Thought I'd finally gone and left, didn't ya? Well, wrong-o. I'm still here, unassimilated and ready for another sortie. Suffice it to say things in the world have not been conducive to writing, and the next couple chapters have been sitting for some time, but here they are, and here I am. I know how I want this one to finish out, and I hope to have it done within the next 2-3 months, and then on to the next adventure, which I'm really excited about. But enough of that.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that belongs to WEP or CBS/Paramount, so don't sue me. I'm not making any money off this anyway. What I do own are the crew of the Berlin, except Mordock and Scotty, the fighter Thunderwing, and the story itself.
Star Tron: The Retreat
Chapter 14: Another Go-Round
Doom Battleship Conquest of Zohar
Doom Shipyard
Lotor sat on the bridge of his ship, brooding silently as he watched the activity around him. The ship would soon depart on its first shakedown cruise, but Lotor cared little for the drones scurrying around the ship like ants. Enthroned on his high command chair, all of Lotor's thoughts were focused on one thing.
Betrayal.
His father, Haggar, Cossack, the attempts to kill Allura… How dare they? Allura was his! She was the prize for capturing Arus. She was the one reason he hadn't bombed the surface of that whole miserable planet into molten glass!
And now they were going to ruin it all.
He knew that his father wanted Arus destroyed and Voltron dismantled. He wanted the Voltron Force and their allies dead. And he could have them. But not Allura.
Not Allura.
He had protested these actions to his father, demanded that the king stop at once. The reply had been characteristically blunt. He was told to do as he was ordered, and perhaps he would be allowed to play some small part in Arus' coming defeat.
This, perhaps, was an even greater affront than the attempts to kill Allura. He'd been reduced in status to a mere fleet commander! The same as that moron Cossack! Who, he reflected, would probably command the battle fleet that would soon be sent to Arus.
But he knew he had time. There would be no attack without a robeast to face Voltron. Perhaps two. Anything else would be suicide. That alone would take several days. Then they would need time to assemble the fleet and plan the attack.
He had time. And if all the shakedown tests were successful, he could be ready.
Gladiator Arena
Planet Doom
The light was blinding.
Harsh, white light flooded the amphitheater, blinding the robeast as it walked out from the dark tunnel onto the bloodstained sands of the arena. Raising a steel-feathered wing to shield its eyes, it saw the other gates open, its opponents walking out, similarly afflicted. The roar of the crowd was almost deafening as the four robeasts took their places for the contest.
They were four of Haggar's newest robeasts, and while their intelligence was comparable only to that of a monkey or a large bird, they knew very well why they were here. To fight to the death for the honor of leading an attack against Voltron.
The robeast surveyed its opponents. One was humanoid in form, with a head like a frog and a body like an ape. Another resembled an octopus, with four legs and four arms, alternating around a spherical head with a shark-like mouth and black eyes. The third was another humanoid, encased in spiked armor and wielding a vicious-looking pike.
As the robeast assessed its opponents, it thought briefly on its own appearance. Resembling a plucked ostrich with vicious, hooked claws on its feet and sharp blades in place of feathers on its wings. Its head was that of a cobra, the hood forming a hard, sharp-edged shield behind its head.
A fanfare of trumpets signaled the beginning of the fight. Immediately, the armored humanoid hurled his pike, impaling the frog-headed ape's shoulder. It staggered back, then pulled the weapon from its flesh, bellowing a challenge at its attacker.
But the other two weren't idle. Seeing an opportunity, ostrich and octopus converged on the wounded robeast, looking for a quick kill as the armored knight watched his target warily before joining the rush.
The fight would be over quickly.
Spinning on his heel, the ape thrust the pike through the octopus' gaping mouth and out the back of its head as it tried to pounce. The creature fell to the ground, convulsing in its death throes.
As this was happening, the bird leapt up, over the ape, and kicked the humanoid over backward, its talons tearing through the armor and into the soft flesh of the robeast. The humanoid howled in pain as it fell, flailing at the bird, which ducked its head, using the shield to ward off the blows.
Crushing blows rained on the ostrich's hood, threatening to drive it back, but the ostrich held firm, it's claws securely lodged in its opponent's chest. Lifting one leg, it kicked down, cracking the breastplate, the claws digging deeper into the humanoid's chest, damaging tissue and bionics alike. The blows striking its still-bowed head became weaker, and with a second kick, the humanoid was still.
But a roar from behind reminded the steel bird that the fight was not over. The frog-headed ape still remained, its blood-red eyes glaring menacingly. Before the bird could react, the frog leapt, covering the several dozen feet to his opponent in a single bound, tackling the bird and knocking it off its feet. The two robeasts tumbled to the ground, punching, kicking, clawing at each other.
In this wrestling contest, the ape was the better, managing to pin the bird beneath it, holding it down on its back, biting at it's neck, trying to sink its great fangs in for a killing blow. But suddenly, it felt the bird's feet beneath its chest, and a moment later was sent flying back through the air. As the frog-headed robeast slowly rose to its feet, it saw that the bird had already done the same, and now stood there, motionless.
Waiting.
The ape would oblige, Bellowing in fury, it charged, its massive arms spread, fists balled, ready to pulverize the demonic bird before it. But in a flash, the bird was gone, and a sharp, rending pain tore through the ape's side.
The ape skidded to a halt, looking down, seeing a wicked, ragged gash in its side, it looked up at the bird, and saw its own blood dripping from one steely wing. The bird watched the ape, weaving its head slowly, in a snakelike manner, before rushing again. A second pain, on the other side now, as the bird struck again.
Another attack followed, and another. The ape's head spun from confusion and loss of blood. Down on one knee now, the ape watched the bird, who just stared right back, like before. Its head bobbed again, and the bird leapt, landing on the ape, its talons stabbing through the ape's back. It tried to roll, to get up, to throw the bird off, but it was too weak. With a final, feeble roar of defiance, the frog-headed ape was still.
The bird threw its head back and cried a victory howl to the spectators, who were cheering wildly, thrilled with the display of lethal agility and cunning they'd just witnessed.
High above, in the royal box, King Zarkon nodded in approval, and a dark, hooded shape melted into the shadows. A moment later, one of the portculli in the arena opened, and the robeast walked proudly through the gate to claim its destiny.
Starfleet Construction Battalion Headquarters
Olessa, Arus
Commander Wright sat at his desk, going over the reports from his various field teams. Altogether, things were going pretty much as expected. Supply problems, lack of manpower, unreasonable time deadlines… all part of the life of a Starfleet Seabee.
Especially that Castle job. Not that the extra haste wasn't warranted, but it was a perfect opportunity to push for more men and improvement of the supply chain. Instead, he'd had to shift more men over to that project, leaving fewer to work on the harbor and the surrounding towns. Not the way he'd have liked to see things happen, but his was not to wonder why…
But now, he had another problem. Most of the structural and systems modifications in the Castle of Lions were finished, but they were still waiting for the arrival of the weapon systems. Unfortunately for him, phaser strips and torpedo launchers were almost all assigned to starship and base construction. The waiting list for "non-essential" installations was huge, and he wasn't very high on it. And without those weapon systems, they couldn't finish the Castle. Perhaps not for another two to three months.
Two or three more months for a job that he could otherwise finish within the week. Not exactly the kind of report he wanted to deliver to Coran and Captain Driscoll, given the importance of the modifications that were ordered.
As he mulled over how best to deliver the bad news, he went through the other reports on his desk. Things were progressing fairly well in Olessa. They'd just finished work on an apartment building, which was already accepting tenants. In a few more weeks, they'd reach the halfway point on restoring the market district. Of course, that just meant that fifty percent of the work had been done, which also included razing destroyed and burned out hulks and prepping sites for new construction. And most of that work was mostly due to the efforts of local builders. Wright's people were more involved in supply and advisement work. Still, it was a notable achievement. He liked to think of construction as the easy part.
Shavena was also moving along. It had been decided that the ships sunk at anchor would remain in place, and the docks would be extended and repaired around them, with suitable allowances made for the later construction and placement of memorials to mark each ship's resting place and the crewmen lost on each. The dockfront buildings and warehouses would follow later, as time permitted and necessity demanded.
Also, as with the other major towns, defensive emplacements had been ordered, and siting was complete for a network of ten torpedo launchers and thirty phaser batteries around Shavena. He noted the fact that the weapons had already arrived and were currently warehoused on the starbase in orbit.
He set the PADD aside and reached for another, then paused. He picked up the Shavena report again, rereading the last section. Quartermaster reports weapon systems have arrived and been stored aboard the starbase pending installation.
Weapon systems have arrived. Ten torpedo launchers, thirty phaser batteries.
He called for the chief quartermaster.