RC.

Feeling something negative spike in her system when he called her a machine, RC put her Chaingun on her back and charged at him too. Activating her hidden blade.

When they were close, the Destroyer and Titan jumped at each other.


"Paladins, do you copy? There's a battle cruiser locked onto us, and RC's dealing with an elite Destroyer pilot," Allura informed the team in the Balmera. "If it fires with its ion cannon, I don't know if we can survive."

"We're trying, Allura. Shay's pressing her hand against the wall, which apparently sends vibrations to the other rock people, who vibrate back or something?" Lance said, trying his best to explain the situation going on to Allura. But even he sounded confused by what was going on. "Hand talking? I guess the answer to your question is, 'Yes, we copy.'"

"Shay, are you sure the Balmera is sending your message?" Shiro asked, wanting to get back up and into the action.

Shay focused harder, with the Balmera continuing to moan. Outside one of the doors to the core, her family stood in front of the door. Placing their hands on the door, they focused together with Shay. Instructing the Balmera into crushing the doorway open.

This surprised the Paladins, Pilot, and Shay. Then, as Rax and his family entered the core of the Balmera, the sister gasped happily. "Rax!"

"We must make haste. We know a shortcut through the tunnels," said the brother.

Everyone started to run towards the family and exit, as Shiro radioed Allura. "Allura, stand by. We're on our way up."


RC jumped back from a swing of the ax by the Destroyer. Using her thrusters to move further away, the Titan deployed her missile pod. When all targets were on the Galra's chaise, she unleashed the tracking missiles. However, the Destroyer brought out its small, shoulder mounted laser turret and rapidly fired. Taking out all the missile.

"It's pointless! The Lions are ours now." the Galra pilot said, pointing the ax at the Titan. Down below in the tunnels, the Galra fighters were using their tracker beams to raise the Lions of Voltron to the surface. "With your pilot, you're no match for me."

RC got into a defensive stance. He was right. Without her Pilot, then the chances of defeating the Destroyer were lower.

"RC!"

RC heard her Pilot and turned towards the direction the voice came from. The Black Lion flew out of the mines and went towards her. And hanging off the right ear was Marcus. "Moore."

The Black Lion flew above the Titan and Marcus jumped off. Falling towards RC. The Titan grabbed her Pilot and opened her hatch. Marcus tucked in his arms and legs, before being placed inside of RC. Strapped in and the with the hatch shutting, he looked at the Destroyer. "Missed me, RC?"

"By 'missed' you mean have noticed your absence and to seek for you to return," RC answered, making Marcus sweat-drop. "To answer your question; I have missed you."

"Guys, did everyone make it to the Lions in time?" Shiro asked to the other Paladins. The other lions can out of the tunnels and flew with Shiro in a formation.

"Come on, Shiro. Who you think you're dealing with, a bunch of amateurs—" because he wasn't paying attention, Lance ran the Blue Lion into a mining structure.

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Marcus asked.

"No."

"Let's go!" Shiro exclaimed, and the Lions flew off to fight the Galra fighters and warship.

And the fighting as going on above Marcus's head, he got into a fighting stance with RC's hidden blade. "So, you're the Titan Pilot?" The elite Galra asked nonchalantly. Swinging his ax around like it was a cane. "Finally. Fighting your machine wasn't much of a challenge."

"Yeah, well, I'll make it interesting for you." Marcus charged at the Destroyer. The Galra charged at faster speeds, and swung horizontally. Only for Marcus to block it with the hidden blade, and then kick away the Destroyer. With the Destroyer knocked on its back, the Vanguard ran at it and jumped up high, with his melee weapon aimed to stab into its chest.

However, before he could land on it, the Destroyer rolled away. Making Marcus stab into the ground. "Interesting." The Galra elite jumped up with his ax raised to bring it down his enemy.

Marcus retracted the hidden blade and grabbed the ax by its body. Stopping it, before pushing the Destroyer back. The Galra stopped Marcus by digging his machine's feet into ground. Kicking up the earth, before halting. The two then pushed against each other. Struggling to gain the upper hand.

Marcus punched the Galra in the face, before swing the Destroyer around. Spinning around as he took it off its feet and swung it around. He then let it go, sending it flying into a large boulder. RC charged towards the Destroyer.

Then the ax was sent flying at him.

Hitting the Titan in the chest. Marcus grunted as he was knocked on his back.

"MARCUS!" Allura yelled in fear for the Pilot's life, as she had a screen up that showed her the fighting. But to her relief, the shields of the Titan held up, and stopped the energy blade from touching the armor plating. The ax was lying on the ground next to the down RC, as Marcus got right back up. He grabbed the ax and got ready to fight. The Destroyer walked out of the dust cloud and pulled out a new weapon from its back. This time a sword that looked like a Ronin Titan's Broadsword, with a large machete-like blade made of the same Galra purple energy.

As the war machines continued their fighting, Coran turned to the princess, as the Galra warship's cannon prepared to fire. "It's charging its ion cannon!"

"Divert all shields to the bow," Allura commanded. With no more fighters to worry about, they were able to protect their front side. The Castle of Lions focused its particle barrier to take the brunt of the assault.

The ion cannon fired at the ship. Marcus grunted when he and the elite pilot locked blades, then he saw the destructive beam hit the barrier of the Castleship, as it struggled to survive the blast from the ion cannon. "Allura! Are you okay?"

"We're fine!" Allura grunted with alarms blaring. "Just focus on taking down that Destroyer! Paladins, I need you immediately! Five more ticks and we're finished!"

"Okay, team, let's form Voltron!" said Shiro, as the Lions got into formation.

"Yeah!"

As for Marcus, he had an idea. The fighting with the Destroyer has brought them right next to a tunnel. It was a long drop to the bottom. "RC, I got an idea!"

"Copy that!" RC blocked another strike from the Destroyer.

"It's no hope!" the Galran boasted. He then charged and stabbed at him. But then Marcus dodged the attack and used Dash to move behind it. He swung the ax down on the back of the Destroyer, cutting into it. "GAH! WHAT?!"

Yank out the ax and throwing it away, Marcus then grabbed the Destroyer and ran towards the tunnel. Taking the Galra with him as he fell to the bottom. The elite turned around and tried to hack at Marcus, but the Pilot grabbed the robot's arm. The Pilot punched the first of slime Destroyer.

With the bottom coming closer, Marcus knew that this was going to be his only chance to kill the Galra. He deployed his hidden blade and cut off the arm of the Destroyer. Before it was out of reach, he grabbed the energy broadsword.

"No!" Marcus stabbed the sword into the chest of the Galra war machine, and turned on his thruster. Going down much faster.

"RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Marcus let out a battle cry at the top of his lungs.

Then impact. Shay's family was nearby, with the Balmera let out a cry of pain, and running to where the crash happened. At first, all in front of them was dust. But as it cleared away, they were shocked by the sight before them. The Destroyer landed on it back hard and the earth around it was crumbled and with its body imprinted into it. Marcus was standing over it with the energy broadsword impaled deep into the chest of the war machine, piercing right through it and stabbing into the Balmera.

"Oh, shit," Marcus exclaimed before pulling it out quickly. He then tried making it up to the Balmera by patting it on the tunnel's walls. "Ah, sound about that, big guy. I…I just trying to get rid of this guy."

"Moore, I recommend retrieving the elite Galran's communication unit from the helmet. This will allow us to eavesdrop on the Galra's transmissions."

Then a massive explosion was heard from up above.

"Guy's was that you?"

Allura was the one to answer. "It was. Mission accomplished. How about you? I can't find you?"

"I'm down in the tunnels," Marcus said, popping up the hatch and stepping out of RC. He then when over to the Destroyer, along with RC. The Titan grabbed the edge of the Galra's hatch and ripped it right off. "I'm going to grab the communication unit from the elite."


Meanwhile, on the Emperor's Command Ship, Prorok was still kneeling before Zarkon in the throne room. Waiting for the news to come if the mission was a success. The silence was broke when a Galra soldier spoke over the intercomm.

"The Galra fleet and all Sentries on the Balmera have been defeated! The elite Destroyer pilot has failed."

Zarkon's eyes narrowed.

"No! How could this be?" Prorok exclaimed as he started to panic. He then turned back to Zarkon "Lord Zarkon, I will do all that I can to recapture Voltron for the Galra!"

"Silence, Prorok." Zarkon had enough with the commander and glared daggers at him. "I have plans that you cannot comprehend."


On the Balmera, Marcus flew RC out of the tunnel and landed on the surface. He looked at the energy Broadsword in his Titan's had and observed it. "This is a nice sword, I'm keeping it," he said. He then looked in front of him as the Paladins landed Voltron carefully on the Balmera's surface. Behind the mighty robot, the Castle of Lions slowly descended above them. "Mission accomplished."

"And just in the tick of time," Allura said from the Bridge. "The Castle's defenses are battered and will need to fully recharge."

Suddenly the Castle's alarms started to blare. RC's sensors picked up whatever was setting them off and turned towards the sky. Marcus saw it, and it looked like an asteroid. "Everyone, be advised: an unknown object that matches the same design as the one that brought the giant robot to Arus is income!" RC said, sending her Pilot, the Paladins, and the Castle's Bridge a screen that showed a close up of the object. Sure enough, it looked just like the one that brought the Robeast. "It's about to crash into the Balmera!"

The team could do nothing, as dying planet helplessly suffered when the spacecraft crashed into it. Causing a massive explosion.

As the dust cleared, Voltron and RC were staring right at the panther head-like design of the transport.

Marcus sighed, before reaching down and grabbing the ax off the ground. "Here we go again."


AN:

And that was Chapter 7 and the first half of the Battle of the Balmera.

Sorry it took so long. I was trying to write this chapter and a Bleach story I'm starting.

So Allura got Marcus's Data-Knife fixed and added a cool new feature. Now it's like a lightsaber or something. That reason I gave Marcus this kind of melee weapon is for both having it as the Data-Knife and then if he was to ever fight an enemy in melee combat.

And RC gets a new weapon too. The ax isn't going to stay. Just the sword.

Thank you very much for reading. "Become ONE" will return. Please be sure to Favorite and Follow if you like the story, and also Review it. If you any questions or discussions you'd have for me, then please in a Review or a PM me.

Thank you for reading, may God bless you, and have a wonderful day.