Firefly - “RAINBOW TEARS”

Written by Sarahannah Hopwood

Chapter 1

The black expanse of space. Below us is a beautiful blue, green moon. A Firefly class ship is hurtling towards the moon at tremendous speed. Hot on its tail is a sleek, modern ship, armed to the teeth with weapons that could blast the Firefly out of the black. The gun turrets built up on the sides of the ship are pointing at the Firefly, threatening to do just that.

The Firefly hits atmo and kicks up a brilliant golden, red flare of flame behind it. The ship shakes as it continues to break through the atmosphere of the small moon. Seconds later the second ship hit’s the atmosphere sending another plume of golden flame flying up and out into space. The second ship has a better entry angle than the Firefly and the entry to the atmosphere is smooth, text book.

The Firefly breaks through atmo, leaving a plume of acrid black smoke behind it as it descends. Its aft section is spewing large amounts of smoke into the air right in front of the second ship. The damage to the Firefly is enormous. The nose seems more squashed and blunter, as if it had been at Full Burn when it hit something. The large painted name of the ship has all but been scraped off the side of the ship, but the writing is still legible, Serenity.

Serenity is in definite trouble as she shudders and shakes, plummeting towards the ground. She tries to lift her nose but there’s just not enough thrust. The engines are all but burn out and they’re spitting flecks of blue flame as it hurtles on towards the ground. On the bridge of the stricken ship, two men are positioned, staring out at the ground. Both have a look of grim defiance.

The man sat at the controls of the ship, obviously the pilot, is Hoban Washburne. His face is twisted in a strange mixture of terror and concentration. He is battered and bruised, his lip swollen and bleeding, a three inch gash above his left eye is slowly oozing blood down his sickly, pale cheek. His blond