Eywa'itan

10 | The War and The Hunt

The battle had begun in earnest. Instinctively, everyone knew this would be the last intense battle they could have. One side was going to prevail, and the RDA wanted to make damn sure it wasn't some blue monkeys.

But their prowess caught them off guard. After heavily underestimating them, the RDA was met with the harsh truth that their weapons, while primitive, could match their own in their skilled hands. They found themselves fighting more desperately than they ever anticipated they'd have to with the indigenous people of the moon.

And on top of that, they'd amassed thousands, confronting them on their trek deeper into the territory. In the sky, on the ground, they met them on all fronts. While they thought they had the advantage with their technology, it was quickly proven that even the planet itself had it out for them.

It was an all-out war, but for the most part, they believed themselves to be winning. Their morale was high, rising with every kill they made and every tree they burned. They'd see victory at the end of this day, surely.

But as the battle dragged on, they lost more and more troops as well. Their main casualties were the soldiers in AMP Suits. By groups, they began going offline in a certain area adjacent to where the rogue Jake Sully had been spotted.

It hadn't started at the beginning of the battle... A new variable had entered the war. Their attention was ripped two ways, and on both sides, they were slowly losing ground. Whoever or whatever had arrived brought the backup the blue monkeys needed to gain the upper hand.

"I need eyes on the ground! What's going on down there?!" One of the commanders noticed the stark loss of soldier signals in an area away from their target and was putting focus on it. "Anyone, report!"

He got responses immediately. Animals. It was a horde of animals that had entered the battlefield. They avoided the Na'vi, but anything remotely human was met with extreme violence. It was so vicious that most contacts with the commanders—requests for backup—would abruptly end. With every lost line there was a lost signal, a sign of death.

It got to the point the man was frantic to get someone in the area on the line, anyone to tell him what was going on. What the hell was with this blasted moon? He wouldn't be surprised if the trees started working against them too...

Until he got reports that they did start doing that. Vines would fall and entangle, roots would emerge and ensnare. Other types of weird fruit that were the equivalent of grenades would detonate when they were near. There were flashes that blinded, a type of blasting sap that burned... It was utter pandemonium on the ground.

The Commander in charge of the area, Willum, thought he wouldn't be able to get a grasp on what the hell was happening until finally, someone managed to call him for longer than a minute.

"Sir! W-We got multiple hostiles!" The soldier was frantic. Willum could hear the gunshots firing in every direction. Something was growling in the background, roaring as claws wrecked metal. "We need backup over here! Asap! It's a fucking Ninja Baby!"

"...A what?"

"It's a Ninja Na'vi Demon Baby, Sir! I swear! It ain't like them other ones."

Fully believing he'd lost his mind, but not having any other source of info, he indulged the crying man. "How so, Soldier?"

"The trees, the ground, it's... it's communicating or something. These monsters listen to it!! They have formations! Please save me! I don't wanna die like this! It's—No..." Everything went silent for a moment.

"Soldier? Soldier, do you read?" Commander Willum grunted in frustration, but it dissipated at the absolute terror in the man's voice.

"They found me, sir... They found me..." Hardly anything could be heard on the static-filled soldier's end aside from running, screaming, and howling in agony as limbs were torn and crunched. "NOOOO-!"