Hell's Gate

Hell's Gate is the colloquial term for the facility formally known as "Resources Development Administration Extra-Solar Colony 01 (RDA ESC 01)". The facility also served as the RDA's first base of operations until it was taken over by the Omatikaya Clan and other human sympathizers.
It is located near a great rainforest known to the Na'vi as Na'ring.The World of Avatar: A Visual Exploration There is a river west of it known as the Muku River.The High Ground issue 3
== History ==
=== Avatar ===
In 2154, Hell's Gate was the main center for all human colonial activities on Pandora. It was in a constant state of siege from both the toxic environment and dangerous animals.Pandorapedia.com - Hell's Gate article After the Assault on the Tree of Souls, Hell's Gate came under attack, prompting the TAP facility to be evacuated in order to reinforce the base.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDzw1EKnaIA However, the RDA's efforts were in vain, as Hell's Gate was taken over by RDA defectors and the Omatikaya clan when the RDA was forced off Pandora near the end of 2154.
=== Avatar: The Next Shadow ===
After only a few weeks, it turned out that without a full staff and equipment, the base at Hell's Gate cannot stand on its own and new mines must be opened to extract the necessary resources. This caused a temporary resurgence of tensions between the humans and the Omatikaya, though they died down fairly quickly.
=== Avatar: The High Ground ===
Almost non-stop activity took place at the base for the next 15 years, including scientific activity. Many of its inhabitants formed families. Visits to Hell's Gate became the order of the day for the Na'vi, who could breathe human air thanks to AAS-RO2 carbon dioxide dispensers.
=== Avatar: The Way of Water ===
Hell's Gate appears in an early scene, showing a young Spider running through the base and into the jungle. It is shown that nature was allowed to consume the entire base having roots and plants everywhere, likely due to a lack of maintenance. The security fence also appears to have been destroyed.
It is mentioned that Dr. Max Patel is considered to be Hell's Gate new chief scientist and researcher.Avatar: The Way of Water: The Visual Dictionary Dr. Norm Spellman also now leads the remains of the Avatar Program.
=== RDA takeover (Avatar: The High Ground) ===
In 2168, the RDA returned to Pandora, led by Frances Ardmore's force. Jake Sully led an attempt to cripple the invading force. To approach the Interstellar Vehicle Venture Star, he offered to negotiate with the general: the human defectors had rigged all the complex with explosives, and after the general refused to negotiate, Jake ordered the blowing of the unobtanium refinery. However, when he ordered the rest of the complex's destruction, some humans traitors, led by Nash McCosker, prevented it. Thanks to that, the RDA forces easily took over all remaining Hell's Gate's facilities intact.
In the second wave of human colonization on Pandora, the city of Bridgehead became the RDA's new center of activity.
==Base Layout==
The area is surrounded by a large pentagonal security fence that is miles long which encloses a complex. Slightly more than a third of the site is taken up by the shuttle runway, VTOL pads, hangars, equipment storage areas, and garage structures. A similar area is occupied by the armor bay, vehicle storage sheds, and a light industrial plant mainly used for fabricating parts for mining equipment and ammunition for base defense. The refinery complex takes up the western side of the facility.
The remainder of Hell's Gate is composed of administrative structures such as: a barracks for SecOps staff, studio-style apartments for technicians and mine workers, an airtight condominium for senior staff, as well as Sci Mod that is part of the utilitdor-connected Hab Mod and Ops Center structures. Recreational facilities such as the base commissary (popularly known as Hell's Kitchen) are shared, except for an unpressurized section between the research labs and the landing zone mainly used by members of the Avatar Program for athletic training.
==Mod Cluster==
Hell's Gate's "Mod Cluster" is the main building of the site, and is composed of seven modules linked in a triangular formation. These are the Conmod (CN), Genmod (GN), Scimod (SC), an unknown module designated "ST" and the three Habmods (HB.1, HB.2, HB.3).
===Conmod (CN)===
Situated at the north end of the triangle, this five floored module contains most administrative centers, as well as the main entrance. This module contains the Operations Center, the nexus for communications and operational control on Pandora. Fortified tunnels connect the center to the communications array, with three large antennae and a space resonator for communications outside the local system, and five smaller antennae for accessing Pandoranet communications and geolocation satellites.
===Genmod (GN)===
The Genmod is a single-leveled building in the east of the triangle.
===Habmods (HB.1, HB.2, HB.3)===
There are three Habmods across the north and central parts of the triangle, which contain the residences and general day-to-day facilities for the staff. HB.2 has six floors, of which the second and third floors are nothing but quarters. 
The ground floor is a detention facility, as well as a training area. An indoor firing range exists with numerous weapons on racks to each side. There are four different sections, with bullet holes visible on the back wall. The fourth floor is devoted to supplies, services and administration, while the fifth is devoted to laundry and the gym, as well as recreational and ablution facilities.
On the sixth floor is the mess hall of the base, commonly known as Hell's Kitchen, which serves a range of food, including tapirus. There are two menus, one for before and after midday. Scientists and SecOps personnel eat together on long benches. The cafeteria area is also used for meetings; Quaritch's briefing to the soldiers prior to the Assault on the Tree of Souls took place there. The medical facilities are also on this floor.
===Scimod (SC)===
The Scimod is a single leveled building, containing various science facilities. The Biolab and linkroom are adjacent, and encompass the room in which the amnio tanks containing Jake Sully and Norm Spellman's avatars were unloaded on arrival. The room has several workstations in it for scientific purposes. Jake recorded his first log entry at one of them. The section also houses the ambient room, an area for introducing the 10ft tall Avatar drivers to their new bodies for the first time. There are other sections of the Scimod, including a nutrient research wing.
==Transmod (TN)==
The Transmod is a separate building away from the Mod Cluster, situated on the east side by the landing strip.
===Armor Bay===
The Armor Bay is where vehicles come to get stored, refueled, rearmed, repaired or refitted. This building is the main storage area of all AMP suits. There is also a small weight room inside a weapons locker room that Miles Quaritch uses. Designed for security and rapid force deployment, the Armor Bay is the core of Hell's Gate's defenses. Housed inside its large, fortified hanger and at the ready are Dragon Assault Ships configured for battle domination and ready for rapid deployment, Scorpion Gunships, Samson Tiltrotors, Heavy Duty Model 10 Slash-Cutters and an array of AMP suits, among other attack craft, support vehicles, and assorted battle-ready machinery.
The Hell's Gate Armor Bay and its munitions stockpile is believed to be one of the largest concentrations of light to medium weaponry outside Earth. The Armor Bay is protected by meter-thick walls of concrete and fused local rock. Its doors are made from reinforced, magnetically actuated titanium alloy. The roof is constructed of three-meter-thick reinforced concrete with a surface layer of glassified local rock for additional strength and protection. Its specifications are believed to be sufficient to resist physical assault by the largest known Pandoran megafauna with a safety margin.
Much of the Armor Bay was originally designated for mining equipment storage, civilian vehicle parking and maintenance, and additional recreational facilities. Instead, the fabricators that were brought out for mining equipment maintenance were repurposed to make ammunition and razor wire; the mining machines themselves were used to dig defensive earthworks or fitted with armored cabs and giant knives and sent OTW (outside the wire) to engage Pandoran megafauna.
==Manufacturing Complex==
The western part of the pentagonal enclosure is devoted to the refinery. There is also a light manufacturing plant in the base.
===Stereolithography Plant===
Every piece of human machinery used on Pandora must be made at the Stereolithography Plant, nicknamed the Grinder.The World of Avatar: A Visual Exploration Stereolithography is a form of 3D printing which allows the humans to construct practically anything they want as long as they have raw materials.  The limited ability of the plant to construct advanced computers is one of the reasons why the humans were not able to use up-to-date technology in their vehicles. If machinery is in need of an update, the blueprints must be brought on an ISV so the plant has a template for the construction. Another thing that must be brought on a starship is some of the more advanced materials used to make the objects, most raw materials are however collected on Pandora.Pandorapedia.com - ISV Venture Star article
==Exeterior Elements==
===Airfield===
The airfield takes up two thirds of Hell's Gate. The layout features a runway and two landing pads connected by a taxiway. The landing Valkyrie flies over the unobtanium mine as it begins its final approach. It is then escorted by Scorpions until it switches its thrusters to vertical and descends to a landing pad. Other landing air vehicles descend to a landing pad and then hover taxi to the hangar area. There is a Control Tower for monitoring air traffic, and a conventional airstrip in the northeast. Three fuel pods exist in the northeast corner of the base, right up against the perimeter fence. These are designated FL POD - 1, 2 and 3.
===Avatar Compound===
The Avatar Compound is where avatar drivers train and store their avatars. The station is located on the outskirts of Hell's Gate. It is made up of a wild Pandoran forest-like environment that avatar drivers can use for training purposes. The station also houses several watch towers, lakes, basketball courts, a wooden longhouse, a large electric fence to keep Pandoran wildlife out and several sanitary and science stations, modified to be used by avatars when working on projects or experiments. The location is also used by scientists, who normally stay inside the longhouse during the daytime, and leave during nighttime when the human operators leave their avatars.
===Defenses===
A pentagonal perimeter fence encloses the Hell's Gate complex. Major weapon towers at each apex provide heavy munitions defense against surface and air intrusions by large hostile Pandoran wildlife, while four smaller towers spaced 250 meters apart along each side handle intrusions by smaller life forms, including burrowing attacks. A cleared, thirty-meter-wide strip surrounds the base, which is regularly patrolled by automatic plant-clearing machinery that keeps the jungle at bay through regular administration of acidic mining byproducts.
==Infrastructure==
===Vernacular System===
The numerous corridors that riddle the base are lined with a series of pipes, which are used for transportation of waste gases, water, electricity and coolant. HVAC pipes (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) run at floor level, which are brought up via vertical feeds and diffused into the rooms from above.
==Avatar: The Game map==
Hell's Gate appears in James Cameron's Avatar: The Game, although it is unclear if the layout of its map is canonical now that all 2009 Avatar games are considered non-canon. Hell's Gate is the player's hub they re-visit if Able Ryder sides with the RDA, although there is not much to interact with.
North side:
* Armor Bay (magenta)
** There is a small decontamination room just below it.
* Armory (orange)
* Shooting range (white)
* Recreation area (yellow) - Resembles a cafeteria, possibly the location where Quaritch gives his speech
South side: 
* Avatar link room (green circle) - Requires an elevator ride
* Avatar incubation room (blue) - Some avatars are kept in amnio tanks here
* Operations Center (red) - Where Karl Falco and Victor Monroe are, requires an elevator ride
* Exterior (purple) - Trudy Chacón can be found with a Samson, requires a decontamination room to get outside
==Shown inhabitants==
=== Films ===
File:Human Sully.png|Jake Sully (formerly)
File:Grace Augustine.jpg|Grace Augustine †
File:MilesQuaritch.png|Miles Quaritch (formerly)
File:Norm in 2170.png|Norm Spellman (formerly)
File:Max in 2170.png|Max Patel (formerly)
File:Spider infobox.png|Spider Socorro (formerly)
Wainfleet Renden.png|Lyle Wainfleet (formerly)
File:Parker.png|Parker Selfridge (formerly)
File:Trudychacon.jpg|Trudy Chacon †
File:Sean Fike.png|Sean Fike †
=== Non-canon ===
Ryder.jpg|Able Ryder
Falco.png|Karl Falco 
Kendra.png|Kendra Midori 
Victor Monroe.png|Victor Monroe
=== Comic ===
Earl Comic.png|Earl
Mary.png|Mary
McCosker.png|Nash McCosker
Meg.png|Meg Elkins †
==Trivia==
*According to James Cameron's Avatar: The Game, Hell's Gate is located in a territory called Tha-Char, although whether or not this remains canonical is unknown.
*Three different sources give completely different measurements for the facility. The Pandorapedia in The Game claims the pentagonal security fence is 5.877 miles (9.458 km) long and that the Hell's Gate complex is 2.38 mi2 (6.16 km2). This seems to contradict a measurement map on the old Pandorapedia site. While the size of the complex in The Game would fit into the amount of area on the site, the length of the fence in The Game is over double the amount of fence listed on the site. Finally, a third site, an Avatar blog, gives different measurements claiming "a pentagonal perimeter fence (each side 2.3382 km or 11.69 km--7.264 miles--total) encloses 9.406 sq km (approx. 3.6317 sq miles)."http://blog.avtr.com/hellsgate/ AVTR.com
*Hell's Gate is also a multiplayer Final Battle (defend/attack the missiles) map, although with a different layout.
==References==
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Category:Pandora Locations
Category:Avatar Program
Category:Avatar
Category:Avatar: The Game