The Forgotten Paladin

Chapter 52: Begin the Blitz

After visiting the blades, I visited my sister's grave again, leaving some flowers that I picked up from the space mall on the way, the planet was as sparce and dusted as I recall. Her grave stood among thousands of soldiers that gave their lives to stop the Empire, I hope this will be the last graveyard that will be made in that sense, so no one has to die for freedom ever again. I stayed at her grave for hours, talking to the air, hoping that somehow she could hear me, the silence ringing loudly after every sentence I spoke. I settled on a nearby planet for a couple days, taking in the scenery, taking time to practice my abilities, finding new ways to use them at every turn. 

My communicator buzzed incessantly in my pocket, I lifted it out to see a call from the blades and Voltron, quickly hiding my hair I answered, the screen shining against my face. 

KOLIVAN: "Entire Galra fleets have been mobilized. Zarkon seems to be out looking for Lotor." Kolivan and Keith were on one side of the conversation, the paladins on the other. 

SHIRO: "It's only a matter of time before he gets the empire back in order. We need to take advantage of this moment."

Y/N: "What are you getting at, Shiro?" 

SHIRO: "Now is the time to assemble the coalition that Voltron has been building. With intelligence gathered by the blades and coalition observers, combining with Pidge's Galra tracking software, we now have a detailed map of the Galra empire." A map of the empire glows in front of me, "I've identifies an intermittent line of coalition planets that runs through the territory." a line of planets is brought to attention, "If you look closely, there's only one Galra-occupied planet left on that line." One singular planet is shining in purple, signifying Galra control. 

Y/N: "Naxzela."

SHIRO: "Exactly. If we capture Naxzela and solidify that line, we can cut off all the Galra troops behind it from central command and use our position to defeat them." 

PIDGE: "Wow! We could take back a third of the Galra Empire in one fell swoop."

HUNK :"Do we have a plan?"

SHIRO: "We attack several locations across the region, at once. First, we'll have to cut off communications between the region and Galra Central Command by striking the satellite relay station orbiting Vantax Five.

HUNK: "Pidge and I can handle that."

SHIRO: "The blades have informed us of two Galra defence systems coming online called Zaiforge Cannons." That name stroke fear in my heart, they used those to destroy my home, but only one was able to be used at the time, the thought of them having more, is terrifying, "Those cannons can strike any target within our combat theatre. The first in high orbit around the planet Teq, will be attacked by coalition air forces led by Matt and Captain Olia. Kolivan will lead a Marmoran strike team against the second cannon, located on the surface of Senfama, which is vulnerable to a covert ground attack. We intend to take control of these cannons and use Zarkon's own firepower against him. Once the coalition forces and blades neutralize these targets, Galra defences will be weakened, allowing us to take down the remaining Galra occupied planets in this area. While our forces are taking control of the planets, Naxzela will already be under attack.

ALLURA: "By whom?"

SHIRO: "Voltron." 

LANCE: "Aw, yeah! Team Voltron's gonna drop in Naxzela, form Hunk's giant laser cannon and be all like, 'Pow! Pow! Pow!' Easy-peasy." 

SHIRO: "Unfortunately, not that easy. Naxzela will be tough. It's heavily fortified with Galra. Our attack must be swift enough to neutralize the Galra forces before they have time to contact Galra Headquarters. Cause if they call for reinforcements we'll be caught in a fight on two fronts. So, Y/N, we need you to be our firepower, use any means you can to help us."