Starship Troopers Page #17

JOHNNY:

SHUT UP, SIR ! We need pick up now !

RODGER YOUNG (O.S.)

What is your position ?

JOHNNY:

Landing zone is extremely hostile.

Come down on this transmission !

RODGER YOUNG (O.S.)

Inside 4th brigade compound ?

That's crazy !

JOHNNY:

Then I hope you have a crazy

pilot ! Keep the line open, Dizzy !

Johnny races out the door.

146EXT4TH BRIGADE HQ - DAY - THE COMPOUND

is white hot as Roughnecks on the walls unload nukes. Johnny crosses

the compound, lands next to Rasczak on the wall.

JOHNNY:

Boat coming down, sir !

The Roughnecks stop firing as they run out of nukes.

ROUGHNECKS:

I'm empty...all nuked out... Me, too !

Johnny scans the battlefield. Nukes have turned the surface into dark glass.

Now, out of the smoke, come the bugs, steaming glass cracking beneath

millions of marching feet.

ACE:

Jeez, we musta killed a million already...!

JOHNNY:

Not enough, I guess.

Sugar Watkins sees Genera Owen in the compound below,

stumbling aimlessly among his dead soldiers.

SUGAR WATKINS:

General ! GENERAL, stay with the wounded...

Sir, the general...!

RASCZAK:

Ah, the hell with him...

Hoppers sweep into the compound. The Roughnecks open fire. General Owen

make easy pickings for ones that get through.

RASCZAK:

Fall back... form a circle ! If no

living bug comes over that wall,

we cannot be harmed.

Dizzy arrives on thr bounce as the Roughnecks fall back into the compound.

Bugs pile in over the walls. The circle affords them 360 degrees of kill zone.

RASCZAK:

Rico, Flores, Watkins, Levy ! We

control the sky until retrieval !

JOHNNY ET AL:

Yes, sir !

Rasczak, Sugar Watkins, Johnny and Dizzy stand back-to-back in the center

of the circle, sweeping the skies with the heavy guns from the towers.

Hoppers are blown to pieces.

ACE:

Getting low here, sir !

DIZZY:

300 rounds and counting, sir !

RASCZAK:

Make every shot count !

Johnny looks up. A RETRIEVAL BOAT hurtles down through bursts of

bug plasma, takes a grazing hit, rights itself with retros and lands within

the circle. Roughnecks cheer, saved !

RASCZAK:

Sergeant, secure the boat !

JOHNNY:

Yes, sir !

Roughnecks move to protect the boat. The hatch blows open.

RASCZAK:

Board the wounded !

Dead bugs ring the compound walls, forming ramps for living insect

soldiers to enter the compound in greater numbers.

RASCZAK:

Move to retrieval on my command !

First group, now...!

The circle shrinks as Roughnecks fall back and board the boat.

More and more bugs pile in over the compound walls.

RASCZAK:

Alright, Flores ! Levy ! Rico...!

Suddenly, the ground collapses under Rasczak. He falls in to his waist,

vomits blood as something chews on him from below.

RASCZAK:

AAAAAAAAAAAA !

JOHNNY:

Cover us, Ace !

Ace and the others fire from the boat. Johnny and Dizzy fire at the ground

around Rasczak. Rasczak stops screaming. They try to pull him free.

JOHNNY:

Hit your jets, sir !

RASCZAK:

I can't My legs are gone...

Get on the boat...

The compund wall collapses. A wave of bugs charges in.

RASCZAK:

Rico, tell'em to glass this goddam planet.

I've never seen so many bugs upstairs at

the same time...

JOHNNY:

We're not leaving you here, sir !

Weakly, Rasczak picks up his pulse gun, checks the power.

RASCZAK:

This is my farm. Get on the boat,

NOW ! That's an order, Sergeant.

JOHNNY:

Give'em hell, sir !

Johnny and Dizzy run for the boat. Rasczak opens fire, picking his shots,

but soon the bugs are all over him.

RASCZAK:

C'mon you sons of b*tches !

There's no bug alive can kill a

real mAAAAAAA !

At the boat, Dizzy turns to look back at Rasczak. A hopper swoops

down on Dizzy, it's claws ripping into her abdomen.

DIZZY:

AAAAAAA ! GET IT OFF ME

GET IT OFF GET IT OFF

GET IT AAAAAAAAAA !

Johnny blows the bug off her back. Blood sprays from a deep gash in

her neck. Johnny picks her up, tries to stop the blood with his hand.

The life is leaving her eyes.

JOHNNY:

Hang on, Diz... don't die on me...

A TANKER BUG breaches the broken wall. Ace jumps out to help his

friends. The hatch closes just as the tanker bug sprays. The boat blasts

off, dripping metal.

147INTCARGO BAY - DAY - JOHNNY

holds Dizzy in his arms, drenched in her blood, fighting G-forces as the

boats heads for orbit.

DIZZY:

I bought the farm, didn't I,

Johnny ?

JOHNNY:

No, you're gonna be alright, Diz !

DIZZY:

It's alright 'cause I got to have you,

Johnny...

MEDICS push Johnny aside, go to work on Dizzy.

148INTBOAT - COCKPIT - DAY - JOHNNY

slams into the cockpit. Out the front screen, violent bursts of BUG PLASMA

fill the sky as they break atmosphere.

JOHNNY:

Get on the com and tell Fleet to

glass that rock...!

The co-pilot turns around. It's Zander. His eyes narrow.

ZANDER:

On whose authority, Corporal ?

JOHNNY:

This would be mine, sir. Acting

Sergeant John Rico. I've assumed

command on this mission.

The pilot turns around. It's Carmen.

CARMEN:

Johnny...! I thought you were dead !

JOHNNY:

I'm not, but alot of my soldiers are.

Glass the planet !

Johnny leaves. Carmen punches up Fleet Command.

CARMEN:

Rodger Young, this is inbound shuttle

De Ruyter with an official request from

the Mobile Infantery to bombard

Planet P-11...

149INTBOAT - CARGO BAY - DAY - JOHNNY

returns to Dizzy's side as the medics struggle to save her. Blood pours

out of her mouth. Her body thrashes.

DIZZY:

JOHNNY HEH HEH CAN'T HEH

BREATHE GOD JOHNNY CAN'T

HEH HEH HEH HEH...!

Dizzy dies. A Medic slaps her. Her head lolls, mouth open, eyes blank.

They drop her and move on to the next casualty. Johnny sits there,

stunned. Carmen enters from the cockpit.

CARMEN:

Negative on your request. Fleet

Command has the battle group

on standby...

Carmen sees Dizzy lying dead on the deck.

CARMEN:

...I'm sorry.

JOHNNY:

We gotta choke on the mud and the

blood and Fleet can't be bothered to

spit.

CARMEN:

No, I think something's up. The Sky

Marshall's here.

She points out for a viewing port. Johnny looks. Fifteen battle groups,

100 ships strong, lay off Planet P, all of them dwarfed by the Sky

Marshall's flagship, Buenos Aires.

CARMEN:

I thought you were KIA, Johnny...

JOHNNY:

That was just a mix up.

CARMEN:

You look so... I don't know, you

look like you've really been in it.

JOHNNY:

What happened to your eye ?

Carmen touches the scar over her eye.

CARMEN:

Almost got knocked out of the sky

over Big K.

JOHNNY:

I like it. It's kinda...you.

150EXTBATTLE GROUP - ORION SYSTEM - THE BOAT

lands on the flight deck of the Rodger Young in the midst of the

flotilla.

151INTOFFICERS QUARTERS - DAY CYCLE - ZANDER

enters, watches Carmen dress. She hums as she checks herself in the

mirror, touches thr scar over her eye, smiles.

ZANDER:

Where are you going ?

CARMEN:

A funeral.

ZANDER:

That girl who died on the way up

...his girl ?

CARMEN:

Yeah.

ZANDER:

How do you feel about him now ?

CARMEN:

I don't know, Zander.

ZANDER:

I do.

152INTRODGER YOUNG - GUNNERY DECK - CARMEN

enters as Johnny speaks. Dizzy is laid out in dress gray. The surviving

Roughnecks have gathered to pay final respects.

Rate this script:4.0 / 2 votes