Resource Development Administration
The Resource Development Administration is a business that features in Avatar.
Contents |
History
The Resource Development Administration (RDA) was a company that was established by humans in the early 21st century where originally it was a Silicon Valley start-up with its original founders having borrowed money from friends and family to form the business.
The Resource Development Administration operated as a massive, near-omnipotent non-governmental organization that held a total, perpetual global monopoly over all resource extraction, interstellar trade, and colonial expansion outside of Earth. The corporation launched a massive, deep-space commercial operation on the habitable, extrasolar moon Pandora to strip-mine a highly valuable, room-temperature superconducting mineral known as unobtanium to solve Earth's severe energy crisis. Under the administrative leadership of Parker Selfridge, the company established a heavily fortified industrial colony named Hell's Gate and deployed a private mercenary army known as SecOps, led by the ruthless Colonel Miles Quaritch, to enforce territorial dominance. In time, RDA came to face increased pressure from the UN, scientists and the general public in handling of the Na'vi on Pandora. As a result, the company agreed to set-up a program to better communication between humans and the Na'vi. To mitigate hostile interactions with the indigenous, ten-foot-tall sapient Na'vi population, the company's Science Division funded the Avatar Program, creating genetically engineered, Na'vi-human hybrid bodies controlled remotely by human operators to foster diplomacy. Conflict erupted when the corporation's heavy mining equipment bulldozed a sacred grove of trees, leading the local Omatikaya clan to retaliate by destroying corporate security vehicles and killing company workers. The corporate administration used this indigenous resistance to justify total military escalation, authorizing a devastating aerial bombardment that completely incinerated the Na'vi’s massive, ancestral Hometree to secure the rich mineral deposit lying directly beneath its roots.
The company eventually came to discover a large supply of Unobtainium located in the territory underneath the Omaticaya Clan's Hometree.
Overview
In appearance, the RDA was a quasi-governmental administrative entity (QGAE) with millions of shareholders in the company. It presented itself as a hyper-industrialized, militarized, and deeply imposing colonial machine that completely disrupted the pristine natural landscape of its target moon. The organization maintained a colossal, fortified outpost defined by concrete blast walls, sprawling open-pit strip mines, and monolithic refining facilities that pumped toxic industrial runoff directly into the surrounding biosphere. Its internal facilities were divided into sterile, high-tech science laboratories containing glowing cybernetic link-pods and utilitarian, metal-plated military briefing rooms filled with tactical holographic displays and perimeter radar maps. The company's heavy equipment footprint was characterized by massive, three-story-tall automated excavators, heavily armored transport trucks, and roaring industrial bull-dozers built to clear away dense alien foliage. For its private security forces and mercenary personnel, the corporation mandated a rugged, practical military dress code consisting of camouflage combat uniforms, heavy tactical vests, and protective equipment. Due to the highly toxic, carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere of the moon, all human personnel operating outside corporate structures were required to wear transparent, form-fitting exopack breathing masks at all times.
The company operated a division known as Science Operations (SciOps) focused on academic science and research operating on the exo-moon Pandora. Their aim is to explore and understand more about the native systems and subsystems and environmental spheres, in various fashions, ranging from botany, zoology, anthropology and xenolinguistics of the indigenous Na'vi populations, and more. One branch of the company was Security Operations (SecOps) that was the private military of the business. It consisted largely of former military personnel from Earth with considerable resources at their disposal. Cetacean Operations (Cet-Ops) was the naval and maritime arm of the company.
The agents and assets of the Resource Development Administration demonstrated a highly advanced array of industrial engineering, long-range aerospace logistics, and heavy paramilitary capabilities designed for planetary subjugation. The company possessed unmatched cosmic infrastructure, enabling them to operate massive, anti-matter-propelled starships to transport heavy machinery, scientific equipment, and personnel across light-years of deep space. Their primary offensive and defensive capabilities relied on advanced combat machinery, including heavily armed Scorpion gunships, massive Dragon assault vectors, and towering, ten-foot-tall mechanized Amplified Mobility Platform suit frameworks that replicated human movement. The corporation utilized its cutting-edge bio-engineering division to grow fully adult, neural-compatible alien hybrid bodies from a mixture of human and indigenous DNA, enabling covert data-gathering and cross-species communication. Their security division specialized in state-of-the-art electronic surveillance, automated perimeter defense systems, and chemical-based fauna repellers designed to keep aggressive alien predators away from mining perimeters. Additionally, the organization demonstrated sophisticated corporate leverage and planetary engineering capabilities, combining brutal mercenary combat tactics with advanced geological scanning networks to locate rich mineral veins and enforce absolute corporate authority over foreign worlds.
Products used by the company included:
- Hexbot :
- AAS-RO2 Atmos Adaptation System :
- Link Unit :
- AHD-9 Sound Cannon :
- FT-M3A1 Flamethrower :
- CARB Base Unit :
- Amplified Mobility Platform :
- 67-1A Liquid Environment Transport :
- Dragon Assault Ship :
Another key resource obtained from Pandora was a substance called Amrita. This was a yellowish neurocrine liquid produced by planet's native intelligent aquatic tulkuns where it was produced in glands at the base of their brain. Use of it on humans was said to be able to stop human aging completely. Ounce-for-ounce, it had become the single most valuable substance known to man. One vial of it was worth approximately $80 million in an unspecified currency in the year 2170.
The RDA was shown to have the ability to create genetically engineered bodies known as recombinants. These were fully sentient human/Na'vi hybrid soldier embedded with the recorded memories and personality traits of an individual human. Recombinants are roughly identical to regular avatars, possessing both Na'vi- and human-like physical traits. The key difference being that they were driven by backup memories and identities of human candidates directly uploaded into their consciousness through the use of a special link device known as a Soul Drive. This makes them fully autonomous beings and essentially genetically modified clones of their former human selves, inheriting the memories, skills and personalities developed during that human's prior lifetime.
The company operated the Avatar Program (AVTR Program) that was managed by its SciOps division. The program enabled humans to explore the remote and hostile environment of Pandora without endangering human life. The technique was similar to the use of remotely operated robotic vehicles for exploration. However, the Avatar Program used biological human/Na'vi hybrid bodies called avatars specifically engineered for operation in the Pandoran environment. The operator was able to use the avatar body as if it was their own, enhancing freedom of movement and increasing work output.
On Pandora, one of its primary facilities had been the site known colloquially as Hell's Gate.
Members
- Parker Selfridge : male Head Administrator that was in charge of the company's activities on Pandora.
- Miles Quaritch : male Chief of Security of the RDA activities on Pandora.
- Lyle Wainfleet : a male mercenary who was part of SecOps and was stationed on Pandora.
- Sean Fike : a male mercenary who was part of SecOps and was stationed on Pandora.
- Trudy Chacon :
- Frances Ardmore :
Notes
- The Resource Development Administration was created by James Cameron where they featured in the setting of the Avatar universe.
In other media
Video games
- In James Cameron's Avatar: The Game, the Resource Development Administration appeared in the setting of the video game. The RDA was shown to had done various neurological experiments on the Pandoran animals in order to tame them. By putting some kind of device on the back of the animals the RDA has managed to control them. These animals lose their connection with Eywa and become very aggressive against the Na'vi. Most of this research has been done in the Rehabilitation Center in Torukä Na'rìng.
- In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the Resource Development Administration appeared in the setting of the open world video game. It was shown that the company had previously established The Ambassador Program (TAP) that involved the abduction of Na'vi children in an attempt to raise the Na'vi as if they were humans, and turn them against their own species. The children were abducted by RDA leader John Mercer who was the Executive Vice President of Frontier Operations in the Western Frontier, with orders to gather materials and resources for RDA projects across Pandora for the Colonization of the Western Frontier. The TAP facility he operated was attacked by the Na'vi clans during Pandoran War, the RDA ordered the execution of the children. The children though were rescued by their teacher Alma Cortez who put the group of children in cryosleep.
Appearances
- Avatar:
External Links
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