Chapter 5:

fighting on

The Gunfwe Praexhli asteroid mining station streaks by them as Keith sends Red into a tight darting spin that should have had him plastered into the seat from the G forces. Instead, he pulls up sharply, opening his mouth to roar as Red's own massive jaw opens wide and unleashes a torrent of blistering plasma flames from the main cannon. In that moment, he is Red and Red is him and there's nothing but them and the battle and their claws, ready to sink into the hind quarters of their prey and tear it down.

And the fleet of the Galra's so-called sector commander was certainly prey worth tearing apart.

"Keith," Shiro calls over the coms, "Check your six."

In an instant, Keith snaps back to himself and the mission. "Roger," he replies at last and cuts through the center of the fleet, twisting and turning Red around the Galran ships in tight spirals before doubling back and darting through on an angle. He cuts his turns close enough to scrape the hulls and render their tractor arrays useless before darting back again and dousing the rear of the fleet in plasma.

It's like riling up a hornet's nest. Fighters pour out of the ships, disgorging in wave after wave, and they spiral after him as he darts and weaves through their fleet. Their fighters are nimble ships, yes, but it's clear that they're not as nimble as Red, much less as fast.

"We're processing your telemetry now, Keith," Allura calls out. She, Coran and the Castle of Lions are hidden deeper in the asteroid field, where they won't easily be found. "Got it! They're Jhazf class - long range fighters. Built for distance strikes, not close quarters. If you can put them into sharp enough turns, they won't be able to recover."

"Roger, Lion Queen," Keith says, eyeing a narrow gap between two of the launch ships. He ignores Allura's annoyed huff at the call sign. It had just sort of slipped out one day and it had stuck. Allura had found it all ridiculous, but at least she'd given up trying to convince them not to use it while they were engaged in battle.

"Stick with the plan," Shiro admonishes. "Bring them to us."

There's a muffled noise over the com, as if someone had snorted or mumbled something inaudible, and again Shiro calls: "Guys, keep the coms clear. Keith, did you copy?"

"Five by five, Black Leader," Keith says and puts his Lion into a steep dive towards the command deck of one of the larger cruisers flying below the gap. It's probably the commander's.

"Heh," Lance calls, "Star Wars reference."

"Lance," Shiro's tone is sharp and unamused. "Not the time."

Keith snorts, rolling his eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, the rear proximity warning blares target lock in lurid red Altean. "Heads up, we're going target-rich. Prepare for yank and bank."

"Aw yes!" Lance shouts and there's a decidedly less than thrilled moan from Hunk. Pidge is quiet, but then Pidge likes to run coms silent and Shiro only encourages her.

Keith punches the acceleration and heads straight for the rally point, Asteroid 88B7, where the squad is waiting for him and the fighters on his tail with about a hundred high-payload MEELO charges. The fighters won't know what hit them.

As tactical plans go, it's simple: they use Red Lion as a lure to get the fighters to come to them in the one place they can't easily escape, the asteroid field, blow them all up and then go for the fleet ships with Voltron. And there's no way the Galra won't expect a trap – especially when the whole situation practically screams trap - but there's one thing going for them.

The Galra can't afford to ignore a lone Lion. They know that capturing one Lion is the key to shutting down the team's ability to form Voltron and drastically reduces the combat effectiveness of the other four Lions. The Galra know that and so does the team.

And they can use that against them.

Keith passes the outer edge of the asteroid field with a hail of fire at his back and his coms crackle.

"Activating MEELO charges on three," Pidge announces, "two, one, MEELO charges hot."

"Let's lead them in," Shiro calls and Black Lion gallops into view across the asteroid surface ahead of him, breaking to the right.

Green Lion streaks across the asteroid to his left, slipping over the side and vanishing. Yellow Lion fires on the fighters from ahead and then leaps away, relocating deeper into the field before firing again. Blue nearly clips his Lion's head and Keith grinds his teeth.

"Damn it, Lance! Watch where you're going!" he shouts.

"You watch it, Mullet!" Lance fires back over the coms. Blue Lion pulls up, spinning and spitting ice, and then darts away.

"Guys!" Shiro's thoroughly annoyed voice cuts through. "Stow it!"

Keith grumbles, slamming through the next turn with an insult dead on his tongue. The fighter tailing him doesn't make it, slamming into the asteroid hard, and explodes on contact. The debris takes out another fighter.

"Form up, rally two! Now, now, now," Shiro orders and Keith has to fight the urge to pull up on the controls until he's completely clear of the asteroid.

"Hunk, hotel alpha, man!" Shiro calls out again.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! I'm trying! I'm trying!" Hunk answers and then Yellow is there, plowing through a smaller asteroid at max speed and shattering it. "Woo!"

One by one, they emerge in the black above the field, the distinctive glow of Voltron's activating transformation surrounding them in incandescent brilliance. Then, they're moving, charging straight for the fleet. Behind them, there's a hefty whump as the MEELOs detonate, incinerating this part of the asteroid field and all the fighters, and then Voltron is being propelled along even faster by the shockwave, turning them into one nasty giant robot-shaped missile.

"It worked!" Pidge shouts gleefully. "I told you it would work!"

"Wait, you didn't think it would work?" Lance pipes up, horrified. "WHAT?"

"No, no, it was totally plausible," Hunk attempts to assure him. "We just weren't sure of exactly how much payload we were detonating."

"Oh my god," Lance says.

"But see, we're totally fine," Pidge adds. "The math completely worked out."

"Oh my god," Lance repeats, incredulous.

"Stop being dramatic," Keith tells him, rolling his eyes.

"Shiro, they nearly blew us up! How could you go along with this?" Lance protests. "Oh my gooood. Madre de dios!"

Keith can practically hear Shiro rolling his eyes.

"Lance, we can talk about it later."

"I don't see why he's upset, everything's fine!"

"Yeah, and now we know the conversion rates we were working on for explosive force are accurate!"

"OH MY GOOOOOOOOD!"

"LANCE!"

Keith groans and wonders how they'll ever survive this war.

Notes:

MEELO stands for Modified Explosive Emitters Low Orbit and they're used in mining asteroids.