There wasn't a lot to do for the people on the canoes aside from paddle and watch for hostiles. Everyone had been told to keep their traps shut in order to not draw any undue attention, so when someone talked, they did so quietly, and only when necessary. Aside from the odd scuffle in the bush, or the odd sound of something moving or scraping, the forest was silent. There were no bird calls, no thumping of hooves. There weren't even any animals that came to drink from the river. The forest seemed almost deserted.
That was what was so spooky about the place. The sun was up and shining through the forest canopy, but things certainly hadn't gone back to normal.
"Are we there yet?" a human whispered to one of the na'vi paddlers.
"We're close now…" the na'vi began. "We should be-"
An arrow thumped into a nearby tree root, destroying the tension in the air. The humans and na'vi sprang into gear, aiming weapons at the trees and shouting orders at each other.
"Can you see him, can you see him!"
"I don't see squat!"
"Stay down, stay down!"
Voices were heard from the far bank on the upcoming bend in the river.
"I think they're over there!" one hotshot hunter yelled.
The source of the voices was just about to get turned into a firing range when a panicked voice shouted from it "Wait! Don't shoot! It's us!"
Jake swore. "Hold fire! Hold!"
A few blue bodies, seven of them, inched themselves out of the bush to reveal themselves. They were Omaticaya, a very relieving sight to the people in the boats. What was not so good was the fact that they seemed to have gotten themselves into a fight or two. Jake noticed that they had some cuts and scrapes, one of them had a bandage wrapped around his head, and they had fired many of their arrows off already.
"Chieftain, is that you?" the leader of the group shouted as the boats neared the bend. "I'm sorry, we thought you those madmen for moment."
"I'm fine." Jake shouted back. "What are you doing out here?"
"Watching out for the Khalistheya." Another hunter shouted back. "They went ahead and attacked us while you were gone."
"They're crazy chieftain!" another hunter yelled out. "They just ignore the arrows we put in them before the die, it's-"
"I know, okay!" Jake shouted back. "We've fought them back at the mines. They killed almost everyone before we managed to escape. Are you saying that they attacked the Hometree?"
"See for yourself." The leader motioned down the river bend.
As the boats approached the bend, the occupants saw the wrecked remains of three na'vi boats. Two of them had been beached on the bank, the other looking like a broken matchstick. Their former occupants on the other hand were splayed out on the bank. The na'vi corpses were donned in Khalistheya war gear and paint. True to their word, the hunters had put an abnormal; amount of arrows into the bodies. Seven arrows was the average amount. One body had twelve. They seemed to have made it well onto the beach before they finally died. They had to give them credit, they were persistent.
"The only reason they didn't kill us, was that we ambushed them first." The leader said as he followed the boats.
"How did you know they were out to kill?"
"Because they struck first."
As the boats kept moving on, the leader, whose name was Khail, told of what happened. When the light went out of the forest, the people were once again frightened. They returned to the Hometree and proceeded to light fires and keep their spirits up. A while into the night however, and the Khalistheya struck.
They came howling like the monsters they had become, throwing burning torches, firing arrows and charging at the Tree without any warning, out of darkness of the forest. Some of the defenders were killed in the first wave, but they were already alert for anything horrible to happen. What followed was a battle that stretched on during the night. The defenders fired from the tree at the invading madmen, or took them on at the great roots. The banshee riders were caught up fighting equally mad invaders from above, but they couldn't go far in the dark, too risky to fly and the banshees themselves were to jittery. Anyone who couldn't fight was sent up the tree to hide. The enemy gave no reason behind it all, they just screamed as they tore apart any tribesman or woman that they could get their hands on.
So far the Khalistheya hadn't attacked during the dawn. The defenders had started to assemble bodies, post watches and attend to the wounded. It also turned out that Se'huk, the na'vi warrior whose son was wounded at the mines (an event that now felt like a lifetime ago) had now become the de facto commander of the Hometree in Jakes absence. While the battle had put everybody's skills to the test, only a dozen or so na'vi had been killed. However, three times as many had been wounded, some seriously. People were fairly certain another battle like that wouldn't go very well.
Jake asked on whether or not they considered going other tribes for help. The leader answered that when they sent a flyer out to try to make contact, it came back with the pilot missing and the banshee itself close to death. It must have been pounced on almost immediately after it had left. Neytiri had remembered what one of the madmen said at the bonfire last night; that they had warriors skirmishing neighbouring tribes. If that was the case, then there would be little chance of getting help from them.
After about fifteen minutes of paddling and walking, the canoes and pack finally came in sight of the Hometree. It now looked somewhat recognizable. Somewhat.
The scrubland that surrounded the place had been burnt to a wasteland-esque plain, with only a few trees and shrubs giving the place cover. The landscape was pocked marked with the odd scorch mark, where someone must had thrown a torch or set fire to some vegetation, and the remnants of the last battles could be found scattered around; bits of arrows, bloodstains, and the odd scaring on the trees marked a fairly nasty fight that took place.
Then there was the Hometree itself. It actually looked reasonably intact (It was a Hometree after all), but the odd burn mark and the out-of-reach arrows betrayed that sentiment.
And then there were the people. A group of hunters and warrior na'vi had seen them and were coming over to the canoes. They were a worn out lot, with rims under the eyes and the wearing the same tired yet wary expression that most of the humans and na'vi in the canoes were wearing. Everyone was in their battle gear, and the evidence of the fights in the night was evident in the scratches, bruises, and the odd bandage that they wore upon their bodies. Their disposition had also changed.
As the canoes beached on the river shore, about two hundred metres away from the Tree, the group of hunters started to walk up to the na'vi who were getting out and helping others out of the canoe. They were led by a serious looking and familiar face.
"I see that you are still alive Jake." Se'huk said as he walked up.
"You too." Jake grunted as he got off the boat and walked up. He then looked back out to the boats and grimly said "Wish the same could be said about some of the others though…"
The warriors from the mines started to get out and help the humans out of the boats. There was the odd bit of chatter about how everyone was holding up, where they were going, where were so and so, whether or not the children in the Tree were okay and a host of topics in both human and na'vi.
"How's everyone holding up?"
"Doing okay, I guess." Se'huk muttered. "I figured it would be best to send for help, so I arranged for two parties of hunters to fly out to see if they could reach the other tribes."
"You sent our ikran away?" Jake blurted. "What are we supposed to do in an attack then?"
"Because in case you can't see, we need the help! We can't fend them off by ourselves. We'll need help."
"You took a risk by doing that."
"Look, I'm doing the best I can, alright! I-"
Se'huk glanced to the boats, with their passengers being helped out by some of his men, his eyes narrowed.
"Why are there tawtutes here?" he said in a somewhat darker voice.
"They're survivors from the mines." Jake answered. "We weren't going to leave them to die and we couldn't make it out of there without their help."
"Is that so?"
It was now Jake's turn to narrow his eyes.
"What are you getting at Se'huk?"
Se'huk crossed his arms in a doubting manner. "I was just thinking… Well, We were just thinking, that all of this madness… all of this bloodshed…. It only started to heat up after the tawtutes came back."
Jake glanced around. Some of Se'huk's men were starting to look a little more… unfriendly. Like a group of thugs covering a dealer.
"We were thinking that all of the stuff about being friendly with the tawtutes isn't such a good idea anymore."
The feeling of unfriendliness started to get around. The na'vi who had come from the mines had stopped moving so much and were listening to the conversation. The humans, the ones both on the boats and off of them were starting to grip their guns a little.
"So what are you suggesting that we do?" Jake replied in a voice that snarled slightly. "Leave them to die? Try to escape the mines with their help and then dump them in the river?"
"Maybe we are Jake." Se'huk said, dripping a little venom on the human name.
Jake could feel that there were some more hunters around the place. He thought he heard a few arrows being nocked. The tension was starting to build.
"So this is what it is huh?" he said. "You think you can take my place as chieftain?"
"Might as well, I've already got the support of these men around me." Se'huk said with a now increasingly menacing AND angry tone. "Working with the tawtutes just gets us into trouble. That's how it always is. They're like palalukans inside the skin of people. So we'll make sure that they're not a problem anymore-."
The sound of a machete being unsheathed, a sound that seemed to be deliberately made loud, slinked into the air. Some of the na'vi and humans around the source stepped aside.
"Just you fucking try hotshot." Noh said in perfect na'vi, machete in hand.
"Well what do we have here!" Se'huk almost blurted out laughing. "It looks like a short man thinks he's a tough guy!"
"I wouldn't laugh if I were you Se'huk." Jake said. "I saw this man kill bigger men than you without a gun."
"If you think, for one moment, that we're going to go down easily, that we'll just let ourselves be marched to some pit out in the forest, I will cut your damn queue off and choke you with it." Noh yelled out, clearly and with strength.
"So you think that you actually have a chance against me?" Se'huk smirked. "Against all of us?"
Noh locked eyes with him. "I have been fighting since ten last night, against psychopaths who clearly wanted to scalp me alive and who were a hell of a lot tougher than YOU." He then shrugged a little. "I've already made it this far, let's see how far I can go."
The normally diplomatic Alex finally said something. "Noh, I don't think this is a good idea-" he whispered.
"ShutupAlex, I'vegotapointtomake." Noh hissed back.
"Does anyone else hear anything?" Shee'kana said suddenly. Nobody paid attention to her.
"Besides," Noh started up again, "You sure as shit better not be still hurting over something that happened months ago."
"It never would have happened had your kind never been here!" Se'huk shouted at the increasingly belligerent human.
As the voices were raised, Neytiri whispered to Alex "Alex, say something!"
"Why don't YOU say something?" he hissed back. "I'm trying to-"
The human's ears pricked up.
"Is that a chopper?"
He was just about to scan the skies when sound of rockets being fired screamed into the air.
A few of the hunters around screamed for the others to get onto the ground before rockets from god knew where slammed into the Tree. The explosions blew wind across the plains and completely shocked the na'vi and humans alike.
For a moment, they stood there like idiots watching the explosion. Then gunfire from above, a heavy machinegun from the sounds of things, tore into the ground and the humans and na'vi alike. Everyone scrambled and sprinted for cover, the fight before now forgotten in the chaos. People were screaming, diving to whatever cover the trees could provide.
After sprinting under a tree, along with a few other militia and warriors, Alex managed to look and see the source: a Samson chopper, with both doors opened and side guns manned by faceless men, was firing indiscriminately at the crowd. Na'vi and human alike were getting shot by it.
It didn't seem to care.
"Good effect on target." The co-pilot of the chopper said.
"Roger, beginning strafing run on the crowd, watch for return fire." The pilot said to the door gunners over the radio.
"Copy, engaging."
The sound of the door guns might have been deafening to some, but the crew were used to it.
"Viper, could you hurry up and get in position? A party's no fun without friends."
"Roger that Snake actual." A voice replied on the radio. "Be there in a sec."
"This is Peacekeeper Actual!" a voice screamed on the radio. "CEASE FIRE god damn it! Fucking Cease Fire! You're shooting at friendly forces, I repeat, You're shooting at-"
The pilot flicked the channel off.
"Why the hell are they shooting at us Boss!" a Dwight screamed over the gunfire. The tree that the group of humans and na'vi were hiding under offered pitifully little cover, but the gunners seemed to be more interested in shooting unfortunate souls who didn't have any cover.
"I don't fucking know!" Noh screamed back. "They just fucking cut me off!"
"What do we do then?"
Noh started gnawing at his lip. He looked around for anything he could do. He saw a miner from one of the boats trying to sprint to cover. The man did a flip as a salvo of bullets raked into him.
Noh stopped gnawing his lip.
"Emile, you've still got that rocket?" he said, not turning around to look.
Emile briefly craned his head to look at the tube he had slung on his back. Normally a disposable rocket launcher would only be carried if the soldier was expecting to run into armour, but of course this was Pandora. "Yeah…"
"Good, 'cause you're about to use it."
Noh keyed his radio. "Everybody listen up!" he shouted. "On my mark I need everyone to give us cover. We're gonna send a boot right up that murderous fucker's ass."
Some of the militia gave affirmative signals on the radio. A few na'vi close by who understood English nodded their heads nervously. Emile unholstered the rocket.
"Three, two…One…" Noh counted down. "MARK!"
Right away, several militia burst out from under the tree, along with some na'vi with bows and started blasting at the chopper. The target started to pull up a little, with one of its gunners taking a shot to the face, but it didn't see Emile rush over and aim a metal tube at it.
"MOTHERFUCKERS!" the man screamed at the top of his lungs.
He pulled the trigger. The rocket flew out of its tube with a boom and hit the Samson right in nose with an almighty smash. The cockpit had been completely totalled and with its pilots and systems blown apart, the chopper flew backward a little and slammed into the ground with a grinding crunch.
And then it was quiet.
Jake surveyed his surroundings. The chopper had to have been around for what, a minute but it had already caused more than enough carnage. The wounded were laying amongst the dead, crying for help, the survivors doing the best they could to oblige.
But that was nothing compared to the destruction wrought upon the Hometree. It looked like someone had taken a head of hair and burned off a patch of it.
Jake turned back to the na'vi beside himself. They looked somewhat shellshocked.
"What are you doing?" he shouted. "Snap out of it!" he pointed at two of them "You two, get to the tree, find out how many people we've lost. Everyone else, get the wounded to the tree, we're sitting ducks out here... And where is Se'huk?"
"He's... he's over here."
Jake walked over to where the voice came from. There was a na'vi hunter stabilizing a wounded na'vi lying on the ground. As he came up to them, he could see that the guy on the ground was Se'huk himself. Or what was left of him. His arm had been completely blown off.
Se'huk was cursing and panicking over the loss of his arm. Then he stopped as soon as he saw Jake standing over him.
"You still up for taking my place?" Jake talked down to him.
Se'huk was silent for a moment. Then he snarled "Humans just took my arm-"
"Tell that to the dead ones lying with you." Jake interrupted. "I'm getting the wounded to the tree. Human or not, everyone is going to survive."
"Why should-"
"Why? Because I'm the fucking chief that's why! And you sure as hell aren't qualified to run yourself."
"At least I know who the enemy is. You can't trust humans!"
Jake paused for a moment. He briefly glanced to an old blood smear. It wasn't from the recent attack.
"Can we trust our own kind?"
"C'mon, you're still in one piece." Dwight grunted as he lifted Alex up.
"What happened to the chopper?"
"It's totalled. We checked it, nobody survived."
As Alex managed to stand on his two Dwight began to walk off.
"Wait, hold on a sec..."
"What is it boss?"
"Why the hell would a chopper act alone?"
"Maybe they were crazy, I don't know..."
"No it's not that. Very few people fly alone. And No-One fights alone."
"So?"
"So where's the other one?"
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Neytiri's voice asked from above Alex's head.
Before Alex could respond, he heard a droning sound.
Everyone stopped breathing.
"It's another chopper right?" Neytiri asked.
"No, it's too low to be a..." Alex was going to say something else, but his eye's started to widen in horror. "Oh shit..."
"What-"
Alex started running. "Get everybody up!" he screamed "Get to the Hometree!"
There was confusion at first, people demanding to know what was going on, wondering why the human was screaming his voice out. Then several of the human and na'vi saw what was making the droning sound. It was something coming up on the horizon. Something much bigger than a Samson.
It was the silhouette of an Emperor Gunship.
"Crew, be advised, I can see Snake's crash site. No survivors. Say again no survivors."
"Copy. Gunners, warm up the guns and start acquiring targets, open fire as soon as you are within range."
That's when the panic set in. Jake roared for people to get the wounded up and sprint to the Hometree as fast as they could. Everyone grabbed what they could, be it a wounded man, or kit from the boats, and started moving as fast as they could to the Hometree.
They had just managed to get one third of the way when the shelling began.
"Gunners, have you zeroed in yet? Those rounds went wild."
"Negative, but if you pull us in closer we should be getting better angles."
"What about the tree? Viper can only cover our ass by some much. We'd be in trouble if we're pounced by some banshees."
"Nah, don't worry. Snake managed to blow that nest apart with a rocket strike. I think most of them are either dead or wounded."
"Copy, let's go get them then."
The gunners started to see the targets on the screens. Since thermals were turned on, the targets on the ground were white shapes on a sea of grey running towards the Hometree.
"Light'em up."
The guns started to thunder on the hull.
"Kaboom."
"Heh heh, oopsy daisy."
"Yep, that was right on the money."
"Boom, that hit the spot."
Alex practically dove into the cover the great tree roots offered. His ears were ringing from the explosions. He found himself cowering behind one of the great roots, huddled with terrified na'vi as the land around the tree burned. Humans and na'vi alike ran past him, trying to drag their wounded and equipment in with them.
Alex poked his head around the corner to take a look outside. The few stragglers that couldn't run as fast vanished in clouds of dirt. One time he thought he saw an arm flying through the air.
When all of those who were still alive had fled to shelter, the Emperor directed its guns upon the tree itself. Heavy shells and autocannon fire rocked the tree nightmarishly. Na'vi from above the tree itself were jumping down, falling at times as the tree groaned from the Armageddon outside.
Na'vi and human alike figured that this was the end. People were crying. People were praying. Alex could see a mother cradling a child, whispering that everything was going to be alright. People were fidgeting with themselves, trying to think of something, anything they could do.
That was when Alex realised something. There really was nothing anyone could do. The Emperor had them trapped, almost all of the banshee's were either gone, or dead, they had no means of escape, no means of fighting back and the Hometree was about to collapse at any moment. This really did look like the end.
And the only words Alex could find coming out of his mouth was: "Well shit."
"Uh, this tree's a little more sturdy than it looks, it's going to take a little longer than expected."
"to hell with it, those banshee's could be back any moment." The pilot of the Emperor sighed something disappointed. "Let's just fire the napalm rounds we've got and burn 'em out."
"Copy, loading-" the co-pilot began before noticing something on his radar. "Crew, we have an unidentified chopper, approaching from Angels 10. Identify yourself."
"This is Haast flight Echo, coming from Citadel." An Afrikaner voice replied on the radio. "General Carson figured you might need some more backup with the banshees coming. We're here to provide overwatch."
"Well that's mighty kind of you Echo." The pilot of the Samson replied. "Alter course to 3-2 and keep an eye out for any hostiles."
The pilot of the Emperor could now see the Haast coming up to them in its 'jet' mode. It didn't seem to alter course.
"Echo flight, say again, alter course to- woah, WHAT THE FU-"
Before the Samson could finish, the Haast launched a missile into it, causing it to blow apart in a fireball and fall to the ground.
"Short trip shitheads!" the pilot of the Haast roared over the radio. He started to make a run for the Emperor itself, training his rocket pods and autocannon upon it.
"Fuck!" the pilot of the Emperor screamed. "Bank, bank, we need to- NOOOO-"
Just as the Emperor banked itself in an attempt to give its gunners a shot at the Haast, the target in question fired everything it had into the Emperor.
Autocannon rounds and rockets alike slammed right into the belly of the beast, blasting through its armoured shell and blowing apart its ammo stockpiles. The sheer force of the attack, coupled with the fact that the Emperor had slightly banked, meant that the blast made the Emperor literally flip onto its back, and crash right into the ground within seconds, where it exploded in a volcano of fire and shrapnel. There were no survivors.
"Have a nice trip assholes!" The pilot snarled. "Give my regards to Quaritch you fokers!"
At first Neytiri thought the huge crashing sound was that of a tree branch falling. The total silence that pervaded seemed to suggest otherwise.
As people stopped praying and crying, Neytiri dared to peek behind the corner. She couldn't see anything in the smoke. She could still hear the sound of a flying machine outside, but instead of the whir of a Samson, it was the thumping of a Haast. She didn't remember hearing that before.
As she started to walk into the settling dust storm, a few others dared to join her: A hunter, and a very familiar human.
"Why is it I expect to find you taking charge?" Noh muttered under his breath. He then coughed from the dust before putting a cloth over his face.
Neytiri tripped over something. She cursed for a moment before seeing that it was a hunk of na'vi torso. Next to it was a human arm. She wanted to throw up for a second.
"Christ sakes..." Noh muttered. "Does everyone want all of us dead today?"
The thumping sound started to grow louder. Neytiri signalled everyone to get down. The wind started to pick up, sweeping dust into their direction. Neytiri could feel that a few other na'vi and humans had joined them.
And then the dust was blown away to make room for their saviour. The Haast gunship, wheels down for landing and ordnance expended, touched down, the angular cockpit a contrast to the curves around them. The blades were low enough so that a na'vi could get hurt with they were too close, but it was far enough away. Then the machine started to power down, its rotors slowing gradually down.
As the engine turned off and the rotors turning softly to the tin of the engines, the cockpit hatch clacked open. The only pilot of the bird, face covered by an exo-mask, clambered out. He already knew Noh, so he was more or less relaxed.
"Sorry I couldn't get here sooner." The pilot said apologetically. "The others were already suspicious enough before I could take the opportunity."
Noh stared at him for a moment. "Wikus?"
"Yeah, I know." The pilot said as he started to open the passenger compartment door. Inside were some crates of ammo, guns, food and medical gear that were now greatly needed. "Help me unload this stuff."