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26. Searching for the 'cryptid' and explosion
🕑 Added 2023-05-02 17:47:03 +0000 UTCIt was early in the morning at Hell's Gate, within the cafeteria or otherwise known as Hell's Kitchen, people of all backgrounds were talking and eating their breakfast in their respective groups of acquaintances and jobs on the long linear table.
"Grace, I don't want to bother and I know it's not really the place nor the time but… Are you alright?", Max Patel, a brown-skinned man of Indian lineage, asked quietly with worry as he placed his tray right next to the woman he just spoke to.
There was silence as the female xenobotanist slowly looked up in confusion at that question, and she simply nodded a yes before taking a sip of her hot beverage, something akin to coffee but from one of the native plants, and extremely toxic to Na'vi.
"I'm worried for your health Grace and lying won't work, makeup, and acting might hide most of it but your brain waves when you use the link unit don't. And I have known you for years… Something is clearly bothering you. What is going on?", he asked further, wanting to have an answer that seemed to annoy Grace.
She sighed with clear fatigue and resignation and she let go of the mask before her friend's face.
"No… You're absolutely correct. I have been avoiding it. It's just… You know fuck it. In two hours come into my private quarter and I will explain everything. And it's good you asked, thank you.", she spoke, voice serious even if exhaustion was ever so apparent in it.
And so two hours later Max stared at the holoscreen in front of him with confusion at what he was seeing, in it was the image of a human male in armor. Yet in the middle of the plains of Pandora, staring right at the Samson with an unnerving gaze.
"Hahaha…This is edited. I didn't know you dabbled in this…", Max laughed due to the sheer impossibility of this image being real but deep down he knew it was and yet he still denied it, "Right? Right…? Grace?"
"No, Max. I wish it was the case… It's a real image, one from the raw footage of the mission that led to the accident with the great austrapede… ", she paused letting what she said sink in, the accident that led to 17 death and 57 injured due to the animal waking up while in transport on the ground and emitting deadly acoustic vibration far too high for the human ears to perceive before it was ultimately put down.
Max breathed in and out trying to calm himself, Grace simply tapped on various screens showing proof that backed up what she just said, she let him think and draw his own rational conclusion from the data she gave.
Specimen- Unknown Man, temporarily classified as Homo Xeno sapiens, sex male, age unknown, height unknown but calculated at between 190 to 210 centimeters (~6ft23 to ~6ft6) with a muscular physique, exact time of the sighing; 15:58, March 2 of 2154, location of the sighing; Great Plain and its exact coordinate, the various images that were taken from the recording, rough reading of his pupils that clearly indicated the armored man was indeed human, with the five-digit on each hand and the tanned skin only adding to this fact of him not being a Na'vi.
A very strange human, the lack of a breathing mask on Pandora was the most evident and with the unusual, almost freaky eye color. And that he was alone in said plain, seemingly being in perfect health showing how even more peculiar he is.
The most shocking part was accepting that this wasn't someone brought here by one of the ISV Venture Stars of the RDA even with his total absence within the data record and he was way too old to be one of the very few babies born in the base.
"Ho-How is that possible? Is this an old pet project of the RDA we weren't informed of or something entirely different?!", he asked in disarray, hands clutching the desk to the point of turning his knuckle white. Oh... Now he perfectly understood why Grace acted strange.
"This isn't from the RDA, Max… I would have known. It's too big to hide, not worth it, and would have broken a dozen of the UN's laws. I already searched everything available within my clearance and from the deceased Dr. Victor Monroe and Dr. René Harper's reports. I would have gotten some scrubs of information, tidbit, anything, but no.", Grace reaffirmed the reality, denying all possibility of the RDA involvement.
"Nothing, no mention of genetically engineered organisms based on human DNA outside of the Avatar project, organs and body parts transplant, and other unrelated projects. We need, no we must make contact with this man or whatever the fuck he is as soon as possible before anyone else…", she pressed further her point to Max who only nodded numbly still processing what all of this might mean and how it changed a lot of things.
And so a plan that was already in Grace's mind for some time to locate and possibly communicate with this strange human was set into place.
Meanwhile, for the person they were looking for...
Day 135.
"What did you find buddy?", Liam asked with a lifted eyebrow as he stared at Gladius digging up with its claws on the ground below a dead tree.
They were out to collect more of this red silicon, a substance he had found a way, by accident with the fiber of the giant pitcher plant and oil to make a type of gray-colored polymer. He used them for the base of electronics and so much more. Quite a valuable resource to him, he was interested in growing those trees.
Currently, the two were out of the base and quite a bit of distance from it. Gladius being taller than the human by nearly three heads and the massive metallic claws made it that this was relatively safe. Not that 100% was ever guaranteed in the first place.
Gladius was immensely delighted to be able to out as now it can be with 'Father' a lot more. Liam was more than happy with that, and one of the reasons he had put in Gladius a leather armor with bronze plates to protect its vitals and vulnerable areas in case of a sudden fight. And it gave a fantasy sci-fi vibe to his tame too.
He healed fast and visibly didn't get infection but that wasn't so much the case for his tames.
Gladius proudly showed what it found, in its beak, it looked like a truffle in shape but the color had a slight metallic tint seen through the soil covering it. The young great austrapede gobbled it up with gusto before plucking another one and giving it to the human.
"So that is where your species get iron. Normally.", he mumbled as his implant scanned it within his inventory. The thing was not apt for human consumption at all, just a bit of this single piece would cause extreme iron poisoning. He dubbed them with this discovery, iron truffle even if no point was it a truffle.
Of course, food being poisonous or inedible by the use of common sense never stopped humans from trying them, and he wasn't exempt from this rule. Though with how much iron was in there he didn't think it would taste very good, well in its raw natural form that is.
*Sqaw?*
He was brought out of his thoughts by Gladius gently bumping its crest against the titanium reinforced outside of his chest plate, another truffle in its beak, and with link Liam clearly understood his tame wanted to share its food.
He refused the generous offer to the short-lived disappointment of Gladius as it soon realized it could eat more and as such the truffle disappeared in its belly to never see the darkness of the soil ever again.
'Hmmm, it's going to rain… or maybe a potential thunderstorm.', Liam internally remarked as the distinct smell of ozone entered his nose and the shadow spread over the entire area he was in. Then he gazed up.
"Or not…", he trailed, eyes widening slightly as floating in the air were hundreds of jellyfish-like creatures, their bodies averaging at the size of small whales, the bells serving as gas sacs around 15 meters in diameter.
Their purplish membranous flaps along the side of their elongated bells undulated as they swayed within the air and rode along the cloud. Their tentacles averaged at less than half a hundred meters, some being far longer and seeming to crackle with electricity, those creatures are called medusae or in Na'vi depending on the clans either fpxafaw or lionata.
And their general appearance reminded him of some smaller creatures he saw floating out of the cave a few days prior, most of them getting eaten by stingbats while doing so. Maybe related in some way.
Then a dozen closest to him suddenly veered toward his location, Gladius noticed that first growled in a mixture of aggression and apprehension. Thus informing Liam as well if the sudden shift in the link wasn't enough.
'Of course, that was going to happen. Can't be left in peace for more than 5 minutes.', he thought with a scowl of annoyance under his helmet, because why would they let him be?
Not particularly wanting to know what would happen if those tentacles were to grasp him or one of his tames, he acted. Mind going over possible scenarios he mentally commanded Gladius to calm down to then call all the tetrapterons back to the base and to fly low.
The small group of giant floating jellyfish approached fast, Liam knew he could escape but not Gladius and so he faced them. A compound bow materialized in his left hand; he immediately switched it to his right hand as an arrow with a uniquely shaped bronze head took its place.
The bow was one of his first projects after he got his fabricator up and somewhat running, even if it wasn't a perfect machine still as of now. And he didn't have all the resources in the world to do everything either.
Speaking of that, it had consumed quite a lot of resources, titanium in particular, of which most were recycled as he did several attempts from several blueprints he doodled on pieces of paper until he had something he was satisfied with. And this was Sagittarius V1.3.
Having the engrams, all the underlying components, and functions in his head behind them was good but adapting them to his needs was better, and also harder challenges like this were something he particularly liked if not adored.
He didn't become a sous-chef in a 1 Michelin restaurant at such an age by pure luck or with some powerful connection, after all, traits like being able to adapt and hard work were very important, vital even. That much was obvious. Even if luck always played a major role in every aspect of life.
The compound bow in question would be considered utter trash by any humans and not much different by Na'vi's standard. And he could care less about their standards as only his truly mattered.
For multiple reasons, first, it was heavy for what type of weapon it was, being 9 kilograms (~20lb), while being made of mostly titanium.
The second reason was the strength necessary to even be able to use it was already way past the limit of Olympic athletes, its maximum draw strength while not risking damaging it was around 100 kilograms (~220lb), which meant he could go a bit higher. In any case, it's an insane amount of power for its size. A miniature ballista.
The third one mostly for the Na'vi was the size of the bow, it was too small and as such unusable outside of for kids but those wouldn't have enough strength to use it anyway. And that humans didn't use bow the same way Na'vi did, this detail mattered as well.
Of course, this was on purpose, the bow was made by him for him, he is stronger than the regular man by an exceptional amount so he wasn't going to use the same weapons. That would be stupid to do so.
Delicately notching the arrow on the string, he then drew the string by half its max length, feet stable and position acceptable, he aimed. Not a very hard task considering the target's size. He let go, and an audible whip of air was heard.
"Boom.", he murmured a smile of anticipation forming as the arrow zipped through the air and five seconds later hit its mark, piercing the medusae's gas sac.
The results were explosive, way more explosive than he ever anticipated. It was shown by an ever-expanding smile, eyes almost sparkling in excitement at the beautiful sight.
The bell-shaped gas sacs were filled with none other than pure hydrogen gas produced by the digestion of their prey. It's an extremely flammable substance, one of the most flammable in fact, and as such can potentially cause explosions.
Even if pierced nothing grave would have happened to the medusae or so normally as the arrowhead was to put it simply a grenade filled with gunpowder, a bit of crude heavy oil, small glass beads that would shatter into small shards, scattering everywhere in the would-be wound. Also not forgetting the bronze shards. A very nasty arrow for whoever survived it.
And it was not even the strongest he could craft with his current resources, he had three made with the little amount of oil he collected at Tree of Souls with other chemicals to make something similar to RDX, a chemical used in C4 but more potent.
They are specifically designed to damage or cripple large rotorblades if his estimates are correct and if the one accidental test on a poor that exploded into bloody smear direhorse was to be believed.
Paranoid, maybe but better than in a cage if things turn for the worse, he was going take full advantage of the fact that they didn't use any kind of hovering technology. Or also shooting in the wide open gate on each side of the vehicle or the missiles.
What he was seeing was a giant bluish ball of flame that stayed briefly in the sky like a fourth sun and sent shockwaves in every direction, blasting the other close uncontrollably, one was damaged, the bell tore at the end and it comically spun into the air like a deflating balloon while glowing bright purple.
A rainbow appeared for the briefest of moments giving an inkling of what was inside them. The fact it was paired with electricity made him think if those sometimes just made themselves explode by accident.
The long tentacles of the one that was shot flared a bright purple as electricity hummed violently outward to disperse into the air and what tons worth of gelatinous flesh remained as they fell limply toward the ground.
Then the sound of the explosion arrived, causing Gladius to flinch in surprise and then caw in jubilation at what 'Father' just did. Liam didn't stay idle and began to move with Gladius following him but there were still four more that pursued them, it took the human two more shots, and as such two exploded medusae for the last one to abandon the chase. Surprisingly enough.
"Smart jellyfish.", he said aloud, clearly pleased by the lone one moving away and the swarm of gargantuan gelatinous creatures that kept on floating away not going after him.
His attention then shifted toward the tentacle that had fallen, they were still writhing on the tall blade of grass with the occasional burst of electricity.
Approaching one of the smaller and inert ones he threw a stick at it, not having any reaction he threw four more, then poke with a long stick for a good minute before ultimately deciding it should be safe enough.
Cutting a part of it with a dagger he studied the piece of gelatinous yet dry flesh. Storing it he was disappointed in some aspects by it but pleased in others, the electricity was produced similarly to an electric eel with specialized 'muscles/organs' so it was quite useless for him.
The interesting thing was its visible resistance to its own electrical power, one that should be enough to kill a human nearly instantly from simple skin contact.
And at the center was a long and thin structure comparable to a cable, it was composed of hundreds of interlocking smaller cables themselves made of thousands of wires made of a material akin to graphite. Let's say these floating electric bombs had a new someone to worry about.
