SWN Firefly. Episode 1 Part 1

Today is Freedom Day, celebrating the mostly successful efforts of the Independent Planets to win the right of self rule ten years ago.

Relations with the Alliance remain tense, and the very nature of the Independent Planets ensures internal clashes as well.

Jayne is acting captain, as Mal and Book both departed in a hurry to find where RIver had run off to. Mal paused briefly to place Jayne in command, much to everyone’s surprise.

Zoe just shook her head sadly, Mal surely had his reasons, and quite possibly they were not all that well thought out.

They were a ‘Naval’ crew, however in the Independent Planets mold which meant each ship was effectively a privateer during peacetime, and would only assemble in small cadres to fight if needed, and if the captains agreed. This cadre model worked well against the Alliance (who preferred ‘terrorist cell’ to ‘naval cadre’ who could afford to field cruisers and the like where the IPN was working with patrol boats and repurposed freighters.

The IPN did not make the mistake of directly throwing all of their ships into a pitched battle with the Alliance, instead they would cede territory, stretching out the Alliance supply lines and raid the supply vessels, only striking the cruisers when they were low on supplies.

When the Alliance bombed Shadow into oblivion as a show of force, IPN forces responded by sabotaging Londinium’s ‘Nuke Snuffer’ and detonating multiple nuclear devices in New Cardiff.

The team that infiltrated and disabled the nuke snuffer were told that this would just be a demonstration of IPN capabilities, no actual weapons would be deployed.

Obviously this was a lie.

The destruction of New Cardiff could have pushed the Alliance to wage a total war of annihilation against the IPN, but it also  taught them that it would not be a one way massacre. The corporations in the Alliance found the outcome of this exercise did not look promising on their balance sheets, so peace was sought.

Shrewder minds in the Alliance also knew that there would be some benefit in having a very… ‘libertarian’ neighboring state where the shining ideals and restrictive laws of the Alliance did not apply. This could be of benefit to those parties in the Alliance that had a desire to conduct research or explore business opportunities that would be difficult to do at home.

Jayne and Wash were on their way to the Eye of Iblis, located on Algol.

Algol is a desert planet, with one city… named Algol consisting of two parts: the Overcity and the Undercity.  Neither part has many redeeming qualities, but the Overcity was less likely to get one killed.

The Eye of Iblis is owned and operated by  Allen Al-Khan, who is one of the crew’s more magnificent patrons (The Navy expects captains to largely provide for themselves in peacetime, hence the IPN effectively works like a cross between a reserve military force and an organized crime family.)

After a brief inspection at the door, the pair are ushered in by a small, toady looking maitre-de who seats them in a booth far away from the high class guests. A large man in an ill fitting suit wheels what appears to be a large black and white television to the table, it flcikers to life and the face of Allen-Al-Khan appears.

Specifically, she appears disappointed when she sees that Mal is not present, and only Jayne and Wash answered her summons.

"This will have to do" she sighs...