[VIDEO LOG NO. 15]
[DATE: 20.4.2160]
[AUTHOR: WO GARNETT, A.]
[RECORD]
[GARNETT]: "Hey diary, I thought I should talk to you about something.
Last night, I decided to check up on Father Byron. He's hasn't really been the same since we all visited the na'vi a while back. He's been standoffish from everyone and he hadn't been outside his quarters for a while, so I decided to check up on him.
When I went inside, I saw him head on his desk, bottle of whiskey in his hands. He'd been obviously drinking, but thankfully not enough to for him to be completely smashed. He told me to bugger off as soon as he saw that I was there, but I wasn't in the mood.
So I asked him what his problem was. He said that he just found out that God didn't exist. He said that after he went to the Tree of Souls last week, he saw how the Na'vi was perfectly in tune with their spirit. He didn't quite explain it all to me, but he said that there was more evidence that this Eywa exists than there was that the one true God does. He added if that was the case, then what was the bloody point of him being here? There was no hope of him whatsoever of turning the Na'vi to God, they already had one.
Well, I am happy to say that I managed to straighten him out. I reminded him that the human colony still needed a priest. Someone to look to for spiritual guidance. Someone to be the councillor. He shook his head when I asked him this, said that if he doesn't believe that God exists, then his heart wouldn't be into his duties.
So I looked right into his eyes and told him that God does in fact exist. He asked me why I thought that. "Call it a hunch." I said.
He looked at me for a while, right in the eyes. Then he said that he didn't know whether or not that I was telling the truth or just crazy.
I saw him just today. I think he was returning to his former self. He was helping people and giving advice and whatnot and he also said that he was planning to drop his missionary plans. He said he now just wanted to focus his efforts at helping the colony.
Guess there's hope for all."
[END LOG]
[VIDEO LOG NO. 17]
[DATE: 3.5.2160]
[AUTHOR: WO GARNETT, A.]
[RECORD]
[GARNETT]: "Hey Diary. A pretty funny thing happened today… Well, actually it was pretty horrible when it happened, but it was pretty funny in retrospect. No one got killed, so that's what counts.
Anyway, I was just running a science foot expedition under one of the Militia captains, Ramirez his name was, along with a bunch of other militia guys and white coats. We had set off from the mines to gather some plant samples, or something like that, I can't quite remember what it was for. Anyway, we had set off into the jungle from the mine perimeter, in a single file line, with the Ramirez, the pointman, two of the scientists and some other militia guys in front, while the rest of us followed right behind, standard procedure. I myself was near the back.
We had been carefully moving through the jungle, trying to not to attract attention, when suddenly, there was some kind of commotion at the front. Suddenly, the guys in front of me started to turn around and start running back. I thought something bad was happening, so I did the same, so did the guys behind me. We were all running like hell from whatever was in front. We all thought that it was something like a Thanator, or a herd of hammerheads. We weren't really talking, just shouting to run faster, back down the path we had made and hoping we could outrun whatever it was that was chasing us. We managed to make it back to the mines and we sprinted for the flooding ditches that had been dug a while back, where we hunkered down and browned our pants.
It was horrible man. I swear to god that I thought we were all going to die. Then we looked over the trench and saw the couple of guys running haphazardly for one of the trenches that were filled with water.
In the end, it turned out that the Pointman, Ramirez, a few scientists and another militiaman ran right into a pack of hellfire wasps.
In our defence, I'd like to say that these were BIG ass wasps. I'm serious, they were the size of your friggen' fist man. We managed to drive the swarm off after the victims had dived into the water, but their faces had swollen up so badly that they looked like they were made of dough. They had to be hospitalized immediately.
So we all live in a place where the insects, or hell, even the plants can kill you.
Welcome to fucking Pandora."
[END LOG]
[VIDEO LOG NO. 18]
[DATE: 9.5.2160]
[AUTHOR: WO GARNETT, A.]
[RECORD]
[GARNETT]: "It's been an awesome day. We had just been beating those RDA mercenary 'Instructors' at their own game. During the training exercises out in the Murder Yard, we'd been beating their asses more and more consistently. In the old days, our win-loss ratio used to be 1 to 4. Now it's 5 to 1. We're kicking their asses, and I'm certain that it's not because they're going easy on us. We can ambush them in whatever terrain, and cut them down before they have a chance to take cover. We can take out armoured convoys from whatever the cover and tag them with rockets and our homemade sticky bombs. We can escape ambushes in light vehicles without too many losses. We're better at them in just about everything, even against superior odds.
To be frank, I'm not sure why this is the case. I don't think it's just our exo-suits. Some of the mercs have started wearing them and carrying chainguns, but that isn't making a difference. Some of the mercenaries are more experienced in their field, but they seem to keep forgetting that our boys and girls used to be in the army as well, or in the police. I guess they taught them too well.
The thing is, is that whenever someone asks us how we got so good, most of the guys say that they picked up a thing or two from the na'vi back at the Hometree. That's not a total lie. When we got back, some of my squad started to share what they had learned about survival and stealth from the Na'vi. More so, our boys seem to have learned a lot from patrolling the jungle and not getting killed. The same can't be said for the mercs. They seem to still suffer casualties whenever they go outside the wire. My boys and girls seem to have learned how to be one with the environment. Whenever I watch our exploits in training from observation, it's fantastic to see my brothers and sisters in arms stalk their opponents and take them out before they had a chance to fight back. Some of the colonists have been saying that one militiaman squad is now worth more than a company of mercs.
The downside is that the mercs don't like it. Normally I wouldn't give a shit about what they think, but lately, they've been taking out their anger around them. During one of our exercises, one of our own got captured as a 'prisoner' for one of the scenarios. When they handed him back, he was covered in bruises and bandages and stuff. They said that he had 'fallen down the stairs.' In a one story mock up building. Sure he did. The guy didn't make a complaint, but we beat their asses in the next couple of rounds. Aside from that, they've been a hell of lot snappier to everyone. The soldiers that is, the aircrews are largely unchanged. More and more of them have been requesting transfers to Citadel base. No love lost."
[NOH] (Offscreen) "At least these victories give us a reason to continuously get hammered at the Rec centre!"
[GARNETT] "Amen to that!"
[END LOG]
[VIDEO LOG NO. 19]
[DATE: 13.5.2160]
[AUTHOR: WO GARNETT, A.]
[RECORD]
(Video log shows Garnett visibly bruised and battered)
[GARNETT]: "Well, it's been one total bastard of a night. You know that little rivalry between us militia and the mercs? It just reached boiling point.
We were having dinner in the mess hall when it happened. From what I hear, one of the mercs was going on and complaining about how us militia were getting all the good stuff from all of the colonists, while they were starting to get the cold shoulder. I don't really remember the details, I was sitting at the other end when it happened and not really paying attention, but one of my guys; Sam, started to say something along the lines of "Well maybe you'd get more respect if you pulled your dicks out of the dirt" or something like that. It was at that point that the merc in question flicked out a balisong and stabbed the guy in the leg with it.
It was at that moment that everything went to hell. Sam screamed when the knife was plunged in, but he surprised everyone, especially the merc, when he got up faster than you'd think and started breaking the bastards face in. Another one of the mercs tried to punch him off, but then Dwight went and smashed his head with a dinner tray. At that point, every mercenary and militiaman, myself included, joined the fight.
I'm not quite sure how long it went on for. The main thing that I remember is introducing a mercs head to the table when I heard Halverson's warning gunshot. That was when the exo-suited mercenaries and militia in riot gear came in. The badly injured were hospitalized while everyone else was thrown into the brig. They had to separate us into two main cells to prevent us from killing each other all over again. We spent the next hour or so taunting and jeering at the opposing force, bruises and all. Then the brass walked in.
I don't really need to go on about the grilling we got then. Of course both sides blamed each other, but the final verdict was that the guy with the balisong, who is in hospital by the way, would be kicked off. Everyone else got sentenced to cleaning up the mess hall, and then a god awful night of building a giant hill of sandbags. In the pouring rain. To make it even better, both the militia and the mercs had to work on a separate hill, when Halverson announces that the team whose hill was the first one to reach an announced height would get to go to bed, while the other team would have to take both hills down.
Needless to say, we have never worked together so well before. And what matters is that we won.
I myself have learned an important lesson today. The mercenaries are assholes."
[END LOG]
[VIDEO LOG NO. 20]
[DATE: 27.6.2160]
[AUTHOR: WO GARNETT, A.]
[RECORD]
[GARNETT]: "Hey diary. I've kinda noticed something with almost all of the colonists. I've noticed that everyone is starting to get taller, fitter, and slightly more slender. Everyone thinking that it's got something to do with both the gravity and the gene modding we've all had. I mean, no one has grown as big as a Na'vi yet, but they're certainly getting bigger than they used to. It's probably a side effect of the modding. Or maybe it's just the food. We've all been eating better for the past couple of months.
Either the way, I'm not complaining. But the thing which I'm starting to notice most amongst the colonists, is the jump in confidence. When we first came here, everyone was nervous, everyone was scared of this planet and the na'vi and the whole big bad reputation of this place. Nowadays everyone does their job with pride and professionalism. But there seems to never be any cockiness. People have gotten smarter. They're careful out on the job, they seem to be more respectful to the land and they don't pick any fights with the na'vi whenever they meet.
Hell, some of them have stopped referring themselves as Terrans and started calling themselves Pandorans. I hope it's not going to turn into some war of independence, but it's cool to see a bit of identity form."
[END LOG]
[VIDEO LOG NO. 22]
[DATE: 7.6.2160]
[AUTHOR: WO GARNETT, A.]
[RECORD]
[GARNETT]: "There's been some new trouble with the Na'vi. Some of our lumberjacks over at the mines have been getting into some scraps with some Na'vi guys. They've had arrows shot near them whenever they go to mark trees for felling and they've had some of their gear tampered with, if not downright sabotaged. From the reports I've been getting, it sounds like both the Omaticaya and the Khalistheya tribes are involved.
I'm heading over there along with Noh to try and sort the situation. With luck, we can remind the Na'vi that we had an agreement before hand to stick with the plantation. I'm hoping the lumberjacks are sticking with it themselves. If we're really lucky, we can sort out the problems before the Magellan comes in next week.
[Pauses]
Man my head's been hurting for a while… Ah well, I'm sure it's nothing. Anyway, I'll be heading over to the mines. It should just be yet another diplomatic thing. It might even be fun. Or not."
[END LOG]