We Will Tread Upon You
The mid 21st century would see the discovery of the moon, Pandora and setting off a competition among the various mega corporations over who would be able to exploit it and the winner being the Resource Development Administration or RDA for short. Of course they would need the ability to get their and pay quite a sum to achieve that but money was definitely something that did not lack and so designed and began construction of two spacecrafts, the Bradbury and Venturestar which would launch in 2077 in a momentous occasion but an event of a far greater importance and one would that would change the course of human history was taking place at Pandora. On the ground, the alien wildlife would be scared as two massive human bases were suddenly part of the landscape along with numerous outposts, research facilities and mining and extracting operations. Of course this was nothing compared to what was to come as in orbit the ten ships of the Joint Expeditionary Task Force commanded by RDA General Frances Ardmore and soon after numerous other ships would arrive while Ardmore fleet was dropping off their Landing Modules via space elevator and they would via giant plasma engines to slow their descent to the ground, burning the forest in a 20km radius and for the Na'vi watching it seemed as if the end times had come and unfortunately for them with time it would be. 3000 RDA troops would emerge from the modules to secure the landing zones and soon after far more workers with construction vehicles to transform the devastated landscape as suitable for building a city to be known as Bridgehead City as the first step in the colonization and eventual terraforming of Pandora as humanity's new home.
This explosive arrival did not go unnoticed by the personnel at Hells Gate with Colonel Miles Quaritch wanting some goddamn answers and wanting them right now and so dispatched a recon force to make contact with what he suspected were RDA but with communication currently disrupted it was just a guess. The recon force while traveling to Ardmore forces, would notice the various new outposts along their path adding to their already sizeable confusion before eventually landing at the edge of one the landing zones where they cautiously approached the security perimeter of one of the modules with them receiving a frosty reception as from the perspective of some of the soldiers of the JETF there was a suspicion that they were traitors lead by Jake Sully, enemy number one for the RDA. Course not all were convinced and cooler heads prevailed and after some negotiations, Quaritch men agreed to be disarmed and were escorted to General Ardmore and what followed a confusing discussion for all involved but quickly became apparent that they were all SpecOps and that for Ardmore forces it was 2168 while Quaritch forces believed it to be 2154. The general quickly decided to let the eggheads figure out the science of whatever the hell had happened while she brought all RDA forces and operations on Pandora under one chain of command with her personally traveling to Hells Gate, meeting with Colonel Miles as her forces made contact with various outposts. Quaritch was understandably confused by this whole situation but recognized Ardmore as his superior and now commanding officer though his confusion was quickly replaced with anger and rage learning what would have transpired and especially that a fellow Marine would betray humanity for those damn blue monkeys.
Communications would as well be established with the RDA ships in orbit and coordinating the lands of additional modules for the expansion of Bridgehead City while shuttles were directed to Hells Gate or the RDA base in the Wetlands region, Forward Base lead by Trinity Harper that had as well suddenly appeared on Pandora. General Ardmore as she was overseeing all this would have a newly arrived Jake Sully, Doctor Grace Augustine among others detained, while the workers that would have sided with him were given a second chance. As Bridgeport and the various outposts were expanded, planning as well begun for the fact that beside the Bradbury and Venturestar arriving with some remote controlled vehicles in 2084 and if they did not send a ship back to Earth soon, they wouldn't be receiving any support till 2089 or 2090 at the earliest so making sure the most minimal disruption to RDA operations was one of Ardmore top priorities. One of the other top priorities was making room for future expansion and securing valuable resources which meant the eradication of nearby Na'vi populations and other hostile species with strike forces rapidly organized and sent out and with deadly efficiency carried out their missions massacring countless Na'vi settlements with surviving members of the clans scattering in bands of varying numbers with many fleeing as far away from the RDA as they could. Others would attempt to fight an insurgency against the Sky People, launching hit run attacks but were no match for SpecOps greater numbers and firepower.
Another demoralizing blow for the Na'vi would be that it seemed some of their own people were fighting alongside the invaders but unknown to the Na'vi was that it was the 1st Recom Unit they were fighting who were human/Na'vi hybrids implanted with the memories of humans such as Miles Quaritch for example and which made for a surreal first meeting between the two Miles. As the RDA entrenched itself on Pandora, the Capital Star-class ships in orbit were loaded up with Unobtainium, Na'vi items, blueprints/schematics for various designs and technologies and anything else that would be of value to the RDA along with Jake Sully and his cohort. On the ground Bridgehead City was rapidly built up over the first year thanks to fabrication plants and construction and growing to be much larger than Hell's Gate with the long term goal of housing 2 million people with defensive walls 19 miles long and protected by an immense amount firepower, including guns and missile systems, some installed on massive concrete pylons. An additional layer of protection being the Kill Zone, regularly treated with herbicides and defended with automated weapons, this strip of death that was once a forest keeps insurgents along with any other hostiles far away from the city. In addition seeking a more efficient method of transportation, General Ardmore would order clearing of forest to construct maglev train lines which despite the occasional setback would quickly see maglev trains speeding along the newly built lines ferrying supplies, people and equipment back and forth to various destinations.
A massive scientific breakthrough would as well be made by Dr. Ian Garvin who would discover the substance he named Amrita from dissecting a tulkun and which if used by a human would stop the aging process and which would quickly see it become the most valuable resource sought out by the RDA and in the future would be critical to funding RDA future expansion in the future. Six years after the RDA unexpectedly arrived on Pandora far earlier than historically, the first of many ships began arriving at Sol to the massive shock of the governments and peoples of Earth while it was celebratory atmosphere at the RDA headquarters as they hit the technological and financial jackpot as their stock price surged while funding would no longer a problem with soon to be government subsidies and new lines of credit from the mega banks. It was disconcerting but not surprising to learn Earth was doomed but they had a head start and additional ships to begin an accelerated off world colonization program. As the scientific community was electrified at the existence of time travel and alternate timelines, nations both major and minor banded to begin the Herculean challenge of moving humanity off world as budgets shifted to fund the construction of massive shipyards in orbit while the colonization of places such as the Moon and Mars were massively accelerated with the latter began to be terraformed using technology brought back from Pandora. As the Pandoran ships were unloaded of their goods and the few people sent back, they were just as quickly loaded up with soldiers, personnel of various fields, colonists and whatever else was needed to transform Pandora into a new home for humanity before setting out once more.
As expected by the RDA on Pandora, the ships began to return starting in late 2089 with them unloading people and various equipment and updated orders from RDA while the ships were once more loaded up with resources. For the new arrivals while they had seen videos of Pandora it was nothing compared to actually seeing being there and then there was Bridgehead City which had resumed construction on housing and was massive and growing. It was also a major adjustment compared to life on Earth but adjusted as they moved into their newly built homes, took on varying jobs while those with children enrolled them in schools built years ago for the growing population of children born on Pandora. As the 2090s began and progressed, an increasing number of ships carrying greater numbers of people began arriving from Earth rapidly boosting the population of Bridgehead City as the RDA began to once more expand and rather violently the amount of land under its control for construction of additional cities and outposts or well loosely under its control while. By the late 2090s RDA began to enjoy a small demographic dividend in the form of children born since they arrived back as they began to enter the workforce and while initially a rather small population, the coming decades would see the population native to Pandora explode in size.
In orbit as well a permanent presence would be established with construction of space stations and shipyards etc. while the other planets and moons of the Alpha Centauri system would be colonized as the RDA extracted ever growing resources for both its needs there and to support the colonies in the solar system. Of course by the mid 2130s the RDA colonization efforts would expand to other systems discovered years earlier though the RDA would have to share them with the major nations as the latter wanted to avoid the RDA growing too powerful though many would argue that ship had long since sailed. Pandora would soon become the gateway to distant colonies as humanity expanded ever deeper into space as Earth became progressively abandoned as corporations sought to extract every last bit of resources they could.
………..
Three centuries have passed since humanity's unusual arrival on Pandora and much has changed and yet at the same much has stayed the same. On the Outer and Inner Colonies, tens of billions of people if not more call their home on colonies of various states of development from planets with populations numbering in the billions living on fully developed planets to backwater worlds with a few thousand or less people living there. The general unity that pervaded the Colonial Era among the various began to falter and eventually ended once humanity had fully entrenched itself beyond Pandora and the survival of humanity was no longer in question and so humanity returned to its old instincts with tensions grew among the major powers as they competed for resources and territories which eventually gave way to various wars which in time would see most of the governments that had relocated from Earth collapsing into numerous new nation with a diverse amount of ideologies and views. Adding to the growing dangers of the colonies is a returning of a long vanquished threat, pirates born anew from privateers and deserters from various interstellar navies who prowl the trade routes for easy prey. Adding to this tumult was human evolution via genetics which raises the question of what is human with reasons ranging from making living on alien worlds easier, creation of superior soldiers, and for the hyper wealthy to have the best children money can buy you among many more reasons.
There is one power that stands far above the various powers than the others and that being none other than the RDA. With deft leadership it has avoided being dragged into ruinous wars while making unimaginable profits selling to all sides and taking advantage of weakened powers to either make them into vassals or sign deals that massively favor the RDA. All overseen by the RDA government, now a shareholder democracy based out of the Bridgehead megacity which has long since expanded far beyond its planned size, with many mega cities dotting the surface with humanity having fully tamed and terraformed Pandora with the rest of the Alpha Centauri to varying extents transformed as well. The cost of human dominance has been the genocide and extinction of the Na'vi long ago and replacement of various native life forms with genetically modified versions of themselves with once great predators such as thanator now prey for wealthy people either bored or just loving hunting from the safety of towers built on either private or corporately owned hunting grounds. Speaking of corporations, the RDA no longer operates as the sole corporate group on Pandora or on other RDA controlled colonies though these other corporations operate under strict rules set by the RDA along with hefty taxes and know not to cross the RDA.
Of course the RDA control and protection of its immense interstellar empire being advancements in interstellar making trips that once took years, now either days or weeks. Finally there is Earth, the original home of humanity and a shadow of what it once was due its environment having been destroyed and for a time was abandoned by humanity. Though in recent years due to great strides made in terraforming and genetic engineering, the RDA has spearheaded the recolonization of Earth with subcontractors flocking from across known space to the planet that once was the center of humanity seeking their share of immense contracts and while Earth will never hold the importance it once had, it once more will host humanity even if it will be a small fraction of humankind. It is an uncertain era though if there is one certainty it is that RDA is seeking to build a better tomorrow and while at the same time making immense profits doing so.
This explosive arrival did not go unnoticed by the personnel at Hells Gate with Colonel Miles Quaritch wanting some goddamn answers and wanting them right now and so dispatched a recon force to make contact with what he suspected were RDA but with communication currently disrupted it was just a guess. The recon force while traveling to Ardmore forces, would notice the various new outposts along their path adding to their already sizeable confusion before eventually landing at the edge of one the landing zones where they cautiously approached the security perimeter of one of the modules with them receiving a frosty reception as from the perspective of some of the soldiers of the JETF there was a suspicion that they were traitors lead by Jake Sully, enemy number one for the RDA. Course not all were convinced and cooler heads prevailed and after some negotiations, Quaritch men agreed to be disarmed and were escorted to General Ardmore and what followed a confusing discussion for all involved but quickly became apparent that they were all SpecOps and that for Ardmore forces it was 2168 while Quaritch forces believed it to be 2154. The general quickly decided to let the eggheads figure out the science of whatever the hell had happened while she brought all RDA forces and operations on Pandora under one chain of command with her personally traveling to Hells Gate, meeting with Colonel Miles as her forces made contact with various outposts. Quaritch was understandably confused by this whole situation but recognized Ardmore as his superior and now commanding officer though his confusion was quickly replaced with anger and rage learning what would have transpired and especially that a fellow Marine would betray humanity for those damn blue monkeys.
Communications would as well be established with the RDA ships in orbit and coordinating the lands of additional modules for the expansion of Bridgehead City while shuttles were directed to Hells Gate or the RDA base in the Wetlands region, Forward Base lead by Trinity Harper that had as well suddenly appeared on Pandora. General Ardmore as she was overseeing all this would have a newly arrived Jake Sully, Doctor Grace Augustine among others detained, while the workers that would have sided with him were given a second chance. As Bridgeport and the various outposts were expanded, planning as well begun for the fact that beside the Bradbury and Venturestar arriving with some remote controlled vehicles in 2084 and if they did not send a ship back to Earth soon, they wouldn't be receiving any support till 2089 or 2090 at the earliest so making sure the most minimal disruption to RDA operations was one of Ardmore top priorities. One of the other top priorities was making room for future expansion and securing valuable resources which meant the eradication of nearby Na'vi populations and other hostile species with strike forces rapidly organized and sent out and with deadly efficiency carried out their missions massacring countless Na'vi settlements with surviving members of the clans scattering in bands of varying numbers with many fleeing as far away from the RDA as they could. Others would attempt to fight an insurgency against the Sky People, launching hit run attacks but were no match for SpecOps greater numbers and firepower.
Another demoralizing blow for the Na'vi would be that it seemed some of their own people were fighting alongside the invaders but unknown to the Na'vi was that it was the 1st Recom Unit they were fighting who were human/Na'vi hybrids implanted with the memories of humans such as Miles Quaritch for example and which made for a surreal first meeting between the two Miles. As the RDA entrenched itself on Pandora, the Capital Star-class ships in orbit were loaded up with Unobtainium, Na'vi items, blueprints/schematics for various designs and technologies and anything else that would be of value to the RDA along with Jake Sully and his cohort. On the ground Bridgehead City was rapidly built up over the first year thanks to fabrication plants and construction and growing to be much larger than Hell's Gate with the long term goal of housing 2 million people with defensive walls 19 miles long and protected by an immense amount firepower, including guns and missile systems, some installed on massive concrete pylons. An additional layer of protection being the Kill Zone, regularly treated with herbicides and defended with automated weapons, this strip of death that was once a forest keeps insurgents along with any other hostiles far away from the city. In addition seeking a more efficient method of transportation, General Ardmore would order clearing of forest to construct maglev train lines which despite the occasional setback would quickly see maglev trains speeding along the newly built lines ferrying supplies, people and equipment back and forth to various destinations.
A massive scientific breakthrough would as well be made by Dr. Ian Garvin who would discover the substance he named Amrita from dissecting a tulkun and which if used by a human would stop the aging process and which would quickly see it become the most valuable resource sought out by the RDA and in the future would be critical to funding RDA future expansion in the future. Six years after the RDA unexpectedly arrived on Pandora far earlier than historically, the first of many ships began arriving at Sol to the massive shock of the governments and peoples of Earth while it was celebratory atmosphere at the RDA headquarters as they hit the technological and financial jackpot as their stock price surged while funding would no longer a problem with soon to be government subsidies and new lines of credit from the mega banks. It was disconcerting but not surprising to learn Earth was doomed but they had a head start and additional ships to begin an accelerated off world colonization program. As the scientific community was electrified at the existence of time travel and alternate timelines, nations both major and minor banded to begin the Herculean challenge of moving humanity off world as budgets shifted to fund the construction of massive shipyards in orbit while the colonization of places such as the Moon and Mars were massively accelerated with the latter began to be terraformed using technology brought back from Pandora. As the Pandoran ships were unloaded of their goods and the few people sent back, they were just as quickly loaded up with soldiers, personnel of various fields, colonists and whatever else was needed to transform Pandora into a new home for humanity before setting out once more.
As expected by the RDA on Pandora, the ships began to return starting in late 2089 with them unloading people and various equipment and updated orders from RDA while the ships were once more loaded up with resources. For the new arrivals while they had seen videos of Pandora it was nothing compared to actually seeing being there and then there was Bridgehead City which had resumed construction on housing and was massive and growing. It was also a major adjustment compared to life on Earth but adjusted as they moved into their newly built homes, took on varying jobs while those with children enrolled them in schools built years ago for the growing population of children born on Pandora. As the 2090s began and progressed, an increasing number of ships carrying greater numbers of people began arriving from Earth rapidly boosting the population of Bridgehead City as the RDA began to once more expand and rather violently the amount of land under its control for construction of additional cities and outposts or well loosely under its control while. By the late 2090s RDA began to enjoy a small demographic dividend in the form of children born since they arrived back as they began to enter the workforce and while initially a rather small population, the coming decades would see the population native to Pandora explode in size.
In orbit as well a permanent presence would be established with construction of space stations and shipyards etc. while the other planets and moons of the Alpha Centauri system would be colonized as the RDA extracted ever growing resources for both its needs there and to support the colonies in the solar system. Of course by the mid 2130s the RDA colonization efforts would expand to other systems discovered years earlier though the RDA would have to share them with the major nations as the latter wanted to avoid the RDA growing too powerful though many would argue that ship had long since sailed. Pandora would soon become the gateway to distant colonies as humanity expanded ever deeper into space as Earth became progressively abandoned as corporations sought to extract every last bit of resources they could.
………..
Three centuries have passed since humanity's unusual arrival on Pandora and much has changed and yet at the same much has stayed the same. On the Outer and Inner Colonies, tens of billions of people if not more call their home on colonies of various states of development from planets with populations numbering in the billions living on fully developed planets to backwater worlds with a few thousand or less people living there. The general unity that pervaded the Colonial Era among the various began to falter and eventually ended once humanity had fully entrenched itself beyond Pandora and the survival of humanity was no longer in question and so humanity returned to its old instincts with tensions grew among the major powers as they competed for resources and territories which eventually gave way to various wars which in time would see most of the governments that had relocated from Earth collapsing into numerous new nation with a diverse amount of ideologies and views. Adding to the growing dangers of the colonies is a returning of a long vanquished threat, pirates born anew from privateers and deserters from various interstellar navies who prowl the trade routes for easy prey. Adding to this tumult was human evolution via genetics which raises the question of what is human with reasons ranging from making living on alien worlds easier, creation of superior soldiers, and for the hyper wealthy to have the best children money can buy you among many more reasons.
There is one power that stands far above the various powers than the others and that being none other than the RDA. With deft leadership it has avoided being dragged into ruinous wars while making unimaginable profits selling to all sides and taking advantage of weakened powers to either make them into vassals or sign deals that massively favor the RDA. All overseen by the RDA government, now a shareholder democracy based out of the Bridgehead megacity which has long since expanded far beyond its planned size, with many mega cities dotting the surface with humanity having fully tamed and terraformed Pandora with the rest of the Alpha Centauri to varying extents transformed as well. The cost of human dominance has been the genocide and extinction of the Na'vi long ago and replacement of various native life forms with genetically modified versions of themselves with once great predators such as thanator now prey for wealthy people either bored or just loving hunting from the safety of towers built on either private or corporately owned hunting grounds. Speaking of corporations, the RDA no longer operates as the sole corporate group on Pandora or on other RDA controlled colonies though these other corporations operate under strict rules set by the RDA along with hefty taxes and know not to cross the RDA.
Of course the RDA control and protection of its immense interstellar empire being advancements in interstellar making trips that once took years, now either days or weeks. Finally there is Earth, the original home of humanity and a shadow of what it once was due its environment having been destroyed and for a time was abandoned by humanity. Though in recent years due to great strides made in terraforming and genetic engineering, the RDA has spearheaded the recolonization of Earth with subcontractors flocking from across known space to the planet that once was the center of humanity seeking their share of immense contracts and while Earth will never hold the importance it once had, it once more will host humanity even if it will be a small fraction of humankind. It is an uncertain era though if there is one certainty it is that RDA is seeking to build a better tomorrow and while at the same time making immense profits doing so.