shining like the stars

27

The Galra scout ship was a small vessel, in comparison to the larger ships Keith had seen before. "It won't have much of anything to deploy," Shiro said over the open communications channel. "Scout ships are made for speed, not skirmishes. Most of the firepower will be concentrated on the forward portion of the ship, so try not to get tagged. The tractor beam will be up there, too."

The red lion had pulled up enough data about the quickly-growing ship on his forward viewscreen that he could quickly corroborate everything Shiro was saying. "What about its particle shield?" he said, and the yellow lion shifted course, looping away from them both.

"I'm on it," Hunk said, heading directly toward the aft portion of the ship. Keith watched as the yellow lion rebounded off the shield, causing a flurry of colorful sparks to ripple and ionize. He could have told Hunk that was going to be the outcome, when Hunk said through the channel, "it's not a very strong particle shield; look at how long it took to restore from impact."

The action made several of the plasma turrets on forward part of the ship swivel and start to fire at Hunk. "Keith!" Shiro ordered, and without question Keith slammed the red lion forward, rushing past the yellow lion and drawing a somewhat confused line of fire from the weapons as they rushed and reoriented on the potential new threat.

"This shield can't handle multiple points of impact," Hunk shouted as all three lions flew quickly around the Galra vessel, causing it to pitch slowly and roll, trying to keep the plasma cannons along its belly lined up with the much-quicker flight paths of the paladins.

"On your mark then, Hunk," Shiro said, the black lion sweeping past Keith and headed directly toward the belly of the ship.

"On my-? Okay," Hunk said. Keith directed the red lion toward the engines, as Hunk counted off. "On my mark, three, two-!"

The impact of the red lion into the particle shield that protected the Galra scout ship's engines was hard enough that Keith was slammed against his seat. He kept his hands on the controls, though, even as Hunk whooped. "One more time!"

This time a colorful spray of sparks exploded across the face of the red lion. Keith heard Hunk's war whoop seconds before the particle barrier evaporated, leaving behind a faint glittering shadow of its scope. "Shields are down," Keith reported, as Shiro acknowledged.

"Good job, Hunk," Shiro said, as Keith headed determinedly for the engines. If they could disable the ship, maybe they could learn more about the Galra and their plans, but before Keith could get a chance to even fire a weapon the engines started exploding, one after the other. He yanked back on his controls and pulled a 180 out and away from the back of the ship. "Great shots, Keith!"

"That wasn't me!" Keith hit several of the toggles that appeared on the dashboard in front of the seat whenever the lion was active, and felt the red lion rumble around him. That had been close, and he wouldn't be surprised if the lion's tail was a bit singed. "Sorry buddy," Keith said, both hands back on the controls. "I'll make it up to you."

He could feel the red lion react to that, and Keith yanked both of the flight controls back toward him. He had a bad feeling about this.

#

The aft of the Clawomian ship was badly damaged; dark with carbon scoring from multiple plasma weapon strikes. In several spots the hull was breached. Bulkheads must have been closed and sealed from the inside, securing the ship's atmosphere; but re-entry was out of the question with hull integrity compromised. "Shit," Pidge said emphatically.

"Shit's not good," Lance said over the open channel.

"No it's not." Pidge's helmet had closed around her face, sealing to her suit so that she could eject from the speeder and inspect the damage as much as she could. "Their main engine core must be damaged, only the auxiliary engines are running. The hull's compromised, too." She put the fingers of her glove into the breech, it was small enough that she couldn't even get her hand through. It was more than enough to vent the entire ship's atmosphere and kill everybody on board if the pressurized seal of the bulkhead didn't hold. "We've got to get them to the castle-ship, it's their only hope."