Chapter 12: Fish Out of Water:
Corinth
Mars
March 16th, 2841
Keith was quiet, his face uncovered as he stood in the loading bay of the troop transport as it cruised through the Martian atmosphere. All around him men and women of drastically varied heights and hair of a thousand different shades of gold, white, green, pink, red, orange, and gray readied themselves for battle. Inlaid forcefields were charged. Guns, energy weapons, and projectile launchers of all types were loaded and prepared for battle. Knives were sheathed. And whip-like swords called razors were coiled around forearm armor. Not willing to test the durability of the Blade of Marmora's uniforms against these kinds of weapons, he'd been given a suit of what Shiro had called "pulseArmor", along with a crash course in the use of gravBoots and pulseFists before Shiro's troops had to leave for Corinth, a city in Mars' southern hemisphere that was home to the fourth planet's largest commercial spaceport.
Despite what Keith had told Shiro, he was still having a hard time wrapping his head around everything. And that was saying something considering how outlandish some of the things they'd gotten up to out in the wider universe had been. Despite Shiro being abducted by the Galra and the Galaxy Garrison covertly preparing to fend off an alien invasion, Earth had apparently never had contact with extraterrestrial life after the abduction of the Kerberos Crew for over eight hundred years. The empire not invading the planet because the Voltron Coalition was a higher priority, he could understand. But the idea that none of his team, none of the paladins, had even once managed to find the time to go home. Especially after it was all over? That he couldn't understand.
If he didn't already know that only Voltron could travel between realities unharmed, he'd have thought he'd fallen between realities instead of time periods. Everything around him was so completely alien from what he'd left behind when they'd left Earth in the blue lion all those months ago. Ship designs were one thing, but gravBoots, ghostCloaks, pulseFists? It was dizzying for him to keep track of all the terms the soldiers around him kept throwing around so casually. You'd think I'd be used to all of it after living on an Altean castle-ship for so long, he thought to himself. On the castle, he'd at least had the luxury of slowing down long enough to learn what everything meant.
But what made this experience so alienating was how close to home it was. He'd stepped into the future of humanity and the only thing familiar was the pseudo-Roman architecture of Mars' capital city. The only thing that kept him grounded in this sea of unfamiliar faces was Shiro. Paradoxically, the more he thought about it, the more Shiro seemed like the most confusing part of this entire scenario. Shiro had apparently been sent to the future immediately after the big fight with Zarkon where he went missing. But somehow whatever the empire had done to him had apparently made him forget his journey through time. Or was it something else? Had Shiro deliberately kept his experiences a secret because he knew that Keith would someday end up in the same future? Had he deliberately pushed Keith into leaving the team because Keith himself had outlined the sequence of events leading to their reunion in this era?
No, Keith thought. That's not like Shiro. He'd never do something like that. He'd never do that to me. Would he?
That was a question that would have to wait until he had more information or else made it back to his own time. Whichever came first. He listened with half an ear as Shiro briefed his unit on their battle plan for when they reached Corinth. The Black Paladin was the only person he recognized amid the sea of unfamiliar faces. Evey and Fennix, the Pink woman and the Gray male who'd been with them at Whitehold, were giving similar briefings in other dropships as they flew to reinforce rebel troops in other cities. Outside the window, the waters of the Thermic Sea sparkled blue beneath them as they cut across Mars' southern hemisphere.
Once the briefing was concluded, Shiro walked over to Keith and discreetly tapped his finger against his ear. The Red Paladin (former, he reminded himself with a pang of longing) nodded before running his tongue along the bottom of his teeth, activating the small electrodes that Virany, the rebellion's lead doctor, had attached that caused his helmet to fold out of a small compartment in his armor above the back of his neck until it covered his entire head. He turned and looked at Shiro quizzically. He still hadn't gotten the hang of how to turn his armor's external speakers on and off. Shiro was more patient with him that he was expecting and demonstrated how to switch the speakers off from his datapad before opening a private com channel.
"Stay close to me, alright?" Shiro reminded him. Keith nodded. Ever since he'd shown up, Shiro had been almost overprotective of him in a way. It wasn't as if Keith could blame him. He'd gotten a glimpse of what Shiro was capable of with this kind of tech and even he knew that what he'd seen was only the tip of the iceberg. Compound that with the fact that Shiro knew more about what was going on than he did, and it was only natural that the Black Paladin would be so protective toward him. The Sons of Ares had offered to let him recuperate in Agea while Shiro went to reinforce the siege of Corinth, but Keith had refused. He was already disoriented enough. He didn't want to lose the only source of familiarity he had.
"As long as you don't die on me, Shiro," he replied, half-joking as he tried to inject one last bit of levity before they headed into battle. "You still need to introduce me to your boyfriend." Even with their faces covered by their helmets, Keith could tell Shiro was blushing right then. The mood turned somber as Keith's laughter died. He put a hand on Shiro's shoulder, slightly tense before his fingers confirmed that the energy shield in Shiro's armor had been turned off.
"You'll make it back," he said. Keith could tell from how eager he was to find out more about what had happened after their fight with Zarkon that not being able to come back had been weighing on Shiro. But the fact that, from Keith's perspective, he'd already been rescued meant that the Black Paladin was destined to make it home.
"And so will you," Shiro replied firmly. Internally, Keith winced. He'd told Shiro about his attempted sacrifice play, and it had only made his friend more protective of him. He appreciated it, he really did. He wasn't a death seeker, but it wasn't like he was going to cause a temporal paradox if the worst happened. He didn't really have anything he could say in response to Shiro's pronouncement. That would only lead to Shiro trying to mother hen him during the battle and now was not the time for his friend to be distracted. He turned off his com and collapsed his helmet, Shiro doing the same a second later, when a voice came over the intercom.
Five minutes to drop zone, the ship's pilot announced in the cool, clipped tones that Keith was beginning to associate with Blues. If any other "Colors" talked like that, he had yet to meet them. All around him, the troops finished making their preparations and got into position. Shiro helped make sure that the pulseShield inlaid in his armor was turned on before leading him toward the front of the launch bay. Keith fidgeted as he stood by Shiro's side. On Shiro's left was a towering Obsidian by the name of Wulfgar. Keith glanced behind them to see two dozen soldiers, armor all painted with the spiked helmet of the Sons of Ares, or the red crescent scythe of the Reaper of Mars, the rebellion's leader.
"Break the chains!" The Black Paladin shouted.
"BREAK THE CHAINS!" The troops roared in answer, fists raised in the air.
Finally, it was time. The lights changed to green, the launch bay doors opened, and everyone dove out into the meat grinder. Smoke and fire clogged the Martian atmosphere over Corinth. Smoke and flames rose from the top of the island city's perimeter walls, the translucent energy shield long since disabled. The remaining artillery turned to fire toward their dropship. Keith and Shiro narrowly banked in time to dodge incoming railgun fire, depleted uranium shells arcing outward before gravity dragged the now useless projectiles down beneath the waves of the southern ocean, where old water ships spew death and fire up at the airborne rebels.
Despite the intensity of the loyalists' anti-aircraft fire, it was clear that the battle was going in favor of the rebellion. According to Shiro, Corinth's defenses were some of the best on Mars, second only to Agea itself. And if the rebels had managed to take control of Mars' capital city, then it was only a matter of time until Corinth and its spaceport fell under the control of the rebellion. Explosions echoed all around them. Keith accelerated to keep up with Shiro as his brother in all but blood weaved through the minefield of explosions and artillery shells toward the city, three dozen Sons of Ares following behind. The coms were a cacophony of orders, status reports, and screams as men and women fought and bled and died around them.
A few feet away, a rebel soldier launched a flurry of micromissiles down at the sea defenses before a railgun shell blew them in half. Keith flinched as shrapnel and blood fizzled against the shielding of his pulseArmor. Three more Sons of Ares dropped from the sky as an enemy starfighter strafed their group. Their dropship fired a missile at the ripWing, sending it spiraling down into the sea in a trail of fire and smoke. They faced stiffer resistance the closer they got to the city's walls. Shiro slowed his pace and linked arms with Keith, guiding the younger Paladin as they pushed forward toward the landing zone on the beaches.
Keith was about to protest that the defenses on the wall would tear them to shreds the minute they landed when an explosion took out one of the defense turrets. Another artillery emplacement fell a few seconds later, then another, and another, until within five minutes, the landing zone had been cleared of enemy fire. Wulfgar landed behind them, as graceful as a Blade of Marmora agent despite his massive size. Keith stumbled to his knees as he and Shiro touched down on the beach. Flying like that had been a disorienting experience, and he was still a little dizzy from using the gravBoots to control the speed of his landing. Once he had gotten his balance back, Shiro extended a hand and helped him to his feet before looking up at the wall.
From the top of the fortification, a lone figure descended, accelerating down before suddenly slowing as the figure adjusted the settings on his hover boots. Once the figure had landed on the shore, they retracted their helmet, revealing a dark-skinned man who appeared to be a few years older than Keith. Keith initially tensed at the sight of the man's golden eyes and hair, but relaxed when he caught sight of the insignia painted on the chest of the man's armor.
There were countless Gold families and factions across the solar system, each with their own symbols. Shiro had given him a run-through of which ones he needed to recognize on the battlefield before they'd left Agea. The silver eagle of Bellona. The crescent moon of the Sovereign's family. The bleeding sun of House Julii. It was dizzying to keep track of which symbols belonged to the enemy. But Keith knew enough that he recognized the rebellion's red wolf painted across the Gold's armor. He's one of our allies, then, he thought to himself as the golden man approached. Keith was puzzled why the new arrival wasn't say anything, until Shiro retracted his own helmet and kissed the man. Keith blinked once as understanding dawned on him, then smirked under his helmet at Shiro as he thought of what to say once the Black Paladin and his boyfriend came up for air.
Now that they're out of Whitehold, I wanted to have a chapter where Keith reflects on what's going on before the next battle begins. The next chapter will be out quicker, since it's a partly-book compliant chapter that I'd already typed up months ago. I just need to make some modifications for where I've put it in the timeline.