Avatar ii - the beginning

['upxare]

[Part 72]

*** 23.10.2154 - 4:41PM GMT - 21Km from Offenbach EsoCF, Earth, SOL System ***

The sun has been setting behind thick layers of haze and dust as night falls in. Gusting wind kicks up further dust off the ground, which is
littered by a sea of debris and occasional steel beams and mats, which jut out of the ruins. Here and there, some charred tree stubs and smashed wreckages of vehicles can be seen in the semi darkness, only interrupted by the zipping lights quite far away, above the horizon. Brief flashlights flash up and the hammering sound of detonations can be heard from all directions, although quite in the distance.
Najat and Jonas can be seen stumbling through the devastated remnants of what had been civilization once. It appears that none of them really know where to walk to and especially Jonas keeps on slow motion, drained by hunger, thirst and pain of his healing wounds. Suddenly, a bright flashlight, followed by a thundering bang, lights up the evening sky above the eastern horizon. The young na'vi female cringes as many tiny lights of glowing debris get blown into the dusty evening sky.
Instinctively, Jonas reaches his right hand out for Najat in a protective manner, despite the matter of fact that he is the one in greater danger.

The tall na'vi female gently places her hand on Jonas one as he briefly looks up into Najat's face, covered with dust and dried tears. "I just hope everything is OK with you..." says Jonas, almost whispering.

"How can you worry about me if you are so stubborn with yourself?" replies Najat with a tear forming in one of her sad, golden eyes.
- "I said I can walk myself, at least as long as I have my legs." the brown haired young man looks up into the semi-darkness: "I just can't let

myself being carried all the time by my baby."

Najat releases a sigh: "You are so stubborn, my Jonas."

"We should find a shelter, any place to stay overnight." snorts Jonas, obviously ignoring Najat's complaint.

The na'vi female comes to a stop and look down at her human mate: "My stomach is empty, my lips are dry.

"What about the two oranges we..?"

- "Jonas..." mutters Najat with a sigh "I gave you one and the other one I ate later... forgot?"

"Then our bags are empty..." says Jonas as his head lowers. Just in that moment, another massive flashlight lights up the eastern skies. The couple stares at the bright light, seconds before the bang arrives with the shockwave. "Woaaw!!" Jonas hands reach out for his stomach as he coughs, Najat releases a shriek before she quickly kneels down to study her mate's condition.

"I'm OK, my baby..." assures Jonas with an attempt of a smile "That last shockwave made me have the feeling I can't breath anymore. Don't you feel the same?!"

Najat's golden eyes carefully studies her mate's torso, before they meet his eyebeam again: "The noise hurt my ears but I can breath all time. Can you breath now?!"

Jonas briefly laughs up: "Of course! Even in this desperate time, you still make me smile. Well, I suppose your organism is somewhat different to mine. Those heavy blasts come from Hainburg, I know from my dad that there's a power grid node, a cold fission plant. Well... there WAS..." Tears are swelling in Jonas eyes: "We.. we should head to another direction, maybe find a ruin, which still has a ceiling.. or a cave, a gap.. to
sleep... and I don't give up to find my parents, even though, there won't be anything left... likely."

"Jonas, we will find your family. And we need to look for water." adds Najat with some impatience filling her voice as the couple continues to walk hand in hand through the apparently endless debris field, accompanied by continues flickering flashlights and thundering sounds emmitted by the fierce battle scenes some kilometers away.

"How could we find water in this forsacken world?" Jonas sinks into his knees, touching the dusty ground near a concrete column of a collapsed building, twisted iron beams protruding from the shattered pillar, which towers over the sea of debris like an abandoned monument in the dull moonlight. Jonas hand grabs a charred window catch next to tiny pieces of debris, which has been literally pulverized and let it rill through his fingers. "Look at this, Najat." starts Jonas, before his head tuens upwards towards the dusty sky, loaded with the smell of fire and charred wood.

Najat tilts her head, kneeling down towards Jonas as she apparently figures Jonas sentiment. Her large palm covers Jonas forearm: "Don't take fault on you, ma Jonas..."

Jonas looks into Najat's golden eyes, as they can be still distinguished amid the semi-darkness of the night, tears start to roll down his cheek:

"I don't blame myself. Or well... maybe I should, actually I do. Well, I'm a human, it's us ... humans who finally destroyed our god-mother. We had a second chance, we had Ey'wa's grace on our world, what happened? After some decades our world got blown off! Nothing left, nothing but dust! I'm a human, yeah."

Some seconds of silence prevails before Najat's palm move up to Jonas shoulder: "Ey'wa's spirit is always here, Jonas. But I don't know how Ey'wa can heal this."

Jonas squeezes out a fake laugher: "Ey'wa... we had our second chance, Ey'wa is gone. Even if not, why would Ey'wa help us again? We have messed it up, the whole effort, it was a failure, yeah, a god damn failure!"

- "Ey'wa doesn't take side. It keeps balance. Every na'vi knows that." replies Najat with a calm voice.

Jonas throws some sand into the night sky: "Look at this! This was a country, a thrieving, prospering continent, our world, our land! Look what it is now, devastated, uninhabitable..! We don't deserve to live, we humans..!"

Gently, Najat places her forefinger on the emotional male's lips: "Don't say this, my Jonas. It is not your fault. It is a crazy skyperson who did
this..!"
Jonas wipes away some tears off his eyes and tries to calm down: "I somewhat doubt it was only Quaritch.
A single man couldn't inflict this scale

of destruction. And remember: Quaritch fleet had been tracked on it's way to Ey'wa Eveng! So WHO did THIS then? It is the bitter truth but Quaritch isn't alone, not at all."

- "They will be punished." replies the na'vi female with a stern voice.

"Who shall punish them? Those freaky robots out there?" snorts Jonas with a nod towards the flickering lights of the battle zone at the horizon.

"Till now I don't even know where they've been coming out from - but I'm sure they're not out to 'punish' Quaritch's men... So, forgive me that I can't be that optismistic anymore."

The na'vi female's golden eyes are staying locked at Jonas eyes: "Ma keft xo Jonas..."
Tentativel, Jonas rises his right arm and places his hand on Najat's shoulder, near her neck, his tears can be hardly seen in the dull moonlight.

"It's the first time in my life that I feel shame to be human from all my heart."

The na'vi female gently places her large palm on Jonas hand, still resting on her shoulder: "We na'vi had also our times of sorrow, long time ago but there are still songs sung about it..."

Jonas sigh: "We can be sure that you na'vi would'nt be able to do THAT in here. This and more makes us so different."

"Everything needs time to prosper. I know my Jonas heart is good and pure." replies Najat with a warm voice as their faces slowly approach each other till the uneaven couple's forehead meet each other.

Just in that moment, a bright red energy beam zips through the sky somewhere in front of the couple. With a shriek of rage, Najat jumps up and stares as the sound of a flying craft can be heard louder and louder. Jonas stares up towards the wingless craft as it fires an array of beams at a cubic structure at the horizon, which can be hardly noticed in the semi-darkness. A string of detonations light up the area around the structure as energy beams are zipping through the night-sky again, obviously landing a critical hit at the craft, which quickly flips around and tumbles towards the ground near the structure.

Moments later another, much smaller craft sweeps in and drops a device which can be only noticed as a tiny faint light descending towards the structure. A bright light flashs up and glowing debris swirls high into the darkness above the structure. "That attacking craft couldn't be manned, I mean the small one!" mutters Jonas nervously.

"I can't see it anymore. It is not safe here." replies Najat with her ears flattened. "And I need to take you on me or we are too slow and this is
too dangerous." adds the na'vi female with her voice turning rather stern.

- "Not this topic again. I can walk..." rejects Jonas, with his arms demonstratively crossed.

Najat steps in front of Jonas and places her forefinger on Jonas shoulder: "Don't make me sad."

- "What?" barks Jonas, with his eyes widened. Just as Najat is about to open her mouth to express her reaction, a metallic chrunching sound can be heard from nearby, as a flying craft slams into the ground, barely 200 meters away. The kicked up dust briefly glitters in the pale moonshine.

"It is not safe here!" demands Najat with flattened ears and her tail swinging nervously.

Jonas steps ahead and points at the direction of the structure: "We should go there, there are people..."

Najat tentatively nods and agrees, so the couple makes their way towards the structure. After a kilometer march through charred shrubs and debris, Jonas has to stop as his abdomen starts to sore again, apparently as a matter of the healing internal wound. Without further resistance, the brown haired - usually athletic - male let himself being carried on Najat's back, who quickly picks the momentum and run. "Not so fast!" complains Jonas.

"I'm struggeling to keep on you!"

Without saing a word, the na'vi female wraps her left arm tighter around Jonas thighs and sloghtly slows down. A while later, the couple reaches the cubic structure. Slowly, Najat drops Jonas off her back and the couple stands in front of a massive concrete structure, sprayed with holes and burn marks, rebar steel juts out but the structure itself appears to be rather intact. Twisted antennas and areal scanning panels are dangling down the structure, which appears to be window- and doorless.

"You two - freeze!" echoes a male voice from behind the uneaven couple. While Jonas complies and only snowly turns around his head, Najat releases a shriek, turns around and straight looks into a quad-barrel of a massive fire arm.

"I said: freeze! Who the heck are you? Identify yourself!" demands a black haired, relative young male of asian descent in a troopers uniform.

Jonas eyes are widened: "We're seeking water and shelter, with all respect, Sir, I'm amazed someone speaks accent-free English in that part of the world. While Najat's golden eyes stay locked at the trooper, the black haired male chuckles: "I'm the one asking the questions here. We're going to get in so we run an ID scan on you guys." he points his gun towards the corner of the complex: "After you."

Najat's ears flatten, her eyes are apparently searching for something. Jonas notices that and places his hand on hers: "Let's not do anything

stupid now..!" he whispers up towards his mate's face.

- "Move on!" demands the voice of the trooper behind them, as he places his index finger on his ear-com. "Sir, Sahoto here, I got two strayers out here, one of them is a na'vi. We're coming in now."

A dark haired male in his middle age can be seen on a spartan desk with some technical equipment loaded on it, surrounded by naked concrete walls.
"Sure, let's see who we got here... and then we go ahead with evacuation as discussed earlier..."
The male swings his chair around, now his face becomes clearly visible: Captain Georgino.

[End of Part 72]

[Druless]

another great chapter. Crap, I forgot who Captain Georgino is. Is he good or bad?

[Sanjwale]

I don't know him either. Maybe an new one?

['upxare]

A few 'parts' back, there's an important one dealing with Cpt Georgino.. you may dislike him after you recap who he is...

[peterx]

Its nice to see you didn't give up on this GREAT story
Can you make a new pdf file when this latest big part (avatar 4) is complete?

['upxare]

Its nice to see you didn't give up on this GREAT story
Can you make a new pdf file when this latest big part (avatar 4) is complete?

I was off for a while, sometimes life out there requires all my attention and I'd rather continue slow than hammer out crap just to write something.
Will try to continue these weeks and will definitely COMPLETE the whole story. :-)

[Sanjwale]

HEL YEAH!!!

Send from my galaxy S using tapatalk

['upxare]

[Part 73]

***23.10.2154 - 5:22PM GMT Interstellar Space***

Noiselessly and nearly invisibly, a tiny spot zooms through the vast interstellar space, embedded in a warp bubble.
On it’s bridge, Alonso can be seen next to Max, who sits on the human sized navigator seat. The na’vi sized one next to him has been currently vacant, however, numerous na’vi, including Neytiri, Trak’ah and some of the Otepani clan are gathering on the bridge. While some of them are sitting near it’s rounded corners and only occasionally peak a sneak at the large holo screen ahead of them amid their chat, Neytiri leans over the back-rest of the much larger, empty seat. Her golden eyes are nervously monitoring the bridge activity as well as the bridge entrance. Eyuk’ek, the young Opetani hunter and Bie’rala’s brother can be seen entering the bridge, looks around and tentatively approaches Max, who can be seen with his handheld. Alonso, who stands next to Max with another device, takes notice of the approaching na’vi and looks up at the young hunter: “Hi, how may I help you..?”

Eyuk’ek’s right hand rubs at his traditional garment just below where his traditionally handcrafted dagger hangs. (na’vi) “I don’t speak much of your language, can you speak the people’s language?”

Max shrugs: (na’vi) “And my people’s language not very well is. You like it here?”

The young Otepani hunter squeezes out a smile: (na’vi) “At least I can understand you! This skyship is so mighty..! Is this the seat of the lead hunter?” he nods towards the vacant seat next to Max.

Patiently, Max nods:” (na’vi) Yes, this is the… captain’s seat … mostly our olo’eyctan drives the ship there.”

- (na’vi) “Mostly? Is it possible that I sit down on it for a moment?”

Alonso briefly looks over at Max with a grin: “Guess he seeks a hire aboard!”

Max takes a deep breath and tilts his head in a questioning manner: “Wouldn’t see a point against it…” then he looks up into the golden eyes, loaded with tension and curiosity: (na’vi) “Why not? But be careful, not touch anything!”

The young hunter’s face lights up: “Irayo, m…”

(na’vi) “This isn’t supposed to be your place, young boy of the Otepani!” echoes Neytiri’s stern voice, let the young hunter cringes.
Max and Alonso’s eyes are widened as the senior Omaticaya huntress swings around the vacant seat and let herself sink into it, her eyes still locked at the intimidated male.

“What’s up here?” sounds a familiar voice from behind.

Instantly, Neytiri’s head turns backwards and her golden, wary eyes look right into Jake’s face. “Everything is safe, my Jake.” replies
Neytiri with a much calmer voice. The ex- marine replies with a brief smile before his attention turns towards the large front screen, displaying an array of stars, one of them brighter than the others. “We should be almost reaching the outer edge of the solar system, shouldn’t we..?”

Max whispers something towards Eyuk’ek before his eyes scan the readings on his paper-thin handheld device: “You got it, Jake.”

“…but the long range scanners haven’t been receiving any arrival message by the subspace node network as it should have been the case by now.” adds Max.
Jake’s ears move cautiously: “Does that bother us?”

“Not been long enough in this time line…” replies Max as he links another data node to his handheld. “… but I guess there’s supposed to be a high degree of space surveillance, especially around the Solar System, the heart of the Confed. At least that was my strong impression I got so far.”

Jake takes his seat and links himself to the ship’s navigation sub systems.

“I’ve to agree and I wonder why we haven’t gotten hailed yet.” replies Alonso “Are we still at full speed?”

Max chuckles: “Already slowing down but still way faster than everything you’d been flying with..!”

“That wasn’t my damn point.” hisses Alonso back "An object moving at this velocity would have been definitely caused major attention so close to Earth."

As Jake stares at the large holo screen ahead of him, Trak’ah closes in: “Our warriors are ready for whatever comes, Olo’eyctan.”

Despite the number of beings on the bridge, silence and tenseness encroaches and threatens to drown the whispers heard from behind. The Sun can be seen shining bright amid the darkness of space and as the vessel continues it’s deceleration, the still faint crescent of Earth becomes visible, accompanied by a much smaller, grayish one.

Finally, Jake breaks the silence: “Guys, we must been in sensor and scanner range for a while…”

“Still everything is dead. No incoming message, nor sub space signal, yet our scanners can’t even detect much EM activity down there!”

“Are you sure we’re in the right time?!” echoes a familiar voice from behind.

Quickly, heads can be seen turning back. Colonel Pearson stands at the doorway, supported by Mrak’tuh, next to him stands Mo’at, the young Bie’rala, Siek’eah and Teye’ung.
“Old warrior, you know how to surprise someone!” cheers Jake as Max instantly drops his handheld and rushes towards the Colonel.
Mo’at heads to Neytiri as the young na’vi huntress replies with deeply concerned facial expression.

Alonso musters the man in his fourties: “Thought you were literally in pieces, how could you get on your feet that quick?!”

“Apparently I'm one with seven lifes..!” chuckles Pearson as he slowly nears Alsonso, Max and Jake, still supported by a smiling young na’vi male, Mrak’tuh. “I got a good team who recovered me and unimaginable tech on board this amazing vessel.”

- “He’s brave and strong for a human, haha!” encounters Mrak’tuh.

“Mo’at needs to explain that to me later.” replies Jake, his face turning concerned again: ”We might be in serious trouble. Nearly no EM activities down there on Earth, no transmission signals, we’re basically back in pre-industrial age but our chronometers clearly tell us we’re in the mid 22^nd century.”

“What are you talking about?” demands Neytiri with a tensioned voice.

Pearson rubs his face as he leans into the seat which Max has just cleared for him seconds earlier: “Electromagnetic fields are produced by electric charges and yeah, it’s that simple, if there are no EM readings, so there are no electric charges, means no electricity, light’s are off…”

“Let’s doublecheck the ship’s sensors.” comments Max as he attempt to reboot his handheld applications.

“And skypeople need to have artificial lights…” replies Neytiri as she stares at the front screen, displaying Earth as it now fills a quarter of the screen. Detailed cloud patterns and continents are visible now while other parts of the planet appear to be blanketed by shapeless greyish-white layers. Scattered tiny red spots can be seen on the night side of the crescentic celestial body.

“That’s certainly NOT the Earth we were supposed to find in here!” snorts Pearson.

“Sensor status?” demands Jake briefly.

- “Checked and all operational, Captain.” replies Max amid whispers
and hissing sounds from the bridge’s rear.

“Can we run some surface scans?” asks Pearson with a concerned facial expression.

Jake’s eyes briefly switch over to the Colonel: “That was just my thought, old warrior!”

Max focusses on his handheld device instead: “I get high readings of carbon monoxide – and that literally on every continent, especially northern hemisphere, 10 times higher levels of nitrous gases and hydrocarbons, with other words… soot!”

- “What the heck …” murmurs Pearson.

“That’s not all.” Continues Max “It looks like that where there were supposed to be major cities, those atmospheric readings reach levels far beyond human tolerability plus numerous hotspots with extreme temperature readings…”

“Jake, what is he talking about?!” demands Neytiri as her ears move nervously.

The ex-marine takes a deep breath and rubs his head: “I actually don’t know what has happened to Earth, it looks like something went really wrong… Max, tell me that your handheld is messed up, tell me that this all is a damn f… bad dream!”

- “No, Jake. It isn’t. Significant parts of previously inhabited areas seem to be devastated, fires rage nearly everywhere and according to the ship sensors, more than 7.000 detonations occur per each second – globally.”

“Earth has turned into a whole warzone.” concludes Pearson.

Max drops the handheld and stands up with tears swelling in his eyes: “That’s just sick. Sorry, guys, that’s just too much for me..!”

Jake rushes to the dark haired scientist as he attempts to leave the bridge: “Max, it’s a nightmare for all of us. Please, we need you, I need you now more than any time before.”

“How can we find Jonas and Najat?” echoes Trak’ah from the other side of the bridge.

Max rubs his face and nods: “I try my best. I promise.” Jake pats Max’s shoulder with his large palm. After a gulp the scientist in his late thirties continues: “We should be able to detect them if they’re still alive.”

“They ARE.” insists Jake with a firm voice. “And we’ll find them and we’ll know what exactly happened.” adds the ex marine, before swinging back into his chair just to take notice that Neytiri has left. He takes a deep breath and looks around but the na’vi huntress has left the bridge, Mo’at appears to be gone as well. However, Jake apparently struggles to re-focus his attention to the bridge. “We’d better start our search in Central Europe, there they should have been…”

Max nods: “We can narrow the search to a matter of minutes as we just need to scan every Na’vi vital signs in that area and match those with the recorded readings of Najat.”

Alonso releases a sigh amid the tension on the bridge: "At least now we know why we didn't got hailed when we entered the Solar System..."

Jake's face turns dark: “Do that, Max, and let’s get down there right away.”

[End of Part 73]

[Sanjwale]

Don't got time to read it, but just wanted to let you know that it is awesome that you are back :D

[Arrowman]

Hello people,first-sorry for my bad English.During last two weeks,I was reed this amazing story.I hope,you will continue in very good work upxare.It is nice to watch Nayat a Jonas and haw their relationship is develop,it is very interesting.And the other characters-Jake and Neytiri,Norm,Max-nice and suprising development. I cant wait until next chapter :-)