I've noticed that some reviewers are asking that more emphasis be put on the canon characters. Let me start by assuring you that the first half of the story is merely dedicated to detailing the opening salvos of this new war. I guarantee that the second half of the story will feature as much of the canon characters as you could possibly want.


He recalled the events that had transpired earlier in the day. How he had been ordered to assemble a small army just outside of Ba Sing Se's walls, and how he had discovered that their orders were to engage an invading army that was quickly approaching to within just 5 miles of the outer walls of the city.

He remembered the letters that he had written prior to riding to the front of the army to take command. The letters were written to various friends, relatives and superiors. But the most important set of letters were to be delivered to his wife. She was 6 months pregnant with his son when he had first left for the front lines, and that was 3 years ago.

He hoped to return one day so that he may hold the son that he had never seen. The letters were then bundled together and given to a courier. It was the duty of this man to ensure the safe arrival of the letters to the docks, were they would find a ship to deliver the mail to the fire nation homeland.

But alas, his attention now focused to the present, and to the battle at hand. It was pure and utter chaos. Commander Zhou had expected to face an army that would position itself neatly in a line along the horizon, taunting their foes and trying to coax them to do battle. But the instant his men had gotten within range of those infernal weaponry, they unleashed a storm of destruction across the battle lines.

His men struggled to close ranks with the enemy. They paid for this with blood and sacrifice, and many had fallen before they could get within range of the enemy. And even then, none of the swords, spears, arrows and fire bending attacks seemed to work against their foes. Everything they threw at them just seemed to bounce off of the strange armor that the enemy wore.

The fire nation tanks had fared no better, as most were annihilated by the titanic guns of the enemy's monstrous tanks. Those that did not get out of the way in time were crushed by the sheer bulk of the gargantuan machines. But the worse things were yet to come, for the enemy had kept their gigantic mechanical constructs in the rear. The battle walkers were like two legged tanks, except much bigger and with more fearsome weaponry. They would even sometimes pick up a tank or two and hurl it back at the commander's men.

The commander signaled for the cavalry to attempt a flanking maneuver against the side of the enemies left flank. The quickly traversed the battlefield at an angle, easily avoiding the enemies gunfire, but before they could make contact with the enemy, they had been cut down by saber wielding men atop long, two-wheeled vehicles.

Zhou was beginning to despair. They could not possible defeat an enemy such as this. But Zhou decided that the least he could do was to provide time for Ba Sing Se to set up a defense. Pulling out a scroll with hand painted picture of his wife, he held it close to his chest in a moment of farewell. He then signaled for his men to follow him.

He knew what he must do. An enemy such as this is obviously led by a great leader. The last thing Zhou would ever do upon this world is either to slay the head of this invasion, or at least die honorably in the attempt.

They had managed to avoid the enemy's gunfire and soldiers thus far, and soon Zhou found what he was looking for. Up ahead of him was a strange vehicle that seemed to float slightly just above the ground. The man atop the vehicle was clad head to toe in massive ornately detailed armor. He was extremely imposing, but that just made facing him all the more heroic and sweeter.

With a fearsome cry, Zhou led his retinue into a death or glory charge towards the enemy commander. With determination and fury, they attacked any enemy who dared to get in their way. Even the seemingly impenetrable armor of the enemy had its weak points, and with great skill and prowess, Zhou and his men exploited this weakness with grim ferocity.

Up ahead he saw some men atop the same strange two wheeled vehicles he had seen earlier. Upon seeing him approach, they began a charge, obviously trying to protect their lead. Zhou reciprocated the attempt with a charge of his own, and it was a catastrophic clash indeed. Several men from both sides were thrown off their mounts and vehicles.

Zhou was knocked off his saddle as well, but he had managed to dislodge the commander's leading bodyguard off of his vehicle too. Zhou pulled out his broadsword, while his opponent pulled out a rather cumbersome looking broadsword that seemed to crackle with strange energies.

Zhou took a swipe at his opponent, but the man quickly dodged out of the way, due to the fact that he did not sport the armor that most of the other invaders were wearing. The man brought his sword down on Zhou's left shoulder. Zhou's armor should normally have deflected the blow, but the energy surrounding his opponent's sword just tore through the metal as if it were cardboard. Zhou grimaced in pain as his arm was severed at the shoulder, but with steely determination he swung his sword at his opponent's side, the blade cleaved several of his opponent's ribs and caused him to stagger. With a might yell, Zhou swung the sword in a large arc, completely severing his foe's head cleanly.

He did not have time to savor this little victory though, for when he turned around to face what was approaching him, he soon found out that the hard part had just begun.

Warmaster Alexander Thant looked on with satisfaction at the scene before him. The battle was going well, a bit too well in fact. The enemy had no idea what they were up against, and Alexander's troops were wiping them off the battlefield faster than a Mobian dune runner could sprint. Standing next to Thant was his aide and personal assistant, Marcus Treyvor, a young and promising officer fresh from the military schools of Zhol.

Awhile ago before the battle had started, He had instructed the men to get just within firing range of the enemy and entrench themselves firmly into position. The plan was to force the enemy to try and close in on Thant's position, drawing them into a carefully layed out killing field.

From behind he could hear the roar of guns coming from the artillery batteries and battlemech squadrons. Treyvor had suggested that some mobile suits be brought in from Terra 117 to provide shock value, but Thant had told him that the current troop and equipment level was enough.

Off to his left, Thant noticed that the enemy had attempted a cavalry charge against the side of his left flank. Thant had assumed beforehand that they would try such a tactic, which is why he instructed the Bazir battlebikers to lay in wait at either of his flanks. The Crythanians atop the swift and deadly vehicles responded to the attack with a counter attack of their own, cutting down the enemy cavalry before they could reach Thant's battle line.

The battle would soon be won, Thant thought. Hopefully the fire nation would be sufficiently intimidated by what has transpired here, and opt for negotiating with the federation. If not, the battles to come would be long and bloody.

Thant was thoroughly studying the battlefield when all of a sudden Treyvor had taken some of the nearby Battlebikers and lead a charge off to Thant's right. Thant wondered what could have caused his aide to lead such a strange assault. He adjusted his helm to magnify his vision by a factor of 3. That's when he noticed that the enemy had somehow managed to circumvent his forces and attempt a cavalry charge against his rear lines.

Thant noted the heraldry of the cavalry group, as well as the ferocity of their assault. No doubt this was perhaps the command unit of the opposing force, attempting a risky yet courageous attack on Thant's own command unit. Within moments, Treyvor and his unit had impacted with the enemy commanders cavalry. Treyvor was knocked off of his bike, but the enemy commander had been dismounted as well.

Thant watched on as Treyvor fought valorously against the enemy commander. But his expression soon turned to horror when all of a sudden the enemy commander decapitated his aide's head. Thant screamed a resounding "no" as he began charging towards Treyvor's killer. He cursed himself for underestimating this enemy, perhaps one of the few mistakes he has ever made since his tenure as warmaster. If only he had brought along his star legionnaires, they could have handled this attack rather than Treyvor having risked his life to defend Thant.

The ground shook under the massive weight of Thant's sheer size and thick heavy armor. His genetic and cybernetic augmentations had made him into the man he was now, a large, strong, and extremely powerful telepath and warrior. A Warmaster was built for combat, and he intended to prove that point to the fire nation commander.

Within moments, he had made contact with his foe, and gave a mighty strike with his massive battle gauntlets. The energy field of the gauntlets magnified the blow that he delivered, sending the enemy commander flying for several feet.

The enemy commander got up and assumed a battle stance. His left arm was nothing more than a bloody stump, having been cut off by Treyvor's power sword. Nevertheless, Thant's opponent charged fearlessly towards the Warmaster, and gave a mighty swing of his blade. The blade impacted with Thant's energy shield, causing the enemy commander to stagger under the force of the feedback.

Thant used this opening in the opponent's defense to attempt an attack, but his opponent had quickly recovered and dodged his blow. Thant worked quickly to align himself with his opponent, but the much shorter and more agile man had managed to get behind Thant and hop on to his back. Thant's enemy then drove his blade into the mechanism of the power armor that Thant wore. Sparks flew as Thant's HUD indicated that several backup systems were starting to fail.

Thant decided that he was through playing around. Focusing his psionic powers, the very air around the warmaster began to crackle with strange energies as he brought down the fury of his powers upon his foe. The man was repelled from the warmaster's back by an unseen force, and was thrown to the ground.

Thant raised both his fist, as two sets of claws appeared at the end of both gauntlets. With swift and deadly precision, he drove his battle claws into his opponent's chest. The man heaved and began coughing up a small puddle of blood, finally giving out as he lay amongst the carnage of the battlefield.

Thant took a moment to catch his breath and regain his bearings. He then noticed something had fallen out of his slain opponent's breast pocket. He picked it up and examined it. It was a scroll, and upon unfurling it, Thant noticed the intricately drawn visage of a woman, adorned in a fine gown befitting the style of a noblewoman of the fire nation.

Thant rolled up the scroll and placed it into one of his armor's storage compartments. He looked back towards the body of poor Treyvor, lying upon the battlefield, with his severed head lying in the mud not far off.

Thant hung his head low and felt a sorrow that he had not felt in a very long time. He took it upon himself to try and avoid such needless slaughter against these people if he could help it.

After all, the man he just killed had a family, something that Alexander himself had lost before, but now yearned for the most in the desolation of this war.


This chapter will be the last that focuses on the invaders for a while. The next few chapters will be exclusively dedicated to furthering the story as is seen through the eyes of Suki and the Avatar. If you're patient enough, there will soon be a chapter where your vote could define how the chapter plays out, so stay tuned.