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 L – Sad Hill
The scene replayed in reverse. Iroh ran forward across the battlefield, his body drenched in sweat beneath his armor. He almost tripped once again, but this time over the corpse of a green clad spearman instead of one of his own, as he and his soldiers pursued the rapidly retreating Earth Kingdom army.
Without warning Jenju's forces had abandoned their fixed positions, leaving their remaining siege equipment where it lay. A cheer had erupted along the Fire Nation line when sunrise of the third day revealed the enemy's retreat.
Iroh had immediately ordered pursuit, but since the enemy had remounted it was clear they were rapidly outrunning the invaders. In the distance, the Crown Prince could see the the golden pennants of Rhiannon, whom he had placed in command of the Fire Nation left, leap forward at the signal to advance.
The enemy's retreat was short lived. As planned, and with horrifying effect, the rocket sleds of the Inferno and the Firestorm erupted in fury from their recently occupied positions on the low hills to the northeast. Iroh remembered sliding to a halt and hundreds of his soldiers doing the same around him as they watched the smoke trails burst forth in the distance. Silent in inception, the smoke trails were followed moments later by the barest sound of screaming on the wind.
What followed was etched in their memories forever. White flowers bloomed incandescent across the steppes once more. Iroh and his troops watched, frozen in horror, as great swathes of earth north of the Silk Road were consumed in the unholy fire. Rapid flashes in the air produced puffs of ink black smoke and were closely followed by booming reports.
In minutes the westerly wind had brought the acrid smelling clouds of white smoke to the Fire Nation line. They had prepared for this possibility as best they could by distributing bundles of wet rags and linens before dawn. Now every red clad soldier breathed through makeshift masks.
The world went white. Those few present who had survived Lake Myojin remembered with claustrophobic fear the fog from that deadly encounter. The reports and tremors in the earth subsided after a few minutes, but the smoke continued to swirl around them. Even through their masks the Fire Nation soldiers now coughed and hacked loudly, but they could nevertheless hear the screams and cries of the enemy far ahead.
Iroh could not tell how much time had passed, it could have been minutes, but it felt much longer. He tried counting, but lost track several times and gave up. Finally, after he thought about twenty minutes had passed; he gave the order to his signalman who blew several sharp blasts on his tsunghi horn.
The Fire Nation army began to move forward slowly at regulation pace. Iroh could hear the signalman's call relayed northward as other horns repeated the call. He looked ahead, the smoke still swirling, but now there were patches of ground without smoke.
He perspired profusely and not because of exertion.
"Any minute now, come on… come on…" he thought feverishly, his brow creased as he willed the next event to happen.
He did not have long to wait.
This time the smoke from the last attack concealed the exact moment of the second. The dreadnoughts had also retrained their fire, as this barrage landed farther to the east and south than the first. The world erupted again in smoke and flame and the earth quaked under foot.
Iroh's forces moved inexorably forward. He could hear rather than see a few Earth Kingdom stragglers emerge from the smoky hell before them only to be cut down instantly by the art of the Fire Lord's finest. These occasional bursts of combat steadily slackened to a trickle and then finally stopped. Farther to north he could hear the same intermittent noises of battle, but these too soon ceased.
The smoke intensified once again, swallowing the army whole. Every eye burned and watered. Even through the dampened rags most had difficulty breathing. The army marched doggedly to the east. Soon they began to feel the heat from the burning ground devastated by the second attack.
Suddenly, unable to see more than a few feet in front of his face, Iroh stepped out on to nothing at all. Next to him three or four other soldiers did the same. He found himself falling feet first through open air. Next to him his companions screamed in surprise and anguish. His mind, on the verge of exhaustion, snapped into sharp focus.
He had just enough time to break his fall with blasts of fire from his feet and an arc of flame from a sweep of his arm. He landed with a lurch, but undamaged at the bottom of an obviously earthbent trench. One of his companions landed as well as he, but the others landed roughly. A sharp crack announced a broken leg for the nearest soldier. To their left and right many other soldiers took the same fateful step into nothing.
Iroh rushed over to the fallen man, the others joining him.
"I'm not a doctor, but that sounded like a break," Iroh observed
"Yes, General," the young soldier agreed through gritted teeth, determination not to shame himself by crying glittered in his eyes, "leave me, I failed you."
He recognized him as one of the organizers of the short lived rebelling on the Nasu. Iroh ignored the wounded soldier's request and instead called up those standing atop the trench who had stopped short to avoid falling. He issued orders for the engineers to deploy the rope bridges and help all those who had fallen to extricate themselves.
"Nonsense," he replied, turning back to the injured soldier, "You didn't fail anyone. You're not getting any fighting done today though," he grinned, "So your only punishment is you won't be able to tell your grandkids how many dirt slingers you killed today!"
The young man forced himself to offer a grin that quickly turned into a grimace.
"That is a heavy punishment, sir. I can't believe I walked all the way across that desert to fall in a damn hole."
Iroh left the young man to be cared for by the others.
Soon he was across the makeshift trench with the forward companies. The heat from the ground intensified so that they were all slick with sweat. They marched up a gentle slope to the crest of a low, wide hill.
Within minutes they came to the area devastated by the second attack. Here the remains of another obstacle the defenders had thrown up in their retreat could be seen. What had once been a twenty foot wall of earth and stone had been blasted apart by the outermost projectiles of the rocket sleds' firing solution.
The scene that lay beyond the obliterated rampart was unlike any Iroh had ever seen. Smoke still billowed in great grey and white swirls from huge patches of raw, blasted earth. Large sections of ground still burned with the white, incandescent fire released by the incendiary rockets. As they approached the fires dwindled, though they continued to liberate vast clouds of acrid smelling gas.
The ground was scarred and wounded, to be sure, but the human remains scattered about the strike zone rendered it truly terrifying. His eyes stung as if by buzzard wasps, but Iroh could not help but scan the battlefield over and over from one end to the other.
Body parts littered the landscape. Large numbers of severed heads, most thankfully obscured by the helmets still attached to them, left the observer with the twisted impression of some sadistic game of croquet. A few had rolled against others in the bottom of the craters. Arms and legs, bloody, burnt and grotesque, were all equally in evidence, as well as the smoldering torsos of both men and ostrich horses.
There wasn't an intact body to be seen.
"Agni Almighty, General," a nameless old soldier said from his left, "this is one sad looking hill."
"Yes, soldier, it is," Iroh agreed.
They marched forward, but there was no one to fight. The smoke was dissipating as the fires went out and the westerly wind carried the dense clouds of poison away.
In the distance they could hear the clash and din of serious fighting begin to the east. The ring of fire had closed, and the remains of Jenju's First Corps now faced encirclement between the converging Fire Nation formations.
Dimly Iroh knew he should be thinking about Nikon and Tien Shin. The fate of the Fire Nation was now in their hands. Instead, he could only see the devastation before him. He remembered it for the rest of his life. The spectacle left a much deeper impression than had their march through the desert. The latter experience had left him weak, disoriented and numb. Crossing the poisoned wasteland east of Mequon, however, he was sharp, his senses unnaturally heightened by the beauty of the rockets in stark contrast to their hellish and unholy effect.
No more missiles were launched. He didn't expect any. After all, they had planned meticulously. Every set counted. Each set had to count. As Iroh looked around, he was certain each one had. He did not regret the devastation, but it sickened him nevertheless.
He pushed forward into the land of dust and ashes.
Nikon closed the hatch. The response was almost automated and it had saved his life countless times. A fraction of a second later the dull thud of a boulder impact rang clear. The machine barely stuttered as it absorbed the blow. A fine mist of dust and shards of stone rained down around the daimyo.
He popped open the hatch and stood once again in the cupola. He was exhausted. They were all exhausted. They had fought for days now without rest. They had attacked, retreated west, and attacked again. Once they had cut clear across Nifong's column, turned around and attacked from the northeast. Over and over. Each time the enemy had slowed to parry the attack, hoping to thrust them aside. Nikon's machines had moved at full speed every moment. Their engines screamed and clanked having run for far too long without maintenance. Now, they struggled, agonized, and crawled to the end of their journey.
They had just finished their last charge. Each engagement had cost them. There were less than thirty of them left. Most of the infantry, exposed as they were above deck, had suffered badly in the first battles. Less than a few dozen remained, clinging bravely to their iron mounts and firing almost blindly at anything green that moved. Now they fled west, hoping to reach Tien Shin's rear before they were overwhelmed.
But they had succeeded, despite the crushing losses, and they knew it. This was their only consolation and it wasn't much. Nifong had lost another day, perhaps more, but the delay was over. Fifth Armor was finished.
"Fire!"
Two incoming stones, clearly aimed at their treads, exploded seconds before impact, felled almost certainly by Leng. Her aim had become legendary. She had spent as much effort protecting their vehicle as she had attacking the enemy.
"Trench!" Jin yelled from below.
It was a tactic that had claimed many of their comrades. The earthbenders had raised huge walls of stone and sunk deep trenches at every opportunity. Whenever they succeeded in slowing down the Fire Nation machines, they launched everything they had at the tread guards and then the treads they protected. As Nikon had predicted, blown treads had quickly translated into death.
Two tanks burned in front of them. One of them was Flaming Bitch. Su Lin's broken body lay slumped over her turret where her skull had been crushed.
"Do it, Jin!" Nikon thundered in response.
The tank driver didn't reply. He knew what to do. Nikon and the gunners rapid fired at the Earth Kingdom cavalry closing behind them. The shots went wild and none found their mark.
Moments later the Fury slammed into the rear of Su Lin's crippled machine. The engine protested as the daimyo's tank pushed the wreck into the ditch. Using the flaming corpse as a bridge, the Fury crossed the trench to the western side. The surviving machines quickly followed Nikon's lead. The trench disappeared as the Earth Kingdom forces approached, raised by the same earthbenders who had created it to allow easy passage for their pursuit.
Nikon turned to look behind them. He had sweat his uniform through long ago and its material slid against his skin in a sickening fashion every time he twisted his body. He ignored it. He knew their time was almost up.
"Swing us 'round!"
The Fury and her companions slowed, pivoted on their starboard treads and turned to face their pursuers.
"Fire!" he ordered again for what was probably the thousandth time.
The tank commanders and their gunners opened up at once. This volley found its mark, striking dozens of ostrich horses and their riders. They fired again, killing the riders who had their mounts struck from under them, their bodies writhing in agony as they perished.
The second wave came right behind them. Taking advantage of the armor's reduced speed, two of the tanks were suddenly raised high into the air on pillars of rock raised from the earth. They came crashing down on their sides, smoke pouring from their engine compartments. Several other pillars erupted from the ground, but missed their marks as the drivers of the targeted tanks swerved to avoid the attack.
"Reverse! Reverse!" the daimyo screamed, his voice hoarse.
The shrunken Fire Nation brigade screeched to a halt, shifted gears with audible clanks of protest, and began to move backwards. This time the invaders fired in unison without instruction. The volley was true once again and many members of the second rank of green clad pursuers went down. Two tanks to their left, Great Eastern and Sparkler, launched volleys of flaming pitch from their side catapults, lighting many of the pursuers on fire.
Then it happened.
The Sparkler, seconds after she had fired her catapults, began to buck and stutter. She quickly fell behind. Moments later she was joined by several other tanks exhibiting the same symptoms, as if they had all suddenly been struck by some strange form of group epilepsy.
It was, Nikon knew, inevitable. He had been waiting for it. So had every other tanker. Now, their grim wait was over. They were out of fuel. They'd run for more than thirty six hours straight and had burned the last of the precious resource distributed immediately before the carnage on the Field of Coins.
The other survivors saw it as well. Without instruction, for they had planned for the evil moment, they stopped and reversed direction once again.
The affliction spread rapidly throughout the formation. Half a dozen others began to stutter before they rejoined Sparkler. Still, the double back confused the pursuers who broke wide on either side of the resurgent armor.
Fury smashed into the sides of two mounted spearmen who tried to swing across their path. One of them launched a spear at Nikon but missed, the projectile whistling past the daimyo's shoulder. He ducked to avoid getting hit, but Leng and one of the side gunners opened fire just as the tank slammed into the animals that carried them. The result was a flaming mass of broken flesh which the mighty machine thrust aside with its still powerful engine.
Nikon stood back up and tapped Leng's shoulder with his foot in an oft repeated gesture of thanks.
Ahead he saw the Sparkler no more than fifty feet away. She was immobile and had obviously been flipped over by a pillar of earth, but she had rolled completely over back onto her belly. Her commander, a scarred middle aged woman he recoganized as one of Tien Shin's, took careful aim at one of her attackers and picked him off with blast of bright orange fire. Several Fire Nation soldiers, infantry who had ridden Sparkler since the Field of Coins, lay dead on the ground, pierced by the long pikes used by the enemy who could not earthbend.
Surrounded by almost a dozen ostrich horse calvary, Nifong's vanguard appeared ready for their next attempt. As Nikon watched, several of Sparkler's tormenters lifted perfect cones of stone neatly out of the ground at their feet, the sharp tips pointing like fingers of death at her flank armor. First used at Cam'ron, this tactic had also claimed its share of victims.
"Cones!" he heard someone scream from a tank somewhere behind him.
The Fury bounded forward. To her left Great Eastern reappeared, firing at the enemy around Sparkler. Leng fired twice as well. The sudden reappearance of the Fire Nation armor broke the enemy's attention on the disabled vehicle.
"Grenade!" Nikon yelled.
As the distance shortened Nikon lifted one of Chieng's devices from his belt. It felt cold, hard and heavier than it should be for its size. He had no idea what was in it and he didn't care. All he knew was it meant death for the enemy and life, even if just a little longer, for his comrades.
Leng and her mate on Great Eastern immediately disappeared into their bolt holes. Nikon had only used two of them so far, but that was enough to spread word of their effect throughout the unit.
Just as he twisted the top of the cylinder several more green clad cavalrymen swept over the low rise on which Sparkler was surrounded.
Even better, the thought flashed through his mind in a moment of grim satisfaction.
He threw the device amidst the enemy. The commander of the Sparkler had already disappeared back into her turret. The closest Earth Kingdom defenders actually stopped and looked down at the device in puzzlement, unaware that it was a weapon. They wondered why the enemy had thrown a toy at them, for it was shaped like a pin used in a popular Earth Kingdom game that many of them had played as children.
The explosion was deafening and when Nikon opened his own hatch the Sparkler was alone. The besieging force had been annihilated. The corpses of the ostrich horses and the ghastly, acrid cloud of smoke that was the signature of these devices were clearly seen, but the bodies of their pursuers were more difficult to locate. The daimyo did not bother.
Great Eastern now began to stutter and buck, coming to rest some distance north of their well tenderized sister. Another, bearing the name Victory, came to rest between them.
Nikon quickly scanned the battlefield. To his surprise he could see the thin ribbon of the Hue Road right behind them and the thicker expanse of the Silk Road immediately to their north.
Their zig zag parth had brought them to the crossroads of the two mighty arteries.
On the far side of the Hue Road he saw three other tanks firing rapidly on the Earth Kingdom stragglers who had just scored a lucky hit on Victory, blowing off her port side drive wheel. Moments later there were only the tanks that swung slowly around to rejoin their dwindling comrades.
Suddenly the combat, which had raged fiercely only moments before, was over. There was no evidence of enemy activity. The horizons were empty.
The sun shone at a crazy angle over the nearest rise. Sunset was upon them. In the sudden silence they could hear the din of combat to the west. The rapid, dull thuds of artillery could clearly be heard beneath the noise of men and metal. Behind them they could see the nearest ridge was aflame. The remains of the Earth Kingdom First Corps fought grimly to the death, insisting on taking every life they could in return for each taken from them.
"So what now, Commander?" Jin piped from below.
"We wait for Second Corps to show up… or the enemy," Nikon replied, "Shut her down."
Jin complied and the Fury's engine sputtered and died.
"I'm going to see who's left and get them organized."
Nikon jumped down from the turret and began to canvas the wreckage around them for survivors and operating tanks.
"We're not going to make it, girls," Jin announced gruffly to the rest of the crew, "Make sure they pay for it."
Grim silence was his only reply.
