Aegis
They'd made their approach in the dead of night. The Fire Nation had pulled out just a half hour before midnight. By then, armored units had already begun their journey around the circumference of Lake Laogai by a good 45 minutes, travelling in scattered time intervals so as to avoid drawing too much attention.
While we had travelled, moving one step forward at a time, the Earth Kingdom had crept forward with scouting units following an hour-long bombardment as was their typical response to identifying unusual movement from our lines. The scouts would have found in no man's land scores of their own dead, but so too, survivors. Our own men, the 114th, who would have by then found places in no man's land, dressed as Earth Kingdom soldiers, would have been identified as wounded, and taken back to 'friendly' lines.
From there, they would by now be in position, already at work in sabotaging Earth Kingdom artillery weapons.
At least, if everything had gone to plan.
If the Earth Kingdom's midnight creeping barrage hadn't struck them, if the Earth Kingdom's scouting party had managed to find them, not pegged them as Fire Nation, not kept their eyes off of them, not given them the chance to roam camp, only if hundreds of variables had perfectly interlined to allow things to happen as they were meant to.
I took a deep breath.
He's done stupider, I reminded myself, thinking back on the foolhardy raid on Citadel's inner city, a memory that felt like it belonged to a different life entirely.
Much as I was trying to keep my concern to myself, it became abundantly clear that such an effort was proving to be in vain. This would be indicated by the fact that, without my having noticed, Boss's eyes, his head skewed back to look my way, were trained directly on me and where I saw, fidgeting with my fingers while my eyes had remained set outside the viewport of my turret.
"Hey," he'd asked without me having noticed, requiring him to say, "Hey Aegis," a second time for me to notice I was being spoken to.
"Hrm?"
"You alright?"
"Yeah," I lied, gaze still focused on the westwards night sky.
Nobody bought it. Hizo groaned, Zek scoffed, and Boss kept his eyes on me.
"The one who gave the briefing last night," Boss said. "He your friend?"
"The colonel?" I asked, trying to waive suspicion from myself. An idiotic effort.
"No, not the fucking prince," Zek said through a hardly contained laugh.
"No," Boss said more simply. "The other one?"
Why lie? I asked myself. I'd said pretty liberally last night that I'd wanted to attend for a friend who'd be speaking. It was nothing more than embarrassed reluctance that stopped me from saying the same now. Why bother?
I nodded. "Yeah," I confessed. "From Taisho."
"You know each other for a while?"
I affirmed so again.
"From what you've said about the place, sounds like none of you ever had it simple. He do this kinda thing before?"
"Dumber."
"Then relax. You two've worked as a team before, and no doubt a part of that is patience. You'd wait for him to do his part, then you'd do yours, right?"
"Something like that."
"Then no point in worrying," Boss said, turning back to face his own console. "Let him do his part, and gather your strength for when it's time to do yours."
I knew he was right, and only regretted that Boss had turned back around before he could see my eyes fix on him rather than the night sky, understanding the point he made. He was right. I could be waiting as few as a couple more seconds, or as long as hours. There was no set time when it was to begin. We were giving special forces the early morning to get their shit together, none of us capable of knowing what they would face within the Earth Kingdom's lines, be it a straight shot to the artillery, or a grueling slog.
One way or another, Danev would figure it out. They all would.
I closed my eyes and flexed my hands. In my right, I could still feel the discomfort that such an action produced across my arm. I could move it, I could carry, I could bend, I could fight. The response might be anywhere between a tang of discomfort or a searing pain, but I could do it.
But not if I let every moment between now and when it came time to use it be consumed by a nervous wreck.
I closed my eyes, and waited.
I might've slept some, or maybe the time just had passed irregularly while I'd had my eyes shut within the darkness of my helmet, but when they'd opened that last time, things felt different. Zek and Boss were upright in their seats, Hizo leaned forward nearly past mine. They were alert, wary, and for some reason, even having just woken, so was I.
"Something happen?" I asked.
Hizo shook his head. "No," he said. "Just feels like it's about to."
"Why?" I asked, sitting up to get a glance through the turret viewport. There was nothing. Nothing at least to give any indication that something had changed, only the faint distant lights of an Earth Kingdom camp, but…no. Wait. I saw it.
"Smoke," I said.
The others looked, and I presumed they must have seen as indicated by the way their body language suddenly changed, leaning forward to see more. I did the same.
There wasn't just some. It was everywhere, indistinguishable almost from the morning mist, consuming the sky. It rose from the camp lights that weren't camp lights but growing flames. Near the rear. Near the artillery.
That wasn't the plan, I thought to myself. Nothing was to start until the signal flare had been fired. That would be our cue. "What the hell are they doing?"
"What?" Hizo asked.
"Fires," I responded. "From the artillery in the rear?"
"Isn't that our job?" Zek asked.
"It is," I responded. Unless, something hadn't gone to plan.
"Could that be our signal?" I wondered out loud.
"No," Boss said. "We're to wait for the flare. You remember the briefing."
"Maybe they weren't able to fire the flare," I considered. "Maybe something happened and this was all they could manage."
Boss didn't answer. Not right away. The tank was silent. They were all considering the possibility of it, growing more plausible with the second.
Nobody spoke a word, least of all our commanding officer who was no doubt considering the ramifications of whatever he would come to say. He was treading on thin ice. "Our signal was the flare," he said, slowly. "Without that, even if what you're saying is the case, how can we expect the others to make the same assumption as us?"
"By being the ones to act first," I said.
Around us lay dormant 5 dozen tanks, each waiting for the same thing, the same cue signal that hadn't come. That wouldn't come. All we had was this, and if the others hadn't come to the same conclusion, well, they'd have to.
The Shanzi was silent, Boss deliberating his next, about to take a step on either side of the line separating himself from being a savior or a traitor.
"Fuck it," Boss said, and with the crank of a gear and the push of a pedal, we were the first to move.
I was nearly thrown back in my seat by the sudden lurch of the Shanzi forward, incentive enough for me to re-equip my safety harness, buckling myself in for the charge ahead.
We were going. We were actually going. As soon as I found myself secure in my seat, I had my foot pressed fully against the right rotation pedal, spinning my turret around to face our rear, wondering what sight I would be awaited by.
And spirits, was it a good one.
I wondered for a moment if perhaps every other tank crew had seen what we did, and had the exact same question on their mind if we were to move ahead or not, waiting only for somebody to make the first move.
And that's what we had done, because behind us was not one tank, or one dozen, or two, but the whole of our unit speeding down the same hill we now descended in full throttle, fast on our heels, right into the thick of the coming battle.
"Eyes front, Aegis," Boss's voice came, clearly aware of my distracted state.
I obeyed, spinning my turret just as quick around to face towards the roaring fires of the Earth Kingdom camp, ready to make some of my own.
I wondered if they saw us, if they were too focused on dousing the fires of their own camp to notice the coming storm. I imagined they hadn't. At least, that first Earth Kingdom soldier had not. Because by the time he, at the edge of his camp, rushing with a bucket of water drawn from the nearest well had turned his head to observe the threescore steel behemoths headed his way, it was already too late.
Shanzi plowed into him before I could burn him, though I felt the inconsistency beneath our treads as we ran over him, subtle though it was as Shanzi pushed ahead, uncaring.
A pair of Earth Kingdom soldiers were not far off. A quick turn of the turret to the left was enough for me to find them head on, a sprout of fire soon enough consuming them and the tents they had only just wandered out of. They burned.
Close to the perimeter behind me was a watchtower we had passed, likely still manned. I corrected that, spinning my turret to send a fire blast large enough to bring it out in a pile of smoke and debris.
Now entering too were other members of our unit, now having split into segments to enter through different avenues into the Earth Kingdom's lines, ensuring that nowhere went without seeing our impact.
I felt another contact against our tank, preceded by a swift jerk in motion, allowing me to conclude that it was deliberate.
I turned back to face ahead of us, an Earth Kingdom soldier drawing his sword to our left, and coming up on our right, a small grouping of soldiers, possibly benders, leaving from a tent, freshly awoken by the chaos consuming their camp. I gave them no opportunity to play their hand, and so with another burst of fire, consumed them and their point of origin, the faint sound of a scream from behind us indicative of the swordsman having met his inevitable fate.
Our spearhead had now nothing short of conclusively pierced through the Earth Kingdom's perimeter, a wave of fire washing over the Earth Kingdom's lines. And we were just getting started.
"Eyes front! They know we're here now!"
That they did. It was a bold earthbender who'd stepped out from the avenue between two tents to hurl a rock our way. But I had been quicker, a shot of fire from my fists destroying the rock in mid-air, myself about to follow that up with a blast that would take him had it not been for another tank from our starting rolling over him the second after.
That would be the least of their efforts though. Even above the clattering of our engine, the roar of growing flames, and the cries of Earth Kingdom soldiers, I could hear the bell ringing across the camp and what it was calling for. If there was one thing I could never force myself not to respect, it was the haste in which the Earth Kingdom, known for their stubbornness and rigidity, could exercise in meeting a threat.
Down the avenue the Shanzi was piercing through, from the earth a wall rose to block our way. A valiant effort, but a vain one inevitably.
Shanzi lurched to the side before I even had time to try and guess what it was her pilots were planning. Before I knew it, our path had changed from a clear avenue to a piercing arrow through rows of tent, some occupied, some not, a curtain of fabric and corpses draping itself around Shanzi's chassis as our tank, and a half dozen more behind us at least charted a new course deeper into the center of the Earth Kingdom's defense's heart.
Where we emerged, the path of the Fire Nation's advance had been paved in blood and fire, a road strewn with corpses and ash awaiting us, the leftovers ours for the taking. I shot a fireball forward at a wooden barricade that a pair of Earth Kingdom soldiers were setting up in front of their tent, the flaming splinters exploding into themselves and the tent they had sought to protect, ending that foolish notion entirely. Behind that tent, soon thereafter another tank blowed through, the burning tarpaulin of its remaining draping around the steel chassis before burning away entirely, the mixed ash of fabric and men falling carelessly to the ground behind it.
I refocused my turret ahead. We were no longer at the front, a new vanguard having formed. It was impossible to tell if it was that which had been determined from briefings or an improvised array of those who had taken the initiative to speed ahead, though my thoughts drifted towards the latter.
Not that I was complaining. Too much.
They were effective. Firebending gunners were few and far in between, but two of them had found themselves in front of us now, a near constant spray of fire following where they tread. Where a single tent, barricade, position, or man was standing, these two took personal offense with an efficiency that even I was starting to feel frustrated at the lack of leftovers they were leaving. What little was left for me amounted to scarce more than putting the burning and dying out of their misery. I found myself once or twice on the verge of urging my crew to try and get ahead of them, but I knew well enough to keep such notions to myself by now, and so simply watched in envy at the chaos they sewed.
Until it ended.
From both side of the camp road, walls of earth, catching the left tank from its port and the right from its starboard, with a strength exceeding even the force of these Fire Nation killing machines, slamming them into one another, and further still, until the tanks were reduced to messes of steel, ash, and blood.
And we were next.
"Aegis, next to us!"
They were quick. I was as well.
Within the fraction of a second my turret had spun left and my hand had shot out a burst of fire that'd caught the left wall, bursting it into a mist of harmless debris. The right, however, that'd struck us. And struck us hard.
My vision was a blur, my head having hit one wall or another of the turret wall, even trapped in as I was. We were off course from what little I could tell, the porthole of my turret showing the interior wall of a tent as opposed to a road awaiting our conquest. I felt my heart race, slowed it by force, and looked beneath me. The others were there: Boss, Zek, Hizo, dazed, but alive.
Even with my vision a blur as it was, I turned my turret to face behind and at the Earth Kingdom counter-offensive that was brewing, our tank rendered out of the count as a team of earthbenders established a position in a makeshift trench, firing a volley of earthen discuses at the following tanks, claiming no less than they had any right to.
The effort to raise my arm and fire was one of initial vanity, a searing pain roaring up my right, the most recent impact hardly having done any favors to the limb that was already a growing liability. I grimaced, and focused.
They're killing your men, I thought.
They've already killed more than they have any right to, I reminded myself.
And if you sit here, I told myself, they'll kill more. And they'll kill us too.
If those were the words in my mind, then those through the minds of the others of Shanzi's crew must've been something similar, as with a sudden lurch backwards, Shanzi reversed. Out of the tent she'd become trapped in, up the embankment she'd rolled down, and now directly in front of the makeshift earthbender trench, eye to eye with me. And I did not hold back.
With a single continuous burst of fire, they burned, the walls of their trench like those of a skillet, frying them alive where they sat, their screams, certain as they were, inaudible to me above the ringing that still dominated my head.
Shanzi spun again, back on track, a quick spin of my turret unveiling behind me the tank's that'd fallen behind us, but more coming to fill the gap. We paid the fallen no mind. We couldn't. Not here.
We continued forward.
"Everyone alright?" Boss yelled, to which we all yelled the hesitant though eventual affirmatives.
"We can't stop here! We need to make it to the end! We stop here, we die!"
None of us had thought any differently, I imagined, but still, they were words we needed to hear, as we were far from out. We picked up speed again, the toll on Shanzi evident from how she moved beneath us, almost like that of a trembling animal. She was hurt, and while Hizo did what he could to keep her moving, there was only so much he could do alone. But he would have to. He would keep Shanzi breathing while Zek and Boss kept her moving and I, I kept her safe.
At the helm of our spearhead, we pushed forward again through all that which the Earth Kingdom could muster against our one of many flaming arrows shooting through their line.
The Earth Kingdom knew what awaited them now. And they were ready. Be it benders, archers, barricades, trenches, traps, whatever they could muster, they threw it our way.
The Shanzi narrowly dodged and weaved trap pits that claimed others of our tanks. I barely caught benders and grenadiers before they could get the drop on us, burning them alive in the trenches from where they rose, and brought down their camp in flames around them, each second we sped ahead on racing through hell. Whether our hell or theirs, I couldn't know, only that through the thickening haze of smoke, the enemy waited, and I killed every man who entered my sight.
But our ride through hell was a dying one, taking no shortage of new hits as we rode ahead. We were taking more than our share of hits, a tank beside me erupting in a burst of flames as some fortuitous earthbender's boulder or another had struck it in just the right place to deal a killing blow. Another behind, knocked astray by an Earth Kingdom trap rode right into the hull of its comrade, sending both off track, unknown to me if they would make a recovery or be damned there at the Earth Kingdom's mercy, no doubt little left to spare for us in light of what we'd done here.
And Shanzi herself, she was hardly any less worse for wear. I did what I could to prevent hits from coming our way, but amidst a raging storm, there is only so much rain one can protect themselves from. And the storm wasn't getting any lighter.
"She's not working with me!" Hizo yelled from the back. "Aegis I need you keeping them off of us!"
"Doing what I can!" I yelled from my turret, turning my sights on a rising earthbender, striking him with a bolt of fire that split his arm from his torso before he could so much as lift the boulder he wielded beside him.
"Just a little longer!" Boss yelled. "We're almost through!"
Another hit. This one bad.
"Hizo!" Zek yelled.
Prompted by Zek's yell, I turned my head. Hizo was on the ground. There was no blood, he was breathing, struggling to rise back to his task, but failing. He was down for the count.
Shit.
"Aegis, I need fire!" Boss yelled. I knew what he meant. Our engine. One last burst ahead without Hizo managing the engine was all we could afford, but what it'd cost.
"The smoke!" I countered.
"To hell with the smoke, we'll be dead without more fire!"
There was no other choice. Loosening the right strap of my harness restrain, I swung to my left. Shanzi's rear was a mess, coal spewing out of its cabinet, the burner door broken off, but the supply instead perfectly within sight. I let the fire burn, even as Shanzi took one hit after the next. I let it pour out, the release of steam of smoke into Shanzi unignorable.
But we had to move forward, had to get out of here.
"Aegis, above!"
I did as I was bid, and rose back to a defensive position, the smoke filling our tank, the fire outside of us consuming everything until there was almost little else to see but the hell around us and what more I inflicted to help carve a way forward in the name of the faint promise of an end to the Earth Kingdom's lines. My eyes watered from the smoke, my throat clenched from its tightness and I prayed, prayed that ahead lay our way out.
But I wouldn't see it come. Be it an Earth Kingdom blow, the loss of consciousness from the lack of oxygen, or any array of other things that should've ended our exploits leagues before, it found us now, and left nothing more for us.
Only the darkness.
Danev
Every step was key. One after the other, we could not afford a single misstep, a single mistake, one that might cost me my life, or those of my men. We'd made it this far. I couldn't let that change.
They should be close, I told myself as we neared closer, pressing through no man's land with one careful step after another. We could make no assumptions about the safety of the path ahead of us, presume nothing about our chances of pushing ahead. We only had the darkness to shroud our retreat from the Earth Kingdom's lines, and Mano a few ahead of me helping to guide the way.
He held up a hand. We stopped. He turned left and so our path changed.
Without him, there was little question that an Earth Kingdom mine would've ended our operation hours ago. Or, at the very least, our retreat from the operation. It was a better feeling to march away from madness than towards it. The fires of the Earth Kingdom line waged behind us, the cavalry having arrived.
They got the cue signal, I thought with a smile. It'd been a hell of a long shot, but one that'd paid off fortunately; against all odds. A part of me wanted to imagine it being Fluke who'd been the one to understand, but, frankly, I wasn't going to be picky. Whoever the hell had figured it out, decided setting shit on fire was as good a sign as any to advance, well, they had my thanks.
Nothing had exactly played out as it should've. Hardly a surprise. About all that'd actually gone to plan was the Earth Kingdom sending scouting parties ahead as soon as the Fire Nation had retreated. From there, well, not quite as great.
For one, the sound of distant musket fire indicated that one team had clearly been outed and engaged in fighting. Fortunately none of the casualties had been ours as indicated by the Earth Kingdom scouting team to have retrieved us having been diverted to investigate.
I had to assume our boys had returned to our line. But their early exit had been the least of our difficulties. The scouting team to have found our 'injured,' was fortunately convinced by the display, and so we were led back to Earth Kingdom lines, the death of the other party summed up to Fire Nation guerillas. We, fortunately, were not suspect, and with the other Earth Kingdom team's casualties having been total, there'd been nobody to tip the scales against us.
It hadn't lasted. Subject to inspection for traps on our persons in case the Fire Nation had boobytrapped the corpses as either side was liable to do, I'd been forced to ditch the flare gun. As for our disguises, well, they were never meant to last. That we'd made it to the Earth Kingdom line was the biggest miracle we could hope for. Beyond that, we could hardly have been expected to be able to ask for a fast track to the artillery and take things from there.
That was where things had become complicated.
Turning around, I tried to remember where our inferno had begun, but with the whole of the Earth Kingdom position in disarray, a raging inferno of fire and smoke now touching the sky, able to trick me for a moment into thinking the sun was rising from the north, there was no chance of that.
I carried on, thankful that things had worked as they had, that we'd been given little to no security detail, that we'd managed to silence the soldiers who'd snuffed out what we were, the very same that'd 'saved' us from the field. It was easier not to think about it. Easier not to dwell on the fact that we'd killed the men who believed themselves our saviors.
But that's war, I reminded myself as we steered our course to avoid what must've been another mine.
Another turn behind me. The carnage was settling down. At long last. I could see the faint shadows of tanks abandoning the Earth Kingdom line in their distance, their work having been done, and pretty damn well too. We may've started the mission, torched a few Earth Kingdom positions to get the party started, but from there on, this was an armored victory.
Now only to hope enough bring that victory home with them.
That Fluke makes it back.
A few steps forward more, and Mano paused. I didn't have even a second to ask what the matter was until I heard a click next to me. A slight turn of my head to the left, and I could see the brim of an Earth Kingdom soldier's helmet.
But that wasn't the end. Not quite.
"Ash to Fire," came a voice I recognized immediately, belonging to Ele.
And so came "Phoenix," the countersign to theirs. Friendlies.
The hand cannon went down.
"Fuck, Captain," came Tosa's voice. "You're late. Were starting to think you pushed forward to burn the whole city down."
"Had to take the careful way back," I said, glad to have found the others of our team, my orders having been quite clear to make a retreat before the team I had assigned myself to began the torch and burn. "Any casualties?" I asked.
"Few scrapes and bruises getting through no man's land without tripping their mines. Least you had Mano along."
That I had. I didn't want to imagine the slog it'd been spending the last couple of hours crawling through no man's land on hands and knees clearing the ground ahead by hand to look for mines. Comparatively, well, staying behind to start the fire no longer seemed too bad.
"Any on your end?" Ele asked.
Looking back, that seemed not to be the case. Be it Chejuh, Raza, Zihe, Penar, or the others, all seemed to be accounted for now too.
Thank spirits.
I shook my head.
"Good," Tosa said. "Can we get the hell out of here now? Don't want to be in their way when the Fire Nation seizes the moment to finish this."
"Agreed," I said. "114th, pack your shit, we're moving. Got more land to clear before we're back home."
"In uniform, sir?" Homun asked.
I understood his point. We were heading back to our lines in Earth Kingdom uniforms. There was reason to be concerned.
"They know to expect us," I said. "Ditch the hats, but unless you want to drag your balls through another mile of mud, keep the uniforms."
"Roughing it could be nice," Tosa scoffed, taking off his helmet as ordered. "I hear mud has good properties for the skin."
"Dirt-eater propaganda," Chejuh mused, clearly sarcastic/
"Glad we agree," Zihe said, possibly less sarcastic.
"Cut the chatter," I said. "We're out of the fryer, but back in the pan. Nobody settle down just yet."
It had the desired effect. The 114th quieted rather quick, and we were back on the move.
As the minutes passed, the sun of fire behind us did not in the slightest begin to set, the flames still raging across enemy lines with no end in sight. That'll have their hands full.
Meaning, in turn, this was our time to get out.
So we did, a line of roughly five dozen men crawling through the mud in a near single-file line behind Mano who carved for us a path ahead through the mud, around mines, and back home. It wasn't a particularly fun trek, but it was at least more assuring to know we were heading back to was a place where we weren't inclined to be shot on sight.
Well, if they recognize who we are at least.
I sure as hell hope they would. We were coming on our own lines now as indicated by the light resonating from our camp.
"That it up ahead?" Tosa's voice asked behind me.
I passed the query to Mano, who responded in affirmation, in a much better position to feel what lay ahead. He put a foot forward, about to stand before my own hand reached forward to force him back to the ground with a shake of my head as soon as he turned with a questioning glance. I was taking no chances.
I stood, and as soon as I did, eyes, spotlights, and rifles were on me.
Spirits help me.
"Freeze!" a voice came in a yell.
I did, yelling, "Friendly" back, awaiting the sign to which I could respond.
"Stop right there!" another voice came.
Spirits, I already did.
"Friendly!" I repeated again. Hells, just ask for the sign!
"Ash to fire!" a voice came out amidst the shouting.
"Phoenix," I answered with ease, but at a bad enough moment I found my voice yelled over by a different guard.
"Ash to fire!" came the voice again, louder.
"Phoenix!" IO was in the midst of replying once more before a shot went out. I threw myself to the ground, fortunately unscathed. Physically, at least.
"Hold!" a voice game.
Yeah, fucking tell them!
"Spirits!" I yelled. "Phoenix! With the 114th infiltration team, we're back!"
"Hold fire!" the voice came again.
And slowly, but eventually, that halt did come, but I didn't move a muscle.
It was only when I began to hear the crunch of boots along mud that I dared to raise my head to witness the sight of a gloved hand reaching down to pull me up. I took it, the sight perhaps of a Fire Nation uniform arm in arm with an Earth Kingdom one a strange one outside of the context. But it was better than being shot at.
Other men of the 114th began to rise with me in time for the sergeant to have the gall to say, "The response was 'Dragon,' Captain."
"Sure as fuck wasn't," I scoffed. "Was Phoenix. Asshole. Lucky I'm still in one piece."
Tht brought about a rather quick change in his expression, one of cocky mercy to sudden fear and shame. But it would have to wait.
"Can I expect to bring my men inside without being shot at now?" I asked.
"Of course, sir," the sergeant said, stiffening into a salute. "Sorry, sir."
"At ease. Get another group of us back earlier, sergeant?"
"Think so, sir. Few hours back from Checkpoint Platypus Bear. Had some activity. Similar confusion."
"Well," I said, placing a hand on the sergeant's pauldron. "Remembering the proper countersign might be a good first step in avoiding that.
"Yes, sir," he said again. "My apologies."
The respect I was being given, it was something both new and old. New in that it was something I never quite expected from this uniform, from these people, but in a way that almost reminded me of Citadel and the Hornets, just minus the 'sir' put after every sentence.
I hadn't liked it then.
And apparently, I still didn't.
I sighed. "It's fine. Just…if someone goes out to take a piss and responds with 'Phoenix,' maybe don't shoot first and ask questions later?"
The sergeant nodded, and determined better than to say 'sorry' again. I appreciated that. The last thing I needed was the voice of 'sorry' over and over in my head while duty, while loyalty to Riu dictated I resort to the extreme.
But that was different now. I was back where I started, in charge of people amidst a chaos I myself was hardly ready for, sure. But I was here not because I was most capable of knocking down a half-starved kid and putting the fear of the spirits in him. I was here for the opposite. I was here not to in spite fear, bu the opposite–hope.
It was hard not to laugh at myself as I thought it, but turning around to see my men, my friends, boys of Taisho, same as me, I couldn't help but feel like I'd found what I'd always looked for with the Hornets. And now I had it.
Wish you were here to see it, Riu, I thought, knowing still that he wouldn't be satisfied. It wasn't his. It wasn't freedom. Not quite, but it's enough.
"Alright, boys, I said. Let's say hello to the lazy bums."
That was met with a cheer and a wave of relief as we took our steps back to our side of hell in anticipation to see once more our men, and the boys of armored to whom we owed our victory.
Aegis
"Don't cut the fucking chain," Gan yelled.
I turned in time to see the earthbender come to a stop beside us.
Gunji's eyes settled on me, staring with intent as I darted my head back, knowing time was running out.
"You need to cut the chain!" I yelled.
"Don't do it, Gunji!"
I looked again, and saw as the earthbender prepared his attack. Either we'd be falling in the next second, or we'd be dead already. What awaited us below, I couldn't be sure, but I could only know what would happen if we stayed.
There was no mistaking that understanding in my eyes as they met Gunji's, and I yelled one last time, "Cut it!"
"Don't!" Gan called out, but it was too late.
I braced, jaw clench, chin tucked into my chest, and closed my eyes in expectation for the impact that would come.
And it did, but the world did not go back. Instead, it came back from that state, and so I woke with a gasp on my lips.
I was alive.
I felt across my body, needing to be sure, but the evidence of my pat down came back positive. I was alive.
That didn't slow down my heart any. I looked around me, and there was no crew in sight, only the shadowy confines of my turret, and above me, a canopy of tree leaves, the hatch of my turret seemingly torn free in whatever disaster had brought us here.
No, I thought in an instant. No, no, no, no, no!
I moved to free myself of my seat harness, only finding in my haste, however, that it was stuck, but I was stubborn. I needed to know. I needed to know where they were. It couldn't be like last time. Not again.
Reaching for the knife by my belt, I drew it free, cutting through the harness restraint, freeing myself with enough forward momentum that I found myself falling to the floor of the Shanzi with a loud clunk, one that rang loud enough in my head that I almost didn't hear the words from outside.
"Oh; he's finally awake."
Still the pounding in my chest.
What?
"Good," a voice I now recognized as Boss's came. "Was worried he was going to sleep through everything?"
When did-
"Hey!" Zek's voice rang out as he entered the Shanzi to lean beside me. "You good? Hurt?"
These bitches left me unconscious!
I shoved, and Zek lurched back with a laugh as I rose.
"Thought you assholes were dead," I said, standing. "Could've at least woken me."
"Eh wanted to let you wake yourself," Zek retorted. "And you looked fine enough so figured it wasn't urgent. Unlike Hizo back there."
"And yet you decide it's the uninjured who should be allowed to rest," Hizo's voice came. Turning towards the sound of his voice revealed him entering Shanzi as well, less as a matter of checking on me so much as he was clearly already a man on a mission, opening a panel on Shanzi's wall clearly in search of something or another.
"You're needed working on the tank," Boss said.
"And I'm as useful asleep as I am on my feet?" I asked, slightly joking, slightly hurt.
"You said it, not us," Zek teased.
"Well you're awake now," Boss said, "so you're actually of use again. Zek, take point outside."
"Sir," Zek answered, rising to leave the tank as I did so as well, not wanting to be crammed inside the sorry wreck of Shanzi any longer than I needed to be.
I emerged into a night alive with the rustling of trees in the wind, the chirping of insects, and smoke billowing into the sky from an Earth Kingdom camp still left ablaze. Turning as I left, it was impossible to not notice that Shanzi herself seemed to be one with the forest, a canopy of leaves, grass, and branches strewn over her dormant form to camouflage her presence. It was a good enough place to lay low, wherever the hell this place was.
"So what're we looking at?" I asked, Boss, affording him a lazy salute enough to suffice as 'standing to attention' given the circumstances.
"Made it 'bout halfway through the Kingdom's lines before we took a beating too many," Boss said.
"That was half?" I asked.
He nodded. "Small woods breaking up their position. That's where we are."
"Rest of armored?" I asked.
"We were far from the last. Have to assume the others carried on the mission. Smoke to the west is in favor of that."
"And what about us?"
"Good question," Boss said. "Hizo?!"
"Like I was worried about," his voice echoes from inside Shanzi. "Steam line's ruptured. Torn to shreds. Can't go anywhere like this."
"Got anything to repair it?" Boss asked.
"Not on us, no. Only place to get intact tubing's back at the motor pool or another tank."
"Some others will have to be nearby, right?" I asked.
Boss nodded, then proceeded to ask, "That something that can be easily extracted?"
"Easily, no. But it's doable."
"Good. You and the kid are going out then. We'll hold down the fort here, take care of what we can from here."
Hizo now poked his head out from Shanzi, affording first me a glance, and then Boss. I wasn't sure, judging from his face, which discomforted him more: going out with me, or leaving Shanzi to a non-maintenance crew. "You and Zek are going to set the track back?"
"You rather somebody else try to extract the tubing?"
Hizo considered for a moment, then acquiesced.
"Fair enough."
I wasn't going to complain. I re-entered the Shanzi in search for my helmet, finding it as well as my other fallen equipment soon enough. As I did so, however, a thought crossed my mind-one that neither Boss nor Hizo appeared to be making any mention of.
I re-emerged to Boss setting the parameters of our mission: no straying too far, not engaging in unnecessary combat, covering our tracks, the works. But no mention of what was nagging me.
"And if the tank we find's crew is still around?"
The two afforded me a confused look.
"Then help them get back on their feet," Boss said. "They're comrades. Do what you can to help, and hope they return the favor."
I nodded, joining Hizo's side as he too collected the last of his things and set out to leave.
"Hizo's taking point," he added.
"No shit," I answered behind me as the two of us set off.
We had to be careful. Obviously.
That meant we moved off of the path of debris that Shanzi had created through the wood, meant that I produced no flame to light the way, and meant that we travelled on near hands and knees as we poked our way forward.
We knew what we were looking for-the same kind of trail that Shanzi had left during her plummet into the greenery. While we, or rather, the crew of the Shanzi that'd been awake at the time, had moved her away from the mess she'd made towards a more secluded setting, we were hedging our bets on other crews not having done the same.
But the search was going cold, and the night wouldn't last us forever.
"Why not just stay?" I'd asked in a hushed whisper at some point. "Enemy line's a mess; our boys will be coming in soon. Could hold out until then. Hell, could even join the fight. Harass their lines from behind while reinforcements come in."
Hizo gave me a look.
"Okay, fine," I surrendered. "Just hold tight."
"Not that either," he said. "You can bet that before our boys come in, this entire sector's getting turned into a crater. You've seen how it works. Creeping bombardment, steel wall, then the actual frontline. That's not a place I want to be caught 'holding tight.'"
He wasn't wrong. We'd been part of that 'steel wall' enough times that I shouldn't have assumed otherwise. A wave of artillery, steel, and fire consuming the land before Fire Nation boots even took their first steps there. That was hardly something I'd want to be on the opposing end of.
We continued forward, mostly noiselessly until Hizo raised a hand.
I stopped, and waited.
Then waited longer.
"Something ahead?" I asked.
"Think I see something," Hizo said. "Metal. See what I do?"
I creeped forward, Hizo detailing the spot he was referring to as I did: a little beneath the long left branch jutting from the tea between the two rocks.
I saw it.
A faint glint and reflection of the moonlight. Enough that under other circumstances I might have suspected the glint of a rifle scope. But not here, not from the Earth Kingdom. At least, I hoped not.
"I see it," I said.
"Scope?"
"I don't think so."
Hizo paused a few seconds longer, then came to his decision. "I'll check it out; watch my back."
I put a hand on his shoulder, holding him back before he could make any such call. I shook my head, and retorted with, "I'm the gunner; you hang back."
Hizo saw the point quickly enough. He nodded and followed up with a single, "Don't go too far," and so I went forward.
I kept low as I did, my confidence in glint not being that of a scope only going so far. I figured anybody behind such a rifle would have put a ball into me by now, but seeing as how no such thing had happened yet, I carried on.
That or they're just waiting for me to give the all clear, I thought.
That concern, however, would go unvindicated as following the brushing aside of branches and brambles, the husk of a wrecked Fire Nation tank became apparent to me. To say it was worse for wear would have been an understatement. It appeared as though the engine had run itself dry with nothing more to feed it, its final venture having been halfway through a grandfather tree's trunk before unable to press any further ahead.
It can still be a trap, I reminded myself before I took another step forward, pausing.
"Hey!" I hissed out, awaiting a potential response. Be it from a Fire Nation survivor or Earth Kingdom ambusher, I couldn't say, but still I hissed again, "Hey!"
And received still no response.
I turned my head. Hizo was still in place, and I was still, from a certain perspective, hidden. But it didn't feel right. Not quite. I remembered Hizo's orders not to tread too far, and then I ignored them, taking a few more steps ahead closer to the certifiably dormant tank, now out of cover.
Any competent ambusher would've killed me by now, I thought.
"Is it clear?" I heard Hizo's voice hiss behind me in a tone indicative of this not being his first time asking, the last few likely unheard by me over the drumbeat of my heart.
"Yeah," I responded back, the hiss in my voice lost while I still maintained the lower volume.
I heard leaves and earth rustle and shift behind me as Hizo too dropped the secrecy and walked forward.
"Anything?"
"Nothing alive, at least," I said.
Hizo nodded. "Check the back; take point. I'm right behind you."
I nodded. Seniority meant little in the face of talent, which wasn't to deny Hizo his, but when it came to potentially warding off an earthbender attacker or a spooked firebender, the choice was obvious.
I turned the corner of the tank towards the back, a fuller extent of its damage now made readily observable to me, the tank, now indicated to have been named 'Thunder' as indicated by the characters painted on its back hull, having taken more than its fair share of arrows, hand cannon rounds, and boulders.
It was a miracle it'd made it this far. And a pity it'd made it no farther.
The crew might've escaped, I tried to tell myself, but with the sealed rear hatch, I didn't hold too tightly onto that notion.
The metal plating of Thunder's rear had been bent horridly out of shape by the blows it's taken, the rear hatch impossible to open. However, on account of the strain it'd endured, the plating was significantly weakened, and it wasn't difficult to identify where it was weakened.
Leaning forward, clasping my right wrist with my left hand so as to steady it, I produced a small though precise and concentrated flame with my index and middle finger, bringing it over to where the plating was weakest, digging through as a saw did with wood. It didn't take long for the screeching remaneuvering of metal plates to indicate that I'd cut through, and with a slight tug, it was clear that'd done the trick.
From the periphery of my vision, I saw Hizo, having been watching my back until this point, turn his head naturally having heard the commotion. He said nothing, however, though I knew his fear. It was quiet enough, however, and we would be quick.
I reached forward with my hands, careful to avoid where the metal was most jagged, and found a secure enough grip to pull the hatch outwards, enabled some small part by my restructuring, but mostly by the still-intact hinges.
The Thunder's rear hatch opened, and in so doing, revealed the steel tomb within.
I stepped within, a small flame in my left hand to light the way, but soon thereafter wished I had gone in blind.
To my left, against the wall lay the lifeless corpse of a Fire Nation tank engineer, some impact or another, judging by the puddle of blood by his head, having sent his unarmored skull into a surface whose hardness it was not made to withstand.
I continued on forward, and heard the metal footsteps of Hizo behind me, not having realized that I hadn't heard his request for confirmation that the tank was clear. In the absence any death rattle from me, however, he'd assumed the affirmative and had come in after, seemingly less perturbed by the display as I was as I could already heard the manipulation of different panelings and tools behind me.
I crept past the gunner's seat, the hanging leg a preview of what to inspect, but I wanted to inspect the pilot and co-pilot first. From the look of it they were the first to go. At a first glance the caved in canopy likely attributable to the impact with the tree, but the telltale signs of an earthbender's discus were apparent, having crushed the bow of the landship, killing the two pilots whose lower halves were all the was visible to me, and sending the tank on a blind course ahead, pushed onwards by a rear engineer, and a lone gunner.
"Both pilots dead," I said, attempting not to let myself have too much emotion behind those words.
"Okay," Hizo said back to me amidst the clatter of our sole reason for being here.
And of the gunner…
I turned back, a simple craning of my head upwards and swift recognition of a small trickle of blood that still dripped from above enough to tell me not to get my hopes up.
I did not.
Shifting around and continuing back, I positioned myself below the seat, and so stepped onto the precipice of the gunner's seat, allowing me to raise myself to his level, and meet him eye to eye. Or, as much as I could by merit of the Fire Nation mask that shielded his face, and shrouded the point of origin of the blood that trickled steadily to the steel floor beneath him.
But as the light of my flame reflected across the whole of his ceramic facemask and metallic helm but for one point-that where an earthbender's pike had embedded itself into his skull, I understood what it was that'd killed him. Before or after the pilots' own deaths I couldn't say, but just one more domino in the death of the Thunder.
"The gunner?" I heard Hizo's echoing voice ask.
"Firebender," I said.
"And?"
Did I need to say it?
"Dead."
"Damnit," was Hizo's answer, as though the line of questioning was anything more than white noise for him as he worked. "Get down here. Need help with the clamps so I can remove the tubing safely. Some of it got torn up, but most should be usable."
I heard him, but I wasn't so quick to descend. Of the items that reflected the light of my flame, so too did I make out the tags that hung around the firebender's neck, and so I had reached forward to remove them.
"What're you doing?" Hizo asked.
"Taking their tags," I answer. "Keep tabs on the dead."
"Like you said, our own line will be here quick enough."
Maybe, I thought. But this isn't for them.
The tag snapped, and so I succeeded in retrieving the half that was necessary to keep tabs on the fallen. As I lowered myself, preparing to do the same for the pilots and engineer, a small inconsistency in the soldier's belt stood out to me–paper, a letter.
I took that too.
Back down on the floor, I ignored another one of Hizo's calls for me to assist him as I returned to the pilot's canopy, their upper halves' tags irrecoverable, and so took the ones stored in their left boots as backups, those at the very least intact.
By the time the engineer's was removed too, Hizo had begrudgingly managed to remove one of the clamps single-handedly, though I still assisted him with the final one amidst some small complaint.
Some minutes later, the mostly-intact tubing coiled around his shoulder, the agreement was reached that the time had come to leave. I wasn't going to object. I didn't want to stay around this coffin any longer.
The outside world was just as quiet and serene as when we had left it, somewhat to my dismay. A part of me had almost been hoping that the Earth Kingdom team to have dealt the Thunder's killing blow had decided to follow its trail to verify the kill. At least then the next men I killed could have been done in direct retaliation.
No such luck.
Hizo took point now as we retraced our steps slowly and methodically back to the Shanzi, having returned to our prior state of hisses, tip-toes, and whispers, communicating solely through hand signals, pauses, and resumes.
Be it the chirp of an insect, the rustle of wind against a tree, or the distant unidentifiable noise, we stopped at nearly every instant, Hizo's precautions losing their novelty to me until the one that defied his prior mannerisms, a hand now reaching back fully to clasp my shoulder and stop me in my tracks.
Then I heard it.
Men.
The words they spoke were unidentifiable, but the presence of their voices, and, more importantly, the way the light of the torches they bore reflected across the green of their Earth Kingdom armor was all I needed.
The ones responsible or otherwise, I thought, A dirt eater's a dirt eater.
I took a step forward, and let the energy in my right hand build past the pain to produce a small but fervent flame in my palm, ready to be cast out, but Hizo had other plans.
A hand tightened around my shoulder, and now looking up at him, I could see the shake of his head.
"They're Earth Kingdom," I hissed.
"No unnecessary combat," Hizo echoed Boss's words.
"They're searching the woods," I said. "They could find the Shanzi."
"They're going the opposite direction. They're leaving. Engaging now would only increase searches in the area."
I knew that. Of course I did. I'd known the direction they were going but hadn't wanted it to matter as much as it actually did.
That meant nothing to me.
I wanted blood.
"They're Earth Kingdom."
"They're meaningless. We matter more. Clear?"
I was grateful for the helmet. I imagined the glare I was affording Hizo then and there wouldn't have reflected well on the Shanzi's newest crewmate. And it gave me the time needed to recompose myself, and respond with a simple, and subservient, "Yes sir."
The Earth Kingdom patrol passed soon enough, and so we carried on forward.
The Shanzi was right where we had left it.
In our absence, Zek and Boss had managed, to Hizo's surprise, to reset the loosened track of the tank.
Our return was met with the expected relief. None of which I could share in, however.
I had done my part, I had followed orders, and I had let the enemy go.
What kind of fucking soldier did that?
One who knows how to shut up and get the job done, I supposed.
But what is my job if not to kill?
Still, I allowed Hizo to sing the expected praises for me as he filled Boss in on what we had done, omitting my occasional insubordination and the four dog tags I had collected, likely having merely forgotten.
I did my part and assisted the crew of the Shanzi in replacing the steam tubing of the Shanzi, a process that ended up more in us jury-rigging its addition, its haggard form barely held together and help in place by half-eroded clamps, surplus tape, and Boss's coat to tie it all together.
Would it hold?
According to Hizo, if we kept below a certain speed, a certain amount of boiled water, and a certain amount of fuel consumed, and a certain amount of damage withstood, sure.
It would have to do.
And so I helped close Shanzi up again after we had opened her, and awaited the next order. Anything to avoid thinking. Anything to avoid thinking about the four dead men left unavenged.
"Aegis," I heard Boss's voice say now. "Settle in. Get some rest. We'll be leaving as soon as Shanzi's had enough time to cool down."
"And that'll be-?" I asked.
Boss chuckled. "Whenever she's ready. Never rush a lady."
I managed to scoff, and so Boss turned away, lowering himself from my seat, but before he did, made one final note. "Oh," he said. "Hizo told me about the patrol. Between you and me, in your shoes, I can't say I would have held back, but you followed orders. You did what you had to do to keep your crew safe. That's what matters."
If those words were supposed to make me feel any better, then Boss's efforts were sadly in vain. But still, it was something. Good soldiers followed orders.
I nodded.
"Thank you," I said.
He nodded back to me, and was gone shortly after.
I leaned back into my gunner's seat, and closed my eyes, almost as though I expected any form of comfort and rest to come.
And just my luck those giving me orders are saints.
Danev
"Another batch returning!"
Fire Nation soldiers scattered to make room for the tanks that rushed through the now parted entryway into our lines, unopposed.
"I count five!" Penar shouted beside me as I, in addition to a small number of other soldiers of the 114th who would remain awake through the night to count our survivors rushed to the smoking vehicles.
I could've been told that these tanks' last tour had been through the fires of the Fire Island volcanoes by the way appeared to us now, charred, busted to hell, and still smoking as though having used the last of their life to make it these last fateful miles to us.
And likely so, they had.
The men beside me of the 114th were hardly the only ones to rush to the tanks, a great many other soldiers on patrol duty or performing early morning tasks quick to join.
I spied my tank, 2nd in the line, currently unattended to, and so ran to it, Penar fast on my heels.
It burned.
A small fire blazed across its hull, the point of origin seemingly a deep laceration across the hull that dug deep, likely to the coal burner itself, the very lifeblood of the tank that'd brought the crew this far now the same thing that emperilled them.
I was careful with my footing as I ascended the side of the tank, directing Penar to the back as I myself went for the pilots' hatch.
Reaching down for the handle, my hand instinctively pulled away, the heat of it indicative of a fire that'd raged far more inside than I had anticipated. Were I a firebender, perhaps it wouldn't have bothered me a fraction as much, would have allowed me to push through regardless. But I wasn't.
Instead, I could only roll my sleeve forward to such a point that it operated as a glove of sorts, bit my lip, brace myself, and reach forward.
I could still feel the heat through the thin fabric, only slightly diminished, but still, pulled.
The hatch door flipped open, and from it, a cloud of smoke that seemed deliberately directed for my eyes.
I could scarcely see a thing through its gray shroud and the tearing of my eyes, the only sensation still apparent to me the feeling of a hand clasping my own. I pulled, and could only just make out the form of a Fire Nation soldier rising out of the hatch with my support, a chorus of coughs, heaves, and wheezes in his wake.
"You're safe!" I yelled through my own throat's contractions, my lungs working overtime to keep my breaths from halting. "Get out of here!" The first obliged, and so came the second from the pilots' canopy as well, to whom I yelled the same demands.
But he was less inclined to take them, a second hand now finding its way to my shoulder as a voice back yelled, "The gunner! He's trapped! Get him out!"
"I will," I assured him, using the knowledge of his position that he offered me through the half-embrace to turn him and gently shove him back, off of the tank and away, hopefully out of the smoke.
The gunner, I reminded myself, turning around, the rest of the tank now facing me, what little I could see, as I crawled upwards atop the turret, met there with a loud banging from inside. The gunner was trying to get out.
"I got you!" I found myself yelling through the strain of my throat and lungs by merit of the smoke. "Hang on!"
My hands found the handles of the turret hatch, and I pulled, but it was no use. That banging came again. If there was a voice within that tank speaking, I couldn't hear it. I wanted to believe the gunner within was making no effort to speak, every ounce of breath he had left a precious resource. His banging resumed, and I pulled. Still nothing.
"We need to time it!" I yelled, hoping, praying that the gunner within could hear. "When I say, 'go,' push!"
The banging stopped. He was listening. He had to be.
"Three!" I started. "Two, one, push!"
I pulled, and felt the buckle of the hatch beneath me as the gunner pushed, and the door swung open with such a force that I nearly fell backwards off of the tank.
A new rush of smoke, it a miracle to me that the gunner was still alive. To say in one piece, however, would have been an overstatement.
"I can't feel my legs!" I heard the gunner yell, now deigning to speak, out of the frying pan but into the fire, scantily better, but at least not as suffocating.
"I'll pull!" I assured him. "Give me your hands!"
In no position to deny the order, he did just that, my hands first finding his wrist, pulling him out enough to see that he fortunately was not trapped, as well as enough to let my hands creep further down the length of his arms to find his armpits, the leverage needed for me now to yank again, and harder, pulling the whole of him, tense upper body and limp lower and all.
He screamed. It could hardly have managed the sensation being a pleasurable one, his life being saved aside. I hardly noticed the trail of blood he was leaving behind him through the smoke, but still that didn't stop me, maneuvering now his body to the roof of the pilots' canopy and lifting him now with his body strewn across my shoulders, the position necessary to get him off the tank, and out of the smoke.
It was miracle enough for me to get out of there. I could scarcely imagine what it was for the poor sod who'd been stuck in that iron furnace for the last harrowing moments that's brought them here. And still in formation too, I thought, turning back to see the other tanks lined up behind. Tough bastards.
Of which, I was not. It was no sooner that the two of us were out of the smoke that my legs buckled beneath me and I collapsed to the ground, the gunner beside me with a pained grunt.
The tank burned behind me, and it was just then that I noticed, from the rear, a Fire Nation tank engineer being escorted out by the two figures I recognized as Penar and Mano.
Good men, I thought with a smile as I watched before I let the exhaustion settle in and found my head resting back on the grass beneath me.
I didn't quite remember being lifted back to my feet, or being asked the first however many times if I was alright, but I was instinctively telling them "I'm fine," before I even realized who I was talking to, much less whether or not I actually was.
My thoughts were only on one thing.
"The other tanks?" I asked.
"Evacuated," Mano told me, now recognizable to me, popping me up with one arm around my shoulder and another on my waist. "Some dead, more injured, but most are accounted for."
"Are-" I coughed. "Are any-"
"No, sir. No sign of Fluke or his crew."
Damnit, I thought, my eyes closing. I wondered if maybe it was for the best considering the horrid state of those that'd just returned, but at least they were home, most able to live to tell the tale.
But those who weren't…where the hell were they?
When I awoke some minutes later on the back of a medical cart who I could now overhear was being given orders to take me direct to the infirmary, my first action was to pull rank and belay that order, the act of doing so now growing more familiar to me and my station as an officer.
"Spirits, Danev," Chejuh said from beside the cart. "Can't you just stay still asleep long enough to let us do something behind your back?"
"Fat fucking chance," I said in an attempt to scoff, my body's only answer being to be consumed by a violent coughing fit.
Beside the cart I had been set upon against my will was Penar, Chejuh, and Mano, the three having seemingly just dropped me off here in an effort to get me to safety. It was commendable, but far from what I needed. What I needed, rather, was the canteen that hung at the side of Chejuh's belt.
"Hand me that," I said, my eyes and hands making clear my intention.
Chejuh obliged, unclasping it from his person, and so I sat up, legs dangling off the side of the cart as I took it, and downed the whole of the canteen, nearly drowning myself in place of suffocating, before handing it back, breathless.
"So am I headed to the infirmary or what?" a voice sounded from the front of the cart, belonging, I noticed now, to its driver.
Pushing myself off of the cart was harder than intended, but I managed to do so, just barely stopped from falling by my cohort who waited below. "You're dismissed!" I called back. "Stay on standby for other returning parties!"
"Sir!" the driver responded back, setting his ostrich horse and the attached cart back into motion as he sped away.
I had no way of knowing where in the camp I was, how long I was out, or what had passed in the time that my men were attempting to get me to safety, but my only concern was clear, and that which I voiced.
"What's the situation?" I asked, stepping into motion in a random direction, just needing to get moving again to restore some sense of purpose to myself.
"Two returned parties," Chejuh said, to whom I now handed back his empty canteen. "One was that which you helped out. Other wasn't beat as bad, but still, no Fluke. Not yet."
"He's out there," I told myself as much as I was telling Chejuh and the others. "And ours?"
"Same as when you left them; you weren't out long. They're fine. Can head back there now."
I nodded. I told myself I was doing it for the sake of my men, but the truth was, I needed to sit. Sure as hell not in some infirmary being poked and prodded, but with my men. I could hardly make an estimate to just how much rest we would be able to obtain with the night nearing its end, the black of the night sky gradually shifting to indigo, and, in time enough, to blue.
"We should go check on them" I said. "If any orders are going to come our way, we should be there."
"You kidding?" Penar asked. "After last night, really think they'll have more for us?"
"Who's to say?" I asked rhetorically with a scoff. "We're special forces after all."
That answer wasn't a comforting one. I could see it in the face of Penar most obviously, Mano who kept it to himself but for whom it still showed, and Chejuh, who though facing directly ahead and preoccupied with supporting my weight, was most certainly not pleased.
A bad joke, I though with a grimace as I removed myself from the subject of Chejuh's support, now forcing myself to stand, and much more, walk on my own two legs. "I'm kidding," I said, only half-certain. "We hit the Earth Kingdom hard. They'll need time to recover, and before then, I'm sure we'll have made our own play too. Their fate is sealed."
"It better be," Penar said. "You saw the mess we left behind."
"The mess armored left behind," I corrected him. "We just gave them the key."
Penar went quiet, knowing to be true, and so we continued walking, the segment of our line now becoming more clear to me. We were close back to home.
"Going to need to write a report on last night," I said as we began to close as a group the remaining few dozen yards back to the 114th's crater campsite.
"Say that like it's not your job," Chejuh chuckled.
"Was when Rulaan was in charge and I was 2nd lt," I said with a grin. "That's all you now," I finished, clasping a hand on Rulaan's shoulder as I left him behind and crossed into the threshold of our camp.
The 114th's staging area was a mixed atmosphere split between those who were attempted to salvage what sleep they could following their late night return to our line, and those resigned to the night being one without sleep, instead gathered around small fires, playing games of Pai Sho in the sand, or others about their own acts of recreation.
It was a quiet calm that I wished not to disturb until Homun, at work on a book yet still first to notice, spotted me and declared, "Commander on deck!"
"At ease, staff sergeant, for fuck's sake," I said, half-joking. "It's too early for yelling; I already have a headache."
Behind me, Chejuh, Penar, and Mano were returning to their own desired tasks for the time being that orders had yet to be delivered to us.
I, however, took a seat beside the fire that Homun was keeping alive by his side, and added a small bit of kindling that'd been added beside it, the need for its light approaching an end as the sun now made its first appearances over the horizon.
"Sorry, sir," Homun said.
"It's nothing," I scoffed. "Just a long night, that's all."
"Good night," he added. "We got the job done, gave the Earth Kingdom something to remember."
"Armored did all the work," I said again, so intent not to let their part of the job, and their sacrifice, be forgotten. "But still, you're right. They won't be recovering from that. Only choices now are surrender or retreat."
"We'd allow that?" Homun asked. "Let them resupply?"
"Why not?" I asked, grabbing a stick to try and settle the kindling within the flame, let it breathe, settle, and grow. "They have no supply line to the central city. Their need to resupply would only put more strain on their whittling reserve. They're exhausted, disorganized, and undersupplied. They force is becoming too much. Soon they'll have a choice to make."
"Bend or break?" Homun asked, referring to the obvious two outcomes: surrender or annihilation.
I nodded.
"Bend or break."
From there, I would have planned to switch to some other point of conversation, perhaps something more cheerful, had Homun now stood again into a crisp salute.
"Oh very funny," I began saying until it became clear that Homun's attention wasn't on me, but on the prince of the Fire Nation behind me, Lu Ten.
Of course, I thought to myself, stifling a chuckle.
I considered standing and saluting too, but, well, I'd been reprimanded enough times by Lu Ten for doing so, and he wasn't here for the formalities, I wagered.
"Going to sit?" I asked.
"Don't mind if I do," Lu Ten said. I scooted aside to make way while Homun's salute gradually lowered, the confusion on the man's face a spectacle in it of itself.
"I-uh," he stammered. "I think I…I should go."
And with that he did, picking up both himself and his book, retreating into the dimming shadows of his camp into the night.
It was a few seconds after he was gone that Lu Ten then asked, "Was it something I said?"
I laughed. "Guess the presence of your lordliness is still a bit much for them."
"Huh. You'd think they'd be more familiar with my presence by now, you all being my special project and all."
"Oh, special project, is it? I didn't think you did preferential treatment."
"You're special forces. That's about as preferential as it gets." Lu Ten grinned, stoking the fire in front of him with the small stick I'd set down. I wondered if it was just for show and he actually was manipulating the flames with his abilities all the while. It had to be that considering how the fire so instantly grew then. Or maybe it was just that passive of an instance. Or he's just that good with a stick. "And speaking of," he added. "How went your first assignment."
"Not going to wait for the debriefing?" I asked.
"I could," he confessed. "But I'm already here."
I scoffed. "Well so you don't consider the trip here wasted, it went about as well as it could've. Knocked out their guns, signalled armored, no casualties-"
"And brought the Earth Kingdom line to their knees. I could see the smoke from here. Though…I guess that's as much to armored's credit as yours."
Finally, I thought to myself.
"And word on them?"
"About half have returned up to this point. More are coming in at a steady rate, some likely trapped behind enemy lines, but, for the rest."
"Heroes," I finished.
"All of them," Lu Ten agreed.
There was a pause then, one I knew not how to occupy but for letting my mind wander. Though even then, it always found itself back to the same question.
"So what happens now?" I asked.
"Now we get ready to play our hand. I don't intend to let the Earth Kingdom catch their breath. We'll push. Get our boys trapped behind enemy lines while we're at it."
"When would you say that'd be?"
"Your men won't be called on, don't worry. You've done enough. But regardless, I'd say no more than a day. It'll keep the Earth Kingdom busy enough getting their shit together that I doubt they'll have the time to formulate a real defense.
I would have been happy to end the discussion there, but it was at that moment, the sun perhaps now a quarter-risen over the horizon, that something in the atmosphere changed–a horn cry that blared, faint at first.
I perked my head towards the direction. "More tanks coming back?"
There's been no horn before for it, but…maybe? Still, Lu Ten was listening too, and help a hand up for me to be quiet. He was listening just as much.
A second horn. This one louder, this one growing, this one now spanning from a single horn to two, to double that, and double more as the signal raged across the Fire Nation line. It wasn't new survivors, no. It was something far more unexpected than that.
"No," Lu Ten said. "The Earth Kingdom's launching a counterattack.
Aegis
It's been over a year here.
And finally, I think it is coming to an end.
I wake up every day to the sight of their inner wall, their last line of defense. The end is coming. Not the battle, or just the war, but a century of conflict.
I feel lucky to know that I will be here for it, for the end of it all, and that those who come next, the children of the men beside me, our children, they may grow up knowing something that is not war.
I long for the day I come home to a world of peace for the first time in my lifetime, and am thankful in knowing you will be there waiting for me.
-Ze'tren
I put away the note of the firebender who would deliver on none of the promises made in his letter, and leaned back in my gunner's seat.
Morning was coming, and I hadn't slept a wink.
None of us had. We were in enemy territory.
The most we had done was move the Shanzi, get here in somewhat of a better position for when she was finally ready to move. But that moment was coming slower than we would've liked.
We should've been out of here by now, but the toll she'd taken during the battle, Hizo had yet to give her a clean bill of health to get on the move. Perhaps we should have risked it out during the night, but had worse come to worst and we'd broken down in no man's land,stuck there until daybreak when we'd be sitting ducks, well, that wasn't a risk that Boss had been ready to make.
And so we waited..
But we could only wait so long.
I thought it maybe just the shrill of another insect, or perhaps a morning bird up with the sunrise, but it was none of that. What we heard was a horn.
In my periphery, I saw the Shanzi's two pilots crane their heads to listen, and I myself rose out of my seat, lifting my head out of the turret hatch.
What the hell.
The horn was still there, and soon joining it, a rustle of wind, one from above.
I looked, and there it was, only one at first, but the smoke trail of a projectile flying through the air. A flaming boulder or an artillery shell, I could not say, but it was joined by others, flying into the sky from our line to the enemy's, to us.
And there were more. Many more.
Oh shit, I thought.
"Hizo," I thought I heard a voice say below me from inside the Shanzi. They saw it too. "Hizo!" Boss's voice repeated.
"She's not ready yet," he protested.
Oh shit.
"We don't have time for 'ready!' Move!"
And Shanzi moved. It was no sooner than she came alive that she lurched forward and I was thrown back down into my seat.
I needed no words ordering me to do so. I strapped in. It was going to be a bumpy ride, especially as we pierced through the same foliage and forestry that'd protected us throughout the night. But if I had truly allowed myself to think that that would be the extent of our bumpiness, then I was dead wrong.
To emerge from out of the small woods was not only to be met with the comparatively blinding light of the open world, but a sight I was not ready to behold–hundreds if not thousands of Earth Kingdom soldiers, tanks, cavalry, charging forward towards our line. Them. Charging. After everything.
Oh, hell.
Just as we noticed them, they noticed us. Though not their priority, it would be impossible for the Fire Nation tank emerging from their woods to go undetected, and so the early shots of Fire Nation artillery had begun coming down atop the charging Earth Kingdom battalion, still was attention diverted to us.
I did what I could.
We all did.
Hizo in the back of Shanzi, moderating her temperatures, keeping us moving but not too fast to blow our engine, ensuring the flow of steam, keeping us moving.
Zek and Boss in the front, piloting us through lines of enemy combatants and our own falling artillery. Because there was a damn lot of it, but nothing we couldn't evade, terrifying though it was.
A shell in front of us by a few dozen feet, mangling a trio of Earth Kingdom soldiers, a fiery catapult boulder to my right, ending an earthbender's attempt to strike us down.
And then there was me, in my turret seat, my heart pounding in beat with every rotation of the Shanzi's axles as I did what I could to keep them off of us. Whether it was the Earth Kingdom hand cannoneer taking aim to fire, the earthbender attempting to form a ditch to trap us, or the cavalryman atop an ostrich horse going for a bold charge, I put these efforts to rest.
But between the thousands of enemies united in one final suicidal charge and our own artillery trickling down upon us, there was only so much I could do.
Much less with what that trickle would become.
"Aegis!" Boss yelled. "Get off the gun and get in the back! We need more heat!"
More speed.
"She can't take it!" Hizo yelled.
"She'll have to!"
She would have to, I agreed, unstrapping myself from my seat to retreat to the maintenance bay in the hopes we wouldn't take a deathly blow that I could have prevented had I been above, but I was stopped in my tracks.
Not by the arrival of a new combatant, of some threat that demanded my attention, but a shadow passing over us, over the whole of the world.
I looked up, and above me was a cloud not one of spirit's making, but of hundreds of smoke trails of artillery unified together to blot out the sun, all now already on their descent towards the enemy, towards exactly where we were.
Fuck.
"Go!" Boss yelled, having seen the exact same thing I did.
And I did, not hesitating in spouting fire into our engine atop the coal, and we moved, more than we ever had before.
I did not need to be at the turret and have my eyes on the outside to know what we faced. I could feel it, not as any direct impact, not yet, but the way that the world itself shifted around.
An impact to our right, another, one to our left, one behind us, one further off, two to the left, more, more, more, more.
I shut my eyes as it felt to me that the earth itself was splitting beneath our feet, and I prayed, prayed and spit fire.
But prayer could only go so far.
I didn't remember being hit.
I didn't remember when it'd happened, how far we'd gone, or if even we had been hit, perhaps simply breaking down in the middle of the killzone.
I only remember the silence that'd come after.
I remember waking to a quiet cabin of steam, smoke, and the sound of us breathing. No light was coming in. My turret must've been crushed, I imagined, as no light shone in from where it ought to have been, and I found myself all the more thankful I'd come down when I did.
I don't remember how long we'd been there, waiting.
But I do remember the way we'd all jumped when we felt that rap of a fist against the pilot's hatch, and how we'd all held our breaths, not knowing whether it was best to keep our mouths shut and feign death, or speak.
Fortunately, that decision was made a lot easier by the voice without.
"From ash to fire," it said.
And though I could see none of the faces of Shanzi's crew in that moment, it was no wonder to me that we all must've smiled, and to whatever force we still believed in, said a prayer in thanks.
"Phoenix!"