Chapter Three
There
was no transmitted message in reply and they did not really expect one. On the day of Lotor’s deadline, the Arusian
Royal Forces were on full alert and ready for a battle when the skies above the
Castle of Lion suddenly filled with hundreds of vessels that seemed to appear
out of thin air. They dotted the dawn
sky like black stars, but thicker than the starscape that usually shined down
on Arus. The pods that had been spread
all over the Alliance had disappeared some time during the night…and they were
all now in Arusian airspace.
The
castle alarms blared, but it woke no one up as the King, Queen, and Voltron
Force were already assembled in Castle Control in full battle gear. All over the cities of Arus, alarms
blared…but there were few people to hear them.
There was a stillness that settled over the planet in the space of a few
hours but it was not because it was the calm before the storm—it was a
stillness that came with emptiness.
“Tell
me about those ships, Matt,” Keith said with a calm he did not feel.
Sitting
at the command console where Skech used to sit, Matt’s fingers danced over the
keys.
“Primary
readouts can’t get a fix on what they’re made of, but an estimate has the
material a close cousin of a kind of laserproof metal alloy,” Matt
answered. “There are one hundred
carrier-sized vessels with a full array of weapons, able to hold at least five
dozen regulation sized fighters. A rough
count of no less than four hundred battleships and a little over two hundred
destroyers.”
“What
do you mean rough count?” Allura demanded.
“Are our sensors malfunctioning?”
“No…they
keep on disappearing and reappearing on the grid,” he answered.
“Showing
off,” Bethie said.
“Are
our fighters prepped?” Keith asked.
“Yes,
sir.”
“How
did they get a fleet this size with nobody watching?” Ethan breathed. “Our satellites didn’t pick anything up.”
“Too
late to worry about that now,” Jack said.
“Let’s go.”
Allura
put a hand up before they could put their helmets on.
“If
the worse happens, you know what to do,” she said.
Ethan
took a step towards her, saw the glint in her eye, and bit back his words. Instead, he put his arms around her and
kissed her forehead.
“Good
luck,” he said.
Allura
patted his cheek. “You, too.”
She
looked Ethan’s shoulder at Bethie.
“I
still haven’t forgiven you,” Bethie said even as she embraced her mother.
“We’ll
fix it when you come back,” Allura said.
“We’ll
see you soon,” Keith said when Bethie turned to him. He held out a hand and Ethan took it. “Take care.
All of you.”
“Same
to you, “Jack said. “Let’s go.”
They
went to their Lions, hearts heavy but with a strong sense of purpose. When the doors to the access shaft closed,
Keith lowered the command console platform.
Allura brushed the back of her hand across the sharp line of his
cheekbone and he took the hand, pressing a kiss to its palm.
“We
can do this,” he said.
“I
know,” she said. “Open a channel to the
ships, Keith. Let’s get this show on the
road.”
Lotor’s
oily smile made Allura’s skin crawl. She
saw Keith’s jaw clench out of the corner of her eye.
“I
thought we were done with you, Lotor,” he said.
“Not
until you are dead or I am dead will this be over,” Lotor replied. “You made the right decision in giving in to
our demands, but I am not surprised that you’re not giving up without a
fight. I’m assuming the Voltron Force is
preparing the Lions.”
“They’re
not in their rooms twiddling their thumbs,” Allura retorted.
“Still
the same sharp tongue, I see. It would
no longer satisfy me to see you in my bed, Allura, but your head on my mantle
would.”
“Charming.”
“Let’s
get this started, shall we?”
Castle
Control trembled as Lotor’s flagship fired directly upon the Castle of
Lions. The shield prevented the laser
blast from hitting the surface but Keith had to fight to keep his face steady
as he saw their shields drop ten percent from one shot. Lotor severed the link.
“This
is Castle Control,” Keith said over an open channel to the ARF fighters. “Launch.
I say again. Launch.”
Jack
flew the Black Lion directly into the thick of battle. The other Lions flew behind him in
V-formation, their guns blazing. Never
in his wildest imaginings did he expect battle to be like this but though his
thoughts were going a thousand times faster than the Black, his demeanor was
cool. Getting to the pods were near
impossible as layers of fighters kept them out of harm’s way, so they did the
next best thing. Their target was the
carrier directly ahead, but enemy fighters and several battleships were between
them and it.
“My
targets keep disappearing on me,” Jordan said tightly. “I haven’t hit one yet.”
“Castle
Control, can you get a fix on any of these fighters?” Jack asked.
“Negative,
Black Lion. Our sensors are not much better
than the Lions’.”
The
Black shuddered as it took a direct hit from a fighter that suddenly appeared
in front of it. Before Jack could return
fire, the fighter disappeared. Arusian
fighters blinked out of the battle grid at a higher rate, but a number of the
battleships and carriers were destroyed or damaged. That was the only thing going in their favor
but the sheer number of fighters could easily overtake Arus with or without the
bigger ships.
“Red,
Blue…Phase one,” Jack said.
“Acknowledged,”
Bethie said. “You’re on my wing, Ethan.”
Activating
the lion torch and water blast, a fine steam emerged from the combined
sprays. Cloaking shields tended to react
badly to mist but nothing happened as the enemy fighters continued to blink in and
out of their sights. They returned fire
and received fire with no change.
“Cross
that off the list,” Ethan said.
“Advanced
cloaking shields,” Matt muttered. “Not
surprised.”
“Their
propulsion doesn’t look like anything to brag about so I don’t know how they
get out of the way so fast when we fire at them when they’re visible,” Bethie
pointed out.
“This
isn’t working,” he said. “Matt, Jordan…I
think it’s time to bring out our little pals.”
“Roger
that,” they said in unison.
The
Green and Yellow Lions broke off from formation and began to fly through the
enemy fighters, firing small round sensors into the air and letting them fall
where they wanted. Most fell to the
ground, but some attached themselves to the hulls of the fighters and at least
one battleship if Jack was reading his sensors right. Then to his dismay, they fell off the radar
again.
“The
sensor distribution is unsuccessful, Castle Control,” Jack said.
“There
were no energy spikes that indicate that they were shorted out,” Matt
added. “If I didn’t know any better, I
would say that they wink in and out of existence at will.”
Silence.
“That’s
ridiculous,” Allura said. “But not
impossible. Split up and do as much
damage as you can.”
“Yes,
ma’am,” Jack said between gritted teeth as he rolled the Black out of the way
of a well-aimed missile. “You heard the
lady, team. Ethan, Jordan, take out our
friend here. Bethie, Matty, and I will
take the other one. Ethan, you’re on
point.”
“Got
it.”
Jack’s
breath came out in shallow gasps as he flew the Black through the thick melee
hovering over the Castle of Lions. He
was aware of the shimmering visibility of the castle shields as it took hit
after hit from the carrier. The castle’s
laser cannons fired high-powered blasts at the carrier but for a ship its size,
it displayed a high-level of maneuverability.
By his fuzzy count, one of four shots fired made contact.
“Castle
Control, how are your shields holding up?” he asked.
“Dropping,
Black Lion,” Keith’s tight voice replied.
“See what you can do about removing our problem up there.”
“Bethie,
I need you on my six,” Jack said, diverting power from his lasers to his
forward shields. “Matty, cover us from
where you are.”
“Aye.”
“Whatever
happens, you stick with me, Bethie.”
“I’ll
protect you, Jack.”
Gunning
the thrusters, jack went straight for the carrier. Bethie cleared the path for him, flying from
side to side behind the Black. Ion knife
ready, Jack braced himself for impact, aiming for the center of the massive
ship.
The
explosion was spectacular and he was blinded momentarily as his viewscreen
blazed orange. His communicator crackled
with static but he barely heard it as his computer’s alarms screamed in his
ear. The Black Lion burst free from the
glowing ball of fire that had been the carrier.
“Crazy
bastard,” Bethie’s voice came through the static.
“Shields
still at one-hundred percent,” Jack said, a smirk in his voice.
“I
don’t recommend using that as a primary tactic,” Keith said. “Because you’ve got five coming at you.”
The
Black shuddered as the shields absorbed ten shots coming from different
directions.
“I
couldn’t even if I wanted to, Castle Control.”
“Are
you picking up the signals on the field?” Bethie questioned.
“They
came from the carrier you just destroyed,” Matt said. “They seemed like pieces of debris but then
they started moving.”
“I
think it’s a diplomatic contingent coming to knock on our doorstep,” Jack said
as he saw hundreds of little black dots on the ground make their way to the castle. “Bethie…”
“I’m
on it, Boss.”
The
Red Lion rolled away from the Black and did a strafing run on the landed
troops. Bethie got close enough to see
that the ‘troops’ were robots. Hundreds
of them.
In
Castle Control, Allura’s clenched fists were white-knuckled.
“I
want ground troops out there,” she said into her communicator. “Deploy the soldiers in the castle and from
Voltronia Base. I want these ground
troops sandwiched between our forces.”
Bethie
watched as Arusian soldiers clashed with the darker colored robots…and become
overwhelmed. She tried to provide cover
fire, but it was difficult as she had to carefully control her laserfire.
“My
hands are full here,” she said.
“Keep
at it,” Jack said. “I can’t spare
another Lion. It’s getting hairy up
here.”
“We’ve
got two carriers down,” Ethan said. “But
our fighters…”
“I
see it,” Keith said.
“The
pods are opening!” Jordan suddenly yelled.
All
eyes were on various viewscreens as three ro-beasts emerged above the fighters,
each as large and powerful as the one they had faced before. The Lions converged and began to attack the
one closest to them.
The
sky was ablaze with laserfire and plumes of smoke rose from the shots exchanged
on the surface. Allura came up behind
Keith, a hand on his shoulder and saw their people rapidly disappear from the
sensor screen. She knew it had been a
faint hope that they could win this on the battlefield, but Silently, Keith’s
expression told her all she needed to know.
“Lotorian
flagship,” Allura said. “Please
respond.”
Lotor’s
ever smilng face appeared on the viewscreen a moment later. Allura stared at him, trying to see her
mother’s face in his, but could not see through the haze of hate that suddenly
clouded her gaze. She wondered how she
ever thought there was hope for him—what she had seen that last time on
Zarkon’s ship must have been a figment of her imagination.
“You
rang?” he mocked lightly.
“We
surrender,” she said, choking out the words.
“Cease and desist.”
“Arusian
fighters,” Keith said solemnly. “Stand
down.”
Lotor’s
smile spread to a grin and then he began to laugh. It echoed in the silent Castle Control and in
the five cockpits high above.
Allura
thumbed on the other communicator in her palm and in a voice that only those on
the other end of the transmission could hear, she said, “Hope.”
As
one, the five Lions rose above the unmoving fighters and carriers from both
sides, and in a burst of speed, disappeared into the atmosphere.
