"Avatar program really took off - bunch of our scientists had figured out a way to make a Na'vi body, some kinda neural uplink put a human's consciousness into it, like walkin' around in a big clonesuit. Quaritch was tryin' to get 'em to convince the natives to move off the site of their clan center, 'cause that's where the richest deposit was or some shit." Trudy shrugged her shoulder. It was obvious that she was dismissing some of the complexities because she wanted to distance herself from what had happened - she understood more about the situation than she said.

"Quaritch had enough at that point an' he decided that if the blue monkeys weren't gonna move, well, he'd just go blow 'em up and make 'em. So he did. Pulled every pilot from the base and flew to Hometree and blew it up. I was there-"

She had been there. She'd seen the smoke rising from the great tree into the sky, seen Na'vi running in all directions - kids, women, whatever. She took a long sip of her beer. "Didn't fire, for what it's worth. Sat there for a minute deciding, had my finger on the button, in the end I turned the chopper around." Her face got blank, and hard at the same time. "Wasn't gonna give up my honor as a Marine for that pig-headed bigoted shit."