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44. War Effort
🕑 Added 2023-06-09 09:43:52 +0000 UTCAfter Liam's 'spar' with the Olo'eytktan and his gift of the explosive arrows things drastically changed.
He showed them the arrow's power by letting Akwey test it on a rotting tree void of life in an area where no wildfire would have happened. His recent light injury did not stop him from using his bow, he had gotten way worse.
The chief was, to put it mildly, horrified by the sheer destructive power but also amazed and fascinated at it if the smile was any indication.
What was once a tree a third the size and girth of the one at his base, had become a fuming stump. Adding the light of the explosion and the shockwaves that shook his bones to the core, resonating deeply within his cranium.
If it didn't blow up the RDA helicopters' blades it would greatly damage them and cause the vehicle to become almost uncontrollable in the air potentially leading to a crash. Flying was a complicated process, one problem and gravity work again.
They weren't alone and many show it after this event words of what was to come were announced by the Tsahìk, Marali, and traveled in the entirety of the clan.
It didn't please anyone, some believing some not wanting to believe, but you can't deny reality. Reality does not care how you feel, at any given moment, and reality was that a war was coming.
It was drastic and out of the blue but the announcement still hadn't had as much backlash as Liam anticipated, the opposite even, it didn't mean it was met with euphoria but neither did it was met with the other extreme that was despair.
What followed a few days later was a short ceremony where an 'official alliance' was made, present there were Liam, Marali, and Akwey, followed by the elders of the clan and more than Na'vi, all adult and able-bodied fighters. It was nearly the entire clan, only being omitted the young from infants to teenagers, the pregnant females, the injured, sick and weak.
It was a strange experience for Liam, he could remember it with extreme clarity.
It was underground, precisely within the chamber where the Tree of Divergence was located. To go there he took Daisy, his slinger head he put in a backpack of leather made for this purpose, a fact that surprised the Olangi clan members but that was a welcomed one.
In fact, it was something done regularly in their culture, but for this, they needed to kill the slinger's body, which they ate to collect the living head, then tamed it temporarily, to use the pheromones it produced.
The pheromones were collected and stocked in a sort of dried-up fruit with a long and complicated process to then be filled with the regular heavy crude oil, web the super dense one, found underground to conserve and transfer their property in the renewable petroleum.
The mixture was then painted on specialized garments as the mixture irritated Na'vi's skin greatly, which might cause hallucinations and cause irrational fear. At least that's what Tutee told him as to how they explored the depth in relative safety. Primitive didn't equate to stupid or less capable of improving and adapting to hurdles.
The fact the head needed to be alone was important as it produced this pheromone only when separated, he could guess it does this because it became incredibly vulnerable while in such a state.
The body did the opposite of the head. It produced a pheromone that attracted prey, and he was sure those creatures knew how to use it. Both functions he could see many uses.
Anyway.
The chamber of the Tree of Divergence was magical, otherworldly, this effect of surrealness not having dissipated even if it was the second time he came down here. The pearly white bark and roots intertwined above a pond of a liquid so dark it almost absorbed the soft lavender light emitted by the inverted tree above.
Liam walked in full armor, his helmet was opened, his feet treading carefully to not slip, even with the grip below his boot he was extremely heavy. His helmet was attached to his hip as several dozen of woodsprites floated all around him as soon as he entered, focusing in particular on his implant.
This caused great surprise within the Na'vi, the elders in particular, he also felt as if an invisible gaze was on him, one that was… Amiable?
It was confusing, to feel the underlying intent behind something like this brushing against him both physically and metaphysically, he had felt this presence last time but not this clearly and intensely.
And so after a few minutes the ceremony began, the Tsahìk and Olo'eyktan below the tree connected their queue to the bioluminescent tendrils that would be this tree's equivalent of leaves.
It was followed by the rest of the Na'vi sitting cross-legged, they as well connecting their queue but with the roots instead, a white pulse of bioluminescent light echoing with the ripple of the petroleum below.
As for him? He stayed awkwardly to the side body covered in woodsprites as if hugging him, he didn't have a clue on what to do. Not the fault for not having asked but not having any clear answer, what he knew was that it was to be one with Eywa and the ones that you will fight with within troubled times.
This you always keep a part of them within you, even after death and even if their spirits repose with the All-Mother. Something that could be interpreted in a lot of ways with the words themselves and the translation in English not diminishing the options.
Connecting to the tree like everyone else was not a real option as it entailed him falling unconscious by envenoming himself with Daisy's venom.
He trusted the two leaders of the Olangi clan but not to that degree and in any case it was something he didn't feel would be apt here. They were communicating with their ancestors he could only guess, in any case, it was a very important and private moment for them.
He stayed this way for ten minutes before every Na'vi disconnected at the same time, faces serene and solemn faces calm and what followed was something he would put on the doing of Aztecs from ancient times but with no death involved.
In total silence, the Tsahìk walked toward a naturally shaped cavity within the white roots and she slit her wrist with the blade of her necklace, a small and precise incision in one swift motion. Red droplets dripped within for several seconds until no blood dripped.
The tree pulsed an ethereal light. Then the Olo'eyktan who with his own blade did the same, after the elders one by one repeated the motion, followed by the other Na'vi, all happening in a religious and heavy silence. Each time the tree pulsed with light.
Then the only one not having done this ritual was him, the woodsprites floated a bit away but never left him as he looked in confusion at the Tsahìk and Olo'eyktan for a brief moment on what to do.
Liam approached the cavity, it was almost like an altar, one that was a third filled with the blood of a few hundred individuals, the sweet smell from the petroleum below and that of the blood wafting in the air not being as uncomfortable as he would like.
He sighed and closed his eyes before his right gauntlet unclasped itself with a simple flick of his right hand while for his left a small knife shot out of his wrist as he grabbed it and did as the ones before him.
The cut was done without hesitations on his part, it was clean, perfect, and already slowly healing due to its nature. This forced him to flex his muscle increasing the amount of blood dripping.
His blood was thicker than any Na'vi, almost viscous, it was of a dark scarlet, he knew his blood was extremely rich in nutrients, oxygen, and more.
He didn't do it with his left wrist due to an element being in higher concentration in that area than any other part of his body. His implant didn't work on magic even if for many the difference is nonexistent.
Though he doubted it would have done anything, and even then… It would take several decades for something to happen and several liters of blood while in a highly radioactive environment.
But prevention is better than cure considering an error could in the worst-case scenario end in the entirety of life within the Milky Way and he wasn't fully aware of everything.
The tree emitted another soft pulse of light, the most powerful of all, the mixture of blood not oxidizing at the contact of air due to how fast the entire ceremony happened, just as the last and still no one spoke, the Tsahìk crouched down and took at her waist what appeared to be a chalice carved from a bone.
She filled it with the dark red liquid almost to the spilling point and Liam's suspicion came to become true about what was going to happen, she gave the chalice to him in an extremely respectful manner, with slow l and methodical movement.
<Drink and you will be as one with us for the Great Time of Sorrow that is to come and for as long as life is within you, Liam Cram, Lost Child, Architect of Metal, Honored Savior, and Guardian of Knowledge may by this act a part of us be part of you, Eywa and our ancestors be our witnesses.>, the Tsahìk said, her voice low and soft yet enough to echo in the chamber, for everyone to hear.
Liam closed his eyes, stopped breathing, and did as asked, drinking the entire contents of the chalice in one gulp, his face slightly cringing at the coppery taste and how strange this entire situation was.
It wasn't even THAT disgusting but extremely weird, wrong even from his point of view but he put himself in that situation and there were worse things. He simply assumed the consequences.
This was followed by the Tsahìk and Olo'eyktan doing the same while he brought his left hand to his mouth, invoking water from his inventory to wash away the taste.
And that was how he became an Ally in Blood, or Blood Brother, someone from another clan or in his case species that allied for as long as life was within them to one of the horse clans through this sacred if bloody ceremony that made them akin to a member of the clan yet not truly one, a family member yet a stranger.
It was more symbolic than anything but the symbolism is everything within Na'vi culture, not much different than humans. At least here there wasn't any child sacrificed.
Day 220, the tenth of August in the middle of the day.
'Hmmm, so Grace got the green pass to go to Hometree though with the delay it must have been at minimum three days ago…', Liam noted data from his armor connected to Overseer letting him know of the most recent message from the xenobotanist.
He continuously tweaked it, changing and optimizing it for the best result, and adding the Overseer program to it was logical. Adding 'quality of life' features was all he could truly do, though was working and mostly finished on his shoulder turret.
As for the pandorium, quite a bit of progress was made, he managed to melt by transferring the energy generated by an induction forge toward the metal. Ineffective and pretty slow but it worked, the fabricator while very useful couldn't do everything.
A tokamak, a machine to produce plasma then said plasma would be used as the heating energy of a forge, it would be what he wanted but he did with what he had on his hands. Such an advanced machine was not possible for now.
A metal he was pretty much still ignorant about outside that it could be used as a stupidly powerful and versatile magnet that could be used in anything you want for any purpose that will require the intervention of the law of electromagnetism depending on how you shape its molecular structure from how it was cooled down to what other elements were used it has the potential to make said fundamental force your 'bitch' in a 3D space of existences so to say.
Little and vague were what he learned but it was still very exciting and it pushed him to want to learn more. So many possibilities but so little time, he didn't really have much time for studying this incredible material.
Things went relatively fine from what he got on Grace's side, Jake was still oblivious about him being 'human' but he still was aware of him as the Lost Child and that he was a strange hairy creature standing on two legs, with a strange glowing metal bit in its wrist.
If it was a simple denial of reality, or that he didn't really care or thought it was some random fairytale nonsense of the native, or that Jake was as sharp as a hammer, Grace's words not his, or a mix between the four Liam didn't know but the longer it stayed this way the better.
As for the metal bit, he didn't receive a question from Grace but he will still need to mention it. There have been other topics of discussion in tandem such as when and where a potential meeting could be decided.
'Shit will hit the fan soon…', he thought with a deep dissatisfied frown, his silver-gray eyes gazing at nothing in particular.
<Did I make a mistake? Please tell me I didn't in front of the Lost Child!>, a small squeaky voice interrupted his internal rambling and he looked down, it was a preteen modeling clay into a precise shape, one of the components of the ceramic explosive arrowhead.
<No, I was just lost in my thoughts. And you don't have to worry, that is remarkable work you have done there A'laya.>, he praised the Na'vi with a gentle smile, something that seemed almost wrong with his features.
A compliment that did hit home as the Na'vi immediately get back to work with great enthusiasm. He remembered every Na'vi name, face, and character he ever met and spoke to, not because he particularly spent a lot of time individually with each, he picked those instinctively and they never left his memories.
What A'laya was doing was participating in the War Effort, surprisingly this wasn't Liam who gave them the idea but Mìruk, even if he was going to do it. The teen felt useless and didn't want to feel like this, so he acted.
So Liam taught them how to do ceramic based on clay with various mixes to have different results but here was the one used for the arrowhead.
The way how to make red silicon and use it to make the fletching, plastic vane, of the arrow via the use of mold and a hardening process using several plants. As for the arrows' shafts, only a certain type of wood was used.
All of the components of the arrows follow relatively strict parameters to him, but very for the Na'vi, particularly the arrowhead that needed to be an explosive hazard before being shot if it ever got damaged.
Good things he taught the metric system and more before, it was of the utmost importance to have precision here. Explosives might be toys but they are very, very, dangerous toys.
Alas, even precaution doesn't stop potential accidents from happening, even more so when it wasn't him doing the arrow.
A fact the Olangi understood as he was quite vocal on the potential dangers, scaring a bit more than a few from ever using them but they will unless death is what they want, the most dangerous aspect of the RDA on what was to come is their air advantage.
If some need to die for others to learn then so be it, he has done as much as he possibly could.
This detail also pushed the ones in the War Effort to work with as much care and precision as they mentally and physically could. The quality of their work will decide whether their clan mates survive or die. A very important task.
In a war of such importance, everyone needs to participate in one way or another. Forcing children to work was not something Liam was a fan of, even less since it was to make weapons but the morals of a 21st-century man from a first-world country held little importance here.
Comments
Spirit Stones
ty for chapter, pls more
THE SAVAGE KITTY
New chapter nice. Now we have to wait again so we can get another *click* nice chapter
