Author's notes at the end;
Chapter Stands-in for Sozin's comet part 2
The Gaang were walking behind Admiral Chan towards one of the two airships on the airfield. On the way they were passed by tractor engines carrying bombs and fuel for the ships. Sokka lifted his Fire Nation helmet slightly to get a better view of the giants as they drew closer, as they got closer he could make out the name and he turned his head around towards Aang, "I think this is the one that chased us from the Fire Nation Capital and the Air Temple."
Aang responded, "At least we know she's fast."
"Keep quiet behind there!" the Admiral said with a hint of annoyance.
"Yes, sir!" responded Sokka and Aang in unison.
As they came to the loading ramp, a petty officer stopped and greeted them, "Good morning Admiral, to what do we owe the honour?"
"I've brought a replacement crew." The Admiral said sternly.
The petty officer looked at the mask-clad formation behind the admiral, and smirked slightly and chuckled, "Sir, it takes at least twenty men to crew one of these ships."
The Admiral grabbed the Petty Officer by the collar. "These are my elite Airmen." he pointed to his team with his arm outstretched, "Chosen for their small stature, light weight and extreme proficiency in handling one of these ships."
Sokka flinched internally at the Admiral's lie of extreme proficiency, he barely knew how to operate a small ship, and he wondered if he could keep up appearances if pressed on the matter, he also wondered if his friends were thinking the same.
The Admiral turned to Sokka, "Captain! How many more bombs do you estimate a reduction of fifteen men would get you."
Sokka hated being put on the spot like that but he quickly estimated that if one man weighed approximately a little over two-hundred pounds with armour and there were fifteen of them; "Uhm, about one and a half tonnes, Admiral."
The Admiral pulled the petty officer closer to his face, "You heard the man, now unload your sorry behinds and start loading an extra one and a half tonne of bombs."
"I'll have to hear with my commanding officer!" The petty officer said and went running up the ramp.
The Admiral turned to the Gaang, "Now we just hurry up and wait."
A moment later the Airship's Captain opened up a window on the bridge and leaned out, "Admiral, what's the meaning of this?"
The Admiral turned his head up and roared, "You've been relieved of command, Captain! I want you and your crew off of this ship in five minutes or I'm coming up there to hurtle you out myself… But only after we've taken off!"
The Captain frowned, "This is preposterous! On the eve of battle!" The captain slammed the window shut and muffled swearing could be heard from inside the bridge.
Sokka moved slightly closer to the Admiral, "He didn't seem too amicable what if he sees through our bluff."
The Admiral glanced his eyes down at Sokka without moving his head; "Bluff? I am still in charge here, son, I'll assign my ship any crew I want."
"Yeah, but-" Sokka was interrupted by a swarm of men coming running down the ramp, followed by the Captain who looked as red as a beat. "This won't stand Admiral, I will report this to the high command, I have friends at court!"
"You can do all of that and more after you've loaded an extra-" the Admiral cut himself off mid-sentence and turned to Sokka.
"Three thousand pounds of bombs, Admiral." Sokka said without missing a beat.
The Admiral turned back to the Captain. "Well, you heard the Captain, make it so… Captain." The Admiral said with a slight hint of a smug grin.
"Ay ay, sir!" the Captain said in a defeated tone and walked off the ramp.
The Admiral turned to the Gaang, "Well, what are you men waiting for, man your battle stations."
"AY AY, SIR!" yelled the Gaang in unison and they all ran up the ramp into the ship.
Sokka started climbing a ladder up to the bridge with Aang, while Toph, Azula, Zuko and Katara moved into the boiler rooms.
After Sokka got up to the bridge he immediately started looking over the gauges, "Okay, it looks like we've got steam pressure and we're almost neutrally buoyant."
He then looked down at the ramp, the crew were wheeling in large bombs on carts, while the Admiral looked on, just in case there was any trouble.
He moved to one of the voice tubes, "Boiler rooms, quick rundown?" The voice tubes came to life and Zuko's voice answered, "Port side boilers all lit and burning." and Azula's from the other, "Starboard boilers all lit and burning."
"How's the coal situation?" asked Sokka.
"It looks like it's oil fired, we'll just have to turn valves." Azula answered from the other end.
"That solves some of our issues." Sokka said letting out a sigh. "Now I just have to familiarise myself with the bomb sights." He looked over to the bombardier's position where a large box protruded from the floor, with dials and levers sticking out of it, of all mechanical marvels Sokka had come across, it looked like the single most complicated piece of engineering he had seen, it intimidated him nearly as much as the enemy.
"Looks like the last of the bombs are loaded!" Aang yelled to Sokka and pointed out of the window.
Outside the Admiral gave a salute to Aang and Sokka before he started walking away towards the port town and his awaiting squadron that they'd soon be supporting.
At the same time Toph slammed the door to the bridge open. "So Captain Boomerang what do I do now with the boilers all oil fired, sit around and pick my toes until we get shot out of the sky?"
Sokka pondered for a moment and then smiled, "I have an idea, report to the bomb bay as soon as we've taken off and strap yourself in."
"Okay…" answered Toph with an unsure tone.
Sokka took a look at some of the gauges again, "Aang, we're neutrally buoyant, take the wheel and I'll get us off the ground."
Aang ran and took control of the ship while Sokka started pulling different switches and levers, causing a cascade of mechanical sounds throughout the ship as superheated steam started flowing through the pipes to the turbines, that in turn turned gears that clutched to the propeller blades. The ship started moving forward gradually as the revolutions increased on the engines and Sokka moved to assist Aang.
"Okay, quick lesson, the Fire Nation use rudder orders, so moving the wheel right, we'll go starboard and move the wheel left and we'll go to port, push the wheel tiller forward and we go down and pull it back and we'll go up, don't be to aggressive with her, she might be a big girl but she's sensitive." Sokka instructed and patted Aang on the back.
"Got it!" Aang answered affirmatively. "Which side was starboard again?"
"It's the side on which the tiller is on a ship." Sokka answered nonchalantly and then turned to face the confused Aang, and smiled and winked, "It's to the right."
"Okay… Got it." Aang said a little more sure of himself.
"I'm going to down to the bomb bay to assist Toph in her new duties, take her up slowly and gradually, call down the voice tubes if you have any problems."
So Sokka ran out of the bridge and slid down a ladder to the bomb bay, where Toph was waiting having put on a safety harness and strapped herself to a life line.
"How are you doing Toph?" asked Sokka.
"I think I figured these things out, thankfully they have enough metal parts that I could make sense of them."
"Great, let me just double check." Sokka walked over to Toph and took a look at all the tensioning points of the harness and after correcting a few forgivable mistakes, he continued speaking, "You're going to be guiding the bombs to their target."
"Great idea, let the blind girl do the aiming!" Toph said sarcastically.
"No, you need to guide them and someone needs to guide you." Sokka said assuringly. "Once we drop a bomb, you're going to metal bend it to its target.
Toph's expression turned to something like doubt, "Okay, Captain, but I don't know how far I can metal bend, how high are we?"
Sokka's face dropped as he responded, "A couple of miles at least." and Toph didn't even have to respond verbally, her expression said everything he needed to know.
Sokka grunted in frustration and looked at ceiling. "Well, it was a beautiful plan..." As he looked the girders and joists he noticed that the lifelines for the rest of the crew were all rolled into reels at their attachment points, he reached out and grabbed Toph's line, and stroked it up and down once, "Wound steel..." he said to himself. "How much contact would you need to have with the bomb?"
"I don't know, judging by how much I can see throughout this ship, not much contact at all, I guess." Toph answered, trying her best to sound confident.
"Try to unwind the cable on the other life lines and splice them together into a really thin wire." Sokka ordered as he pulled another lifeline towards Toph.
"Ay ay, Captain!" Toph said and mock saluted as Sokka climbed up a ladder and into the port side boiler room where Katara was looking some of the gauges and gently adjusting some valves. "Hi Sokka, Azula gave me a short lesson on how to operate these, as long I keep all gauges under the red lines we're fine, at least that's what she said."
Sokka walked over and started tapping on all the gauges one by one to check for sticking.
"I might need you down in the bomb bay to assist Toph soon, I'll explain later."
He opened a door to access the other boiler room where Azula was teaching her brother how to operate the boilers to some degree.
"Azula, I need to borrow Katara, will it be too overwhelming for you to look after the port boiler room?"
Azula turned to look at him with a self-confident look, "I think I can manage, as long as you keep her within earshot, me and Zuzu are just going through the ropes here."
"Thank you… Lieutenant!" Sokka said with a smile and a wink, Azula just smiled an winked back as he exited back into the port side boiler room, he could hear Zuko sulk, "I spent three years at sea, I think I can handle a steam engine!"
He turned to his sister, "Alright Katara, we need to go and test something out."
He slid down the ladder into the bomb bay and saw that Toph taken down one of the line reels with her bending was in the process of bending the heavy gauge wire into steel thread.
"How are you doing Toph?" asked Sokka.
"It's harder than it looks, Cap." answered Toph. "...But I'm just about finished."
Katara came down the ladder, "What's Toph doing?"
"A guiding mechanism for the bombs, but I need someone to be her eyes." answered Sokka as he walked to the bomb ready-rack that was suspended from the roof on a rail.
Katara looked at Toph bending the wire and then to her brother who was pushing the rack into position above the bomb bay door. "Shouldn't we maybe try it out with something less valuable first?"
Sokka looked up at his sister with a slightly stunned face, "Oh yeah, good thinking Katara." and then started looking around, "Something heavy but expendable..."
Katara climbed up ladder to the boiler room while Sokka inspected a toolbox and pondered if he really wanted to throw them away. As Sokka pondered, a loud hollow metallic thud rang out in the bomb bay.
Sokka looked back in shock, Katara had thrown down an empty oil barrel from the boiler room above. "Good enough?" asked Katara, Sokka just nodded. "I'm just going to fill it with feed water." Katara shouted from above, and there was a loud hissing noise and a stream of water came down through the hatch and into the barrel. A moment later Katara climbed down the ladder. "Watch out, it's hot!" she warned as Sokka walked towards it.
"Okay, let's do this!" said Toph as she slammed her foot into the steel floor and the barrel started scraping along the flood moving towards the bomb bay door. Well in place she whipped a wire on to it.
Sokka threw Katara a safety harness and took a line and walked towards his sister as she dressed it on, attaching it and checking that his sister had gotten it on just right. "Good luck." Sokka whispered to her and then turning his head towards Toph "To both of you."
He then ran to the ladder which would take him to the bridge, he watched Katara and Toph take their positions as he climbed. "I'll try to find you a tempting target."
As he got to the bridge he saw that the airship was already above the sea. "Aang, how are we doing buddy?"
"Getting a feel for her, Azula has been yelling in my ear to ease down on the throttle lest we run out of steam though, something about a sudden drop in pressure."
Sokka moved to the helm behind Aang and pulled back a lever. "That should do it."
A moment later Azula's voice rang out of the voice tube, "You took your sweet time!"
"Alright Aang, we need a target, nothing too fancy, just something to test my theory on." Sokka said while scanning for ships, he saw a single lonely cruiser moving north at speed on the same bearing as their ship. "That one over there." he pointed to the ship and called through the voice tube, "We've found you a target, you should be able to see it bellow us soon.."
"Alright!" rang Katara's voice and a moment later there was a resounding rush of air coming from the tube as the bomb bay doors were opened. "Away!" shouted Katara's voice and Sokka walked calmly to Aang, "Let's hope this works..."
Up on the Horizon they could see large clouds of smoke that brought back memories of the last siege of the North Pole. Despite the odds being worse, Sokka and Aang felt oddly confident but it was still their battle to lose and somewhere out there was the Fire Lord.
"I can almost feel the Fire Lord's presence." said Aang solemnly as he scanned the sea, Sokka patted his friend on the shoulder. "Don't think about it too much, when we've crippled his fleet, we'll face him together."
Sokka moved to the bombardier's position and examined the aiming device and prayed quietly that his improvised solution would be success. He looked into the sight and after some fumbling with the controls he managed to get the picture into focus and just in time for the cruiser to enter the frame. he yelled down the voice tube, "Drop the barrel".
"Away!" rang Katara's voice. Sokka adjusted the sight backwards as he listened to Katara giving instructions to Toph through the tube. "A little to the left… Up." were some of the instructions he could faintly hear. As he adjusted the sight as far back as he could, he thought he could make out a splash in front of the ship before it disappeared from the scope.
"Miss!" yelled Katara.
"Damn it!" Sokka said hitting himself over the leg.
"I found it hard to make it out when it stared getting close to the target." Katara explained.
Sokka pondered to himself. Zuko had mentioned that the bombs were effective underwater too, even if they missed but spotting wouldn't get any easier as they ascended and he doubted they'd be effective if they started missing by a wider margin.
Aang turned to Sokka, "What if we soaked some rags in oil, tied them to the bombs and-"
"Lit them on fire!" Sokka interrupted Aang mid-sentence. "Aang, that's brilliant!"
Ozai and Azka stood on the bridge wing of the Formidable looking Southward, the comet would arrive soon, at most a few minutes away and if they wouldn't have seen it, they could certainly feel it. Particles from it were already hitting the atmosphere and gifting all Fire benders on the planet its energy.
Ozai took a deep breath and could almost exhale fire without effort and the surge of power wasn't even at its zenith. Looking North, he could almost see the great ice shelf of the Pole, and he felt he could bring it down himself.
He turned to Azka and smiled, "Feels like being your age again, son!"
Azka took a deep breath and felt a charge surge through him that raised every hair on his body, he laughed as he turned to his father, "I have nothing to compare with, father!"
The Captain of the ship came walking up to them and asked, "We're ready to order flank speed at your command, Sir."
Ozai waved his hand, "You have my permission!"
The Captain bowed and turned to walk back into the conning tower. It wasn't long before there was a loud detonation from the foremost funnel that caught Ozai's and Azka's attention and they looked aft towards the funnels, the stern most funnel was emitting a cloud of black smoke when an almost blue flame erupted from it with a loud bang, igniting all the black smoke, the only telltale sign that the boilers were lit being the massive mirages rising from the funnels and then, the nearly seventy-thousand tonne ship suddenly gained a noticeable amount of speed.
Admiral Chan was climbing up the ladder to his bridge and looked back into the harbour.
Soon the first battle squadron of the Western Fleet would be blocked off in port, which was his signal to begin operations against the enemy. Six Battleships, two Battlecruisers and eight cruisers in total had just about finished bunkering operations at the same time he had taken a boat out to his flagship and he could now see that they were beginning to set sail, or rather steam.
It was his hope that without fuel, the second and third squadron wouldn't be able to join the fight, at least at speed.
As he got to the bridge he looked off to the Northern sky at the Warspite climbing into the sky. He hoped the rogue airship would be enough of a distraction to leave the rest of the grand fleet vulnerable to be defeated in detail, but he did not share his old friend's optimistic view.
As the lead Cruiser was making its way to the harbour exit Chan sighed to himself as he thought for minute that he might have to deal with the First battle squadron himself, but his worries were soon extinguished by a wall of jagged rocks lifting out of the water along with the Cruiser, it's momentum tearing open the bottom of its hull as it crashed into the water on the other side and began to go down incredibly quickly.
The Battlecruiser following it rammed into the wall and smashed partway through as its hull was also lifted out of the water and Chan could see the mighty ship buckle as the weight of the stern bent the keel and broke large parts of the ship's belt armour off in the process, the thick armour segments flying through the air like leaves in the wind, such was the force of the breaking.
Chan didn't linger to watch the rest of the chaos unfold, he could only hear the screeching, crunching and cracking of thousands of tonnes of metal as he walked into the conning tower, "Signal the fleet to get ready for battle!"
"Ay ay, sir!" shouted a young a lieutenant.
Chan looked at his officers as the young lieutenant pulled on a wire that hoisted a series of flags through the roof of the conning tower for the rest of the fleet to see.
They were the code for a short prearranged message, that he had ordered to be given to every man in his fleet at this signal; "The Fate of the World depends on the result of this battle, let every man do his utmost duty."
Sokka was watching the fleet bellow for targets when he saw a line of battleships steaming northwest with the sun, a perfect target.
He pointed at the five ship strong squadron and told Aang "Try to match their speed."
Aang pulled back on the throttle levers and started stalking his prey.
Sokka turned to the voice tube, "Girls, we've got a group of targets coming up!"
"Ay ay, Captain!" Toph's voice rang out.
Sokka then took out his time piece, which he hadn't used since the failed invasion, now it would work as his stop watch.
"Away!" Katara's voice sang and he pressed the button on the time keeper and it started ticking. He then walked over to the bomb sight and looked down into it.
He followed the ship's wake and saw a faint light descend on the dark figure in the middle of the foaming sea. As the light died out, Sokka could feel disappointment in the split second that nothing happened, but then there was a splash of water that dwarfed the ship, for a a second the ship was obscured in the mist that had been thrown up and another wave of disappointment washed over Sokka as the ship emerged seemingly unscathed.
"Damn it!" He yelled out, before he saw the ship bend down the middle, for a moment it steamed along like a banana before the stern section ploughed right passed the bow section, it was only a matter of time now, and Sokka couldn't contain his ecstatic feeling, "YES!" he yelled out.
"Hit!" he shouted down the voice tube. "One down! Four to go!"
"Away!" screamed Katara through the voice tube and Sokka fumbled with his watch again, this time trying to get an accurate assessment from this altitude.
Again he watched through the scope, and as soon as he saw the flame die out he stopped his watch. It was a near identical repeat of the first attack but this time the ship came to a more sudden halt as it drove itself bow first into the sea.
"Beautiful!" he shouted. "Three to go!
He looked down at his watch and made a mental note of the time before he reset it.
"Away!" Katara's voice came through once more and once again Sokka held his breath as he alternated between looking at the time piece and the sight. At almost precisely the second that he predicted the splash would occur, it did, and another ship was out of the fight.
He got up at looked at Aang who was too busy matching speeds with the ships bellow to consider the carnage that they had wrought together, as a team.
"Drop at will!" Sokka shouted down the tubes.
"Away!" came yet another of Katara's reports and Sokka started his stop watch, he didn't sit down to watch this time. Only after the stop watch had passed the fateful second would he confirm the next kill.
As he walked over to the sight he looked up into the sky, another airship in the distance, flying on a diagonal course to them, Sokka weighed his options as he heard Katara's voice sing out again and he started his watch again and waited the small eternity before confirming that indeed, another one of their quarry was going down.
"Aang, increase speed to full power, I'll be taking the helm." Sokka said as he watched the bomb fall towards the last ship, even as he felt the Warspite accelerate he kept his eyes on the target, until the familiar scene repeated itself again, and he could get up.
The attack had happened so swiftly that the ships hadn't had any time to react, not one salvo had been launched at the Warspite.
He announced through the tubes, "Good work team, we've just eliminated an entire battle squadron in less than ten minutes." He turned his head to look upon the airship in the distance, slowly coming closer as they approached. "In a few minutes, I want you all to brace for impact, we're going to try something new."
A worried Katara shouted through the tube; "What are you going to try?!"
"Trust me!" he said back to her.
Aang looked over to Sokka, and repeated Katara's question, "What are we going to try?" as he stepped away from the wheel and Sokka took control, not averting his eyes from the beast in front of him.
"Let's just call it, Airship slice." Sokka said with a grin, as he pushed the tiller down.
The enemy airship was now approximately a mile away as salvos of fire balls started streaking across the sky.
Soon Sokka watched as the enemy ship disappeared above the bow and he pulled up aggressively.
"Aang, tell the others to brace for impact!"
Aang without missing a beat relayed Sokka's command as the ship ascended.
The stern of the Enemy ship had come back into view and Sokka pulled up harder and he pushed the throttle lever fully open.
The Warspite was nearly pitched up at forty-five degrees when suddenly there was a thud, crash and a screech of metal. Her forecastle spike had severed through the other ship on her port side and as the Warspite levelled off the other ship began to buckle midships.
Sokka began to turn the ship around and as he looked out his starboard side window he saw that his enemy was sinking through the air. The bow section let off one last defiant salvo before the ship broke in half and the individual sections started tumbling towards the sea miles below.
Sokka let out a sigh of relief. He stepped away from the wheel and told Aang, "I am going to go inspect the damage, take over."
"Ay ay, Sokka." Aang responded as he took the wheel and Sokka walked out off the bridge.
Admiral Chan stood on the bridge of his flagship, to his right was Captain Jee in overall command of the ship. He had deployed his fleet in an inverted wedge formation so he had a view of each wing of it while it was steaming North.
They had just sank part of the picket line enforced by the home fleet, the aging cruisers had put a valiant show but ultimately stood no chance against the whole might of the Eastern Fleet, but what concerned Chan now, wasn't the Home fleet nor the Northern fleet.
It was the Fire Lord's battle squadron, they were called Battlecruisers but the category reflected their speed not their armour, nor indeed their armament, in reality these were fast battleships, armed with compound ballistas instead of trebuchets, and outranged the weapons in Chan's fleet by a considerable margin.
The simple reality was, that the Fire Lord's squadron could use its superior speed to dictate the range at which the battle was fought, could hurt Chan's ship before he had even the hope of hurting them in return, if the Fire Lord played his cards right, he could merrily steam along out of range of Chan's weapons and pick his ship's off one by one with near impunity.
He had a daring plan but it weighed heavily on how the Fire Lord would react. In the meantime he could only hope to destroy any elements of the Northern Fleet he came across, Yon-Rha was a cautious commander, some would say a coward and a weasel, but even a weasel was a predator and would probably attack if he saw he had an advantage.
Captain Jee took a look through his spyglass, "Looks like Battleships up ahead, shall I sound to general quarters?"
"Yes, signal the fleet to prepare for imminent battle." Chan replied stoically.
He lifted his own spyglass to look at the ships up ahead, there were three battleships with their compliment of cruisers. "Looks like one Empire, followed by an Admiral Kuzon class and what looks to be a be a Fire Prince class."
Jee sighed, but not in relief, "As strange as it is to say, sir, I'd rather fight the Fire Lord's squadron now and be done with it."
"I know, Captain." Chan said as he collapsed his spyglass.
Sokka had climbed onto the roof of the airship and carefully made his way to the bow. The forecastle had been destroyed, but otherwise the ship was intact. He scanned the cloudy horizon in all direction for ships, a few hundred miles to the south he could see a giant formation of ships engaging a smaller group of ships, he could guess that this was Admiral Chan's fleet.
Far to the North west he could see a group of some of the biggest ships he had ever laid his eyes upon, perhaps even the same size as the monster in Kemuri Bay harbour, but to the North east there was a more sizeable group, he could also make out an airship following them.
The choice was easy as he made his way down back to the bridge.
Azka had moved to the Formidable's crow's nest on the main mast. As he made it up, he was met by two petty officers scrambling to write out a message in flags that would be hoisted across the guy wires running the length of the ship.
"As you were, Gentlemen." he said and the men continued their work.
He looked North at the Great wall of ice and took position. They were about eighteen miles off now, barely visible on the horizon, when the the petty officers hoisted down the signal.
A great flash of flame took place as all the ships in the squadron let loose at once. Bolts of flame streaking across the sky, it would be quite some time before they reached their far away target.
Azka turned to the men, "You might want to close your eyes!" and the men obliged.
As usual, Azka began to push and pull the lightning, a surge of power like he had never felt before as he carefully took aim at the defensive wall, and discharged.
Azka knew from experience to close his eyes before letting loose his death ray, but enhanced by the comet it could have blinded him permanently as he felt his skin burn by the sheer radiance of the beam.
As he opened his eyes he could see a continuous ionized flame rise from where the death ray had flown across the sky.
The bolts fired by the ships were still on their way and they would now have an unhindered path into the citadel, because the mighty wall, or what was left of it was falling into the sea, a giant mushroom cloud of steam and water vapour rising from where it once had stood.
Soon there were flashes of fire coming from the citadel itself and Azka knew his pioneers had begun their attack.
The Great flash in the West had caught Sokka and Aang off guard. As Sokka looked to the West to see the Great ships he knew that the two things weren't unrelated. They had watched in awe as a beam of pure light had flashed across the sky and cut through and vaporised the citadel's wall, great chunks of it sent flying high into the air and out to sea by the rapidly expanding steam explosion, which shockwave tore through the city.
He turned to Aang, "We'll take out this airship and then..." he paused and swallowed. "We have to prioritise our targets." He patted Aang on the shoulder once more, "Got to leave something for the Admiral, right?"
Aang nodded affirmatively and looked ahead, "How are you planning on taking out this one?"
Sokka turned his head to look at the ship in front of them. "Bring us above it." he turned to the voice tube, "Azula, we're going to need enough steam for flank speed, can you manage that?"
A moment later there was a response, "Give me a minute!"
The Airship rose gradually and a blinking light started emanating from the enemy ship up ahead. "I think they're signalling us!" Aang said with a worried tone.
Sokka turned to the voice tubes, "Calling Fire Siblings, any one of you speak Fire Nation signals?"
"I'll be up in communications soon!" Zuko's voice rang out.
The messaging became more frantic as the Warspite started gaining on the ship which had increased it's speed northwards as well.
Zuko's voice rang out from another voice tube. "I'm up!" there was another moment of silence before he said anything else, "They're asking what we're doing, and if we don't respond soon, they'll fire upon us."
Sokka scoffed to himself before responding, "Try to distract them!"
"What do I tell them?" asked Zuko.
"I don't know, tell them you were on a bathroom break! Be creative!"Sokka yelled into the tube.
The frantic signalling stopped for a moment as the Warspite was gaining on them.
"They still want to know what we're doing?" Zuko asked through the tube.
Sokka pondered for a moment, his plan was to drop a guided bomb onto or near the airship, but he would have to be well in front and above it, when he saw in the horizon another airship over the ice cap that had started raining fire down on the pole, faced with another dilemma he made a split second decision. "Tell them, we're racing towards the pole!"
The grumbling of Zuko's voice could he heard through the tube, "This is ridiculous, they are never going to fall for that." was the only thing Sokka could make out, but the message was being relayed.
The light started flashing again and upon stopping Zuko relayed it, "They're saying it's ridiculous!"
Sokka pondered for a second again, "Good, we don't actually want them to race us."
"But what do I tell them, Captain?!" Zuko asked annoyed, emphasising Captain with a hint of condescension.
Sokka pondered a little before responding, "Provoke them!"
"What!?" asked Zuko in disbelief.
Sokka turned to the voice tube, "Tell them that if they weren't busy being a bunch of flaming hotmen, they would be racing us to burn down the pole."
Aang turned to Sokka worried, "Won't they start attacking us?!"
Sokka chuckled, "No, as long as we can keep this a war of words, we're safe? It's not like they'd start attacking their own, not over some heavy banter, right?"
They were almost over the enemy airship when the signal light started blinking again, and then there was silence, "Well?" asked Sokka.
"Something about our mothers and thousand fathers... And expletives." Zuko responded, "A lot expletives."
Sokka patted the voice tube in Zuko's absence, "Excellent, Zuko, your sister just might be right about you."
"Oh really, what did Azula say?" Zuko scoffed.
"She said that no one had the ability to piss someone off as badly as you." Sokka responded jovially.
"Sounds like Azula alright." Zuko said chuckling.
"I heard my name!" Azula's voice rang out of the adjacent tube.
Azka, red as a lobster, sat on the bridge of the Formidable leaned back against the conning tower being attended to by a young nurse, maybe his age, the pain of his burned skin made it difficult for him to enjoy the beauty of the young woman even to the best of his efforts. She looked nervous which worried him, but it could be the fact that his father was right behind her, scrutinising her every move.
"How bad is it?" he asked.
The nurse, carefully applying an ointment answered, "I've seen worse sunburns, really. But how did this happen?"
"I'm not quite sure, just started stinging like crazy after a few minutes, but it got the job done"
There was a flash of heat and flame as the squadron let loose another salvo. Ozai looked on in awe as the great ice shelf was crumbling more and more, the outcrop that once housed the Water Tribe city was open to sea and there was no longer a building unscathed inside it. Every once in a while a large wave would hit the ship's broadside, an after effect of the great icebergs falling into the sea.
The Formidable being so so broad at the beam made her an extremely stable gunnery platform in calm seas so her suddenly taking on lists like a small frigate caused some worry, especially so high on the ship.
Ozai looked back at his son and Azka mistook his worried look as a concern for his well being, he leaned back and said non-nonchalantly, "Don't worry Father, I've had worse."
Ozai scoffed and turned back to the battlefield, when in his periphery there was a small flash in the distant sky, as he turned his eyes towards the source, he saw that one of his airships was going down.
"Damn it!" he yelled out.
The ship's captain exited the conning tower to take a look at the scene through his spyglass and handed it over to the Fire Lord, "That's strange, sir, look!"
Ozai grabbed the spyglass and was about to raise it when he flinched as another salvo was launched but quickly recovered and began following the stricken airship down, as the Captain narrated, "It's like it was destroyed by an outside explosion from above, it's frame has buckled inwards, no visible signs failure near the engineering sections nor the bomb bay."
Ozai was no expert on the matter and had to rely on the Captain's word, he then lifted the scope and began following the other airship, it's bomb bay doors open as it raced towards the Pole.
"It was bombed." Ozai said as he put down the scope and pointed to the other ship.
"Could have been an accident, Sir." the Captain said.
"But we can't rule out deliberate sabotage!" Azka added in a serious tone from where he was sitting.
Ozai turned around to face the others, "No we can not!"
Another rogue wave rocked the ship as another salvo was let loose.
Chan's fleet was steaming North at flank speed, every so often they would come across a formation of enemy cruisers that would be quickly dispatched before they could relay what was happening to the rest of the fleet, though undoubtedly the message must have been filtering through.
Even though Fire Lord loyalists were contained within the brigs of every ship in the fleet he understood that not every defection was genuine, though he trusted most officers, the petty officers and the crew were another matter entirely and his suspicions were about to be proven right as two marines dragged a bloodied and beaten man to the bridge and threw him at the Admiral's feet.
"Sir, one of the engineering officers found him in the coal bunker, he was carrying this." the Marine held out a large satchel charge that would have undoubtedly vaporised the coal and created a massive explosion to destroy the ship.
"A bloody cook!" the other Marine said and kicked the man as the Admiral inspected the charge. "No mere cook carries sophisticated explosives like this, Corporal."
He squatted down and pulled the man's face up to meet him by his hair, "How many men does the Secret Gendarmerie have on my ships?"
The man slurred out, "Not the Secret Gendarmerie, the Imperial Guard." The man grinned devilishly, his gums bleeding heavily, and looked around at the Marines.
Chan rose and looked at the two marines, "Throw him in with the others, he won't be talking. Keep vigilant!"
Chan turned to Jee, "Signal the rest of the fleet about this incident." He then turned back to the Marines, "I want you to relay my gratitude to the Officer who found this saboteur."
"Ensign Chan will be pleased to hear that, Sir!" the Corporal said, which brought a smile to the Admirals face, not only had his son come along but he had also saved the ship, but the celebration was about to be cut short.
Just then a giant flash occurred to port, followed a few seconds later by a deafening explosion.
"Looks like smooth sailing is over, boys." Chan said as he turned his head to look at the stricken ship going down by the bow.
A junior officer called out from the communications tower above, "Sir, a messenger hawk has gone missing!"
Chan scoffed, "Like I said, smooth sailing is over!"
The Warspite had been moving at flank speed towards the third airship.
Azula had called Katara and Toph into the boiler rooms to help her with the red lined boilers. Katara trying to push as much of the superheated steam to the engines as she could, while Toph braced the water-tubes that were fit to burst.
On the bridge, Sokka looked down at the glacier, which now had a huge river flowing right through it, a liquid avalanche, wider than even the great rivers of the Earth Kingdom, adding to itself as it carved its way out towards the sea.
Every so often there would be a salvo of fire streaking by both the airships from the south that caused huge geysers of boiling water and steam, hurtling blocks of ice hundreds of feet into the air.
Suddenly the other ship turned starboard and stopped firing down as it continued its turn towards the Warspite.
Sokka yelled down the voice tubes that he would need Zuko and Azula out on the platforms for a literal broadside firefight as he ordered a port turn, as the two ships began to circle one-another in an ever closing dance.
Azula cut down power before she left the boilers in Katara's and Toph's hands and ran down the catwalks and ladders until she made it outside, where she saw their foe, it was the Indefatigable, and all of her fire benders were readying themselves for full broadside that would engulf the Warspite and destroy her, unless she and her big brother could stop it.
And so the ships circled and the tension mounted, until Azula decided to preempt them, she charged up lightning that hit the rudder of the Indefatigable, which caused the starboard tail plane to collapse, in turn causing their foe to bank sharply towards them, too sharply.
All the fire benders opened up but were so far away that Zuko's and Azula's combined fire bending could easily defeat it. Simultaneously the Warspite had pulled upwards and it wasn't long until the enemy fire benders no longer had a line of sight.
Azula gestured to the bridge to bring the Warspite down and behind the crippled Indefatigable as it continued its starboard bank, rudder unresponsive.
She then shot more lightning at the enemy ship, this time towards the starboard engines, which caused it to accelerate its yaw and bank even more. The Indefatigable rolled over to her side at first, but as the floatation cells shifted within her innards, she rolled onto her back and started losing structural integrity, it wasn't long until she began to flex and buckle, her fire benders hanging by their lifelines and thrown around in the wind, she was going down and was no longer a threat.
Ozai and Azka were standing on the bridge when the Captain came out of the conning tower.
"We're almost out of range of the citadel, do I have your permission to turn the squadron around?"
"Do as you see fit, Commodore." Ozai responded coldly.
The captain saluted, and turned back towards the conning tower.
Ozai turned to Azka, "This is almost too easy, with the exception of one of our airships being lost, Yon-Rha hasn't spotted any submarines, the Citadel is breached, and the airships have begun their assault."
"I know, they must be holding their submarines back for Admiral Chan's fleet or Liang's fleet." Azka responded somewhat nervously.
Ozai raised his head to the south western horizon where smoke was rising steadily. "Speak of dark spirits, it seems they've arrived."
Azka pulled out his spy glass and looked out into the horizon, indeed it was a Battlecruiser steaming towards them, head on, tailed by its escorts.
The Formidable began her turn and Azka lowered his scope as more silhouettes started popping up over the horizon.
Right then the Captain rushed out of the conning tower in panic, "Sir, urgent message arrived by hawk, the Eastern Fleet has been attacking our ships and are flying a blue and white banner."
Ozai turned to the Captain in shock, "What?!"
"That's what I'm being told, Sir." The Captain replied in horror.
Azka had raised his scope again, "He isn't lying, I don't know what colours that battlecruiser is flying but it's not one of our own."
Azka looked at his father and the Captain, "And they've opened fire... At us."
Ozai turned to to the Captain, "Signal the squadron to fire back!"
The Captain ran into the conning tower and Azka and Ozai watched as a flaming ball of fire streaked across the sky. At first it seemed to move ever so slow but as it got closer it seemed like it accelerated, until it hit the Formidable in the stern.
The hit was outside of the ship's armoured citadel but as the a fire ball erupted out of the hole and the sea trailing the ship came aflame, it became clear that the aft oil bunker had been breached, it wasn't life threatening to the ship, but firefighting efforts would slow her down.
Azka turned to look at the enemy fleet, "Looks like they are turning to leave!"
"Go after them!" Screamed Ozai in the direction of the conning tower.
"Father, it could be a trap." Azka warned.
"Then we'll outrun them or blow right through any trap they've laid! We've still got the faster, more powerful ships!" Ozai said almost frothing at the mouth.
Azka started walking towards the conning tower to relay his father's order.
The Warspite was heading back south at cruising speed, Sokka having decided everyone was in dire need of a break from the intense air battle. Everyone had gathered on the bridge for Sokka's surprise treat.
Having raided the Captain's cabin he had found a bottle of rum that he had distributed to everyone as grog. He raised his own cup "Good work Team Avatar!" scanning over everyone and looking them in the eyes as he did, he added, "It goes without saying, I couldn't have done this without you, cheers!"
"Cheers!" erupted the room in unison as everyone drank their share of the grog.
Sokka then looked over his shoulder out towards the sea, it looked like there were volcanic eruptions all over the sea now, and he could only guess Admiral Chan was engaging the rest of the Fire Navy, a suspicion that was confirmed when he looked through his spyglass.
Five huge ships were racing through the waves towards a larger formation flying the banner of the White Lotus. Chan's fleet was stretched out over the horizon in the shape of a bison's horns, Sokka could only guess that they were trying to envelop the smaller formation but with the sheer volume of fire the smaller formation was putting out, it seemed unlikely that they could be contained for long, even if completely surrounded.
Everyone had started for their designated position, Zuko and Azula had headed towards engineering while Toph and Katara went to the bomb bay, finally, Aang took up the wheel.
"Aang, take us due south. Try staying within cloud cover as much as possible."
"You want me to do some cloud bending?" Aang asked enthusiastically.
Sokka nodded, "If you wish."
Aang then found he had a problem with the first order as he found the compass spinning wildly. "Uhm, Sokka, that's going to be a problem."
Sokka walked over and looked at the compass and shrugged, "Interesting, well, take us in the direction of the larger formation and hold that course, we're going to try and intersect with the enemy formation, you have the bridge."
Sokka pushed down the throttle lever gently as he felt the ship accelerate before walking off the bridge and took the ladder down to the bomb bay, where he watched Katara and Toph prepare themselves.
"You all set?" He asked, the girls nodding in reply.
He walked up to Katara and hugged her, "Mom would be so proud of you."
Katara smiled, "She would, especially of you."
"Dad on the other hand… He might still kill me for bringing you along." Sokka said trying for some levity.
He then bent down and hugged Toph as well, Toph punched him lightly on the arm, and he patted her on the shoulder blade as a show of understanding before he rose up and continued towards the boiler rooms where the Fire siblings where at work stoking the boilers as fast as they could.
He passed Zuko and took him by the forearm for a handshake but then pulled him in for an embrace. "Glad you could come along, I know how much it would have meant for you to fight alongside your Uncle."
Zuko smiled and turning his head towards Azula said, "My job right now is looking after my little sister."
Azula gave Zuko a grimace to tease him and came up towards them wiping her sweaty brow with an oily rag, "We're giving her all she's got now, you have my permission to go to flank speed." She pulled Sokka in for deep passionate kiss that Zuko pretended he was not bearing witness to.
Pulling out of the kiss, she added, "Go get them." at which Sokka nodded and marched right back towards the bridge.
As he entered the bridge he saw that they were nearly within fighting range, they were going to intercept the enemy formation, Aang had made sure of that.
He walked up the voice tube and told Katara and Toph, "Target, thirty seconds!"
He raised his time piece and sat down in the bombardier's seat.
As the seconds ticked on and he watched the huge ships come into the scope's view he wondered if one bomb could possibly be enough. He then heard Katara's voice echo through the tube "Away." and another wait began.
Ozai and Azka were focused on the sea battle going on around them when Azka noticed an airship emerging from the clouds some miles above them, he tapped his father on the shoulder and pointed at it.
"What the hell is that idiot doing?" Ozai sneered out.
Before Azka could reply, the Resolution was hit by a bomb and started falling out of line as it lost speed.
"I believe that answers our question!" Ozai said and turning to his son, "Shoot it down."
"Yes, sir!" Azka replied and took his three phase lightning bending stance, "Stand clear!"
Once again a brilliant white light engulfed the young man as a beam of pure light pierced the sky and struck the Warspite midships and nearly cut the ship in half.
The effect was immediate as the ship pitched down and towards the sea, it's engines had stopped turning and steam was pouring out of it, but even in death, the mighty ship had made one last defiant gesture, as now the Repulse was struck, but this time a mighty column of flame shot out just forward of the superstructure that seemingly pushed the ship into the sea like a rocket had been set off on deck before suddenly, a huge explosion tore through her, the shockwave knocking both Ozai and Azka off their feet.
The Captain ran out of the conning tower with a couple of his officers, "Are you alright, Fire Lord?!" he yelled out, as Azka got to his feet and started helping his father up. Ozai and Azka stood in awe for a second and watched the two halves of the Repulse sink.
Ozai righted his robe and turned to the Captain pointing towards the airship, "Commodore! Signal the Valiant and Conqueror to continue the chase and that'll we'll catch up as soon as we're through making sure that bastard is dead!"
And turning to Azka, "Or we will make sure he wished he was!"
Another enjoyable chapter to write, hopefully equally enjoyable to read. It was my vision early on to set the finale on an Airship because it would be an easy way to write a team effort, Sokka is in command but is relying on the skills and abilities of his friends, everyone could not be included, i.e. Appa and Momo who unfortunately had to take a back-seat ride for this whole story but they didn't play much of a role in the real climax either.
Was it the best way to handle the climax? Fuck no! The only redeeming quality of doing it like this was to have the whole of team Avatar in one place, doing one important job.
Well, if you're going to set the finale on a ship, you need to give that ship a great name, and I could think of no ship that would fit the bill better than the venerable Warspite. Sure, there are more recognisable names, but some like Dreadnought and Enterprise have been done to death, Neptune and Orion are culturally specific, Bismarck and Gangut nationally specific.
Of course, the whole battle is sprinkled with Easter eggs that have their yokes and whites scrambled.
