Finally she was done. Unjamming the BFG ammo feed had been fiddly work, especially as she didn't have any tools except her knife. Removing the bent links from the ammunition belt had been much easier. She had cycled the action several times to make sure the rounds passed through cleanly, and now she was right to go.
Unlike the sidearms of the aliens, the BFG wasn't fitted with an RF tracking chip. It was supposed to be too much of a BFG for someone to just walk off with it. A little oversight that meant the tawtute couldn't track where she was. They really should have more imagination.
There were still a few hours of daylight left, so she had a little time to have some fun with the BFG. She really didn't fancy using it at night – the aliens would be able to pick up the muzzle flash from miles away. There was no point in making things easy for them, after all. If they wanted Na'dia dead, they would have to work at it.
Na'dia grumbled to herself. The BFG hadn't gotten any lighter while she was unjamming it, but she had decided her course of action while she was carefully clearing the jam. That was why she was on the reverse slope of the rise that she had abandoned to the tawtute. Na'dia wanted it back now.
She propped a large rock under the stock of the BFG so she didn't have to support the whole weight. While she might have been strong, maintaining any accuracy without a support was going to be impossible if she tried to take the weight herself – especially as there were no sights – not even iron sights – on the damn BFG, despite her being in a prone position.
Shutting one eye, she trained the other eye along the length of the barrel, focusing on her target – one of the gun turrets guarding the alien observation post. The butt was tucked into her shoulder, she lifted her knees from the ground, and pulled the trigger. Blam! Blam! Blam! And then she released the trigger.
Fuck, her shoulder hurt, and she couldn't hear a damn thing. One of her shots had impacted square on the turret, a shower of sparks erupting from the horrible weapon, and the barrels were now pointed at the sky. A tawtute head popped up to see what had happened, she shifted aim slightly and she pulled the trigger again. Blam! Blam! Blam!
The alien turned into pink mist, and now she really couldn't hear a damn thing. Her skin prickled as liquid ran down the side of her neck. Na'dia quickly wiped at it. Yes, it was blood – trickling from her abused ears. She should have done something about that before she came up with this fucking brilliant idea.
Abandoning the BFG, she ran lightly up the slope to the alien observation post, only to find it empty. The cursed humans had abandoned it – apart from the lower half of a corpse she had just made. Three soldiers were fleeing down the rise back to the safety of the alien perimeter. Disconsolately, she returned down the rise to retrieve the BFG, and lugged it back up to the top of the rise. However, before she used it to disable the remaining two turrets, she tore off two strips of cloth from the remains of the alien's uniform, moistened the drab green fabric with some of the gore oozing form the half corpse, and rolled them into tight little wads to stick them into her ears. Now she could kill the turrets.
But she didn't stop there.
Na'dia took some pot shots at the three fleeing soldiers, and actually managed to hit one, blowing off his leg. The other two did not turn back for him, leaving the wounded alien screaming in agony – but not for long. Within minutes he was quiet, and stopped moving.
She shifted her aim to the turrets on the perimeter of the alien position, and started firing at them. Accuracy at this range was difficult – disabling each of the five turrets she could see took between twenty to thirty shots each. Although, there was one positive development - her ears had stopped hurting. The improvised ear plugs were working just fine.
Another AMP suit came striding out, firing at her position. Rounds went whizzing over her head, so she returned fire – and an AMP suit was a lot bigger target than she was. Less than a minute afterwards, the AMP suit was slumped to one side, burning merrily. There was a gush of flame and the blowout panels on the ammunition hopper exploded out as the ammo went up, rounds detonating in spectacular fireworks. The AMP suit driver didn't get out. Na'dia imagined she could smell roasting flesh, even from this distance.
There was only about thirty rounds left on her ammunition belt. Na'dia decided that she had had quite enough fun with the BFG – especially after she gingerly felt the massive bruise on her shoulder. The recoil had been brutal, and although it had been great to blow the shit out of stuff with it, Na'dia wasn't going to be playing with a BFG again anytime soon.
It was time to finish this thing. She flitted down towards the alien position, when she was surprised by the roar of a lone Valkyrie shuttle passing overhead. Her suspicions alerted, she started running into the camp. It was empty. The aliens had run away.
Na'dia stamped her foot in disgust at their cowardice, and threw her head back to howl, "Ghooooouuuul!"
They had spoiled her fun, and her lovely day that had started off so well had all turned to shit.
Na'dia looked across the plains, and could see the remaining tawtute cowards about a mile away, running towards the Valkyrie, which had smoothly landed. She drew her swords, and slashed at the tents they had left standing, deflating the alien artifacts like collapsing soufflés. As a temper tantrum it wasn't particularly satisfying, but it was better than doing nothing.
The Valkyrie took off, and flew over the camp. She jumped up and down and waved to attract its attention, and then flipped the bird at the huge spacecraft. The pilot must have seen her, as it waggled its wings a couple of times, before rocketing skywards. At least the pilot had some class, unlike the cowardly tawtute soldiers.
A palulukan's work was never done, so it seemed. She used some more of her grenades to disable the remaining automated turrets. Na'dia couldn't have them shooting up any game, and if the tawtute wanted to complain about having their gear blown up, they would have to take it up with her. So there!
She went through the stuff the aliens had left, until she found a pallet of water bottles. She slit open the plastic wrapping holding the bottles onto the pallet, opened a bottle with a practiced twist and sniffed it. The water smelt funny, and tasted of nothing – not like the sharp, fresh water of a Pandoran forest stream. It would have to do. There weren't any forest streams around here.
Na'dia kept ferreting around the camp, until she found a bar of soap. She sniffed at it suspiciously – it smelt odd, but a hell of a lot better than she did at the moment. Na'dia returned to the pallet of water bottles, and proceeded to pour them over herself, wincing at the stinging from the myriad of thin cuts inflicted by the razor grass.
She had just got up a good lather when she heard the shriek of an ikran. Na'dia looked up, and waved furiously at the three ikran soaring overhead. She knew each of them and their riders by sight – and one of them was carrying two Na'vi, not one.
The ikran landed in a flurry of wings in a clear spot in the middle of the former tawtute position.
Na'dia sang out, "Ninat! Txep'ean!"
She ran towards the four Na'vi, cake of soap still in one hand, and leapt at Ninat, carrying her to the ground and covering her with kisses. Ney'tiri clipped the back of Zhake's head with one hand as he goggled at the display of sudsy female affection, while Ninat laughed and laughed.
Txep'ean coughed gently, interrupting her joyous welcome of his sister. She stood up and pulled Ninat to her feet. Na'dia did not let go of her hand – for some reason she felt very shy.
Txep'ean signed, "I See you, my love." He grinned at her as she blushed deeply, and added, "But what is this white smelly froth all over you? You stink like a tawtute."
The light of battle in her eyes flared, and she signed emphatically, "If you think I smell bad now, you should have smelt me before!"
Na'dia took one threatening step towards Txep'ean, only to be surprised when he grabbed her in both arms and swung her off her feet, spinning her around and around. He whispered in her ear, "I missed you – even if you smell funny." Na'dia giggled – she could not remember ever being this happy before.
Eventually, he set her down, and joined with Ninat in embracing her.
"I hate to break up such a touching scene," interrupted Zhake, "But what the hell happened here? Your message said two Valkyrie shuttles had landed."
Ney'tiri agreed, "It would be interesting to know. We have come a long way to find out."
Ever so reluctantly, the embrace dissolved. Na'dia began signing, while Ninat translated.
"A shuttle landed to pick up the tawtute soldiers, about an hour ago."
Zhake frowned. He stated, "I thought you said two shuttles landed. If they were carrying full loads, there should have been three hundred humans."
"Three hundred and two," agreed Na'dia. She was totally sure of the number, having counted the number of life sources several times. Not that she was keeping score – well, actually, she was.
Zhake looked puzzled, and frowned deeply. There was no way you could get three hundred humans and all their gear into one shuttle, and still get to orbit.
Na'dia misread his expression. She signed shame-facedly, "I'm sorry, Zhake. They ran before I could finish them off. I really tried my best." Na'dia repeated, "I'm sorry, really, really sorry."
Ney'tiri asked, "How many got away?"
Na'dia felt like curling up into a ball and creeping into a corner. "One hundred and nineteen," she signed, using tiny little movements of her fingers. "And two of the four AMP suits." If she hadn't had to search for food, she really could have killed more of them.
"Holy fuck," whispered Zhake.
Na'dia was still misreading his expression. She offered in self-defence, "I did kill the commander, on the first day."
"Un-fucking-believable," murmured Zhake, shaking his head in disbelief.
She was worried that he was going to shout at her. Na'dia liked Zhake, and didn't want to upset him.
Ney'tiri took Na'dia's hand, and said to her gently, "My sister, you have achieved one of the greatest feats of arms of any Na'vi warrior. Not in any of the songs, not since the time of the very first, has any warrior done what you have." She saw the doubt on Na'dia's face, and added, "You may be possessed by the spirit of a palulukan, but no matter what anyone might say – you are Na'vi, and I am proud to be your sister."
Zhake grinned at her, and suggested, "Perhaps you should tell us the story from the beginning."
Na'dia hesitated, before signing, "Could I finish washing first?"
The four Na'vi burst out into rolling laughter.