A New Mission: Ash to Fire

Phase One

Miles and Zu awoke startled, their bodies feeling a shaking rumble in the distance. Explosions. An alarm suddenly sounded, and Zu looked at Miles alert, but with confusion and worry.

"What is happening, My-ulls??"

Miles quickly got up from the cot and peered outside from the open drone door. He couldn't see anything from where they were, but he heard gunships scrambling. Miles then went to gently hold Zu's waist to comfort her and voiced, "I don't know... those were explosions. Come on."

The two rushed to get dressed, Miles putting on his tactical vest and sidearm holster, and telling Zu to put her vest on as well. Both exited their room, Lyle and Mansk emerging from theirs, also in their combat gear.

"What the hell was that, Boss?" Lyle asked with a serious expression, his AR in hand.

"I don't know, Corporal."

The alarm was blaring and all four had their ears leaned back, slightly pained from the volume. Zu did not like this loud, foreign, repetitive noise.

"With me, Marines. Let's go," Miles said.

The four grabbed their breathers and weapons, Miles handing Zu a rifle as well, and they rushed off outside to the Operations Center. Miles looked at his watch. It was 0452.

RDA personnel were hurrying about the airfield, SecOps guards and AMP Suits moving with a purpose. Miles wanted to ask someone what was going on, but he figured he'd find out shortly. He was also instinctively scanning the skies as they ran across the asphalt. The four got to the Operations Center and quickly hustled through the corridors, also filled with scrambling personnel, and made it to the Command Center.

The General and all highly ranked SecOps officers and upper RDA admin were present, including Parker. They were staring at the screens on the glassy command floor displaying a part of the base that was on fire. Miles and Lyle stepped forward to the floor, Zu and Mansk hanging back. Miles was focused on the screens, clutching the upper part of his vest. Zu was looking at the images in a light trance; the blazing fire that was shown—it was immense.

General Ardmore looked up at Miles. "Colonel. They just attacked the Northside Industrial Zone."

"How?" Miles asked with suppressed shock.

"They dropped bombs," said Major Laurent, curtly.

An unnamed officer then chimed in. "We think they modified some type of ammunition to detonate on impact without being fired... TOXON ammo perhaps. We assume they took banshees and flew up high, dropped them, and were gone out of the base's radius before they even landed."

"The aerial defenses?" Miles pressed, confused.

Major Laurent shortly responded, "It has limits. We never thought to consider bombs dropped by Na'vi banshee riders who use bows and arrows. They also dropped 'em on a tanker containing liquid polymer we use to make plastic prefab materials. It's flammable."

General Ardmore then remarked, "We don't know how many are dead. Emergency services are there now. It's a fairly unpopulated and inactive portion of the base, so, given the time of night, we are hoping for minimal casualties."

Miles had a deeply concerned look on his face. This was a whole new level of combat ability and threat from Jake Sully and his Na'vi forces. Their stolen ammo has limitations, of course. It's not being restocked, especially since the RDA strategically wised up and stopped sending out teams whose stuff could be stolen. But they'd acquired a lot already and certainly had a significant armory. Miles inferred this was a test to determine the efficacy of their ammo modifications and what targets were worth hitting. This wasn't good, and he looked around to see that the other officers had stressed expressions from similar thoughts. He made brief eye contact with Parker who had on a worried, here we go again face.