Princess Alaina of Voltron

~Return to the Balmera~

After a not too long or perilous journey, the Paladins and Alteans made it to the Balmera to free Shay and her fellow Balmerans from the Galra Empire's control.

"We'll be arrived at the Balmera soon. Liberating these Balmerans from Zarkon's grasp will not be easy." Allura announced as they approach the living planet.

"So, what's the plan then? We can't just go in guns blazing." Alaina asks.

"What we go in like -- Pow! Pow! Pow!" Keith said, making a sound effect. Lana just looks at him with a quirked eyebrow.

"Uh... What was that noise supposed to be?" She asked, confused.

"Laser guns. It was, the best I could do." Keith replied and admitted, while looking down a little embarrassed.

"Nice attempt, but they're more like -- Pew! Pew! Pew!" Lana said making her own laser gun sounds.

"Nah, Lana. I think you mean -- Bam! Pow! Brrrh! Pow!" Hunk sounded.

"That, sounds more like an explosion. Your canyon at most." The princess replied.

"Technically they're more like -- Ba-choo! Ba-choo! Ba-choo!" Pidge said next.

"Okay, enough with the bad sound effects." Shiro interrupted. "Besides it's more like -- Blam! Blam! Blam!" He added, with his own sound effect.

"What?" "Not even close." "You're crazy." "Wrong." The other paladins all immediately protest.

"Paladins, please. Focus." Allura interrupted, getting a bit annoyed.

"Besides, we can't just shoot at the Galra." Hunk said. "This Balmera, it's, like, alive. And from what we've seen, it doesn't look very good." He explained. The image on screen turning inferad, showing the planet's depleting life signature.

"Yes, indeed. It's an atrocity what the Galra have been doing to this grand beast." Coran said. "Stealing its crystals, its very life force, without ever performing an energy rejuvenation ceremony to heal it." He continued, pulling up an image of the planet's desolate surface, then a drawn, kind of tribal like, picture of what looked like the ceremony he mentioned.

"Wait, it's really alive? It looks like a regular planet though." Keith said curiously.

"While the Balmera appears like a planet, in actuality they are giant living petrified beasts, an ancient species, whose bodies naturally create the crystals." Amue explains.

"For centuries, Alteans and other species have harvested the crystals for powering machines and other uses. However, the crystals are still a part of the Balmera, its life force, like Coran said. So simply taking it can cause damage. If it's a few crystals at a time, it's not that dangerous, but the Galra have been mining so many of its crystals so much, they're slowly killing it." Alaina picked up.

"In the old days, Alteans developed a method to give back to the Balmera they take from. A Rejuvenation Ceremony, where an altean would give a bit of their energy in exchange for a crystal. But not everyone repays the Balmera back like that. The Galra have clearly neglected to do anything of the sort, and have been taking advantage of the poor creature." Amue explains further with a sad look.

"I used to love visiting these wonderful creatures when I was young. Dad and Mom would sometimes go and preform the ceremony. It was an amazing sight, and so was the planet, but the Galra have pretty much destroyed it. I can't imagine what's it like for the inhabits." Lana adds while clenching her fists.

"Yeah, when I saw Shay and her people enslaved it made me realize just how much damage Zarkon is doing to the universe and its people. And that we're the only ones who can stop him." Hunk stated strongly. Lana looked at him proud.