This chapter just updates on Resilience and gets us to a recognizable point in time that is seen in the movie so I can coordinate what happens here with what happens in the movie. From here it should get pretty interesting I guess.
It's been almost 8 years since humans first landed on pandora. In that time, we've been busy preparing for war. We had moved all of our stuff out from hometree, moved our auxiliary camp farther north, completely stripped the shuttle of anything useful, and repaired Hope enough to be airtight in most places. The shuttle was just a hollow shell of a ship, and the fusion generator was moved to auxiliary camp, which was becoming the main camp. Hope wasn't going anywhere soon, as the engines had both been broken and the fusion chamber was still unoperational. We'd fixed a few of the plasma turrets and the shields could hold at 50% for a few minutes, but it was a sitting duck if the Mundars found it. Unless we wanted to fly for several years in a cramped maintenance shuttle, we weren't leaving Pandora any time soon.
"Sir, incoming transmission from Resilience, it's several years old since it was sent from several light years away, " ARC said.
"Put it through, " I said, although I probably knew what it was. The mini hologram on my watch lit up and began to play a message. It was the captain of Resilience, and he didn't look too good.
"This is Resilience! All other ships to divert course immediately! Do not attempt to follow, we are stuck in th-" The audio on the transmission cut out and didnt turn back on. He was saying something, but I couldn't tell what. After a bit, he ended the transmission.
"ARC, send out a signal for Willpower. See if they are still alive. "
"Yes sir. " I sighed and continued to go about my day.
A few hours later another transmision arrived, audio only. "Hope and Willpower, this is Resilience, we are stuck in a planet right now. Our entire crew has either melded with the stone on an atomic level or is in the main cargo hold. We managed to keep the main cargo hold empty of the stone, but we don't have a lot of time. We're about to send the remaining crew into suspended animation. If you get this, please come. The coordinates are 557 alpha 294 bravo and 746 charlie. I don;t know how long the atomic diverter will hold up, but I'm gonna set this to constantly broadcast. If it stops, we're dead. Please hurry. "
"ARC, how long to get there?"
"If we can get Hope to burn, four days. Without, 2 years. "
"Both ways or round trip?"
"Both ways. "
"How long until things get bad down here?"
"I am unsure, sir, it should've happened a year ago. "
"We probably missed the start of it then. We'll stay here until it's over, then head over to Resilience. We'll start working on the engines on Hope until then. "
A few days later, it started. I was at Hometree, talking with Hund'ri when someone walked in. It was one of the Avatars. I had never seen one in Hometree before; the Omaticaya never let them close. "Sorry Hund'ri, I gotta go, " I said and ducked behind some foliage. I had left the cloaking suits at camp, and I couldn't risk being seen, so I decided to leave and figure out what had happened in the morning.
The next morning, I found Ole'eyktan right away. "Who was in Hometree last night?"
"That was a dream walker called Jake Sully. He says he was a marine and a warrior of the Jarlan clan. We accepted him to learn about them. How they think, act, and fight. It will help us fight them. We will teach him our ways, and we will learn his. "
"That's a good idea. Should we stay hidden from him? He is still an Avatar, even if he is accepted. "
"You may show yourselves to him, but do not use your powers or gadgets to him. Keep him away from your camp, and don;t let him know what you can do. "
"Yes sir. " I left Hometree and told the others. On my way out from Hometree, I saw where he was training, attempting to ride one of the horse creatures. They had already made him change his human clothes, and he didn't seem to like them that much. I passed quickly and returned to base camp.