Avatar: The Last Airbender Created By: Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko
Avatar: The Last Airbender Owned By: Nickelodeon, a subsidiary of Viacom
All original content and characters © Acastus
Chapter XLV – The Sound and the Fury
Tien Shin observed the results of the rocket attack with satisfaction. Liu's daughter and the accountant had done their jobs well. Too bad they would have to die as soon as they returned home, if not before. The girl was brilliant and creative, to be sure, but her now obvious preference for the Crown Prince necessitated her removal. A regrettable waste, but, she wasn't the only gifted inventor in the Fire Nation. Gan, of course, as a known supporter of his idiot step-brother, had been marked for elimination long before.
As the glowing white plasma finally burned low he could see that easily a third of the Earth Kingdom force had been obliterated in a single stroke. A second strike some time later had anticipated the direction of the enemy's retreat and delivered a second, equally crushing blow. The entire eastern horizon had been transformed in minutes into a boiling, smoke filled hell that bore no resemblance to the serene landscape of grass and grain waving gently in the wind that it had been when they arrived.
The elder prince knew the Earth Kingdom would probably never again march into combat in such close formation, but that did not in any way dampen his pleasure at the destruction he witnessed before him. The accountant was correct about the massive and probably prohibitive expense of this new weaponry, but in specific circumstances such as this, its power could no longer be doubted.
The balance of Colonel's Liu's ill-fated Second Corps staggered, half blinded and choked with the stench and smoke of chemical fire, towards his own lines. Desperately trying to escape the chaos, the Earth Kingdom survivors appeared to have no idea that they marching straight into five legions of the Fire Lord's best.
"Yes… yes…that's right little dirties… come and get it…"
Still, he grudgingly admired their discipline. The green clad men and women who marched out of that hellish nightmare did so without breaking formation or dropping their weapons. Many were obviously wounded, either burned or bleeding from fragmentation shells. Several had even retained control over the huge coins they had picked up from the field behind them. What a shame they too had to die. He did not approve of waste, even of dirt slingers.
The elder prince adjusted the chin strap on his helmet and prepared to mount the trench wall. He straightened the tunic underneath his lacquered steel breastplate, repaired and once again resplendent with the emblem of the Fire Nation.
As he marveled at the endurance of his enemy, his mind recounted the events of the past day which had led to this moment. After a forced march from Mequon they had arrived late in the afternoon the day before. The next six hours had been spent digging the shallow ditches that they had then used as cover before getting as much rest as they could and camouflaging the artillery that Chieng's leviathans had deposited as they passed. The hour before sunrise had been spent in quiet desperation awaiting the enemy's inevitable arrival and in prayer to Agni for victory.
Now it was time.
Tien Shin mounted the trench wall in one swift motion. As he stood he drew his breath and rapid fired a single fireball high into the air.
At this signal the entire first rank of red armored soldiers duplicated his movement. Tien Shin moved forward, the first rank behind followed swiftly by the second, then the third and still more. Looking briefly to his left and right he could see the division commanders mirrored his position. Commander Tojo on his right answered with a fireball of his own.
"Good," he thought, "Madness this may be, but we will win this fight today. The Fire Lord will be pleased."
Still, he could not help but feel appalled that he was helping his idiot step brother win the victory he so desperately needed to avoid his own execution. He brushed aside the wave of nausea that threatened to engulf him. There would be time enough to deal with Iroh, if he did not get himself killed first. After all, as this ridiculous gambit proved, his judgment was no better than his cousin's.
Perhaps he'd die fighting the Earth Kingdom First Corps outside Mequon while he won the battle here.
The elder prince allowed himself a grin at this thought, "Go and get yourself killed, "brother", do yourself and the Fire Nation a favor!"
The game with Iroh had gone on far too long and he yearned for it to finally conclude. He looked forward both in fear and anticipation to the elimination of the final obstacle to his prize. Azulon's younger son was plainly ambitious and not nearly the fool his elder brother had proven himself to be. That contest was sure to be an ugly, violent power play. He knew he needed to eliminate this emerging rival as soon as possible before he could grow any stronger.
"Thank heaven Iroh was born first instead of Ozai!" Tien Shin thought, and not for the first time, echoing the prayers of many, though for a much different reason than they.
The rapid advance of the enemy finally drove all other thoughts from his mind. Instantly his perception narrowed to only what he could see before him. The front ranks of the enemy reacted to the appearance of Tien Shin's men with consternation, but their steady march forward did not abate. Many lowered face shields that had been raised to allow easier breathing amidst the smoke and stench of the rocket attack that still swirled around them. Others raised shields to deflect firebending attacks that were sure to come.
The elder prince estimated no more than ten minutes before the armies made contact, but by then, Tien Shin knew, the fate of the enemy would be sealed. The survivors would be perfectly exposed in the rear and flanks to Nikon's armor. Knowing himself well, Tien Shin ruthlessly suppressed the hatred and animosity that instantly boiled up within him at the thought of the filthy commoner who now held his rightful position. That crime would be punished in due time.
With no more than a hundred yards between the opposing forces Tien Shin held up his right hand and tightented it into a fist. The Fire Nation army halted its advance. Without further orders, the front rank, composed entirely of benders, their terrifying face shields giving the impression of a well ordered host of red enameled demons, unleashed a unified arc of fire that exploded outwards towards the front ranks of the Earth Kingdom survivors. The first line quickly knelt, allowing the second line an unobstructed view of the enemy. A moment later, using an identical series of sharp motions, the second rank let loose another arc of flame.
The green clad soldiers roared a challenge and raised their shields to protect themselves as best they could from the rapidly approaching blasts. Most of the Earth Kingdom front line dropped to the ground behind their shields as the angry red arcs arrived, but the rear echelons, disoriented by the smoke and fire of the rocket attack, were not as fast. The arcs sailed over the front line and exploded all over the second and third. Hundreds caught fire or threw down their red hot shields onto the backs of their comrades in front of them.
Tien Shin noted that three points of Liu's line had resisted the attack, all of which had the protection of several of the massive circular stones from the Field of Coins. Inconvenient, of course, but they would do them no good. He raised his hand once again and launched another ball of fire into the sky.
Now the catapults and ballistae, dug into deep pits and partially covered with faded green canvas, opened up at once. Balls of flaming pitch arced through the sky and slammed into the leading edge of the desperate green clad defenders. With peals like thunder, direct fire from the ballistae instantly shattered on impact the closest of the discs. The Earth Kingdom formations wavered, those that had sheltered behind the coins suffered most. The artillerymen reloaded their weapons feverishly.
The Fire Nation first line stood, launched another arc of fire, and quickly broke into groups of five or ten men arranged into lines perpendicular to the enemy. The second rank fired once more through the wide gaps afforded by the maniples of the first rank and then split in an identical fashion.
Instantly the third and later ranks, composed mostly of spearmen, charged through the corridors that now gave them direct access to the rest of the army rapidly followed. Moments later, the battle was joined.
Liu swept the battlefield with the one eye still left him. He could not feel the left side of his face, nor the eye which had once set like a jeweled orb in its socket. The last thing it had seen was the beautiful, brilliant white flowers that had burst over their heads. The soft, ghostly tendrils of plasma had floated down upon their heads, instantly killing thousands with the massive heat that accompanied them. His eye and part of his face had boiled away instantly, the cauterization and shock stifling much of the pain.
As he had fallen to the ground he had seen a massive spark land on his aide. Liu tried to scream, but no sound emerged as the young man's body melted as if it were made of wax. The tableau stretched nightmarishly for what seemed minutes, but in truth took no more than a few seconds. Beyond the rapidly liquefying corpse of his aide he saw, but did not hear, for he had lost the use of his ears, another rocket explode, this one blasting the field about them with bits of metal that eviscerated all those in sight who had not burned.
"But… they were beaten…" he thought dumbly as hell itself unfurled its bloody flag on earth.
His head lolled around almost aimlessly as his body struggled to cope with the shock of his injury. The whole battlefield was lit up brighter than daylight in blooming flowers of snow white plasma. Huge chunks of dirt and earth rained down as ejecta from some of the Fire Nation rockets which had impacted the ground. Massive clouds of white, acrid smelling smoke rapidly filled the air as the white glare of the incendiaries began to wane.
Suddenly he could feel his body again, though his face blissfully remained numb. He knew he would never live to see the damage in a lake or a mirror. He lifted himself to his feet, feeling as if he weighed more than one of the great stone coins which had foolishly proven such irresistible bait.
Without recognizing his own movement Liu found himself running with a small group of his men. They rolled two of the great stone coins with them. Few had profited from these artifacts under the bombardment, for those directly hit had disintegrated as easily as had the men.
Liu, now recognizing that he was deaf and blind in one eye, had helped them roll the coins. He shouted orders that he could only be sure were heard when the soldiers obeyed them. He knew their only hope was to retreat westward as fast as they were able and hope that the smoke and fire would prevent the enemy from following up on the devastation they had caused.
While the defenders struggled to escape the clouds of poisonous gas a messenger, spirits knew how she had survived, ran up to the Colonel and saluted. She handed him a scroll tube bearing the seal of Colonel Cho. He opened and read the report. Her handwriting was almost unrecognizable, whether she had been hurried, wounded or both he could not be sure. Perhaps it no longer mattered.
"Retreating west with regiments Xi, Bei, Fu and La toward the Hue Road. All others missing or destroyed. Fire Nation armor driving into our flanks. No contact with Fifth Division. Die well, Zen Liu."
Despair washed over him like a tidal wave. He cursed himself, closing his remaining eye in shame and gripping the scroll tube so hard it broke in his hand. Dimly he regretted feeling superior to the brash Colonel Fong. He knew his criticism had been just, but in the end it was he and not the young braggart who had brought his army to ruin.
Moments later, as he surveyed the ranks of Fire Nation infantry now charging towards his ragged line of wounded and burning soldiers, he knew all hopes of retreat were in vain.
Suddenly he saw familiar, terrifying white flashes out of the corner of his eye. He looked to the north, ignoring the advancing red wave of death, and through the drifting clouds of white smoke he saw another hail of ghostly white flowers fill the sky and drift slowly down to earth.
Die well, Nujaree Cho.
He turned west to face his destiny. The last thing his right eye saw was the tall, proud Fire Nation soldier wearing a lacquered steel breastplate who slew him.
The Captain of the Inferno stood up in the siphon well and pulled the plugs out of his ears. Grey smoke wafted from each sled's firing tube arrays. The tips of the barrels glowed a dull, angry red from the heat of three successive launches. Hands shaking from adrenalin and shock, Gan fumbled to produce his sight glass from his tunic. He scanned the battlefield for the umpteenth time.
The Field of Coins had been reduced in minutes to a burning, ash laden wasteland. Huge plumes of white, acrid smoke rose into the sky and drifted slowly to the north and west. Patches of ground still burned with the strange white fire that glowed like the sun. The corpses of soldiers charred beyond recognition littered the battlefield like a grotesque carpet of bone and metal.
Many of the great stone coins had shattered under the force of the explosions from the fragmentation rockets, instantly shredding the Earth Kingdom soldiers moving them. Others had caught fire from the ghostly, burning plasma that rained down from the incendiary rockets. These had rolled around, crushing and burning the soldiers around them until they finally capsized.
Nikon had followed the plan. Immediately after the second launch he had led the armor into action, driving through predetermined alleys in which they would be confident no rockets would fall. They slowed as they reached the retreating clouds of poisonous gas, but quickly overtook large groups of disoriented Earth Kingdom stragglers. These were dispatched mechanically, without struggle or exertion.
They had just launched a third, and final, bank of rockets to the coordinates Gan had supplied in anticipation of the remaining enemy attempting to retreat to the north and west, away from the disaster area.
Suddenly there was someone next to him.
"Yes! Yes! Great Agni! Just look at that!"
Tang looked out over the carnage with undisguised glee. She hopped up and down in excitement, jostling the former accountant.
"You have problems," Gan observed clinically, raising his voice to overcome the ringing in his ears despite the ear plugs, "You know that, right?"
The Chief Boiler Operator lowered her sight glass and gave her captain a hurt look.
"You're mean, Captain," she accused, her lips pouting, "Can't I be happy that we've won?"
"We haven't won yet, Chief," her captain corrected, "Though I grant you the Inferno's weaponry is impressive almost beyond imagination."
Pleased with the admission, she grinned in response and turned quickly back to the battlefield.
"I told you Captain, the Inferno's the best in the fleet! And I don't see how you can say we haven't won! Look, there's no enemy left out there! They were…" the bouncy engineer struggled for the right words, "they were… they were… totally incinerated!"
"I doubt it, Tang, but I wager Nikon and Tien Shin's outfit will clean up the rest."
"Then what's there to stop us, sir?" she inquired, once again sweeping the battlefield with her sight glass.
She received no immediate reply. Gan had turned to face east. The sun had risen high into the sky. He estimated it was the third hour of the day. Sweeping the horizon with his sight glass he knew Chief Tang had tempted fate with her question.
Fate had taken little time to respond.
Gan tapped his companion on the shoulder. She turned to look at him.
"What's to stop us, you ask? Look over there."
She looked to the east. There in the distance she could see the market town of Vyzama and the wide, straight expanse of the Silk Road running through it.
The steppes around the town lay thick with a moving wall of green clad soldiers and ostrich horse cavalry. Even in the distance the emblem on the banners was clear.
"Nifong!" Tang gasped.
"Yes," he acknowledged in a grimly, "it is the man himself."
"What are we going to do, Captain!?" she asked, her voice and body suddenly rigid.
"Do?" he questioned calmly, "We're going to stick to the plan."
Captain Shu picked up the intercom speaker from its rocker on the rim of the siphon well and raised it to his lips, never taking his eyes off the green horror that flowed towards them. He drew a quick breath and blew through the tube to indicate a forthcoming announcement.
"Attention all hands! This is the Captain! Retract sleds, trim vents, close scoops and prepare for immediate departure! Communications, signal the rest of the fleet to evacuate and A-line the disengagement code to the daimyo's column!"
Gan replaced the speaker and turned to Tang.
"You heard me, Chief, pack us up and get us out of here, now!"
"Yes, sir!"
Tang disappeared into the bowels of the leviathan.
Minutes later the Inferno raced westward, crossing in minutes the smoldering terrain of scarred and poisoned earth she had just created.
