Starship Troopers Page #14

Carmen looks at the words at the Net terminal: WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW

MORE ? She bites her lip, enters Johnny's name. In an instant, she has the news:

RICO, JOHN D. - KIA

CARMEN:

Oh no.

Tears fill her eyes.

ZANDER:

Carmen...?

CARMEN:

Excuse me...!

She rushes away. Zander looks at Johnny's name on the screen, shrugs, presses

the ERASE button.

119INTTICONDEROGA - CORRIDOR - ZANDER

finds Carmen, sagging against a wall, weepimg.

ZANDER:

I'm sorry, Carmen.

CARMEN:

Please, I... Everybody's lost someone

by now. This shouldn't be any

different...

Zander puts an arm around her. She holds on tight.

CARMEN:

No, I... Oh, Zander, I'm a fool.

ZANDER:

You're upset, that's alright.

Zander kisses her hair. Tears roll down her face.

CARMEN:

No, don't you see ? No one can wait for

anything anymore... You're right...

We should get married...

Zander holds Carmen as she sobs, feeling lucky.

DISSOLVE TO:

120INTSTASIS TANK - DAY CYCLE - JOHNNY'S BODY

floats, suspended in fluid, mouth hanging open, his skin white as death.

A low underwater KNOCKING wakes him. He opens his eyes and sees

Ace and Dizzy outside the tank.

Ace holds up a KIA list, pointing at Johnny's name, laughing: Rico, John V - KIA.

Their voices are distant and garbled. Dizzy cups her hands against the side of the

tank.

DIZZY:

Two more days.

Johnny's wounds are now mostly scars except for his leg where delicate robotic

arms culture layers of new tissue. Johnny gives a weak thumbs up. The knocking

sound continues.

Johnny turns. A STEEL HAND taps the side of the tank. Johnny grins, astonished.

The man wearing it is his former high school teacher, now a Lieutenant, Jean Rasczak.

121EXTSPACE - AQZ - A BATTLE GROUP

consisting of STARSHIPS, their tender, FREIGHTERS and other SUPPLY CRAFT.

122INTTROOP TRANSPORT - M.I. QUARTERS - JOHNNY

stows his gear along with Ace and Dizzy. Acroos the room, a collection of

battle-hardened vets check out the newcomers.

ACE:

Dizzy says you two knew this Rasczak

character in Buenos Aires...

JOHNNY:

He was our teacher...

He was great.

ACE:

Yeah, well, I hear he's a real

nutbuster.

DIZZY:

The Roughnecks killed more bugs than

any other outfit in 2nd Brigade...

Only took 15% casualties on Big K.

They size up the Roughnecks. There are scars, power prosthetics, and one,

big SUGAR WATKINS, 26, wears a bug claw on a chain around his neck.

JOHNNY:

Seeing as how we're about all that's

left of 1st Brigade, you'd have to call

that an improvement.

(to Sugar Watkins)

You top kick ?

SUGAR WATKINS:

Are you kidding ? They always get killed.

You want the job ?

JOHNNY:

I wouldn't mind.

CORPORAL BIRDIE, 24, turns, gives Johnny the once over.

BIRDIE:

I would. Nice earring.

Dizzy looks her over. Not too big, but she's tough.

DIZZY:

Where you been besides Big K ?

BIRDIE:

Outer rings. Zegema Beach.

JOHNNY:

I always wanted to go to Zegema Beach.

SUGAR WATKINS:

Good luck. It's not there anymore.

ACE:

Is your Lieutenant as bad as they say ?

Birdie belts him, and Ace goes down.

BIRDIE:

No one talks about the Lieutenant that way.

He saved my life !

Ace jumps up, ready to fight, but other Roughnecks block him.

SUGAR WATKINS:

Mine, too.

OTHER ROUGHNECKS

Same for me... me, too...

Johnny and Dizzy shrug. Ace's on his own.

ACE:

Sounds like he is quite a guy.

SERGEANT GILLESPIE, 28, steps into the room.

GILLESPIE:

Attention !

Everyone snaps to. Rasczak enters.

RASCZAK:

This is for you new people. I only

have two rules. Rule one, everyone

fights. Rule two, no one quits.

If you don't do your job, I'll kill you

myself. Do you get me ?

JOHNNY, DIZZY AND ACE

We get you, sir !

He points at Johnny's earring with his steel hand.

RASCZAK:

Get rid of the jewelry. I hate it.

Welcome to the Roughnecks.

BIRDIE:

Rasczak's Roughnecks !

The Roughnecks cheer. Rasczak smiles vaguely.

RASCZAK:

Alright. There's a new Sky Marshall and

a new plan. We're gonna clean out the

systems outlying Klendathu one planet

at a time. Tomorrow we hit Tango Urilla.

After Fleet glasses the planet, M.I. mops up.

123EXTTANGO URILLA - DAY - BUG WARRIORS

stand sentry on earthworks that tower the entrance to their colony where an

endless line of WORKERS enter bearing foodstuff appropriate to this exotic

jungle planet.

A distant sound. A warrior looks up, curious. Suddenly a FORMATION OF TAC

FIGHTERS screams down from high orbit and a white hot nuclear firestorm burns

consumes the landscape.

Bugs scream as they twist and kick in the wall of flame. Heat melts the dirt into

dark glass. Ash turns the sky red. The out of the smoke come Rasczak and his

Roughnecks.

RASCZAK:

Spread out, teams of three. When you

locate a bug hole, secure it, gas it,

and close it.

124EXTTANGO URILLA - FLATS - DAY - TAC FIGHTERS

streak by overhead. On the ground, Johnny, Dizzy and Ace are on the bounce.

Ace spots a bug hole where workers and warrors have broken through the

glassed surface.

ACE:

There.

Rockets take out warriors. Bug guts go flying. Dizzy sets workers on fire.

Johnnx and Ace step over burning bug carcasses to the rim of the hole and

fire their gas rounds.

JOHNNY:

Fire in the hole !

Johnny drops an H.E. round, and they're in the air when the explosion collapses

the entrance to the bug city.

BIRDIE (O.S.)

You new guys over there...

WE could use some help...

125EXTTANGO URILLA - MOUNTAINS - BUGS

boil out of the ground. Birdie, Sugar Watkins and other Roughnecks are about to be

overrun when Johnny touches down wuth Ace and Dizzy.

JOHNNY:

Looks like you've got a little bug

problem, ma'am...

BIRDIE:

Stow it, trooper. Give it verything

you've got !

The cao troopers let the bugs have it, but the insects keep coming, the living

crawling over the dead, and now, trudging up out of the ground, comes a

TANKER BUG.

JOHNNY:

WATCH OUT !

The tanker bug starts to spray, creating a toxic perimeter around the hole.

Rasczak arrives just as Birdie takes a chemical hit, falling to ground minus

an arm, screaming.

BIRDIE:

AAAAAAAAAAAAA !

Johnny jumps, landing behind the tanker bug in the mouth of the hole. It turns

with surprising speed. Johnny flips up onto its back, cracks its armor with his

pulse cannon.

RASCZAK:

Sugar, in for pick up !

Rasczak and Sugar Watkins pull Birdie to safety. Johnny fires a rocket into

the hole he's made in the tanker bug's back, and jumps clear. KA-WHAP !

The big bug explodes.

RASCZAK:

Gas that hole and close it !

The Roughnecks fire gas rockets into the bug hole. Johnny touches down

beside Rasczak.

RASCZAK:

Where'd you learn to do that, soldier ?

JOHNNY:

Uni High Tigers, sir. Don't you

remember ? I was captain of the

team.

RASCZAK:

I'm not interested in nostalgia, Rico,

I need a corporal. You're it until you're

dead or I find someone better.

Rasczak turns away, gives Birdie prosthetic thumps up as she is carried past

to meet an arriving skimmer.

RASCZAK:

Don't worry, Birdie, your next arm comes

with a factory guarantee !

Dizzy and Ace gather around Johnny, clap him on the back.

DIZZY:

Way to go, amigo !

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