"I thought it was a distress signal." The red paladin spoke over the comms, confusion evident in her voice.
"Well, it is." From the green lion a voice piped up.
"You said it was 'unusual radio chatter'. That doesn't scream distress signal." The blue paladin watched the screens in front of them.
"It IS." The green paladin insisted. "It's unusual because a planet controlled by Galra should NOT be broadcasting soap operas." The green paladin pulled up the window with the recording. "You know, much less should the soap operas be about US."
~~~~
They walked along a path that was overgrown with vegetation, clearly not in use. Sweeping the area for danger, both green and yellow Paladins could only shrug when nothing came back.
"I'm not going to say it's creepy that there's nothing here, but... it's not comforting." The red paladin glanced around, fingers twitching for her bayard every time a team member snapped a twig with their step.
"If it was supposed to be a distress signal shouldn't we see, like, I dunno..." The blue paladin shrugged. "Distress?"
"There has to be, SOMETHING here..." the black paladin pulled back a branch on what appeared to be a tree.
The thick brush and foliage made it difficult to see anywhere but the abandoned path. If there was anyone or anything to find, it was getting increasingly difficult.
"Maybe we're lost?" The yellow paladin supplied. "We've been wandering for a while, but this GPS says we've barely moved."
"Aw great." The green paladin stopped. "The planet is messing with us."
"How can it be messing with us?" The blue paladin asked. "It's a planet."
Jas, you remember the Balmera?" The black paladin chimed in.
"Similar concept." The yellow paladin tapped at the gps once again before finally putting it away.
The team stopped walking, trying to figure out a plan. As far as they knew, they shouldn't be too far from their lions, but it felt like they'd been walking away from them forever. It certainly didn't help that there were no identifiable landmarks to gauge how lost they had gotten themselves.
"Alright so, obviously we're getting nowhere fast." The black paladin spoke up.
"That's an understatement." The red paladin rolled her eyes, withering smile on her lips.
It was faint, but distinguishable.
The soft snap of a twig.
Silence blanketed the team as everyone held their breath. Looking around stealthily, they could feel their hearts beat out of their chests. What was following them? How long had it been there? And how dangerous would it be?
From the corner of their eye, the blue paladin saw something twitch. The shift was so subtle it almost went unnoticed.
"Mal..." the tension was palpable. A conversation packed into eye contact.
It took seconds, a flurry of motion, bodies rushing for different reasons.
Grip tightened, the source of the noise was dragged to the center of a circle, caught, trapped by the green paladin.
It looked scared.
She looked scared.
Her eyes were as deep and colorful as the forest, pupils dilating quickly in panic. The feathers on the back of her next began to stand up, sandy hair falling into her face. Her hands moved from the ground quickly, unpredictably, and she opened her mouth.
The green paladin moved quickly to clap a hand over their spy's mouth.
"Don't even think about screaming."
The squawk of surprise could have easily been misinterpreted as an attempt to call for help.
"A spy!?" The yellow paladin exclaimed.
But we weren't picking up anything on the scanners."
"Awfully sneaky." The green paladin spat.
"... isn't that the point of a spy?" The blue paladin whispered to their leader, but the black paladin stepped closer.
Her eyes pled with the leader, 'let me go. Please. Call your gremlin off!'
"She, uh... she doesn't LOOK Galra." The red paladin offered.
The captive 'spy' shook her head aggressively at this. Still, she tried to convey a sense of urgency to the black paladin.
"Geez, she's got some real claws back here." The green paladin mused.
"What do we do with her?" Blue turned to yellow. A shrug was left in the air.
With a huff, the captive spy resigned herself to the only option she had left.
"OW!!" The green paladin drew her hand back sharply, and the spy was able to free her arm and scramble away.
"I'M SORRY!!! I'm so sorry!! I'm sorry!" She spoke, hands in front to protect her from feared retaliation. She looked desperately around the group, confidence eroding by the second. "Please don't hurt me! I- I swear I'm not here to harm you!"
She couldn't have been very old judging by what looked like brand new contour feathers down the back of her neck, dusty, a little darker than the hair she pulled back with a clip.
"I'm not a spy, I swear!" She spoke, voice wavering in front of the heroes. "I, uh... look!" She tugged at her shirt sleeve, pulling it up, over her elbow. Nestled just under the crook of her arm was the same V shape the Paladins wore on their shoulder armor.
"I'm on your side..."
The team trudged off the path, following their new ally as she lead them quickly through the woods that seemed to open up before them now. The foliage and vegetation was drab, as if something had sucked the color out of it, leaving the plants and the planet as a whole somber; a hollow shell of a past life full of vibrancy.
Their new ally chattered amicably as they walked, warning them to be careful climbing over fallen logs or to watch their step so they wouldn't trip on roots. It might have been a pleasant hike if not for the pressing sense of urgency to find information and the oppressive feeling of something being incredibly off about the woods.
Eventually they made their way to what looked like a small broadcast station in a clearing, paint peeling and windows all but boarded up, and yet the towers and antenna looked well kept.
"What's the deal with this?" Syeriane looked up at the tower that seemed to stretch impossibly tall.
"The tower?" Their friend asked. "Well they all need to be operational to bounce the signal, but the buildings don't need to be manned anymore. Everything is automatic, so the buildings at these stations are in pretty rough shape."
"Who mans the stations?" Mal asked. "Or, who did?" Bexxa paused for an uncomfortable moment before yanking open the door.
"My people. But... they're mostly gone now." She held the door open, gesturing for the team to enter.
"What... happened?" The yellow Paladin turned to look at her from inside the dark one room building.
"Well, um..." She looked down and seemed to consider what to say. Raising her head with a sad smile, "You don't exactly need entire civilizations on a planet that's basically a radio repeater for Galra propaganda."
"Oh." The black Paladin seemed to understand the distress and felt it best to not consider the next question of family.
"You run this place by yourself?" Jas looked around at what was in the room, noticing a panel of buttons and one wall covered in paper with chicken scratch all over. Old transmissions caught over the radio, corresponding with advances and planet captures.
"Pretty much." The door squeaked shut and Bexxa moved to the sheets over what small windows there were, letting more light into the room. "Occasionally I drag someone in, but people are few and far between." She bundled up the sheet. "And scared..."
A deafening screech ran out through the building.
All the Paladins covered their ears, wincing at the piercing noise. Bexxa rushed across the room to where the blue Paladin stood next to the panel, quickly pressing a combination of them.
The noise stopped suddenly and everyone's eyes fell on her as she looked at Jas. They exchanged a look at it became evident that in an effort to investigate a button had been pressed that triggered the noise as an error.
"Don't do that." She said quietly.
"Have you been writing EVERYTHING down?" Waffle asked, shifting to look over the wall of all the hurried writing. "How long have you been at this?"
"There's stuff up here I've never even heard of." The red Paladin turned around to find her standing there awkwardly.
"I paid more attention after I realized how valuable it could be... and then when you guys started saving the world I," She set the sheet down and moved between Waffle and Syeriane to pull down a map.
"I started this."
It was a map of the Galaxy and Galra command. Planets and locations marked with received transmissions and correlations between when the action was completed if ever.
"This is amazing." Mal stepped forward, hand coming to touch the map and trace over the additions. "You did this for us?"
"Yeah." Seemingly pleased that the Paladins appreciated her work, feathers began to rise which Bexxa slowly coaxed back to flat.
"Imagine what we could do if we had this on the castle ship!" Syeriane exclaimed. "Would we be able to use your data?"
"Of course... you can use the whole system!" Looking animatedly at all the Paladins, their new ally practically vibrated with excitement. "I believe that we may be able to predict where the Galra will be before they are there. And also!" She pointed enthusiastically. "These marks indicate planets and settlements where there have been uprisings or a decrease in security, so potential liberations and allies are... well they're practically written out here!"
"We need to get this to the princess!" Sir smiled. "This kind of information could win the war!"
"Does it work every time?" Waffle asked.
"Do they know you do this?" Jas looked almost baffled. "How do you fly under the radar?"
"Does anyone else know about this?" Syeriane jumped in.
"Well, nothing is perfect. Sometimes plans change suddenly, but I've tried to reflect that, and for the most part if you wade through all the chatter and propaganda there's really good information.
"I've been able to get away with it for the most part because our planet isn't a very big threat being such a small population that lives in fear so, the galra don't really pay much attention to what happens here. Aside from broadcasting what you call 'the soap operas', there's no outward sign that the radio waves are being used for anything suspicious, and even those are mostly dismissed by the Galra.
"I've had mild to moderate success with getting those broadcasts to reach other planets, who then can decipher a message embedded in each one. It's hard, because I don't have all the facility to broadcast much farther, and I worry that my information falls on deaf ears. No one can really send a message back that they receive them or understand..."
"You send encrypted messages out on the radio waves?" The blue Paladin shouted.
"That's crazy..." The black mused.
"Shit..." Waffle breathed. "That is fucking sick."
Bexxa flushed and her feathers fluffed under the praise.
"I wanted to help..." She mumbled.
