Scarlet Blanche: Cruel Reflections

FADE IN:

1 EXT. THE FAMOUS HABOUR BRIDGE (NIGHT.) - SYDNEY AUSTRALIA

Heavy rain pours down from the sky. A figure in a heavy rain cloak walks down pedestrian portion of the bridge. Occasional vehicles pass, illuminating her slightly as she walks, her face is obscured by the hood. She pauses, turning to look over the edge of the bridge at a ship passing underneath. She lifts the object she has been holding the entire time, clipping a combat mask over her face, for a moment we see a flash of red hair, showing us this is SCARLET BLANCHE. Quickly she attaches a zip line to the bridge support and gracefully swan dives off the bridge, her rain coat fluttering to the pavement behind her. Her body becomes invisible as the stealth cloak engages.

2 EXT. THE SHIP DECK. (NIGHT)

It's packed with cargo, men and woman in rain gear with slung SMGs and sinister spiderlike robots patrol the area, sweeping it with light. Scarlet lands out of view behind some boxes, her form a blur.

SCARLET: Flying Fish On Deck. Assuming Radio Silence now.

She moves forward to a deck hatch, which has a keycard lock. Swiping a key she drops through.

3 INT. THE SHIPS CARGO HOLD. The space is well lit, and wide open with numerous catwalks, one of which SCARLET has dropped onto. Various platforms and the like stand around, some containing ZOCU style munitions in various stages of disassembly. Various men and women in lab coats and military uniform standing around a huge dark winged angel, a stealth skinned orbital frame. Around it's cockpit a grizzled colonel, who we will later know as ALEX BRUCE and a lab coat, and two MARINES are standing around talking and inspecting the systems.

Twin Mercurion drives stand on its back. Scarlet stands gazing at it for a moment, then there's a click behind her. She turns slowly, raising her hands to find herself surrounded by a semi-circle of stern faced Australian MARINES and a sinister spider like combat drone. The MARINES are big men, as tall as SCARLET and packed with large amounts of muscle. They wear combat armour with caps rather than helmets. Each is armed with an old style gauss rifle with a stock (note: not a smart mount)

MARINE: Disengage your stealth! Hands on your head now!

SCARLET becomes fully visible, slowly raises empty hands.

MARINE: Nice try, but we flagged you the moment you opened the door. Smith, cuff her.

The MARINE identified as Smith advances towards SCARLET, pulling out a pair of zip cuffs. He grins nastily and steps forward, partly blocking the view of the drone and other two marines. SCARLET suddenly blurs forward and slams a strike into his neck over the suit's guard. Johnson makes a terrible choking noise and SCARLET throws him at the other three. His body slams into the drone and knocks it flying off the platform. She's on the other two before they can recover, kicking one back over the rail and grabbing the other's gun to smash her in the face with it. The woman jerks back and Scarlet finishes her with a quick blow to the head.

Other marines look up shouting and technicians running around in panic. Bullets rip around SCARLET as she pulls an object from her webbing and hurls it at a missile below. The Grenade rolls forward and sticks on with a click. The grenade detonates, and the missile hurtles down the ship, spreading fire and mayhem everywhere.

SCARLET Leaps across the space between catwalks, landing near the orbital frame. She rolls under the fire of one MARINES's gun fire and shoots him, then coming to one knee shoots the other. The Labcoat cowers while. BRUCE ducks behind the orbital frame for cover.

BRUCE: You've come a long way Zodiac!

SCARLET pops up but BRUCE is already rising, SCARLET knocks her pistol out of line, the bullet ripping along the side of her mask and letting strands of red hair come free. BRUCE tries to do the same but is too slow, only managing to get SCARLET's gun against her shoulder. SCARLET fires and the Australian falls.

SCARLET: I thought you needed the home field advantage.

Water begins to rush into the hold, swamping the remaining drones and marines. SCARLET drops into the Orbital Frame's cockpit. She snaps its shut as a wave of water rushes in. The Mercurion drives pulse and the suit begins to rise, ripping its way through the top of the ship and hurtling skywards.

TITLE SEQUENCE: Mirrors and Video screens as theme.

FADE IN: INT: A CONFERENCE ROOM (DAY)

Various core POLITICIANS, OFFICERS and TECHNOCRATS sit around the table. At one side is BRUCE. Her shoulder is covered in a set of bandages. At the head of the table is the MINISTER. On the video screen is the last shot of SCARLET we saw before the suit cockpit closed.

MINISTER: Twenty one of our best soldiers killed and twice that wounded and one of the biggest intelligence coups of the last decade slipped through our fingers. Millions of dollars flushed down the drain! We're a laughing stock!

An OFFICER speaks up.

OFFICER: There's no way we can be blamed for this! There should have been no way that the Zodiacs could get an operations team to earth like this. We still don't know how they did it.

BRUCE: I'll tell you how they did it sir. They did it because they're smarter and stronger than we are. You saw that operative. Our men are just not capable of fighting them on equal terms.

MINISTER: But what can we do about that?

BRUCE: Sir, I have a plan. . . let me tell you about Project Cruel Reflections. . .