Chapter 28:
Freya watched as earthbenders dove their way down towards the drill and dug a trench, disappearing into it. The drill didn't stop and neither did the machines that moved with it. The entire thing was pushed forwards from the back, one section of the drill would move forwards than the next with a puff of smoke and then the next and so forth. Each time the drill dug slats into the ground to hold the section and they'd lift up after a few ahead of it had punctured the ground in order to move the drill forwards again.
Suddenly a helm rose up from the top of the drill and on it sat a little red roofed room, it was easy to spot even from this distance with its distinct colour.
Not a few minutes later Freya heard a different noise, the sliding of earth. She turned around to see a giant earth block rise up the side of the wall and level out for Sokka, Toph, Katara, Aang, and the three refugees with their new baby Hope.
"Freya!" Aang called
"Hey."
"What's happening?"
"The Earth benders have stationed trenches all around the the wall ahead of the drill, and they're all waiting. But I don't think they'll have much luck getting through the metal. However, the drill doesn't move very fast, each section moves separately, one after the other to push it forwards." she explained
"We made it to Ba Sing Se, and we're still not safe. No one is." Ying frowned
"What are you people doing here? Civilians aren't allowed on the wall." The group turned to a solider who caught their attention.
Aang stepped forward, his glider in his hand. "I'm the Avatar. Take me to whoever's in charge."
They moved over the wall until they came to a watch tower. Inside sat an Earth Kingdom General. He smiled at them as the five stood before him.
"It is an honour to welcome you to the outer wall young Avatar, but your help is not needed." The general said as he smiled at them
"Not needed?" Aang repeated
"Not needed." he repeated smugly "I have the situation under control. I assure you the Fire Nation cannot penetrate this wall." The general gestured to them as he got to his feet and they moved out to look over the wall. There were piles and piles of boulders waiting for when the Drill arrived lined up. "Many have tried to break through it, but none have succeeded."
Freya rose an eyebrow and everyone looked at her before Toph spoke.
"What about the Dragon of the West? He got in." The General was startled for a second as he had his back to the five.
"Well… uh… technically yes. But he was quickly expunged."
"Actually he retreated." Freya corrected and the man looked at her before he coughed and continued regardless.
"Nevertheless, that is why the city is named Ba Sing Se. It's the impenetrable city. They don't call it Na Sing Se." He suddenly laughed before he became serious. "That means penetrable city."
"Yeah, thanks for the tour, but we still got the drill problem." Toph said as the man walked past them to the other end of the wall.
"Not for long. To stop it, I've sent an elite platoon of earthbenders called the Terra Team." he explained
"That's a good group name, very catchy." Sokka thought
Freya moved to the wall and watched as the earth benders knocked over the smaller mechanisms and broke through the line on a wave of rocks. They rose up to the drill and suddenly rock pillars were pointed towards it in an attempt to halt the machine. Each one crumbled as soon as the drill made it's next move forwards.
"Well, I hope your benders are as skilled fighters." Freya said and the four came up behind her. "I had a feeling Azula might be the one behind all of this, there's her friends Mai and Ty Lee." The two Fire Nation girls were sliding down the side of the drill and the earth benders had to raise blocks as Mai sent daggers flying at them.
"A couple of girls cannot stop the Terra Team."
"These aren't your average girls." Freya admitted to the General.
Ty Lee hit the ground first and dodged an earth bending attacks before she landed in front of a bender. With a few jabs at his body he was knocked over and the girl made her way to take out most of the men standing around. They all lay in a circle around the pink girl.
The General looked up from his spyglass and Freya rose an eyebrow.
"We're doomed!" he demanded in a panic as he flailed his arms around.
"Get a hold of yourself man!" Sokka said as he hit the general surprising the other four as the General rubbed his cheek.
"You're right, I'm sorry." he agreed.
"Maybe you'd like the Avatar's help now?" Toph offered. The General turned to Aang and smiled guiltily
"Yes, please." he said timidly.
"Well then," Freya said and she turned to the drill as the four lined up on either side of her. "So Earth doesn't penetrate the outside, I doubt the other elements will have much success either." she said "Water can get into the crevices but you'd need to hit the right points." the others glanced at her as they thought.
"So how are we gonna stop that thing?" Aang wondered. He and Freya shared a look before the two and Katara turned to Sokka on the end. He looked confused.
"Why are you all looking at me?"
"You're the idea guy." Aang admitted
"You come up with the plans." Freya shrugged
"So I'm the only one who can ever come up with a plan? That's a lot of pressure." Sokka said with his arms crossed.
"And also the complaining guy." Katara added
"That part I don't mind." Sokka decided.
"Well we need an idea now. We can't let that drill break through the wall, and we can't stop it unless we stop the drill completely." Freya believed
"Sir! It's the Terra Team!" The general turned and followed the soldier, the five following him into one of the towers. Inside were several men, wearing simply brown pants and lying on sick beds.
Katara and Freya moved over to one each and with the water from their pouch they looked over the men.
"What's wrong with him? He doesn't look injured." the General admitted
"His Chi is blocked." Katara explained.
"Basically his bending has been blocked." Freya said as she stood. "It's not permanent." she assured as the General looked worried "But they wont be fighting any time soon.
"Who did this to you?" Katara asked the man lying before her.
"Two girls ambushed us, one of them hit me with a bunch of quick jabs, and suddenly I couldn't earthbend, and I could barely move… and then she cart wheeled away." he explained and Freya nodded.
"Ty Lee." and Katara agreed
"She doesn't look dangerous, but she knows the human body and it's weak points. It's like she takes you down from the inside."
"Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo!" Sokka suddenly called out and started waving his arms around madly.
"Yes?" Katara asked as Freya rose an eyebrow and the younger girl got to her feet.
"What you just said, that's how we're gonna take down the Drill. The same way Ty Lee took down all these big earthbenders." Sokka explained
"By hitting its pressure points!" Toph grinned and Aang turned to the window where the drill was visible through, the others following.
"We'll take it down from the inside."
"Which means we need to get into the machine." Freya said "And for that we'll need to be stealthy, Ty Lee and Mai knew those benders were out there after all, if they see us enter, we wont have much of a chance." the others nodded
"Stealth is our friend today." Aang agreed.
"How about a dust cloud?" Katara asked looking at Toph who nodded.
"Perfect. Then once we're inside all we need are schematics." Sokka said.
"General, we need to get down to the ground." Freya said and he nodded before a couple of soldiers escorted them down a set of stairs within the wall.
The five hid amongst a trench and glanced at the drill that was heading straight for them.
"Once I whip up some cover, you're not gonna be able to see, so stay close to me." Toph said carefully.
The girl jumped out of the trench and began to raise her hands strenuously before she slammed her foot into the ground and a blast of dust and broken rock billowed up and along the ground towards the drill.
"Run!" The others jumped out of the trench and after the earth bender.
The sound of the drill continued to increase as they approached it and they came right to the foot as the dust somewhat cleared. Toph created a hole in the ground before them.
"Everyone into the hole!" she ordered and she was last to drop down, following the water tribe siblings as Aang went first. The earth swirled and shut behind them, creating darkness.
"It's so dark down here, I can't see a thing."
"Oh no, what a nightmare." Toph said feigning terror.
"Sorry." Sokka mumbled before all of their faces were thrown into light and Freya had a white flame above her hand. Everyone looked at her as they walked before she smiled.
"Hey Freya, question, why's your fire white?" Sokka asked. Freya glanced at him behind her than down at her hand.
"I dunno, why is Azula's blue?" she asked and no one had an answer.
Eventually light opened before them and Toph lead them out of the ground were they were directly under the body of the drill. Sokka looked around before he pointed.
"There!" there was an opening in the bottom of the drill that lead to the inside.
"You'd think they'd be a little more cautious." Freya thought before she ran forwards and with a leap she grabbed the metal pipe that hang beside it and swung herself up into the hole.
Aang followed and hooked his legs on the pipe before taking Katara's hands and swinging her up for Freya to grab and pull in before he did the same to Sokka. Aang held his hands for Toph but the girl didn't move. Sokka looked down as Aang leaned forwards.
"Toph, Come on!"
"No way am I going in that metal monster. I can't bend in there. I'll try to slow it down out here." she decided stubbornly
"Don't argue with the girl she's got a point." Freya said before she leaned down beside Sokka.
"Okay, good luck." Sokka nodded
"Remember, don't bother with the outer shell. And try not to be seen, if Azula sees you she'll know we're here. The longer she doesn't the better." Toph nodded before the three ducked into the drill as Toph rose a shard of rock at the bottom of the drill. She pushed her hands on it but the drill dragged the rock through the ground, pushing Toph with it.
"I need a plan of this machine. Some schematics that show what the inside looks like. Then we can find it's weak points." Sokka said as he looked around and they walked through the giant machine.
"Where are we gonna get something like that?" Aang asked.
The older boy suddenly grabbed his machete and whacked a wheel off of a pipe, steam began to billow out of it.
"What are you doing! Someone's gonna hear us!" Aang worried
"That's the point. I figure a machine this big needs engineers to run it, and when something breaks…"
"They come to fix it." Katara finished for her brother. Aang grinned at the two girls
"Smart." Freya nodded and she grabbed Sokka before the four turned to hide.
They waited before a figure began to move through the steam. He had a mask over his face and papers tucked into a bag at his waist, one in his hand. Freya nodded to Katara and the girl jumped out before she swirled her hands and the steam froze, freezing the man in place as he turned to look at her.
"Hi." she said to the frozen man.
"Good job." Freya smiled
"This'll work, thanks!" Sokka said as he walked up and grabbed the paper from the man's waist.
Freya moved forward and she began to push the man along the corridor.
"What are you doing?" Aang asked
"Hiding him. Someone find's him he's a bit of a giveaway that someone's here." Katara and Aang shared a look before they began to help the girl while Sokka opened the schematics.
When they'd tucked him away out of sight the three rejoined Sokka.
"It looks like the Drill is made up of two main structures. There's the inner mechanism, where we are now, and the outer shell." he traced his finger over the diagram. "The inner part and the outer part are connected by these braces. If we cut through them, the entire thing will collapse." They nodded before taking off to run through the machine to find a door to the outer shell of the drill.
Eventually they found one and moved out along a brace, braces and beams were the only thing out in this area of the drill, it was all hallow and empty otherwise. The brace each connected to three others and continued to hold the two pieces of the drill together.
"Wow, it looks a lot thicker in person than it does in the plans. We're going to have to work pretty hard to cut through that." Sokka believed.
"What's this we stuff? Aang, Freya and I are going to have to do all the work." Katara said from behind the boy as she crossed her arms.
"Look, I'm the plan guy, You three," he waved his arms around in cutting motions "are the "cut stuff up with waterbending" guys. Together, we're Team Avatar!"
"And you're overly dramatic." Freya nodded as Katara and Aang shared a look.
"You two start on this one, I'll start on another, at least that way we're likely to move a little faster." Freya said
"Can you do it by yourself?" Aang asked her and Freya rose an eyebrow. "Right, silly question."
Freya jumped and fire sprayed as she launched up to the next brace. Katara pulled the water from her pouch and she and Aang began to throw the water backwards and force to cut the metal. Freya landed on the other beam and pulled her water from her pouch before she swung it forwards through the metal. She stepped and pulled backwards and the water shot back at her. The girl sung her arms back and forth and continued to step forwards and backwards as she cut through the metal. The sound of cutting metal sounded through the outer shell until Katara and Aang paused to take a breath.
"C'mon team, don't quit now, we're…" Sokka began before Katara basically growled and turned to shoot her brother a menacing glare as she pulled on her water.
"I mean, you're almost there." he corrected as Freya paused, took a breath and then continued, smirking slightly at the two siblings.
The two water benders continued and Freya stopped as they cut through the beam before she did. They all watched in anticipation before the beam slid slightly and stopped, not going anywhere.
"At this rate, we won't do enough damage before the drill reaches the wall." Katara believed as Aang had sat himself down.
"I don't know how many more of those I have in me." Aang admitted
"Well, the idea should work, but maybe we're going about it the wrong way?" Freya said and they glanced at her before there was an ominous shudder and a moan passed through the length of the drill.
"Do you hear that? We took it down. We better get out of here fast!" Sokka thought. Freya jumped and followed the three out of the doorway but they didn't make it further than the edge of the beam before a voice sounded through the machine.
"Congratulations crew, the Dill has made contact with the wall of Ba Sing Se. Start the countdown to victory!"
"We didn't take it down, and now we have even less time." Freya admitted as cheers sounded through the pipes.