Before Serenity - The Tale of Malcolm Reynolds

Malcolm Reynolds, Shadow, “Harbatkin”, Monty and the rest of the 'Verse were created by Joss Whedon for Fox. I do not own these characters or situatons and, if given a cease and desist order from the copyright holder of those properties, I will remove this fan fiction story from my blog. However, the other characters are mine, Copyright 2010 by Mendur, and my not be used without *my* permission.

This is one of a series of tales I am in the middle of writing, my own ideas of how the nine main characters of "Firefly" set off on the paths that led them to Serenity in the true pilot of the series, "Serenity".

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Before Serenity – The Tale of Malcolm Reynolds

by Mendur

Malcolm Reynolds, formerly a sergeant with the Independent Forces … the “Browncoats” … was enjoying his first taste of freedom in four years. The Alliance had dragged their heels in releasing the Browncoats after the end of the war. It was only after the last of the rebellious worlds had signed the peace treaty “accepting” full membership in the Alliance that the Purple-Bellies had finally conceded that the war was over and released the prisoners it had taken.

He had been cut off from the ‘Verse for so long, he wasn’t sure, exactly, how he was going to survive. He knew he wanted to get as far from Alliance control as possible but that wasn’t likely for a man with his unfortunate lack of prospects. In fact, the whiskey in his glass was just about going to leave him tapped out. All he had was his clothes, his boots, and a gun.

His musings were interrupted by mention of his home on the bar screen.

This is CORTEX NEWS: Today marks the fifth anniversary of the disaster on Shadow. During the Unification War, Alliance forces entrenched themselves around the atmospheric generators for the planet in an attempt to protect them. Although official government reports show that an attack by the Independent forces resulted in the destruction of the atmospheric generators, resulting in the deat