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It was supposed to be a recon mission. Observe, do not engage. They didn’t have enough information to launch a prison break yet, and they didn’t know for sure whether or not her father was inside.
So she observed.
They engaged.
A sentry caught her by surprise while she was hacking into a drone, knocking her unconscious before she could warn the others.
Great.
Pidge woke up in a cell. Her armor had been removed, but they’d left her in the undersuit, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The room was empty, but she wasn’t chained up, so Pidge got to her feet and started examining her cell.
How long before the others realized something had gone wrong? How long had she been unconscious already? Sitting and waiting for rescue didn’t particularly appeal, regardless.
She ran her hands along the wall looking for anything she could exploit. All she found was smooth metal. Disappointing, but not unexpected. Pidge looked up and found a single recessed light illuminating her cell. It was well above her head and she had nothing to scale the walls.
Useless.
Finally, she moved to the door. There wasn’t a handle or control panel from this side, and only a small barred window about six inches above her head. It was well within reach though, so she grabbed onto the bars and pulled herself up.
The guys would be proud.
Pidge got a good look outside her cell, but all she saw was a hallway lined with more cells. Judging by what the cells across from her looked like, the control panel for the door was about four feet from the ground, five inches from the door, and to her left.
She dropped down when she heard footsteps approaching, steady and loud. A patrol then, not her friends. Pidge backed up so she’d have good line of sight through the bars and watched as they past. Sentry bots, not soldiers.
Good. Bots she could work with, if she got the chance.
Pidge moved back to the door and examined the part of the wall behind the control panel. It was as smooth as the rest of the wall unfortunately. If only she had her tools. A scanner or something.
More footsteps. Another patrol from the sound of it.
They stopped in front of her door and the guard barked, “Where we can see you prisoner!”
Pidge rolled her eyes and stayed where she was. They’d have to open the door to do anything to her and she was more than willing to let them try.
The guard released a frustrated growl and opened the door. Pidge was ready, though, and bolted past him as soon as the door opened enough for her to slip through. She was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and yelped as Galra claws dug into her flesh.
“Commander Tavok wishes to speak with you.” The Galra hissed and pulled her down the hall, grip still firmly on her neck.
Her hands went around his wrists trying to alleviate the pain and pull him off, but her gloved fingers couldn’t find purchase on the smooth metal gauntlet. When it became clear she wasn’t getting free that way, Pidge stopped struggling and worked on committing the route to memory, noting everything from patrols past and drone count to vents and access panels.
Her mission was to observe. She was observing.
She was finally brought to the control room where a large, portly Galra was waiting. His back was to her as he looked at a wide vid screen, but Pidge cared more that her armor seemed to be laid out on a table in front of him. On the screen, she saw her her friends.
He’d called them? Seriously?
The Galra holding her forced her over to the commander before removing his claws from her neck. Pidge winced from the pain, but managed not to whimper.
“Pidge!” Lance, Hunk, and Allura shouted.
“Touch her again and I’ll tear your arm off!”
“Hard to do that through a vid screen.” Tavok sneered at Keith. “And the moment any of you disappear from our polite conversation, she dies.”
Pidge gave the six worried people on the screen a small smile to show them she was okay. Other than her neck, she wasn’t hurt at all. They needed to relax for a moment.
She looked around since Tavok seemed far more interested in delivering a villainous monologue and demands for the Lions than watching her. The Galra guards were gone, but there were a couple of sentry bots with guns trained on her. Beyond them, security feeds from across the prison displayed on vid screens above what had to be the main control station. At a glance, she could see the guards that had brought her here were resuming their patrols in the cell block, leaving the door guarded only by a single sentry bot.
A sharp yank on her hair brought her focus back to Tavok as he pulled her over. Her friends began to shout protests and profanities--which was touching--but all Pidge saw was her Paladin armor. On the table in front of her. Within reach.
“Congratulations,” she laughed, silencing Tavok and her team, “you have invented a new kind of stupid.”
Pidge reached forward and summoned her bayard from the armor, immediately jamming the electrified blade into Tavok’s gut, stunning him. He released his hold on her hair as he dropped and Pidge launched herself across the room, wrapping the cord of her bayard around the two sentries, electrifying them as well.
Quickly, she put on the gauntlet that held all of her viruses and programs built for hacking systems and made her way to the control desk.
“Pidge!”
She turned at the warning shout, shield up just in time to stop the blaster fire from the sentry bot that had been guarding the door. Without the rest of her armor, she was vulnerable, so she made herself as small as possible behind her shield until she had an opening. When the bot moved closer to get around the shield, she lunged and dug the small blade into its face, disabling it.
Satisfied, she turned back to the control desk and began overriding the system.
“See if you can lower the particle barrier, Number Five.” Coran shouted over the feed. “The Lions can’t go in for extraction until it’s down.”
A quick glance over her shoulder showed her that only Allura and Coran were still on the vid call. The others, presumably, were headed to their Lions.
“On it, Coran.” She acknowledged.
Her hack finally took control and she started closing doors, trapping bots and guards in hallways where they wouldn’t run into the team or escaping prisoners. She set a program to take remote control of all the drones at the prison while she set about cracking the barrier. It had an added layer of security, but it didn’t take her long to break it.
“Alright. Barrier down.” Pidge reported. “Path to control is open.”
“Excellent work, Number Five.”
“The Paladins are on their way, Pidge.” Allura told her. “Time to suit up.”
Pidge nodded and ran over to her armor, ready to put on the rest of it, but a clawed hand shot out and grabbed her calf, tripping her. A quick twist kept her from braining herself of the table, but it twisted her knee when Tavok refused to let go.
“Insolent fool!” Tavok sputtered. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Electrocuting him would give herself a shock since he was still firmly attached. Instead, she kicked him in the face with her heel, eliciting a satisfying crunch as his nose broke. While he screamed and wiped at the blood, Pidge summoned a few drones with a few hastily entered commands into her gauntlet. She kicked him again, this time in the eye and then wrenched herself free as his hold finally loosened.
Using her bayard, she pulled herself up to the other side of the room and landed--gingerly--with most of her weight on her good leg. The drones she’d summoned popped in through the vent and flanked her on either side.
“Give up, Tavok. Final warning.”
He stood shakily, standing between her and the table with her armor. “Victory or death. Vrepit Sa!”
“More like vrepit sad.” Pidge chastised and electrocuted him again. As he fell, Pidge set the drones to guard him and limped over to her armor.
It hurt with the wound and her twisted knee, but Pidge suited up, jamming the helmet on her head last. Immediately, the comm buzzed to life and she heard the voices of the other Paladins.
“--find him and kill him!”
“Chill out, Keith.” Hunk huffed. “Pidge kicked ass!”
“Self-rescuing damsel, that’s me.” Pidge smiled.
“Pidge!” They all shouted.
“You okay?” Hunk asked.
“We’re on the ground, headed your way.” Shiro told her.
“Keith was ready to set fire to everything before you called Pidgeon.” Lance teased.
“Burn base after we rescue the prisoners.” Pidge grunted, limping over to the control desk. “All the drones are mine, but the sentry bots and guards will engage if you manage to bump into them. I’ve got most of them sequestered in various hallways for now, but they’re working on manual overrides of the doors.”
“Copy that.” Shiro affirmed.
Pidge found them on the security feed and said, “You’re almost to the command; take your next left and then all the way down the hall, center door.”
“Is your location secure?”
“You mean Tavok? He’s sporting a broken nose and is passed out on the floor. I’ve got a couple drones watching him drool.” Pidge began to run a scan through the prison’s logs to see if she could find anything on her father.
Ten seconds later, the door opened and the Paladins joined her.
“Lance, Hunk, make sure the warden is secure.” Shiro ordered and they moved as instructed; Hunk even pulled out cuffs from somewhere. “Pidge, how much time do we have before the guards override the doors?”
“A few minutes? Not enough time to evacuate everyone, and I’m still pulling data from the base.”
“You okay?” Keith asked. “You’re bleeding.”
“Neck and leg are cut, knee hurts. I’ll hop in a med pod when we’re back at the castle,” Pidge promised. Movement on the vid screen caught her attention as one of the sentry patrols finally managed to break out of their hallway. She pointed. “Feel like hitting something?”
“Hell yes.” Keith grunted and took off. Pidge sent the two drones with him to keep him safe.
“Be careful!” Shiro called after him. “How much time do we need to get everyone out?”
“I can open all of the cells from here, no problem, but until we take care of the guards, the prisoners are gonna be in danger.” Pidge explained. “My datamine will be done in three dobashes, so we’ll have a complete prisoner census then.”
“Any sign of your father?”
Pidge shook her head, “Not yet.”
“Alright. Keep on it.” He turned to the other two. “Once Keith gets back, we’ll go block by block and clear the guards before releasing the prisoners. Allura!”
“We read you, Shiro.” Allura said over the vid screen.
“Get the castle ready to receive refugees, and find a good landing zone.”
“On it.”
Pidge watched Keith pulverize the sentry bots on the security feed, keeping an eye out for other guards to make sure none of them had broken free yet.
“Keith, fall back to us.” Shiro ordered once the bots were down.
By time Keith returned, the datamine was done and Pidge was going through the census data looking for her father.
>Prisoner 32-9D211
>Terran, approx. age 50 years
>Arrival 100237.234.53.22
>Transfer 100238.173.14.05
>Transfer Orders: [CLASSIFIED]
Pidge swallowed down the bitter taste of disappointment and looked at the date on the logs from today. 100238.173.14.09.
“Four days.” She cried. “He was here four days ago.”
“Does it say where he was taken?” Hunk asked.
“Classified.” Shiro replied.
Lance frowned. “Why would it be classified?”
“They must have learned he was connected to me, to Voltron.” Pidge’s shoulders slumped in defeat.
“You don’t know that for sure.” Shiro comforted softly.
“We could ask. I mean, it’s worth a try, right?” Hunk suggested, gesturing to the warden.
“Warden would have highest access; if it’s classified here, he doesn’t know it.” Pidge shook her head. More movement on the screens drew her focus. “The guards are almost out; we have to get a move on. There are other prisoners we can still save.”
The liberation of the prison base went smoothly with Pidge in the system controlling and monitoring from the command room. Between the Paladins and the drones under her power, the guards and sentries were dealt with without the Paladins incurring any injuries and all the prisoners were moved to the castle. As a final touch, Pidge sent a virus through the system to wipe all data.
“Everyone’s all set, last one out is you Pidge.” Shiro told her.
“I’m on my way; there in a few ticks.” Pidge hit a code into her gauntlet and limped her way out the door. A small fleet of drones scooped her up as soon as she entered the hallway and floated her to the hangar so she wouldn’t have to walk or have anyone come fetch her.
“We-hell look who’s queen of the castle!” Hunk laughed upon her arrival.
“I may never walk anywhere ever again.” Pidge grinned, sitting atop her drone throne.
“Come on your highness; you’ve got a med pod with your name on it.” Keith offered her a hand down.
She pouted but accepted his help.
“Don’t look so down, Pidgeon.” Lance slung his arm through her unoccupied one, helping her walk too. “Yes, the mission didn’t exactly go to plan, and you were captured, but considering how it started, I think it went rather well. And hey, silver lining, I know when we found you--”
“I think I found myself, thanks.”
“Shh. When we found you, you were just wearing your undersuit, but you were wearing that undersuit, if you know what I mean…” Lance waggled his eyebrows.
“Lance!” The other Paladins yelled.
“What? What? We were all thinking it.”
“You don’t have to say it though.” Keith growled.
“Ha! I knew you were thinking it too!” Lance crowed and danced away, out of Keith’s reach.
Keith blushed and muttered, “You’re going to pay for that later, twinkle toes.”