The Valkyrie shuttlecraft dropped through the clouds at a rather alarming rate from Alex's point of view. It wasn't that he felt that he was going to die. It was that his body was making the transition from being in space, to being in a gravity environment again. He clenched his stomach as they descended down into Pandora. He was reasonably sure that he could hold his lunch in himself for the journey. What he was really worried about, was his fellow passengers.
He surveyed the seats and rows of engineers, surveyors, farmers, miners, lumberjacks and RDA soldiers inside the plane. Most of them had never even been to space before, so when they had been in the ISV Magellan there had been a lot of sick people trying to adapt to it. Now that they had actually reached Pandora, they had to endure the fine experience of planetary re-entry. A couple of people started to moan with sickness as the shuttle shook in the wind resistance. Nobody said a word. Everyone tried to contain themselves.
Alex clenched his teeth. The gunmetal grey interior of the spacecraft did not exactly help him think happy thoughts.
C'mon, just a little bit longer. We can make it, we can make it, we ca...
The Canadian engineer sitting right next to him on the left blew chunks all over the floor and onto his boots. He then keeled over in his seat moaning. The people sitting near him started to groan, clutch their stomachs and reach for their sick bags.
Oh god no, here we go again...
Just before he convinced himself that this seriously not-fun rollercoaster of a ride was never going to end, a rather florid voice which was that of a military pilot trying to sound as if he was flying a passenger jet rather than a military grade cargo shuttle came on the speakers.
"Ladies and Gentleman, we are preparing to land at what used to be the Hell's Gate Military Facility. The runway has just been cleared of debris and we'll be landing shortly. All passengers, fasten your seatbelts, keep your masks on hand and try not to throw up anymore than you already have. Thank you."
"Oh thank god almighty." breathed Alex. There were sighs of relief going all around the compartment.
They then had to endure a few more minutes of agonizing torture before the shuttle touched down on the runway. The impact was harsh enough that even the puke in the floor moved a bit. The rumbling of the shuttle on the runway was punctuated by thumps as the plane hit the odd pock mark. Then even that started to fade away as the plane rolled to a stop. For a brief moment, all was silent, save the cooling down of the engines. Then they had to wait for the recon crews to tow the shuttle away.
People around the bay started to recover from their ordeal. First came the communal sigh of relief. Then there was the talking.
"I fucking hate air travel." Sighed Mac, the Scottish militia marksmen sitting to his right.
"You mean space travel."
"Whatever man. Space travel. Air travel. They're both horrifying."
Alex smiled. "Well look on the brightside." He said in an endearingly, purposefully phoney happy voice. "This is the start of our brand new adventure!"
"If that's the case then I'd rather stay home." Muttered Noh. Alex's friend and 'sidekick'. "If I still had one that is..."
Alex was going to say something when a RDA officer started to give his 'Welcome to sunny Pandora' speech.
"Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Pandora." The man in his forties opened up. "You have just touched down on the nearest habitable rock in the universe. This moon will now become your new home. As the new colonists living here, you will be helping to get this place back into condition, start up farms and begin mining the Unobtainium again." He spoke with the accent of a British veteran; crisp, clear and slightly sinister in nature. He surveyed the people in front of him as if he was looking at schoolchildren. "Now, I know that many of you have stories about the uh, incident a few years back with the natives here." He paused for a moment. "The Na'vi as they are known, are a race of sentient blue-skinned humanoid aliens, who live in a tribal society. They have little technology available. Why..." he smirked "they haven't even invented the wheel yet."
There were a few 'hehs' and ha's by the colonists. Mainly in order to reassure themselves.
"I can assure you that these blue-skinned savages will pose no problem to this colony. We have the technology to keep them, and any other evil monsters from coming in and wrecking our day. We will have the situation under complete control at all times. They will not compete against Human might and technology. And your new life here will be safe under the watch of the militia that we are training."
Noh's hand went up.
"Yes there?"
Noh cleared his throat "And yet somehow, the blue skinned aliens from the stone age managed to completely annihilate an entire RDA battlegroup, kill the commanding officer, prevent a pre-emptive strike onto their place of worship and kick you guys off with your tales between your legs?"
There was a small section of priceless silence, although this was broken by the odd snigger and chuckle. The RDA officer was silent in his own thoughts for a bit, and then locked eyes with Noh.
"What's your name soldier? You look like part of the militia."
"Noh sir." Noh smiled back in a deliberately shit-eating fashion.
"See me afterwards. As I was saying uh, moving on, you will have all participated in the recent gene modding back on Earth. This will allow you to do what your predecessors were unable to do: breathe the Pandoran air." He signalled a crew member. "There has been some debate on whether or not this would actually work. Fortunately, we are about to find out on whether or not it does work." He began to strap on his own exo-pack, as did the other RDA soldiers. Then the Valkyrie doors opened up.
Everyone braced themselves for what was going to come next. The light poured in the shuttlecraft, as did the famously inhospitable air of Pandora. Pandora's atmosphere is apparently a mix of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, xenon, ammonia, methane and hydrogen sulphide. This is a normally unbreathable mix to humans, so normally they had to wear exo packs; special gasmasks with air recycling technology that would recycle the wearer's air. Now all of the new colonists underwent special genetic modification. After a few injections, the colonists could now breathe the air. For some strange reason the RDA men did not have any modification at all, and they all wore exo masks at all times.
Nothing happened. Alex took a breath of air. It felt normal enough. Then he felt alive. This air was a hell of a lot cleaner than the smog back home.
"All right then," started the officer. "Since none of you are dropping to the floor choking an alien air, we'll assume that the modding worked." A hand went up. "Yes there?"
"There aren't any side effects of the modding right?" asked a Hispanic doctor uncertainly.
"Trust me ma'am, the modding has already been tested in the past. We have seen no side effects whatsoever. Now..." He stretched himself and started to walk out of the shuttle. "Get to your stations."
Everyone got up and walked out of the Valkyrie. Alex stepped outside into the sunlight. He stared at his surroundings. Hells Gate had been abandoned for five years. In all of this time, the jungle had started to take the place again. The concrete was cracked, pockmarked and in many places, had plants growing through it. The buildings looked dilapidated, covered in vines and moss. The runway had been largely repaired, and another Valkyrie was coming to land, but the place looked as if it required extensive repairs, and the mechs hadn't landed yet. He glanced at his exo suit for a second, testing that it was actually working.
"Holy shit..." breathed Noh.
"Pretty amazing?" queried Mac.
"Yeah... I've never seen so much... so much... GREEN before."
"You've never been to a forest before?"
"What forests? Back home it's all cities."
A Major of the militia came up. Their boss.
"Right, first job ladies, is to help us clear away the rubble over here." The local militia captain was a big man from Washington; a guy called Halverson, who was down on his luck enough to volunteer for the colony program. He wasn't even a soldier before hand, just a beat cop with a mid-life crisis. He pointed to the rubble of concrete blocks and timber.
"You got to be kidding us; we can't clear that without heavy machinery. We'll need to bring in mechs for it." Alex whined.
"Quit your whining Garnett. Gravity on Pandora is less than on earth. Besides, you're all wearing exo suits, so this should make any heavy work, not heavy." He paused. "Just work that is."
Mac gripped a cinder block and lifted it up to his chest in one quick, fluid motion, with one hand. "Wow, these really do work." He threw the block to a nearby truck. It sailed through the air and smashed into the back of the cabin with large crunch, making a huge dent in it.
"Jesus Christ, watch it!" shouted the driver.
All of the militia soldiers, and most of the colonists, were equipped with the APE-15 Amplified Powered Exoskeleton. This was what many called Power Armour; however, it wasn't so much a suit of armour, but rather a frame of metal. The suit had the ability to amplify the strength and speed of the user. This allowed the user to lift heavy objects, smash things with their hands and run very fast on flat land. The suit also supported itself, which meant that weight was not an issue. It was powered by small Unobtainium reactor.
As the militiamen started to clear away rubble, a jeep pulled up to the side. Out of it came the same RDA officer that was on the Valkyrie. He walked up to Noh, looking him as a dog would a meal.
"Son, do you know who I am?"
Noh kept his smile up. 'You are Lieutenant Commander Howard Carson boss.'
"Very good. You actually have the initiative to look at the crappy personnel pamphlets." He went right up to Noh's face. "You know those pamphlets tell you a lot about everyone. What they don't tell you is where I've been... like Nigeria. Or the things I've done, and what I can do, out in a place with no laws. I can guarantee that I can make your life down here a living hell." He whispered. "There are a lot of things that I can do to you down here."
Noh bit his tongue to stop himself from cracking up. "Just stating the facts sir."
"You'll do more than that soon." He started to walk back to his jeep. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot..."
"Welcome To Pandora."
As he drove off the men distinctly heard Noh mutter "Asshole..."
Jake climbed up the Hometree. He paced himself to keep momentum to climb the branches to his home. He just got back from the hunt, and he always knew never to keep her waiting. Another tribesman respectfully got off the branches he was climbing and allowed Jake to keep climbing up. Jake never wanted to be late for her. He had nightmares about it. The sun was setting in the distance, throwing shadows all over the place. He always knew that he should never leave her alone for long.
A few more steps and he reached his destination. His grail was in front of him. And then he froze. Somewhere, he heard singing.
The small child in front of him on the other hand, beamed with joy. She was expecting Jake to say something. To the left, was a Na'vi man who wore oversized human clothes. He too was bracing himself for something.
Jake cursed himself for an idiot inside his head again. He could lead a Na'vi tribe to victory, defeat Palulukans on hunting trips and fly through the mountains on his own Ikran.
But no matter what he did, his own daughter always stumped him.
"Who's daddy's little girl?" he tried with a tinge of cheerfulness and uncertainty.
The child paused for a moment. "Um... me?"
"Uh, yeah... okay, just forget it... How was your day with Uncle Norm?"
"Great daddy! He showed me the Pa'li in the fields!"
They talked about the Pa'li, also known as the direhorse; the six legged horses that lived on Pandora. Jake told her about its grazing habits, its markings and how people ride them. She listened to all of Jake's words with rapt attention; Jake was a pretty damn good public speaker. Jake smiled at all the questions she fired at him, the most astounding thing about her was how she was only six, yet she spoke and acted like a ten year old. Norm said that she was maturing at a much faster rate than normal for some reason.
"Daddy, when is mum coming back?"
"Soon, Miri, soon. She's coming back with the Tsahik of the Kalisthaya people. Then you can talk to her for as long as you want."
He was just about to get up, when Miri asked the question that he was dreading for a long time.
"Dad... Why do we have five fingers?"
Jake looked at his own hand. The Na'vi had three fingers and a thumb, but the old avatar bodies that Jake and Norm had used four fingers and a thumb, to account for human hands. The problem was, is that his daughter Miri was also born with five fingers.
"Well..."
Damn it, I wish Neytiri was here.
"It's because... people tend to look like both their mums their dads."
"Then why do you have five fingers?"
Jake paused uncertainly.
"Maybe I'll tell you when you're older. Maybe after you've visited the Tree of Voices."
Miri gave a disappointed sigh. "Okay then daddy."
"Listen, why don't you head down and play with your friends? Me and Uncle Norm have to talk for a while."
Miri walked down the steps to the tree's floor. She was a chieftains daughter and of that of a human one at that, but at least she was having a normal life.
Jake sighed. "She grows up from so little, to smart so quickly Norm."
"That's how they are I guess." Norm agreed. "Your trip went okay?"
"Yep. We caught ourselves some steer for tonight. It's going to be a fine dinner." He looked back to where Miri went, and then glanced at his own hands. "Didn't expect her to catch on to the hands yet."
Norm looked at Jake again. "You're gonna have to tell her about it sometime Jake."
"Not now. Humanity is still the bogeyman around here. If I told her now, she might not like it. Her friends might think of her differently too."
"True, but what if she learns of it otherwise? When she's older she might resent you for not telling."
"I'll do it when Neytiri's around. How's Max by the way?"
"Doing fine for now. The Kalisthaya tribe is still pretty wary of him, him being a dream-walker and all, but seemed willing enough for the Tsahik to come over."
"At least that avatar worked for him. You joining him in a while?"
"Yeah I'll be heading off at-"
"Chieftain! Chieftain!" A voice shouted. Heavy footsteps thumped as someone was racing up the tree. An exhausted hunter came onto the platform, catching his breath. "I have something bad to tell you..."
"Catch your breath Mu'kala... what's wrong?"
The scarred hunter looked at him in the eye.
"They're back."