When they finally landed on the Rebel Alliance's base planet it was, to Shiro's surprise, a Balmera.

"Woah." Rolo commented, standing next to Shiro in the viewing bay, "I've never seen a Balmera in such pristine condition.

"Me neither." Shiro agreed, "Although, this is only the second one I've ever seen."

Rolo only snorted in amusement.

"It's beautiful." Nyma said, standing on Rolo's other side.

"It really is." Shiro answered as he took in the rolling green hills, bespeckled with gleaming crystals that grew freely and plentifully over the planet's surface. The Balmera's sun reflected off the crystals so that it looked like a million camera flashes going off all at once. It was truly breathtaking.

Equally as impressive was the town that spread out to the west of the hills. It was a fairly big town that seemed to bustle with activity. The houses looked modest, but all gleamed with the same shine as the crystals that grew in the field. Most impressive was the cluster of crystals that grew in the middle of the town. A few of them nearly as tall as some of earth's skyscrapers. It was magnificent. He imagined Allura, and Coran especially, would love it here. On the far side of the town was another hill, also bespeckled with crystals.

Beezer let out a series of beeps from his spot in between Rolo and Nyma. Rolo's only response was to smile and pat the little robot on the head. He had been very grateful when the rebel team that had infiltrated the prison supply ship they had escaped from had returned with Beezer in tow. Apparently Rolo and Nyma had thought that the Galra would have melted the little guy down, or used him for parts. They were both glad that this wasn't the case.

Shiro was happy for them.

"Great view, right?" Matt asked.

Shiro turned to see Matt entering the room with Drozan following close behind.

"Yeah, it's beautiful." Shiro said before nodding respectful at Drozan, "Commander." he said in greeting.

Drozan nodded in return but didn't say anything.

"Ah, Rolo and Nyma, correct? I've heard a lot about you and Deezer." Matt addressed Shiro's companions.

"Uh," Rolo said, glancing nervously first at Nyma and then at Shiro, who merely shrugged.

Matt smirked, "Don't look so nervous. I want to make you an offer."

"What kind of offer?" Rolo asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"To join the Rebel Alliance. From what I've heard, you'd both make valuable assets to the Alliance. We could always use more capable fighters, and pilots." Matt said.

"And if we don't want to join your Rebel Alliance?" Nyma asked.

"Then we drop you off on a planet a few galaxies over so you can't find your way back." Drozan answered.

Matt caught Shiro's raised eyebrow at that and explained: "The only reason why we've been able to build the Alliance up as much as we have and keep it going is because we're paranoid."

Shiro nodded, because that made sense. And he's heard the same explanation before from the Blade of Marmora. He wondered idly how the Rebel Alliance and the Blade of Marmora would feel about joining forces.

"You don't have to decide now." Matt told Rolo and Nyma, "Take a few days to think about it. Come find either me or Drozan when you've reached a decision."

Rolo and Nyma shared a look with each other. Beezer let out a series of beeps.

"We'll think about it." Rolo answered after a moment, "Thank you."

Matt smiled, "No problem. Drozan will show you to where you can stay while you're here."

Drozan nodded, "If you'll follow me." he said, nodding at both Matt and Shiro before leading Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer out.

"He's intense." Shiro commented once they were gone.

Matt snorted, "You have no idea. He's been like that for as long as I've known him. But he's a good person."

"And that's all that matters." Shiro said.

Matt nodded, "Come on, they want to move the ship to it's hangar. And when I say 'hangar' I mean the canyon behind those hills where it's less easily spotted."

"Sure." Shiro said as Matt lead him out of the ship. "You didn't mention that your base planet is a Balmera."

"I didn't?" Matt asked, sounding confused, then he shrugged, "My bad. Yeah, this is one of the very few Balmeras left undiscovered by the Galra. When we landed, the Balmeran's gladly offered us food and shelter. In return we offered to keep it protected. They'd been worried about an invasion for a while at that point, so they gladly accepted our offer.

"Of course, at that point we were only six people with only an escape pod. But it was then that we decided to start a proper rebellion against the Galra. Dekkan, he's a mechanic, and I fixed up the escape pod with the help of a crystal from the Balmera, and we started flying to nearby trade moons that are either too small to be a space mall, or that just haven't been turned into one yet, and started recruiting, and collecting weapons and other useful things."

The cargo ship took off once Shiro and Matt were safe distance away, and they watched as it rose back into the air.

"That's smart," Shiro said, noticing that there were absolutely no markings on the ship whatsoever. It was also huge. Close to the size of a small apartment building back on earth, "Using an unmarked cargo ship. Much less noticeable than using an actual warship."

Matt nodded next to him and grinned, "But rest assured, although Penelope looks tame, she is warship worthy. Dekkan and I spent hours rigging her out with all manner of weapons and upgrades. Transforming the bottom floor into an onboard hangar for the smaller fighter pods was easier said than done, but we figured it out, and now we can travel long distances without being worried about being noticed or running out of fuel. She's the biggest ship in our little fleet. Dekkan and I are constantly working on ways to make her better, faster, stronger. Although I wish we could figure out how to cloak her. That would be awesome."

Shiro grinned, "Ask Pidge when you see her. She can definitely hook you up with that."

Matt smiled fondly, "That doesn't even surprise me." he said.

They were quiet for a moment. A light breeze gently teased Shiro's white forelock as they watched Penelope disappear behind the shimmering hills.

"How big is the Alliance?" Shiro asked after a moment.

"We're still relatively small." Matt answered, turning and beginning to lead Shiro to the town he'd seen from the ship earlier, "There are about 150 rebels in total now. Our fleet is made up of Penelope and five fighter pods, six now that we have your escape pod. Converting it won't take too long."

Shiro nodded, impressed, "That's a lot of growth for, what? Four, five months? Where did you get all your spacecraft from?"

"Mostly they came with pilots who joined the Alliance." Matt answered, "How we got Penelope is a whole other story for a different day. Let's just say for now that it was the most awkward experience of my life."

Shiro couldn't help but laugh at the expression on Matt's face. "I'm looking forward to hearing that story."

Matt shuddered, before carrying on as if he'd never been distracted, "We haven't gotten much Galra activity around here yet. They've only recently started moving into this galaxy. Apparently they only have a few left to conquer."

Shiro nodded because he knew this was true, "They've conquered most of the known universe, but there are still a few places that they haven't gotten to yet. The Milky Way is still one of them."

Matt nodded, "That's good to hear, at least."

"It should stay that way now that Zarkon's been defeated, though." Shiro said.

Matt looked a little skeptical, but he didn't comment.

Before Shiro could question him about it, they reached the town and were immediately greeted by a Balmeran woman dressed in a flowing green dress with intricate designs embroidered into it in silver. Around her neck a shard of Balmeran crystal hung from a simple leather cord.

"Friend Matthew! It is good to see your safe return once more." She greeted him warmly.

Matt smiled, "Thanks Leia. It's good to be back. How're things here?"

She answered, but Shiro didn't really hear. He was too busy trying to figure out if he'd heard her name right.

"I'd like to introduce you to my good friend, Takashi, although everyone calls him Shiro." Matt's introduction pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Ah, your best friend who is also an excellent pilot." She exclaimed, turning to face Shiro, "It is good to finally meet you, Takashi. I have heard much about you. I am Leia. I serve as the representative of this Balmera and it's people."

Shiro smiled and bowed his head respectfully, "It's good to meet you too. This Balmera is beautiful."

Leia beamed at him, "Thank you."

"Leia, I'm going to take Shiro below and show him around, alright? We'll see you later."

"Below?" Shiro asked as Matt lead him through the town.

"The Rebel Alliance's HQ. The Balmera was nice enough to create a space for us to operate. It's in that hill." Matt answered, pointing to the hill situated on the other side of the town, "It's rare that we get visitors here, but we don't want to advertise that there's a rebel group using this Balmera as a base. If word got out -"

"The Galra would come gunning straight for you. I understand."

Eventually they reached the big hill. Matt lead Shiro to a tunnel, hidden behind some crystals. The tunnel winds for a long ways until finally opening up to a huge cavern. What was inside the cavern looked like a little town on its own. There's a cluster of small tents set up to the left of the cavern. To the right stood three larger tents.

"Most of the Rebels stay down here." Matt begins explaining, "Others prefer living up top, though. The three big tents form the actual HQ. The biggest one is communications, the two smaller ones are the war room and my workshop." he points out each tent as he names them.

"Wow." Shiro said, "This is really impressive."

"It's still nowhere near enough to actually start taking on the Galra yet." Matt says with a shrug, "We're still building up our manpower and weaponry, but for now it's enough to help keep our little piece of the galaxy safe."

Matt led Shiro to the communications tent, all the while explaining that besides being great power sources, he'd found that the Balmera's crystals were great for amplifying communications signals. It's how they'd been able to keep track of communications that go on in and around their territory. The inside of the tent was impressive. Long tables, filled with all manner of radios run along one wall and a huge screen covers another. There were also tables with a few different computer consoles spread out over the floor of the tent. Shiro wondered where Matt even got half this stuff and decided to ask him about it later.

"So what I'm going to do is start broadcasting a signal as far out as I can. In it I'll embed a message for Katie." Matt explained as he settled in front of one of the computers, "We developed our own cyber-language that only we know and understand a few years back. Anyone else who picks it up will only get static, but Katie will recognize it and be able to decode it."

Shiro smiled, it didn't surprise him in the least that Matt and Pidge had their very own cyber-language. He'd tried to contact his team earlier, and in doing so he'd discovered that his helmet wasn't receiving any kind of signal. Matt had checked it over and determined that nothing was broken. Which meant that the Castle was out of range. He refused to consider the other explanation for the silence.

Shiro settled down next to Matt to watch him work, for now content to wait for his friends to find him.