Grace

In a command room, several logisticians were operating computers and holograms, and the screens were showing the view from an aerial device, possibly a drone, as a battle unfolded, showing everything in great detail until the images were cut off when a banshee rider shot at the drone.

These images were not from a film or anything like that but were evidence in real time of the battle taking place at the collector's base.

When the Collectors' base came under attack, the command center immediately sent a distress signal to the other major human bases on Pandora, but due to the great distance between them, no other human complexes sent help, sending only reconnaissance drones to catalog the potential threat and develop protocols for action in case they were affected.

One of the human facilities to do so was the RDA, resulting in the images being studied by logistics personnel.

"Have you recognized the attacking Aboriginal tribe?" Colonel Quaritch, his face Stoic and cold, asked.

When he woke up today, he received word that a human installation thirty kilometers away, belonging to a group of mercenaries called the Collectors, had been attacked.

Quaritch wasn't surprised, that was something that happened every day on Pandora, even the RDA base was attacked from time to time by Pandora's wildlife, and even by the natives as well.

But that the entire base was breached, especially one that was no worse in terms of weaponry compared to the RDA base, did worry the colonel, he, as the one in charge of base security, immediately went to the command room, where the images sent by the drones that had been sent because of the signals for help from the attacked base were already ready for examination.

And if you asked the colonel, he would lie that it was only natives who attacked with the element of surprise, but inside he saw the imminent danger shown in those images, the fact that the natives rode the fearsome Thanator, the animal that gave him the welcome the first time he entered the jungles of Pandora, having as a gift and reminder a large scar on his head as proof.

While the natives were very difficult to kill, with their carbon-reinforced structure and supreme knowledge of the jungle, now add to that the fact that they control the beast at the top of the food chain on Pandora so far recorded, and you have a deadly combination.

"It's amazing, such a level of connection is amazing, and the Titanatheres, they have never been recorded as following orders from a Na'Vi, if I could study their bond, know if they do it with tsahaylu, my research into the avatar project will be better" Grace, with an excited drawl, like a child knowing his father will take him to the amusement park spoke.

"As much as your project excites me" Quaritch began by saying with a condescending tone, "said natives are hostile, something that has never been recorded in all twenty years of research, so until we know who they are, and what tribe they belong to you will not authorize any plans for data collection in sector 46-B"

"Subaiya!"

Norm, who hadn't taken his eyes off the monitor since the Hammerhead attack on the base fence was shown, decided to speak up.

"What?" asked Quaritch, annoyed at being interrupted.

"Subaiya, they're from the Subaiya clan" replied Norm, bringing Dr. Grace towards the monitor, who was a little flustered at Norman's words.

"Aleyx" Grace whispered, but due to the silence in the room, her whisper was heard as if she had said it aloud.

Quaritch, already annoyed at not knowing information, blurted out; "Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?"

Grace, ignoring Quaritch's outburst, only answered him once she was sure of what she was going to say.

"Aleyx, the son of the Olo'eyktan of the Subaiya clan, is the one who led the attack on the collectors' base" Grace began, only to be interrupted by Quaritch.

"The one who killed Corporal Lyle Wainfleet?" he asked, a tinge of anger seeping into his voice.

Norm, feeling the tension in the air, decided to interject; "He was attacked first, and killed by his mount, a Thanator."

"So we have a Na'Vi, soon to be Olo'eyktan, who is openly hostile towards humans, right in the backyard of our base."

"We can't get ahead of ourselves, we both know what they were doing on that base, it's about time the Na'Vi did something," Grace said, alarmed at the possible actions Quaritch might take against the Subaiya tribe. 

Quaritch, shaking his head, replied; "I'm not getting ahead of myself Dr. Grace, I'm just thinking about what this means for our progress here in Pandora, I don't appreciate a hostile tribe deciding to attack my men when they decide to enter the jungle, and it doesn't help you either." 

Grace did not answer him, but she knew that Aleyx would not attack if the RDA attacked first, something inside her told her that Aleyx was different, no matter how different Quaritch thought. 

So without replying, Grace left the room, heading for the genesis room, where she would use her avatar to start an expedition, as she needed to investigate the connection the Na'Vi had demonstrated in the images, something she as a scientist denied her not to investigate.