tight.

EXT. APC 103
The armored vehicle roars backward up the ramp. Slams into a mass of conduit. Tears free. Jenna works the shifters, pivoting the massive machine. Everybody's shouting, trying to put out the fire. Pandemonium.

INT./EXT. APC 104-105
Something lands on the roof with a metallic clang. Hahoku has plastered himself against a wall, as far from the door as possible. A latch lever behind his head turns. The small hatch against which he was leaning is ripped away and SOMETHING snatches him out the opening He disappears to the waist with a shriek, legs kicking. The alien clings to the roof, pulling him out. Its tail whips over, scorpion like, and buries a four inch stinger in Hahoku's shoulder.

Breeze grabs a joy stick at the FIRE-CONTROL CONSOLE and turns it rapidly. On the roof the alien looks up as servo-motors whir. A remote control turret cannon, a 20mm chain-gun, swivels toward it in a curt arc. VOOM. The creature is blasted off the vehicle's armored back and tumbles away. Hahoku, slumped unconscious, is dragged back inside.

The APC rips away a section of catwalk and heads for clear air, its flank trailing fire like a comet. Jenna fights the controls as the big machine slews, broad siding a control-room out-building. Office furniture and splintered wall sections are strewn in the APC's wake.

Suddenly, an alien arm arcs down, right in front of Jenna's face. It smashes the windshield. Glistening, hideous jaws lunge inside...

Jenna recoils. Face to face once again with the same mind-numbing horror. She reacts instinctively. Slams both sets of brakes with all her strength. The huge wheels lock. The creature flips off, landing in the headlights. Jenna hits full throttle. The APC roars forward, smashing over the abomination. Its skeletal body is crushed under the massive wheels. It rolls, tumbling...lost in the darkness behind as the machine thunders onto the causeway and away from the station.

A sound like bolts dropped in a meat grinder is coming from the APC's rear end. Breeze eases Jenna's hand back on the throttle lever. Her grip is white knuckled.

BREEZE: It's okay...we're clear. We're clear. Ease up.

The grinding clatter becomes deafening even as she slows the machine.

BREEZE: Sounds like a blown transaxle. You're just grinding metal.

EXT. APC 106
The tractor limps to a halt. A HALF-KILOMETER from the atmosphere processing station. The APC is a smoking acid-scarred mess.

INT. APC 107
Jenna, still running on the adrenalin dynamo, spins out of her seat into the aisle.

JENNA: Julie? Where's Julie?

Feeling a tug at her pants leg she looks down. Julie is wedged into a tiny space between the driver's seat and a bulkhead. She is trembling, and looks terrified, but it's not the basket case catatonia of before.

JENNA: You okay?

Julie gives her a THUMBS-UP, wan but stoic. Jenna goes back to the others. Zeki is holding his arm and staring in stunned dismay at nothing, playing it all back in his mind.

ZEKI: Jesus...Jesus...I don't believe it.

Not-much tries to have a look at Zeki's arm.

ZEKI: (Jerking away) I'm all right, leave it!

Jenna joins Breeze who is bent over Hahoku, checking for a pulse.

BREEZE: He's alive. I think he's paralyzed.
SNOWDRIFT: He's fucking dead!

She grabs Hahoku by the collar, hauling him up roughly, ready to pulp him with her other fist.

SNOWDRIFT: (To Hahoku) Wake up pendejo! I'm gonna kill you, you useless fuck!

Breeze pushes her back. Right in her face.

BREEZE: Hold it. Hold it. Back off, right now.

Snowdrift releases Hahoku. His head smacks the deck. Jenna opens Hahoku's tunic, revealing a bloodless purple puncture wound.

JENNA: Looks like it stung him.
ZEKI: Hey...hey! Look, Darknight and Lamprey aren't dead, man.

They turn to see Zeki at the MTOB monitors, pointing at the bio-function screens.

ZEKI: They must be like Hahoku. Their signs are real low but they ain't dead!

Zeki is pale, panicky, and his voice echoes around the tiny metallic space and comes back to all of them as the near hysteria they all feel, fluttering just at the edges of their minds.

JENNA: You can't help them. Right now they're being cocooned just like the others.
ZEKI: (Sagging) Oh, God. Jesus. This ain't happening.

Jenna and Snowdrift lock eyes. Jenna doesn't want it to be "I told you so" but Snowdrift reads it that way. She turns away with a snap.

INT. MED LAB 108
Kapu is hunched over an ocular probe doing a dissection of one of the dead parasites. Nikki enters with some electronics gear on a hand truck and parks it near Kapu's work table.

NIKKI: Need anything else?

Kapu waves "no" without looking up.

EXT. COLONY - DROP-SHIP 109
Nikki emerges, crossing the Tarmac to the loading ramp of the ship. As he nears the top of the ramp, his boot slips...skidding on something wet. Kneeling, he touches a small puddle of thick slime. He shrugs, and hits the controls to retract the ramp and close the doors.

INT. APC 110
ON SNOWDRIFT wired and intense.

SNOWDRIFT: All right, we can't blow the fuck out of them...why not roll some canisters of CN-20 down there. Nerve gas the whole nest?
ZEKI: Look, man, let's just bug out and call it even, okay?
JENNA: (To Snowdrift) No good. How do we know it'll effect their biochemistry? I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
NOT-MUCH: Now hold on a second. I'm not authorizing that action.
JENNA: Why not?

Not-much senses the challenge in her tone and backpedals flawlessly into conciliatory mode.

NOT-MUCH: Well, I mean...I know this is an emotional moment, but let's not make snap judgments. Let's move cautiously. First, this physical installation had a substantial dollar value attached to it --
JENNA: They can bill me. I got a tab running. What's second?
NOT-MUCH: This is clearly an important species we're dealing with here. We can't just arbitrarily exterminate them --
JENNA: Bullshit!
SNOWDRIFT: Yeah, bullshit. Watch us.
ZEKI: Maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got out asses kicked, pal!

Jenna faces Not-much squarely and she's not pleased.

JENNA: Look, Not-much. We had an agreement.

Not-much moves in, lowering his voice. He takes her aside from the others.

NOT-MUCH: I know, I know, but we're dealing with changing scenarios here. This thing is major, Jenna. I mean really major. You gotta go with its energy. Since you are the representative of the company who discovered this species your percentage will naturally be some serious, serious money.

Jenna stares at his like he's a particularly disagreeable fungus.

JENNA: You son of a bitch.
NOT-MUCH: (Hardening) Don't make me pull rank, Jenna.
JENNA: What rank? I believe Corporal Breeze has authority here.
NOT-MUCH: Corporal Breeze!?
JENNA: This operation is under military jurisdiction and Breeze is next in chain of command. Right?
BREEZE: Looks that way.

Not-much starts to lose it and it's not a pretty sight.

NOT-MUCH: Look, this is a multimillion dollar operation. He can't make that kind of decision. He's just a grunt! (Glances at Breeze) No offense.
BREEZE: (Coolly) None taken. (Into mike) Ferro, you copying?
FERRO: (Voice over; static) Standing by.
BREEZE: Prep for dust-off. We're gonna need an immediate evac. (To Not-much) I think we'll take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

He winks. Not-much looks like a kid whose toy has been snatched.

NOT-MUCH: This is absurd! You don't have the authority to --

CLACK! The sound of a rifle bolt snapping home truncates his rant. Snowdrift has a pulse-rifle cradled, not exactly aimed at Not-much but not exactly aimed away either. Her _expression is mask like. End of discussion.

Jenna sits behind Julie, putting her arm around her.

JENNA: We're going home, honey.

EXT. DROP-SHIP 111
The ship rises through the spray thrown up by the down blast of the VTOL jets, hovering above the complex like a huge insect, its searchlights blazing.

EXT. APC 112
The group is filing out of the personnel carrier, which is clearly a write off. Breeze and Zeki have Hahoku between them, and the others emerge into the wind. They watch the ship roar in on its final approach.

INT. DROP-SHOP COCKPIT 113
Ferro flicks the intercom switch several times. Thumps her headset mike.

FERRO: Nikki? God damm it.

The compartment door behind her slides slowly back.

FERRO: (Turning) Where the fu --

Her eyes widen. It's not Nikki.

Am impression of leering jaws which blur forward, then a whirl of motion and a truncated scream. The throttle severs are slammed forward in the melee.

EXT. APC - LANDSCAPE - STATION 114
They watch in dismay as the approaching ship dips and VEERS WILDLY. Its main engines ROAR FULL ON and the craft accelerates toward them even as it loses altitude. It skims the ground. Clips a rock formation. The ship slews, sideslipping. It hits a ridge. Tumbles, bursting into flame, breaking up. It arcs into the air, end over end, a Catherine wheel juggernaut.

JENNA: Run!

She grabs Julie and sprints for cover as a tumbling section of the ship's massive engine module slams into the APC and it explodes into twisted wreckage. The drop-ship skips again, like a stone, engulfed in flames...AND CRASHES INTO THE STATION. A TREMENDOUS FIREBALL.

The remainder of the ground team watches their hopes of getting off the planet, and most of their superior fire power, reduced to flaming debris.

There is a moment of stunned silence, then...

ZEKI: (Hysterical) Well that's great! That's just fucking great, man. Now what the fuck are we supposed to do, man?  We're in some real pretty shit now!
BREEZE: Are you finished? (To Jenna) You okay?

She nods. She can't disguise her stricken _expression when she looks at Julie, but the little girl seems relatively calm. She shrugs with fatalistic acceptance.

JULIE: I guess we're not leaving, right?
JENNA:

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