This story is based extremely loosely off of real events. Appreciation and respect to all armed forces.

Many people will tell you, the closest place to Hell on earth is Boiling Rock prison. However, those people have probably never been to the Xi Yin region. A stout 3447 square kilometer region in the mountains west of the Ba Sing Se, it's not a very popular. In the eastern part of the region, you have miles of dessert, in the west you have soaring mountains. In either area the temperatures are not inviting with 49 °C (120.2 °F) highs. Then there are the people of the region. You see the people

of this region were all put into the area due to post Fire Nation war treaties,

disregarding ethnicities and cultures in the process. This of course, created a tense situation causing the region to be marked by lawlessness, chaos and just a crappy place to be in general. When some of these tribes decided to band together and started to attack villages, plunder caravans and decapitate local authorities, the newly formed Republic City Armed forces decided to intervene.

Operation Rock Breaker

Boarder of the Xi Yin region.

0300

Wiping the sand from his jacket SPC Bumi looked up at the sky. Bouncing around in the back of a truck with 9 other men, in the middle of the desert there wasn't really much else to do. Besides, without the any light for miles the stars looked quite amazing. The moon was also full, casting it's pale light over the sand dunes. He had to smile when he saw it, Uncle Sokka's ex-girlfriend, the moon. Fact was stranger than fiction. His thoughts were interrupted as his vehicle ground to a halt. The heavy radio he had on his back crackled with static indicating the channels had been opened. As per instructions, he hit a switch on the hand set, allowing all the men in the vehicle to hear the broadcast. " To all men of the RAF, this is Commander Navaro. We are now at the boarder of friendly territory. From here on out is Indian country. Keep your head on tight and remember we are here as peace keepers, not war fighters. Good luck and may the spirits watch over us. Commander out." Those words as political and robotic as they sounded made Bumi feel just a little bit better. They were just here to insure stability not fight a war.

"All right boys, while we are a peacekeeping force we are expecting resistance from the warlords initially. All weapons condition one" shouted the Sargent. The truck roared back into gear, Bumi racked his carbines action and checked his radio one last time.

"Make sure that thing works" one of the men said to him, " if things get hairy, we're going to need all the artillery we can get."

Nodding, he looked out at the column of dust from the other vehicles. Twenty of them, roaring across the desert. "I hope i make you proud dad"

" I don't see what the big deal is" said Bumi, dismounting from the back of the vehicle. "We've been going for what? 10 hours and three towns? No resistance and no trouble"

"Yer right Bumi" agreed Romba. A northern water tribesmen, he had enlisted about the same time as Bumi and was known as the company funny man. However, he was a crack medic, using his water bending and non-bending trauma treatment skills. " and have you seen the ladies? Hotties" he said, putting on his sunglasses and whistling at some passing girls.

"Lt.'s meeting with the town elders, try keeping it in your pants until after the missions over." he replied.

"No promises"

Chuckling, he turn back to the town around them. Him and the other nine men formed a circle around the truck in the town square, all relaxed with weapons slung over shoulders or necks. One of the men, his name was Quinn or something, mumbled to him " Somethings up here"

"what makes you think that?" he asked quizzically.

" I used to be a cop. Whenever something was about to go down the vibe changes. Take a look around"

Looking around, Bumi didn't see anything. He was puzzled at first then he realized, that was it, nothing.

Unlike the other villages which had people running to greet them or try and sell them something there was not a person in sight. No dogs darking, and all the windows were closed.

" Crap, you're right. I'm gonna go alert the"

"Look out" yelled Romba. Turning, Bumi saw a stream of fire barreling at their truck. It was only thanks to the warning that Bumi was able to dive away with his heavy radio pack.

"Ambush" someone screamed as a fierce battle broke out. It seemed that from every window there was fire, rocks and small arms fire began pouring into the town street. pulling out his carbine and firing back, Bumi tried to crawl out of the open but found that his radio was weighing him down. As he was kicking around trying to push himself up, he felt water wrap around his waist and pulled him behind a food stand.

" I got you" yelled Romba as he sent of shards of water to into the windows and streets. Pulling himself to his feet and returning fire whenever he spotted an attacker. " We need to get off the street" he shouted. Fire benders behind him nodded and blasted open the door of a nearby house. Not wasting any time, the whole squad rushed into the building, Romba dragging a wounded man with him. As the men took up positions near the windows, Bumi found a table in a dinning room. Sweeping the dishes and vases off of it with a crash, he dropped his radio on it and opened up a channel. " This is SPC. Bumi of Echo company. We are under heavy fire from an unknown number of enemies. Can anyone assist?"

" This is Charlie Company, we are unable to assist, we have taken heavy casualties and have withdrawn. However, we have gotten in contact with Company HQ. They are sending a gun-blimp for support, ETA 5 minutes."

"Roger that Charlie, any word from other companies?"

"Negative, Alpha dropped off the radio after reporting they were being overrun. Bravo never said anything. Good Luck guys"

"Thanks Charlie" he said. " Air-support in 5 mikes. How we doing?"

" We lost Takeru and Sanka, and Rima is wounded" said Romba. That left Romba as the highest ranking officer in the squad right now.

"We got hostiles circling the building."

"Non-bender ammo is good but it wont last forever"

Checking his own ammo count he realized that his carbine had locked open during the last skirmish. He had fired over 30 rounds and hadn't even thought to reload. "why isn't my training kicking in?" he said, as he reloaded in frustration.

"Bumi, calm down i need you to listen" ordered Romba. "I'm taking two guys and going back for the commander. When the blimp gets here, use it to clear you guys a path out of the city. We'll be right behind you." He gave him a pat on his back as he made his way to the front room.

"Roger that" Bumi said taking a deep breath.

"Jin, Lee, on me" he hollered "2-2 Hooah!"

12 hours later

FOB VICTUS

Tattered, dusty and bloody Bumi had had enough, less than two days in country, his uniform was shredded. He looked at his rifle, it had fired over 200 rounds and he couldn't even remember how many enemies he shot. The west side of the town had been leveled by artillery form the gun-blimp, leaving nothing but ruins and blasted out houses. His goggle were broken, his helmet was dented. After all this, all he could do was lie against a crate near the edge of the FOB, heck that was all he wanted to do. Why? because in front of him stood a helmet on a water tribe long knife with a water bladder hung from the hand guard. Lined up next to it was a dozen others, some with rocks, some with rifles, but only this one read " Romba Arnok".