THE MATRIX V 3.03
EPSIODE 8 EXORDIUM
BY ROBERT ‘CHOI’ BOEHM
b4483@alltel.net
FADE IN TO:
INT. NOSTRADAMUS BRIEFING ROOM
The crew of the Nostradamus is casually sitting around a long table in
the briefing room as Arbiter walks in.
XANDARA
We only get twenty-four
hours? Did they even get Nostra’
repaired?
ARBITER
The Nostradamus is at
one-hundred percent and Zion needs their best ship in the field.
CARNAN
Shit, what did Dead Bolt do to
you this time? – Would you like me to yank that pipe out of your ass.
Arbiter glares at Carnan with discontent.
ARBITER
Commander Vagrant is
dissatisfied with our recent progress and insistent on the extraction of
Satin. Despite our recent progress he
still feels we are the best company for the mission.
TALON
Hold on. Now I’m not about giving up, but she knows
too many of our faces. We won’t be able
to pull a rabbit out of a hat with out having agents in our face. How are we supposed to keep her calm?
The room is silent, Tachyon, nervous refrains from speaking.
ARBITER
I don’t know, but were going
to meet up with the Delphi. Hopefully
we’ll just be running support. When
were finished here, Xandara you’ll need to take us up to broadcast depth. Once inside we will rendezvous with the
Delphi at the Exordium building in the sol network. Room B-3. – Phase, insert us close, but not too close.
PHASE
Gotcha.
ARBITER
Talon and Aquanis will stay
behind and guard our exit point. Carnan
and Tachyon will come with me to the rendezvous point.
They all nod as they are given their orders.
ARBITER
Any remarks?
Slight Pause
ARBITER
Alright, lets get outa here.
FADE TO:
INT. ZION DOCKS
The Nostradamus’s hover disks light up and lift the ship off the dock
floor. It then gingerly spins around
and heads toward the slow opening dock gates.
EXT. ZION
The dock gates are fully opened and the auto guns temporally stand
down in the sewer walls. We see the
Nostradamus come through the gates and straight at us; passing below our
view. The gates slowly start to close.
FADE TO:
INT. NOSTRADAMUS GALLEY
Aquanis is laying down on a table.
On of her legs is bent up and the other is crossed over it. Her clothes are loose; her sweater is
gathered just under her ribcage exposing her stomach. She is repeatedly throwing a ball up into the air and catching it
with the opposite hand. Talon walks in
behind her and swipes the ball from the air before Aquanis knows she is
there. Aquanis tilts her head back to
see who it is.
AQUANIS
What’s up?
Talon tosses the ball back to Aquanis; she holds on to it.
TALON
Haven’t figured out how to
spend your down time yet?
Talon sits on the table next to Aquanis.
AQUANIS
We’ll I’d pester the new guy,
but I can’t do that yet.
She grins at Talon.
AQUANIS
What do you do to kill time?
TALON
Besides pestering the new guy?
AQUANIS
Of course.
TALON
I write – I keep a
journal. And I run simulations.
They both grin.
AQUANIS
Looking for a sparing partner?
FADE TO:
EXT. CHINESE PALACE COURTYARD (SIMULATION)
Aquanis and Talon are standing opposite one another in a sparing ring
in the center of a courtyard of an ancient Chinese palace. The sparing ring has a diameter of about
fifteen feet and is surrounded by a shallow moat about three feet wide. Aquanis is wearing a short dark blue robe
with gold trim and dark blue stockings and wielding a fifty-inch Jo Staff made
of hickory and has a spiral burn around it.
Talon is wearing black Hakama pants and a white frog button shirt. She is holding a twenty-eight inch segment
three section staff at her side; it has ornamental designs carved in to
it. There are a few NPC’s scattered
through out the rest of the courtyard conversing and just walking around. None of them seem to pay much attention to
Aquanis or Talon.
Aquanis and Talon bow at eachother; holding their weapons out in front
of them. Aquanis immediately assaults
Talon, she parries Aquanis’s strikes with her staff still gathered in her
hand. Aquanis drives Talon back toward
the edge of the ring. Before Talon gets
too close to the edge, she side steps one of Aquanis’s strikes. Holding on the an end section of her staff
she spins around and strikes Aquanis in the back with the opposite end section
of her fully extended staff. Aquanis
stumbles forward, but regains her balance before she steps out of the
ring. Talon grabs the middle section of
her staff as it swings around her and regains control of the weapon in front of
her, swinging the ends of the staff around each side of her body. Aquanis quickly turns around and spins her
staff in to position so her right hand is holding the middle of the staff and
squares off Talon so her right shoulder is forward.
Talon advances on Aquanis, swinging the ends of her staff by spinning
around. Aquanis defends each strike
with her Jo. On Talon’s third advance,
when she has her back turned to Aquanis. Aquanis ducks and attacks Talon’s
knees with her Jo staff. Talon jumps
over the staff before it hits her and strikes Aquanis in the head with an end
of her staff. The blow knocks Aquanis
face first to the ground. Her staff
rolls from her hand and falls into the water.
Talon grabs an end of her staff and makes a short jump toward Aquanis,
swinging her staff over her head and bringing it down on Aquanis’s
position. Aquanis rolls out of the way
and into the moat. Talon’s staff meets
the straw mat of the ring with a loud crack.
Aquanis grabs her Jo staff and stands up in the mote as Talon jumps
toward her, spinning in the air and swinging her staff around her body. Aquanis jumps back out of the mote and
parries Talon’s staff with hers’. Talon
splashes down in the mote and immediately
continues to aggress Aquanis.
Talon holds her staff in the middle section and assaults Aquanis by
bringing the end sections across her body.
Aquanis continues on the defensive, parrying the strikes with her Jo
staff. Before Aquanis is driven back
into the courtyard wall, she attacks on of Talon’s advances by side stepping
into Talon’s staff, blocks the staff with her weapon, then swings her Jo all
the way around bringing a blow to Talon’s head; pummeling her to the
ground. As Talon hits the ground a
figure jumps off the roof of the palace and assaults Aquanis with a kendo
stick. Aquanis parries the blow and the
man summersaults as he hits the ground.
The man is wearing full samurai armor with helmet and a grinning mask. Talon kips up as Aquanis turns to see who
the man is. Talon takes advantage by
striking Aquanis’s shoulder with her gathered staff and jumps over her to
assault the samurai. She extends one
end of her staff and swings it toward the samurai’s head. The samurai blocks the strike with his kendo
stick then spins around and attacks Talon’s midsection. Talon blocks the strike with the gathered
end of her weapon, but before she can return the favor Aquanis trips her up
with her Jo staff. Aquanis then
scrambles to her feet and charges toward the samurai, stepping over Talon and
meeting the samurai’s kendo stick head on.
Aquanis blocks the kendo stick with the middle of her Jo staff then
turns her staff over twice cracking the samurai in the head each time with the
opposite ends of the staff. Then she
spins around, holding the Jo at one end and extends it; cracking the samurai in
the head a third time with a fully extended hit. The samurai is thrown into the air, spinning around and crashing to
the ground. The helmet and mask of the
samurai fall off and spin around upside down on the ground. The man behind the mask is Arbiter.
Aquanis spins her staff around and readies her self, backing away from
Arbiter and Talon, but keeping both of them in her vision. Arbiter and Talon find their way to their
feet. Talon grabs her weapon by the mid
section and starts spinning the ends around.
ARBITER
Alright enough. We’ll be at broadcast depth in about fifteen
minutes. I suggest that we don’t beat
our selves up. – Very nice job by the way Aquanis.
The courtyard and the people around them desolve into matrix code and
blow away like dust in the wind leaving Arbiter, Talon, and Aquanis in the
construct.
INT. NOSTRADAMUS MAIN DECK
Arbiter Talon and Aquanis are waking up from the simulation. Phase is there to unplug them.
ARBITER
Alright everybody take ten,
then we’ll head into The Matrix to meet with the Delphi.
EXT. SEWERS
The Nostradamus is seen traveling through the sewers. It comes up to a junction which it takes a
pathway that leads up.
FADE TO:
INT. EXORDIUM BUILDING ROOM B-3
Arbiter, Carnan, and Tachyon have just entered an empty, dilapidated brick
room. Somnus enters from the opposite
end with her crew, one male, one female.
ARBITER
Good evening captain Somnus
SOMNUS
And the same to you captain
Arbiter.
ARBITER
What’s the deal with this
Satin character?
SOMNUS
The Oracle prophesized that “When
Satin is removed by the appointed judge, the One will be found.”
CARNAN
The appointed judge?
Somnus smiles.
SOMNUS
Yes, in other words an arbitrator,
or for short – Arbiter.
ARBITER
This is insane, we can’t get
near Satin with out every agent in the system knowing our location.
SOMNUS
The agents will not be an
issue. They weren’t last time were
they.
Somnus and Arbiter begin raising their voices in anger and
frustration.
ARBITER
Yes, but I think Balder would
argue other wise on our first attempt.
SOMNUS
I am sorry for Balder, but he
was not the appointed judge.
ARBITER
And what about my little
incident with the redline club?
SOMNUS
You’re intent was not for
extraction, besides you got out in time.
ARBITER
Yeah, and no thanks to
you. You’re crew need help from my
backup when I needed them most.
SOMNUS
Captain Arbiter, this arguing
is getting us nowhere. You are under
orders from Commander Vagrant.
Basically you don’t have a choice.
Tomorrow night the Nostradamus will bring Satin back here at precisely 3
am. The Delphi will be waiting with all
the necessary equipment for extraction.
We will also collect the subject from the power plant.
ARBITER
Is that supposed to be an
order Captain?
SOMNUS
No that is an option. And it is your only option as far as I can
see.
ARBITER
Then if I were you, I would
hope that I do not find a better option.
Arbiter turns and leaves from the room. Tachyon and Carnan follow.
FADE TO BLACK:
To Be Continued.