"You are not in Kansas anymore ..."
Rune could feel the bump of the Valkyrie shuttle setting down on a hard surface, she could hear the sound of the hydraulics hissing as they lowered to the ground, she could feel the absence of the vibration of the ships engines.
They had landed.
It had been a reasonably long flight to the base, the pilots having to navigate the ship through the dense overstorey and fog of the Pandoran rainforest that surrounded their destination, dodging a few menacing pests at some points. The shuttle also shook every now and then, they were experiencing some turbulence. Pandora was not a welcoming place to them after all. Rune was able to detect when the shuttle began to make its descent onto the base, so she prepared herself, popping her buckle the moment everyone else did and shot up, grabbing her exo-pack. Billy grabbed her duffle for her and passed it over.
"What's in here?" he puffed, surprised by its weight.
"Cricket bat." she answered.
Ivory stood up and marched down the aisle as everyone began unbuckling themselves form their seating, exo-pack already placed snugly on her face. She stood by the cargo ramp, holding onto a strap on the roof, gazing at everyone sharply. She struck her steel capped boots against the ground, calling for all of their attention.
"I want exo-packs on now! Come on people, put 'em on and line up!" she commanded.
Rune followed her orders, pulling up the stretchy fabric around her neck and pushing her hair out of the way, before slipping the black framed exo-pack mask over her face and adjusting the straps. She turned a dial on the side and compressed a button, allowing her to see clearly through the glass pane, before throwing the strap to the rebreather pack over her shoulder and clipping the pack to her belt. The mask, luckily, did not interfere with the placement of her hearing aids. She stood at the front of the of line, giving thumbs up to Billy and Camille to tell them she had her mask on properly.
"Remember people," Ivory barked, grabbing the control to the ramp, "You lose or damage your mask, you will be out in twenty seconds and then you're dead in four minutes. I do not want to be doing paperwork today, so nobody better be dying! It'll be raining out there, it'll windy, it'll be miserable and it will be cold. I do not care though, just don't leave puddles inside."
The woman sighed.
"Alright, person at the front of each line is leading y'all inside, you follow them and you run, and I mean it, run. That means you three! Stretch over here." she pointed to Rune, giving her an impromptu nickname, "Volts over here," she pointed to the Irish woman with the walking stick, "And then Golden boy over here." she pointed to a smug looking paratrooper with slicked back brown hair.
Everyone jolted slightly as the ship landed, the hydraulics hissing. She then pressed the button on the controller and the cargo ramp whined open, leaving them with the view of a concrete pathed base, covered in machinery, mech-suits, planes, mining trucks and the largest military operation base Rune had ever seen.
She prepared herself, wearing her duffle like a backpack, and raise on of her ankles, prepared to start running. She'd done drops like this hundreds of times, the only difference with this one was that it was on an alien planet. Cocking her head to the left, she waited for Ivory's command.
"GO! GO! GO!" the woman boomed, "Directly to the base! No stopping! Let's go troopers!"
Rune's body responded to the woman's words, not even properly registering them, she just ran, sector following behind her. Feet to the floor, she bolted, legs pushing her down the runway, feet pounding behind her, she had her sights set on a chain-link tunnel with an opening gate attached to it.
As she ran down the runway, looking left to right everyone now and then. She saw humongous mech suits trooping past. She remembered what they were, she'd seen them used by the American Army before, they were AMP suits, Mitsubishi MK-6 AMP types. They were good for heavy duty work, but also combat, they were not easy to destroy. She'd used one before and she did not like it one bit.
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Heart & Soul - An Avatar Fanfiction
Fanfic"My soul and heart lay with the Na'vi, lay with you." Rune Chapman is a spirited woman in her late 20's, capable of many things. She's co-ordinated, respected, kind, and ready to teach and learn. And she's trying to survive. She's a former captain o...
