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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Qingdao Spaceport - Macau – 2520AD

She may not have been forewarned but she was certainly quick because Steven’s burst of fire went through the space she’d just been rather than through the Academy Graduate herself. Regardless of the fact her telepathy wasn’t being its usual overwhelming advantage her human-standard “fight or flight” reflex was still working perfectly. Laura’s instincts had decided for option two and she was running and dodging the Lancers fairly indiscriminate full-auto fire like her life depended upon it, which of course it did.

The other telepath on the ground was running too but she was operating in the “fight” category. Unlike the younger girl River had no problem reading the minds of her adversaries and as she sprinted into action she was confident she was going to tear them apart in short order.

As for the two Academy Agents they were by no means stupid and as soon as the firing began ordered the Special Op’s team to take out the spaced out stranger with the machine-pistol. Unfortunately the black clad soldiers had a far bigger immediate problem as River Tam intervened to stop that happening.

Steven meanwhile was enjoying himself immensely though he was of course totally stoned out of his gourd.

Even for a crack shot hitting somebody in the head at a run with a pistol in your non-dominant hand is basically impossible at anything much beyond point blank, you can’t hold it stable enough, so River went for centre-mass shots aiming at the torso whilst rapidly closing the gap. You had to give it to them, the Special ‘Ops team were very skilful and well trained and one of the two standing by the shuttle had almost managed to get a shot off before River put two rounds into his chest.

It seemed a safe bet that they’d be wearing body armour