One of the first lessons cadets learned from the Academy's flight instructors was forgetfulness. The best combat pilots were those who simply allowed themselves to forget the world around them.
Nothing extraneous in mind and body, the flight instructors preached, repeating the simple refrain over and over again, until it became automatic nature to the would-be-pilots.
Lance remembered how one of his instructors had impressed on them the need to keep their emotions in check. Emotions were dangerous up in the air. A pilot's survival in a battle depended on his ability to block out anything and everything until the last enemy had vanished from the horizon.
Because they were still a few minutes away from the Kistrani mountains, Lance let his eyes drift over the external and inter-ship monitors of the Red Lion and spared a few moments assessing the flying of each of his team-mates.
Hunk's face was set in an expression of grim determination. The large space explorer handled his lion with deftness, making the most of the brute power that matched Hunk's own.
The Green Lion was drifting slightly off course. Pidge had probably drifted off as well, Lance thought, knowing how the youngest space explorer was often distracted by his thoughts.
In contrast to the Green Lion, the Blue Lion cut through the air cleanly, with the calculated precision that its pilot was known for. Rapier — Sven's academy callsign suited him perfectly, Lance mused.
Turning back to his controls, Lance watched his best friend fly for some time, carefully evaluating Keith's emotional state. It was Lance's duty to send Keith back to the Castle if he felt that Keith was endangering himself and the rest of the team.
Thankfully though, Keith's flying showed no signs of being affected by his emotional state. Keith flew like a man possessed, undoubtedly keeping his emotions in check by sheer force of will.
For once, communications channel was quiet, without any of the friendly bickering that the Voltron Force normally indulged in. All of them were occupied with their thoughts and the need to get to the Kistrani mountains as soon as possible.
Sven's voice broke the silence that enveloped them, "We are approaching the mountain range now. ETA One minute. Expect to be surrounded by a welcoming party any second now."
With moments, the swarm of insects dropped out of the sky and landed on the lions, covering them until they were completely engulfed in glowing, opalescent bodies.
Lance swore under his breath and resisted the urge to duck as the horde of insects swarmed over his Lion, covering the external monitors and cutting off his visuals of the world outside his cockpit.
A shiver crawled up his spine as he watched the way that the locust-like creatures writhed over his external monitors. He felt like one of the ancient bee-keepers on Earth, coated with a blanket of wriggling little insects.
"Guys, the development on their capitulum is fascinating," Pidge called out over the inter-ship communications channel. The youngest space explorer's voice was unsteady with revulsion. "And oh yuck! Guys, there's so much frass on our lions."
Lance's brows drew together in confusion over the unfamiliar term. "Pidge, he ventured finally, "Are you taking about the slime on the backs of the lions?"
"Not really," Pidge said as he bent over his instruments. "But you're close. Frass is insect excrement, Lance. It's usually nothing to worry about. But there's something different about this frass. It's got an usually high acid content. Pretty strong stuff."
"The slime seems to counteract the effect of the acid," Pidge continued as he frowned at readouts. "I don't know how, but I think the lions produced it automatically to neutralize that threat. It's a good thing they could do that. Otherwise, we'd be sharing our cockpits with hundreds of those insects."
"Gee, thanks. That's a load off my mind," Lance murmured, shuddering with disgust at the thought of what was coating the back of his lion. "I'm DEFINITELY going to take my lion out for a nice lava bath when we get back home later."
Keith hated the taste of desperation and dread. The familiar metallic taste lay on his tongue, coppery and sharp, filling his mouth with its bitterness.
His thoughts turned to the days not so long ago when his emotions could be forced by sheer determination. His life had been a colorless and empty one until he had seen Allura glide down the stairs in the old castle into his life.
Keith clenched his jaw in impotent anguish as he forced his thoughts away from the what-ifs or should-have-beens that had been tormented him during his waking moments.
Find your center, he ordered himself harshly. You can't afford to lose it now, Blackwell. There are too many people counting on you to do your job — and to do it right.
Nothing extraneous in mind and body, he reminded himself, hearing in his mind the echo of his flight instructor's voice. Listen to your ship. Be one with it.
His flight instructor knew what he was talking about, Keith realized, after a few minutes had passed.
The power contained in the purr of the Black's engines as they soared across the sky WAS reassuring and for the first time since his wife's disappearance, Keith felt the return of his usual strength and confidence.
Day turned to night in the villages around the Kistrani mountains. The sun hid behind millions of opalescent bodies as the swarm of angry insects continued unabated.
Lance landed the Red Lion in the middle of what had once been a thriving town. Touching a button on his console and pulling on his yoke, he commanded his lion to crouch on the ground.
Small fires dotted the area and were the only source of illumination. The light that they cast threw eerie shadows and highlighted the bodies that lay scattered on the ground.
One body, that of a young man in his early twenties, caught Lance's attention. The lifeless corpse lying on the ground had once been a living, breathing human being, a person with his own hopes and dreams and someone's son, friend or brother.
Impotent fury made Lance's hands tighten on the control yoke of his lion. So much life wasted, he seethed as his dark eyes darted from corner to corner of his view screen.
He knew that death was still not finished with the small village. The lion could only carry so many and the men of the village had decided to sacrifice themselves to give their mothers, wives and children a chance to live.
The pilot bowed his head in a silent tribute to bravery of the Arussian spirit. Despite the pain that glazed over their eyes because the open sores that blistered their skin, the men helped their women and children clamber into the open jaws of the Red Lion.
Within moments, the mouth of the lion was filled with refugees, a tribute to the brisk efficiency that the Arussians had been forced to learn if they wanted to survive the hundreds of raids mounted by Zarkon's forces.
Lance's heart wrenched as the lion took to the air, imagining the tears trickling down the cheeks of the women and children as they watched their husbands, fathers and sons run for the uncertain safety of the buildings that had been their homes.
He seethed inwardly, feeling as though he were deserting the men he had come to think of as his comrades-in-arms in the struggle against Zarkon's tyranny.
Although he wanted nothing more than to turn back and open the hatch of the lion to allow more people a chance for safety, he knew he couldn't. The insects were dangerous — the Force had to practice the necessary precautionary measures.
A drop of sweat rolled down his nose as he piloted though the empty streets of the village. A frown of concentration creased his forehead as he checked the impulse to soar above the hovering cloud of insects.
Flying this low was dangerous, Lance mused as he carefully maneuvered through the empty streets of the village, but flying too high would be fatal for his passengers. The fragile respiratory systems of human beings were not designed for high altitude and airspeed.
A warning light on his console flashed rapidly, alerting him of an incoming threat. Lance's eyes widened with alarm as another swarm of insects descended on him and he looked around frantically for the Yellow Lion, which was supposed to have been flying interference duty for him.
"Oh, Huuunk!" Lance called out over the inter-ship Comm-Channel, checking the urge to send his lion up onto a steep climb. "Now would be a good time to make your presence felt!"
While the other members of the Force occupied themselves with the rescue operations, Pidge explored the unsettled areas around the Kistrani mountains, searching for signs of Haggar as Keith had ordered him to.
Pidge had protested against Keith's orders initially, wanting to help the people of the affected villages evacuate, but Keith had matter-of-factly pointed out that evacuation was a stop-gap measure.
The young space explorer squirmed uncomfortably as he remembered the way Keith's dark eyes had bored into his own as the captain had patiently explained WHY the Force HAD to neutralize the insects permanently, before they spread out, occupied more territory and threatened more lives.
The Blue Lion could turn the insects into black hail with its ice darts while the artificial sandstorms called up by the Yellow Lion could knock them from the air.
The Green Lion's missiles and lasers were useless in this situation and the only other weapon in its arsenal — the windblast — would cause more harm than good.
A well placed gust of wind, Pidge admitted, could scatter the insects around the entire continent, a thought that was disturbing at the very least.
With a shrug, Pidge resigned himself to searching the area the Keith had asked him to concentrate on, wondering why Keith had been so sure that Haggar was lurking around there.
Pidge peered out of his cockpit to look up at the hovering cloud that covered the area like a opalescent blanket. The insects were so numerous in number that their shadows turned the lush green foliage into countless shades of gray.
Pidge's eyes narrowed as he noticed something. There. By that cliff. There was a hole in the sinister blanket where sunlight beamed down in a single perfect, almost vertical shaft.
Carefully controlling his airspeed, Pidge kept the sound of the lion's engines to a muffled roar as he piloted the lion nearer the cliff for a closer look.
Training the external monitors of the Green Lion on the ground, he recognized a cloaked figure. "Keith," he whispered breathlessly, blindly groping for his communicator. "You were right! It's Haggar! She's here!"