Disclaimer – Everything either does belong to Joss or it should. I’m just borrowing his shiny ‘verse for a while.

The 21st Lancers belong to the British Army so I’m borrowing them too. I hope they don’t mind .

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“Once we’d got rid of the Reavers in our corner of space things were actually pretty calm, you could even so far as to say verging on tranquil and I was considering standing down the fleet, then one day we ran into a bunch of scruffy lunatics being chased by the Alliance Navy. To be honest things after that are really a bit of a blur right up until the moment I found myself sitting opposite a trio of sour faced enemy Generals who were agreeing the armistice terms…”

President-Elect Marc van der Heijden - Cortex Interview 2531AD

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Firefly Class Transport Ship Serenity – Docked – 2520AD

Captain Malcolm Reynolds had a serious feeling of deja-vu as the airlock doors slid open to reveal the silhouette of a pair of soldiers in helmets and body-armour training rifles at him. As the doors slid fully open more soldiers moved though into Serenity’s cargo bay and eventually the best part of a platoon of infantry were either fanning further out into the ship guns at the ready or were surrounding the crew who were stood in a rough semi-circle behind their Captain.

They were good too. Very serious looking and professional like Mal considered, all with their game-face on and eyes searching for signs of trouble. The platoon leader was a sergeant who’d obviously sized up the crew pretty well because he was watching Zoe and Jayne like a hawk.

Mal locked eyes with the sergeant for a split second. You could see beyond the thousand yard stare of a man who’d seen plenty of action to something even more dangerous beyond, the mental warning of a good non-com that simply said ‘I love my boys, fuck with them and I’ll kill you’.

As soon as the situation looked secure another figure stepped through the airlock, hands behind the back, ramrod straigh