The New Paladin

83: Weakened

"The paladins of Voltron?" Iverson didn't look impressed.

Allura puffed out her chest as she lifted a holo projector. "Yes and they are my paladins. I am princess Allura Altea and my home was destroyed by the Galra, so I am here to prevent it from happening to your world."

"Why would you help us?" James scowled.

"As paladins we promise to protect the universe, last time we checked Earth is part of the universe." Keith explained crossing his arms.

"We have fought Sendak before, we can help you beat him." Hunk added with a bright smile.

"Remove your helmets then." Iverson said raising an eyebrow, the one above the permanently closed eye.

"Our... Why?" Shiro asked.

"What do you have to hide?"

"Lance told us not to remove our helmets so we're gonna do what he said." Pidge explained.

"Lance as in... As in a human called Lance?" James asked looking at another MFE pilot. "Get the McClain's. Where is this Lance?"

Pidge's eyes darted to Hunk who was shaking his head looking worried.

"Um..."

"Where is he?" Iverson demanded looking angry.

Keith's eyes flashed to where Lance was returning to their group. They had to protect him from these guys.

The alarm couldn't have blared at a more convenient moment. It snapped everyone out of their previous conversation and forced them into action.

Lance arrived at their side as Iverson made the call, their perimeter had been breached.

"Sendak?" Krolia asked looking between them.

"No." Pidge said shaking her head. "No organic lifeforms."

"Do we call the lions?" Hunk asked.

"Or maybe the castle?"

"Leave it to us." James grumbled as he cut past them.

"Okay, what did I miss?" Lance asked looking between them.

"We accidently mentioned your name." Hunk explained anxiously.

"What?! Why?!"

"Because... We just did. But that's not important, what's important is that we stop this attack." Pidge said as her Bayard came to her hand.

"Fine, but we're talking about this later." Lance warned pointing at Pidge.

Pidge mumbled something in another language, probably an insult but it made Lance smile.

They rushed into battle, none of them felt confident in the Garrison's ability to stop an army of Galran sentries.

Lance himself wasn't confident that they would be able to do much. Not in this base anyway.

They were like sardines trapped in a can. There wasn't really an escape and it would only take so long before the Galran's found a way to get in.

This was a time sensitive mission so they had to act fast.

Lance jumped over a barrier and opened fire. He didn't care that he was in the direct line of fire. All he knew was that he had to stop these machines from destroying anything else.

He had lost too much already. He wasn't willing to lose any more.

Even if the people he was protecting were unaware of his presence.

In the corner of his vision he spotted a group of Garrison personnel. They weren't dressed like James was, they weren't armoured up.

These people were civilians, in a way.

A Galran sentry had made them it's new target.

"Guys!" Lance warned. "We got civilians!"

"Go." Shiro nodded. "We'll handle these guys."

"Call if you need help!" Allura added.

Lance smirked to himself trying to instill some sort of confidence back into himself. He needed it as he made his way towards the group.

He shot down the sentries getting too close before he could focus fully on the group.

He reached them and activated his shield blocking the blasts aimed towards them.

"Everyone okay?" He asked without looking back.

"Yeah, thank you paladin."

Lance smiled. "Okay, we need to move you guys to an area where there's more cover, got any ideas?"

"We'll be boxed in if we head back." Another one exclaimed and Lance met her gaze for a moment and he realised who he was staring at.

"You're -"

A blast came from above and skimmed Lance's helmet making pain burst through his skull as his vision and hearing cut out.

Lance stumbled with it his ears rang and his eyes burned. But he didn't have time to be in pain.

The sentry had dropped down and was coming towards the civilians.

Lance turned about to shout out to the others but there wasn't time. The sentry had changed its choice in weapon and had a sword aiming right for them.

The garrison girl flinched raising her hands as the sword came towards her.

Without much thought Lance tackled the Galran sentry to the ground and used its own sword to cut its head off.

Getting up he turned sharply blaster raised only to receive a punch from a metal fist.

The sentry followed after him even as Lance tried to get his bearings. Blood was rolling down his chin and his jaw hurt more than he liked almost equalising with the pain in his head.

"Eliminate the paladin."