WARNING:
Following attempts by U.S. citizens to experiment
with producing counter agents to chemical and biological agents, U.S. law
now prohibits the possession of such agents. Experimentation with such
agents is deemed a crime of mass destruction, and U.S. government agencies
will deal with suspected possession with the most violent and severe methods.
No kidding folks, don't even think about it. It's shoot first and ask questions
later time.
Although I have gone to great lengths to make this
fan-fiction technologicaly accurrate, this story has not been compiled
by an expert in biology, medical, legal, or defense matters. It should
be considered a work in progress and not as a primary source. This story
should not be considered to be complete, authoritative, or necessarily
accurate. This document is not a reflection of the policy of the US government
or any of the other sources referred to herein.
*
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Sargeant Debbie Carson, U.S. Air Force
Captain Jerry Wallace, U.S. Army (Retired)
Sargeant Michael Cayer III, U.S. Marine Corps
*
ALSO THANKS TO:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Department of The Army
The Department of The Navy
The United States Marine Corps
*
Advanced weaponry based on the material from Aliens: Colonial Marines
Technical Manual by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood
*
OVERTURE
[A computer conducted version of the Gargoyles theme with a slow tempo]
FADE INTO:
The stars. The camera is passing through them like a starship going warp speed. Beginning credits are rolling. Theme preferably opens with dissonant orchestral rumblings and snare drums in a military candance style before seguening to a Khachuatuian-style string passage. It also retains aspects of the original "Gargoyles" theme.
The speed of the camera slows down and the title music reaches its end, we see a blue and green ball approach. It is EARTH. The camera descends into the atmosphere.
Camera pulls out until it's high in the sky, and then head westward over the Atlantic Ocean
VIEW: As the camera flies high above the ocean, it passes throughout some clouds. As the clouds clear, we see that we are flying over a modern day America. After a few moments the camera descends on an interstate in the Midwest.
CUT TO BLACK: Superimposition: Day 1
CUT TO: A TRACTOR-TRAILER ONT THE INTERSTATE
SUPERIMPOSITION on lower left side of the screen:
Date: 23 June 1999
0745 hours
Location: 14 miles west of Omaha, Nebraska.
Unmarked US Army tractor trailer embarked from Offuit Air Force Base en route to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia.
Assignment: Classified
TRACTOR TRAILER, INTERIOR
Two soldiers in civilian clothing. They look like any other truckers you might see on the road.
CUT TO: Several men in dark para-military uniforms in a freshly planted cornfield about 200 meters away. The are all armed with MP-5 sub-machine guns and are crouching low to the ground for cover except for one who is aiming an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) at an area in front of the trailer. It FIRES.
TRACTOR TRAILER, EXTERIOR
The road in front of the trailer EXPLODES. The trailer and several other vehicles are swerving around the crater, SCHREECHING their tires.
The soldiers exit the truck armed with shotguns. They had considered bringing assault rifles but the brass was worried that it would arouse suspicion if they were pulled over by police. Besides, shotguns can be more effective than rifles (or them pussy, overrated "directed energy weopons") in certain situations. The men systematically survey the area until the mystery men show up out of nowhere and rain a hail of bullets at the Army men. The Army men fire several shots at the Intruders.
Army Man #1 FIRES a round at an intruder, taking him out. Intruder seems to burn away into dust, leaving behind a scorched skeleton. Army man is shocked. A second intruder tries to sneak up behind him. Army Man #1 swings around and hits the second intruder on the head with the butt of his shotgun, knocking him out. A third intruder succeeds where the second one didn't. He hits Army Man #1 on the back of the head with his revolver. And with amazing strength, he grabs the solider by the jacket and thows him onto the side of the trailer. The soilder SMACKS against the trailer and falls to the ground, as limp as a rag doll .
Camera movement
Army Man #2 is lying down on the ground underneath the truck, FIRING at a pair of intruders who are dug into a drainage ditch alongside the interstate. The intruders are FIRING their MP-5's at full automatic, while Army Man #2 is SCREAMING for help incoherently over a hand-held radio. Suddenly, the intruders lob grenade-like objects at the truck. One lands near the soldier. Instead of exploding, it releases a cloud of gas. The soldier starts to cough and after several moment he collapses.
FADE TO BLACK:
CUT TO: A college classroom full of students. There is a young man behind the podium giving a lecture.
SUPERIMPOSITION on the lower left hand of the screen:
New York State University
0840 hours
He is FBI AGENT BARNES. BARNES is a black man in his early thirties wearing a business suit, his Federal Bureau of Investigation I.D. tag , short hair and a mustache. He is a former Air Force officer who use to work at the Pentagon designing missile delivery systems for chemical and biological systems. But after the birth of his daughter, he found his line of work distasteful and decided to use his skills in the FBI. He is currently teaching the students about biological and chemical weapons.
BARNES:
Now as I explained before, biological weapons are any infectious agent
such as a bacteria or virus when used intentionally to inflict harm upon
others. This definition is often expanded to include biologically-derived
toxins and poisons.
Biological warfare agents include both living microorganisms produced
by microorganisms, plants, or animals. Some experts classify toxins as
chemical rather than biological agents, but most do not, and they were
included within the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention-as reflected in
its formal title, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development,
Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons and on
Their Destruction. Writers on the subject have produced a long list of
BioWeapon agents that terrorists could potentially use. Among those mentioned
have been: anthrax, cryptococcosis, escherichia coli, haemophilus influenzae,
brucellosis (undulant fever), coccidioidomycosis (San Joaquin Valley or
desert fever), psittacosis (parrot fever), yersina pestis (the Black Death
of the 14th Century), tularemia (rabbit fever), malaria, cholera, typhoid,
bubonic plague, cobra venom, shellfish toxin, botulinal toxin, saxitoxin,
ricin, smallpox, shigella flexneri, s. dysenteriae (Shiga bacillus), salmonella,
staphylococcus enterotoxin B, hemorrhagic fever, Venezuelan equine encephalitis,
histoplasma capsulatum, pneumonic plague, Rocky Mountain spotted fever,
dengue fever, Rift Valley fever, diphtheria, melioidosis, glanders, tuberculosis,
infectious hepatitis, encephalitides, blastomycosis, nocardiosis, yellow
fever, typhus, tricothecene mycotoxin, aflatoxin, and Q fever. Some of
these agents are highly lethal; others would serve mainly in an incapacitating
role. Some experts have also speculated about the possible terrorist use
of new, genetically-engineered agents designed to defeat conventional methods
of treatment or to attack specific ethnic groups, for example.
Are there any questions?
STUDENT #1
[Raises hand] How dangerous are these weapons?
BARNES
Extremely. Biological weapons are immensely destructive. In the right
environment they can multiply, and so self-perpetuate. And they can naturally
mutate, frustrating protective measures. Chemical weapons, for all their
horrors, become less lethal as they are dispersed and diluted. But even
the tiniest quantities of disease organisms can be lethal. For example,
botulinum toxin has been described as 3 million times more potent than
the chemical nerve agent sarin.
And these are truly loathsome instruments of war and terror. Anthrax,
for instance, takes three excruciating days to destroy the membranes of
the lungs and intestines.
Botulinum toxin annihilates by slow asphyxiation, as the cells of the
victim's breathing muscles die from within.
So it is of small wonder that the international community has placed
such organisms out of bounds, even in combat. That was done in the 1972
Convention not only because these are weapons of mass destruction, but
because they are infinitely cruel weapons of terror.
Are there any more questions?
STUDENT #2
[Raises hand] Have biological weapons ever been used in warfare or terrorism?
BARNES
Yes they have.
In the 6th Century BC, Assyrians poisoned enemy wells with rye ergot.
Around that same time, Solon of Athens used the purgative herb hellebore,
also called skunk cabbage, to poison the water supply during the siege
of Krissa.
In 1346 AD, plague broke out in the Tartar army during its siege of
Kaffa ,at present day Feodosiys in Crimea. The attackers hurled the corpses
of those who died over the city walls; the plague epidemic that followed
forced the defenders to surrender, and some infected people who left Kaffa
may have started the Black Death pandemic which spread throughout Europe.
In 1797, Napoleon attempted to infect the inhabitants of the besieged
city of Mantua with swamp fever during his Italian campaign
The arrest in 1972 in Chicago of members of a US right-wing group known
as the "Order of the Rising Sun," "dedicated to creating a new master race,"
who possessed 30 to 40 kilograms of typhoid bacteria cultures for use against
water supplies in Chicago, St. Louis, and other Midwestern cities. According
to one source, the two instigators, charged with conspiracy to commit murder,
were college students, one of whom, a 19-year-old, "had apparently developed
the culture in a school laboratory, where a quantity was found". Ponte
identifies the facility in question as a Chicago City College lab. According
to him, the two arrested members of this "neo-Nazi" organization, one of
whom was a "local hospital worker," had "in their possession detailed plans
for dumping the deadly germs into the water supplies". Berkowitz et al.
report that the Chicago City College student, one Steven Pera, "had worked
as a volunteer at a Chicago hospital medical center, but was ordered off
the premises when it was learned that he had grown bacterial cultures there
and had attempted to obtain chemicals without the proper authority". After
recounting this incident, Mengel noted that "the organism selected would
have been readily destroyed by normal chlorination". Jenkins and Rubin,
agreeing with this judgment, added that "The two had recruited six or seven
members who were to be inoculated against the disease, but two of the recruits
panicked and tipped off the police."
1982, the reported arrest by Los Angeles police and FBI agents of a
man "who was preparing to poison the city's water system with a biological
poison" .
The arrest by the FBI in the Northeastern US in 1983 of two brothers
who had succeeded in manufacturing an ounce of nearly pure ricin, stored
in a 35-mm film canister.
In September 1984 the Rajneesh cult outside of Antelope, Oregon was said to have contaminated salad bars in local restaurants in The Dalles, Oregon, with Salmonella typhi (typhoid), resulting in the poisoning of 750 people, in order to influence the outcome of a local election.
The crowd murmers every time BARNES gives an example.
BARNES is about to continue when his beeper goes off. He looks down and checks on it.
BARNES
Excuse me, folks. I have to make a phone call.
BARNES walks out of the classroom.
CUT TO: Hallway
BARNES walks into the hallway, takes out his cell phone, and dials a number. There is is a breif DIAL TONE and then the line is picked up.
BARNES
This is Agent Barnes. Did someone page me? Uh-huh. [looks around him]
Yeah, I'm alone. Uh-huh. [his face grows serious] Jesus Christ!
CUT TO: New York City skyline near sun set.
MUSIC: Instrumental; a quasi-romantic tune, but also scary and portentous. As the camera finds its way through a maze of large buildings to one of the taller building that has a medieval castle on top of it, we hear a four-note motif in the winds that suggests the ticking away of time.
The camera moves forward to the castle. We see that there are stone gargoyles on the battlements. We continue to move forward to the highest battlement and see the gargoyle GOLIATH sleeping in his stone form in a thoughtful pose. The camera then pans down to a lower turret and we now see the rest of the clan.
Camera movement.
The camera slowly pans lefts to right showing the individual clan members in the following order; BROADWAY, the watchdog/gargoyle BRONX, HUDSON, SATA and her mate BROOKLYN, their twin children GREAME and ARIANA, LEXINGTON, and ANGELA.
CUT TO: The city skyline. The sun sets in the horizon and leaves behind an orange-ish "sunfade."
CUT TO: The sleeping form of GOLIATH. The exterior of the "statue" starts to crack. He then awakes explosively, throwing stone skin all over. He YAWNS/ROARS.
Camera movement.
We see the rest of the clan awake in the same fashion.
MUSIC: A major chord announces the awakening of the clan. After this, no further music until indicated.
FADE TO: Castle interior. Dinner room.
The Gargoyles are sitting around a breakfast table eating cereal. BROADWAY is about pouring orange juice in their glasses. He walks up to where BROOKLYN is sitting.
BROADWAY:
Want more orange juice?
BROOKLYN:
Yeah, a little more.
BROADWAY works his way around the table pouring orange juice until he comes to ANGELA. She looks exhausted despite her day long sleep.
BROADWAY:
Want any more juice?
ANGELA:
[Groggily] No, thanks. I wouldn't mind some coffee though. I feel terrible.
LEXINGTON:
You look terrible. How did you sleep today?
ANGELA:
[yawns] Like a rock. [weak chuckle] It's just that I've been having
some pretty horrible dreams lately.
GOLIATH:
What have these dreams been about?
ANGELA:
I really don't remember them all. But they've mostly been about all
of the things that have been going on lately.
GOLIATH:
[concerned] About what things, exactly?
ANGELA:
Everything it seems. Mother, the Hunters, the Quarrymen, and now the
Unsilee Court. It seems like hardly anything is going on right in my life.
LEXINGTON:
[low] Yeah, I know what that's like.
BROOKLYN glares at LEXINGTON as if he knows some dark secret (Talk about foreshadowing, huh?). He wants to end this conversation before some difficult questions come up. He turns to his kids, ARIANNA and GREAME, clears his throat and changes the subject.
BROOKLYN:
Hey, kids, remember that you have help Owen clean the castle tonight.
ARIANNA: [whining]
But, Dad, we want to go on patrol with you tonight!
BROOKLYN:
No buts about it. Xanatos is having that party here in a couple of nights,
and you two haven't exactly been pulling your weight around here.
ARIANNA and GREAME: [simultaneously, bowing their heads]
Yes, Father.
SATA:
Lexington, could you go check on the police scanner to see what's going
on, please?
LEXINGTON:
Yeah, sure.
LEXINGTON gets out of the chair and goes into the next room.
CUT TO: LIVING ROOM INTERIOR: Not as big as the main hall or main dinning room, basically serves the same function as a living room in many homes. There is a TV/VCR, stereo, a couple of reclining chairs, and a police scanner sitting on top of a desk in the corner.
LEXINGTON walks into the room, over to the police scanner, and turns a knob. Scanner hisses loud STATIC as LEXINGTON turns a dial to find the right frequency.
CUT TO: Kitchen
GREAME:
Dad, can I go buy a Marilyn Manson album?
BROOKLYN:
Marilyn Manson? You mean that shock rock guy?
GREAME:
Yeah.
BROOKLYN:
Why him? Why not someone with actual music talent?
GREAME:
I thought you used to like music like that. Why don't you like it any
more?
BROOKLYN:
Puberty finally ended. Besides, he's a fake. Just the fact that he hasn't
killed himself or somebody else in some kind of ritual proves it. He's
just a smart guy who take advantage of a bunch of socially maladjusted
kids to make money. He's just like Alice Cooper. In 10 or 20 years, he'll
be playing golf alongside Maculae Caulking and a bunch of other has-beens.
GREAME:
Mainstream nilhism can't be trusted, huh?
BROOKLYN:
'Fraid not, kiddo.
BROADWAY:
I heard that Alice Cooper once beat the club pro at some golf course
in South Dakota.
BROOKLYN:
Really?
LEXINGTON walks into the kitchen.
LEXINGTON:
Hey guys, on the police scanner, they're saying that there's some big
gun battle on the north side of the old docks. But the Feds ordered the
police to stay away because they're handling the situation.
GOLIATH:
Hmm. Perhaps we should investigate this.
LEXINGTON:
Is that such a good idea? I sound like both sides are throwing out a
lot of fire power. We might get caught in the middle.
GOLIATH:
True, but we should least scout the area so that there aren't any innocent
by bystanders.
ARIANNA:
Can we come along too?
SATA:
No, Arianna. It sounds like it's too dangerous. Besides, you and Greame have to help clean up the castle. [Gets out of the chair and kisses Arianna on the forehead.] Don't worry, we'll be back soon.
The other gargoyles get out of their chairs and sprint out of the kitchen to the outside.
CUT TO: Castle ext.
The gargoyles run out of the castle, leap off the edge and into the night.
CLAW SLASH SCENE CHANGE GRAPHIC: We see the gargoyles gliding over the City.
Camera movement
Camera pulls tight on GOLIATH's face as he looks down below.
GOLIATH'S POINT OF VIEW: A large warehouse is seen below. There is the sound of GUNFIRE. TRACER ROUNDS are seen flying away from and toward the warehouse. Several armored vehicles out the building can be seen out side the building. A small number of troops are seen fighting in the street.
A pair of dark blue helicopters with the white markings "FBI" fly overhead.
Suddenly, several BURST of GUNFIRE (Incuding a few Tracers) from the building head toward the clan. One round hits SATA in the leg, GOLIATH is hit in the shoulder and another round grazes BROADWAY on his calf. The clan breaks formation and scatter towards the ground.
The wounded gargoyles land heavily. The other land beside them and are about to help when a sudden explosion knocks everyone off their feet. The dust settles after a few moments and then BROOKLYN notices some movement down the street.
Two NAVY SEALs (SEa, Air, Land) wearing night-ops uniforms armed with MP-5's emerge from the cloud of dust. They are suprised to see the gargoyles.
GOLIATH manages to stand back up. He turns to the SEALs.
GOLIATH:
Who are you? What are you doing here?
The SEALs don't hesitate, they FIRE their guns at the clan at full automatic. (Note: All weapons have a distinct sound. And no "laser" effect. Real looking muzzle flash. They must look, sound, and operate like the real thing.)
The Gargoyles scatter.
GOLIATH and HUDSON leap behind a corner of a buiding.
BROOKLYN and SATA jump onto the side of the same building, climb to the top and lay low behind the edge of the roof.
LEXINGTON jumps behind a newspaper vending machine for cover. The front page reads: SNEEZING CAN INCREASE YOUR BUST SIZE!
ANGELA and BROADWAY split up to make themselves harder to track and then sprint down the street away from the SEALs.
A stray round hits ANGELA in the back of her lower right leg. She falls on her face.
BROADWAY turns around to see ANGELA about 20 meters away laying down on the ground clutching at her wounded leg. He races to her, but a sudden EXPLOSION between them knocks BROADWAY several feet away onto his back. (All the sound becomes extremely subdued. Only faint GUNSHOT and YELLING are heard. The frame rate drops a lot.)
ANGELA is blown about 15 feet away from the explosion. She is covered by some debris.
BROADWAY slowly gets up on his knees and rubs his ears. The explosion has deafened him. He craws around, looking for ANGELA, but is too dazed and confused. He looks down the street. There are a group of men dressed just like the Intruders in the bigining of the film. They are FIRINg at the SEALs who have just gotten several reinforcements. BROADWAY is caught in the crossfire.Rounds are flying everywhere, YELLING, SCREAMING, GUNSHOTS, it is total chaos.
BROADWAY'S POV: He looks around and sees GOLIATH behind an edge of a building yelling at him, but he can't hear.
Suddenly, BROADWAY's hearing returns.
GOLIATH
Broadway! Get over here, quick!
BROADWAY, still a little dizzy, stays low to the ground and quickly crawls over to where GOLIATH & HUDSON are behind the building.
BROADWAY meets GOLIATH and HUDSON. BROADWAY leans against the wall trying to collect himself. A horrified GOLIATH grabs him by the shoulders.
GOLIATH
Broadway! Where's Angela?!
BROADWAY
I-I dont't know. I last saw her on in the street. She looked hurt!
CUT TO rooftop:
SATA and BROOKLYN are still taking cover behind the edge of the roof. BROOKLYN is loading is loading his M78 Phased plasma Infantry Gun (PIG).
The M78 PIG is a carbine formate infantry weapon. The PIG consist of two main parts: the gun and its power pack within the stock. The M78 is a 7 mW phased plasma system firing vaporized Cadmium Telluride pellets (probably supplied by XANATOS) from a 30 round feed. It is capable of firing the rounds in either a single powerful burst or in a weaker continuous stream. Although it is very high tech, it isn't very reliable or practical. The "ideal conditions" for optimal performance almost never happen. If the weather is even slightly crappy the beam is screwed. Radiation and magnetic feilds would present serious problems too. If there was a big lightning storm, the user might as well be throwing rocks. Also, the giveaway DEW line ( Directed Energy Weapon trail caused by ionization and thermal blooming). It's probably a bitch to clean, too.
BROOKLYN leans over the edge and takes aim at one of the Intruders.
As he is about to fire, he is shot in the chest plate, knocking him on his back and denting the armor. SATA SCREAMS when he is shot.
SATA runs to BROOKLYN and helps him up.
BROOKLYN
[wheezing] Jesus... knocked the wind outta me.
SATA helps BROOKLYN across the roof and take off on the other side when the shooting starts to die down.
They glide over to where GOLIATH, HUDSON, and BROADWAY ARE.
CUT TO: LEXINGTON behind the newspaper vending machine.
The shooting starts to die down. LEXINGTON looks around him to see if anyones around. All's clear, so he sprints over to the rest of the clan.
LEX arrives and looks around
LEXINGTON
Hey, where's Angela?
Before anyone can answer, the open end of the alley is peppered with bullets. The clan sprints to the other end of the alley and start climbing the wall up to the roof. HUDSON help the injured GOLIATH and SATA helps BROOKLYN up the wall.
When they reach the top, the SHOOTING starts to die off again. Soon it is almost totally quite except for the sound of SIRENS from approaching police vehicles.
The FBI helicopter and a U.S. Navy helicopter with a Red Cross symbol are seem flying away from the scene.
The clan rush over to the edge of the roof to look at the scene below.
Camera movement.
It looks like a scene from Saving Private Ryan. Several fires, half dozen small craters in the ground, no Intruders, no SEALs, and no ANGELA to be seen.
Camera movement.
The gargoyles are totally aghast at what had just happened. GOLIATH leaps off the edge of the building calling out ANGELA's name. The rest of the clan soon follow in suite.
CUT TO: Areial view of the scene
The Gargoyles are glinding around the scene calling out "Angela!" and "Where are you?!" as the camera pulls back. As POLICE SIRENS drown out their voices, the screen...
FADES TO BLACK:
SUPERIMPOSITION on the lower left hand of the screen:
U.S. Naval Base
Billings, Montana
2205 hours
CUT TO: A NAVAL MEDICAL FACILITY, INT.
A black nurse is working at a desk when her telephone RINGS. She answers:
NURSE
Hello, you've reached Naval Station Medical Corps of Billings, Montana.
This is Cheif Rebecca Charmane. How may I help you? Uh-huh. I believe he's
still here, but he he might have already gone home. I'll check.
She puts the man on the other end of the line on hold. She punches a button on the phone intercom.
CUT TO: A doctor's office
A lean but not un-hansom young man in his early thirties with brown eyes and short, slightly curley black hair is doing some paperwork. He is also wearing a medical outfit. He looks very tired and looks like he is about to fall asleep. The phone intercome beeps. The man, who we will call "BULLDOG", presses the reply button and speaks in a British (with a hint of Central West Plains from living in America) accent.
"BULLDOG"
Listen Hicks, if this is about that anthrax culture you wanted analyzed,
it's too late. You should have sent it to the pathology lab six hours ago.
It's late and I wanna go home.
NURSE [over the intercome]
Lieutenant, this isn't Hicks, Sir. It's Nurse Charmane. There's someone
on the phone who wants to talk with you.
"BULLDOG"
Who is it?
NURSE [over intercom]
It's the FBI, Sir. A Special Agent Michael Franks. He wants to talk
with you immediatly.
"BULLDOG"
FBI? Patch it in.
NURSE [over intercom]
Yes, Sir.
"BULDOG" picks up the phone.
"BULLDOG"
Hello? Yes, this is him. Is there any thing you need? Yes, I'm alone.
Yeah. Uh-huh. WHAT?! Are you shitting me? Listen, this have better not
be some demented joke. 'Cause it's bad enough I have have to put up with
all this crap about my family from the media, let alone a bunch of... Really?
She's alive? Hold on.
[Takes a notepad and a small recorder out of his desk.
He puts the recorder in his breast pocket and starts writing notes]
Okay. What's her condition? Serious. Gunshot wound-lower leg. Fragmentatton
wounds. GI Tract bleeding. Several fractures. Has she woke up yet? No.
[Finishes writing notes]
Well Agent Franks, that's very interresting but I don't really understand
how I'm involved in all of this. Well, yes Sir, but my experience in these
matters are fairly limited. Besides what I've already reported to you guys
already, there really isn't much more than I can offer. Someone's going
to pick me up? When? Fifteen minutes. They'll breif me on the plane? Everything
I'll need will be in New York? [sighs] Are you sure you want me to do this?
All right. Bye.
"BULLDOG" hangs up phone.
CUT TO BLACK
END DAY 1