THE OFFWORLD MAN WEB COMIC AND GRAPHIC NOVEL SCRIPT ACT ONE This first and second acts are exposition heavy. Also, lyrics from the song 'A Thousand Years' by Sting are used in the novella, and really should be used in the web comic / GN script as well to frame the tone of this near-future science fiction story. The lyrics are very important to me. The song inspired me to write the novella. In his undying love for a woman named Eve Dumont, whom our protagonist, Dr. Gordon Marcus Aurelius Parks, lost when he was a younger man, he makes an unconscious decision, and follows through on it many years later. Eve's loss affected Gordon greatly, compelling him to become the anti-hero of this story. For many years he mourned her brief life, and a love he failed to fight for. He becomes a man driven and eventually powerful enough to amass and marshal the unlimited resources to do the impossible-- bring Eve back to life, while fighting the military industrial complex from within, as a only a billionaire military aerospace industrialist insider can do. It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but where possible it would be outstanding if you could try to favor full- width cinematic panels, both vertical and horizontal; this will make it easier to slice it up into a web- friendly format. Any “Location Title”, lyrics or prose , or computer voice over audio files or other scene establishing text should be free-floating on the image, with no caption box, to differentiate it from Dr. Parks' “internal monologue” captions. The font should suggest a computer readout, e.g. Bank Gothic or OCR A Extended. PAGE ONE PANEL 1) A black star field with THE OFF-WORLD MAN in white capital OCR A Extended FONT letters superimposed or free floating over the panel... PANEL 2) A black star field with the Earth in view 30,000 kilometers out in space. Article text in white capital OCR A Extended FONT letters superimposed or free floating over the panel. PROLOGUE News from the World Future Society, May 2009 BATTLES FOR OUTER SPACE The U.S. military has named the space environment a "special area of emphasis" due to growing international space-based operations. Attacks on space assets such as satellites are a key concern, but other threats besides weapons attacks exist, such as collisions with space debris and electronic jamming. "America's way of life is dependent on space," notes Colonel Sean D. McClung, director of Air University's National Space Studies Center. "We have to think about what we would do if our systems in space were attacked—how we determine attribution for the attack, and respond in appropriate manner." By declaring the space environment a special area of emphasis, the Defense Department will devote more resources and attention to space in the curricula of professional military colleges. U.S. Air Force Link, Air University PAGE TWO PANEL 1) The Earth in view from 25,000 kilometers out in space. Article text in white capital OCR A Extended FONT letters superimposed or free floating over the panel. Air Force Space Command: "The establishment of Space Command is a crucial milestone in the evolution of military space operations. Space is a place like land, sea and air. A theater of operations, and it was just a matter of time until space was treated as such." --General James V. Hartinger. Air Force Space Command bases and stations include: Cheyenne Mountain Air Station, Schriever and Peterson Air Force Bases and Buckley Air National Guard Base, Colorado; Onizuka Air Station and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; Cape Canaveral Air Station and Patrick Air Force Base, Florida; Cavalier Air Station, North Dakota; F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming; Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana; Clear Air Station, Arkansas; Thule Air Base, Greenland; and Woomera Air Station, Australia. Air Force Space Command units are located around the world, including Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany. Spacelift operations at the East and West Coast launch bases provide services, facilities and range safety control for the conduct of D.o.D, National and Space Administration and commercial launches. Through the command and control of all D.o.D satellites, satellite operators provide force-multiplying effects -- continuous global coverage, low vulnerability and autonomous operations. Satellites provide essential in-theater secure communications, weather and navigational data for ground, air and fleet operations and threat warning. Ground-based radar and Defense Support Program satellites monitor ballistic missile launches around the world to guard against a surprise attack on North America. Space surveillance radars provide vital information on the location of satellites and space debris for the nation and the world. With a readiness rate above 99 percent, America's ICBM team plays a critical role in maintaining world peace and ensuring the nation's safety and security. Air Force Space Command operates and supports the Global Positioning System, Defense Satellite Communications Systems Phase 2 and 3, Defense Support Program, NATO 3 and 4 communications and Fleet Satellite Communications System UHF follow-on and MILSTAR ; and currently operates the Atlas 2, Delta 2, Titan 2 and Titan 4 launch vehicles. This includes all of the nation's primary boosters from the Eastern and Western ranges and range support for the space shuttle. Air Force Space Command also operates the nation's primary source of continuous, real-time solar flare warnings. The command also operates a worldwide network of satellite tracking stations to provide communications links to satellites -- a system called the Air Force Satellite Control Network. Ground-based radars used primarily for ballistic missile warning include the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, PAVE, PAWS and PARCS radars. The Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance System, Passive Space Surveillance System, phased-array and mechanical radars provide primary space surveillance coverage. As of June 1999, approximately 37,200 people, including 25,800 active-duty military and civilians and 11,360 contractor employees, combine to perform Air Force Space Command missions. Air Force Space Command brings space to the warfighter by continuously improving the command's ability to provide and support combat forces -- assuring their access to space.In addition, the command's ICBM forces deter any adversary contemplating the use of weapons of mass destruction. Air Force Space Command has six primary mission areas: • Space forces support involves launching satellites and other high-value payloads into space using a variety of expendable launch vehicles. It also operates those satellites once in the medium of space. • Space control ensures friendly use of space through the conduct of counterspace operations encompassing surveillance, negation and protection. • Force enhancement provides weather, communications, intelligence, missile warning and navigation. • Force application involves maintaining and operating a rapid response land-based ICBM force as part of the nation's strategic nuclear triad. • Computer Network Defense • Computer Network Attack GlobalSecurity.org PAGE THREE PANEL 1) The Earth in view from 20,000 kilometers out in space. Article text in white capital OCR A Extended FONT letters superimposed or free floating over the panel. Naval Space Command: Beginning in the mid-1980s, concurrent with the development of space operations and space engineering curricula at the Naval Postgraduate School, the Navy began “coding” officers as space subspecialists. As space subspecialty codes were then assigned to particular officers’ billets on numbered Fleet staffs and at commands ashore, the service began assigning Navy members with matching codes to those positions. More recently, the Navy has begun efforts to build a cadre of “space smart” officers, enlisted personnel and civilian employees. The Naval Space Cadre is composed of active-duty and reserve Navy and Marine Corps officers and enlisted personnel, along with Navy civilian employees from a wide range of career fields who meet mandatory education, training and experience standards established for a particular certification level. The Navy Space Cadre is a distinct body of expertise horizontally and vertically integrated within Navy and Marine Corps active duty, reserves and civilian employee communities organized to operationalize space. Initial identification of the cadre began in mid-2001 with the standup of the Naval Space Cadre Working Group and culminated in a naval message (NAV ADMIN 201/03 DTG 211435Z JUL 03) announcing the first 700 officer members of the cadre. These officers were identified by the sub-specialty codes of 6206, Space Systems Operations, and 5500, Space Systems Engineering or by the additional qualification designator of VS1, VS2, VS3 or VS4. Identification of enlisted and civilian cadre members is more challenging, as these groups do not have specific space identifiers like the officers do. Approximately 265 billets are currently identified as space billets. These jobs are in Navy, Joint and National Security Space organizations. Space cadre members are currently assigned throughout the National Security Space arena, including the National Reconnaissance Office, National Security Space Architect, National Security Space Integration, MILSATCOM Joint Program Office, as well as in all Navy organizations that deal with space. High Frontier: The Journal for Space and Missile Professionals, 2004 PAGE FOUR PANEL 1) The Earth and North America in view from 15,000 kilometers out in space. Article text in white capital OCR A Extended FONT letters superimposed or free floating over the panel. United States Space Command (U.S.SPACECOM): U.S. Space Command was created in 1985, but America’s military actually began operating in space much earlier. With the Soviet Union’s unexpected 1957 launch of the world’s first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, President Eisenhower accelerated the nation’s slowly emerging civil and military space efforts. The vital advantage that space could give either country during those dark days of the Cold War was evident in his somber words.