Voltron: Universal Protector | Book 2

Chapter 1: Core

It's been a few weeks since we've worked alongside the Altean Alliance. The Zafarian Kingdom doesn't know of the Alliance's secret operation facility's locations. We're completely hidden and a plan of attack is being formed right now. I don't understand why they would hide Voltron but still be running a rebellion in the background? This whole thing is confusing but Voltron will need all the support it can get if it is to defeat King Koara.

"We will not take any lives," Pidge says. I cocked an eyebrow. "We will capture and force their surrender."

"How will we make them surrender if we don't scare them first?" I ask her.

She looked away from the hologram of the Zafarian communications facility. Everyone looked directly at me. "We will storm the communications facility and then they will have nothing left. They will have to surrender, Renn."

"I think General Holt has a point. We shouldn't take their lives, plus we could gain information from them if we hold them captive." Sara asserts.

Pidge gave her a nod. "Thank you Sara, you're a wise leader." She says putting her arms behind her back, under her cloak. Sara smiled with glee. It made me happy to see Sara smile but I still didn't like this plan. If the Zafarians have taken so many lives they should pay for it. I know the Blades would side with me.

I walked over to the Blue and Black Lions sitting next to each other. Sara and Heather beside me. "So what now?" Heather asks as we all looked up at the lions.

"I'm not sure anymore," Sara says pausing, "maybe Renn should pilot Blue for now? He did find it and it chose him. I know I have to go with Black because I can't pilot any other lion."

Heather looked annoyed but then smiled. "That's fine, just take care of Blue, Renn." She looked at me.

"I will Heather, don't worry." I said quickly hugging her and running off to Blue. She sighed and walked back to Pidge and the others.

Pidge put an arm around Heather. "Hey, it's alright, I have to deal with some else piloting Green. It'll be fine, Heather." She says trying to comfort her. We had an Altean capital-class cruiser waiting in orbit of the planet Olkarion. Blue, Green, and Yellow in one hangar and Black, and Red in another. Olkarion was far away from the planets the Zafarians were conquering. The cruiser jumped to hyper-speed. The communications facility was floating about planet Puig. After taking the communications facility, the plan is to free the planet.

Harper approached me in the hangar. "Hey Renn," she said standing beside me, looking at the fast passing stars. "I kind of agree with what you said earlier. I get that we need to be better than the Zafarians but one leap forward sometimes requires two steps back." She looked up at me.

I stood there in silence for a bit. I looked at the stars then at the ground. "Lately," I started and cleared my throated, "it seems like all my ideas are right in my head, but everyone else tells me they're wrong. I'm glad I have someone like you on my side."

"I'm glad you're my friend, Renny-boy." She laughs.

I half-smiled. "That's what my father used to call me," I say staring back at the stars. "That was his nickname for me before he. . .before he died." Her smile quickly faded to a concerned look.

"Oh, Renn, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"How you guys doing down there?" Brisia shouts from the speaker in her lion.

"Shook!" Harper stutters nearly falling backward. I giggled at her.

"We're fine. Do we need to get back in our lions?" I ask Brisia.

"Yeah, I think we're approaching Puig." She says. Harper and I nodded at each other, shared a quick hug then rushed back to our lions. The cruiser jumped out of hyper-speed and we rushed out of the hangars. The cruiser got in contact with the station and broadcasted it in our com. frequency. Harper helped them set it up.

"Attention Zafarian outpost, surrender now or we will attack." Admiral Jefony announced to the station.

"We do not surrender, Admiral, but you will soon." A male voice said over the coms.

Jefony cut off communications with the station. "Paladins, attack the tower with the com. beacon, quickly!" She shouted. Quace and I were in range. We fired at it together, destroying it.

"Should we commence an attack on the entire station?" I asked turning my lion to face our capital ship.

"No, until they do something to us, we have no right to do anything to them." Jefony says.

I rolled my eyes. But they've already done things to us, and the rest of the galaxy. I thought, leaning back in my paladin's chair. "But the mission is to take out their communications." I say crossing my arms.

"Yes, and you will do that, now follow the plan and get inside." She instructs. I turned off my coms. with the ship.

"Sara, as the leader, you have to realize that this is stupid," I say trying to reach out to her, "the Zafarians have destroyed countless lives and taken many homes away from the innocent, don't you think relying on pacifism to defeat killers is dumb?"

"I don't know what I believe, but I see your point. Renn, we can't loose the Altean Alliance as allies though, we may need a helping hand in the future and they will be there." She says.

"Be there to what? Tell us their pacifists and then do nothing. Then guess what'll happen, we'll all die." I tell her with an annoyed tone. Before she could respond, I flew forward and blasted at an empty hangar bay, damaging the shields. I landed inside and waited for the others. Once they landed we headed for the power core room. Sara and Quace stealthily took down most guards in our path, the others were shot by Brisia with a her silent sniper. Sara kept trying to talk to me about the Alliance's pacifism usage, I didn't listen to her though. She was on their side and I knew it.

"Is this it?" Brisia asks as we cut a corner and are met with large red and silver doors. It was heavily guarded. The guards were all robotic, some had swords and shields while the others had blaster rifles. They noticed us and started firing upon us. The shield and sword guards charged at Quace and Sara. Energy ran down my arm, forming my bayard. Sara engaged a sword and shield guard. It looked like Harper and Brisia had the other guards taken care of. I formed my whip and swung at the guard that was attacking Sara. My whip wrapped around it's sword. I yanked it, pulling it to the ground. Sara threw her katana to me and I stabbed right into it's back.

I pulled it out and gave her a smile. Even though we have different opinions, I still care for her a lot. I tossed her the katana back and we watched Quace. Quace stabbed the guard's shield and elbowed it in the face, making it stumble backward. He took the opportunity and sliced right through the guard. Brisia put up her shield and ran at the guard, hitting it against the wall. It pushed her backwards, surprising her. It grabbed her hand and squeezed, making her drop her bayard. She kicked it in the stomach, it's arm was so tightly latched onto her that it was ripped off.

"Are these guards on android steroids or something?" She questioned with a frustrated voice. We rushed to help her. Harper was pushed down. She activated her shield in time to not be shot. The guard got over her and she kicked it backwards, then stood. She formed her staff and wacked it in the head. The hidden blade activated and she stabbed it through the head. Brisia's guard was on her, strangling her. Harper threw her staff at it, slicing right into it's head. I ran up to Brisia and helped her up, the others right behind me.

"Bris, are you alright?" I ask looking at her with concerned eyes. She was coughing badly and breathing heavily.

"I'll be f-fine," she stuttered. Harper came up to us and looked over Brisia. "I just need to breathe." Suddenly, the large doors opened and out came three Zafarian generals, each had a different stature and two weapons. Two sword and shield guards accompanied them.

"Welcome to the trap, we've been expecting you, paladins."

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