Pidge rubs a little dirt on her face before stepping out of the bushes. She holds her gun up in a light grip, one barely tight enough to keep it from falling out of her hand, in a sign of surrender.
In front of her, Lance is bleeding out on the sand, and Shiro has a gun to his head. The Galra smiles, and claps, as if she were performing a trick for his entertainment. "Good, good. I'm sure Lord Zarkon will be pleased to hear that we've managed to deal with the menance that has been disruptin' his business. Now just slide the gun over, and we'll get this over with."
His muscle, three white men with bored expressions, watch her carefully as she lowers the gun to the sand. They watch her so intently, they don't notice Keith and Hunk aiming their guns from the roof of the town's canteen. Hunk offers her a thumbs up as she straightens up, and she immediately drops back down to the sand. The sun is so bright, it's hard to see, but the dirt under her eyes help to deflect some of it, giving her a chance to watch as the Galra falls to the ground, a new hole through his skull.
Shiro takes advantage of the confusion to knock away the gun. He headbutts him, and topples him to the ground. Shiro rips the rope tying together his hands, and pummels him into the ground. Lance is still out for the count, and is pretty much defenseless against the other muscle's attack. One attempts to drag him to their carriage, while the other fires at Hunk and Keith, who are either pinned down, or headed downstairs to join the fight.
Pidge stands up, and grabs her gun from the ground. She dashes across the sand, and fires twice, both shots going wide. It does manage to get the Galra muscle's attention. He drops Lance onto the sand, and turns. He fires twice, and while one shot does manage to graze her shoulder, he's relatively unsuccessful. She turns, and fires another volley. Her aim is on point this time, and he falls to the ground, clutching his stomach.
Behind her, the battle has grown silent.
She lifts Lance upright and leans him against the back of the carriage. Shiro walks beside her, his hand resting on the one replaced by the Galra. "Nice work, Pidge."
She nods in acknowledgement.
Shiro turns back to the group. Keith and Hunk are running up to meet them. Hunk steps over the bodies carefully, while Keith makes a point to kick them as he walks by. Pidge knows that it makes Shiro uncomfortable to watch Keith disrespect the dead like that, but he doesn't bother to speak out about something so small.
"We're gonna take Lance back to Allura before heading out again. He needs to be healed before we try to fully secure the town." Shiro says, helping Pidge to lift Lance into the carriage. It's much fancier than what they're used to; probably has less bounce than their rickety wagon, which'll help Lance from waking up before they get back. She winces at the thought of him being conscious, and able to feel the burns and cuts that cover his body.
They had thought that Bridgetown was safe. It seemed too far out of the way for the Galra to bother; after all, they were focused soley on profit and monopolizing the growing west. Wasting resources to go here was stupid. It was likely that the group had tracked Voltron there, and decided to try their luck. Some luck they had, she thinks, eyes drifting over the newly made corpses.
"Keith and Hunk, you take the wagon back. Pidge and I will ride with Lance." Shiro orders. Hunk and Keith nod, and start walking back to town to get their horses.
Pidge climbs in beside Lance, as Shiro sits in front to drive.
Voltron: meaning spirit warrior. It was a word from the Altean tribe, a title given to them by Allura. She and Coran were the last of their tribe, one of the last Native peoples in this side of the country. Pidge had never much believed in magic, like a good Christian girl's supposed to, but she had no other word to describe what they could do. Allura could change her appearance at will, and they possesed the ability to heal wounds at an impossible rate. Lucky for them, she supposed. If they had to wait and heal like normal people did, they'd never be able to resist against the Galra.
Somewhere down the line, Pidge falls asleep and wakes up inside the Castle of Lions. The castle is big, much too big for the seven of them, but Pidge has slowly started to think of it as home. Her bed, or rather, the Altean equivalent, is warm, and she hesitates to leave it. But this mission was supposed to be an inteliigence gathering mission, and they might have some info on the whereabouts of her father and brother.
They had disappeared over a year ago, on a expedition to the furthermost coast to map out the best paths, to and back to the eastern coast. Shiro had been a part of the expedition, but had escaped whatever fate her family had been left to. Of course, he had not escaped without a toll. His arm had been cut off, and replaced with a steam powered contraption that moved like a human hand did. Even though it was an amazing replacement, Shiro hated it. He hated having to supply it with more water, or having to clean the gears that kept it running. Pidge had taken it upon herself to complete these tasks, before anyone else awoke.
Pidge slides out of bed, and pulls on her boots. She always sleeps in her pants (she's learned to after Allura fell in love with midnight drills.), and her chest bindings, so all she has to do is pull on her shirt and holster before leaving her room. Outside, the halls are still quiet. Lance and Hunk are late sleepers, and while Keith is a fellow early riser, he spends these quiet hours training.
She slips down the hall and into the kitchen, where Shiro and Allura are sitting. Shiro shovels food into his mouth mechanically, as Allura chats animatedly about something or other. Pidge walks in quietly and grabs the cleaning kit from the shelf. She brings it to the table, and gently lifts Shiro's arm from his lap and onto the table. He nods in acknowledgement, and continues to listen to Allura's tale.
"...and then Krotor, he fired through the waterfall, and hit the krobosh right in the heart. He would've won my hand in marriage then, if I hadn't have fired after him, right through his arrow." She beams, and Shiro smiles back. It's rare to see Shiro smile, and Pidge is glad that Allura can still cause him to.
She pulls a gear from his elbow, and cleans it off before regreasing it and replacing it. She repeats the process for the next joint, and then for his shoulder. When she's done, she grabs the kettle from over the fire and pours the fire into the spout. His arm responds with a hiss and crackle, Pidge smiles smugly at the finished task and stands, just as the others walk into the kitchen.
"I was going to cook the coshbar this morning." Coran complains, at the sight of the prepared pot.
Allura smiles apologetically. "I was feeling bored this morning. I haven't tried my hand at cooking in a while."
Hunk and Lance exchange excited looks. While Coran is very nice, his food is very bad. At least, it is in comparison to Hunk or Allura's cooking. They sit down and start to shovel the gruel into their mouths as if it's their last meal. Shiro slides a bowl in front of Pidge and she nods her thanks before digging in. As everyone starts to eat, Shiro drops his relaxed demeanor and drops an envelope onto the table.
"The document we took yesterday alludes to a forced work camp near the coast. There's a chance that we could find the Holts there, but we won't know for sure until we check it out." He pulls a map from the envelope and spreads it out on the table. He points to several locations on the map. "We'll hit these on the way there. Each one is either a Galra comtrolled town or a work camp, filled with natives. We'll get this one today." He points to one that's near a two day ride from the Castle.
Lance frowns with a mouth full of gruel. Specs of it fly out fly out as he complains. "But we just got back!"
Keith wrinkles his nose. "Eat with your mouth closed."
Lance stuffs another spoonful into his mouth. "I'll do what I wanna, Keith!"
Keith winces more strongly, and glares at him, before sliding his bowl closer to Hunk.
"Be nice." Shiro warns, as he brings his bowl back to the counter.
It's close to noon when they leave camp, and Pidge resents the sun that beats heavily on her back. If she didn't care about the inevitable sunburn, she'd take her shirt off; the heat is so stifling. However, she knows that she's got this shift until three, so she resists.
In the carriage she drives, she can hear Lance and Keith fighting. She can't hear much more than their raised voices, but she finds herself smiling anyways. She wishes that they'd just get together, however indecent the idea may be. She knows that Eastern society would never allow it, but out here in the uncontrollable west, no one would know any better. Just like how no one knew that she was a girl.
Well, outsiders anyway. She had told the members of Voltron a month or two ago, and while Lance had been surprised, the others had figured it out. Shiro had known first. Shiro had recalled the sister that Matt had talked about, and it wasn't hard to connect the dots. After all, with her hair cut short, she looked almost identical to her brother. Outsiders, like those that they rescued, often assumed that she was male.
The fact that she was a girl didn't defer her from wanting to take her shirt off. She sighed, and continued to drive. She slowed the horses down as a canyon loomed before them. It's high walls were daunting, and she couldn't help but think of all the places to hide and wait for an opportunity for an ambush.
"What's the hold up?" Lance says, his head sticking out of the small conversation window. The last time he did that, he got his head stuck and it took them an hour to get him out.
She points at the looming canyon walls. "I'm not sure that it's a good idea. Too many places to hide out, and too many opportunities for ambush."
Keith yells from inside the cabin. "Get yer fat head back into the damn carriage before you get stuck again."
Lance pulls his head back, as Shiro rides up beside her. "If we go around it, it adds another day to the ride that we just can't afford. We'll just have to be careful."
Pidge nods, and pulls the reigns. The horses start trotting again, and Pidge only keeps half of her attention on steering. The rest of her mind is focused on the walls, and the caves that spot them. They're halfway through when she lets her guard down. She can see the other side when Keith calls to switch. She climbs out of the seat and stumbles onto the ground. Her legs are asleep, and she decides to walk around the carriage once or twice before getting in to wake them up.
Keith doesn't get in the driver's seat right away either. He walks over to Shiro, and says something that she doesn't hear.
That's when it all went to hell.
All she can hear is gunfire. Loud and echoing, it seemsto come from everywhere. She's lost at first, unable to tell where it's coming from. She finally snaps out of her trance, and runs back to the relative cover of the cart. She pulls her gun from her holster, and looks at the walls across from her. She can just barely see the sun, reflecting off of the barrel of a gun. It's too large to be owned by a regular civilian; it's either Galra or military, and seeing as she's never seen military this far out, she knows it's Galra.
She fires, and she can't tell if she hit her mark. The tell-tale reflection is gone, and there is too much gunfire for her to tell if he's gone. She looks for another, and is focusing so hard, she doesn't notice the Galra until he's right on top of her. She takes the brunt of his hit in her back, and for a moment, she can't even breathe. The stun wears off, just as the Galra is aiming his gun at her, and she rolls out of the way. Pidge aims her gun at him, and fires. It hits his shoulder instead of his head, but he falls nonetheless. She doesn't want to waste the bullet on an already incapicitated enemy, but it's another Galra that decides for her.
A bullet flies past her ear, and she swears that she can smell her hair burning.
She turns, and fires, her bullet just missing Keith, whose knife has just crossed the Galra's neck who had in turn just fired at her. She shoots him an apologetic look before ducking down again. Lance dashes to the side of her, his chest heaving with every breath he takes.
"Cover me. I'll try to get across to that alcove and cover you from there." He says before running away. She barely had time to adjust her gun before the first Galra tries to attack.
She shoots one, the bullet going through his throat and into the rock behind him. The second turns and fires at her, realizing that since she's stationary, she's an easier target. He thought wrong. She fires and her aim is true. It leaves a hole through his skull.
The battle is over as aruptly as it began.
Gunfire slowly dies out, and they slowly drift back to the carriages to regroup.
"That was fun." Keith mutters, a hand pressing against a cut on his arm.
Lance runs up beside him, sporting a bloodstain on his thigh and left shoulder. "No kidding."
Shiro's arm is steaming, a sure sign of it's overuse, and Hunk is glaring at the damaged carriage, like it's to blame for it's own destruction. Sure, she thinks, she may have just almost died, but she wouldn't have it any other way.