Originally posted by TopAce
I wouldn't bet it's a man.
[q]
Starts off showing opening credits over a flowing color background. It starts blurry, and the source of the color isn’t immediately apparent. The credits continue for a short while as the music builds. At the same time, the flowing colors start speeding up and becoming more clear. As the credits stop, the music hushes, then the camera pulls back quickly, revealing the damaged & sputtering thruster of a Terran bomber.
The music kicks in strong again, with a frantic pace. The ship is severely damaged, and the pilot is nearly hyperventilating in panic. He’s attempting to make a distress signal, but his comm is damaged and he’s so upset he’s talking near-gibberish. Closeups of his helmeted face show that he’s sweating and wide-eyed.
Pilot: [panting] Oh god, they’re following me!… Mayday! Mayday! This is Lieutenant Ash on Terran patrol wing Gamma… three niner… reporting… taken heavy damage… requesting immediate fighter cover and rescue… come in, anybody!
Scene cuts to a nearby military installation, the pilot makes a static-filled connection with a female comm officer… begins babbling about being ambushed by some new type of fighter. The comm officer has a hard time making sense of what he’s saying.Pilot: Mayday! Requesting immediate assistance! Anyone, please!
Comm: We’re barely receiving you Gamma three niner, this is Terran outpost Riviera responding, what is your situation?
Pilot: Oh, thank god! Our wing was ambushed! We didn’t have a chance… I’m sure they’re tracking me!
Comm: Please calm down, sir, who attacked you? Was it the Vasudans?
Pilot: Vasudans were killed too, they slaughtered everyone…
Every few seconds a quick nightmarish flashback of the battle he just came from. It becomes clear that his Terran squadron was in a typical engagement with a group of Vasudan fighters when they were ambushed by several strange black-and-red fighters. The new ships made short work of the B fighters and started wasting the Terrans. Only by fleeing madly was he able to escape alive, losing his copilot in the process (he’s in one of the two-man bombers). The flashbacks show the Shivan fighters making strange, deft maneuvers, and emitting an eerie engine whine.
[cut to/from flashback]
Comm: Sir, you have to calm down. You were attacked by Vasudans, is that true?
Pilot: No, no… we were in a skirmish with a Vasudan patrol, and they just came out of nowhere and killed everyone…
Comm: Who came out of nowhere, pilot?
Pilot: I don’t know, they weren’t Vasudan and they weren’t Terran… oh, god, they had these death-black ships, and they flew like… and their weapons were too much, they wasted everyone!
[/q]
The descent-network renders of the cutscene Apollo also show the co-pilots' section of the cockpit.
It is, however, a fairly miniscule part of the visible canopy they've given the co-pilot.
