Before Serenity

Chapter 2

….. …..

Zoe looked down at the pool of sick begging to gather around her boots. She gazed up with a none too impressed at Tracy sitting opposite.

"Tracy, would you like to explain?" She scowled.

"Sorry Zoe" he replied with a cheeky grin "I guess that tin of fish was off."

She knew he didn't do it on purpose but still had to hold off the need to butt stroke him with her rifle. The shuttle they were sat in was buffeting from side to side as the old hulk of a thing began its burn up into Orbit. Pvt Tang leaned from her seat and tapped Sergeant Reynolds on the knee to wake him. He jumped with a start.

"Gorram it Kelly, You don't just wake a man form a deep slumber like that" he barked as he rubbed his eyes free of the sleep.

"It must have been deep Sir" began Zoe "Your snoring was so bad we figured it to be parts of the ship coming off at first."

Malcolm rose from his seat and gave a stretch. Before him in the hold on pull out 'Cargo Seats' was his squad. Zoe had been with him since day one of the war of course and Tracy wasn't long after that. Kelly Tang and Forest Flynn were new recruits to their little berserker squad. Since the independence couldn't match the alliance on a toe to toe basis, unconventional warfare was the name of the game. Squads like theirs would either work alone to screw up any Alliance troops or connect with other squads to make up Platoon size brigades. The only person missing from this picture was their Commander by the name of Barrett.

"We on the ground yet" he asked half confused as his brain finally was awake enough to notice the buffering.

"We're five minutes out Squad" come the booming voice from behind him. It was Barrett returning from the bridge. "Get your gear together, the Captain wont be hitting the dirt for long, he wants up and out as soon as boots are of his bird" he continued.

It took them no time at all for them all to be fully kitted and ready by the Cargo doors.

"Hey Tracy, what's on your boot?" asked Flynn.

Tracy looked down to see an old alliance leaflet stuck to his boot. The floor of the shuttle was a was a mess and still not cleaned from a previous mission to an Alliance outpost. Tracy leaned over and pulled it from under him.

"Hey Zoe look" he grinned "Alliance wanna know if we fancy a move to Miranda."

Zoe waved the old immigration leaflet from in front of her face.

"You wanna get your head in the game?" She said in a serious tone.

"Sorry Corporal" he said sensing her tone was not one to be messing with.

The shuttle finally bounced to a halt and through the hull they could hear the engines on high rev as they readied to power the thing back up.

The hiss of the doors filled their ears as the creak of metal cut through them as the doors opened up to show a jungle like environment in front of them.

"Welcome to the shitty end Gentlemen. Move out" ordered Barrett.

The mission was a simple recon one. They were tasked to get eyes on a possible Alliance mining facility on thebackwash of rim planet's jungle moon. They had been walking for a few hours now.

"No, Tang I'm telling you shooting from the hip is best way to hit an enemy" Joked Mal

"But what about aiming" replied a confused private not clicking that her Sgt was pulling her chain.

Before Mal could wind her any further the squad was stopped by Flynn who was on point at the front of the group. The dynamic of the squad changed as they switched to fully professional with faces set with determination. Mal, keeping low, moved up to Flynn's position.

"What do you see?" He asks in a whisper.

"Up ahead" Flynn replies without taking his eyes on his 12 O'clock position "It's a perimeter fence."

Mal could see maybe a 100 yards ahead of them a 7ft wire fence cutting through the jungle ahead of them. Any doubts of there not being a facility here where surely put to bed. Doubling back to the main group Mal relayed the news back to Barrett.

"For an inhabited moon it sure has a big fence through it. My guess is it's not made by the local butterflies."

"Agreed Sergeant. Okay you and Flynn push up and we'll be right behind you." came back the order.

Moments later the fence was cut and the squad was now on the inner side of the perimeter.

"Have you seen these plants Sir?" whispered Zoe to Mal. "They don't look as healthy as the ones on the other side of the fence."

"Yeah I see it. My guess is whatever they're mining here is pretty bad for the local greenery" he replied.

"I'm not looking to have my nuts fall off here Sarg due to some poisoning" interrupted a nervous Tracy.

"Don't worry Tracy I'm sure the ladies of many a fine Kat House will still bed you with only one nut." Said Mal in a playfully, mocking tone.

Private Tang was on point at this moment and the squad noticed her drop straight on her belly quick smart. The rest of the group quickly followed and clicked off the safeties on their guns. Waiting a moment to see what would transpire Barrett started to make his way towards the private. The rest of the group started to follow him until they all found themselves side by side prone overlooking a cliff edge. Below them was a carved out hole in the ground that showed to be a pretty decent sized surface excavating programme.

"Okay, okay lets get the comms up" said Commander Barrett as he fumbles for a hand held Sat-Comm. He was a decent enough guy in charge but when he got nervous it would annoy Mal and Zoe as you really should have a calm level headed leader.

With the squad now spaced out a little to provide a perimeter defence Mal listens as Barrett gives a Firing solution to the mother ship in orbit.

"Erm… Fire needed at 2Aplha65 by 8Charlie26 by 3Gamma44, Use AK88, that's Alpha Kilo Eight Eight, How Copy?" Said the Commander into the Sat-Comm as Mal listened in. AK88? Thought mal, the first three commands were the location indicators; the AK is the type of weapon they requested to be dropped. AK88, why does that ring a bell?

The commander waited for a few seconds as he listened to the reply. Then it finally dawned on Mal was the AK88 was.

"bái mù wángbādàn! You're going to get us fried" yelled Mal as he leapt to his feet. "We need to move now" he said to a confused Barrett as he yanks him up onto his feet.

"Mal?" said Zoe as they all stood and started to follow Mal out back into the jungle as he began to run.

"AK88 Zoe, AK88" he yelled back. By this point the whole group bar a panic stuck Barrett who had just realised his mistake was in full sprint unaware of why they were running. The AK66 was a full airborne bomb droplet attack that would have smashed the area and most probably cleared the area. The AK88 is a tactical nuke, Barrett had mixed up his orders and now had condemned them to death.

Mal had realised this and now was running for his life as the nuke was only maybe five minutes from target. Barrett hadn't ran, most probably because he was scared to the spot.

"Where the hell we running to Sarg?" yelled an out of breath Tracy running along side.

"There" Pointed Mal sliding to a stop at the cliff edge. Some one hundred and fifty foot below them was a large pool of water that is surrounded by cliff edges all the way around.

"You mean for us to jump into that sir?" Asked Zoe as the group comes to a rest out of breath by him.

"It's that or glow in the dark for the next two thousand years" he replied as he flung himself off the edge into the pool below. The group watched him in utter shock as he disappeared under the water. The scene was interrupted by a shockwave above them as the warhead entered the atmosphere.

"Oh hell" winched Zoe as she flung herself off with Tracy following close behind.

From below Mal, treading water looked up to see Zoe and Tracy dropping down at break neck speed towards him, The sky behind them became a bright white, followed by a thunderous roar of the nuke shockwave. Then the sky went black with the wind blowing the dirt and foliage across the top of the cliff. Both squad members hit the water hard but were safe. The location had protected them from the shockwave and heat blast Flynn and Tang were not as lucky; their reluctant nature to jump resulted in their deaths. Barrett would have been dust within seconds.

The three squad members had swam to one edge and clung to the rocks.

"How did you know the pond was deep enough Sarg?" asked Tracy as he spat water as he talked.

"I didn't. The only thing I did know what that our commanding officer was an idiot" Mal replied.

"Okay, any idea how we get out of here" he smiled turning to Zoe.