Site 26 was a mobile link station for the Avatar Program. It was originally completely located high up in the Hallelujah Mountains, however in late August of the year 2154, half of it (the link shack) was later moved down near to the Tree of Souls; the residential cabin was sealed and stayed behind.
Structure and Purpose[]
The Site 26 link station was constructed as a means to provide more flexibility during scientific operations of Dr. Grace Augustine's research team on Pandora, who often travelled on long field trips far away from the Avatar Compound.
The link station structure consists of two cabin modules, a link shack and a regular residential cabin, which are connected via an air-sealed walkway and are held up by four hydraulic bases that automatically engage when the building touches down. Each of the station's cabins is light enough to be transported by just a medium transport aircraft such as the SA-2 Samson.
As an off-campus facility, the station was decently equipped with full life support systems, three link units, a small laboratory for biological research, and sleeping quarters, as well as a refrigerator cached with food and, presumably, showers.
Dapophets are shown to grow on the mountains at the site.
Usage by Avatar Team[]
Site 26 was used by Dr. Grace Augustine, Norm Spellman, Trudy Chacón and Jake Sully after Max Patel informed Grace that Jake was reporting to Quaritch with information on Hometree and the Omatikaya clan. By moving to Site 26, Grace prevented Jake from reporting to Quaritch with further useful information on the Na'vi. Both Norm and Grace would continue to research Pandora's biology (while in both avatar and human form) while Jake continued to learn the ways of the Na'vi from Neytiri, while in avatar form.
After Quaritch discovers that Jake damaged the cameras on one of the bulldozers that destroyed the Tree of Voices, he arrests Jake, Grace and Norm, severing their link to their avatar bodies. They were incarcerated under guard in Hell's Gate.
During the Pandoran War[]
After Dr. Grace Augustine was fatally shot during the escape from Hell's Gate, her team fled to Site 26. With Trudy Chacón piloting her Samson, they relocated the link shack cabin deep into the forest near the Tree of Souls, where the Flux Vortex is strong, avoiding the tracking of their location by the RDA. Jake then used the link shack to reconnect to his avatar and managed to accomplish tsaheylu with a great leonopteryx, thus becoming the sixth Toruk Makto and winning back the acceptance of the Omatikaya.
The link shack was used by Jake and Norm to drive their avatar bodies in the final battle against SecOps. The cabin was breached when Quaritch used his AMP suit to break the window in an attempt to "wake up" Jake, smashing one of the empty link units. Although Quaritch was shot and killed by Neytiri, the toxic Pandoran air leaked into the cabin and nearly suffocated the paraplegic human Jake as he wasn't able to reach an emergency exopack, but Neytiri reached him just in time to save him.
Abandonment[]
After the war, the heavily damaged link shack was decommissioned by the SciOps staff who are allowed to remain on Pandora, and was largely abandoned over the next fifteen years. The link shack can be considered to be part of the old battlefield.
Jake's children Lo'ak, Kiri, Tuktirey and their human friend Spider often visited the ruined "old shack" when playing around the forest. It was also the place where the Sullys first encountered the Recombinant infiltrators during the second invasion of Pandora by the human colonists based at Bridgehead.
Gallery[]
See Also[]
References[]
- The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure, page 68 - 71