Love is Weak

Chapter 43 - Trial by Fire

Keith

I woke briefly when my head hit the ground, turning weakly to the sound of voices.

"I delivered you the Lions as you requested," Admiral Sanda said. I could barely see her. "Now it's time you uphold your end of the bargain. Hand over the Paladins to me and leave earth."

"That won't be happening," Sendak said.

"We made a deal," Sanda said, shocked as though the Galra couldn't go back on their word.

"Throw her in the brig with the Paladins," Sendak said.

"No!" She shouted as one of the sentries grabbed her by the arm and led her away.

"Continue assault and move the Zaiforge cannons into position," Sendak commanded.

Darkness became my friend again.

Lillian

I awoke when Keith did. I looked around, and noticed that I was still in my plane, the other pilots standing outside. They had somehow gotten me to the ground safely.

My plane was now charging, so I stepped down from the cockpit to join the rest of the MFE pilots.

"What happened back there?" Griffin demanded.

"You wouldn't understand it if I told you," I said sternly. "It's my information, not yours."

He grunted something, and this time when darkness called, I refused to give in.

"What's going on right now?" I asked, suddenly weak.

"The Paladins have been captured by Sendak, and they're trying to get the Atlas launched," Rizavi said.

I nodded.

Someone's voice cut across the loudspeaker in the bay.

"All personnel aboard the Atlas immediately," Iverson said. "This is not a drill."

"Commander Shirogane, the MFEs are almost at a hundred percent," Griffin said.

"These birds are ready to fly." Rizavi grinned.

"We need you airborne. We're shutting down the particle barrier, so we'll be exposed. That means you'll be our last line of defence," Shiro said.

"You can count on us," Griffin said. He turned to me. "Are you going to be able to fly?"

"I don't have a choice," I said.

We helped get everything aboard the Atlas. Quite literally everything and everyone. There was enough space in that ship for all of us.

After the Atlas was completely boarded, we made sure that our planes were functioning, and then we launched to provide air support.

The particle barrier was taken down not long after, and part of Sendak's fleet descended on us, firing at the Garrison as we expected.

We flew through the smoke, towards the Glara cruiser, but I didn't know if brute force was going to work. We needed a plan.

"Rizavi, Kinkade, draw their fire away from the base," Griffin said.

Leifsdottir, Kintanara, you're with me. Hit them hard and hit them quick."

"Roger that," Rizavi said.

"Let's buy our team some time," Griffin said, all business.

We were under heavy fire, and it took a lot of focus to engage in evasive manoeuvres and make sure that I was hitting my target at the same time. I was impressed by how fast the MFEs flew. They were much more agile than anything I had ever flown before.

"More fighters incoming," Griffin grunted, and it seemed like a lot more fighters appeared out of nowhere.

I have so many on my tail.

You've got this.

"Leifsdottir, what do you see?" Griffin asked.

When she started to report the weather, he immediately corrected that he wanted a battle evaluation.

"A variation of a tactical circular formation," she said, sounding like a walking textbook. "They're protecting the cruisers to allow them more accurate shots."

The cruisers began to fire more heavily at the Garrison and the city.

We continued to fly, firing at as many cruisers as we could until we noticed more coming.

"Galra squadron launching from cruiser! Four o'clock high!" Rizavi shouted.

"Rizavi, Kinkade, divert their fire!" Griffin shouted. "Beginning assault on the inner ship."

I followed Griffin's path to the inner ship and helped him attack.

"Leifsdottir, keep drawing their fire. Our base can't take much more," Griffin said.

"Yeah, speaking of that, the Galra ship patterns are changing, which means they're either on the move, or more probable, they're reconfiguring to adjust for more cruisers," Leifsdottir said.

When she was almost hit by a cruiser, she said, "Yep, reconfiguring."

"How long can we hold them off?" Griffin asked.

Leifsdottir was silent for a moment, calculating. "Twelve minutes."

We held them off a bit longer, waiting for the Atlas to take flight.

It finally did, and I was the first to notice.

"Welcome to the battle, IGF Atlas," I said over the comms.

"Clearing a path for you now," Griffin said. "MFEs, let's try these pulse projectiles we've been hanging on to."

We flew through the multitude of cruisers in the sky and shot projectiles into as many as we could. The projectiles made the ships lose power.

"Nice work, pilots," Sam said.

The Garrison was locked in a fire fight against the Galra right over the place that had once been our residences. No one felt much remorse; all we wanted was to take out Sendak once and for all.

The cruisers began to reconfigure around the Atlas to lock it in place, and anything the MFEs did was fruitless against the mounting cruisers. Five pilots didn't stand a chance against the amount of enemies we were facing at the moment.

In all of the chaos of trying to keep my plane in the air, I saw the Lions fly into the fight.

I knew you could do it.

Thanks.

In a matter of seconds, the Lions took out many of the fighters plaguing myself and the rest of the MFEs. Cruisers weren't that hard for them to demolish either.

"Paladins, welcome to the fight!" Shiro exclaimed. "Let's go take out Sendak's cruiser."

"Wait!" Pidge said. "We're still on that ship! Well, our bodies are."

"Amazing," Shiro said in awe. "We got ourselves some breathing room. Let's make it count."

I didn't know you could be that bonded to your Lions. I'm proud of you.

I felt Keith grin a little bit.

I'm proud of you.

I continued to focus on fighting where I could, but my senses were interrupted when I felt a slight pang of sadness in my heart, and it wasn't normal sadness. It was the depression of death. I knew Keith hadn't died, but he was with someone who had. And it wasn't one of the other Paladins either. It was someone with whom he didn't have much attachment, but a respect all the same. I felt the sadness too.

And then I heard Keith say, "We will."