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 "Na'vi Navy" at War

Now it was the turn of brigadier Cox to feel blue. Eleven months of fighting had begun gloriously but ended with getting kicked off the mainland of the Namana Land. The garrison at the moon of Svarog was getting empty of recruits to be filled into the ranks down at Pandora, and the virus bombs were still almost five years away. He studied the lists of soldiers dead, crippled, hospitalized or missing, how many gunships and guns were left, and the general supply situation. His forces were worn, the situation currently stood at two weak regiments that perhaps should have been joined to make a full one, but soon an ISV was about to deliver an all new regiment at the moon of Svarog, to be delivered down to Pandora after a period of readying.

But they still retained the control over the islands east of Namana Land, over the Gargoyle Fish Land continent east of that, over the North Land up north, and the Nongona Land continent facing the islands west of Namana Land continent captured by the confederation, and the smaller and larger islands between the two controlled continents were at least mainly friendly or neutral. The mines in those areas were at full production and gave good profits still. He was told by his chief of staff that he was not to forget that he was working for a commercial company, so if he was able to cut costs by cutting losses then he should take that opportunity. "Why not sit down here and wait, mining is going on and giving good profit so we can bide our time, and in five years we can go to the offensive once again. The Board will not make trouble as long as we are turning profit, and the Na'vi can't trouble us for as long as we rule the air – they have no way of getting assault parties ashore at our islands."

So for the next weeks he only sent his helicopters out for skirmishes to protect islander fishermen from competing Iranali'k fishermen at those barren islands where fishing was good. A couple of times the helicopter crews indulged in some "Viking raids" along with their na'vi allies against the Iranali'k fishing sheds, but they kept away from danger and never suffered much. The Confederates at the mainland clearly would dearly have enticed them into a major invasion but Cox knew that so was absolutely out of the question.

And then the marvellous day came, when the mood of Cox brightened up several degrees. A new, complete regiment was landed at Svarog and soon after transferred to Pandora. It was deployed at the Nongona Land with a detachment at Gargoyle Fish Land. Quite a few of the soldiers who had taken injuries at the skirmishes at Namana Land were starting to heal too and could return to the ranks.

Jake was not quite as cheerful as the brigadier now. The na'vi at Namana Land had started a much needed recuperation but they couldn't stay satisfied with that. Even more anxious he became when Maeve O'Leary came to him along with her husband – now mate – Shawn, and told him that they had managed to hack the cargo manifestos of the ISVs on way. They were the computer hackers of the now almost completely abandoned Augustine Station – save for such vitals as the listening and decoding facility. It was to be one regiment a year – a seriously tough order to beat. But the even worse piece of news was the weapon due in less than five years: A virus culture able to decimate the whole na'vi population Pandora-wide but leave humans sound and healthy. Suddenly they had a relentless deadline to struggle against.

So he had somehow to crack that nut of how to get ashore at defended coastlines. Jake turned his attention from the East front, where there was a wide piece of water between Namana Land and the heavily defended archipelago and Marakxali Island, over to the West front where his admiral Gill was still "island hopping" from island to island. West of the westernmost island was a broad ocean basin and then the quite large Nongona Land, while not quite so large as Namana Land there was still more than hundred and fifty clans there. Since none of the unobtanium deposits there where neither nearly the size of those at the main sites nor so easily worked, those clans had never been heavily irritated by mining activity, warlike as some of those clans were. Some agitation among them should be able to rouse them to join the Na'vi confederacy. West of the Nongona Land there was a wide stretch of ocean and some small islands Jake knew little about, west of them again was a new wide ocean basin and then they were approaching the eastern neighbouring continent of the Marakxali Island, the Gargoyle Fish Land. The seventy clans on that smallish continent were known to be notoriously peaceful but Jake had heard reports that there were some RDA mining colonies at this land too.

Gill did as he was expected to, Nongona Land was infiltrated, propagandized and won over, and for a change all the local clans took the side of the Na'vi Confederation. The Campaign for Nongona Land was comparatively light, colonel Cardoso Avellano withdrew to Gargoyle Fish Land, not wanting to repeat the wearisome and doomed guerrilla war at Namana Land for a number of not overly productive mines. They had never had a local, dependably loyal ally like the Amananga clan at Nongona Land. There had never been much use for any without any large and valuable deposit.

When news of that broke, Ngizino the olo'eytkan of the Ice Hunter clan at North Land, sat down and calculated power politics and two plus two makes four anywhere in the Universe. So he politely but in no uncertain terms asked the RDA company and miners there to leave since they obviously were loosing the campaign for Pandora, which they did. An ikran-riding messenger soon after arrived at Namana Land, seeking out Jake's hideout. When the messenger finally came face to face with him, he declared the loyalty of the North Land clans, of whom the Ice Hunters were the out of scale largest and most powerful, to the Na'vi Confederation. And in the next weeks he learned that the RDA representatives had been driven out of the stations in the wilderness of smaller and larger archipelagos and a few small continents too far out there, between Nongona Land and Gargoyle Fish Land continents. There were no large garrisons there and little if any fighting.

Jake couldn't believe his luck, two great prizes and a big load of small ones had fallen into his lap with little fighting. But still, the RDA forces had concentrated on defending their five wealthiest mines: at the Atoll archipelago, at Marakxali Island and at Gargoyle Fish Land. To get to them the Na'vi would unavoidably have to cross open ocean, whether from the east or the west.

Jake also started to discuss with Norm and Neytiri a more long term risk, what was to happen after the desired end of human presence at Pandora. Jake put Norm a problem to ponder: "I ask you to realize that until 1st Human – Na'vi War there had never been large and permanent political structures at Pandora. Short term alliances between many clans and long-lasting amicable relations between a few clans have been present but never before a confederation spanning the entire moon. They haven't succeeded with anything such at Earth either… We should be desperate to create some understanding between all clans, so that no new RDA, ADR or whatever can wiggle in again and raise a new conflict to profiteer from."

Norm proposed: "May be we should accept that an all-Pandora confederation is simply a too large entity, a number of smaller confederations in cordial understanding with each other could be better. We could establish some sort of United Na'vi Clans Organization, as a forum for mediation of clan conflicts and to control all dealings with humans coming down to us. I envision a 'UNCO Council' regularily meeting below the Tree of Souls with representatives from every large or small confederation, with expert committees on rituals, on stories to be remembered, on conflict resolution, on technologies, on extra-Pandora contact and you name it."

Neytiri then said: "Norm, I like your idea. All clans should be free and live like their traditions say but cooperating to keep peace over all of this world. And as an Omatikaya I like the idea of a common meeting ground for all the clan networks at the Tree of Souls, it will give us great prestige!" A glance at a smiling Mo'at indicated agreement – the impending and the coming tsahik had probably discussed this beforehand and with Norm… and when Neytiri and Mo'at agreed about something then few Omatikayas would disagree and not many other Na'vi clans either. Mo'at was good at influencing through by-roads and Jake was very well aware of that fact.

Jake concluded: "I will then propose that a Namana Land Confederation is formed after the war has ended, consisting of a big land along with nearby islands, like a Northern Land Confederation, a Gargoyle Fish Land Confederation, a Nongona Confederation… All those confederations can then send one emissary to sit and talk away disagreements under the Tree of Souls. We can then declare the forests around the Tree of Souls for special hunting and foraging ground set aside for feeding the people coming to those meetings."

Jake rose from the company of Norm and returned to more immediate problems, Neytiri followed him close by as always. He called admiral Derek Lester Gill to him to have a talk, the man had been a marine biologist while an avatar. He was deeply marked by many expeditions at sea while a student at Earth: He was a grizzled seaman known for his deep knowledge of the seas of Pandora – earning him the admiration of coastal clans – and his salty language which was the delight of the avatar team linguist, now he came up to Jake with his characteristic waddling sea dog gait. He was known to take offence with his common nickname "The Gill" – referring to his fisherman background, so Jake spoke to him by his preferred nickname "Deke".

Jake told him: "Deke, to finally evict humans from Pandora we need to cross the sea. We will have to do it soon for the more we wait the stronger will our enemy become. And in less than four years they are likely to try to infect us all with a deadly virus, killing most of us if we can't get them off before that. So is there some battle ruse we can come up to defeat them?"

Gill: "Naval warfare has darned few ways of trickery, and ya go lookin' for 'em at open sea! Ya see mate, at open sea we really are a ne'er-do-well crew, no matter how tough we are and how green they are at sea. Ya see mate, they rule the air. We simply got no gizmo to run the top o'er that tech gulf 'tween us and 'em – but we gotta do it if we wanna do amphi raids. I've tried to woo 'em into goin' invadin' Namana Land so we could get 'em in a fix on land but they have always sniffed rat so far, 'cept for puny pillage raids. We better wait and see, keep a-ponderin' mate!"

"We sure will, Deke!" Jake answered.

"Txeke'ngill is quite a man!" Neytiri commented afterwards.

But a few days later a young warrior of the Western Islands clan came to Jake's Omatikaya Hometree and asked for an audience with Toruk Makto. He was let in to the alcove in the humongous tree where Jake was right then sitting and talking with Gill. He did a reverential greeting and spoke up.

"Oel ngati kameie, Toruk Makto Jakesully and pirogue eyktan Txeke'ngill, I am Ninikit, warrior of the Western Island clan. I have heard that it is a problem to get across the sea without being shot by the metal ikrans of the tawtute. I have an idea how we can get ashore at islands unseen. We may fail but we will have the advantage of surprise…"

"Speak young man, we two are both listening!"

"In our seas it is not uncommon that big lumps of kelp and seagrass are floating around with the sea currents. What if we hide some floats below such lumps, floating in the sea until we come close to the island where the tawtutes are hiding."

"Now this is the idea I have been waiting for, young man! Deke, we must at once set about making ready for this!"

So in the night two weeks later some canoes towed five floats out to the sea from the west, to a point in the sea where Gill with his knowledge of sea currents had pointed out sea currents letting them drift across the sea to the Sea Maggot Island where the main garrison of the archipelago regiment was located, close by the island where the Atoll Islander Hometree was and the three small islands where the deposits of ore were. They didn't drift exactly as the current went but at a small angle to it, a little paddling was done to let it drift the correct direction and assisted by the rudders pushed down through the flooring of the floats, to make them strand at the right island. This garrison island had a long spit where it was possible to wade ashore and a small forest at the tip of the peninsula where it was possible to take cover until time of action was at hand. The five men on each float were well armed and equipped, not only with weapons but also with food and water to keep fit for fight after several days at sea. The night after the first five there were five floats more, and again for five days more to come.

The result of the infiltration was that 175 warriors in the end came ashore, and facing a weak regiment because three companies of its force were defending Marakxali Island, in short Cox had three strong companies at his immediate command. One of the floats was manned by na'vi SOLDIERS, trained by Jake, Jeff and Trudy, trained at not only those modern arms the Confederation could muster but also with the elementaries about those they might be able to capture. Jeff was among them himself. Meanwhile a large war party of ikran riders was massing close to the shoreline closest to the Atoll archipelago.

And then one night, when everyone were rested and everything was well prepared, it was time to take action. The radio set was taken out of its water tight oilskin and switched on. The battery was of course weak so the message was made short – also to not set off the alarm in the base.

Jeff gave his call sign: "Calling airport! Calling airport! Island Gang here. Do you copy?" "Airport here. I hear you loud and clear." Angie replied. "Our message is as follows: ACTION! ACTION! ACTION! Island Gang out." Then the warriors set out towards the base.

They crept on to the six defence towers from different directions and aimed their rockets. Suddenly all the six defence towers exploded almost simultaneously. The warriors then ran into the camp, knife and pistol in hand and bow and spear slung on back, with their na'vi eyes they had an advantage over humans in the dark of the night. In the confusing fight that erupted many marines were gunned down or stabbed but in the end brigadier Cox managed to organize the defence. But then the ikran riders from the Namana Land arrived by air and then the defence of the base collapsed.

Jeff now ran to the rail gun at the base and yelled: "Fast now! We are out of time already!" He fully expected the captured base to be rail gun bombarded like had taken place at the Amananga base but a few shells he could at least throw out before so happened. He didn't take time with checking up the system first, he just geared up the dynamo giving the needed electrical supply and switched on the aiming system while one of his ay'eyktan loaded the gun and another directed the warriors into the arsenal to plunder the weapon stash. Jeff hurriedly acquired the targets of the bases at Gargoyle Fish Land and Marakxali Island and fired within five minutes after taking over the gun, even while there still were people desperately trying to defend the warehouse and the main Central Command Communication tower.

At the Gargoyle Fish Land base sirens were by then blaring wildly. Marines were running hither and tither, some to the gunships while other ran to the anti-aircraft rocket batteries and other to their appointed sandbagged positions, and five of them ran to the rail gun to demolish the Atoll base so that it shouldn't fall into the hands of the enemy – but then BOOOM the barrack went up into flames with a deafening explosion and a huge flash of light. The marines at the rail gun made hurriedly ready for firing – and BOOOM the gunship hangar and AMP garage was atomized. They loaded the gun – and were incinerated when a new shell hit the gun they were struggling with getting into action. Then the rail gun at the Atoll Island base went silent.

Jeff had had to abort the bombardment simply because someone in the CCC tower still holding out had had the presence of mind to switch off the computer, so that the rail gun out in the courtyard suddenly went blind, the computer had been destroyed when they surrendered. The hundred or so soldiers who finally surrendered where herded into the barrack and locked in until they could be brought to the big prisoner-of-war camp at Namana Land by boat.

The assault at the Atoll Islander base had been a brilliant success. Cox was found mortally wounded afterwards, Trudy – who had been next-in-command of the ikran riders – decided to forget discipline for a short moment and told the unconscious and bleeding officer softly in his ear: "Now this is for those defenceless people you simply ordered the murder of, they got ill paid for their loyalty towards Earth! And killing such nice, old, devout Christians like the Iniskius husband and wife!" And she put a bullet through his temple.

Colonel Cardoso Avellano suddenly found himself the leader of a severely weakened regiment and the Atoll Island regiment had been terribly mauled too. Cardoso Avellano consolidated his units, he had only twelve gunships and twenty AMPs left, and the equivalent of just five full companies, some seven hundred marines in all. A desperate message was sent up to Svarog base about the disastrous situation.

Later that day Jake Sully mounted his big toruk, took an increasingly willing agent Sarasinithat at his back and some bodyguards in his entourage along for the ride, and they flew to the Hometree Island of Atoll Islanders. Olo'eytkan Kia'nak was shocked beyond words when he learned how he had been deceived, his defection from the so-called "Ocean Confederation" and his accession to the Na'vi Confederation was then a done deal between two heartbeats. Afterwards they went to Marakxali Island and discovered that the RDA garrison had been evacuated, witnessed by stunned Marakxali clanspeople. The Marakxalis were astonished too to learn what had really happened and what the true plans of the Sky People had been, when their olo'eytkan Banart learned how he had been deceived too he didn't loose much time with switching allegiance either.

End of the day was that Jake and his trusted people could take to the wings back to the Omatikaya Hometree, happy in the knowledge that only a severely mauled Gargoyle Fish base now stood between them and total victory. All the next day went into celebrations of the victors, especially Jeff Enright who had shown bravery and a tactical acumen rightly worth a man from Royal Marines. Trudy was given honour too, she was promoted to the equivalent of captain, and Derek Gill named the inventive Ninikit his "vice admiral", he came back to his clan's hometree proudly wearing a brilliant blue armband.