DR: Hey, I'm back once more, with the eagerly awaited first clash between the Colonials and the Alliance!

Chapter 4: First Round – Colonials 1, Alliance 0

On the bridge of Serenity the entire crew had gathered, watching the confrontation happening before them. They were still drifting away from the two massive ships, but Wash had rotated so that the nose pointed back towards them.

Mal watched with keen interest as the two titans faced off. The Alliance cruiser was an imposing sight, and yet it only was so by being so monolithic. It was a radical departure from traditional ship design, with it's highly vertical, twin wedge shaped tower design. The towers, and their two smaller brethren, were only connected by a massive horseshoe shaped section barely a few decks thick. They were ponderous not just because of their mass; too much stress and they would snap in half.

Now Thunderchild on the other hand… that was a pure, lean killing machine. Built like a brick, and sleeked back, it seemed to be charging forwards even when stood still. And unlike the Alliance Cruiser, it was tested in battle, built by a people who had centuries of experience in space warfare.

He noted that the Colonials had not yet launched their vipers, while the Alliance had deployed what looked like every gunship they had. They formed a halo around their home cruiser, noses pointed at the Colonial ship.

At last the Alliance captain replied. "Er… Attention 'Colonial' vessel. This region of space is under the jurisdiction of the Unified Alliance of Planets. We have the authority in this system. The crew of Serenity are wanted fugitives and criminals. Do not force us to engage your ship."

"Why not?" Achilles replied, his tone calm and serious. "This ship was built to fight ships twice as big and more than four times the mass of itself. Do you really think that your ship poses us any threat?"

A pause. "This is an internal matter. You have already breached Unified Alliance of Planets Law by threatening this ship. You will stand down and prepare to be boarded."

"No."

Achilles sharp, one word reply clearly threw the Alliance captain. "Excuse me?"

"No, we will not stand down, nor allow you to take control of our ship. We came to this system as a peaceful envoy, looking for our long lost brothers in space, and to deliver a warning. We also wanted to see for ourselves just what your 'Alliance' is like as a government. So far, you've confirmed everything we've been told."

Mal watched keenly as he listened to the chatter. Achilles continued to speak calmly and clearly, his words a clear statement of fact. The Alliance captain's voice however had wavered between scared, blusterous, pompous, and incredulous.

"Now see here…"

His words were cut off however when one of the gunship pilots launched a missile.

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"Incoming warhead!" Rang out across the Thunderchild's bridge. "Port side, heading for the forward launch tubes!"

"Can you shot it down?" Achilles called out to his master gunner, who just grinned.

"That 'missile' is moving slower than a half shot Raider. Just give the order sir."

"Consider it given. And then lock into the targeting systems all those smaller ships." Achilles replied before facing his sensor crews. "Find me the weapons on that 'cruiser'."

"Aye sir."

X-X-X-X-X-X

The Alliance missile rocketed towards the port pod, leaving behind a trail of smoke from the simple chemical engine that propelled it. It was locked in on the central opening of a group of three tubes that led deeper into the pod. The gunship pilot hoped to have the missile slip down the tube and detonate deep within the ship.

It wasn't to be. One of the point defence laser turrets on the battlecruiser shifted and pitched, adjusted slightly, then fired. Twin darts of pure energy lanced out. Due to the design of the turret the one missed, but the other struck the small missile head on. It was instantly obliterated.

X-X-X-X-X-X

"Sir, they just shot down our pilot's missile!"

"What was that?" Lefcourt yelled, his eyes glued to where he'd seen a dart of red energy stab out and blast a missile into nothing.

"Computers reckon some kind of pulsed laser sir, but the power readings are off the scale!"

Lefcourts eyes jumped back to the lean ship ahead of him, dancing across the large turrets visible on its back. If they had pulses lasers capable of shooting down fast moving missiles, what were their anti-ship weapons like? The Alliance had been struggling for years to fully develop laser weaponry. The smallest, sustainable pulse model was on a pre-war frigate, and even then it was in a turret that was almost a third as big as the ship itself. While they had developed hand-held models, they were not effective as they tended towards being bulky and heavy. Worse and far more damming was that they only had between ten and twenty shots, depending on the model, before requiring recharging, which often took hours.

Then he recalled what his own ship was equipped with, and some measure of his confidence returned. Plasma weaponry was still new, but all new cruisers were fitted with them, and the effects were deadly. One bolt could burn right through a short to mid range transport, the super heated gases igniting the atmosphere within and causing the ship to be ripped apart from the inside. Nothing could withstand that.

He stood up straight, and glared at the 'Battlecruiser' "This is your final warning. You are to surrender yourselves to us, or we will open fire."

The reply came after a few moment, and when it did it sapped a lot of his new found confidence. "Fire on us, and it'll be your funeral."

"Sir, we're detecting high intensity scanning beams sweeping over us. Their locking on!"

Lefcourt panicked. "All weapons commence fire! Take that thing out!"

"And our gunships sir?" His flight controller asked.

"Dispatch two to bring Serenity in. Have the others assist us."

X-X-X-X-X-X

From dozens of points across the hull of the Alliance ship, missiles erupted from tubes before arcing round to bear on the Colonial ship. A few seconds later the two main plasma projectors spewed forth bolts of high density plasma, the shots leaving a green trail behind them. A few moments later the surrounding gunships all fired off a missile, before two broke away and rocketed after the small transport. The others began to close on the titan before them.

In response, red darts leapt from the Thunderchild, each one ending in the flare of a destroyed missile. Larger, heavier bolts stabbed out, and with each caress a gunship disintegrated. Their hulls just could not withstand the sheer raw power of the Colonials weapons.

Then the plasma bolts impacted on the battlecruiser. The crew of the Alliance cruiser watched as the green bolts struck, then began to spread out across the hull of the other ship. Then it dissipated, leaving behind nothing but a blackened scar. Jaws fell when they saw this. Their most powerful weapons, stopped cold!

Then Thunderchild replied, with one of her forward beam lasers. A brief, growing glow was all the warning the Alliance crew got before a brilliant orange-red beam lashed out just below the connecting lower decks. The spear of energy was then swung upwards, slicing through the Alliance ship's hull like a hot knife through butter. By the time the beam cut off, the lower decks had been cut clean through, and the smaller, outer tower on the starboard side began to drift away from the rest of the ship, flames burning in the destroyed compartments.

To finish her one-two punch, the forward upper Megalaserturret fired. The blue-white bolts smashed into the starboard plasma projector… and continued to burn deep into the heart of the port main tower. Twenty-five terawattsworth of energy was unleashed in a fraction of a second. The resulting blast took a massive bite out of the tower, vaporising vast sections of the ship and gutting the top third of it. The cruiser was literally thrown reeling from the hit for a moment.

X-X-X-X-X-X

Commander Lefcourtdragged himself back to his feet, clutching his side where a stabbing pain threatened to overwhelm him. Wincing, he tried to push back the splitting head ache before yelling "Damage report!"

When no one answered, he looked around. The lighting had half failed, but it was enough to see that the formally neat and pristine command deck was now a mess. Most of the computer screens had blown out, and a vast section of the deck above had caved in. Smoke hung thickly in the air, and several of his crew lay dead on the deck. Others showed signs of life, but many were unable to attend to their stations.

"I said get me a damage report!" He bellowed again, gasping as his extra deep breath caused his broken ribs to rub against each other. One woman, her long red hair escaping from the braid she'd had it in – her regulation cap was missing – scrambled over to a still working terminal. Lefcourt groaned internally when he saw her smoke smudged face; it was her, the one who frequently questioned orders, and had to be constantly watched to ensure that she did her duties. Lefcourt had looked into her file. She'd been drafted from Hera, the Independents former 'capital'.

It didn't help matters that she was a stunning looking woman too. She had the looks to work as a Companion. So far however she had shown herself to be a cold fish, spurring any advances.

"Heavy damage Commander… I'm getting no data at all for tower four, and we've… sir, the top of tower two is in ruins." There was a note of shock in her voice… and was that awe, and even respect?

Lefcourt turned to look back out the view port, towards the practically untouched vessel that sat before him. All his gunships, including the two who he had ordered after Serenity, were gone, and his own ship was in ruins.

A signal came in, static laced. "Alliance cruiser, we now offer you a chance to walk away. Just turn about and leave. You can't hurt us, and we could destroy your ship at any time. Go, and tell your superiors that if they leave us and Serenity alone, we'll leave you alone. But if your 'Alliance' threatens us or our friends we will not hold back in the future." As the voice spoke behind the battlecruiser two smaller ships emerged from within the vortex. Each one was a sleek, compact design lacking the outrider pods with a vertical block to the rear.

Lefcourt slowly turned to look about the bridge. Only a half dozen crew men were currently at their stations, each looking as shell-shocked as he felt. Slowly he sighed. "Come about. Plot a course for the nearest marshalling point."

Slowly the heavily damaged cruiser pivoted on the spot. Due to the way the ship turned, the bridge crew got a good look at the severed section that was drifting away slowly. Then it began to thrust away, the infirmary overflowing with wounded, leaving behind a trail of wreckage… and one escape pod.

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Athena breathed out when she saw the Alliance ship turn tail and run. Achilles had called her and the Phoenix through, and what she had found on the other side had been a shock. They had been monitoring the exchange from their side, but to see the scattered wreckage and twisted ruin of the Alliance craft was a whole new thing.

Behind her ship the wormhole closed up, no longer held open by the generators on the Thunderchild. They had been close to burning out, hence why Achilles had called the other ships through.

A transmission came through. "Well, they know we're here now. Okay, Rosetta secure the area, Phoenix approach that severed hulk and send in armed Search and Rescue teams. There may be people trapped in there. We're launching our rescue shuttles to see if anyone survived or ejected. Captains conference in two hours."

X-X-X-X-X-X

She sat curled up in the tiny space of the pod, her hair drifting about her in the zero gravity. Amanda Watson had finally found the chance she had been looking for during the last five years to break ship and escape Alliance control. She had been pressed into service on board the new ships because of her technical skills. She had been running her own small refitting shop, and making a nice profit, when the Alliance had swooped down on her and locked her away, confiscating her tools, workshop and home.

Later, she had been told that some of the ships shed worked on had been in the hand of pirates, which made her an accessory to their crimes. It was a load of go tsao de tzao gao, but that was all the Alliance needed. Fortunately they had madeher an offer; join the fleet as a crewman, provided she hand over all records of every ship she worked on, or face fifty years sentence in one of the new prison mines. She had heard rumours about those mines, about the kind of scum sent there, what they would do to an attractive woman…

So she'd accepted the offer, despite the sour taste it left in her mouth. All of her work had been above board, legal like, so it wasn't like there was anything to hide. But then once she was on ship, the gorram control freaks clamped down and she might as well have gone to the prison, the amount of freedom she got. The other crew seemed happy with their lot, and constant reported her to the officers for her 'bellyaching' and 'whining'.

Now, she knew nothing about these Colonials', but anything had to be better than what she had left behind…

A shadow fell across the small view port, and she uncurled herself as much as she could, pushing the duffel in which she had quickly thrown everything she owned into behind her. For several long moments there was nothing, then with a gentle tug gravity began to return… the wrong way up. She quickly rotated to stand as the pod came to rest on the deck.

A faint hiss, and then footsteps and voices. After waiting for a few seconds, they finally unlocked the pod, and the hatch swung open. Amanda found herself facing the business end of two blocky, low tech looking pistols held by men in tan uniforms with leather jackets. Raising her hands, she slowly stepped out.

There were three, two men and a woman. The woman was dressed just like the men, though her pistol was still in a leg holster. She looked Amanda in the eye coolly. "Are you planning on causing trouble?" She asked slowly.

Amanda grinned. "Actually I was hoping to defect to your side."

DR: There we go, the first clash is over. I hope I got the Alliance Commanders reactions and bluster right. As Lando once said 'Arrogance and Stupidity, how effiecent'. The bulk of the Alliance high command have both in spades.

Now, I must warn you all that my new job is comsuming my time in a very rapid manner. The net result is that I've barely done much to this story (some of the next chapter, plus an outline of the rest). I'll try to get a chapter done for next month, but no promises. Until then... or whenever!