บท 40: Chapter 40: "Discomfort"
As a satellite of a gas giant twice the size of Jupiter, Pandora's night sky holds more than one moon.
The ground is covered with countless plants, flowers, and even creatures that can emit their own light.
Looking out over Pandora, it seems to consist only of rainforests and grasslands, with a tropical climate, devoid of any deserts or barren soil.
Setting aside other factors, Pandora is indeed more fantastical and magnificent than Earth.
However, deep in the rainforest, a fierce fire is burning.
Zooming in, a towering tree that should be thousands of meters high is now tilted and fallen, its roots and nearby plants continuously scorched by the flames.
It appears to be the result of a low or medium-intensity bombing, leaving destruction and ruins.
About ten kilometers to the north lies another giant tree, about a hundred meters tall.
Unlike the burned towering tree, this tree shows no green. Its branches and twigs resemble Earth's willow trees, but they are a glowing version.
The drooping willow branches emit a bright pink-purple glow, differing entirely from plant branches and roots, their texture more like fiber optics.
Under this peculiar giant tree, hundreds of humanoid creatures are gathered.
Zooming in again.
These hundreds of humanoid creatures are slender, standing between 2.8 to 3.2 meters tall, with some individuals even taller.
They have pointed ears, but unlike the beautiful elves from human imagination, they have four fingers, bluish skin with dark blue patterns, dreadlocked hairstyles, and facial features that do not conform to human aesthetics.
These blue-skinned humanoid creatures are the Na'vi, the intelligent beings of Pandora.
At this moment, the Na'vi are solemn and silent, focusing their attention on a group of "leaders" under the giant tree.
One of these "leaders" has five fingers and human-like pupils. Suddenly, this individual spoke:
"Though I am a Phantom Knight, I will not forget that you all are my brothers and sisters! So we must act immediately! Follow me!"
This individual spoke in human language, and a Na'vi beside them translated.
"The other day, those Sky People burned our homeland! But tomorrow, we will show them they cannot do as they please! Ah!!!"
At the end of this speech, the voice was raised to its highest.
"Woo! Woo!"
"Oh! Oh!"
This passionate speech instantly rallied all the Na'vi, who raised their hands and shouted, venting their emotions.
However, none of them noticed a drone, invisible to the naked eye, capturing everything from high above.
Not only was there an "invisible" drone, but about a kilometer south of this location, there were also two "invisible people."
Looking around, it was impossible to see anyone.
But on a higher ground, at the top of a lush giant tree, were two scouts equipped with special combat suits and mechanical exoskeletons.
If they deactivated the "invisibility" effect of their combat suits, one could see the red "Λ" shoulder patch, indicating they belonged to Atlas.
The so-called "invisibility" was actually optical camouflage, achieved by mimicking the surrounding environment.
Meanwhile,
Far away, in an area a hundred kilometers away, the terrain was higher than where the Na'vi were.
The trees here averaged a hundred meters tall, making it impossible to observe the ground from above or detect ground activity, except with near-ground orbit military satellites to find heat sources.
However, this area seemed too... "square"?
From a distance, it blended with the surrounding environment, but up close, it had distinct edges and corners, clearly man-made.
Under this "square" forest, there were no natural scenes.
What should have been dense tree trunks and vegetation had been replaced by clean, flat roads and numerous buildings.
On the easternmost side of this area, there was even an 800-meter-long airstrip, resembling a medium-sized military base.
At the center was a 14x14 meter space gate, representing Samuel Young and Atlas Corporation.
In fact, since the space gate opened, forty days had passed.
The time in the main universe had shifted from July 23, 1994, to September 1, 1994, and in Universe Zero-Two, it was the same month and day but the year 2154.
In these forty days, the Atlas Engineering Department first set up optical camouflage coverings for the entire area, along with measures to isolate heat sources, to avoid detection by RDA satellites in low Earth orbit. They then completed the forward base construction up to the present.
North of the space gate, a hundred meters away, was a two-story building, the command center of the forward base.
At this moment,
Inside the command center,
Dozens of staff members were still seated at their respective control stations, gathering the latest information through countless screens, compiling it, and then uploading it.
On the second floor of the command center, beside the central control platform,
Samuel Young, always dressed in casual business attire, held the edge of the central control platform with both hands to support his upper body, his gaze fixed on the three-dimensional holographic map displayed on the platform.
This scaled-down, detailed map was marked with numerous annotations, such as "1052/Ground/Large Hammerhead and Thanator appearing in the east/High risk," and "1101/Air/Large Banshee harassment of aerial units/High risk."
Above the map were several holographic screens, some of which showed multiple angles of the glowing willow tree and the mobilizing Na'vi.
Seeing this, Samuel Young understood that the first wave of gatherings had been completed, increasing from hundreds to two thousand.
The glowing willow tree and its surroundings were the Na'vi's sacred tree and sanctuary.
As for the five-fingered, human-speaking individual, it was an Avatar driver named Jake Sully, the protagonist of the movie.
Chosen by Eywa as the "savior," Jake Sully successfully tamed the Toruk, a creature four times larger than the Banshees (flying mounts), becoming a Phantom Knight, and inciting all nearby Na'vi tribes to fight against the RDA.
If not controlled, their numbers would grow to twenty thousand within a week. To protect themselves, the RDA would launch an attack on the Na'vi's sacred tree and sanctuary tomorrow morning.
Knowing this timeline, Samuel Young prepared to have Atlas intervene during the RDA and Na'vi clash, maximizing their benefits.
"Father, if I may..."
Standing beside Samuel Young at the central control platform, Sangillies stared at Jake Sully with undisguised disdain and said, "Why does that guy's speech give me a strong sense of discomfort?"
Atlas's activities on Pandora had not yet been detected by Eywa.
Tomorrow's chapter will have a more detailed explanation, not a bug, haha~
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