Firefly History 101
Lofwyr had listened to Alan's account with great interest. The mutant's account was incomplete – there were details that he had tried to hide, such as the supplier of his weaponry – but the dragon had pulled them out of his head anyway. It still amused him a great deal how lesser creatures thought they could resist his mind-reading abilities. When Alan had finished, he let out a deep, grand laugh.
"So let me see if I understand this correctly," Lofwyr said, still chuckling. "You came all the way to Essen to take one of my spaceships – one of my antiques, no less – so you could go out into space and find Kiryuu's body?"
"That's the idea," Alan replied. This only prompted Lofwyr to start laughing again. Clearly he thought this idea was highly amusing.
"Forgive me, Mr. Tyler," Lofwyr chuckled, "but I was led to believe that you had little love for your grandfather. I thought you would be jumping for joy at the news of his loss."
"In another life, maybe," Alan replied. "Things change."
"Evidently," Lofwyr replied, failing to stifle a continued chuckle. He stooped down close to Alan and began examining the Technomantic weaponry.
"Now what do we have here?" he said, holding up the revolver. "A modified Ruger Super Warhawk; they stopped making these in 2117." He flipped open the bullet chamber. Each slot where the bullets were supposed to go was now filled with a crystalline substance. "So the chamber now remains fixed, and its position now determines what type of shots come out of the barrel... I imagine there is a recharge period after a certain amount of shots are fired... Oh! And you have a shield-breaker mode as well! Made just in case you come across Forerunner technology, no doubt...
"Now then, let's see," he continued, placing the gun back on the floor and picking up the whip. He released the nanowire line and let it fall free while he examined the handle.
"So this twists around, and..." he muttered, twisting the bottom of the handle until it clicked into place. Instantly the whip glowed brightly in a vivid blue colour and crackled with energy. "Ah, I see. So twisting the handle imbues it with the properties of a Sangheili energy sword. Very ingenious, though not as elegant as the genuine article." He gave a loud tutting sound, placing the whip back on the floor and putting the crystal back in the pouch. "You know, you really shouldn't be carrying such toys around in this day and age. I shall have to have some stern words with your provider."
Alan had been rather calm up until this point, doing his best to ignore Lofwyr's bluster. However, his expression suddenly turned venomous.
"Leave him out of this," he snarled. Lofwyr simply rolled his eyes.
"Now then," he said, resuming that strange, almost childish curiosity. "I simply must know this. Why come here to get a ship? Why go to so much trouble to break into my facility, and even more trouble to get inside my personal workshop? You could have got a ship for this endeavour from just about anywhere, and through somewhat more legal means."
"Where's the fun in that?" Alan said flatly.
"Oh, I see," Lofwyr replied. "You wanted one last shot at going down in the annals of infamy. You wanted to commit a crime against me even more outrageous than Benny's little stunt." He snarled at the mention of that name. Benny was a famous shadowrunner who had duct-taped Lofwyr to the side of a building belonging to Malcho back in the 21st century, and the dragon hoped that he was now burning in a special level of Hell reserved just for him. "Yes," he continued. "I can see how pulling off a theft of such magnitude and daring, especially one right under my snout, would be very appealing to a life-long thrill-seeker such as yourself." He paced for a little while, regarding Alan carefully, still smiling oddly.
"You know," he finally said, "I have long been curious as to what your kind taste like. At last, I have a sample right in front of me, just bite-sized." He was sorely tempted to change into his magnificent dragon form, just to add to the theatricality of that statement, but doing so would mean he risked damaging some of the ships in the hangar. As it was, he was disappointed that Alan did not even so much as squirm at the thought, instead continuing to look at him with an annoyingly defiant expression.
"However," he continued, smirking, "I must admit that you have sparked my interest with this plan of yours. Your grandfather was both a strong ally and a worthy adversary. He was one of the smartest, strongest and most iron-willed beings to ever have existed in the history of this planet. I am curious enough to see if these qualities run in the family."
With that, and to Alan's surprise, he opened the handcuffs and removed them. Alan pulled himself to his feet, looking very wary. He was sure that Lofwyr was toying with him somehow.
"Now," Lofwyr added, sweeping his arm around to indicate the various spacecraft in the hangar. "Do you see anything you like?"
Alan looked around him at the various antique ships. They were all in various states of wear and tear, depending on how much time Lofwyr had been able to spend on tinkering with them. Any one of them could have suited his needs when they were fixed up, but one in-particular had caught his eye. He pointed at a ship that vaguely resembled a bird in its design, with a metal 'beak' on the front at the end of a long neck. The main body was flanked by two rotating jets, while on the rear was what looked like a gigantic, bulbous engine which reminded Alan of the abdomens on some species of insect. Painted on the side of the beak-like cockpit was one word in both English and Mandarin Chinese; 'Serenity'.
"Ah, the Firefly!" Lofwyr announced rather proudly, grinning from ear to ear. "I am glad she caught your attention. I have to admit that she is a personal favourite of mine. This particular Firefly has a lot of stories to tell."
"I don't recall stopping by for a history lesson, Lofwyr," Alan said sarcastically.
"Need I remind you," Lofwyr replied, "that I am the one holding what you seek? If you do not wish for this meeting to end badly, I would advise you to allow an old dragon to indulge himself for a moment." He took Alan's silence to be a sign of compliance, and so he continued to speak.
"Saeder-Krupp does not only make the larger frigates and capital ships used by the UNSC. For a long time, especially in the early days of space exploration, I designed a number of smaller ships intended for private use. The Firefly class, first constructed over a hundred years ago, was a particular favourite among traders looking to get from A to B quickly and safely, not to mention that it was popular with smugglers due to some design oversights on my part that created a lot of hidden spaces. After a while, however, the Firefly became outmoded as propulsion technology advanced further, though unlike the Sangheili we are still some way off from perfecting slip-space travel with the tools available to us.
"The Serenity has become particularly valuable, as it was one of the first Fireflies to roll off the production line. It is a testament to their durability that she has remained in reasonably good condition for so long. It embarrasses me to admit it, but not long after she was built the Serenity was stolen from me, by a treacherous employee who doubtless sought to make a profit by selling a working model to a rival. Evidently, that never happened, but the ship was taken beyond even my grasp.
"The Serenity eventually found its way to 34 Tauri, a star cluster with over 70 planetary bodies contained within. Terraforming had been taking place on those worlds since man started to expand its empire beyond the stars in the early 22nd century. However, this particular system had lost contact with Earth. Some form of unique phenomena in that region of the galaxy disrupted long-range communication channels for a long time; so long, in fact, that the frontiersmen who inhabited those worlds believed that Earth had been destroyed, or at least abandoned. After a time they stopped trying to contact Earth, even long after communication became possible again.
"Then came the rise of the Alliance. They appointed themselves as the lawbringers and guardians of 34 Tauri, and decided that all of the planets in that system were to be united in their perceived utopia, whether the inhabitants wanted it or not. The Independents put up a good fight, but in the end they were crushed under the heels of progress. The Serenity is named after the Battle of Serenity Valley, the most decisive conflict in the civil war. It was a battle which the Independents lost, securing victory for the Alliance.
"The Serenity, meanwhile, was not sold to a promising business rival as the thief had hoped. He had come to this system confident that he would be out of my reach there, for it is now known that the Alliance was blocking any transmissions from Earth in order to make their control of the system complete. Instead of the riches he hoped for, however, he ended up selling the ship to a scrap merchant. I suspect the Alliance then silenced him, out of fear of him spreading the news about Earth's continued survival. After several years of being handed down through various owners, she eventually found her way into the hands of one Malcolm Reynolds, a former soldier who fought for the Independents. He was the one who named the ship. He believed that once you had set foot in Serenity Valley, you never truly leave.
"That brings us to the year 2517, when a series of circumstances and misadventures led Reynolds and his crew to discover the true lengths that the Alliance would go to for total thought control. They discovered that, on the planet Miranda, the Alliance had engineered a drug designed to suppress aggression, in theory rendering the planet free from violence. They administered this to the population, and the results, needless to say, were disastrous. Most of the population stopped caring about anything, even eating, sleeping, and all the other necessities for survival, and simply let themselves die. About ten percent of them became extremely aggressive and mentally unstable, eventually leaving the planet and becoming the monstrous, cannibalistic Reavers that had been attacking ships in the system for years, feasting on all that they captured.
"Upon discovering this, Reynolds resolved to spread the word to all of 34 Tauri, and was eventually successful. What he hadn't anticipated, however, was that the strength of the transmitter he used could send the signal much farther than he had intended. The signal reached Earth, making the news of the Alliance's activities the first transmission we had received from 34 Tauri in nearly three centuries. The Alliance soon collapsed, and the system was brought under UNSC jurisdiction.
"That was when I finally gained the chance to reclaim my stolen property, after I had lost all hope of doing so. Reynolds and the Serenity were brought back to Earth, and I was able to broker a deal; if he returned the ship to my custody, then I would give him and his crew protection from reprisal by Alliance loyalists. This, as it turned out, proved to be a fortuitous arrangement for them, as not even 34 Tauri managed to avoid the Covenant's gaze. Many of those worlds are now glassed, but the survivors of the Serenity crew escaped the destruction, while the ship itself has been taken care of, here in my own workshop."
After he finished his speech, he turned to look at Alan, who seemed to have been on the verge of falling asleep. He could tell that the mutant was waiting for whatever fate he had concocted to finally come. He looked amused as he approached Alan again.
"Which brings me to the point of all of this," he said. "You wish to become the new Captain of the Serenity, and use her to find Kiryuu Knight. As I have explained, I am not without some interest in this matter, and I believe we can come to a reasonable agreement. I will loan you the Serenity, and I will even supply you with a crew and some supplies to get you started."
"That's surprisingly generous, coming from you," Alan retorted. "What's the catch?"
"The catch is," Lofwyr said, smirking, "that you are not to return to Earth empty-handed. I want this investment of mine to pay off, and the next time I see this ship it will have Kiryuu on board, whatever his condition may be. If not..." His smirk broadened into a wicked grin. "Well, I have a space reserved just for you on my menu, if it should come to that."
Alan sighed, looking around him. Now that Lofwyr had said it, the realisation that he may never see Earth again seemed to be pressing down on his shoulders like lead weights. It seemed that he had most definitely got himself into a bind, and Kiryuu was the only way out. At the end of the day there only seemed to be one possible path he could take; find Kiryuu, find him fast, and drop anyone who tried to stop him. He turned back to Lofwyr and nodded.
"Deal," he said. Lofwyr chuckled at this, highly amused that Alan seemed to be treating this seriously.
"It will take at least a day, perhaps more, to prepare the ship and gather everything you need for the trip. In the meantime, feel free to enjoy your stay in Essen and get your affairs in order. I will summon you once everything is prepared." With that, he allowed Alan to retrieve his equipment before the two started to make their way out of the hangar. It was then that Lofwyr inhaled deeply, before suddenly making a gagging noise.
"Did someone urinate in here?" he asked, viciously.
"Oh, that would be one of your men," Alan said, barely restraining the urge to vomit. "I think his nametag said Munroe, or something. You might want to reassure him that I don't eat kids."