Boss

The dawn sky was hidden by a forbearing mist, shrouding the soon-to-be field of war from our sight. The night guard had reported no incidences but had stated that the fog had risen at approximately 0645. They may have waterbenders on board, trying to create a mist to hide their actions. Would explain the events of yesterday. A cover while they established an underseas blockade.

The enemy had likely spent the night clearing the mines along their path of approach to ensure they wouldn't fall into their own trap. If he had any sense of intelligence to him, Fong would neglect the invasion and allow us to starve ourselves out on this island. I had no idea how large our coffers were, but it was clear to both him and us that we had no contact going in nor out, much less any provisions.

However, lucky for us, or potentially unlucky, Fong was a glory hound, and would insist on meeting us in a full-frontal assault. However, it seemed that, despite this, he had some wit to him, and to fog cover proved just as much. Likely some overeager southern warriors. Yet another potential ally the Fire Nation had turned into an enemy due to its own aggression. I myself had been part of the reason that the Southern Water Tribe held us in such low regard. These things seemed to happen when you tried to eliminate an entire culture of people. You would think we would've learned our lesson, yet here we were. Thanks to the activities of such righteous benders, however, our artillery was effectively rendered useless. The closest marker we could see was the 50-meter one. We had lost any initiative we had previously held, and the target we were, Fong would spot us long before we spotted him.

Yilie was aware of this much too and had no intention of giving Fong the first attack, or at the very least, allowing it to be as effective as possible.

We were standing together, me, Gordez, and Yilie. The night watch, 10 men, were getting some sleep deeper in the castle. In the fortifications along the cliffside where we were, around 57 soldiers stood with us, 2 manning the artillery gun, 55 armed with bows and arrows, awaiting first contact with the enemy to make their move. Above us, on the top of the cliff, 50 other soldiers, alongside Luke, Jadoh, Ka'lira, and Zek, were manning the catapults, preparing a second front should the castle fall. With our limited armaments, no troops were enabled to stick to a particular role. All men currently serving as archers now would be expected to switch to close-quarters combat in a minute's notice should it come to that ad we found ourselves fighting within the confines of the castle's tunnels. Yilie turned to the men next to him, saying "Lights out!" The orders echoed across the tunnels as the men repeated the order down the tunnels of the castle until the gas to the lights was cut off, and all internal lighting soon was cut out in a hopeful attempt to shroud our presence in a manner similar to what our foes were doing.

The murder holes were armed, the boiling oil ready to drop, the artillery was loaded, ready to fire at 75 meters, roughly where we expected the fog to have ended, and the soldiers were as ready as they could be expected to be under the circumstances. There wasn't much more to do other than to wait.

And as I waited there, readying myself to fight the same enemy I had been fighting my entire life, I couldn't help but ask myself what had changed. How was I somewhere any different opposed to where I had been a year ago. I was fighting the same people. Taking orders from the same nation. What had changed? Was I really so blindly loyal to my nation that I had agreed to fight for them without even discussing payment? What the hell kind of mercenary was I pretending to be? I was still a soldier. Hell, I was doing more for my nation now than I ever had while in the Southern Raiders or besieging Ba Sing Se. And I was dragging everyone under me down the selfsame road. At the very least, it didn't seem to be the biggest issue right now, but what about in the future? What about when people who actually held the same purpose I claimed to have, 'protecting those unable to protect themselves.' What then?

I cleared the questions from my mind. A war was about to commence, and I wasn't about to allow my mind to drift just as the calm before the storm came to its end.

We waited minutes more, but in our minds, the hours dragged by. What if the fog is real? What if Fong is holding off the attack as he, just as us, doesn't desire to be lost in the morning mist? I heard some shuffling to my left to see Yilie move past Gordez to me, speaking loudly and clearly, unafraid of his voice being heard, and reasonably so, "I'm thinking we fire our catapults into the mist. I have more than enough blasting jelly. We can set the barrels for a short fuse, so they'll detonate before reaching the water. Hopefully we can clear some of the mist. And if we're lucky and Fong is hiding somewhere out there, we may just score a hit on him."

"That," I said, "Or we'll just be telling Fong exactly where we are."

"He'll find that out soon enough anyway if he leaves the fog, and he'll have the initiative of a first shot then. I don't want to give him that edge."

"But if you fire, we'll have to wait to reload before firing again. In that time, he'll know right where we are and be able to bombard us."

Gordez spoke up this time, saying, "You can fire 3 or 4 of the catapults, evenly spaced, and leave the rest loaded and ready to fire. If we spot him, we can order the rest to quickly change their trajectories, and at least score some good shots before he gets his own barrage in."

Yilie nodded at that, begrudgingly accepting the idea. He hadn't had the best first interaction with Gordez, but I could at least appreciate Yilie for knowing when someone other than him had a good idea. I've had far too many commanders in the past who failed to make that realization. "Fire Catapults B, D, and F at 75 meters. Set fuse for 6 seconds."

The order was relayed to the nearby PA operator, who proceeded to repeat the order through a metal pipe running through the stone up to the firing area above. The echo could be heard through the pipes, followed by a wait of only 10 seconds, proceeded immediately by the mechanical release of 3 catapults was heard from above, hurling 3 burning barrels. And so we watched ahead as the large barrels turned into microscopic blots into the foggy mist, until they erupted in orange balls of fire, the sheer force and power of the explosion clearing the mist from the sea, providing us a line of sight into the sea, only to unveil nothing but the mere expanse of the green sea, no ship in sight.

The orders to "reload!" were heard from above as more rounds were loaded. "Should we fire another barrage?" I asked, "allow us to see further?"

"No," he said, raising an arm as though motioning to stop before I could even think to say any more. "We wait."

The wait would only extend a few seconds more until a barrage of 5 stones could be seen hurtling towards us, spawning out of the foggy mist in full force towards us, all falling short, hitting beneath us, crashing against nothing but the base of the mountain on which we were situated, achieving nothing but not only telling us that the enemy did in fact exist, but more so, exactly where they were.

"Catapults A, C, E, and G, rotate 15 degrees west to 105 degrees, distance to 95 meters, same fuse, fire."

15 seconds later, the same mechanical whir came to life, followed by 4 more explosions in the distance, clearing the fog once more in a fiery ball of light, unveiling the sea, and in the corner of the clearing, and Earth Kingdom vessel, turning to its port side so as to face us head on. None of the explosions had damaged the vessel, but we had a definitive lock on where they were, but unfortunately for us, so did they in regard to us.

Facing us now, the 2 bow-side Earth Kingdom ballistae fired towards us, launching spherical disks on earth straight towards our defensive positions. Gravity, in this case, was our ally, as the sheer distance between us, slowly diminishing, pushed the disks below our positions, colliding with the cliffside around 15 meters below us.

"Catapult group A is ready to fire!" came the update from the PA operator.

"Fire for 105 degrees, distance at 90 meters, same fuse." As the order was relayed through the metallic pipes, Yilie pushed past his troops including us, moving to where the artillery gun was housed in the tunnels, ready to fire. "Set for 105 degrees west, 75 south, and fire!"

The firebenders manning the guns mustered their strength, channeling their inner flames in the same way I'd seen Luke do so many times, and in one synchronized motion, firing their energy into 2 input barrels of the gun, combining their strength, emitting one single unified flame in a beautiful arc of red, orange, and yellow, hurtling through the air. All men in the tunnels watched in awe as the fire neared its target, praying it would hit gold. We watched as the barrage of ammunition came down, 3 flaming barrels of blasting jelly, and once bolt of fire, only for all to miss save one: 2 barrels detonating prematurely, serving no end by the shake the seas, and the bolt of fire to hit said waves. One barrel however, detonated later, singing the port side of the vessel that was now facing directly towards us. It was their turn now, however.

Their catapults were now facing us, 10 catapults in total, 5 on each side, and they were all loaded and ready to fire. 2 earth disks and 10 hurtling stones now rained upon. We braced and faced the impact with whatever strength we could. We were fortunate enough that the disks barely missed us once more, one colliding below, and one above us, raining down loose rocks upon us. 7 catapult boulders missed us, both above and below. 3 however, struck their targets. One hit one of the castle turrets' supports, bringing down a chunk of the thankfully unmanned tower into the sea. Another hit above, doing an unknown amount of damage. One however, made its ware directly into our tunnel, disregarding the thin walls of the tunnel, smashing them like paper macho, crushing and killing 2 of our soldiers, injuring 3 more with their earthen shards.

The fire was quickly extinguished by the fire benders operating the turret who had just barely evaded the wrath of the boulder. Yilie now pushed his PA operator out of the way, yelling above him, "Group B, Fire at 100 degrees, 85 meters, 6.5 seconds!", rushing immediately afterward to the artillery gun, yelling, "100 west, 70 south, fire!"

The artillery sounded, and as they did, Yilie yelled, "Get that boulder out of the tunnel. We need to stay mobile! Soldiers! Switch to bows! Nock on my command!"

1 catapult hit its target, colliding against the port side of the ship that was now directly perpendicular to us, dealing minimal damage, but telling us we were at least aiming in the right position. The other 3 catapults missed by mere meters, but at the very least, the artillery blast hit gold, striking one of their starboard side catapults, sinking the molted remains of their ordnance into their lower decks.

The next Earth Kingdom barrage was far less effective thanks to their substantial change in position in an effort to evade our more powerful weaponry, in the process, abandoning their own accuracy to the extent that no ammunition struck our tunnels, but some did indeed strike above us as we prayed none had taken down our guns. Once more, it was our turn to fire, and so the order was "straight ahead, group A, 90 degrees, 80 meters, fire!"

The barrage struck gold, disabling two more earth kingdom catapults, taking off a chunk of their port side, and landing a clean shot on one of their engines. The closer they got to us, the cleaner shots we'd have. And they realized this. So in the truest style of an Earth Kingdom vessel, it's stood its ground, directly in front of us, fearing no god, no master, and fired. One boulder struck directly above our tunnel, injuring a man who was promptly carried deeper into the castle tunnels. 2 shots missed, and 4 more hit above us as a disk hit into our tunnel, taking the torso of one soldier off of his legs, digging his remains into the tunnel walls, and an additional one hit above us.

Yilie, still at the PA system, yelled, "Straight ahead, 90 degrees, group B, 80 meters, fire!" Of the 4 batteries supposedly in catapult group B, only 3 fired, as well as did our artillery gun. All were aimed to strike gold, their heading directly towards the enemy, set to cripple the vessel, until a dome of earth rose around The Iron Ram, blocking all incoming shots, rendering our barrage useless. Meanwhile, beneath that dome, they had prepared for their barrage the whole time. The dome dissipated, and 9 projectiles emerged from the invulnerable vessel. We braced as best as we could, but it wouldn't be enough.

The mechanical scraping from above us followed by the screeches of bending steel, the splintering of wood, and the creaming of men told us that the impacts above were just as bad if not worse than what was faced below. We were struck by 2 boulders, killing 3 and injuring 5, and one perfectly placed disk that made its way through the artillery gun's firing slit, knocking off the firing mechanism, destroying its supports with the shards of its impact, and mutilating the corpses of what had moments ago been two alive-and-well operators.

"Group A, fire!" No guns fired. "Group B, fire!" Nothing. The Earth Kingdom vessel was now moving again, a mass of solid steel making its way towards us, likely only 60 meters away now, far out of range of even our best archers. So we braced as they bathed us in their explosive fury once more, killing 7 more and injuring 4 as our last catapult managed to fire, taking down an enemy gun before it was taken out itself, rendering us defenseless.

"Nock!" Yilie yelled, ordering his men to prepare their bows. "Draw!" he yelled once more, demanding their pull their strings, arrows attached, and wait. Gordez alongside 2 others were trying their damndest to repair the artillery gun as the ship moved ever closer. I myself was armed with a crossbow, ready to do what little I could before the real fighting began. Soon enough, they were at firing range, and so were we. "Loose!" Yilie yelled, and the battle began.