The War for Independence Pt. 4
Waters of the Mo Ce Sea
Northwest of Yu Dao
Western Earth Kingdom
Klaxons and alarm bells rang as the Japanese Heavy Cruiser Atago came to life. Crew scrambled for their battle stations as they approached an ongoing engagement zone. The civil war in the Yu Dao territory had been raging, and the fleet had been receiving nothing but updates, good and dire, of the fighting on the ground. The combined coalition forces; the US, Japan, and the Yu Dao-stationed militia; were holding the line but the numbers of enemy fighters, mainly the Earth Kingdom, were getting dangerously close to finally overrunning the city's defenses.
Waves splashed over the bow as the ship tore through the waters at flank speed, trying to get to firing range as fast as they possibly could.
"General quarters! General quarters! All hands man your battlestations!" the bosun called on the intercom, echoing throughout the ship, "We will annihilate the Fire Navy's anchored warships and transports!"
The Fire Nation, under Zuko's leadership, to everyone's surprise, had crossed a very hard line. The years spent burying the hatchet, instantly went up in flames. They had killed more of their worldly-compatriots, the crews and officers thought. Men that were working towards going home one day, dying in this foreign world! There were talks circulating that the IJN, even the USN, would take on a scorched-earth warfare style until the Fire Lord and Earth King were ousted, and executed.
Atago's five turrets, ten guns in total, traversed to port as the ship sharply turned opposite. The guns, still hot from blasting through the light defensive blockade of cruisers to the north, were being loaded with high explosive shells. It didn't take much to punch through the thin iron walls of the Fire Navy's ancient barges. And the high explosives would tear them apart, and set fire to the munitions and fuel aboard. Ahead, out of sight to the human eye, beached, with their boarding ramps dropped onto Yu Dao soil, were the numerous troopships and battleships of the Fire Navy's invasion force. There were still troops encamped near the shores and aboard those enemy vessels. Perfect.
Off the starboard, a distant explosion popped a delayed soundwave that bounced off the Atago's armored hull. Torpedo crews on the opposite side of the ship had slammed two Type-93 torpedoes into a responding Empire-Class battleship, ripping massive holes into its hull and dooming the enemy warship and its crew to a watery destination.
The guns began firing, rapidly, spontaneously, and erratically! Gunnery crews were let off leash, and fired at will. The ship rocked in the waves as the cannons rapid fired as fast as their crews could load. Smoke and fire erupted from bow to stern! The deck crews' ears soon went numb from the loud explosions, but carried on with their tasks. They were used to it. The banner of the Rising Sun shone brightly, illuminated by the sun and the light from the artillery, flying atop the ship's main halyard.
Within minutes of brutal bombardment, the reserve troops, encampment, landing and warships, and equipment that were staged were smashed and mangled. Intense fires raged aboard the vulnerable Fire Navy ships, and the tanks, troops, and artillery they had readied in reserves were decimated.
Atago maneuvered closer to the coastline. With the majority of the present Fire Navy destroyed or knocked out of commision, they would now turn their attention to the nearby battle. Their guns had just enough range to hit anywhere in and around Yu Dao. They could fire into the Fire Army that were advancing into the city, and they could fire over Yu Dao and slam the advancing Earth Kingdom Army as well.
As the crews looked over the burning wreckage and the death and destruction they inflicted, they all shared a similar cold-blooded thought.
Good. When they retreat, they will be met with the sight of death and destruction. No one is coming to save them. And there is no more escape.
Waters of the Mo Ce Sea
East of Crescent Island
Western Earth Kingdom
Engines sputtered and roared to life atop the flight deck of the USS Enterprise. Air crews raced to their planes as their ground handlers made final checks before launching.
"Let's go! Get 'em airborne! Let's go!" the chiefs shouted at their staff, pushing them to move as fast as they could. The sooner these planes got in the air, the sooner they could launch the next wave, the sooner they could strike the invading armies, the less of their comrades would die.
The rear half of the flight deck was crowded with the blue-painted fighter planes and dive bombers, Wildcats and Dauntlesses, loaded to their maximum weapons capacity and raring to get airborne. Just across from them off, sailing off the Enterprise's starboard side, HIJMS Hiryu was prepping her planes for the attack as well. Zeroes, Val's, and some scattered US planes as well, were roaring to life on the Japanese flat top.
Already, Hiryu's flight directors were giving the orders to launch. The lead aircraft, a Mitsubishi A6M Zero, was immediately followed by a US F4 Wildcat, additional aircraft still stationed on the Japanese ship from the sunken carrier Yorktown.
"The Japanese are launching! Let's get after them!" several pilots called on the radio. Aboard the Hiryu, deck crews whipped and waved the hand held green signal flags hurrying their fighters off and up into the blue yonder. "Fight's gonna be over by the time we get there!
"VF-Alpha Two, cleared for take off!"
Finally, the launch clearance came. Signals shone green! The lead aircraft's engine throttled up to a heightened roar and the plane began rolling down the wooden flight deck, quickly gaining speed. Immediately behind, just as some bit of separation was achieved, the next plane in the line began his take off roll too, hot on the tail of the first. Air rushed over and beneath the wings as the plane picked up speed, the cabin shook and rattled, as the war bird thundered down the lane. Cheers and shouts of encouragement from the deck crews were drowned out by the sound of radial engines. The wheels left the flight deck, crossing the threshold at the end of the ship. The fighter plane dipped down slightly, its pilot pulling up on the yoke; the first plane had the least amount of runway of the formation.
They were airborne! The fighters and bombers in trail took to the skies in rapid and fluid succession, and they climbed to gain altitude and rejoin the group from the Hiryu.
The pilots and crews checked their instruments. Fuel, topped off; machine guns, locked and loaded; and payloads armed and set.
Yu Dao - Western Defensive Wall
Western Earth Kingdom
Suki trudged through the wreckage and remains of what was the Fire Army's last offensive front line. Looking down on the carnage from the walls had a very different effect than when you were at ground level, on par with the destruction. It was eerily still, especially considering that behind them on the opposite side of the city the distant cracks and booms of ongoing, raging, fire fight was still undergoing. The artillery they had used to decimate advancing waves of Fire Army was now aimed the other way and firing on the Earth Kingdom.
The visuals of the decimation were the first thing to strike Suki as other worldly. She had witnessed artillery first hand during the Battle of Kyoshi Island, but that was more like being caught in the middle of a legendary skirmish between giants. This time she was fully on the inflicting side. Twisted metal, entire pieces of forcefully ripped from the hull of a tundra tank, smashed carriages and trucks, crashed and charred war balloon wreckage, craters darting the battlefield as far as the eye can see leaving nothing but charred grayed earth with no grass or greenery to be seen.
But the smell! Spirits above! The smell! There was blood everywhere. She had tried to step around the puddles of mixtures of blood and other matter, but it became more and more impossible. Her long armored dress was soaked thoroughly along the hem, so she just accepted inevitably being drenched in this stuff. The dark green of her uniform was turning a dark brown along the hem of the skirt, and she was starting to feel her socks getting saturated as the fluids seeped in through her boots. It was blood, spinal fluids, digestive acids, and fuels like gasoline or diesel, mixed with charcoal and gunpowder. And although foreign to her, the sharp stabbing scents of gasoline and gunpowder were alleviating compared to the organic matter.
Piles, weighing in the tons, of slain komodo rhinos were strewn about. Their carcasses were cracked open, their thick hides behaving like shells when struck with the concussive forces of an artillery shell. Where the human remains were already something, the komodo-rhinos' were just much more of them and larger in size and scale.
Suki had a stronger stomach for these sights. After all, she was the captain of an elite fighting unit. They had shed their own share of blood even before the introduction of the United States and Japan to the Bending World. It was gut-wrenching, but the base senses of the sights and scents were familiar, albeit amplified.
The same could not be said for her girls, however. Several of the other Kyoshi Warriors couldn't hold in their lunch when faced with this new level of warfare carnage. Climbing into and out of blood and gut filled craters with limbs and appendages strewn about was a different level of brutality. Just because you found some poor Fire Army soldier missing an arm on the ground with a separated arm laying close by, didn't mean it was necessarily his; it very well could have been some other guy's from fifty meters away.
And what exactly were they doing out there? It was still an active warzone, afterall. There was certain intel that there was to be another final onslaught of Fire Army set on the city. Why, they were searching for survivors and wounded, of course. Preening through tons of twisted metal and digging through shell craters to fish out any potential Fire Army soldier that was still potentially alive here. The same people that had just now killed even more of her warriors, Suki thought. The same people that had shot Misaki, right before her. The same people that had set the world on fire for over a century. And although she wasn't the most joyful at the moment, Suki understood it was part of her duties and responsibilities, as a Kyoshi Warrior, to help those in distress and show mercy when the fight was gone from her opponents and they were now vulnerable. It was an honorable thing to do.
Having earth benders certainly helped though, she thought. Just to her left she watched a team of benders dig out some surviving and surrendering Fire Nation soldiers from under an overturned tank hull.
A volley of rifle shots rang out to her right, the event occurring behind a jagged protruding slab of shattered earth. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! And a burst of submachine gun fire from a Thompson too, for added measure. The same could not be said for some other-worldly service men. But Suki, somehow, and she cursed herself for allowing herself to think this way, couldn't find it in her to hold it against them.
"Whoever those fire benders were probably chose to fight to their last futile breath," Sokka mumbled, noticing Suki's confliction.
"I didn't hear any fire bending from that," Suki replied.
"They don't need to successfully blast fire. They were probably going through the motions, trying. It's dangerous and a very real threat. Starting a kata shows intent to hurt or kill, and them being master fire benders means that they go through the moves in the blink of an eye. It's a supernatural equivalent to a gun."
"Bending is supernatural to you now?" Suki questioned, "Until four years ago it was a very normal, mundane, thing, Sokka."
"I've always had that mentality."
"No, you didn't, Sokka. The US had always had that mentality since arriving here in a world foreign to them. We found it perfectly normal."
"Yeah.. I guess, you're right," Sokka conceded.
Finally they came up to their intended target. A trio of three smashed-together wrecks, a tank in the middle of a wagon and a truck. She nodded to Sokka who readied his Thompson. Suki unslung her rifle, making sure the bayonet was tightly locked in its lug mount. Shouldering the weapon, she moved over to the right flank of the destroyed tank, looking over her rifle's sights but keeping it aimed at the large and open view port. Sokka quickly took the left flank and lightly clambered up the wreckage of the nearby wagon and taking a position atop the wrecked tundra tank. This was where their prior enemy sniper's nest was. The roof hatch was open so Sokka could partially see inside.
Suki slowly and methodically took the corner, taking one step at a time and revealing the inside of the dark hull one small slice at a time. Her Springfield rifle had one shot before she'd have to rechamber another round, so if she had to shoot she couldn't miss. Sokka did the same looking down into the tank.
As she got closer, Suki could now see the body of the enemy sniper she had shot in their duel during combat. Sure enough, Suki's suspicion was correct. It was a Yuyan Archer - or sniper, at this point - a woman too, not too different in age to her or the other Kyoshi Warriors. She had seated in the driver's seat of the destroyed vehicle. Her body now slumped forward pinning her rifle between her torso and legs. There was another body in there; Suki could see the silhouette of another person laying just behind. Quickly, she looked up to Sokka, who was looking into the tank from the top and help up two fingers, signaling she saw two people. Sokka acknowledged with a nod and slashed his hand across his throat, telling Suki both targets were out of commission. He didn't see any motion.
Feeling safe to approach, Suki slung her rifle over her shoulder and moved to get a closer look. The Yuyan's uniform, at least their makeup, reminded Suki of her own unit with their red face paint around the eyes giving the look of a mask. Blood, thickened and blackening at this point, had pourded down from under the headband she wore, a identifying staple of the Yuyan, and flowed over her shut eyes, dripping off her eyelashes. The Yuyan's hair which was tightly tied up into her tall top knot was now unkempt and lose strands peaked out from over the tightly bound headband. Straight through the center of the band, where their unit's triangular mark previously was, was a clean entry hole where the bullet Suki fired had punched through. Suki had shot this woman in the head, with iron sights, from over three hundred yards away. There was a blackened splatter of blood and gray matter on the wall just behind where the Yuyan shooter was seated. Suki winced at the thought of what the backside of her head had to have looked like. In a way, despite this woman taking the life of one of her own Kyoshi Warriors, something Suki was still filled with a rageful vengeance for, she felt bad for her target.
Movement!
Suki jumped. She was spooked at the sudden motions from what she was sure was a dead body! Her hand shot for the hilt of her katana, gripping it tightly and getting ready to draw! It was the second person in the tank, behind the dead shooter. Also a Yuyan member. Also a girl. Suki could see she was critically wounded, every move and every breath she took seemed so labored. She had been lying still, with breath so shallow, both Sokka and Suki thought she was dead. The woman's hand reached for the stock of her dead comrade's rifle, weakly, trying pull it to her with a bloodied hand. It was no use, the weight of her partner's body pinning the rifle kept it away from her.
"Don't!" Sokka firmly shouted, "Drop it! Let it go, now!" He raised his Thompson to his shoulder and snapped his sights onto the injured target. "Don't even think about it. I will shoot!"
Suki could see the futility in the Yuyan's acts. She quickly took a step forward and grabbed onto the muzzle of the enemy's rifle, securing control of the weapon. "Sokka!" she called up, "Relax! It's okay, I've got control of the rifle!" Suki examined the woman. Her breathing was ragged, and she could tell everything she did was pained. "She's wounded. She needs our help."
"Help?! She just tried to kill you!" Sokka opposed.
"I'm still here, aren't I? You can tell she's not the greatest threat," Suki calmly said, reaching to her pack for an aid kit.
"She is still a threat." Sokka pushed on.
"So what? Are you going to shoot her?" Suki questioned. The Kyoshi Warrior had now fully stopped in her motions to give Sokka a cold and hard long glare. This time Suki was serious, and Sokka could very easily see the disappointment growing in her eyes. Suddenly there was an ultimatum, and Sokka could read the non-verbal cues easily. He softened up, slightly.
"Lower it and help," Suki commanded. Sighing, Sokka finally lowered his weapon and joined to help the wounded.
He was right though, The Yuyan did not want to surrender. Suki firmly pried the rifle, as respectfully as she could, out from under the dead shooter. She racked the bolt and set the gun off to the side, with its chamber open and unloaded, then tried to settle the weary enemy soldier down. Sokka had the best angle to pull her out from, but it was obvious she was not going to go easily, even if she was critically wounded.
Suki raised both hands in front of her, showing she meant no harm. "It's okay," she began, "My name is Suki. I'm with the Kyoshi Warriors. This is my boyfriend, Sokka. We're not here to hurt you. We want to help."
The enemy didn't say a word. She was still apprehensive.
"You're hurt. Badly, from the looks of it. I want to get you treated as fast as possible, but first we need to get you out of here."
The Yuyan shook her head forcefully, no. Suki could see a tear forming. She knew what it was. The Yuyan didn't want to leave her comrade. The comrade that Suki herself had shot dead. The woman propped herself up against the hull walls. She had a large gash across her midsection where a large chunk of flesh had been blown off, likely from an artillery blast. There was a thick and jagged metal bar impaled in her left arm. She had definitely been thrown through the wringer.
"We can help with that," Suki calmly addressed, again trying to soothe her opponent's nerves.
The Yuyan struggled to say her words. She coughed up some blood before she spoke. "S-she was..p-rotecting m-m-me," the woman sniffled. "She's d-dead because of m-my bur-burden."
Suki had to search for the words to say. Likely if their situations had been switched, she'd have been in the same position. But at the same time, these two had killed her own warriors. They were once again here in a war of conquest.
"She wouldn't have wanted you to die here," Suki said in a firm tone of concern. "Your friend wanted you to survive. And she fought to the end for that."
Suki could see the tears well up in the Yuyan archer's eyes. She had broken whatever levy or dam kept back the flow of tears. Yuyan were known to be rather cold, stoic, and indifferent. But beneath that, beneath all the discipline that came from their devoted and rigorous training, they were people too.
"She was my closest friend!" the woman finally sobbed, as the tears now flowed uncontrollably. She too had to be no older than eighteen. Suki felt her own heart sink. She had taken away this girl's closest friend.
This was the reality of war. Even though it couldn't be helped, it was kill or be killed, she felt a sense of regret.
Sokka reached down into the hull for the girl to take his hand. "Come on," he calmly and assuredly said, "Let's get you some help." The Yuyan took his hand and he helped her out of the wreckage. Suki called over the nearby medics, and soon two marines with a stretcher were on the way over.
"One…two..three..Lift!" the two men called, lifting the now loaded stretcher off the ground.
"Wait," Suki called, holding the two men. She ran over cradling the partner's rifle. Initially the two marines were against it, but eventually they gave in. Suki showed it was empty and there were no bullets remaining. She handed the rifle, a memorial item now, to the Yuyan member. A final tear formed and ran down the woman's cheek.
"We…shouldn't have been here," she said just before they departed.
After she had been hauled off towards the aid station, safe behind the walls of the city, Sokka finally spoke his mind.
"You seemed really concerned for her," he said. "It was…touching."
"Was there an issue?" Suki questioned, "Showing mercy and empathy?"
"No. I mean, genuinely. That was something of note." Sokka downturned his eyes and stared at the dirt. "Even her, an enemy, someone who has killed some of your own people. I..I don't think I could show that kind of mercy in that situation. Especially if it was someone I loved." He said this thinking of her.
Suki could see Sokka was affected by how she had glared at him earlier. She understood he was being cautious for her sake, and was not going to take any chances. "I'm sorry I was a little harsh to you earlier," she apologized. "Truthfully, it was taking a lot for me too. I also felt anger…and-and rage. Part of me really wanted to take it out on her too. She tightly opened and closed her palms and shuffled a little. To tell you the truth , Sokka… If I had started and maybe even hurt that girl…I don't know if I would be able to stop myself." She had been exercising an immense amount of restraint, the whole time as a flurry of different emotions filled her during the entire interaction. "But, we can't allow our emotions to stop us from doing the right thing. We shouldn't," she corrected, "as much as possible. Even when it's hard. We can't just execute the wounded and or surrendering, even if they were the enemy." Suki was also, however, concerned that he was changing, as a result of his affiliations. But she wouldn't say anything for now.
"How do you do it?" Sokka asked. "How can you just be such a perfect person?"
Suki sighed, she looked at her bloodied gloves and uniform. She thought back to her service history, even during the war, even before the Rift incident. She had killed Fire Nation soldiers too, with her girls. And, admittedly, not all of them were justified. Suki detached the bayonet from her M1903 rifle and moved to return it to its sheath. I the now highly self-polished blade of her bayonet reflected her mirror image in its cold steel. The red of the eye accents of her facepaint was what she saw as the reflection focused on her eye.
"I was…reminded of us, the Kyoshi Warriors. In that moment, I…felt we were the same."
"You and the Fire Nation's Yuyan are not the same," Sokka opposed. He couldn't bear the idea that his girlfriend and a trusted fighting force for good, an ally of justice, was even relatable loosely to the enemy.
"We're closer than you may think, Sokka," Suki sighed, zoning off into the distance.
Several yards back from them she watched a pair of her own Kyoshi Warriors. One of the senior members just beneath her in rank, and one of their youngest members. The two were reporting to a Marine Corps captain. Both of them stood at perfect and straight attention and saluted the officer sharply and properly before then running off. It was apparent they had been given a task as an order.
"In another world," Suki airily began, "In another time…it could very well have been us in their situation. Sent to war, sent to fight an enemy in a land we very well shouldn't be in. All because we were ordered to. That's a genuine fear of mine, Sokka."
"But the Kyoshi Warriors are independent. They follow your orders. You're in charge of them. So, I know you'll be fine."
"At this point, am I really-"
Explosions! Distant, rapid, and intense explosions. The distant rapid and erratic beating of the drums of war.
"What is that?!" Suki said, snapping back into reality after being interrupted.
"Look!" Sokka pointed out.
In the distance a thick and dense plume of smoke rose from approximately where the shoreline was. Several other plumes of black smoke began to rise too. The source, whatever was burning and destroyed, had to have been decimated. And the shelling didn't stop with that!
"It's gotta be the Atago!" Sokka remarked. The Japanese fleet had to have broken through. Support's arrived!" The heavy guns were here at last, a bit ahead of schedule.
The air raid sirens sounded from the US defensive line, recalling all forward extended units back to the wall and trench networks protecting Yu Dao!
"Fall back! They're coming! Fall back!" several US marines and sailors shouted running back towards the city. Sergeants shouted to the troops from passing jeeps as they rallied the defending personnel back to their fighting positions.
Another great push from the Fire Nation, here it came.
Yu Dao - Eastern Defensive Wall
Western Earth Kingdom
Great time for Azula to run off with the entirety of the Fire Benders in the regiment, Lieutenant Takeda thought to himself. The Earth Kingdom Army was starting to become too much to handle with reduced numbers.
Machine guns and rifles fired off at will as he yelled into the radio for another artillery barrage. The strike coordinates were getting closer and closer to his men. He felt soon they'd inevitably be dropping shells right onto their own soldiers.
As the shells began to slam into the ground, tossing up dirt, caterpillar tanks, and soldiers once again, and the lieutenant was once again given a brief moment of reprieve, he thought over his current situation with unease. He had heard that things on the western front were looking significantly better than on the eastern side of the city. The US had much down time in between waves, where the Earth Kingdom seemed to have never ending walls of bodies to hurl at them. And with their complement of fire benders gone, Takeda needed more of a force multiplier.
"Azula needs to hurry up!" he outwardly shouted his complaints, "Or we'll lose the eastern wall and they will break into the city!"
Standing beside him, a Yu Dao officer was rapidly firing rounds at the advancing enemy army, putting his Type 38 rifle through its paces. As he reached for the next strip of rounds, he cursed, "If only the so-called Lightning Men could bless us with their presence now, huh?!"
Takeda was so perplexed by the expression, he paused to give the soldier an inquisitive look. "The Lightning Men?"
"Just a rather recent local legend," the officer replied loading his rifle and firing off another round. "Mysterious terrifying men that come down from the mountains and devastate Earth Army units. Nonsense, really."
Lieutenant Takeda shook his head. "These people and their bizarre other worldly folklore."
Yu Dao - Western Defensive Wall
Western Earth Kingdom
"LIEUTENANT!" a corporal called, running over to Joe with the phone of his field radio in hand, "LIEUTENANT STEVENSON!"
Joe was taking cover at his usual post on the wall overlooking the battlefield. Sokka had yet to return ever since he went out with that girlfriend of his. His rifle leaning on the wall next to him, he had both hands occupied with his set of binoculars in one hand and another radio in another, giving fire coordinates to the artillery post. His requests for fire were not being answered though, as most of the available cannons were oriented and firing on to the Japanese front on the eastern side.
Noticing the incoming corporal, Joe thought, this better be good. "Aircraft!" he shouted at the personnel immediately around him. This was the Fire Army's most concentrated push. They had tanks, infantry, and mounted units as usual, but now also war balloons, zepplins, and even their own early-stage biplanes. Joe stood up and yelled from his core, "ENEMY AIRCRAFT! GET TO COVER!"
The buzzing of a light engine grew nearer and nearer, as the planes bore down on the American fighting positions. Joe grabbed his rifle and sighted the incoming war planes. He fired repeatedly at the diving aircraft, eventually getting one to veer off his attack run. They were two-seater craft, manned by a pilot and a weapons' man. Steady streams of flame shot down from the sides of the primitive airplanes, their second men giving offensive attacks with their fire bending. Rapid bursts of flame flew from the tails of these birds, the equivalent of a fire-spitting machine gun. The men on the ground ran for cover, dispersing as the planes buzzed over close to the ground. They had to fly close for their bending strikes to be most effective. The second echelon of planes came down on the walls and trenches at a steep angle. As they pulled up, bombs dropped from the underside of their fuselages. A direct hit from a dive bomber destroyed a machine gun nest to Joe's right. A biplane came around and made a low pass parallel to the trenches on the ground. Its gunner blasting a long burst of flame that painted the trench line with intense orange and red. Screams of agony came from the positions below as dozens of soldiers were immolated.
Volleys of rifle and MG fire tore into the passing biplane. Joe rose to his feet to take aim and open fire too as the aircraft tried to pull out of his attack run. The 1919 Browning machine gunner next to him tore into the enemy's fuselage, shredding controls and other vital parts of the plane. It's engine began to smoke and burn. Joe dumped the last four rounds from his M1 rifle at the crew seats, which were now tiny in his sight picture as the craft was far and fleeing. He missed the gunner, but struck the pilot in the back of the head. The aircraft suddenly nosed down and slammed into the earth in a fiery wreckage, spewed across a field.
"Sir!" the corporal called as he ducked down beside Joe, "Transmission from the Eastern Wall. A 'Lieutenant Takeda' trying to get a hold of you!"
"Where'd you come from, Corporal? You look like you've come running from the next county over?"
"Artillery command post, sir," he reported. The center of the city where the big guns were. Takeda had contacted the wrong line, or needed to keep the line with the fire station open.
Joe took the handpiece. "Takeda?!"
"Eastern wall is critical, we'll lose it without additional numbers! Send your Earth Benders over at once!"
"My Earth Benders?!" Joe paused and looked at the approaching Fire Army invasion force before ducking back and returning to the phone. "The entire Fire Army has been summoned from the Capital Island and is coming in force!" he exaggerated. "I need all the men I can muster! Make do with your fire benders!"
"My fire benders are on the way to you!" Takeda shouted. "Send your men now!"
"What?!" Joe was perplexed. "Why'd you send them!?"
"Princess Azula has rallied them and is on her way to you! Send your earth benders now or we will lose the eastern front!"
Just as he said that, in the distance, Joe could see who he could identify as the Fire Nation princess pushing her way past two marine sergeants trying to keep her off the wall.
"Looks like she just arrived. Your fire benders are nowhere to be seen, though."
He figured Azula just ran faster than an entire group.
"It'll take time for them to travel across the city! Lieutenant Stevenson, send your benders now!"
"You better be right about this. Or we will lose the most strategic city we have in this world! I'll send them as soon as I can, Cap."
He set down the receiver and dismissed the corporal before turning to his immediate NCOs. "Muster the rock chuckers asap. We're deploying them to the eastern wall. In exchange we're getting flame throwers."
"Aye, sir," the sergeants reluctantly acknowledged before moving to their lines.
Yu Dao - Eastern Defensive Wall
Western Earth Kingdom
A sense of dread came over Lieutenant Takeda as he surveyed the state of the battle. The Earth Kingdom Army was becoming overwhelming, particularly without the added manpower from Yu Dao's own earth benders present in the fight. Their front line was now even closer to bulldozing the defensive perimeter on the ground. He couldn't effectively call for artillery on them. The shells would fall onto his own men as well. He didn't want to, but he had written down the fire coordinates for the trenches anyway, for when the Earth Kingdom overcame the defensive line. After four years of being in the Bending World, and expending men during the warring period in this world, the IJN did not have the same affordability to station entire garrisons of its men to fight. Now they were thinning, and this battle wasn't helping. The objective was still, to return to Japan. And the men that fall in every encounter between them, if it ever would happen, and now was cut short of the finish line.
Where were those Earth Benders?! Did Azula get lost on the way there? Was the American lieutenant and his staff keeping them over there to bolster their own defenses? Did they forget that we have an entire other front? Takeda had become impatient on the matter. He had taken up a rifle himself and was firing down on the advancing enemy soldiers from his command post atop the defensive wall of Zaofu.
Then, he heard it. A buzzing, droning, sound. It was distant, but the officer could tell it was approaching fast. A sound he was very familiar with. The sound of a group of radial engines!
Support! Support had arrived! They had air support! Takeda fired the last round in his rifle, racked the bolt open and leaned the gun against the wall. He was off the firing line faster than his target took to drop and hit the ground dead.
"Air support!" He yelled over his staff, "The carriers have finally gotten close enough! Find me their radio signal! Now!"
"Understood!" the young sailor acknowledges
He turned to a different radio operator. "Tell artillery to shift fire three one and a half kilometers east! We'll have them hit the rearmost echelons and give our pilots a wide lane of engagement!"
"At once!"
The heavy guns of the Yu Dao's artillery station boomed in the distance, as shells rocketed high over the battlefield.
"Lieutenant!" one of the radio operators called, "I have the line to the incoming squadron!"
Takeda took the phone from the young sailor at once. "Hiryu-Hikotai, Enterprise air group, this is the Japanese Eastern Defense Command, request immediate air support. Zone delta, sectors one, two, three, four! Enemy soldiers and tanks in the open. Be advised! Friendly artillery active and firing into zones five and six!"
"Eastern Defense Command, Hiryu-Hikotai Hikotaicho," the leader of the Hikotai, the carrier air group from the Hiryu, read back, "Request received engaging targets!"
"Be advised, friendly soldiers in the trench line nearest the wall! Close impacts! Standby for further fire direction!"
"Understood!"
A swarm of Zeros and Hellcats barrelled in from the skies above the battlefield like a grouping of buzzard-wasps from the Si Wong. Glints of silver, red, white, and blue all swooped in over their Earth Kingdom prey, machine guns a blaze. Two fighters, a Zero and Hellcat made a speedy pass just ahead of Takeda's command and observation post, the red spot of the Hinomaru flashing quickly before his eyes. A smile grew across his face. He knew the tide of battle would now shift in their favor.
The Earth Kingdom troops at first tried to hold their formations and ranks, but the air supremacy of the coalition forces was unignorable. The Earth King's forces dispersed and spread out. They ran, in a full panic out from cover, away from the cover of their caterpillar tanks, and right into the line of sight of the riflemen on the ground. With each terrifying pass of a bird of war overhead, came the rattle and chatter of the machine guns of another shortly behind.
"Open fire!" Takeda ordered. "Return fire! Cut the barbarians down!" He yelled down the line of the garrisons stationed on the wall, and down at the soldiers deployed in the ground level trenches.
Everyone felt relief. Suddenly all men were imbued with the spirit and rigor to fight on. It was dire just moments ago with the Earth Kingdom just about to overrun the Japanese defenses, but now it was impossible for them to lose! Quickly the militia and sailors of the garrison returned to their fighting positions and sighted the enemy. Volleys of rifle fire, faster and more energized than before erupted from across the line, firing into the dispersed and panicked mass of Earth Kingdom troops. For many of the Earth King's soldiers, with many of them coming from the garrisons in Ba Sing Se, this was the first time they were exposed to overwhelming combined arms warfare. The war plane was a terrifying concept to them, and they weren't trained to shoot down something that moved that fast. They had also never encountered an airborne weapon with that much firepower either.
Takeda singled out and watched a lone Earth Kingdom soldier, someone he could identify as a platoon leader, try to futilely shoot down plane after plane, launching boulder after boulder at incoming aircraft. He watched as he was cut to pieces by a strafing US warplane, torn to pieces by the hail of .50-caliber munitions. "Hiryu-Hikotai, Enterprise Air Group, East Defense Command, good effects on target, come about and make further passes!"
"East defense command, Hiryu-Hikotaicho. Ryokai! Circling around for another pass!"
A whistling shriek and the increased throttle of a radial engine! A five-hundred pound bomb from a dive bomber crashed straight through the roof of an Earth Kingdom tank and completely obliterated the lumbering vehicle, killing those around it with a deadly storm of shrapnel! An Earth Kingdom war balloon from above the battlefield careened to the earth, machine gunned and lit ablaze by passing fighters, its flaming wreckage crushing a group of enemy soldiers beneath. Planes flew low and skimmed over the battlefield, continuing to fire into the masses with their machine guns and cannons! The brown of the sand and dirt that surrounded Yu Dao quickly became a dark brick color as the earth was painted with blood.
Then, the final nail in the coffin for the Earth Kingdom had arrived. Opening paths through the wall beneath them, as well as burrowing and breaking out from the subsurface, came a fresh horde of earth benders. The earth benders of Zaofu, sent from the US perimeter! They had finally reached the other side of the city!
The attacking Earth Kingdom soldiers were shocked! Suddenly there were stones and boulders being thrown at them. Not fire! Not just bullets and explosives! Earth bending! Their own people turned against them?! The Earth Kingdom soldiers, formally trained in combat, deflected much of the initial bombardment, but amidst a hail of bullets they were still thinning in numbers. Seeing earth benders, Earth Kingdom subjects fighting against them added the greatest amount of shock value though.
The caterpillar tanks began to reverse and pull away from the wall. They were the first targets by the attacking warplanes and field guns. The soldiers quickly turned tail and began to run back in the direction of Ba Sing Se, all the while the IJN, Yu Dao militia, air cover, and artillery continued to fire on them, taking those that fell behind in the rear of the formation. This was personal for many of them.
Many of the Earth Kingdom officers were killed in battle. And with no formal leadership, the soldiers fell into more panicked chaos and fear. The retreat had no structure. Men trampled men, and tanks crashed into others in retreat.
Lieutenant Takeda gave the signal to his fellow line officers. Whistles screamed up and down the line. "CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE!" The pops of rifle and the chugging of machine guns quickly tapered off, and soon even the aircraft were called off and directed to the Western side. The gun lines fell silent, but the earth benders did not.
"OVER THE TOP, MEN!" the earth bending militia officers ordered their benders, "CHASE THEM DOWN! WE HAVE ONE CHANCE TO SEND A MESSAGE TO 'KING' KUEI! MAKE IT BE HEARD! MAKE IT COUNT!"
Filtering past their IJN allies, the earth benders of Yu Dao and even their non-bending comrades forged ahead, vaulting over the tops of their trenches and defensive positions, to the rhythm and the beat of the marching snare drums. The territorial flag of the Territory of Yu Dao was carried fiercely and proudly into battle along with the lines of troops.
"INDEPENDENCE OR DEATH, BROTHERS!" The battle cry sounded as hundreds of men charged after the fleeing enemy forces, continuing the fight. The militia chased the fleeing Earth Kingdom armies, with air cover, for nearly another two kilometers on foot, sending the message, "We will not bow. We will not want Earth Kingdom rule."
From the wall, Takeda watched until he was absolutely certain the Earth Kingdom was not to turn back towards them to fight again. "'I am certain, likely we will be sent to Ba Sing Se," he said, setting his optics down on the map table. He was finally able to take a breather. "Reform the garrisons, and gather the wounded and to it that each is sent to their appropriate places." He issued orders to his subordinate officers to direct the rest of the men.
His immediate staff bowed in acknowledgement before running off to rally their respective groups of men. The naval lieutenant was left alone in his command post for a brief relaxing moment of peace, the stillness following battle. The sound of gunfire and cannon fire still echoed from the west, but he knew the Americans would soon likely fend off the Fire Nation too, now that reinforcements had arrived.
Overhead, he saw the blue paint of the US Navy's warplanes, rallying towards the west side of the city. "Freedom and independence…" he droned, recalling the battle cry of the Yu Dao militia.
"Hm. So American…"
Yu Dao - Western Defense Wall
Western Earth Kingdom
Joe ducked beneath the bollards of the defensive wall just as a hot blast of flame roared just where is head was. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck singe and smelled the scents of burning cotton.
This battle was not exactly ideal! The Fire Nation had indeed saved their strongest push for last! He poked out and fired off the remaining rounds in his Garand, dropping down once again following the ping of the magazine!
A cannon blast from the enemy and the explosion of wall and bodies nearby! Joe felt like they were getting the short end of the stick between both fronts. The Fire Nation had weapons and explosives available for their use!
"Keep calling artillery Sokka!" Joe shouted.
Sokka was frantically switching between his weapon and the radio, not being able to let off either fully. "Cruiser Atago, Charlie three-six, requesting artillery barrage! All ten guns! Enemy in the open! Fire for effect!" He immediately switched channels, not waiting for the read back from the Japanese heavy cruiser. "Bravo two, Charlie three-six, request artillery support. Fire zone Alpha, sectors one and two! Enemy units in the open! All guns! Fire for effect!"
To the west, the rampant firing of Atago's main battery pounded above the chaos of battle. All ten twenty-centimeter guns opened fire with their high explosive ordinance. And to the east, at the center of the city, Yu Dao's artillery station, now not receiving orders from the Japanese front, unleashed its own barrage at the attacking Fire Army units. The western perimeter of the city was filled with deep artillery craters. They went deeper and were starting to approach canyon levels of burrowing. It affected morale positively and negatively, but it also caused a few problems. Occasionally a tundra tank or a cannon-mounted komodo rhino would slip close to the defensive positions, concealed beneath the ground surface.
The fire benders from the eastern side had arrived in full force, fighting off the Fire Army valiantly. But the Fire Army continued to pour in. It did have effect, but not as much as the earth benders had fighting the Earth Kingdom. The Fire Army was used to combating their own people before. But slowly, with the US Marines' firepower, the two front artillery bombardment, and the incoming air support, Fire Lord Zuko's forces were starting to taper off; especially since their rear support and reinforcements had been liquified and incinerated by the IJN warship.
Azula looked over her shoulder. Just twenty meters to the left of her were Sokka, Suki, and that American first lieutenant they answered to. Akiko, her closest thing to a friend to date, was right beside her tending to a wounded militia member as the flames and projectiles continued to fly overhead and the battle raged on.
"I can't believe the day has come that I am cooperating with those people," the former princess groaned.
"Bandages, please," Akiko asked, extending her hand behind her to Azula but not giving her the courtesy of meeting her eye. Akiko fluttered the fingers of her back-extended awaiting hand to convey urgency. Her patient had been shot through the abdomen.
Azula grumbled, but she knew Akiko was very serious when it came to rendering aid. She reached around and placed the bundle of bandages in her friend's hand, in addition to another packet of sulfa powder.
"Arigato, na," Akiko replied. "Oh! Perfect. Just what else I needed, too!" Azula was also starting to become familiar with the common things Akiko would ask her. She still hated occasionally needing to carry the supply bag however.
"Okay," Akiko approvingly exclaimed, "You'll make it!" She whistled for two corpsmen to haul the treated man off and back to medical. "Come on!" she called back to Azula, motioning for the princess to follow. They were met by a Kyoshi Warrior a few steps up, one Azula knew well.
"Azula? You're here too? Fighting on this side?" the perky voice of Ty Lee was unmistakable. Even amid battle she still managed to sound…positive.
"Relish in the site of it," Azula said to her previous friend. "I'm only here because I oppose my brother's rule that much." Her eyebrows furrowed and a lingering disappointment for her friend threatened to surface from her somewhat stowed memories. Her heart ached seeing Ty Lee dressed in the ridiculous armor and, particularly, make up of her previous enemies.
"I know! What is Zuko doing?!" Ty Lee questioned. "This isn't like him!" she ducked beneath an incoming flaming arrow.
"My brother- Hey!" Azula was suddenly pulled by the collar of her tunic by Akiko as a volley of bullets punched through the thinning stone wall she was previously behind. Quickly the princess regained her composure and sat back up, her brows furrowed, dusting herself off. "My brother," she continued without missing a beat, "Has let power get to his head. Suddenly he feels he needs to do something blatantly in favor of his people, when in reality he probably could have stuck to doing nothing. He's confused! Of course he is. He was never meant to rule, after all. And now…" Azula scanned the battle, particularly at how angered the US and Japanese were, "...now he'll suffer some kind of consequence yet again for his insolence."
Azula covered her ears, hearing the incoming shriek of artillery shells. The ground shook once again, violently, as the battlefield was further pounded from both sides. The screams of agony that came from below did not bother her.
Once the shelling had ceased the Marines and coalition forces continued to fire down onto the attacking Fire Nation soldiers with small arms. Ty Lee as well, rose to the wall's edge and shouldered her 1903 Springfield rifle. The gun shot and recoil still shook her and she cursed after her one missed shot. "I don't like this thing," she complained, "It's heavy. It's loud. And it weighs me down and bumps into my back when I'm trying to move!" She set the gun against the wall. It was hard for Ty Lee to use her acrobatics with a ten pound rifle hanging off her.
Akiko took her Arisaka rifle as well to take a shot, but Azula reached up and grabbed the weapon from her. "No," she adamantly said, "Use your bending."
"I.." Akiko stammered, "Azula, this isn't training."
"Precisely. It isn't," her fire bending instructor said, "It's real. And your bending is amplified by aggression!"
"But the Avatar-"
"What the avatar, Zuzu, and my fuddy-duddy uncle say are irrelevant! The Avatar is cowering away right now, confused as to what to do as people continue to die under his unmoving stance on what he believes is right and wrong, Zuko is the enemy here now, and my uncle is likely drinking tea! It's just us, right here, right now!"
Ty Lee peered over the wall at the battle raging below.
"You need to get more aggressive, Akiko," Azula instructed. "It's necessary for your bending to improve."
"I can fire bend just fine!" Akiko suddenly shot back. "One of us can now create lightning!" She finally hit a critical point. "..And the other still can't! Iroh-san is correct! I need to have a calm and collected mind. One that knows exactly what I want to do! Pure energy! That is something that you are struggling with, Azula-san! And until you settle this within yourself, you will continue to be suppressed!"
Azula's face twisted. How dare she confront and go against her like that? Though, a small part of her couldn't help but hear the truth in her words.
"GUYS!" Ty Lee called, "GET DOWN!"
"Huh?" Akiko, not thinking, approached the wall's edge, to see what the Kyoshi Warrior was warning about.
"Akiko! Get back from there!"
Akiko went equally wide eyed and dashed from the edge. An explosion burst, sending stone and debris outward. The three of them were engulfed in dust! Azula was thrown back! Ty Lee as well! Skidding across the floor, the princess came to a grinding halt a short distance from the impact zone. A Fire Army tundra tank managed to take a position close enough to the Yu Dao perimeter to utilize its howitzer.
Azula scrambled over to her fallen friend, quickly pushing away the stones that had covered Akiko. She was wounded, severely bruised across the chest, with some bleeding cuts and punctures across her body. The wall had, thankfully, absorbed most of the explosive force from the primitive and unreliable Fire Nation made ordnance.
"Shit," Azula cursed. "Akiko! Akiko-san! Are you alright?" She firmly tapped the side of her friend's face, getting no response. "Shoot!" Azula reached for Akiko's supplies, but looking over all the various things the medic carried, she was overwhelmed. Where to even start? "Hang in there, Akiko! Just hold on!"
"Ty Lee!" Azula shouted over at her other downed friend. "Ty Lee! Get up!" he Kyoshi Warrior had also been knocked back by the blast. "Get up! I know you're fine! I need your help!"
Ty Lee coughed up dust and debris, and rose from her position pained. She crawled over.
"Looks like she has some minor injuries and bleeding," Ty Lee coughed, brushing dust from her face and uniform. "Not too bad, it will take some work to stabilize her before we can get her medical. I think I can do it, but I'll need cover."
Azula cracked her knuckles. "Leave that to me."
The fire bending prodigy took her place on the firing line, immediately dispersing a blast of orange and red fire. She inhaled and exhaled, then sprung into action. Keeping light on her feet and short in her movements, Azula returned fire with a rapid succession of punches and kicks. Her sapphire flames immediately stood apart from the other ordinary hues of red and orange. If fighting fellow fire benders didn't discourage the remaining Fire Army units, going against who they still recognized as the Princess of the Fire Nation certainly did. The fear the Fire Army troops felt upon seeing the aggressive and rapid blasts of precise blue fire was enough to get them to pay attention to her more than the other US and Yu Dao soldiers present. And the riflemen took advantage of this, gunning down several enemies that had exposed themselves from cover.
"Where are you?" Azula repeatedly questioned as she ran through kata after kata. "Where are you? Where are you?" she scanned the shattered earth. As the artillery once again bombarded the battlefield, Azula did not seek shelter from the falling shells' explosions.
Azula was just the person to turn to tide of battle and drop the Fire Army's morale. They began to pull back and reverse away. Soldiers of the her home country, turning and running in the face of overwhelming firepower. Cowards, Azula thought. But what drew her eye was the clanking spiked wheels of a retreating tundra tank. It was there, just below her, maneuvering through the artillery-created caverns. A steady flame burst from its open firing port, keeping a squad of US Marines and Kyoshi Warriors back and away. There was the culprit!
Azula looked back at her friend. Ty Lee was quickly tending to Akiko's injuries as fast and as well as she could manage. She felt pained seeing her friend- friends in this dire situation. She felt resolute. She felt a sense of clarity, and she felt a new pulse of vigor surge. It wasn't entirely rage or anger, for the sake of rage and anger. It was a drive. It was conviction to protect those valuable to her.
She wasn't the Avatar. She wasn't that merciful. But she didn't need to be.
This was it. She set herself into her starting position of a kata she was all to familiar and rehearsed with. Both hands at rest at waist level, she closed all but two fingers and began to move in the cycle, flowing in circular motions, generating a powerful charge. Energy in the air around her cracks and sparked, as an explosive charge of energy formed and surged at her fingertips. And as her other hand passed the first in its undulating orbit around her, the charge grew and grew. This level of energy was close to what she had managed to generate during Sozin's Comet. A charge powerful enough to have destroyed an entire battleship! For a tank, this was going to be overkill.
She brought her fingers together, connected the energy and brought her arms at the ready, close to her body, holding the tension like a compressed spring. She briefly closed her eyes, feeling the power surge through her body. It felt good. It was empowering. She was back. Princess Azula was back!
She took a breath in and readied to let this explosive force loose. But just before she did, her eyes wondered back behind her, at her friend Akiko. The Japanese medic was on the ground, still pained, but now awake. She could see the awe in Akiko's eyes, as the blue flashes from the charged bolt illuminated her face. A faint smile could be made out, as the corners of Akiko's lips turned up slightly. But her eyes had another message. "Show mercy. Let it be different this time."
Azula received this none verbal message. And although every fiber of her being told her to go for a critical shot. A small part of her, the microscopic bit that Akiko had managed to influence, fought back hard. She took a sharp breath in through the nose and thrust her two fingers out towards the retreating tank. The bolt shot from her fingertips and flashed towards the enemy. The enemy crew felt only despair and terror seeing the charge flying at them. They were going to die!
The bolt slammed into the ground just beside the tank. The crew was shaken, and the earth beside them erupted in an awesome explosion. The tundra tank was tossed like a child's toy in the resulting hit! It went airborne, and crashed upside down on the surface. Its engine and running gear was destroyed, and it had been knocked from commission. Azula had "missed" and the crew would live to attempt to escape.
She could see the hatch fly open and the three-man crew weakly clamber out just as she followed through and completed the final movement of her kata. They could still be shot, she said, shrugging.
Whistles blew as warplanes zoomed overhead. "CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRING!"
Azula looked left, Lieutenant Stevenson was issuing orders to his men and slowly the spontaneous pops of rifle fire came to a close. The booming of heavy guns soon went silent as well. Sokka was frantically calling off his previous requests for bombardment. The artillery post at the city center and the offshore batteries aboard IJN Atago fell still as the Fire Army went into a full on retreat!
Victory! Yu Dao with US and Japanese backing had achieved victory against two of the world's most powerful powers.
The first person to run over was Suki, seeing Ty Lee, one of her girls down.. "Ty Lee!" she shouted, "Are you okay?"
Ty Lee didn't take her attention away from Akiko. "I'm fine, but I'm not the best at first aid. I think Akiko is fine, but could you look over her?"
Suki slid in right beside, pushing past Azula. "Yeah.."she said quickly looking at Ty Lee's handy work. "Yeah…" It was like she was running through a checklist. "Yes, it looks okay from what I can immediately see. She's shaken up and bruised, but nothing too bad at all. We should get her to medical though."
"Right," Ty Lee affirmed, "I'll-"
Azula pushed past Ty Lee and cut her off. "Let's do so then," she said looking up to Suki, and positioning herself ready to lift Akiko by the legs.
Truth be told, Suki was in shock at the sight of her former enemy and captor offering to aid and also looking up at her for direction.
"Rrrright," the Kyoshi Warrior captain acknowledged, refocusing on the task at hand. "Lift on three."
After getting Akiko situated on a stretcher and getting underway towards the medical post, Azula was able to catch a quiet message from Akiko that she managed to whisper. "Arigato."
She may have been training Akiko in fire bending, but unbeknownst to her, Akiko was also training her.
Eastern Medical Outpost
Yu Dao City
Independent State of Yu Dao
Lieutenant Khanh burst through the doors of the aid station on the complete otherside of the city. She was exhausted after having to run the length of the city twice, being repositioned to fight the Fire Nation on the western perimeter amid the invasion, and now running all the way back to check on the casualties from the eastern perimeter after. She herself had been thrown through the gauntlet. Her uniform and battle armor had several charred areas, skin on her arms and neck were burnt in duels with other homeland Fire Army troops. There were also dents and chips in places she was fortunate enough to ricochet incoming bullets. She had been knocked about, but she had survived.
"Hirota!" she called, searching for the IJN petty officer. She had first tried the defensive trenches and the wall, but no one had seen him. Finally after asking around, she was directed to the aid station, being told by an ensign that if he wasn't at his post he was likely here in medical.
She was met with a pair of militia men, one fire and one earth, saluting as she ran passed them. She dropped her helmet but continued anyway.
The aid station was filled to the brim. Men and women were even staged on stretches lining the walls of the place. The main injuries here were broken bones and head trauma, but some had been shot or blown up as well.
Her panicked search, running up and down the aisles of beds amid doctors, medics, and nurses, was finally stopped by one of the assistant clerks. "Lieutenant, how can I help?" The aid, a middle aged man, slightly shorter than her, tattered clothes and callused bloody hands. He also had a slight hunch and hair that was starting to gray. Inspite of his conditions, it appeared as though he's done a little bit of everything during the battle, from carrying the wounded and applying tourniquets, to picking up a rifle himself.
"I'm looking for a sailor of the IJN," Khanh panted, "Petty Officer Third Class, Taguchi, Hirota."
The aid took out his clipboard. He had a mapping of the current patients in this section. "Petty Officer Taguchi is in section two, bed one twenty-"
"Thank you, sir," Khanh immediately moved, not letting the man finish and bowing gratefully.
"Wait!" the aid shouted. But she was already off.
Khanh came beside the indicated bed number. Sure enough, Hirota's body was there, still dressed in uniform. Tarnished and tattered, there were several tears in his uniform, but beyond that it was readily apparent he had endured extreme concussive forces. His shoulder bone had been completely broken, and his collar bone portruded from his chest. There was a terrible and painful divot at the center of his forehead. His nose and cheeks had also been smashed. His chest had been hit by a heavy stone, crushing his ribs and impaling many vital organs. Blood flowed from his mouth.
"HIROTA!" Khanh screamed, alerting the nearby staff. She wasn't alone in all the despair and anguish that filled the halls of this medical post. Several others had found that friends, family, and lovers had been killed in the attack.
The aid had caught up to her. He was sorry. "I tried to warn you," the man reported. "He was dug out of a buried section of the trench line. As it was, he was barely alive then. He could barely speak from his injuries. They rushed the Petty Officer here, but…sadly, he passed soon after. I'm sorry, Lieutenant." Just before he left, the aid said one more line. "You were the final thing going through this young man's mind. Your name was the last thing that his lips uttered. My condolences, ma'am."
As the aid left, Khanh's grip tightened on the railing of the bed. The frame rattled, as she shook with anger and sadness, and tears flowed from her eyes, steaming as they passed over her cheeks. It got close to catching ablaze as heat surged from her palms.
"Why?!" she questioned. "Why why why why why why WHY?!" Khanh hit the edge of the bed frame with a tightly closed fist, then buried her face in her hands. Even now she didn't want others to see her tear up. She recalled the conversations she'd had with the young sailor, about home in Japan, his favorite ways to enjoy fire flakes, and his passion for the seas and exploring. She recalled their time together, and the very brief time they were a couple. A couple with ambitions and dreams. She could barely contain her raging emotions and was far from silent. No words, but a lot of noise. Her knuckles went white.
Curse the Earth King! Curse Fire Lord Zuko! Her thoughts ran with rage. And damn the avatar too! That child wanted to just pass her city back to the Earth King?! Kuei got this idea supported by the Avatar! All three of them caused this!
She wanted nothing to do with either of them. Khanh reached up and tore the pin that held up her top knot, her simple allegiance, more like mere reverence at this point, to the Fire Nation out of its slot in her hair, also tearing the binding that kept her hair up. Her mid-length black hair fluttered over her shoulders, like a flag cut from its mast.
Fire Nation Imperial Palace & Ba Sing Se Royal Palace
Fire Nation Capital City & Eastern Earth Kingdom
Battleships South Dakota and Yamato sat anchored in the Fire Nation capital harbor amid their surrounding entourage of cruisers and destroyers. Their guns were trained and aimed at the Royal Palace, ready to shell Zuko's position at the sign of any irregularity. The two capital ships had no issues and largely sailed into Fire Nation waters, despite being blockaded once again, with no opposition.
Under Admiral Yamamoto's orders, Yamato issued one single short warning while the task force closed in on the Fire Nation capital:
"Disperse or be destroyed."
After the miraculous and hard fought victory over both the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation simultaneously, the will to follow the rule of the Fire Lord and Earth King against the Mechanized World powers was not high. Fire Navy ships and their crews willingly defied the royal mandates and allowed the foreign fleets into the Fire Nation homeland.
Simultaneously, on the complete other side of the world, USS Enterprise, USS Hornet, HIJMS Akagi, HIJMS Hiryu, and HIJMS Soryu, were anchored safely amid Chameleon Bay, just outside the walls of Ba Sing Se. The Earth Kingdom's navy tried to put up more of a fight, but it was all for nought. Their wooden sailing ships never even saw the large carriers, as they were destroyed by the rotating carrier air wings miles before the ships were even visible. Swarms of fighters and dive bombers filled the skies over Ba Sing Se as tanks and trucks rolled on the Royal Palace in the Upper Ring.
Fire Lord Zuko and Earth King Kuei were due for very serious housecalls.
First Lieutenant Joe Stevenson led the mixed grouping of US Marines, sailors, and a few of their IJN counterparts through the Fire Nation palace grounds, they were accompanied by a few fire bending members of the Yu Dao militia, still donning their Fire Nation armor. He cradled his rifle by the wayside, but his men had weapons at the ready and drawn on the palace guards. They moved quickly with no resistance toward the Fire Lord's chamber, marching briskly through the ornate halls of the building. The entirety of the Capital City was held hostage by the numerous offshore guns surrounding the island that were zeroed in on crucial locations.
Lieutenant Takeda led the platoon of IJN sailors, and a few US Marines through the Earth Kingdom royal palace, passing the large and ornate doors of Kuei's consorts and other advisors. Also accompanying them were a few earth benders of Yu Dao's militia, still donning their Earth Kingdom uniforms. Takeda's group faced more resistance and left a trail of bullet casings, crumbled stones, and the bodies of Dai Li agents and palace guards in their wake. Glowing crystals, stained with blood, cast a brownish light in the inner palace halls as the IJN task force closed in on the King's chamber.
With a wave of his hand, two earth benders from Yu Dao rushed forth and forcefully broke down the ornate doors closing off Kuei, who was unable to escape in time. The swarming metal birds of war, as he put it, filling the skies of Ba Sing Se made him too scared to even attempt to venture out of the palace. Takeda drew his Nambu handgun and came to a halt centered before the Earth King, as his men formed an arc around the ruling monarch, rifles aimed.
At the very least, Kuei didn't beg like the coward Takeda thought he would be. Unlike Ozai, the lieutenant could sense fear in the hopeless and now powerless king.
"The last time I was in this exact position," he began, breaking the silence, I shot Fire Lord Ozai to death." The IJN officer paused to study how the Earth King reacted. He could see fear, but he also coul tell Kuei knew this was coming, as a consequence of his action of attacking the Yu Dao territory. "This time…."
"...will be different," Joe paused, seeing the surprise in Zuko's face. The US lieutenant knew that, if Zuko really wanted to, it was likely he could take on the entire platoon of soldiers that had come breaking through the doors to the Fire Lord's chamber. There was even a possibility, Zuko could actually take them all and come out on top. But, again, the offshore guns that held the capital city hostage weighed on the young Fire Lord. The number of losses that would stem from them firing into the Capital would be extreme.
At this point, Zuko knew he had made a mistake. A huge one. One that had cost thousands of Fire Nation lives, as well as soiled his relations with both his own people in Yu Dao, the Earth Kingdom, and the US and Japanese navies. "How? How is this time different?"
"This time, we aren't here to execute you," Joe answered. "This time, there will be no retribution. Not here, nor in the Earth Kingdom. Although it's very hard, especially after the losses to my men you've caused, I remember your actions when we had first landed here, and cannot bring myself to discount that."
"But whether I live or die, or face some kind of punishment is not up to you, is it First Lieutenant?" Zuko asked Joe.
"It is not," Takeda answered the Earth King. "As much as I would have you beheaded for your actions…and I think it would be beneficial in the long run to install a new government in the Earth Kingdom… the order to spare you, comes from higher up. I am merely an agent to carry out these orders."
Kuei pondered, nervously rubbing his hands together. "The Avatar! He sees reason!"
"The avatar is a major factor in why you are still breathing," Takeda confirmed, "Believe me. It would have been easier to have leveled this palace rather than having a platoon of men break our way in. Avatar Aang…"
"...Begged," Joe continued. Zuko went wide-eyed. "The Avatar begged us to spare you, and pleaded for the Earth King to be spared too. Got on his hands and knees and pleaded with the admiralty, then went over to the IJN side and did the same thing again to their top officers. Spruance, Yamamoto, and Yamaguchi wanted you put either put before a military court martial, and executed…that was our side…or, flat out beheaded…that was the IJN's ruling, the mandates would have also implicated all of your staff officers and the upper command of the Fire Army and Navy as well. Yu Dao's governor was indifferent as to whatever we did, but the people? Boy, did they want retribution too.
"Aang was…to be honest, a disappointment in the battle for Yu Dao. He wanted to hand the city-state, and its people right over to the Earth Kingdom, and wouldn't listen to anyone. Not me, Takeda, or even the governor and his daughter. Believe it or not, it was actually Azula that directly confronted him and stood for the people of Yu Dao."
"What were the terms the Avatar had reached?" Kuei asked, irritating Lieutenant Takeda with his tone. Even though the Earth King was desperate, he still had some kind of an entitled tone.
"In exchange for us sparing both your life, and Fire Lord Zuko's, Aang will focus even more of his efforts in trying to understand how to possibly send both us and the Americans back to our homes. As a result, you can expect him to become quieter in terms of governing worldly affairs, and "bringing peace" for the time being…After all, he failed to bring peace in this conflict that almost reignited a world war."
"Yu Dao will remain independent," Joe continued. "They have fought valiantly to be free from the rule of either you or the Earth King and have earned, in blood, their right to be free and to govern themselves. Their sovereignty will be ensured by us, the US and Japanese navies, for the rest of the time we are here in this world until the day we return to ours, or for the rest of eternity."
"You will reopen your borders and again allow us to station men and equipment in places we deem of strategic importance," Takeda continued. "The US-Japan operations post here in Ba Sing Se will be reopened and restaffed, as will the equivalent naval facilities in the Fire Nation home islands."
"I refuse!" Kuei voiced out, "Ba Sing Se will not be used as a military base of operations, occupied, by foreign armies!"
Takeda cycled the action of his handgun. He knew it was loaded, but he wanted to remind the Earth King that it was. "Aang's pleading for mercy was granted up to the point of us killing you for what you did to Yu Dao. It did not extend to uncooperativeness."
"Which brings us to this," Joe concluded. "Aang's indecisiveness in the Yu Dao Incident…no, his willingness to pick sides based on his own morals, what he deems is right and wrong, and to go against the desires of the people of Yu Dao..to consciously subjugate them to tyrannical rule of the Earth King, indirectly putting them into war…has shown the Avatar has too much power in this world. Individual people, whether they be the Avatar, Earth King, Fire Lord, or Water Tribe chieftains, have too much power in this world. Too much for one person…and that is going to change."
Takeda emphasized, "It will change greatly fro how it has been for however many thousands of years and lifetimes you say it has.
"From today on, the order of power, will be altered, even if it will remain the same on paper," Joe added.
"What will change?" Zuko inquired. The Fire Lord was reluctant to hear what would be different, but he didn't have much leverage. His friends were against him, and his standing in the Fire Nation homeland was now even lower than he imagined it was prior, having sent so many men to their deaths and nearly reigniting another conflict.
"First," Takeda answered, "You will cooperate with any and all requests that we may send your way. If the Admiralty orders aid, medical, and educational facilities to be built and staffed in the Southern Water Tribe or the Si Wong, you will oblige. If the admiralty orders warships and tanks to be deployed to handle crime or establish order to an unstable region, you will oblige. You can decree to your royal subjects, you can say things however you want, but at the end of the day, you will comply."
"Impossible! Sending Earth Kingdom soldiers to the water tribe, in your example? We don't have that kind authority. Nor are their problems our own! We have our own issues to deal with here."
"It will be possible," Joe countered. "Second, officers and staff will from your army, navy, and air force will work closely with officers from ours. We will rotate officers and senior NCOs here into the Fire Nation Capital and there into Ba Sing Se, as well as into the Northern and Southern Water Tribes to ensure communication between all, and unity in operations.
"Yu Dao, being both an international hub between all four nations for trade, as well as being the main military hub for us and the Japanese Navy, will become a central point for discourse. With the governor of Yu Dao's blessing, in the coming years, we will oversee the creation of a council, a congress or parliament, if you will, to discuss worldwide matters.
And for a period of a few years, there will be no secrets kept from us in either nation's militaries."
"Lieutenant Stevenson," Zuko began, "I don't mean any disrespect, but this…this is a little bit of an overreach. I see reason, and I'll support Aang if this is what he had come to with you, but this is…this is a lot."
"This," Takeda's voice boomed throughout the halls of the Earth Kingdom palace, as he waved his pistol in a circle, talking about the Bending World, "is no longer your world. It is no longer the Avatar's world, either."
"...though I'm sure Aang would never claim it ever was to begin with, to give the boy credit," Joe finished off.
"The Avatar will no longer have his supposed divine say in matters regarding worldly disputes. He forfeit that in his initial assertion for Yu Dao. The child is lucky we didn't spread his misguided assertion throughout the world, nor his complete absence of action in a time when many were dying. It would greatly damage the favor of the Avatar in this world, and we understand that that is something, somehow, important and valuable," Takeda further pressed on the Earth King.
"But make no mistake," Joe added, watching Zuko's expressions become more demoralized. "For the foreseeable future, a lot of this world, how it works, how it runs, what is okay, and what is not, will be influenced by us. And in return, we agreed to continue to aid and rebuild this war-torn world.
We'll continue to pick up the pieces in Ba Sing Se. We'll continnue to rebuild destroyed communities, and bring the displaced back to their homes and families. We will continue to share and bring this world up to speed."
"But the Avatar's influence and power," Takeda concluded, "Even the absolute power of the rulers of nations, such as yourself, Kuei…will be forever suppressed. The power of influence has shifted, and the people are behind it after what has been accomplished in Yu Dao.
For generations people will speak of how the US and Japanese defended the people of Yu Dao against tyrannical rule and forceful capture from two previously unopposed monarchs, despite overwhelming odds, in addition to the inaction and wrongful assertions of the world's avatar, who let it happen. Imagine what the average person will think."
"As much as I still have respect for you, Zuko," Joe added, "This shift in power is something you have brought upon youself. You and the Earth King.
Centuries from now, if we ever return to our world, and if we return to this world, the natural order of things will be permanently shifted into our favor. From today into the foreseeable future, the ball is in our court."