River tilted her head towards the swordswoman at Flag's side while she and Riddick waited to board the ship to ground shuttle. All the colonel said during introductions was, 'This is Katana. She's got my back. She can cut all of you in half with one sword stroke... Just like mowing the lawn. I would advise not getting killed by her. Her sword traps the souls of its victims.'
Flag obviously hadn't read up on River or Riddick as much as he'd initially implied. He wouldn't have made such a sweeping statement if he had, or maybe he would have, just as a bluff. Katana's sword was an oddity, she could almost hear the voices within it. Just like she'd heard the ghosts of the derelict Serenity had found after a couple months in the Black. Just like the ghosts of Miranda.
"Not trapped," River murmured, and Riddick's quicksilver gaze fell on her.
"What's that?" He kept his voice just as low.
"Her sword, 'traps the souls of its victims'," River quoted Flag. "Not entirely accurate. Trapped…but release is possible."
"Yeah?" He tilted his head curiously and River smiled.
"Wrath," She nodded at his chest, the handprint concealed beneath his shirt. "Raw energy. Disrupts magic, disrupts technology…" River considered. "Mages…would perform rituals, call the quarters, north, south, east, west, and elements for each. And in the center, the fifth element, the spirit, to center all around it. Spirit warriors, Alphas…call the Wrath."
"Spirit energy, trumps every other kind?" Riddick frowned thoughtfully and she could hear him filing that information away.
"Hmm…" River nodded as they boarded the shuttle, Riddick's hand on her waist possessively, much to Mal's annoyance at the sight.
Harley's enthusiasm was irrepressible as she peered out the window of the ship to ground shuttle onto which they'd been loaded. The closer they got to Mission City the more obvious it was that this was not normal warfare, "Ooo. Look at the pretty lights! Are you guys seeing this?"
Lawton, perhaps in an effort to find out how much Flag would try to bullshit them, looked at the Colonel, "What happened?"
"Terror attack," Flag lied. "Dirty bombs, bad guys shooting up the place with Grizzlies and Iskellians. You know, usual shit."
"Right," Lawton didn't quite roll his eyes, but it was close. "Yeah, you're a bad liar." He tilted his head, met River's gaze for a moment and winked before he continued baiting Flag, "I don't know if they told you... But I'm a hitman. I'm not a fireman. I don't save people."
"Anything for platinum, right," Flag didn't quite sneer but it was close.
"You know the dark places, too. Don't act like you don't," Lawton was pulling on his Deadshot persona like an old sweater, a quick shrug and a comfortable weight to go with his work clothing.
"I'm a soldier," Colonel Flag really didn't understand what how to deal with people like these. "And you're a serial killer who takes credit cards." He eyed Lawton, doing some baiting of his own, "When the shooting starts, and it will, you'll cut and run."
River tilted her head and nudged Riddick who'd been beside her watching the byplay with barely concealed amusement. "He will want to go to the cockpit." She suggested firmly, "Likelihood of a hard, possibly fatal landing without his aid is very, very probable."
"Why don't I lend you a hand," Mal stood along with Riddick.
Mal freely admitted he'd volunteered his piloting skills without much thought for what he'd say to the big hún dàn his daughter had taken up with.
Riddick stood behind the pilot and tapped him on the shoulder, "Get up. If you want to get to the ground in one piece."
"I don't care who you are—" The bluster started almost immediately, fingers clacking on the console keys and both stopped with a squawk as Riddick simply pulled the man out of his chair.
"I'm a better pilot than you are," Riddick took his place and glanced at the co-pilot, a lanky looking blonde. "He's gonna co-pilot. You two take the nav stations and strap yourselves in."
She, wiser than her pilot, didn't argue, simply nodded and looked at Mal, "Ever flown one of these before?"
"A time or two," Mal nodded and didn't mention it was close to five years ago. "Don't seem to have changed much."
"Basic design is the same, body and hull's been streamlined for better aerodynamics," She nodded and moved to the nav station. "Hopefully it'll make hitting atmo easier. We've got enough fuel for a couple of runs around the city if we need it."
"Or a hard burn to get us down faster," Riddick observed. "Before they can shoot us down."
"Or that," She agreed as she strapped herself in.
Mal looked over at Riddick, "So hard burn then?"
"River thinks anti-aircraft is very likely, and you know what 'very likely' means when she says it," Riddick's hands were busy on the console, adjusting their trajectory. "Gimme some extra flow to offset the burn through we're gonna get during the descent."
"On it," Mal nodded as he recalled Riddick crouching in front of River at a touch of her hand to his wrist while he passed. She must've passed on that little tidbit then. "I've had some experience with 'highly possible', 'very likely' and 'very probable'. Never did much like the results when I didn't take her advice."
"Yeah she's a caution," Riddick grinned boyishly, the expression taking years off his age and for the first time Mal could see why River enjoyed the huge man's company.
"She is that," He frowned as a light began to flash. "Why'm I gettin' a warning about entry angle here? Nothing's wrong with it.
"It's because you're on manual," The co-pilot was examining her screen. "Just ignore it. The autopilot doesn't like manually calculated entries."
"Then it's really gonna hate me," Riddick quipped.
"How d'you mean," The co-pilot looked up curiously.
Mal chuckled, "If he's anything like my daughter, and from what she says, he's the better pilot of the two of them, he doesn't manually calculate with the cortex. He figures it all in his head. Better than the cortex could."
Riddick nodded, "Cortex doesn't allow for last minute adjustments, evasive maneuvers, that sorta thing." He agreed as he began to push the shuttle hard.
Keeping up with Riddick while he flew and evaded anti-aircraft…whatever they were that exploded green and turn the sky yellow, not easy and not for the faint of heart.
In the middle of an interesting (oh god oh god we're all gonna die) evasive tactic Riddick shot a glance at him, "So you figurin' to warn me off your daughter? Tell me I'm no good for her? Big bad convict and she's a delicate Core flower?"
"Well…" Mal paused and compensated for the suddenly high winds around them as Riddick's arms bulged with muscle to keep the shuttle flying straight. "I wouldn't call her a delicate Core flower," He admitted. "The rest of it's pretty on target though."
"Uh huh," The huge man growled his annoyance at something on the screen. "Oh this is gonna be—" He interrupted himself with cursing, "Wèi le tā mā de yuán gù."
"Well we're closer to the ground at least," Mal offered as the barrage of anti-aircraft whatevers increased.
"Yeah," Riddick snarled a command at the Alliance crew. "One of you key in the code to release the speed block on the gorram engines."
"We don't have a—" The co-pilot began to object.
The pilot was stony-faced and Mal sighed, calling back to the passenger portion of the shuttle, "River! Can you get around this?" He looked at the idiot pilot who clearly had no intention of doing anything helpful, cutting off his nose to spite his face. "What's the point of putting a speed restriction on a shuttle bringing in soldiers?"
The pilot wouldn't respond but the co-pilot's outrage reverberated through the ship, "You yú chǔn zì jiāo de dà zi ròu."
River entered the cockpit, steadying herself with a hand on the doorway, "Did it when Riddick ordered him out of the chair. Foolish." She moved forward and leaned over Riddick's shoulder, keying the code in unerringly. "Released."
"Better," Riddick nodded grimly. "But this landing just got three times harder. Not sure how well this thing'll fly after we hit the ground."
"Too close for adjustments to be much good," She sighed. "I'll let everyone know to strap in."
Mal rolled his eyes as he heard River's reprimand to Harkness as she passed him, "Touch me and lose the hand. Everyone strap in, the yú bèn de Alliance pilot put speed restrictions on the engines. Not a lot of time for corrective maneuvers as a result of the delay. We will likely land hard, but in one piece."
Riddick muttered, "Always one moron thinks he knows better than everyone else. Thinks a stupid symbol on his uniform means he's got brains, 'stead of being promoted to his level of incompetence. Why's it always SNAFU and FUBAR with the gorram Alliance crap?"
It was a strange way to meet the ground, chuckling at the huge convict's muttering while hauling on the stick and trying to reverse the back burners to soften the landing as much as they could.
The co-pilot was on the comms, presumably communicating their status, "Six-one is going down. Six-one is going down… five klicks out."
The landing, bone-jarring, eardrum-piercing screeches of metal on concrete and stone, and an abrupt neck breaking stop, did not do Mal any good. Nor did the body of the pilot as he was thrown around the cockpit.
"Stand by. Drop the ramp." He heard Flag and the soldiers, getting everyone up, "Drop the ramp. Come on! Let's go! Let's go! Go, go! Come on! All right. All right. All right."
"Well," The co-pilot rubbed the back of her neck. "That was…fun?"
Riddick looked back at her and chuckled, "Adrenaline hype?"
She nodded ruefully as she unbuckled her harness, "Leila Larue." She introduced herself.
"Richard B. Riddick," Mal gestured towards the man. "Captain Malcolm Reynolds."
"Pleasure to meet you," She gave them a half grin and wrenched open a slightly skewed locker on the wall, pulling out a very nice Iskellian HMG and several handguns, along with two knives. "Need anything from the lockers, help yourselves," She gestured at them. "Get the feeling we're going to need them."
Mal nodded and took her up on that, something besides his six-shooter would be helpful. Riddick shook his head, "Got all the blades I need. But if there's a Python or two I'll take 'em." The big man also helped himself to one of the Maulers and a Justice Arms, slinging them over his back like they were feathers.
By the time they got to the back of the shuttle and down the ramp Harley was practically bouncing, "What a ride!"
Flagg's attention was on the earwig he wore, "We're okay. We're okay. Assets are undamaged."
"No thanks to that idiot pilot," Riddick commented. "Who's dumb enough to put a speed block on when you're likely to need an emergency landing?"
"Alliance pilot, that's who," Mal rolled his eyes. "No offence meant Miss Larue."
"None taken," She shook her head. "Just don't say bái mù co-pilot."
"Never crossed my mind," He assured her.
Author's Note: So we're on our way down to the planet. And they made it in one piece, mostly. I'm playing around with how much information Flag has versus what River & the Squad have because I like the idea of Flag and Mal being at cross purposes at least some of the time.
The phrase 'promoted to their level of incompetence' is a direct quote from my husband describing some of the officers he dealt with in the military. Basically promoted until someone is put into a position where they can't do much damage. SNAFU and FUBAR are also military expressions meaning 'Situation Normal, All Fucked Up' and 'Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition' respectively. There are several others which may or may not be included depending on whether or not they're appropriate to the situation.
Chinese Translations:
hún dàn (bastard)
Wèi le tā mā de yuán gù (For fuck's sake)
yú chǔn zì jiāo de dà zi ròu (stupid inbred sack of meat)
yú bèn de (stupid)
bái mù (stupid / Lit. white-eyed, blind / not understanding the situation and reacting in a wrong way as a result)