War and Serenity

By Michael Weyer

A Simple Stop

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Sullust was not well known for being a popular tourist spot. The surface of the planet was a mass of volcanoes, with heavy ash filling the air and lava always covering some section of the ground. What travel came through there needed to follow strict flight paths through the clearest of the skies before coming to the opening of the underground cities the natives used for living and gathering. It was a harsh planet with harsher conditions that no sane person would want to live or work in.

Needless to say, this made it absolutely perfect for those who wanted their dealings kept out of the public eye.

The Sullustian's attitude toward smuggling was basically "don't ask, don't tell" as they recognized it was a key part of their economy and were willing to let it slide as long as there was no massive trouble.

Unfortunately, when a group of Rebels occupy a ship like Serenity, massive trouble is rather inevitable.

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The main underground city for trade was a bustling center, well-lit at the end of a wide tunnel for ships. There were several open docking bays, enough for the freighter to settle down and cool off. The ramp lowered to allow the crew of the ship to begin to exit. Mal was in the lead, his coat billowing behind him as he paced nonchalantly down the ramp. Zoe was behind him, a large blaster at her side, her eyes glancing about. Jayne was following her, a large rifle slung over one shoulder as he pushed along a crate on an anti-grav platform. "We'll be back soon enough," Mal was calling over his shoulder to Kaylee. "Just hang tight and make sure the engines are fixed right."

"Right and shiny, Captain!" Kaylee chirped up with a salute. She turned to walk back to the ship, passing by Luke, Han and Chewbacca. Seeing them, Mal frowned. "Really no need to fret about our affairs."

"I'm a fretting type of guy," Han fired back. "You're our only ride so I'd like to make sure we get off in one piece."

Mal shrugged. "Fine by me. Just keep a distance when we get to our actual deal." He started to walk on with the rest following.

Luke leaned in toward Han. "I'm getting the feeling that they're up to something."

"Nice to see your JedI skills coming to play, kid," Han dryly replied.

Luke glanced around as they walked through the messy port. "Don't need those to tell this isn't a safe neighborhood."

"Which means the guys with the fast guns and faster draws are the safer place to be," Han noted. He peered at Mal's back. "Provided they're aimed in the right direction."

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Running a galactic rebellion was much harder work than most people thought. The sheer logistics of the position were enough to make an Imperial beaureaucrat tear out their hair. Finding ships and equipment was one thing. Finding the funding to keep people fed and clothed and supplied was an incredible challenge. Keeping said funding hidden from prying eyes and supplies in the flow was a nightmare. Yet few could keep it together like Leia could and thus she had to bear the burden.

She was making entries on her data pad, glancing up at the door of the shuttle every few moments to make sure no one disturbed her. At a finger stroke, the pad would become encoded but she still didn't want to take any chances. Her calculations were interrupted when a shadow fell in the door and she saw Book stick his head in. "My apologies for any interruption," he said.

"Not at all," Leia said, turning the scrambler on as she placed the pad down. "Something on your mind, Mr. Book?"

"Just Book is fine," he said with a smile. "I simply wondered how you were fitting in. I know it can be difficult on this ship."

"I'm used to difficult ships, believe me," Leia smirked. "I'm curious, I heard them calling you 'Preacher' before…"

"More a nickname than a title," Book quickly replied. ""I don't practice any particular religion. I keep more to the idea of faith in higher powers and that's it."

Leia got the sense there was more to it then that. Book appeared friendly but she got an odd feeling around him, that he was holding back something big. Again, she understood that feeling all too well and felt it best not to pry too much. "Sounds easy enough."

"Not as you may think," Book noted. "Particularly given the unique feelings of the crew."

"Yes, Captain Reynolds seems a bit…tight," Leia settled on.

"He's seen a lot of pain," Book acknowledged. "But don't let his demeanor fool you. The man has a heart or he wouldn't be as on edge. He talks a good game but if push comes to shove, he'll do the right thing."

Leia smiled. "Sounds like someone I know."

Book smiled himself. "Yes, your Captain Solo. He seems an interesting fellow. And this Luke…Where's he from?"

"No place of importance," Leia quickly said. "He'd be the first to tell you that." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Why do you ask?"

"No particular reason," Book shrugged but the look in his eyes told Leia otherwise. "He seems a rather bright young man. A bit too bright to be using a ship like this."

"Luke…is a brave man," Leia said. "He's capable and believes in doing the right thing."

A haunted look came over Book's face. "He'd better be careful. The right thing can often lead to a hard result." He seemed to become aware of Leia's confused look and tried to smile again. "Sorry, just…ramblings of a sad old man. I'll leave you to your work." He turned to go, leaving Leia curious once more as to what sort of ship they'd booked themselves onto.

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"I still say this isn't a good idea, sir," Zoe said as the group came to the small warehouse at the far end of the town's street. Like the rest of the town, it was a shabby metal structure set in the rock cavern wall, illuminated by the large lights overhead yet still appearing dark. There was no sign it had been used for a while, the metal a bit battered but the experienced eye could see the burns of a laser torch on the lock, indicating someone was there.

"That paranoia will be the death of you, Zoe," Reynolds drawled.

"I think quite a few things we run into are more likely to be the death of me, Sir."

"Can't go through life worrying about the blaster bolt with your name on it, Zoe."

"It's not the one with my name on it that worries me, sir. It's the dozen that say 'to whom it may concern.'"

Mal just gave her a quick glare before he knocked twice on the warehouse door. A panel slid open and a green-faced figure stuck his large nose out. "Yeah?"

"Howdy," Mal said with a smile. "I'm Reynolds with the delivery for Bunjai."

The goon looked him over and then at the crate. With a grunt, he backed up, shutting the panel. There was a pause before the warehouse doors opened with a loud groan and a musty smell exited from the large building. The group entered carefully with Han, Luke and Chewbacca in tow, all three alert for any trouble. Jayne was pushing the cart and eying the assorted men who stood around the warehouse, each holding a blaster aimed at the floor. They all had hard looks fixed on the newcomers which Mal seemed to not notice.

In the middle of the group was a short figure dressed in dark furs, his mouth a mix of tusks and sharp teeth, beady eyes fixed on Mal. "Reynolds," he grunted in Basic.

"Bunjai," Mal nodded. "Nice to see you again." He nodded to the crate. "Got your merchandise here, just like you asked for."

Bunjai looked at the crate, then over to the people behind Mal. "New crew, Reynolds?"

"Been a while, Bunjai," Han called out. "Missed your lovely personal style." Luke wasn't surprised that Han seemed to know the man. He'd been more thrown if there was a shady character in the Outer Rim Han didn't know.

"Just concerned passengers," Mal brushed it off. "Anyhow, got the merchandise so how's about we see the credits and we can all be on our way?"

"Yeah, slight problem with that," Bunjai calmly said. In an instant, the blasters of his men were raised and aimed at the others.

Mal kept his face calm even as his hand rested on the blaster at his hip. Zoe wore a look of hard determination while Jayne scowled with his rifle pulled up. Chewbacca growled as Han made an eye-rolling motion as if expecting this.

"Normally, Bunjai, you at least look in the crate before accusations of cheating come along," Mal calmly stated.

"Nothing to do with the merchandise, Reynolds," Bunjai said. "And it's not really you I've got an issue with." He pointed at Luke, Han and Chewbacca. "It's them."

Mal looked over to them and back at Bunjai with a raised eyebrow. ""Them?"

"Message going around the channels," the smuggler intoned. "Be on the lookout for a group that includes a blond haired kid, Solo and the Wookie. Word is that it's big time, Empire involved."

He scratched his scruffy chin. "Now this doesn't have to be a major problem for us, Reynolds. We've done well by each other in the past so we can be reasonable here."

"Reasonable is my middle name," Mal said, not seeming to notice the look Zoe and Jayne exchanged behind my back. "Just what did you have in mind?"

"Give me the merchandise and those three, whoever else they got with them and I leave your name out of it to the Imperials," Bunjai said with a smirk. "Come on, Reynolds, you know the smart play here."

Mal looked over to Han and the smuggler saw something in his eye. "Get ready, kid," he muttered under his breath. Mal's look swiveled to include Zoe and Jayne and it was clear an unspoken agreement was made.

He turned back to Bunjai and sighed as if saddened. "Well, Bunjai, here's my problem. When it comes to doing the right thing…No one's ever accused me of being that smart."

He leapt to the side, his gun pulled out of his holster. As all eyes and barrels went to him, Zoe and Jayne had their rifles up in an instant and were firing, their shots taking out three of the thugs instantly as Mal dived behind the crate for cover.

Han already had his blaster out and firing with Chewie backing him up with his bow caster, the powerful weapon shooting down another pair of creatures. Luke had his lightsaber out and ignited to block some blaster shots. Jayne stared at him in surprise before firing back as Bunjai tried to duck away. Mal was on his feet, firing away as the creature rushed out a side doorway.

Zoe checked her blaster's ammo pack as she looked out the door. "We're going to have company soon, sir!"

"Jayne, Chewbacca, grab the crate!" Mal yelled as he dashed off, his blaster firing at the door. "We gotta get back to the ship pronto!"

"Shouldn't we leave the crate?" Luke asked as he turned his saber off.

"We can still pawn it off later," Mal stated. He looked at the light saber and then at Luke's face. "We're going to have some words later, kid."

Jayne got behind the crate and started pushing it hard. Chewbacca joined him, his strength adding to the speed as they started to run down the street. By this point, many onlookers were poking heads out of buildings in confusion at the noise and gunfire. As the group ran, Bunjai reappeared with a new group of gunmen behind him. "Get them!" he yelled as blaster shots rang out at the running figures.

Luke gasped as he felt a bolt scrape at his shoulder. He stumbled, Zoe moving quickly to catch him. Han whirled to fire his blaster and take out the man who had shot Luke. The alien went down but more were still giving chase firing after the group.

"Luke!" Han yelled. "You okay?"

The young man winced as he rubbed his shoulder. "Don't think it's too serious…"

"Doc'll be the judge of that," Jayne snorted. He leaned in toward Mal. "Gee, it might be nice if we had any detonators!"

"Wonderful, Jayne actually gets to crow about being right," Zoe groaned as she fired over her shoulder. "You know how annoying that can be, sir."

"At the moment, Zoe, Jayne's crowing is low on my list of concerns," Mal snapped as the group continued their running firefight down the streets.

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"Kaylee?" Wash called out as he made his way down the hallways of the ship. "Hey, Kaylee?"

The engineer peeked out of a nearby console, her face stained with grease. "Yeah?"

Wash was glancing around as he spoke. "You seen River? I thought she was in the main hold but haven't seen her."

Kaylee shook her head. "Naw, been busy getting this hyper drive fixed. Why you want to know?"

"Just making sure she's not getting in trouble," Wash sighed. "Captain wanted a closer eye on her with our guests on board."

"Ah, River doesn't go as whacky with other folks," Kaylee waved it off. "'Sides, she knows her way around the ship and is a lot more on the ball than you think."

"Yeah but these guests make me nervous," Wash said. "Might give her some bad ideas."

Kaylee smiled. "I like that Leia, she's a nice gal."

"You like everyone."

"Well, someone has to…" Her words were cut off as a rumble went through the ship. "What the…"

Wash's eyes went wide as he turned and immediately started running toward the cockpit. He burst in to find River in the seat, calmly clicking switches. "River!" he yelled. "What are you doing?!"

"Engines need to be lit for the fires of flight," the girl said as if it was perfectly logical. Wash pushed her out of the chair as he reached toward the controls.

"Dammit, River, you can't just turn them on and off like this! What if we need to take off fast and they won't start right because you were playing around?"

River cocked her head. "We need to take off fast. That's why I started it."

"River…" Before Wash could yell further, a burst of static came from the speakers and Mal's voice came out. "Wash! Fire up the engines, we need a fast take-off! We're coming under fire so no wasting time! And tell the doc to get ready for a blaster burn!"

Wash stared at the speaker in disbelief before turning to River, who simply shrugged. "Told you."

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Leia had been in enough emergencies to know trouble when she felt it and the rumble of engines was enough to tell her. She was racing out of her room and toward the main hold where Kaylee was already lowering the ramp. They could hear the sound of blaster fire echoing along with the sounds of yells. Mal and the rest were soon rushing into the hanger bay pushing the crate along into the ship. As soon as the last of them were inside, Kaylee hit the button to start lowering the ramp even as Bunjai and his men raced in to fire at the ship.

"Luke!" Leia cried out as she saw him clutching his shoulder. She took him by the arm with Han helping, Luke wincing as the pain of the wound began to sink in.

"Master Luke!" Threepio cried out from his place in the corner. "Great Maker, are you all right?"

"Doc's all set," Kaylee said as she headed to the gangplanks to race up the catwalk toward the engine room.

"Get him there," Mal said as he followed her toward the cockpit. "Jayne, bolt down the crate and get weapons in case we gotta fight!"

"We're still going to be talking later, Reynolds!" Han yelled over his shoulder as he and Leia took the wounded Luke down the hallways. Threepio and Artoo were quick to follow, the golden droid waving his hands toward Mal. "You, sir, should be reported to authorities."

"Join the line," Jayne snarled as he began locking the crate down to the floor with magnets.

Mal quickly headed toward the cockpit as Book stepped out of his quarters. "Captain," he said in a calm voice. "I see the normal state of affairs with your work prevails."

"Not now, preacher," Mal snapped as he brushed past and into the cockpit. Wash was already pulling back on the main controls to allow Serenity to rise up from the dock. The ship turned around and Wash fired up the engines to send it down the tunnels. He saw a flashing light on the screen to examine it. "They're trying to close the doors ahead, Captain!'

Mal moved to a communicator, hitting it. "Kaylee, gonna need all the juice you got!"

"Juicing hard as I can, Captain!" she yelled back.

"Force, I hope that's not as dirty as it sounds," Mal muttered as he turned the communicator off and turned back toward the main view screen. The rock of the tunnels whizzed by with uncomfortable closeness as Serenity whipped down the tunnels toward the metal doors which were starting to close. Mal moved to the communicator again to speak. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Captain. I would recommend holding onto something nice and tight bout now least you suffer some untoward brain damage, thank you."

As the metal doors came toward them, Wash pulled the controls hard to the side and Serenity turned just in time to squeeze through the doors. There was a shaking as the turbulence of Sullust's atmosphere struck it but Wash kept the ship on going high as he could until they reached the open skies of space.

Wash let out a sigh of relief. "Clear, Captain, setting hyper drive now."

"To Corellia, fast," Mal ordered. "Sooner we drop our passengers off, the better. We can figure out how to deal with the cargo later."

A low growl caught his attention and Mal turned to see Han standing behind him, arms crossed and his eyes narrowed. In the doorway was the hulking form of Chewbacca with matching pose and teeth bared.

"Reynolds," Han said with false friendliness in his voice. "Think it's time we had some words with you."

Wash swallowed as he looked to Mal. "I'll make sure Zoe keeps her new ship nice the way you'd want it, Mal."

"Your loyalty warms my heart, Wash," Mal said in a tired voice.

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Apologies for the long delay, holidays have been a bit crazy, hopefully not as long before the next chapter.