Untitled

Working Title: Buzzard

Genre: Sci-Fi

Author: Andrew Gault

Theme: Something good can be drawn from any situation

Premise: A pilot of a space-tug is drafted onto the rebelling side in a civil war as a fighter pilot, but is wondering what he should be fighting for, and for who.

 

ACT 1:

 

Rick Mandel is a pilot of a space tug in the Jovian Union, with a man named Yang Tze as his copilot.  Eventually, the Union rebels assassinate the governing body of the Jovian Union, they turn against the POTERRA (Planets of Terra), which governs all colonized bodies in the solar system out to Saturn. They are then conscripted as fighter pilots.  

 

ACT 2:

 

During training on the Tannhauser, he gets to know Yang Tze better, and they become greater friends.  The quick, 3-week training regiment is held by Flight Master Hotchkiss, who has overseen their conscription since the beginning.  They go on two sorties, and on the final one, they destroy a freighter as per Hotchkiss' order, as a Hermian dreadnaught comes nearer to Rick and the rest of the fighter wing.  Through the cockpit window, they see men, women, and children in civilian clothes fly out of the hole in the freighter they blew open.  They get ripped to pieces by the force of depressurization, and this plants the seed of insubordination in both Rick and Yang.  The approaching Hermian dreadnaught now has a clean shot for its nuclear cannons, but Rick and Yang fire their thrusters and head towards the dreadnaught.  They match the dreadnaught's speed and hail them to dock, begging and pleading, saying that they don't want to fight for the Jovian Confederacy, and eventually they allow them to dock.  They are immediately taken to the interrogation rooms at gunpoint.

 

ACT 3

 

They get interrogated, but they don't know anything, so they're thrown the ship's brig and given two guards, one male, one female.  Rick eventually, after several hours of just chatting with the female guard (who he learns is named Naomi), he breaks down in front of her.  Since this is after he was acting like a total hard-ass through the whole situation, she takes this time to really get to know him, since she's fascinated with the other faction in this civil war.  He says some things that she relates to, such as "I studied to be a goddamn marine biologist, then I end up working in a tug building the Tannhauser" and "I should be on Europa looking at fucking fish, not killing people".  She sees good in him, and lets him (and Yang) go.  Naomi takes Rick back to her room to hide him until she can get his ship primed to depart.  Meanwhile, in the ship's torus, Yang takes his pistol and blasts at the walls and ceiling in hopes of depressurizing the cabin and ripping the ship apart.  He is immediately killed by the crew, and when Rick hears about this, he falls a little further down the hole of shock and depression.  

 

Naomi grabs him and they both head for the airlock where the Buzzard is docked, and she gives him a kiss (either to give him the courage to go on, or out of affection. That is up to the viewer to decide) before throwing him in the Buzzard.

 

Through the open airlock doors, he sees her get shot for treason by the ship's captain, and decides to haul ass away from the dreadnought.  

 

At this point, they're above Saturn's moon Titan.  Rick is quickly shot down by the dreadnaught and crashes on Titan.  He leaves his fatally damaged ship, and as he freezes to death, everything goes white, and through the mists of the afterlife he sees Naomi, who hugs him as Luis Bacalov's Parte Prima plays in synchronization with the whole scene.

 

 

Set up/Opening Sequence:

 

Rick and Yang piloting their tug near the under-construction Tannhauser ring, set to ethereal music.

Then, when they dock and go to one of the Tannhauser's lounge areas, and are told by a broadcast on every television that there is a draft in effect,

a draft against the POTERRA.  MPs then show up and corral everyone through to a processing center.

 

-Character goal:

Survive while maintaining a sense of control and of being in the moral right.

 

-Inciting Incident/Catalyst:

The Flight Master giving them their orders, and giving them their new ships.

 

- 1st Turning Point:

Rick and Yang seeing the civilians fly out of the torn hull of a freighter they attacked.

 

 

-Story Problem/Central Question

Should you roll over and be a pawn, or should you try and choose who and what you fight for?

 

-Midpoint:

Rick and Yang's Buzzard docking with the Hermian dreadnaught, and being taken to the brig.

 

2nd Turning Point/ MOD/ Black Box:

Yang turning out to be loyal to the confederacy and shooting up the ship's torus, and Rick trying to escape in his Buzzard (with the help of Naomi, a like-minded Hermian that sees good in Rick).

 

Additional Obstacles:

Naomi gets shot by the captain of the dreadnought.

 

3rd Turning Point:

Rick gets shot down and crashes on Saturn's moon Titan.

 

Climax/Story Resolution:

Rick freezes to death, but in death, finds happiness with the one person who showed him compassion through the whole situation: Naomi.