Battle of Serenity Valley

From The Firefly and Serenity Database

The Battle of Serenity Valley was a battle fought during the Unification War on the Serenity Valley, located on Hera, and is considered to be the final decisive battle in the war. The battle that began in May 2511, while not the final battle of the war, was certainly the end of the war for the Independents, who had sixteen brigades and twenty air-tank squads in position to defend the valley.

The battle lasted seven weeks before Independent High Command officially surrendered to the Alliance. The Alliance won because of their superior numbers and a brilliant deep-flank strategy by General Richard Wilkins. While the Alliance and Independent leaders negotiated peace terms, the soldiers of both sides bled, starved and died. This was on of main reasons for 68% overall troop casualty rate.

[edit] Participants

Malcolm Reynolds, of the 57th Overlanders, was a sergeant by the time of the battle, but by the end, so many officers had died that he ended up commanding over 5,000 troops. Reynolds and the remaining Independent soldiers held the Alliance back. To their dismay, orders came to lay down their weapon and surrender. What the Independents hoped to be the sound of the Independent air support was in fact that of Alliance cruisers landing.

For a week, while the Alliance and the Independents sorted out the surrender, both Independent and Alliance soldiers were left hungry, hurt and dying on the battlefield. By the time rescue ships arrived, there were about 150 left of the original 5,000 Independent soldiers that Mal led.

Malcolm and his Corporal Zoë Alleyne were the only two survivors of their original unit, known as the Balls and Bayonets Brigade.

Mal named his ship, of which Zoë is second in command, a Firefly-class transport ship, Serenity after this particular battle; the rubric "no one leaves Serenity, you just learn to live there" being a bittersweet reference less to the ship's status as a home as to the catastrophic body count at the battle.