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. As the story keeps getting bigger, it is possible that inconsistencies may appear. If they do, let me know and I will correct them.

Yes, the long awaited chapter is finally here. I have been quite busy the last few months, sometimes working 50 hours a week. On top of that, I had a writer's block.

A few months ago, I announced that the chapter "Shadow" would consist of three parts. However, to complete this arc, I realized a fourth part is necessary. I suppose I could have made one giant chapter, but then the update would have been postponed for another indefinite amount of time.

Enjoy as always.

Chapter 24: Shadow, part III

Joseph was the first to step out of the shuttle. He was quickly followed by John and finally by Ney'ite. For a moment, John didn't know what to think or do. He had kind of expected to see the machines the moment the door opened, but not a single one of them was here. Joseph now spoke to them using the intercom and told them that they should check out the nearby building. The lanterns were still emitting light, which meant that there was an active power source nearby. Joseph believed that there was a high probability the machines had gone inside the building to seek protection against the harsh weather, or to recharge their own power sources.

While they moved closer to the building, John asked Ney'ite if she could breathe alright. There was nothing wrong according to her. However, she did have a bit of a strange feeling in her stomach, but she wasn't nauseous anymore like she had been in the shuttle. She just wanted all of this to be over quickly, so that they could return home. John understood that, and although he wanted that as well, he did not experience the same kind of feeling in his stomach. Ney'ite now revealed that she couldn't comprehend why anyone would want to live in a place like this. John assured her that no person would want to live here. Only soulless machines would want to be here.

On one side of the building, there was a large metal door, which could be pushed open by hand. Once they had opened it and taken a look inside, they could see that there were large gaping holes in the roof of the building. John realized that this might have been caused by acid rain, though it would take a very long time to get such holes in a roof like this. He wasn't worried that the rain might damage their suits, since they would be gone from this place in a few hours at maximum. Only long term exposure would be a problem.

The interior of the building was very dark, despite the holes in the roof. Joseph switched to night vision and took it upon himself to lead the way. John switched on a small flash light that provided minimal lighting. They now ventured deeper into the building. First, there was a ramp leading downwards. Then, a large gate, which was missing its doors, could be seen. After that, there was a long and wide corridor with rusty walls. John suddenly realized something. If there was no oxygen in this atmosphere, then how could those walls have started rusting? The answer was simple according to Joseph. This area had once been pressurized with a partial oxygen atmosphere. He also deemed it likely that the area they just passed through used to be part of the main airlock of this facility.

The three of them proceeded to follow the corridor for about a minute until they reached a wide curve. When they were halfway through it, Joseph gave a signal with his arm, indicating that they needed to stop. John, who was several meters behind Joseph, asked via the intercom what was going on. Joseph ordered them to stop moving and keep still, until he said they could continue. He revealed that right up ahead there was a Type 300 in standby mode and that he would now approach it in order to disable it. Joseph quietly stepped closer to the machine, which seemed to be inert. John and Ney'ite couldn't see anything, but both didn't dare to look around the corner. They kept standing still with their weapons ready. Suddenly, John had an eerie feeling that they were being watched and slowly turned to look behind him. He aimed his flashlight into the corridor, but there was nothing to be seen. Slightly relieved, he turned back around, but he could now feel the ground shaking as if something very heavy was running. He grabbed Ney'ite by the arm and pulled her away from the source of danger. They had no choice but to run back into the direction from which they had come. Seconds later, a refrigerator with legs came storming around the corner. Joseph had managed to climb on top of the chassis and was attempting to remove one of the panels to access the hardware. The Type 300, on the other hand, was trying to remove Joseph from its back, by running and bashing its body against the sides of the corridor.

Unknown to any of them, someone else had been keeping track of their movements. Using the information provided by the few still functional audio and motion sensors in the corridor, Martin Herman had deduced that help had apparently arrived. Who they were, he didn't know. But one thing was certain: they were in trouble now. He had had such a long time to think about ways to fight his oppressors that he didn't even have to think about what to do now. The leader of the oppressors, the one with the blue gloves, did no longer keep him under constant surveillance, as he was deemed to be no threat to them. Martin was planning to make them regret that decision.

Joseph and the others hadn't taken notice of the narrow doors in the right wall of the main corridor, which they had passed on their way in. Since they followed the pattern of the wall, they were virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the wall in poor lighting conditions. Not even the one with the blue gloves knew about them. Martin, on the other hand, was so familiar with the underground complex, that he could practically navigate it with his eyes closed. He knew exactly where to go to stop the machine.

Suddenly, John and Ney'ite could see a door swing open right in front of them. They evaded it and continued running down the corridor. But before the Type 300 passed the door, Martin emptied a bucket full of small metal balls on the corridor floor. The Type 300 failed to detect them and could not maintain balance as it slid over them, causing it to fall to the floor with a loud clank and finally come to a halt. John and Ney'ite could hear Joseph via the intercom telling them to attack immediately. They both stopped and Ney'ite turned around. John wanted to stop her, but she was too quick. He had no other choice than to run after her. Seconds later, he caught up with her and the apparently downed machine of MT-NET. Joseph was attempting to keep it immobilized and again urged them to attack. John and Ney'ite both raised their clubs and began slamming into the machine.

It did not take very long for it to be reduced to a smoking wreckage. John had to grab Ney'ite's club as she wouldn't stop on her own. He attempted to calm her down, stating that she was using up her air too fast and that she should save her anger for the rest of them. When Ney'ite seemed to get the message, John turned to Joseph and wondered how he managed to bring it down. Joseph simply replied that he hadn't done anything. An unidentified individual was responsible for this. John couldn't believe what he was hearing. Then, Joseph suggested that they should go and ask him who he was, since he was standing behind them a few meters away. This revelation startled John a bit.

The three of them now turned to the mysterious individual. John aimed his flashlight, and could see that it was a person with a bald head, who was wearing goggles and a mouth piece of breathing equipment on his face. He carried no light source of his own, and thus was probably unable to see more than their silhouettes. Joseph switched his intercom to ambient mode, allowing John and Ney'ite to hear what the individual might have to say, and to speak back to him if necessary. Subsequently, he asked the individual who he was. In response, the individual asked who they were. Joseph commenced by telling him where they had come from, what their mission was and stated that he was also a machine, like the ones that had invaded this base. The individual responded by expressing his distrust. However, Joseph continued talking and introduced himself. He also revealed that his associates were the Na'vi warrior Ney'ite of the Uvora clan, and the human Avatar driver and engineer John Simons, who was currently driving his Avatar body.

When the individual heard this, his attitude changed completely. He repeated John's name, complete with the nickname "Buddy", and said that he hadn't seen that person in over fifteen years, maybe even more. Finally he revealed that he was Martin Herman, the last human stationed at this mining facility. John now stepped forward and repeated Martin's name, also adding the nickname "Pinball". Both John and Martin now realized who they were dealing with. When Martin could see John, he was amazed by his height but he was not intimidated, since he knew that this was somehow his old friend. He had never seen an Avatar in real life, nor a real Na'vi for that matter. Despite residing in the Alpha Centauri system, he had never been on Pandora before. Nevertheless, he was aware of the existence of the Avatar program and knew of its goals. Martin now remarked that so much had changed since they had last met. John admitted he didn't even remember when that had been.

Then, Martin asked John if it was true what the machine had just said; that they were here to stop the other machines. John confirmed this and added that Joseph had turned against the other machines and that he had proven himself to be trustworthy. Ney'ite interrupted them, and asked John how he knew this person. This prompted John to give a short and generic summary about Martin and him having once been colleagues on a far away moon that looked a bit like the one they were currently on. Martin continued the conversation by saying that it was a really strange coincidence to meet up with him after all this time and that this would happen especially here of all places, more than four light years away from the Solar System. This was something John could not deny. However, he told Martin that they were still on a mission and that perhaps they could resume this reunion after having taken out all the hostile machines. Martin agreed with this and revealed that they had just taken out one of the two runner machines that were still here. There used to be four, but two of them had been taken away by the shuttle several days ago. Aside from them, there was also one humanoid machine like Joseph here. So unless more machines had arrived with them, there were only two left.

The four of them decided that they would go after the other runner first. Martin had a reasonably good idea where to find it. Together, they moved through various corridors and tunnels, and even moved through a properly pressurized section, before arriving in a large chamber that seemed to serve as a storage area. The chamber was better lit than the first tunnel, but it was still somewhat dark inside. The walls and the ceiling had a brown color caused by rust. The equipment inside the chamber consisted primarily of mining tools and forklift trucks. Everything was covered in a layer of grease and dust and looked like it had not been used in years. Martin realized that what they were looking for wasn't here. He was sure he had last seen it inside this chamber. John was curious as to why the machines would go into the base only to enter standby mode and wait for something to happen. Most of the things they did were beyond the comprehension of man, as Martin put it. He had given up trying to figure out what kind of logic drove them and had instead focused on finding out their weaknesses. That was how he came up with the plan concerning the use of the small metal balls collected out of old bearings. This last statement caused John to remark that Martin had once again proven that he really earned the nickname "Pinball". Ney'ite was confused by this unknown word, but John told her that it was a long story he would explain some other time.

Responding to an earlier statement made by Martin, Joseph pointed out that the machines were not always directly controlled by MT-NET. When they were operating in autonomous mode, the machines would use their own database of information about the physical world to make decisions. So in this case, it depended on what experiences the machine had and if MT-NET had ever provided it with general information updates. With a sarcastic tone in his voice, Martin remarked that that was nice to know and very useful to help them find the missing machine. Joseph did not respond to this statement.

A few minutes later, while they were moving on to the next chamber, Martin suddenly stopped and claimed he could feel the ground shake, which indicated that the machine was near. He increased his pace, almost to the point of running, and yelled at the rest to follow him. John immediately yelled back at him that he was out of his mind for rushing towards the danger, but Martin didn't stop. They tried to keep up with him as best they could. Eventually, the four of them returned to the main corridor and went outside. The storm they had witnessed earlier was still raging on. Suddenly, they stood face to face with the second runner. Martin claimed he had an idea on how to defeat the machine, but revealed that it would take him a few minutes to execute it. They had to keep the machine close enough to the facility in order for it to work, while he would get the required tools. John wanted to know the details of Martin's plan, but before he could get an answer, Martin rushed back inside.

Ney'ite and John moved to the right, while Joseph moved to the left. The runner seemed to behave like some kind of bull, eyeing John and Ney'ite, following their movements, while waiting for the right moment to charge at them. Joseph gave John and Ney'ite the instruction to keep moving into the direction they were going, while he would sneak up behind it. However, before Joseph could do this, he was tackled by the humanoid machine of MT-NET, which had ironically snuck up behind him. This machine, the one with the blue gloves, appeared to be adept at hand to hand combat and quickly destroyed Joseph's assault rifle. It then managed to work Joseph to the ground with only a few blows.

John noticed this and realized it was up to them to deal with the runner. He asked Ney'ite to remain here, while he would move the other way and draw the attention of the machine. When its back would be turned towards her, she could take that opportunity to attack it. Ney'ite let go of his arm and allowed him to execute the plan. However, the machine appeared to have run out of patience and charged directly at John. Ney'ite instinctively did the same. John attempted to anticipate the machine's movements in order to dodge it at the last second. When the moment came, he succeeded in doing so, but the machine quickly turned around. Before he realized what was going on, Ney'ite pushed him aside, while the machine crashed into her. She was thrown to the ground, and the machine turned around again to charge at John for a second time. John attempted to do dodge it as before, but now he would attempt to strike the machine with his club as he did so. This time, though, the machine seemed to have learned what John would do it a situation like this, and anticipated it. The result was a head-on collision between John and the machine. John fell to the ground with an immense pain in his chest. He could hardly breathe. He looked around for Ney'ite and could see that she had gotten back up again, but only barely. John knew that the tireless machine would never stop until they were both dead…