Ch21
Zaofu Military Air Base
South Western Earth Empire
They've gone and done it, Suyin thought! She quickly exited the car to survey the damage that had transpired, the reason she had been alerted and called to Zaofu's military airbase. In the midst of the night, while the Earth Empire's tank forces were laying siege in an operation to the far north, their air force had executed a sly preemptive strike while everyone was focusing on their ground activity.
The fire brigades had finished putting out the remaining fires, but the air field was mangled. A swarm of cruise long range cruise missiles had effectively destroyed Zaofu's defensive aircraft. Hangers were twisted, collapsed, or fully destroyed with the remains of their jets buried in the smoldering metal and concrete. The runway was hit hard too, massive craters had blown apart it's paved surface, leaving deep indents. The air traffic control tower had collapsed like a tree cut down in a forest, it's control center had crashed through the ceiling of its lobby.
The runway could be easily repaired. Summoning all earth benders of the construction departments of Zaofu could have the runway returned to a passable status by the end of the next day, and in three days, they would have the repaired runway paved in asphalt once more, bringing it back to its peak operational status. But buildings, and particularly the technology in those buildings would take a long time to recover! And now, Zaofu lacked any kind of fighter aircraft to defend itself!
"Injuries are high," the base commander reported to the leader of Zaofu, "But fortunately there are no casualties. Everyone on post at the time of the strike was able to survive the night."
"Spirits above," Suyin sighed, slightly relieved. A minor victory.
"What should we do?" the commander asked.
Suyin's fists clenched tightly. "This is an act of war!" she fumed. "Kuvira has now gone past threats and has fired on Zaofu!" Her former guard captain was not going to get away with this! "I'm going to reach out to the Council of Nations. Hell, I am going to reach out to the US! We have reached the point where we can no longer just sit back and hope."
"Madam Beifong," the commander spoke. "Will the US be a worthwhile pursuit? The Mechanized World seems to fully back Kuvira."
"We need to show the world, the Earth Empire's pursuit is not just!"
Ministry of the Armed Forces
Upper Ring, Ba Sing Se
The clock ticking was the loudest noise in the impeccably organized large office. All books had their designated place on a large bookshelf opposite the ornate grandfather clock, and their spines toed the line perfectly like soldiers at attention. There were photographs framed, evenly spaced, and hung in lines across one wall of Kuvira's office. Prominently displayed were photos with world leaders; Chief Tonraq, Fire Lord Izumi, President Raiko, President Xi Jin Ping, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Moon Jae-In, and Presidents Obama, Trump, and current President Biden. Next came military officers and soldiers from around the Empire from her visits to various units and fronts. Then, there were images of victorious battles from the six years of military history, prospering cities, and images of modernization and progress. And finally, centered at the very middle of all those images, the one out of place, was one of a few photographs simply of Kuvira and Baatar Jr. This was the photo she looked at the most frequently.
Seated behind the large cherry wood desk that was placed on the centerline of the office, facing away from the bullet proof windows, the Great Uniter methodically worked through a neatly aligned mountain of reports from all across the Empire. The pages came from civil engineers, public works project leaders, transit companies, and locally appointed governors and mayors, especially from newly aligned territories and cities, in addition to reports from the army.
"Beisup City now fully electrified," Kuvira read, "Additional engineer units requested for hastened road construction to meet the upcoming goal deadline." She retrieved a stack of papers from the desk drawer and her pen began to streak across its blank surface. Move the 7th and 12th Engineer Battalions from Taku to Beisup, she wrote. Paved roadways throughout the city and the initial section of highway connecting the city to the Transcontinental Highway system to be finished by the end of the month, she closed before folding the parchment and sealing it in an envelope. She had a stack of cardstock papers for these kinds of orders pre-signed in a locked drawer to expedite these decisions. Neatly she set the sealed order on top of a growing stack of outbound letters.
Things were very different now then they were five years ago, even for her. There was more office work than leading troops from the front, she thought. Nevertheless, she wore her service uniform every day, even while staff officers were mainly in their dress uniforms when working the day to day in Ba Sing Se. A moment of pause was needed. She set her pen down and lightly rubbed her eyes and temples. It wasn't combat, but Kuvira had been finding even these kinds of bureaucratic duties to be exhausting. At least after moving with the infantry, one could feel satisfaction from having worked out. I should appoint more ministers and representatives, she thought.
Three gentle knocks on the door.
"Enter," she called, straightening herself out immediately.
It was her fiance. "Working hard, as usual," he greeted, closing the door behind.
Kuvira softened her composure almost immediately after the door latch clicked shut. She slouched in her chair and supported her head in a hand atop the desk. "Another fruitful and progressing day for the Empire," she said airily. "Every day brings its own small victories."
"Not what you thought it would be?" he teased, pulling up a chair.
She groaned. "I knew this is what the job would evolve into even six years ago, but actually sitting here all day and reading all these reports is different than the mere idea of doing so."
"Anything promising?" he asked, producing a bottled cafe au lait and setting it on a steel coaster.
"Beisup, the city north east of the UNR has its electrical grid up and running," she sighed. "Roads and highway connection will be finished by the end of the month. Currently I'm in talks with our railroad companies to bolster the line towards that region. You know..exciting stuff."
"You emanate overwhelming levels of enjoyment," Baatar teased.
She gave him a sarcastic side eye with a slight smirk. "Totally. Pity I am taking all the fun away from you. If only there were things left for you to take part in. What have you been up to?" She twisted the cap off her drink.
"Reports from General Guan are promising," he reported. "The siege weapon is in its final stages of testing. Mainly it's the chassis and hull for the massive vehicle required to move the full sized weapon that has become the main focus for the production crews. One is nearly completed with two more in the works."
One of Kuvira's eyebrows raised, upon mention of General Guan. "Mhm," she said mid gulp. "Sounds excellent."
"Things are falling into place, Kuvira. I think we can expect to achieve full unification of the entire Earth Empire and its rightful territories within the year," Baatar replied with ecstatic. "All of our hard work-, of your hard work is paying off."
She smiled in a warm slight way, not one for massive cheesy grins. "I could not do this without your support, Baatar. You play just as important a role in this as I do. More than you credit yourself for."
"And you say that, every time," he replied, as he rose from his seat.
"Clocking off for the night?" she asked.
"Yeah. Will you be joining me?"
She looked at the stack of reports and requests. "I'll finish going through these, and then retire for the evening after. It may still be a while, so please go ahead. I'll catch up with you at home."
"Do you need any help?" Rarely if ever, did she accept or call on his help. But he always made sure to offer.
"No, I will be fine," she replied. "You should rest up. I'll be done here promptly."
He gave in, smiled and headed for the door, but he paused as he remembered to hand her one more document. "Oh yeah, before I forget. This report came from the 1st Armored Division, straight from Major Choi. It was addressed to you directly," Baatar said, producing the folder from his satchel.
Kuvira took the file from her fiance and looked the folder over. She had been waiting for the Major's reports with each passing day. "Thank you, Baatar. I'll take a look at the report immediately."
"Don't push yourself too hard," he said in departing and quietly open and shut the office door.
Kuvira held the large envelope for a moment. Major Choi was always very thorough and insightful with his operations reports, always having them addressed directly to Kuvira personally. After the first few times of circumnavigating the chiefs of staff in the ministry, she began to accept and read them herself as intended. Soon she began to wait for them with anticipation. She broke open the sealed folder and began skimming the contents of the Major's writing. Pictures from the front were also enclosed. It talked about the fall of Shanguchi and the light casualties the attacking units had sustained. The total annihilation of the Liu-Clan and its castle stronghold hollowed, the final remaining, and last large, daofei concentration had fallen with its leader, Mei Liu killed in the night assault on their stronghold. There was a brief mention of the air strike on the Zaofu military air base as well that had happened simultaneously on the other side of the Earth Empire. Overall it was an in depth recollection of military operations, in addition to other insights.
The clock ticked and ticked in the silence and stillness of the spacious office as Kuvira read the contents of the insightful pages with her full attention.
Tai Hua Mountain Range
Northern Earth Kingdom
The walls around a sealed iron bunker door cracked before the entire door and door frame were forcibly launched from the wall into the opposite wall of the hallway. Sirens blared and corridor lights flashed. Bolin, Zhu Li, and Varrick quickly bolted through the opening. Zhu Li doubling back at the opening and firing her acquired Mp40 machine gun from the hip, despite incoming bullets and earth. It was escape attempt number three, but this time they had an earth bender, one who could also bend lava!
Indeed, as Bolin had warned, it was a loud escape attempt. But this time, they had timed it just right. The facility they were being kept at was now largely empty as many of the soldiers of the 1st Armored Division had been moved away from the ancient German bunker for military operations elsewhere, leaving just the sentries stationed to guard the base and weaponry behind.
"Zhu Li!" Bolin motioned, "Come on!"
Her emptied magazine clattered to the floor as she reloaded. "Coming!"
"Stay close," Bolin advised. He blew open a makeshift tunnel straight through the rock, intending to cut a straight line to where he believed a further tunnel to be. Though he was boring blindly into the mountain. Varrick ran in with Zhu Li trailing, and once clear the wall shut behind them enveloping them in darkness.
"I don't fare well in the dark!" Varrick panicked.
"We'll be out soon," Bolin assured, continuing to move tons of earth.
"You sure about that? Do you know where we are going?"
"Not really," Bolin admitted.
"Great! We're going to die lost in the stone of a mountain!"
The wall ahead smashed open! Bolin's gamble was right. Light poured through. They had broken through the wall into another service tunnel and were now, according to the metal sign on the opposite wall, not too far from the main hangar. "This way," Zhu Li directed, being familiar with the way to the main hangar. "We're not too far now!"
The only thing about the main hangar, though, was how open it was! Like before, there was very little cover at all.
Bolin flung a set of steel doors open. There, across the large concrete area of the bunker's main hangar, were the towering blast doors to the outside world! Soldiers poured into the bunker, the sound of their boots on the metal catwalks overhead clanking as they filled the upper spaces. Bright lights and blaring sirens made it disorienting.
The bullets, without hesitation, came flying in. Bursts of machine gun and rifle fire peppered the ground beside them. Bolin quickly raised a dense stone barricade to shield them. "The containers ahead," he directed, "Move!"
He let loose a series of sharp rapid punches into the stone wall he had raised, launching a barrage of fist-sized stones at the numerous shooters overhead and at ground level. The soldiers above and ahead ducked and dodged to evade the incoming boulders. Some destroyed or deflected the rocks themselves. Dust, debris, and loud banging noises came as the stones slammed into the surrounding. A few sentries caught a boulder to the gut.
Varrick, armed with a P-1 pistol he had taken from a downed guard fired blindly from one hand as he ran the twenty yards to cover behind a metal intermodal container. Zhu Li laid down suppressing fire to cover her boss before following after him herself. Seeing the two make it to cover, Bolin started launching larger chunks of concrete at the opponents. A tire-sized block of his cover bashed into the support beam of one of the occupied overhead walkways. Metal screeched and guards screamed as the walkway collapsed, dumping the occupants of it's section down a fifty foot drop. Pistol and rifle caliber bullets whizzed by his head as Bolin quickly and awkwardly bobbed and weaved through the hailstorm of lead.
There was valuable weaponry and equipment in this bunker, which is why the responding guards couldn't employ explosives to flush out the escaping prisoners, otherwise a stone wall and a steel cargo container wouldn't have been sufficient cover at all. Bolin swung around the rear corner to peak out the metal box, arcing a large slab of concrete and rebar around and driving it into a group of advancing guards to keep them at bay.
There was no move cover from here to the blast doors.
"What do we do?" Varrick inquired. "We're out of cover!"
Bolin thought on his feet. "Then we'll take the cover with us! Get ready to run for it!"
"Run for it? We'll get torn to shreds!" Varrick had to yell over the sound of impacting bullets.
"No we won't! Go!" A massive concrete block jutted out from the floor below and pushed against the forty foot container. "Go! Go! Go!" Bolin prodded. The metal shrieked as the container was pushed across the hangar by the earth bent stone.
"Slow down! Too fast! Too fast!" Varrick pleaded, almost getting out paced by a metal box! But Bolin and Zhu Li pushed on. The container raced towards the large bunker doors, which were, again, cracked open just enough for a person to comfortably walk through. Varrick flew through the opening. Zhu Li followed second. And finally, Bolin cleared the massive doors into the cold mountain air. He quickly knocked the container around, using the concrete flooring to horizontally block the small opening in the doors.
A loud, terrific bang and screech! Bolin instinctively ducked. Just in time. A two meter jagged iron post, debris from the collapsed metal walkway launched from a metal bender in the crowds, pierced straight through the two walls of the container and came to a halt after passing halfway through! The jagged skewering end passing right over a ducking Bolin and stopping just before a terrified Varrick!
More alarms sounded, and the large blast doors began to roll open. Bolin reacted quickly enough, raising another stone wall to block the hellstorm from two MG42s mounted atop the two outer guard towers. He flung two sizable boulders at the towers, but this time they were redirected by earth benders and flew off into the distant woods.
Stamping his foot, two lines in the ground tore open, heading for the two guard towers. Lava erupted in the wake, and began to pour out at the base of the two structures. Immediately the stone structures began to crumble and list, having their stone support beams melted by the molten rock. The machine gunners and supporting guards had no choice but to abandon their guns and jump for safety as the towers fell.
"Now!" Bolin shouted "Make for the gates!"
Large chunks of earth and stone tore towards them, but they had managed to disappear into the woods. The trees snapped and bent over backwards as the large rocks slammed into them. The ruffling of leaves matched the screech of beetle cicadas on a summer day. But the fugitive trio was making record time. Bolin rocketed them along on a large platform of earth, gliding over the landscape like a sled. It could outrun any truck, halftrack, or car in the short term and did not need an engine ignition to move. While the Empire's guards were scrambling for their vehicles, the fugitives would be long gone. Narrowly avoiding plowing down or slamming into large trees himself, Bolin moved them as far down the mountain and as far away from the base as possible. At this point, they'd be shot on sight. Or worse.
Liu Clan Castle Stronghold
Tai Hua Mountain Range - Northern Earth Kingdom
"Gunner, hose the left side of the street," Major Choi ordered.
"Yes, sir," the crewman acknowledged, the turret of the turret of the Tiger II angling left and tearing into the lower level windows with its coaxial machine gun.
Tracers shredded the lower levels of the apartments, cafes, and trading posts to their left. Buildings constructed of a mixture of wood, stone, and metal, stood no match against the oncoming mechanized rampage. The streets were narrower here than in Shanguchi, and the streets was angled at an upward slope leading towards the towering castle grounds. The heavy 20mm chain gun of a following mech chugged away behind the tank, punching holes in the second story. The infantry lined the sidewalks and moved with the armor, a larger chunk of them huddled behind the tank and followed it along, using it like a battering ram. The cracks of rifles and bursts of submachine gun fire sporadically rang out as the occasional daofei member exposed himself. A body fell from the third story of an adjacent building, having just been shot. But Major Choi didn't have any visible reaction or care as the corpse basefully thumped and bounced against the side armor of his tank.
"Show no fear!"
A crowd of fighters opened a surprise volley of fire from the upper floors of what appeared to be an inn, just ahead on the right side of the narrow street. The sudden burst of rifle and machine gun fire caught the advancing soldiers off guard. Several of the men fell in the streets, dead or severely wounded and screaming for medics. Thirty-caliber slugs plinked off the frontal armor, peppering towards the turret and its commander. An RPG soldier appeared! In a split second, a blink of an eye, Choi clenched his fist and flicked his wrist up sharply. A block of earth, not larger than it needed to be, shot up from the ground, even before the aimed rocket was fired, came right into its line of travel. The rocket fired, and a great blast of fire, shockwaves, and earth burst from the meeting of stone and HEAT warhead. But the shrapnel didn't reach the advancing forces. Thrusting his arms forward, grunting with the force he exerted, Choi launched the crumbled stone and the rocket's metal shrapnel at the enemy with a bullet's velocity. The mixture of stone and steel tore through the opponents with painful results. He punched forth, dealing with the target without needing to order the gun of his tank to turn from the task he had given them. The foundations of the two-story inn burst out and across the street, peppering the enemy on the other side, then he brought his arms sweeping across. The entire building toppled and slid leftward into the street and smashed into the opposing structures, crushing and pulverizing anyone in the way.
"Driver, don't stop," he ordered, despite there now being a massive pile of building rubble blocking the streets. The major cocked his arm back and then with great resolve punched tons of bricks, rebar, and stone forward, rampaging through the street like a tidal wave of ruin. The pile parted in the middle and pushed into the buildings on both sides of the thoroughfare, clearing everyone in the street and slamming into those taking cover in buildings.
This wasn't trying to bring order and bring these Daofei into alignment, this was annihilation. In his eyes, this was eradicating cancer to the Earth Empire and its people. To Major Choi's understanding, this was fighting with the spirit of Avatar Kyoshi herself, enacting a force equivalent to one she would, in his view.
"Target two hundred meters ahead, left side," Choi directed, "Cafe, ground floor. Owner seems to have just come out with a twelve-gauge. Let's put one shell on target. High explosive."
The long barrel of the Tiger II adjusted. The clanging of a shell, which was loaded manually in two pieces, munition and then powder charge, was heard before an earth shattering boom and fireball erupted from the barrel. A spray of blackened dust and fire burst into the street from where that cafe had previously existed. The building crumbled.
Cannons fired down from the tall turrets and towers of the castle structure. The illumination from the spotlights made its stark white walls glow in the evening sky. A battery of 75mm and 88mm anti-tank guns were spread throughout the earth and steel copy of the worlds-famous Japanese castle. The guns were fitted on a rolling base and retreated into the towers with the recoil of each shot, and their firing ports then concealed with a heavy steel door.
"Why are we stopped?" Varrick asked, as the trio huddled behind a tree. "We're sitting ducks here!"
Bolin peaked out. Advancing up the slope was a small army of Earth Empire units; tanks, infantry, mechs, and all. "First Armored is closing in. They're all across our front!"
They could barely hear each other over the deafening sounds of machine gun bursts and cannon fire.
"What if we just tunnel beneath them?" the inventor suggested. "Just head underneath?"
"If we resurface and someone sees us, we'll be immediately shot. That'd be too suspicious, and I can't see underground!"
"We're still wearing our uniforms!" Zhu Li suggested, "Why don't we just pass through them? As if we're heading to the rear for supplies or support? They're too busy fighting to notice anyway."
Bolin quickly thought it over. He had to make a split-second decision. The stream of tracers that pelted the nearby grounds egged him on. He was a movie actor not too long ago! "Let's do it."
The three fixed their uniforms as best as they could, making sure their field-caps were seated on their heads. The illusion hopefully only needed to survive a glance in the heat of battle. Bolin gestured them to push, and as a unit they pushed from cover and out into the battlefield, coming at the the line of advancing mechanized units.
"Shift fire! Shift fire! There's three of our own out there!"
The machine guns paused, and the spew of glowing hot tracers notably shifted to the right, giving the fugitives enough clearance to make it safely back behind the fighting line. A sergeant frantically waved Bolin and his crew back behind the cover of a nearby halftrack.
"How'd you guys get that far up?!" the NCO questioned, keeping his head down. He focused more toward the enemy, flinching as a shell exploded nearby and kicked up dirt.
"We tried to get around their flank!" Bolin replied, deepining his voice and playing the best soldier-act he could muster; a tank cannon fired as he said so.
"What?! Say again!"
"We tried to hit them on their flank!" Bolin replied again. He gestured to Varrick and Zhu Li, who were trying to look away from the sergeant as much as possible. "She's nearly about to run out of bullets! He was terrified he dropped his rifle on the way back!"
Varrick groaned at Bolin's explanations, but he winced every time a cannon went off.
"Supply truck's in the rear!" the sergeant directed. "Grab yourselves some fresh magazines there and regroup with the infantry! You guys got heart, but we don't need you to die for your country! We need you alive to fight for it!"
"Roger that, sarge!" Bolin saluted, an exaggerated and unwarranted one that made the NCO tilt his head in confusion. But he watched as Bolin gestured for the other two to follow.
He tapped the petite woman, who clutched the MP40 in her hands, on the shouled. "Give 'em hell, corporal!" he applauded. Hearing that she had, supposedly, been gunning down daofei, and then seeing she was quite small and bespectacled, made the tale all the more deserving of appreciation. She didn't exactly seem like the fighting type on the surface. If only he knew.
He stopped Varrick though. "Get your head in the game and out of your ass, man!"
The awkward and timid inventor spun to look at the gruff infantryman in the face. "Will do, sarge!" he acknowledged taking off with an awkward salute and run.
The sergeant shook his head and took his slung rifle off his shoulder, ready to return to the fight. But the last guy's face suddenly flashed across his mind. He recognized him! The prisoner! Wait a miniute, he thought,spinning back from the fight ahead of him to look back at the now running trio of uniformed fugitives. He reached over and pulled the phone handpiece off an external radio mounted to the side of the halftrack, readying to make his findings known to other units.
A cannon blast overhead! The sergeant felt a brief shockwave and intense heat. The metal hull of the halftrack thrusted suddenly at him, smashing his skull, back, and legs. A massive chunk of armor thrust through his waist and the flames engulfed him and the surrounding infantry squad around him. A high explosive shell had scored a direct hit on the armored personnel carrier, killing its crew, occupants, and surrounding troops in the resulting explosion, before the call could go out.
The cannon that fired the devastating shot rolled back into it's gun port, before the metal shield could close, a high velocity 88mm shell chased after the retreating gun! A terrific explosion burst from the opening, flames shot outward. The ammunition and the gun inside had exploded, and ignited the reserves of the next gun over as well. A follow up explosion! The closed metal shield of the next gun port was launched from it's mount.
Tiger 474 pushed forth the advance, scoring the kill shot that had wiped out an entire level of enemy guns and crew off the castle's main keep. Its machine gun hosed the defensive lines where enemy troops were massed. Perched atop the cupola, Major Choi continued to direct his crew as well as surrounding units endlessly, having a close eye and tight grip on his unit. He ducked momentarily as an incoming shell bounced off the dense frontal armor. It whistled as it flew skyward. Once it slowed down enough for Choi to focus in on it, he reached up, seeming to grasp the air and flung the metal explosive back at the enemy positions. The explosion tosses a group of the enemy. The major then turned to two other metal benders advancing alongside his tank, coordinating their help with a stern and serious look alone.
The three made a scooping and lifting motion with their arms, raising the twisted wreckage of the destroyed halftrack into the air. Then, throwing forth in unity, they launched the heavy and burning wreckage at a machine gun emplacement. The heavy hunk of metal, slammed into the target with tremendous force, not bouncing off the emplacement's thick reinforced walls, but rather embedding and smashing through.
The inner sanctums of the castle facilities were not advantageous for tanks to advance into. Aside from a mech suit or two, the heavier vehicles remained outside the grounds, surrounded by the corpses of the massacred daofei resistance.
Soldiers swarmed every hallway, every room, and every tunnel, flushing out the remaining holdouts. Rifle and machine gun fire echoed through the compound. Major Choi did not let being a tank officer stop him from moving with the infantry. He was one that needed to see things through. Being thorough was a trait that had defined his military career. Accompanying him was a small squad of elite infantry, two submachine gunners, and three metal benders. They took on the task of fighting vertically up the main tower of the riddled, crumbling, and burning fortress. And it was a never ending and uncomfortably close fight all the way up.
The stairs were narrow and steep. They led sometimes through hatches in the floors above. It was designed to hinder invaders and make them vulnerable. Each door, each stairway, every corner had to be taken aggressively, with speed and force, and without hesitation. Hesitating was as good as a death sentence, in Choi's mind.
Staging beneath another steep ladder and hatchway into the floor above. He gave a signal for one of his men to ready up. One of the machine gunners drew a stick grenade from his belt, identical to a stielhandgranate, and pulled the primer. Two of the other soldiers did so too. The explosives were cooking. Choi then flung the metal hatch open. It slammed forcefully in the next ceiling up. The three men each threw their grenades up and into the next room. The three concussive explosions rocked the upper floor, and in the chaos and the impacts, Choi shot up through the hatch, propelling himself up with a platform launch by his earth bending. His men quickly followed, and each took a corner of the room. Eight opponents. Good thing the floors were made of concrete.
Immediately three sizeable slabs of concrete and metal raised from the floor, catching successive rifle shots with a thud. A burst of machine gun fire, and two daofei members dropped in agony. Choi punched and kicked at the stone wall he had raised, the barrier came apart in fourths, each chunk flung at a different target. He ducked, nearly bending over backwards but still maintaining a steady stance and footing, as a slab of the wall flew through where his head just was and slammed into the opposite wall. His attacks at that enemy increased, and he quickly overwhelmed the opponent. He stamped his boot into the floor, and beside his opponent a column of concrete jutted out from the wall and into the open , just as another enemy was flung by his comrade across the room. The two enemies slammed into each other, and were trying to untangle themselves, when Choi collapsed the stone ceiling on them. The major spun around and immediately raised another stone wall, just in time to stop the incoming blast of flame. A firebender too, he remarked. Beside, he could see the other daofei member shouldering a rifle at him. With a flick of his wrist, focusing in on the metal of the gun aimed at him, the entire gun suddenly snapped and traversed toward the firebender, just as the shooter was pulling the trigger. The rifle went off, sending a bullet through the fire bender's neck. The flames stopped immediately, snuffed out instantaneously as the source fell to the ground. Choi then launched the stone slab at the still-stunned shooter, pushing and violently launching the man out the open gun port to a sixty-foot drop to the earth outside.
By the time he had finished dealing with the last opponent, his squad had taken down the rest.
"Tally eight, EKIA," he remarked, "onward and up."
Wiping the sweat from his brow, and fixing his garrison cap, he positioned himself beneath the next hatch in the ceiling. His squad member readied another hand grenade from his belt.
The intense combat continued through each floor, and each room, until finally they had come to the top of the castle, leaving a trail of the defeated and dead in their wake. Choi flung the doors open. His eyes widened and he immediately dove for the deck! A voluminous column of air! Yes, air! With the strength of a typhoon's gale blasted the entrance. The men of his squad dove to avoid, but one of the metalbenders was caught in the gust and was tossed out the side of a gaping hole in the walls of the top floor. His screams could be heard all the way down, until they suddenly stopped.
More winds! Choi raised a slab of stone to block. Peering around it, barely being able to keep his eyes open, he could see the woman responsible. Indeed it was Mei Liu, the leader of this remaining daofei stronghold. He reached for a slab of the wall to her left and sent an entire section from floor to ceiling as tall as a satomobile was long careening across the area where she stood. She may have been an airbender, somehow, but she didn't have the agility of one. Liu rapidly stepped back, propelling herself away with a natural air jet from her fists and the soles of her feet. The sweeping slab slammed into the opposite side, and plummeted from the castle's heights to the ground below.
"I guess today's when the Earth Empire finally comes knocking on the door to my home!" she said, taking cover.
Choi came around his own cover, taking a wide and solid stance. But despite being ready to throw a punch, he didn't see her until there was another blast of concentrated air coming towards him. He dove for the deck once more, as the air blast smashed his wall to pieces. The chatter of twin submachine gunners forced the Liu clan's leader back to cover. One of the other metalbenders moved to launch a slab of concrete, but right as he came out, a blast of wind slammed him into the wall behind them hard. His garrison cap didn't provide any protection at all, blood streamed out his mouth, ears, and nose.
Choi peeked the corner of the support column he took shelter behind. Opposite the large room, taking cover behind a knocked-over heavy steel desk and a set of collapsed columns was Mei Liu. He retracted back just as she threw a blast his way. Her focus was on him and the other metal bender. Silently, he motioned his two submachine gunners to take positions on her flank. They nodded in acknowledgement and quietly shuffled over.
"I must say," Choi called out, "intel did not indicate you were an airbender. I was surprised."
"Harmonic Convergence was an interesting thing, wasn't it?" she snorted. "I never imagined myself to be an airbender myself at that time, either."
"Too committed in your criminal ways to report to the Son of Aang in Republic City, I see?"
"Too busy," she yelled back. "Busy trying to help me people-"
"Criminals and seperatists," Choi interupted.
"People," she stressed, "live a decent life despite being struck from the registers of society.
"And yet, you still supported the failed monarchy. The tyrannical Queen Hou-Ting and her spoiled imbecile of a great-nephew, Wu… You wonder why a prospering Earth Empire further wants nothing but to strike you from the register. A stain on the earth, and a reminder of the criminals that plagued this country until now!"
"Supported them as a way of opposing people like you!" Mei Liu spat.
Choi tapped his last remaining metal bender on the shoulder. The lance corporal ran across the open floor heading for cover. Liu showed herself to strike, but just then the twin chatter of two MP40's peppered her general location with 9mm slugs.
The woman spun around, air blasting from her open palms to turn to the two shooters. Wind rebounded and bounced off the various rubble in the room as she turned to the two threats. Both Choi and the other metalbending soldier launched two simultaneous strikes on the clan leader, a dense panel of iron from a shattered gunport shield and a heavy block of concrete and rebar. Both smashed into the air bender. She let out a sharp cry of agony, as the dense stone and steel smashed her ribs and broke her arms. She fell to the ground, unable to overcome the pain and get up. Not that she could fight any further.
Two stick magazine clattered as they were dropped to the floor, their gunners loading fresh mags into their weapons. Major Choi approached and stood over the fallen daofei clan leader.
She coughed up blood, which stained the armored dress she wore. Mei Liu could only be described as battered and smashed. "K-Killing me..won't-"
She winced as a sharpened plate of steel drove itself deep into her chest. She could barely track the projectile as it lifted out from a slot on the Major's utility belt and flew into her.
"This will never end until there is full unity of our sovereign land," he simply said. No emotion. No care. Not even any hints of sadistic satisfaction. She was merely another obstacle. A target, one of many, to deal with. He didn't care about what she had to say, any opposition or even revelations. She was no different in his eyes to a lowly street criminal.
He turned on his heel and simply moved to depart the room. A wave of his arm rallied his remaining soldiers to follow in his wake, leaving her in still silence. The guns and the fighting everywhere else in the castle grounds had also fallen to silence. The Earth Empire had finished its siege.
As her vision faded to black, Mei Liu struggled to prop herself up against the wall behind her. The feeling of cold setting in was relieving as her body, just earlier, was running hot from the fighting.
As she felt her last breath leave her body, her last words escaped her lips as she slipped into the dark, exhausted and ready to sleep.
"Xiaoli…I'll see you..shortly."