Malcolm Reynolds

Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds was the captain of the Firefly-class transport ship Serenity. Mal was born on September 20, 2468 and was brought up on a ranch on the planet Shadow. Raised by his mother and "about 40 hands," Mal apparently received a fairly decent education growing up. Though Mal usually seems more practical than intellectual, he occasionally surprised his friends by displaying familiarity in a wide range of literature varying from the works of Shan Yu, a psychotic dictator, to poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he does, however, have no idea "who" Mona Lisa was.

Mal volunteered for the Independents army during the Unification War against the Alliance, gaining the rank of sergeant during that time. His loyal second-in-command Zoë Alleyne Washburne was by his side for most of the war, surviving many dangerous conflicts with him. The were at least three such battles, including the Battle of Du-Khang in 2510 and a long winter campaign in New Kasmir where he commanded a platoon. Mal was also involved in the ground campaign during the Battle of Sturges, which according to Badger was the "bloodiest and shortest battle in all the war," although Mal considered it a distant second. Mal fought in many more battles, but the turning point for him and the Independents came with their physical and emotional defeat at the Battle of Serenity Valley on the planet Hera.

After the war, Mal acquired his own ship, an old, broken and not flight-worthy 03-K64 Firefly-class transport whose previous owner was a man named Captain Harbatkin (and he never got around to changing the registration papers). He promptly named the ship Serenity. On board Serenity and during his various travels, Mal continued to wear his brown coat and wielded a standard issue officer's pistol, a Liberty Hammer, as his weapon of choice, a gun which he had since the war and which he had modified extensively.

Battle vs. James Raynor (by Drayco90)
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