Responses to Reviews:
RonaldM40196867: No, I don't. Sure, I would have liked to have seen Suki at least mentioned at all, but aside from that I don't think so.
Sharpe: I am looking forward to it! The creators of this live action adaptation seem to have made sure to learn from the mistakes of the last one. I am not-so-cautiously optimistic for it.
Zigzagdoublezee: No, from a standpoint of trying to save lives I don't blame canon Raiko for doing what he did either. It's just not very openly heroic.
As Always, Please Review!
Korra
From their position in the centre of the formation, the noise of nearly a hundred flying machines was deafening. Below them, Yue Bay stretched away until Air Temple Island marked the beginning of the ocean far away. Off in the distance, a fog bank lingered over the water's surface.
Then her attention was wrenched a lot closer to home.
From up here, the Colossus was visible, still trailed by several smaller warships, including the Fire Nation Cruiser from the Hundred Years' War. They were all formed up in a line formation, pointing like an arrow towards where the remainder of the Allied fleet were moored along the coast.
All around her, the full might of the Republican Air Force was converging on the city. She was sat in the middle seat of a dive bomber, with Asami flying it and Hotaru sat behind her. A few metres away, flying in perfect formation, another dive bomber piloted by Bumi and with Mako and Bolin in the rear seats kept up with them. That flying machine was not carrying bombs or torpedoes. Instead, a large stone ball was slung underneath it. All around them flew single-seater interceptor flying machines carrying explosive rockets, dive bombers, torpedo bombers, and basically every flying machine that the Republicans could put into the air. Upon their approach, the formation began to split up. The dive bombers, all of them except the two carrying Team Avatar, began to climb; the torpedo bombers began to lose altitude. The rest remained on a steady path. All of them were setting themselves up for their attack runs.
Korra looked back at Hotaru, still dressed in the uniform of an officer of the Fire Navy. The Princess caught her gaze, and nodded at her, unable to do much more than that because of the noise of the wind. Then the Firebender began to clamber out of her seat. She swung her leg over the side and ended up hanging off the side of the fuselage, clinging on for dear life. Korra turned her attention back in front of her, and found Asami staring at her. Her eyes were pleading, as if she was begging Korra not to do this. Korra extended her hand and put it on Asami's shoulder, and then began to stand up.
Asami closed her eyes, turned back to the controls, and put the flying machine into a shallow dive. Korra held her body in close to the machine, on the other side of the fuselage to Hotaru, and gritted her teeth through the burning sensation in her hands. Over Hotaru's shoulder, she could see Bumi following them down, and Mako and Bolin imitating them to take similar positions hanging off his machine. Below them, the Imperial navy grew larger and larger, the huge grey shapes looming in the bay. Korra noted with some satisfaction that the Colossus hadn't fired its guns yet. Surprise, it seemed, was on their side.
Asami and Bumi swooped down upon the Colossus, closer and closer, and just before they passed over the top of it, close enough to see panicked men running around on the deck, Korra let go and pushed herself away from the airframe.
The noise of aircraft engines fell away, replaced by rushing wind as she fell head first towards the ship, followed by Hotaru. Behind her, she saw Mako and Bolin a short distance away and slightly above them. As the deck came rushing up to meet her, she crossed her arms, pointed towards the ship, and pushed. A jet of air flew downwards, cushioning her fall as she slowed and was able to turn the impact into a textbook roll. She felt a flash of heat above her as Hotaru used a blast of flame to cushion her own descent. Immediately, about two dozen sailors swivelled to face her, just as Mako and Bolin plummeted in from above, the Firebender grabbing his brother and replicating Hotaru's fire blast to bring them both down safely.
For a moment, everyone just stared at one another. Bolin gave a little wave.
"Hey guys!" He said. "I'm back!"
Then the sailors charged. Korra reacted quickly, raising her arms to bring a tower of water up over the side, bringing it down to sweep many men over the side. But more came, braving blasts of fire and shooting metal strips towards Team Avatar. There was the noise of an aircraft engine growing louder above them, and Korra looked up to see Bumi diving towards the ship. Something detached from the underside of his flying machine, and the ball of rock plummeted towards the deck.
"Bolin!" She called, and gestured upwards. The Earthbender looked up, gave a thumbs up gesture to show he understood, and then assumed a horse stance. At the last moment before the ball would have impacted the deck, and presumably shattered, he altered the trajectory so it flew just above the floor, at chest height, forcing Imperial sailors to dive out of the way, and into the sea, or get bowled over. Then there was a clang as it impacted the ship's superstructure, leaving a massive dent in the platinum wall.
For a moment, Team Avatar was able to catch their breaths.
"That's the difficult bit over!" Korra told them. "Now we just have to destroy this ship and defeat Kuvira!"
"Yeah, easy," Mako replied quietly. "What do we do first?"
Korra gestured towards the huge forward turrets which housed the spirit lasers.
"Take those out first!" She said. "If they fire it could ruin the whole plan. I can already feel it. The spirit vines."
Now that she was on board the ship, and not in the middle of a fight, she could feel a dull ache in the back of her head, one that was easily ignored but one that was definitely there.
Above them, the sky was a storm of bombs, rockets, and flying machines as their aerial armada launched its first attack against the fleet. Korra felt movement under her feet as the Colossus began to move, and behind her saw several of the other Imperial warships turning to dodge torpedoes. Their fleet was scattering, but in Yue Bay they would have very few places to go.
Hotaru rushed up to her.
"We'll get the engines!" She said, grabbing Mako's hand.
"How will we know if you succeed?" Bolin asked.
"Trust me, you'll know," Hotaru told him, smirking.
"Alright!" Korra nodded. "Good luck!"
The firebenders rushed away as Korra turned back to Bolin.
She helped the Earthbender rip the ball of earth out from its crater.
"Let's go!"
They ran over to the barbette upon which the second turret was mounted in order to be able to fire over the top of the one in front of it. Bolin positioned himself in front of it and planted his feet, before beginning to move his arms. The ball of earth moved until it was hovering just in front of him, and then began to spin. Korra felt it begin to heat up as it liquified, and the glowing liquid formed itself into a giant spinning disk about as wide as Korra was tall.
Bolin drew this giant improvised buzzsaw back, but rather than slam the side into the barbette he pushed the flat side through, which had the effect of instantly creating a large circular hole through which they could enter. Korra raised her hands, and felt the ocean respond to her commands, before sending a column of water crashing through the hole. There was the sound of sizzling as the water slammed into the lava, then men shouting, a clang as something was dropped, and then silence.
There was no time to lose. One turret had been destroyed, but there were still three more. Korra rushed towards the next one as the battle raged around them.