written by Thommy Melanson

PANEL 1 - ESTABLISHING - a glorious sunrise over a vast desert canyon.

1 CAPTION: Morning breaks over Mars.

2 CAPTION: This is probably the thirty-thousandth sunrise I’ve seen...

3 CAPTION: ...and I still appreciate every damn one of ‘em.

PANEL 2 - MEDIUM SHOT - On a high watchtower an elderly, wizened man peers through very hi-tech binoculars. He is rail-thin, with extremely long white hair and beard. His clothes are dirty, tattered rags.

4 CAPTION: It’s been thirty-one years since “Hope” left.

5 CAPTION: Should be back any time now.

PANEL 3 - OUR “CAMERA” MOVES CLOSER - The old man lowers the binoculars, and we get our first view of his crystal-bright eyes. Though the flesh around them is cracked and wrinkled, the eyes are as vibrant as youth.

6 CAPTION: He was named for all the obvious reasons.

7 CAPTION: He was our only chance against the Martians.

PANEL 4 - BIG PANEL - A tight shot of his head as his memories float above him like ghosts: An old-school giant robot - think Shogun Warriors, Tranzor Z, The Iron Giant - battles swarming hordes of insectoid aliens.

8 CAPTION: Lord, did we make one glorious machine...

9 CAPTION: ...a little too well, as it turned out.

PANEL 1 - The President of the United States - you can make him look a bit like Dubya if you wish - speaking before a rapt audience. Make sure there’s T.V. cameras in the shot!

1 CAPTION: It all began in the early part of this century, when the President proclaimed his intention of having Americans living and working on Mars go from science fiction to science fact.

2 CAPTION: Project “Ever Vigilant” moved along far quicker than anyone ever imagined. Amazing what could be done when the House Majority was the same Party as the President’s...

PANEL 2 - A shot of our narrator, in his 40‘s, very clean-cut and stout. Those crystal eyes let the reader know it’s him. Think a blue collar, flannel and denim wearing Paul Newman. He’s hauling PVC pipes across a construction site.

3 CAPTION: I was a contractor, part of a construction crew hired to go to Mars and set up an electrical grid and sewage lines for the permanent NASA base to follow.

4 CAPTION: I had done that type of thing before, over in Iraq after the war of ‘03. Funny, I had considered that as working in an hostile, alien environment...

PANEL 3 - Our narrator, in line to board a streamlined NASA space shuttle. He’s hugging his tearful wife and daughter goodbye.

5 CAPTION: By the time the job rolled around, flights to the space station above Mars had become as common as a morning commute.

6 CAPTION: “Just another job.” I told them, “Be back soon.”

7 CAPTION: That was over 30 years ago.

PANEL 4 - Him on the Martian construction site, smiling as he looks over blueprints. Workers are operating immense drills that burrow deep into the Martian soil.

8 CAPTION: I was so proud - ecstatic even - to be part of something so momentous in human history.

9 CAPTION: Then all that drilling awakened something bad...

PANEL 5 - LONG SHOT - We see in the horizon far off from the site something black and massive flying out of a valley. Flying straight toward the unsuspecting humans.

PANEL 6 - BIG PANEL - Swarms of those insectoid aliens rip fleeing, terrified men apart. A gory, visceral portrait of the food chain in action.

10 CAPTION: ...something that soon made the humans history.

PANEL 1 - Stressed and battered, the remaining humans conspire by lantern-light in a cave. Male and female NASA scientists and burly construction types.

1 CAPTION: Those of us that remained quickly scrambled for a reason to.

2 CAPTION: Funny how fast the walls between white collars and blue collars come down when both sides realize they’re staring at each other from the bottom of the food chain.

PANEL 2 - Our narrator, mulling over the blueprints of a robot with one of the NASA scientists while LARGE IN THE BACKGROUND is the giant robot in the midst of construction.

Lots of bustling activity inside this 50-foot high cave.

3 CAPTION: But soon we found hope.

4 CAPTION: Or more accurately, we built it.

PANEL 3 - BIG PANEL - The glory shot - The giant robot “Hope” glistens in the sunlight as it snaps the spines of a handful of aliens while punching some out of the sky with its other hand. “Hope” is a metal colossus, albeit one with a vaguely human face behind the iron.

The alien carcasses plummet to the ground below.

5 CAPTION: “Hope” - as we called it - was truly a wonder to behold. If we weren’t all so in the grips of mortal terror I think we would have actually patted each other on the back.

6 CAPTION: Proud “parents” watching our little miracle with awe.

PANEL 4 - BIRDS EYE VIEW - While some humans watch the action rapturously, others are freaking as they see the falling alien carcasses crush and maim those nearby.

7 CAPTION: Of course, “children” are oblivious to the mess

they make when they play...

PANEL 5 - Angered, some of the humans throw rocks and debris at “Hope”. Our narrator watches helplessly, unsure how to feel.

8 CAPTION: ...and some “parents” don’t know quite how to react.

PANEL 6 - TIGHT WORM’S EYE - The robot’s vaguely human face conveys the emotion of hurt, despite being made of steel and bolts.

9 CAPTION: Somehow in our desperate haste, we’d made “Hope” not only capable of independent thought, but able to process incoming data and form actual “emotions”.

10 CAPTION: I looked into its ocular receptors, and saw hurt.

PANEL 1 - DRAMATIC WORM’S EYE - The old man looks up, watching the white-hot jets of thrust from “Hope’s” sole-mounted engines as the sulking robot flies away.

1 CAPTION: Our iron “child” did what a lot of slighted kids would do. “He” ran away.

PANEL 2 - EXACT SAME SHOT - only the robot is all but a small blip in the sky.

2 CAPTION: Of course, with our defender gone, the Martians drove us to near extinction. The few left made it back to the underground caves. I chose to stay topside while they, I imagine, have built some kind of society deep beneath the ground.

3 CAPTION: If they haven’t ended up food, that is.

4 CAPTION: As for me, I’d rather be buried when I’m dead.

PANEL 3 - EXACT SAME SHOT - ONLY WE’VE FADED BACK TO THE PRESENT AND THE MAN LOOKING SKYWARD IS OLD AND DISHEVELED.

5 CAPTION: Every couple years or so, those back on Earth would send a “rescue team” up here. That stopped after the third one never returned.

6 CAPTION: The Martians aren’t much for company, if you haven’t gathered.

PANEL 4 - The old man lowers his head, lost for a moment in solemn thought.

PANEL 5 - He’s raised his head back up, with a look of renewed determination.

7 CAPTION: Everyone I’ve ever loved and everything I’ve ever known is long gone.

8 CAPTION: My life has to have meant something.

9 CAPTION: So I watch and wait for “Hope” to return.

PANEL 6 - The old man brings the binoculars back up to his eyes and looks skyward. He parts his dry, cracked lips to utter...

10 OLD MAN: Ever vigilant.

THE END