Avandra

Approaching Doom Part 2

Everyone was gathered on the bridge. Thomas was sitting in the pilots seat, preparing for the hard reentry. Jessie and Xiao stood behind him, eyeing the monitors as Stacey and Duncan stood in the doorway.

Stacy spoke out first, asking the Captain, "Why would you strike this child?"

Thomas ignored her as he began speaking to his crew. "Petaline still isn't answering our wave," he began "so I'm guessing they're already dealing with Burgess' thugs."

"So we don't have a lot of time to work here?" Jessie asked.

"That's right." Thomas replied, "So everyone needs to be ready to do their part."

Stacey wanted to protest but Duncan stopped her with a tug on her arm.

"Jessie," Thomas continued, "I want you and our guests in the shuttle. You'll do low fly bys on Burgess' crew. Scare em a bit."

"In the Shuttle?" Jessie said, "What if we get shot down?"

"Luckily" Thomas replied, "you'll have a medic with you."

Jessie toyed with the thought of getting hurt on purpose.

"Xiao," Thomas continued as the moon began to dominate the forward view "you and I will touch down behind the house and try to herd the girls into the Cargo bay."

"Cap," Xiao began sheepishly "I'm not great with a gun."

"You won't have to be." Thomas replied, "I'll set the auto landing sequence and be with you before the doors even open. We'll toss smokes to cover our movement and I'll do all the shooting. You just have to drive the Mule up to the back door of the House."

In the midst of a hail of gunfire, Petaline was applying pressure to the shoulder of one of her boys. A handsome well built brunette named Jack.

In a central room of the house, surrounded by metal crates, Jonah was crying his lungs out. You could even hear him over the gunfire.

Another of Petaline's boys- a skinnier blonde fella named Robert - came over with some bio-foam. He pushed the nozzle into Jacks wounded shoulder and the injured man screamed. Then he passed out from the pain.

"His wounds closed up," Petaline shouted over the noise of bullets splintering wood "but it's not a good idea for him to stay unconscious like this. Go upstairs and get the adrenaline Simon had given us."

Roberts scurried toward the stairs, keeping his head as low as possible.

Petaline moved to a window and surveyed the situation. There were still ten or fifteen of them out there. Some of them were taking cover behind a truck they'd brought.

Petaline had a thought. She only had a little bit of charge in her Laser. The solar panels simply couldn't fill the battery the way it was meant to be filled. But it should be enough to do some real damage - If she could do this right.

Petaline popped out of cover and took aim at the front of the truck. She squeezed the trigger and a searing beam took shape. She dragged the laser from one side of the truck to the other, hoping.

She got what she was hoping for when the truck exploded, sending four or five guys flying in all directions. Two of them were still conscious while others laid either dead or passed out. But most of them were at least a little bit on fire.

Robert returned with a bag in his hand.

"Petaline, I've got the-"

A bullet ripped through his head and he hit the floor, dead in an instant.

About a hundred yards behind the truck that had exploded, a woman – covered by a tan cloak - worked the bolt on her sniper rifle, releasing the empty smoking shell. She slid another bullet into place and rolled to her right. Peering through her sight, she could see her targets panicking as they tried to survive.

"Like rabbits in a cage…"

Thomas was alone on the Bridge now. The steering column buckled in his hands as he tried to keep Avandra from crashing onto the desert moon. He hadn't had to work this hard to land since…

Since he fled an Alliance Cruiser.

Thomas shoved the thought aside as his ship finally began to steady.

In the Cargo bay, Xiao was getting the Mule started when she could feel that they'd safely made it into atmo. Things got sort of quiet and she could hear footsteps coming down the stairs behind her.

"Jessie," Xiao started "you're supposed to be in the shuttle."

She turned to see Duncan at the bottom of the metal stairs.

Xiao was shocked and added, "You're also supposed to be in the shuttle."

"I convinced Jessie I would be of more help here." Duncan explained as he made his way over to the mule.

"How'd you-" Xiao began to ask.

Duncan interrupted her. "It wasn't hard." He answered, "He does like Stacey after all."

"So what," Xiao said as she thought about reaching for a gun, "you told him he would get to be alone with her? That doesn't sound like enough to convince even Jessie."

"It wouldn't have been if I'd just said it like that." Duncan replied "No, I punched him in the face and he 'chased' me out."

"I don't think the Captain is gonna like this change in his plans." Xiao remarked.

"He won't know until it's too late." Duncan replied as he grabbed two smoke grenades from the Mule.

Xiao eyed the silver haired child

"I'm not sure I like this change."

In the Shuttle Jessie pressed a button opening communications with the Bridge of Avandra.

"Cap, we're disengaging in 3, 2, - "

The shuttle locks slid out of place. The smallish vessel broke free of Avandra and extended its wings.

The smaller ship would make it to the Heart of Gold before Avandra. Jessie just hoped Duncan wouldn't cause the kind of trouble that would get him shot. Then Jessie rubbed his nose and thought, "maybe I want the kid to get shot."

When Jessie got within sight of the foil-covered house he could see that the fight was still raging. A group of about three or four men were trying to make their way around to the side of the house. Jessie flew in low, trying to startle the assailants.

"I'm betting they're not doing well in the house." Jessie stated as he swung the ship around to make another fly by.

"Can you land behind the house?" Stacey asked as she tied her red hair into a ponytail.

"Are you touched in the head?" Jessie asked as they were pelted with small caliber bullets "That's not the plan, and we're under fire."

"If those men make it inside then the plan failed right?" Stacey argued.

"Ok," Jessie relented as he flew low by a burning truck "so what's your idea?"

"There's a back door right?" Stacey asked as she checked the contents of her med bag.

"Yeah." Jessie replied.

"Land just long enough to escort me inside," Stacey said "then do what you think is best."

Jessie turned to look at her as he turned the shuttle around again.

"That is a crappy plan."

Jessie touched down mere yards from the back door. The shuttle door opened and Jessie peeked out. The thugs who were making there way to the back had come to the corner of the house and opened fire on the shuttle. He tossed a smoke grenade and waited a few seconds for the smoke to build.

When the firing died down Jessie and Stacey made their run. Jessie fired some random shots into the smoke as he and Stacey ran to the back door.

When they reached the back door Jessie began pounding on it, hoping no one would just shoot through the wooden planks.

"Open up." He shouted "It's Jessie."

The door swung open and a petite girl with Chinese features ushered them inside.

Stacey looked around and saw that they had pulled their injured to the back already.

She also saw the dead man on the ground. His face was gone. Stacey tried to remain stoic. Years as a trauma surgeon had gotten her used to gore, but it was still hard to stomach. She just learned to push it aside…for now.

Jessie was still by the backdoor, trying to shoot down the other gunmen through the smoke.

Now that Stacey was working on the injured, he decided it was time to get back to the original plan.

"You lock up this door behind me." Jessie shouted.

Jessie had to move now, before the smoke completely cleared. He fired a few random shots as he rushed back into the shuttle.

Safely back in the shuttle, Jessie fired up the engines and started to rise into the air.

There was a sudden explosion as a well-placed bullet hit one of the rear thrusters.

The shuttle uncontrollably lurched to one side and, unable to gain altitude, dropped to the ground.

Jessie was jostled a bit, but uninjured.

"Gorramit!" Jessie shouted "Thomas is gonna be pissed if we all live."

Camouflaged by her simple cloak, the sniper reloaded her rifle. She figured the shuttle was probably from a larger ship, and so she looked to the skies. Her assumptions were confirmed as she saw a CL-54 drawing closer.

"Well…" she said to herself "I don't think I'm getting paid today."

Thomas could see the whole mess as he drew closer to the Heart of Gold.

Why was the Shuttle behind the house and not in the air?

Now it was in the way and Thomas would have to manually land Avandra to be safe.

"Damnit, Jessie."

Thomas announced over the intercom that they were about to land.

Xiao was still worried about the idea of Duncan not being where the captain wanted him. Sure, she liked Duncan well enough, but she couldn't lie to herself and say she knew him, or what he would do. But they were too close to danger for her to be doubting her allies.

Avandra touched down beside the downed shuttle, raising dust with her thrusters. An instant after landing, her cargo bay doors were opening.

Two smoke grenades came out on either side of the landing ramp, while a third went flying out past the shuttle.

"You have a hell of an arm." Xiao commented as she looked at the small boy.

"Maximum energy transference can be obtained by-" Duncan stopped mid sentence to see Xiao eyeing him funny, "It's all in the wrist." Duncan finished as he looked to the ground.

Xiao felt sorry for the boy. He was so odd. She couldn't help being a little scared of him, but she didn't want him to feel like it was his fault.

"It was a great throw." She said, trying to make up for her earlier expression with a smile.

Jessie could see the smoke outside the shuttle and decided now was a good time to make his move back to the Heart of Gold. He rushed through the smoke, keeping his head low.

Jessie was pounding on the back door when Xiao pulled up through the smoke and stopped the Mule beside him.

Duncan showed up seconds later and began unloading guns from the Mule, passing them to Jessie and Xiao.

Stacey opened the door for them. Her hands were covered in blood.

Jessie, Xiao, and Duncan pushed their way inside handing out fresh guns.

"Shouldn't we be getting everyone to the ship?" Stacey asked.

"Shuttle crashed." Jessie replied tersely as he peeked out the front windows "We're not leaving till this is finished."

Thomas finally came down to the cargo bay and wanted to scream.

Everyone was gone. His plan had fallen apart in more ways than he knew. And he knew it, because there was no way Xiao was gonna drive through threat of gunfire without someone else with her.

"If I don't get shot by one of these thugs," He ecxclaimed to no one "I think I might just shoot a kid."

Thomas made his way through the smoke to the shuttle only to find it empty. He turned around and started making his way through the thinning smoke. Someone opened fire on him and Thomas leapt towards the House, firing into the air.

He didn't hit his mark, but with a quick roll he was in the back door of the Heart of Gold.

He looked around and saw that none of his people seemed injured. Thomas stuck his arm out the back door and fired off some blind shots in the general direction of his attackers.

"Jessie?" Thomas shouted "What the blazes is my shuttle doing parked back here?"

Jessie fired a few shots out the front and replied, "Maybe we can talk about that when we're not being shot at?"

Thomas noticed that the man outside wasn't shooting anymore. He took a peek outside and saw the man dead on the ground.

"Huh." he huh'd.

"Captain Wu," Petaline began "we're not seeing anymore out front. I know we didn't get em all so they must have made there way around to the sides.

It had gotten quiet. Everyones ears were ringing from the gunfire and no one could hear the men moving outside.

"Jessie get over here." Thomas ordered as he waved his arms toward his young friend.

Jessie moved to the other side of the back door and asked "You want to rush em Cap?"

Thomas shot Jessie an incredulous look and replied, "Are you stupid? No. We wait em out."

"They might be calling Burgess as we speak." Petaline added.

Thomas thought about the situation. How many more men could Burgess really have?

"No." Thomas said decidedly "We wait. We've got plenty of bullets and Avandra'll make-"

Bullets began to spray in from one side of the house, interrupting Thomas and forcing everyone to find new cover.

The automatic fire died down a little. It meant that some of them had to change clips. Thomas looked around to see that Jessie had taken a shot to the leg.

Thomas looked around some more. Something wasn't right but it took him a second to realize that someone was missing.

"Where's the kid?"

Through her sites, the sniper could see that the last three men Burgess had sent with her were firing recklessly into the side of the house. They were reloading when she spotted something strange.

On the second story, a silver haired boy was looking down on the gunmen. He turned and seemed to look directly at her.

The sniper pulled here eye away from the scope, somewhat unnerved.

"There's no way…"

She returned to her sight and what she saw had her downright scared.

The silver haired boy leapt from the second story, landing on the central gunman. He deftly snapped the mans neck and rolled out of the way as the other two shooters haphazardly riddled their dead partner with bullets.

The boy had somehow grabbed the fallen shooter's rifle as he rolled out of the way and, with two controlled bursts, the other men fell.

Everything was quiet now. The boy dropped the gun and began to walk to the back of the house. The sniper steadied her aim and was squeezing the trigger when the boy, again, seemed to look directly at her.

He was just at the corner of the house. Two steps and he would be out of sight.

He just stood there. Starting in her direction. No. He wasn't just looking in her general direction - He was looking right at her.

They sat there for what seemed like hours, just staring at one another over a distance of roughly four hundred yards.

The moment was broken when a bald headed man yanked the boy by his collar, out of sight.

The sniper lay there thinking. Then she began talking aloud – discussing the situation with herself.

"Okay, Susan" she began "Either way we're not getting paid. Burgess won't give me a single Plat for this foul up - even though I told her I should go alone. And if these folks see me stand up and start walking, I'm sure they'll chase me down and kill me. I could wait here and try to take them out one by one like I'd planned… but with that ship parked back there they'll be able to get to where I can't get a good shot. I could crawl to a better position… that'll take time if I don't want to get spotted…" Susan stopped and thought really hard about not being spotted.

"You've already been spotted." she finished.

Author- So that's the end of this chapter.

I want to say thank you to the folks who are reading, enjoying, and reviewing.

I wrote these next lines in my notebook last night while drunk. I had read your reviews and was watching the Firefly 10th anniversary Panel on youtube...

"This is me talking to YOU- the people who validate the years I've wasted daydreaming.

I hear you.

You want more details. You want to know where this is going. You want to know that there is something to this.

I can tell you that I will finish this, and that it will end on -.

But, and I'm paraphrasing others here,What most people don't see when they buy a book or watch a film is the four or five or ten stages of editing that occurs between 'Pen to Paper' and 'Final Draft'.

The worst thing a writer can do is stop writing.

It's evident to me that people who even know about this site are aspiring Writers.

To you I say 'JUST WRITE SOMETHING'. It won't be perfect. It's not supposed to be. You can fix it later. That's what editing is for. But the longer you wait, the more you'll doubt yourself. "

When I wrote this next bit, I was heavily annebriated...

"I watch Firefly almost Religiously (which is silly, because I'm an Atheist). I recently Leant my Firefly Boxset to a friend, who is not watching it... But I still pop onto youtube to watch Cons, Deleted scenes, Making ofs, and Gag reels. I love this show. Joss is Boss.

I don't know where I'm going with this, I'm annebriated and I'm just trying to say thank you."

So from Drunk Me and Sober Me - Thank you.

Oh yeah...next Chapter Title - "Aftermath"