Storm over Pandora

Started by Lehrrap Uniltìranyu, December 31, 2009, 08:10:08 PM

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Lehrrap Uniltìranyu

#20
Hell's Gate Hanger
Samson SA-2 Pad Twelve-one-one
0900 HRS


Jax wasn't entirely looking forwards to the first meeting with his engineer. Sometimes they wern't exactly 'hospitable' people and usually didn't like to fly. The hospitable part didn't really bother him, but he hated people who didn't like to fly.

As he approached Pad Twelve-one-one, he got the first view of his SA-2, the Brokensword, up on the left side, just as the engineer in seven-one-oh promised. He marvled for a second at the sight of his beautiful gunship, which looked better then ever, which was saying something after it got shot though space and didn't have matinence for about five years.

"I don't know who set my baby up here, but I need to shake their hand." Jax whistled as he walked up to his SA-2 with a smile.

"Thanks, she was transported in good shape, didn't take but an hour or so to clean her up. You're the pilot I was assigned to eh?"

Jax blinked in surpise as a voice came from about nowhere, his attention stuck on his SA-2. "Uh, hello? And yes, I'm Jax. Brokensword is my baby. Mind gracing me with both your presence and your name?"

A man sat up from beside the left rotor, looking over at Jax from up top. The man was defently a enginner, and seemed to know what he was doing. "Names Alex. I've got 12-1-1 through 12-1-6, but the last three are AMP suits. Should'nt be anything too hard to take care of—" Alex blinked at Jax, as if he had just realised something. "--Hey, I know you, you were one of the last guys on our drop in. What do they call ya?"

"My call sign is BROKEN-1. Guess they didn't have anything original." Jax said with a sarcastic twist of his hand. He walked over to the Samson and climbed up and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you Alex. Sorry I didn't notice you on drop. I don't pay attention to others to much when I'm in the air. No feeling quite like flying the skies."

It was the cold, solid truth. Jax enjoyed being in the air more then being on the ground, and when he was in flight, unless he had a reason to focus, the world just drifted away, nothing but him and his SA-2 to keep him preoccupied.

"Good to meet ya, you seem a bit more intelligent than the average pilot." Alex stated as they shook hands. "As far as the drop goes, no worries, I feel that some way about machines." Alex dropped down to the deck, gathering his tools and other small bits of FOD from his work.

Jax noticed that Alex was missing a finger on his left hand. 'I wonder what caused that.' He though to himself as Alex continued,  "I cleaned up the s*** on the filters on your air-intakes, should be a bit smoother now. Your left rotor servo is also sticking a bit, seems someone wasn't keeping the hydro fluid topped off. I'll watch it over the next few days, see if there's a leak somewhere."

Jax blinked and then nodded. The thrice blasted hydro-fluid pump. "Really? Hang on; I know where the problem probably is. Blasted hose never says connected tightly, it's come loose more than once, it probably is again." Jax walked over to the back of the rotor and flipped open a few panels, his aviator's watch glinting slightly as it synced with the SA-2's main computer.

"Nice piece of tech there. Custom made eh? All I've got is his garbage data pad they gave us for diagnostics checks. Doesn't tell you half the s*** it should." Alex said as he held up the pad. Jax remembered when he was stuck using those.

Jax looked over at Alex and then down at his aviators watch.  He said another little thank you to Dingo and the Master Gunny for giving him and then fixing his Aviatiors Watch as he said "Huh? Oh yeah. My other baby. The whole reason why I'm even half as good as I am, though every other pilot you'd talk to back on Earth and most of my instructors would tell you otherwise."

"Not a bad idea though, maybe I'll tinker around with a couple pads that "go missing" and see if I can't make somethin similar..." Alex stated, trailing off as Jax went back to inspecting the hose.

"... See? Right here. This hose leaks like a b****. I can never seem to figure what's wrong with it, for all my know-how. Maybe you can see the problem." Jax said, looking over at Alex.

"Yeah, probably. Machines are like ladies, gotta keep em lubed up or they might kill ya. Give me about an hour or so, I'll see if I can trace the problem. Usually when one of these hoses leaks it's because something's either gummed up, out of line, or God knows what." Alex said with a nod.

"Alright. In the meantime, I'm going to go check electronics and get a pre-flight started up. First flight today. Come to think of it, if you've got the time, I could use a Co-Pilot that actually knows their way around these birds. It would be nice to have someone to talk to that isn't a rubber-neck jarhead that doesn't know an axel-converter from a gyro-stabilizer." Jax said with a nod.

Jax made this offer to every engineer that he had ever had, as a bit of a double sided coin. The first side was to see if they were a 'groundie' or a 'airborn', if they could handle being away from the ground, and to see if they trusted their own work enough to fly with it. He was pretty sure that he didn't need to bother with the second part of that thought around this man, however.

"What time you gonna be back?"

"Flight on deck is Eleven-hundred hours. We're a bit ahead of the flight plan for today, but better to get it done now rather than later, neh?" Jax said, waving his hand slightly as he climbed down from the Samson.

"No sweat, a flight would give me a chance to see how things are working anyways, flight test is always better than anything I can do here on the ground. I should be done in the bay in an hour or so, and you seem alright so far. You go get your clearances for it and I'll keep workin here." Alex said, picking up the last of his tools.

"Right. I'll go get that taken care of. Unfortunately, the gunner grunts will be here sooner or later. The Colonel has given orders that no flight is going to take place without at least two door gunners and the modified GAU turrets mounted. Try not to get too pissed at them, but warn them that if they scratch my ship while they are loading her, I will personally feed both of them to Ikran."

"Heh, you got it Cap'n. I'm used to idiots, in this line of work people will break somethin, break it more tryin to fix it, then expect you to fix it faster than they broke it." Alex said it with a tone of 'Been there, done that.'

"Ain't that a b****?" Jax said with a knowing nod and a wave as he walked away.

He liked Alex. The man seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. If Jax was lucky, Alex would be his mechanic for the next six years of operation.

As he walked up to the hanger pre-flight to fill out the paperwork, the flight crew-cheif caught his arm. "By the way, the Colonel want's you to visit the eggheads up in the bio-lab to inform Dr. Augustine that you're going to be the head of the flight team tomorrow to the english school and front guard. She needs to pick our her crew so that you can pick pilots, the Colonel has a list here..."

The flight master reached under the table and pulled out a checklist of names and gunships. "He says to pick who and what you need."

"Alright, I'll do that, thanks."

Jax sighed. Looks like he wasn't going to get to do a leigurly pre-flight afterall. He hit a few keys on his Aviatiors watch and activated Brokenswords com unit.

"Hey, Alex? Do you hear me? Listen, I've got to get up to Bio to deal with the scientists, looks like I'm on guard duty tomorrow. Can you start up the pre-flight once you finish with that hose? I got a feeling this is going to take a while." Jax said into his watch. Handy little tool it was, pity that it didn't work to well with normal com systems or he wouldn't even bother having a data pad.



-----------
"Ta'em 'eko!!!"
-----------
"Better to have fought and died then never to have fought at all"
-----------
Bionic Arms and Pandora, The most read FanFic on Learnnavi.org! Read it here! -Shameless self promotion-

Coyote

Avatar Obstacle Course: Level Four
Hell's Gate, Pandora: Late Afternoon










"Hey, skippy," Na'ama teased, "I think it's supposed to be through the pipe and over the climbing wall. Not over the pipe and try to go through the wall."
"Very funny," Arik said as he got up and dusted himself off. Nearby, the other women were laughing, and Blake was giving him a dubious look.

"Careful, now," Blake said, "That body's more expensive than you." Julia and Liz giggled at him, and he soaked up the attention.
"And the Avatar program will never let me forget it," Arik said as he stood. "So, let's see, monkey bars, climbing wall, log jumps... Quite frankly I think we're all getting the hang of this."

"Actually, you are doing pretty well," Blake said, looking over at Ariel, who was breathing harder than some of the others.
"Is there cheese at the end of the maze?" Arik asked.
"An electric shock if you don't make it to the end," Blake said.
"Positive reinforcement, hooah," Arik said.

"Going all Army on us now, skippy?" Na'ama asked.
"Eh," Arik said. "Let's do the wall. I feel good about it this time."
"This time," Na'ama said.

Arik approached the wall again. He was usually good at these in his regular body --my, what an odd thought-- but in his Avatar he was still getting used to the motor coordination and bearing weight on arms and well as legs. "You know, dear sister, I notice you haven't made an attempt at this at all yet today."
"I'll go next," she said, grinning with impish confidence.

Arik strained up the wall, and reached the top, and eased himself over. "Just a matter of getting used to it," he said, and jumped down the other side.
As promised, Na'ama went to the base of the wall, but then turned back to look at Ariel. "You know, I have to get used to being tall," she said to the other 'short' Avatar. "Take that nurse's aide today, this morning, in the lab. I almost said 'you know, you can comb over that spot', but then thought, I better not."
"I was thinking the same thing," Ariel admitted, grinning.

Na'ama launched herself up the wall and scrabbled for holds, slipping a few time at first before catching her grip. "Hokay," she huffed, "Not as easy as I thought."
"Pull with your shoulders, not your arms," Blake said. "At least, that's how I did it."

Na'ama went over, followed by Julia and Liz, and finally Blake, making it look fairly easy. On the other side, they looked at Ariel as Grace Augustine's Avatar approached with a stopwatch.
"Last one?" she asked, looking at Ariel. She recognized the shorter Avatar and frowned, her lips thinning slightly. "Alright, let's see what you can do. After this head back to the shack and we'll close up for the day."

"Already?" Arik blurted.
"You guys worked through lunch," Grace said, a faint smile on her alien features. "A determined lot, if nothing else. We'll feed and park the Avatars for the night and your real bodies can get some food as well. Let's go," she said, throwing a look back at Ariel as she hit the stopwatch...








Results:
Avatar training continues, will wrap up quickly for dinner.

***
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around!


VIDEO LOG DAY 8:
Attempted to pee on Viperwolf to test reaction. Please see attached medical file.
WARNING: Attached medical file exceeds gigabyte limit. System failure.

Mako

#22
Day 1
Hell's Gate
0700 Hours
Christian James had always been an early riser. He awoke to his first sunrise on Pandora, which is seldom seen on Earth nowadays. A marine, his habits never failed. He found a way to go for his morning jog, despite the confinement of Hell's Gate. He was a physically imposing man. He stood roughly 6'4" and had a slightly elongated face penetrated by a piercing blue eye. His left eye was covered by a dark patch. It had been torn out in hand to hand combat with a rebel on his final tour in Ukraine. He had lost his eye, but the other man had lost his life.

0900 Hours
Chris walked into the Mess. Most eyes turned his way, but he ignored them. He got his food, and sat down by himself in a corner. As he looked up, he noticed a Marine coming his way.

"Hey." The Marine said.

"Umh." Chris muttered.

"So much for a warm welcome. I'm Jax."

"Uh-huh." Chris replied. He was hoping to drop the Marine and finish his breakfast in peace.

"So where ya from?"

"Earth."

"Not very detailed, are you?"

"You could say that." Chris was beginning to like Jax's persistent attitude.

"Look! He can speak more than one word at a time!"

"Shut up. You said your name was Jax, right?"

"Yep. I'm a Samson SA-2 pilot."

"A pilot huh? I'm Chris. I'm an Avatar driver."

"The Avatar project? Really? You look like you're here to replace Quatrich or something!"

"Nope. It's the bio-lab for me."

"Wow. In that case, I may see more of you. I sometimes fly the science geeks around, that's when Trudy isn't doing it."

"Who's Trudy?"

"You haven't met Trudy? Nevermind. You will eventually."

Chris finished the last of his eggs and stood, "Well, I'm going to be off. It was nice meeting you."

"Yeah, you too. I'll see ya around."

"Ya."

1200 Hours
Chris walked into the bio-lab. He had gotten bored of wandering and though his Avatar wasn't going to be ready to drive until tomorrow, he wanted to introduce himself to his fellow drivers. As he turned the corner, he almost bulled over a younger looking man.

"Geez! Watch where you're going!" Chris snapped.

"Hey! It's not my fault that you ran into me! Besides, you aren't even qualified to be here!" The man shot back.

"Well..." Chris thought, rubbing the back of his neck, "...yeah, that's true. I mean the 'not your fault part.' I'm actually an Avatar driver. The name's Christian, but you can call me Chris." He offered his hand to the younger man.

"Really? Oh, right. My name's Rafal, but my friends call me Ralph. So you're an Avatar driver huh? Where'd they pull a brute like you from?"

"Ukraine, last time I checked. It seems that if you become disabled in combat, they have no more use for you. So, I found my way here."

"Well, I'll be the first to tell you that Pandora is entirely different from Earth. Have you not been to Quatrich's briefing?"

"Quatrich? That old rat? What's he doing here?"

"He's in command of all military operations here. I would have figured you knew that, being a Marine yourself."

"Yeah...right..." Chris trailed off, "Well, it was nice meeting you, but I have some business to attend to."

"Alright then. I'll see you around I guess."

"Yeah..."

1300 Hours

"So you got that scratch from Earth? Shoot, if you got that on Earth, then I can't wait to see what Pandora's going to do to you."

Chris had gone to find Quatrich. Back on Earth, he had trained with Quatrich for the Marines.

"So I've been told, sir."

"You don't know how many times I've said this. Three tours Nigeria, not a scratch. First day I get out here, I get this."

"That's quite a mark, sir."

"Hah, you bet it is. They said if I rotated home, they could fix me up. Make me look all pretty again. But you know what? I kinda like it. It reminds me of what's out there, waiting."

"I'll get my chance to see for myself soon, sir."

"Heh. An Avatar driver? You? I still don't believe that. Why would you want to work with a bunch of science quacks?"

"I'm just an escort, sir. But I have my own personal reasons." Chris' hand absent-mindedly moved to his patch.

"Oh I get it. Haha, well, we'll see how long you'll last. You've gone soft Chris. You've gone way too soft."

2200 Hours

Chris flopped into his bunk, reflecting on the day's events. Tomorrow would be when it would get interesting. Very interesting.

Lehrrap Uniltìranyu

#23
((Note: I want HRS posted on every post, not just 'Late afternoon' or something like that. Makes it easyer to cordinate and figure out where everyone is. Please and Thank you.))
1000 HRS
Hell's Gate Biolab


Besides that little intresting meet and greet with the heavy-duty Avatar pilot, The walk up to Biolab was pretty damn boring. Things picked up when he finally ran into Dr. Augustine.

"Dr. Augu..."

"Shut up and give me thirty seconds Marine, I'm busy right now."

"Yes, but..."

"Look, I don't care what you're here for, I'm busy right now."

Jax sighed. Great. One of those. He stood at parade rest, waiting for the Doctor to respond to his presence.

After what felt like thirty minutes of just standing there, time that could have been spent prepping his SA-2 for takeoff, Dr. Augustine finally turned to him. "Alright, what the hell do you need marine? Snap snap, I don't have all day."

"I'm Jax, your lead guard for tomorrow, ma'am. I need to know your passenger and equipment list so I know how many SA-2s to bring."

"Huh... Alright." Augustine said, thinking about it for a moment. "Your passengers will be about... seven. I'm bringing a bunch of the newbies with me tomorrow. No special gear."

Jax nodded. Two SA-2s should be enough, with that number. "Excellent, thank you Dr. Augustine.

Augustine shook her head. "Just call me Grace, Jax. Now get, I've got work to do."

Jax booked it back down to the Hanger to finish filling out the papers. With any luck, he would acually get to fly on time.



-----------
"Ta'em 'eko!!!"
-----------
"Better to have fought and died then never to have fought at all"
-----------
Bionic Arms and Pandora, The most read FanFic on Learnnavi.org! Read it here! -Shameless self promotion-

Tanhìyärina'

#24
Sorry all, I ended up on call tonight, on top of the splitting sinus headache/migraine combo that's going on over here, so this is all I could manage.  At least I get tomorrow night off.

One hour after dawn, day 1 (the day before the school)

After a fitful night of fragmented sleep, Tireamokri dragged herself out of her leaf hammock and sighed.  She couldn't get her mother's words out of her mind: <<You must go to the school.  Fpi sänume.  For the sake of learning.  My daughter, you know what the atokirina' mean.  You of all people should know.  You must go.>>

Tireamokri bared her teeth and hissed.  <<But the Sawtute do not See!  They cannot.  They are blind, they are babies in this world.  They do not See Eywa, they do not hear her, they do not know her.  They do not seek balance!>>

<<Leave the balance to Eywa, my dear,>> the Tsahik replied.  <<Some of the others in our clan have gone to the school.  And they have not been harmed.  The Sawtute are part of our world now, part of Eywa, even if they are oblivious.>>

<<Worse than babies!>> Tireamokri spat.

<<Today, seek Eywa's guidance.  You know what to do.>>

Tireamokri snarled again and stalked away.  But in her heart, she knew her mother was right.  She should trust Eywa to balance the evils that the Sawtute brought with them.  But she didn't have to like it.
Fitseng lu oe, tìftia kìfkeyä seri.

Sngä'i Tìrey-yä

Avatar Obstacle Course: Level Four
Hell's Gate, Pandora: 1600


"Oh thank god we're almost done" Ariel exclaimed, straightening up and rubbing her already sore back. "I am ready for something absolutely delicious, but since we're here mush will have to do. Anyone know what's on the menu?"

"Oh no you don't" Grace said walking over, "You still need to go over the wall too. Get a move on shorty!"

"This isn't fair!" Ariel exclaimed, "They're all like a foot taller than I am, you should take some height off this obstacle course, I'm having to work extra hard just to keep up!"

"Such is life kiddo, get your blue butt on up there."

Fantastic, Ariel thought tartly and sauntered over to the wall. They think I can't keep up? I'll show them, I may not have endurance or strength, but goddamnit I have speed! She made sure to keep a good distance, and leapt at the wall jumping as high as she could. She slammed into the wall and felt the breath knocked out of her. The only thing keeping her from letting go was the desire not to look like an idiot in front of the other Avatars, but that didn't mean she didn't feel the pain. She hung limply for a moment and heard some of the girls and Grace gasp and exclaim in concern. She ignored their calls and rested a moment, long blue forehead resting against the cool wall. She heard Grace call out, "Are you ok?"

"If I'm not bleeding, then I'm pretty sure I'll live. But then again, I don't know if these things even bleed. I guess I'll amend that to if I'm not dead, then I'm pretty sure I'll live. Too bad that's redundant" She called down, and then managed to swing one leg up over the ledge. Of course, her leg was now higher up than the rest of her body, but Ariel ignored the upside down sensation and threw one of her arms up to the ledge. Using the adreneline pumping through her veins, she managed to use the last of her strength to pull herself over the edge, and fell catlike to her arms and feet on the other side. Brushing the dust of her palms, she sauntered back over the Grace and asked in the most annoyed tone she could muster, "Can I have dinner now?"

~~~

The Avatars were collected and fed together, a strange feast of native fruits and other unrecognizable substances. The taste was pretty good, which was a lot to say for Hell's Gate, but Ariel supposed dinner for humans probably wouldn't be on the same level of excellence. They were shipped off to a screened cabin, and Grace shooed all the Avatars into bed. "C'mon kitties, lights out. Your real bodies are probably getting hungry so I'll see you all back in the lab momentarily."

Ariel could hear the other Avatars settle themselves on the hard bunks. Her ears twitched as Grace's footfalls echoed against the wooden floor. Ariel adjusted her braid creepy tentacle thing and closed her eyes. A second later, she was waking back up in the lab.

Mess Hall
Hell's Gate - 1900


"And then, get this, even after I told the loser to get lost, he said 'You look like a girl that has heard every line in the book, so what's one more going to hurt?'." The table erupted into laughter as Ariel retold one of her favorite stories, "no, that's not even the worst part! He finished his line, leered at me, and rubbed his hand up my thigh! So I did what any reasonable girl would do," she took a second to sib her drink, "I helped the future of the human race by ensuring reproduction would be something very, very problematic for him."

The group spent most of dinner like that, exchanging stories and quips of knowledge, all while ragging on the mush that was served to them in place of food.

"You know what's really tragic, is that this is what they make out of the fresh stuff we just got of your guys' transport. Just wait a few more months, the good food runs out bout the same time as the coffee, then its just mush for however many months until the next transport."

"Well why don't they use some of the stuff they feed the Avatars? There's gotta be something edible in this jungle." Ariel replied.

This time Grace answered, "Colonel Quartch claims its a security risk because the Na'vi can poison the food we'd try bringing in," she rolled her eyes, "as if they'd try something like that. If the Na'vi wanted us dead, they'd do something more forceful about it, but really they're more of a quiet people. At this point, as long as we don't infringe upon their personal living area, I don't think they're going to try and do anything that would risk our safety."

"So when are we going to meet some of them?" Arik asked.

"Well I need to be flying up to the school pretty soon, so we'll be leaving early tomorrow. We'll need to move out early to beat the fog that can roll in, usually the pilots don't like flying once midday comes around, so get your butts out of bed and down to the lab on time, or you're getting left behind."

"Wait, we have to fly?" Ariel asked, suddenly a bit panicked, "I thought we were DONE with flying, after the space shuttle. Can't we just drive instead?"

"Drive through this jungle, are you kidding? I don't know what'd be worse, the impossible terrain or all the native life trying to eat us. No, flying is much safer, even if we aren't the biggest thing in the sky."

"We'll be in a plane though, right? Cushy seats, little round windows, fold down trays?"

"Open chopper, much better for dangerous situations and jumping in and out on the go."

Suddenly tomorrow wasn't looking to be so exciting, because one thing was for certain. Ariel hated flying.
Avatar is a movie about a guy with blue balls running through the forest chasing tail.

Nume fpi sänume

Hell's Gate Hanger
Samson SA-2 Pad Twelve-one-one
0920 HRS


"Ok, let's go through this again" Alex said as he plugged in a variety of wires from the data pad into another diagnostics port on the Samson. Alex didn't have much in the way of patience when it came to stupid pieces of electronic equipment he couldn't fix. This pad was getting irritating, and Alex was about to find out how hard he had to throw it against the wall for it to break.
In the middle of everything the voice com crackled to life.

"Hey, Alex? Do you hear me? Listen, I've got to get up to Bio to deal with the scientists, looks like I'm on guard duty tomorrow. Can you start up the pre-flight once you finish with that hose? I got a feeling this is going to take a while."

"Curious, but cool. Probably that little watch gizmo he's got on his wrist. Gotta make sure I implement something like that too." Alex went along talking to himself. If the others thought he was crazy for it, that was fine, crazy people get left alone, and no one asks questions about what they're doing. Took his mind off breaking his SIPOS, which was still temping, but there was work to do.

The hose itself took a bit to pin down, a tail fin servo wire was rubbing against it, causing uneven pressure every time the left rotor mount was swiveled more than about 15 degrees either way. Seems they forgot to feed the tail fin wires through the clips in the frame, nothing a rivet popper and a little quick work didn't fix. "Everything is connected" Alex told himself as he used self sealing pop rivets to reattach the piece of skin to the aircraft. Total time from start to finish? fifteen minutes from diagnostic check to completed job. Now to get on with that preflight list.

Alex put on the headset provided in the cabin, clicked on radio power and paged the tower

"Op's, go ahead"

"Mechanic Alex Kellen, access code one, one, seven, alpha, kilo. Requesting preflight power up and systems check of SA-2 Samson in pad twelve one one. Over."

"Copy twelve one one, permission granted. Begin preflight power up and systems check. Out"

"Ok, let's see here....main power *click* check. Fluid pressure *click* check.  Cabin oxygen levels *click* check. Cabin pressurization *click*." With that the door closed behind him and sealed shut, and the oxygen status bar lit up from red, to yellow, to green. "Check. Ok, rotor power" *click* Nothing happened. This wasn't how it was supposed to go, on the SA-1's you hit rotor and the engines should begin the warm-up sequence. "What the hell...." Alex began searching for the problem from inside the cabin. Then he remembered that SA-2's were refitted for Pandora to require the air intakes to be powered up separately, something about confusing the natives if they ever got a hold of  a Samson out here. Stupid reason, they flew lizards from what Alex could tell, why would you wanna fly one of these tin cans? Besides they couldn't fit in one of these. All it served to do was confuse him.

"Air intakes" *click* and the machine came to life shortly after that. The familiar whine of the power plant starting up, the air intakes going through their low – mid – high intake paces, and the rotors began to turn. "Check. Control Surfaces." Alex tested the foot pedals, and the other control surfaces, everything checked out, and the left servo was as smooth as it should have been.

"Ok, that about wraps up the preflight. Seems like everything is in a row and ready to go."

Alex shut down the systems in reverse order, timing everything with how long it should take. Nearly everything checked out, the right upper rotor slowed down a bit quicker than the lower, but that could have been because of the vortex created by the bay, all within normal parameters.

Alex checked his time, 1024. Very ahead of schedule. Well, that was that, time to go see if there was anything interesting going on around the rest of the bay, maybe see if there were any data pads laying around that could randomly disappear.

Thorinbur

#27
Training grounds
Hell's Gate
Day 1
1800 HRS


Ralph was training lone for the rest of a day, wondering what else can happen today. But if not counting few scratches rest of the day was ok. Thats what he is like. Always messes something and always get's away with it. And most awesome news was that they were going to the school next day. He remembered every word Dr. Augustin said to him while he was running around Obstacle course level 3.
"Listen carefully. Tomorow i will take all new Avatar drivers to school. And that includes you. I don't want to go there twice because some halfbrain forgets some basic things. So tomorow, biolab o-six-hundred. Get that? And leave your toys in your room next time! And move on to the next level already." Three hours after conversation all Avatars were closed in the shack so they will be safe and we were waked up in the Bio-Lab.

Mess Hall
Hell's Gate
Day 1
1900 HRS


Mess hall was almost full. After picking up his food Ralph looked around some place to sit and in one of the corners he found Chris sitting there.

"Hi" Ralph said when approaching his table. "Why i couldn't find you on training grounds?"

"They said my Avatar is not ready till tomorow."

"Too bad. Tommorow we are going to the school. Do you think they will let you go with us? You know. We spent last day getting used to our Avatars."

"I really hope so. Hey look. It's Dr. Augustine" Chris pointed at the table where Dr was chatting with group of other people.

"Yeah and others looks familiar too. I think this is the rest of our group."

"Maybe we should go and say hi." Chris asked.

"Nah. I messed up in the morning and i dont want to get into Dr. Augustins way today".




oel kame futa oel kekame ke'u

Mako

Hell's Gate Complex
Day 2
0400 Hours


Chris awoke with a start, nearly ramming his head into the bunk above him. He didn't know why, but he was suddenly wide awake. Then he remembered, he had an early Avatar training due to the fact that they had been late getting his ready. He flipped out of bed and fell the 7 feet to the floor, landing softly. He turned to see if he had awoken his bunkmates. They were still sound asleep.

Chris sprinted through the corridors of Hell's Gate, heading for the bio-lab. Thankfully, the halls weren't crowded this early in the morning. He stepped through the doors of the bio-lab with not a moment to spare.

Hell's Gate Bio-lab
0429 Hours


"You were almost late, marine."

Waiting for him was Dr. Grace Augustine, the woman behind the modern Avatar program.

"The important thing is that I'm not, ma'am."

"Very well. I don't like your kind, marine, but we'll have to deal with that for now. How much link time have you logged?"

"In my eight years of training, maybe 400 hours, ma'am."

"Not bad. You're in this link."

Chris laid down in his link.

"I hope you are ready for this, marine."

"I hope I am too, ma'am."

He pulled on the lid. Behind him, the machine whirred to life. "Here we go," Chris thought.

---------

0440 Hours

Reality swam before him. The voices sounded like they were coming down a long tunnel.

"Chris. Chris, can you hear me?"

He was aware of a bright light in front of his eyes for a split second.

"Visual reflexes normal. Chris, can you hear me?"

The room came into focus. Standing over him were two doctors.

"Yeah, I got ya. Hey guys."

"Everything checks out. Welcome to your Avatar, Chris."

Chris sat up. He knew what was coming. The doctors always had a barrage of tests to make sure his Avatar was functioning properly.

"Let's get these tests done."

"Alright. Can you touch your fingers to your thumb? Good. Now can you...

--------

Avatar Training Complex
0500 Hours


He knew his training was different. They wanted his Spec. Ops. skills to be intact, so he could use them in his Avatar body. He was well aware of that as he ducked behind the corner of a building. They had given him a Scorpion mount machine gun, normally too large for a human to carry. It felt like a rifle for him. It was perfect. He scouted the corner, looking for the guards he had to dispatch before moving on to his next objective. The were on the roof of the building, approximately 500 yards off. He had the early morning light to his advantage though. He took a few steps back, ran, and jumped, scaling the wall expertly. He hadn't expected to get the hang of his Avatar this fast, but already he was feeling more at home. He ducked behind the ventilation system, approaching the first guard. When he was about 5 feet behind the man, he jumped forward, gagging the man with his hand and lowering him to the ground. Because these were real humans, though, he had to be careful. He moved on.

------

Hell's Gate Bio-lab
0600 Hours


Chris came out of the link, almost suprised that he could no longer see from his left eye. But then reality filtered back. He opened the lid and swung his legs over the side. He was feeling lightheaded and disoriented. He had to sit for a minute. Now he understood why Grace always wanted a ciggarette after her link.

"Well, marine. You didn't do too bad."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"The others should be arriving soon. As much as I dislike it, you're ready to come with us to the school. Are you up for it?"

"Sure thing, ma'am."

"Well alright then. Just hang tight. They should be along in a minute."

------

Lehrrap Uniltìranyu

Hell's Gate Hanger- Day 1
Samson SA-2 Pad Twelve-one-one
1055 HRS


Jax dashed into the Hanger and steight to the Brokensword. "Alex! Lets go, lets go! Lift off in five!" Jax yelled out to Alex as he quickly made his way inside the SA-2's cockpit and pulled on his headset as he started up the powersystem.

"Pandora Tower this is BROKEN-1, flight code five, two, zero, zero, kilo, requesting flight and liftoff." Jax said into the mic. On the other side, he could hear the tower getting to work. "Roger that BROKEN-1, you are free to bring all systems to full power and lift off in twenty seconds."

"Copy Pandora Tower." Jax replied.

This was the part he had been waiting for. Acually getting to FLY his SA-2. He had been waiting all day for this moment, and he wasn't going to let anything get in his way.



-----------
"Ta'em 'eko!!!"
-----------
"Better to have fought and died then never to have fought at all"
-----------
Bionic Arms and Pandora, The most read FanFic on Learnnavi.org! Read it here! -Shameless self promotion-

Coyote

#30
Avatar Training Grounds
Hell's Gate: 1030-1050










"I had Avatar dreams all night last night," Arik said with a big grin on his boyish, blue Avatar face. "It was crazy. Then I had dreams that were were back on Earth, and the Na'vi were using human Avatars to explore our planet. I was showing them good places to eat and buy a used car."

"That's rediculous!" Na'ama said.
"It's a dream," Arik said, "They're not supposed to make sense."

"I wonder what the hold-up is?" Ariel asked. Her tail flicked with mild impatience.
Blake cleared his throat. "There was a problem with one of the Avatar test-drives yesterday," he said. "Dr. Augustine told Dr. Childs, who told me. Did you guys all get the briefing about not taking electronic devices into the drive pods?"

A few blue heads nodded 'yes', some shook 'no'.

"Ah," Blake said, "Okay, we need to make sure everyone gets the word. In case you weren't told, no electronic devices in the drive pods. It interferes with.. well, something. I'm a geologist myself, not an electrician, but it screws things up. So one guy was late getting started."

"Everyone should be caught up," Dr. Augustine's Avatar said as it sat up in the bed. "You fed both bodies?" she asked. "Your real bodies are fed, so you may feel full and neglect the Avatar. Remember to eat something here, too." A bunch of them held up local fruit with chunks bitten out.

"Usually when the Avatar body needs food, it sends signals to your brain just like normal," Blake said, "But sometime speople dismiss it since they just ate. Stay fed and hydrated."

"You coming with us to the school?" Na'ama asked.
"No," Blake said, "I've been there before; I'm doing some language training while you guys go out. You'll enjoy it, though, it's... it's amazing out there," he said with a huge smile.

"I thought you said a lot of field sciences weren't learning Na'vi?" Arik said.
"That's what they tell people back on Earth," Grace said with a frown. "Usual training is three years, most of which is language and xeno-anthropology. They save a lot of money by saying that certain people just need Avatar bodies but no extra training, since you're not expected to interact with the Na'vi. So when you come here, we have to train you informally."

"For free," Ariel said, connecting the legal dots quickly.
"You got it," Grace said, "So I'm primarily a botanist, my secondary job is xeno-anthropology --which I enjoy-- but I also get to be a language teacher and a den mother."
"'Other duties as assigned'," Ariels said, remembering the universal catch-all phrase in everyone's contract.

"Well, if it was easy," Blake said, "The colony would be called Heaven's Gate. Dr. Augustine, if you've got it from here, I'll get to my language lessons."
"Thanks, Blake," she said, and the tall Avatar looped off to find the other experienced Avatar drivers.

"Alright, we're just waiting for the new arrival to catch up, his name is Chris, then we all head to Armor Bay where our pilots will introduce themselves and we'll get going." She looked around. Chris's Avatar was just joining them. "Alright, let's go," she said, and led them past the Avatar training area and to the bare steel and concrete world of the regular human colony.

The helos they were taking were lined up close by, surrounded by ground crews doing last-minute checks, and pilots going over their checklists. Arik smiled; he recognized the scene all too well.

"Are those the things you used to ride in?" Na'ama asked him.
"Yeah," Arik said, "They haven't changed in years."

They reached the pilots, where one of them --a good-looking Hispanic female with the nametag T. CHACON-- was talking to a young male pilot that Arik recognized from the shuttle ride. The pilots and ground crewers, in rebreather masks, looked up as they approached.

"They're all yours," Dr. Augustine said, her voice and face carefully neutral.

Jax hurridly started up the motors as Chacon gave a quick briefing-- it was the usual, and most common-sense safety stuff. Hands inside, no moving around, don't fall out. They were hastily strapped in and behind schedule, so Jax had everything spooled up and ready to fly within minutes as they lifted off.








Results:
Avatars get ready to fly!

***
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around!


VIDEO LOG DAY 8:
Attempted to pee on Viperwolf to test reaction. Please see attached medical file.
WARNING: Attached medical file exceeds gigabyte limit. System failure.

Mako

#31
Avatar Training Grounds
1045 Hours


Chris sprinted up to the gunship in his Avatar. The others were waiting.

"Hurry up!" Jax shouted impatiently. Chris could tell he was ready to fly.

"I'm on it!" Chris shouted back.

Chris hopped into the cargo bay. Waiting for him was the rest of the team.

"Hey," Chris said breathlessly, "I'm Chris."

--------

Brainiac

Oscar Woods
Science Lab
0930


Oscar walked into the lab. Everyone was packing for the trip to the school. He wasn't sure he was going to be able to tag along, and he hated it. He looked around for Dr. Augustine, but couldn't locate her. He turned around and almost ran into her. She looked at him for a second.
"You're in."
Oscar hid his frustration and his joy. The joy was obvious, but he hoped that, just once, the woman would say more than a single sentence to him. He was supposed to be happy, anyway.
His avatar, almost fully matured, had already been shipped to the site.

Avatar Training Grounds
1045 HRS


Oscar was one of the few humans on board, and he felt like an idiot. He was also denied his music-player, which he needed more than oxygen, or anything technological that could provide a distraction. He felt uncomfortable talking to people almost a meter and a half taller than him. He was short, yes, but this was ridiculous. Oh well...
Speed is a ppoor sbubstitue fo accurancy

Check out my blogif my presence on this board isn't weird enough for you.

Sngä'i Tìrey-yä

Ariel
Helicopter
1045 HRS


Ariel barely glanced around her as other members of her new team filed on board the helicopter. She was too busy checking and rechecking all the straps that connected her to the plane. Funny enough, Ariel was the first person on the helicopter that day, nearly launching herself at the open door the minute they came into sight. The main reason was to get the inside seat, and make sure there were plenty of bodies between her and the missing panels.

She snorted when Grace mentioned the straps weren't really seatbelts, and with the balance of the Avatar body they were completely unnecessary. "Yea, I'll make sure to remind you of that when you're falling to your death" Ariel said with a sneer. She put on her best snark face and hoped nobody would bother her, because frankly if anyone tried to start small talk she was liable to vomit all over everyone. And that would be a bad start to their first real day.

It didn't even matter that her real body was snuggled safe in a tube inside the lab, the sensations that rushed through Ariel's Avatar body were real enough that she was sure any fall would kill her entirely. In an effort to ignore the sound of the warming engines, she plugged her long twitchy ears with equally long shaking fingers. She hummed a little tune to herself, and attempted to imagine she was in a far away place. Like the ground. Which was currently falling away.

Oh s***.

Ariel kept her eyes clenched closed, although she could hear the whoops and excited hollers of the others in the helicopter. For a brief moment she remembered the idiom 'curiosity killed the cat' but despite her great fear of heights she managed to crack open one big yellow eye. For an instant all of her fears were eliminated. She found herself leaning towards the open panels to her right, already filled with some of the boys leaning out and hollering with joy. I would never get that close, she thought, but could see why someone would want to. They flew up, seemingly higher than the clouds, hovering above a smooth river before it plunged into a great rushing waterfall. The trees around them raised up higher than any skyscraper, and were heavy with creatures perched and watching the helicopter curiously. As they rounded a cliff, Ariel shrieked and pushed back into her seat as a magnificent flock of bird butterfly lizard things swarmed towards them, riding the air currents like hang-gliders on their unique wings. The creatures screeched and dove around the helicopter, creating the illusion they were flying in a bubble, protected by the technology Ariel so detested.

As they passed another magnificent outcropping, Ariel turned and looked towards her left. Grace was sitting beside her, checking Ariel out with dry amusement.

"Having fun shorty?" She hollered over the noisy engines.

"I wouldn't call it fun, but I guess its something." Ariel replied, and grabbed ahold of her straps as they started swinging to the right. She could hear the pilot up front talking about something or another, but between the roar of the engine and the taste of bile in her mouth she didn't dare focus what.

Avatar is a movie about a guy with blue balls running through the forest chasing tail.

Thorinbur

#34

Helicopter
1045 HRS


Finally Ralph was able to meet and talk to rest of the team.
"Hi! I'm Ralph! I don't believe we met before!" He shouted trying to be louder than helicopters engines.
"You are the one who get to the pod with his PDA?" One of the Avatar drivers sitting in front of him shouted back. "I'm Arik! And this is..."
"Please! Cut that off... I'm really not into this right now." Said short female avatar sitting in the middle seat at the back. "And this is Ariel" Arik finished. "She really hates flying as you can see. Guess we will have to put that for later."
oel kame futa oel kekame ke'u

Mako

Scorpion Gunship
1047 Hours


"It's nice to finally meet you all." Chris had finally met the rest of the Avatar team. "Hey Ralph! Nice to see you again! This is incredible, isn't it?" Chris asked.

"Haha, you could say so!"

There was a sheer unadulterated joy in being hundreds of feet above the ground in a Scorpion bay. He could feel his body correcting to the shifts and slants of the deck almost naturally. He was pleasantly surprised with the new sense of balance that a tail gave him. Chris leaned over the side, catching a glimpse of a thundering waterfall emptying into a lake far below. It was a breathtaking sight.

"Wahow! This isn't the kind of thing you get to see every day!" Chris shouted over the engine noise.

"You can say that again!" Arik yelled back.

"Can you guys please get away from the edge like that? You're making me sick." Ariel moaned from the back of the cargo bay.

"Why?! It's too much fu-" Chris smacked Ralph on the shoulder. "Right. Sorry Ariel."

"How much further to the school?" Chris inquired impatiently.

"It's around a 10 minute flight. Patience, marine." Grace replied with a laugh.

"Fair enough." Chris stood and admired the view.

-------

Nume fpi sänume

#36
Hell's Gate Hanger- Day 1
Samson SA-2 Pad Twelve-one-one
1030 HRS


Alex had made his rounds and done the required introductions to the few other mechanics in this area of the bay. He also found out that the vehicle missing in 12-1-3 was a Scorpion class gunship, which made for a total of two SA-2's, a Scorpion, and 6 AMP suits that he was responsible for. This, according to other mechanics, was supposed to be something of a "heavy load" and usually had a team of three assigned to it. Either someone thought he was really good at his job, or someone hated him. Either way, Alex didn't care. Right now, Alex was on a mission. Operation Data Pad. It didn't take Alex long to find the scrap materials area, pick up some circuit board inserts and optical sensors he would need. Putting them in a bag labeled "repair components" no one would question him. After that it was easy enough to find a pair of data pads laying around in there, one with a cracked screen, another that wasn't holding a charge properly.

"This should be all I need for my project" Stuffing all of it into the bag.

Alex was putting his still packed bags into the back of the SA-2, along with his project bag when Jax ran up.

"Alex! Let's go, let's go! Lift off in five!"

That was all Alex needed to hear. Closing and latching the cargo compartment, he hopped into the front passenger seat of the Brokensword and put on his headset. Jax was there in a flash, powering up primary systems while clearing with the tower.

"Pandora Tower this is BROKEN-1, flight code five, two, zero, zero, kilo, requesting flight and liftoff"

"Roger that BROKEN-1, you are free to bring all systems to full power and lift off in twenty seconds."

"Copy Pandora Tower."

Alex double checked his straps as the rotors reached lift velocity. Alex picked up a small buzz from the right side rotors. Nothing serious, probably just a blade out of alignment. Probably.

"Gotta check that annoying buzz on the right when we land again."Alex said to Jax, plugging in his SIPOS ,as he had decided to call it, into the diagnostics port so he could take in-flight readings.

Brainiac

Oscar Woods
Helo


Oscar didn't know who to talk to first. He just poked the marine next to him.
"What?"
"You're the designated marine, right? Christopher?"
"Yes. Think of me as everyone's personal bodyguard. I've been meaning to ask you, where's your Avatar?"
"It's still being grown. I expect... well... hope it will be useable by next week. If our lady Augustine doesn't just dump it into a river before that." He didn't tell the marine, but he actually suspected that, if not here, then at least someone would try to sabotage his pod.
Christopher laughed. "That sounds like something she would do, too."
Dr. Augustine smacked him up the head, but she had a smile on her lips. Oscar got the feeling he'd be knocked out by a punch like that. Carbon-fiber bones. No s***.
Oscar cleared his throat.
"Sooo... why are you on this project, anyway? Glory? Money? Blue booty?"
Christopher gave a slight chuckle.
"That's right. You don't know my story. 15 years ago, I was in combat in Ukraine. Things got a little hairy, and my squad had to fight the rebels in hand-to-hand combat. I lost my left eye, but the other man paid a higher price. As it turns out, if you lose an organ that is vital to performance, they dump you like a load of trash. So I found my way here."
Oscar managed not to say something really stupid, like "really? You look like you have two eyes to me." He wanted to kick himself in the head, just for thinking of that one.
"What do you expect to find here? Redemption, or a new life?"
"What was left for me on Earth? My military career done, I found the only option: Escape and start a new life. The Avatar program appeared at the perfect time. Being Spec. Ops., the RDA wanted my skills for defense against the Na'vi. So here I am."

"Wow... I gotta say... I don't... know what to say" Oscar felt a little stupid, especially considering how he got into the avatar program himself.
"Hopefully you'll be able to thank me sometime later."
Oscar didn't like the implications of that statement. He might not really love his life, but he enjoyed spending it, well, living.
"I hope it won't come to that. Chopper's landing." He added, casually. The jungle had stopped moving horizontally.
"Finally." Christopher undid his straps and walked to the edge of the cargo bay.
"Nice meeting you....uh, what's your name?"
"Oscar... Call me Mycro. Long story for another time."
Oscar felt good about meeting Christopher. Knowing the guardian of the team gave him a sense of security, and boy did he feel like he was going to need it.
"Right, Mycro then. I'm Chris, just in case you missed that."
"I got it, don't worry."
Oscar started fumbling on the straps, and managed to get himself stuck.
Speed is a ppoor sbubstitue fo accurancy

Check out my blogif my presence on this board isn't weird enough for you.

Lehrrap Uniltìranyu

((Alright, Everyone jumped time-skipped on me, so I'll just post catch up here.))

1115 HRS
Brokensword, somewhere above the jungles of Pandora.


"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captian speaking. Thank you for chooseing Air Pandora for your flight plans today. We'll be arriveing to Grace's English School and AVTR base 117 shortly. Note that the captain has put on the landing signs and the buckle your seatbelt sign is now lit up. Please, return to your seats and stay seated until we land. Again, thank you for choosing Air Pandora for your flight today."

The sarcasm was blatent, but told in a jokeing mood. Jax was glad he was flying. He didn't care that he had to deal with the scientists. He got to FLY. That was the big deal, that's all that was importent.



-----------
"Ta'em 'eko!!!"
-----------
"Better to have fought and died then never to have fought at all"
-----------
Bionic Arms and Pandora, The most read FanFic on Learnnavi.org! Read it here! -Shameless self promotion-

Coyote

#39
SA-2 Samson Helo "Brokensword"
Boarding and en Route to School
1030-1115 hours












Arik had walked up to the SA-2 like greeting an old friend. In truth, he'd ridden in countless copies of this very bird, in some pretty hairy situations. He sat down on the low gunner's seat next to the mounted M60 door gun and put his hands on the receiver by instinct.

"Um, maybe you shouldn't play..." Jax started to say, but Arik's hands moved by themselves. Within second he'd safed it, raised and cleared the feed tray ran his Avatar's pinky in the receiver and smiled when it came back spotless. He reloaded the feed belt from the drum, and slapped the tray shut. He looked up and realized Jax was looking at him, nodding slightly.

"Marines?" the pilot asked with a smile.
"Army," Arik said.
"Well.... Jax said, I guess you can ride on my bird, but I'll keep the meter running while we're at the school," he said with a smile.
"Fair 'nuff, Marine," Arik said with a smile.

He sat back and listened to the spool-up routine, the steady chuf-chuf-chuffchuffchufchuf*whupwhupwhupwhup-- and smiled as the familiar vibrations and rocking shook him. He eased back in the canvas gunner's seat, feeling the familiar aluminum railing against his back, although in the Avatar body it was against his tailbone.

"Oh, hell yah!" one of the guys, probaly Chris, said. Next to them, the helo flown by the pretty Hispanic woman was also spooling up and she pointed to Jax to take lead. He's got to get used to this as much as the rest of this, and she's not going to let him go easy, Arik noted. Sink or swim.

The helo leapt into the air, and Arik grinned as Ariel opened one tentative eye for a look out. He winked at her as she grit her teeth and watched as the ground sunk away from them. She didn't realize how her knuckles dug into the canvas of her own seat frame as the helo clawed into the thick, soupy jungle air of Pandora.

Arik felt a nudge on his shoulder, and saw Jax reaching back a pair of headphones. He put them on, barely held on his massive Avatar head, and the tinny voice of the pilot rang in his ears.
"Best seat in the house, Army," Jax said.
"That's why I took it," Arik said back.
"We're over the perimeter wall, so we're going hot," Jax said.
Arik nodded, reached up, and reflexively racked the charging handle and flicked off the safety. The helo banked, and Arik enjoyed the breathtaking sensation of looking straight down over the lance-like tops of the coniferous rainforest below, all pointing straight up at him as he hung by the seat straps rather than sitting in the seat.

"Having fun shorty?" Grace hollered over the noisy engines. Arik looked back and saw her talking to Ariel, who seemed to be trying to dig herself deeper into her seat.

"Wahow! This isn't the kind of thing you get to see every day!" Chris shouted over the engine noise.

"You can say that again!" Arik yelled back.

"Can you guys please get away from the edge like that? You're making me sick." Ariel moaned from the back of the cargo bay.

"Why?! It's too much fu-" Chris smacked Ralph on the shoulder. "Right. Sorry Ariel."

"How much further to the school?" Chris inquired impatiently.

"It's around a 10 minute flight. Patience, marine." Grace replied with a laugh.

"Fair enough." Chris stood and admired the view.

Arik watched the airborne creatures far away; one looked like a pterodactyl but with someone riding on it. "This world is too cool," Arik hollered. He watched the jungle pass beneath them and a shiver ran down his spine. He swore, just for a second, that he saw some of the Nigerian rebels for a moment, but the vision faded. Biting his lip, he leaned back and arched his back, letting the rotor blast from the engines blow air down his shirt. Ooohhh, hell yeah, he thought. He glanced around and saw the other helos in formation, and again he thought about the past, but a little more melancholy. He looked in the back at the faces, the Avatars, and smiled at them. They were getting along easily, which was good, and the byplay and teasing showed a level of comfort that was reassuring to someone who understood such things.

"You can dismount that and take it with you if you need," Jax said through the headphones. He nodded over his shoulder towards the M60.
Arik looked at him, at the weapon, and back at Grace, who was watching carefully through narrowed eyes. Arik turned and looked back out at the jungle.

"Thanks," he replied, "But I think we'll be alright. Peace mission, you know."
Jax glanced at him over his shoulder-- his flying was instinctive, Arik could tell the former Marine knew flying by feel and didn't need to stare obsessively at instruments. It gave Arik a feeling of reassurance that comforted him.
"Your call," the Marine said.  

Arik nodded and smiled. The jungle is full of enough ghosts, he thought, No need to bring in any new ones. "I'm cool," he said.
Jax nodded, understanding.

"Almost there," the Marine said, and then made his announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. Thank you for chooseing Air Pandora..."
Arik grinned as the helo pitched nose down and began it's approach. He saw blue bodies through the canopy of the jungle, running to or from the helo's likely landing spot as curiosity took them.

This is going to be so cool...












Results:
Arik's thoughts and actions during the helo ride, basically more character establishment.

***
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around!


VIDEO LOG DAY 8:
Attempted to pee on Viperwolf to test reaction. Please see attached medical file.
WARNING: Attached medical file exceeds gigabyte limit. System failure.