Everyone rushed in and shot at the fighters, taking them down.
Nova dodged a fighter flying directly at her, which Pidge took out.
"Are you alright, Nova?" She asked.
"Never been better! Thanks, Pidge!" She replied. "Hunk!" She called as three of the fighters aimed at him.
Pidge shielded him from the fires.
Nova and Shiro made work of the fighters.
"Phew... thanks guys!" Hunk called.
"Oh no! The cruiser is charging its ion canon!" Coran exclaimed.
Nova looked up to the Castle. Oh, quaznack!
"Divert all shields to the bow!" Allura ordered.
The cruiser fired.
"Paladins! We need you now!" She yelled. "Nova. Return to the Castle. It's too dangerous!"
"Allura, when are you gonna learn that I belong on the battlefield?" Nova replied, manoeuvring through the fighters to get closer to the cruiser.
Allura sighed irritatedly. "Fine! But hurry, five more ticks and we're done for!"
"Let's go guys!" Shiro ordered. "Form Voltron!"
"Right!"
Voltron flew towards the cruiser and pushed it upwards, diverting the canons fire.
Nova exhaled a breath that she didn't know she was holding. "Allura! Now!" She called.
"Okay! Charging all canons! Locked onto target... fire!" Allura ordered.
Voltron flew out of the way as the Castle's lasers made a direct hit on the cruiser. They formed shield and placed Voltron in front of Nova's fighter to avoid her getting destroyed by the domino effect explosion.
All the paladins cheered.
"Whoo! Nice shot Allura!" Nova called.
"Yeah! The parade is back on!"
Nova rolled her eyes at Lance's comment.
Voltron landed on the Balmera.
"Mission accomplished!"
"And just in the tick of time." Nova added as she landed her fighter. She looked up at the Castle-ship and scanned it. "The Castle's defences are seriously battered."
"Yes, it'll need time to fully recharge." Allura said through the intercoms. Just as the words had left her mouth, the alarms blared again.
"Oh, no, what now?!" Nova groaned.
"Nova! There's an unknown object incoming, do you see it?!" Coran called.
Nova looked up. "Yes! It's Galra, just like the pod that monster landed in, on Arus!" She scanned the object.
"Well it's about to crash into the Balmera!"
When the object finally landed, everyone stared.
"What the heck is that?" Lance breathed.
"Trouble." Shiro stated.
"Everyone, guard up!" Nova said.
"Please don't be a scary monster! Please be empty..."
"Nova?" Pidge called.
"I detect some sort of life within it. Prepare yourselves. Allura, take the Castle up!" She added.
"Nova..."
"I'll be fine! The Castle is very vulnerable right now!"
Allura sighed and did as she was asked.
"It could be full of candy... that'll be good!" Hunk panicked.
"I don't think its a pinata, Hunk." Lance deadpanned.
"If Princess is right and it is the same kinda monster we faced on Arus... We already know how to beat it." Keith stated, punching his bayard into the port, summoning the sword.
Pidge summoned the shield too. "Nova, get behind us for now." She suggested.
"Alright." Nova moved her fighter and hovered behind Voltron. "But guys... I'm sure the Galra have made some upgrades since the last one. So be careful."
Suddenly the pod opened to reveal a very different kind of monster to what they fought on Arus.
The monster that stepped out of the pod began shooting lasers from his middle.
After blocking and dodging half a dozen, it was clear that it was gonna take more than luck to finish this one.
"Paladins! We need to lure that thing away from the surface!" Nova yelled, manoeuvring so she stayed within Voltron's shield. She pulled up. "I'm gonna get within cloud cover and come up with something. I feel in the way."
Voltron flew around, trying hard not to let the monster's lasers hit the Balmera.
They tried slicing it with the sword to no avail. This one was just too fast.
Nova hovered just above cloud cover and analysed the monster.
"We can't hold out much longer!" Lance called.
"My Lion's weakening!" Pidge added. "If the shield sustains structural damage, we're done for!"
"Pidge is right! Scanning you guys, your shield can't take many more hits!"
"Oh, Pidge is right?! I'm the one that said 'we can't hold out!'" Lance snapped.
"Lance! Watch your footing!" Keith yelled.
Voltron toppled over.
"Voltron... disband!" Shiro said.
Voltron became the five Lions again.
"Evasive manoeuvres!" Shiro ordered. "It can't shoot us all at once."
Nova joined them. "Actually Shiro..."
"What is it?"
The monster opened it's arms.
"It can do that too!" Nova dodged one of the one hundred lasers.
Suddenly the Castle-ship appeared and shot at the monster with one of it's canons.
The monster paused and looked at it, before shooting a laser right back at it.
"Where does Zarkon get these beasts from?" Nova dodged more lasers.
"And how does he keep finding us?!" Allura asked aloud.
Nova looked up at the Castle. "Allura! The barrier won't sustain much more damage."
"She's right, Princess. It's still not at full strength from the blast from the Galra ship." Coran added.
"Keith, Nova! Try to draw it's fire. I'm coming in from above."
"Roger!"
Nova frowned. "No, he's Shiro!" She followed him.
Keith couldn't suppress his laughter.
"What's so funny?!" She snapped, dodging a laser.
He cleared his throat, but remained quiet. He shot his fire canon at the beast's chest.
Nova aimed for its head.
Nothing left even a scratch on it, but it sure got it's attention.
Shiro dove towards it.
Nova and Keith flew out of the way.
The monster turned its head.
"Shiro!" Nova called.
Shiro narrowly dodged a laser.
"We need to find it's blind spot!" Keith stated.
"I don't think it has one!" Nova replied.
"Yeah, that thing has about a thousand eyes!" Pidge said.
Nova gave an annoyed growl. "Fighting this thing is like fighting a whole Galra fleet at once..."
"What do we do?!"
"I think we gotta aim for those laser eyes and take them out." Keith piped up.
"Good plan... but how?!" Nova responded.
"We'll cover you from up here." Allura stated. She proceeded to shoot the Castle's canons at the monster.
It looked around again and shot another laser from its middle.
After a few seconds, the ship was getting torn apart.
"Allura! Pull back! Get out of range now!" Nova yelled.
"We will not abandon you!" Allura argued.
"You're not abandoning us, we're gonna pull back anyway!" Shiro stated.
"We are?" Hunk asked.
"We can't hold out, we have to." Shiro replied.
"Paladins, to the mine shafts!" Nova ordered.
"Good idea, it's the only place that the monster can't get to us." Shiro agreed.
"Roger that!" The Green Lion dove into the nearest hole in the ground.
Nova frowned again. "Who the heck is Roger?!" She followed Shiro down.
Shiro, Keith, Nova and Hunk were in one part of the mine shaft.
All three Lions sat down and everyone got out of them.
Shiro looked to Nova. "You can join me in the Black Lion." He suggested.
Nova shook her head. "I'm fine."
The Balmerans came running towards them.
"What's going on?!" Rax asked.
"There's a monster up there that Zarkon has sent to destroy us." Keith explained.
Shay gasped. "A monster? Will Zarkon's savagery never abate?" She had tears in her eyes. "I guess we were never meant to be free."
Nova stepped up and put her hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don't give up." She said softly.
"Zarkon's power grows with every planet he conquers." Hunk piped up.
Nova smiled. "But he's weakened by every being that fights back."
Shay met the Princess' gaze. "Fight back? Against a monster like that? How?"
"I don't know yet, but we can beat it." Hunk said. "Tell her, Keith?" He looked to the red paladin.
Keith raised his brow, then looked to Nova. "Can we?" He met her gaze. She looked worn out, but the fight was still in her eyes. It was obvious to him that she wasn't ready to give up yet.
"Yes, we can!" She declared.
"Nova is right. This is our first mission and we're not going to fail." Shiro smiled a little. "We can beat it."
"We just need a little time to come up with a plan."
"See? I told you we can." Hunk looked between Nova and Shiro. "Thanks, guys."
Suddenly the ground shook and there was a groaning sound.
Nova's eyes widened as she felt herself lose her balance.
Shay held her up.
"Thanks." Nova mumbled.
"Hey, guys? Do you feel that over there?" Hunk called through the intercoms.
"Yeah! We feel it." Lance replied.
"It's that sound again, what is that?!" Pidge asked.
Nova knelt down and touched the ground. "It's the Balmera..." She breathed. "Its..." She bit back tears, feeling the planet's pain.
"Our home crumbles beneath our feet." Rax explained.
"The Balmera is dying." Nova sniffed. "Allura... Coran..."
"We hear you. We know. Our scanners are showing the life energy draining from the Balmera." Coran replied, sadness within his voice as well.
Pidge and Hunk pulled up a hologram of the images Coran and Nova were seeing.
"How does that happen?" Pidge asked.
"Removing crystals from a Balmera, it's like removing a vital part of the creature." Nova explained, standing up straight.
"The Balmera needs time to regenerate itself to stay healthy." Coran continued.
Everyone looked at her to see a tear running down her left cheek.
They also noticed the anger within her eyes.
"But the Galra's greed may have cost this poor creature it's life." Nova clenched her fists.
Shiro stepped towards her and put an arm around her.
"So what's gonna happen?" Hunk asked.
"It's core will collapse, destabilising the entire skeletal structure." Coran explained.
"Anyone and anything will be crushed to dust if they remain here when that happens." Nova stated.
"How long before its core collapses?" Shiro asked.
"Probably a matter of hours." Coran gave a sigh.
"The mighty creature gives its all to others, but not all return its kindness."
"Then our time is short." Allura said. "We'll evacuate the planet. We need to get all of the Balmerans to the Castle of Lions, before the planet implodes."
Nova brought up the video feed to the Castle. "How?"
"Yeah, sounds like a good plan. But how are you gonna land the Castle with that monster thingy upon the surface?" Hunk asked.
"You'll need a distraction." Pidge piped up.
Shiro looked down at Nova before meeting Allura's gaze. "We'll engage the beast in our Lions."
"With it distracted, Allura and Coran will land the Castle and load all of its citizens." Nova concluded.
"Or, we can load the Balmerans into our Lions a few at a time and shuttle them to the ship."
"We only have hours, Lance." Nova snapped. "Not weeks."
Lance went quiet. He looked to Pidge and raised a brow.
Pidge swallowed.
"Look, we don't need to beat this thing." Shiro stated.
"We just need to bait it away from the ship. Provoke and evade." Nova added.
Shiro met her gaze and gave an approving nod.
"I'm just worried we'll be better at the provoking than the evading." Hunk said. "But if this is what it takes to save Shay and everyone on this planet, then I'm in."
Keith looked to Shay and the others. "Can you contact the other Balmerans?" He asked.
"I can, but I know not what they'll say." She added sadly. "Leave the planet? Our home?"
Nova met her gaze. "It's the only option."
"I'm coming down." Allura announced.
"No Allura! It's too dangerous!" Nova exclaimed.
"Says the one who's already down there." Allura chuckled. "Someone has to be there to lead these people out."
"Allura, I will do it! That thing will spot your pod and blow it to pieces!" Nova added.
"No, Nova. You're better off with the Paladins. Let me worry about that. Just focus on keeping the creature distracted."
Nova gritted her teeth. "Lets go!" She ran to her fighter.
Shiro and Keith shared a glance.
"Keep an eye on her, Keith. Just remember when she got angry at Sendak."
"Exactly what I was thinking. But why me?"
Shiro gave a smirk before entering his Lion.
Keith gave a huff before going to Red. What was that all about?!
