scriveyner | Voltron Legendary Defender - Shining Like the Stars [31] [Shklance]

Title: shining like the stars [31]
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender
AU: slts
Characters/Pairing: Shiro/Keith/Lance, Team Voltron
Rating: M
Length: 1319
Summary: "It does appear that Hunk's strafing run did quite a lot of damage to the top half of the battleship," Coran reported over the open communications channel, from behind Allura. The video feed had reestablished with the jammer signal destroyed, and Allura was looking forward, at the display of all five paladins in their cockpits. "There have been no broadcasts of any sort -- at least, that we can detect – since the sensor arrays were destroyed."

"It does appear that Hunk's strafing run did quite a lot of damage to the top half of the battleship," Coran reported over the open communications channel, from behind Allura. The video feed had reestablished with the jammer signal destroyed, and Allura was looking forward, at the display of all five paladins in their cockpits. "There have been no broadcasts of any sort -- at least, that we can detect – since the sensor arrays were destroyed."

"Way to go, Hunk!" Lance called with enthusiasm over the comm. Everyone congratulated Hunk over the channel, and Hunk beamed a bit. Allura smiled despite herself.

"That means not even a distress call could have gone through, right?" Pidge asked, leaned forward in her seat.

"We can't know for certain," Allura said.

"We have to assume that the ship broadcast its position and intentions back to the empire before it engaged us," Shiro said firmly. The five lions had exited the atmosphere of the planet in a hurry, flying in tight formation.

"You must form Voltron," Allura said. "Quickly!"

"You guys heard the princess," Shiro said into the comm. "Let's do this, on my mark!"

They'd had a little practice, by now – it still wasn't as smooth a transition as Allura knew it could be, as she watched the multitude of displays scattered across the forward viewscreen, but the five paladins were once again able to form Voltron, not far from the atmosphere of the planet below them. Much larger than any of the single lions, of course, the humanoid-shaped mecha flew toward the still-larger Galra battleship, the red paladin's sword in hand.

"There are still undamaged plasma cannons along the belly of the ship," Allura said, as the Galra battleship turned slowly in space, exposing the bottom of the ship to the incoming war machine. "The best course of action would be to take out the engines first."

"I agree," Shiro said. "Hunk?"

"On it!" Hunk reported, bayard in his hand. He jammed his bayard into its appropriate slot, and in a twinkling the red paladin's sword had changed into the yellow paladin's cannon.

The active plasma cannons on the Galra battleship began to engage directly. "Hey guys," Lance said. "I don't know about you but I'm really not cool with getting shot down for the second time today."

"Shield up!" Shiro ordered, and as one Voltron moved, bringing its shield to bear and keeping as much of its mass behind the particle barrier shield.

It was some effort to maneuver Voltron while keeping the shield up and as much of it behind the shield as possible, but the volleys of plasma fire were non-stop. "The Galra ship's energy output is increasing," Pidge reported. She jerked her head up and stared out at the forward viewscreen. "The engines are powering up!"

Voltron shot up above the ship, counteracting its yaw. It twisted, aiming Hunk's cannon at the engines from above the ship, and fired off two shots before having to dodge more plasma bolts. The first shot struck the engines solidly, but the other missed and wildly shot off into space beyond.

The angle of the ship had changed drastically, it was pointed away from the planet now, tearing itself free of the gravity well and headed toward deep space. "It's going to run!" Keith said. "What do we do, Shiro?"

After a split second's decision, Shiro said, "let it run," just before the ship surged forward and away. Voltron hung back in space as the Galra battleship accelerated quickly, building up steam for a warp jump away.

"What are you doing!?" Allura yelled through the comm. "You're letting it get away!"

"We don't have the resources to deal with that many Galra by hand," Shiro said. "It's sensors were damaged badly, if they're making a warp jump without active sensors they run the risk of going straight through a star."

"So we won?" Lance said.

"Seems like it," Hunk said. "We chased them off!"

"I don't know if you'd call that winning," Keith said.

"They're gone, we're still here, and the Clawomians are alive," Pidge said. "I'd call that a win."

"I would too," Shiro said. "Let's head back planet side and make sure that the Clawomians are unharmed. Princess?"

"I'll join you," Allura said, face furrowed into a frown. She shut off the display that projected her image to the paladins in their cockpits and folded her arms, staring off into the starfield; where the Galra ship was just a tiny blur barely perceptible against the other pin pricks of light, and Voltron itself indistinguishable. "Take the castle into orbit," she instructed Coran. Slowly, the castle ship headed toward the habitable planet below.

"This planet does not have a name in the castle's registry," Allura said, standing on the rocky soil outside the Clawomian's downed cargo ship. "No name, nor registration. I do believe you are its first settlers, councilor Dkkr."

The Clawomian councilor bowed slightly, fur a deep vermilion. "Honor ours, Princess." Dkkr waved his only three-fingered hand at the gathered Clawomians, nearly a hundred in number. "Many thanks, paladins. People safe."

Shiro stood beside Allura, a bit behind her. They all still wore their helmets despite the breathable atmosphere simply for communication's sake, because there was no way that the click-whistle dialect of the Clawomians was something that they would be able to easily understand otherwise. He watched the assembled people, shades of reds and browns and pinks, as the other paladins stood among them and spoke to them.

"I want you to have this," Allura said to Dkkr, holding out a small remote. "It's a communicators device linked to the castle. If the Galra ever return here, do not hesitate to call us."

A smaller Clawomian with lighter pink fur stepped forward and accepted the remote with both hands, before bowing almost double and scooting back. The one-armed Clawomian councilor bowed as well. "Multiple honor, Altean princess."

"It is our honor to serve the people of this galaxy," Allura said kindly. "And to protect it from all that we can."

Shiro smiled at that and folded his arms. The Clawomians had built a fire in the scar from their ship's rocky descent, and Lance was sitting on a log beside it, helmet off and surrounded by young, fledgling Clawomians. Shiro started to turn to walk to him but then hesitated as Keith approached Lance, trailed by more of the Clawomians. He watched Keith rest his hand on Lance's shoulder, and Lance look up at Keith with a grin and say something that earned him a hard shove.

Allura straightened from a bow she had given to the Dkkr. She looked back at Shiro and saw his destruction. "You can go to them," she said softly, half-turning to face him, and Shiro looked at her, surprised. "You clearly want to," Allura added, and Shiro turned away from the bonfire.

"It's complicated," Shiro said after a moment, avoiding Allura's direct gaze. "I think I'll walk around a bit, and stretch my legs.

"Isn't it always," she murmured, as Shiro walked off, deliberately, in the opposite direction.

On board the castle-ship, in the currently quiet training room, the memory core stood alone in the corner, set gently on a small pedestal. Along the bottom of the column the foreign script lit gold, glowing softly in the dim room, before tracing from gold to white and back to gold again.

Two of the Altean mice who were snooping through a dirty bowl that Pidge had left sitting beside her laptop lifted their heads at the same time, eyes growing wide as they watched the colored script light up concurrently, tracing up the column in wisps of yellow followed by white before vanishing.

The third time it pulsed color, the script lit up in violet.

The mice squeaked in alarm, and vacated the training room.