The thirty-six armed personnel, none of whom wore UDF Exoskeletons, were the Third Combat Platoon of Hunter Company.
Yet six of these Hunters remained remarkably quick and agile despite their heavy armor and the .50-caliber heavy machine guns they carried in both hands.
They reached the perimeter fence, planted plastic explosives, withdrew to a safe distance, and waited a little over ten seconds...
Boom!!
A breach blew open in the fence, and the assault began.
The Hunters passed through the breach one by one, then split into six-man squads and headed for the areas each had been assigned to clear.
The six heavy troopers were distributed evenly among the squads. They pushed to the front as breachers.
Meanwhile, inside the RDA base, infighting had broken out...
"You bastards! What are you doing?! Have you lost your minds?!"
"Fuck! I knew those blue things couldn't be trusted!"
In a maintenance workshop, several RDA Mercenaries were pinned in a corner by Avatars roughly three meters tall and armed with machine guns.
Apart from Jake Sully, the Avatar pilots were civilians with no military training. But the enhanced senses and strength their Avatars gave them made handling the recoil of a .30-caliber machine gun feel no harder than firing an air gun or BB gun.
A few Mercenaries had joined the rebellion too, offering help and guidance. With the defenders caught off guard and attacked from behind, the RDA Mercenaries left at the base were being picked off one by one.
"Lieutenant, I really regret coming here. I just... I just wanted to earn a little more for my wife and kids... a little... more..."
The Mercenary sat slumped against a wall, his voice fading. His left forearm was gone, leaving him a bloody mess, and blood kept pouring from the wound.
At last, his eyes went blank. His head tipped sideways, and his body slid down the wall until he lay motionless on the floor.
"Damn it! Damn it all!!"
Watching his comrade die, the lieutenant in charge of the Mercenaries slammed a fist into the floor in grief and fury. Then he shouted into his radio, "Colonel! This is Hell's Gate! We need support! We need support! Those mad scientists have turned on us!"
"Bzzzt..."
Unfortunately, interference from the magnetic field around the Na'vi Sanctuary left him with nothing but static in reply.
"Lieutenant... what if... we surrender?" suggested a Mercenary who had emptied the magazine of his modular rifle. His voice shook.
"Surrender?!" At those cowardly words, another Mercenary, a hulking man, hauled him up with one hand and shoved him toward their fallen comrade. "Fuck! What are you talking about?! They killed Horton! Killed him! Those ungrateful bastards would've been eaten alive by the rainforest long ago if we hadn't protected them!
"They talk about protecting nature, protecting life. Is this how they do it? By killing people?!"
"Then what do you want us to do?! And what good does yelling at me do? They killed Horton, not me!" the Mercenary shot back.
"Enough!" The lieutenant picked up a Shotgun and loaded several shells. Through clenched teeth, he said, "We may not be Marines anymore. We're security. Mercenaries. But they murdered our comrades without a second thought, and we cannot let that stand. Understood?!"
"Yes, Lieutenant!" the hulking Mercenary answered first.
"..." The other Mercenary merely nodded.
Rat-tat! Rat-tat-tat!
?
But just as the RDA Mercenaries were arguing over whether to surrender or fight to the death, rhythmic bursts of gunfire sounded from the workshop entrance. Whoever was firing clearly knew how to handle a weapon.
The rebels—Avatars and scientists alike—also stopped suppressing their corner.
Reinforcements?
At the thought, the lieutenant immediately peered out.
What he saw confirmed his guess.
The Firepower Squad had arrived to "help" and caught the rebels with their backs turned. Their first volley killed two of the most dangerous Avatars.
Realizing they had been attacked from behind, the rebels spun around in panic. One rebel Mercenary immediately took cover and tried to bring down the greatest threat: the "RDA reinforcement" wearing heavy armor and carrying a .50-caliber machine gun.
Rat-tat!
But after putting more than a dozen rounds into the heavy trooper's chest in rapid bursts, the rebel Mercenary stared in shock. "H-how is that possible?!"
From his vantage point, the 6.2×35 mm armor-piercing rounds had done nothing more than make the trooper sway a few times. Then the trooper aimed at him, and...
Boom! Boom!
The .50-caliber rounds blasted apart both the rebel Mercenary and the cover he hid behind.
"Beautiful! Hahaha!"
"Cover the guys coming to our rescue!"
At the sight, the lieutenant and the surviving RDA Mercenaries rushed out of the corner and spread apart. Working with the Firepower Squad attacking from the front, they caught the rebels in a crossfire.
Both the RDA Mercenaries and the Firepower Squad focused on the Avatars. But their pilots were noncombatants who had received only hurried instruction, and they panicked when attacked from both sides.
As for the rebel scientists?
They had neither the aim nor the nerve. They could be useful when things were going their way, but once the tide turned, simply staying out of the way was the best anyone could hope for.
Working together, the Firepower Squad and the surviving Mercenaries wiped out every rebel in the workshop.
"Whew!" The hulking Mercenary whistled, raised his squad machine gun, and grinned at the Firepower Squad. "Hahaha! Thanks for saving our asses! Drinks are on me when we get back. But that gear you're wearing looks... Wait. What's this?!"
Before he could finish, the Firepower Squad—or rather, the Hunter Squad—had already taken advantageous positions and trained their weapons on every surviving Mercenary.
A Hunter sergeant spoke up. "We're all human here. No need to fight each other. Put down your guns and accept temporary detention. Once we take over this base, you'll be fed and treated well. You might even get back to your old jobs, with better pay and benefits than before.
"Or you can resist. I don't need to tell you how that ends."
The RDA Mercenaries were low on ammunition, exhausted in body and mind, and in no condition to fight. The lieutenant knew it and had no wish to see his men die for nothing. He was the first to throw down his weapon and raise both hands.
"Everyone, drop your guns."
"But... damn it!" The hulking Mercenary was reluctant, but he had no choice.
The same scene played out across the base. With six heavily armored Universal Soldiers assisting them, the Hunters took control of Hell's Gate in less than ten minutes.