The Cryon IV Incident, Episode 8: Surrounded!

By Papa Palpatine 2008

Notice: Cue mumbling lawyer chorus…don't own, don't sue….

Alright, let's do this…

"What the hell was that?" Lotor said, turning suddenly and staring back in the direct they came. Allura halted in her tracks just a few paces in front of him.

"What was what?" She said, looking at him quizzically.

"I can hear footsteps," Lotor said. "A lot of them, coming our way."

"More Ice Beasts?" Allura asked with trepidation.

Lotor shook his head. "It doesn't sound like they're that big."

"Maybe Keith and the others…"

"Also unlikely," He said. His lip curled into a slight smirk. "Somehow doubt even your friend Hunk is two and a half meters tall or weights just over three hundred and fifty kilograms."

Allura did a double take. "You can tell that much just from sound?"

"It's more accurate to say I can make educated guesses based on what I can hear, but basically yes."

"Shouldn't we take cover or something? Hide?"

Lotor nodded. "That's probably a good idea."

Allura turned off her lantern as they sought refuge in the next chamber, each of them standing with their backs to icy cave walls just inside the entrance. Lights were flooding into the chamber they had just vacated; shadows of several large figures were visible in the tunnel beyond. Allura could hear the strange gibbering noises they made to each other, a language she had never heard the likes of before in her life. Carefully, she leaned toward Lotor and whispered to him "Who or what are they? Are they looking for us?"

"They're the Krelvan," Lotor whispered back. "They're the space pirates that shot your lion down."

"W-what happens if they find us in here?"

"It's best to hope they don't." Lotor replied, glancing at his bandaged arm. "I don't know that I'm up to fighting one Krelvan, let alone a whole squad of them."

Allura could see them clearly as they were gathered around the corpse of the Ice Beast she and Lotor had slain. Her heart jumped and a soft gasp escaped her when she noticed the trail of red foot prints leading to where they were hiding in the next chamber!

"Allura, what's wrong?"

"One of us must have stepped in the beast's blood; there are tracks that'll lead them right to us."

"Damnit!" Lotor hissed through his teeth as he slapped his palm to his face.

"What are we going to do now?"

"Just don't move and don't make a sound." Lotor replied, reaching for the hilt of his sword.

"Prince Lotor and Princess Allura," A synthesized voice boomed. "Show yourselves at once, it is useless to hide from us."

Neither of them moved nor spoke. The electronic voice echoed again. "I repeat, show yourselves, you have no hope of escape; we know where you are hiding and we have you surrounded."

Allura noticed light coming from another tunnel on the far side of the chamber they were in. They were indeed surrounded. They had no choice in the matter, they stepped out into view.

"Princess Allura of Planet Arus," The red Krelvan said through its translator. "Your people would pay a substantial ransom for your safe return; you shall be taken into our custody."

It then turned to Lotor. "Prince Lotor of Planet Doom, your father, King Zarkon, would never negotiate for your safety at any price. Your life is of no value to us; you shall be terminated immediately."

Lotor sneared as he drew his sword. "We'll see who's about to be terminated!"

"Lotor, don't!"

"Allura, just stay back and let me handle this!"

"But, you're still—"

"Just do as I say, woman!" Lotor barked at her.

Two blue Krelvan were about to advance upon Lotor, but their leader gestured for them to belay with a wave of its claw hand.

"You display much bravado before this female, Prince Lotor." The red Krelvan remarked. "Despite the obvious fact that you are wounded, you insisted on engaging me in single combat to protect her. May I then presume she has permitted you to fertilize her eggs?"

Allura immediately blushed at the implication. This was not lost on Lotor, who smiled back wickedly at the Krelvan and said, "That's a very personal question coming from something I'd expect to see served with melted butter and a side of Coleslaw…Now prepare to meet your end!"

"Not so fast, you bottom-feeding bastards!" Hunk growled as flew the Yellow Lion at ramming speed into the port side of the Krelvan ship. The force of the impact jarred the alien pirate ship enough that the tractor beam it held the crippled Blue Lion in lost its cohesion. Allura's lion ship hung 20 meters in the air for less than a second before it dropped back into the snow next to Lotor's fighter.

"Ha, ha, Yeah!! Take that, you overgrown brine shrimp!!" Hunk taunted as he brought the Yellow Lion back around for another attack.

The Krelvan ship immediately maneuver into an attack posture as hatches in the surface of its hull opened and gun turrets and missile pods whirred into position, preparing to launch their first salvos. Yellow Lion agilely dodged and weaved around the barrage of Lazon blasts and missiles as it strafed the starboard side with its own weapons. Upon closing the gap, the Voltron lion clamped its jaws down on the nearest turret, rending it and ripping it free, and then hurling it away. Yellow Lion roared as it turned its head toward the ship's bridge, a metal sphere at the top of a cone-shaped tower near aft. Hunk took potshots at the bridge with the big cannon mounted on Yellow Lion's back, baring his teeth as he watched as the metal tower burst into flame. Another turret whirled around just then and fired; just grazing Yellow Lion's left shoulder.

"Son of a bitch! I just had this thing washed and waxed!" Hunk pounded his fist in anger. "Now I'm really pissed!"

The Yellow Lion leapt off the hull and into the air several meters off the port side. Hunk used the energy probe to find the exact location of the Krelvan ship's main reactor, about the middle of the ship, and then locked on and opened fire with everything the Yellow Lion had on it. The alien pirate ship shuddered as the breeched reactor exploded into a great orange fireball, tearing the ship in half. The flaming wreckage barely missed the Blue Lion as it rained down from the sky. Lotor's bat shaped fighter did not fare so well, however, as it was crushed beneath a major chuck of the Krelvan ship's forward section.

"Ha, ha! Looks like Prince Loathable's gonna need to call for a ride home." Hunk chucked. "He'd better not have hurt Allura or I'll do the whole galaxy a favor and smash his skull in…"

"If you think you'll be the one to kill me, you're delusional." Lotor spat back at the red Krelvan as he took a strong stance and gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands. "I've killed fiercer creatures than you in the arena back home without breaking a sweat."

"Lotor, please don't do this." Allura pleaded. She looked the red Krelvan straight in the faceplate tearfully and said. "I'll surrender myself without a fight, just please—"

"Allura don't," Lotor snapped.

"How touching," The red Krelvan replied. "Prince Lotor's mate does not wish to watch him die. Very well then, we shall take you both into custody…and I will have him executed later."

"That's it!" The Drule prince snarled. "I'm going to enjoy eviscerating you, you oversized snow crab!"

Lotor let out a terrible din as he charged and leapt, sword held overhead. But just as Lotor was close enough to bring the glowing blade down on the red Krelvan's head, it caught him in its jagged, half-open claw. Allura watched in horror as Lotor's sword clattered on the icy cave floor and the Krelvan cast him down, limp as a ragdoll.

"No! Looooootor!!"

In that moment, a montage of recent events replayed in her mind; of him telling her about he and his stepbrother playing hide and seek in a cave similar to this one; of him embracing her and comforting her when she came upon the pile of human skeletons in one of the chambers; and of her bandaging his injuries after the fight with the Ice Beast. She ran to his side, but he was unresponsive. Was he dead or just unconscious? She couldn't say for sure, but he was hurt badly; possibly mortally this time. She was just coming to understand him, to see him as something more than the son of the monster who murdered her parents; to see him as someone she might have befriended had they met under different circumstances. And in an instant, the Krelvan may very well have taken him from her...

With tears still streaming down her cheeks, Allura picked up Lotor's sword, sprang to her feet, and charged the red Krelvan, her normally gentle face contorted into a vengeful scowl. Surprised, the red Krelvan could not react in time as she jumped up and drove the glowing blade into its faceplate. It let out a final, horrid shriek just before it toppled backwards and sprawled dead on the floor. The blue Krelvan soldiers all turned to each other, jabbering as Allura stood over their dead leader and pulled the light sword free. She watched the greenish-blue blood drip from the point of the sword, and then turned to them with fiery wrath burning in her eyes….

To Be Continued…