Shoot-em-up, Serenity Style

A voice, I’m guessing it was the captain, came a-blaring over the little intercom system of the Serenity. It said that we’d be hitting atmosphere in a few minutes, and would be landing in a bit after that, and we’d all better strap ourselves in. I always take those warnings to heart, as a buddy of mine one time got his head stove in when the ship bounced one way and he bounced the other. He never was the same after that.

After some jarring and bouncing around, things finally quieted down and it was announced we were planet-side. I planned on visiting town, so I snugged a little automatic under my left arm and put on my bush vest. I slicked my hair back, smoothed a little wax on my moustache, and headed for the cargo bay. Jayne, Mal, and Zoe were already there, with weapons handy. I paid that no nevermind, figuring that was just normal behavior. The cargo door thumped down, and damned if there weren’t a whole bunch of mean-looking fellows a-waitin’ for us, with their weapons drawn. Their leader kinda grinned and allowed as how he’d caught Mal with his pants down, then told all of us to put our weapons down. Since I didn’t have no visible one and they weren’t paying attention to me, I guess they figured I didn’t have one.

Mal and Jayne hesitated, and about that time River and Simon started to come down the stairs. The leader saw them and pointed, bellowing something like “There they are”. I saw Mal go for his gun, so naturally I hauled mine out as well. There was a whole bunch of shootin’ and yellin’ right about then, with men scattering every which way. I nailed about four of them with my automatic and snapped the neck of a fifth one when he got too close. Jayne did a right smart job of mowing with his piece, Zoe worked her lever-action to good effect, and Mal accounted for a couple others. The smoke cleared and the noise abated shortly thereafter.

Mal came out of his crouch, holstering his gun. Zoe slid her cut-off carbine into its holster, and big Jayne lowered his piece. Some of the bodies did stir and moan a little, so Simon came over and sorta tended to them. Jayne looked around, smiled, said “nice fight”, then started checking the bodies. I reckon he was a-thinking about looting them. Me, I didn’t care. Mal came over about then, said thanks for the help, and then chided me for having weapons. Jayne was squatting down by a body, a-using my bowie to cut a belt. He laid the knife down for a moment, so I naturally scooped it up. Mal saw it but didn’t say a word. He’s a smart man, as I still had my blood up a little and might not have taken too kindly to a demand for the knife.

Tags: 'verse, Jayne, landing, Mal, serenity, shoot-em-up, zoe