Title: **ECLIPSE** **FADE IN:** **EXT. DESOLATE PLANET SURFACE - NIGHT** The sky is a dark, swirling canvas of black and crimson. Sharp, jagged mountains loom in the distance. The ground is cracked and dry, glowing faintly with an eerie, phosphorescent light. A faint, ominous HUM reverberates through the thin atmosphere. **SFX:** A COMMUNICATION DEVICE CRACKLES. **COMMANDER RYDER** (30s, sharp, resourceful) kneels by a shattered spacecraft engine, tools scattered around him. His helmet light flickers. **COMMANDER RYDER:** (into comms) Base camp, this is Ryder. The engine's toast. We’re grounded. Repeat, we are grounded. **BASE CAMP (VO):** (distorted) Copy, Ryder. Stay put. Retrieval team’s en route… (static) forty-eight hours. Ryder glances at his wrist-mounted display. A countdown blinks: **47:59:15.** **COMMANDER RYDER:** Forty-eight hours on this hellhole… great. A distant HOWL pierces the silence. Ryder freezes, scanning the horizon. **COMMANDER RYDER:** (to himself) Wind. Just the wind. **INT. MAKESHIFT SHELTER - LATER** Ryder seals the shelter’s airlock. The cramped space is filled with glowing monitors and survival equipment. He powers up a portable console. A RADAR SCREEN shows faint blips moving erratically. **COMMANDER RYDER:** (muttering) Meteorite fragments? Wildlife? Suddenly, the shelter shakes violently. Debris rains from the ceiling. Ryder grabs a weapon, a sleek plasma rifle, and unseals the airlock. **EXT. SHELTER - CONTINUOUS** The ground trembles. Ryder stares into the darkness. His helmet light cuts through the haze, revealing a MASSIVE CREATURE silhouetted against the horizon. Its body is amorphous, shifting shapes, with countless glowing red eyes. **COMMANDER RYDER:** (into comms) Base camp! We’ve got… something—huge! Moving fast! Do you copy?! The creature SCREECHES, a sound so piercing it distorts the audio feed. Ryder fires a warning shot. The plasma bolt dissipates harmlessly against the creature’s hide. **COMMANDER RYDER:** (grim) Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me. The creature charges. Ryder sprints toward a jagged canyon, narrowly dodging swiping tentacles. **EXT. CANYON - NIGHT** Ryder slides into a narrow crevice. The creature’s massive limbs thrash above, trying to reach him. Suddenly, the ground beneath him gives way. **INT. UNDERGROUND CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS** Ryder lands with a THUD in a cavernous chamber. The walls pulse with a faint, bioluminescent glow. Alien symbols are etched into the surfaces, their meanings unfathomable. He looks up; the creature peers down, but doesn’t follow. **COMMANDER RYDER:** (panting) Doesn’t like the light, huh? He activates his suit’s recording device, scanning the chamber. His light catches something horrifying: rows of **HUMAN-LIKE FIGURES** encased in translucent cocoons, their faces frozen in expressions of terror. **COMMANDER RYDER:** (whispering) Oh no… One of the cocoons begins to twitch. Ryder steps back, aiming his weapon. The cocoon splits open, revealing a CREATURE—part human, part alien, its skin stretched and translucent, its eyes glowing red. **COMMANDER RYDER:** Stay back! The creature SCREECHES and lunges. Ryder fires, blasting it apart. Its remains dissolve into a dark, viscous liquid that seeps into the floor. The HUM in the chamber grows louder. **COMMANDER RYDER:** (into comms) Base camp! I’ve got multiple hostiles down here! Get that retrieval team NOW! **BASE CAMP (VO):** (distorted) …no retrieval team… (static) anomaly… evacuation impossible… The HUM transforms into a DEAFENING ROAR. The chamber’s walls begin to pulse faster, the symbols glowing brighter. Ryder’s wrist display flashes: **BIOHAZARD ALERT.** **COMMANDER RYDER:** (to himself) This whole place is alive. Suddenly, the floor collapses again. Ryder falls into darkness. **INT. DEEPER CAVERN - CONTINUOUS** Ryder awakens in a deeper cavern, surrounded by countless glowing cocoons. At the center of the chamber is a MASSIVE, PULSATING ORGANISM, its surface covered in twitching red eyes. **COMMANDER RYDER:** (realizing) It’s the hive. The cocoons begin to open. Dozens of hybrid creatures emerge, hissing and shrieking. Ryder sets his plasma rifle to overload. **COMMANDER RYDER:** (into comms) If anyone’s listening… tell Earth not to send anyone else. He tosses the rifle at the organism. The weapon glows, emitting a high-pitched WHINE. Ryder sprints toward a narrow tunnel as the rifle explodes, engulfing the chamber in flames. **EXT. PLANET SURFACE - DAWN** Ryder crawls out of the tunnel, battered but alive. The sun rises over the jagged mountains, bathing the landscape in harsh light. The ground shakes violently. Ryder turns to see the hive’s remains collapsing inward, a black hole forming where it once stood. A small rescue ship appears in the sky, descending toward him. Ryder collapses, laughing weakly. **COMMANDER RYDER:** (to himself) Forty-eight hours. Piece of cake. **FADE OUT.** **TEXT ON SCREEN:** _"The transmission from Commander Ryder was the last received from the surface of Planet X-17. No further expeditions have been sanctioned."_ **END.**