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Chapter 16: Creative Bastards
Date: April 2nd, 2170
Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A system
Maria Thomes was not a happy woman, and that suited Parker just fine. It was her turn to have the 'fun' of having to work with Captain Jones and his attempts at turning a Valkyrie into a gunship.
Never-mind the small matter that she was even more attractive when she was enraged.
"I still can't believe that Weigand gave him the go-ahead to scrap one of my Valkryies!" she fumed, pacing back forth restlessly across the newly finished runway.
Parker tried to keep the smile off of his face. Judging by the glare she shot him, he had not done a terribly good job. That it had been his idea to convert the shuttle was something he very much hoped she never learned.
"Come on," he jogged her elbow, "Meeting starts in a few minutes."
Nodding, and tossing one final glare at the scaffolding surrounding the Valkyrie next to the junkyard, she stalked inside one of the few remaining prefab buildings. Originally a living quarters, they had pressed into service as their new Ops Center until the permanent building was complete.
Still snickering mentally to himself at her rage, he followed her in, taking his seat as she angrily poured herself coffee. Weigand and his three subordinates strode in a few minutes later, and Parker's two mining foremen followed them in, taking seats next to him, Augustus passing him a report.
He was glancing over it, it was the usual weekly report concerning the Unobtanium mine. Still ahead of schedule, even after the attack. That's good. He made a mental note to recommend the mining team for commendations. Efficiency was always to be praised and rewarded.
Weigand took his place at the head of the table and began speaking, "Good afternoon everyone. As you all know, this meeting concerns to major details. Firstly, in two days time Commodore Bradly will be taking the ISV fleet back home. I want everyone to make sure to keep your men in good spirits about it, especially you, Maria. Your people will be all alone up there and I don't want them to feel isolated. Increase rotations down here if you can spare them."
Nodding, Thomes took out here small tablet and began to make notations on it. Sipping some of his coffee, the expedition leader continued. "Secondly, I met with Dr. Patel at Hell's Gate several days ago and I would like to go over what we discussed."
Parker sat up a bit straighter at this, giving him his full attention.
"Dr. Patel was quite interested in our agenda here, but he did seem to react favorably once I outlined our goals and agenda. He did seem to be rather surprised at my mention of reclaiming the old Hell's Gate region, but was pleased by it. He mentioned that it would make an excellent olive branch to the natives if a cease-fire could be arranged."
"And what makes you think they blue-skins want a cease-fire?" Parker asked incredulously.
"Nothing." The Oberst replied simply. "Dr. Patel seems to believe it to be his duty to act as a mediator between us and them, and seems to desire minimal loss of life on both sides. But he also seemed to be hesitant about the Na'vi, and spoke little of them. Some kind of falling out may have occurred over the last decade and a half, but he did agree to speak with them regarding potential negotiations."
"The RDA tried negotiating last time," Thomes pointed out, "It didn't go anywhere. As Sully outlined in that video they sent, we don't have anything that they want."
Weigand nodded, "Perhaps things have changed, but I doubt it. I doubt very much that these negotiations will happen at all, and even if they do, that they will accomplish anything. But I feel that it is something that we should try, at the very least. Every loss here is one we can ill afford, especially given the recent increases of attacks on our perimeter by the local fauna. If there is a way to get the natives off of our backs, we should attempt it."
He frowned, then nodded very slowly. "Native deaths looked bad in the press, and human deaths look worse, best to avoid them both?"
The Colonel gave him a nod, "Exactly. And if or when it fails, at the very least we did make the attempt to negotiate. Hope for peace, try for peace, but we continue to prepare for war. Let's go over the defensive plans again, as well as Jones' pet project."
Date: April 5th, 2170
Location: Tartarus Junkyard, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
"Ugliest damn thing I've ever seen." Weigand beamed.
"We call her Brunhilde sir." The young captain replied, also beaming at the.. monstrosity.
Parker simply shook his head and stared.
They had torn into the Valkyrie hard. All of the ceramic tiles had been torn off, and the white hull repainted a dull gray. Three holes had been cut into its right side, with scrap metal welded partially over them to build shields for the guns whose snouts now protruded a good meter from each hole. Atop its roof, they had taken Quaritch's already good idea of mounting machine guns to the extreme. Engineers had cut more holes into the ship and welded metal plates together to create a pair of makeshift bunkers, the snouts of machine gun barrels barely visible against the ship's bulk. And if that was not enough, the ramp was locked in its downwards position, with even more metal carefully welded into place to create yet another makeshift bunker guarding the vehicles rear.
A smiling Jones also pointed out a small controlled turret mounting a machine gun on the beast's nose, which he said the copilot would control.
The massive picture of a scantily clad woman clutching spear and shield seemed to be right at home on the nose of the ship, somehow blending with the mixed gunmetal gray hull and rusting metal protrusions. They spent maybe an hour crawling around inside of it, Jones happily pointing out every modification, from the obvious, the three forty-millimeter auto-cannons, to the minor; numerous small rotors they had cannibalized from the wreckage of Hell's Gate to help keep the beast stable when it fired its heavy weapons.
After their 'tour' was complete, they had moved outside to gaze at Brunhilde again when Weigand asked Jones, "And where is your crew? They deserve something for this indeed!"
The American grinned, "Playing football in the junkyard sir, I gave them the day off."
Chuckling, the three made their way deeper into the mounds of rusting metal hulks, stopping when they came upon the engineers. Parker had no idea where the men had found the ball, but it somehow did not surprise him at all that someone had smuggled one with. Goals had been cobbled together out of the wrecks, and they had apparently rounded up some of the off-duty Germans to play against.
A small smile tugged at his face as he listened to Adler scream commands from his place before his team's goal.
He also noticed that there was already a small crowed gathered. Several of his miners had wandered over and were sitting on top of the scrapped Dragon, cheering for both teams more or less at random, and he could see Thomes and some of her crew resting in the shade created by an old Helltruck. He wandered over to the Dragon, carefully climbing on top of it and sitting on the edge next to Augustus, and for the first time since his vacation in Helsinki, he simply relaxed.
The game went on for the entire day, players leaving to go on-duty, members of the crowd joining in. When the sun began to set, engineers hastily cobbled together a lighting system, hanging lights from any suitable perch and running cables from the monstrosity named Brunhilde for power.
At one point he was dragged into the game as a referee, despite the fact that he had only a basic understanding of the rules. Everyone, including Parker, had laughed a bit when Thomes had had to run out onto the field to explain the rules for a penalty kick to him.
He finally shooed his miners away from the 'Rust Bowl' when it was near midnight, reminding them that they had work to do the following morning. With only halfhearted grumbling the game and crowd slowly broke up.
Even as everyone left, Parker heard Jones ordering his men to rig up a generator for the lights, and to make sure the goals were stable. He chuckled to himself as he fell asleep, and wondered how long it would take for an actual tournament to start up. Knowing how competitive both his mining crews and the soldiers on base were, he guessed that the entire base would be divided up by morning.
Date: April 7th, 2170
Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
"The wildlife attacks are getting out of hand." Weigand was saying at this particular meeting. "We've had three viperwolf packs try and attack the unobtanium mine in the last twenty-four hours alone, and that's not including the two slinger attacks over the last week, or the thanator that tried to eat Kapitan Kozlov two days ago. We need to find a new solution beyond reacting to the attacks, we're killing them every time something attacks, but it's as if the beasts have gone mad with hate. Beyond that, with two more men dead and a dozen more injured, we can't accept casualties like this."
"Increase the kill zones." Jones supplied immediately. "Clear cut out to two-hundred yards instead of one around the base."
Kozlov and Parker both spoke at the same time, "Automated defenses." The Russian yielded to him with a wave of his hand. "Mount automated turrets around the mining sites and along the roads."
"Not long-term solutions," Thomes intervened, "We need to drive the prey animals out of the region, starve them out. They can either follow their stomachs or stay and die."
Jones protested, "That would take far too long, we don't have the time or the resources."
"We do," she insisted, "We use the Samson squadron, get Brunhilde up and running, and the-"
"Ruhig alles." Weigand broke in. "All are good workable ideas, but I think we shall go with a combination of the first two for now. Extend the kill-zone around the mines to one-hundred and fifty meters. Maria? Send down the automated turrets we have stored on the Dream. I'm releasing the AMP reserve platoon to the patrol list, and Parker, have your miners start arming themselves when on-duty. Also, have them work with Jones and his men in contemplating rigging defensive weapons to their mining equipment."
He paused to enter a notation into his computer, "We'll leave the idea of driving the prey animals in the region out until after Dr. Patel contacts us concerning the natives. Until we have exhausted negotiation, I would like to avoid angering them any further than is needed to mine. Let's see.. ah, ja. Maria, have you're satellites picked up any indication that the blue-skins may be preparing an assault?"
She shook her head, "No sir. Maybe increased traffic in between villages, but nothing more than that."
Parker frowned a bit, "Do you think they're warning each other about us being back, or calling in reinforcements?"
"Probably both," she admitted. "I'll alert you all as soon as we pick up something out of the ordinary."
The Oberst nodded. "Thank you dear Captain. I do believe that is all for our agenda today, save for attempting to contact Dr. Patel, which I shall do tonight, shortly after Herr Adler's men are finished defeating Frau Thome's crewmen."
Laughing and jeering followed the proclamation, as everyone attempted to forget the dangers that hounded them.
Up next is Chapter 17: Deadly Sins
A bit short, this one is a bit more development than most of the previous ones were. Introduced the UN's new technological terror, hope you all like it.
Got the football/soccer idea from a random thought I had, "They have to do something for fun there right? I mean, all work and no play will drive them insane?"
Expect things to start heating up in the following chapters, as we deal with Max trying with everything he can to stop a war from starting.