Korra hold onto the wings of the biplane like her live is depending on it as it fly a thousand feet in the air at the speed of over 100 miles per hour.
Behind her, six other biplanes are following flying in a diamond formation, each carrying one pilot with two United Force soldiers holding on tight on either sides of the wing as the planes carry them towards their target.
"This is it." Korra thought. She's about to assault one of the few remaining Red Lotus stronghold and end their reign of fear and terrorism for good and make sure that Zaheer wouldn't see another light of day ever again.
If her source are to be trusted, this particular Red Lotus group are hold up in an old Air Nomad outpost located on top of a mountain range near the Earth Kingdom border. Before the Hundred Year War, the Air Nomad had build similar outpost all around the world to facilitate their nomadic lifestyle. Now, most had left abandoned with a few exception, this being one of them.
Her source had suggest that this outpost not only stood as a Red Lotus hideout, but as a rallying point for Red Lotus around the world as a staging ground for their plan to free Zaheer from his prison. It is important that she eliminate them before they got the chance.
Since the outpost are located on top of a mountain, conventional ground attack is not practical, so that leave attacking from the air as the only feasible option. Of which there are three ways she could make her approach: airship, sky bison, and airplane.
Airship are out of the question, they're too slow and too noticeable. The minute they're within visual range, the Red Lotus would either have fled or attack them for being an easy target. As for sky bison, they're an endangered species, and she didn't want to reduce their numbers as she knows that the Red Lotus could careless about that. Airplanes on the other hand are maneuverable, nimble, and twice as fast as the fastest sky bison. And even though their engine is louder than a polar bear dog during mating season, their speed make up for that.
Korra lament that Mako, Bolin, and Asami can't be here with her. Each of them have a life of their own now, which mean they can't dedicate every second of their live by her side supporting her on her avatar duty like they used too. She understand of course, it was bound to happen sooner or later, it was part of growing up.
And after all, she wasn't alone. In her quest of hunting down remaining Red Lotus cells around the world, she had been accompanied by the Night Stalkers, The United Republic special force. Their ranks are comprise of the best soldiers the United Republic has to offer. Each of them are masters of their elements and have mastered at least one sub-bending style of their element.
She had been hesitant of accepting their help at first, it was more because she wasn't familiar with any of them. But they had been proven instrumental on helping her in her attempt of hunting the Red Lotus. And in time, she grew to be quite fond of them, some she had come to regard as her friend.
The outpost came to view. She mentally prepare herself for a tough fight. She barely register the pilot bellowed "Fifteen second!" She began to count down every second as the temple came closer and closer. Then suddenly, she was on top of it. Not wasting any time, she jump of the biplane onto the outpost below. Falling near terminal velocity, she waited until the last second to use airbending to break her fall. She could hear the Night Stalkers using their own bending to cushion their decent as well.
Immediately, they all went into fighting stance of their respective element, expecting the Red Lotus to decent upon them like avalanche, ready to fight to the last man.
But instead, only silence greeted them.
And an aftermath of a battle.
The outpost was in ruin. The steps that lead into it were shattered beyond any recognition. Some were flatten, some were sunken into the ground. The main building was littered with scorch mark, its wall had many part of it that was either chip off, shattered, or dented.
And what was more jarring was the dozens of bodies dress in Red Lotus uniform lying lifelessly all around the outpost.
"What the hell happen here?" Korra mused aloud as she lead her men into the main building.
"Must've been hell of a fight." One of the Night Stalker remark.
"Who had audacity and the capability to defeat them like this?" Another nervously asked.
"Its probably just a petty disagreement that lead into a full blown fight that got out of control. For a group like the Red Lotus, it is bound to happen at some point." A third one theorized.
"Well, we're not getting answers if we're just standing around." Korra said. "Spread out! Search for any clues and inspect them thoroughly no matter how insignificant! And keep your eyes peeled! Some of these bastard may have still here somewhere."
With that, they all began to fan out, searching for any more clues that might tell them what had happen. Korra herself went into the building sleeping quarters. On her way she came across more and more dead Red Lotus member with all sorts of wounds on their body. Some bruised all over their body with shattered bones indicating attack from an earthbender. Some suffered bruise that only hit a certain spot and it was long and thin, a telltale wound from a waterbender. And some suffered from heavy burned, but their burned wound were precise, focus only on one spot instead of covering a wide area, aimed to penetrate into the flesh, not to burn, which tells her that the firebender who attack this place were extremely talented.
As she enters the the sleeping quarters and was about to inspect it further, a sudden noise caught her attention. She stop in her track and listen. To her shock, she finds one of the Red Lotus is still alive.
Korra rushed to the dying man and knelt next to him and grab him violently by the collar of his shirt.
"Tell me what happened here!"
The man barely even register that she's there. His eyes were wide, staring a thousand yards ahead as he's gasping for air.
"Wa-water... please. So thirsty."
Korra hesitated for a moment, but she did it anyway. She unscrew her water skin and brought it up to the man's lips, feeding the water straight into his mouth. The man tried to swallow it but ended up vomiting most of it as he continue to gasp for air.
"Te-tell my cat... I love her." Without giving any information, the man stop breathing as his soul left his body.
Korra let out a huff of frustration that she didn't get any information out of the man. She stood up and continue her search for answer.
But, not even five minutes later, she heard one of the Night Stalker calling out to her.
"Avatar Korra! You need to see this!"
Korra rush to the caller who's standing on the building back door who has a frantic look on his face.
"This can't be good."
The Night Stalker then lead her to a stairway that lead further up the mountain where she could see the rest of them are gather on one spot staring and pointing at something.
She quickly climb the stairway towards the small crowd to see what its all about.
When she reach the spot, the Night Stalker stand aside to let her through. And when she lay her eyes onto the object that they're pointing at, she knew she had her answer as to what had happened. And she couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.
There, in the middle of the mountain, was a collection of statues of people that she had grown to admire. The statue was build with a variety of poses as it depict them kicking the Red Lotus ass. And in the bottom right corner of it was the statues name and the signature of the genius behind this work of art.
The Old Gaang Kicking Ass Once Again.
By Toph Beifong.
Fun Fact:
A US Air Force fighter pilot once accidentally killed a deer with his landing gear during takeoff. He then later smeared the deer's blood all over the runway. This incident would earn him his official callsign that would stay with him for the rest of his career.
His callsign: Bambi
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