Signal — Beat 3 Broadcast Script

halden-city
active

Reference script for Beat 3 of “Who Decides.” Not for verbatim reading — use as a register anchor. Signal’s voice: cold, measured, almost compassionate. Never angry. Places a question and leaves.

The feed cuts. Every screen. Every phone in a pocket that was recording. The news desk loses its anchor mid-sentence. Signal’s symbol appears first — a watermark, like a test pattern that knows what it’s doing. Then his voice. No face yet. Just the voice.

“Welcome, people of Halden City, to the beginning of a new age.

These are the people the Alliance has chosen to protect you. They’re young. They’re new. And they are, by every measure, exactly as prepared as you just saw.

That’s not an accusation. That’s the truth.”

A cut. The Alliance’s location. Darkstar’s ship. The Renegade Force host moving through the old guard like they’re furniture. Paragon in frame, struggling.

“Here are the heroes you know so well. Defending Darkstar, by all rights an alien terrorist, granted amnesty in orbit of our planet. I did not grant this villain clemency. I didn’t choose these people. A hero decided, without asking you, that this was the arrangement. Cosmic power in the hands of a man who believes himself a moral authority over all of you. A new team assembled in private. Presented to you at a press conference as a gift.

They are not a gift. They are yet another weapon pointed at you to keep you in line, sedated.

You didn’t vote for them. You weren’t consulted. You were informed.

So I’m going to inform you too.

Once a week, I will reveal a secret your heroes do not want you to know. The Alliance will fall, and humanity will be able to once again choose its own destiny.”

The symbol holds for three seconds. Then every feed snaps back to normal. The news anchor is still talking. They don’t know what just happened.

GM Notes

  • Signal’s symbol appearing before his voice is important — give it a beat of silence before he speaks. The city is watching a test pattern that chose to exist.
  • “That’s not an accusation. That’s the truth.” is the register to hold for the whole broadcast. Not righteous. Factual.
  • The Darkstar cut is visual, not narrated. Let the image argue. Signal doesn’t editorialize over it.
  • The broadcast ends on the public, not the heroes. They don’t get acknowledged. That’s its own pressure.
  • The three seconds of the symbol holding after he finishes is dead air on every screen in the city. Play that silence at the table before you cut away.

Last updated: March 2026