Disclaimer

I am not the owner of the persons of this story met with in the movie and I never will be, I am not making any money whatsoever from this little story and I will never expect to do it either. If anyone feel like building further stories on persons, localities and events here created then they can feel free to do it – provided only that they try to stay in the given pre-histories, given personalities etc., and keep from turning their stories into adult stories. R&R are welcome.

The Guerilla War

A powerful war party was sent south to take on the Amananga clan first of all. But brigadier Cox had guessed that the first onslaught would be directed against them and he had had time to send in strong reinforcements – one of the two regiments… while the other regiment held on to the sea.

So the Battle at the Stone Covered Well was a disastrous failure to the Namana Confederated forces. The ikran and pa'li riders met marines in dug down positions and were mowed down, afterwards those fleeing in defeat were pursued relentlessly by Amananga ikran riders and RDA gunships, massacring the fleeing and disorganized warriors. Afterwards the RDA diplomats ran rampant over the Namana Land, offering peace with the Ocean Confederation and membership if they felt like. Most significantly they were offered peace with the New RDA which was a very different thing than evil Old RDA, or so they said at least, and they were offered firearms to protect their newfound freedom from the Omatikayan repression – in return for some unobtanium of course…

Jake was sitting up in the New Hometree and he was very depressed. At such times it was good to have Neytiri on hand, she was good at cheering him up by reminding him that Eywa would surely come to their aid like last time if seriously needed. He had been told that the Iranali'k and the Kilvan clans had accepted the RDA offer of peace and half a dozen more looked like wavering. One more defeat like this and the whole Namana Land Confederation would be torn to pieces. So which measures were now available to him?

While he was thus sitting and pondering his muse came to him, as always cheering him up when he was feeling down. And more to the point, she often came with intelligent ideas, like today. Neytiri could so to say smell it from his body odour when he was in need of a good idea. She gave him encouraging words also now, and she ushered in those two she had found out had been thinking deep.

It was the two lovebirds of Owen MacGregor and Tran Thi Dung Ly who could provide him with a good cue. He had once been the book-keeper of dr. Augustine, now he was one of the story-tellers, specializing in old stories from Earth. He was a Scotsman and proud of it, if asked he could name his genealogy back to big men like Rob Roy. He was not looking like the big and burly stereotype of a Highlander – his human body had been small, slim and dark-haired – but he was taciturn and frugal like a good Scot. His love of history had brought him in contact with the agronomy scientist who had been working as gardener assistant in the hydroponic plant where a little food was still grown. Tran Thi Dung was one of the late arriving avatar drivers, i.e. after the Great Battle, but in her modest and graceful way she had earned the respect of very many around her. She was very oriental in her manners and she was very much at home in the history of her home land at Earth.

Owen began: "Jake, we two have been discussing this last disaster and we have come to a conclusion, a strategy we recommend out of experiences from Earth history."

Tran Thi Dung: "My ancestors in Vietnam repeatedly had this problem. The strategy they won by, again and again, is the strategy we must follow too: The hallowed old guerrilla warfare. Then we can take them out in small pieces by hit-and-run, thus we can tire them and wear them down until we can attack in full power. Thus we can rally all of this moon against them, we can bring over to our side all the clans one by one while they fight their battles here at Namana Land. Another advantage of guerrilla is that we can allow clans to go in and out of the confederation – apparently! While they pretend to be joining the RDA lackeys they can ask for firearms and get them, and send them over to our side, for us to use later on. What do you think about this plan, Jake and Neytiri?"

Jake: "Wonderful idea! You are hereby appointed to my council ring! Agree Neytiri?" She nodded. She had talked with them about this before today.

Owen was unusually eloquent today: "Some more advices Jake. Guerilla warfare is the recipe for a long and bloody struggle but in the end it is the strategy with the most likely success. The plains-dwelling clans should withdraw into the forest for out at the open they are vulnerable to air attacks. All clans must leave their respective hometrees at once, they are too conspicuous targets for rail gun bombardment, and disperse in the jungle. We can leave a strong detachment to defend the Tree of Souls but I strongly doubt that they are going to attack that, given how they need their na'vi allies in this conflict, they will not condone such an attack. Since they are loath to attack Tree of Souls they will be hunting for another symbol of resistance: Toruk Makto, i.e. you. You should never move anywhere without a strong guard, and your beloved ones and your councillors should move along with you to avoid falling in their hands. Another point is that this will be a war of propaganda, we must keep miss Sarasinithat alive at all costs, her job will be to give evidence to those clans we have defeated, to make them join our Confederation afterwards. Make sure that we pull rockets out of all wrecks we can find, we need them to shoot down gunships and defence towers when we attack the bases."

Jake noted their advices and acted upon them. The defecting clans were contacted and they explained that very correctly were more scared than rebellious. They were asked to stay out of the conflict while asking for weaponry – to be smuggled over to the confederated clans afterwards…

Brigadier Cox was meanwhile in an upbeat mood. The enemy looked to be reeling, so now the task ahead was simply to win over the remaining opposing clans one by one. He was having gilded dreams in the night, may be he would be able to secure the appointment to commanding general when that empty-brained fool Guerin finally had no more use? One space ferry after another was sent up to Svarog moon, brimming with unobtanium ore. The reports coming through the wormhole from the Board were plainly speaking very favourable. Best of all, he was told that a virus now had been developed in an RDA lab, a culture was now in the orbital station waiting for an ISV to be consigned on its way to Svarog. By the time of arrival the stock would have become so large that it could be filled into gas bombs. So come five years from now and the na'vi could be sent down into the same hole as the Aztecs in 1520…

The next months were wearisome. Jake and his close family and councillors were continuously moving from clan to clan, always encouraging the belligerent and cheering up the flagging spirits. Jake had no satellite surveillance system to help him with organizing the campaigns any more but he had Kim Chae Tai, once the avatar driver specializing in cartography and now the oracle answering all questions about where at Pandora everything was. She had once been an immigrant to Canada from Korea and had at the Augustine Research Station been known as the woman so very prickly about her problem in life – her obesity – that she was known to take vicious revenge with slander and vandalism against everyone she perceived bullying her for her body shape. To her more than almost anyone else among the drivers her slim and toned avatar body was a godsend, so now she was well adapted and eminently trustable. So Jake and Kim studied the maps of Pandora with deep care, supported by Neytiri's knowledge about the habits of various clans and Norm's report about their present inclinations, he was almost like the "foreign secretary to the Confederation".

Again and again small war parties of clanspeople of the Ocean Confederation and a helicopter or two were ambushed by confederated guerrillas in the forest, while striking fast hit-and-run raids out on the plain ravaging mining projects. Meanwhile Derek Lester Gill was all the time gaining fame as the "admiral of the Na'vi navy" – he assembled boat and ikran raids by night at the numerous small and large islands out west and where miners were active, and managed to turn the clans of the small islands out west over to the Namana Land Confederation one by one. Soon as the few miners and soldiers had been driven off one island the prisoner of war of ultimate significance, a cowed agent Sarasinithat, was displayed to present her evidence, gluing one more clan into loyality with the Namana Land Confederation. Clans without unobtanium deposits worth speaking about in their territory were not forgotten either, they were brought into the Confederation for the sake of completeness, open holes in a network would be weak points...

Brigadier Cox was now facing a dilemma, he had to strengthen his hold over the islands or allowing them to slip out of the Ocean Confederation, revealing the Ocean Confederation as the sham it really was at the core. So they had to move parts of the regiment at Namana Land out at the islands to strengthen their control out there, and took personal charge of the operations at the islands. Colonel Cardoso Avellano in command at the Amananga garrison ordered a rather desperate move.

Eyes in the space that all the time kept watch over Pandoran surface gave snapshots of Namana Land, revealing an interesting pattern. They could see an animal flock moving so fast that they had to be flying beasts. The funny affair was that this flock moved straight from one area to another, and everywhere it went a large flock of beings condensed soon after. And when such a constellation appeared it always later turned out to be a Na'vi war party attacking units in the forest. The analyst took his results to his superior, Julia Ragimberti, head of RDA Intelligence section, Analytical office. It dawned to the sharp mind of Ragimberti what that flying flock was – it had to be Jake Sully himself and his entourage, flying around to organize the guerrilla war! She passed the information on to colonel Cardoso Avellano.

The colonel recognized the information for what it was: One sterling opportunity to strike a knock out blow at the enemy and he informed Cox about his plan beforehand. He sent an entire company, along with all the ikran riders the vassal clan of the Black Cliff clan had available, to the position the satellite photographs told him was likely. He left only a company weak and worn out after many hard jungle campaigns at the Amananga base.

Jake and his close people were sitting over a meal in the early morning when a scout flute suddenly was sounded. And the scout on guard added an "ALARM!" to it. All were on their feet at once, they had trained for such an attack, in the full knowledge that it was likely sooner or later, and everyone knew what now to do. Children and Jake's staff members ran into the forest and hid in trees and behind rocks while warriors took up position in the forest around the firepit.

The arriving war party went into position, the helicopters hovering above to take down any ikrans trying to attack while Black Cliff ikran riders landed in the glen. They found an abandoned breakfast site and little else – until arrows fired from the forest struck eight Amanangas. On Jake's order the hunters aimed for legs and arms not the vital parts of the torso – he intended to turn the people of the Black Cliff into trusting friends in the time to come. The other Black Cliff warriors turned towards the forest but for the one bodyguardsman they hit five more Amanangas were struck. The rest mounted their ikrans and took to the air and then the warriors hidden in the tree tops took action. Their rockets were aimed at the gunships hovering, and suddenly five of the six gunships were struck. The one still managing to stay airborne and the one not hit turned tail back to base. The wrecks were immediately raided for their rockets and one soldier was pulled out alive, to join the now swelling prisoner camp. The wounded Black Cliff warriors were taken care of soon after and let loose – Jake was busy at work with "turning" the Amanangas...

Colonel Cardoso Avellano was shocked to see that only two gunships returned, one of them with a malfunctioning left rotor, and only a handful of ikran riders returned from the assault. He consolidated the forces into a single, strong company, and realized that he didn't have force for any new assault.

Now that the marine force was reeling, the confederation made its move. Some Eymastua ikran riders struck out with Jake proudly riding his toruk at their van, he took agent Sarasinithat at his back and flew to the Amananga hometree in the early dawn. She was then made to tell Lazafnu, the Amananga olo'eytkan, her story – the result was immediate: The Amanangas turned against their "benefactors". The company defending the base suddenly discovered themselves under siege, they had to immediately evacuate and told the other company currently out on small operations at Namana Land to immediately abort their operations and head to Marakxali Island to save their lives. As soon as the marines were airborne Jake called out at the warriors to empty the weapon arsenals at once and he was right, hardly were they emptied before a rail gun bombardment pulverized the Amananga base. The Na'vi Confederation had driven the RDA off Namana Land.

Jake and his admiral Gill were now facing the problem how to attack a fortified island over sea. The guerrilla land war was at end, the amphibious war at sea was now beginning.