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Chapter 12: Howling Wolves

Date: March 22nd, 2170

Location: Mining Site 02, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System

I know Hell's Gate wasn't that beautiful or anything, but Tartarus makes it look positively inspired, Parker thought to himself as he gazed at the partially finished base from his seat in one of the newly assembled Samsons.

Whereas Hell's Gate been almost uniformly dark in color, the concrete left that way and the metals blending in well with it, the buildings in Tartarus were a instead a glaringly bright gray, almost white. It was especially jarring when comparing the buildings to the strips of solid black asphalt being laid down for the various runways and landing zones, and the greenery surrounding the base. When he had asked the engineer captain about it, he had gotten "They're going to know we're here, and it's hot enough. The color will help reflect the heat and let the savages know we don't intend to hide from them."

He had to admit that the engineer's ideas were sound. It wouldn't be long before the locals realized that they were back, and making their presence as obvious as possible might enrage them into doing something stupid.

Plus, he thought, it is a bit warm. Only took three years on Earth, dammit, I mean Terra to forget just how hot it gets here.

That the buildings were also being designed to be as fireproof as possible was an added bonus. Fire was really the only weapon the Na'vi had, apart from brute strength, that would actually damage most human buildings, so making them almost entirely out of concrete had that advantage going for them as well.

From the air, the base had the appearance of a five pointed star, with thick heavy bunkers in place at both the outer and inner 'points' of the star. Hastily erected guard towers covered the spaces in between, with the long-term towers and smaller bunkers only in place in a few locations along the line. Gaping pits and long trenches revealed the eventual locations of the primary buildings and the tunnels that would connect them, and a single long strip of black asphalt showed the only complete runway, a pair of Valkyries currently resting upon it. The entire southern half of the base was covered in what was being called the 'junkyard'. Eventually, the unobtanium refinery would be placed there, but until then, it was covered in the corpses of everything they had manage to haul from Hell's gate. Much of it had been torn apart to build the temporary towers or for use as make-shift walls or supports, but that still left a massive amount of scrap metal yet to be used.

Yawning, he leaned back in his seat as the Samson moved over 'junkyard' and gravel mine located a bare kilometers outside the southern perimeter before slowly banking towards the intended site of their new unobtanium mine. The dozers had only recently completed the two-mile path from the edge of the gravel mine to the larger mining site, and his miners had only just broken ground.

He watched the road and jungle pass by underneath of him, groaning as he noticed controlled chaos awaiting them on the ground ahead.

The Samson roared down to the ground, and even before it' skids touched the dirt two pairs of medics rushed up, and he barely got out of their way before they carefully moved two stretchers into the back of the Samson, one form very still, the other moaning quietly.

Parker winced at the sight, "Viperwolves again?"

One of the medics shook his head and spoke, his Russian accent very thick, "Hell wasps today."

Shuddering, Parker moved off towards the small shelter erected near their primary excavator. Nowhere near the size of the gargantuan one currently en route from home, it was still more than effective in its job, steadily crushing the soil as it dug.

"Administrator," the mining foreman, Bill Augustus was his name, nodded to him, "Good to see you."

"Augustus" he returned, "How are we doing? On schedule?"

"Ya, she's digging all right, haven't hit any snags yet." the other replied, bringing up the mining area on the small holo-table. "They're offloading the trucks today right? Need to start hauling some of this off or we're going to have to slow down."

"They were already working on it when I left," Parker assured him, "They'll be here by tonight."

"Good. Apart from that, everything good like I said. We're on schedule, and once they drop the second excavator down tomorrow, we might actually pull ahead a bit."

"Good. How has the security been? Kozlov doing his job?"

At this his foreman smiled, "Very good actually, pleasure to work for guys who are here for something other than money really, they actually care about keeping us alive, not just the blackmarks on their paychecks for people dying on their watch."

"Ya. I've noticed that," Parker nodded and looked at the area, many of the soldiers in sight were digging at the soil with shovels, others carefully working on the small pits they'd already made. He frowned, "What the heck are they doing?"

"Digging foxholes," the foreman replied, "Had to ask it myself, they say it's for cover if the Na'vi attack."

His eyebrows rose, Sec-ops had never done anything like that, preferring instead to watch over things from the air or from the vehicles themselves. He remembered many an argument with Quaritch about the former, the amount of aviation fuel used for 'patrolling' had been ridiculous in his opinion.

He was about to comment on this when an arrow flew from the forest and ricocheted off the glass canopy on the excavator.

"Bozhe moi!" he heard a nearby soldier curse, and that curse was immediately followed by another arrow narrowly missing the Russian who had said it as the man hurled himself into one of the foxholes.

Swearing, Parker and Augustus dropped to the ground as gunfire erupted all around them.

Oddly, it was then he realized another difference between the soldiers around him now, and the Sec-Ops he had worked with for far too long. They soldiers around him did not fire at full automatic like the previous soldiers had. The Russian men and women were firing in short, almost clipped bursts of fire in the direction of the arrows, shooting only after an arrow came winging from the woods, resulting in gunfire that rose and fell, instead of the constant roar he had expected.

An arrow flew inches over him and he scurried behind the holotable as quickly as he could, heart pounding in his chest. He scrambled for his headset, "Weigand! Weigand!" he screamed over the roar of battle around him. "We're under attack! The savages are fucking attacking us!"

"Parker! Get off the air! I know dammit!" the Oberst bellowed in return, cutting the channel before Parker could say anything else.

Swearing again, he curled up as best he could behind the table with Bill, who was shaking nearly as badly as he was, and waited for it to end.

Perhaps a year later, the gunfire quieted, then stopped. Glancing at his watch, he frowned, Five minutes! No way, no way in hell.

Cautiously standing, he saw several soldiers moving carefully into the woods, covering one another. One form was very still in a foxhole, an arrow embedded in the soldier's chest. Another two had been hit, both had shoved needles into their own chests to administer the anti-venom for the toxins covering the arrows.

He heard a roar of noise and looked up as a trio of fully armed Samsons swooped in, one hovering over the excavator, another moving to land, and the last slowly moving over the woods the soldiers had entered.

"Oh man. Oh man." Augustus was murmuring to himself, eyes locked on the soldier who had died. He was not in much better shape, he forced his shaking hands to straighten his mud splattered tie, and fought to stand reasonably straight as medics leaped from the landed Samson and raced to the two wounded men.

One of the soldiers emerged from the foliage, spotted Parker, and strode quickly over to him. "Two Na'vi, and one Avatar. One of the Na'vi and the Avatar are dead."

"And the other?" Parker asked, voice rough.

A single gunshot split the air, causing Parker to jump.

"Also dead." the grim faced soldier replied, gazing at the body still in its foxhole and at the two men the medics were frantically working on.

He stared blankly at the soldier, who returned it evenly, before shuddering and nodding.

The man continued, "We think it was the avatar that took those shots at you Administrator," he nodded to the arrow that had almost hit him, and to another two embedded in the holo table he had not even noticed. "The arrows are the same style."

He shuddered, a savage had been trying to kill him in particular. But why? He had not done anyth... "Wait." his brain caught up with what the soldier had told him, "An avatar? How the hell is one of them an avatar? We haven't picked up any control signals!"

The other shrugged, and moved back into the jungle without answering. Parker blinked at his exit and fumed quietly, helping his foreman sit down slowly and he was about to call Weigand again when the soldier and another emerged, grunting and straining to drag a large, limp blue form between them.

He blanched when they dropped it in front of him. "Avatar." the soldier grunted, before turning as another Samson arrived, Kapitan Kozlov and Oberst Weigand visible within, and trotting over to it.

The corpse's eyes were still open, staring at the sky. The wound that had killed it was immediately visible as a bloody hole just below it's left eye, and he did not want to see what the back of its head looked like. But the features were more human than Na'vi. And a glance at his hands revealed five fingers, not four.

"Well, this is an intriguing mystery, no?" Weigand had arrived, and now stood next to him, also gazing down at the corpse. "They must have found some way to permanently transfer their consciousness to their avatars."

Parker nodded, then raced to the back of the small shack and heaved out everything he had eaten that morning. The German colonel remained quiet as he slowly made his way back, before nodding to the Samson he had arrived in. "Let's get you out of here Administrator, I don't think you're quite suited to this kind of thing."

Date: March 23rd, 2170

Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System

It had taken the better part of twenty-four hours, and some very strong sleeping pills, before Parker felt well enough to agree to a meeting with Weigand and Thomes, the latter having flown down after the short fight.

Seated at a table in their make-shift ops center, Parker listened as Kozlov spoke over the radio.

"The tribe members bear markings that Augustine's old reports label as Omaticaya. Probably were a scouting party looking for us. If I had to guess, someone either noticed a Valkyrie or stopped by Hell's Gate for something."

Thomes spoke up, pushing a golden lock out of her face as she did. "Either way, it means they know we're here. And it also seems perfectly clear that they don't intend to negotiate with us."

Weigand frowned and nodded, "Ja und nein. I think it was less a premeditated attack than it was an attack of opportunity on Herr Selfridge's life. The Avatar most likely recognized him and then was able to convince the two natives with him to attack, no doubt by telling them some story or another."

He shuddered, being reminded that the attack had most likely been to try and kill him personally was something he did not like at all. "Those hippies wouldn't have much reason to like me," he admitted, "but to try and kill me?"

"With Quaritch already dead, you're next in line of their people to hate Parker," the blonde captain said, leaning back, "I'd stay in the base if I were you."

Grimacing, he nodded, "I probably will."

The Oberstnodded, "If you do need to head to the mining site again, I'll have an AMP team escort you. Now, back to the subject at hand. If we're right, this was most likely a scouting party, sent to attempt to discover our location. If the natives have any brains at all, they'll have sent numerous parties out to specific areas, and when those three don't report back..."

"They'll know we're in this area." Parker finished for him.

"Yes indeed." he pushed a button on the communications set, "Jones? Can you read me?"

"Five by five sir." the American's voice responded.

"Cease all work on the interior buildings for now, we need the perimeter defense up immediately."

"On it Oberst."

"Kozlov?"

"Sir?"

"I want AMP suits on lookout at the mining site 24/7 now, and make sure they have covered positions as well."

"At once."

Weigand turned and looked at Thomes, "Captain, I need constant satellite reports. If the natives mass for an attack, we need to know about it. Administrator," he turned to Parker, "make sure to keep your people's spirits up about the attack. Remind them that we're here to protect them or die trying."

He grimaced and nodded, before being compelled to ask, "Did the two wounded men make it?"

His superior blinked before nodding, "Both are badly hurt but survived. Why do you ask?"

He shrugged slightly, "Curious. And the miners will want to know." he added hastily, seeing Weigand peering at him in a piercing manner.

The German let a small smile twitch across his face before nodding and letting it go. "Let's get back to work people. We can't fall apart just because three schweine got pissed at us."

Date: March 26th, 2170

Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System

Two days without any additional sightings of the Na'vi felt almost anti-climactic after the rush to complete everything after the fight. A few viperwolfs had tried to attack an AMP suit patrol, and were promptly killed then cooked for their efforts, and a few Tapirus had been killed at the mining site and brought back for dinner, but life on the death-world had been almost.. quiet.

Parker sighed and signed off on a report from Augustus, brought up one from Mining Site 01, the gravel mine, and glanced over it. Both mines were actually a bit ahead of schedule, with a small pile of excavated stone containing precious unobtanium waiting for the refining equipment to land, and Captain Jones was ecstatic that he had additional concrete to utilize.

They had finished the main defenses that afternoon, and Jones had announced that he and his men were moving on to the Ops Center and an elevated landing pad for their small Samson fleet next.

Yawning and tossing the report aside, he rose and grabbed his exopack before heading out of the prefab building that he had been sharing with his two mining foremen. The base was abuzz with activity even as the sky darkened. Not that it would get terribly dark this time of year, something he had already heard an earful from the non-veteran miners. It had been disconcerting for them to realize that it would never get darker than a Terran dusk, and he had had to give a minor speech on it and on several other changes the others would have to get used to.

Wandering over to the Valkyrie that was currently donating its interior to be a cafeteria, he headed in through a small airlock rigged to its side. After letting the air cycle, he moved down into the ship to get some food.

After grabbing some of the leftover Tapirus meat along with some truly horrible canned peas, he noticed that Weigand was also present and the Oberst waved him over, "Guten abend herr Selfridge"

"Afternoon Oberst" he replied, sitting and beginning to slowly eat. The two made small talk as they ate, mostly about the progress of the miners as well as the imminent departure date of the fleet.

"Bradley says they aim to leave by April 2nd," Weigand was saying, "and the latest from Terra has the Comet's Lamentdue to arrive in late August with your new excavator."

"We'll definitely have the unobtanium to fill her hold to the brink by then," Parker assured him, and the talk shifted to the minor events around the base before the two finished eating and made their way back out into the base proper.

The two began to make their way over the barely begun ops building to speak to Jones when Weigand stopped and frowned. Continuing on a few steps, Parker blinked and turn to look at him.

"Weigand? What is it?"

The Oberst frowned, before glancing over at Jones in the distance, who had suddenly put his hand to his headset. A cold feeling in his gut, Parker moved over towards the engineer as calmly as he could, Weigand moving quickly into step beside him. The wind picked up a bit and Parker thought he could hear eerie singing being carried by it. Both men glanced at each other, then broke into a run.

Jones' head whipped up as he heard them approach, "Oberst! Administrator, sentries on the east side say they can hear something, sounds like war chants and singing. Think it's psychological warfare." The captain turned to the east, shouting in his mic for his crews to stop working, and all three remained still as everything went quiet.

He could definitely hear it now, and it was just as assuredly a Na'vi warchant, he remembered Augustine playing it on her computers once, and the cold in his gut spread up through his chest and limbs.

"Captain! Reinforce the East side, Administrator, get into the Ops prefab and do not leave it." Weigand snapped before activating his mic, "Get my AMP armed and loaded now, macht schnell!"

Parker had already turned and run as fast as he could into the Ops Center as the base exploded into activity. He heard several sharp bangs and light suddenly flooded the jungle just beyond the eastern bunkers, turning and stopping, he saw flares slowly falling. The Na'vi war chant suddenly increased in volume and he could hear individual war cries breaking up the song's pattern now.

He heard Jones bellow something that he could not make out, but just as suddenly the American engineers manning the defenses started howling in challenge to the savages, and amongst the natives eerie screams and the human's howling wolf calls, arrows suddenly began to soar through the air and gunfire erupted as the battle was joined.

Next up is Chapter 13: Hell Descending

And a there's a fun ending for a chapter ain't it :) ? First major battle of the story coming up!

Seriously though, I loved writing this one, hope you all enjoy it. I'm off to bed. I should be able to get another one out tomorrow before work, and probably another one after or on Sunday morning.

Remember, review! I like reviews, they make me want to write more.