# RPG A DAY 2025: Day 08 - Explore tags: #thoughts #thoughts/RPGaDay/2025 ![[RPG a Day 2025 (illo).png]] ``` EXT. INTERSOLAR SPACE - ALTENDORF SYSTEM Wide on the ALTENDORF system; a rocky MERCURIAN PLANET (Tangle) next to a blazing YELLOW SUN (Osirus), and further out the rocky scatter of an ASTEROID BELT, and then the TWIN-ORBITING JUNGLE PLANET (Zayr) and its DEAD TWIN (Archos). The planets orbit, slowly, before we start to ZOOM, hard, on a TRADE SHIP (Hellion) dropping out of eidolon space on the edge of the system. Scale is hard to make out at first, the long spindly CORE connecting to various MODULES and STORAGE CRATES along it's length, headed by a blunt arrowhead COMMAND POD, and trailed by a massive PARABOLIC DISH. YREN (VO, radio filtered) Jump complete. Run through the systems, Macro. MACRO (VO, radio, clearly mechanical) Diagnostics underway, captain. Prelimn sensors look clear. YREN (VO, radio) Turn on the kicker. We might as well start rolling in if it looks clear. A tiny GLITTERING OBJECT is shot out of an opening in the center of the dish and floats for a beat … Before it EXPLODES in a massive NUCLEAR FIREBALL, the dish absorbing the em pressure of the detonation and recoiling, pushing the Hellion forward as the dish thuds forward like a massive shock absorber. MACRO (VO, radio) Orion drive engaged, captain. Moving toward solar orbit. Shall I start scanning the twins? YREN (VO, radio) That sounds like the right place to start. Angle toward the injection. INT. BRIDGE OF THE HELLION Inside the BRIDGE starts to reveal the true scale of the ship. While not luxurious, there's room for at least six crew. Empty seats sit before stations for Engineering, Weapons, two at Sensors, and Cargo. Think cassette futurism, the cockpit of the Nostromo but with slightly more elbow space. YREN (late 30's, lanky) sits in Command, slightly elevated and to the rear. There's no one else on the deck. He's staring intently at a CRT as he punches commands into a palm-sized interface on the chair. YREN Macro, how's the cargo? I'm showing a larger than expected fuel consumption from that last jump. MACRO (from all directions) Sorry, captain. The jump was more difficult than expected. The ship SHUDDERS slightly as the Orion drive drops another nuke and the ship accelerates again. MACRO Time to orbit around the barycenter, 12 hours. Yren sighs and rubs at the bridge of his nose. He looks tired. YREN Right. I'm headed to my cabin. Let me know if anything untoward happens. MACRO Of course, sir. I have the conn. The Orion kicks again as Yren stands but he just steadies himself on the chair like a standing passenger on a subway as it accelerates.. As he heads to the rear of the deck, we see through the wrap around windows. The ship is huge, the spindly core we saw earlier easily three city blocks wide, the modules the size of apartment buildings. Yren steps through a thick airlock door and then to the side into what looks like an elevator. In the 0g, he turns to stand on what appears to us as the wall, hand casual on one of the grip rails. Punching a few buttons without looking. The door closes with a pneumatic HISS and he whooshes off to the right. INT. YREN'S CABIN 10 hours later. It's dark, the barest outline of chunky corners and a narrow bunk. MACRO Captain, alert. We have an - issue. I believe we're under attack. Sandcasters have been activated and I've initiated evasives. Yren flicks a SWITCH and illuminates the room. It's modest for a captain's quarters. Spare. A few potted plants in strange colors cower in corners. A few photos of places the ship's been. Otherwise it's clean and minimalist. There's a photo on the desk, clearly old and refolded to fit in a pocket many times, that shows a much younger Yren with an older man and a teen about his age. Father and brother? Unclear. He sits up, rubbing his eyes, sheet falling down across his bare chest. YREN I guess that's why we're on the ship, my mechanical friend. In case someone lobs missiles at us. I'm assuming this far out it's missiles, right? MACRO Yes sir. Six. Launched from the L4 almost immediately on our arrival in system. YREN Nothing to do about it now. They tracking? MACRO Yes, sir. Surprisingly well. YREN So many surprises already. Exploration for you. Yren unhurriedly throws the sheet off, standing to retrieve a clean uniform. YREN No response from comms, I know. I know. I'll give it a go; maybe they'll prefer the sound of my voice. MACRO And if they don't, there's always the PPCs. YREN I'd rather not. (teasing) You're always so trigger-happy. MACRO (deadpan) That's why you love me. YREN Tolerate you, Macro. Tolerate. MACRO Same thing. Shaking his head, he strolls out of the cabin. A beat and the lights click off behind him. ``` > [!note] Editor's Note > > Man, I am so completely out of habit of writing screenplays, but I miss doing it. Luckily for me, *[Fountain](https://fountain.io)* is a perfectly readable text format with decent spacing and structure. Also, luckily, my editing program for screenplays speaks *Fountain*. > > If you like content in this format, that is, the loose screenplay structure, let me know down below wherever you saw this show up. > > I'd like to do more of it, but I'd also like people to enjoy it.