Chapter Text
The mission wasn't going to be a simple one. It was in fact the first of its kind. Taking a Galran base without the lions and without harming the building itself. It was the paladins plus Allura and a group of Blades since it was of utmost importance they won. The reason for the care was that the Galrans had decided to use an ancient temple from the true inhabitants, Glorines, of the planet to set base in since the Glorines were incapable of fighting without destroying the battlefield and would never harm such a sacred building. The paladins job was to clear out the building of Galrans so that the Glorines could take back their planet.
The Glorines were not colonised by the Galrans due to their fighting skill but the Galrans were holding their temple hostage and they could get them to leave and couldn't participate in their normal religious customs. Lance found the Glorines fascinating. Their battle skills unfortunately couldn't translate to anywhere but their planet but the paladins had negotiated a safe space on the planet for refugees and such in return for cleaning out the temple.
The temple itself was actually perfect for a sniper. Normally Lance would use his Bayard as a hand gun but for this mission he'd be using its rifle form. He'd have much better chance of helping the fight with a rifle than a pistol in the temple so he'd told them about the form that he'd never had to use before in battle. Allura had been pretty surprised about his Bayard changing form but she had said that it wasn't the very first time. He'd be entering the temple from the roof separately to the rest of the paladins who'd be taking the side entrances to attack the main camp inside the temple courtyard.
'Are you listening, Lance?' Shiro asks, cutting into Lances thoughts.
'Yep. Your retelling the plan we've been talking about all day. The one which mostly has nothing to do with me.' Lance replied spinning in his chair. 'I don't need to memorise the quick exits since I'll be on the roof that only has one entrance and as many exits as I need.'
Shiro frowns but continues to address the rest of the group.
...
Clearing the roof of its guards was easy. He didn't need to worry about changing shifts because they had scheduled it so that by the time the roof guards shift ended everyone was much to busy fighting to go up and worry about that. All Lance had to make sure was that no one heard him shooting the guard from a seperate building before jumping down onto the temple roof and setting up his nest. He'd thrown the guard down from the temple later when it wouldn't tip them off.
Lance sidles into a small nook in the roof a decent distance from the roof door so that he could turn and shoot anyone with his Bayard if they approached. Switching between the rifle Bayard and the pistol Bayard was a lot easier than switching between the real things. It was a minute before the rest of the forces would arrive in position and while he had been told to wait, Lance subtly picked off some of the guards that wouldn't be seen but would see the groups coming. He'd give them any advantage he could.
A few soldiers out later the first ally appeared allowing Lance to shoot at the more visible targets that needed to be taken out. Lance's Bayard only shot instant knockout and he tried to ignore the way that the unconscious Galrans would be trampled or killed during the battle.
Lance eventually stopped thinking and just shot at the Galran soldiers who would be a danger to his allies and friends.
'Lance!' Pidge called out and waved at his hidden position, 'Help here! Lance!'
Shit. Quickly shooting away Pidge's opponents, Lance leaped up transforming his Bayard back into a pistol. There was no way that the Galrans missed his position so he had to move quick to stay helpful. Shiro had told him that once the battle was over to come down the entrance rather than simply jumping from the roof which was why he'd stayed fairly close to it but he needed to create distance from it to prevent close combat.
Before moving away from the hatch to create a new defensive position, Lance sprinted for the door to jam it shut and shoot the lock so it'd melt. After slowing down his possible pursuers he ran towards the decorative tower on the roof. From there he could continue to watch his allies backs while also being more able to watch his own. The only reason this wasn't his first position was because with his view of everyone he'd be visible to everyone and would have to pause to shoot anyone after him rather than just his allies.
Lance climbed the tower and settled himself on its roof just in time to shoot the Galrans who had managed to get through the hatch. They'd ripped it off its hinges which were not ancient (which was why he wasn't afraid to jam the hatch in the first place) and had been aiming to shoot him when he shot them.
'Lance. Where are you? You haven't been shooting.' Shiro asks through the comms.
'Moving. Why didn't Pidge call on comms?' Lance quickly replied lining up some shots into the courtyard.
'Her comm had broken. Now isn't the time to be getting distracted and antsy, Lance.' Shiro snapped. 'Focus.'
Lance didn't bother defending himself rather shooting away all of the Galrans currently attacking Shiro. Hunk was getting overwhelmed again so Lance turned his rifle towards him and shot his opponents, protecting his back.
Blam!
While Lance was distracted Galrans had sneaked back onto the roof and shot him off the side of the tower. Lance spun in the air and tried to control his landing against the roof.
Slam!
He hit the ground in a role but the force of it still shook his body leaving him dizzy and slightly cracking his helmet.
'I've been shot down. I'll be out for the count.' Lance tried to comm Shiro and the others but his comm only fizzled and crackled.
Fuck. He'd managed to break his comms. Distantly he reassured himself that at least he hadn't broken a bone. Then the Galrans appeared around the side of the tower and Lance settled into a fighting stance with his energy blaster.