Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from the voltron series, but the plot and new characters are mine.
Author's Note: I haven't seen the series in a long time but I just kinda got the urge to write about it. This is fic re-writes the whole voltron story... so I guess that makes it a type of alternate universe fic. Anyway, I tried to write the characters as well as possible, as well as give them all significant roles. Sorry, but I am really bad at the whole accent thing... so Sven fans... please bear with me. I also wasn't sure of any last names, so I just made them up. Anyway, hope ya like it! Please leave me a review! :)
~Luxx
Chapter 1: Survivors
Lance Brander's eyes opened to a wall of thick smoke. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had such a horrible crash. Then he remembered he wasn't even piloting. Lance's instincts suddenly kicked in and he reached for the escape hatch to his crash pod. With a swift kick to the metal slab of a door he quickly stumbled out of the pod. One fast glance around showed he wasn't even in the ship anymore, in fact the only part of the ship perceptible was the cockpit... about a mile away. Thoughts of a particular friend's safety rushed upon him. Keith... Keith was flying the ship. Memory's flashed by faster then he could catch... the strange readings... the data lines shutting down... the flames. It took all of Lance's energy to take only a few steps, but the sudden rush of pain quickly sent him straight into the dirt and then everything went black.
***
A moan broke between Sven Vin Hals lips. "Veels vike I vas hit vy a train" he grumbled to himself as he fumbled for his release lever, "A very BIG train". Standing and taking a look around left Sven in awe. He couldn't under stand what had happened, last thing he remembered was Keith screaming for him to get the others and himself into the escape pods, but how that led to them crash-landing on a wasteland made know sense to him... especially when the charts showed there wasn't a planet around for light-years. Forcing the confusing thoughts out of his already aching head, Sven stood and began towards what was left of the cockpit only a few feet away.
Pushing aside the protective exterior engulfing the pilot's chair, Sven came face to face with his friend Keith Sintran. Having no med-scanner, Sven was forced to check Keith's vitals the old fashion way. "Keit," Sven coaxed, "Come von friend, vur pulse says vur alive so vake up already." Sighing, Sven resorted to lifting and dragging Keith outside the wreck. It wasn't until he had managed to get Keith leaned up against the remaining shell of the ship that he finally woke up.
Cracking one eye open Keith looked around, let out a throaty groan, and then leaned his head of black hair back against the ship with a thud. "If Galaxy Garrison even thinks about making me pay for this, they've got another thing coming." He said, referring to the wrecked ship. Hearing Sven chuckle caused him to open his eyes and start doing the 'captain thing'. "Damage report?" He asked to Sven, clearly pointless, but procedure nonetheless.
Sven stood and arched his back as he glanced around. "I'd say vits vabout vas bad vas vit can get." He mused. Looking down at his superior and friend he added, "I von't see vee vother pods though"
Keith quickly jumped to his feet, steadying himself with one hand against the ship. Keith's eyes peered into the horizon, willing as hard as he could for the blinding sun to move its impenetrable glare aside. "I think...", Keith started, still a bit shaky, "I think I see some wreckage down there. I'll check it out, but I need you to scale up that rock and get a better look. We've got 18 more pods to find and we're not resting until we recover every one." He barked his orders, trying his best to keep his voice from shaking.
"Vill do", Sven complied. Quickly he dug to walk-talkies out of the cockpit and as soon as they each held one, they were off. Sven watched his commander half-run, half-limp into the sunlight. Sven knew what Keith was thinking... no... willing. He knew that Keith was praying with all his might that he would find his friend alive and well, but Sven knew the reality was that, seeing is how over half the ship was nowhere to be seen, his friend was probably gone. Taking in a deep breath Sven began to scale the large rock before him, silently thanking whatever man had invented the healing boosters he had been given from GG (Galaxy Garrison) before they left.
***
The sun was murderous, making Keith's search all the more difficult. Keith had already found one pod, and he now clenched the pod's carrier's dog tags in his fist. Charles L. Marcos, Casualty Number 1. Keith had to shake his head to get the image of the man's mangled body out of his head. Charles' pod must have mal-functioned, and so instead of protecting his body from the impact as it should have, his body was tossed about until it was crushed. Keith began reciting a 'Hail Mary' to himself as he continued his search. The prayer, however, was silenced after only one verse as Keith's eyes fell upon the unmistakable body of a brown haired man collapsed on the rocky dirt. "Lance..." he murmured as he quickly dropped to his knees at this friend's side and began checking his body... hoping against hope that it wasn't a corpse.
***
It took a lot to bring Hunk Quin to tears. He was one of those big and burly type of guys. But seeing an endless line of escape pods, most with bloody bodies half hanging out, well... that did it. One pod Hunk had peeked in contained two men, one older and one younger. A glance at their Dog tags showed them to be father and son. Their cramming into one pod together was probably what brought on their deaths. The pod looked as if a wedge had smashed into it, slicing through both unsuspecting bodies. Hunk only could hope that there were survivors out there somewhere, because sadly... the scientific odds of there being any just weren't good enough to count on.
Then, thankfully he saw someone, it didn't matter who, just a living, breathing, and hell...even walking person. "Hey!" He called as he rushed his large body towards the man in the distance.
Sven looked up to see a figure coming faster then he thought something that size could go and an overjoyed smile took over his face. "Vover here friend!" As the man came to an exasperated stop Sven took the opportunity to check him over, having retrieved a med-scanner from a crashed pod, this only took a moment. "You var quite lucky friend," Sven informed the man, "No broken bones vor vinternal bleeding." He added. "I vam Sven Vin Hals, Lieutenant and co-pilot vof vis craft." Sven held out his hand.
"Hunk Quin" Hunk bellowed happily, avoiding the hand completely and placing Sven in a great bear hug. "Now what the hell happened up there man?" Hunk asked after releasing his new friend.
"I von't know. The last ving I remember vis all the communications shutting vown, and ven boom." Sven paused, "The captain, hopefully, vill be able to fill vus vin more soon." He added.
"The Captains alive? Great! Where are all the other survivors?" Hunk asked with new hope.
"Vorry to vay, but vas far vas I know, vits just vus three." Sven reported sadly.
The light in Hunk's eyes diminished quickly, but only to be replaced with a look pf determination. "Well, if that's the way it is, then that just means we gotta keep on looking. Now if you've gotten this far, and I stopped about 6 pods back, then that means there are six possible survivors just waiting for us to rescue them", Hunk bellowed. Hunk clamped a strong hang on Sven's shoulder and turned the man towards the remaining pods, "Lets go."
***
"Alright Lance, time to wake up. This isn't funny." Keith had found his friend a few minutes ago with a large piece of jagged metal sticking out of his chest. Keith had since pulled it out and bandaged the wound as best he could, yet Lance still hadn't awakened. "Come on!" Keith practically screamed, giving his friend a violent shake, but to no avail. With his emotions running on such a high level, Keith never even heard the bruised boy saunter up behind him.
"Let me try" the boy spoke, startling Keith into bringing a gun an inch from his face. "Hey!" the boy cried defensively, "do you want help or not?!" he cried.
Keith felt like his head was going to explode, not to mention that he wasn't even thinking anything through. All this added up to giving the boy only a grunt of a reply and scrambling out of the way. Watching the boy poke and feel around his friend's neck finally prompted questions. "What are you doing boy?" He asked, not intending to sound as rude as he probably did, but hey, he was under quite a bit of stress. "The wound is in his chest." He added, almost stupidly.
"I may be only a boy", the boy replied, "but I am also a genius." He paused as he found what he'd needed. "Hand me the hyper spray", he ordered, motioning to the injection device in Keith's satchel. Keith handed to him without question. The boy quickly pressed the device to Lance's neck and as soon as the liquid inside was injected a gasp escaped Lance's throat.
"Thanks" Lance managed to get out in-between a spasm of coughs. As soon as he tried, to sit up however, he cried out in pain and slammed back down. "Okay...Ow." Lance grunted out, almost comically.
"You got skewered by a metal shard, probably broke a few ribs too." Keith stated matter-of-factly. "Uhh..." Keith began to introduce Lance's savior, "Sorry, who are you?" He asked.
"Pidge. Pidgemian Graltof to be exact." Pidge answered proudly.
Keith smiled, "Pidge here saved you neck." He stated glancing from Lance to Pidge.
"A kid?" Lance questioned, "You let a kid operate on me?" Lance asked Keith shockingly.
"Hey! First of all, I am 13 years old thank you." Pidge started angrily, but getting only a so-what look in return from Lance, "and second of all, I'v already been to collage and I can guarentee you my IQ is at least three times that of yours" He shot at Lance. "Besides, I didn't even operate, all you needed was some hyper spray," Pidge added and then pointed to Keith, "He's the one that operated."
Lance's side was screaming as he tried to stand, "Okay, okay." Lance surrendered putting his hands up slowly. "Just calm down man." After seeing a satisfied look on Pidge's face, Lance turned to Keith. "How many survivors?" Lance almost didn't want to hear the answer to his own question.
"So far, just us three and Sven, as far as I know." Keith hung his head. "But there still might be more pods down there to checkout," Keith motioned in the direction Pidge had come from, a hopeful expression on his face.
Pidge held out three dog tags to the Commander. "There were only three pods," Pidge breathed, "all dead." He added in a tone just barely above a whisper.
Keith's hand gripped the young boys shoulder supportively before retrieving his walky-talky from his satchel. "Sven?" Keith spoke into the small device. "Tell me good news."
There was a few seconds of static before Sven's voice broke through. "I'v recovered vone survivor sire. Vere vis noone velse left." He reported sadly.
Keith could hear Lance murmur an 'Our Father' and Pidge gasp at the news. "I have two survivors, one possibly in need of medical attention. Rendezvous at the cockpit crash area in 5." He ordered curtly, then turned the device off to save power before Sven even had time to answer. Keith looked at the two friends before him and took a deep breath. "5 survivors..." Keith started, "5 out of 20. We have to figure out what happened. This shouldn't have been like this. I don't understand how we even crashed." Keith spoke, half to himself. Shaking his head, Keith hooked an arm around Lance for support, and the three began to head back to the site. No one knew what planet they were on, or what had happened, all anyone knew was that 15 of their friends had died that day. The 15 bodies were buried that night, a prayer said for each. The dog tags were placed in a small fire safe box and buried as well. The 5 men spent the night in a makeshift tent from ship debris, and each went to sleep praying for everything to have been a dream. Yet, all 5 knew that it wasn't. They all knew they were the only ones left, the survivors.