will protect you.  Check-it-out...

He slaps the SERVO-CANNON controls in the GUN BAY above them.

ZEKI: Independently targeting Particle-beam phalanx. VWAP!  Fry half a city with this puppy.  We got tactical smart-missiles, Phased-plasma pulse-rifles, RPG's. We got sonic electronic ball breakers, we got nukes, we got knives...sharp sticks --

Breeze grabs Zeki by his battle harness and pulls him into a seat. His voice is low, but it carries.

BREEZE: Save it.
ZEKI: Sure, Breeze.

Jenna nods her thanks to Breeze. MOTORS WHINE and the craft lurches. Not-much, next to Jenna, grins eagerly like this is a sport fishing trip.

NOT-MUCH: Here we go.

She looks like she's in a gas chamber waiting for the pellet to drop.

EXT. SULACO 41
The drop-ship lowers from the cargo-lock on a massive launch rig. The night side of Acheron yawns below...enigmatic.

INT. COCKPIT 42
Ferro and Nikki run rapidly through the switches.

FERRO: Initiate release sequencer on my mark. Three. Two. One. Mark!

EXT. SULACO - DROP-SHIP 43
Hydraulic WHINE. Clamps SLAM BACK. The ship drops.

INT. DROP-SHIP - APC 44
Blacknight, stalking the aisle, snatches for a handhold.  Kapu, Not-much and Hahoku groan at the sudden gees.  Jenna closes her eyes...the point of no return.

EXT. DROP-SHIP 45
It screams down through the stratosphere, plunging into dark turbulence.

INT. COCKPIT 46
Beyond the canopy is gray limbo. The craft shudders and lurches.

FERRO: (icy calm) Switching to DCS ranging.
NIKKI: Two-four-o. Nominal to profile.  Picking up some hull ionization.
FERRO: Got it. Rough air ahead.

INT. HOLD - APC 47
TIGHT ON BREEZE asleep in his harness.

FERRO:(Voice over; filtered) Stand by for some chop.

TIGHT ON HAHOKU as the ship begins to buck, his eyes closed. Pale. Sweating. He rubs his hands on his knees repeatedly.

JENNA: How may drops is this for you, Lieutenant?

HAHOKU: Thirty-eight...simulated.
SNOWDRIFT: How many combat drops?
HAHOKU: Well...two. Three, including this one.

Snowdrift and Rapid exchange do-you-believe-this-shit expressions. Jenna looks accusingly at Not-much.

INT. COCKPIT 48
FERRO: Turning on final. Coming around to a seven-zero-niner. Terminal guidance locked in. Where's the damn beacon?

EXT. DROP-SHIP 49
It emerges from the low cloud ceiling. From the twilight haze ahead the distant colony LANDING BEACONS become visible.

INT. HOLD - APC 50
Stumbling as the ship pitches, Jenna makes her way forward to the MOBILE TACTICAL OPERATIONS BAY (MTOB), a control console lined with monitor screens. She joins Not-much watching over Hahoku's shoulder as the Lieutenant plays the board like a video director.

TIGHT ON MONITOR CONSOLE REVEALING screens labelled with the names of the troopers. Two for each soldier. The upper screens show images from the IMAGE-INTENSIFIED VIDEO CAMERAS in their helmets. The lower screens are BIO-MONITORS: EEG, EKG, and other graphic life-function readouts. Other screens show EXTERIOR VIEWS.

HAHOKU: Let's see. Everybody on line.  Rapid, check you camera. There seems to be a...

CLOSE ON RAPID as he whacks himself on the head with an ammo case. A familiar malfunction.

HAHOKU: (v.s)...that's better. Pan it around a bit.
BLACKNIGHT: Awright. Fire-team A. Gear up.  Let's move. Two minutes.  Somebody wake up Breeze.

A clatter of activity as they don backpacks and weapons.  Snowdrift and Rapid buckle on their smart-gun body harnesses.
Jenna watches the AP station loom on the exteriorscreens.

JENNA: That the atmosphere processor?
NOT-MUCH: Uh-hunh. One of thirty or so, all over the planet. They're completely automated. We manufacture them, by the way.

EXT. SHIP - AP STATION 51
The tiny ship circles the roaring tower. A metal volcano thundering like the engines on God's Lear jet.

INT. HOLD - APC 52
Hahoku plays with the controls, zooming the image of the colony.

HAHOKU: (To Ferro via mike) Hold at forty. Slow circle of the complex.
JENNA: The structure seems intact. They have power.

On the screen the colony buildings loom in and the low visibility like wrecks of freighters on the sea floor.

HAHOKU: (To Blacknight) Okay, let's do it.
BLACKNIGHT: Awright! I want a nice clean dispersal this time.

Jenna turns as Snowdrift squeezes past her.

SNOWDRIFT: You staying in here?
JENNA: You bet.
SNOWDRIFT: (Turning away) Figures.
HAHOKU: (To Ferro via mike) Set down sixty meters this side of the telemetry mast. Immediate dust off on my 'clear,' then stay on station.
BLACKNIGHT: Ten seconds, people. Look sharp!

EXT. COLONY COMPLEX 53
Landing beacons sweep harsh light across the wet Tarmac.  The ship roars down, extending the loading ramp. Slams down on hydraulic LANDING LEGS. The APC hits the ground a moment later, pulling away from the ship as it leaps up in a cloud of spray and peels off, circling.

The APC pulls to the edge of the complex. The CREW DOOR opens. Troopers hit the ground running. Spread out.  They drop behind immediate cover. Blacknight scans with him image intensifier visor lowered.

BLACKNIGHT'S P.O.V. through the starlight-scope visor.  Bright as a sunny day, though contrasty and lurid, we SEE the colony buildings. TrAsh blows in the street.  No other movement.

HAHOKU: (Voice over; filtered) First squad up, on line. Breeze, get yours in a cordon. Watch the rear.
BLACKNIGHT: Snowdrift, take point. Let's move.

Sprinting in a skirmish line, Blacknight's team advances on the colony main entry-lock. Parked tightly across the doors are two heavy-duty tractors. Snowdrift reaches one of the tractors, looks inside. The controls are ripped out, as if by a crowbar or axe. She moves on.

EXT. COLONY BUILDING 54
Snowdrift reaches the main doors, Rapid flanking on the right. Blacknight tries the door controls. Nothing.

BLACKNIGHT: Sealed. Zeki, run a bypass.

Zeki, all business now, moves up and studies the door control panel. He pries off the facing and starts clipping on the bypass wires.

BLACKNIGHT: First squad, assemble on me at the main lock.

The wind roars around the bleak structures. A neon sign creaks overhead. Zeki makes a connection. The door shrieks in its tracks and rumbles aside. It jams partway open. Blacknight motions Snowdrift inside. She eases over the wrecked tractor, through the doors.  The others follow.

HAHOKU: (Voice over; filtered) Second team, move up.  Flanking positions.

INT. COLONY - MAIN CONCOURSE 55
DOLLYING SLOWLY FORWARD, following Snowdrift and Blacknight as they move into the broad corridor. A few emergency lights are still on. Wind moans along the concourse.  Pools of water cover the floor. Farther down, rain drips through blast holes in the ceiling. Evidence of a fire fight with pulse-rifles.

ON SNOWDRIFT moving forward. Taut. Alert. Her smart-gun cannon swinging slowly in an arc. She studies the video aiming monitor, looking down rather than ahead.  Their footsteps echo.

INT. APC 56
Jenna watches as the bobbing images reveal the empty colony building.

HAHOKU: Quarter and search by twos. Second team move inside. Breeze, take the upper level. Use your motion trackers.

INT. MAIN CONCOURSE - SECOND LEVEL 57
Breeze leads his squad up the stairwell to second level.  They emerge cautiously. An empty corridor recedes into the dim distance. Breeze unslings a rugged piece of equipment. Aims it down the hall. He adjusts the "gain." It remains silent.

BREEZE: Nothing. No movement.

They pass rooms and offices. Through doors they see increasing signs of struggle. Furniture overturned.  Papers scattered...floating sodden in the puddles.

INT. APC 58
Jenna et al watching.

NOT-MUCH: Looks like my room in college.

Nobody laughs.

INT. SECOND LEVEL 59
Breeze' group passes several burnt-out rooms. There are no bodies. In several offices the exterior windows are blown out, admitting wind and rain. Breeze picks up a half-eaten donut beside a coffee cup overflowing with rainwater.

INT. LOWER LEVEL - QUARTERS 60
Blacknight's men are searching systematically in pairs. They pass through the colonists' modest apartments, little more than cubicles. Zeki, on tracker, flanks Snowdrift as they move forward. Zeki touches a splash of color on the wall. Dried blood. His tracker BEEPS.

Snowdrift whirls, cannon aimed. The BEEPING grows more frequent as Zeki advances toward a half open door. The door is splintered partway out of its frame. Holes caused by pulse-rifle rounds pepper the walls. Snowdrift eases up to the door. Kicks it in. Tenses to fire.

Inside, dangling from a piece of flex conduit, a junction-box swings like a pendulum in the wind from a broken window. It clanks against the rails of a child's bunk bed as it swings.

INT. DROP-SHIP - APC 61
Jenna watches Breeze' monitor.

JENNA: Wait! Tell him to... (Plugs in headset jack)...Breeze. Back up. Pan left.  There!

TIGHT ON MONITOR as the image shifts, revealing a section of wall corroded almost through in an irregular pattern.
TIGHT ON JENNA knowing what it is.

BREEZE: (Voice over;filtered) You seeing this okay? Looks melted.

Not-much raises an eyebrow at Jenna.

NOT-MUCH: Hmm. Acid for blood.
BREEZE: (Voice over; filtered) Looks like somebody bagged them one of Jenna's bad guys here.

INT. FIRST LEVEL 62
Zeki is looking at something.

ZEKI: Hey, if you like that, you're gonna love this...

WIDER ANGLE showing the trooper standing beneath a gaping hole. Another hole, directly beneath, is at his feet. The acid has melted right down through two levels into the maintenance level. Revealing pipes, conduit, equipment...eaten away by the ferocious substance.

BLACKNIGHT: Second squad? What's your status?
BREEZE: (Voice over; filtered) Just finished our sweep.  Nobody home.
BLACKNIGHT: (To Hahoku) The place is dead, Sir. Whatever happened, we missed it.

INT. APC 63
Hahoku turns to the

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