'Serenity' pre history? by NewOldBrownCoat

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'Serenity' pre history?

POSTED BY: NEWOLDBROWNCOAT
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 6, 2006 17:01
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Monday, December 4, 2006 4:38 AM

Watching the BDM the other day, as I watched Jayne and Wash mount the cannon on top, I remarked that it was silly for an ex-transport to have been unarmed, as military groups put at least defensive weapons on everything.

Which revealed my assumption: that Serenity was a military surplus vessel, or had at least been pressed into service on one side or the other.

"But it ain't necessarily so."

Is there any information or theory about how she wound up in that scrap yard where Mal found her?

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Monday, December 4, 2006 4:55 AM

DESKTOPHIPPIE

Nothing official, but we know Firefly class vessels are very old. Remember that Alliance flunkie's reaction when he spotted Serenity in the pilot? "They still make those?!" There's a good chance Serenity is older than the war.

As for being pressed into service, we know Fireflies weren't up to much, and that they were preferred by smugglers and thieves because of all those odd little corners and hideaways they have. Not exactly military stuff. Serenity might have been a gunrunner in the past, or used to smuggle other supplies during the war. I doubt it would have been used for anything else.

An interesting idea though. Do you write fanfic? You should write Serenity's history!

Graphics available at www.desktophippie.com

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Monday, December 4, 2006 6:12 AM

HERA7

I think Serenity was a med-evac ship during or before the war. Why would a small transport need such a elaborate infirmary for a crew of 5? The RPG game mentions some Fireflys were built as mobile medical aid transports. Crew lived in the crew berths, medical personnel used a couple of the 'passenger' rooms, other passenger rooms could of been for post op, and the hold could of been bunks and triage. The ramp makes for easy loading and unloading of patients.

Serenity is one of the later model Firefly transports. So as far as the 20,000 of them built, Serenity is a fairly newish model.

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Monday, December 4, 2006 6:45 AM

DONCOAT

I think Hera7 is on the mark. If you go by the RPG information, the medical bay was an option on Fireflys, not standard equipment. You could use the space as an extra cargo area or for tankage if you didn't have the infirmary installed.

This would also explain Mal's remark to Simon in the pilot episode that "we stocked it". Presumably Serenity was retired after the war and any leftover med supplies were removed. Mal and Zoe had enough foresight to lay in some new ones, knowing the risks of their line of business.

It's possible that Serenity didn't make it all the way through the war, or that it was retired after some earlier conflict. Knowing about that would give us some limits on how long she'd been sitting at that used-spaceship yard. I suspect it wasn't all that long -- we learned in Our Mrs. Reynolds that Serenity-class ships were still valuable enough to kill for.

(My one and only fan fic assumes that Serenity was a mobile med unit retired after the Unification War. You can find it by clicking on my nickname in this post, if you're interested.)

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I'm pointin' right at it!

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Monday, December 4, 2006 6:45 AM

TEACHDAIRE

This is what the case seems to be, and as a med-evac ship, she would be unarmed (even modern military med-evac craft are unarmed, even if they normally are), and it's frowned upon diplomatically to deliberately shoot down a medical transport ship.

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For every battle honour, a thousand heroes die along, unremembered and unsung...

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Monday, December 4, 2006 8:38 AM

CITIZEN

Quote:
Originally posted by NEWOLDBROWNCOAT:
I remarked that it was silly for an ex-transport to have been unarmed, as military groups put at least defensive weapons on everything.

Not true, military transports tend to be unarmed, sometimes they're not even armered. Supply ships and aircraft like the C130 Hercules (there are variants that carry weapons such as the AC-130, but they are intended as gunships not transports) don't carry weapons. Why carry arms when the last thing you want a logistics transport to do is fight? It's better to have an armed escort that can protect the transport.

Quote:
Originally posted by Hera7:
I think Serenity was a med-evac ship during or before the war. Why would a small transport need such a elaborate infirmary for a crew of 5? The RPG game mentions some Fireflys were built as mobile medical aid transports. Crew lived in the crew berths, medical personnel used a couple of the 'passenger' rooms, other passenger rooms could of been for post op, and the hold could of been bunks and triage. The ramp makes for easy loading and unloading of patients.

That was pretty much the idea I had sometime ago, I was planning on doing some animations of Serenitys war time record, but it's a lot of work...

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

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Tuesday, December 5, 2006 8:21 AM

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT

Thanx for the insights. I had heard the med-evac thing before somewhere but forgotten, that amkes a great deal of sense.

I've always thought of Serenity as similar to a U S Navy LST ( Landing Ship, Tank), capable of long voyages to land heavy loads on unimproved beaches; but relegated to short hop, light cargo service behind the lines somewhere, much like the LST in Mr. Roberts, carrying toilet paper and shoelaces from Monotony to Boredom.

And LST's were used as med-evacs-- they are credited with carrying 41,000 wounded back from Normandy to England after D-Day.

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Wednesday, December 6, 2006 5:01 PM

PIRATECAT

I don't think it was a military vessel. Merchant vessel like the victory ships either. I thought it was more like a Chinese Junk ship. Although during war ships and airplanes are commadeered and converted to be troop transports and medic evac ships. Is Serenity a -03 model more like a C130 Hercules or a big CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter? With that nice infirmery I'd say it did some war time.

"Battle of Serenity, Mal. Besides Zoe here, how many-" "I'm talkin at you! How many men in your platoon came out of their alive".

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