Disclaimer: anything recognizable is property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc. The story and its original characters, however, are mine. Also, I had to take some creative liberties, but only on stuff not explained in the series. I also used my own translator for the Mandarin, so it may be off (although it's still comical). Feedback (good or bad) is of course welcome. On to the story: On my right leg, I couldn’t feel my knee or anything below. By the time the lift hit the hangar, Libby was carrying half of my weight. When the doors opened, Tobias (now carrying the two guns) took point with Serra not leaving his side. Conversely, Libby and I were moving as a unit, with Sydney not leaving my side. I knew we had about a minute before the stormtroops got down to the hangar, so we moved as fast as possible. Liberty was relatively close to the lift, but I was moving at half speed tops. When the stormtroops arrived on the hangar level, Tobias was in the cargo bay, both guns ready for a fight. Serra had grabbed the sonic rifle I left in the cargo bay, and was positioning herself to cover me. I had Sydney run as fast as possible to the ship with orders to be ready to fire up ASAP. Which left Libby and I unarmed and moving ever so slowly toward Liberty. The stormtroops knew their tactics too. They came in formation, using ships, and the occasional dead human that they must’ve struck down earlier as cover. This was going to be one fight to remember. It also seems we had help (even if the help didn’t realize whom they were helping). When I said Nova Planetia was home to the seedier side of the border worlds, I meant generally people who opposed unification. I meant Independents. I would not be surprised if there were Browncoats among us, firing back at the Alliance special ops soldiers who had taken innocent lives just as quickly. Our main problem is that another Alliance shipload of troops had landed, most likely using a civilian ship unbeknownst to station ops. Everyone was overwhelmed as bullets started entering backs and the help became the victims. But in all the chaos, Libby and I (well, mostly Libby) managed to make it to the cargo bay. Libby let go of me when I realized Bill was still on the roof trying to fix the engine. “Libby, do we have enough auxiliary power to operate weapons?” Libby stared out into space before answering. “We have one machine gun in the rear working. The blast knocked my targeting on the others. Front weapons are fine. All it takes is power enough to run the servos and motors, which is minimal and-” “Good.” I plopped myself down on the cargo bay floor behind the airlock wall. “Lucky that all the enemy is in front of us. Deploy what you can, and divert your processing to taking out any Alliance troops. Buy Bill time if possible.” Mayhem ensued. I couldn’t see it, but I could hear it. The whirring of all the exterior small arms, Alliance and civilian exchanging fire, civilians fighting for their lives, and the burst of fire coming from Liberty were all real. Tobias and Serra both took opposite sides of the airlock wall for cover. Serra was about to press the button to close the cargo bay when Jeremiah, the man I downed earlier, stumbled in. “What the hell is this?” he asked. “What did you do to attract all this attention?” “Long story, but it has to do with the oppressive government. It’s also why you’re after me, even if you don’t know it. And just for the record, the guns weren’t meant for you and your crew. It was meant for them.” Yeah, a slight lie. I didn’t feel like telling him why I really had given Sydney a gun. “Well, I don’t blame you for protecting yourself. Two of my crew are dead because of them, and my liaison to God came in here beaten to a pulp. Right now, the bounty on you isn’t enough for me to forgo revenge.” I didn’t feel like adding that my people had downed his (armed) preacher. “So I take it I better leave fast because the next time you see me, you’ll have to hunt me.” “That’s how it goes. Now can you cover me to my ship?” He ran before I could answer. I had Tobias and Serra cover Jeremiah from the ship. He made it safely, slightly to my dismay. Serra then pressed the button to close the cargo bay ramp. I could still hear the bloodshed, except now, we were all safe and hunkered inside Fort Liberty. All except Bill, who I imagine was still tweaking the engine. Meanwhile, Tobias had lifted me (on my request) off the ground, and quite easily carried me up to the bridge in under 30 seconds. Here, I had a view of both the carnage going on down below, and Sydney frantically getting everything ready for takeoff. I heard Bill yelling as well. He had just come in through the airlock. “Eddie, grav is up. We got one pulse. I didn’t have time to put in the new cycler. I bypassed it, but you better aim us right.” That was Sydney’s understood cue to fire up. With us still firing our guns, the engines powered up. It seemed as though the Alliance troops gave up on trying to get us a while ago, as they paid no attention. Actually, us leaving helps them. It’s unfortunate, but I have to look out for myself and my crew. Station ops also seemed to be operating quite well, what with the flux of civilian ships trying to leave. Either way, we sailed to the nearest exit airlock with a couple other ships. Once we were in it, the doors behind us closed and the doors in front of us opened. We took the turn to leave through the corridor of nets. Of course, this being us, there was always another problem. There was a small battle frigate blocking the exit, and sensors showed more alliance ships were pouring in from behind us. The nets were stopping some, but the rest were getting through. “Fire a torpedo.” I pressed some buttons. “We don’t have a lock.” Sydney was concentrating on the frigate. She had long since un-deployed the weapons. Not that we’d be able to take out a frigate heads-up anyway. My armaments were meant for surprise, battles on the ground, and the occasional Reaver ship (assuming it isn’t armed, although I’ve never seen or heard of an armed Reaver ship). “Just fire it dumb. The frigate will have to move.” “And if it doesn’t?” Sydney had just pushed on the throttle, moving us slowly toward the end. One of the ships that was with us tried the “move as fast as you can” solution. It was frigate food a few seconds after it exited the corridor. “Syd, these are Alliance standard Class 2 Torpedoes. They’ll put a hole big enough to fly a Firefly through, easily.” I finished with my inputs. “It’ll move. On my mark, full speed. I’ll tell you when to fire. After you fire, reduce to three-quarters speed and follow the torpedo.” I looked at sensors. More ships were pouring in. Looks like it was now or never. “Mark.” The ship went forward. The only good luck we had on our side was the fact that the chambers that house my weapons are scan-resistant, so the aforementioned surprise was in our corner. We got halfway down the rest of the corridor. “Fire!” Sydney pulled a trigger on the back of the yoke. Out the window, I could see a torpedo fly out and accelerate toward the end of the corridor. It also looked like the inside of the corridor was a blind spot for the frigate’s guns, because it was now definitely moving out of the way. The torpedo cleared (hitting absolutely nothing in the process), and we were right behind it. The frigate’s engines were facing us as we and another ship cleared. I could see a cruiser in the distance approaching as I inputted in my coordinates. Luckily, within a few seconds, our one pulse was fired, and we were long gone.