Description: Facility in the Hell's Gate (RDA ESC 01) complex on Pandora
Function: Enclosed area containing unpressurized quarters and recreational facilities for use by Avatar Project field agents
Notes: Basketball is most common sport within compound. To allow for both low gravity and the extra height of avatars, the hoop is set at a height of 4.87 meters or sixteen feet.
Originally intended to help acclimate new avatar controllers to Pandoran conditions, the Avatar Compound provides an intermediate stage between the Earth-like environment within most of the Hell's Gate complex and the highly dangerous Pandoran jungle.
The Compound includes a palisade constructed of Pandoran native timber, erected inside the Hell's Gate electrified razor wire safety fence. This is partly for visual purposes, to remind avatar operators that their duties will entail work in defensive positions in a jungle setting, and partly for safety. Avatar recreational activities sometimes include team sports and there is a real danger that avatars might come in contact with the safety fence.
A guard tower of 30.48 meters (100 feet) was constructed to supplement the standard automated towers on the Hell's Gate fence line. It can be occupied by avatars or humans, and provides spectacular views of the surrounding landscape.
The most prominent building in the Compound is the longhouse. The open-plan building contains cots on which avatars can be parked for rest when not in use. Other sections of the compound include a recreation area with game equipment and a fully equipped gym; a meeting area; a kitchen and commissary, where instruction in the capture and preparation of food species in the Pandoran wild is given; sanitary facilities; scientific equipment; and an airlock and tunnel leading to the main Hell's Gate laboratories. Nearly all furniture and equipment in the longhouse structure is scaled to suit the avatars' average nine to ten-foot height. Equipment such as video screens in other parts of the compound are modified to match height and other requirements.
The avatars are also provided with an oversized obstacle course, partially modeled on Sec-Ops training protocols, and an outdoor weight-training facility. Avatar physiology has been found to respond to weight training similarly to humans, and avatar operators are required to include such conditioning as part of their maintenance program. (Human controllers? bodies tend to degrade during their service in the Avatar Program). The obstacle course reproduces some of the conditions that may be encountered in the Pandoran wild and is used by both avatars and Sec-Ops forces.
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