Morning Star Page #11

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MARCEL:

We have to go. Now.

GAST:

What’s the target?!

ALIEN:

(distracted, distraght)

It was only copper. That’s all wewanted when we first came. We gaveno thought to how your specieswould react. We’d never

encountered...

A SHOT from outside smashes the Alien’s mask. Gooey matterexplodes against the shattered glass.

Webber, Gast and Marcel duck. A barrage of PLASMA FIRE ripsthrough the archways, melting the chapel walls in places.

The data disk drops from the alien’s limp grip to the floor.

Weber crawls toward it... but Marcel gets to it first!

Gast fires into the dark, blindly. The barrage stops. Fromoutside, the chilling sound of ALIEN CLICKS and HISSES.

MARCEL:

Our window’s closing.

Webber impetuously gets up and runs out the door. Gast andMarcel follow right behind, firing wildly...

EXT. RUINED CHAPEL - CONTINUOUS

As the three men emerge, they are scattered by FIRE frommultiple positions. Webber ducks behind some rubble. Webberhas a realization. This is a chance. A smile appears on hisface. He runs into the darkness where he knows the aliens are

waiting... But he’s not met with open arms. They open FIRE.

He throws himself against a free-standing column. Speaks in aloud whisper between bursts of fire-

WEBBER:

Ah-na nathrac! Konna Morningstar!

53.

The firing stops. CLICKS, HISSES. Talking among themselves.

Webber puts his gun away and shows himself. Hands raised.

WEBBER (CONT’D)

Morningstar! Morningstar!

Webber moves foward, listening to NOISES all around him. An

ARMED ALIEN rises up in front of him, wearing a black versionof one of their high-tech suits. Webber smiles. The Alienspeaks in the Alien language-

GAST (O.S.)

Webber?!

Hearing the harsh whisper, the Alien raises his weapon.

WEBBER:

No!

The Alien has Webber dead to rights but TWO SHOTS RIP THROUGHHIM just as he fires. The Alien’s shot WHIZZES past Webber’sear. Webber then sees it’s Gast who saved him. They make eyecontact just before ALIEN RETURN FIRE opens up from at leastthree new directions.

Webber takes cover with Gast behind a low wall. Marcel falls

in beside them.

They hear the HISSES of Alien communication. Withdrawing?

Flanking them?

MARCEL:

We can’t stay here.

Gast glances at his watch. 7:28 and counting.

They move on, crouched low, hewing close to a ruined walltill they find themselves at the edge of the mine field theypassed through before. They head across. Webber leads theway, retracing their steps by their previous footprints -

which the rain is rapidly obscuring.

The WHOMP-WHOMP of plasma fire erupts behind them, sailingover their heads.

MARCEL (CONT’D)

Don’t run!

A shot grazes, singes Marcel’s leg. He falls. Webber and Gastbrace themselves... but there’s no detonation.

Webber’s had it, though, and breaks into a run. He makes itto the shelter of a trench on the far side of the minefield.

Gast badly turns his ankle as he hops in beside him.

54.

Gast fires into the dark, trying to provide cover for Marcel -

who is up again, awkwardly hopping on one leg. Webberpointedly sits out this round.

The Frenchman sets off a mine. A gravitational flux instantlyCRUSHES his body. Leaving him turned inside out, gutssteaming in the cool, misty air.

Webber nods to himself, starts to move on. Gast stops him.

GAST:

The disk.

WEBBER:

It’s crushed. Forget it.

GAST:

It’s not. I see it.

Gast directs Webber’s gaze to the minefield. Webber can’tbelieve the luck: the disk is miraculously intact and lyingin the dirt in plain sight.

WEBBER:

We don’t have time.

GAST:

The disk is the mission!

Another SHOT rings out from the other side of the minefield.

WEBBER:

Ok, go. I’ll cover you.

GAST:

I can’t - my ankle.

Webber glares at Gast in disbelief. He has no options. Heclimbs out of the trench and runs back into the line of fire,

into the minefield. An alien takes a shot at Webber. The

FLARE of his weapon gives away his position. Gast drops him.

Webber retrieves the disk and re-traces his steps as best hecan, hurrying back to Gast... until he sees one of thoseFLOATING MINES looming up rapidly behind Gast. He hits thedirt. Gast sees it just in time too and ducks down.

The Floating Mine passes over Webber just as an Alien rises

up, directly in its path. The Alien immediately realizes hismistake and fires at the hurtling object.

It DETONATES. The Alien is vaporized.

55.

Webber clambers to his feet. Gast looks at his watch. As

Webber lets Gast limp on ahead, he takes the data disk out ofhis pocket and tosses it... just as he does, one last Alienpops up from some debris to his left. Webber pivots andfires. The Alien returns fire as he falls. Webber, grazed,

winds up on his back.

The alien “mother zone” hovers directly above him... untilGast fills the frame, leaning over him, helping him up.

And retrieving what he really came back for: the data disk.

Together, Webber and Gast hobble toward UN territory.

SENTRIES with their weapons poised are visible at their postsatop of the wall as - THUNK-THUNK - the klieg lights start tocome back on.

Webber and Gast make it across the yellow line just beforelights hit the area where they collapse in exhaustion.

INT. PARIS HOSPITAL -- NIGHT

A NURSE swabs Webber’s ear. Gast, having his ankle tended to,

is staring at Webber. Suspicion? Webber, for his part,

watches Bewley collect the data disk and place it in aplastic bag, like it was some ritual of doom.

DR. SCHOENWEISS (PRE-LAP)

With this DNA template, we will beable to quickly devise a simpleblood test that will reveal a

genetic match with Morningstar.

INT. HOMELAND DEFENSE “BLACK SITE” -- DAY

Webber sits at the head of a conference table but the man

running the event, Eberlin, is present only via video screen.

A professorial science officer, DR. SCHOENWEISS, passes out aPRINT-OUT labeled “Morningstar Genetic Profile.”

DR. SCHOENWEISS

We will, of course, need blood

samples from everyone. Assuming thecollection proceeds swiftly, I’dsay we’ll have results within 36hours?

Webber nods OK.. but Eberlin smiles unhappily.

56.

EBERLIN:

Under normal circumstances, Doctor,

I’d be inclined to accept your

estimate and move on, but I believe

that it is now time for everyone in

this room to be brought up to speed

on what circumstances actually are.

He has everyone’s attention now.

EBERLIN (CONT’D)

At o-six hundred hours yesterday,

the Xeno Hex delivered to Secretary

Voss an ultimatum concerning UN

troops positioned at the Red Zone.

Those troops remained in place.

Less than an hour ago, shots were

fired across the line. To the

public, the exchange is being

described as part of scheduled

maneuvers. The truth is we’re a

hair’s breadth away from war. Both

sides are frantically trying to get

the peace talks re-started but the

slightest spark will set things

off. If provoking the Apocalypse is

Morningstar’s aim, he will succeed.

An appalled silence as everyone processes this.

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