A New Mission: Ash to Fire

Phase Two

It was the early morning of the third day, darkness still in the sky. Miles set an alarm on his watch, the soft beeps waking him and Zu under the glowing tree where the pair had fallen asleep after a bout of love. Miles, spooning Zu, his arm tightly clutching her, felt his mate begin to roll over to face him. With the soft ground beneath them, Miles shifted to brace his head on his bent arm and palm, Zu resting her pretty face sweetly on her hands, beaming up into him. She gave a cute huge yawn, her giant fangs hyper-exposed.

Miles smiled and voiced, "Mornin', darlin'."

It was still dark, not much of a morning, ugh, she thought, but she smiled at him and remarked in Na'vi, "That was English, My-ulls."

He playfully pushed her shoulder, causing her to roll to her back slightly, replying, "Yeah, yeah. Let's head back," then kissed her on the forehead, and stood, helping her up.

He and Zu made it back to their camp through the glowing forest where Lyle and Mansk were already up and packing up their sleeping pads, making funny glances at Miles and Zu on their return. Caught at the tree, and caught walk of shame-ing back to camp.

Lyle felt compelled to ask, "So what were you two up to?" Like he didn't know.

Miles just shot him a mildly pissed-off glare and Lyle chuckled to himself.

The four called down their Ikrans who were resting in the canopy. Cupcake and Karuk came down together as usual, Cupcake snuggling Karuk's face, making soft low hisses towards him, Karuk nuzzling her back. Miles joked to himself If I could come to love Zu, surely these two could make it work.

The Marines then attached their packs of gear to Cupcake, Sundae, and Rocket. Ready to go, Miles looked at them and said, "Let's get this done," with focused determination about him.

Lyle mustered an "Oorah," and Mansk gave a firm nod. Zu looked anxious but focused. They then mounted their Ikrans and flew off to their chosen floating mountain mission site before dawn arrived.

Jake awoke in the High Camp, having forced himself to sleep, his nerves making it challenging. Max, Norm, and others had found the necessary components to build this detonator signal jammer, but assembling it was not going as quickly or as smoothly as they would have liked. Max said that for insurance reasons it was critical for it to send out multiple, commonly utilized frequencies for blocking, unsure if RDA detonator tech changed in fifteen years.

If they pulled this off, they'd be cutting it very close. Max, Norm, and the other scientists were working around the clock, doing their best, but they weren't engineers or technicians. They had to read leftover RDA tech manuals and books on how to do what they were trying to do. Jake felt useless, he was just a jarhead, and he literally could not do anything.

Neytiri who had awoken a little bit earlier to go greet and talk with her people whom she greatly missed, came to rest by Jake who was sitting on the ground outside of the science lab shacks. She saw his stress and worry and rested her hand on his shoulder.

"Ma Jake, it will be alright."

Jake didn't say anything, but he reached across his body to hold her hand, letting out a frustrated, heavy sigh.

Spider was inside the science shack, having slept in here over the last two nights, a small cot brought out for him. He was watching the scientists work to design this critical device and was surprised at what it looked like. For such a major, important task, it sure was small. No bigger than a tablet, and it looked like a walkie-talkie. Norm appeared exhausted and was sweating, thumbing through book pages of an RDA-issued communication technology manual.