They were on their way back to Serenity. Wash had decided to fly over the large forested part of the planet, and everything fell apart. Murphy’s law says that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. They planned on everything, everything that is, except a bad battery. The battery was a backup power device, in case the engine failed the pilot would still have electric power for the steering controls. This particular battery was a lead acid battery. As the acid changed back to hydrogen gas, some of the caustic substance leaked, removing the insulation from an electrical wire. More gas was produced, causing the life-support systems to activate the internal blowers too lower the percentage of hydrogen in the air. The increased power generated heat, which melted the damaged wire, and created a spark. When the spark hit the hydrogen, the world turned upside-down. Wash was fighting with the controls, trying to find a safe place to land. Trees were everywhere but, wait, a clearing! If he could just bank a little to the right… Next to him, Simon was pulling something out of his med kit for the burns that Jayne and Roberts had sustained, they were minor burns, but they were still painful. Roberts was carrying his backpack and duffle bag with one hand while using a fire extinguisher with the other. Had their lives not been in emanate danger, all three of them would have been at least mildly impressed that Jayne managed to keep a steady stream of swearwords, in rapid succession, from until the crash, in which the only repeatable words were what, the, mother and moon-brain. The shuttle crashed in the edge of the clearing. I say “in” instead of “on” because it went a good ten feet into the ground. Simon was the first one out, followed by Jayne, Wash and Roberts. The clearing was surrounded on three sides by the forrest, the north side gradually transitioned from small hills to short mountain peaks. The only sign of life they could see, animal or otherwise, was a prairie dog looking at them from its hole in the ground. But that was not the only thing that could see them. There was a group of twelve men, all of them armed, seven miles away in the foothills of the mountains. The leader looked through the scope he had detached from his rifle. When he saw Jayne get out of the crashed shuttle, he swore under his breath. That was the man who had shot his brother. Unknown to the survivors of the shuttle crash, fate had placed them in the hands of the man whose brother had stolen the medicine from the town in the first place. The man whose brother was now dead, shot through the shoulder by Jayne Cobb. The man who was in charge of eleven men, all of them armed and accustomed to killing. This man’s name was Karl Schneider, and only one thought ran through his head, Revenge. The man who killed his brother was only seven miles away, and Karl had the man power to fight them. He had his own group of eleven, twelve counting himself, and his brothers raiding party of fourteen was only one mile to the south east. Yes, he thought, twenty-five would be enough, enough to kill Jayne Cobb the three people with him. “Louie, you’re the fastest on horse and ya rode with my brother until he got shot by that coward Cobb. You go ahead and make sure that Cobb doesn’t get away. Shoot him if you have to, but I just wound him. I want to kill im myself.” With out a word Louie rode off in pursuit of the men that had killed his leaders brother. Karl gave the order to break camp and head south east. There was no way he would let them escape.

___________________________________________________ OK, I'm getting there, soon, very soon, we get to the gun-batly parts. I hope that someone out there is enjoying the story.