Exploring Alpha Opening Scene

Opening Scene

MUSIC: quiet almost dreary music
DISOLVE TO: A rainy overcast Lorcaster Airfield as we follow a large transport into orbit around Etolar where it joins others waiting>>>
NARRATOR (slowly, unemotional): At the beginning of Huren, the 9th month of the year 1610 in the Common Era, a convoy of ten transport ships and small private vessels rendezvous in orbit around the planet Etolar. Just prior to departure, an Etolarian Solar Navy Destroyer joins the convoy as well.
CUT TO: Inside the transport as passengers settle in, a rugged and capable captain is at the helm
NARRATOR: The transports are mostly full of hopeful and expectant settlers and entrepreneurs eager for a fresh start on the newly discovered planet of Alpha . Some hope to pay off societal debts, some seek adventure, some seek freedom some seek monetary gain and power - but all are headed to the new frontier. One-by-one the ships in the flotilla establish a steady speed and then fade into Warpspace - a precise maneuver based on calculations constructed by seasoned navigators on Analytical Engines.
NARRATOR: The time in Warpspace quickly becomes routine - eat, sleep socialized, wait. The journey lasts 15 days. Your transport is called the Kymorda and is destined for "Zone C". Over the course of the journey there are nightly assemblies to plan out the finer details of life on Alpha .
MUSIC: energetic build
WIPE TO: A galley filled with people and a Lordly man and his wife and retainers address the masses
NARRATOR (upbeat): You quickly learn Lord Pike Bellweather bid on and purchased the land that is "Zone C" and is to be a fiefdom. You learn he also purchased a charter from the King Ansel Reardon that will give "Zone C" some autonomy. During several speeches he urges you all to success, which means better charters and higher freedoms - while it hangs there like a carrot on a stick, it also true.
FADE TO: a dreamy series of shots of people emerging from dungeons and working the fields.
NARRATOR: A great number of people are serfs, indentured servants that could not pay their debts or landed in prison due to crimes they committed. Rather than languish in a dungeon the able-bodied have traded incarceration for the expectation to work off their debts as a farmer - a few claim they had no choice. Most seem eager to begin anew and clear their debts and even regain freedom, but some you expect to disappear the first opportunity they get.
MUSIC: A momentary dark bridge between an otherwise progressively uplifting tune
CUT TO: dark brigs with a few surly types bound in chains with dark stares.
NARRATOR (concern): Rumors claim that some are yet being transported in chains - criminals too dangerous to be trusted but not dangerous enough to be put to the guillotine.
MUSIC: epic music begins to swell.
CUT TO: cheery faced craftsmen and their families.
NARRATOR (happy): Some are Freeman. A few in turn have leased or even purchased a plot of land from Lord Pike Bellweather - a place to call their own. A few of the highly sought skilled tradesmen were enticed into coming and given land or stock or even serf laborers. These folk who had full-choice seem genuinely on-board with building a new society - some in the name of the Etolarian Empire and some eager to be at the edge of the empire.
WIPE TO: a clearly upper class peoples dressed in fine attire of the day.
NARRATOR (knowingly): Fewer still are those who bought their own ticket or travel papers and have enough wealth and skill to purchase or obtain what they need on their own. Some even possess their own ships - wealthy merchants, money lenders or... greasy snake-oil salesmen.
MUSIC: music reaches an energetic level.
MONTAGE: Tables filled with maps and documents, people making plans, shaking hands, foremen signing up workers, help wanted posters being naild up
NARRATOR (with energy): Connections and plans form and firm with each day of the trip. There are all manner of needs posted on ad-hoc "work boards". The Lord needs explorers to map and mark the fiefdom, explorers to find and evaluate threats. A militia is forming - not only are rank and file needed, but officers and trainers and support staff. Skilled tradesmen seeking to make contracts for raw materials. Woodsman and stone-cutters hiring guards for caravans. Freemen looking to hire ranch hands, cooks and maids. Skilled tradesmen are shoring up their labor forces or taking on apprentices. As each day ticks by there is a growing buzz of excitement as plans are hatched.
MUSIC: epic swell
CUT TO: space, The Primean sun peaks around a large planet, also glinting off the convoy of transports that approach.
NARRATOR (relieved): Finally the day arrives and the ships fade back into real space.
MONTAGE: Expectant people on deck pointing and smiling, portholes filled with faces in awe and wonder.
NARRATOR (renewed energy): The decks crowd with people and portholes fill with expectant faces as they all gaze upon the largest habitable plant that 100 Worlds has ever seen... the legendary Alpha , the lost world. A planet long sought by seekers, treasure hunters and archaeologists looms before you in a bright spectacle of lush green, deserts, ocean, lakes and polar ice caps - a great gem in a sea of diamond-like stars.
CUT TO: High orbit, The planet lush and green now bathed in light. Foreground: the ships in the convoy diverge.
NARRATOR: Soon the flotilla begins to break up... the ten transports each heading to different landing zones. You loose track of the smaller ships... ahhh to be so independent and free.
MUSIC: decrescendo in to a momentary tense ballad.
CUT TO: transport interior, a mother hugs her children and a husband comfort the wife.
NARRATOR (concerned): Soon the ride becomes rough and many clear the decks and hunker inside the transport. The ship rattles and creaks and pitches side-to-side as it navigates from the upper to lower atmosphere of Alpha .
MUSIC: once again happy and building.
PAN: camera passes from passenger to passenger and light falls on the increasingly less-worried faces.
NARRATOR (relieved): Fresh air begins to fill your lungs, a spirit-lifting moment. Especially after breathing 15 days of increasingly stale atmosphere provided by the magical Etharium ballast.
MUSIC: music fades, taken over by mechanical sounds.
SFX: rhythmic mechanical sounds briefly overtake the music.
CUT TO: husband and wife observed earlier, he nods reassuringly at her.
NARRATOR (expectantly): Soon you hear the steam pistons engage and the clank of mechanisms from deep in the bowls of the Kymorda As the transport clears the clouds you can once again see Alpha this time from only thousands of feet above the surface instead of miles. The descent takes you towards a large sprawling continent with an ocean bay where you can make out a large river lazily meandering is core. Lots of grassland and scattered forests can be seen. Soon you loose the vantage of height and the river becomes the main landmark... what seemed like flat land from high up, gives way to undulating terrain and soon the horizon is obscured by the next hill. There is a sudden jolt as new engines roar to life. Dust and debris are kicked up obscuring the view. There is a moment where you feel a tentative floating sensation, just above the goal, like a bee choosing a flower... and then... touchdown and a sudden solid feeling.
CUT TO: A lounge packed with settlers.
NARRATOR (happy): A tremendous "Huzzaah!" rings throughout the ship - we made it!
PAN pan through the settlers as they pick up belongings, grab children's hands and prepare to disembark.
NARRATOR (relaxed): Some eyes are teary, some nervous, but all are filled with expectancy. The noise of Kymorda begins to step-down as various steam-driven systems go quiet. Very quickly the halls and lounges flood with people eager to get off and begin life anew.
MUSIC: builds, lead by a tympani roll.
WIPE TO Interior transport, a dark exit door in a dark wall of the transport, settlers queued up before the door.
NARRATOR (building): You hear the whine and ratchet of gears. In the main passenger bays, doors long-closed for 15 days suddenly open and the light of a new world pierces the gloomy darkness of the ship.
VFX: light streams in.
MUSIC: crescendo, fanfare.
NARRATOR: Large lines queue up as 327 souls excitedly begin to file off the ship...
MUSIC: reprise of main theme.
CUT TO: Exterior, a high angle shot that pulls back from the landed transport resting in a field of grass... its doors open as settlers stream out.
NARRATOR (slowly with purpose): And so it begins... life on Alpha ... the Lost World.
MUSIC: Energetic epic music reaches maximum forte, energy and tempo.
VFX: Scene blurs, cue 100 Worlds logo, opening titles & credits. Following that a flash-forward montage of the main actors in adventure shots.