Hello. Iverik here. Just a reminder: This story uses characters created by someone other than me.
Facing the Black
"You look good in purple, sir." Mal glared at his former second-in-command. Most people would have taken a step back. Zoe just arched an eyebrow.
"Purple?" One of the other new recruits looked down at his uniform. "Yeah, I guess there's a little..." He scratched his head.
Mal stalked off towards the briefing room. Zoe, naturally, fell into step. "This isn't the easiest job, is it sir?"
"Damn right it isn't."
"Just remember why we're here sir."
"I think we're about to get a reminder," Mal growled under his breath as they turned into the briefing room.
Captain Anders looked grim. Several other officials watched the recruits file in. Mal and Zoe's military bearing stood out among the crowd. One official pointed and whispered. Mal gave him his best "let it be, please" grin.
Jayne was looking throughly miserable. The gorram fools had taken Phillipi away and given him a useless hunk of gos se instead. He'd used this sort of gun before, with very bad results. This plan was starting to give him an uncomfortableness.
"Aten-Tion!" A room full of recruits snapped to attention. Sort of. Captain Anders surveyed the room, noting who did and didn't jump to. "Welcome to the ground forces," he growled, "look around. What you see here is the first, and in some places the last line of defense for the Alliance."
"Here it comes," Mal muttered to Zoe.
Holographic displays appeared. Captain Anders used a laser pointer to mark a nondescript asteroid on the edge of the system. "Fourteen days ago, one of our patrols found an unidentified ship orbiting this asteroid. It proved to be robotic. Our ships followed its signals back to its base..." Captain Anders cleared his throat. "It was a star fleet. A sleeper fleet, in fact, armed to the teeth and waking up. Our ships were immediately destroyed upon detection. Analysis of the weaponry used suggests that it was superior to our own."
"Eight days ago, they arrived at the terraformed moon of Bisphon. We had a reasonable outpost there, with several heavy cruisers in orbit. We thought it would be enough." Captain Anders played a clip of the invasion of Bisphon. "It was not."
"We now face an invasion, without warning and without provocation. Our task is to halt it before it reaches another populated world."
"To that end," Captain Anders continued, "I would like to ask for volunteers for the special weapons' program. Operative?"
A man in a black suit stepped forward. "Our research teams have developed several new weapons using funds left over from the Unification War. These include improvements in targeting, firepower, and rate of fire. We need to train operators for these weapons. Do we have volunteers?"
Mal glanced over at Jayne, expecting him to be the first in line. The surly mercenary, however, had turned a deathly shade of white, and had stuck his hands behind his back. To Mal's trained eye, they appeared to be shaking.
Recruits hurried to join the man in the suit. Captain Anders took notes. In the confusion, Mal slipped over to Jayne's side. "What's wrong?" he hissed.
"Gorram it, Mal, we're in trouble."
"I guessed that, care to be tellin' me why?" Mal snarled in an undertone. Captain Anders had yet to look up, but that wouldn't last long.
Jayne grimaced: "His hands are blue."