River witnessed the explosive decompression of the alliance ship. Watched as the hull of the ship warped and twisted like putty as inescapable laws of physics had their fun with the manmade craft of the mighty alliance.
"Clever cat." She said, smiling at Jayne's handiwork.
"Well this is a lucky break for us, they'll be too busy dealing with this mess to pay much attention to Serenity. Albatross, see if you can find us a blind spot to park so we can board." Mal said as he grabbed the comm.
"This is the Captain, everybody meet in the cargo hold, we're going to go find our missing crew."
Mal brought up the rear of the loose formation that he, Zoe and River were maintaining. They followed the little reader as she lead them towards their missing man, to Jayne, who was fixing to get himself killed taking on an entire alliance cruiser.
While voicing his objections the whole time, Simon had given him an injection in his leg, that among other things, allowed him to walk like a man who didn't have a chunk of thigh missing from a gunshot wound. It also lessened the screaming agony down to a dull roar. Simon had warned him that the effects of the shot wouldn't last very long. So he resolved to find Jayne as quickly as possible while mentally telling his aching leg to shut the hell up and follow gorram orders. There was no way he was sitting on the sidelines for this.
Not that they had seen much but empty passageways so far. Jayne had been busy.
Up ahead, River, who despite her brothers repeated requests and complaints, was still wearing Jayne's hat and armed with his very favourite gun Vera, froze mid stride like a hunting dog.
"Two by two."
The taller of the two blue suited men observed the bridge crew with the attention of a scientist peering into a microscope. While they were certainly moving in a excited fashion, they had not exceeded his behavioural expectations. He noticed his partner was surveying the damaged section of the ship through a maintenance camera that was currently orbiting the ship on a pre-programmed flight plan.
"An effective tactic." The shorter observed as he then moved to review the file on the individual who caused the destruction.
"Misdirection?" The taller inquired, seeking confirmation of his own conclusions.
"Almost certainly, he has already reduced numbers of available opposition and insured the remaining troops will be committed to key areas, resulting in less than desirable response to any further actions." The shorter turned to his partner as he closed the file he had been perusing.
"Had he been born in the core worlds, he would have made a fine candidate for the program." A single eyebrow twitched on the face of taller man.
"Are you suggesting recruitment?" His tone mild, but expressing disbelief. His answer was a blank stare, interrupted by a slow blink.
"His talent is undeniable, however, his aggressive quotient would make controlling him difficult." The shorter replied. Expressing disappointment.
"Perhaps a D.N.A. sample could be procured? For potential study?" The taller posed a possible solution. The program could always benefit from raw material.
"Indeed, it is already clear that his intelligence quotient is higher than records would have us believe." Before either could speak further, their discussion was interrupted by a powerfully built individual who was standing not three feet away from the entrance to the bridge.
"If you two are done swooning over this intruder, I need you to move out of the way so I can do my job and hunt him down." When the soldier whose name tag read Sumner met their blank looks with one of his own, the two blue suited men felt the stirrings of surprise.
"Unless you have something useful to add?" Sumner challenged them. When his reply was the two supposed V.I.P.'s turning away and leaving the bridge, he carried on with his work. With a voice full of loathing he griped.
"Tourist's."
Jayne had been moving steadily towards the detention block. That was the nice thing about the alliance, always a helpful sign with directions on it to tell you where stuff was. Buncha gorram idiots the lot of em'.
It was the sound of multiple booted feet that had him quickly retracing his steps and ducking out of sight.
Corporal Dotson lead his squad through the passageways on G deck.
His squad, which comprised of eight men including himself had been doing a sweep of the area that Sergeant Sumner himself had told him the intruder was in.
The intruder had already killed three quarters of the ship's company of marines, including several good friends of his.
As it stood Sumner was now pressing most of the deck apes on the ship who called themselves security into key areas for sabotage so the real soldiers could hunt down this bun tyen-shung duh ee-dway-ro.
And get some payback. Because this guy had made his first and last mistake.
After making his demands of the Commander, he'd left his comm set on.
Which they had tracked through the ship to this location.
"He's ninety paces ahead." Whispered the squad's comm expert. Nodding in acknowledgement, Dotson ordered everyone forward using hand signals, demanding absolute silence.
As they rounded the corner, Dotson almost fired on the figure kneeling ten feet away from the hatch which their intruder was on the other side of.
Gorram deck apes. No awareness of how real soldiers worked. He's left his back exposed.
"Psst." When no reply was forthcoming, Dotson signalled his men to freeze and then approached the kneeling amateur.
"What have we got?" he whispered.
"He what?" Sergeant Sumner demanded over his comm headset. Sticking a finger in his other ear so he could clearly hear what one of his squad leaders was saying.
"Twisted it one hundred and eighty degrees right around Sarge. We had to take off his helmet just to be sure. Kim's head is facing his back. And the man that did it is on the other side of the hatch in front of me." Came the reply.
Sumner looked at the rest of the bridge crew. Watching as the alliance's best and brightest squawked around Commander 'by-the-book' Harken like a bunch of children desperately seeking an adult's attention. Oh that is just perfect!
Letting loose an ear splitting whistle, Sumner yelled at the bridge crew. "Bi Jweh, wuh de tyen ah, we've got a serious threat on-board this ship and you're bleating and mewing like a bunch of raw recruits! You are commissioned officers in the alliance! Start acting like professionals!" At this the bridge crew returned to their posts and looked to Commander Harken for orders.
Harken looked like a deer in the headlights for all of two seconds. Pulling his uniform jacket straight, he then issued orders which the crew carried out.
"Dotson? Sumner, secure that hatch, I've got two more squads converging on your position so stand fast and wait for them." Dotson couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Sarge? That many men for one intruder?" Sumner's reply practically leapt on him.
"This man has already killed most of the marines on this ship, Corporal, so you trap him in that area and wait until we have him surrounded, you don't get ambitious and you don't get creative, YOU WAIT FOR HELP! Dohn luh mah?"
"Understood Sarge." Dotson couldn't help the flush of embarrassment at the very public dressing down he had just gotten via the comms.
"You heard him boys, stand fast."
"What have you got Sergeant?" Harken asked as he approached Sumner who was standing at a security station.
"First squad is holding here." Sumner pointed to a cluster of white dots on the security screen which was currently displaying a birds eye view of G deck. He then pointed to another two clusters of moving white dots that were converging to surround a single white dot that was stationary inside the centre of a large area marked as a cargo bay.
"Second and Third squad's are moving to the other entry points. Once there, they will all enter the cargo bay and capture the intruder."
"And if he tries to slip out while they're searching the cargo bay?" Sumner gave Harken a withering look.
"There will be four men fire-teams posted at each hatch to prevent that possibility, sir." Harken could practically taste the insolence in Sumner's words.
"Sergeant . . " Harken was interrupted by Sumner
"This is what I do Commander, if you've got questions, fine, but save them for after this intruder is in restraints in the brig and let me do my job free of any well-meaning amateur suggestions."
Whatever Harken had intended to say never made it passed his lips. Instead he straightened his already straight jacket and returned to his chair with a quiet.
"Carry on Sergeant."
At Sumner's command, Dotson lead his squad through the hatch and into the cargo bay.
Anticipation building, Dotson lead three men around the crates on the balls of his feet, senses primed for the slightest sound. Eyes peeled for any movement. Rifle held at a perfect horizontal level while his head swivelled like a gun turret, scanning his surroundings for any indication of their target.
The crates were all placed in rows in the cargo bay, allowing for two metre gaps between the four surrounding walls and the rows of cargo containers themselves. Leaving plenty of hiding places.
It was only when Dotson spotted something that didn't belong that he carefully approached to get a better look.
"Sumner? Dotson, he ditched the comm set Sarge. We've been tracking a decoy." As he finished, Dotson noticed the untidy scrawl written on the top of the handset. Tilting his head to the side the scrawl made sense.
Two words.
"Luck up?" Comprehension dawned almost immediately.
"Look up!" Looking up Dotson looked to the ceiling of the cargo bay five metres above to see the blinking light of a detonator.
The detonator did exactly what it was meant to do and exploded in a fairly unimpressive explosion that left everybody unharmed. It was only when the ceiling bowed and cracked that Dotson remembered what was above the G deck cargo bay.
The septic tanks for the entire ship.
As the auto safety locks on the three hatches engaged, Dotson and the others could only watch in morbid horror as a tidal wave of waste fell directly at them.
"Aww shit."
Wriggling out of the air vent opposite the now safety locked cargo bay hatch. Jayne Cobb returned the transmitter to his pocket and listened to the cries of disgust and horror amid the sounds of crashing waves with a self satisfied smirk as he reached into the confined space and retrieved everything he'd had to quickly remove just so he could fit in there.
Once he had re-armed himself, he continued on his way.
Author's Note: I know it's been a long time since I have updated. Just wanted to say thank you to everybody who has hung in there waiting for this next chapter. They should come a little more regular from now on.
Translations: Taken directly from 'The Firefly and Serenity database'
Bun tyen-shung duh ee-dway-ro/Stupid inbred stack of meat.
Bi Jweh/Shut up.
Wuh de tyen ah/Dear god in heaven.
Dohn luh mah/Are we clear here.
