Fractured Colonies

[keyeung]

I am going to post a number of vignettes based around Pandoran themes set some time after the events portrayed in Avatar. This is largely part of a larger works and I would like commentary.


Static crackled through the speakers where Earth's voice should have been.

The PCI compound's scientists dismissed it initially—just atmospheric interference disrupting their connection home. Days became weeks. The silence evolved from inconvenience to omen. Supply ships failed to arrive. Funding transfers ceased. The Consortium of Research personnel, who had once felt secure in their corporate backing, now wandered the verdant lunar forests with haunted expressions. The truth settled in their bones before anyone dared speak it aloud: whatever had happened to Earth, they were now entirely alone.

The Free Colonies—a patchwork alliance of defected soldiers, settlers, scientists, and indigenous peoples—had flourished for years. Now, cut off from Earth's support, they faced a new threat from within. Whispers of rebellion spread through the military ranks meant to protect them. Supply crates sat empty in storerooms. Patrol teams vanished without explanation. And in the lengthening shadows beyond their perimeter lights, something watched and waited.

Searle discovered the encrypted orders while Jade stood watching over his shoulder. The directive was clear: eliminate all non-essential personnel—settlers, indigenous allies, even civilian scientists—to conserve resources. Their eyes met in the blue glow of the terminal. Neither spoke what they both understood: whoever had sent these orders never intended for anyone to return home. Both Searle and Jade knew that the first stages of any coming conflict would be to disrupt communications back to Earth and this had already started.

 

[Sopyu ftu äo]

I like this! It's an interesting take - I'd be interested in seeing more, for sure

 

[keyeung]

Next part of the vignette

Being out of communication was nothing new to Searle, many locations had spotty radio coverage and access to the satellite radio network could be spotty during nearby solar activity. None of this really bothered him too much but it had dragged on for some time and it seemed to be affecting not just voice but data and message services. The scientist found himself outside aligning a portable radio pack to the Pandoran satellite constellation or rather attempting to.

Jade would finally find Searle outside he had weathered communication blackouts before. The Pandoran terrain created dead zones, and solar flares regularly disrupted the satellite network. He'd never lost sleep over temporary silence. But this outage had persisted, and the comprehensive nature of it—voice channels dead, data streams frozen, even text messages undeliverable—had finally driven him outside. He knelt in the purple-tinged twilight, fingers adjusting the portable radio array as he squinted upward at the Pandoran satellites that refused to answer.

Jade looked up toward the satellites as well, noting his frown and the crease on his forehead. "it's not me, is it? there's something interfering with the signal..."

 

[keyeung]

Another vignette from the same story arc

"It's your call, Jade," Searle said, studying the maps. "We've got options, none great. The PCI compound is pretty far out. Northern military base might work—Halatspang would at least hear me out. Or we push further to Txelan territory." he watched while Jade worked on the encrypted data, Searle assembled the shortwave equipment, his domain of expertise. He adjusted the antenna, then froze as familiar static crackled through the speaker—the same interference pattern they'd encountered on satellite and VHF bands. His shoulders slumped. "Dead end," he said, looking up from the radio. "They've blocked this frequency too."

"What do you mean you have options, its not me, its not the equipment its I I have decoded enough of this tripe to know we have to get word out." 'Jade replied'

“Well we are nearest to the northern military compound, which might give us the opportunity to find out what’s going on, if we are not arrested on landing.” ‘Searle thought for a while’ “The Alimatan are not far from that complex and then there are the Txampay and beyond that would be lets see” ‘he looked over the hand drawn maps, some of the clans he knew of were migratory and territories varied’ “The reef peoples and further that way would be PCI then out across the seas to the Txelan. We are here” ‘searle pointed to a spot on a hand drawn map that was somewhere in the middle of the destinations’

 

[keyeung]

Ziskrrmipaw moved through the mountains with purpose, Keyeung's words still ringing in her ears. The Eyktan had departed hours ago, soaring toward Txelan territory on urgent wings. Now shepherding the remaining clan members deeper into the more remote mountain sanctuaries—a task that would consume many hours. The sacred caverns awaited them, hidden passages known only to their peoples, chambers where the Tanhi could gather in relative safety. Only when all were safely gathered in those ancient stone caverns could the hunters and warriors plot their response. Ziskrrmipaw's fingers brushed against the radio equipment at her side with distaste, but she knew it must accompany them, however unnatural it felt. She would return to await those whom were still away from the caverns’

 

[keyeung]

Searle traced his finger along the cave system on the map. "That cavern network would work, it's a trek from the compound on foot. Marq's got civilians, researchers, they'd need time to reach it safely." He folded the map and tucked it into his jacket. "We'll need to a warning to them to buy them time."
The sound of rotor blades echoed faintly in the distance, barely audible above the forest's chorus. Both froze, listening. The rhythm was wrong—too heavy, too aggressive for civilian transport. "Military patrol," Searle whispered, already moving toward their gear. "They're running search patterns."

“It will be gone soon and we are hidden for now, they have been running patrols across this region for a while now, not sure who or what they are looking for” ‘Searle had the un-voiced thought that they may have been the subject of the search, he pushed this thought to the back of his mind. Once clear it would be increasingly pressing to move snoopy to the more secure location. The abandoned and well overgrown shack they were now at may still have been on some ones maps’ “We will move once the patrol has left the area”

"Searle returned to the cockpit and rechecked over the birds avionics and radio equipment, ensuring as much as possible there was nothing still active that would give their current location away. With all the jamming and counter jamming going on it was going to be hard to spot approaching craft, this also worked in their favour as it would make it harder for patrols to spot snoopy’

"on it!" and she grabs a duffel on her way out the door. "there won't be much, but let's leave the shack looking like it's still abandoned, right?"

 

[keyeung]

Searle nodded, already pulling camouflage netting over the helicopter's rotors. "Right. Scatter some leaves over our tracks, make sure nothing looks disturbed." He glanced at the overgrown structure that had sheltered them. Vines crawled up its weathered walls, and rust stains marked where the metal roof had begun to buckle. To any casual observer, it would appear as forgotten as dozens of other abandoned outposts scattered across Pandora's wilderness.

Now it was just a waiting game for the nearby patrol to drift away The helicopter's rotors faded to a distant thrum, then disappeared entirely into the forest's ambient sounds. Searle counted off five full minutes before emerging from beneath the camouflage netting, his eyes still scanning the canopy above. The patrol had moved on, but military search patterns were methodical—they'd be back, sweeping adjacent grid squares. "Clear, I think" he whispered, motioning Jade toward Snoopy. The helicopter sat like a sleeping predator among the twisted roots and hanging vines, waiting to come to life’

 

[keyeung]

‘Searle watched over Jade as closed her eyes and started deep breathing..."Eywa guide me" ‘Were the last words he heard, while Jade was attempting to like with her avatar, a process what without the complex technology Searle always associated with this always fascinated him. Once she was unconscious he would return his attention to getting the bird ready for flight. He would try to set up the SSR for data rich while keeping the birds radar silent, Passive radar was better then no radar and so long as he got this right their location would remain dark. He watched the Patrol as it continued away from their location, the dots on the amber screen glowing softly in the darkness’

With little else to do now, Searle propped his boots on the edge of the console, leaning back in the pilots seat that smelled faintly of hydraulic fluid and sweat. His attention drifted between three points: Jade's face—now smooth and peaceful in her trance state, her eyelids occasionally fluttering; the amber glow of the SSR passive radar screen where ghostly blips pulsed at the edges of their detection range; and the radio unit that sputtered fragments of voices through a sea of static, each broken transmission raising the hairs on his neck before dissolving back into white noise.