Shiro was beginning to lose patience. Matt's patience had reached its end about a week before.

The worst part of the waiting for Shiro was the uncertainty over his team. It was the latest thing to keep him up at night. He'd lie, staring at the ceiling, wondering if they were alright. Did their lions eject them too? Had they also been picked up by the Galra? He refused to consider the idea any of them floating aimlessly through space if they hadn't been picked up, because that would mean that they were dead by now, and he refused to think that way. Not yet.

It wasn't like they had been waiting idly, though. After about a week, Matt had recruited Shiro for one of his scouting and recruiting missions. It went off without a hitch, and they went on several similar missions after that. They'd even managed to recruit another pilot, along with his ship, on one of those missions. The pilot was still quite inexperienced, so Shiro helped Drozan to train him. It turned out that Drozan was a very skilled pilot, and a good teacher. Shiro found himself learning new things himself as Drozan taught the new pilot.

Shiro, more experienced with combat flying, helped Drozan to figure out flight maneuvers and plans that would help the Rebels to be prepared for fights with enemy ships when the time came. It didn't take Shiro long to figure out why Matt trusted Drozan so much. The blue-skinned alien was a good person, whose loyalty ran deep and true. Soon Shiro found himself trusting the man completely. As soon as Matt finished transforming Shiro's escape pod into a fighter pod, Shiro joined the other pilots in practicing the training drills he and Drozan had worked out together. He had to admit, it felt good to just be able to fly again, without the added pressure of leading a team and keeping up a mental bond with Black. It felt good, but it also felt empty somehow. He wanted to get back to his duty of being a Paladin, as soon as possible.

Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer had chosen to join the Rebel Alliance. Soon they were going out on their own missions to collect weapons for the Rebels to use. They knew all the best spots and they knew their weapons. This meant that the Rebels' armoury was steadily being stocked up. When Matt wasn't working on boosting his signal for Pidge, he was working on plans to work the new weapons into the fighter pods, or figuring out what they would need to make more of some weapons, or designing his own weapons.

So, yes, they definitely hadn't been idle. But after a month with no word from his team, Shiro just couldn't take the uncertainty anymore. And neither could Matt. So, along with Drozan, they began to plan a mission to go out and find the others instead.

Which is what they were busy with when they were interrupted by one of the lieutenants in charge of communications. He burst into the war room, where they were situated, breathing heavily. Nervous tension radiated off of him as he told them that they had received a distress call from the nearby small trade moon that was under their protection.

The trio in the war room immediately sprang into action, all plans for finding team Voltron momentarily forgotten.

Matt listened to the lieutenant long enough to hear that a fleet of about 20 pirate ships were attacking the moon. None of them had landed yet, but it wouldn't be long until they did.

"Drozan," Matt said, his voice taking on a commanding tone, "Get Penelope, I want to be off planet in 20 dobashes. Shiro, go get the other pilots, we're going to need all of you. Do you think the new guy is ready?"

Shiro took a moment to consider as Drozan ran off to get Penelope, the newest pilot was getting there, but Shiro didn't think he was at quite the right level for fighting this big of a fleet yet, even as part of a team. "No," Shiro answered, "Not yet."

Matt nodded, "Take Rolo in his place, then. He has more experience."

Shiro nodded and went off to do as Matt said. He had to admit that being on the receiving end of orders being again was kind of a weird feeling.

Exactly 20 dobashes later, Penelope was loaded with pilots, fighter pods, and taking off from the Balmera.

"Alright," Matt said as they exited the Balmera's atmosphere, rubbing his hands together with a slightly excited grin on his face, "I can finally test that new canon I installed on this baby on a real fleet."

Shiro shot a look at him but didn't comment.

Soon Penelope reached the moon's airspace. Immediately they are greeted with the sight of a fleet of pirates in colourful fighter pods circling the small moon

"Vran," Matt addressed the rebel in charge of communications on the ship, "Have any of the pirates landed yet?"

"No, sir." Vran answered immediately, "The moon's base has not yet reported pirates on their surface."

Matt nodded, "Good. Pilots, get to your pods, get out there and shoot some pirate tail."

Shiro, Drozan, Rolo, and the other three responded with an enthusiastic, "Yes sir!"

In no time at all, all the Rebel fighter pods were out and engaging the pirates, with Drozan in the lead, with Matt coordinating from Penelope.

"I recognize these colours." Drozan said as Shiro and the others followed a maneuver they had practiced dozens of times over the past month to separate the enemy, making the pirate pods easier to pick off. All the pirate pods have accents of blue, green, and yellow. A stark contrast to the jet black of the Rebel pods, "They belong to Lord Gruffolo's fleet."

"Lord Gruffolo?" Matt asked as Shiro did a barrel roll to avoid being shot while at the same time putting himself into position to return fire.

"One of the most powerful pirate lords this side of the universe." Drozan answered as Shiro took out his opponent's thrusters. The pirate pod spiralled out of control and crashed into one of its comrades.

"Nice one, Shiro!" Matt cheered as Shiro turned his pod to face his next opponent.

"He has a very large fleet, this is only a small fraction of it." Drozan continued as if Matt hadn't spoken.

"We need to get rid of them before they can call for backup, then." Matt said.

"Indeed." Drozan answered grimly.

At first, things things seemed to be going well. The pilots Shiro flew with's skills either rivaled his own or surpassed them. As such, the six of them didn't have much difficulty taking out the majority of the small fleet they were up against. Of course, the new cannon Matt had installed on Penelope came in as a big help, too. Exhilaration coursed through Shiro's veins along with adrenaline. Flying on his own was an altogether different rush from flying with his lion. One he hadn't really realised how much he had missed until now.

He had just engaged with one of the few remaining pirates when more fighter pods started popping seemingly out of nowhere. Obviously these pirates were capable of hyperspace travel.

Matt swore. "They called for backup!"

In a matter of seconds they were absolutely surrounded by colourful pirate fighter pods. Soon each Rebel fighter was separated from each other and from Penelope

Shiro cursed, "Matt, how many?"

"Fifty so far, but more are coming! You guys need to cut your way through them. Do whatever you can to make it back to Penelope!" Matt punctuated his command by blasting his cannon into the ships in front of him.

Then all hell broke loose.

The next few minutes were nothing but a blur of flying, barrel rolls, quick maneuvers and firing whatever shots he could get off at enemy fighters. He and the others were holding their own for now, but he knew that there were just too many pirates. And they were doing a damn good job of keeping him and the rest of the rebels from reaching Penelope. No matter how many fighters Matt took out with his canon, or how many fighters Shiro or one of the other Rebel fighters managed to shoot down, new ones seemed to replace them almost instantly.

Things were not looking good. They needed a miracle if they were to survive this.