The stone floor of the cavern was warm underclaw as Shiiar'keh made their way to the main living area. As much as they loved the Long Wind, there were some things about living planetside that the great pack ships just couldn't imitate, and the specific radiant warmth of the geothermal heating systems was one of them. They always made sure to take the time to appreciate those differences, and enjoy them, on the rare occasions they returned to the planet of their birth, because who knew when they might be back next?
It was still quite early in the day, the living cavern all but empty save for a few early risers like themselves. To their surprise, though, two of the Humans had already arrived from the Castle of Lions for the day. Shiro and Matthew were curled up together on one of the biped-designed couches. Moving closer, Shiiar'keh realized that despite their silence, neither of the pair was asleep. If anything, they looked exhausted.
"Good trading." They rumbled quietly, moving closer still and keeping their voice low as they arranged their own limbs on one of the wide, flat seats nearby. "You're both here early."
Shiro blinked, seeming to only just register their presence as his hand went still where it had been stroking Matthew's hair. "Couldn't sleep." He muttered after a moment. He must have been even more out of it than he seemed, because after a tick he added "Nightmares."
For both of them, it seemed. Matthew's eyes were half-lidded and bloodshot, his head pressed to Shiro's chest. Shiiar'keh frowed and reached out one long arm to tuck a stray tuft of hair back from the young man's face. "My sorrows for yours. I would take them from you if I could." They meant it. In his short time aboard the Long Wind, Matthew had become a much-loved member of the pack, someone to be both protected and respected. And though they had only known Shiro personally for a few decarotations, his obvious love and devotion to Matthew had endeared him instantly, as had his tremendous sacrifice to save the one he loved. They knew the pair were both young by their people's standards, too young for all they had endured, and Shiiar'keh couldn't help admiring their strength and courage even as they desired to protect two who were barely more than cubs themselves.
Shiro seemed to pick up on their sincerity, giving a small nod and continuing to card his fingers through Matthew's hair. "I don't think I'd wish either of our nightmares on anyone, but I appreciate the sentiment." He murmured back. His head sagged back tiredly against the arm of the couch, although his hand kept up its rhythmic motion.
"You should try to sleep. The others will not be here for some vargas yet. I will see that no one disturbs you." Shiiar'keh offered. Matthew's eyes had drifted shut, but his uneven breathing betrayed that he was not asleep just yet.
Biting his lip, Shiro hesitated, clearly reluctant to risk a return to the shadows that plagued his sleep. Shiiar'keh tilted their head thoughtfully for a moment, then breathed deeply and began to sing softly, an old H'ress'wr lullaby that they had learned from their own birth pack as a cub. "The king on the lonely mountain sleeps, beneath his queen, the stars. And peace again will come one day, to all from near to far..."
Shiro let out a grunt of surprise, and Matthew cracked an eye open to look at them before smiling thinly and closing it again as he snuggled deeper into his partner's chest. Shiro's arms wrapped around him, holding him close, as he yawned in spite of himself. Shiiar'keh's voice continued to lilt the words in a soothing rhythm as his eyes slid shut as well and some of the tension slipped away from his body. "The lions roar, the flowers bloom, outside the castle's peak. And the daughter comes again one day, to kiss the king to sleep. The gift her father leaves for her will bring her light and hope, on the day she comes to say goodnight on the lonely mountain slope."
Inch by inch, they watch as Shiro and Matthew finally relaxed into sleep, although they did not cease singing until they were certain the two would not rouse again. Finishing the song, they gave a satisfied hum and reached for their data tablet, making themselves comfortable to keep watch as promised. Nothing would disturb their rest if the pack leader had any say in it, and in the meantime they could continue sorting through the records from the early days of the evacuation and the colonizing of Sh'raa H'ressnol, which so far had yet to yield any hint as to the presence or activities of the late King Alfor and Blue Paladin Fiorin.
Engrossed in their work aside from growling an occasional warning at anyone who got too noisy, they didn't realize the rest of the group from the Castle of Lions had arrived for the day to continue the physical search of the caverns until they felt a soft touch to their shoulder. Looking up, they found Matthew's little sister, Katie, standing beside them with a grateful smile on her face. "Thank you." She whispered, glancing at the pair still sleeping soundly on the other couch before her gaze flicked back to them. "I dunno how you managed to get them to sleep, but I'm glad you did."
"Old pack leader trick." Shiiar'keh chuckled. "H'ress'wr lullabies will soothe even the most distressed cub or hunter." They shifted over a bit, making room for Katie to sit on the edge of the seat beside them. "War is not easy, but I will always do what I can to care for my pack, whether it is guiding them in battle, or guarding their rest."
Katie gave a small nod, making herself comfortable on the thick cushion. "Thank you. I'm really glad Matt had-has-you guys looking out for him. He doesn't...he's still not really opening up to me, yet, about everything he went through-I guess that's why he and Shiro came over here instead when I heard them wake up in the night." She grimaced. "You probably know more than I do."
"Perhaps, but only because as Pack Leader, I need to know these things. A wounded hunter cannot be sent into a situation that will aggravate the injury, correct?"
Katie sighed, nodding again. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."
Shiiar'keh ruffled her hair with one hand. "Give him time. When he is ready for you to know, you will know. And in the meantime-"
"Love him and support him? I know." Katie smiled, pushing her glasses up on her face and looking fondly over at the other two. They'd shifted in their sleep, rolling onto their sides so that Matthew was almost hidden from view between Shiro and the back of the couch. It was lucky the one they were on only had a narrow tail-slot in the back, or the younger man would have been in danger of falling through it. Although the protective arms of Shiro, wrapped around him securely, would likely have prevented that regardless. As they watched, Matthew shifted slightly in his sleep, nuzzling up under Shiro's chin. Katie chuckled, her smile widening before she looked back at Shiiar'keh. "Any luck so far with the pack census records?"
"Unfortunately not. If the king and the paladin came aboard any of the fleeing pack ships, it was under false names and identities. No one could have simply snuck aboard the ships or the colony, as they would have been recognized as strangers at once." Shiiar'keh huffed, sliding the tablet over to where Katie could see it more easily.
"Great..." Katie frowned as she studied the information on the screen. "Well, I guess it couldn't have been that easy to pick up their trail. Alfor wouldn't have wanted the information he left disturbed, and as the King of Altea and a Paladin, both he and Fiorin would've been under constant scrutiny if they used their real names and faces. But we know they were here because of Fiorin's message. And we know they must've left some sort of information..."
"Because of Holt." Shiiar'keh finished. Katie gave an uncomfortable nod.
The situation surrounding the time travellers was an odd one. Shiiar'keh had been taken by surprise by the urgent message from Sh'raa H'ressnol, informing them that the planet had been contacted directly by persons unknown, someone who not only knew where the second homeworld was hidden, and could speak the language of its inhabitants, but who professed knowledge of a final aspect of blue quintessence that Malrento had not been able to identify beyond being something that was, according to the records, both immensely powerful, and immensely dangerous. Upon first meeting, though, the pair had turned out to be anything but a danger to the Icebringers. If anything, they were storm-lost cubs, trying their hardest to protect themselves and their family. They had, apparently, spent cycles as part of a full team of Paladins in their original timeline, then further cycles as part of the Long Wind's pack. But over time both paladins and pack had been lost to them, one by one by one.
And the last to be lost, Holt, a version of tiny Katie several cycles older and many losses sharper, had left her two remaining family behind in order to go to Sh'raa H'ressnol in search of something that she had no reason to believe even existed, found it, and passed that information on to the others with her dying breath.
Time travel was a strange, and painful, business. Alejandro and Kurogane found themselves constantly surrounded by faces they knew and minds who did not know them, while Katie now found herself trying to duplicate her counterpart's feat with no clues beyond that it was possible. Shiiar'keh did not envy any of them one bit.
"Did they say how long it took her to find the information?" They asked. A timeframe might give them some idea of how cleverly whatever they were looking for had been concealed or disguised, for how long someone of Katie's intelligence had taken to discover it with no prior knowledge at all.
"Um..." Katie frowned, pulling up her wrist computer and flicking through several sets of notes until she found the file she was looking for. "A couple months. So somewhere around six decarotations, give or take a bit."
"And she was searching alone, while we have many hands to put to the task." Shiiar'keh hummed thoughtfully. "Even so, we have only been looking for two rotations. I'm sure it will surface soon."
Katie grimaced, swinging her legs back and forth off the edge of the seat. "Yeah, but Allura wants to start running missions again tomorrow, once more of the ships are back online. There'll be a lot less time to devote to the search. I mean, I know whittling down the Empire and freeing prisoners is more important-believe me, I do," she said fervently with another long look at her brother. "But shouldn't we be making whatever information Alfor left behind the priority?"
"You're not wrong, Pidge." A new voice entered the discussion, Allura seating herself daintily on an empty chair on Shiiar'keh's other side. "Which is why we'll be focusing on low-risk targets until we find it. It will minimize the time spent away from here, so we can locate the information as quickly as possible."
Shiiar'keh gave the Princess a nod of approval. "A wise use of resources. And even while we are absent, there are those who can continue to search the records on our behalf. I'm sure we'll find a hint somewhere-perhaps an anomalous use of resources towards an unused living space, or a missing computer bank. There must be a way to locate the cache. It's only a matter of finding it."
Katie nodded, pushing herself to her feet. "Maybe I'll go talk to Alejandro and Kurogane some more. See if I can't channel his timeline's version of me and follow her train of thought to solve this." She paused by the couch, brushing some hair out of her brother's face, before disappearing in the direction of the eating room.
"Good hunting, Katie." Shiiar'keh called after her. They sighed, pulling their tablet back and closing off some more files that had failed to produce any useful information. Resource usage records would be the next place to try, they knew, and quickly typed out a message to that effect before sending it off to the other pack leaders both planetside and shipside. Every pack was contributing manpower and resources to the search without reservation. The news that the last king of Altea and one of the last Paladins had been part of the colony in secret had come as a shock, and while the pack leaders simply wanted answers as to the choices the king had made, the revelation had met with very mixed receptions among the rest of the pack members.
Speaking of... "Princess. Any luck with your own search?" They asked courteously, watching her reaction. The young woman had been dealt several unexpected shocks over the last few rotations. It would be foolish to think she was truly as emotionally composed as she appeared, and just because she was not part of their pack didn't mean Shiiar'keh couldn't keep an eye out for her.
Allura sighed, shaking her head wearily. "We already ran into this problem when Kurogane and Alejandro first arrived and I tried to look for information about the other aspects. There was...an incident..." she flinched imperceptibly, "and a large percentage of the Castle's records were corrupted beyond repair. If there's any clue to the whereabouts of my father's legacy, we won't be retrieving it from there."
"Pity. But we'll manage. Holt didn't have access to those records either, from what I've been given to understand." Shiiar'keh told her firmly. "How are you liking it here on Sh'raa H'ressnol?"
She chuckled, her posture easing somewhat as she looked around the living cavern. It was starting to fill now, people moving about on their day's tasks, although most still kept their voices soft out of respect for those who were not quite awake. "Cold. Like H'ressnol was, when I visited with my parents when I was younger. But the pack caverns felt cozy like this there, as well, even if the decor was rather different."
"I didn't realize you had visited H'ressnol." They blinked, a note of amazement slipping into their voice. It was easy to forget, sometimes, that this was the same Princess Allura who had been daughter to the Last King, that she had walked the surface of planets as they had been before the advent of the Galra Empire before spending ten thousand years in a dreamless sleep. The first home of the Hunters was the stuff of history lessons and ancient records to Shiiar'keh, a place to be remembered and honoured, but not something they had ever felt truly connected to. But she had walked the ice sheets and caverns of that world, all that time ago.
"Once." Allura recrossed her ankles, studying the furniture and the tapestries that insulated the walls. "Before...before my mother died. There was a healer they wished to consult to see if there was anything that could be done." She exhaled slowly, folding her hands in her lap. "There wasn't."
"My sorrow for yours." Shiiar'keh murmured.
Allura simply shook her head. "It's in the past. We have other concerns right now. Finding whatever information my father may have left for us, and using it to bring an end to the Empire once and for all."
"Easier promised than hunted. They covered their tracks well."
"Alfor would have left some sort of clue, I know it. Coran is reviewing his memories of the last few days before he and the apprentices left with the Lions, in case he said something intended to point us in the right direction."
"And expected him to recall it cycles later?" Shiiar'keh swatted their tail doubtfully. "And again, it is knowledge Holt never had. There must be something here, on Sh'raa H'ressnol, that will guide us."
Allura grimaced, but nodded. "I know, I just can't even begin to guess what it might be. How do you leave a clue that only certain people will understand, while ensuring it will survive for ten thousand cycles? It seems impossible."
"But." Shiiar'keh sighed, closing their eyes in thought. The Princess raised an excellent point. What hint could lie untranslated for all that time while never being lost? "We know it has been done."
00000000
"All teams in position and ready?" Shiro's voice crackled in Matt's ear.
"Defense one is ready to go, Shiro." Keith's voice answered back.
"Defense two also ready to depart." Came the bubbling voice of Weximar from her tank on her fighter craft.
"Interior one ready."
"Interior two all set to go!"
"Support one, all systems go." Shiiar'keh's voice was calm and steady on the command deck of the Long Wind.
"...Support two ready, I think." Alia, the most successful of Allura's trainee pilots, sounded anything but ready. But then, Matt couldn't blame her. She was about to be piloting the Castle of Lions in battle for the first time.
"Recovery one, ready to drop."
Matt cleared his throat and breathed deeply. "Recovery two, ready when you are." he called, tightening his grip on the handhold beside him. The Icebringer shuttle's main bay was lined with figures in blue-and-orange armor, all of them armed and ready.
"Alright. Time to go! H'ress'wr!"
The com channel surged with noise as the forces ready to go into battle echoed Shiro's (slightly mangled, but he was getting there) hunting cry, Matt adding his own snarl to the cacophony. Then the ship's engines surged with power and he felt the slight shift as the inertial dampeners kicked in to counter their acceleration.
The chatter on the coms fluctuated for a few moments, voices cutting out as ships passed into their designated wormholes, then some of them returning as the shuttle passed through as well while others remained silent, their destination elsewhere. The glow of the portal cleared from the viewing panel in the wall of the bay and Matt's grip tightened on the handhold as he caught sight of their quarry.
Orbiting a pale blue gas giant, the factory satellite didn't look like anything much. No heavy defenses, no protective cordon of Empire warships to stop the team of Icebringer fighters diving toward it. Why would there be? All that was made here was chest armor for sentry robots.
Half the sentry chest armor in the Empire was made here, in fact. And the other half was made in a second factory a dozen galaxies away, which by would now be finding itself under attack by the Lions of Voltron and the rest of assault team one.
"Defenses offline." Weximar reported as her squad made short work of the defensive weaponry and the few fighters that had managed to launch before the Icebringers strafed the main hangar and put a stop to it. "Interior and recovery teams, your turn."
"Got it, Interior heading in!"
"Recovery is right behind you." Matt called, signalling the pilot of the shuttle with his free hand. The view spun to open stars as the shuttle dove towards the satellite on the tail of several others, and then gave way to metal as they entered one of the secondary hangars. Gunfire could be heard outside the ship, the Interior team already getting to work. Their job would be to wipe out the sentries actively defending the base and round up the handful of live soldiers that non-suspect Blade intelligence told them would be overseeing the plant. A small subset of that group would also be in charge of hacking the database for any useful information it might contain, although there wasn't likely to be much.
A bang on the shuttle hatch was the signal that the hangar was clear. "That's our cue, let's move." Matt ordered, swinging up onto Hwrek'shaa'kel's back. "Let's make this fast."
While the Interior team cleared the soldiers and sentries, Matt's Recovery team had their own job to do. Any Empire facility of size, even an automated factory, would have a handful of prisoners on site to serve as menial labour. Cooking, cleaning, and often more unsavoury tasks were always done more easily by true intelligence than by robots. And it was Matt's team's job to get them out.
They made good time through the halls, the Hunters accompanying the team making short work of the few sentries they encountered. Before they knew it they'd reached the cells and Romad was breaking the locks with the ease of long practice.
Matt dropped back to the floor and pushed open the first cell door as Romad moved on. Three prisoners huddled inside, a Bytor and two fox-like beings called Tashkas. One of the Tashka was wheezing, their eyes glazed, obviously sick, and Matt's breathing hitched for a moment. In the back of his mind, claws grabbed his arms and a voice pleaded no no, please, just leave him alone, please, don't-
He yanked himself forcibly from the memory before it could draw him too deep, sucking in air and digging his nails into his palms to ground himself. He needed to focus on the task at hand.
"Hey, it's alright, we're here to get you out. Okay?" He told them, keeping his tone gentle as he moved into the cell and knelt to examine them. Thin, bruised, but not in too bad shape as far as he could see. The two healthy ones would be able to leave under their own power. The sick one… "I need one to assist here!" He called over his shoulder. Almost instantly one of his team, a sturdy Balmeran, was stepping through the door and lifting the sickly Tashka into his arms. "Thanks, Nor." He clapped him on the shoulder as he left before turning his attention back to the other two. "Come on, we need to get moving."
He guided them out into a hallway now crowded with rescuers and rescuees, counting three others being assisted besides the Tashka in Nor's arms. "All prisoners accounted for?" He asked Hwrek'shaa'kel as he returned to their side.
"No." The H'ress flexed their claws angrily. "It is the middle of the night cycle, they should all have been in their cells according to the intelligence. But one was taken by an officer just before the end of the work shift." They nodded toward a small cluster of slender lizard-like aliens, Rynxems, huddling together anxiously as their huge ears flicked around to assess their surroundings.
Matt swore as he tapped his communicator. He knew all too well what that meant. Abuse of power was an unfortunate universal truth, one that he'd seen both time and again, and up close and personal. "Interior, this is Recovery. Be careful doing your round-up, we're short a prisoner, a Rynxem. They're probably in the officer's quarters somewhere."
There was a brief pause before his earpiece crackled with Halneikas's furious growl, their tone echoing Matt's own suppressed fury. "Copy that, Recovery. We'll find them."
"Thanks, Interior. Good hunting."
"Good hunting, Recovery."
Casting one last glance over his team to make sure everyone was organized, Matt pulled himself back onto his partner's back. There was nothing more he could do for the missing prisoner until Interior found them and brought them out. "Everyone stay close, prisoners in the center." He ordered. "Let's move."
The return trip to the shuttle was slower, the prisoners too weak to cover the distance as quickly as the Icebringers had, but the hackers with the Interior team had already done their work and they met no more resistance from the sentries. By the time they reached the hangar the Interior team was already prodding the captured Empire soldiers, bleeding and snarling, into a small pod. It had been decided in the planning stages of the mission that they could afford to be merciful on this mission-the captured Galra, disgraced by their failure, wouldn't dare return to the Empire, but they'd be allowed to leave with their lives. They would find a medical kit and a generous supply of rations aboard the little ship, and once the resistance forces were safely away, where they went would be up to them.
Two medics broke away from Matt's group to join the shuttles that had carried the Interior team, ready to help anyone from that group who might have been injured in the fight, while the others closed ranks to help the rescued prisoners aboard their own vessel. A blanket-wrapped form in the corner showed that the missing prisoner had also been recovered, and Matt smiled sadly as the other Rynxem immediately clustered around her in comfort.
"Recovery, Interior, what's your status?" Shiiar'keh's voice rumbled in his ear.
"Just finishing up here, pack leader." Halneikas responded cheerfully.
"Loading up and strapping in, we'll be ready to launch in thirty ticks." Matt estimated , surveying his group as the others settled their passengers and two sealed the hatch for launch.
"Be swift, group one is nearly finished and will be joining us shortly."
"Understood."
Today's mission was multipurpose. While the chest arm or wasn't exactly a critical component of the sentry robots, it did protect their vital systems. The Empire would be forced to halt production of the assembled bots until new factories could be built to supply the missing protective plating. For a while, at least, their supply of sentries would become a finite resource, and every one brought down would be one less available to protect Empire bases.
The other purpose...
The shuttle launched with a roar of thrusters and he grabbed onto the closest handholds, metal walls giving way to starlight outside the viewing ports just in time for Matt to see the glowing blue maw of a wormhole split open the void some distance away. It shimmered for a moment, stabilizing, before Voltron burst free from its surface.
He ignored the awed murmurs behind him, taking a moment to study the great machine. Usually he was too busy to get the chance to see it in action, and now that he did he couldn't help but be amazed by the craftsmanship, the complexity, the raw power of this masterwork of ancient Altea.
From the left arm, a curving tongue of flame dangled, shifting and curling in response to the arm's movements. He distantly heard Takashi's voice confirming that all the Icebringer ships were clear before the burning thread vanished in a shower of quintessence. There was a pause, the Paladins likely conferring on their next combination of bayards. Because what better time to test some of them out than against a vulnerable target when they had all the time in the world?
A decision apparently reached, quintessence began to form again, a large boxy shape appearing on the back of the Green Lion. Another pause, to figure out the controls of the new weapon, before-
A dozen thin lines burst from the box like the rays of a sunburst through a cloud. At this distance Matt couldn't see whether they were cables or chains, but he saw the damage they did, punching through the outer hull of the space station like a hot knife into soft butter. He frowned, studying them. Something intended to incapacitate a facility by venting atmosphere? Then why didn't the wires retract?
A moment later, he got his answer. Green lightning burst from the box at the base, blinding arcs racing up the wires in an instant to surge through the entire facility. Matt swore, covering his eyes and trying to blink away the spots in his vision. "Jesus, warn people, will ya, Defense One?" He grumbled into his communicator.
"Sorry, Recovery Two ." Takashi's voice responded, not sounding terribly sorry at all even as some of the others who'd been watching the display added their own complaints. "Surprised us, too. Stand by, we're gonna try something else."
Fair enough. Fried systems could be replaced and breached bulkheads patched. They needed to totally destroy the factory, not just damage it. Matt blinked away the last spots and waited.
The wires vanished, the quintessence shifting to another form almost at once. Something more solid, clutched in the right hand this time. A spiked ball on the end of a long chain, scaled up for a giant's hold.
Voltron raced forward, swinging the morning star full force at the side of the station and the hull crumpled like tissue paper under the blow, the spikes tearing chunks of metal free to spin away through space. Each blow gouged more chunks of the factory away, rapidly reducing it to a dispersing field of debris. Barbaric, but unquestionably effective.
As Voltron disassembled, its work done, Matt forced himself to turn away from the window and back towards the people they'd rescued. Destruction was only one small part of the job of the resistance. His job, meanwhile, was healing. By the time they docked with the Long Wind, he needed to know exactly what medical care was needed for each of the twenty or so former prisoners in their care. He may not have been able to heal all their scars, he knew, his eyes drifting over the huddled groups, the wide, nervous eyes, but he would damn well heal all the ones he could.