ALIEN REVELATION: Part 13 - 30 -

Pg. 117

MARINE

(to a companion)

          Uh, GABBY, should he be doing this?

With sickening speed, the Warrior reaches out, grabs the Marine, and impales her with his tongue.

Gabby shrieks, blows the Warrior to pieces. Acid blood fountains over him and his buddies. They scream and leap from their cover. Predator projectiles ease their pain.

OTHER ANGLES – SERIES OF DYNAMIC SHOTS

Predator besting Alien. Marine shoots Predator. Alien pushes

Predator off, leaps up, decapitates Marine. Nearby Marines

see, instinctually mow Alien down.

Alien ferocity rises, now killing everything in sight. Both Marines and Predators begin to fall at an accelerated rate.

UP ON THE SECOND LEVEL – CONTIUOUS

Waddell and Piper look down.

WADDELL

          They have the Queen. She’s not controlling

things any more. Ripley was right. This fight’s now a lose lose for the planet. We have to make sure the winner doesn’t walk out of here.

He looks at the Auton Predator, visible again.

WADDELL

                   (to Piper)

          How long back to Howie’s position?

PIPER

          Five minutes. Maybe six.

WADDELL

          Give us eight. Come on. Let’s go.

PIPER

                   (to the Auton)

          Eight minutes. Mark.

Pg. 118

AUTON

(Predator voice)

     Eight minutes. Mark.

Waddell and Piper run.

INT. A SMALL SINGLE CRAFT LANDING BAY – MINUTES LATER

We SEE an elevator descend. The doors open. Waddell and Piper peer out. Seeing no danger they emerge, running fast.

ANOTHER ANGLE

A small stubby-winged aircraft. Waddell and Piper run to it. We SEE Howie in the cockpit give them a thumbs-up.

EXT. THE MOUNTAINSIDE, WIDE SHOT – MOMENTS LATER

We SEE the plane emerge from a cave entrance. It shoots away as the mountain erupts, replaced by a mushroom cloud.

FADE TO:

INT. THE PREDATOR MOTHER SHIP – LATER

ECU ON RIPLEY

Ripley’s eyes crawl open. We HEAR muddied sounds: undulating waves of guttural LAUGHTER; CLANGING; rhythmic STOMPING.

Slowly PAN UP, showing Ripley lying on her back, her body contorted. She blinks twice. The SOUNDS become clearer.

Continue PAN UP. We SEE that she is surrounded by Predators.

ANOTHER ANGLE: ON RIPLEY

Painfully, Ripley rolls onto her side, props herself up.

WIDER ANGLE

A Predator points to her and roars. The others join him. Then they begin to laugh.

The CLANGING stops. The laughter trails off, and a gap is made in the circle.  Through the gap comes an un-helmeted Predator. He wears a cloak adorned with insignia. He comes


Pg. 119

forward, crouches down before Ripley.  He considers her, clacks his mandibles a couple of times. Over his shoulder he barks an order.

WIDER ANGLE

We SEE the Queen, imprisoned within a huge cube of some clear substance, brought into the hall.  Beside the cube there is a chair-sized container connected to several tubes that penetrate all four walls at various levels.

The Queen is vainly pounding at her prison walls.

The Predator COMMANDER barks another order.

A Predator steps forward and pins Ripley.

The Commander forces one of her arms out, takes his knife, and cuts the palm of her hand. Ripley grunts. Blood flows, dripping onto the deck. It begins to bubble.

Another barked order.

Another Predator jumps forward, takes a vial from his belt, and pours its white contents on the deck and on Ripley’s palm. The acidity is rendered inert.

The Commander grabs Ripley and sits her up roughly.

COMMANDER

          What...are...you?

Shock jolts Ripley’s face.

COMMANDER

          Tell...me.

Ripley sucks it up. She slaps his clawed hand away.

RIPLEY

                   (nods at the Queen)

          I’m her Grandmother.

The COMMANDER frowns. He barks another order. A Predator comes forward, counsels him.

Pg. 120

COMMANDER

          Ah.

                   (to Ripley)

          You...can make...eggs.

RIPLEY

          No.

COMMANDER

          No.

RIPLEY

                   (shrieks)

          No! You dumb crab-face-ugly-as-sin-

          son-of-a-motherfucker-bitch!

The Commander drags Ripley upright. He lets her go. She staggers, almost falls, but gets it together.

COMMANDER

          Useless. You...die.

He points his arm, and begins to trace out his troops around the circle. They roar, stamp, slap their chests. He stops, his choice made.

The chosen one roars, doffs his helmet, tosses it aside, and steps within the ring. His companions roar their support.

He crouches, spreads his arms wide, intimidating his prey.

Ripley grows calm, and cocks her head first one way, then the other.

The Predator lunges.

Ripley leaps up, meeting his charge. She wraps her legs around his waist, punches her left fist directly into his widespread jaws, and drives her rigid right hand deep into his throat before sweeping that arm out in a wide arc.

The partially decapitated Predator falls to the deck. Ripley does one fluid roll and stands up.

ON THE COMMANDER

His face indicates shock. He screams another order.

Pg. 121

RESUME SCENE

A helmeted Predator steps up. Slowly he circles Ripley. She stands her ground, turning just enough to track him.

Suddenly he grabs at his belt, tosses three small orbs at her head. Ripley ducks and drives forward low.

Even as he threw the orbs, the Predator extended his lance.

Her focus diverted, Ripley can’t avoid the lance clubbing down. It drives her to the deck. Before she can recover the Predator has her. He lifts her and slashes non-life-threatening gashes across her midriff.

Ripley crumples to her knees, arms thrown across her body.

Her blood spills to the floor. Predators jump forward, spraying the white powder to minimize the acidic damage.

Her opponent knows it’s over. He casually kicks up under her jaw, sending her crashing back onto the deck. She rolls onto her side, and curls into a fetal position. Blood continues to flow from her wounds: milling Predators nullify it.

CU ON RIPLEY

Her eyes roll. She smiles, tears welling in her eyes.

GIRL’S (NEWT FROM ALIENS) VOICE

                    (V.O.)

          Rip-lee! Rip-lee!

A drip of blood from her nose hits the floor and begins to bubble. She seems fascinated by it, dips her finger in it.

RIPLEY (+ DALLAS from ALIEN – (V.O.))

                   (mumbling: in synch with the V.O.)

          That crap’s gonna eat though the hull.

Her eyes regain some focus. She seeks out the Queen.

HER POV

of the Queen who has become calm, silent. She is returning Ripley’s gaze.

Pg. 122

RESUME SCENE

Ripley draws a nail across her palm, lets the blood drip.

A Predator neutralizes it.

Ripley repeats the act. Laughing the Predator repeats his.

Ripley cuts her hand a third time. The Predator discards his empty vial, cracks open another.

Ripley slices her hand again. We SEE her cock her head.

ON THE QUEEN  

who mirrors Ripley’s head tilt.

ON THE COMMANDER

who frowns. He looks from the Queen to Ripley, and back to the Queen. Realization. Barking another order, he directs a soldier to the unit beside the Queen’s prison, just in time.

ON THE QUEEN

Screaming, the Queen digs her massive claws into the soft tissue directly beneath her huge head and rips her own skin. Innards and blood cascade.

The Predator at the unit punches contacts. The neutralizer begins to squirt into the cage from two dozen nozzles.

WIDER ANGLE

Holding her body with one arm Ripley pulls herself up and sprints for the Queen.  One Predator sees her.  He takes a half step to block her, but her momentum runs over him.

She flies at the unit, barreling past the operator, and wrenches the main connector from its housing. Neutralizer spews everywhere...everywhere except into the Queen’s cage.

The weakened Queen falls to her knees, even as she continues to tear at her own body.  Parts of the floor of her prison disintegrate. Blood splashes to the decking below.

There is panic amongst the Predators. We HEAR alarms blare.

Pg. 123

Ripley rolls onto her back. Her hand flops out and under the Queen’s prison. The remainder of the Queen’s floor gives way and the whole structure crumbles.

The dying Queen begins to fall through the huge hole she has

created. She reaches out, grabs Ripley, and drags her in.

POV

We SEE Ripley’s smiling, contented face CU before she and the Queen fall straight down, away from us, through deck after deck after deck...

RIPLEY

                   (V.O. singing)

          You are my lucky star...

INT. THE ENGINE ROOM, WIDE SHOT – CONTINUOUS

A wide, spherical expanse with a rotating sphere floating in the middle. Countless connectors snake from the central sphere to an equal number of connections on the outer shell.

RIPLEY

                   (V.O. singing)

          You are my lucky star...

We SEE the apex of the chamber dissolve. Acid blood flows through, splashing onto the top of the inner sphere. Energy discharges crackle. Connectors rupture and flail wildly.

The Queen and Ripley crash through, hit the sphere.

The sphere erupts.

EXT. SPACE 

For an instant the Mother Ship becomes visible, then explodes in a final conflagration.

RIPLEY

                   (V.O. singing)

          Lucky, lucky, lucky...

BLACK.

-  30  -

ALIEN REVELATION: Part 12

Pg. 111

ON RIPLEY’S POSITION - CONTINUOUS

Ripley’s position is still not breached, although two Marines have been injured. A frantic uniformed medic, bodily dragging a badly-bloodied victim, screams at Ripley.

MEDIC

          You! For God’s sake, give me a hand.

          Quick!

Ripley jumps up, throws the limp figure’s other arm over her shoulders, and follows the medic’s lead.

WIDER ANGLE

Forcefully, the big medic literally pushes both Ripley and the victim into the shadows between towering supplies units.

AMONGST THE SUPPLIES UNITS

We SEE a Predator standing there. Ripley drops the body, backs up against a metal unit.

RIPLEY

          What the hell?

The medic holds a hand up, throws his cap off. It is Waddell.

WADDELL

          Hold on.

The bloodied body stands up: Piper.

PIPER

          Hi, Ripley.

Ripley is dumbstruck.

WADDELL

          Ripley, we have zero time.

He indicates the Predator.

         WADDELL (cont’d)

          This guy is a walking nuke.

Pg. 112

RIPLEY

          What?

PIPER

          Just a small one.

WADDELL

          Face it, Ripley, This plan has no

‘Part B’. Even if we win down here, that

mother ship is still up there. Piper will

have this Auton steal a ship, fly it up,

and detonate once he’s on board.

RIPLEY

          That’s ‘Part B’? How is it even going

          to get to a ship? It steps out there

          and there’s a bullet and an Alien with

          his name on them.

Piper activates a small disc at the Predator’s bicep. The body vanishes...completely, no shimmer.

RIPLEY

          How...?

WADDELL

          We’re Second Gen. We makes things better.

Ripley’s face goes blank. Then a realization washes over it.

RIPLEY

          Part B.

WADDELL

          What?

RIPLEY

          A second part. The Hunters know there are

          Aliens here. They must know there’s a

          Queen somewhere. I had Haynes set a guard

          around her in case the Hunters stumbled

          on her. But now they will be going for her.

She starts out of the shadows.

Pg. 113

WIDER ANGLE

RIPLEY

          Waddell, don’t send the bomb. We might need

it right here.

She begins to run.

PIPER

          How will we know?

RIPLEY

                   (calling back)

          Oh, you’ll know.

EXT. THE MOUNTAINSIDE, MINUTES EARLIER

We SEE a Predator ship maneuver to take up a position. A beam of light shoots out, burrowing into the rock face. It shuts off. A perfectly round tunnel has been drilled. We SEE a dozen hover discs leave the ship, vanish inside.

INT. A DEEP CAVERN – LATER

Ripley, without a light, ‘sniffs’ her way in the darkness. Suddenly she’s bathed in light. She blinks into the new illumination... and the business ends of three gun barrels.

VOICE

                   (O.S.)

          Stand easy.

The weapons lift up and away, out of Ripley’s face.

WIDER ANGLE

The Veterans’ COMMANDER steps forward. All are outfitted in quasi Samurai-like – though sleek and supple – white armour. Compact backpacks – including O² tanks - sit across their shoulders. They’re packing side arms as well as smartguns.

COMMANDER

          You have to be Ripley.

RIPLEY

          Have to be?

Pg. 114

COMMANDER

          It’s way cold in here. You’re not. And

          those black things on your fingertips

look more like claws than nails to me.

Ripley looks at her hands.

         COMMANDER (cont’d)

          And if you decide to get a nosebleed,

let me know, will you? I do my homework.

Ripley looks up; she doesn’t like this guy.

RIPLEY

          Where is she?

He cocks his rifle over his shoulder.

COMMANDER

          Back there. She’s being a good girl.

          Almost makes you think she understands.

Ripley takes a step towards him.

RIPLEY

          Do you know what’s coming for her?

The Commander is blasé.

COMMANDER

          We’ve read all the text on these Hunters,

seen all the vid footage the ancient

archives have from the 1996 encounter.

RIPLEY

          That’s it?

COMMANDER

          We don’t need anything else.

RIPLEY

          Good God!

We HEAR a dull HUMMING sound. Ripley reacts to it.

         RIPLEY (cont’d)

          You hear that?

Pg. 115

COMMANDER

          Hear wha...?

The humming stops, immediately replaced by six CRACKS in quick succession. The veterans wheel to the sounds.

ANOTHER ANGLE

Small holes have appeared in the wall on one side of the chamber. We SEE pop can-sized canisters shoot out. They hit the ground, bouncing, rolling, and spewing white vapour.

COMMANDER

                   (almost casual)

          Gas!

He closes his visor. The others follow his lead. Anticipating their enemy’s entry point four of their number flank the holes from which the canisters emerged.

ON RIPLEY

Ignored, Ripley clamps her hand over her nose and mouth. She falls back to the cavern wall, looks up.

She drops to her knees, gulps a huge lungful of air at ground level, and begins to climb. She scurries up the rock face with almost Alien ease. Twenty feet up she begins to HEAR the cries of the Veterans. She looks down.

ON THE VETERANS – SERIES OF DYNAMIC SHOTS

There is a haze of gas.  The Veterans drop their weapons, fall to their knees, grabbing at their helmets.  Their gloves are melting. Their O² tanks hang uselessly from corroded connectors. The closures on their suits have crumbled. Their boots are in tatters.

It is over in seconds. The haze continues to rise.

ON RIPLEY

She resumes climbing, faster, and disappears into the overhead blackness.

ALIEN REVELATION: Part 11

Pg. 100

Johner has scampered close behind Ripley.

         RIPLEY (cont’d)

          Up the ramp. Dig your feet in. It’s soft

          enough. Go!

We SEE an egg on Ripley’s blind side open. The Facehugger claws out. Launches.

Johner sees it.

JOHNER

          Ripley!

Ripley turns. The Facehugger connects and clamps itself around her face, the tail coiling around her neck.

Ripley staggers, but doesn’t fall. She grips the tail with one hand, the spine of the body with the other.  Her head shakes from side to side, jerks quickly up and down. We SEE the Facehugger’s tail go limp, its digits twitch.

Ripley pulls the parasite from her face, dashes it to the ground. Viscous goop runs sluggishly from her mouth. She aims, and spits the Facehugger’s still-writhing proboscis squarely between the Queen’s legs.

The Queen hisses, and takes a step back.

JOHNER

          Oh, Holy Fuck!

Ripley draws a hand across her mouth. She turns to Johner.

RIPLEY

          You still here? Get back to the flyer.

Give me half an hour.

JOHNER

                   (hesitant)

          But...

RIPLEY

          Johner. Go.

Johner lets his eyes fall. He turns away and begins to scramble up the slope.

Pg. 101

Ripley turns back to the Queen at bay. She slowly drops into a crouch, and cocks her head to mirror the Queen.

INT. THE USM FLYER – LATER

Johner is cold but he doesn’t seem to notice. His face is grim, his jaw set. From the cockpit the pilot turns.

PILOT

          That’s been forty minutes now, Sir.

Maybe we...

JOHNER

                   (harsh bark)

          We wait!

PILOT

          You’re the boss.

JOHNER

                   (with venom)

          Yeah, that’s right. I’m the boss, fly boy.

I’m the fuckin’ big badass boss. I’m the

          Man. Don’t fuckin’ forget it.

As the pilot quietly twists back into his seat the hatch slides open. Ripley leaps in, slides it shut.

Johner half rises.

         JOHNER (cont’d)

          Ripley.

RIPLEY

                   (to the pilot)

          Let’s go.

PILOT

          With pleasure.

He flicks switches, pushes buttons. We HEAR the engines rev.

Ripley flops down on the bench opposite Johner. She looks across, but he doesn’t meet her eyes.

Pg. 102

RIPLEY

          Well that wasn’t too pleasant.

Johner looks up. Ripley makes an in/out motion with her index finger into her mouth.

         RIPLEY (cont’d)

          Never felt I had to bite one off before.

She tries a mischievous smile, but Johner doesn’t go for it. His gaze drops again. Ripley’s smile sours.

JOHNER

                   (sober)

          I didn’t step up to the plate, Ripley.

         

We SEE the craft shudder. It is lifting off.

RIPLEY

          How’s the leg?

JOHNER

                   (touches knee)

          Hurts like a son-of-a-bitch. Funny,

          didn’t notice it when I was running

          like a little girl.

RIPLEY

          Johner...

JOHNER

          Drop it!

IN SPACE

We SEE the shimmer move through space, distorting the starfield beyond it.

INT. THE PREDATOR MOTHER SHIP – CONTINUOUS

Several Predators gather around a central console, colourful, shifting 3-D images playing in the air above it.

GRADUALLY CLOSING IN on images as they change: ribbons of alien symbols – vertical and horizontal – superimpose the



Pg. 103

Earth. A triangulation of red lights converges on the Andes Mountains.

INT. WOODS PRIVATE APARTMENT – DUSK

Woods, Ripley, Waddell and COMMODORE HAYNES.

A heavily decorated soldier, Haynes is portly and completely bald. He has a peaked USM cap cupped within one elbow.

A dozen or so fully equipped Marines are now also in the room, stationed at regular intervals along the walls.

ANGLE ON THE PANORAMIC WINDOW

Blast shutters are rolling down. Before they close we CATCH A GLIMPSE of USM craft slowly patrolling the sky outside.

RESUME SCENE

WOODS

                   (to Ripley)

          So, what you suspected actually happened.

RIPLEY

          I couldn’t say anything before. I had

          to see it myself before I believed it.

WADDELL

          Protandrous hermaphroditism. It’s not

uncommon. Several species of insects,

even fish, use it here on Earth. Purely

instinctual. Your friend has been alone

since the Auriga. Too long for a hive anima...

          (glances at Ripley)

um, being. It was time to start a new

hive. To do that he had to become female.

RIPLEY

          Handy.

                   (to Woods)

          What about the BiOids?

WOODS

          They’ve been deployed as you instructed.

Pg. 104

RIPLEY

          Any problems?

WOODS

          The teams finished over ten hours ago.

          No incidents were reported.

RIPLEY

          And the Queen?

WOODS

          Commodore?

HAYNES

          I have assigned our Veterans that duty.

RIPLEY

          Veterans? Does that mean they’re good, or

they’re old?

HAYNES

          There are twenty-five in the Unit. They have

          forty-one Platinum Clusters between them. All

          have seen at least seven campaigns on frontier

colonies. And they’ve all faced a variety of dangerous extraterrestrial organisms.

RIPLEY

          So you’re telling me they’re good.

HAYNES

          They’re better than good.

RIPLEY

          I hope so. Everything depends on them.

WOODS

          Thank you, Commodore.

Haynes puts his cap on. Salutes.

HAYNES

          Ma’am.

He EXITS.

Pg. 105

Woods draws a long, ragged breath, tries to shift within her chair. A look of pain further creases her ancient face.

WOODS

                   (with effort)

          I have to tell you something, Ellen. After

all these long. . .years of exerting almost

total control, I feel that this situation

         WOODS (cont’d)

is now. . .dangerously uncontrollable. The

Plan allowed for years of observation,

conditioning, training. But. . .this...?

RIPLEY

Is better. And simpler. You protect us, we

protect you.

WADDELL

          We?

RIPLEY

                   (shrugs)

          Sometimes it gets confusing.

The wall monitor comes to life. Griggs appears.

GRIGGS

          Ma’am. An orbital grid has recorded a

contact. It is massive. But no visual.

WOODS

          A transport. A Mother Ship. Their smaller

ships have no faster-than-light drives.

They’re here.

Ripley turns and runs for the door. Johner limps in.

Ripley puts a hand on his shoulder.

RIPLEY

          I’m going back to Her Ladyship, Johner.

You can’t come with me.

Johner just nods.

Ripley turns to address the ranking officer of the Marines in the room.

Pg. 106

RIPLEY

                   (voice raised)

          Captain. This is my partner, Mr. John R.

Berlin. Be glad he’s on our side. Give

him a gun. Something big.

JOHNER

          Thanks, Ripley.

RIPLEY

                   (quietly)

          Look after Woods. And ask her to show you

her little secret.

Johner frowns.

JOHNER

          Say, Ripley, when this is over, maybe I’ll

let you buy me a cup of coffee.

RIPLEY

                   (smiles)

          Sure.

She EXITS.

Johner takes a couple of limps further into the room, addresses everyone there.

JOHNER

          So where’s my fuckin’ gun?

INT. THE CAVE TUNNEL - LATER

We HEAR an echoing cacophony of ghostly Alien sounds: hissing, mewling, roaring.

Ripley steps amongst the shattered remains of the racks of off-white BiOids, her boots tracking slime. She crunches over dead Facehuggers by the hundreds.

CU Ripley’s face. She peers into the gloom. Slowly her eyes go wide.

Pg. 107

RESUME SCENE

We HEAR a muffled, faraway explosion. Ripley jumps, turns, looks back the way she has come. But then she turns again, and sprints forward into the darkness.

EXT. THE MOUNTAINSIDE – LONG SHOT – NIGHT

                     

SERIES OF DYNAMIC SHOTS

The mountainside is under heavy bombardment.

Falcons and smaller USM fighters are buzzing, firing, as if in dogfights, but we SEE only the occasional ripple indicating a Predator craft.

Larger USM craft are more static, hovering before the large cave entrances to the Company HQ.

They, too, are SEEN to be firing, but with the same limited success.

We SEE only a couple of the invading distortions destroyed, but USM fighters are falling regularly.

INT. WOODS APARTMENT – CONTINUOUS

Johner, standing beside Woods chair, is sweeping a big, multi-barreled, long-muzzled weapon back and forth around the room, checking the aiming mechanism.

WOODS

          Johner. John, please, you’re making my

          hardened professionals nervous.

We SEE Waddell, a little away from Woods, take another few steps away, nod to himself slightly. He turns back to Woods.

WADDELL

          Ma’am, I should go. Another pair of hands

at the triage units will be helpful.

WOODS

          Of course.

Feebly, she reaches out to take one of his hands.

WOODS (cont’d)

          Thank you for everything. I’ll see you

soon.

Pg. 108

WADDELL

          Ma’am.

He EXITS.

EXT. ENTRANCE TO THE LAUNCH/LANDING BAY - CONTINUOUS

A hulking USM battleship has taken position outside the bay. Its guns are blasting relentlessly, and are having some success. We SEE several distortions hit, explode.

ANOTHER ANGLE

We SEE a new distortion swing into view. Its faint glow pulses three times, and it releases a beam of energy.

QUICK INTERCUTS

The battleship explodes. Two other USM fighters see the attacker and blow it out of the sky.

With the last obstacle removed, Predator ships sweep through the still-crumbling superstructure of the battleship...

INT. THE LANDING/LAUNCH BAY – CONTINUOUS

...straight into the landing bay.  They materialize as they skid to controlled emergency landings.

DYNAMIC SHOTS

Each disgorges dozens of ground troops who immediately cloak.

From the ground and several other levels in the cavernous space, the visor-bedecked Marines fire, finding their targets more often than the Predators had expected.

Groups of Predators jump defensive lines. The Marines are prepared.  Knives drawn, hamstrings and necks are the targets. It’s a good strategy, but not good enough. More ships arrive. The tide comes on. 

Pg. 109

ANOTHER ANGLE

At the very rear of the cavernous space, the last hanger doors begin to slide apart.  Ripley steps out of the darkness, a huge smart gun strapped to her shoulder.

RIPLEY

          Endgame.

Leveling her weapon she begins to run towards the conflict.

And behind her, out of the blackness, comes an Alien horde.

She manages to get off just two shots before the first wave of Warriors shoots past her. She keeps running.

The Predators see the new threat. Three quarters of their

number re-deploys to meet the Aliens. Shoulder cannons firing, the Predators charge, arm blades shining.

The Warriors reach the Marines. They sprint through them, vaulting over those too slow to get out the way.

Leaping at the Predators their tails are their deadliest weapons. And even in death, taking a deadly toll as their acid blood drenches many of their slayers.

Ripley reaches the closest Marines, flings herself down.

RIPLEY

          Sorry we’re late, boys. But you know what

they say.

Then she’s up, smart gun blazing, putting Predators down.

INT. WOODS APARTMENT – CONTINUOUS

Only muted sounds of conflict reach up to Woods’ apartment. But we HEAR another sound; a buzzing DRONE. Suddenly the blast doors blow apart. Marines are tossed aside.

The force of the attack throws Johner behind Woods’ chair. He shakes himself, scrambles after his dropped weapon.

The surviving Marines begin to fire into the ruins of the blast doors, but are felled by a sweep of projectiles.