115 115. Extinction Level Threat

Deep within a primeval forest at the edge of the Hallelujah Mountains was a massive tree, it had a crown of vibrant green leaves covering large swathes of smaller trees below in its shadow, and its size was comparable in size to skyscrapers reaching its highest branch stopping at slightly less than three hundred meters (984ft).

It was an Adult Hometree and one of the very few members of this species that had the genetic disposition to grow with a hollow trunk naturally while staying healthy. Such trees even if artificially grown like banzai were highly prized and had been one of the rare sources of conflict within Na'vi history that drew blood and caused death.

Losing one was one the highest tragedies, a tragedy only below the death of a Tree of Souls as these massive trees were not only rare and showed the All-Mother majesty but were more often than not the ancestral home of clans spanning millennia upon millennia.

This one belonged to one if not the most influential Na'vi clan on Pandora, the Omatikaya and this was their new home. A new home that was risking being destroyed yet again and from a threat with similar outer space origin.

Yet this time around it was different and none perished for they were in the hands of both the All-Mother and All-Father, neither was their home in any true danger of destruction but for many, it felt exactly like it. The memories of death, fire, blood, and destruction from more than a decade ago were all too fresh in their mind, what was a decade to them after all? Their natural lifespan was close to two times that of a human and their perception of time followed suit.

{By Eywa what is happening!?}, Neytiri felt like she had repeated this sentence far too many times in the last dozen minutes since the dark grey disk of metal had slammed against the World Barrier and all turned for the worse.

What followed was a day she would remember all her life, the impact changed the color and shape of the sky before it violently shifted itself as if someone had manipulated it, and then complete darkness followed for close to a minute that seemed akin to an eternity. Finally, the sky came back but a point with a halo that bent and shifted the light was present, and gazing at it led to a rapidly increasing headache.

Though as impressive and terrifying as this was visually it wasn't the current danger in her mind and that of her fellow Na'vi. It was the powerful tremor, the rain of stones from the Hallelujah Mountains, and the sudden coldness of the air that none were adapted to with an approaching storm in the sky.

The stones were the more dangerous for the outside but the Tek Forcefield around the Tek Teleporter a few hundred meters away protected the entire clan and their home from the worst. The Tek Forcefield range was large enough to cover from the top of the Hometree and up to half a kilometer away creating a bubble of safety, but that it was on was unusual because it was here in this exact case were to happen.

Outside the great austrapede, Gladius, could be seen in Tek Armor aggressively attacking the stones be it by laser, scream, or flying claws strikes, a silvery liquid periodically exploding outward and snatching any Na'vi that was astray and having saved dozens already. Like all of his brothers and sisters at other places he was helping.

Natural catastrophes here were phenomena brought by what was in the sky, the secondary effects brought by a celestial body entering the Roche limit of a bigger one, and all of its potential effect on both was something none understood and a direct correlation wasn't made.

Even their Olo'eyktan didn't make the connection, though Jake understood what this vessel was, the design far too alike to what he had been informed years ago to be a coincidence. There was only one option as to who those were and it wasn't good at all, he, no, none were ready for a war and this spaceship was surely but one of thousands if not millions.

{It was them… We were just attacked…}, he mumbled trying to calm his nerves as the scenario that had unfolded came into his mind, the realization of his life and that of his family then his clan and everyone else had been saved by Liam and Eywa all but hammering in his mind.

It made him realize how small and insignificant he was to them, particularly Liam even if he knew already but knowing and seeing were two entirely different things. And he was immensely glad it was the case, without this, today would have been his last and that of his family.

{Jake, who is 'them'?}, Mo'at asked with no anger at the missing information, only curiosity as she looked up at the child that injured himself after falling from one of the tremors and didn't catch himself due to shock and inexperience.

{I suppose it doesn't matter if I told you… They… They are a threat much like what was once the RDA but from another species that had been discovered by the All-Mother and All-Father below the frozen ground of Naratskxepay. This in the sky was one of their vessels but it is far larger than what they had discovered.}, Jake said hesitantly trying to find the adequate wording.

But before he could continue a man of light manifested out of thin air. Flakes of silver orbited around his muscled body, with a graceful movement of his translucent hand they flew outward in the direction of the falling stones stopping them dead in their tracks, while from his other hand thinner stream shot out and shifted to all injured healing their wounds in a green glow of light.

This act led to gasps of shock, it attracted the attention of all, and cries of joy and relief echoed far and wide within the encampment. The Na'vi rapidly arrived as the words spread fast and soon the entire clan was present and in its entirety prostrating in reverence to the Homo Deus.

The only ones standing were the Tsahik, the Olo'eyktan, and his family and even then there were varying degrees of positions of great reverence after they were far closer to him than anyone here and the Ascension had not been that long ago but still, their relation did not make them equal.

{You can all stand up, I have important matters to speak of and you must already have an inkling of what my words shall be about.}, the All-Father said, placing a hand over Jake's shoulder and healing the many scratches the Avatar had gotten with what happened as for his words, well they did do so but only a little, their body showing no sign of stopping.

'If that's what they want then so be it.', Liam thought, it was only the beginning after all and this was relatively tame. It was just that acting this way was quite literally useless... But if it pleased them he wasn't going to police what they did and this worship was partially his fault, he did do a lot of godly things from their point of view.

The World Barrier stopped an object close to a fourth of Pandora's size and a tenth of its mass was something that hardly helped in the worship matter and fundamentally there was no negative to them being subservient to him. He just didn't like it, well more precisely the little part of humanity still in and the one he knew he needed to keep alive. In the end, he would have to suck it up, it was how life would be and his ancient way of life would not be possible.

{Today is a day to remember. What you have witnessed belongs to a species called the Harvester, little is known about them but what my mate and I gathered is enough to have a verdict on what they represent, a threat to us all.}, he began his voice coming from everywhere at once as he made Argent Sea sculptures of the Harvester from Drone to Queen and their ship with Pandora and Na'vi for scales leading to gasp of horror from his audience.

{They target world-bearing life and harvest them, it is not for the mineral resource but for Psionic, the energy unique to life, the energy of Mind and Soul. It imbues itself deeply into the ground, accumulating through death and time until its shelf-life ends and it disperses in the cosmos again. It's a resource precious to them stemming from their unique biology requiring it to thrive just like you for food and water.}, he continued as further images began to show off massive spaceships like the one that had been in the sky appeared with massive beams of energy drilled into planets and then flew off leaving a broken and dead world.

It was sudden to reveal it, and more so this way but the cat was out of the bag, Liam had just hoped it wouldn't have been this early but since it was things would need to be sped up by a lot. It was unpleasant but that was life and he had to proceed on, at the moment even if his technology was more advanced he would lose by sheer virtue of the astronomical number difference in resources and manpower.

As shown by how one spaceship shifted Pandora's orbit it didn't matter if the Harvester couldn't damage the World Barrier, they were an existential threat all the same, and depending on how their wormhole drive worked their threat level could be far higher. That is why Liam wasn't going to take any risk and considered they could directly open a gate on Pandora but didn't do so for X or Y reasons.

{They are not new to this corner of the Milky Way, in the distant past they had targeted Eywa, she had been treated as a vulgar target to be harvested by these creatures but they underestimated her, she fought back, her mind and will far stronger than theirs and so by her fury, they were exterminated and today history rhymed, their fate similar to their predecessor. She attacked granting death to them all and I protected against the impact saving the life of us all, this shall not be the first and will not be a unique case.}, he continued invoking a perfect representation of what had unfolded once the sky turned dark leading to further gasp as the understanding of the threat they represented from just the size entered their minds.

{Today is special in the history for both Na'vi and Humanity, a common enemy to tie us by blood and fire forever more had come, the Harvester will seek to kill the All-Mother, to kill me, to kill you, your mates, children, mothers, fathers, friends, to lay waste to all that you held dear. They do not care, do not think like us, they do not see us as individuals, we are simply a source of nutrition, a game to hunt, one that fights back and will never stop doing so as they come back again and again and AGAIN until they are satiated with our entrails to then continue for eternity, repeating this cycle until nothing but themselves remain. Yet that shall not happen by my will, by the will of my mate, by your will to live, we will persist, we will not flee, we will not accept this fate, we will fight back, and we will win! This is a war forced upon us but one that shall end with their death! And for this to become reality, efforts of all shall be required!}, his baritone voice reached a crescendo as the light emanating from his body gained in intensity, and like the last piece of a puzzle, a war cry exploded from the lungs of all present.

The Omatikaya was but one of many clans who had the honor to listen to the All-Father for he was not limited to existing in one place at once. This event happened in the vast majority of Na'vi clans, from the Olangi to the Anurai, and after, each time the speech changed minutely to fit the public and garner the strongest desired reaction.

Manipulative but it was the truth, no matter how it was worded it was a war for survival that had begun and Liam wasn't going to make it appear lesser than it actually is. Maybe if the Harvester didn't have a suicidal scout be thrown at them then diplomacy would have been possible but this destroyed all possibility of such a case happening, that fact the Harvester were likely not working as one mattering little.

They were all a threat, there was too much at play to be understanding and nice.

At Hell's Gate, a similar speech had also been said however here Liam announced the death of all in the ISV Venture Stars by the Harvester Mothership and the danger this alien posed to Earth. The rumors of his ability to revive people hung heavy in the air and was an excellent motivator for all.

Though all of them were useless, be they human or Na'vi, that is if they stayed as is, what mattered to Liam was the willingness to fight and sacrifice all that makes oneself for the survival of others. Their innate failure was due to their biological limits but a minor and temporary inconvenience, same for their knowledge and talents or lack thereof. All were but parameters for him to fiddle with.

However, if things truly go south then consent would have to be ignored for everyone but more generally the less important member and he would have to drive into the depths of moral decadence and mechanical logic. A future that horrified Liam and that he didn't want but also actively worked to avoid at all costs.

This war wasn't going to be like any other war fought by both species in everything from the level of violence, scale, shape, and importance. It was a war for the survival of their combined kind, a war against the threat of extinction on all levels.

Special methods will be needed to fight the Harvester given how they proceeded, they didn't invade, nor did they go on the soil of the planet they wished to eat, instead they did so from the safe confines of their spaceships. There was no fighting their force outside of their energy shield.

At least that's what Liam gathered from his observation after his Ascension, his sight was not perfect but it let him deduce with very little incertitude what was and what wasn't.

It's also how he knew why they targeted heavenly bodies with life, of which the vast majority had been previously seeded with life by them. It wasn't to spread life like some gardeners but like farmers and the type that did not care about anything but to generate the maximum amount of profit in the shortest amount of time.

The Harvester as a species could be compared to vampires, Psionic vampires to be exact and in a way what Eywa did minutes ago to the Queen was make her equivalent of a stomach and digestive system explode.

Why would they go to destroy planets with life if not only for this with everything else around pointing to that, they weren't evil megalomaniac after all, just a type of super predator that was hyper-specialized on feeding on one very unique type of energy for their biology to function.

Resources in space were virtually unlimited so it wasn't to collect minerals and the like, nor water since it was a common occurrence, and synthesizing required atoms and molecules for such a civilization was safely within their capabilities.

It was Psionic and always had been what they wanted, hundreds of thousands of worlds and beyond had been birthed and destroyed for it by those aliens. And Pandora or any planets and moons that will be under his control will never suffer such a fate.

*

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