"...he wants us to give him the Lions," Keith repeats softly. "It's like he's asking to be distracted." 

"Oh, I like how you think. Fake out time?"

Shiro nods. "Keith's right; this plays perfectly into our plans. We'll pretend to give them Yellow and Blue as a distraction. By the time they notice the deception, Keith and I will have snuck aboard the cruiser. The rest of you will have to buy us time while Keith looks for the Red Lion."

"I'm coming with you," Pidge objects. "If I can get onto that ship, I might be able to hack into their systems and get us some information about the Galra."

"...alright. It's worth a shot," Shiro agrees. "Nuray, Akira, are you still up for playing bait?" 

She trades a serious look with Akira, then says, "Yeah. We are."

"Well then! You're going to need some better gear!" 

Coran leads the five humans down to the armoury, where five suits of armour stand in cases. The skintight undersuits are black, and the plates of armour themselves are made of something white and glossy and futuristic, with highlights in the colour of their Lions. Shiro's armour is all black-and-white, Keith's has red highlights, and so on. When they put on the suits, the proportions will adjust automatically to fit each person's measurements. 

The final case holds a set of four objects—in the same white-and-Lion-coloured scheme—that look like handheld controllers for some kind of games console. There's a gap in the middle, where the black one is missing. Coran explains that these are Bayards, weapons attuned to the paladins' quintessence, which can be activated by the paladin alone and will take whatever form suits them best. 

"I'm afraid, Shiro, the Black Bayard was lost along with its paladin. You'll have to make do." 

"That's fine," Shiro says. He looks uncomfortable with the whole thing, metal hand clenching and unclenching at his side. 

"I don't...really need a weapon." 

Meanwhile, Keith picks up the Red Bayard. After a moment, it glows red and transforms, the original Bayard shape becoming the hilt and crossguard of a very real-looking sword. He takes a few test swings—keeping well away from everyone else—with a tiny smile on his face. 

Akira takes up the Blue Bayard, and it turns into a bow in his hand - which feels right -

Nuray's Yellow Bayard becomes an awesome trench knife!

Pidge's Green Bayard barely changes shape at all, just gaining a short, wide arrow-shaped blade that attaches to the H-shaped hilt like a katar. He fiddles with it, pressing a hidden button, and the blade shoots out to hit the wall, a grappling line connecting it to the handle. Another press of a button and it reels back in.

"...I love it," he whispers. 

"These are really awesome!"

Coran has been watching quietly with an unreadable expression on his face.

"In the old days, when a paladin had deepened their bond with their Lion sufficiently, they could learn to change their Bayard's form to suit different circumstances," he tells them. "Just something to work towards!" 

"Yeah, definitely."

"So what now?"

Shiro snaps out of contemplating the creases of his metal palm and comes to attention. 

"Is everyone ready?" 

Nuray and Akira are.

So are the others. Pidge looks serious and determined. Keith is fidgeting but that could be impatience as easily as nerves. 

"Let's do this already." 

They do this. Shiro, Keith and Pidge are in the Green Lion, waiting for the Galra to be distracted so they can sneak up on Sendak's cruiser from beneath. 

Meanwhile, Nuray and Akira have the task of being that distraction. The built-in comms in the paladin helmets should let them all communicate, even when the other three are sneaking around the Galra ship, so they'll know when Keith finds the Red Lion. 

No way to tell how long it'll take him, though. That's a big ship. 

Time to put both their piloting skills to the test, then.

The 'pretend to be surrendering' trick works great! In fact, it works too well, because the Galra ship tries to catch the Yellow and Blue Lions in some kind of tractor beam and pull them in. 

Meanwhile, the Green Lion slips unnoticed under the belly of the cruiser and picks a landing point with plenty of cover. 

Pidge's voice comes over the comms. "Found a way in! Looks like there's a maintenance hatch or something just over there." 

They don't want to give the game away before the Green Lion is in -

How much time does he have before they're grabbed, can he and Nuray non-suspiciously delay that - can they figure out if the beam's breakable -

The Blue Lion thinks they should just dodge the beam. It does so, disguising the movement as a natural change of direction. The Yellow Lion is slower and less agile, though, and might have a harder time dodging with any subtlety.