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49. The Prelude of War
🕑 Added 2023-06-22 18:27:40 +0000 UTCDirhorses and their Na'vi rider, armed with the most proficient weapon they were in, and five explosive ceramic arrows could each be seen advancing at a moderate speed in the area separating the great plain from a massive rainforest under the Na'vi name of Na'rìng.
At the head of the troop was Akwey, the Olo'eyktan, and next to him was Liam walking at the same pace on each of his shoulders was a tetrapterons, another was flying around in a circle above.
While for the fourth tetrapteron, Occiden, and his great austrapede, Gladius was tasked to keep guard of his base and by extension the one of the Olangi that will not fight.
Occiden was the one to have lost a game between its sister and brothers that was quite similar to drawing straw but it was with eel-shaped fish instead. It was a game that already existed here, the Na'vi kid played it and they must have copied it from them.
It displeased both of his tames but his great austrapede was not fully grown and will not make a great difference outside of being a literal meat shield, and a tetrapteron to be here to be aware of the sky. And with both of these could keep contact with what was ongoing without risk of interference.
<You seem tense, Blood Brother.>, Akwey noted to Liam, who was even in full armor, except for the unfolded helmet, his slightly tensed body could be seen. Thought that was more due to the Olo'eyktan having been around the Lost Child for some time.
<It's… How to put it in words. Preparing for war, and going to it. It's different. It's obvious but… It is still something when it truly happens, many will die in both camps, me and you not being exempt. To say I'm not scared would be deceiving myself and everyone.>, he answered truthfully and as he did his figure came back to normal, muscles and position relaxing as if correcting itself.
<That is true, and I feel no different than you, and this is equal for the warriors that volunteered. But fear is normal, without it, we will not be able to fight, and we will not have the will to fight.>, Akwey said and nodded, surprised by the frankness, something he greatly appreciated with Liam, his blunt honesty, and how he didn't downplay reality.
Admitting your fear was something not many did, even if it's extremely valuable to do so. Akwey truly was grateful for what Liam did and kept on doing, he knew it was majorly to save his own skin but the Na'vi was also aware Liam did this for more than simply survival.
A few hours passed by with the troop advancing deep within the forest, following a seemingly random but determined and calculated path.
No flora or fauna stopped them in their track, it has been unusually quiet even, if it was out of fear of the group or knowledge of what their purpose was or both, nobody was sure but nobody complained.
Liam's eyes were dilated and his left arm was up with Septem perched safely on his armored finger, one of its neural queues connected to his implant, a foggy image of a clearing showed. Smiling slightly Liam announced for the group to move in that direction.
He constantly used his tetrapterons to scout and learn about his surroundings, even if the Na'vi knew the place and the method to travel through it safely to attain their final destination having another angle such as a bird's view from the sky never hurt.
<That is truly an ingenious way of using such critters.>, a relatively old-looking Na'vi with a long bow attached to his shoulder said to no one in particular.
<It is, sharing memory in such a way… It shows how much we can learn.>, another one added, this one was female and looked slightly younger, their words did not go unheard by Liam who simply ignored the two elders.
Those were the ones who were the less amiable with his presence, nothing particularly remarkable in and of itself but seeing how they came to become less stuck up so to say was always a plus.
It was getting dark and as such the most definitive outward aspect of the native biology made itself clear, bioluminescence in all of its color, shades, brightness, and patterns.
'It's breathtakingly beautiful.', Liam thought, gazing upon the large area they decided to set camp, a pond with colorful plants and fish was to the side while plants of all shapes sprouted from the ground could be seen.
Many of which he recognized thanks to Grace and the Na'vi, plants that for the most part weren't truly plants, outside of being alien making them entirely separate and unrelated beings from the phylogenetic tree of Earth.
Those were a homogenous mix between the equivalent of Pandora animal, pure plant, and fungus with some more. A fact that made them quite interesting to work with, be it for cooking or crafting.
Anyway.
Moving within the night was dangerous but that wasn't why the group stopped there, direhorses did not possess infinite endurance the same was for the Na'vi and himself as well.
Though the fact he had way more endurance than their steeds shocked the Olangi's warriors to their core, humans, if in good shape could outspeed nearly all of the other animals with sheer endurance in the long run and he was no exception, he was just this but pushed to the extreme.
Placing his backpack on a tree branch Liam looked at it for some time, his inventory was extremely important and he was quite sure many had suspected he had 'power' this being one of them, Marali in particular even if she didn't understand what it was.
Na'vi weren't dull, lacking in many basic aspects such as math due to their upbringing certainly but the vast majority weren't stupid, and him being new made that his every move and words were 'studied' so to say.
And he didn't consider himself a good actor or a good liar for that matter, lying always comes back to you in one way or another unless extreme means were used.
This was why he was blunt and unbending on things he didn't want to speak about, outside of his simple hate of lies. Tact wasn't his forte.
'I don't truly need to keep this hidden… Either way, people who don't know me will see me as a potential lab rat or a freak. And I simply can't cripple myself in such a way for eternity when I'm with others.', Liam reflected upon the possible outcome of doing so.
Maybe it wasn't the best of times to do this but they really weren't for such things. He was going to use it soon, be forced to as he won't increase his chance of dying for this.
It was born out of both rational and irrational paranoia, the reason he kept hidden in the first place. And he kept on doing it.
And so he held the palm of his left hand up and a large piece of treated leather with black nylon, a reinforced hammock. The entire place quieted down in shock, attracting the attention of others who didn't understand the sudden shift.
Akwey, not far from him was preparing his tent and had seen it all, his eyes switching from widened in disbelief at the supernatural sight to understanding as a smile formed.
'So that was what Marali spoke about… There are more and more, he has many secrets... We are truly blessed by Eywa to have such a being with us…', the Olo'eyktan thought, he didn't try to comprehend how this was possible as he perfectly knew he simply couldn't.
Liam ignored them as if it was normal what he just did because it was, he put what he took out on his shoulder and placed his left hand on his backpack, and… Reality shifted, light bent, and in but three seconds the bag vanished from existence, leaving nothing behind.
This time all saw it but the way Liam did it stopped anyone from daring to ask questions, not many dared to even do so with his status within the clan. And aside from this, it was already well-accepted within each of the Na'vi presents that the Lost Child could do the impossible.
An articulated metallic arm popped from his left shoulder, it held the hammock high as Liam took out two metallic hooks and securely placed his sleeping place high up between two trees and he jumped down, leaving deep footprints.
<Tonight I cook.>, he said loudly, a large smile appearing on his face what marvelous and impossible actions he just did become but a thing of the past as everyone cheered at the news.
The next day within the Conmod, the commanding room of Hell's Gate, graphs and simulations were calculated from the data taken from artificial satellites orbiting Pandora.
"What are they doing…?", Quaritch mumbled gazing curiously upon the holographic screen of the Operation Center, the interface of a supercomputer in the form of an aisle.
A smirk etched itself upon his weathered-down feature as an amusing realization dawned upon him.
Most of the clans and tribes were known, same was for the areas they lived in.
When one suddenly moved after their ancestral home was destroyed it was coherent, when another completely unrelated to the former moved in the same direction and timeframe it is suspicious but can be considered a coincidence.
However when this was repeated thirteen times…Something was evidently going on.
"Building an army of giant smurfs, now are we Jake and Grace?", he chuckled at that, his question rhetorical.
He didn't believe for one second that the natives were mentally capable enough to do such a task, and in that instance it was true. He didn't know how they did but they were resourceful about doing so.
Then he looked at the various Na'vi groups' destinations, ordering the computer to exactly predict where they more likely were going. It made his smile grow, they were moving toward another of their 'sacred trees' within those floating mountains.
"At least I won't have to look at every nook and cranny to find them…", his mumble trailed off as he reached another conclusion, "And it seems they still have the will to fight in them after what happened and how underpowered they are… Admirable but that means I wasn't clear enough the last two times."
A third harsher and bloodier lesson seemed in order.
Orders were then immediately given by him to gather within the meeting, to people he knew would want to participate in.
As much as he didn't take the Na'vi, Jake, and his group of plant nerds as a threat capable of defeating them, they still were a threat and all the manpower available needed to be used.
This little army was made for one reason, one he acknowledged even if he extensively laughed at. It was for war and as such it needed to be taken care of as soon as possible.
He didn't want to have to clean the front of his base from thousands of dead Na'vi and their beasts after they were shot down by the automatic turrets. Not forgetting that it will stink of death and rotting flesh for several months.
Three hours after those orders and a speech with his men and women on the way, there were going to break the Geneva Conventions and several less important Solar Unity laws the Colonel was down in the vehicles' bay.
His analytical gaze studied the work of the ones who were loyal to him as he encouraged them, those were the SecOps but also of a no small portion of the civilians such as the minors. Both had an inclination ranging from dislike to deep hate for Na'vi.
In the first place if you decide to come here to this hell hole no better than Earth in many aspects you are less than stable. It was essentially a one-way ticket, it ranged from, war-vet, convicted individuals to desperate individuals with the rare father and mother who had come here to feed their family back on Earth.
It was fairly simple to get the mining part of the RDA under his fold, it was already the case before but now it was more concrete, and 'official' thanks to what the Na'vi clans were doing. And it went with many noticing it.
Parker Selfridge looked around his face, a mix between visceral rage and deeply set horror at what was unfolding before his very eyes. He needed to stop this madness.
"No, no. No! NO!", he suddenly exclaimed, hitting with both hands charges of explosives that were being dragged towards the C-21 Dragon Assault Ship.
"I wouldn't do that, Sir.", a minor, one of the four dragging it toward the Assault Ship said in visible worry and confusion.
"The blasting compound goes back to the mine! What's your name?!", he yelled and pointed his finger at the same confused man in fury.
"Doğa-"You're fired!", Selfridge didn't let him finish before he stormed toward the source of it all.
"This thing is completely out of control! Listen to ME! I'm NOT authorizing you to turn my mine workers into a freaking militia!", he yelled at Quaritch, still pointing his finger in frustration.
Most of his words went ignored as the Colonel was instructing a soldier where a portion of AMP should be boarded, with the letters AMP standing for Amplified Mobility Platform, it's a power suit.
"I declared Threat Condition Red. That put all on world assets under my command.", Quaritch said matter of factly as he walked away.
"Oh, you think you can pull this palace coup on me! I can have your ass with one phone call!", Slefrdige screamed arrogantly as he walked in front of the Colonel, his finger still pointed, not fully understanding the full implication of a sudden change in hierarchy.
Which went instantly rectified by Quaritch who grabbed the thin businessman with both hands by the side of his jaws and neck lifting slightly off the ground and he hissed in a way similar to a Na'vi.
"You're a long way from Earth.", he said those simple words filled with untold threats, his cold eyes with a hint of madness staring straight into Slefrdige's terrified ones as he let go of his hold and ordered for the ex-administrator to be put in a cell.
Comments
Spirit Stones
tick, tick, tick, pls more
Nicolous Ramirez
Waiting for the mur- I mean fun to begin
