Disclaimer: The charcaters aren't mine, 'cept for Veronica and General Li. Don't sue. I'm a poor college student. I ain't worth your time. Long Live the Browncoats!

Independence

Serenity Valley, Hera Colony, Lenos System, 2517AD

It was just before dawn. The fighting had been going on all night. Both sides throwing everything they had left into the battle, like it would be the deciding factor between the Unification of the systems or the continued self-governess of the planets. In the Core, where politics were debated, far from the heat of battle and the stench of dead bodies, it was ideas being thrown around. What-if scenarios and slippery slopes; no one making headway. Neither the Independents nor the Alliance were willing to negotiate just yet. The body count wasn’t high enough, apparently. This valley will change that, thought Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds.

Sgt. Reynolds was holed up with the remains of the Seventh Brigade and the First Light Armored Recon, also known as the IA Balls and Bayonets Brigade and the IMC Highlanders respectively. They were running low on ammo and personnel. The Alliance had the Independents on the run, but the fight was still in them. They had fallen back onto their original line, having back-tracked through 35 miles of gained ground in the last two weeks. This was where they were going to make their last stand. After this, there wouldn’t be much of anything to fight with.

“Conserve your ammo! Only fire if you can see the whites of their eyes!” Sgt. Reynolds called out across the line. It was a line he remembered from history books from Earth-that-was. The situations were eerily similar, if anyone had sat back and thought about it. At the moment he was the most senior man on the line, with more pressing things on his mind than the similarities between two battles nearly a thousand years apart. His captain had been killed a week ago, killed by a lucky bullet through the skull. The Marines had lost their officers when an RPG hit their command tent. Their senior enlisted w