The lumber yard was in a state of fear. People were coming out of the prefab huts, and out of the makeshift tarps that the na'vi had set up to try to see what was going on. The forest had gone completely dark. Normally it would be exhibiting a healthy glow, but now the treeline had nothing coming out of it at all.
As if that was bad enough, the fact that the forest was now deathly quiet didn't do much to calm people down. Of course people still heard themselves and the hustle and bustle of the lumber yard, but there were no bird calls, no chattering of animals, just the sound of the leaves and the wind. That in itself was enough to creep the hell out of everyone.
"Hurry up and get the lights on! C'mon!" Noh shouted towards the generator hut. Inside, a technician frantically started to get the power diverted to the floodlights that were set up amongst the perimeter and in the compound. Meanwhile, na'vi tribesman started to light torches with sticks, cloth and oil. The colonists and guards started to turn on flashlights and flares to make their light. Everyone was on edge.
"How long do you think this is going to go on for?" Shee'kana whispered to Mu'kala.
"How should I know?" he hissed, the darkness starting to get to him. "Last time it happened, the dark lasted for the whole night." He watched the treeline with nervousness. "And when it happened, I was attacked by a crazy fucking palalukan."
"Will that happen?"
"I don't know!..." he snapped. "Just keep your eyes open, okay?"
"Okay."
They watched and waited from their hut. The flames of their torch flickered upon their surroundings, casting unusual shadows upon everything. The treeline remained silent.
"Hey." Voice came from their side. The two na'vi turned and looked down. A tree cutter with one of those completely bizarre fuzzy faces looked up and offered them a few of the strange fire sticks some of the guards were using. "One of the guys told me to hand these out to you guys." He said in broken na'vi.
"Oh… uh thanks." Mu'kala said shyly. He took the sticks with care.
"Just twist this cap here…" he said motioning with the flare. "The thing will come alight. Use it when you need it."
"Thank you."
The lumberjack was about to leave when he seemed to realize the state that the na'vi were in. He cocked his eye in an almost amused fashion.
"What's the matter?" he quizzed. "Afraid of the dark or something?"

Noh was trying to keep the new mining foreman calm. That easily counted as one of his most difficult missions yet. The man was pacing up and down the former office of Rueben Netanyahu looking as if the barbarians at the gate were about to storm the compound.
"We've got complete control of the compound right?" he asked, his voice only sort of disguising the fear and panic in his mind.
"Yes." Answered Noh loyally, leaning against the wall. He was crossing his arms tightly across his chest, a sign that might be interpreted as power or dominance, but to Noh, it was just his way of keeping calm. He himself felt that something nasty was about to jump out of the shadows and eat his face off. But he couldn't let those feelings show. He had to look as if he was still in control.
"I can assure you Mr Denton; we have the situation well in hand." The commanding officer of the mining compound answered. He was one of those 'by the book' officers, a rather forgettable man known as Captain Smith. "Sgt Noh, do the na'vi look as if they are behind this?"
"What? Hell no!" Noh answered with a little bit of surprise and anger. "…sir." He added respectfully. "The na'vi are just as worried as we are about what just happened. Hell, they look even more scared shitless than we are."
"Then that means that whatever's going to happen is going to kill us all!" the foreman moaned. "They know this place! If they're scared shitless, then we've got an even bigger right to start getting the hell out of this place!"
"Mr Denton would you just calm the hell down!" Noh ordered. "There's no need to jump aboard the panic train and start screaming that the sky is falling, okay?"
"Well what about the colony itself?" Denton countered snappily. "Our communications have been hit by ungodly amounts of interference. We're cut off from the colony! Who knows, maybe they're under attack right now by the na'vi and their dragon mounts!"
"We're working on the communication, but right now I just need you to keep calm and carry on." Answered Smith.
"Hey sir, what's that light out in the distance?" Noh asked. He was looking out the office window.
The officer and foreman walked over to the window. From it, one could see the compounds lumber mill and the surrounding forest (The mining pit itself was on the other side of the building.)From their vantage point, they could see an incredibly obvious pillar of light, coming out of the horizon. In the darkness it was the most vivid thing any of them could see. The strange thing was, is that the light was not vertical. It was noticeably slanted, as if someone had been manning a searchlight and then left to grab a sandwich.
"What the hell is that?" Smith asked.
"Hell if I know." Noh shrugged. "It's too far to be Hells Gate anyway."
They looked at it for a while, when Smith was suddenly hit by a bolt of lightning. In the form of realization, of course.
"Did we have anyone out on the roads when the lights went out?" he asked.
"Now that you mention it…" began Denton warily "We did have a convoy of lumber trucks coming back right now." He remembered an uncomfortable fact. "They should have come back by now, come to think of it."
"So let me get this straight." Noh said in a mix of frustration and anger. "Right now, there's a bunch of our guys out there right now, all on their own, radio's fucked, in the middle of the really scary, dark forest?"
The three humans were silent.
"Right, we're going after them."
"I concur." Nodded Smith. "We can't leave them on their own."
"You guys do realise that it's a mile or so away?" Denton asked uncomfortably, pointing at the light. "You can't exactly walk over there you know."
"Of course. That's why we're taking the APC's with us." Smith shrugged. "Should only take half an hour or so."
"But what about the Na'vi?" Denton protested, waving his arms. "You guys just going to leave us unguarded with them?"
"We're not all just going to leave Mr. Denton." Smith answered. "But I do agree, I am uncomfortable about leaving the garrison to deal with the remaining na'vi."
"I'd say we take some of them with us." Noh suggested.
The office was silent for a while. "Are you kidding me?"
"Nope. We could use the extra eyes to help search for the colonists and it means the garrison here doesn't have so much tribesman to worry about." Noh looked confident. For his usual snarky attitude, that was an impressive change. "Alex can go with the guys who go out, I'll stay. All the bases are covered, don't you worry."

The road rumbled as the convoy of three APC's rolled on. Normally, one might think it was just an ordinary night patrol. That is, if that one didn't take heed to the na'vi warriors and militiamen perched on top of the vehicle.
The na'vi couldn't really fit inside the cramped confines of the vehicles, so they had to sit on the roof of the armored vehicles. It wasn't exactly first class, but the light coming from the headlamps and the searchlights helped calm them down.
"This is kind of fun, don't you think?" Shee'kana smiled to Mu'kala. She was doing her best to remain upbeat and positive about the situation.
"Just keep your eyes on the forest." Mu'kala shouted over the rumbling.
They continued on through the forest. The na'vi didn't like the idea of leaving the safety of the compound and its calming lights. Few of them wanted to go out and help some idiot humans who were quite probably already dead. However, having something to do was something all of them wanted. Sitting around, waiting for something to happen was something none of them wanted to do. So they surprised themselves by being willing to go on this escapade.
"We should have gone home earlier." A young na'vi brave muttered. "Why the hell are we helping them out?"
"Well none of us would be in this position had you shown some restraint and didn't attack the tree cutters." Mu'kala retorted.
"Why should we?" the brave snapped frustrated. "These are slow subtle people, biding their time, slowly eating away at the land. We never notice anything too bad, yet. Then the Sky-People will make their move. We'll all get eaten as well!"
There was a short silence.
Mu'kala cocked his eye. "You learnt that line from Hesh'ka, didn't you?"
The brave started to shift uncomfortably.
"When did you hear it?"
"When I went to the Khalistheya to learn about the swamplands." He said.
"Right then." Mu'kala chewed, probing into the brave. "Next time you feel like a man, show some fucking backbone instead of listening to that old crone and talking her words." He spat.
The brave bowed his head in shame.

The APC's continued on in the dark, headlights and searchlights scanning the darkness.
"Do you think the canoes are still okay?" Shee'kana asked her boss.
"I'm sure they're fine, we left them under the mangrove trees." Mu'kala yelled confidently over the APC's. "The humans will never find them."
The na'vi had managed to get to the compound via the nearby waterways and swamps that crisscross the forest. The RDA had boats, sure, but the na'vi knew the waters better like the back of their own hands. Many times they'd pass the odd memorial of some RDA idiot's foolish demise. The canopy covering the water and swamps also provided ample cover from choppers.
"Hey Mu'kala, don't we have a few of our people visiting the Khalistheya right now?" Shee'kana shouted again.
"Yeah? Why?"
"Who's visiting?"
"Just Jake's wife and child… two of the sleepwalker scientists, and a few of our hunters."
"Jake's mate and child are visiting?"
"Don't look at me." Mu'kala shrugged. "From what I heard, they got a message saying that Hesh'ka knows something about the child."
"What, she's special or something?"
"Hell if I know, I was out hunting, so don't ask me. They're probably at their village in the swamps right now."

Soon enough, the convoy came to the source of light. The APC's grinded to a halt.
The road was a mess. Standard convoys carrying lumber were comprised of two lumber hauling big rig style trucks, escorted by an APC and two patrol vehicles. Sometimes more patrol vehicles or an AMP would ride shotgun, safety in numbers being the well-known rule on Pandora. This convoy in particular would have comprised of two trucks and two patrollers. And they were wrecked.
The light in question was caused from one of the headlights from a patroller. It must have backed up, reversed off the road, and then fell off of the embankment, and onto a tree, causing its headlights to shine up into the sky. The other patroller was still on the road, but it had tipped over to one side. One of the lumber trucks had crashed into a tree, its logs had broken free of their restraints and had scattered across the road. The other truck had been forced to stop where it was.
As the na'vi hopped off the vehicles and the militia disembarked, they saw the signs of battle everywhere. Bullet holes dotted the trees and the vegetation. The windows of the vehicles had been smashed in and there were blood splatters across the scene, on the ground on the vehicles, IN the vehicles, everywhere.
"So where are the bodies?" a militiaman asked as he checked inside a cab. It was the first thing on everyone's mind. There was a lot of blood, you didn't have to be a forensics genius to know people fought here, but nobody could find any of the owners of that blood.
Emile was watching Alex examining the wreckage. He noticed that he was rubbing his head repeatedly, in a quite noticeable way.
"Something wrong boss?"
"It's fine… I've just got a headache."
The place was so silent.
"Sooo…" Alex asked a Mu'kala, trying to sound like he knew what he was doing. He did not. "What do you think happened?"
"Don't know…. I'm sure it's not the animals though." The na'vi answered.
"What makes you say that?"
"We would have found your men by now. As half eaten meals, true, but found all the same."
The vehicles were battered and torn. As if someone had put them through one of those "One dollar gets you five minutes of time to beat a car with a sledge" style event. Alex had a real bad feeling.
"Hey, boss!" a voice shouted out from the logs. "Check this out?"
Alex clambered over the logs and went over to Mac. He was holding something for Alex to see. Alex stiffened badly when he saw it.
They were the broken remnants of the big heavy arrows that the na'vi were so fond of using. While their coloured flights and stone heads didn't make them very high tech, their massive size made them powerful enough to punch through the thickest body armor. They were almost as effective as the guns that the humans brought with them. The sight of this arrow filled Alex with dread.
"I think we've just found our culprits boss." Mac said with the seriousness of life and death.
"Are there anymore?"
"A few. The trucks and stuff show the impacts and holes from them."
"Crap."

Alex turned to watch the other militia and na'vi combing through the wreckage. He paid careful attention to the na'vi that was watching the treeline. A few of them were being kind enough to help clear some of the mess.
The thing was, Alex wasn't sure if he really was looking at the culprits or not. The convoy would have gotten hit after the blackout occurred, so the men and women that he was looking at were obviously not the actual culprits. It almost certainly was caused by another tribe, one that still hated humans, and one that certainly was not afraid of the dark, unlike so many other na'vi. Problem was, it still didn't answer the question of who it actually was, or the more mysterious question of why they took the bodies.
"Radio base, tell me when you've made contact with Smith." He ordered one of the nearby radio operators. The man nodded an affirmative and started fiddling with his backpack radio. Then Alex clutched his head suddenly, cursing.
"Is there a problem?" Mac asked.
"Nah…. I'm good… I'm good."
"Sir I can't reach ESM-1 on this thing." The radio operator said.
"Tried all the channels?"
"Zip." He shrugged. "Too much interference or something."
"Shit…" Alex started to get nervous. He didn't relish the idea of spending the night here in the dark. "Try the APC's radio's maybe they work."
They waited for a minute while one of the drivers fiddled with his on-board radio. Soon his head poked out from the armored cupola. "I can sort of get something sir." The driver yelled. "But it's all static. I can barely tell if I'm hearing voices or that crappy new age music."
"Keep trying!" Alex shouted back.
"What do we do boss?" Mac said nervously.
"Well we don't know where the hell our boys are now." Alex answered in trepidation. "And our na'vi…. 'friends' can't track them down in this dark… So I'm sorry, but I guess we're just going to have to head back to the-"
"You hear that?" a na'vi from down near the treeline interrupted loudly. His ears had pricked up like radar dishes. His friends went silent.
"What did he say?" the radio guy asked quietly.
"Shut up for a second." Alex shouted. The militia went quiet.
There was barely any sound at all coming from the forest. One might have thought that the whole place had simply gone to sleep.
Then they heard. It was barely audible, it would have been so easy to miss. A faint 'boom'. Everyone heard it. Then they made out a faint 'budda, budda, budda.' Then another pop. It was all so faint you wouldn't have heard it if you were concentrating on something else. Everyone knew where it was coming from however. And everyone knew what the sounds were.

"They're under attack." Emile whispered.
The thought spread like wildfire. Human and na'vi alike were chattering to each other about what it all meant.
"Everyone, get back in the saddle!" Alex yelled. "We're heading out-"
"Now wait just a fucking minute sir!" one of the militia yelled. "How the fuck should we trust these fucking blue-skins?"
"Yeah, this convoy got hit by a fucking tribe attack." Another militia shouted. He was holding up the remains of a broken arrow. "Why the fuck should we keep working this lot?"
"That wasn't us!" Mu'kala shouted.
"Then who was? Your friends?"
"Now, now…" interrupted Mac. "Let's not bicker and argue over whom killed who…."
Na'vi and humans alike were drawing their weapons. The scene was starting to turn into a Mexican standoff.
The scariest part was that Alex himself was aiming his shotgun at a nearby na'vi warrior, who in turn was levelling his bow against another militia. Everyone was shouting or arguing over whose fault it was. The thing was, is that Alex was now really suspecting that the Na'vi were behind this mess. He just needed to calm everyone down in order to get answers.
If only he could quiet down the raging headache he was having.

One of the militia was demanding to know why the na'vi didn't tell anyone about the broken arrows, when he stopped.
"What was that?" he asked, turning around.
He was just in time to see the viperwolf pounce on him.
The beast was about the size of a small bear, easily big enough to overpower the human. The poor bastard never stood a chance. Before anyone could react, the rest of the pack burst out of the trees. They swarmed against na'vi and human alike, being met with gunfire and swipes. The scene instantly turned into something out of Aliens.
"They're coming from fucking EVERYWHERE!" one man screamed.
"Where's a fucking AMP when you need it?"
"What's wrong with them? A na'vi shouted.
As Alex blasted them, he could tell the viperwolves were crazy. Even though some of them had sustained massive wounds from arrows and gunshots, they just kept surging forward. Their tendrils twitched something crazy. And their eyes had a look Alex was familiar with.
"Get to the APC's!" he roared above the racket. "Let's get the fuck out of here!"
This was something everyone agreed on. They could argue later, right now they just wanted to get out alive. None of the militia argued when a few na'vi clambered on top of the armored vehicles. The remaining humans tumbled into the armored hulls.
Alex could quickly tell that he was already losing men. He couldn't tell how many, but he was already having to step over one unlucky sod. He also caught glimpses of a na'vi hunter getting swarmed and pulled down by the viperwolves.
"Hurry up!" one of the APC drivers shouted from his cupola. He was taking pot shots at the beasts with his SMG.
C'mon Alex the warrant officer gritted to himself. You can make it. You can-
Something smacked into him at high velocity, sending him off the bank.
He didn't even scream, he was taken completely by surprise. He felt himself tumbling down the bank, snapping through vines, and shrubs, all the while getting his shoulder chewed by a viperwolf.
He should have felt the teeth biting through his flesh but the exo-suit he wore was more durable than it looked. When he finally came down to the bottom he tried to push the beast off himself, mechanics and desperation fuelling him. The beast started to snap at his face, coming close to taking it right off.
Alex realised that his gun was still slinged to him. Problem was, it was hard to reach for it when there was a psychotic animal trying to eat his face off. With all the strength he and his exo could muster, he slammed the beast forward. The viperwolf staggered back, getting ready for its chance to pounce again.
It didn't get one. Its head exploded from the power of a 20 millimetre explosive shotgun shell. The rest of the beast's body slumped down to the ground. Alex thought he saw it twitch.

Alex slumped against a tree trunk. He really needed the breather.
It's happening again.
He thumbed his radio.
"ESM-1. This is Warrant Officer Garnett. Do you copy."
No response. He could no longer hear any of the viperwolves. May be they all went and chased the others.
Shit. He realised. They must think I'm gone.
That would mean he was alone.