Background on the formation of Church of Xelta:

Even before the terran refugees landed on Pandora it had been agreed upon by both the military and civilian leaders of the Ark Project that this new earth would not repeat the errors of the past. But agreeing in principle to give up the comforts of modern technology and actually packing away your computers, laser cutters and Zero-G beds were two different matters. The Ark leaders were looking for a way to convince the ‘Landers’ to return to a simpler but certainly harder and more dangerous way of life. Even harder would be to convince military minds that it was in everyone's best interest for them to voluntarily mothball the highly efficient weapons in their arsenals.

The opportunity came as part of the initial disastrous landing of the first shuttles. Due to an unbelievably naïve error on the part of the landing shuttle designers, the shuttles were equipped with proven autopilot technology that made landing the craft as simple as typing in the coordinates of the landing point and strapping yourself in for the ride. The craft designers asumed that the programs would be adjusted with new parameters once an appropriate planet was identified.

The Ark survivors were so used to trusting the Terran technology that the idea of changing the programming code was unthinkable. As a result, the shuttle landers were never updated with the differences in both the gravity of the slightly heavier planet and the corresponding denser atmosphere. The autopilots consistently over corrected and crashed well short of their intended landing zone and at a much higher velocity than the design specs for the descent craft called for.

In the initial wave of fifteen landers, the first six shuttles each loaded with critical terraforming equipment and personnel crashed into the oceans of the new planet, in the seventh shuttle a young lieutenant named Xelta Crews became aware that something was seriously wrong and was able to override the autopilot’s safety features and fly the craft by the seat of his pants for the last critical three minutes of the descent. Crews was able to adjust the plummeting crafts trajectory enough so the craft actually made it to its designated target; unfortunately the last minute adjustments were too little to slow the unwieldy craft and the nose of the shuttle containing the flight crew was destroyed as the shuttle hit the cliff face just beyond the smooth stretch of beach that Crews had steered for.

The dramatic transcript of the last five minutes carried the message that the Ark Project leaders needed.

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Lander 7: “Ah … Ark we may have a problem.”

Ark Control: “Go ahead Seven, what seems to be the problem.”

Lander 7: “Ark we're picking up high energy wave signatures from the landing zones ahead on my console. There goes another one …can you confirm?”

Ark Control: “Stand by Seven, were looking into it. (33 second pause) Yeah, Seven, we confirm High E/M pulses confirmed. About two clicks short of the touch zone.”

Lander 7: “Any word from the other shuttle pilots?”

Ark Control: “Ah … that’s a negative seven … communications may have been disrupted by the energy pulses.”

Lander 7: (barely audible) “Blowing up your shuttle could disrupt communication too.”

Ark Control: “Sorry Seven, repeat that please, your communications systems are acting up too.”

Lander 7: (loud and clear) “Ark, lander seven is about four minutes from touch zone, in light of the new data are any changes called for?”

Ark Control: “Negative Seven, just enjoy the ride in, we’ll debrief planet-side once all the pilots have landed.”

(there is a 116 second pause in the transcript)

Ark Control: “Ark to Seven, Ark to Seven … come in Seven”

Lander 7: “Seven to Ark, go ahead Ark.”

Ark Control: “Seven we have a couple red lights from your ops-console. Confirm, over.”

Lander 7: “Seven to Ark, that’s probably because I had to rip out some of the wiring to disable the autopilot protocol, over.”

Ark Control: “Ah … Seven, Control recommends returning shuttle to autopilot control, please confirm.”

Lander 7: “I doubt I could comply even if I wanted to, but I’m taking this bird in manually.”

Ark Control: (new voice) “Xelta, what the hell are you doing? Turn your autopilot back on. Pronto son.”

Lander 7: “No sir, I’m not going to be the seventh E/M wave.”

Ark Control: “Lieutenant Crews, you have no confirmation that the E/M waves indicate problems with the other landers, reengage autopilot now. That is a direct order. Over”

Lander 7: “Sorry Commander, gonna go with my gut on this one … Adjusting flaps up three degrees… I’m trying to slow down and gain some altitude.”

Ark Control: “Your career is over son. Ensign Adams, You are in command now; turn your pilot systems back on and escort Lieutenant Crews directly to security as soon as you secure the craft in the landing zone. You hear me Adams?"

Lander 7: (still Xelta's voice) “Still coming in too hot Control, Flaps to maximum. Damn these safety features, I’d rather have a stick and wire control system right now than all the technology in the world.”

Ark Control: (Original voice again) “Ah seven, we just picked up a sixth EM flash, computers now confirm the likelihood of the flashes being caused by crashing shuttles as ‘Probable’.”

Lander 7: “Roger that Control, air velocity at 312, confirm landing zone in about two clicks.”

Ark Control: “Roger Xelta, touch zone in 1.8 clicks, report air velocity, over”

Lander 7: “Down to 215, but still too hot. I’m going to try to hit the waves about 300 meters out, bleed some more speed that way, over”

Ark Control: “Roger Seven, I’ve opened communications with the pilots of the other eight birds, they have been advised of the new status. Anything you want to add?”

Lander 7: “Hi there guys, looks like our old Earth technology let us down boys. We’re on a new planet, guess we can’t be afraid to do things a new way. Wish me luck, I’m setting her down in 3…2… 1 whoah!.... oh fuck ... easy there girl .... ok .. ok ... damn, too hot..still too hot... (static)”

(Transmission Ends)

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Of the 187 people on board, 184 survived the crash. The three dead were Pilot - Lieutenant Xelta Crews, Copilot - Ensign Brenda Adams, and James (Jimmy) Lee, a flight attendant who had unstrapped himself from his safety harness to help one of the panicking passengers. Seven of the remaining pilots were able to manually correct the flight paths of their shuttles and land with only minor casualties. Mary-Lou Williams, pilot of Lander 13 refused to disable the auto pilot despite the success of her fellow pilots and it too exploded as it hit the ocean roughly two kilometers from its landing zone. (A 'Mary-Lou' is still used as a derogatory name for someone unwilling to make a difficult but necessary decision, and the number 13 is considered unlucky by most Pandorans)

Even during the initial ten year period when Pandora was undergoing radical terraforming to accommodate the needs of its new population, Ark leaders were hard at work reinforcing Xelta Crew’s message. A new planet called for a new way of doing things; if a job could be done without technology, then do it that way. Better to take two or even ten times longer it was better not to trust the old Earth tools. The Ark leadership deliberately discouraged the manufacture of replacement technology, as the old tools wore out, they were replaced by much simpler technology.

Managing this massive technological shift became the job of the newly formed Church of Xelta. The early Church was the tool used by the Ark PR people to reach the spreading population of the planet. By the time the first generation of Pandorans were old enough to vote, the population was prime for the abandonment of space-age tech. The Church took the lead in convincing the newly formed communities to give up the (now failing) technology and live as Xelta would have wanted.

A new planet; A new way.