Disclaimer: Avatar is the property of James Cameron, I do not own anything.


Prologue

Miles Quaritch was furious. Now this was a hard thing to do normally, but the thing that everyone knew about him was that he was even harder to calm down. Why he was angry now was quite simple. The Na'vi had murdered the crew of the dozers that had plowed under one of those trees the Na'vi loved so much. And while Quaritch was head of security, no one died on his watch. At least, none that he could prevent. But perhaps, he thought as he walked toward the Dragon gunship, this was unavoidable.

Relations with the natives had been getting progressively worse, and on top of all this that fool Sully, who Quaritch had personally requested was going native. Damn it all to hell, he and Selfridge had tried to play nice and have Sully warn the natives that their tree was going to fall. He even had three months to do it. And God only knew that they might've understood. They needed the minerals under the Na'vi's tree, it was the sole reason they were there in the first place. In any other circumstance, none of this would've happened. The natives had stayed out of their way, and they'd stayed out of theirs. They had come to that planet to mine for the superconductor that powered the starships that were ferrying colonists out to new inhabitable planets. And the miners just worked as far away as they could from the Na'vi's settlements.

But there was a bit of a snag. Because the RDA was expanding operations, they needed to find a second mining site to increase production of Unobtainium. And the biggest deposit closest to them was under the Na'vi's damn village. And despite the fact that they had avatars to act as ambassadors, the natives either didn't listen or were downright hostile. And many of Augustine's science geeks actually agreed with them. And now, things were going pear shaped because after three months, the dozers had arrived and Sully had nothing to show for it, apart from becoming the boyfriend of the chief's daughter.

If he wasn't so angry at that moment, he might have chuckled at how similar the situation he was in was to some of the old movies. He would also have noticed Selfridge slipping into his office. But calm or not, he could he have known the significance of what Selfridge was about to do. For Selfridge was about to write a letter. Now that itself was nothing of note. But to who and what he was writing about, that was the sticky part. He sat down at his desk and opened his terminal. The message he sent was short, to the point and betrayed the undercurrent of desperation in him.

He clicked the send button and collapsed back in his chair knowing the irrevocable nature of what he had just done. But he could not know that as the message went speeding towards Earth, forces far beyond his control, or Quaritch's, were preparing to decide the fate of Pandora.

Two days later.

Secretary of Defense Thomas McNamara walked down one of the many halls of the UEG's capital building where the White House once stood. He was on his way to a meeting regarding the mining of Pandorium, the name was changed because it was now being synthesized, and to show where it was being mined. McNamara was a tall man of about forty-six, he wore a dark suit and tie with an overcoat to protect him from the cold Virginia afternoon. He arrived at the President's office just as the clocks were striking one. The office of the President was about the same size as some board rooms. Sparsely decorated, save for the curtains that covered the immense south window, and the painting of the George Washington.

When he entered, he noticed the room was quiet. Not that there was no one there, there most certainly were. But the people that were there had a tense feeling about them, there was an electricity in the air, and the type of quiet that happens right before a cyclone gets down to it and gives the populace the works. Every single person was huddled together and whispering as if the walls had ears. When Thomas closed the door, many gave starts of surprise, for it was clear they hadn't noticed him. The President stood and walked over to greet him. The President by contrast, was a short man of about 5,6 with a patrician face.

"Thomas," he said, "glad you could make it." The president waved him over to one of the sofas. The President spoke again, "Alright everyone, for those of us recently arrived, the situation shall be described now. Martin, if you please." He gestured for his chief of staff, who proceeded to press a button on a remote, followed by a screen lighting up with a text, over which was the logo of the Resources Development Administration. "At 0400 hours this morning, the office of the POE received this message from the Pandoran mining base, code-named 'Hell's Gate'". The contents of which were read aloud. The message ran as follows:

To: Office of the President of the UEG, Earth.

From: Administrator Parker Selfridge, RDA mining expedition, Pandora.

All diplomatic measures failed. Situation out of hand. Consider conflict with natives, inevitable. Request government forces be sent at earliest possible opportunity.

General Jameson turned to the assembled group, his face grim, "We have received no further reports from the colony, confidential or otherwise." He then walked to the side of the President. The President began to speak again, "This news could not have come at a worse time. Just as people are starting to feel things can be resolved, the news is going to be broken that we've got another war on our hands. And just as the world could begin to breath easy. In addition to this bombshell, the antimatter reactors have just begun to produce clean energy. So gentlemen, how do you think the public is going to react when this hits the net?" The president gestured to the message on the screen. "This is not a time for half measures people. We need to know how and what to do in this political minefield, so we keep our jobs and our species alive. The last thing we need is for the public to find out that our first extrasolar colony is now a war zone."

Secretary of Homeland Security, Johannes Koestler remarked, "There will probably be mass riots all over Earth," his deep German voice echoing off the walls, "and a huge loss of morale in our armed forces." But as thoughts of all in the room began to turn to visions of anarchy, one man, the Secretary of Colonial Affairs, Joseph Kornilov saw his chance.

"What about the ISV's? How many do we have?" The others looked at him in confusion, but the Secretary of the Navy replied, "Ten active and twenty more being constructed on Mars. Why do you ask?"

"I'm curious. What if we complied with Selfridge's request?" The officials quickly began to understand what Kornilov was getting at.

"You actually wish to send government forces to Pandora and use the ISVs to do it? You do realize that from the reports the old UN received showed that not only are there a lot of angry natives but the planet itself wants us dead?" Asked the Secretary for the Army, Park Dong Ha.

"Which is why we are going to simply send a Marine regiment, using the new Antimatter drives installed on the new ISVs." Most in the room now understood his plan, but were still skeptical. "And where will the ships come from? We have ten ships now, but most of them are still in the cycle. And all of them hold only two hundred men." said the Secretary for the Navy.

But Kornilov only grinned. "That is where you'd be wrong. You see, those twenty new ISVs are all near completion, outfitted and all. In fact, we began construction on these ships six years ago, when the DoD heard about the increased attacks which began even then. We were certain something like this would happen, so we began planning for any situation that would require large amounts of force be brought to bear. But these were not only for the military, these new ships have modular components that can be used for either military or civilian purposes."

The Secretary for the Navy was incensed, why had he not been informed of this? Space was his fiefdom! But even so, Kornilov's point stood. The new ships would be able to carry five times the number of persons aboard, almost two thousand tons of cargo and could make the trip to Pandora in one month as opposed to five years. This put Earth in the exact position she wanted to be in. Now, large amounts of force could be brought to bear in an impossibly short amount of time, and as everyone looked at each other, they agreed they would need that force very soon.

Sooner than anyone thought.


This is my first chapter of The Pandoran War. In this story, I am trying to make the parallels that James Cameron tried to make with Vietnam and other such wars. Whatever else I show and write herein, is up to you.