Bionic Arms and Pandora - The new thread.

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

This aptly named new thread is the new home for BAP, one of the most read Fanfictions on Learn Na'vi. Org, written by me, the loveable Lehrrap Uniltíranyu, Dangerous Dreamwalker.

Due to the staggering amounts of text and characters that have gone into the first eleven chapters (!), I've discovered the need to make a new thread, the old one will be locked away and something or another, but fear not, all the story posts are going to be right here, starting on the next post!

You can now find all the music selections I have for the chapters right here, in the topic post, so please, kick back, relax, and enjoy 'Bionic Arms and Pandora.'

The old thread has been turned into our Chat thread! All praise, comments, and other things should be directed over thar, mmkay?

Here's the link! Put all the comments here!

And here is music!
For chapters 1-3: Avatar Soundtrack 01- You Don't Dream In Cryo

For chapter 4 and chapter 5: Avatar Soundtrack 02- Jack Enters His Avatar World

For chapter 6: Avatar Soundtrack 04- The Bioluminescence Of The Night

For chapter 7: Avatar Soundtrack 09- Quaritch

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 1: Situation... Normal?
   "Uh... ladies and gentlemen, we have a... problem."

   Those are NOT the first words you want to hear after you woke up from cyro-sleep and a five and a half year long sleep. Especially if you got a really freaking NASTY crick in your neck from being bounced around a bit in the zero-gees out here in space.

   Ah well, it could be worse. I've dealt with much worse then this. From a kid on the street without a penny to his name with enough smarts to keep his scrawny ass alive to a scientist, all in the course of 17 years. It's funny, I look back when I turned 4 years old and saw how cruel the world was... how it just chewed up and threw away anyone who dared to try to be greater then what their 'destiny' had chosen for them.

   In the end, I got lucky, being able to find one of the orphan shelters and having Sister Marie discover that I was a 'genius'. Personally, I don't buy it. I'm good at figuring s*** out, sure, but I'm no smarter then any of the other scientists who are flying with me.

   My focus snapped back in when the doctor spoke up again, "We just received a message relay from Pandora... it appears that all activities towards the heavy-duty mining of Unobtainium is being halted, due to a major f***-up on the part of the RDA's manager on Pandora, as well as a complete... I don't believe this... a complete defeat of the entire defense force."

   Nervous mutterings spread throughout the entire ship.

"Completely defeated?"

"Why would the Na'vi do that? What happened to the peace talks?"
"Does this mean we have to get back into Cyro?! f***ing hell..."

"There goes that contract..."

   The doctor spoke up again, "Everyone calm down. We are still going down as per protocol. We have been granted access to the base by a Mr. ... Spellman, Speller? Something like that... One of the Avatar pilots. Anyway, we're going to be allowed to land and resupply on one of the Valkyries, and then the Avatar Pilots and their avatars plus the doctors are allowed to leave, military personnel are to remain on board."

   I took a deep breath of relief. Looks like I made it, albeit slightly. Pandora... a world full of opportunity! I don't have anything back on earth and Sandi and Terra are both here with me, so what do I have to lose?

   "All scientists and Avatar pilots, move to the Valkyries after quick mess, launch to Pandora is in 0230 hours." A pilot came up over the speakers throughout the ship.

   Who knows? Maybe this will be a good experience for me after all. It can't be any worse than losing an arm. I should know.

   I've already lost one.
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Chapter 2: To all the girls I've loved before... nahhh...
   Have you ever been in zero gravity before?

   It's a weird feeling, but a fun one nevertheless. There is all sorts of cool stuff you can do in zero gee's that you can't do in normal gravity... like triple or even quadruple back flips before you even need to touch anything.

   "Damn it Tank, will you cut that out?!? Come on bro, focus." The low growl was right in my ear, and I quickly focused back in on my best friend and one of the two people on this ship that I have a bit of respect for, Sandi.

   "Come on Sand, just having a bit of fun!" I said with a chuckle as I reached out and grabbed onto a handle bar on the side of the deck to level myself out, only to find myself upside down looking at Sari. I started to chuckle again and Sand just glared at me.

   Sand was my best friend from Earth. The smartest, snarkiest, and coolest scientist-gal you could ever meet. She was my right hand man... errr, gal. When I was thrown into this crazy program, she signed up right next to me as my 'Bio-Link Support' something or another; I don't know the whole title. I just call her mission control, or 'Sand Side'.

   She's always been my back up. I'm not exactly the easiest guy to deal with, due to a bit of reckless courage and a bit of very stupid thinking. She's always been a little protective of me ever since I first met her. I don't know why. It's probably the whole 'robotic arm' thing.

   Oh, that's right; I didn't explain that yet, did I? Back when I was still with my parents, back when I was four, a terrorist or something had a major problem with my dad, something about Rocket Fuel and a project he was working on to create the perfect drive core for the ISV's so that they were faster and much more durable, allowing for longer space exploration trips and more frequent missions and something like that. Anyway, this malcontent decided that the best way to deal with Dad was to kill him, and my family. Just me, Dad, and my mom.

   We went out to eat one night, I don't remember too much except that I ordered a Cherry Soda at the restaurant and my mom tisking at my order choice. Anyway, as we were leaving the restaurant, this crazy malcontent rushes at my dad with a nasty looking package. Last I remember, I see a blinding white light and an ear shattering blast.

And pain, lots of pain.

   A few days later, I woke up in the hospital in critical condition. My left arm and a bit of the left side of my body had been completely blown off by the explosion. Lucky me that my dad had at least Alpha priority health insurance on the entire family, but even with all three of the policies, the insurance only paid for them to replace and upgrade any missing body parts, instead of just regrowning it.

   So for the last fifteen years I've been living with a bionic arm. I was thrown into an orphanage and left to rot, but due to sheer audacity and a bit of luck, I was able to claw my way into advanced learning program. Sister Heliua was the one who suggested I take the test, bless her soul.

   I got lucky that I ended up where I did. I was a kid with no life ahead of me, no parents, missing an arm, and with what felt like the whole world sitting upon very small shoulders. I remember being very afraid when I first walked into class, the jeers that were aimed directly at my back when I walked down the aisle to find my seat in the very back corner of the room, the whispers of the two first-grade teachers  when they noticed my arm. I felt like I wanted to melt into the ground and hide.

   "Hi! My name's Sandi! What's yours?"

   Those were the words that changed my life forever. I remember looking over at the little girl who was sitting next to me, her hair tied out into two bobbing pig-tails with a big grin, brown skin and shining blue eyes.

   "I'm..." My voice cut off when I tried to speak to her. I was scared, and worried. I was usually left alone at the orphanage, minus Sister Heliua, who though that I had a much bigger part to play in the universe then the 'poor crippled boy with a mechanical arm'.
   "Wait, no, hang on a second; let me pick out a name for you." Sand said to me. I remember her words exactly, just because they were so surprising.

   "Excuse me?" I said, now quite thoroughly confused.

   "Well yeah! Everyone needs a good nickname!" Sand said. "That's what friends do! They give each other nicknames to call each other by! Like a secret code or something like that!"

   I was bewildered at the thought of someone giving me a name. "My name's Trent Glock if that helps..."

   Sand looked at me and then at my arm and said, "I got it. From now on, you're Tank!"

   "Tank?"

   "Yeah, Tank! Come on, it makes sense! Tanks are super strong awesome vehicles with big engines and shiny armor! You're arm is shiny and very strong, and it's got armor as well! So from now on, you're Tank! Nice to meet you!" Sand looked at me excitedly and held out her hand.

   "Uh, nice to meet you Sand." I said, shaking her hand with my right hand. My Dad taught me that's what you were supposed to do when you met someone new.

   "Sand... huh! That's a good name!" Sand told me with her big grin. I was sure I had said Sandi, but apparently I forgot the 'i' in Sandi and just said Sand.

   From then on out, we were inseparable. We hung out on the play ground, sat together for every class and lunch, and were always talking about something. You never would meet a girl who knew more crazy stuff then Sand.

   "Hey Tank! Did you know your last name is 'Bell' in German?!? And that fits your name too because Tank is German is Panzer so you're the Glock Panzer!"

   Heh. She was always up to something creative and crazy. She was the inspiration that helped me go from being a shy, scared kid with a bionic arm to a bright, happy-go-lucky kid with a bionic arm and an attitude. Within a few weeks we suddenly were with a group of other like-minded people, creating a very tight-knit group of friends.

   I was slapped back into focus, quite literally, by Sand. "Hey, come on there, Panzer; don't go floating off into space on me like that. You got your spare arms and your gear? We've got to get to the Valkyries. Water's waiting for us." She said with a grin and a small slap to get me to focus.

   "Aye-aye Sand-Side, we read you, USS Tank calling out." I said smartly with a very sloppy mocking salute. Sand shook her head as we made our way over to the Valkyrie landing ship.

   Water is the third piece of our group, the counter to Sand's crazyness. When they are fighting, I call them 'Wet Sand' and they get really pissed at me. Remind me to tell you a story about that some time.
   Anyway, I met Terra, the girl we call Water, about three months later. She was in a different class then me and Sand. Sand and I were on the 'scientist' fast track, being thrust into the world of science and technology, and Terra was in the military program, on her way to becoming one of the soldiers of tomorrow, specifically a Gunship pilot.

   We met her on the playground when I noticed that she was surrounded by a nasty group of bully boys from the Military program. Future Meat-Shields or Grunts for cannon fodder, I'm sure.

   "Give us your lunch money you little turd! We know you're daddy is loaded and we want some of it." The bullies yelled out at her. They had her backed up against the wall of the playground, and there were no teachers in sight, so I rushed to her defense, something that both surprised me and surprised Sand.
   "Back off jerks!" I yelled as I slipped between them and stood in front of Terra.
"Or what little brat? We'll just beat on you too!" The bullies growled at me.

   What happened next is a bit of a blur, but I remember it was the first time I ever actually HIT someone with my cybernetic arm. The hospital had to be called, I had a few bruises, Terra was scratched, and Sand had dashed over to help me and got a small cut on her eyelid that left a little scar that is still there to this day.

   After the principle finished lecturing us and left to go talk to Sister Heliua, Sand's parents and Terra's parents. Terra turned to me and Sand and said, "Thanks."

   Before I could say anything, Sand butted in and said, "Don't thank us. That's what friends do. They help one another, and you're a friend... right?"

   Terra looked just as bewildered as I had felt not three months ago. I just smiled at her and said, "Welcome to the crew."

   Sand gave her the nickname 'Water' because of the way Terra moved due to being combat trained by her father at a young age. Very fluid. It probably also had something to do with her sea-green eyes, blond hair, and slender body, but that's a different story. Or maybe it's because we're a group of really smart kids who enjoyed the joke on her name. You know, Earth, Water? Eh, it's not funny if I have to explain it...

   "Look Tank, I know zero-gee is cool, but we seriously need to get to land side to figure out what the heck is going on down there. What happened to RDA traffic control? The entire defensive force was defeated?!?" Sand said, looking bewildered and confused as she shook her head.

   "I don't know Sand. Maybe Water's got intel for us. You know how good she is about that." I said with a shrug as I glanced at myself in the reflection of the metal surfaces all around me.

   At a young age, I decided I wasn't bad looking, minus the scarring that I had from all the surgeries on the left side of my body, and the fact that from my shoulder down my arm was shiny chrome on my left side. I had grown a bit of stubble during cyro sleep, don't know why. Cyro was supposed to shut down everything like that, but I think they missed a spot or something. I had my trademark color changing eyes, just like my dad did, my left eye always some new color while my right eye was always a blue-green-gold color, don't know if it has a name. My hair was cut short and my face was smooth, unscarred lucky for me, my body build was pretty solid and the camo-patterned jumpsuit, pants, and combat boots that RDA issued us for going out didn't look too bad on me.

   "Oi, Tank, are you really as slow as your namesake? Come on, get a move on or the Valkyrie is going to leave without us. Seriously." Sand said, glaring at me as she made her way forwards.

   "Alright, alright, I'm coming. Sheesh."
----------------------
Chapter 3: Wait, what?!?
   "About time you two showed up!"

   Water quickly dug into us as we pulled ourselves though the airlock and into the Valkyrie's cargo bay. "Sorry Water, we got held up by some thinking and some shiny objects. Damn my ADHD right?" I said with a cocky grin as we pushed ourselves over to her and belted ourselves down for entry to Pandora.

   "Screw you and your ADHD, it's that new arm, I'm telling you. If you wanted, I could fix it up and you wouldn't have any problems focusing anymore." Water said, looking longingly at my arm.

   "NO Water. I can't ruin the warranty on this one, especially out here. I only have four back-ups, so if this one tanks out on me, I could get into trouble real-fast. It'll take another five-year cycle for my replacements to get here and at LEAST two years for the message to even reach home!" I said with a growl, shaking my head.

   "Aw come on Tank, don't be like that, Water's the best mechanic we know, and she's better then the doctors who built your arm in the first place." Sand pointed out.

"True or not Sand, We're on Pandora now. Let's settle in before we do anything drastic to my Arm. Besides, you remember last time I let Water mess with my arm?" I asked.

   "Yeah, she installed a chainsaw and it was AWESOME!" Sand said.

   "Yeah, awesome, sure." I said with a sigh.

   "Alright, quiet down. It's just you five?" The Valkyrie's pilot asked as he looked at us.

   It was just me, Sand, Water, and two other scientists that I've never even seen before.

   "Yeah, I think so." I said. The pilot sighed. "Damn. Well, at least we'll be bringing stuff back. Alright, we're going to get a move on. There will be some people down at Hell's Gate to meet us."

   "Great. Hopefully they got some AMP's to help us off load all the supplies and Water's SA-2." I said with a sigh as I sat back in the chair.

   "All in due time, Tank, all in due time..." Water muttered.

   The flight was uneventful. A straight dive down, a crazy rollercoaster-esque feeling as we blasted down though clouds and the heavy air, the return of gravity causing my stomach to flip-flop, and suddenly, it was over, and we leveled out as if we were flying in a standard Continental Aircraft back on Earth. A smooth flight with zero-turbulence.

   "Alright boys and girls, we're coming in. Remember, Pandora's air is TOXIC to us, you'll be out in twenty seconds and dead in four minutes, so masks on." The pilot's voice came in over the speaker as he pulled the craft towards the landing pad.

   Water, Sand, and I all pulled on our exopacks at the same time. I never liked the masks. I already had a bionic arm, I didn't want bionic lungs as well, too much technology in one place personally, but hey, I wanted to live long enough to explore Pandora too, so I guess it's not all that bad.

   "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Pandora. Move directly into the Hell's Gate main complex, you'll be escorted by two Avatars and a scientist from the base. Sounds like they have a task group standing by to get the gear out of here and load up the ship. Happy hunting." The pilot said.

   "Thank you," I said with a grin as the loading ramp started to open as the Valkyrie set down.

   Now, don't get me wrong. I've seen pictures of Na'vi. I've 'driven' a virtual Avatar body before so that I could practice using the body. But I never realised just how freaking HUGE a Na'vi was until the loading ramp of the Valkyrie opened up fully and two of the Avatar's stepped forwards. "Alright! Everyone out! Let's go, let's go! You need to move into the Hell's Gate complex, come on!" They said.

   I was stunned for about four seconds until a smaller figure stepped out from behind the Avatars and waved to us, telling us to come along. I sighed in relief. I recognized this man as the guy who taught me a bit about the Avatar project and gave me the crazy idea to do this in the first place. "Dr. Spellman!" I said with a grin.

   "Hey, about time you guys showed up, sort of. Welcome to Pandora," he said with that usual grin of his.

   I was surprised to see him. I was almost positive he would be running around in the forests in his Avatar's body. As I dashed down the ramp to meet him, Water and Sand caught up. "Heya Normal. Good to see you again." Sand said with a grin. "That's NORM to you, Sand. Nice to see you all again." Norm grinned at us.

   I was really surprised to see him. He had shaved his beard a bit, which I though didn't suit him very much, but he looked fit, healthy, and above all, very happy. Looks Pandora did right by him so far. Still doesn't explain why he isn't using his Avatar. I mean, he spent like, hundreds of hours training to use the thing. Ok, I did too, but I mean, who wouldn't want to use it as often as possible? Even if it's just to ensure that you still know how?

   "Alright, follow me guys. We've got a lot to talk about. Sara, James, you start helping to unload the supplies, the AMPs will be here shortly." Norm said, waving his hand at the two Avatars. They nodded and walked in to get the supplies and gears and Water suddenly yelled at them, "HEY! HEEEEYY! Be careful with that! That's my baby you're mishandling there!"

   Sand smacked Water upside the head. "They'll be careful, stupid. Come on, Norm and Tank are leaving us behind."

   Water looked a bit sheepish for a moment while the two Avatars chuckled at her as she dashed to catch up with me and Norm. As we entered into the airlock, Norm said with a casual smile. "Welcome to Hell's Gate and your first step onto Pandora. Glad you made it though Cyro without too much damage done."

   "Whatever you say Norm, whatever you say." I said, shaking my head as the area pressurized and we removed our masks to enter Hell's Gate.

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 4: Hell's Gate and Bionic Arms.
   "Welcome to Pandora. I'm Max Patel. I'll be your jump supervisor, and the guy who needs to teach you about survival on Pandora."

   No offence to Max, but I don't like safety protocol rundowns. I was never good at listing to lectures, probably due to the fact that I'm more of an 'act before I think it though all the way' kind of guy. Probably comes with the fact that I've got an arm that's practically invincible, I mean, come on, anyone would think that they would be, naturally, invincible as well! I know, I know, I'm not invincible. I mean, I still need to breath, right? So I'm not but hey, a guy can dream, neh?

    Luckily, The safety protocol meeting was short, and then Max moved on to the REALLY juicy bits. Intel.

   "Alright, now I bet you five are wondering just what in the world is going on. Well, let me explain to you," Max said, nodding to our little group.

   "About a year ago, Colonel Miles Quaritch caused a bit of a... stir around here. He killed a huge number of the Na'vi and caused a war. I can't exactly go into details because I was here in Hell's Gate, hoping that the Colonel wouldn't destroy everything. The Colonel was defeated by Jake Sully, an Avatar pilot, and the Na'vi natives," Max said, showing us some images of what had happened.

   "Wait wait wait wait... what?!? Rewind that a few steps for me Max." I said, holding up both hands before leaning forwards, "You're telling me that the Na'vi are in control now? But what does this mean for the Avatar project and the exploration of Pandora? What about the Unobtainium? I mean, isn't Earth going to like, DIE if we can't get it?"

   Max chuckled. "We figured out a way around that. We're going to keep mining for it, just in a more controlled, safe way. RDA is already moving on to the other moons to keep looking for Unobtainium in an environment that hopefully will not hurt the Na'vi. In the meantime, we'll still be mining Unobtainium here, just in smaller amounts, just enough to keep getting supplies and the man-power necessary to keep Hell's Gate afloat... so to speak."

   Minds were blown. No, seriously. Water and Sand were looking at each other in shock, and I was thanking whatever powers that was out there... God, Eywa, The Force, Duct Tape, whatever... that I was here.

   "Sweet," I said, a grin popping onto my face as I stood up. "So, when do we start?"

   Max grinned back at me. "Thought you would never ask. Come on, I'll introduce you five to the staff and you can tell us what you all are here for."

   The 'staff' consisted of twelve Avatar pilots, their supervisors, a few of the SA-2 pilots, and a handful of doctors and engineers. It was a really, REALLY small group in a really, REALLY big base. I got a lot of questions about my arm, and about how I felt about being an Avatar pilot, what I was planning on seeing first, blah-de-bla-de-dah. Let me tell you, scientists are really nice people, but unless you speak scientifically- (See: Really big words), then you're probably going to have some trouble understanding and speaking with them.

   It's awesome. In the old sense of awesome, not the new one that's just saying the word. Like, seriously, awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, trip-over-said-dropped-jaw AWESOME. "I'm home," I said with a smile.

   Sand started laughing immediately, ruining my happy thoughts. "Alright Tank, welcome home then, you have dishes to clean!" She said with a grin.

   I tapped her with my cybernetic arm, and she flinched as if I had really hit her. "Alright, alright! I surrender to the Tank!" She said, holding up both hands and stepping back with a smile.

   The other scientists looked bewildered and I just smiled and said, "Sorry, old story and inside joke."

Water chimed in with, "Can we finally get a look around the famous labs of Hell's Gate? I've wanted to look around for-freaking-EVER!"

   Max nodded. "Of course! You guys can get back to work, I've got this covered."

   As the other scientists dispersed, Max pulled up a computer screen and looked it over. "Good news, they finished unloading the Valkyries and are bringing the equipment... plus Tank's Avatar, into the lab. I'll give you the grand tour and then we'll go see Tank's Avatar and check how it's progressed over the trip. We'll probably be able to have you up and running... well, walking, but you know what I meant, in your Avatar by tomorrow Tank."

   Music. To. My. Ears. This is what I had been waiting for the entire time, why I even enrolled in the program. I was going to get to explore Pandora. I've read a lot of books, and I've seen a lot of places, but I've never seen a real forest, never got to feel soil under my feet... heck, I don't think I've ever seen many trees before. I never really noticed it until we landed here, and I got to look out over the walls of Hell's Gate and see the forest.

   I can't wait to explore it. But I'll get back onto that in a moment.

   I want to tell you all something. It's been kind of nagging at me in the back of my head for the entirety of the trip down to Pandora, and even before I got on the ISV Lightning Hawk to start this insane journey of mine.

   Alright. I'm worried... no, that's not the right word. I'm SCARED. Like, s*** bricks and those bricks s*** bricks scared. Not from Pandora and everything that lives out here.

   I'm scared that my Avatar isn't going to work. I'm scared that my arm will fail at a critical point in time. I'm scared for Sand and Water and... I'm scared.

   I know, I'm sorry, I cut in the middle of the action to tell the whole world about how scared I am. Well, this is MY video log, right? I'll say what I damn well please. f*** f***ity f*** f*** f***.

   Hah! See? Anyway, I'm off topic again. But I've had all these little fears running around my head. But the main worry is about the Link Pod and me.

   See, my arm works on the same technology. It's 'connected' to my nervous system, plugged in almost directly to my brain. I can't feel anything from it, but I know it's there, and if it gets destroyed or ripped off or cut up or something, I still feel it.

   The doctors had a name for it: Phantom Limb Syndrome, or PLS. What it means is that it makes my mind believe that I still have my arm, before it got blown off. It's a type of long-lasting shock, a psychological damage to my brain. It doesn't really affect me, but I don't know how it's going to affect me in the Link Pod. The doc says that if I remove my arm before I enter the pod, I'll be fine, but still...

   I don't know. No one does. No one's ever tried to use a link pod with a cybernetic arm.

   ... Well. I suppose we'll find out tomorrow, huh?

   Anyway, let's get back to my first day here. I still have more to put on here.

   Max gave us the grand tour. There was quite a bit to see. We visited the command deck, which had all the scanning equipment and data collectors that showed where the richest Unobtainium deposits were, and how deep down they were. It was really cool, especially because it also gave us a 3D map of the surrounding area, to a point, allowing for precise planning for trips out into the Jungle.

   Next was the mess hall. Wasn't really too much to see, just steel and steel, and a little more steel. Stainless, infused with titanium alloy and a special blend of Unobtainium that made them almost invincible to anything you could do to them, which I thought was pretty cool. I can't tell you how many tables I've accidently destroyed back on Earth because I got to excited over something and brought my cybernetic arm down on the table.

   By far, the coolest part of the trip was getting into the bio-lab for the first time. Oh. My. God. Or Eywa. Or whatever you believe in.

   It's amazing. Technology of the best kind, everywhere. Scanners, language monitors, advanced biometric scanners, the most powerful auto-doctor tables money could buy... it was just, beautiful.

   "Hey, Tank! Get your SMA over here and check out your Avatar! He's grown well." Water said, calling me over with a wave.

   Ah, something else to explain. Water and Sand have a lot of lines that they like to use to 'summon' me, when I'm not focused. Which is often. SMA is Water's favorite, and a bit of a inside joke. I got into a argument with her one day and during the fight, I told her that she could, "Kiss my Shiny Metal Ass."

   She loved the line so much she doesn't usually say ass to me anymore, and just tells me to move my SMA, or Shiny Metal Ass, whatever she feels like at the time.

   "Wow..." I said as I walked up to the tank. I was... surprised. "Jeebus. He's grown like a freaking tangler weed!"

   "Heh, yeah, he got big, huh?" Sand said, shakeing her head.

   Max smiled. "Bet you can't wait to take him out for a run huh?"

   "Hell yes." I said with a grin.

   "Well, it's going to have to wait till tomorrow. You still need to recover from the after-effects of cyro sleep." Max said, patting me on the back and pulling me away from the tank.

   I would have, if I could have, spent all night sitting next to that tank, talking to myself. I don't really know what to think of the Avatar body. I mean, I've read books about it, but really, I don't know just what it being transferred to that new body when I switch. It is my soul, or is it just my neurons, my 'conciseness' , switching over?

   Do we even have souls? What is a soul anyway?

   Ow... too many big questions at once. I'm thinking to fast again. Makes my arm hurt.

   Ah, something else to explain. Sheesh, I'm going to be here all night...

   Alright. My arm, as I mentioned, is connected to my brain pretty much directly. It's got pretty much super-human reaction time. Caught and broke an arrow in two once, that was pretty cool...

   Gah! No ADHD! Focus! Anyway. My arm reacts directly to my mental waves, and thus can do all sorts of crazy stuff depending on mood, attitude, mental state, whatever. Too much to explain in this video log. I'll explain later.

   Anyway, if too many mental waves reach my arm, it causes a negative 'feedback' into my shoulder, causing the joints in the shoulder to seize up. It hurts. A lot.

   Ok, it feels like my shoulder breaks. But that's only if I persist on thinking so much. It doesn't happen if I have my arm off, but still, I got to be careful.

   After the tour, it was a quick trip to mess and medical to get checked out and ensured that we were all ok, a trip to the flight deck to prevent Water from having a nervous breakdown over her Samson SA-2, and then bed.

   I had to stay up so that I could record all of this. So... I guess that's it for now. This is Trent Glock, Call sign "T4NK", reporting out for day one. Cheers.
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Chapter 5: The Amazing Technicolor Waterslide
Alright... is this thing on?

   Ah! There's the little light. Good.

   Ahem. This is Trent Glock, Call sign "T4NK", reporting in for day two! CELEBRATION!

   That's right; I survived my first day on Pandora! Whooo!

   Either I'm drunk or I'm on a adrenaline high, it's up to YOU viewer to decide!

   Heh, seriously though, I've made it though my first day here. I've got a lot to talk about, mainly because I still have stuff to explain about my arm, but also because a whole lot happened today.

   Let's see... skip wakening up this morning and mess, which was boring as hell and nothing happened, minus the food, which was standard mess hall nasty. Ah! I know where to start.

   After mess this morning, Water, Sand, and I all went down to the Flight Deck to check on Water's SA-2, which had been put together and fueled while we were conked out.

   I have to admit, there are few sights quite as beautiful as a just put-together, cleaned, prepped and loaded SA-2. Except maybe a Dragon, but that's beside the point. Water smiled as she walked over to her ship and opened the door to the cockpit, inspecting every inch of the powerful gunship.

   "I have to hand it to your engineers Max, they do good work." Water said with a sappy smile as she went through a pre-flight check. "I get to take her out for a test-spin, right?"

   Max looked over at the flight-deck, which came in over the hanger loudspeakers: "Water, you're clear for go as soon as you are ready and pre-flight checks are complete."

   Water grinned and nodded. She had been waiting all night, and about six years more, for this moment. "Finally. "  She grinned as she continued though her pre-flight.

   Max nodded at me and Sand. "Right. We'll leave Water here to handle her pre-flight and make sure the Samson is ready for tomorrow. It'll be your first day off base Tank. But now, we need to get you in your Avatar body and give you a run-around."

   I don't really remember walking up to the elevator that took us to the bio-lab and the link chamber. In fact, I don't even remember walking into the bio-lab. The first thing that comes to mind when I think back to that is Max leading me to my Link Pod. "Alright, this is number 4. Sand, you start running the sync programs while I get the scanning programs up and running. Tank, you know what you need to do from here."

   I think I said this yesterday but it was like MUSIC to my EARS. I clambered into the link pod and pulled the wire-unit over me, excited about what I was about to do. I tried to calm myself as best I could as Sand leaned over and grinned at me.

   "Let go Tank. Use the Force." She said. I growled at her playfully for the Star Wars references while the pod began to close. "And you can kiss the dark side of my Shiny Metal Ass!" I manage to get out before the pod shut and locked.

   ... I don't think there are words that describe what happens next.

   Like, seriously, I doubt their existence. The only words that even come close are... passage. Journey. Compleation... something like that.

   Ok, I don't know how to describe it, but I'm going to try, if just to try to understand it a bit better.

   Have you ever gone down one of those big tube waterslides at the water park? Seriously, have you? Do you remember that feeling you get, as you hit the first drop and the world just, blacks out on you as you enter the tube? All light just kind of vanishes?

   Now, take that feeling, multiply it by a thousand, and then add in a thousand flashing strobe lights of a million colors and you have a semi-idea of what happens when you switch bodies, and even then, that's just the best description I can think of. The Amazing Technicolor Waterslide.

   It's over in a flash. The first thing you do is drilled into your head. It's the same thing that every human being does, before they even let out that first noise when they are born.

   You blink.

   "Ta... T...nk... Tank... Tank. Can you hear me Tank?"

   I slowly brought my eyes into focus. It was a little disorienting at first as I looked about with my eyes. Someone shined a bright light in my eyes and I felt my pupils dilate as I squinted.

   "Eye reaction... good." A voice muttered. Someone snapped by my left and right ears and I felt them twitch at the sudden loud sound. "Hearing... normal. Good, good. How are you feeling Tank? Are you with us?"

   I focused in, and realised that A: I was laying down, B: The two people infront of me where scientists, doctors that were helping me get into my new body, and C: I felt GREAT.

   "Morning Doc." I said with a grin, stretching slightly.

   "Heh, good morning Tank. Alright, let's see here... Can you sit up? Do you feel any trembles, nausea, and dizziness, anything like that?" The doctor asked.

   I pushed myself up with my hands, marveling at the new body that I had been put into. I felt the muscles of the body... no, I felt MY muscles flex as I sat up. "Good, good, you're up! Excellent. Talk to us Tank, how are you feeling?"

   The doctors continued to pester me with questions. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I feel great." I said with a grin again as I flexed both arms and twisted them slightly, checking my motor functions one by one.

   It took a few moments for me to notice, but I looked down to my left and felt a wide grin come to my face. My left arm. I finally got my left arm back. "Alright, do you mind bringing your feet around Tank? We need to do some reflex testing..." The doctors said.

   I brought myself around, and submitted myself to the testing. It was necessary, and I didn't really mind. It allowed me a bit longer to get used to being able to actually feel my left side of my body again, something I hadn't been able to do for years.

   After going though the testing, someone had brought out an extra-large shirt and pants, work out clothing. "What's up with the PT gear? I'm going for a run?" I asked with a grin.

   "Reading our minds Tank." One of the doctors said with a grin.

   "Hey Tank!" Sand's voice suddenly echoed around the lab.

   She was standing at the observation window with a smile on her face. "Your Biometrics look good so far! I'm going to be coming out to time you on the Obstacle course."

   "Cool. Some action." I said, again with the grinning. I don't know why, but I just couldn't stop grinning as I stood up. One of the doctors handed me the clothing and pulled a curtain around so I could change in privacy.

   After quickly pulling on the shirt, underwear, and pants, I stepped out from behind the curtain and smiled at the doctors. "Ladies and Gents, it has been a one-of-a-kind pleasure to be here with you today. Thank you for your assistance."

   The doctors got a good laugh out of that as they sent me outside. Six other avatar pilots were playing a game of three on three basketballs as I walked out and around the court, casually tossing insults and smack talk around like a group of Middle School kids having fun on the playground.

   Alright, let me tell you... it is interesting to try to get used to walking around when you're ten feet tall... well, ok, fine, ten foot five inches, but who's counting besides me? I almost fell over on my first step, and yet... the first thing I wanted to do was run. Just start running and never stop.

   Sand walked up to me and tapped me on the leg. "Hey there SMA. Glad to see you not so shiny. Still feeling good Tank?"

   "Hell yeah. I've been waiting for this all day. What took you so long Sand? Did you get lost on the way down here?" I asked.

[[Chapter 5 is split into two diffrent posts due to length]]

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

[[Chapter 5, Continued here!]]
   "Ha ha, no, I was too busy ensuring I didn't get stepped on the dumb-as-bricks giant that we know as Tank! How's the weather up there anyway?" Sand said.

   "Humid, with a slight chance of rain." I said, shaking my head. "Can we get started already? I want to get this done!"

   The obstacle course stood out in front of me, a child's playground that was just WAITING to be played on. I wanted to get moving right away, but Sand held me back with a quick tug on my pant leg.

   "Wait for my mark, dumbass. We need to time this accurately so we can see how fast you adjusted to your body." Sand said, pulling out a stopwatch.

   "Hah. They had harder obstacle courses back on the playground at school. This is a cake walk in the park and around the block." I said with a grin.

   Sand shook her head. "Alright... and... GO!"

   When she said go, I bolted. The first set of the challenge was wooden pommels, you know, those big wooden logs that you have to hurdle and crawl under? I took them a bit differently then I used to. It was simple, child's play in fact, to go though it at top speed. I used both hands to lift over the pommel, using my speed to push myself over. To get under the one that followed it, I simply let myself fall to the ground and rolled under, springing back up to repeat it over and over again.

   The next challenge was a bit harder. A straight wall climb. I don't do well with climbing ropes; never have been able to do them well, due to my cybernetic arm. I either grip too hard or cut up the rope, or I don't get a good enough grip and slip. The new model I have is supposed to eliminate that problem, but still... I don't do rope climbing.

   Surprisingly, I was able to scramble up the ropes pretty well, getting a good grip on the rope for each pull up, and was up and over the wall in a quick time.

   The final set of obstacles was a set of thin balance beams that you needed to jump across, a bit of a footwork course in the sky, as a way to setting the mind up for running around in the forests of Pandora. Apparently, the ground and the tree trunks are often one and the same, so unless you want to fall a REALLY long way down, it's good to get your footing down, and fast.

   A hop, skip, and a leap later, I was as good as gold, until I over compensated for my last jump, a jump to the right. Because of my cybernetic arm, my weight distribution on my left side is a bit wonky. Or at least, it was. They fixed that problem in the newer models of my arm, but until recently, I had to compensate for the extra weight. That mental training caused me to tip over, hitting the dirt with a 'THUD'.

   Sand immediately was at my side. "Tank! Are you ok? Can you still hear and see me? How many fingers am I holding up?!?"

   She was panicking, with good reason. Avatar bodies are expensive and my chance of getting another one was slim to none, so I needed to be careful with it. "I'm fine, I'm fine. And you're holding up four and hiding three behind your back, with your thumb extended."

   That caused Sand to calm a bit. "Jeebus, do you really need to get my heart rate up like that?!? I swear to whatever powers you believe in buddy, if you do that again, when you wake up in your normal body I will slug you so hard you STARS will see stars!!!"

   I nodded and got up. Sand sighed as she checked her stop watch and wrote down the results. "Alright, that's enough of that. Now come on, we need to get you fed and run a few more tests..."

   I don't want to bore you all, but the next part is pretty damn boring, so I'll skip it.

   Trust me, you're going to love what happens next. I know I did.
-------------------
Chapter 6: Walk it off

   Three hours of testing is boring. Three hours of testing while the doctors are yakking your ears off with scientific bulls*** is something else entirely.

   See, I have a bit of a... reputation. For being smart. Remember, said that whole thing about being discovered a 'genius' of a rare, one of a kind breed? I wasn't kidding.

   I don't consider myself 'smart' or 'smarter' then anyone else. I don't know why people think that I do, or believe that I am. I mean, sure, I can take IQ tests all day long and they'll scream to the sky about it, but everyone knows IQ tests are bulls***. I know plenty of really smart guys that don't do to well on those things, but because I can hit some crazy number, they expect me to be the next messiah?
   No. Uh-Uh. Fogettaboutit. Not going to happen. You wish.

   I'm no God, nor am I a 'greater' power, or any of that kinda s***, and I hate it how people build me up like that. I'm a normal guy. Specifically, I'm a normal guy with a chrome-plated, Unobtainium powered robo-arm...

   Ok, so maybe I'm not so normal after all, but you guys get my point, right?

   Anyway, because I have that reputation of being really smart, the scientists and doctors ask me questions. They want my opinion on a new thesis, or the latest scan and plant evaluation, or this or that or that other thing. Urgh. It's boring as hell and I hate having to listen to people yak on and on about how their latest experiment went. I would rather see the results then hear about them.

   After the testing, I was (finally) released to go off and do as I please.

   Now, remember what I told you about my little ADHD problem? Well, more often then not, it gets me in... trouble.

   For example, right now. I left the testing facility to stretch a bit and unwind from being stuck on a table for the last three hours, when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something.

   It wasn't really anything spectacular. Just a hole torn in the fence of the facility. See, the Avatar facility is surrounded by an electrocuted chain link fence, and that is surrounded by these sonic emitters that ward off the local fauna. The buildings that the Avatar bodies rest in when we aren't active are well protected, and it's impossible for the animals out in the forest to get in to any of the main facility. Because of that, we don't really worry about it too much.

   I quickly glanced around, looking for any sign of someone looking my way. I was unnoticed, no one paying attention to me. The 3-on-3 basketball game had long since ended, and most of the other Avatar pilots were either already hitting the hay for dinner or out on project, doing research.

   I spent a moment wondering on that though, thinking about how Water was doing. She had taken her Samson out but that was the last I hear of her. I sighed. She was so lucky to get to leave and see the jungles of Pandora for herself...

   "Now wait just a moment there..." I muttered to myself as I looked over at the fence. Maybe I was going to get to explore Pandora anyway.

   It was a stupid idea. I knew this. In fact, it was quite possibly the most idiotic thing that I had done in years, but I figured it this way. A: I was dressed. B: I had a communicator so I would come back when they finally called when they figured out I was gone. C: I was ten feet five and a half inches, made of muscle, and knew how to fight. The way I saw it, I could handle any trouble that came my way.
Boy was I wrong.

   But I'm getting ahead of myself.

   So, I made my way over to the hole in the fence, and was pleased to find that it was just big enough to get though without touching any of the metal fence or snagging my clothing.

   It was pretty easy to slide out of the complex, and I congratulated myself as I headed off on my marry way, looking at everything I could see as I ventured into the forest.

   Let me tell you. If you've ever been in a jungle before, you know just how freaking GREEN those places are.

   This was that on a whole new level.

   Vines stretched across the Animal trail I was using to make my way along. Plants of all kinds grew in every direction. If you listened carefully, you could hear the multitude of Animals that lived in the jungle moving around, minding their day to day business of survival.

   It was enticing. Enchanting. Magical even. Nothing that I've ever experienced before could have prepared me for walking into the jungle for the first time. It was the dream of every scientist and curious explorer to visit Pandora.

   Suckers, I got here first! Well, kind of, but you get the point.

   I lost myself in a world of green. As I look back, I realise just how stupid I was to walk off like that on my own. Even more so, I realise how stupid it was of me to start walking without marking a way back to camp. Oops.

   I don't know how long I walked. Long enough that I couldn't see any signs of Hell's Gate or any RDA development, that's for sure. I was lost, out in the middle of unknown and possibly hostile territory. Up a creek without a paddle, Jumping out of a Gunship with no parachute, Six feet...

   I think you've figured this out already, so let's move on.

   About this time, I was definitely considering grabbing my com unit and calling for help. But then again, this was a brilliant opportunity to get a first-hand look at the bioluminescence that filled the night sky.

   Something you should know about Pandora is that there really isn't a solid 'Day/Night' cycle. It could get darker, or lighter, or whatever, but it's never truly 'night' anywhere. But it does get dark, and when it does... the world lights up in a beautiful splash of color and light. It's almost as if the world suddenly lit up with a thousand LED lights, but toned down to be soft enough and soothing enough that you could sleep in the glow as if it were a nightlight.

   It got dark quickly. I forgot my watch so I didn't really have a good guess on what time it was, but I knew it was getting late. I watched as glow of Alpha Centari A's sun slowly dipped away, still there but not, and Pandora grew dark.

   It happened almost suddenly, but in a way that you knew it was going to happen. It wasn't startling, nor surprising, but soothing. Beautiful, and tranquil. The Na'vi have a word for it. Mawey. It means 'Calm', but it can be used in a lot of ways.  That's the only word I can think of that describes how I felt when I looked around the forest as it lit up.

   Mawey.

   I looked over my body, blinking in surprise, then relaxing when I noticed that was glowing a bit myself. I forgot that the Na'vi had this bioluminescence as well. I got to say, I think it looked pretty damn good on me.

   I was lost in a world of beauty and color. Never once had I dared dream of something so amazing happening to me, to be able to visit a world so far away, to be able to breath it's air, see it's light, and experience it's world.

   Little did I know that my entire world was about to get tossed around.

   Do you know what a Na'vi war cry sounds like?

   No?

   You're lucky, because there are few things quite as scary as a full warparty leaping out of the bushes, armed to the teeth and bows drawn on you from all directions.

   But, in a bit of a twist of the usual story, for me anyway, I was the one on the opposite side of the weapons.

   "Easy, easy..." I said, holding up both hands, praying to whatever existed out there that my good mood and day wasn't about to be ruined by the nasty arrows that were being pointed at my chest from all sides.

   "Unitíranyu!" Was about the only word I caught before the Na'vi warrior that lead the group started talking at me in Na'vi so fast I could only catch every other word.

   "Hey, easy, easy! Uh... Mawey! Calm down! Can I hear what you're saying a bit slower please? No offence, but I'm no expert in your language." I said, trying to calm the agitated Na'vi.

   The warrior glared at me, a seething look in his eye as he hissed at me, this time a bit slower, the malice in his voice intentional. "<<You are wanted, Dreamwalker. You have been summoned by the Olo'eyktan. Be fortunate that he has asked for you alive.>>"

   Oh boy. Just what did I get myself into this time?

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 7: I need to explain myself.

   Alright, where do I begin?

   I know, first, I'm sorry that I cut you all off in the middle of my narrative. I know, I get to the action part and suddenly pfft! All gone!

   Not really. Trust me, still plenty of action in my day. I just wanted a chance to explain a few things. See, little did I know but there was a lot going on that allowed me to slip out like I did. Little things that added up, things that had changed that I didn't know about, just what I remember from reading my little handbook about Pandora and what to expect as a RDA research member.

   Yeah. Not exactly the best reading material to inform me of what was going on. Just maybe, neh?

   Anyway, there are a few things about that, as well as me walking up and some of the physical testing I want to talk about, now that I think I understand it a bit better, and I want to go back to my arm, the cybernetic one, not the Avatar one, and explain how it works a bit more, also explain why I have the reputation for being smart.

   In fact, that's where I'll start. I don't usually talk about it, because I still don't see why people say I'm smart because of it.

   I already told you about the whole IQ test thing, but the big kicker, the reason why everyone was so amazed was because at ten and a half years old, I passed a test.

   Now, I had passed a test when I was younger. A very light version of this test that's just a placement test. I had scored well on it, and I got put into the advanced class. The teachers... thought it was interesting. A fluke.

   Boy did they have to eat their words on this one.

This test is like a... standard given test. Everyone has to take it at some point or another in their lives. We call it the BIO, or Biological Imput Output or something like that. I don't really know the whole name or how it works. But it's like an IQ test, only harder. Like, way harder. Collage and Experts in the field know this stuff but even most of them don't know it. Math problems that would make a high school kid wet their pants and beg for mercy. As a bit of a practical joke, and also to satisfy their curiosity, my teachers gave me the BIO and told me I had unlimited time to take it.

   Not only did I pass the test, but I got the highest score they had seen in years. Out of a maximum of 8000 points, I scored 7895.

   They were astounded. Scholars and college professors from all over swarmed the Orphanage, the media vied for my attention. Everyone wanted to talk to the smartest kid in the world. Two days I let the attention wash over me before I got bored of it.

   Now before you all go yelling, "Why do you keep calling yourself stupid or not smart?" and all that jazz, I'm going to explain something to you. Just because you have a reputation, doesn't always mean it's completely true.

   Yeah, I'm a smart guy. Always has been, always will be. I read a lot of books, got a great memory for that kind of stuff, though I've always wished it was photographic, which it is, to a point. But I'm not a genius, no matter what the media and teachers would tell you. I'm just good at solving problems. Anyone can take a quiz and solve a problem on paper.

   The real word? The real world doesn't give a s*** about what score you got on a piece of paper. It would chew you up and spit you out like flavorless gum and then piss on your remains without even bothering to call it rain before it gave a hoot about some score on a test. Albert Einstein, for example.

   One of the most brilliant scientists of all times, no? Split the atom and all of that, theory of relativity, E=MC^2, all that crud.

   He was a terrible student. Grades were in the toilet, couldn't solve a math problem to save his life!

   And yet... we still know him as a genius. Why? Because he was smart in a real world sense. Because at the end of the day, he didn't care about the little numbers written down on a piece of paper.

   That's why I don't buy that they call me a genius. That's why I don't care that people 'Think' I'm smart. Because at the end of the day, I'm not smart. Nor am I a genius. I'm just a guy who's good at solving problems and collecting data.

   Alright, I need to move onto another topic or I'm going to start ranting.

   Next topic is my arm. I kind of gave you all a rough idea of what my arm is, didn't I? Well, let me explain it in a more detailed manner.

   My arm is a TR3N7-9 Military Mod. 11 Mrk. XIII Bionic Replacement arm, prototype number 1. It's custom built for me, for body, specifically to survive Pandora. It was given to me as a gift, of sorts.

   Remember how I told you Water was military fast-track? The reason is that her Dad, General Langson, was the head of R&D for USMC back on Earth. When he heard about me from Water, he wanted to meet me.

   I remember the meeting very well. He was a really nice guy, General Langson, bless his soul. Old man died two weeks before we shipped off to Pandora. Anyway, he invited me over for tea and to talk with him.

   General Langson had invited me onto USMC military base in Yuma, Arizona, where he was going for inspection with Water, a bit of a family vacation. I joined them as General Langson's guest. Which was kind of odd, now that I look back at it. I mean, I didn't really know the General, nor did he know me besides that I was a friend of his daughter. He really was taking a risk bringing me along.

   When we got to Yuma, he invited me to talk with him in his office. After we were served some tea, which surprised me because I always though soldiers drank coffee, he explained to me why I was here.

   The R&D groups on base in Yuma were working on a specialty project. A series of Bionic Arms, built off of one fit, well trained boy as he grew up. If they could have a subject that was A: Young, B: Fit, and C: Missing a Arm and had a Bionic Attachment, they could begin testing with that young man to create more accurate arms, more powerful and serviceable arms, arms that would be able to deal with the stress of day-to-day use and combat conditions.

   General Langson put me forward as a candidate for the program, due to that I fit all three of those requirements. I would get paid, free replacement arms for life, free maintenance, and everything I needed to learn about the arm so that I could take care of it myself when I got old enough.

   It was a good deal. I took it, after calling Sister Helia and asking her if it was ok first, of course.
   The R&D guys decided to name their arm after me, using 'leet' speak as a base for the name. Thus, the TR3N7 or 'Trent' bionic arm series was made.

   Heh, it's been a while, and the R&D guys are all rich now. They run a good medical practice down on Earth, and they still send me upgrades for my arm. The one I have right now is the most recent model, specially built from the ground up to keep from degrading while I'm on tour on Pandora.

   The ninth design, eleven special modifications, thirteenth build, and first of its kind.  I'm happy with my arm, even if I still can't feel anything with it. It's really cool, I was actually reading though the manual for it just a few moments before I remembered I needed to do this video. It's got a special computer uplink, allowing me to tap into just about any computer within a 200 yard radius, a 'grappling hook hand' which is a specially made modification that allows me to fire off my left and to latch onto anything I can grab, then a special carbon-fiber rope to pull myself up and away, or pull something to me if I so chose.

   It can do all this cool stuff, and tell the time. Heh, the most expensive watch ever built.

   However, my arm has a drawback. Ok, a few drawbacks.

   First: Its Unobtainium powered. I need to constenly be checking and double-checking the little bit of the powerful gray rock I have in there to ensure that my arm doesn't shut down because it fell out or something. The current model is better about it, but the last one... well, lets just say I'm glad I got the new one before I shipped out.

   Second: I already mentioned the mental feedback.

   Third: Taking it on and off hurts like hell. Really, it does. Imagine cutting your arm off, reattaching it, sealing it with a whitehot metal rod, then cutting it off and doing it again?
   It hurts. But it's better then not having an arm at all.

   Cybernetic Arms are hardly a new technology. It's just that this time around, the Arms are actually useful. Remember how I punched a kid and he went to the hospital for it? I could have done a lot worse with the old arm if I had broken the limiter on it.

   See, the problem with cybernetic arms is that they are strong, like, super strong. Put one of those on anyone and you can see an increase of strength to over 5000 to 6000%. I have seen someone pick up and throw a car with a limiter removed Bionic Arm.

   It's weird to think that I have that kind of power.

   But, all Bionic Arms, even military models have to be built with a limiter... because they can drive the user insane.

   Without a limiter, any thought you have is amplified and doubled; send back to your brain. You can quite literally 'hear' your own thoughts. It's called the Reamped Effect. Because it makes you think the same thought over and over again, your mind starts to break down.

   There are lots of people in mental wards that are put down because they lost their minds using an Arm or a Leg that didn't have a limiter on it.

   The thing is, there is a bit of a trade off here. A Bionic Arm with no limiter is stronger then a bionic arm with a limiter. The limiter allows you to punch only as hard as you want to, but not harder. A Bionic Arm with no limiter allows you to hit anyone as hard as you can. Supposedly, there is a way to get past the limiter to use a super powerful punch or kick without causing the Reamped Effect to happen, but it only works if you have a limited arm.

   Hypothetically, you need to get into a state of mind that leaves you at your strongest, your own personal 'Combat State'.  You see, because your mind controls your arm, your emotions effect how well it performs. If you get pissed off and want to break something, more likely then not, you can break it. Feel sad and down? You could punch someone with the arm and it would be like a feather had touched them. It's all about mental state.

   So if you could figure out your 'combat state' and be in it in a moment's notice, you could be able to break the limiter.

   I haven't done it myself, but I figure that I'll never have to, hopefully. I like knowing that I have a combat-ready arm, but I also like the thought that I shouldn't have to hurt anyone to get my point across. A diplomatic solution is always better in the long run. Well... almost.

   Ok, let's move onto the fence. I think that's the most I've ever said about my arm at one time. Water would be drooling over a chance to check the mods on my arm...

   Anyway, what I didn't know after the testing was all over was that the fence had been eroding away, and a pack of viperwolves had been attacking it. They had torn open the hole, but they never went through it. No one knew why and just figured the sonic devices that sat around the fence drove them off.

   Turns out, the power to the fence had been cut, due to a power supply problem back at base. A generator had gone bad and was being repaired, and to conserve energy they cut the power to the fence. So far, Eywa, according to Norm, had been nice enough to leave us be.

   Right. Sure. We'll go with that, hmmm?

   Anyway, that's what allowed me to get out, plus a small emergency that I hadn't known about. One of the Link Pods had acted up, forcefully removing one of the Avatar Pilots from her pod. She was completely KO'ed, like, they weren't even sure if she was going to wake up.

   Good news, she's fine. Bad News, the Link Pod, and I'm not s***ting you, a computer virus. How it even developed is beyond me, but they were lucky to catch it as early as they did, or the entire Link lab would be down right now, instead of just one pod, and instead of being taken for a trip, someone could have died.

   ... I'm not really sure what to say about that. It's kinda weird, now that I'm looking back at it?

   How in the world did someone get a virus into one of the Link Pods?

   ... Bah, I'm over thinking things again.

   Alright, I think I explained everything I needed to explain. Let's get back to the action, neh?

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 8: I meet the a Ghost.

Alright, alright, I'm getting back to where I left off.

For those of you who got lost while I went off on my little rant and explanation thing earlier in this video, I had left the relative 'safety' of the Avatar Pilot training area to go venture off into the Pandoran Jungle that surrounds Hell's Gate, just because I wanted to get a good look at the Jungle's natural bioluminescence, simply because I wanted to see what it looked liked.

Yes, I know, stupid idea, but then again, no one has ever accused me of... wait, not, I have been accused of being smart. Well, no excuses for me then. Moving right along.

   To my bewilderment and surprise, I was 'escorted' by five Na'vi hunters to meet the Olo'eyktan, who called me over for tea and crumpets, which really means that I'm in deep s***. Like, really deep s***.
   Alright, alright, let me step back a little bit.

   While I was out in the forest for the first time today, I didn't notice that I was being tracked by a group of Hunters. With good reason, mind you, minus the fact that I had my ears off and was focused on the pretty, but because they're Hunters, stealth is something that they are all about.

   Now, little did I know that the Na'vi had noticed the Valkyrie Dropship that brought me down to Pandora's surface and Hell's Gate. A lone lookout had told the Olo'eyktan that I had arrived, and in turn, the Olo'eyktan told a small group of warriors to be on the lookout for a unknown avatar, IE me, should I enter the forest and they find the opportunity to bring me to him to visit.

   So here I was, being frog-marched with my hands bound behind my back with my ponytail in a tight grip with a knife held right up against it. I don't quite remember what the name is... the Q something. Never was good at remembering that kind of stuff, even though I should... wait...

   That's right! It's called the queue! Don't know what it is in Na'vi, if they even have a name for it, but it's very important... kinda. I'm not sure.

   Yeah, not very helpful, I know. Kinda makes me sound like I picked up the Idiot Ball, neh?

   If it doesn't, well, it sure as hell made me feel like it. Anyway, I got frog marched away from Hell's Gate and the little patch of Jungle I had been sitting in to inspect the bioluminescence, two of the five warriors muttering between themselves before they took off. The other three warriors continued to run me along, sandwiched between the three of them as they took me along.

   Now, I'm no expert in Na'vi, nor do I claim to be, but I like to think that I know enough to be able to figure out the clan that was taking me away to meet the Olo'eyktan, the leader, of the clan.

   The Omatikaya clan, or Blue Flute Clan, which I guess is a bit redundant, so I remove that 'clan' I said after Omatikaya, is the Na'vi clan that had apparently lead the fight against the RDA security force. Mind you, I know this only second hand and though video-logs and recordings from the battle.

   By the way, don't watch helm-cam 11, unless you want to see what the insides of an Ikran's stomach looks like... ewech...

   The Omatikaya's home, called by us humans or 'Tawtute', skypeople, is Hometree, or rather, was Hometree. See, (again, secondhand information), the tree was attacked by a large group of RDA security gunships. Like, ¼ of the Scorpion gunships and the last Dragon gunship planetside, minus that hulk that still hasn't been put together in Hanger 12.

   Hometree was destroyed, not only sent slamming into the ground, killing hundreds of Na'vi, but burned to ashes, a bit, broken up hulk all that seems to remain.

   Now, this is what I saw. And I warn you, it's not pretty, or pleasant. It was terrifying.
   Imagine looking out upon a land that had been covered in gray. Not like a gray paste or anything, but a gray paint, like all the color had been drained out of it, the land itself falling away to nothing, to never see another shade of green again.

   Now take that little area, and stretch it out to about a 5 mile radius, and set the broken, crumbled and hollowed out core of what could once had been a tall, beautiful home for thousands of Na'vi men, women, and children.

   This is what I saw when we started making our way over a hill that lead towards the new Hometree. "<<Look well, outsider. This is what your skypeople have caused. All of this is your fault." The warrior who stood behind me hissed this in my ear as I looked out in shock. I almost wanted to fall to my knees and cry, to curl up and hide from the stark contrast I saw to the rest of the forest.

   It was... terrible. I could almost feel the planet crying out in pain, could almost see the lives that had been crushed with ruthless efficiency by Colonel Q and his RDA goons. I'm all for research and asking for people to move and such, I mean, because we don't have a place to get Unobtainium from anymore, Earth is probably going to die, millions of our people are going to die.

   But still. It hurts. It hurts to look upon someone else's home as it's destroyed. I couldn't bear to watch the news back on Earth, because it was always something about Nigeria or any of the other countless warzones that were scattered across the world as if to say, 'This is all yours, f***er.'

   After a few moments, the Na'vi continued pushing me onwards, away from the burnt-down area of the forest and the old Hometree, graveyard to hundreds of lost souls, deeper into the jungle.

   I wasn't really sure what to expect. A camp in the forest I suppose. What I discovered when I arrived however, wasn't that at all. They had found a new Hometree, Still pristine and beautiful, taller then any of the other trees that were even moderately close to it.

   "By the powers that be..." was about all I could say as I looked up, followed closely by, "That is one big tree..." before I was shoved along and continued to be frog marched into the tree between the roots.

   I'm not totally sure what to describe here, because all of it's amazing, so I'll try to describe it all.

   One Na'vi is really tall and formidable, even scary looking, even when you're as all (and in my case, a bit taller) then most of them. But if you get a group of Na'vi together, you feel tiny by comparison, as if a tidal wave of blue is going to run your scrawny excuse for a body over and trample on your remains.

   There must have been a few hundred on the lowest level of the tree, where I was being brought in. I couldn't see much of the tree for all the people standing around, looking at me. Several tried to touch me, and the guards kind of released me, minus not unbinding my hands.

I continued to walk forwards, unsure of what to expect, but what I met next blew my mind.

   "Welcome, Dreamwalker, to the Omatikaya home. I am Jakesully, and I'm glad you made it."

   What. The. Hell.

   Now, I was expecting several things, the most prominent of all of them was that the Olo'eyktan was Na'vi. Also, that he was going to talk to me in Na'vi right off the bat.

   I had been sucker-punched, knocked to the ground, kicked in the face and then stepped upon by my expectations, because instead, I was standing before a Avatar, and one that I had been told had died.

   Jake Sully, the Marine who had replaced Tom Sully, was the Omatikaya's Olo'eyktan.

   A tall, proud looking female stood next to him, as well as an older, but still quite proud looking, female. The two looked quite a bit alike, the older one, however, seeming to be... I don't know what you would call it, wiser? More world-weary?

   Jake walked right up to me and barked a quick order in Na'vi, so quickly that I wasn't able to keep up with the words. Bits of the clan walked off, not really paying me any attention anymore while two of my guards walked up and removed the bindings from my hands before walking away.

   "Again, welcome, Dreamwalker. As I said, I am Jakesully, Oloéyktan of the Omatikaya. We have been keeping an eye on Hell's Gate since your Valkyrie arrived, and I am surprised that you dared to enter the jungle so quickly." He said to me. I was still getting over the shock of an Avatar, one I had been told was dead, was greeting me as a Clan Leader. This went against everything I had learned about the Na'vi, and was a bit of a cultural shock. He held out his hand and I semi-automaticly shook it.

   "I'm, uh, Tank. Nice to meet you." I said, blinking away my surprise, trying to focus in and figure out why I had been brought here.

   Jake smiled at me and turned, walking back over to the two women, speaking quickly to both of them, again in Na'vi. I was getting kind of sick of not knowing what was going on, but I tried my best to bare it as the older woman looked at me and nodded to Jake before walking over.

   In a flash of memory, I remembered the name for this woman. She was the Tsahík, Matriarch, of the Clan. She must have been the old Tsahík, not yet passed of this world for the next, waiting to meet Eywa.

   This surprised me until I saw Jake and the other girl get close together. I had another sudden thought. This Tsahík must have been the girl that Jake was with mother, which would explain why they looked alike, and perhaps why she was close to Jake: She was the next Tsahík.

   I had enough time to think this before the Tsahík began to walk around me, inspecting me from head to toe as if she was trying to decide if I was a robot or something like that. She drew a small bone knife-needle thing from her necklace and stabbed me, causing a momentary second of pain and a small 'Ow' from me before she licked the blood off of it and slid it away.

   "He is dreamwalker. Why have you come, dreamwalker? Are you here to bring more of the Tawtute to bring fire upon our people, to destroy our home?" She said, quite viciously, and probably with good reason, after what I saw from before.

   "No, I don't." I said, holding up my hands defensively. "This is only my second day on Pandora. I don't plan to bring fire upon anyone!"

   It was surprising, how venomous the old woman's voice was, but again, I guess I kind of deserved it, if what everyone else had told me so far and what I had seen had anything to say about it.
   She glared at me for a moment, her tail flicking in agitation. She was NOT happy, that I was sure of. "You say these things, dreamwalker, but how do we know it's true? What is your reason for being here?"

   The question echoed around Hometree, which I thought was interesting because sound doesn't exactly bound off of wood very well, it tends to get absorbed. But the question brought me pause. I wasn't sure how to reply.

   I could have said a lot of things. That I was hired by the RDA to come, or that I wanted to learn, or that I was here to investigate the forest, but what I said I stand by, simply because it was the truth, in my mind. "I come to live, to exist, to be free of Earth and the... Tawtute. To be able to go without having to be limited by others opinion."

   I think this reply startled and/or surprised the Tsahík. She looked over at Jake, who nodded and said, "Is that so?"

   "Yes. " Was all I could say in reply.

   Jake started talking to the girl beside him, a conference of some kind. It felt like ages as I stood there, several warriors glaring at me like they were about to chop my head off if I so much breathed. "... We will keep you here, Dreamwalker. We have much to discuss, but for now, We will keep you under guard."

   Now, this bewildered me, and I think I'm starting to confuse myself, even now. It was... such a blur. My emotions were high, my mind was fuzzed over by lack of food and a very much want to go to sleep, and here I am, talking to a video-audio recorder trying to get everything I thought and experienced down before I fall unconscious due to sleep deprecation and overexertion. Which is funny when you think about it, simply because I spent the entire day LAYING DOWN.

   Seriously, its ridicules, plain and simple. One would think that just my mind doing back flips and running around all day would just mean that I needed to sleep, but my body actually feels TIRED, like I'm going to keel over and hit the ground KO'ed up the sleepy river.

   Alright, I'm going to finish this video off now, because if I don't A: I'm not going to get any sleep and B: If I don't Sand will kill me. Currently, my Avatar is in Hometree, under guard and asleep in one of those crazy hammock things, way the freaking way up from the ground, I think because it's a easy way of keeping me from trying to escape.

   It's about... 2000 HRS right now, so it's pretty late. I'm going to get to sleep now, after maybe grabbing something quick to eat.

   Urgh... cheers, here's to surviving my first day, again, and here's to hoping that I'm going to survive tomorrow as well.

   Cheers.

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 9: Waking up is the worst part of falling asleep.

   Time... has been making a fool of me.

   For some reason, it feels like the entire world is moving in ways  that don't make any sense whatsoever. I feel like someone has crammed a week's amount of work and information into one day. Norm told me to expect that feeling, because when I'm acting in my Avatar's body, It's almost as if I'm doing everything twice.

   Remember what I said about that whole 'feedback' thing that happens with my arm? The thing that could happen without a limiter?

   Thank God that it doesn't happen with the Link Pods or I would be insane TODAY.

   Have you ever felt like someone is watching you? Like, glaring at you intentionally from across the room or from somewhere that you can't see, or understand where they could possibly be hiding simply because they are so well hidden away from you?

   I'm starting to understand that feeling.

   It's as if I was being watched from all sides, as if Eywa herself has taken notice of my presence on Pandora and is watching my every move, my every thought, my every action, idea, breath and step, waiting for me to do...

   Something.

   It's almost as if I'm an actor on a stage, dancing for the entertainment for an audience that only exists in my head, yet the applause at the end of the act is real, and it's a back-to-back performance.

   I don't know if that made much sense, but it makes sense to me, so I'm ok with that.

   -The camera is pushed to the side and a long, deep sighing breath can be heard before the camera focuses back in on Tank-

   I'm sorry. I probably sound really down and out right now. Here, I'll dive straight to the heart of the matter and perhaps you'll understand why.

   It all started this morning, when Sand and Water discovered I had slipped into bed late. They had been taking the night watch to ensure that I came home in one piece, but they were tired. Max helped me back to my room in the dorms and sent a doctor to go get me some food, amazed I was still even able to move.

   "By all accounts Tank, you should be so tired that you couldn't even have gotten out of the link pod, much less request for food." Max said with a shake of his head. "I'm impressed."

   I chuckled back to him weakly and said, "I would respond with something witty, but I'm starving."

   After the doctor brought food and a bunch of portable med-equipment to ensure that I was actually in modernity ok mental status and health, Max and the doc left so that I could do my Audio-Video Journal last night before I collapsed into bed.

   I woke up around 0800 hours, a good twelve hours of sleep, thankfully, feeling awake, confident, and a lot better, and a bit more focused.

   Until Sand came flying into the room and unleashed the punch from hell into my jaw, knocking me back onto the bed.

   "WHAT THE f*** WHERE YOU THINKING YOU SHINY METAL DUMBASS?!? YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN KILLED! OR WORSE! I WAS SO WORRIED WHEN YOU SUDDENLY VANISHED LIKE THAT, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA JUST WHAT THE f*** YOU JUST DID?!?" Sand yelled at me, pissed off.

   The worst part? I knew I deserved every word, every glaring truth that she was slapping me across the face with. I noticed that her eyes were red, as if she had been crying.

   Sand doesn't cry, not unless she's afraid for someone. And that doesn't happen often, so I knew that I had really f***ed up this time.

   "Sand..." I tried to say, only to get slapped so hard I saw stars, only sheer willpower keeping me from falling back into the bed.

   "Not another word Tank, I don't want to hear any excuses... Norm and the rest of the link crew wants to debrief you, they watched your Video Journal."

   It hurt. A lot. Sand was my closest friend, the only one I've had for years. She gave me someone to confined in and trust with any secret, any thought, and she was definitely pissed at me, and it hurt.

   "Yes ma'am." I said softly, standing up and walking past her, my cheek still stinging from where her hand made contact. I thought I heard a soft sob as I walked by, but I did my best to ignore it.

   I don't like seeing Sand cry. It's scary, because she's the strongest person I know. Stronger then the General, stronger then any Na'vi, stronger then even me. She's powerful, and when she cries... it's... scary.

   I think I may have already mentioned that before, but I think it's important for me to remind myself of.

   Water met up with me on the way out and gave me a hug. "Hey there SMA. Another brilliantly ADHD moment from the master, huh?"

   "Yeah, I f***ed up real bad this time neh? Sand is pissed..."

   "Don't worry too much about it. She'll get over it, eventually, but you really scared her last night Tank. If I were you, I wouldn't take a stupid risk like that again."

   "Dully noted."

   When we reached Biocomputing, Norm and a bunch of Avatar Pilots were pouring over my Journal from last night. "What's up guys?" I asked, a bit confused about what they wanted with my journal.

   The pilots kept on my journal, talking amongst themselves as Norm reluctantly pulled himself away to come talk to me. "Tank, is this true? Is this really, seriously, honest to Eywa true? You made contact with the Omatikaya and Jake yesterday?"

   "Wha... yeah. At least, that's how he introduced himself yesterday, leader of the Omatikaya, Jakesully." I said, startled by the sudden question when I remembered what I wanted to ask Norm, when he held up his hand.

   "It seems that I'm the one with some explaining to do, isn't it Tank?" He said with a sad smile.
   I nodded, and Water just looked at us, completely confused.

   Norm sighed. "About a year back, the Omatikaya vanished. Like, up and left, for no apparent reason, they just vanished. And no one knew why. We've been trying to find them and remake contact, but it's as if Pandora just swallowed them up. The fact that they found a new Hometree, so close to the old Hometree, and that is not visible on any scan, it's just... bizarre!"

   "Say again?" Now I was utterly confused.

   "Here." Norm pulled me over to a computer bank and pulled the scan table around so that we could have a good view of the screen, which he deftly messed with.

   "You left your GPS tracker unit on, lucky us, so we know where you are based on your communicator, and if you look at this..." Norm pulled it to my location and pointed at a little red dot that was floating in the air, blinking softly.

   "This is you. Note that it says that you're just hanging in mid-air. No tree, nothing. It's as if the Hometree you're in doesn't even exist."

   Let me quickly just say that at this moment, my mind was BLOWN, like, I felt like blood was going to drip out of my ears slowly followed by steam and the sounds of mental breakdown.

   "But, how is that possible?! I mean, what... but... how?"

   Norm shrugged. "We need you to find out, Tank. You need to look around, record everything you notice, and let us know about it. Something doesn't feel right about this, and I know Jake, he's an old friend."

   "Great. And I'm supposed to do this... how?"

   "Well... we don't know. Stick with the clan; learn a thing or two and explore the forest. That kind of thing. In a sense, live with the Na'vi, if they let you. Try to figure out what's going on out there." Norm said with a bit of a shrug.

   The words, "I have a bad feeling about this," don't even BEGIN to cover how I feel about this.

   But still...

   I have a bad feeling about this.

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 10: And this is how you leap screaming from a tree.

   After a hurried breakfast, Norm took me straight to the Link Pod that I had been designated and sent me out into the forest.

   "Just kick back, relax, and try to figure out what's going on. You can do this Tank."This was supposed to be reassurance?

   Yeah. Right, can do doc. I'll be nice, cool and collective as I try to figure out why I'm suddenly designated Hero of the day and why everyone seems to be leaving me, Sand, and Water out of the loop.

   I don't like it when people try to bulls*** me into a situation. Back on Earth, my teachers were very careful when it came to making a lesson plan for whatever class I was in, some of them even writing one out just for me.

   -The camera shakes a bit as Tank puts his head down for a moment and takes a deep, breathing sigh-

   Yeah, you can guess exactly why. 'Oh my God! It's the super smart kid!"

   Perfect, right?

   Anyway, back then, I was a proud little bookworm, going though books and words like most kids go though videogames and fashion trends. I loved reading, still do in fact. There's just something about a well told story, no matter how many times you hear or read or see it, that just... pulls you in.

   Lucky for me, someone in the RDA's contract force agreed with me, they have like... several billion libraries worth of books on one of the large computer banks that are around base, which is quite literally called the library. It's glorious...
   ... Uh, well, that's beside the point. I'm
sorry, I went rambling again.

   Anyway, after taking another wonderful, breathtaking trip... side note to self for later examination, do you breathe during the mind transfer? And is it possible to have your breath taken away during the mind transfer?

   But anyway, another breathtaking trip though my Amazing Technicolor Waterslide, and I found myself looking straight up into the face of a young Na'vi boy, who was poking me in the forehead, saying what sounded like, "What a moron! It looks like he could sleep though a war!"

   I muttered something like I had just gotten up and sat up carefully, reminding myself that I had fallen 'asleep' in one of the large swinging hammocks that hung far above the ground floor. I had been shown to a place at the top of the tree, away from the other hammocks and sleeping areas. Probably because it made me easier to guard that way, but I'm willing to bet the next round of drinks in Pandora's Box and my arm that there was another reason why Jake stuck me way up here.

   Am I going to find out? No, I don't think so. In fact, more likely then not, I don't think I'll ever find out. Sometimes secrets are secrets for a reason.

   Not that I think it was a secret or anything and... ah crud, off track again. Yeesh, I'm drifting more then usual. Maybe something really is up with this new arm. Maybe I should let Water have a look at it... as long as I keep a close eye on her anyway.

   Anyway, the boy grinned at me when he noticed I was up. "<<The Dreamwalker is up! Can I take him to the Clan Leader now? >>" The boy called over to one of the guards who had been posted by my 'bed'.

The guard nodded and the boy made his way back onto the spiraling trunk that led down from my bed and towards the bottom of Hometree. I would like to say that it was simple to get out of the hammock and that I was able to gracefully pull myself out.

   But, then I would be lying. It took me a better fifteen minutes to pull myself out of the hammock and get my gear, which the boy spent chattering away in Na'vi at me.

   Note to self, have another crack at that Na'vi language program and see if I can't just DOWNLOAD it into my brain. It's kind of annoying to only be able to understand and pick up every other word they say.

   After a brisk walk, meaning run, down the spiraling branches of Hometree, we finally reached the bottom of the tree, where a female was waiting for me. She was the same girl that had been standing next to Jake last night.

   "Greetings, Dreamwalker. I am Neytiri, Jake's... what is the Skypeople term you use? 'Wife'?" Neytiri said with a smile, which surprised me.

   So far, I've gotten half-smiles and glares. This was the first true 'smile' that I had seen while I was here.

   But still... I don't see it. Jake gave up his humanity... for a girl? I mean, I suppose that there was more to that, if I ask Jake, but... I don't see giving up my humanity for a girl and a whole world. Then again, I don't know everything that's happened to him.

   ... Ok, that isn't fair, I suppose. Tell you what, I'll ask Jake about it if I can remember about it sometime.

   Anyway, Neytiri led me off to a small gathering area where Jake was eating. She said something in his ear softly in Na'vi and Jake smiled at me. "Please, brother, sit. I'm sure you're hungry. We have a long day ahead of us. I'm sure that you have some questions you wish to ask, but I would like a chance to show you the jungle first. This is only your second day on Pandora, is it not?"

   Any thoughts of asking about what happened to Jake and his Clan vanished from my mind with the thought of getting to explore the jungles of Pandora. That in itself was a treat! It was the whole reason I signed up for this in the first place... well, that and being able to drive a Avatar body, which just sounded like fun (For the record, it is!).

   "Yes, it is, and I would be honored to have an opportunity to explore the jungle, Jakesully." I said with a nod.

   Jake laughed, a pure, light sound that reminded me of stories I had heard of the sound that forest sprites made when they were happy. It was one of Sister Maria's favorites...

   Anyway, He smiled at me and tossed me a fruit that he had on a small wooden platter. "Here, eat up, and we'll get going."

   I don't think I've ever quite tasted anything like that fruit. I still don't know what it's called, but it was sweet, like, wild sugar cane before the last of it vanished from Earth, and juicy.

   After eating, Jake and Neytiri offered me a change of clothing, which caught me off guard. I quickly scanned what all the Na'vi were wearing. Pretty much loincloths and string all around.

   "Uhhh... thanks, no thanks for now friend. I'll stick to what I'm wearing right now." I said, and I'm not totally sure if Na'vi can blush or not, but I learned that Avatars could, and I could feel the heat rise to my cheeks.

   Lucky for me, I don't think Jake or Neytiri noticed my blush as they lead the way out of Hometree and out into the jungle.

   I have never seen so much green. I thought that what I saw close by to Hell's Gate was amazing, but it was almost as if I had closed my eyes during the trip to Hometree.

   It was just... amazing. I know I've said that a lot, but I can't think of other ways to describe it too you.

   The path we followed looked to have been followed quite a few times, though it was mainly an Animal Path. Jake directed my attentions, pointing out various plants and signs of the animals that inhabited the jungle. "See that? That's proof that some of the Forest Banshees had a kill around here recently. You can tell from all the scratch markings and the small bits of bloods. Forest Banshee like licking the blood off the trees in the area so they can get every bit of food."

   "Fascinating! Are these Banshees anything like the ones that you guys ride?" I said, now that I look back at it with a cringe-worthy voice, as if I was a child.

   "No, they are too small. They are good for showing where the pray is not, however." Neytiri chimed in.

   I thought about this as we walked. The forests of Pandora were built around survival of the fittest, and the Na'vi defiantly survived. This thought distracted me enough to not even realise that I had walked off the edge of a cliff and was now standing hundreds of feet off the ground on a root that had extended off the edge of the cliff, connecting it to the other side of a steep ravine. "Holy s***!" I said, startled out of my thoughts.

   Now, I don't mind heights. It's just part of the way I am. However... suddenly finding myself this far up was enough to quickly scare me speechless. "What is wrong, Dreamwalker?" Neytiri said, looking back at me.

   "Uh... nothing. Just, random thought." I said, forcing myself to look up and concentrate on following Neytiri and Jake.

   The walk took us all over the forest. It was beautiful. There was a reason we were out here though, beyond showing me the forest. Jake and Neytiri were also out here to hunt and collect some food for the Clan.

   They lead me to a tree and pointed out a way up. "Climb up this tree. It's one of the taller ones around this area and has a great view of the sunset." Jake said with a smile. Neytiri nodded.

   I could see Jake and Neytiri sitting up there, watching the sunset together. It sounded really romantic, and I thought it would probably be a good place for me to collect my thoughts. "Sounds fine to me." I said with a nod.

   Jake pointed at my pack, "Do you have a weapon with you?"

   I shook my head. "Minus my fists and legs, nope."

   He drew out a curved knife and handed it to me, along with a sheath. "Use this only if you need to protect yourself." He said, "I don't think you'll run into any trouble though."

   Wrong.

   After he and Neytiri headed off into the trees, so quietly I could have sworn that they didn't even exist, like two ghosts. Shaking off the thought, I started making my way up the tree. It was actually pretty easy going for my large stature. I marveled at how easy it was to move from branch to branch as I made my way up to the top.

   It was, as expected, a REALLY FREAKING HUGE TREE. Even with my new super-sized body, it took me a while. I didn't have a watch or anything on me so I don't know what time it was but when I reached the top, the view was breathtaking.

   Have you ever watched the sunset behind a mountain? How the light seems to give the mountain a golden glow?

   Take that, and then imagine if the mountain was really several, and they were floating in the sky.

   The hallelujah mountains, in all their glory, the fading sunlight giving them a almost surreal color.

   "By Eywa..." slipped from my lips. It was about all I could say.

   "SKRRAWWWWW!!!" Was the next thing I could hear.

   I turned, very slowly. I was in a bit of a spot of trouble, due to the fact that I had stumbled upon a group of Forest Banshees, which all looked very hungry.

   "Heh... nice... winged... dragon... things?" I said wearily.

   "HISSSSSSSSSSSS" The Banshee closest to me hissed in my face.

   Now, I don't know if you knew this, but Banshees don't exactly have the freshest breath. And teeth. Lots and lots of really sharp, pointy teeth.

   REALLY sharp pointy teeth.

   Now, I had several options that may had lead to my safety... or death. I could have drawn the knife that Jake had given me and attacked them. There was only three that I could see...
   I could have simply lashed out at them with a foot or something, or hiss at them, try to scare them off...

   I could have let them come at me and tried instead to counter attack or confuse them long enough to slip down the tree.

   But no, instead I did something so stupid, that I'm still amazed that I didn't die.

   I leaped out of the tree.

   I don't even know WHY I leaped out of the F***ing tree, but I did.
   Now, before you start yelling at me for being a dumbass, I would like to point out t
wo things:
   First, the gravity on Pandora is very light. It makes terminal velocity in a fall a lot slower then it would be on Earth, so I figured that it I could slow myself in any way, be it grabbing vines and branches from a tree, I could easily slow myself down enough to prevent death and breaking anything serious.

   Mind you, I don't always think everything though before I do something stupid like jump out of a tree.

   I fell quite a ways before I hit the first branch.

   Now, if you have ever fallen out of a tree, and hit a bunch of branches on the way down, you know it hurts like hell.

   I slid off the branch, and kept falling. Two branches and a vine later, I hit this big leaf. The leaf was softer then the branches, and they helped me the rest of the way down.

   When I hit the forest floor, I just looked up and waited. Jake was standing over me a moment later. "Thank goodness. For a second I thought that you weren't going to come back down. Neytiri noticed the Forest Banshees after we had left, but when we got back you were already out of earshot."

   Jake was smiling, but I was in a bit too much pain to make any witty comments. "That's fine. Would you be so kind as to help my ass back to the Hometree?"

   Jake chuckled and leaned down to help me to my feet.

   Falling out of a tree hurts.

   Let this be a lesson for you. Don't jump out of trees, it's not a good idea!

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 11: I meet a pack of puppy-dogs with six legs and lots of teeth.

   "The Lord tells us to be firm in our convictions, to do good when no one sees it and to fight for what's morally right. The words of others effect our moral convictions, but as long as we stay to our convictions, the lord will guide and protect us, if we even need to fight in the first place."

   Sister Heliua told me that years ago back on earth, when I was very young. I remember that she told that line in very different ways, depending on what we NEEDED to hear. She told it to Water, the same time I heard it the first time, because she discovered that Water was going to be a Soldier.

   You know, to this day, I STILL don't know why she told us that. I understand the principle of it all, to stand strong in the face of adversity, but it can be taken in so many ways, it's impossible to tell what the original purpose of the speech was even for.

   I don't even know who exactly she was aiming it for, me or Water, but they still haunt my mind when I'm not really concentrating on anything or wondering what I should do next, or I'm confused about something. They just float up, no matter when I last thought them or if I thought I had forgotten them or anything like that. They'll just show up and I'll remember Sister Heliua telling me that.

   It was strange, but as I was helped back to my feet and brushed off to continue moving along to walk off jumping out of a tree that would make King Kong proud, they just showed up. I know I was worried about being pushed though the system by the tech guys at Hell's Gates, but I don't know why the words were suddenly so prominent.

   As I thought over the words, I felt a frown come upon my face. "Fight for what's right" can be taken so many ways that I could be a genocides terrorist back on Earth, a member of the Nigerian task force and justify my rage and attack with 'The great lord himself told me too. It my right to kill all of you' and still claim that I was going to heaven because I killed so many to 'cleanse this world of the impure and protect all mankind, and to spare the children from the hell they would have to live though.'

   See, it's bullcrap like that that helped me decide that Religion was not worth it. I mean, don't get me wrong. I believe that there is a higher power; again, it could be the Force, Ducktape, Eywa, whatever... but no matter what it is, faith should be something that you apply to yourself, not something that you cram up the ass of everyone around you.

   It's like a Jehovah Witness, you know, the door to door people who try to shove their faith in your face.

   Not only is it pointless and annoying, but it makes no sense! True faith is being able to say whatever payers to whatever you believe in without disturbing those around you, or something like that.

   In the end though, I guess it doesn't really matter anymore, does it? I mean... I'm here on Pandora. All of that... faith, whatever was back on Earth... it doesn't affect me anymore.

   Don't know quite how to feel about that. But I'll tell you one thing for sure, I'm glad no one badgers me about what I believe in anymore. Telling people I'm Agnostic just doesn't seem to agree with some people.

   Ah well, this is all well and good, but I'm way off topic, huh?

   Anyway, Sister Maria always asked me the same thing each day.

   "Did you Learn anything today Trent?"

   She was the only one who ever called me Trent. Sand started calling me Tank and it stuck like... well, wet sand that dried on in the sun. But what really amazed me about Sister Maria is that she always made sure I learned something new every day.

   I kept a small audio journal for her back on earth. I used it to keep track of what I learned and what I needed to learn.

   Just to give you an Idea of what I've learned today so far, here's my little list:

   First: Late to Bed and early to rise leaves a dude with a hell of a headache
   Second: The Sunset on Pandora is beautiful and worth watching.
   Third: Forest Banshees (Note to self, figure out the Na'vi word for Forest Banshee.) are small but have LOTS of teeth.
   Fourth: Jumping out of trees without knowing how to get down hurts like HELL.

   There are a few more lessons I have today, but don't get ahead of me.

Now, don't get me wrong. What I did was stupid beyond any doubt. I mean, I COULD have fought off those Forest Banshees or something besides do the stupid thing and take a flying leap out of the tree. I could have drawn my knife or a hundred other things.

Now, what I didn't know was that jumping out of the tree alerted the rest of the animals of the jungle.
Jake and Neytiri noticed it before I did the unnatural stillness of the jungle, the silence.

"... I got a bad feeling about this." Was about all I could mutter before the howling laugh of a pack of Viperwolves leaped into our path, circling around us.

Now, let me explain something real quick: First, I'm not really sure. Is Pandora's Jungle by Hell's Gate a Jungle or a Forest? I mean... I've never been in one, and if I find out that I've been using the wrong term... well, it would be very distressing.

   Second, I'm pretty sure you all know what a Viperwolf is. Now, what I bet you don't know is that there are many kinds of Viperwolves. The ones that we just walked into is the nastiest breed on Pandora, created by RDA research and development teams that were trying to create a biological weapon to use again the Na'vi.

It didn't quite work as planned.

See, they created a superior breed of Viperwolves. Sterile, of course, to ensure they wouldn't breed or anything like that. These S-Viperwolves were strong, fast, and brutal... and completely uncontrollable.
A group of them escaped the RDA research center a year back, a group that Norm and the others didn't know about. And we had found them.

You know what I really hate? Irony.

I'm a product of scientific research, in both my Bionic Arm and in my Avatar body, and here I stood, facing down a group of biologically engineered Viperwolves.

Irony sucks. Hard. Repeatedly.

"Uh, Jake?" I said, drawing the knife he had given to me and crouching into a combat stance that Water had taught me, a very brutal military style that focused on one strike kills.

"Not the best time Tank." Jake said, drawing his own knife. Neytiri had drawn her bow and had an arrow notched. She hissed at the S-Viperwolves, which growled back at her.

I circled, watching each and every one of them. One of them barked at me and I hissed at him, which surprised me, as I had never reacted to any kind of threat like that before. I guess it was a inbred instinct for the Na'vi, so I just went with it.

... I'm not really sure how to describe what happened next.

I had twisted the knife around to prepare to attack, when suddenly; arrows were flying from all directions.
I sighed in relief for a few moments, though I kept at the ready as the arrows slammed into various Viperwolves in my line of sight. Several of them panicked and ran before being taken out, but one particularly nasty fellow with a big scar across his face leaped at me, teeth bared.

I pushed myself back, bringing the knife up and around as he lashed out at me and tackled me, his claws scratching at my chest and face, snapping to try to bite me.

The Na'vi in the clearing didn't seem to want to help me. "Jake!" I said, trying to fight off the beast, which was slowly ripping away my clothing.

"Fight, Tawtute. Prove your worth as a warrior and slay this beast. This is your task." Jake said, almost reverently.

Now, at this point in time I felt like throwing the S-Viperwolf at Jake and saying F*** you as loud as I could, but to do that I had to deal with the Viperwolf.

I rolled, trying to slam the Viperwolf to the ground so I could free my right hand, which clutched Jake's knife in a death grip. I hissed in pain as the Viperwolf sunk its teeth into my shoulder. I could feel each tooth as they slid into my skin, trying to rip and tear into my flesh and muscle.

I flipped Jake's knife around in my hand, point down, and slammed it into the Viperwolf's neck with a hiss and yanked the knife out before repeating the action. The Viperwolf yipped in pain and fell silent as I repeatedly stabbed it until I felt the teeth release and stood up, covered in its blood and my own.

I felt tired, hurt, and hungry on both sides of my body. Jake smiled at me. "Well done, Tank. Rest now, we will talk later."

I didn't quite know what he meant until I saw the ground rising up to catch me as I fell, too tired to even stay awake.
... I can't believe that was only four hours ago. It's startling... I remember being helped out of the Link Pod before collapsing onto a couch or something and falling asleep, and then here I am, back in my room.

I'm not really sure what to think right now, but one thing for damn sure.

I'm going back to Jake tomorrow. I've got some questions to ask him.

And I'm going to make sure I get some answers.
... maybe after a long nap.

-Tank reaches out to terminate the video log recorder before he blinks in sudden realization-

Oh! I almost forgot!

Before I fell KO'ed, I saw something.

You see, there are these little... um... glowly, jellyfish like things. They're pure spirits, according to the Na'vi, the seeds of the Tree of Souls, Eywa's messengers or something like that. If Eywa sends a propocy or a sign of some kind, Eywa supposedly sends it though the seeds.

There was... three of them. That I could see anyway. They were floating around my hand for a moment, and then my vision blanked out.

Don't know what it means, but it's such a strange occurrence that I figured it was worth mentioning in the log tonight.

... Alright, that should do it for tonight. Now I'm going to sleep so I'll be able to actually function in the Link Pod tomorrow.

Goodnight.

-Log Terminates-

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 12: Pandora Air

It's been another hectic day here on channel TANK, all Tanks, all the time.

I know, bad joke, but I needed a little bit of humor or I'm going to collapse.

Right... anyway, back on topic. I got to visit the Jungle for the first time today.

I mean, as a Human, not as an Avatar.

I know exactly what you're thinking right now: "Tank! You went out into the Jungle in your human body? What the hell were you thinking?!?"

What I was thinking is that the scientists needed an escort, Water was flying, and I figured I could use a day off from running around the forest as an Avatar. Don't get me wrong, though, I like running around as an Avatar, but...

I don't know. I just felt a need to be... me. Just for a day.

Besides, what's the point of having a cool Bionic Arm if I don't get a chance to use it and show off a bit, huh?

So when Water asked me if I wanted to go as a guard for the scientists, I was packed and dressed, clenching my teeth to install my arm before she could have the chance to say 'Na'vi'.

I did mention that it hurts like a .45 slug to the kneecap to put my arm on, right?

At least... I think I did. Well, anyway, I'm mentioning it now! It hurts, A LOT. Like makes you want to curl up in a corner and die kind of hurt.

At least... that's what it's like at first. I've been doing it for years, so it doesn't really make me want to roll over and DIE anymore, but it still feels like a snap kick to the face, a bottle of vodka, and a major ass kicking. Waking up from Cyro feels better, I'll tell you that much.

Anyway, it hurts because to put it on, it needs to connect to your nervous system, causing a 'full activation' and a major change of electrical input-output from the brain and...

... Ok, I'm not really explaining this well. Let me try that again...

When the arm connects to the nervous system and my brain, it sends a powerful electric shock in order to ensure a stable connection to the brain. It hurts like all get out because the shock spreads throughout the body, and lights every nerve in the body on fire.

Right. That's not really happens, but that's the best way I can think to explain it to you. Damn it, Audience, I'm a Linguistics Scientist and Negotiator, not a Doctor!

Bad jokes aside, about 0800 HRS, I made my way down to the hanger where a day of Adventure awaited me.

Let me tell you, if you've never been on a SA-2 Samson, you've never flown before.

I was doorgunner one, sitting on the right side of Water's SA-2. Um... shoot, what's the designation she gave it again?

... That's right! She calls it Dawn's Light! Don't know why, but it's a cool name.

Anyway, I was doorgunner one for Dawn's Light, and was trying to keep myself from just ignoring my job of having the M60 Machinegun on a swivel, to protect Dawn's Light from any creature that thought it would be a good place to get a bite to eat.

Water didn't seem too worried though, nor did any of the Scientists, who were all sticking to Avatar bodies today. "Hey, you're Tank right? The new guy who found Jake?" One of the scientist said with a smile.

This surprised me. Most of the other scientists have been too busy to bother talking with me with this experiment or that... well, that and I've been in the Link Pods for two days pretty much straight and went right to bed, so I didn't really get a chance to talk to them.

"Uh... yeah, that's me." I said in reply, putting one hand back to shake the Avatar's monster hand. It was weird to shake the hand.

I had never touched an Avatar's skin before, minus my own, but I wasn't really sure what to expect. It felt like normal flesh, nothing spectacular about it, but it was still an interesting moment for me and I felt like it was worth mentioning.

"Wow! Nice to meet you, I'm Jax!" The Avatar said with a grin. He was dark blue, with very pale stripes. Jax's Avatar was huge, like, ten foot two or something like that. His hair was spiky, and it looked like he preferred it that way, the queue braid hanging down to the small of his back.
The queue made me feel short. That's how tall this guy was.

Anyway, Jax shook my hand and we started chatting. Turns out the guy is a signals specialist, not really a 'scientist', but he was sent for specially by Dr. Augustine when she discovered that the trees communicated with each other on a global scale, she figured having a guy who was a specialist on signals, mental waves, and the like would be good to have along.

At the moment though, he was like me, just a guy with nothing to do so they set him up as a guard. He didn't seem too unhappy about it though. He sounded like he was just glad to get a chance to leave the base.

"I've been running drills up and down the block for WEEKS, waiting for something that I could do. I mean, I'm glad to be here and all, but now that the RDA is pretty much out, and the scientists have been busy with other projects, I've been worthless minus repairing some com-units that shorted out, fixing up a few new channels, and keeping some of the systems working." Jax told me though his com-unit.

Avatar pilots wear these special communicators that they wear around their necks. Standard helm-com units or earpieces don't work to well with Avatar bodies due to size and the particular shape of their ears, so the neck-com works pretty well for them.

Meanwhile, I spoke though my Exopack's com unit. It's pretty good, I guess. For an Exopack.

Jax was from a small town in Colorado back on Earth. Funny enough, his original goal in life wasn't to be a signal specialist, but a Radio disk jockey, though he chuckled about the term.

"They don't use disks anymore, so it's more keyboard jockey then DJ, but DJ has a cooler ring to it so they just use that." He told me.

"I never knew that..." I said. It was actually pretty cool to be able to talk about something that isn't plants or how a particular mineral affects a particular plant on a particular day and time in this cycle of the lunar patters and blah de blah. Scientists are pretty cool, but they talk too much for their own good sometimes.

Water cut in, "Hey ladies, cut the chatter and keep your eyes peeled. We've still got work to do."

I chuckled. "We're on it Ca-pi-tan."

Jax laughed and Water shook her head. "We're landing in five; just keep your heads on a swivel."

I nodded and turned my attention back to the skies of Pandora.

A slow start to what was going to turn into one hell of a day.

Quick thing, just something I thought of that I want to mention.

Right, something that I've completely forgotten to talk about is my memory. I've always been good at remembering conversations from a young age. Don't really know why I felt like talking about that, but when I was told by Norm to do this, he said it was a good idea to put down everything I thought or felt during the day, and this is still technically the day... right?

Anyway, back to the story... where was I?

That's right... We were heading for sector 11. The scientists wanted to inspect how the Damage done to sector 12 was effecting the wildlife in other areas of the jungle...

And I was going to find myself right in the middle of a new damage zone.

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 13: And I lose a perfectly good pair of socks.

I've seen some f***ed up s*** in my rather short life.

I've seen someone's head ripped from their shoulders by a 20 gage shotgun loaded with a slug round.

I've watched as someone was ripped limb from limb by a pack of feral dogs that roamed the backstreets before I ran, trying to find somewhere safe.

I watched as almost half of my body was ripped away from me; saw the maniacal gleam in a man's eye as he charged to his doom, all because he didn't like the way another person acted.

Earth is a really f***ed up planet.

But Pandora is a special kind of f***ed up, the kind that kills you slowly if you're not careful.

I was told, before I had gone out, by an old security guy who was part of the people protecting the scientists at Hell's Gate. Turns out that there were plenty of RDA Security Guards who decided against fighting with the Colonel and instead protected the scientists and Avatars back at base... go figure right?

I forgot to tell you what he said. He said to me, "The Colonel had a saying, back while we still could believe in the Hero in him. He told me, and every other guard, person to person, 'Pandora doesn't want us here. The Low Gravity and the environment will make you soft in an instance, make you lose focus. You get soft, and it'll s*** you out dead with zero warning. You do well to remember that, and remember: Don't Get Soft.' "

It makes sense, when you think about it. Low Gravity WILL make the body weaker, as our bodies are built for resisting the high-gravity of Earth. It deteriorates our muscles and our bones grow weaker.

So you got to get stronger. By any means necessary.

It's a good thought, one that I've decided to stand by. I would rather have to do laps every day then die.
And of course, the first thing that happens to me when I step onto Pandoran soil outside of Hell's Gate in my human body is I get into a fight.

Again.

Sector 11, which is right next to Hometree, originally called Sector 12 by the RDA, is this lush area, full of vegetation. The nickname for it right now is 'The Wilds' because not even the Na'vi seem to explore this area.

We were there to search out a rare type of flower, if you can believe that. The 'Moon Rose', as the researchers are calling it is only found in Sector 11, and supposedly only has a three-day life cycle. It's also reportedly the brightest of all the flora and fauna on Pandora.

So obviously, scientists being scientists, they want one.

And thus my little story begins.

Now, me and Jax were put together as 'Team 1'. I personally thought this was a bad idea until I realised that most of the scientists were combat ready. Apparently they've been doing their research. Weapons research that is.

Seriously, every Avatar had one of those M60's that normally went as door-mounted turrets, and each scientist had at least a WASP pistol strapped to their thigh. I personally was carrying a Shotgun. Don't know the name, but it's a semi-auto bull-pup design, and I've seen some footage of it being used. The thing is nasty at close range, so I figure I'll be ok.

Jax and I were sent North-East, towards a small river. It was about a two mile area that we were to cover, searching for the Moon Rose. We were to make three passes in all, one during the day, one during half-day, and one final pass once night had fallen.

The day runs were looking for buds, the twilight runs were to look for them as they bloomed, and the final pass was to get the samples.

Let me tell you, there is nothing more unnerving then walking into unknown territory without having a full idea of what you're walking into. But more unnerving then that is willingly walk into said unknown territory with a vauge idea of what's waiting around just about every shrub, fern, tree, and big leaf, waiting to rip you to tiny little pieces for a meal.

Naturally, I had the safety off my shotgun.

I was 'point man' between me and Jax, taking the front position, scanning ahead for any kind of trouble. I was consciously checking all my gear, ensuring I had all the ammo I could need and that my Combat Knife was clear in its sheath. Little things are annoying to check, but it's more annoying when little things ruin combat efficiency.

I've seen the war-vids from Nigeria... I mean, who hasn't? "AMERICA! FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT!" and all that complete bullcrap. No one believes them. We just want their recourses. I mean, yeah, Director Kain or Dictator Kain is a sick m*********er, just look at what he did! Used three hundred civilians as a way to test the effects of a thermobaric bomb on humans that are out of the range of the explosion itself!
You want to know the result?

You REALLY want to know?

Alright. Fine. But I warned you.

A thermobaric bomb is a 'gravity' bomb. Because of the way the explosion works, it creates a HUGE amount of pressure and heat. It's a nasty, nasty bomb that's better at flatting mountains then a 100 Megaton bomb.

After getting a thermobaric fired at you, however, you WISH that you were dealing with a nuke. What they don't tell you, what the brass tries to hide away, is the fact that the thermobaric bomb has a... secondary, effect.

Because of the way the pressure and head mixes, there is technically no shockwave. Instead, what happens is an 'Implosion' of air. The flames and pressure collapse inwards, sucking out all the air with them.

-Tank snaps his metallic left fingers, the room ringing with the sound- Just like that, all the air is gone. It will quite literally rip your lungs out of your body. I've seen some of the images. SO yeah, Dictator Kain is a sick, twisted bastard that needed a combat boot up the ass and a shotgun to the face, which he got.
But the fact that we're still in Nigeria... that's just wrong.

If we are still in Nigeria, anyway.

... It's weird, to talk about Earth like that, with no solid intel, just guesses. It's been five years man, anything could happen by then. We probably got a new president, which is cool I guess... but I'm not really an American anymore, am I?

I'm a Pandoran. This is my home... until someone tells me otherwise.

Anyway, back to the forest. Jax and I were pressing though as quick as we could. We found a few likely candidates down by a river that flowed though our search area, and we set down some markers.

It was really boring, tense work. The sunlight started to go out as me and Jax talked, finishing our search and preparing to turn the other way to get back to the buds we had found by the river, to try to catch them blooming.

We had been talking all day, about... well, anything really. Home, where we had come from, what kind of combat training we had, what it was like to be Avatar pilots, how I felt about my Bionic Arm, which had been a great deal of help in our escapade, and Jax asked a lot of questions about Jake and Neytiri.
"Yeah, they seem to be doing well. Jake has come into his own, or something like that. Like I said, I don't really know the guy, but he seems happy to me." I said with a slight nod as I quick-drew my combat knife with my bionic arm and hacked my way though some foliage that was too thick for either of us to get through or around.

"That's amazing though. You're so lucky Tank." Jax said with a longing sigh. "I don't mind helping out around here... but it's just... I don't know. I'm a Sig Spec... I feel like I'm worthless out here sometimes, you know?"

I nodded. "I'm not where you're at, but I could understand why you feel that way. Don't worry Jax. We've still got plenty of work." I said with an encouraging smile.

Jax grinned, the Na'vi canine teeth points catching my attention for a moment before we continued onwards. "Twilights starting soon, we're going to need to make it back to the river." I said.
"Lead the way Tank." Jax said with a nod.

You remember what I said about the Moon Rose? How it's so rare and all of that?

... Hang on, let me see if I can pull that up.

-Tank swivels around in the chair that he's sitting in and starts hitting keys on virtual keyboard before he finds what he wants and pulls it over next to him and hits a few more keys, then hits the 'play' button. The screen changes to the scene, which is being recorded from a camera in Tank's Exopack.-

"Tank, are we running?" Jax says, looking back at the camera.

"Yeah, its running, it's running." Tank says with slight nod, the camera moving for a moment but compensating for the bob, keeping on Jax.

"Awesome. Alight, this is research team 1, and we're coming upon the river right now and..." Jax is talking back over his shoulder while walking and suddenly his voice drops away as he looks forwards, his ears sticking straight up.

The camera bobs a few times as Tank dashes up to Jax's side, and an audible gasp can be heard from Tank.

"By Eywa..."
Several hundred of the little Moon Rose buds are just starting to bloom, each bud opening one small little section at a time.

"Tank... are you getting this? Are we recording right now?" Jax said with a expression of awe on his face."

"Yeah... yeah... we're recording." Tank mutters, unable to draw his attention away from the small, unfolding flowers.

As each little section opens, the sun dips down, just a little bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more. When the sun finally goes away, the Moon Flowers are fully bloomed, the bright, radiant purple and red hues they cast lighting up the small area Jax and Tank are standing in.

-Tank smiles and moves the video out of his image and starts talking again-

We spent over an hour just ensuring the video went back to base. That's the first ever full recording of the Moon Flower blooming. Sounds odd, I know, but the problem is that once you find it, chances are good that you'll never find it again.

Before now, we had just stumbled upon it, which is how we even know it exists. We've got some samples, but never a full plant in full bloom for the first time.

Let me tell you, there is little in the world more beautiful then this little flower blooming.

The world lit up in purple and red, making even my human skin glow. It was... amazing. Breathtaking.
Jax and I took the samples and one full flower, roots and all. I'm positive that Dr. Augustine had been smiling on us that moment, because suddenly, all the buds snapped shut.

I twirled on my heel, bringing my shotgun up, to see myself glaring down a Thanator, one of the biggest, baddest, nastiest animals that live on Pandora. "JAX! RUN LIKE HELL!" I yelled out, turning and started running.

I knew I was in trouble. Major trouble. Jax could run, I mean, really run, and semi-outrun this guy, if only for a little while, but one pounce and I was screwed.

In the end... I'm not sure what saved me. Maybe it was the fact that I tripped, maybe it was my arm, maybe it wasn't feeling well, I don't know.

But it missed. The best predator on Pandora... missed me, by several inches.

I had to think fast. My heart was beating like a jackhammer as it forced blood and adrenaline though my body.

I needed to get to a higher level, and fast. Winding up, I activated the winch on my left hand and let it fly, grabbing the closest tree.

You ever play that super-old school video game from one of the original companies before Mictendo was formed and beat out Sony, making the X-BoxRev? What was it called... Bionic Commando?

Well, in the game, the main character had a bionic arm that had a winch and air-pump fired arm that could grab onto just about anything and pull it to him or pull him to it.

I figured: "If they could do it in a old-school videogame, why can't I?"

It worked, thankfully, the winch pulled me though the air, letting me leap from tree to tree like a crazed monkey, or one of those weird blue monkeys that are always leaping across the tree tops around here.
It was ALMOST the perfect getaway. Just needed to remember to let go of whatever I was holding onto and whipped my arm around, throwing my hand to the next object to swing off of.

The Thanator was bewildered, I think. It didn't follow us, though I could swear I felt it breathing down my neck with every swing.

Jax had made it to the clearing before I did, though I got to say my entrance was a bit more spectacular.
Here's how Jax told me it looked. He had just gotten back to everyone and told them I had stayed back to hold off the Thanator, and everyone was getting ready to go back in for me when they heard this wild whooping.

I came swinging out of the trees with a flying leap. I remember that I realised that I didn't have anything more to swing from a few seconds too late. My hand retracted and I fell towards the Earth.

Jax tells it that I landed with my Cybernetic fist to the ground, making a impact crater where I landed and standing up like it was no big deal. Like the trailor for that one 'Iorn Man' remake they did a few years ago... or is it several now? Jeese, the Time-Lag from Cryo still f***ing with my head...

In reality-land, my girlfriend Gravity, that fickle mistress that likes kicking us in the balls over and over again, was deciding that now would be a good time to screw with me. I almost broke my leg and rolled when I hit the ground to try to absorb as much of the Impact as possible, but in the end all I ended up doing was giving my self a sore body.

After a few quick explanations, everyone had packed up and we were in the SA-2, Water pulling us the hell out of there at best speed.

I have to admit... as wild as it was, swinging though the trees like I was Spider-Man in New York City was pretty badass.

The only thing that ruined the whole experience for me was something that I just remembered.

See, I don't have a lot of socks. I love a nice warm pair of socks. Don't Judge me, Socks are the most important thing you can put on your feet... minus boots, but still, you need socks to wear boots!

Anyway, when I tripped, I lost my boots. Don't ask me how, I still don't know, but I was pulled from my socks and boots.

-An auditable sigh can be heard as Tank shakes his head- One of my few good pairs of warm socks, gone forever!

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 14: Skipping though Time and Space.

Where too begin, one can only wonder...

Uh, well, first I suppose I should say hello again, or welcome back or something like that. It's been... a week since I last posted, and I suppose I need to apologise for that.

It's been a hectic week, so there is some explaining to do, as well as a reason of why I haven't been able to make a message. I uh, wrote down what I could, but still...

... Anyway, I suppose I should begin at the first day. I returned to Hometree and the Na'vi, where Jake was awaiting my 'reawaking' so that he could discuss with me my reasons for being there, which I thought was absurd based upon everything I'm pretty sure they knew about me already.

I mean, I'm human, I'm a scientist-trained-fighter (kind of) and an Avatar pilot. I stumbled across a large group of Na'vi warriors and they brought me to him and the rest of his clan.

What else could I be here for besides to learn?!?

But then again, I guess it's not my choice, is it?

   "Tank, I have decided that we will keep you here, under observation... to prove that you can be trusted." Jake said with a slight nod. "Eywa spoke to Neytiri yesterday and told her about your arrival here and why she believes you need to be here. Both Neytiri and I agree that you should be kept under observation and perhaps even trained to think as we Na'vi think."

   Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a pretty chill guy. I'll do just about anything if I can get food out of it in some way, I make friends easy, and minus the whole 'bionic arm' thing, I'm a pretty normal guy.
   But this wasn't exactly something you could stay 'chill' about.

   First off, I don't believe in Eywa. I'm loud and proud on this one. I don't believe in any one particular God and lady, if you can hack into the RDA databases and are watch'n this here video right now, I'mma tell you one thing and one thing only: I don't do religion.

   Don't get me wrong. I'm sure there's a higher-power of SOMEKIND, but after I've pretty much had my entire life f***ed over by a jackass with a bomb strapped to his chest for 'Jihad' or whatever the f*** he believed in, I gave up on the whole religion thing.

   So when I'm being told that the only reason I was being kept under 'observation' was because some lady who lived in a tree said so, you can understand when I say that I'm more then just a little bit skeptical.

   "Ooookay. So, you want me to stay here." I said, looking at Jake like he was crazy, which about sums up how I felt about the guy at the moment.

   "Yes, I do, and I wish for you to be trained. One of our warriors has asked to be put in charge of your 'training' and observation. We wish to show you the forest, though our eyes, and though our minds, as we see it, so that you understand." Jake said.

   It was about this time that the nagging though entered my head. 'What the HELL AM I DOING HERE?!?'

   Alright, rant time again... here we go.

   Now, I've fallen in love with Pandora, don't get me wrong. It's beautiful, wonderful... alive.

   Have you ever been to Colorado?

   Visited the National Park?

   You know, Rocky Mountain National Park?

   Beautiful place, really. It's a wonderful place, one of the last few patches of green that you can find on Earth. And yet, I went there only once, and thinking back on it...

   All I can remember is gray and steel.

It's nice, but it's small. It's polluted, trashed every day, doesn't get enough income to keep it alive sometimes, and it's been shoved into the back of the modern mindset.

It's got a metric S*** TON of problems.

But I'll be damned if it's not still home.

Maybe I'm just homesick, or something, but I miss Earth.

Pandora is beautiful, but, it's just... weird. I don't know why I feel this way, or what's building this feeling of dread that I have deep in the pit of my stomach, but somethin' don't feel right. I don't know what it is, or why, but... there is defiantly something wrong.

And I'm going to get to the bottom of it.

Jake and I continued to discuss my 'position' in the tribe and what I was doing there, which was slowly starting too decent to the levels of 'I really don't want to be here anymore.'

I'm not sure when I started looking at it that way. I think it was around the time he mentioned the leather thong. Now, I have HEARD complaints from Sand and Water about those things, and I don't care WHERE I am in the tribe, I am NOT PUTTING ON A LEATHER THONG.

Uh-uh. No way, fuggitaboutit, screw it, NO.

You can guess how well that particular argument went.

Halfway through the day and I was going off to pick myself out a leather banana hammock.

And it only got worse from there.

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 15: Here and Back Again.

With my brand-new banana hammock officially riding my arse like a dept collector, I was introduced to my teacher.  His name is... heck; I can even pronounce it yet. I just call him 'Teach' anyway, so that's what I'll do here. He's not happy about it, but whatever. I don't care.

In case you can't tell, I'm a little bit pissed off right now. I wasn't expecting to be FORCED to stay with the Na'vi. I mean, hip-hip-Hoorah for finding them, three cheers for me, but something doesn't feel right.
You ever get that feeling? The one where you're sitting in front of your computer looking at a essay or a homework assignment or something like that and you feel like you're missing something crucial, like putting your name at the top of the paper or something like that?

Or when you're making a puzzle and when you look at the box art, only to realise that the puzzle on the box isn't the puzzle you're making?

That's the feeling I have right now. Like I've overlooked something that's really crucial, really important, really... I don't know, critical? Something like that.

Whatever it is, it's caused Jake to freak out, I think. Something changing, something is... not right.
I know, I sound like a broken record, but personally, I think that particular point needs repeating. Repeatedly.

I don't know what's wrong with me, why I'm so... high strung right now. It's creepy. The Na'vi watches my every move, as if they expect something out of me. I don't know what they're expecting. I'm defiantly not the next f@#$ing coming of the lord or some 'Avatar of Eywa' or something like that.

... Heh. 'Avatar of Eywa.' See, it's funny because I'm part of the AVTR project and...

Aw screw it; it's not funny if you have to explain it.

Anyway, back to my 'training'.

So Teach was very frank with me, which I thought was actually pretty cool. I like it when people are up front about motives and stuff like that, saves me time having to beat it out of them with 'Mr. Stick'. You know the whole line of speaking softly and all of that.

It went a little something like this:
"You are NOT Na'vi, no matter what Olo'eyktan say, Dreamwalker. I am to train you, but I don't have to like doing so." Teach growled at me.

Oh yeah. Sunshine, Lollypops, and mother f***ing rainbows for everyone. Yay. In case you're brain-damaged, that was sarcasm.

He continued to spend most of the day lecturing me about how stupid he expected me to be and that he was defiantly unhappy to have to deal with me, like it was my fault, which technically I suppose it is. It's my fault I dashed into the forest.

But on that line of thought, it's Jake's fault for dragging me out here in the first place, so whatever.
At least I'm at least sorta-safe out here. I really don't see why everyone says this place is so bad, you know, 'the most hostile environment known to man'?

-Tank snorts as he rolls his shoulders and spits away from the camera- Huh. Yeah.

I've had a few close calls but so far I've been A-OK in the 'hostiles' environment. Maybe I've gotten lucky or something like that, but I really haven't seen the problem, if there is a problem.

Anyway, as much 'fun' as my day was, my night was going to be even longer. I don't even know where to start with you guys...

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 16: Really Depressing Adventures in science. (RDA)

Let me get something straight with you guys...

Ok, I have no problems with pulling long shifts to solve problems. Really! It's no big deal. I've pulled all-nighters before. I've dealt with deadlines breathing down my neck before; I'm a freaking college graduate for Eywa's sake! I'm a linguistics expert! Languages are my thing; they are what I study, what I eat breath and f***ing LIVE.

So when I get dragged off to, of all things, practice my NA'VI, interrupting my sleep time? I might get a bit cranky.

"Tank, you really need to brush up on your Na'vi phrasing and pronunciation, as well as Grammar and Sentence Structure if you're going to live amongst the Na'vi." Norm had said, barring my way from my bed and my room, where I could collapse and go to sleep.

"Norm... look. I really appreciate you trying to help me, but I have a early morning tomorrow, in doing of science and language and... urgh, warrior training, and frankly, I need to get some f***ing sleep or someone is going to get hurt. Namely Me." I muttered back, doing everything in my power to not think of punching Norm in the face, because I knew that my arm would pick that thought right up and act on it in my drowsy state.

If you're wondering why I was wearing my arm, I had to reattach it to help Water out with her SA-2. A bolt got stuck and they needed some Bionic power to unscrew it. Here's to using something improperly, neh?

Norm wouldn't take my excuses and turned me around, pushing me towards the science lab, thus ensuring my all-nighter. I knew that tomorrow was going to be hell, and I knew that no one, bar Sand and maybe Water, were really going to care.

-Tank visibly sits back, taking a deep breath-

I actually haven't been able to chat with Sand and Water for a while now... I actually really miss having them around. All because I slipped out of the compound... Tec, I'm such an idiot sometimes, neh?
Well, this pattern of not sleeping lasted for about three days, warrior training wearing out my mind during the day, and Language practice killing my body and destroying the remaining bits of my psyche during the
night.

Finally, I got a break on the night of the fourth day, getting to sleep till late into the next day. I knew that I wasn't expected at the Na'vi camp, and I had finished learning the Na'vi language to a point that it satisfied Norm that I could understand and speak it, so I took a well deserved nap.

And woke up with nothing to do.

Don't you hate it when that happens? You finally get a break and yet, after finally going to sleep, you wake up like, three hours or four hours later, raring to go only to not have anything, and you just can't go back to sleep for some reason or another?

I know this feeling very well. It SUCKS.

So I went to the library to look through the RDA files on Pandora, try to learn more about the environment and planet and such, figure out a bit more about Unobtainium, and basically learn everything that someone hasn't told me yet.

You're not going to believe what I found. A 'treasure' so to speak, full of all the knowledge of Pandora that anyone could ever possibly need. "The Marine's Guide to Pandora, A guide of what to and what not to shoot."

...

I was kidding. What I found was the Scientific Journal of Dr. Augustine, Grace, the scientist that got me interested in Pandora in the first place, the whole reason I was here.
All of her video journals, right there, just BEGGING for me to start going through them.
So I did.

And let me tell you: Scientific Video Logs are BORING AS HELL. I mean, really, you don't GET anything out of them. Knowledge, sure, but...

It's a video log of a guy just... sitting there. Maybe they move around, maybe they show another video feed if they have it, but it's just a person sitting there talking. I've had classes like that, and I HATE THEM.

I had shifted through the audio journals of other scientists, and I was fairly convinced that RDA Science really stands for 'Really Depressing Adventures in Science'. I kid you not, because the first four-five years on Pandora were... tragic.

The first landing (and death of the crew of) a Valkyrie Mark I, the first survey team ripped apart by a Viperwolf pack, the first encounters with Ikran and Palalukan, the first Na'vi encounter...

The starting work is really, really, REALLY depressing. It starts to get better around the time Dr. Augustine shows up, when she starts the AVTR program. And even THEN it's pretty damn depressing.
There are a whole lot of ghosts out in that forest. Lots of spirits of good men and women who were just trying to do the right thing, more men and women who weren't so good, just doing it out of greed, and lots of Na'vi men, women, and children who were killed by a madman who wouldn't see reason and a company who didn't realise that they couldn't get Unobtainium from under the original Hometree.
Just saying.

Anyway, Grace's journals were a freaking goldmine; just full of information and insight that you just can't get... bless that woman's soul, wherever she is now. Here, let me show you.

-Tank pushes himself back from the computer, pulling a file over from another screen and playing it next to his face. Dr. Grace Augustine popped up on screen, a cigarette lit up in one hand as she talked to the recorder.-

"School Day 57... the Na'vi children are really trying to learn... it's amazing, how interested they are in me, in the rest of us 'Tawtute', skypeople, as the Na'vi call us. I've learned more from these last fourty seven-odd days about Na'vi culture then I think we've learned since the AVTR project started." Grace said, pausing to take a drag on her cigarette before letting the small cloud of smoke drift away.

"It makes you think, it really does. The Na'vi are bright, intelligent people. They have so much capacity, to learn, to study, to explore, and to understand. I think they actually understand us more then we understand them..."

-Tank cuts the video there and shakes his head-

The way she talks about the Na'vi... it really made me want to keep trying, as annoyed as I am still about the turn of events. Her logs are full of that, just really deep thoughts and scientific discovery. How the whole world seems to just BE, you know? Just... there. It can communicate with itself on a level that we humans, minus the Avatar pilots, can't really understand. It's kinda cool... and very scary, all at the same time.

I'm hoping to find more about what the Na'vi want from me, but that's a diffrent story.

-Tank sits back again, the frown on his face clear in the glow of the monitor-

But still... after watching that, I swore I would try a bit harder the next day. Training was indeed getting easier, as much as I wanted to complain about it, and the fact that I had gotten a full night's sleep helped. Tomorrow I'm being taken out to learn how to ride a Direhorse.

Not quite sure how I feel about that... Well, live and learn right? This is Tank, signing off for week... Yeesh, I don't even know anymore...

-The log closes as the audio log finishes, and you ponder the last words before you move your hand over to pull the next log forwards to continue.-

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 17: Hello? Is this thing on?

I don't know who you are, if you're watching this, but I'm... a bit confused right now.

-Tank waves his bionic arm around at his surroundings-
In case you can't tell, I'm not at Hell's Gate anymore, and I'm fairly positive that having to hole up in a freaking SHACK isn't quite the best place to be right now, but you know what? Whatever, I've had to deal with worse.

...

Ok, so maybe I haven't had to deal with worse, but I could. I can't say what shack in the middle of nowhere I'm at, on the off chance that one of the raiders who took Hell's Gate decides to look though the audio journals, but one thing I am quite sure of is this:

S*** just got REAL.

Where do I begin? Is there really a beginning to this... monstrosity?

I think there is something about Pandora that either makes a man or breaks a man. What it makes a man into? That, you'll have to decide for yourself.

But we have been deceived. And I really... I just... I don't get it.

You ever run into that feeling that you're missing something?

I've mentioned having that feeling more than once, and guess what? I figured out what I was missing. The little details, the important details, the details that would have probably kept me, Water, Sand, Norm... everyone, would have kept us out of harm's way.

Alright, I'll see what I can do. I only know bits and pieces that I experienced firsthand... much of it I was told later, but this is my journal so I don't think I can bring others into it.

It started a while ago, before I even arrived on Pandora. The victory of the Omatikaya over the RDA had started a small land-grab war between several contracting companies trying to fill in the claims that RDA had on planet.

However, this wasn't possible because Hell's Gate isn't the only base that the RDA have on Pandora.
I really don't see how Jake didn't think about that one, or Norm, or anyone else on Pandora. I mean, it seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me NOW, but I guess I can sort of understand considering how I didn't think of it. Then again, I've also been distracted with the whole 'Not Dying or collapsing from mental exertion' thing and with my Avatar body and thoughts of 'WTF IS GOING ON AROUND HERE', so I suppose I can kind of understand why I was distracted.

Still no excuse for anyone else, minus Sand and Water because they were left out of the loop as much as I was.

They're with me here in this mobile Link Lab. Water's Scorpion plus my Avatar is pretty much all the defense we have, bar a few shotguns, WASP pistols, and assault rifles. Not exactly the kind of equipment you want to be starting a war with, especially if all you have to fight this war is three people.

Yeah, I ran from the tribe. The Omatikaya are important, but at the moment, I have more important things to worry about then some made up destiny given to me by a freaking TREE.

-Tank sits back and sighs, shaking his head-

Ok, maybe I'm taking that a bit too far. That was wrong of me. I didn't really mean that entirely, but my point still stands.

I'm not a Na'vi, as much as Jakesully has been trying to make me one. I am Tank, the Glock Panzer of Pandora, a smart guy with a bionic arm, an Avatar, and people that care about me, the real me, not the Avatar me.

But... I can't keep running forever. I will need to go back to the Omatikaya eventually. This war has just started, and as much as I wish I could, I can't fight a war by myself.

I am not Invincible.

The RDA took their time to get the message back (with good reason) to start full takeover and lockdown of all facilities, to prevent any more 'civilian uprising' and to destroy the AVTR project.

It was about Dawn when the first wave of the strike against Hell's Gate started. Water was the one who raised the alarm. Somehow she and a few others of the mechanics had gotten the anti-air turrets back online and were able to take down most of the Scorpions. Two SA-2 got inside, and that's pretty much where the entire thing started heading downhill. Fast.

It was the most terrifying thing that you could possibly imagine. Guns blazing left and right, the anti-air rockets taking out Scorpion and SA-2 indiscriminately, the terrified cries of men from the SA-2s getting blown away, off of the SA-2 and into the sky, came clear though the com system.

Norm was begging for the RDA security teams to stop the fighting, to surrender and to back down. That's about the time the first AA-Turret went down to Scorpion fire.

It's... a bit of a blur, now that I think back on it. I remember Sand grabbing me, carrying several packs of gear and handing them to my bionic arm before we hauled ass down to the hanger where Water was already spooling up for takeoff. Norm dashed over and gave her directions before we took off at best speed, the AA-Turrets giving us cover as Water took us towards the Flux to jam radar.

Hey, maybe it's a used strategy, but I'll be damned if it didn't work...

...

I wish I knew what happened to the others. We got work from the other AVTR pilots. They had escaped and were setting up a major campsite, but they warned us not to go looking for them.

We're alone out here...

And I don't think even Eywa is going to come save us.

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 18: Fights to the death rarely end well.

It's been four days since the assault on Hell's Gate, and Sand has been glued to the Com System in the shack, keeping the video-feed off but using a Trojan Horse backdoor to wire into the com chatter from the old RDA guys.

That whole 's*** got real' thing I was talking about?

Yeah. That particular s***pile just got about 10 feet deeper, and now there is a literal storm brewing along with it.

If you've ever seen bad weather... you've never seen anything like bad weather on Pandora. It is the most beautiful and most horrifying thing that you will ever experience. This is a very rare thing, a 'hurricane' basically.

Lucky for us, the big trees around here take a hell of a lot more then some freaking powerful winds to send them flying around, and the labs were made to withstand YEARS of this crap, so we're all fine here, bunkered down and safe.

For now.

-Tank sits back a bit, his metal hand slowly rubbing his temples as he looks at the camera.-

The com chatter has told us a lot. The whole planet has been put under RDA lock down. Several more shipments of soldiers and scientists and equipments and crap have arrived. Apparently the RDA had an insider who got the message out that Hell's Gate had been taken early on. The bastard was executed for treason once control of Hell's Gate had been confirmed.

We heard his death over the Com System. It wasn't pleasant, and it sure as HELL wasn't fast.

-Tank shakes his head-

This whole thing is starting to feel more and more like the worst war that I could ever imagine... that anyone could ever imagine. The whole world feels like it's against us now...

"Talking to the camera again?"

-Tank is interrupted by a willowy woman in a flight jumpsuit-

Yes, I'm talking to the Camera again Water, thanks for interrupting.

"Well, hurry it along. The storm is gonna be over soon and we need to check the Scorpion and your little body so we can make that quick-jump to site 26 for those weapons we saw in the log. We need supplies and if we need to steal them, it's better to get somewhere unarmed first."

Can do Water.

-Tank waves Water off with one hand and she laughs and reaches around him and pulls him into a hug-

"Seriously, don't talk to long SMA, or you're gonna get brain rot from sittin' still. We bounce in 20."

On it capi-tan. Now shoo.

-Water leaves and Tank gets back to his video-

The RDA has this whole "re-takeover" planned out. Like, to a f***ing T. The take out of Hells Gate was just the first step. They're gonna follow up by hunting down each of the mobile labs and take 'em out as well.

Smart idea on the moving, huh?

In any case, we are safer now then we were before, which is a start. We have weapons, we have Waters SA-2 loaded to bear with combat gear that was loaded on before we left, and I've got my arm, which is so a plus in our direction.

But it doesn't look good. And I'm not looking forwards to it.

-Tank sighs-

I think... this is going to be my last recorded video like this. There is just too much that needs to be done. So from now on, all my video is going to be recorded from some specialty camera rigs that we got, like the 'helmet/eyepiece' camera that I had from the research day.

They got a modified version of that for the Avatars, and they had a few sets here, so I'll be using those and the helm-cam whenever possible.

Because I don't like the feeling I'm getting out here. Something bad is going to happen, and whatever happens, I want for there to be proof.

If you're watching this, you probably already know the story. Hell, the RDA may be already doing it's thing again and all the Na'vi are dead, Pandora stripped to it's core.

Or maybe we win. I don't know, and I don't care to know. This is real. f***ing. Life. Not some fairy-tale fantasy spun to a child before being put to bed, and I hate to say it but...

I think I know how this particular book ends. And it isn't pleasant.

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

Chapter 19a:  Supply Run

"Got your little helmet cam going there Tank?"

Tank rolls his eyes at Sand, who is looking over at him from the other doorgun of Water's SA-2. "Yes, I do. I need to record this stuff. If we die, this is the only record of what happened to us."

"And you don't think they'll just delete it?"

"Well, you don't know that..." Tank mutters, turning his head back to his own doorgun, looking out of the SA-2 into the Pandoran sunset as he checks to make sure that the gun is loaded and clear as he continues talking. "Maybe if we die, the others may take over or get lucky or... something. I don't like the idea of not having anyone know who we are. Besides, I set up the camera to record directly to the databanks at our camp. That way, we're the only ones who have access to it."

"Alright you two knock it off. Eyes on, and remember to stick to the plan. I don't want you two to die or worse, but we need to make sure this raid works. Tank, where was that hole in the fence you mentioned?"

Water's voice crackled over the com unit as Tank's head swivels to look at her. "Two miles up on the left side, in the Avatar unit."

Water shook her head. "I did mention how stupid this was right?"

Sand chuckled from behind Tank. "Only twenty or thirty times Water. Don't worry about it. We'll be fine."

"Like hell you will. You've got thirty minuets to get in and out of there." Water grumbled, obviously not liking the idea of the two sneaking into the base on their own.

"Twenty. If we're gone for thirty you get out of here and try to find some others, or go to Area twelve to try to find Jake. Maybe he'll help you, maybe he won't." Tank says, looking back out. "Don't worry Water, we'll be fine."

"... Drop in two minutes." Water says, obviously not believing them.

Tank sighs and turns back, the two minutes ticking by in silence as Water brings them in low and quiet, under the radar and out of range of any of the turrets that might have been reactivated.

"... All right, we're here. I'm going all-quiet. Call me on com when you're ready for pick up." Water says, not looking back at Tank and Sand, who look at eachother and then get out, Sand swinging her submachine gun out infront of her as Tank takes out the shotgun he had from before. They both got out and surveyed the area, clearing it before they walked around to the front of the gunship.

"... Guys. Good luck." Water said, looking at the two from the cockpit of the SA-2. Tank reached out and air-hugged her.

"We'll be right back Water. Hang tight." Tank said, Sand nodding. Tank then nodded at Sand. "Lets move."

Tank leads the way, the dark-skinned Sand falling in behind him, as the camera seems to settle behind his shotgun. Tank chuckles sadly. "You know, this kind of reminds me of DOOM, the way this looks."

Sand chuckles back. "Yeah, but this isn't Mars and the demons are human."

"Funny how backwards that is." Tank says in reply as they come up to the fence. "The hole was about... here." Tank points out the large hole. "I'm surprised no one has noticed it or tried to fix it."

Sand mutters, "Bastards probably killed all the Avatars and then shut it off to save power. Wonder why they didn't think of raiders coming in this way? And Norm didn't get it fixed because they never had time..."

"Call it lucky then." Tank said. "Come on, we got work to do."

With that, Tank ducks low under the fence into through the hole, just in case. Sand follows. "You still got the duffle?"

"Yeah. Why are we taking only one bag again?"

"Because you can carry five times more then I can and still run as fast. Now come on." Sand pushes ahead of Tank, leading the way as they slink up to the back-side door of Hells Gate.

"No cameras... man, why did they not think of this?" Tank mutters. "Science-puke territory. They don't care." Sand mutters back as she looks inside the small airlock. "We're clear." She says, opening the door and letting her and Tank in.

Once inside, Tank takes off the Exopack and straps it to his arm, the camera getting a glimpse of him before he turns it off.

Suddenly the camera is rolling again. Apparently Tank hooked up an eyepiece as well. "...with the camera." Sand muttered, appearing in talk.

Tank looked at the tall dark skinned blue-eyed girl. "Yeah, again with the camera. We need to record everything. Call it part of the 'science.'"
Sand snorts. "Right. Science. Whatever. Lets get moving."

Tank and Sand slip out the airlock, the only sound of them breathing and their boots hitting the ground as they jogged/ran, weapons at the ready as they headed for the closest supply room.

They came to the door and Sand pulled out a lock pick as Tank covered her, sweeping each hallway. "Great timing I think... looks like the guards are off duty... or everyone is pretty relaxed because of the big win yesterday." Tank said to Sand as she whispered a victory as she unlocked the door and pulled Tank inside.

"Good for us, bad for them." Sand said as she opened up the dufflebag that Tank had brought and started loading it up with everything she could grab. Soon the bag was stuffed up with stuff. "Tank, zip this up, I'll cover you." Sand said.

Tank's metallic arm comes into view as he takes the duffle and zips it up, slinging it over his shoulder. "Alright. Got it. Lets get gone." Tank said, as he turned and stood up.

"Sounds good... Tank, you shouldn't stop doing your night time recordings..." Sand said, looking out the door. "If we want people to know, they should know EVERYTHING."

Tank's sigh comes across loud and clear. "Fine. But I'm taking the camera's with us anyway."

"Deal."

The two quickly exit without much problem, the camera winking off and back on again as they put on Exopacks and run, fleeing from Hells Gate without much problem.

They slip out the gate and rush for the SA-2, which starts up as soon as Water can see it's them. "Get in, let's go!" Water calls out as the two leap into the Samson.

Water takes off and the SA-2 leaps into the sky just as a Na'vi rushes into sight, watching them fly away. "Did you guys see that?" Tank calls out, pointing down at the figure in the clearing that is now heading back towards the tree."

"See what Tank?"

"The Na'vi."

"Tank, there is no one there..."

"..." Tank falls silent. "Nevermind. I'll show you guys later. Come on, let's get back to base."

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

[[PRETTY COOL HUH?]]

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

[[ALRIGHT, TWO MORE AND I'll BE DONE YELLING AT YOU ALL]]

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

[[IT'S FULL OF SERIOUS NOW!]]