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TRIUMVIRATE (Installment Twelve)
By The Host
Nothing like false advertising.
So I've changed my plans. It's going to take too long to edit this, and people wanna read it. So here's the finale, in several (long) segments, not quite properly formatted due to time constraints. I hope you enjoy 'em. A reedited and complete Special Edition will be released soon!
[Next sixteen minutes, to the two hour seventeen minute mark.]
EXT. MAGNAPLOIS -– NIGHT
At the feet of mighty towers life carries on, MERCHANTS ply their wares amongst thronging crowds of CITIZENS and TOURISTS on the dark streets. TROOPS in black uniforms marked with the simple insignia of a white cross, parade through the streets. They are flanked by heavily-armoured crawling vehicles, like massive grotesque cockroaches slithering through the city.
INT. CEO’S OFFICE –- NIGHT
A door slides open revealing a streak of light into the sable dark of the CEO’s office. The CEO remains seated at his desk shrouded in shadow, playing with something in his right hand.
ATTENDANT
Your Holiness, Admiral Dawson wishes to speak to you.
The CEO doesn’t answer. After a moment, the attendant tentatively speaks again.
ATTENDANT (CONT’D)
Sir—
THE CEO
Yes. Put him through, of course.
The attendant curtly nods and the door slides closed. Dawson suddenly materializes before the CEO’s desk; the light projected by his holographic image is the only light in the room save for the stars and city lights beyond.
DAWSON
Your Eminence, it’s not too late.
THE CEO
For me it is.
DAWSON
I stand ready to cast my troops into battle.
THE CEO
I stand ready to defend.
DAWSON
You’ll lose.
THE CEO
Then we all lose. You know what threatens this nation.
DAWSON
I’ll win.
THE CEO
Yes.
An icy pause.
DAWSON
You made your decision long ago.
THE CEO
So did you.
DAWSON
Even before we parted ways. You know, there was a time when I thought that our little Triumvirate was a force for good, protecting the people from an alien menace?
THE CEO
We still could be.
DAWSON
Look at yourself! Holed up in your silly dark little office, Presidential manservant, just telling yourself you wield great power. Well, you could –- but you’re too goddamned afraid to use it.
THE CEO
What would you do?
DAWSON
Launch an armada, take the enemy by surprise!
THE CEO
We haven’t nearly the funds for the forces—
DAWSON
Then get them any way that you can--
THE CEO
You know that was the very idea of this scheme—
DAWSON
But fifty years! For God’s sake, we’ve waited too long! Now I’m going to do something about it!
THE CEO
Attack us? Rebel? Isn’t that what the aliens would call ‘divide and conquer’?
DAWSON
You give me no choice.
THE CEO
We all have few of those left. Tell the truth, it’s about more than that. You said yourself – we’ll lose, every last one of us, except you.
DAWSON
When threatened, the fight for survival emerges as humanity’s most basic instinct. Prepare for war.
Dawson disappears. The CEO remains seated but lets his right hand open. A white cross on a chain falls from it onto his desk.
EXT. GAULIEUS –- DAY
Great starships assemble in the harsh skies above Gaulieus as before. Dawson’s great lumbering flagship, the Gemini, slowly passes by.
DAWSON (V.O.)
We go now to fight. Some go to die. All go to conquer.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. SPACE –- LATER
The Gemini again passes by, now pulled by tugs, leading the fleet toward a massive hypergate.
INT. GEMINI –- HANGAR
HUNDREDS OF SOLDIERS fill the lofty hangar inside the Gemini; there is a sense of grim order restraining chaos as men make their ways to their fighters. The Black Aces are huddled around Hawk Macy below a large two-seater gunship, similar to the one flown by Davies and Johnson before Jack’s capture so long ago. Macy reads from a glowing hand-held monitor.
MACY
It’s all very incognito. We’re split up at first; Steve and Willem, you’re in that gunship—
(Looks up and points to the vessel above them)
Jack and Robert, you’re in the one over there—
(Points to another gunship nearby)
And I’m in a single-seat fighter.
STEVE
Aw, muffin, all alone?
WILLEM
Shut up, Steve.
Willem hits him on the back of the head; Steve turns, angry – whether he’s pretending or not is difficult to determine. Macy pays them no heed.
MACY
We stay apart over Magnapolis, and stay out of contact with each other – we’ll be like rogue ships, and hope they don’t pay any attention to us. Then we’ve got an eight-minute window. We’re supposed to all auto-destruct and eject – I guess not in that order – over the Greenfields between the Corporate and former Presidential Towers. We do it separately, and they won’t bother to track our movements on the ground. We assemble at a point marked on your PDAs by fourteen-hundred and make it to the tower from there. There are millions of soldiers on the streets,so we’ll blend right in.
(Looking up)
Well? What are you waiting for? Go on, get the hell out of here. And kick some ass. I’ll see you at fourteen hundred.
Macy nods and disappears. Jack and Robert turn to cross the floor to their fighter.
STEVE
Robert.
Johnson and Davies turn back. Steve shakes Robert’s hand.
STEVE (CONT’D)
Good luck out there. Don’t get dead, man.
Johnson solemnly nods.
STEVE (CONT’D)
And you, too, Jack.
Jack holds his arm up to Jack in a sign of victory, then turns away. Davies says nothing. Willem smiles.
WILLEM
God be with you.
Jack nods, Willem turns, and Robert and Davies then cross the floor to their gunship. Ladders lead up to the cockpit and gunpit; Davies climbs the former and Johnson the latter.
JOHNSON
You’ve got a good crew here, Jack.
DAVIES
I guess.
Johnson clambers into the gun pit.
JOHNSON
You guess?
INT. DAVIES’S GUNSHIP -– CONTINUOUS
The window by which Robert entered the cramped cockpit swooshes closed around him. Jack is already in the cockpit, getting a feel for the controls.
DAVIES
I don’t think they really like me. Sometimes they seem like they do. Macy, I guess. But even he’s been kinda different since he got command.
JOHNSON
Oh, yeah? They seem to be good guys. They’ve only been nice to me, anyway.
(Looking around)
How long’s it been since you were in one of these?
DAVIES
Last time I flew one of these I crashed it into a space station.
JOHNSON
You haven’t flow one since then?
DAVIES
(Grinning)
Don’t worry. Our mission this time is just to crash it and get out alive. My specialty.
JOHNSON
As long as you can get us there alive.
DAVIES
I missed you, Robert. If it wasn’t for Dawson—
JOHNSON
I hear you two are close.
DAVIES
(Slightly surprised)
Close? I – No, I wouldn’t – not really. But he’s a very great man. He’s helped me. He sees promise in me.
JOHNSON
I still don’t really trust him, Jack.
DAVIES
You don’t know him then. If you did, you wouldn’t say that.
JOHNSON
I hear that he and Copley and the CEO go way back.
DAVIES
It’s not true.
JOHNSON
How do you know?
DAVIES
He would have told me.
JOHNSON
He’s like a father to you?
DAVIES
(Quickly)
My father’s dead.
(Terse pause)
No. But because of Dawson, now I know why you said you’d be willing to die.
JOHNSON
You’d give your life for the USS?
DAVIES
I’d give my life for Dawson.
INT. GLORY -– BRIDGE
Dawson stands on his platform in the busy bridge. The planet and city of Magnapolis loom below. A fleet ahead awaits his approach. Dawson waits a moment, considering, Exler Joggins standing behind him. Then:
DAWSON
Open fire.
His amplified voice projects throughout the room. He steps off of the platform and shoulders past Joggins.
DAWSON (CONT’D)
It’s all yours.
Joggins salutes, but Dawson’s already gone.
EXT. SPACE –- CONTINUOUS
The Glory comes to a slow stop over the planet. Fighters spill out of its belly and then a shining orb streaks out of its maw – it hurtles through space toward the distant but fast-approaching Corporate fleet and, seconds after it passes out of reckoning, there is a distant tiny explosion.
INT. CEO’S OFFICE -– NIGHT
The CEO stands in his dark office looking at the city outside; projected inches in front of him, reflecting upon him, is a strategic battle map. An ‘X’ flashes across one vessel; both presently disappear.
THE CEO
So it begins.
The attendant enters his office breathless. The CEO slowly turns to him.
ATTENDANT
Papa, they’re evacuating.
THE CEO
You didn’t knock.
The attendant begins to cross the floor to him.
ATTENDANT
Sir, we’ve gotta go.
THE CEO
No.
One word, quiet, firm, commanding. The attendant stops in his tracks.
THE CEO
You go.
(Turning back to the strategic diagram)
I’ll stay.
The attendant regards this man, suddenly grown nobler, before turning without argument and leaving. The CEO closes his eyes as the door is once again shut.
EXT. SPACE
The forward elements of each force meet and lock in furious battle, decimating each other. Space is torn by an undulating sea of flame.
OUTSIDE THE GEMINI, an enemy vessel pulls up slowly beside Dawson’s flagship and opens fire point blank.
INT. GEMINI –- HANGAR
The hangar doors slowly open. What they reveal beyond is another starship perilously close – blocking view of all that lies beyond it – searing the Gemini with fire. Even as fighters and gunships inside the hangar begin to make their way up and out, laser fire streaks into the room and hits some, seriously damaging them; it sears the walls and ceiling.
INT./EXT. DAVIES’S GUNSHIP -– MOVING
Davies pilots his vessel off the floor and toward the entry. Lasers streak past from all directions already.
JOHNSON
How the hell do we even get out of here?
DAVIES
Luck. How do we know who to shoot at once we’re out?
JOHNSON
Whoever shoots at us first, I guess.
The fighter beside them explodes, but somehow Davies and Johnson make it outside the Gemini unscathed.
EXT. SPACE -- CONTINUOUS
They turn and pick up speed. Now they are moving through a corridor of death – the Gemini to their left; an enemy ship to their right; both locked in violent battle all around Davies’s fighter. The smaller ship maneuvers between the laser blasts and down, away from the two ships and toward the planet below. And then they’re free of the barrage, and picking up speed quickly.
INT. DAVIES’S GUNSHIP -- CONTINUOUS
Johnson heaves a sigh of relief. Davies’s hands still grip the controls, shaking slightly; one hand darts up quickly to scratch his nose.
JOHNSON
Nice flyin’, Flash.
EXT. SPACE -- CONTINUOUS
The gunship flies away from the Gemini just as Dawson’s flagship utterly destroys its attacker. The enemy ship explodes in a brilliant blast of fire and light.
INT. GEMINI –- BRIDGE -- CONTINUOUS
A great cheer goes up as the vessel explodes; Joggins smiles like a child.
INT. GEMINI –- STRATEGIC PLANNING ROOM -- CONTINUOUS
Dawson watches the battle unfold on his large circular display, his features determined.
EXT. MAGNAPOLIS –- CONTINUOUS
Already the battle has begun in the city. Fighters on both sides are engaged in battle over and between the buildings, replacing the usual steady traffic through the United Capital. Bombs are dropped; buildings explode. Amidst all of this a single gunship flies without making a single shot.
INT. STEVE’S GUNSHIP -– MOVING
Willem checks a display in the cockpit as he pilots the vessel over the buildings. Very near ahead stands the Corporate Tower, dwarfing all those buildings around it. As the gunship flies past and over the wide expanse of park between the Corporate Tower and the remains of the Presidential Tower, Willem leans back to Steve.
WILLEM
We’ll be first down. You ready?
STEVE
Hell, yeah.
He shifts in his seat and grabs ahold of the arms as Willem smiles and reaches down to press buttons on the equipment around him.
WILLEM
You ever do this before?
STEVE
No.
WILLEM
It’s fun.
There is a beeping and a flashing and then a FEMALE VOICE says:
VOICE (V.O.)
Auto-destruct in sixty seconds.
Willem immediately pulls another lever and suddenly—
EXT. MAGNAPOLIS -- CONTINUOUS
He is shooting through the air on his seat, high through the air, and his gunship disappears below him, and the lights of the city disappear below him, and the wind pounds against him, and then he reaches the top of his arc and his seat, which has rocketed underneath him, falls away, and Willem falls with it though in a different direction, and he looks down as he falls down to see his gunship fall far below and the ground much much further below but closer by the millisecond.
NOT FAR AWAY Steve’s experience is little different, except he seems to feel very little of the exhilaration Willem does:
STEVE
HOOOOOOLLLLLLLLYYYYYYY SHIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AS WILLEM FALLS, his parachute suddenly opens, and he is jerked, and then he begins to float leisurely down as battle rages all around. The gunship explodes below him as Steve’s parachute unfurls above him. Willem reaches into his pocket and pulls out a communicator that looks similar to the one Dawson gave Davies earlier.
WILLEM
Steve? Steve?
STEVE places his own communicator into his ear.
STEVE
Jesus Christ.
WILLEM smiles.
STEVE (O.S.) (CONT’D)
You call that fun?
INT./EXT. DAVIES’S GUNSHIP –- MOVING
Jack’s gunship weaves between the buildings of Magnapolis, evading notice as the battle continues. Johnson looks at a monitor in his gunpit as Davies navigates between the towers of concrete and steel.
JOHNSON
Steve and Willem’s ship went down.
DAVIES
They get out?
JOHNSON
Can’t tell for sure. But they were over the LZ and there weren’t any other ships around, so I’d say they made it okay.
Jack nods and pulls the gunship quickly around the corner of a massive building – to see before them a veritable fleet of Corporate vessels directly ahead. Davies’s breath catches in his throat; he’s terrified.
JOHNSON
Keep going.
DAVIES
Keep going?
JOHNSON
They don’t know us from their allies: we’re all United ships. Just pass on through.
Davies nods, runs his fingers across his nostrils, and tips the ship up to go over the assemblage of vessels, which seem to be hovering in ambush near the Corporate Tower. Suddenly the nearest fighters turn and make for Davies and Johnson.
JOHNSON
Keep going. . .
The ships open fire, one blast hitting the gunship full-on, shaking it violently.
DAVIES
Shit!
JOHNSON
Turn! Turn! Turn!
Davies pulls hard on the controls and the gunship pulls up and loops around and goes back the way it came, now pursued by three Corporate fighters. The gunship darts back around the corner whence it came.
DAVIES
I thought you said they wouldn’t know us!
JOHNSON
I was wrong!
The three Corporate fighters are around the tower now and following Davies’s gunship. Jack points the gunship down toward the floor of the city and streaks past the buildings with the Corporate vessels in hot pursuit.
JOHNSON
The Corporate Tower’s behind us! We’re going the wrong way! We’ll never make the landing zone.
DAVIES
Hold on! I’m taking it down to the ground. They’ll never follow us.
JOHNSON
They’re following us.
DAVIES
Just wait.
Lower and lower they go, Jack trying to weave, to provide a difficult target, but there’s not enough room in the steel canyon. Suddenly he comes to a wide cross-lane; the gunship turns ninety degrees, almost scathing the buildings on the far side of the open space, but then it’s made it and it’s in a wider boulevard, with room to dodge enemy fire between the buildings, and still the Corporate vessels pursue, and still they all four of them go ever down.
INT./EXT. MACY’S FIGHTER –- MOVING -– MOMENTS LATER
Macy’s fighter flies over the wreckage of the Presidential Tower and comes to the greensward. Directly ahead is the Corporate Tower and the landing zone. He prepares for the auto-destruct and ejection sequence when a display suddenly catches his eye – he can see the representation of a gunship tagged ‘DAV/JON’ moving between buildings away from the designated Landing Zone pursued by three other vessels. Macy quickly comes to a decision and raises his elevation and speed, flying toward and past the Corporate Tower to save his wingmates.
EXT. MAGNAPOLIS –- CONTINUOUS
Steve and Willem float slowly down to the ground, still far below, as tumult continues around them. A building nearby, between them and the Corporate Tower, explodes at its base; as it begins to fall, another explosion literally knocks the top levels of the behemoth tower. This top portion slowly tumbles away from the rest, a hulking manmade tree toppling in this living forest. Fire reflects in Willem’s wide eyes.
INT./EXT. DAVIES’S GUNSHIP -– MOVING -- CONTINUOUS
Davies pilots the gunship through scattered traffic at this lower level of the city, away from the battle in the skies above. Then behind them one of the three pursuers slams into a civilian vessel and is fatally damaged, hurtling into a building and exploding in a ball of flame and billowing smoke. Meanwhile, Davies, approaching the very ground, strains to pull up. And then he levels, and he’s barely twenty feet above the ground, following a wide expressway populated by speeding vehicles which at certain point lift off into the sky or touch down. Davies’s gunship approaches a glassed corridor spanning the freeway a couple of stories above, connecting two buildings. It barely passes under, and immediately gains altitude on the other side. The Corporate vessels navigate with ease, one above and one below.
INSIDE, Johnson is near frantic.
JOHNSON
They’re still following!
DAVIES
(Incredulous)
Jeez, I really thought that would work.
Suddenly a large vessel pulls out from behind a building ahead, directly in their trajectory. Davies frantically pulls up and suddenly finds himself in another stream of traffic; vehicles spin away as he passes through.
JOHNSON
Jesus, get us out of here!
DAVIES
I’m trying!
The gunship corkscrews into a narrower space between two massive buildings; Davies levels it and pulls up as a bomb explodes a building ahead. The building burns and the conflagration spreads. Davies passes the gunship into a cloud of smoke and all is dark; they barely miss running into a building that juts out below them; and then they’re free and in clear night air again, finally pulling above some of the lower buildings and drawing nearer the battle in the skies. After a second behind them one vessel emerges from the smoke, and another, and then a third, this one with markings of the USS. Johnson looks back.
JOHNSON
We’ve got another one following.
But suddenly this third fighter opens fire on the other two. One of them blows up as Davies looks back, elated.
DAVIES
It’s Macy!
Let me know what you think before moving on!
-The Host
12/29/2002 7:33:15 PM
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