Disclaimer: I own nothing of Voltron nor it's universe.

After this chapter the others should happen fairly fast s they will be easier to construct.

Which includes:

People bonding and getting to know each other, Voltron forming and a Robeast surprise, a spy using her wiles to try and manipulate a member of the force, the war going much better and the castle being rebuilt, people starting to come out of the caves, a town being built not far from the castle, trade resuming with an GA convoy that also reunites two family members and Paul Everett and his wife Victoria also decide to move to the planet to help as a new military advisor, an army being rebuilt during which women start to become more vocal and start to take strides in deciding their own fates in short the traditions of the past start to fade away, a spy revealed, Romelle and trouble at Pollux introduced, Sven falling for her, a new plan forms of taking away a pilot or two to leave Voltron armless, Sven decides to quit the GA and help out on Pollux and in doing so marries Romelle, a new pilot, the trouble with suitors, Prince Faulk fools almost everyone, Zarkon and Merla marry each other a Drule civil war erupts. And many more ideas.

What do you think as this is the basic of what I have planned.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Castle of the Lions

Control Room

Allura and Larmina decided to be in the control room with Jase and a few other soldiers while the battle was ongoing. They had everyone else that would go evacuated to the shelter for safety reasons.

The only ones who would not go were Coran, Trinity and Galaxy. The three of them stayed for various reasons.

For Coran, Allura and Larmina were daughters to him and he would not leave their sides. Nanny was almost forced into the shelter after she found out about the girls not leaving the control room.

Trinity was not only loyal but also a very good friend and would never leave her best friend, Larmina. What started out as a working relationship turned into something deeper than friends and into a sister by choice.

Galaxy felt that she stayed underground for far too long. Literally. She wanted to be right beside the action as well as her princess. She was after all a true Arusian.

All were there and heard what went on during the battle. And they were all very nervous to see how their saviors' flying really was.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Planet Doom

Throne Room

A young Drule that is a communication officer enters the throne room. He knows that he has a better chance of surviving the encounter with King Zarkon than he ever would with Prince Lotor.

King Zarkon might be a ruthless warrior. But he still actually had more sense than the Prince did. Everyone was not looking foreword when the prince ascended the throne.

The officer bowed low to his king. He waited till the king gave him his order. He had a very healthy dose of respect for the king.

"Rise."

"The information from the Alliance as requested, my lord."

"Very good. Now precede." While King Zarkon and Prince Lotor were just alike in many ways, but he, King Zarkon, unlike his son, was patient. And while he was king and had the attitude that went with it, he actually respected his soldiers for their ability and cared about his Empire.

"The leader is…."

King Zarkon cut off the communication officer, "Tell me something I do not know. As I already know the basics. I need to know their strengths and weaknesses."

"Commander Kogane is very honorable, a strict disciplinarian, and has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and in short is a perfectionist. He is also a brilliant strategist and very by the book. And he has a very short temper which he tries to control."

"Sounds like what a commander should be. Go on." King Zarkon waved his right hand in a dismissive gesture.

"Sven Holgerson, is the best navigator the Alliance has ever had whose studies at the academy were put as an example so much so the head of navigation kept him there to help train students in navigation. As well as he is one of the best tacticians and is bipolar. He is patient but also has a very bad temper when pushed too far. And he helps to keep peace between Commander Kogane and Lt. McClain."

"Hmmmm."

"Lt. Lance McClain is one of the best pilots that has ever flown. He is brilliant yet he is impatient, a daredevil, vain, cocky and the most insubordinate and undisciplined of all of the five Alliance troops. He has more vices than the others and is carefree. He would rather be alone wolf with his actions as those at earth would call him. But he is very much a people person and because of that he can gauge a person and their personality just by talking to them for a couple of minutes. He is also a very good shot with his gun, as he was a skeet shooting champion and it could not be confirmed but he also won a lot of underground bare knuckled fist fights that are illegal. He also likes to bend the rules in his favor and knows many different ways to get by that are legal yet almost illegal."

"Of all of them, he will probably be the most dangerous to deal with, yet he would probably be the first to ignore orders and because of that, it might come in handy. So he is probably the weakest of the soldiers."

"I would not say that, your highness."

King Zarkon narrowed his eyes, "Why not?"

"He was also on Dradin when he was eight years old as it was attacked by you and your soldiers. His entire family was killed before his eyes. So he despises all Drules no matter what."

Zarkon rubbed his head, "So he is really going to be trouble with all of his hate."

"He was the one that did not spare the Drules that tried to surrender after the last attack."

"Too bad he is not a Drule, as he has the fighting ability and stomach for fighting. I would make him one of my supreme commanders. Proceed."

"Tech Sergeant Darrell 'Pidge' Stoker is a computer technetium. He is a very private person but is a loner and unlike McClain hates being around people. He is also very logical as he is also the smartest, even smarter than Maahox. According to his IQ and test to confirm this. He is also a ninja and a third degree black belt in two forms of self defense. While he is the youngest, he is not the most naïve."

"Really, then tell me who is the most gullible."

"That is Tech Sergeant Hunk Garrett's weakness. He is a great engineer. He is strong and has the biggest bleeding heart of them all. He is also the weakest pilot. And he is very loyal and friendly to all. He might be the strongest, but his patience is his greatest strength."

"So, the engineer is their greatest weakness. My informant could probably get some information easily out of him." Zarkon then spat, "Too bad my poor excuse for a son missed out on this information. He is not fit to run this great empire." Zarkon sniffed and then smiled when an idea came to his mind, "Get Queen Merla on the communicator via video screen. I wish to speak with her."

The officer bowed at the waist, "As you wish, your highness."

His plan would be perfect. Unlike his idiot son's plan.

The original plan would be a stroke of genus since that mad scientist Maahox came up with it. But since Lotor would be in charge of it, it would fail gloriously.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Battle….

The Force was undergoing a Hammerhead. That was were a plane or a jet is stalling and or waiting.

"….Here they come!"

"Remember what I told you. Wait till they fire first. Then start attacking."

"Uh, Keith. They fire first, I get it. But, wouldn't it be better to separate so that we would not be grouped together as sitting ducks and it would be easier to move instead of flying so close." Lance cautioned his friend and commander.

"Keith, Lance does make a very good point." Sven intoned.

"Not you too." Keith groaned. He had hoped that with Sven around he would not have to worry about him and would rely on the Norwegian to help keep Lance in line.

"The Drules could concentrate their weapons on a mass easier and it will be harder to even perform basic maneuvers."

"You do make sense, Sven."

"Hey, that is what I said."

Ignoring Lance, "Spread out, just to make sure we are not an easy target and we can move better. As well close enough to help each other out when needed."

"Now ya are talking."

"Don't go too far Lance." Keith reminded his wayward pilot. No answer, "Lance…"

"Ok, ok."

Lance then dove into a flat spin. Sven and Pidge both performed a wingover.

"Uh, cap…" Hunk gulped. He could fly, alright. For anyone to graduate from the academy they had to know how to fly. But he was not good at doing fancy maneuvers.

"Hunk I want you as my wingman. And just stick to the basics. No fancy flying. Leave that up to the others. In short mainly Lance. Got it?"

"Loud and clear, boss."

Then Lotor came on the communication video screen. "Attention people of Arus! This is the high and mighty Lotor." While he was saying that Keith emailed Pidge having him to disable Lance's audio.

"Sounds like the idiot is trying to make up for a lack of something." Lance joked. But since his radio was not turned on Lotor and the others could not hear what he was saying.

"Crowned prince of the great Drule Empire." Lotor continued on with his speech.

"If the idiot is proud of that fact, his brain is not running on all cylinders," Hmmm… Still no response. The idiot must be ignoring him.

"The scourge of the Galaxy Alliance."

Now this should make the moron rant, "The cadets all make fun of him by putting his picture on dart boards in the recreation rooms to the inside of urinals in the restrooms.""Conquer of numerous systems including the planet, Pollux." Still nothing…

"He is a legend in his own mind." Not only was not the idiot not saying anything, none of the others were even chuckling.

"I, in my never ending generous nature…"

"My dog that was missing for two weeks was more generous when it came to sharing his food bowel when he came back than the idiot will ever be." No one rose to the bait.

"…give you one last chance for the beautiful Crowned Princess Allura to become my wife and rule the vast Drule Empire beside me and you to surrender so that you may live as my slaves! If not, then after my brave soldiers subdue this planet, all will be destroyed!"

"This is Commander Keith Kogane. I speak for all of Arus. The answer is the same as always….NO!"

"So you speak for all?" Everybody else gave affirmatives.

Except Lance. He already figured out that Keith had Pidge mess with his audio on the communicator. He gave a very rude gesture or the bird to Prince Lotor.

Once seeing the gesture, Lotor screamed and ordered his men to open fire. Soon enough, the lion pilots were zigging and zagging to evade the bombs as well as firing.

Lance sent an email to Pidge to reopen his audio since they were now being fired at. After getting the ok from Keith, Pidge did.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Once they separated, the lions were able to move with greater agility and to start to defend themselves. They did not go far fro each other, so they could help defend each other for backups sake.

The castle's defenses were also starting to help as well. It was a test to see how the new weaponry was working. The lasers were already proving to be more efficient and accurate than missiles were. And they could fire in rapid deployment.

Jase and his soldiers decided to take out the troop carrier first. If the troops landed then it would only be a matter of time. Which was why all of the castle's defense was targeted on the carrier first.

They would get it down because Pidge had the control to send a virus of sorts to the ship's defense shields that he created. So within thirty seconds of the virus hitting the ship, they were able to shoot it down. So even if the ships could somehow find a way to get through, there were no hand to hand troops and that would make the battle incredibly hard to win. They then started in on one of the three battle stars. The one being the flagship was well far back once Lotor saw how deadly the new weapons were.

Not only did the Drule forces have to contend with a highly new defense system in the castle. Which included lasers that penetrated their shields like a hot knife through soft butter, but their new defense shields were up and running. So their missiles bounced harmlessly off the protective barrier of the castle.

Everett wasn't kidding when he sent the new and yet unproved systems to the castle. Well it was being proved now. Pidge had also the forethought to attach sensors to the equipment to see what worked what was starting to have or getting hot and what did not work.

Meanwhile:

The lions were free falling into inside and outside spins, flips, easy basic maneuvers and difficult ones. The easy ones being dives, lazy eights, rolls, barrel rolls, chandelles, Pugachev's cobra, standing eights, and many more. While the harder ones happened to be a slow roll that took a lot of control with the lion, Immelwean, a split s, torque roll, flat spin as well as some others. The academy trained their pilots well in dog fighting.

And a few no one had ever seen before. Because the academy did not teach them. Nor anyone else. Compliments of Lance.

This was also a testing ground of sorts for him. He invited new maneuvers which he put down on paper for a few and lot in his head.

He could keep new moves that were just bubbling under the surface start to come out. And so in short the Drules were having a hard time keeping up with him and his moves since they had no idea what he was doing so they could not even keep up him.

Within thirty minutes, two of the battle stars were destroyed. While the flag ship was getting out of there as fast as it could. In short Lotor just left the others there while he got out of there.

Everyone in the control room was watching. At first, they were on edge but once the troop carrier was destroyed, they felt better. And when they shot down two other battle stars, and Lotor got out of there, they knew the battle was theirs. While the force was stopping or shooting down the battle fighters cheer after cheer went up.

With the force, the defense of the planet was now assured. But while the people at the castle were celebrating, the force had a job to do.

With Pidge and Sven they flew like graceful dancers during Swan Lake. They effortlessly skimmed their lions through the sky making it look like something so simple yet very deadly that the lions were extensions of themselves. The Drules who went up against them stood no chance. They may not have flown together long but their aerobatics just clicked and blended well together.

While flying, the Drule flight commander discovered that the best strategy was to divide the force. So they went about doing it.

The Drules were not taught how to dog fight like the GA was. But they had brutality. And they through themselves totally against the force. They also started to divide them up.

Keith and Hunk were looking out for each other. When one would get shot at the other would hit the attacker or shoot down the attacker. But they got separated. Luckily, Hunk joined Pidge and Sven.

Keith was holding his own but was being fired on by all sides. Whenever he would shoot down one, another one or two would take their place. Finally, he was able to get most of the down, but he could not shake the last one. Black lion actually got hit and he could not move the lion properly.

"Guys, I am hit and got one on my tail."

"We are busy ourselves with unwanted guest." Sven shot a Drule ship while diving to get out of the way from another Drule ship.

Pidge4 and Hunk were busy trying to shoot down Drule ships while staying out of range. Neither of them were going to have their lions hit.

"Need a paw?" Lance asked over the radio.

"Lance I need some help here."

"What was that, I did not hear ya." Lance shot down a ship.

"Quit messing around and get over here!" Keith called out. Nothing, "LANCE!"

Still nothing. But then Lance surprised everyone by flying toward Keith and straight toward the Drule ship, shooting it down. Lance then offered some support by joining Keith.

"Just had to go and show off."

"Can't ya just say thanks?"

"I will once you actually fly right. I mean that was suicidal."

"No one saw that coming."

"And you wonder why I do not want you to train Hunk."

"That was low Keith. Really low. I would not let anything happen to him."

"One of you flying like that is enough. I do not need two you flying that bad."

"My flying is not bad! It is perfect."

"For a maniac." Keith spat out.

By that time, what was left of the fleet quickly left back to planet Doom. Some barely able to fly. The ships were going to report back to the Drules of what the force was capable of. Out of 1,500 that left, only 456 returned.

The soldiers were not the ones that were going to be in trouble. It was Prince Lotor that Zarkon was going to take to count.

Once landing back at their resting places, the lions started to recharge. And after the lions were repaired. The force had a meeting in Keith's office.

"Alright, first thing first. Hunk, Sven and I will start to retrain you."

"Yeah, I was wondering who was your instructor back at the academy? Lance asked.

"Josser."

"That jerk….?" Lance did not like him. He never trained anyone right. "He is more concerned about his standing in the academy and the politics around there than his students." But the feeling was mutual when Lance showed up Josser when he was learning to fly.

"Well, don't worry Hunk. You will be trained right." Sven assured his friend.

"Don't worry, guys you are not the only ones who will be training someone. Right Pidge?" Lance grinned at his friend.

Pidge got a weird look on his face and groaned, "Larmina."

"Now to go over what just happened…."

Thirty minutes later….

"Well that is about it. Except, Lance…." The others sat back to watch the soon to be bickering. Looking at each of them when they said something.

"Ya can't say noth'n about my flying. It was perfect."

"It was suicidal." Keith exclaimed.

"It saved your hide."

"That is not the point."

"I know it is. I mean they did not expect what I did.""No one expected it. The academy does not teach them. They are not even in any of the books."

"I made up those moves."

"Just then?"

"Some of em."

"But…"

"Keith ya can argue all ya want about that but they did not know what hit em."

"Well. Fine. But, when I say stop it, you stop it. Got it."

"Well…."

"Lance…."

"If necessary, I will stop." Lance rolled his eyes.

"We will discuss this later in depth."

Before anyone said anything else, Coran knocked and entered when Keith gave the ok. "Her supreme highness wishes to see all of you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Once arriving in the throne room, the guys saw the princess there with all of the people of the castle. Everyone from the soldiers to the children. Nanny even stood besides the princess. Instead of looking stern she was actually smiling and crying. Looking at everyone most people were crying. Even the old men and a few of the soldiers.

The princess stood in front of her throne on a dais. Larmina was right beside her, nanny, and then Trinity and Adele beside her. Coran went and stood behind the throne.

"Gentlemen, come forward." Allura called.

"Hey, didn't I see this on Star Wars as well as the Three Musketeers?" Lance asked.

"Not the time or the place." Keith murmured.

Once arriving in front of the Dais, the princess stepped forward. "All of Arus owes each and everyone of you brave men a debt. A debt of not only your bravery but also for giving us hope. In wartime, hope comes in short supply. But thanks to everything you did, you have helped us beyond just fighting off the Drules. You have given us a peace of mind back. And that means more to us than all of the money in the world. You will be rewarded for what you have done. I know that thank you is not adequate, but thanks is all that we have as of now. But you will always have our eternal gratitude."

Keith stepped forward, "Princess Allura, citizens of Arus, you do not have to reward us. Nor even thank us. It is our job to protect people and our pleasure to as well. We have given our oaths and honor to the GA. It is everything to us to bring peace to not only this world but also the galaxy and even the universe. And maybe someday, we will able to defeat the Drule empire for good."

That brought cheers from everyone. The people started to surround the force and touch their backs and arms. The people started chanting 'LIONS' all around. For everyone knew that the war was going to start turning in their favor very soon.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Star Wars belongs to Lucas Film Ltd. And the movie the Three Musketeers that I refereed to belongs to Disney.

The flight maneuvers are on Wikipedia Aerobatic maneuver. It not only tells about hem but also shows them as well in diagrams.

The chapter was kind of short, I know. But I wanted to get the first air battle on with.