"Protect Rei Ayanami and the tesseract!" Maine's roar was exceptionally clear amidst the intense exchange of fire.
The Sentinel mech controlled by Valerie reacted instantly. Its massive metallic chassis acted as the sturdiest of shields, completely screening the position where Rei stood. Dense volleys of bone arrows and throwing spears slammed into the heavy composite armor with a series of crisp clatters, bouncing off harmlessly without inflicting any substantive damage.
Asuka's reaction was lightning-fast. She grabbed a dazed Shinji Ikari and yanked him behind the chassis of the transport vehicle to avoid stray projectiles, while poking her own head out to observe the attackers with her superb dynamic vision.
"Where did these guys come from? They seem to be specifically targeting that cube!" she shouted.
The moment she was shielded, Rei had already pulled the dimensional tesseract tightly into her embrace. Her expression remained placid, but her crimson eyes rapidly scanned the battlefield, seemingly performing an analysis. Through her consciousness link, she attempted to capture the emotional fluctuations radiating from the attackers; what she felt was a chaotic, blazing hatred and a—distorted—fanaticism.
"Their objective... is the Hometree. They believe we have defiled the Sacred Tree," Rei's cool voice reached everyone's ears through the comms.
Maine suppressed the attackers attempting to flank them with precise semi-automatic fire while calmly analyzing the situation: "They aren't from the Omaticaya clan. Their equipment is more primitive, and their tactics are more savage. It could be a rival clan, or—" he considered a possibility, "extremist xenophobic elements among the Na'vi?"
Just then, the leader of the attackers—the one who had unleashed the defiant howl—seemed enraged by the Sentinel's impenetrable defense and Rebecca's overwhelming firepower. He lunged out from behind cover, drawing his bow. This time, the arrowhead was wrapped in an oil-soaked cloth that emitted an acrid stench and was instantly ignited.
A flaming arrow sliced through the air, aimed not at a person, but at a patch of oily shrubs beside the transport vehicle. Flames spread instantly, sending up billows of thick smoke that further obscured visibility on the battlefield.
"They're creating chaos! They want to use the smoke to snatch the tesseract!" Dorio astutely perceived their intent.
Sure enough, under the cover of the smoke, several exceptionally agile attackers used vines to swing down from the canopy like ghosts, diving straight toward Rei at the center of the Sentinel's protection. The bone knives and stone axes in their hands glinted with a cold light, and their eyes were filled with reckless madness.
"Don't even think about it!" Asuka cried out. She wasn't equipped with lethal weaponry, but her combat training had never slackened. She snatched up a thick, fallen branch from the ground, timed her strike, and accurately smashed it against the wrist joint of an attacker lunging at Rei.
With a crisp crack followed by the attacker's pained groan, the bone knife fell from his hand. Asuka's movements were fluid and explosive, showcasing the superior physical conditioning and reflexes of an EVA pilot.
Another attacker had his vision disrupted by a flare signal Shinji had thrown reflexively. Although the flare had little offensive power, the sudden blinding light and smoke caused the attacker to stumble, allowing Dorio to knock him to the ground with the butt of her rifle. Valerie, operating the Sentinel, used the mechanical arms like a flyswatter to sweep two other approaching attackers away, sending them crashing into the rocks and leaving them temporarily incapacitated.
Seeing this, the leader of the attackers let out an angry roar tinged with a hint of disbelief. He clearly hadn't expected these seemingly young "Sky People" to be so difficult to handle, especially without the use of their energy weapons.
Sensing the opportunity, Maine ordered Rebecca to fire several flashbangs into the leader's position.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Blinding white light and thunderous sound enveloped the area. The leader and his nearby subordinates were instantly plunged into a state of temporary blindness and vertigo.
"Retreat! We retreat!" the leader hissed in distorted Na'vi, clutching his eyes. He and his remaining men scrambled away, receding rapidly into the dense depths of the jungle like a ebbing tide.
The battle had come as suddenly as it had ended. In the valley, only the crackle of burning shrubs, scattered arrows, and a few incapacitated wounded attackers remained.
"Clear the battlefield, check for casualties!" Maine ordered, stepping quickly toward Rei. "Are you alright?"
Rei shook her head; the dimensional tesseract in her arms was perfectly intact. Asuka brushed the dust off her clothes with a look of disdain: "Hmph, a bunch of rabble." Shinji, however, was still shaken, his face a bit pale.
Dorio and Rebecca quickly inspected the captured attackers. "Still alive, but heavily injured. Looking at their attire and tattoos—they definitely don't look like Omaticaya," Dorio reported.
Maine knelt down, his fingertips brushing over the crude bone ornament on an unconscious attacker's arm. The twisted patterns and dark pigments exuded a sense of primitive brutality. His brow furrowed deeply, his voice low: "It seems the internal situation among the Na'vi is even more complex than we imagined. This journey to return the Hometree likely won't be smooth sailing."
The air in the valley following the ambush remained thick with the smell of ozone from plasma weapons, gunpowder smoke, and a faint, lingering scent of alien blood. Without needing a command, the members of Maine's squad had already occupied key points in the valley, constructing a makeshift defensive line.
Valerie's Sentinel mech stood like a reliable steel rampart on the transport vehicle's most critical flank. Its sensor arrays were running at full power, multi-spectral lenses constantly adjusting their focus to monitor thermal signals, movement trajectories, and even the slightest vibrations.
Rei had already properly stowed the tesseract back into a reinforced carrying case and personally secured it within arm's reach. She walked to Maine's side, her pale face showing no ripple of emotion as she stated the objective facts in her characteristic, flat tone: "The attackers had a clear objective: the Hometree. They do not belong to the Omaticaya."
"I noticed," Maine stood up, patting the dust from his gloves, his gaze sweeping over the other unconscious captives on the ground. "Their equipment is much more primitive than the Omaticaya's, and their tactics lack coordination, but that reckless madness—they're more like desperados incited by some kind of extremist ideology."
He paused, his tone becoming more solemn. "The key is that they knew exactly our route and the approximate time we'd be transporting the Hometree."
Dorio, having just completed a quick reconnaissance of the perimeter, walked back and chimed in: "The tracks are clear. They had personnel positioned on the high points of both flanks and along this mandatory path, lying in ambush for at least half a day. This wasn't a spur-of-the-moment whim; it was a premeditated interception."
"So what now?" Asuka crossed her arms, her lake-blue eyes swirling with impatience and a hint of offended rage. "Are we just going to sit here like idiots? Be sitting ducks in this hellhole? Who knows if those blue-skinned savages will gather more people and come for another round!"
Beside her, Shinji instinctively shrank back, his voice so thin it was almost covered by the wind: "The way they... the way they looked at us... it was like they hated us so much. Especially... especially when we were holding that... Sacred Tree."
Recalling the attackers' eyes—a mix of madness and loathing—a chill ran through his heart.