Another book heavy chapter, so lots of quoted dialogue and descriptions from the corresponding chapter in the book.
Chapter 12: Bloodstains:
Stork Flight Cabin
Luna
December 18th, 2840
"Seventy-three dead," Mustang reported, shaking her head sadly. "Two Earthborn families erased, neither of which had anything do with Bellona or Augustus. Over two hundred wounded, and that's not even counting the mid- and lowColor servants caught in the crossfire." Shiro slumped back in his seat. So many people dead, all in a matter of hours. When will this all end? He wondered silently as their ship chugged along through the Luna skies towards the Augustan villa, where the ArchGovernor's entourage had been pinned down by a joint kill squad consisting of Praetorian Guards and Bellona lancers. He rested his hand against his throat, thinking about how close he had come to being murdered before he could make it home. The sad thing was that after everything the Galra had done to him, imagining the phantom sensation of a Bellona lancer slitting his throat barely warranted a shiver.
Octavia had been planning to do more than just give the position of Mars' ArchGovernor to the Bellona family. She'd been planning to allow them to assassinate Augustus and everyone who sat at his table during the sixth course of tonight's meal. I guess I should thank Darrow for interrupting the gala when he did, Shiro thought to himself with a macabre chuckle. But despite his attempt at gallows humor, thinking about the maybe-not-quite-metaphorical bullet he'd dodged tonight made him almost as nervous as his panic attack after the skirmish in the gardens. Sure, being a Voltron paladin was no less dangerous, but at least you knew the danger was there, and what to be on the lookout for. His brooding was interrupted when the ship's intercom crackled and the Blue announced that they were five minutes from the rendezvous point. Mustang passed him a pair of gravBoots for when they reached the villa.
Since a full blown Red Wedding-style death had failed, Lune had opted to go for a subtler approach this time. While Darrow met with the Sovereign for an interrogation session with her pet Oracles – carved scorpion/snake hybrid creatures designed to serve as organic lie detectors – and Aja, Bellona lancers and Praetorian guards stormed the Augustan quarters and started killing everyone in their path. Darrow and the Howlers were on their way to break the siege with Lysander as a hostage. Once the getaway ship arrived, Mustang would hold the ship steady, while Shiro would help reinforce them and help bring up survivors. As they prepared for their parts, he fought the urge to vomit on the floor of the passenger cabin as Mustang told him some of the crime scene details.
While they were being escorted by the Praetorians, House Thorne had been fleeing through the forested gardens towards their quarters when they were ambushed by a gang of House Falthe lancers. It was a laughably one-sided massacre, with only one of the Thornes managed to kill a Falthe before being slain herself. Of the Thorne family's fifteen children, only one managed to escape the ambush. She was the only survivor. Among Golds, children weren't innocent, just ticking time bombs waiting to go off. Shiro's face paled as it truly hit him just how ruthless Gold culture really was beneath the lip service to things like honor and justice. Aureate were ruthless killers who did whatever it took to maintain their power and advance their agendas. But there was no time to dwell on the horrors of Gold society. They were almost to their destination.
As he finished latching up his boots, he was overcome by a sense of how familiar the panicked rush felt. It had been there at the back of his mind since his panic attack, but now he could finally put his finger on it. It was too similar the whole sequence of his escape from Zarkon's empire. The violence of the Gala reminded him of the adrenaline rush of his escape and the accompanying firefight, running away from the sentries into an escape pod. Their desperate escape from Luna was reminiscent of his team leaving Earth in the Blue Lion. And through it all, he felt as helpless as he had that night he landed back on Earth, and, rather than helping him or being more accommodating of his obvious panic, the Garrison had just strapped him to a lap table and sedated him in spit of his clear distress. The circumstances were wildly different, but the emotions were uncomfortably similar.
"This is starting to remind me of the second time I left Earth," Shiro commented aloud, thinking of how quickly he and the other paladins had been forced to flee the planet when the Galra ship had arrived in search of the Blue Lion. Mustang looked up from her datapad at the mention of his past. He'd told her he'd been back to Earth once since his presumed death, but he was hesitant to discuss the specifics among the prying eyes and ears of the Citadel. I guess now that we're finally away from the serpents' nest I'll probably be able to tell her about it privately, Shiro mused as he turned to Mustang and shook his head. But now isn't the time.
"I'll explain once we're away from Luna," he replied with a knowing smile. Once they were safely away from the viper's nest that was Octavia au Lune's court, he could tell Mustang about his time as a paladin of Voltron with less risk. Talking about his time as a prisoner of the empire still made him uncomfortable, but after two months on Luna he felt that he needed to actually talk about his time as a Paladin of Voltron to remind himself of who he really was. To remind himself that the gold hair and eyes were just a mask. A few minutes later, the Blue announced that they were approaching the rendezvous point. Alright, Shiro encouraged himself. Showtime. He exchanged a high-five with Mustang before they got up to fulfill their separate roles in the escape plan.
"Good luck," she told him as she moved to head back towards the cockpit.
"You too," he replied before turning on his heels and climbing down into the cargo bay.
With the push of a button Shiro opened the bay doors as the ship hovered two hundred meters above the ground. He looked down to see a standoff in progress. On one side of the garden near the villa's hot springs stood Aja, flanked by two Bellona Golds and their Obsidian bodyguards. Across from them were Darrow and the Howlers, the former holding Lysander au Lune like a freshly caught rabbit with his razor coiled threateningly around the boy's neck. As the ship slowed into position, Sevro and Thistle shot away back to the villa, presumably to fetch the survivors. Quinn remained by Darrow's side while the rest of the Howlers splashed down into the water. Shiro was confused for a moment before they emerged with the members of Augustus' retinue clinging to their bodies, soaked and gasping for air.
They must have been gone underwater to hide from infrared sensors, Shiro observed as he engaged his grav Boots and floated down to help fetch the rest of the household. Sevro and Thistle must have gone back inside to make sure we don't leave anyone behind. On the way down, he passed the ArchGovernor holding on to Harpy's back while The Jackal clung to Clown's arm and Pliny hung from his feet. Shiro dove down into the lagoon and brought out Victra, helmetless and wounded on her neck. She cllung to her razor as though it was carrying her aloft instead of him. The Howlers deposited the survivors into the stork's loading bay and returned for more.
"I will remember you all with great joy," he heard Victra shout from his back, laughing madly. "Starting with you, Aja au Grimmus. I will make a coat of your hide." Gold bodies were much denser than those of pre-Conquering humans, so Shiro was grateful that his gravBoots make what would otherwise be a strenuous task so much easier. He let her off in the belly of their escape craft at the same time that Roque and Theodora, a Pink serving as Darrow's personal assistant, were unloaded by the other Howlers. As Shiro glided down for his second trip, he saw Thistle emerge from the manor, helping several survivors, including the Telemanuses and Tactus, who had blood seeping from over a dozen holes in his armor. He really put up a fight, Shiro remarked as he landed on the ground next to Darrow and Quinn.
"Darrow?" Tactus cried as he saw his friend at the head of the rescue party, cackling gleefully when he laid eyes on the Sovereign's grandson. "You mad bastard! Oh, that's ripe. That's ripe. I owe you a drink, my goodman…" The lancer's voice trailed off as Thistle and the Telemanuses carried him up to the ship, although Shiro couldn't help but chuckle as Tactus managed to make an obscene hand gesture in Aja's direction.
"He's taller than in holos," Shiro overheard Lysander whisper. He immediately sobered up at the reminder of the fact that their survival depended on threatening the life of an eight-year-old child.
"That's the last of them," Sevro informed Darrow. Good, Shiro thought. Now we can finally get out of here and figure out what to do next.
"Tell your master we of Mars do not bow so easily," Darrow said to Aja. The rain beat down around the group, dripping over the Protean Knight's dark face, so her eerie eyes blazed in the night. For a few minutes, nobody moved as the tense standoff continued. After a few moments, she broke the silence the Reaper imposed on her.
"That is what the Governor of Rhea said when my Ash Lord came to put down his rebellion," she said. But Shiro quickly noticed something off about the Fury's voice. It didn't sound like her own, as if someone else is speaking through her. Octavia must be speaking into Aja's ear over her com, he realized. With Aja repeating the words.
"The Governor of Rhea sat upon his Ice Throne in his famed Glass Palace and asked one of my servants 'Who are you to breathe fear into a man such as I? I who have descended from the family that carved heaven from a place where once there was nothing but a hell of ice and stone. Who are you to make me bow?' Then, he struck the Ash Lord here under the eye with his scepter. 'Go home to Luna. Go home to the Core. The Outer Reach is for creatures of sterner spines.' The Governor of Rhea did not bow. Now his moon is ash. His family is ash. He is ash. So, run, Darrow au Andromedus. Run home to Mars, for my legions will follow you to the ends of this universe."
"I hope so," Darrow fired back, even as Shiro shuddered at how thoroughly they've provoked the Sovereign's wrath.
"You have one bargaining chip," Octavia reminded them through Aja. "My grandson is your safe passage. If he dies, I wipe your ship from the sky. Spend him wisely." Why is she telling us something we already know? Shiro wondered as Quinn leaned into Darrow's shoulder.
"It's time to go," she said. She set a hand on Darrow's back to remind him that he wasn't alone. The Reaper nodded, and Shiro helped Quinn cover their retreat as Darrow rose upward with Lysander, razor slithering around his neck like a python. Quinn eyed the Praetorians warily and rose to follow. As she did, Shiro saw Aja looking at Quinn rising from the ground the way a cat looked at a mouse and comprehension dawned on him in an instant.
"Aja, NO!" Lysander yelled.
"QUINN!" Darrow shouted.
And in a flash, Aja lunged forward, quicker than any cat ever born. But his time piloting the Black Lion had honed his reflexes to the point that Shiro was the only one able to react in time. After keeping it a secret for two months, he activated the energy weapon in his mechanical arm and lashed out at Aja, the Galra tech of his arm carving through her armor like butter and leaving a four-inch burn along the Protean Knight's arm. The Fury screamed in pain and rage as she recoiled from the blow. Shiro quickly engaged his gravBoots and accelerated into the air, Quinn following closely behind him.
-Forty years before the beginning of the second book, the moons of Saturn rebelled against Octavia and tried to declare their independence from the Core. It took the deaths of fifty million people and the nuclear warhead-induced annihilation of Rhea (which earned the Ash Lord his nickname) for the First Moon Lords' Rebellion to be /
-And yes, Octavia still looks relatively young after ruling for over six decades. Medical technology and the whole gene splicing differentiation of the castes means that the average Gold can live almost a hundred and fifty years, even without the aid of other life-extending chemicals/procedures that have been developed over the centuries.