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As the shuttle moves away, descending toward Pandora, we hear

the sound of DRUMS, building, louder and louder until we--

CUT TO:

EXT. RAINFOREST - TWILIGHT

FLYING OVER A LANDSCAPE of massive cliffs and towering mesas

carpeted in rainforest. Great scarves of cloud swirl around

the mesa tops. A primeval landscape, vast and forbidding.

The trees are alien, the color too cyan. There are

waterfalls, rivers, and distant flocks of WINGED CREATURES.

Suddenly the carpet of virgin rainforest gives way to --

AN OPEN-PIT MINE. A lifeless crater -- as if a giant cookie-

cutter took a chunk out of the world. Down among the

terraces are EXCAVATORS and TRUCKS the size of three story

buildings.

And beyond the mine is the HUMAN COLONY --

7.

EXT. HELL'S GATE - TWILIGHT

HELL'S GATE is a cluster of squat concrete and steel

structures surrounded by chain-link FENCE 10 meters high,

topped with razor wire.

At the corners are towers with automated SENTRY GUNS

swiveling on servo mounts.

Visible beyond the gun towers, the VALKYRIE SHUTTLE roars in

across the treetops. VECTORING NOZZLES change angle,

bringing the ship to a SLOW HOVER.

EXT. RAIN FOREST - TWILIGHT

Through a screen of jungle canopy, we see the VALKYRIE

thunder overhead. Camera TILTS with it until leaves block

the view.

A BLUE INHUMAN HAND reaches INTO SHOT, parting the foliage to

reveal the shuttle hover-taxiing across the compound.

REVERSE -- ECU of two intense, cat-like golden EYES watching.

INT./EXT. SHUTTLE

The CREW CHIEF stomps down the aisle yelling --

CREW CHIEF:

Exopacks on!

Passengers don their EXO-PACK breathing gear with practiced

moves. Everybody except JAKE, who's turning his this way and

that trying to figure out the straps.

CREW CHIEF:

Remember people, you lose your mask

you're unconscious in 20 seconds and

you're dead in four minutes. Let's nobody

be dead today, it looks bad on my report.

The crew chief stops by Jake long enough to bark --

CREW CHIEF:

Exopack on, let's go!

BENEATH THE SHUTTLE air blasts outward for a hundred meter

radius as it settles onto its landing gear.

INSIDE everybody is queued up in the aisles, with duffles

ready. Rows of tense, expectant faces in breathing masks --

and we DIP DOWN to find Jake, wheelchair putting him at the

level of everyone else's WAISTS.

8.

THE CARGO RAMP OPENS with a hydraulic whine.

CREW CHIEF:

Go directly into the base! Do not stop!

Go straight inside!

HAND-HELD, running with the arriving colonists who double

time down the ramp. They jog across the exposed apron toward

a walkway covered in CHAINLINK which leads to the complex.

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