Avatar is not mine. Nor am I making money off of this, as much as I wish I could.
End Act IV Interlude: The Chosen
Sent: May 29th, 2170
To: UNG, Terra
From: UNEF, Pandora
Battle ended, Tartarus successfully defend.
Pyrrhic victory.
Human Casualties: 534 KIA, 49 WIA: 77% casualty rate
Native Casualties: Estimated 4-5,000 Na'vi KIA, unknown wounded
169 Humans capable of bearing arms alive, primarily 3rd company and civilians
Mining halted until reinforcements, sufficient amount harvested for first ISV.
Native threat believed ended for foreseeable future.
Sent: May 30th, 2170
To: UNEF, Pandora
From: UNG, Terra
Gratifying news.
Authorized to repair damage and entrench until reinforcements arrive.
Keep forces intact at all costs.
Maria Thomes given full blessing of UN Security Council.
Sent: May 31st, 2170
To: UNG, Terra
From: UNEF, Pandora
Confirmed keep forces intact, repairing damage to primary base.
Attempting to resume negotiations via former Avatar team to ensure no further native assaults.
Date: 15:20, May 31st, 2170
Location: Tartarus, Pandora, Alpha Centauri A System
It had taken them the better part of two days to find all of the human bodies and lay them out on the old landing pad, next to the pad, and even under the structure as they simply ran out of room. They had not had enough flags to properly cover the dead, no one had believed that there would be so many dead. At least, no one thought there would be so many dead, and that there would be anyone left alive to lay them to rest. White sheets had been pressed into use instead.
Some of the bodies.. there was not much left. They found everyone they could, identified who they could, and then stared grimly at the field of native corpses around them.
Maria Thomes sighed as she watched one of the dozers slowly pushing a pile of native bodies away. There were simply far too many to even attempt it any other manner, and she had no idea whatsoever about what they were going to do with them all. The humans would be cremated, of course, but currently the only thing they could think of for the blue-skins was a mass-grave just outside the base.
"The savages probably won't like that much." Selfridge spoke, after she said her thoughts aloud.
"Good for them." she muttered. "What they like or don't like isn't terribly high on my priority list right now."
He raised an eyebrow, "And what are you going to tell Patel then?"
"Same thing I told him last time," she shrugged, "Long as the natives leave us alone, we're fine. They mess with us again, we'll kill everything."
A quiet sigh, "I was hoping for something less... bloodthirsty."
Turning, and intending to glare at him, she paused instead, thinking it over. Parker Selfridge had never been the bravest man in the world, or a fan of violence, but he was more than a little cunning, and she had taken to relying on his opinions in the last two days.
"What do you mean? You actually want to talk with them? After this?" she gestured around, her meaning obvious.
"Yes and no." he replied smoothly, "I don't want to talk with the monkeys anymore than you do, but we have to do something to make sure they don't get it in their primitive heads that attacking us again is a good idea."
She chewed that over for a while. She really, really, really did not want to talk to them. She had not been a fan of the blue-skins to begin with. Having to listen to the increasingly desperate and agonized comm-chatter from orbit, and then heading down and seeing what was left at Site 01 had made sure that she would hate the natives for a very, very long time.
On the other hand, Parker had a point. With so few of them left, if the natives regrouped and tried again, they would have zero chance of surviving. Surviving was more important than their hatred.
At least, for now.
"What do you have in mind? What do we have that they want?" she asked finally.
"Medicine." he replied, "Patel will probably start screaming for it as soon as you turn on the comms."
"We barely have enough for ourselves, much less for thousands of them!" she retorted.
He held up a hand, "We don't need to give out thousands, just a bit in the right spot. Sully still seems to be the big chief around here, and Patel will probably be heading right for their new tree to help out as he can. We help them a bit, not much, just a bit, make them indebted to us."
This was going somewhere. "So we can hold it over them if they get angry again?"
"Exactly. As soon as they start bitching that we're doing something they don't like, all we have to do is say 'Hey! Who helped you right after you tried to murder us?'."
"The men won't like it." she predicted, staring hard at the landing pad.
The Administrator chewed on his lip, "No." he said finally, "They won't like it much. We'll have to pitch it to them just like this, make sure they know that we're not doing it because we actually care about the natives, but that we're doing it to make sure all of us stay alive."
She smiled slightly as an idea came to her, "I'll call a full meeting tonight, go over with everyone. We'll have Patel fly his Samson out here, load it up, and then you can go conduct the 'negotiations'."
"That's a goo... wait?" he paled very suddenly, "Me? Go? Out there?"
She gave him a sunny smile before turning to head back into the Ops-Center, talking over her shoulder as she did so, "Did you forget, Administrator? Weigand placed you in charge of diplomacy in the event of his death."
She could feel daggers being driven into her back as she opened the airlock.
It made her grin that much larger.
Next up is Chapter 36: Falling Darkness
And here's a short interlude, not of Terra, I know, you'll find out what's going on there at the end of the fic. Wanted to get in a Thomes shot before the next Act begins, since we'll be focusing primarily on Patel and Selfridge once more. This formally ends Act IV: Heaven's Divide, and you'll get the start of Act V: Resolutions, tomorrow. Hope you enjoy the short bit.
Please keep reviewing!