Disclaimer: I don't own any of the charachters, dramaturgy, arrangements etc. presented in the first chapter here, it is all property of JC and his team of movie wizards. I willingly offer anything later presented for anyone's further spinning. No earning in any way is expected or wished for from this work.
1. Prologue
Mankind had successfully been banished from Pandora and the celebrations lasted for days. The avatars were welcome guests, they had aided materially by staging a coup d'etat at Hell's Gate.
The humans left at Hell's Gate were in the long term doomed and they knew. The nineteen humans left simply couldn't maintain the base without having Earth industry in their backs. Those with avatars one by one went to the Omatikaya and kindly asked for being admitted with them, eventually going through the eye of Eywa, and were with Jakes blessing granted their wish. The avatar of Norm had been killed but they extracted DNA from the dead body, implanted it in a na'vi egg cell and grew it, so one day he was back in the blue and wished a heartily welcome among the Omatikaya. It was harder for Max, he had never had any avatar and no XGSS (Xeno-Genome Serial Sequencer) set was available. The XGSS set was basically a huge computer linked with a DNA sequencer, weeding out cells with genetic defects. Without such a set a cell fusion between a human cell and a na'vi cell was like a dive into a pool of ink – not knowing how deep it was, knowing that getting dirty was certain. Max solved the problem by taking a number of cells, making a number of fusions and growing all of them, and then entering the best looking and feeling of them.
End result was that fifteen years after the departure of the RDA people there was no human beings left at Pandora. Hell's Gate had by then already started to visibly crumble to the forces of the jungle. All of it to the satisfaction of everyone at the moon of Pandora.
However, one day Jake took Max, Norm, Neytiri and a trusted tsamshiu eyktan aside.
He began: "Some time ago I had a nightmare, I saw a big ball in the sky growing and growing, suddenly exploding to spill out a huge flock of human miners over our world. I have pondered what this nightmare meant, what Eywa was trying to tell me. One day I looked up and all of a sudden I understood."
He pointed up and everyone looked up to the sky, where Polyphemus was brooding as always.
"What about it?" said Max.
"It isn't the big one but the small ones. The moons. They most probably have deposits of unobtanium too. In so case that is where the RDA will be going next, if I remember my astronomy lessons from school right they are not likely to harbour intelligent life since these moons are much smaller than Pandora. With little or no atmosphere they will be harder to mine than Pandora but with no inhabitants to care about they will have free reign. Since the human civilizations are geared to permanent expansion they will eventually deplete those deposits, sooner or later. It may take long time but they will succeed with it and then they will most probably be looking for more to mine. Where will they find huge and barely tapped mines? At Pandora! So you see, they are bound to return, we have simply bought us time."
Neytiri countered: "But then we will throw them back once again, now we know how."
"Next time they will know that they can't get to mining without pushing us aside. The distance between Earth and Pandora has been and still is our best defence against their aggression but when a big force has been built up at the other moons that decence will be broken. They will then be coming in full force from the very start, building up a massive force at the moons and then descending to set up not one 'Hell's gate' we can focus on but dozens, all over the world of ours. This is our future problem and we have to deal with it when it comes to be. I have had a talk with Eywa at the Tree of Souls so She knows that I am aware."
The warrior asked, with a little trepidation in his voice: "But, Toruk Makto, isn't there anything we can do, in the long term, to secure our world as we know it?"
"This is not going to take place in the first years, certainly not. May be not in our lifetime either. But it will, sooner or later. The na'vi clans don't build space ships so we can't go there to fight the Sky people over at the moons. We simply must train for the possibility and never let down our guard. And there are certain measures we can take to minimize risks."
Norm asked for the word and got it: "There is another likely Sky people scheme we must be aware of: Discord. There once was a mighty state at Earth, the Roman Empire, utilizing a scheme they called: 'Divide and rule!' to conquer their enemies. They must not be able to seed rivalries among na'vi clans to facilitate a new settlement either. We must learn to stick together even when no danger from the Sky people is apparent so the Sky people can't take us in disagreement to establish a base."
Then Max wanted the word: "Finally, the Sky people have another mighty weapon they have used with terrible effect before, when destroying opponents at Earth in old times. Diseases. Norm, you have read from human history how smallpox, measles, whooping cough etc. decimated whole empires, making them vulnerable to conquest. They might be trying to plant among us some germs concocted in a laboratory, sickening us all and turning us helpless at defending ourselves. Anytime a disease breaks out and doesn't go away soon after it must be contained and if possible cured as soon as possible. The area of occurrence must then be isolated and skilled healers must go in there to stem the disease if they can."
Jake concluded: "We have defeated the threat from pure technology. So the threefold danger still looming is overwhelming numbers, diplomatic intervention and bacteriological warfare. We must train our warriors, messengers and healers systematically how to deal with these threats. I propose that we divide these tasks among us, I can train warriors in how to deal with Sky people aggression with far less blood loss than last time. I presume that you Norm can train messengers and explain things to other clans too. And I leave training of healers in how to deal with bacteriological attacks to you Max."
Thereby Max and Norm had been assigned their special jobs, the na'vi grumbled a little at first but soon understood the significance of what they tried to explain them. Messengers were soon a respected specialist profession among most na'vi clans; all the time flying about on their ikran, mediating disagreements, asking for news and telling news they had heard, inviting regular olo'eyktan council meetings… In not very long time the network had spread out all over Pandora, from the arctic and Antarctic wastelands to the steaming jungles and the desert barren lands, from the mountain highs to the far out islands. Not all clans were willing to attend meetings or send for training among the Omatikaya their warriors, healers and appoint their own messengers, i.e. to be woven into the Pandora-wide network of permanent defence Jake was trying to build, but all abstained from trying to disrupt it.
Time went by, about a hundred years in human years…
The reforms and practices Jake and his friends had imposed on the na'vi took hold with time and became na'vi tradition. Clans drifted in and out of the network without tearing it to pieces and with the full mutual understanding that they would join it in time of disaster, Jake had clearly explained the value of flexibility in the network. The hub of it changed, after the passing of Jake it shifted from clan to clan depending on where the prestige and good brains were.
When Jake and Neytiri in the end had to retire and later passed into the arms of Eywa, their daughter Sylwanin became an able tsahik and her brother Thomas an able warrior, her mate the new olo'eyktan Niko'to left warrior training to him, Thomas made sure that all Omatikaya hunters knew the superior tactics of Jake. The two daughters of Norm and his mate Nin'at, Anatara and Amanda, became respectively healer – and in time leading healer – and messenger – in time leading messenger. Olo'eytkan Niko'to listened to advices from old Jake and kept the masters of professions at hand all the time, as a sort of Omatikaya clan government, a practice soon imitated by other clans.
Sylwanin begat Seze who became tsahik upon mature age, mating with Zazuru, already a renowned hunter, promoting him to olo'eytkan. It was during the old age of Seze, when she was making ready for transferring her knowledge to her daughter-in-law Trudee, for lack of own daughter, that the nightmare of Jake finally came to take place.
Humanity after the RDA Eviction from Pandora
RDA space ships really had landed at the moons of Polyphemus Svarog, Aton and Brigid. They were smaller than Pandora, the last one didn't even have any atmosphere to speak about at all and even Svarog, the largest of them, had nowhere near the air density of Pandora. Only Svarog had any sort of life – microbial. But they had unobtanium all of them and mining operations were soon extensive.
At Earth new uses for unobtanium were found again and again. At first this room-temperature super conductor had only been used for special parts in scientific measurement instruments, soon it was vital for levitating trains. Electrical wires were equipped with it, electricity loss to heat, lightning strike and short circuits were soon history. Computer brains were embedded in it, thinking time fell to the level of almost zero. TVs and radio equipment was constructed with vital parts of unobtanium, radio disturbances were practically eliminated. Space ships could boost their thrusting power of their fusion engines tenfold. Thus it could be continued, almost for ever. There was however a problem about this wonder material, its power depended on its magnetic properties, these were weakened with time by geomagnetism and all sorts of magnetic and electrical fields emitted by various appliances around, necessitating a continuous supply from the Alpha Centauri solar system. Earth had become critically dependent on it. After some years scientists started to note that all these strong, local magnetic fields emitted by all the unobtanium in appliances around had effects in return that nobody had been thinking about.
The geomagnetic field around Earth has since deep down in Earth prehistory been protecting us from radiation from space. From time to time through Earth history this magnetic field has been turning around, magnetic north pole has become south pole and vice versa. First the field force become weakened and then turns totally around, for some two or three years no ozone layer is synthesized up in the high atmosphere, normally in Earth history this has probably been the work of electrical charged radiation of electrically charged particles emitted by the Sun.
Human activity had most probably been at work with weakening it too ever since electrical and magnetic appliances came into use, but the effect of these force fields on the geomagnetic field had never before been indisputably visible. What was new was all the magnetic fields everywhere that were not only strong but even very strong. Astronomers could witness how the waning of the flux force of the geomagnetic field, which had been slowly weakening for a long time, suddenly caught speed. It was calculated that if the present tendency kept on for a hundred years more, Earth would have no geomagnetism left at all. So it was decided that huge magnets of pure unobtanium at both poles were necessary if a scorching rain of cosmic radiation and a roasting illumination of UV light was to be avoided.
Suddenly Earth's need for unobtanium had been increased many times over. The simply accessible deposits at the smaller moons simply couldn't cover this enormous surge in demand, looking for even more deposits the eyes of RDA fell on Pandora.
2. The Diplomatic Mission
Seze was old now and knew that the time when her powers were to be handed over to her daughter-in-law Trudee was soon approaching, she had been named for a fondly remembered heroic warrior woman. Her mate Zazuru, originally a man from the Ikran clan, was getting old too. He was not only too decrepit to go hunting now, he had even caught some debilitating disease that wore him down almost by the day, but his mind was still sharp. He had already blessed his twenty five years old son Max, named in remembrance of a good man who had come from Earth, as the new olo'eyktan of the Omatikaya. He was a bright and athletic young man with a mind as steady as a man of far higher age. He had trained in to second nature all the abilities a good hunter should be mastering and he had taken to heart all the lessons a good warrior should know, including the teachings of his great-grandfather Jakesully, the sixth Toruk Makto. Seze wasn't fearful for her daughter in law either, Trudee was a young woman who was as smart as could be expected from a young woman at the age of twenty one and she was endowed with the gift of listening to the voice of Eywa in nature.
Max had for a long time been following his father to council meetings with other clans. So when a messenger from Nikorok'kxe of the Plains clan, the impending Weaver of the Clan Network, came to invite for a regular meeting it was plain that this time the roles would be inverted, now the old olo'eyktan would be councillor and Max the man in charge. Nikorok'kxe was a proven leader, his grandfather Akwey had fougth valiantly at the Battle for the Tree of Souls. He was in advanced years and fingers had started being pointed around for whom was to succeed him as Weaver. At the meeting Nikoro'kxe stood up, wearing his insignia necklace with a row of toruk claws with dignity, and explained that a week ago he had had the not undivided pleasure to meet with a Sky people man who had descended down from the skies. So he motioned a man – obviously an avatar – to step forward and talk. And he spoke in good na'vi:
"How do You do, my name is Errol Benson, coming from Earth to have a meeting with You. My reason for being here is that Earth now has an unprecedented need for Your grey rocks. I have been sent here to negotiate for rights to mine it here. We will do everything in our power – and I mean everything – to get as much as we need of them from Pandora. So I hereby ask what conditions the na'vi will demand to allow us to mine the mineral we seriously need."
Someone in the back of the crowd spoke what probably very many was thinking: "How about going somewhere else and leave us in peace!"
Mr. Benson answered: "Sad to say, our mines at other moons are up to top production capacity but it isn't sufficient. So in our great need we ask what You will demand from us to allow this. We have the means to get what we need anyhow, You see…"
Nikorok'kxe again took the forefront and spoke clearly: "Brothers and sisters, You all heard what he just told us. It can be understood as a threat: 'We know what we want and since our need is serious we are not going to allow anyone in our way to stop us. Get out of our way or face the consequences!' We all remember what the great Jakesully told us, the mighty Sixth Toruk Makto said that they would be coming in full force one day, striking down everything in their path, to get their beloved grey rocks. That day he talked about is now present. We have a decision of great momentum to take. We shall now divide in discussion rings to deliberate."
Max and Zazuru found themselves talking with the olo'eyktan of the Tipani, tasked with being the "mouth" of the discussion ring, of the Mountain and of the Sea Islands clans, and their respective councillors. The Mountain clan olo'eyktan, old and wise Ohoni said it succinctly:
"My father was Thomas, the son of Jakesully himself, I can vividly remember sitting on his knee and listening to what my old grandfather told me when I was a little boy. The threat has been presented and we must choose peace or war. If we decide for war they will descend on us, attacking every clan, trying to rip our Network to pieces, sending sickness over us. If decide for peace, they will be all over our world, digging holes in the ground, they will ask us to move again and again as new grey rocks are found in the ground. More Sky people will come down here and in the end we will be forced to war still but against even higher risk to us. Then the Sky people will, my grandfather said, send all of us to isolated and rather barren places so they can take what they need without problems, forcing us to do the hard and demeaning work for them in return for very little respect for what we do for them. This is what they did, many times, at Earth."
Max asked him the question outright: "Do you say, then, that war is what we will get sooner or later anyhow, with ever increasing risk of defeat? In plain words?"
"In my strong and sincere opinion, yes I do."
Others taking the word among those in the ring declared the same opinions, in other words but basically similar in content. The circles congealed into a great meeting again, and Nikorok'kxe surveyed the assembly. "I now ask for all the 'mouths' to declare the opinion within all the discussion rings. War or peace?"
They all walked into the Decision Ring and the word "war" was heard repeatedly. "Peace" was heard too, all gave their arguments, the inevitability of it was the prominent argument of those belligerent and the brutality of war was argued by the peaceful minded. Finally Armut of the Sea Island clan stood up, facing Nikorok'kxe as she declared: "As 'mouth' of this meeting I declare that the decision reached is that we must reject the demand of the Sky people. If we treasure our way of life, our connection with this nature and with Eywa, we have no choice. Eywa protect us all."
Nikorok'kxe then turned to Gibson and told him: "You heard her, if this rejection means war this will be Your choice not our. Do realize that this is not a decision lightheartedly taken."
Gibson took a silent bow, turned and walked into the forest. Some time later a boom was heard, he was returning to space with his spaceship. As said Caesar: "The die is cast".
Max and Zazuru returned to the Omatikaya hometree. "Now what?" asked Seze.
Max answered: "Either we have caught them bluffing or the Second War between Humanity and Na'vi is now going to break out. Anyhow we now have to expect and prepare for the worst case."
Standard procedures called for dispersing everyone non-combatant and ready the stores of arrows, medicines and food. Drilling of warriors, healers, messengers and others went into high gear, the few Sky people weapons and other appliances they had had during the first conflict had withered away long ago so they had to use their traditional weaponry with care. Messengers came from the Weaver of the Network, seeing to that the procedures were followed, they exchanged news with even more care then ever before and on their flights they kept a steady lookout for unusual events.
Then a week later the first case of hostility took place. Not with a big bang but with an attempted subterfuge.
3. Busting Secrets
Max sat and discussed the plan of dispersion of non-combatants and stores with his warrior eyktan Kakala, they had to be dispersed with care – not so dense anywhere that they offered vulnerable targets for air strike, yet not so isolated that they could be tracked and captured by the enemy without defence or end up on the menu of predators, stores had to be dispersed so that they couldn't be captured by a single strike but not so isolated that they would be out of hand when push was coming to shove.
The deep thinking was rudely interrupted by a loud boom. A dropship coming down! Omatikaya warriors hurried to the likely landing site and took cover at the edge of the forest while a messenger stepped out. It was a small dropship that finally came down, when the door opened a man with an exopack mask called out: "We are coming in peace! We have an emergency here, here is an avatar with a disease our doctors couldn't handle. Could you ask a healer to try, please? PLEASE!" An avatar on a stretcher was carried out and put on the ground. "We now return to space, no belligerence attempted on our part. We have provided him with a radio set so he can give report when and if he is recuperating. Please, please do try!"
The stretcher was tied up between two pa'li and the unconscious patient was bound to it so not to fall off on the route, and then he was taken to the Hometree. Leading healer Pia'la investigated him carefully and concluded: "There is nothing wrong with his body, I suspect that he is unconscious because they have given him some potion. This juice should wake him rather quickly."
Max told Kakala to take over: "Then let's interrogate him, what this is supposed to mean."
The liquid was dripped down into his nose, soon he woke up sneezing. Kakala immediately bowed down and looked him straight into his eyes. "All right, now tell us your story. Full and complete. Frankly and honestly. Starting now!"
The man was visibly shaken by beholding the big hulk Kakala up very close, almost nose to nose. "Yes-yes-yes I will, please allow me!" He sat up and started talking.
"My name is Frank Ellis, I have been put permanently in this avatar body. They sent me here to get acquainted with you, instigating suspicion with other clans. They administered me a 'knock-out pill' so that I could plausibly pose as ill, since my avatar isn't quite so good as the other ones sent down on this mission."
"Mission? To disrupt our Network, is that it?"
"Yes. I am not alone in the mission you see. The other two permanently transferred avatars look precisely like pure na'vi, four fingered hands and no eyebrows etc. They came down with a dropship over the ocean and launched into a sailing plane so that no revealing noise should be heard. The other ones are named Sally Owens and she is with the Onati clan, and Filbert Ichiwu, a man with the Ekanagi clan. They are well versed in na'vi language and traditions to not reveal themselves."
"Very interesting indeed, I am starting to believe that you are a righteous man after all, Frank. Because you have told me what I have now heard fortrightly and without much convincing. So how can we recognize these avatars, if they look and behave like na'vi?"
"Sally Owens is wearing a golden band twined around her queue and she has one luminous spot on her chin far larger than any other on her face. I think Filbert Ichiwu is wearing a necklace with his personal good-luck charm, a wooden face decorated with colourful streaks, and he has a big scar on his lower left leg which he got when he trained for his mission. May I propose to you that when you catch them you force them to send up optimistic reports, thereby you can not only postpone the next move of admiral Meng but you may even be granted supplies of Sky people weaponry, to fight against other clans."
Kakala was impressed. "They will be apprehended without delay. I wonder why you tell me this Frank? You must have reasons to be frank that is more than your name?"
"I got more for you. Should the disagreement rousing mission fail they will proceed to bombing na'vi villages with a germ giving a bad lung inflammation. Not deadly but enough to totally incapacitate you. Then doctors will land a few days later with medicine against it, in return for your cooperation with the colonization. We infiltrators were vaccinated against it."
"This sounds almost too good to be true. Are you trying to get yourself a home among the Omatikaya, is this why you are so open?"
"I have to admit that I am. I have no welcoming family left at Earth, my aunt asked me to leave and never show up again after I 'borrowed' a lot of money from her to go gambling. I was promised a very good salary in the colonial administration after human takeover so I could pay down my gambling debt. I am no angel with white wings but I am prepared to shed my bad old life and start another one, completely different from my past, but I will need some assistance and patience to rid myself of my gambling habit. Revealing my secrets is a way for me to prepay for this service I am hoping for."
Max and Kakala didn't quite understand that metaphor with white wings or what 'gambling' was but they took it to mean some attractive virtue and a vice. But they soon quit pondering, they now had very important information that needed to get out as soon as possible. Messengers were told the news and took to their ikrans without delay.
Acting upon Gained Knowledge
Sally had managed to infiltrate the Onati clan effectively. A na'vi language honed to perfection was good help and so was a deep insight into their practices. She was working with skinning a yerik she had shot when suddenly warrior eyktan Ezar came over at the head of some more warriors, all of them walking with brisk and determined steps towards her. Their faces were hard and hostile, and Sally instantly froze. She rose up and turned to run but Ezar was too fast. He wrung her arm behind her back and other warriors came up and one took her other arm, her black belt in karate was insufficient against so many strong men at a time.
She was brought to face olo'eyktan Karamit'ti. He was no big and powerful man but his eyes were brilliant with intelligence. "Initi'ken you have been revealed, or should I rather say Sallyowens? Your accomplice Filbertichiwu among the Ekanagis has been taken too and he is talking like a love struck riti is buzzing. You better do likewise if you want a chance for your life!"
Sally had been given a lot of training in talking her way out of problems but all her cover had obviously been blown. So she talked. About her training, her mission, her hope for success earning her money to pay for a new house for her poor parents back home at Earth. Karamit'ti eyed her with satisfaction and asked slyly: "You won't have more for me, won't you? Every word you utter will improve your outlook when all is done. Remember that if the na'vi are defeated you will not survive, so tell us as much as you can to make us win this struggle!"
Sally hesitated but Karamit'ti nodded to prod her on. Finally she broke: "I can tell you about the disease they are going to infect you with if our mission is a failure. They gave us a vaccine against it so I know."
"I know about that already, you should tell me more…"
"I heard a rumour at the ISV before coming down, saying that they were going to gas the villages with phosgene gas if they can't get any headway with the disease."
Karamit'ti didn't know the word "phosgene" but he understood that it had to be some very bad air, and Sallyowen didn't know much more than the word either. So he sent messengers around with a question what "phosgene gas" was.
It was Ohoni up in the mountains who finally remembered what his grandfather had told him. "It is a very dangerous poisonous air, cheap to make for Sky people but very insidious in its effects. The gas is invisible and harmlessly smelling like freshly cut grass, you can't feel any immediate effects until the day after but then your lungs are already destroyed and you will die within a week. By then the gas will have blown away and it will be safe to go down for the humans."
Word immediately got around. With a present risk for both microbial and gas attacks, it was more than ever important never to assemble in dense masses. Both Owens and Ichiwu, as well as Ellis of course, cooperated and sent up optimistic reports, after some days they started to request technological weapons. The requests were granted and sniper rifles, shotguns and rockets were provided. Phony skirmishes were staged, to fool eyes in space that their wishes were fulfilled.
It was a time of nervous activity, frenzied preparations and hard thinking, always looking for better places to hide without ending up on the menu of some predator. One day Ellis got no response when he tried to link with the ISV up in the orbit. The na'vi bluff had been called. The Weaver of the Network then took Ellis' radio set and called up, declaring in plain speaking if a little halting English language: "I am Nikorok'kxe of the Plains clan talking to You, in Your way of speaking I am the chairman of the Na'vi confederation. We have found out about your threats with disease and poison gas, and we have taken proper counter measures so your attack will have little effect. Believe us! We can promise you that a rail gun bombardment will not have much effect either so there is little use in trying, it will do lots of damage but it will not destroy us. We are holding your agents Ellis, Owens and Ichiwu as hostages. You better start looking elsewhere for the grey rocks you need, for down at Pandora you will get nothing but death."
That they had healers who could handle the disease they were facing, or phosgene gas poisoning, were more bluffing but they hoped that the different air and lung chemistry masked it.
The situation was a stalemate but the na'vi were obviously holding their own so far.
4. Landings against Opposition
Admiral Meng Xiongfeng didn't look like a hulk of a military man. He was small, slim and wore glasses, he behaved with a restrained and pensive demeanor, and he hardly ever lifted his voice in anger. His career up through ranks had been an academic one, his ph.d. degree dealt with administrating space colonization. For his expertise he had been hired by the RDA, rising swiftly up through ranks, and now he was leading an attempt at what supposedly was his very specialty. He had had many a profound discussion with Hideko Nakadate, head of the civilian operations – camp maintenance and mining operations. The mistakes of Selfridge and Quaritch simply HAD to be avoided.
His initial plans A and B, negotiation and infiltration, had obviously both failed and plans C and D, bacteriological and chemical attacks, didn't look promising any more either. He decided that he needed fresh ideas so he held a council of war. "We know that they are aware of our next planned moves, they look like dispersed in the forest to render them less easy targets. Are we to believe them when they are saying that they have more measures too? Can their witch-doctors really cure our infection and gas poisoning? What do you say, Segrillo?"
Mauro Segrillo, head of the SWU (Special Warfare Unit) admitted: "Hard to say but not impossible. We better not rely too heavy of what germs and gas can do."
The fateful words then fell: "We will then have to proceed to landing advance parties."
Marine colonels Gustavson, Tarakanides, al-Hufuf, Gastonnaire and Prapancharya were given areas of above average rich ores to take control over, as leaders of a number of sub-stations each and a central station with staff and much equipment. Each of the station systems were located away from big na'vi populations. The sub-stations were to be within easy range of the central and could easily call for assistance should they come under attack. All of them and particularly the central stations were to be fortified with heavy defence installations and many a helicopter, AMP suit and rail guns for quick strike against peace disturbers. All were well manned and accommodations were to be comfortable, the central stations had workshops for equipment repair and crew accommodation for R&R, like a movie theatre, a nice restaurant and a spa. To top it off, every building had been prefabricated with fast colonization against armed opposition in mind.
Careful planning was not restricted to hardware. Admiral Meng and director Nakadate had been equipped with a thick manual with good advices for a successful Pandora operation. There were clauses he had underlined with thick, bold lines:
"Do NOT attack the Tree of Souls unless there is absolutely no other possibility. We do not want to turn this conflict into a desperate fight for survival. We must all the time aim for negotiated settlements."
"Your military forces are meant for self defence. Always seek to use less violent measures like diplomacy and subterfuge against opposition."
"You are a modern commander of soldiers, not some medieval king commanding barbarians. In other words you must never tolerate ill discipline like vandalism, rape and plundering."
Admiral Meng and director Nakadate knew what they were doing.
Meanwhile down at Pandora
So did the na'vi. Watchkeeping plans were run over and put into effect. The technological weaponry the invaders had been tricked into handing over were distributed all over, with strictures saying for instance that rockets should shoot at space vessels first and then at defence towers. Maps over Pandora lands were analyzed to predict where they were likely to land – open terrain with ore deposits at hand – and the local clans were given commanding tasks over clans coming in to assist. They made sure to not only plan for case A but also for case B and C, down to even the worst imaginable scenario, utter defeat at every colonization push. The Weaver of the Network and his staff established his headquarter up in the Mountains, Max of the Omatikaya had the task with keeping his clan on the area as bodyguard when the news came in.
Then one day an Ikran clan fisherman discovered a white streak in the sky followed by the signature booom sound of a dropship. He followed the direction of the streak and saw that it disappeared into the jungle at the nearby mainland. He immediately ran to his olo'eyktan and told him what he had seen, and he wasted no time with reporting to the HQ and sending out airborne scouts to find out precisely where the dropship had alighted. The warrior eyktan of the Network Weaver soon had equivalent reports from the Ekanagi and the Atoll Islander clans too and the day after from the very distant Eymastua clan beyond the Great River. Seeing how widely dispersed the sightings had been he predicted that there might be more landings too that they had not had reports from, at least not yet. Quite correctly…
The Ekanagi and the Eymastua warriors took initiative precisely like they had been instructed to do. That same night the space ships were blown to bits by rockets and before the crew of the bases 2 and 3 had had time to react to the alarm calls the defence towers fell to new rockets. Then sniper rifles picked off the men, colonels Tarakanides and al-Hufuf fell in the valiant but hopeless fight for their bases. Many of the marines took cover in the main building and defended it but when the new day broke the air belonged to the na'vi. A vicious close encounter fight ensued in the corridors and rooms of the base, in the end the survivors surrendered. Hefty weapon arsenals had been captured but at the cost of some four hundred na'vi and about equally many humans.
The Ikran and the Atoll Islander clans tried likewise but with not quite the same success. The dropships were blasted and the towers felled but they couldn't overwhelm the base defenders so they settled down for a siege. But at least the bases were crippled and couldn't metastasize out any daughter colonies. They would need reinforcements from space to rebuild, or a big victory at the last base. For now at least colonels Gustavson and Prapancharya at Base 1 and Base 4 held their own, barely.
Major Milton from base 2 was brought to the Mountain HQ for interrogation as the highest ranking surrendering officer, the questioning was left to Max. It was from him they learned about the fifth landing attempt, far to the north in the frigid badlands. Messengers took the five days long flight up there and was told by the local Ice Hunter clan olo'eyktan that the base had been discovered only two days before and by then it was already well established and impossible to assault.
Max could observe the Weaver of the Network at the dinner bonfire in the evening, his brow furrowed and obviously in deep concern. The landings had been at least partly a success, for the two bases that had been overrun there was two more that might be reinforced from sky, and one that had not even been touched. Max walked over to I'o'ne, the warrior eyktan of the Mountain clan and asked for her opinion. "We have no need for panic yet but the situation is serious" she said.
Admiral Meng was on his part cautiously optimistic now. Two of the bases had survived and needed simply some support from space to drive off the besiegers, and base 4 was well established and thriving, and would soon be ready to start mining and establish satellite stations. The na'vi had scored successes at base 2 and 3 but according to the last reports of the crews before their surrender the victories looked pyrrhic. Now was time to save the bases 1 and 4, turning the na'vi successes gained to nought, then it would probably be possible to get into negotiations with the Clan Network. He gave orders to ready a rescue party for both bases.
5. Na'vi Inventiveness
Max was rummaging through the debris from the fighting at the base in the Ekanagi clan's land, to report to the Weaver's warrior eyktan if there was anything more of use there, other than the weapons already brought away. He walked into the big hangar and found some big container boxes and some net wrought into a parabola shape. "What is this, looks absolutely like something funny…" He passed on and found a number of identical big boxes, opening them he found huge, oval shaped metal things. He walked out and told the messenger attending him: "Go to the prisoner camp and ask the warden to inquire among the prisoners what is in these boxes, if you can find a prisoner who is acquainted with these things then send this guy here!"
The messenger returned an hour later, with a huge glee in his face and with a prisoner looking depressed. Max asked: "Now, tell me, what is in these boxes?"
"A dismounted rail gun, sir."
"Are you telling me that we have a hugely powerful weapon at our disposal?"
"Ummm, yes sir."
Max eyed a bright possibility: "Might it be possible for us to take it into our use?"
"You would then have to find someone willing to mount it and crew it… Someone else than me. I can see that you have some shells and the dynamo unit to work it. But I must warn you, firing a rail gun shell is of little use if you don't have the exact enemy position, down to the last latitude and longitude degree second. It is made to be used in conjunction with a pathfinder air or space unit to aim it, relaying precise positions back to the firing crew."
Max came to think about the throat mic set he had seen some of the surrendered soldiers wearing, he walked around and finally found a such one lying at the floor. "Could a flying warrior wearing this one mark out the position precisely enough?"
"He could if within the range of this radio set."
Suddenly now Max came in an enormously big hurry, he ran to his ikran while yelling to the messenger attendant and his attendant warrior to take the enemy soldier back to the prisoner camp and to get someone to guard this locality religiously – ON THE DOUBLE! He flew up to the HQ and reported to the Weaver's warrior eyktan. "Believe it or not, we have a rail gun at the Ekanagi land base. Dismounted but in fully usable order. If we mount it we could bombard the enemy bases to pieces in short work. We do however need to find out if there are prisoners who know how to crew it, I think I know of a way to aim it… And we might send someone to the base at the Eymastua clan's land to see if there is one of the same kind there."
The head warrior eyktan of the Clan Network responded with an order: "You and your Omatikaya warriors are now given command over this pongu (war party). Take well care of your task now!"
Max next walked over to the Weaver of the Clan Network himself and had a chat with him. "Weaver, I now need to inform you about my intentions. I think I can take into our use one rail gun – imagine that, a na'vi warrior party shooting with a rail gun! I found it dismounted at the enemy base we captured in the Ekanagi land. There may be one in the base captured in the Eymastua clan land too. I intend to use this weapon to bombard the enemy bases not captured outright at first. But there is of course no Omatikaya who knows how to operate it, or any na'vi otherwise either. So I want to recruit one crew among the prisoners to serve it, there must be something we can offer that can entice some of them to join with us. May be I can offer them a body switch of some sort? What do you think? Your warrior eytkan is informed and has given me his green light."
"I like this idea. Go ahead!"
He now walked to the Ekanagi war prisoner camp, a shadowy place in the woods not so far from what had been the base. He found a lot of men and women there, a few in exopack masks and more avatars, and asked into the air: "Are there anybody here who knows how to crew a rail gun?"
Five avatar hands went to the air. "Please come with me."
He took them to a place secluded from prying eyes. "Tell me how many you need to man a rail gun, and how many of them need to be trained and experienced with this weapon."
One uttered: "Four trained men are needed, plus ten or twelve more just to haul shells, work the manual stuff like barrel scrubbing in time of cleaning and the like."
Max put the central question: "I am now going to offer you the chance of a lifetime. There is a dismounted rail gun in the arms garage as you may know. The Na'vi Confederation is at war with human invaders, as avatars permanently resident in your bodies you are able to move around freely. If you would like to join with us, I am as reigning chieftain of the Omatikaya clan entitled to offer you a life as members of our clan – or you can later on emigrate to another clan if you so decide. The price for joining will be that you crew the rail gun inside there. So, who of you would like to join with us?"
"Sounds like a rank promotion to me. I am in!"
"Your name?" "Kemal Kilioglu".
"Count me in too, I am Nina Cabanes Mirandoles! I love adventure and discoveries!"
"As husband of Nina and her constant, sworn bodyguard in life, I must then join too. Armando Cabanes Mello."
"OK you two, one or both of you?"
"I would have been happy for some more time to think about it but I think I better grab this opportunity. It sure looks like a better life than in the cesspool of Earth, and I will be happy to be rid of that master sergeant Kidder. John Te Mahinoa, that is me."
"I am Peter Ormondy and I am happy that you have got a minimal team now because I really do need some more time to think. I hope I can still join with you after some days of heartbreak?"
"Your services will surely still be in hot demand, Ormondy. We will have a talk in some days, I am sure."
Max walked over to a messenger and told her: "You fly over to the Ikran clan warriors watching that base and tell them that when they see an ikran rider waving a big sheet in the air, they must at once run for cover away from the base because it will go BOOOM!!!"
He turned to the next messenger, telling her: "Your task will be to fly to the Eymastua clan and ask them if there are some big boxes in the big storage room at the conquered base. If so, find out if there are any among the prisoners willing to crew it – offer them a life among the na'vi and see if they like the idea. May be they will be willing to join us for some opportunity to go 'mate-hunting'?"
They went to work with mounting the whole contraption, it was a big and complex machine. Max asked Armando why bases had such a weapon like this. "It is basically as a deterrence weapon. If some clan starts disturbing the finish station system, they can mount it in the courtyard in front of the garage and behind lots of defences and fire a shell at that clan, e.g. blasting its hometree. That is why it is so immobile when it is ready for use, it is not meant to be moving through terrain only to remain at the base and pulverize from a distance. It is also too vulnerable to be put into tactical fighting so it is not to be mounted until the base has gained Central Station status."
Max put some of his warriors to assist the four experts with it, they were not happy about it at first but when told what this big and unhandy gadget could do to the enemy they got moving. It was ready for action at afternoon that day, the experts did some foolproofing of the system and put it at rest for the evening. Armando walked over to Max and asked: "When firing this gun we always have someone to spot the target and give us the exact target positions. It can be a heli or we can have positions from a satellite. How do you want to give us positions – do you have a heli? And how will you describe the exact coordinates we need to aim it?"
Max answered: "See this little radio contraption? Can you take in this signal from somewhere in the range, however weak the signal?"
"We could give it a try."
"Then I put it to the ear of an ikran warrior – a warrior riding that kind of dragon that is. He will keep the connection all the time, give him message if you start loosing signal from him. Thus we find if the range is sufficient long. We give it a test round first, to see if this works in practice."
"Looks interesting, so let's go."
Kxapxe the ikran rider was given the throat mic, told to fly out straight ahead for as long as he could hear anyone talking in his ear, and then fly around at the distance where the connection was balancing on the edge. That would mark the range. He flew out, did as he had been told and Nina at the aiming unit concluded that it should reach the base in the Ikran land - barely...
Early next morning they put to work with readying for firing. While the four of them did last minute checking Kxapxe took to the air with the small radio at his throat. He went further and further out, the signal became weaker and weaker but Nina at the aiming screen worked tirelessly with amplifying the signal. With straining his hearing Max could discern his voice: "See… ene… now!"
Max called out: "Make ready for firing now!"
The dot at the screen had started blinking but still moved – moved – moved – and stopped. "Now o…"
"That is the spot!" Max yelled.
"Target acquired!" Nina replied.
"Ready for firing! Everyone hold your ears!" Armando called out. The Omatikaya warriors dived for cover.
"FIRE!"
Ikran clan Land Target area
The Ikran warriors had kept the base under surveillance ever since they hadn't managed to completely overrun it. There had been skirmishes with the people in there, an arrow had shot the hat off a man walking out in the forest, a bullet had nipped a na'vi in the arm but nothing serious had been serious on either side since the failed assault attempt. The message from the HQ was that assistance would be coming but it had now lasted so long that they had started to doubt if they could manage it after all. A messenger came along and told them to watch for a lone ikran up in the air, when he flew right above the base, waving a big banner they must run away at once, a secret weapon would then strike the invaders, they were told. That was cheering up news to get. But little came to it, time passed and the spirit started to flag again.
And then there was a most depressing sight to behold: A space ship landed, lots of men walked off. The people in the forest thought all of them the same idea: "Now we will never manage to evict them from there!"
But then the warriors in the forest saw a lone ikran flying high up in the air, in from the plains to the east. They had surely seen him inside the base too for suddenly they started shooting up in the air. When straight above the base he stopped flying ahead and circled while he waved a big, redcoloured sheet. "That is the alarm sign! We need to get away from here – now!!!"
And they ran. Above them they glanced the ikran rider flying away in a dive. They had come a couple of hundred meters away when they suddenly saw a bright streak in the sky and soon after a blindingly bright flash and then in the next second a deafeningly huge BOOOM! was heard from the base, immediately followed by a smashing shock wave that struck them to the ground. It took some minutes before the dazed and confused men managed to rise. The question in every eye was "What happened? Let's go and take a look!"
Coming to the spot where the base had been, there wasn't much left. Lots of smoke from burning material lying around. A big impact crater, some metal pieces around and some distance away some airplane parts, just strewn around. The warriors looked each other in amazement. So this was the secret weapon the messenger had talked about!
Up at the Space HQ
Admiral Meng watched the computer survey screen showing base 4. He could see the dropship on the ground, bringing the hardpressed men on the ground much needed supplies and reinforcements. Now it would be possible to extend the two bases to full central station status again, and in no time build up a new network of satellite mining stations. Success was at hand, life was brightening. Time to have a cigar.
He was on his way back with the cigar in his hand when a soldier on the screen watch cried: "Admiral! Come and take a look! I'll replay this event for you!" The admiral saw the familiar sight of the base with a landed dropship adjacent, suddenly a huge explosion obliterated the whole scene and when the screen cleared only debris was left. Base 4 had been utterly destroyed, colonel Prapancharya was no more and none of his men either. The soldier wondered: "What on all of Pandora could that have been?" The admiral replied: "I can only imagine one thing: A rail gun shell must have exploded somehow and ignited all the explosive material at the base. They didn't have any nukes down there. Let me have a larger scale image." The soldier increased the scale, they could see a golden pin-prick leave the edge of the forest, travel through air and striking the base. "Look there – the shell is shot out of the forest and strikes the base. The na'vi must have taken a rail gun when they captured one of the bases, and persuaded or forced some of the men taken prisoner to crew it. That means that Gustavson and the men at Base 1 are in immediate danger, we can't reach them with helicopters from Central Station 5 and we will probably have no time to build it up to full Central Station status while the na'vi are lurking in the forest close by. There is only a single thing to do, we must abandon base 1 while we still can get the men out alive. Send the message down to the dropship down there, at once!"
At the Base 4
The Atoll Islanders had been watching with dismay how a dropship landed and people disembarked, carrying material off and into the building. But then all of a sudden loud yelling could be heard in the distance, all the soldiers at the base ran into the space ship and then it took off, shortly after the takeoff the whole building exploded with a big bang, and the explosions continued for a long time afterwards. The warriors could hardly believe their own eyes, the enemy had panicked for some mysterious reason! Only some days after did they get the explanation, what had taken place at another base.
6. Making Ready for the Main Strike
Max felt that he deserved a break now, so after having given report to the elated Weaver's warrior eyktan he went home to the Omatikaya Hometree to relax. The report had been favourable, the rail gun bombardment had destroyed one base completely and the day after another one was abandoned without further fighting. And then he could put a prick above the "i" letter, Peter Ormondy had made up his mind and joined the renegade gang. In time they would be run through the learning process the first avatars had run through once upon a time, but that could wait. There was one more base to handle first and that was the big one. Better be well rested before taking on it.
Back at Hometree he just spent the day in his hammock and felt he ought to be allowed to let the others catch his food, just for today. His mate, father and mother saw him and gave gleeful smiles, they understood that he had had a good day in the war. Sometimes a sight is more telling than a whole speech. The rumour of how he had destroyed one base and frightened away the men at another one spread, born by messengers. The whole clan was proud of their leader.
The day after he flew back to where the renegades had settled, in the Ikran hometree. He asked: "How is life these days?"
Kilioglu answered: "Couldn't complain. Food has been practically wrangled down through our throats, there have been many romantic glances from girls, and we have had to explain how we shot the base to bits again and again."
"That is good, now we need to think ahead. Armando, you look like the boss of the team to me."
"I am in so case a very, very low ranking boss…"
"Well, never mind about that. I like to have your opinions about the way further on. We still have one more enemy location to deal with. There is a problem with that one, it is located at another continent and the ocean in between is too wide to carry a big, heavy thing like a rail gun across by canoe, even if we tie the canoes together. Also, it will probably be too far away to strike it the way we did last time, with a spotting ikran rider – the radio set was at its very range limit even last time."
"Well, the maximum range of a rail gun is something like a quarter of the Earth circumference, so it should be possible to drop a shell at the base if we could solve the spotting problem. Also remember Max, this last location is a far harder target to spot than the last bases, they were blocked from full development by the warriors watching them from the forests. This one is on the other hand a fully developed Central Station, i.e. equipped with a good many 'copters and AMPs, a massive line of defensive towers and outlying daughter stations where enemies coming in can be discovered and strike alarm at the centre before they can arrive. Spotting it with from a flying dragon will be suicidal, the warrior would be shot down before he even could get close the target."
Max sat down and pondered what Armando had said in silence. Would it somehow be possible to do what they did in the First Pandora – Earth War – woo the enemy out of the lair, to join battle at a location where the na'vi had the home ground advantage? It might be possible – Max came to think about that the geomagnetic north pole of Pandora wasn't very far away from that enemy location, so his namesake long ago had once said, given the brutally strong geomagnetic field of Pandora radio sets would be in trouble in there, like among the Iknimaya floating mountains. But how would it be possible to attract the soldiers in there? Amassing a huge crowd of warriors so far north would be hard too, the geomagnetic north pole was very far indeed from the home of most na'vi and few of his warriors had much experience with the northern climate. Even if Pandora in the mean had a warmer climate than Earth, up there in the far northern forests the climate was still not so balmy as down south. Max went into a secluded spot in the forest and thought deep.
Finally, a tentative idea came to him. Offer the enemy some irresistible bait – the rail gun! There simply had to be a way they could ferry the big gun across the ocean. Two rail guns would be even more tempting. Max hadn't heard anything more from the messenger he had sent down to the base in the Eymastua land, he better go there in person and have a look at the place himself. If Lady Luck was in a benevolent mood and he found another rail gun, a skilled rail gunner would be needed to see if it was worthwhile bringing out. He walked over to the renegades and asked if someone of them was skilled in technical maintenance & repair of a rail gun. "I think I am" said Te Mahinoa.
"Good, we are now going to the other captured base to see if there is another rail gun we can put into use – and may be some more men we can persuade to join us among the prisoners of war down there."
Max gave a whistle sound and his faithful ikran Olodon landed and he mounted it. "Take a seat at my back and hold on tight!"
"Are you telling me that I will be flying through the air clinging to your back?"
"Yes I am, all on board please!"
It was a long air journey and with two at his back they had to rest Olodon often. In all it took half a day to get there but finally they walked into the garage of what had been the southern base. They found the boxes and opened them, but then Te Mahinoa shook his head. "There has obviously been fighting going on in this garage room, the boxes are riddled with bullets. Vital parts have been damaged beyond repair. Sorry."
The two men walked dejectedly around in the building, looking for something else of any use. Entering an office Te Mahinoa screamed: "Look at that!"
He pointed at something lying on the floor, looking like a small trunk. He ran over, took it up and opened it, and said: "This is a desktop computer, this is by far better than finding the other rail gun intact. With this one I can download from a satellite above us a precise map over the whole world of Pandora. Space station managers are not supposed to have such machines, it must have been the personal property of some big man at this base. Rail guns were meant to be linked with the computer system of all the station. We don't have any big computer but we don't really need any when we have this little gadget here! We don't have to cross the sea at all now!"
He switched it on, did some computer wizardry at the keyboard and up at the screen came a flurry of colours Max understood absolutely nothing of. "Look at this map, there is the Central Station, see the towers in the defence ring, and the daughter stations…"
Fingers ran over the screen in a flurry, leaving Max dumbfounded and happy that he had such an expert on his hand. The computer was switched off and brought along. The men mounted Olodon again and headed back to the Ikran Hometree. It was late evening before they were back. A messenger put on heavy garment and flew out to warn the Ice Hunter clan to stay well away from the whole vicinity of the human locations for the next days. But they were asked to go in and find out what it looked like after they had heard the last big explosion, and then send a messenger to tell the HQ about it.
The day after the renegades and Max with his Omatikaya warriors made ready to move the rail gun up to the place where the Central Station system would be in range, and get the plan into motion. Max asked for assistance with pa'li from the Plains clan, six of the elephant-size horse-like creatures carried the barrel, six more the machinery, six more the foundation plate and six more the dynamo, six more of them handled the ammunition, and a final one the five crew men plus their driver. This caravan trudged along, heeding Armando's advice they kept ample distance between each part, to not arouse the attention of those who kept watch up at the space station high above. The humans wanted to use defensive installations to defend the rail guns at work, Max intended to use surprise and stealth. The Omatikaya supporting crew went by ikran to survey the area and make it ready for emplacement. It took three arduous days to get to the place, at a headland jutting out in the ocean. They took cover under the trees and took rest for the rest of the day.
The whole system was mounted in the early morning after, the whole job went smoothly for all the five of them knew their tasks. They worked with care, this was going to be far more than just a single fired shot, this was going to be a whole bombardment. That the five avatars were competent was very evident to Max. First of all, together with the na'vi men they all hauled the foundation plate on place and mounted the big parts together on it. Te Mahinoa connected the system parts and sat down to control the electrical supply. Armando checked the machinery systems while his wife connected the computer, calibrated the aiming system and downloaded a computer map through the aiming system antenna - courtesy a RDA surveillance satellite... Kilioglu now loaded the gun while Ormondy readied the shells for coming rounds of firing. Nina then acquired the targets Max had told them to take down, one by one. They all put on their helmets with ear protection, and Armando asked Max and all the other na'vi to take cover and hold their ears tightly. And Nina finally put her hand on the trigger handle, waiting for the "F" word from her husband. Ready for action.
7. Disaster Strikes
Admiral Meng had had his morning tea and had settled at his desk reading reports. Colonel Gastonnaire obviously knew his job. His Central Station 5 was thriving. The crew down at the satellite stations had started mining, they would soon be ready to deliver their first load. He closed the business report from director Nakateda and returned to ponder on the military situation. The situation at the Central station 5 looked secure, the na'vi couldn't get their rail gun close enough to harm it, given their aiming method – a man at his staff had found out that they had used flying spotters and such warriors would be easily shot down. If they started ferrying the monstrously big machine across the sea in canoes the fleet of canoes would be seen from space without problems and taken under fire by helicopters soon as they came in range. He chuckled – the na'vi might be asking the space station crew for target locations but they wouldn't get any!
He turned his mind from defence to offence. How to plant out other bases against opposition? May be they wouldn't have to – How about taking a look at the other side of the globe, at the Antarctic side? Few na'vi here and not many down there either. Isolated mid-oceanic islands? Diving down into deep sea? Thus the cost of conflict could be kept down. Erecting new bases at mainlands would have to be done under a very heavy guard, one at the time. Such measures would better be postponed into the future. All in all, the situation was not what it could have been but not too bad either.
Suddenly he heard a scream from the monitoring screen. He hurried over, elbowing the soldier on watch aside to have a look. The Central Station garage facility looked like it all of a sudden had atomized. What the heck? Meng stared at the screen in disbelief – and witnessed how the processing plant suddenly burst into a fireball. He howled: "Call them to get into their secure bunkers on the double-over-double!"
The frenzied soldier on watch screamed: "I am trying to get them online now! Oh, I can see them now, they are running to their safety bunkers…"
And then the barrack building erupted. Admiral Meng's brain worked in overdrive: "How is it possible for that na'vi rail gun to aim over such a distance? Have they somehow downloaded a satellite map over the Central station?"
Just as he uttered it the Command building, with all the offices, R&R area, infirmary and mess hall was ripped to small pieces. "No way of telling, sir. I can't see any other way they could have managed this, though."
The admiral turned over to another soldier who had come to look: "Then switch it off Cora, yesterday!"
"Aye-aye, sir!"
But the soldier at the monitor then argued: "But sir, if they really have downloaded a satellite map it means that they have probably already acquired all the targets they intend to strike, the dog is already loose!"
He no sooner had said it when the storage building was razed in the blink of an eye. The professional conscience in the admiral's head took over: "Get me the satellite stations, tell the men there to run for their lives to the safety bunkers at Central Station 5!"
The man at the monitor acknowledged the order: "I will try to get it through, sir! Calling satellite all stations! Calling all satellite stations! Anyone of you copy me? Respond, please!"
Hot on the heels of his words they saw the Central Station's own rail gun turn into a crushed, burning wreck.
Events down at Pandora
Sergeant Vahan Aharonyan at Satellite Station 5 – 6 felt in complete control of his assigned task. Mining foreman Georgiev was a mild mannered man with steel in his eyes if needed be, they both knew the limits to their powers and mostly cooperated with the least of problems. His task was mostly to look out for the local na'vi hunters, not that they made much trouble any more, and lately also to look out for flying dragons up in the air. Something had taken place at Base 1, he wasn't quite sure what but the base had disappeared and then Base 4 had been evacuated. Those bases should have been up to central station status by then but for some reason their development had been stalled. And Base 2 and 3 never really came up and running before they were overrun by hostile na'vi, well they were probably situated too close to na'vi locations and manned by insufficiently competent leaders.
Then his lazy thoughts were most rudely interrupted by a loud alarm call from Central. "ALARM! Incoming…" And he could hear a sirena screaming in the background until the radio message abruptly ended.
Huh? He rose up from his chair and looked towards the Central Station in the far distance. He saw a big fireball and stared at it with a transfixed gaze. His daze was cut short when a new fireball rose and now he could hear a blast too – he thought that hearing a sound that powerful through this thick wall and over that long distance, the sound had to be tremendously strong at the place. The thought had just about run through his mind when he saw yet another one. He called out to his men: "Some horrible disaster must be going on at the Central Station, may be a furnace at the processing plant has blown up. We better go there at once, they might need our assistance with putting the fire out or something. Ready the wagon."
He saw another explosion and coming out of the building he heard a thud and now he could feel a faint shock wave too. Private Martini had readied the wagon and all of the 30 men and women at the satellite station boarded. While driving they looked up and could see a white streak in the sky heading for the Central Station, making a humongeous crash when it struck ground. Sitting at the wheel Martini mused: "Does the RDA company have some mortal enemy at Earth who have landed an assault party attacking us, since someone is bombarding the Central Station with a rail gun?"
Arriving at Central Station a horrible sight came in wiev. All the main buildings were in ruins and most of the defence towers, the last two were atomized while they drove through the main compound, a few minutes later a mighty blast sounded behind them – everyone in the wagon looked at each other in horror and Georgiev then looked behind, seeing a pillar of smoke in the direction they had come from – Satellite Station 5 – 6, where they had left from an hour earlier, had been incinerated... Miner Enzio said with a glassy glance in his eyes: "My gitar… My family album…" A new white streak crossed the sky and went down further away, they understood that one more satellite station had ended its existence, they could only hope that the crew there had had time to leave it while they could.
They left the wagon and found a safety bunker, inside were some twenty severely shell-shocked members of the station crew. More satellite station crews arrived and those of the Central Station staff who had survived were rounded up, some of them were found walking aimlessly around in shock... The last of the satellite stations went to pieces now and the bombardment came to an end. Aharonyan lifted his voice: "All right, now who here is the highest ranking guy?" "Probably me, master sergeant Milankowitz here. Captain Umm Naqaila ranks formally higher than me but there she is (pointing at a hysterically crying officer just up from a bunker) and colonel Gastonnaire is missing. I saw director Nakadate dead in the rubble at the Command centre. Okay sergeant Aharonyan, let's now take a census."
The tally ended at some five hundred, out of the more than two thousand there had been. Milankowitz then uttered something self evident to everyone: "One thing is for sure now, it is impossible for us to remain here at Pandora. We can only hope that a dropship is on the way to take us up. Also some of us are in need of medical treatment – not the least psychiatric." He was of course correct in his guess, the dropship descended about four hours later. All of the survivors were taken in and the dropship then took off and went up into the sky – something the eyes of Ice Hunter clansmen didn't fail to notice the day after and bring back to the HQ up in the mountains with a messenger.
So the afternoon day after a radio message went up in the air: "This is Nikorok'kxe speaking, I am the Weaver of the Clan Network, or if You like You can say that I am the chairman of the Na'vi Confederation. The forces of the Confederation have now evicted the human intruders from Pandora and we wish them to stay away – for all foreseeable future. Get the grey rocks You need elsewhere, or spend those You take with more wisdom. We are sorry that we have had to use this much violence to make You understand our point but at least we are pleased that we didn't have to kill all of You. We ask You to send down to us a space ship so that we can hand you back the prisoners-of-war we have under our protection, including the spies Sallyowens and Filbertichiwu. They have been treated with respect and care. The fallen humans will be buried by us with full battle honours as brave na'vi warriors. We commend our chivalrous opponent who never tried to attack our hallowed sites and refrained from putting to work the genocidal means of warfare we know that he had at his disposal. May we never again meet in anger."
8. The Aftermath
When the evacuees from the disaster down at Pandora entered the space ship HQ, admiral Meng had the infirmary bay at the ready, stretchers came handy. Not the least need was for the psychiatrist. The vessel at once set course for the main base at the moon of Svarog, once there the admiral did his duty: He sent those of his crew with a need for it to hospital and reported to the admiral in chief resident there. Had he expected a severe rebuke he was happily surprised, admiral in chief Lorenzini offered his comfort and said that he had read the reports admiral Meng had sent over and he was completely convinced that everything that was to be expected from a commander had been done, nobody else could have done it any better. A honourable discharge with gratitude and respect was to be expected from the RDA leadership. The commendation from Pandora of a honourable enemy did much to earn Meng a respect Quaritch in his days never had been accorded. Lorenzini arranged for a dropship to come to bring away the prisoners, first at Eymastua then at Ekanagi – Sally and Filbert were among the last batch. Significantly absent from the prisoners returned to Svarog were one spy and five gunners.
A joyful victory party was celebrated at every hometree, celebrating that the Network had managed to defend its freedom, without the miraculous advent of a genius like Jakesully and without an obvious divine intervention by Eywa. Eager participants of the celebration were six avatars starting their na'vi training rituals the day after – Frank Ellis, Peter Ormondy, John Te Mahinoa, Kemal Kilioglu, Nina Cabanes Mirandoles and Armando Cabanes Mello. At the party Max had to grab Frank by his neck and give him a strict index finger when he tried to bet with one of the others whom of the unmarried among them would first end up mated with a na'vi girl. Max had finally understood which vice Frank was trying to rid himself of. He obviously needed help with it.
After revealing the infiltration attempt that enabled the na'vi to acquire a lot of much needed technological weaponry, the attacks at first one base and then at the heavily fortified Central Station, without loosing one single na'vi life and by using a weapon captured from the invaders, Max had suddenly become the leading contender for succeeding Nikorok'kxe as Weaver of the Clan Network. When the day came two years later when he was to resign his duty as olo'eyktan of the Plains clan, and thereby his Weaver dignity too, it came as a surprise to not very many when the "mouth" of the Decision Ring rose and named Max. Some said that he had inherited a small spark of the Jakesully genius. Congratulations followed and Nikorok'kxe took off his necklace and hung it around Max' neck. Returning to his own Hometree he wore a new and very splendid necklace. A proud celebration followed.
It lasted a lifetime before the na'vi again needed to deal with human intruders.