Ch 5 the Drill
The group headed towards Ba Sing Se. Olivier was skeptical about it. Having been in some border skirmishes with Drakma, and that big war with the Homunculi, she was rather cynical about city being impenetrable, as the refugees claimed it was.
Everyone noticed Aang coming back to them.
"Aang, what are you doing here? I thought you were looking for Appa." Katara said.
"I was. But something caught my attention. Something big." Aang said.
Aang and Toph earth bended everyone to the top of the wall.
"What's so big that Appa has to wait?" Sokka asked.
"That." Aang said, as everyone got a view of the fire nation drill, escorted by 10 tundra tanks. Olivier reached into her sack, and pulled out a binoculars. Looking at the drill, she cursed.
"Damn it."
"What?" Aang asked.
"This city will fall today." Olivier said.
"We're at the city, and still we're not safe. No one is." Ying said.
"What are you doing here, civilians aren't allowed on the wall." An earth kingdom soldier said.
Aang spoke in an authoritative voice that was out of character for him.
"I'm the Avatar. Take me to whoever is in charge." Aang said.
Olivier was surprised that the soldier followed his request. If it was Briggs fortress, the kid would have been turned back, or throw into a jail.
Eventually, they were led to a section of the wall that had a roof overhead, and was supported by arches.
The general sat in a chair, and looked too confident for his own good.
"Thank you for meeting, Avatar, but your help is not needed." The general said.
"Not needed?" Aang asked.
"Not needed." The general said. Olivier rolled her eyes. Because of his incompetence, not taking the Avatar's help, when he needed everyone to man the wall, the wall could fall in less than a day.
"The fire nation cannot break thru this wall. Many have tried, but all have failed." He said.
"Let me tell you something, General." Olivier said, catching his attention. "The fire nation is right at the door steps of the city. They've spent 100 years taking the earth kingdom. After repeated failures, they'll start getting crafty and use out of the box weapons and technology to bring down the wall. And they're coming at you with brute force, which means strength in numbers, and mechanized infantry."
"The Dragon of the west broke thru." Toph added.
"Technically, yes. But he was quickly expunged. That's why it's called Ba Sing Se. The impenetrable city." The general said.
Olivier looked aside the wall, and noticed that they had plenty of boulders, and since they were sitting on plain earth, ammo was infinite. But that drill was made of metal, and Olivier was betting that it was very thick. Would have to be to sustain a drilling action against the wall, and take on anything the earth benders would thru at it.
"Thanks for the tour. We still got the drill to deal with." Toph curtly said.
"Not to worry. To stop it, I've sent a special team platoon of earth benders called the terra team." The general said.
"Terra team. I like it. Catchy name." Sokka said.
Olivier put her face in her hands, clearly annoyed with Sokka's stupidity. She looked thru the binoculars, and looked at the terra team. From what she could see, they had no weapons to counter the steel and weight of the drill. Even if they took out all the tanks and defenses with no casualties, they simply didn't have enough manpower to flip the drill. Olivier looked at the drill again. On second thought, flipping the drill would be impractical. It would just keep marching towards the wall.
The platoon started by knocking several tanks aside, and launched a pincer attack on the drill. Large stone pikes were thrusted at the drill, but the thick metal remained impervious. The drill continued to march forward, and the troops were quickly caught off guard as knives were thrown at them. Olivier adjusted her view, and saw two teenage girls attacking them. While one was throwing knives at them, the other one wearing pink, quickly maneuvered amongst the soldiers, and brought them down with a series of nerve attacks.
"We're doomed!" the general shouted, flailing his arms.
"Get a hold of yourself!" Sokka exclaimed, slapping the general.
"Maybe you'd like the avatar's help now?" Toph dryly asked.
"Yes please." The general humbly said.
"How are we gonna stop that thing?" Aang asked.
"I already have a plan." Olivier said, putting the binoculars away.
"What is it?" Sokka asked.
"We destroy it from the inside out. Seeing as we can't stop it from the outside, it's our only option." Olivier said.
The group was crouched in one of the trenches, ready to launch their attack.
"Once I whip up some cover, you won't be able to see. So stay close to me." Toph advised.
The blind bandit sent a massive amount of debris, creating the cloud cover they needed.
"Run!" Toph shouted, heading towards the drill.
Inside the drill's command center, they saw the dust cover.
"Hey, look at that dust cover. It's so poofy." Ty Lee said. "Poof."
"Don't worry, princess. I'm sure it's nothing." War minister Quinn said.
Azula gave him a quizzical look, disagreeing with him. Infiltrators could come in thru the cloud, and potentially disable or destroy the drill from the inside.
Toph quickly created a hole, and everyone jumped in.
"It's so dark in here, I can't see." Sokka complained.
"Oh no. What a nightmare." Toph sarcastically bit back.
"Sorry." Sokka said.
Toph brought them up directly underneath the drill. Olivier marveled at the sheer size. It must have taken them many years to make this.
"Their." Sokka said, pointing to an opening.
Everyone got in, except Toph.
"Toph, come on." Sokka said.
"No way am I going in that metal monster. I can't bend in there. I'll try to slow it down up here." Toph said.
"Okay. Good luck." Sokka said.
They moved inside the drill, finding no resistance. That puzzled Olivier. If the troops inside knew they were here, they were walking into a potential ambush.
"I need a plan of this machine. Some schematics that show what the inside looks like. Than we can find its weak points." Sokka said.
Sokka than pulled out his machete, and cut off a pipe handle.
"What are you doing? Someone will hear that!" Aang said, as steam filled the place.
"That's the point. A machine this big will teams of engineers to run it. And when something breaks…" Sokka said.
"They come to fix it." Katara said.
"Not bad." Olivier said.
Hiding, they saw an engineer come in, only for Katara to water bend the steam, and freeze him.
"This will do. Thanks." Sokka said, taking the schematics with him.
Sokka looked at the schematics, showing parts of the drill.
"It looks like the drill is made up of two parts. The inner part where we are now, and the outer section. It looks like both parts are connected by these braces. If we cut thru them, the entire thing will collapse." Sokka said.
Sokka led them to the support struts. The real object was much thicker than the paper suggested.
"Wow. It's a lot bigger in person. We're going to have to work pretty hard to cut through that." Sokka said.
"What's this 'we' stuff? Aang and I are going to be doing all the work." Katara said.
"Look, I'm the plan guy. You two are the cut stuff up with water bending guys. Together, we're team Avatar." Sokka said.
Aang and Katara worked on cutting thru the brace. And it was truly hard work.
"Come on team. We're almost…" Sokka said, but quit talking when Katara threatened to hit him with the water whip. "I mean, you're almost there."
They managed to cut thru the first brace, but both benders were tired, unable to continue. A creaking noise from the drill made Sokka hopeful.
"You hear that, we made it through. We got to get out of here." He said.
As they left, an announcement sent chills up their spine.
"Congratulations crew. We've made contact with the wall of Ba Sing Se. Start the countdown to victory." The war minister said.
"Fuck!" Olivier shouted.
"This is bad, real bad." Katara said.
"We're putting everything we got into busting these things." Sokka said.
Aang got an inspiration.
"Maybe we don't need to cut thru them. Toph's been teaching me that you shouldn't give a hundred percent of your attack onto one point. You have to be quick and accurate. Make multiple strikes across your target, and when your opponent is reeling, deliver the final blow. His weight becomes his downfall. Literally."
"So we just have to weaken the braces." Katara said.
"And I'll deliver the final blow." Aang said.
Katara and Aang worked with renew vigor, cutting several braces at a quickened pace.
"Now Aang just needs to DUCK!" Sokka yelled, as a blue fire ball screamed towards him.
"You're right, Azula. It is the Avatar. And friends." Ty Lee said, winking at Sokka.
"Hey." Sokka said, waving his hand, instead of bugging out.
Olivier quickly looked at the trio sent to stop them. The middle girl had the aura and demeanor of being in charge. One had a braided ponytail, and had an obsession for pink. The other was slightly taller. She wore loose clothing, and had a dour look on her face.
Olivier's aura was different. The color surrounding her was red. Ty Lee couldn't help but sense she was surrounded by a layers of ice and cold, and saw an army moving across it like it was nothing. She was driven and determined.
Running away, the group split up. Sokka and Katara ran to the left and to an exit, while Olivier and Aang headed right to destroy the drill.
Aang ran really fast thru the group of workers. Olivier hid, and waited for Azula to run past her.
On the drill, Aang found a spot to start cutting, only to be bombarded by boulders.
"General Song! Tell your troops to stop firing rocks down here!" Aang yelled.
"Soldiers, whatever you do, don't stop firing rocks down there." Song ordered.
Dodging the rocks, Aang started cutting away with the water. And minutes later, he was slowly reaching his breaking point.
"What would I give to be a metal bender." He muttered.
Momo screamed, as a blue fire ball flew towards him.
"Momo, get out of here!" Aang ordered, as he faced down his opponent, who was Azula.
Azula fired the first shot, which Aang avoided. He retaliated with water, but Azula's precise fire bending evaporated the water. Running out of options, Aang grabbed a falling boulder with his air bending, and threw it at Azula.
Dropping into the splits, Azula dodged it, and continued her attack. Aang pulled up a defense of rocks, and started firing rocks at Azula, but to no effect. Azula fired one large blast of blue fire, and destroyed the rock barricade, and sent Aang flying against the wall, knocking him out.
Azula grabbed the Avatar, and put him against the wall. She has bested him in combat for the second time, and primed a fire ball to scar the Avatar for life, and show the world that she had bested him. Unfortunately, her moment of victory was cut short, as a thick hand grabbed hers from behind, and flung her across the drill like a rag doll.
"Lets see you push around someone who can fight." Olivier growled, pulling out her Armstrong sword, passed down the family line for generations.
Every eye was watching the two combatants. The Ice Queen, and the fire princess. It was two main predators circling each other, eager to murder each other in the most gruesome way possible. Azula looked at Olivier, trying to figure her out. She couldn't put her hand on it, because she could sniff the fear from anyone else she faced, but the blond sword wielding opponent had no fear. She just wanted to destroy Azula, and toss her ashes to the wind.
"You're a brave one. Too bad you won't live long to inspire anyone." Azula taunted.
Oliver said nothing, but quickly attacked Azula. She ran towards her, dodging a fire ball in the process. She skidded on her back, and stabbed the sword in the drill's metal, launching her forward.
Using the momentum, she kicked Azula real hard, a sickening crack was hard. Aula gripped her jaw, wondering if it was broken. Olivier took advantage, and quickly body slammed her on the drill. Azula fired a blast of flame, causing Olivier to duck. Azula pushed Olivier off, and got up to fight.
But Olivier wasn't one to back down. She dodged the fire balls Azula was throwing at her, counting on Azula draining herself down. Olivier threw a knife at Azula, and got her arm.
"Fuck!" Azula shouted, yanking the knife out. When she looked to see Olivier, Olivier ran towards her full tilt. She grabbed Azula and threw her across the drill like a rag doll. She approached Azula, ready to kill her, when something caught her attention. She saw Aang running down the wall and heading towards the stone wedge he put in the X-marking on the drill.
"Oh shit." Olivier muttered. She ran off the drill, and just in time. Slurry and shrapnel fell of the sides, as the drill was out of commission.
"We lost." Mai said, opening a rear hatch, seeing Ty Lee and Azula, covered with the sludge.
An earth bender elevated Olivier onto the wall, where she heard Sokka discuss team names with his friends. Looking at the now destroyed drill, Olivier said two words while putting away her sword.
"Mission accomplished."