Dan Vs. Avatar

by Barrobroadcaster

Chapter 3: Priorities

"Looks good so far! We're right above it!"

The pilot and copilot pegasi gave the all-clear signal. Dan nodded. "Plant the flag!"

"All compartments, prepare for landing sequence. All compartments, prepare for landing sequence."

The landing craft slowly lowered the derrick into position. All six of its legs dipped into the water. Around them, the Equestrian Condor-class gunships and human Scorpion-class gunships circled in a wide pattern. Usually, the pegasi would prefer to use their own wings, but it wasn't safe enough yet. A few of the gunships dropped off submersibles- the RDA's Excavation Extraction and Loading or EEL-S subs.

The subs went to work immediately preparing the foundation and getting the legs into place. RDA had surveyed the areas previously and determined the bedrock suitable enough to anchor the rigs. All that was left was to confirm it, test it, re-test it, seal it into place, half a dozen over things and then the rig would be set up. All in all, took about half an hour.

"Sonar buoys are in place! We're clear to cut 'er loose!"

The landing craft let go of the rig and headed back up into the atmosphere. Within a few hours, five more rigs would be set up.

Dan set foot on the drilling rig. The rebreather felt a little itchy on his face, but he would live with it. "We couldn't have picked a place with more shade, could we?"

"We could set up some umbrellas. I mean, if it weren't for the travel distance, poison gas atmosphere and the fact that every living thing on this rock wants to kill ya, this place'd make a nice spot for a resort."

Dan spun around. "Need I remind you, Mr. Selfridge, we are not here on vacation. That being said, play your cards right and we'll have golf courses and waterslides here before the year's out. Nicky!!"

Stepping out of the dropship and also into this spinoff was Dan's righthand man, Phoenix Wright. Dressed in a bright, blue tropical shirt, cargo shorts, sandals and sporting sunglasses under his breath mask, he looked about as far away from the courtroom as he possibly could.

"Can I object to the no vacation thing?"

Dan looked around, then threw up his hands. "Alright, alright, fine. AFTER we set up the extractors, we can have a beach day or something. Set up a volleyball net at least."

"If we're playing volleyball, you wear a shirt this time."

"I'm having enough trouble with these damn masks."

Phoenix patted him on the back and helped him tighten the straps. "Yeah, well, keep it on if you want to keep breathing."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Commander Dan to the control room please, Commander Dan to the control room."

"Time to get to work. Both of you, you're with me, c'mon. You can find an office where you can set up your golf mat, Parker. I know you brought it with you."

"It's, uh, it's a good luck charm."

"Uh huh." Dan led the two men to the conning tower.

The drilling platforms were identical in structure- three hexagon platforms with six thick legs each resting lightly on the sea floor. To help stabilize the structure, the legs were partially flooded. Atop each platform were the support and command structures, office-like compartments surrounding the conning tower on one side and a large crane on the other. In the center was the landing pad, and underneath that was the cargo, crew and drilling structures inside the platform itself. All very pristine and state-of-the art.

The crane blared out a warning alarm as it turned and lowered into the ocean. Ponies all over the structure where at work. They moved, prepared the platform for drilling and worked with purpose. They moved with focus and discipline unmatched by any laborers Parker had ever seen.

"His majesty Duke Dan, on deck!"

The ponies rose and saluted Dan before he entered. Phoenix and Parker came in behind him and closed the hatch. The hatch sealed, and the rush of conditioned air greeted them refreshingly.

Dan panned the room, letting the ponies, mostly guards and pegasi, hold their salutes. He looked back to Parker Selfridge and held his gaze for a long moment, letting the company man drink in what he was seeing. Phoenix took note of this and said nothing; this was a message of its own they were witnessing.

Finally, Dan carefully removed his rebreather mask. "At ease." Parker had been impressed by the display; he hadn't even seen them blink.

Captain Springer, an old friend of Dan's, approached. "Lord Dan, sir, some of the pegasi squadrons are having difficulty with the clouds. It may take more time to establish the forward operating base."

He nodded. "It's not critical at this time; tell them they can take some extra time, but get it done right."

"Affirmative, sir."

"On that note," Commander Spitfire herself was the second to approach Dan. Soarin, ever the supporting wingpony, was next to her. Because of Dan's promotion, Springer actually outranked the Wonderbolt leader now, but the Wonderbolts were hers to command alone. "Soarin would like to ask something."

"We're not calling the FOB 'Soarvania.'"

"But, but I was the first to touch it!"

"We're NOT calling it Soarvania!" Dan repeated.

"Awww..." The pegasus hung his head low. Under pegasus regulations, cloud structures began with a sort-of race. The first to build a structure in the new territory got to name it- usually after themselves, their family or pegasi of old.

Dan sighed. "I'll get you a pie later."

Soarin instantly perked up again. "Dutch apple crumb or lattice?"

"Lattice."

"Deep dish, ala mode?"

Dan pointed sternly at the door. "Get your flanks back out there and finish the base!"

"Sir, yes sir!" He fixed his mask back on and bolted for the airlock. Soarin was enthusiastic and young, but not an idiot. Getting to name a pegasus fort on a new planet was a pretty big deal; Dan would probably relent and let him name it Soarvania eventually. He just wouldn't get to name it in an official capacity at the moment. Sky Station-1 would work for now.

The pegasi needed their own base, a cloud fort, to begin producing oxygen and clean water. So far away from Earth and Equestria, they could not rely on resupply trips alone to sustain them. Solar panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric generators provided power, but to get more air and water, they needed a proper treatment facility. That was where the pegasi had come in, and was one of their goals until they could properly terraform a portion of Pandora. For food, they had some hydroponics labs and a greenhouse in each platform along with a few of Equestria's best farmers. All and all, they were very prepared.

Now, they needed to focus on what they had come to Pandora for: Unobtainium.

"Uhh, hey, Dan?" Vinyl Scratch spun around in her desk. She had volunteered to handle communications, "tunes and good vibes." "Got a call for ya."

"Are the sonic emitters said up?"

"Most of 'em, yeah," she said as he walked over. "But there's a call coming in from somebody. You know a guy named Drake?"

"Ah, yes. I'll, uh... can I have one of those headsets?"

Vinyl peeled off her headphones. "Sure, you can have mine."

"Uh, no. I'm grabbing another pair."

"But why no-"

"Because they're gonna be all warm and sticky and still have your ear sweat on them!" Still seated in her rolling chair, Dan pulled her away from her workspace, the communications monitors.

"They're not that sweaty; Tavi and I share all the time."

"Because you're gay."

"Hah," Vinyl said, taken back a bit. "I'm bi, Tavi's not even my type. We're just friends, dude."

"I didn't ask for your excuses!" Dan barked. "Parker! Over here!"

The company man exchanged glances with Phoenix Wright, who shrugged at him. Phoenix was used to Dan's 'style' so to speak while Parker was seeing it for the first time. Vinyl was also used to Dan's behavior and simply put back on her headphones, flipped down her shades and put on the next song on her playlist.

Parker could feel eyes on him. The ponies were not the same as the mercenaries and scientists from his last operation on Pandora. He'd been in charge there, everyone had been on RDA's payroll and it went through him. He had been the boss. Now, Dan was the boss, standing at nearly a foot shorter than him dressed like some kind of knight with a black t-shirt. Dan wore his royal guard uniform with his shirt over it.

"Hey Drake, it's Dan. How's it look up there?" Neither Phoenix nor Parker could hear the other man through the headset, whoever he was. "No, no. You're here already? Alright, put down on platform three. I'll see ya in a sec."

"What was that about?" Parker asked.

"Just one of our pilots coming in. He's making a special run."

"A special 'run'?" Parker repeated.

Dan didn't answer his concern. "I need you to enter your administration code."

He looked at Dan. "My RDA admin code?"

"No, your country club member code- YES, your RDA admin code! What other codes do you even have?! Is there ANOTHER intergalactic mining conglomerate you're involved with?"

Parker straightened up. "I did work with Concordance Extraction Corporation for a few years."

"Fantastic, you can help if we have a problem with mutant space zombies, then. Put in the code."

He sat down and did as he was told. RDA's old software booted up in the window of the Equestrian display. Parker typed in his code and they were in.

Dan quickly pulled him off the terminal. "Good. Thank you, Mr. Selfridge, you're free to practice your putts now."

"What's all this about- hey! Don't get pushy with me!"

"It's nothing you and your bosses didn't already sign off on," Dan said firmly. "Now, if you'd like to check on the rest of the operation, we'll get you a tour guide but for now, there's work to do. Captain Britannia!"

"Sir!" The mare answered the moment he called.

"Show Mr. Selfridge his office."

"Sir, yes sir!" The English officer-mare escorted Parker to one of the rooms off to the side of the control center. It had a window, more like a larger porthole that he could see out of but it was something. There wasn't much he could do, so he set up his golf mat, sat down at his desk and logged in to his terminal. Spreadsheets didn't start themselves.

Dan returned his attention to the terminal.

"Looks like that dude's code worked. We've got a response from the RDA network," Vinyl said.

The terminal's display lit up with information. RDA's information. Parker Selfridge's code gave them control over what was left of their Pandora network. It had only been a few months since they had abandoned the planet previously; very much longer and their plan probably wouldn't have worked.

"Accessing rigs... and..." Vinyl keyed commands into the computer. Dan, Phoenix and a few of the others waited with bated breath. "Response pings: six green lights, five reds, the rest nothing."

Dan nodded. "Good. Get a rundown of the controls but don't activate them yet."

"Gotcha," Vinyl said.

Dan stepped away from Vinyl and the terminal. He and Phoenix locked eyes and Dan nodded.

"Plan F?"

"Plan F," Dan confirmed. And that was all the exchange they needed.

RDA had left a lot of equipment behind when they left, not unlike InGen had at Site B on Earth during that incident. The equipment RDA had left, however, were things Dan and company could still use. Right now, Vinyl Scratch and a couple of the other ponies were going over the operations and controls for what they were after most: the drilling rigs. The largest of them, the Bucket Wheel Excavator, was giving out a weak signal but the other rigs were online along with several bulldozers and other vehicles, all automated.

When RDA evacuated, they only had one TAV(Trans-Atmospheric Vehicle) shuttle after the first using and losing the first one as a bomber. They simply hadn't been able to remove all their equipment from Pandora, and so had just left after brief negotiation with the Na'vi to end hostilities. The Na'vi were not a violent race, though a few were motivated to further destroy the RDA's leftover vehicles, most of them held firm in the belief that Eywa would reclaim it eventually. And that was true in the sense that nature would erode the machines in a few years.

That is, if they had been left alone. Dan had other plans.

He spun around. "Vinyl."

"Yeah?"

"Change of plans. Get the smaller units working, deploy them now. Right now. Priority-one. Nothing near Hell's Gate but anything on the roads or near the mine, get it working now and send it out. Try to do it quietly, no running lights."

"Uhm, okay. That might get a little complicated."

"As quick as you can, as safe as you can," Dan said.

"Sir, we've got a few malfunctions on the BWE."

"Handle it- discreetly," Dan ordered.

"Aye, sir."

A lot was happening all at once. Dan figured it was better to use the momentum while they had it rather than not. The sea platforms were their main drilling operation, yes, but as with all Dan's plans, it was only one of many. There were multiple moving parts both literally and metaphorically at work here and Dan was monitoring them all in his head. There goal was to get unobtainium and Dan intended to get it if he had to dig it out of the dirt by hand.

---

Miles away, RDA Extra Solar Colony 01 or Hell's Gate as it was more popularly known, began to show the slightest activity again. Its generators received the remote startup code from the drilling platform, and some of the lights began to switch on. They weren't covered in much dust but some animals were grazing on the tarmac. A few mammalian creatures had crept their way into the base and the farms were growing wilder than they ever had when humans in avatar bodies tended to them. The base was abandoned, shut down, but was now showing signs of life once again.

Like the other equipment left behind, the Na'vi had left Hell's Gate largely untouched. Some of the more aggressive tribes had said they should burn the base or bury it, but cooler heads had prevailed. That, and Jake and Neytiri's own insistence had helped.

Ultimately, the RDA, Hometree, the war, all of it were things Jake and most of the Na'vi, most of the Omaticaya, wanted to forget. Move the clan to a new home, start a new life. Over time, RDA's influence would be erased from the surface. It would fade away like a bad memory, like the memory of Tom's death.

Jake felt his avatar legs, however, and it was like reliving those memories all over again. He remembered the base, the wheelchair, the IED on the street in Puerto La Cruz that sent his vehicle flying and the moment he woke up in the field hospital and was told by a nurse translating for the doctor that he was paralyzed from the waist down. The nurse's voice had been so soft, too soft to deliver such news.

He was making his way through the jungle when Neytiri and the others came back for him. He saw the panic in their eyes, the rush as they shouted.

"Sky People! The Sky People have returned!"

"Jake..." Neytiri ran up to him quickly, but he already knew. "Jake, my Jake, what do we do? What can we do?"

He braced on his walking stick and looked her in the eyes. "I... I don't know. But... but for now, we make camp. Call everyone back. Send word to the other clans- tell them not to provoke them. Tell them the truth and tell them... to be ready."

She nodded. "I will, Jake." Her voice sounded heavy and uncertain, full of the worry a loved one had for another loved one. The kind of painful, fearful uncertainty that was always the hardest to hear, when someone's life was on the line. If you've ever heard it before, you know exactly what it's like- both the fear, the uncertainty and the resolve. The thread of courage and focus, the tiny sliver needed to break through it. True bravery. And you know that it is the heaviest, hardest tone that a voice can ever have.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Will this story be as long as Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1)?

[Barrobroadcaster]

11347684
I have no plans to have it be that long, no. Season 2 may be that long or longer, or shorter, but this story will be significantly shorter. For the most part, I think it's about halfway to a quarter of the way through with this chapter.

[OP Omni God-Emperor Doom]

11347821

I give it over 10-15 chapters.

Considering on how Dan and his pony pals will actually solve this Navi quite easily, and quickly. Hopefully in a peaceful manner ( For the Navi's sake. ).