A gunshot will not knock you back much or send you flying back - especially not one on an alien. Bullets just don't have the mass.

This was well-tested on Mythbusters, but it shouldn't even need testing. Simple physics. Also, anyone who's ever done any hunting will tell you that a shot animal falls more or less where it is.

It's about momentum. A gun's mass is bigger than a bullet's mass, which is why, even when a bullet is fired out at a huge velocity, the gun only kicks back so much. If a gun's kickback is not enough to send you flying back, there is no way its bullet is going to send the target flying back, particularly if it's a large creature that's charging at you.

The reason bullets do a lot of damage is that all that energy is concentrated into a tiny impact area, producing a lot of pressure that allows it to rip through stuff in the way. However, the amount of momentum transferred to the target is actually pretty small and is less than getting punched by a heavyweight boxer.

Another way to think of this is that if you shoot a punching bag with a gun, the bag will jerk in place or it might swing a tiny bit while the bullets go through it, whereas a strong man punching the bag will send it flying.

As I read this story I am more and more fascinated with it. You are a remarkable story teller with, from what I can tell, have a knack for combining universes that originally had nothing to do with each.

I applaud this ability and shall continue to read.

Still here and reading and shamelessly impressed by the sheer volume of output, this story is super long and yet I'm still here reading it, you've kept my attention, well done. The scenes with Cullen make me feel uncomfortable, they are probably supposed to. I understand why Cullen is jealous of River. I'd rather be touched in the wits but loved and cared for and still able to swing into lucidity and action to save my family when needed like River than to be what Cullen is, just utterly aware and cruel and miserable and unloved. I really felt sorry for Cullen's father who I strongly suspect didn't know Cullen was in danger at the academy and so of course didn't rescue him. Speaking of River, where is she? I'm worried about her because in the last chapter you said she would be taken back to the academy or the equivelent thereto.
Riona

Some great story telling here, Nisus. Mal's caught in a web and is going to be blamed, reassure me there will be a sequel.

I'm really glad Mal and Zoe talked, and a good use of the synthetic, Inara is so clever, and speaking of Inara, I don't know what your fic is rated, but shouldn't she be sharing a bunk with Mal by now:)

reading onward

OK, I get it, time for River to wake up and kick some *ss. and Eww! on the Wash Bot, great twist by the way, but then again this story has the very best twists.

getting caught up, Whew! this chapter blew me away! I can't believe you killed everyone... how Jossian is that!

You are so lucky I'm already crazy, cause otherwise you'd drive me there!
If you weren't worth waiting for I'd be much more normal.

Update! Please, God, update soon!!

Damn you, cliffhanger suspenseful uber-ending !!

Please!

By the way, love the series and the interpretation of the characters.

That's what they were up to? Wow. That's alarmingly brilliant.
Exactly the kind of genius and unexpected twist I would expect someone like you to come up with, if that makes any sense :)
And the not killing them? Gah

Wow! The true meaning of project, including the use of all the events of the plot so far to implicate Mal is twistedly, intricately, horrifically brilliant. I'd have never thought of such a thing and it really is the most horrible thing they could do to Mal, keeping him underground. Your line about them finally taking the sky from him was really poignant. I'm concerned about River, I know they won't just let her stay with Simon and the others. The twist where Mal figured out not to press the button in the fake control room was intriguing, good thing he figured it out though as things are looking it didn't save anyone. Curious about the guy talking to Morse on the radio, was that purposeful, since there's a Morse code that people used to communicate? Just wondering if you were testing the observational level of your readers. Oh, and I don't like that Wash robot, I hope it dies. Maybe I'm terribly cruel but I don't like it because it makes Zoe uncomfortable.
Riona

love the story

...Son of a **!

However, I suppose the Alliance hasn't factored Oaty into their plans, have they?

I despise you at the moment. You killed JAYNE. You killed Simon, Inara, Zoe, Mal, Wash and Andrews. Not to mention shooting river in the head like that. She should have died from that wound. It would have ripped through just about everything is her skull. You can't survive without your respiratory cortex, motor control cortex, or cerebral cortex. Tanzanian bobcats can survive eight or nine 30-06 rounds to the head. That translates to a 7.62 mm. NATO.

Still reading. You are ingenius at plot twists, a true weaver of twisting yarns so to speak. I was sad when Jayne killed the son and surprised that the Rogue has the insight to understand that it is the Alliance's fault that it all happened and not seek revenge on Jayne and the crew. I was afraid that the coctail that brought River out of the coma would remove her touchedness, glad to see that you didn't take that avenue or else I would have stopped reading this story. But all is well done and satisfactory, interesting about Wash the robot. It seems that in this last part of the story you are examining the contrast between who we are, who we think we are and who we want to be, a subject that I have thought about in my own way quite a bit. I'm curious to see what your clever mind will come up with next, you are talented and you have a lot of people reading on to see what happens.