Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or Voltron: Legendary Defender and the only characters that I have any say in the usage of are the few OCs included in the story. Please support each of the two products official releases.

Warning: There will be an extensive role reversal of Voltron: Legendary Defender characters such as nicknames and their roles in the story. Also the First Order will be a far more effective fighting force and less cartoony than they're portrayed in the current film series, and the New Republic's military & government will be reorganized along the lines of the Grand Army of the Republic. As such please keep this in mind because there will be many surprises in store.

"Hey"=Speaking

'Hey'= Thinking

"Hey"=Yelling

"Hey"=Flashback

Chapter 1

If one were to take a simple glace at the seemingly vast and empty void that was space, one might conjure up images of great space ships floating through it on peaceful trips aimed at the furthering of human knowledge in the name of science. Of a world where conflict, on even a regional scale, was nothing more than a glorified thing of the past due to mankind's new found ability to see beyond its own greed for the good of its whole species and as such feel compelled to act for the good of the whole rather than the individual. If that was to be the case than one would be nothing short of completely disappointed in the fact that this was by no means the reality of the moment, and no better example of this could be found then in the scene that was actually in the midst of unfolding.

Standing alone as a speck against the eternally black background of space was a single ship peacefully going along. Not another ship could be seen for miles around and as the ship continued slowly on its merry way it seemed to radiate an aura that made one feel that it was aware as to how alone it was. Of course, there was no reason to be surprised at the overall lack of speed from the ship. After all few if any other ships could be expected to be found at this part of the galaxy, anywhere between one to half a dozen clicks from a small moon known as Yavin 4, which made the particular nature of the ship and its mission all the more interesting.

The ship in question was a heavily modified Nebulon-B escort frigate known as the Minerva that was currently in use by a small organization named the Galaxy Garrison and was a mainstay part of the their fleet and was currently under the command of a young Captain by the name of Takashi Shirogane. Shirogane, or "Shiro" as some of his friends called him, was part of a new breed to appear in the fledgling Galaxy Garrison, that being he was an officer whose education had been entirely based on the Garrison's own curriculum rather than that of various contributing Space Associations. His appointment to this particular mission marking the completion of a mission started by the Garrison 30 years ago to pioneer space exploration and trade with other planets for the betterment of mankind. Even if that second part of their overall objective hadn't come anywhere near its completion.

Regardless, as Captain Shirogane stared out of the front of the bridge he couldn't shake a foreboding feeling that was slowly creeping over him like one of the many cold fronts that menaced Hokkaido, the northern most island of his Japanese homeland, every winter. It was a feeling that he really didn't like it.

"Captain, we've reached the last known position of the Killian" a voice called from behind him, causing Captain Shirogane to be pulled from his musings and glance behind him to see his navigator, a young Ivorian by the name of Guillaume Comtois, looking at him. Like Shirogane, Guillaume or "Gui" as his crewmates had nicknamed him behind his back, was part of the generation that had symbolized the oncoming of the new era in global commerce and politics. One which had seen countries in the continent of Africa benefit the most from the rising Intergalactic Trade Market, primarily because they'd utilized the least amount of their resources in the many centuries leading up to the current 23rd, allowing for a rise in the continent's living standards.

"Thank you Ensign Comtois, begin planning us a path onto the planet should a planetary landing be necessary" Shiro stated causing the young man to nod before turning back to his work. Causing Shiro to begin to think back to what the boy had told him only a few days ago when they'd pulled out of the orbital port around Earth, before turning to look at the rest of the crew on the bridge.

If there was one word that could be best used to describe the crew that surrounded Shiro on this mission it would have to be young, for they all were incredibly young. As it stood right now he could say with complete certainty that none of them could walk into a bar on Earth and order a drink without somehow obtaining a faked ID card before hand. Which meant that along with their youth came an overwhelming dose of inexperience. Now that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It meant that none of the crew suffered from either of the two ills that were known to haunt a crew of that logged a large amount of hours on a ship.

First of all they weren't overly confident in their abilities to perform the tasks that were assigned to them aboard this ship and second that they weren't lackadaisical in any of their duties. This meant that they did almost everything they were told to the best of their ability and if there were any mistakes made when they did so it often had to do with their lack of experience performing the task. Something which had served as a great learning opportunity for both him as a captain and the crewmembers he'd been given.

"Sir, may I have your attention for a moment please?" a feminine voice asked, causing Shiro to look to his immediate right and see a young woman wearing glasses looking back at him.

"Yes, what is it?" Shiro replied as he made his way from his station behind the ship's main pilot and towards the small station that the man sat at. The position in question was a small seat to the extreme right of the bridge of the Nebulon-B, surrounded by several large computers. Like the rest of the duties aboard the ship the current position of the communications officer had originally been made up of at least fifteen individuals. With duties ranging from message reception, to message sending, to message coding, to message decoding, with an officer to run the station. Now, after the number of machines had been dramatically increased, it was all run by one individual with a headset, a set of fast fingers, an encyclopedic knowledge of computer systems, and an incredibly flexible sleep schedule.

In this particular situation that individual went by the name of Pidge Gunderson.

"I've detected some radio signals coming from the planet's surface" Pidge began, her gaze going back to the instrument panel while her hand went to one of the dials and proceeding to fiddle with it. While Shiro wasn't exactly well versed in the world of communications he had read up enough on the subject to know that Pidge was busy trying to purify the transmission, and thus that interrupting her to inquire about more information was not a good idea. As such he waited patiently until Pidge had finished and her attention returned to him.

"Go, on" Shiro stated in a calm voice causing Pidge to return to her analysis.

"They're filled with a large amount of static, but from what I can make out they seemed to be in a sort of coded structure" Pidge began, causing Shiro to raise an eyebrow in interest.

"Like what?" Shiro asked, causing Pidge to turn her gaze back from the instrument panel towards him.

"Like a sort of cry for help" she clarified causing Shiro to nod before scratching his chin. To say that this development, mainly the speed with which it had occurred, was surprising would be a fair assessment. It had taken then several days, 4 to be exact, for them to reach their current position from Earth and that had come after a 24 hours waiting period for the ship to be declared missing, and another 2 days before the current rescue had been launched. With the mission only being green lit after it was determined that there were no ships in the nearby area that could rescue the crew.

Meaning that they'd reached the spot roughly a week after the ship's distress beacon had been activated, and that the beacon would now be reaching the end of it's "optimum period" when it could be easily be spotted by ships orbiting the planet and that in 2 weeks it would cease to be detectable.

"Sir, there's something else worth noting" Pidge added, causing Shiro to raise his eyes in a signal that was interested in learning more.

"The specific code style that the ship's using was the one found to be corrupting the transmissions sent by the Kerberos when it disappeared" she added, causing Shiro to feel his heart almost stop. For a few seconds Shiro was dead silent, pondering the particular puzzling situation that was currently in front of him. On the surface the answer seemed quiet simple, go in armed to the teeth to investigate the crash site with the intention of rescuing the shipwrecked crew and try to see if there was a connection between this signal they'd found and the one discovered with the Kerberos. Only it wasn't that simple, it never was.

First of all while going in armed to the teeth would be a great idea in an action movie or Garrison simulation the reality was that Shiro didn't have the personnel to execute it, especially if one of them was injured. Second, due to the ship's reconfiguration to a solo recovery mission that it had shed most of its relatively light weight medical equipment for heavier recovery gear and self defense systems meaning that the ship wouldn't be able to hold anymore that it only had enough room for 6 Bacta tanks instead of the standard complement of 20. The final reason could be found the Nebulon-B itself, that being that the ship was not was designed as an escort not a blockade runner and lacked the engines to make a speedy getaway from large ships and the armament to go toe to toe in tradition one on one naval battle. It's only advantage being its compliment of Alpha-3 Nimbus-class V-wings and BTL-S3 Y-wing starfighters that could be used to damage the enemy's shields and engines.

But even that would only last as long, as the pilots had been briefed for scouting potential crash sites rather than engaging in proper dogfighting techniques. Along the fact that while they had the pilots to fly the star fighters those pilots could be killed if the enemy had superior anti-fighter systems or better fighters with better pilots.

"Sir, I've managed to find a safe flight path for the shuttle to the planet's surface should we maintain our current orbit " Guillaume started, causing Shiro to turn towards the man before he added.

"Should I transmit it to the shuttle's computer?"

For a few seconds there was more silence as Shiro continued to ponder his options and, realizing that none of them were particularly good, gave his answer.

"Yes"

"Sir, does that mean we're going in?" the ship's main pilot, a young man of Cuban descent named Lance McClain, asked. Breaking what had by far been the longest stretch he'd been silent since the mission had started.

"Yes, alert the rest of the crew that we'll be having a meeting in an hour to discuss a landing" Keith declared, causing the Cuban boy to nod before pressing the aforementioned button. Marking the confirmation of decision that Shiro knew that he could never get back, and one that would set in motion the events that would change everything.