106. First Exchange of Words

Year 14 day 10, January 30th of the year 2168.

It had been close to fourteen years since the RDA had left, evicted from Pandora by force. Their coming was inevitable and so for Liam when the probes he dispatched far in outer space sent him back the fleet of spaceships telegraphed toward Alpha Centauri, the binary star system Pandora was part of the largest moon of Polyphemus.

It came as no surprise with the timeline and their appearance that those two dozen spaceships were of human design and from the awaited company. Their goal, evident even if it was an impossibility to achieve, was to gain control of Pandora, it was more of a dream than anything else as of now and forever more.

Liam had prepared for this moment since he learned where he had been transmigrated and as such they were no threat even if they rammed on Pandora hell-bent on destroying everything with antimatter.

Each of the ISV Venture Star had been thoroughly hacked before any humans had ever begun awakening.

This led to him having full control of everything on board such as information from the passengers' personal information, biometrics, and the like, to various blueprints of which he found some quite clever but ultimately flawed in their design, the Project Phoenix with the implantation of stored memories in those Soul Drives on Na'vi human hybrid, brought, and more.

One thing that interested him was the history of this Earth stored within the database, a fraction of it more acutely.

Liam knew the major point from Grace and others but having an up-to-date world map was both fascinating and disheartening, the thing that stood out the most was the color of the seas and oceans now a murky grey.

The almost total disappearance of ice on the North and South poles with the fact that asteroids rich in water were constantly brought led to the earlier bodies of water increasing and spreading on land leading to the disappearance of many islands and even countries with also the effect on country landboud with coast deeper than they once were.

Then the land itself there was almost no green left, most of the land were radioactive wastelands but the worst offender of all were the Middle East and the anciently most populated area of Russia now a glass desert. And that was just those two.

The map showed the current geopolitical situation of the world, first many countries simply didn't exist anymore for their land was not liveable or their populations were killed but that was not how it was everywhere

The United States of America was no more, it was the product of a violent civil war after several wars that caused it. It had busted into several countries the biggest of them all containing the states of the East aside from Florida and Texas, this nascent country having added a New to its anterior name.

They still all were allied together and functioned pretty much as one entity if a rather disorganized one. It remained the top power of North America behind Mexico, Canada still existed but from what Liam saw was rather weak and unsuitable for life in its almost entirety which wasn't much different than most countries.

For the South it was Brazil with Venezuela fighting for dominance but not once did they get close to French Guiana and the surrounding territory as it was part of another organization far more powerful militarily and economically speaking. There was no reason as well, if they wanted a primeval forest turned into a trash heap, they had plenty enough already.

This led to the European Union renamed the European Economic Community after World War III. It was still standing with France and Germany being the two principal pillars but with now the added one of Poland. There were new members and ones that were refused such as Great Britain and Ireland which was a full nation, who were accepted and rejected as evidence.

The African continent for what remained of it was a death zone with little to no country or political structure of power any worth mentioning remaining standing.

This continent was where most wars happened but that wasn't all. The coup de grace was from one man, Dele Balogun, a businessman who by himself and a few 'friends' led to the stripped mining of the continent. Killing what little remained and stood in his path from his goal.

He was currently aboard one of the RDA spaceships, his presence here apparently due to some spiritual awakening from his 'wrongful ways' which Liam found to be a very bad joke but killing him by causing his pod to malfunction would be far too easy and gentle.

Russia as it was didn't exist anymore, just like China, both much like the USA having shattered but much unlike it they were eaten by the surrounding countries like India for the most part, still, China was the only remaining one of moderate relevance.

Ending on continental Asia, South Korea had conquered its Northern brother, but Japan still stood strong with its main relevance, a powerful mega-corporation focusing on cybernetic augmentation working right under the RDA. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they were close second in power but that mattered little, they were essentially a puppet.

For Oceania, while many islands had sunk like New Zealand, the heart of it, Australia still stood even if it was now two separate political entities of opposite political views that were the same in essence. It cuts the massive island in two from the middle, one standing at the East and the other at the West.

It was far more complex than this with powerful city-states like Utopéa and the colonies on Mars, the Moon, and in orbit of Earth but that was essentially what Liam learned. To see that his country from his past life was still standing was pleasant even if he held no loyalty or love for the one of this universe.

He knew that he would have to work with this but there was no fixing this situation the gentle way.

From a purely logical point of view, there were far too many problems entangled, each more complex and deeply nuanced than the last, all fueled by emotion and self-interest from mortal beings with a tendency to be very, very stupid. The very few 'good' seeds were also far too warped in their own ideology for a better society to exist, themselves filled with grudges.

Nobody could fix this, and it was only on the views, beliefs, experiences, and the like of each group and individual within. The bigger problem as a whole was how civilization was built from its very first day and how it had evolved to the present, and it was neither good for the species nor the individuals. Or anything else for that matter.

It was flawed because it had developed naturally, the strong eat the weak but that couldn't work this way and be stable for a healthy society of sapient beings of a technologically advanced species. Only individual talent, skill, and competence should matter which currently wasn't the case, at least not as close as some desperately believed.

Another big problem was that humans couldn't rule themselves that much Liam had seen again and again, it was dangerous though far too cliche for his taste. But it was the truth, pattern recognition could be bad in many cases but in others, it wasn't.

Very, very, very few individuals could lead and act for the good of all. They were as rare as pink bipedal unicorns. Na'vi were the same here but they had Eywa and he would have to be a version of her here, he would have to set rules and guide them like the children they were while giving them the right environment to do so.

'Like pets, work animals or even livestock, some would say and that would be correct… But does it really change what they are, to begin with? Trained from their youngest day to live and work in society till their death, giving them the best time possible while maximizing their potential is but the most correct and logical things to do.', Liam though completely self-aware of his arrogant self-centered read this added with the monstrous implication behind it all and a pinch of a god complex.

Or he could simply let them rot and live as is but his budding instincts from his changing self were vehemently against this.

And to begin with, he was against it himself that would truly make him a monster and no better than the ones he despised, to add to this manpower would be needed for the future war against the Harvesters.

He and Eywa would be far stronger, but not omnipotent quite far from it in fact, and a minimum multi-star system type II civilization with the power to make wormholes likely at will would always be an extinction-level threat.

"Liam…? Eywa to you, are you here.", the voice of Grace snapped him back to reality from his thoughts, he simply grunted in acknowledgement and she began speaking her mind, "What should we do with the reincarnated soldier… Quaritch in particular."

"Yeah… I have been thinking the same. It's just fucked up no matter the point of view.", Jake added, quite unsure of how to feel about this.

"Can I?", Edmund asked and Liam simply noted for him to explain which he did in the next instant, "Technically speaking these individuals are not those that died fourteen years ago. The Soul Drive copied their memory and stored it into data, it didn't store their soul as the name implies, they are just vat-grown hybrids with memories of other people put in them. They didn't even have the memory of participating in the battle."

"Correct but in the end they are unimportant variables, they are more of a living experience anyway from the RDA point of view. But if they act upon their implanted memory then so be it their innocence goes only so far until elimination is required.", Liam said, evenly applying an unbiased view on this situation.

The Recombinant or Recomb for short as they were called were more victims of choice from the people to whom their memories are from than anything else. It's up to them to not be morons which for their given knowledge would prove… Very hard.

"I don't like it but I understand… It's just you know. It's both aggravating and frustrating, that's all.", the xenobotanist said leaning toward Tsu'tey behind her, the only full Na'vi present for him was the only available and stoic enough to be here.

"I understand too but don't worry this point won't stay the same. He died far too young and he merits that much.", Liam said cryptically, and before Grace could truly process what he said he added, "Let's open discussion, first at distances. Let's see how they react to a friendly greeting."

At the same time within the Interstellar Vehicle Manifest Destiny, several minutes had passed since the insightful yet useless information given by the ship's AI.

Finishing her cup of black coffee General Ardmore sighed in frustration, her experienced eyes blocked onto this impasse and she wasn't alone in that.

"I fear this will go nowhere without more information on these alien devices, we are wasting our time staring at empty space hoping an epiphany will befall us.", Charles said with a thin frown.

"Our best bet right now is to send probes or try to make contact and avoid potential misunderstanding.", the General gave out her cynic opinion on the matter which both could only agree to, however, it wasn't them who responded.

"A wise decision indeed, Frances. Though I do need to advise you that any probes manufactured with the level of engineering on board would not reveal much of the purposes of my Obelisks.", a deep rumbling distinctively male voice with an ethereal and echoing quality resonated in the room from every speakers at once.

The effects were instantaneous, the first to panic was Parker Selfridge whose already shaky figure worsened, his face turning a few shades paler while his head snapped around everywhere. His eyes immediately locked on one of the many screens that showed the same symbol, a lozenge with a pure white ball of energy in its middle with a background of light blue hexagons

His superior Charles had a similar reaction but instead of staying silent, he yelled both terrified and angry at the strange voice.

"Who are you!?", only to realize his mistake once he spoke those words, dread washing over him in the next instant and his heart powerfully hammered in his chest to the point he felt his sense of hearing dampen.

As for the oldest of the three her body instinctively moved to grab her handgun, her face hardened but she stood overall calm. In fact, she didn't seem surprised.

"Boys, we are fucked. The worst-case scenario has happened, calm down and stay polite or I will make you eat lead.", she said, placing her weapon back in its holster before taking another sip of her coffee, her hand trembling slightly.

Her words didn't help either full-grown man from calming down but Charles was not panicking as rationality came back to him while Selfridge ran to the sealed-off door trying to open it with no success the AI constantly refusing his request. Only with a slap from the General did he stop his hysterical fit.

"The worst? If you deem it so then so be it, your opinions are as such for reasons. I'm Liam Cram, the one responsible for the company you held loyalty to have lost the conflict close to fourteen Earth years ago. You can consider me the alien behind it all, I will not play silly in-game and be brutally honest in the conversation that will decide your life and death.", the owner of the voice now with a name said, a smirk could be felt behind those words.

But that wasn't all, the hologram of Pandora on the table fizzled out of existence to be replaced by a male human muscle-bound figure short of three meters (~9ft84) tall in full body armor of design utterly alien to them. This figure then walked down and gazed through its visor at all of them.

"Let's begin.", it said in this same voice that spoke the last times, the tone of a coldness close to unfeeling robots yet with clear arrogance showing it wasn't an inorganic being.

*

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