Tales of Serenity Story 1

Alarms rang in my head, my body a different type of numb. My eyes were locked into the icy blue depths of her's. Her blonde hair seemed to cascade down her shoulders, outlining her dream of a face.....

I'm sorry, I seem to have gotten ahead of myself, My name is Jacob Riley. My friends if you would call them that, call me Riley. The year is 2511 and I'm in hell. The woman I mentioned before, her name is Divina, Dee for short. Back on Persephone, she and I was to be married. We had different views on the U war, mine being with the Browncoats, her's with the Alliance. Once those views came out into the open, you can imagine what happened from there. It wasn't like me to walk away from love and I didn't, she however, did.

So let me fast forward a bit now. As I'm sure you know, The Alliance practically waltzed into Persephone and claimed it their own. Desperate, I searched for any information about Dee, her family, anybody I knew from my town. Sadly, the reports came back with everybody KIA, apparently a rouge Browncoat bomb demolished the place while The Alliance moved through. We know the truth though, the Alliance themselves laid that town to the ground, as an example to the rest of Persephone. I'll tell you right now, there is an old Earth that was saying " Better to have loved and lost, then to have never loved at all." That's simply gorram chin shay won. My heart, my soul, my entire body seemed to die right then. The next few days passed in a blur, and I was barely aware we had been given our dispatch orders, a planet named Hera, A planet I'd never forget. What proceeded was one of the bloodiest battles the verse has ever seen. That's right, I fought in the Battle of Serenity Valley, don't bother saying that I'm a lucky one for living. Hear my whole story first...

It was the last day of fighting, though we didn't know that then, and things where getting bad. There were hardly any officers left alive, barely anybody in command. Rumors had spread that a Sergeant was in command now. I laughed when I heard that one, if it was true, he must be one helluva guy. Gearing up for a routine hit and go into the Alliance supply line, I remember briefly thinking of Dee. It was a fleeting thought, most of the time, my mind was on the fighting, the death, and the hope of it all ending. My squad consisted of 4 other guys, all veterans. You could say I was the new guy, but I wasn't. I'd done my share of killing. Making the final check on each other's gear,we began our swift trot to our ambush site.

It was supposed to be quick, lethal, and full proof. We stood on top of the ridge line, watching the Alliance armor rumble past us about 30 ft down. Two tanks in the front, 3 Armored Personnel Carriers, or APCs and two tanks in the rear. Intel had said no air support would be in the area, as they where all attacking the front, where this Sgt and his people still held the ground. After all this is over I thought, I'd like to meet this man. The plan went off without a hitch at first. Trevor and Sykes has simultaneously blasted the first and last of the tanks, effectively creating a roadblock, with no way out. Sidhe and Lars switched position with Trevor and Sykes and carefully took aim at the remaining two tanks. Besides the drivers of the APCs, this was all the enemy. Those precious APCs where loaded with enough food and ammo to give the Browncoats a second wind. Maybe even help them win.

I heard the scream of the fighter two seconds too late. I barely had time to turn my head to try and scream out to my two brothers, but fire erupted from the diving fighter, and I got front row seats to Sidhe and Lars' gruesome death. I can still remember the warmth of their blood as it spattered across my face. Instinct took over from there and I rolled out of the way as the tanks opened fire, obliterating the ridge line. I was able to reach Sidhe and Lars' launchers before the fighter came back around and smiled as I heard Trevor and Sykes open up with their last rockets, taking out the tanks. The rocket launcher on my shoulder, I did my best to aim at the fighter, as I was sure the pilot was drawing a bead on my very body. Strange what you remember in the middle of the fight. I can't remember my first squad, or even my first wound, but I can remember counting down while aiming. I remember the 3, 2, 1.... I remember the force of the launcher planting me on my ass.

Quickly, I rolled to the right and snatched up the other launcher. Turning my head, I grimaced as I watched my first rocket completely miss the advancing fighter. I must have spooked the crew though, cause they banked hard left, and in the process, opened up with their deadly turret, easily cutting my final two squad mates into half. As the fighter continued to bank, obviously drawing another bead on its final target, I carefully aimed, and fired the rocket. This time to my dismay, it exploded prematurely. The force of the blast however, was close enough to rip their wing to shreds. A smile on my face, I grabbed my rifle and sprinted off into the distance as they slammed into the ground, and skidded for a hundred or so feet.

About halfway there, I saw the main pilot hop out and take cover behind a rock. I assumed the co-pilot was dead, as there was no second body also taking cover. It wasn't long before we began to exchange fire, me and this pilot. He kept screaming that I killed the only woman he would ever love, I screamed right back, that the Alliance had killed mine. I had to reload about 4 seconds after he did, and that gave us another chance to exchange words. He screamed things about my mother, and the Independents, shit he even talked about my dog. I however, thought about what would press him into a fury and began to laugh about how I killed his Co-Pilot, this woman of his love. I fired off a few round into his cover and continued to laugh at him, taunt him into the open. It worked well, he came sprinting around his boulder, straight at me using the old spray and pray technique for shooting. I held cover for as long as I could then jumped from behind it myself. Rolling as I hit the ground, I could hear the bullets whizzing past my ear, felt the sting of dirt as it exploded into tufts from the bullets. I came up from my roll firing, and half a clip took this poor man in the gut. It was obvious he was no soldier, pilot's where more button pressers and had limited if any training with infantry weapons. I was quite a distance from the Ambush site and figured myself safe enough to switch my weapon on safe and begin searching the dead pilot for Intel, or ammo, practically anything that could be of some use, to myself or the Browncoats.

I never heard the boots behind me, didn't even notice the shadow drape across my person. It was the cold steel of the pistol in my neck that I felt. Stammering I tried to speak, but no words came out. The person behind me spoke, a females voice drifted to my ears. "I heard what you said you filthy Browncoat. But you've crossed the line here. You killed my soon-to-be husband and now you'll pay." I closed my eyes and prayed, watched my life flash before my eyes and waited for the end. I felt the pistol tense as she pulled the trigger and I heard the click of it releasing. But no gunfire, no noise. Stupid bitch had forgotten to chamber the first round, her death not mine. I spun as fast as I could manage and brought my combat knife from my boot, into chest, right into her heart. I unleased from my throat a trembling roar as this happened and let the momentum carry me and her onto the ground. As I rose back to my feet, it wa obvious she was dead.

As the dust settled, it happened. Alarms rang in my head, my body a different type of numb. My eyes locked into the icy blue depths of her's. Her blonde hair seemed to cascade down around her shoulders, outlining her face. There was no way. I couldn't look away, I watched the light of life fade from her eyes and cried. One glance at the tags proved the evil truth. Divina lay dead by my hand. In one short battle, my only friends had died, and my only love. I collapsed like a little boy, tears and snot running down my face, mixing in with the blood. I curled up near the downed fighter and cried for what seemed like hours. Eventually all the gunfire in the distance stopped and daylight slowly began to fade into night. When my patrol failed to report in at our allotted time, they sent a small group to recon the area, and analyze the situation. It wasn't long before they had found me, not so far from the ambush site, still crying, wanting to die. I barely remember their faces, but I'll never forget their words.

"Sarge" spoke the ebony woman who seemed to appear from nowhere." Riley is still alive. From the looks of it, he took down both pilots and the ship. But It cost him sir, he's a broken man."

A man rounded the ship and looked down at me, his eyes boring into mine. Get up, they said, I can't watch another one die, they pleaded. Leaning down near me he whispered." Riley, My name is Sergeant Malcom Reynolds, and I'm here to take you home."

The rest as you know, is history. We were left in that damned place for a week after the fighting stopped. Wounded, sick, dying, all of 'em forced to suffer as they talked of peace. Only a handful of us made it off that rock, but as they stay. Once you've been to Serenity, you never really leave.