Chapter 7 – The Knight Revealed! King of a Hundred Beasts Rises!
Four Years Prior:
"Boy, I didn't spend all these years putting you through school so you could go to a glorified space camp!"
"Mom, it's an amazing opportunity!"
The expression on the face of Vince's mother was one of deep anger and shame. The boy had hoped that the acceptance letter to Galaxy Garrison's training academy would have been met with pride, but instead it was met with anger and derision. Her wrinkles, few as they were considering her age, were accented by her furrowed brow and cross grimace.
"You tell me," the dark skinned woman began, "why going to a fancy space camp to be a space explorer when no one ever does that, is a better of use of your time and our money, than you going to college for your accounting degree like your brother?"
"I don't want to be an accountant," Vince answered. "It's boring."
"Boring?!" she shouted. "Boring?! Accounting kept you and your brother off the street! It put food on your table! Steak and vegetables, so you weren't eating processed crap like the other hoodlums!"
"Why does wanting to do something else make me a hoodlum now?"
"You want to go to this stupid thing, fine! Waste your time and money! And when you come crawling back, you'll work off every dime you wasted!"
Present day:
Six arms. Two legs. Three weapons. That was what the machine in front of them was armed with. The pilots faceless, the threat clear. Daniel treated the threat the same way he would any other.
"You've got six arms," Daniel began as the Blazing Sword vanished, "but they can't fly! NITRO PUNCH!"
The two fists flew off the robot towards their target, aimed squarely at the head of the enemy robot. However, both were quickly caught by one of the arms of the other machine before it could be struck.
"Is that your best, Earthlings? I'm dissapoi…"
"VOLT BEAM!"
A powerful laser fired from Voltron's eyes towards the eyes of the Dark Paladin, causing it to stumble and let the caught fists go. It began to move in, only for a powerful strike from the electrified whip its opponent was wielding to stop it dead in its track.
"UGH!"
"No good!" Vince shouted. "We can't get in close while that whip is flaring out at us!" This was accented by numerous shots from the machine's rifle, causing them to move backwards.
"SOLAR COMBAT SPEAR!"
Into each of Voltron's hands flew a single spear, which were connected at their blunt ends into a two sided staff. Pointing one of the ends at the Dark Paladin, the spear was swung forward, but its blade was deflected by a swipe of its sword. Several strikes, all in rapid succession, were all successfully deflected, the strikes not even approaching the Dark Paladin itself. Not to be deterred, Voltron spun the spear in its hand before attempting to swipe at the leg, only for the spear to be caught by the Dark Paladin's whip.
"Predictable!"
A hard punch from the Paladin's free hand knocked Voltron to the ground, and the spear out of its hand, the whip tossing it to one side.
"We can't beat this thing without more power! Let's form Ga…"
"NOT THIS TIME!"
"He's fast!" Larmina blurted out, right before a powerful strike from the Dark Paladin's sword sent Voltron flying into a nearby building, its arms barely shielding the pilots from its strike.
"Your pathetic knockoff of Voltron will be destroyed here and now!"
"Separate!" Daniel yelled, right before the Dark Paladin could deliver the killing blow. In no time at all, it regrouped into the heavily armored form of Voltron's Gamma formation, assuming a defensive stance.
"Cute trick. But no human made machine can stand against Haggar's creations."
"Sir, we've got another battleship approaching and the reflex cannons aren't charged yet!"
Looking up from his position on the seafaring battleship, Commander Hawkins grimaced. The additional battleship had arrived to reinforce its friends, who were currently finding breaching their line of fighter craft far more difficult than during the initial invasion.
"Have all carriers deploy their remaining fighters. If we lose the reflex cannons before they charge, this mission will not succeed."
Planes of all sorts launched from the remaining aircraft carriers in a desperate attempt to support the overwhelmed Air Team. Fighters that made it through the barrage of pinpoint accurate shots from the battlecruiser's cannons found themselves facing the overwhelming numbers of the Galra's fighter craft. They would have found themselves easy targets had Jeff not immediately radioed a message to the beleaguered troops.
"Everyone! Do not break formation! The Galra's technology can be beaten, but we have to fight as one unit or else we'll be picked off one at a time!"
Roger that. Direct flight formation.
"Follow me!"
"We've got trouble."
"Cliff, please tell the trouble isn't those hovering tanks patrolling the area."
"I could Hutch, but I'd be lying."
A squad of tanks, five by Cliff's count, began heading towards the area where the tank and two radar trucks had parked. Knowing that the minuscule force sent in would be no match for the patrols, the group did the only thing they could.
"Bail!"
Shrubbery from planted trees next to a building served as an adequate hiding place while the tanks moved into the area, unsure of what they had come across.
"Who was here?"
Several men began to disembark from the tank, observing the abandoned vehicles. All appeared unaware of their true function.
"Was anyone supposed to be here?"
"Unsure."
The men continued to search by the trucks, unaware that they were being watched. There were at least a dozen, all armed.
THWACK.
"Something came from over there!"
The guards all ran to the source of the noise, noticing only a stone by some debris. Soon however, a second noise, a small crack of metal hitting stone, emanated at their feet.
"What the…"
BOOM!
"OK people!" Cliff shouted, leaving small markers where the radar trucks were, "time to get to work!"
"GO! VOLT TORNADO!"
Gale force winds pounded the Dark Paladin but did not force it off its feet. Slowly but surely, it continued to move forward.
"We need more power!" Vince said worriedly.
"Well how about this?" Larmina answered. Pressing a button, the winds soon sent out tiny particles of rust, the pilot hoping they would do to the Dark Paladin what they did to the steamroller Robeast. This time however, the opposing machine raised its whip, and began rapidly spinning it in front of it, electricity crackling from the whip all the while.
"That whip is deflecting the winds!" Daniel exclaimed. "It's not stopping!"
"DELUXE MISSILES!"
The two missiles on the back of Gamma fired out towards their opponent, but met a similar fate as the wind, the electrified whip slicing them into pieces and deflecting the blast.
"FINE! TAKE THIS!"
Voltron rushed forward to attack with a punch, but soon found its arm wrapped inside the whip. Powerful electrical currents soon followed, shocking all three pilots.
"Your machine is no Voltron, humans! No Voltron!"
A slash from the sword of the Dark Paladin nearly lobbed Voltron's head off, but the thick armor of Gamma protected it, if only barely. The group knew they had to move quickly.
"SEPARATE!" Daniel shouted, but as the three machines did so, Daniel's jet was knocked to the side by a strike of the Dark Paladin's whip.
"Dan!"
BLAM!
"I'm hit!" Larmina said, before a second strike from the whip of the machine struck Vince's jet, sending it crashing to the ground.
"Uh, need to get moving. Guys, are you OK? Guys? What the…"
Daniel looked around, and noticed that he was no longer in the cockpit of his fighter. He wasn't even on Earth from what it looked like. Turning his head to and fro, all he could see was an endless expanse of stars. He didn't even appear to be standing on solid ground, just the same expanse of stars, although it felt like solid marble. Reaching down, he found his hand went past his legs, as if whatever 'floor' was supporting his feet, wasn't beyond it. He fell over, landing square on his behind, but not falling further.
"What's going on?" he asked while standing back up. "Where am I? Guys?"
Looking to his left, a sense of relief washed over Daniel as he saw Larmina in the same void of nothingness as he was. Without thinking, he ran over and hugged her, to which she could only offer a blush before pushing him away.
"Down boy!"
"Sorry, I just thought…"
"What's going on? What is this place? Where's Vince?"
The first question was answered by a look to their right, as Vince stood up and looked forward. He appeared shaken for a few seconds before pointing forward.
In front of the trio was a man. Or rather, he looked human, sitting on a throne of stone and metal, holding a sword with three prongs as he looked on. His face was covered by the mane of a lion, worn as if it were a crown. Looking on at the trio, the man's eyes rose but he did not stand.
"The ones from Earth…who call themselves Paladins?"
"W…who are you?" Vince asked. The man groaned for a few seconds before replying.
"You fight…with my power, do you not? Once I fought for good, but I grew arrogant. I believed myself a god, when I was not. I paid for my hubris, and must now guide those who draw on my power to avoid the same fate as I."
"I don't understand!" Vince answered.
"Protect…life…in my stead."
"Ugh…"
Daniel's perspective shifted again, and once again he found himself in the cockpit of Volt Alpha.
Looking up, he also realized he was about to be cleaved in two by the sword of the Dark Paladin. He offered a scream, but it did nothing to stop the ensuing blow. Luckily for him, though, a barrage of missiles stunned the machine before it could deliver the killing blow.
"MOVE YOU PIECE OF JUNK!"
Finally, the jet engines on the machine roared to life, sending Volt Alpha flying back into the air.
"Are you all alright?"
"Barely," Larmina answered. "Had the weirdest dream too for like…five seconds, and then…"
"You too?"
"GUYS!" Vince interrupted. "I think I know what we have to do!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't you remember? The Beast King."
"That guy had a name?!"
"It's like…there's a ton of info in my brain, and I can't find the rights word for it. Like…"
"Blah, blah, blah, that sounds lovely!" Daniel interrupted. "Give us the short version!"
"Daniel!"
"I don't know about you two, but I wanna live! I promise, Vince, I'll…"
"Dan?" Larmina asked for a brief moment before the information clicked in her brain.
"You…"
"Exactly," Vince finished.
Daniel nodded, before shouting "FORM VOLTRON!"
Jeff did all he could to keep the squadrons behind him on point, dodging enemy lasers, moving through defenses, and trying to keep some sort of defense up. It was not as successful as he had hoped, with allied fighters being destroyed at a near 1:1 ratio with the enemy. The problem with that was that the enemy had a lot more fighters than the allied forces did, and they were feeling the losses.
"This is no good!" Jeff shouted. "Where are those reflex cannons! They can shoot down the battlecruiser! Where's Cric?!"
You rang?
"Cric!" Jeff shouted, noticing a submarine emerging from the water, several miles from where the main fleet was placed. "What the hell took you so long?!"
We needed to get into proper range to strike without being easily noticeable! They would have gone for us first until we got the right angle!
"That all?"
How about 'Get clear!'
"Roger that! OK, team, retreat to point C! Sea Team has this one covered!"
The allied jets all flew off from the battlefield, doing their best to ensure they weren't followed. The Galra fighter craft meanwhile, chose to ignore the retreating Earth ships and moved towards their prize.
"FIRE!"
Without warning, a massive bolt of energy fired from the cannon on top of the submarine, striking the battlecruiser dead center. The beam penetrated the faltering shield and split the starship in two, causing it to fall to the ground.
The Galran fighters had no chance to retreat, before a second reflex cannon blast wiped out their numbers, with nowhere to retreat there. The few that survived the blast soon found themselves re-engaged by the fighters, who pulled off the pincer attack perfectly. Cheering emerged from the bridge of Commander Hawkins' battleship, as the tide had finally turned in their favor."
"Second reflex cannon ready to fire. We've got the position of the shield generators."
"FIRE!"
"Commader Cossack! We've lost the shield protecting the island!"
"So?" Cossack answered, seemingly unconcerned. "We just need to pull the ships back for now. Once the Dark Paladin defeats Voltron, it will make mincemeat of the other human vessels!"
The ship began to rise into the air, preparing to engage the human fleet ahead of its compatriots. They failed to realize that the tanks patrolling the island had their guns trained on the battlecruiser as it began to rise.
"This rock will add to the glory of the Galra Empire! Along with your heads!"
The form of Voltron Alpha stood in front of the Dark Paladin as it moved to strike with its whip and rifle, This time however, the machine moved to the side, its hands placed close together.
"I can feel it!" Daniel said. "Concentrate! This thing really does react to our wills!"
A bizarre orange energy began to emanate from Voltron, one that the Dark Paladin paid no mind to. It did however, take notice of the massive energy ball that formed inside its hands, the trio of pilots doing their best to concentrate on the energy, using the machine and its bizarre otherworldly connection to the unknown energy as a conduit.
"We have something!" Larmina asked. But what is it?
"LION'S ROAR!"
The massive ball of energy was thrown at the Dark Paladin, which couldn't move quickly enough to dodge it, instead trying to use its whip as a shield. Immediately, its effects were apparent, as the energy barrage stripped away the armor from the machine, atomizing even the electric whip into nothingness.
The Dark Paladin stood despite the barrage, but what was left was merely a charred husk, unable to move.
"FORM BLAZING SWORD!"
A sword formed in the hands of Voltron, but it was not the same broadsword that it had wielded before. Rather, it was a broadsword with three points on the end of the blade, raised into the air as lightning struck it, electrifying the weapon.
"AAAAHHH!"
One climactic blow split what remained of the Dark Paladin in two, causing it to explode. The trio looked on at the sword, both knowing why it appeared this way but confused at the same time.
"What are we doing?" Vince asked, only to look up at the sight of two battlecruiser's taking off. From the bridge of one of them, Cossack gasped at the sight.
"That's impossible! Haggar designed the Dark Paladins specifically to defeat Voltron! There's no way that a human made knockoff could have defeated it!"
"Sir! To our left!"
Cossack turned, and grimaced at the sight. The cruiser next to his had been hit with a barrage of tank fire, which damaged it, penetrating the shields and leaving small holes in the hull. Then he turned and saw the immediate threat.
Voltron was right in front of the bridge of his ship. And its sword was raised.
"EVAC…"
BOOM!
A powerful swipe destroyed the bridge of Cossack's cruiser, causing it to veer off course and collide into the second damaged cruiser. The mass of metal and flame soon plummeted back to Earth, right on top of the incomplete structure that the Galra had hoped would be the first of many buildings, the center of their empire on Earth. All the while, Voltron flew above the machine, its pilots breathing heavily.
"We got em," Daniel began, "but I feel like we've gone way deeper now."
"Tell me about it," Larmina added.
"We know what we have to do," Vince said. "We have to protect the Earth. That's why we have this power in the first place, isn't it?"
"Is it?" Daniel asked, genuinely unsure of what he had seen, just that for now, whatever it was had a common goal with humanity.
The Beast King.
"Larmina? You…"
"Yeah. I heard it. Don't ask how."
"We're in deep," was all Vince could say, struggling on how to address the bizarre vision the trio seemed to have had, as well as whether or not the so-called Beast King was truly as benevolent as he claimed to be.
From the monitors on his screen, Throk viewed all of it. And he grimaced. Cossack was dead. The fleet, three of the five remaining ships, had been nearly crippled. And Maahox was grinning.
"What's so funny, Maahox?!" Throk snapped. "How do I explain this to Hazar?!"
"Explain that Haggar is not as powerful as she thinks she is," Maahox answered while sipping a drink from a glass. "And that if we're to defeat Voltron and learn its secrets, we require a new type of thinking."
"What about resources? Why would the Emperor sign off on giving my expeditionary fleet more ships to replace our losses?"
"Because," Maahox answered. "We have plausible deniability."
"Cossack. The overconfident fool of a Galran."
"Exactly. And that reflects poorly on…"
"Hazar!"
"Now you're seeing where I'm going. Domination is a long game, Viceroy. Let's not lose sight of that."
"You're right, as usual," Throk conceded. "Come. Let us drink, and prepare a formal report to ensure blame is placed in the right location."
"We should probably prepare the report first."
Emerging from the Galran tanks, Cliff and the rest of the members of the Land Team looked on at their handiwork, scratching his head.
"How are we gonna clean all this up?"
"Clean it up?" Cinda asked, looking on at the machinery strewn about. "We've gotten our hands on enough Galran technology to actually study this time. Shame the building went up in smoke, but Galran tanks, fighters, robots, this could advance human science by decades, maybe centuries!"
"You've got a point, Cinda," Cliff added, before looking on at Voltron, standing next to the wreckage. Or more specifically, the sword it was wielding.
"Say Cinda, does that sword look different to you?"
"I can't say I noticed. How come?"
"Just curious."
Humanity had won the day, but the alien technology that stood in front of them, to Cliff, wasn't a chance at creating scientific advancement. It was a reminder of just how outmatched they were. And all they had to defend themselves with was a giant robot. The dread at the reality of the situation began to creep forward in his mind once again. Was this battle any closer to victory, or were they only delaying the inevitable?