We'll Be Counting Stars
Chapter One: We'll Call this a Win
Disclaimer: I don't own the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Firefly.
Steve rounded the last ridge at a run and then dropped directly into the dirt behind the Big Rock. The skiff's headlights swept over the ground and fired off a contained burst. Steve ducked closer to the rock, wishing, not for the first time since the start of this gorram war, that he was as small as he'd been before the Independents SSR had gotten their paws on him. Still, he wasn't spotted.
He stuck close to the ground as he edged around the Big Rock and headed for the entrance to his platoon's base camp, throwing himself over the edge of a pile of sandbags and scrambling to his feet to join the rest of his boys.
The foxhole wasn't the biggest or the most secure but it's one of the only ones that hadn't been sussed out yet.
"Morita," he said, panting for breath, "What's the word?"
"Sergeant. Command says that air support is holding until they can assess our status," Morita shouted over the sound of a too-close explosion and the ensuing rain of dirt down the backs of their necks.
"Our status is we need some gorram air support. Get back on that horn and tell 'em to get down here."
"That skiff is shredding us, sir."
Steve hadn't seen Pepper appear but he was glad to see she'd made it back in, apparently still without much more than scratches. That's good, he needs Pepper for this to even have a chance at working, the woman is the most dangerously composed soldier out there and a better and more loyal friend than Steve could've asked for.
"They won't move without a lieutenant's authorization code, sir."
Steve glanced around, he was sure the platoon had had a few bright-eyed lieutenants foisted on them when they shipped out months ago—he spotted Baker face-down in the dirt, and with a sigh dropped down next to the body, hours cold now, and tore off the patch on his arm that denoted his rank.
Poor kid, he'd only joined up because his family was military all the way through, wasn't cut out for actual combat command. He deserved better than this.
"Here." He shoved the patch at Morita, promising himself he'd take a moment to remember Baker later, after this was all done. "As of right now you're Lieutenant Baker, congratulations on your promotion, now get me some air support!"
He turned to the rag-tag group of survivors. Besides Pepper and the harried looking Morita there was Rhodes, Dum-Dum, Gabe, Falsworth and Dernier. A good bunch of men. Steve nodded to himself, they could do this.
"Rhodes, pull back, just enough to wedge 'em in here, then take the high ground and start picking them off."
"High ground is death with that skiff in the air," Pepper pointed out, shaking her head.
"That's gonna be our problem, thanks for volunteering," he grinned, "Dum, you're gonna be on our six. Lay down cover fire. We're going duck hunting."
There was another too-close explosion, and Steve could see that his crack team was looking both grim and resigned.
"Just focus guys, we're almost there. The Alliance said they were gonna waltz through Serenity Valley and we choked 'em with those words. We've done the impossible and that makes us mighty. Just a little while longer, our angels are gonna be soaring overhead raining fire on those arrogant cod, so you hold! You hold as long as it takes! And we get out of this together."
"Yes sir!"
"Hold that line. Go!"
Pepper held the butt of her rifle steady against her shoulder, alert and ready, and they waited a bit propped up against the sandbags, partly to catch their breath and partly to give Rhodes and his guys the time to get into position.
"You really think we can bring her down?"
"Do you even need to ask?"
"Ready?"
"Always."
Steve rocketed out from under the dubious cover of their foxhole making for the Alliance's anti-tank station just down the hill. Pepper was two steps away from following him when she noticed that Dugan wasn't laying down cover fire.
"Dum-Dum! Cover fire, now!"
There was no answer. A glance backward over her shoulder was enough to tell her why that was.
"Rut it."
She hefted her rifle up with a grunt and fired a spray out at the bluffs where enemy gunman were stationed trying to pick them off. She didn't hit too many of them, but the sudden hail of bullets was enough to keep them off Steve's tail and let her advance.
Steve, as usual, didn't seem all that concerned about barrelling into danger basically alone, he had his own rifle off his shoulder and sent out a burst of semi-automatic fire into the bushes that provided the cover for the anti-tank gun.
There were a couple of screams as the bullets took the operators out at the knees, but Steve was up and moving around the bushes and into their midst without any hesitation, activating the gun's targeting system and bringing it to bear against the skiff swooping across the valley to bear down on them.
Steve is a very good shot so Pepper wasn't really surprised to find that just as she picked off the last of the stragglers that Steve left alive and more mobile than was safe, that there were a few successive pulses as the weapon discharged, and a sudden clamour of explosions and rending metal.
"Yeah!" Steve cheered, shooting her a triumphant look.
"Sir—"
Pepper jerked her head back towards the skiff, now completely out of control and heading right for them.
"Oh, shit, take cover!"
They sprinted, zig-zagging as best as they could under the circumstances and dove to the side just as the wreck of the skiff carved a jagged sooty rent in the ground outside their foxhole.
Pepper frowned at the wreckage, it was too much of a landmark, they're going to have to pack up and move out right quick to avoid being boxed in.
Steve, still flushed with success and adrenaline followed her into the foxhole, loose-limbed and a little manic.
"Did you see that?" he asked her, laughing a bit as he ducked down under the low ceiling of their hidey-hole. "Morita, what's the ETA on those…"
He trailed off, battle high gone. Morita was slumped over the radio, his body a bloody dirt-covered mess, his skull shattered by falling chunks of rock.
"Pepper, can you—"
"On it sir."
Pepper shoved Morita out of the way, laying him on his side as best as she could and picked up the radio, pulling the big bulky headpiece that Morita always disdained to use over one ear and listening. Her face pinched and upset.
Dum-Dum was lying where she'd last seen him. A quick finger to his neck confirmed for Steve that his friend was gone, not that he could be anything else with the neat red hole set into his forehead just under the wide brim of his stupid, non-regulation, bowler hat.
"He's gone." Steve informed her, as if that would be news.
The whooshing roar of big ship engines is loud and all-encompassing, drowning out the continuing bark of gunfire and the crash of explosives being detonated.
"'Bout damn time! Pep, get Rhodes back down here and tell the 82nd—"
"They're not coming," Pepper interrupted listening, her face growing steadily more shell-shocked. "Command says it's too hot. They're pulling outta the system. We're to lay down arms."
"But then what's…"
Pepper can't watch the devastated expression crawl across Steve's face as he turned to lean out of their little hole and saw the Independent ships rising, pulling away from the valley and making for atmo, while big Alliance cruisers tried, and often succeeded, at shooting them out of the sky.
He'd never believed they would lose this fight. Not even when everything went to shit and their boys kept dropping like flies. He rallied, he held fast, believing with every inch of his body and soul that they'd make it in the end.
He was wrong.
But only, Pepper thought to herself, only because command didn't have his drive his bravery, his stupid, foolish, reckless mind for tactics and his ability to bring people together. To bring out their best and convince them to follow him.
She wondered as they waited there in that damn foxhole, whether this would finally be the breaking point for him.
[six years later]
Steve gave the wreckage another once-over. Trying not to make any sudden movements that would send him spinning off into space.
"The vault's sealed," he announced over their coms, glancing over his shoulder where Pepper was still watching his six, her hands tight on their lines and her expression unperturbed through the glare of her suit's helmet.
"Okay, I'm gonna crack it. Thor, gimme the sticky."
Moving with exaggerated care, the big blond man handed Steve the smaller of their two "sticky" applicators and Steve used it to draw a wide oval around the control panel of the vault's blast doors, the corrosive gel immediately starting to eat through the thick metal alloy.
"Okay. We get the goods and then we're off this wreck and back on the ship. No fuss, no muss."
Steve pushed off from the doors, gently, executing a graceful head over feet turn in the zero gravity to slow his momentum. The panel burst off the doors, propelled outward by the air pressure in the vault, and Steve nodded to himself, satisfied.
"Full pressure, the goods must be intact," Pepper commented.
"Aye, 'tis a bountiful trove indeed."
"Everything looks good from up here, Cap. You guys do your thing." Tony said, voice crackled in over the coms.
"Alright then, let's load up."
Steve and Thor hook the cases together, moving slowly but efficiently to turn the contents of the secure cargo hold into beads on a string, Pepper keeping a tight rein on their lines.
"Sir." Came the sudden interruption by JARVIS, the ship's AI.
"Talk to me J."
"My external sensors are picking up activity."
"Yeah I see it, J. Cap, we've got an Alliance cruiser inbound. It's heading right for us."
"Ta ma de. Have they spotted us?"
"Oh gee, Cap, lemme just check my—"
"Have they hailed us?" Steve demanded, barrelling over Tony's epically sarcastic tirade.
"If they are here to scavenge the wreckage we will be in dire straits." Thor commented.
"We'll be in 'dire straits' if they find us at all," countered Pepper, "Thieving isn't exactly—"
"Bizui!" Steve barked. "Stark, shut it down. Shut it all down. Everything but the air."
"Got it, Cap. J, kill it all. Secure the com lines."
"Of course, sir."
Steve listened hard, hearing the flick of switches over the coms, and Tony's shouting in the background, away from the mic this time.
"Bruce—Bruce! Go to blackout. We're being buzzed, shut her down."
"Shi'a." Came Bruce's mellow voice over the coms. "Keep your pants on, we're going dark."
After a couple of tense minutes of waiting listening to each other breathing Steve broke his self-imposed radio silence.
"They slowing down?"
"That's a neg. Doesn't look like we're cool enough for 'em. Should be eating wake in a minute or two."
Steve caught sight of the familiar green and black of the cruiser towers, his expression hard and resentful. But also wary.
"Aiya, huai le! Captain, jigs up. Better get your enhanced ass back in here pronto."
"Prep the ship. Now."
Steve turned back to Thor and Pepper, "We gotta get these inside. Double-time. Thor, reel us in."
"Very well, Captain."
"Bruce fire it up!" Tony called out over the headsets.
"Stark, we need that diversion," Steve ordered.
"Oh, goodie." Tony answered. "JARVIS, engage the crybaby."
"Engaging, sir."
Thor took the lines from Pepper and they started reeling in at high speed, backs pressed close to the skeleton of the wreck.
They reached the airlock doors, and slid into the cargo hold at a reckless speed. Someone, JARVIS or Bruce probably, shut them remotely and Steve hit the switch to re-engage gravity and life-support in the room.
"Alright, Tony, we're on. Let's get out of here."
"Hold onto your butts."
The ship lurched into motion under their feet suddenly engines, revving up to full power and sending Steve, Pepper and Thor staggering as they stripped out of their helmets and made their way further into the ship.
"Looking shiny, Cap. They're not coming about," said Tony, sounding smug even over the PA.
"Nice work, Stark," said Steve, shaking his head.
"That was close," Pepper commented.
"Yeah."
"And yet once again the spoils are ours and we are victorious," said Thor, his voice booming cheerfully around the empty spaces of the cargo hold as he hefted one of the cases of their stolen goods up onto his impossibly broad shoulder.
"Right," agreed Steve, voice soft and serious, "We win."
AN: Okay, so welcome to the Firefly AU no one asked for :). I've been sitting on the first chappie for awhile, not sure if I wanted to write more but I thought I'd throw it out here and see what kind of response I got. So please review or drop me a PM and let me know what you guys think!
Also all readers please note that should I decide to include explicit content I will be cutting it from this version and posting it on the AO3 version of this fic.
(If you don't want to be surprised Pairings will be PM'd to you upon request and they contain an eclectic mix of het, slash, femslash and poly)