This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.

Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have corrected every mistake yet.

Chapter 5: Reunion

John Simons had just gotten into his truck and had started the engine. He was just about to light his cigarette, when he suddenly stomped on the brakes. His face was frozen and the cigarette fell out of his mouth. Hastily, he switched off the audio player and the engine and then prepared himself to go outside. John had been overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of a Na'vi twenty metres ahead. Ney'ite had done this on purpose; she wanted to get his full attention. During the last ten years, she had watched him from afar on several occasions, without him noticing anything. She had always been curious about this alien since they had had their first encounter. Wukan had once told her the rules in dealing with the humans at the quarry, implying that they expected the Na'vi to leave them alone if they hadn't broken the rules. Ney'ite felt that she could change the rules to establish a better relationship between the species. After all, these humans were allowed to stay, because they weren't interested in conflict in the first place.

Ney'ite saw him climbing down the ladder of his vehicle. John chose to take no further step in her direction. Shouting, he wanted to know what he had done wrong. She tried to sound comforting, by speaking in her best English and claiming she only wanted to talk. Also, she pointed out that he could come closer if he wanted. John thought that if she wanted to kill him, she would have done it already, and so he dared to walk towards her. Though he was slightly intimidated by her height, it helped that she appeared to be unarmed. He stopped at about four metres away from her. Ney'ite got straight to the point and asked him if he knew anything about treating bullet wounds. This question left John somewhat puzzled. He confessed that he wasn't a medical expert, but that he could tell her the basics.

She had been right. This alien was definitely someone who could give a straight answer. He told her that humans normally did remove the bullet from the wound. John couldn't help but wonder why she needed to know this, but he didn't say anything about it, afraid that it would lead to a 'not your business' remark. To his surprise, she now began to willingly explain it herself. According to Ney'ite, a group of hostile beings, consisting of reanimated human corpses and metal creatures, had appeared. The look on John's face told her enough. If he had seen them, he would have known what she was talking about and so it was now unlikely that he had anything to do with them. She continued by telling him that her brother had been hit by the same type of weapon the humans of the RDA had used. Although John now understood why she needed the information, it wasn't clear to him what she meant with reanimated corpses. Assuming that what she really meant had been lost in translation, he asked her to describe these beings more precisely. The answer he got still didn't make sense to him. They looked human, but their skin was dead and they didn't have any breathing masks. Indeed this sounded like they were zombies of some sort.

To keep the conversation going, Ney'ite told him not to worry about them to much. The Na'vi would find a way to take care of them. In the meantime, he should remain at the quarry where he would be safe, as it was a long way from where they had been spotted. She asked him if he was okay with this, to which he responded by nodding. Before John could say anything more, she ran off towards the jungle. At the edge, she mounted her Direhorse and started the journey back to the village. John still couldn't fully grasp what had just taken place. He kept standing on the exact same spot for a few minutes, before finally walking back to his truck and attempting to return to his daily routine.

Back at the village, the clan leader of the Uvora, Marun, began to think of the best way to deal with these new intruders. He had presumed earlier that Wukan's claim had no real basis, but changed his mind when he saw the metal demon killing one of his people. Feeling guilt by having misjudged Wukan, he decided to ride with his best warriors towards the nearby other clans and inform them of these new developments. Hopefully, they would then agree to aid the small Uvora clan in defeating this enemy.

The convoy had reached the facility without major problems. The dark one had meanwhile continued to explore the building and had come across a large hall, which had been used by the RDA to construct and repair AMP suits. This excellent find enabled MT-NET to accelerate its plan of building an army. The construction machinery could be reused with minor adjustments and repairs. Also, most materials and technology from the incomplete suits could be recycled. MT-NET estimated that it could have the first unit ready within a week and about a hundred units ready within two months, if it could find the required resources.

The unit it had designed was going to be crude and simple. The design was roughly humanoid, but a bit larger than the current Type 600s and 700s to make construction easier. To further spare resources, the units would get only one optical sensor and one arm. A machinegun would then be mounted where the other arm would normally be. These units were going to be part of the main infantry, and for that reason they needed to be somewhat expendable. MT-NET designated this unit the Series 5, Model 9A, Type 400.

However, as the Type 400 would be a ground soldier, there was still a need for a unit that could move effectively in three dimensions to fight these blue enemies high up in the trees. Such a unit required advanced technology to produce, unlike the Type 400. MT-NET had an idea nonetheless. The tools it had used to produce the Type 600 and 700 had been much more advanced then what it currently had access to. So if it could rework an existing model into a new one, then maybe it could be achieved. MT-NET had once downloaded a database, which contained information on the appearance and behaviour of various Earth animals. The time it had spent in the past studying life seemed to finally pay off, when it began generating this unit's programming.

Once Ney'ite had returned, she went to her brother to speak with him. He seemed to be alright. She tried to persuade him to let her remove the bullet, and revealed in the process who had told her this. Wukan didn't understand why she had asked that human for help, but he nevertheless trusted his sister's judgement. Ney'ite chose not to inform the Tsahìk about what she was going to do, because she would probably forbid it anyway. It was not that she didn't respect the Tsahìk; it was just that she found her brother's wellbeing more important than abiding the rules of an ancient ritual.

A few hours later, the clan leader Marun and his warriors came back to announce that none of the other clans would support them, unless this danger were to spread to their territories. But Marun was not entirely disappointed by this. He saw it as a chance to prove to them that the Uvora clan, although small, could still take care of the situation its own. If they could keep the enemy from spreading, they would gain a large amount of respect in return. However, to succeed in this goal meant that Wukan could no longer lead the charge, as Marun deemed him not ready for such a burden. Instead, he himself would lead. Right now, he started devising a strategy. They would first spread out and scout the area to get an idea of how far the demons had gone already. Then, they would attack the encampment that Wukan had found, using warriors on Direhorses and hunters in the trees. When the enemy there would be defeated, they would spread out again to locate and take out anyone of them that had escaped.

John had just loaded several rocks containing unrefined unobtanium unto his truck. As he exited the crane, he thought about how meaningless this work actually was. He had first started this routine shortly after the RDA had been defeated, partly out of guilt. Anticipating that they would one day return to Pandora and find him here, he would be able to show them that he had been busy all this time to hide the fact that he had betrayed them, years earlier. Now, he wasn't that convinced anymore about them eventually finding him. But that hadn't been the only reason for working here. He also needed to get through the day, especially now that Gerald wasn't around anymore. Sitting around inside, staring at his experiment, only made time pass even slower. However, it now seemed that the time-consuming experiment could enable him to escape entirely from his current situation.

He climbed into the truck and drove back to the outpost. Once there, he unloaded the container near the piles of rocks he had gathered over the years and went inside. After carefully locking the door, he activated the air filtering system, so that he could take off his breathing mask. He stepped out of the airlock and went straight towards the lab. All systems seemed to be working perfectly fine. This experiment had originally been Gerald's idea, and luckily he had taught John all that was important in maintaining it. Now that the Na'vi were seemingly willing to talk to him, he realized that his chances of permanently leaving this old world behind had increased drastically. If everything went as planned, it would be ready in about nine weeks. But he felt like he couldn't wait any longer. He stared into the tank, watching the blue body float in the fluid, as he thought about the future…