Chapter eleven: Game Plan
"The rest of us will occupy the Galra, while Pidge takes the Green Lion on a stealth mission; assisted by Slav." Kolivan reiterated, listing off the plan once more.
"Great, then let's go." Pidge finished.
"I'll have Slav at these coordinates for pick up." Kolivan said, as the coordinates appeared on a screen of their own. "This will be our rendezvous point."
"Pidge, are you sure that you must be the one to rescue your brother?" Allura asked, one last time.
"Yes." Pidge replied firmly, instilling a strong sense of determination in just her tone. The Princess closed her eyes tightly for moment.
"Then let us begin." She said finally, looking up at them decidedly.
"I'll prepare a wormhole, but it'll take time for us to get there." Coran stated, tapping at his controls vigorously. "About fifteen doboshes I'd say."
"That should suffice." Allura replied. "I must brief my father on the situation."
"I'm coming with you." Pidge decided, rising from her chair. "I've been dying to check out the White Lion since you got back."
"I don't think you're the only one." Lance half joked.
"We can all go." The Princess offered. "It is quite extraordinary, I will admit." The team began to head that way as Coran called back over his shoulder.
"I'll keep working up here! We'll need to meet back here once we get close to the rendezvous point!"
XXXX
Allura took her place and the screens lit up.
"Father? Are you there?" She asked.
"Yes, I'm here, daughter." King Alfor replied, as he materialized from the projection plate on the dash.
"Father, an operation has been devised to rescue one of our own. Our Green Paladin, Pidge's brother is still being held prisoner by the Galra; and we are planning to rescue him. I need your advice."
"Your Lion and your team will be all you need for this operation, Allura." Alfor told her. "This lion has powers you don't know of yet, and I will show them to you... Your abilities have done you well. I shall remain with you for the entirety of the mission, to guide you in any way I can."
"Thank you, Father." Allura breathed. Pidge eased in front of her to study the AI and the assorted controls around it. Allura withdrew due to this action.
"You must be Pidge." Alfor observed. "The one Allura spoke of."
"Uh- y..yes." Pidge blinked, as if surprised that he could see her.
"And you brother, I assume, is a member of Voltron as well?" Alfor wondered.
"No, he's just.. my brother. He and my father and Shiro were captured by the Galra a year or two ago, and we're trying to rescue him. Shiro's our leader.. pilot of the Black Lion."
"I see." Alfor mused.
"Shiro was the one I was telling you about, Father." Allura put in, nudging Pidge aside gently. "He's the one we're searching for right now. We think that the Black Lion is out looking for him, but.. we cannot be sure."
"In time.. the truth will be revealed, I'm sure." The Altean king remarked. "It is all a matter of time."
"Yes, but it is unfortunate that it is at a time like this." Allura sighed, dropping her gaze into her lap. "We could really use them for this operation."
"I know Allura." Alfor comforted. "But I believe that the universe has something in store for you that does not require the Head of Voltron. Though you might find him useful yet."
"Wait, does he know something we don't?" Lance asked a bit suspiciously.
"Aw, don't worry about it Lance." Hunk shrugged in a carefree manner. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."
"Quite." Allura agreed, peering around at them. "Whatever comes our way, I'm sure we can handle it."
"Even without Shiro?" Lance responded uncertainly. Allura's eyes hit the floor once more.
"Even without Shiro." She repeated sadly. She turned back around and laid back with a sigh, as Pidge continued to investigate the controls; and Lance and Hunk stood back behind them thoughtfully.
XXXX
"Rendezvous point approaching." Coran reported, as they exited the wormhole. The team each sat in their respective chairs; Allura at the teludav where she usually stands.
"Land the Castle down there. "Allura instructed. "It's an earth, rock and gas planet. It should shield us from detection by the Galra." Hovering down over the jagged-edged, star-shaped planet a hatch on the ground opened; and, from it, two Blades emerged.
The Paladins launched their lions, and landed them on the ground; as the two warriors, accompanied by Slav, approached. The team came together to stand opposite their welcoming committee.
Their masks dematerialized and one was revealed to be Kolivan, the other another blade by the name of Borventhrock.
"How fortunate that you've made it undetected." Kolivan greeted lightly. "We've been noticing quite a number of patrols coming out this way."
"They don't suspect us, do they?" Allura asked, half afraid of this being true.
"Probably not." Kolivan replied simply. "Likely their just following protocol."
"Then let us begin." Allura decided.
"Righty-o, let's see if we can get this to wvork this time." Slav put in hopefully.
"Right, let's go." Pidge agreed, and the two geniuses headed off together.
"We have commandeered a hidden Galra cruiser and have decided to use this to our advantage." Kolivan told them. "We'll pretend to have captured you in order to get Pidge in close to save cloaking time. We have enough fighters and pilots for an accurate barricade, to convincingly keep you trapped; until we begin the distraction. Once the barricade goes down, Pidge can activate cloaking to sneak over to the base; and begin the search."
"Excellent work." Allura commented.
"And take this," Kolivan finished, holding a device out to her. "Pidge will need them." It looked to be a large USB. That was big enough to hold in the palm of his hand. "They're area codes and programs for getting inside." The Blade leader said, answering her unasked question, as she took it into her hand. "They'll help her to access certain parts of the base, and,.. strangely enough.. very specific ones."
"This will come in handy." Allura thought aloud, glancing at the device. "Thank you." She concluded, glancing up at him.
"Actually, it was us." Kolivan emphasized. "That strange message that gave us the coordinates had this information... whoever sent it must have know the exact location in which the target is located." Allura dropped her hand to her side, her eyes curious and tender.
"Hopefully one of these days we'll find them, so we can thank them; should the mission be successful." She said.
"Indeed." Kolivan agreed. "Now come,.. time is short." He said, switching gears with his shoulder turned to her. "We should be launching within the next two vargas."
"Certainly." Allura concurred.
"I'll take the device to Pidge." Lance offered, receiving the device from her. And with Lance off on his way, the rest of the team followed Kolivan for their last briefing before the mission.
XXXX
"Hey Pidge, got something for ya." Lance called flatly, as he entered the Green Lion. Pidge turned toward him just in time to catch the device he tossed at her.
"What is it?" She asked, studying it carefully.
"Some access device that'll get you through the base to find your brother." Lance replied, briefly relaying the information he'd just heard.
"Great! I'll just get an socket adaptor and then.." she trailed off her statement when she noticed the familiar shape of the device's connection port.
"Something wrong?" Lance asked, catching on to her confused expression.
"The device's USB port..." Pidge observed. "It looks-.. familiar."
"Any idea how?" Lance wondered.
"Not... at the moment." Pidge sighed. "But at least I can plug it directly into my computer." Taking out her laptop, she stuck the device into the port and began to download the information it contained.
XXXX
"I just realized that the Galra are not yet aware of the White Lion's existence." Allura realized.
"It doesn't matter." Kolivan returned simply. "In fact it could be an advantage on our part. Knowing that the Galra don't know anything about it, they won't be prepared to defend against it." The Altean Princess thought about this a moment.
"I suppose you're right." She said finally. Another Blade entered the room as the doors parted.
"It is time to begin." He said.
The Galra cruiser launched scrambling the fighters to surround the lions; the white one among them.
"Allura, activate the chameleon sequence." Alfor instructed.
"My lion can do that?" Allura wondered in surprise.
"This lion is as unique as the Altean race itself." Her father told her. "Therefore it possesses the same ability. I built it to be that way." Allura then turned to tap at a panel to her right and the White Lion became the Black Lion in the pixelated shift of particles.
"Woah, where did that come from?" Lance gasped, as they all witnessed the change.
"Long ago, I built the White Lion to be versatile. Meaning it could blend in or disguise itself." Alfor explained, somehow being heard by everyone on the com link system. "This is merely a holographic disguise, to conceal the White Lion's identity until the battle begins. It is best to take advantage of this element of surprise, while we possess it with this attack."
XXXX
"We're getting close." Allura noted aloud.
"We have a visual on the base." Kolivan confirmed. He placed a mask over his face to hide his identity; which also acted as a vocal alteration device to disguise his voice along with the rest of him.
"Galra Base; Zakron." Kolivan addressed, over the open channel. "We have the Paladins of Voltron and are on route to deliver the lions and their Paladins for transport to Galra Central Command. Requesting landing codes."
"Copy that, cruiser Thaitus." A robotic voice replied. "Landing codes granted." As if on cue, a screen popped up with the codes they'd asked for, and the Galra fighters, guarding the skies, parted; granting them access to the base below. The base itself was large and heavily ingrained into the earth of the planet; practically encased in its crust. The rugged terrain had clearly been disrupted by the construction of this base, then melded with it to retain the inconsistent continuity of the rest of the planet's surface. Kolivan closed the current line, and opened a new one.
"The trap is set, barricade lower in t-minus five ticks." He reported over the com. "Five,.. four,.. three,.. two,.. one,.. now!" The Galra fighters blasted at the surrounding ones and scattered allowing the lions to do the same. As soon as this happened the Green Lion seemed to vanish into thin air.
"Cloaking successful!" Slav reported. "And I think this is the reality wvhere wve are going to do it this time!"
"Good, cause we're almost to the base." Pidge replied, tilting back toward him, without looking away from the screen.
XXXX
When the barricade went down and the battle ensued, Allura let the shield down to expose the White Lion for all to see.
"My weapons aren't operational." Allura told them. "All I have to work with, are my lasers and claws."
"Don't worry, Princess." Lance told her, weaving through the crowd of exploding fighters. "We got your back!"
Hey how's it going guys! So with the chapter Light In The Dark, I forgot to mention that the White Lion in this fic is the same exact one from my first fic; Call Of The White Lion, only in this AU fic. So just so you guys know, any features it had in Call Of The White Lion, it has here too; plus I've also added some things to it, for the purpose of this story(which you'll likely see later on;)).
Anyway this chapter, however, was really fun because it leads up to some pretty cool stuff. I'm sure you all have questions as to what comes next, and I promise to make sure everything is explained. And PLEASE, if I forget something; don't hesitate to ask questions or point it out!!
Hope you guys enjoy and I can't wait to hear you're thoughts on these next few chapters!! Thx!!! ;D