Okay, then... first and foremost, Happy New Year and I apologize for the lack of activity.
Second... well, here it is. Recently say the movie, so I thought about tossing this in.
If somebody thinks I've gone nuts... well, that's the whole dang point of this setting, methinks.
CORELINE INFORMATION PACKET: PANDORA:
“Sure, it’s a moon, to be much more specific-but everybody calls it a ' planet ', because nobody cares about specifics.
And sure, it’s a jungle. So’s the Congo. So’s the Amazon. So’s Skull Island. So’s Kashyyyk.
And I suppose I don’t need to tell you that every place I just mentioned is an ABSOLUTE DEATH TRAP, even WITHOUT the natives?”
-2nd Lieutenant Benjamin J Guidry, callsign ‘Depot’, Australian Army 2nd Division. Dated Nov 25th, 8 Post-Vanishing.
The moon designated as ‘ Planet ’ Pandora (UNSC registry: CB-EL-89398211) is located on the orbit of gas-giant Planet Polyphemus at the Alpha Centauri system. The moon (roughly the size of Earth) was discovered by the UNSC Lang-Class Exploratory Probe #2290-9595 on December 18, 7 Post-Vanishing. The sensor scans found a lush plant and wildlife and unusual energy readings both under the surface and on the atmosphere… as well as the remains of several outposts of some kind, nearly absorbed by the jungle.
A recon team, UNSC-R-95, was deployed 35 hours later to determine the nature of the ruins and a better analysis of the planet conditions.
The team managed to land on the ruins of the largest outpost on the planet and quickly transmitted info about the planet, including its atmospheric composition (Ammonia, Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen Cyanide, among others), and files scavenged from the outpost’s computers.
The team’s final contact was a notation that they would attempt to contact the natives, detected during the drop.
They never contacted again.
The UNSC promptly analyzed the data from the outpost, discovering that it had vast references to the natives (labeled as the Na’vi), and also had an extensive survey of the planet, making multiple mentions to a material the outpost’s scientists labeled ‘Unobtanium’, a material capable of exponential energy amplification. It also told of the conflict between the Na’vi and the outpost’s security forces and how the natives won (this the UNSC labeled as the ‘ Pandoran Incident ’, with the recon team’s loss being the Second).
The Unobtanium information, and several other items in the files, were labeled top-secret.
For a time, it was well. The UNSC kept hyperspace traffic in Alpha Centauri well away from Pandora and, other than the routine probe launch and orbital scans, the planet was left untouched. Attempts to contact the Na’vi or the recon team remained unanswered. A Stargate was put in orbit for rapid transit of research ships and heavily policed.
Like many other things in this blasted universe, ‘well’ was not to last.
The Third Pandoran Incident happened on August 30th, 8 Post-Vanishing. A small Stingray Industries recon team, led by Sylia Stingray and Washu Hakubi, landed on Pandora to retrieve an unknown file from the compound. Immediately, the Na’vi attacked, killing all members of the team but Stingray and Hakubi. No demands were sent and only implanted trackers proved that the women were still alive.
As a Megacorp CEO, Stingray’s captivity was a major problem for the UNSC-and a heavy debate, whether to move in and save her or to stand back and let things happen, occurred in secret.
It was little surprise to anybody that several hours later, an S.I. assault team dropped into the planet. Heavily armed, the team retrieved the two women and fled the planet, leaving a wide trail of destruction behind them.
Attempts to contact the Na’vi in the aftermath were fruitful, managing to contact the leader of the clan which encountered the Stingray teams (and who knew English, strangely, when the files said that they didn’t). UNSC negotiators managed to then prove that the ‘Sky People’ (as the Na’vi call Humans) that attacked them were acting on their own volition, and that the UNSC meant them no harm.
The Na’vi accepted the proof and the UNSC’s apologies, but asked to be left alone, for they wanted nothing with the rest of the galaxy-and especially not with the Sky People. The UNSC approved.
What little time was of no activity was brought to an end by the Fourth Pandoran Incident.
The ‘Space Warriors’, an ultra-extremist eco-terrorist organization, appeared on Alpha Centauri on September 2nd, 8 Post-Vanishing. This group appeared with a WH40K-verse ‘Retribution’-class battleship.
The massive, heavily-armed ship (and the group inside it) went on a rampage to ‘keep space clean’ that destroyed many ships and heavily damaged several colonies. Whether it was fate or a cruel joke by someone above, they reached Pandora on September 15th at 3:35 P.M. (Greenwich Mean Time), chased by a joint battle fleet with elements from the UNSC, the New Republic and the Salusian Empire. The Space Warriors’ leader, a woman called ‘Twinkle’ Maria Murdock, made an announcement about ‘wanting to cleanse the moon from corruption’ by glassing it-and the subsequent space battle saw the destruction of several ships, both on the combined fleet and the ‘Retribution’-Class (this one finally going down when a UNSC Battlestar, the ‘O’Hanlon’, rammed its damaged superstructure).
Pandora was not damaged.
A following analysis of the wreck of the Space Warriors’ ship discovered two things: that the ship had a damaged Geller Field (and thus everybody inside the ship had probably been possessed and/or driven mad beyond any comprehension), and that the ship, upon its destruction, had broadcasted a broad-spectrum carrier wave that was picked up by all ships within a light year-and was still out there, its final destination unknown.
These findings were provided to the Na’vi, and the option given: a seat in the United Nations and support of any kind they requested… or be left alone, with the United Nations’ blessings, with the (extremely high) chances of something very destructive picking up the signal and coming their way.
The Na’vi accepted. Grudgingly, and with a metric ton of requests (the top ones being no mining of Unobtanium and to be an unobtrusive to the Pandoran ecosystem as possible), but they accepted.
The integration of the Na’vi into common Coreline life was astonishingly quick, with those who did not wanted much (if any) contact with the ‘Sky People’ disappearing into the rain forests, and those who did accepting to be taught by various means and then going out into the world to see it (although many still being pretty apprehensive about some ‘Sky People’ views-many of them finding kindred spirits in other Fictions that have some kind of connection with nature). Several factions have appeared in Coreline that are fully Na'vi-staffed or have a significant Na'vi (or mind-drone) staff. Some (like the Choir of Eywa) are benign. Some (like the Pandora Liberation Army)... not so much.
As per the conditions for the charter, ‘Unobtanium’ (officially labeled ‘Extraterrestrial Alloy Number 641010’ ) has not been mined from the moon, and all known samples existing outside of Pandora are located on major laboratories under extreme vigilance.
As well, soon after the Fourth Pandoran Incident, another thing appeared on Coreline. Files leaked onto the Internet, their source unknown, mentioned a project based on Pandora called ‘Avatar’-and the main item of the project, vat-grown, remotely-controlled biological bodies for hazardous environmental exploration and easing interaction with the Na’vi, as well as notes by Washu on how to utilize the same mind-synch technology to manipulate mission-adjustable robot bodies.
Although still incredibly expensive and thus not available to the general public, there has been an increasing usage of ‘Avatars’ and ‘surrogates’ (or in the street lingo, ‘mind drones’, ‘bio-drones’, ‘gene-drones’, ‘meat-puppets’, 'meat drones' and ‘sleeves’ among others) in extremely hazardous combat missions-a thing that many in the Gray world doesn’t knows how to take.
Still, quick one for #2: If Sekot displayed any especial interest in any 'mortal races' other than the Yuzhani, the Poleepkwa would very obviously be one such.....how they might react to the personal intergalactic attention, I know not. (Yes, I saw the movie.....AltHist. Frakking. ROCKS![/guitarchord]) As for guns...obv. some type of biotech. (PL undetermined, tentative overall PL....Early 6?) Edit: Or biotech elements thereof.
