99 A.G
Lin observed the battle from the forward command position as the Earth Kingdom counterattack began its assault. The first hours after the breaches had gone better than expected. Their earthbenders had done their job well and the tanks had advanced as soon as the rubble was cleared enough for them to pass.
The rhinos followed with infantry support, carrying troops into the opening before the defenders could reorganize properly. By the time the sun began to climb above the broken wall, the three breaches had connected into a single frontline inside Ba Sing Se's outer defenses.
Her own participation had been brief so far. Most of her work had been giving orders, redirecting units that had advanced too quickly, and managing the cleanup after they surrounded the first Earth Kingdom forces waiting beyond the wall.
Those soldiers had tried to hold the immediate area, probably hoping to delay them long enough for the inner forces to help them fast enough. They had been brave, but courage did not matter much when tanks, artillery, and trained elite units closed around them from three sides.
They left no prisoners and the dead had been left where they fell until the medics and labor crews could reach them. There were too many bodies already, and the true battle had barely begun. As Lin suspected, the enemy had not waited long to respond.
The Earth Kingdom did not have many good options. If they stayed on the defensive, the Fire Nation would continue moving artillery through the breaches and turn every prepared position into rubble. Bombarding them from a safe distance would have been too easy.
True, ammunition was not infinite, and the earthbenders could tunnel beneath their lines if they coordinated properly, but coordinating anything while explosives landed around them was difficult. It required them to ignore the horrors of modern warfare, something their armies were not prepared for.
Lin had not seen much evidence that Ba Sing Se's generals would be able to adapt to this kind of war. They were throwing men forward in response. Lines of Earth Kingdom infantry advanced between earthworks, trenches, raised barricades, and hastily built stone shields.
Earthbenders moved with them, lifting slabs to cover the approach while archers fired from farther behind their lines, but nothing that could really penetrate their tanks and defenses so far. The first wave had already been broken by tank fire and concentrated volleys from the rifle companies. The second was forming before the last men of the first had even stopped moving.
"This is turning very ugly." Captain Aiku shouted beside her over the sound of explosions.
"It will be worse." Lin replied. "I imagine they will continue attacking until they have no more reserves left."
Azula stood a little to Lin's side, escorted by two guards who had been ordered to remain at her side at all times. The princess was observing the battlefield with bright attention, taking in the artillery impacts, the tank movements, and the constant pushing and retreating of the front.
Explosions tore through the Earth Kingdom approach again, sending men and earthworks apart in the same burst of fire and smoke. Most people would have turned pale by now, seeing their deaths so close.
The battlefield beyond the wall was already filled with bodies, wounded men dragging themselves through mud, armor fragments, burned corpses, and torn limbs left behind. The sound was constant enough that individual screams became part of the larger noise.
Lin had seen soldiers with years of service go silent after less than this, yet Azula was smiling despite everything. It was astonishing to see and Lin really commended her fortitude to handle the terrible sight.
The princess seemed energized by the scale of the battle, on the outside, but she was sure that it was a facade in order to keep morale up. It was her job as a royal after all, and Lin would really commend her later on.
"Captain, inform Zhou to extend his defenses and prepare our own trenches with the metal sheets we brought. It will stop them from tunneling straight to our positions. And we are advancing our own lines until we reach that small hill. It will give us a great advantage." Lin ordered, looking ahead.
"At once." Aiku saluted, and departed in a dash.
As she returned her attention to the battlefield, she saw with her telescope that the enemy attack would slow their advance in most of the line, but she was sure they couldn't keep up forever. The tanks and firebenders held firm around the breaches, and the railway guns were being repositioned closer by the hour.
If the Earth Kingdom wanted to turn this into a contest of endurance, then Lin would let them spend themselves until their reserves weakened. This was about to become a meat grinder very quickly.
That was useful in one sense and dangerous in another. The Fire Nation could kill far more than it lost with its current position, but her victory would be threatened if her army became trapped in a stalemate. They didn't have enough forces to endure that long.
She needed to hold the breaches, bleed the counterattacks, and prepare a plan to break through once they exhausted enough of their forward forces. She was already thinking in a plan to paralyze their assaults and give her the opportunity to strike deeper into the agrarian zone.
Beyond the smoke, Lin saw the rows of trenches stretching across the battlefield. The sight was very familiar. So similar to her first life. The mud, the craters, exploding artillery shells that fell constantly, the sounds of agonizing screams, blood and limbs everywhere.
'Takes me back. The only thing missing are those useful Americans.' Lin thought with a tired sigh.
----0000----
Major Lee was sweating by the time the third casualty report reached his hands. The paper had been carried in by a messenger whose uniform was covered in soot and dust from the outer defensive lines.
He had run half the distance by the look of him, and once he gave the report to Lee, he bent forward with both hands on his knees, trying to recover his breath. Lee barely noticed him after opening the document.
The numbers were worse than he had feared. The first counterattack had failed to push the Fire Nation back through the breaches, and the second had barely managed to slow them before metal rolling machines and the random explosions forced the front to break apart again.
By the time the third wave was called back, almost forty percent of their whole attacking forces had either been killed or injured badly enough that they could no longer fight. It was an insane number.
Lee read them again, hoping that exhaustion had made him hallucinate it. Sadly, it didn't change the second time. Whole companies had been reduced to scattered groups of survivors. Some officers had disappeared with their men, and no one knew yet if they were dead, buried beneath rubble or captured.
He lowered the paper and rubbed his face with one hand, pinching his nose. Stress was already building and the pressure each major had was now evident in their faces as he took a look around the command bunker.
The good news was that they had mostly stopped the Fire Nation advance for now. But that was just about the only good they had done so far. Their men had managed to hold the next trench line and reinforce the side flanks before the enemy vehicles could spread deeper.
Earthbenders were already building new barriers, closing broken passages, and clearing the way to more trenches so that more of their reinforcements would be able to join them soon. And indeed, more soldiers were coming.
And although it would have been a relief sometime in the past, now it only made Lee wonder how many more would have to give their lives to protect Ba Sing Se. The reserves were being pulled from all over the city.
Garrison troops, palace guards, construction crews with basic weapons training, younger recruits who had probably never seen a battlefield before, and older men who had been given armor again after their retirement.
They needed to stop the Fire Nation and force them back at all costs, but he dreaded to think how many more would die before they could manage such a feat. Lee had seen what came back from the first two waves of assaults and he didn't want to imagine what the ones who hadn't returned would look like.
Men with burned faces, missing hands, broken ribs, and dead eyes that were lost somewhere far away. Medics had filled every aid station behind the line, and the wounded kept arriving faster than anyone could treat them.
Some were left against walls with cloth wrapped around whatever injury would stop them from bleeding out too quickly. Others screamed until their voices failed. It was terrible to see, but he had to inspect and take their accounts into consideration for the next assaults.
One thing was certain to Lee though. The Fire Nation would pay for this. They would have no mercy toward anyone who had breached the walls and caused so much death and suffering. Until the last of them was killed, he wouldn't rest.
If the city survived this, if they repelled the attack and drove them back beyond the wall, he swore they would make the Fire Nation remember every man they had killed here. Just then, a junior officer entered the command room and bowed quickly, cutting him off from his thoughts.
"Major, the next reserve group has reached the southern trench." he said.
He was about to answer when General Sung approached them.
"Good, relay the order for them to prepare for the next assault, corporal. We will not let them rest."
As the runner exited back toward the frontlines, Lee looked down at the map. The Fire Nation line was still too strong near the center. Their evil weapons still controlled a range of about 200 meters in front of the Fire Nation frontlines, and every direct assault had paid too much for too little.
But the side trenches had held better, and the earthbenders had almost completed the hidden route beneath the broken quarter. If they could strike from below while the next wave pressured the front, maybe they could force them to relocate parts of their forces and take advantage of their lower numbers.
"... and please tell me, Major Ban, why haven't you stopped the advance? Everywhere else in the frontlines we have managed to force them to a halt." General Sung was saying.
Lee looked again and indeed, the other officer had marked his lines and indeed they were retreating still.
"Sorry, General. The Evil Spirit has been spotted in that section. It is difficult to keep morale and some of our soldiers are not holding their ground. There are concerns about accounts of a small child by her side that was laughing, unsettling the soldiers who didn't want to rush ahead and attack as ordered." Ban said.
"See to it that they are punished and push your line, Major. I don't want any more excuses, otherwise we will be doomed if we cannot stop them here." Sung ordered.
"I will do my best, sir." Ban said, gritting his teeth.
Lee was already praying to the spirits that he wouldn't be assigned to that portion of the frontlines next if Ban continued to fail.
----0000----
Aang had thought traveling with Haru would feel awkward at first, but he was happy it wasn't the case. It was also nice having someone else around who wanted to help. The earthbender had joined them just before they departed the village.
At first, Aang had been worried that Haru's father would stop him, or that Haru would change his mind once he spoke with his family. But Haru had been determined to join them from the moment Aang accidentally sent a gust of wind to block one of his rocks that Haru had sent his way by accident after complaining about his father again.
Of course, there had been no hiding the fact that he was the Avatar to him. Aang had tried to answer carefully, but Sokka had sighed and said there was no point pretending anymore, since the flying bison already made them the least normal travelers in the Earth Kingdom.
Haru had decided to come with them before the end of the day. His father had not been happy about it, but their relationship was already not great. Haru was particularly angry at his father for taking a defeated stance and choosing to wait the war out.
He had mentioned plenty of times how he didn't think the Fire Nation would be lenient with them once they won the war. If they didn't have any issues killing their own soldiers, they would do worse things to them once they were only focused on securing their already captured lands.
Haru then told them that cowering would not help anyone, and that if the Avatar was back, then someone had to help him. Aang did not know what to say to that. Part of him was glad, yet he didn't like how much pressure that phrase put him through.
They were flying north through a mountain range when Katara pointed ahead.
"What is that?"
Aang turned from where he was sitting near Appa's head. At first, he thought it was a shadow between the mountains, but the shape was too wide and too dark. It stretched across the land for kilometers, cutting through the forest like a wound that had never healed.
The trees ended all at once, giving way to black ground, burned trunks, and slopes covered in ash.
Sokka leaned over the saddle. "It's burned down.. The whole mountain range!"
Haru's face hardened. "Fire Nation."
Aang guided Appa lower without saying anything. The closer they came, the worse it became. The air smelled burned even from above, and pieces of ash moved across the open land whenever the wind passed through the valley.
Nothing green remained, and no animals were in sight. There was not even the sound of birds close by.
"Lower us here, friend." Aang said to Appa, softer than usual.
Appa landed near the edge of the burned area, his paws pressing into black soil that crumbled beneath him. Aang climbed down first and walked a few steps ahead. The ground gave under his sandals, turning to powder where he stepped. A tree trunk near him had split down the middle, its inside turned dark and brittle.
Katara joined him, holding one hand near her mouth. "Everything is gone."
Aang nodded, and although they had seen burned places before, nothing could compare to this place. It was too large, and it had spread so far that it painted a terrible scar on the whole landscape.
Haru crouched and touched the ash with his fingers. "Why would they set the forest on fire?"
"I mean, they are Fire Nation, why wouldn't they?" Sokka asked.
"This is horrible." Katara commented.
Aang turned toward the mountains, following the black scar as far as he could see. He tried to imagine what the forest had looked like before, with birds in the branches, animals moving through the brush, and sunlight falling through leaves instead of smoke.
Now there was only ash, broken stone, and the smell of decay. He could only feel sadness for the world. It kept showing him new wounds, and he did not know how he was supposed to heal all of them.
----0000----
Lin instructed her army to hunker down and endure the relentless assaults. There was little else to do for the moment. The Earth Kingdom had committed too many forces for the Fire Nation to continue advancing without risking the line they had just established inside the walls.
Pulling troops back to rest was not possible either, because every time a section weakened, another wave of earthbenders and infantry tried to force their way through. The battle had become a contest of endurance earlier than she had hoped, and although the Fire Nation was killing far more than it lost, that advantage did not matter if exhaustion made her men break.
The Second Army had already moved into position under Major General Shinu. His troops were holding the northern section of the line, where the enemy had tried to widen the battle and force the Fire Nation to divide its attention.
Shinu had followed instructions well enough so far. He kept his men close to the defensive works, used his reserves carefully, and had not attempted some glorious charge that would only add his soldiers to the bodies in the field.
Lin was glad for that much. Both armies were needed just to hold their place inside the wall. The Fourth Army had taken the first shock of the counterattacks, and the men were showing the strain after days of constant fighting.
The Second Army gave them the numbers they needed to rotate companies before they were not combat effective anymore, but even that was not enough to create a proper rest schedule. The Earth Kingdom kept throwing men at them, something she was very familiar with.
At night, Lin had begun using decoys along the line. Her engineers and infantry had made doll-like soldiers out of spare uniforms, poles, helmets, broken armor plates, and sacks filled with dirt.
They were placed in firing positions after sundown, especially in the sections where she had withdrawn exhausted men to the rear to rest. From a distance, and under poor visibility, they gave the appearance of a fully manned defense.
It was not perfect, but it worked well enough. The enemy wasted arrows and stones, against false targets, and the men who remained awake had learned to keep movement minimal unless the whistles sounded.
The trick also let Lin conceal some troop rotations, which was becoming more important with every passing day. Anything that gave her soldiers even a few more hours of rest to conserve their strength was good enough.
There was good news among the reports, at least. Earth Kingdom morale was beginning to suffer. The few counterattacks Lin had authorized had worked better than expected, striking units preparing for an assault, exposing tunnel exits, and killing and taking positions in the trenches they had made themselves.
Those attacks had not gained much land, but they had inflicted heavy casualties and sowed fear in their enemies. Even if they had thrown an obscene amount of bodies, they were still able to push forward. Once the Earth Kingdom ran out of momentum, the Fire Nation could advance steadily again.
Until then, they needed to keep bleeding them. The artillery had been moved closer in stages and was now providing steadier fire support. The railway guns remained behind the wall for now, but field guns had been dragged forward under cover and placed behind reinforced positions.
Their crews worked constantly, firing on enemy trenches, bunkers, supply paths, and gathering points whenever glider scouts marked them. The gliders were also flying overhead through most daylight hours, carrying fresh bombs from the rear and striking the deeper Earth Kingdom lines whenever the weather allowed.
The pilots were tired, and the maintenance crew were worse. Lin had already ordered reserve engineers to be brought forward from the colonies with the next shipment of supplies, but at one point she would have to rotate them as well.
The biggest issue was still exhaustion. The Earth Kingdom had too many earthbenders and too many men. It was the Chinese all over again. Lin had prepared for that problem, but not at this scale.
The company of earthbenders under her command had proven valuable. Toph had taught them how to earthsense. They were far from her level, but they could still feel movement below the ground before ordinary soldiers noticed anything, and when the enemy came too close, they collapsed the tunnels or sealed them with enough force to crush whatever was inside.
It was effective work, brutal and necessary. More than once, the warning from those earthbenders had prevented an enemy unit from appearing behind or directly below their lines. Lin had already sent requests for more trained earthbenders from the colonies, but she doubted enough would arrive in time.
The tanks had been modified for this sort of fighting as well. She had ordered several of them prepared to throw liquid fire into enemy trenches and tunnel mouths. The weapon was horrific, but effective.
A trench that could absorb artillery and rifle fire became useless once burning liquid poured through it, and earthbenders had difficulty holding a position when the air itself became too hot to breathe. The problem was that she did not have enough modified tanks for the number of trenches before them. She needed to disable whole sections at once somehow, not one trench at a time.
For now though, Lin only needed to endure long enough to figure out how to break through. She needed something to paralyze their headquarters and break through fast enough that they wouldn't be able to reorganize their defense.
----0000----
Colonel Zhou was horrified by the field before him. The dead had continued to gather in the open space between both armies, and there were now so many bodies that no one could properly count them while the battle continued.
Most wore Earth Kingdom green and brown, some wore Fire Nation red and black, and many were covered in enough mud and blood that their allegiance could only be guessed by the armor pieces around them.
While the Fire Nation wounded were rescued as soon as possible, their enemies suffered a worse fate. Those who could still move dragged themselves back toward their lines. Those who could not remain where they had fallen, calling for help that could rarely reach them before the next artillery barrage began.
The sounds around him never stopped. Explosions rolled across the field, men shouted orders, others called for medics. Some screamed from agony and a few were just mumbling in despair and shock.
The Earth Kingdom attacks were relentless. They came through trenches, over barricades, from tunnel mouths, and from broken streets beyond the line. Every time Zhou believed they had suffered enough to pause, another whistle sounded from their side and more soldiers appeared through the smoke.
He had heard stories of Ba Sing Se's endless numbers before, but he hadn't fully understood what that meant until today. This could barely be called a fight anymore.
Zhou had thought himself prepared for war. He had served for years. Battle after battle, he had fought, and witnessed men die before him. None of that had prepared him for this symphony of destruction.
The craters left by the artillery had filled with rainwater, blood, and mud. Some had bodies inside them, folded in positions that made his stomach tighten whenever his eyes passed over them. The stench had grown worse with every day.
Rotting corpses, burned flesh, smoke, waste, wet cloth, and oil, all mixed together until breathing itself became unpleasant. Their own soldiers were gagging at the sight and the smell. It had only been a little over a week since the assault began.
For a hundred years of war, a week was insignificant. But here, a single week had turned the land beyond the breached wall into a place that no one would ever want to remember. It was a nightmare come true.
All around him, soldiers were shaken, from both sides. Most kept fighting because their lives depended on it. Some just because the soldier by his side would be fighting as well. Zhou hoped everything would end soon.
A few of his soldiers had broken down completely and had to be taken off the line to recover before they became a danger to themselves or the men around them. Each soldier lost was a huge impact for them.
The elite rhino units had been pulled back after the first assaults. They had done well during the initial break through, when speed and shock still mattered, but this kind of battle gave them little space to work.
Trenches, craters and broken barricades made their usual tactics of rushing the enemy useless. Now they were being used to transport supplies from the trains to the rear positions, hauling ammunition, food, water, tools, and wounded men.
Their casualties were lower than he had expected, considering the scale of the battle, but exhaustion of the mind was becoming its own enemy. The Fire Nation had come prepared with Ephedra plants, boiled down and concentrated into ration mixtures that kept soldiers awake and active for far longer than normal.
The men called it bitter firewater, though there was no alcohol in it, and many carried the taste on their tongues through entire nights of fighting. It helped them remain alert, helped them march, helped them hold positions after hours that should have left them collapsed.
Zhou could see that now better than ever. The plants fought fatigue for a time, but their bodies still failed after too much stress, and too little sleep.Their minds began to fray behind their eyes.
Zhou forced himself to breathe through his mouth slowly. He did not want his soldiers to see the disgust on his face, nor the fear that came with it. He had to inspire and lead by example, no matter his own feelings.
A runner slid down into the trench beside him, boots landing hard in the mud. "Colonel, movement ahead! Earthbenders are opening another tunnel exit near the center!"
Before Zhou could answer, alarm whistles began screaming across the line. Officers shouted for companies to stand ready, and the artillery crews behind them began adjusting their guns before the first enemy soldiers were even visible.
Zhou swallowed the bitterness in his throat and focused.
"Here they come!" he shouted. "Hold the line!"
The men around him moved to obey, tired and filthy but still answering the order.
"Do not fear! For the Fire Nation!"
----0000----
Azula had never experienced anything like this battle before. There was too much happening at once, and yet her mind wanted to take in all of it. The roar of the artillery, the whistles from the officers' warnings, the crash of stone barriers breaking apart, and the heat of firebending rushing past her arms.
She could hear screams from both armies reaching her ears, and the constant movement of soldiers around the trenches all pressed into her senses until she felt almost lightheaded from it. She should have found it overwhelming, and part of her did.
There were men dying everywhere she turned her attention. Earth Kingdom soldiers were thrown apart by explosions, crushed beneath collapsed defenses, or burned when the liquid fire tanks reached their trenches.
Fire Nation soldiers fell too, dragged back by their comrades with blood soaking through their uniforms while medics shouted for space that did not exist. The air smelled of smoke, blood, sweat, and churned earth.
Azula felt alive; suffering and agony clearly visible in her enemies. War was power made simple, without politics hiding what everyone wanted. Here, strength, orders and fear mattered most. The side that endured, killed, and broke the enemy first would decide the future.
And she was here, in the middle of it, fighting beside Lin. Her excitement was hard to keep under control. Lin had entered the battle with her personal unit when one section of the line was being assaulted without end, and Azula had gone with her.
There had been no hesitation this time, no instruction to remain behind, no reminder that she was too important to risk. Lin had allowed her beside her, and Azula intended to prove that the decision had been correct.
Blue fire burst from Azula's hands and struck the first earthbender trying to raise a wall across their advance. The man fell back before the barrier finished forming, and Lin's soldiers moved with her like a spear thrusting forward. Her fire guided the rest to push and breakthrough.
Another group tried to come from a tunnel mouth near the trench, but Lin's metal arm had already charged her signature move and was now pointing in that direction. The flames erupted and the screams echoed against the walls of the tunnel.
Azula couldn't keep the grin out of her face, and she laughed, for her joy was overwhelming her. Lin was as deadly as ever. Azula added her own fire where it was needed, striking at earthbenders, and anyone wearing green. She used her lightning as well, feeling the power go through her body.
The enemy kept trying to push forward, and each time they were repelled and attacked back. The company of rifles was now behind them as well, having moved to support them, probably after successfully repelling another assault somewhere else.
A rain of bullets flew past them with precision felling men in front of the princess. Lin then commanded her soldiers through smoke and death like a vengeful spirit who feared nothing. Azula understood then why the rumors had spread.
'Agni has blessed her indeed.'
----0000----
Captain Kaida sat inside the trench with her back against the packed earth wall, breathing hard while the last sounds of the repelled assault faded into the distance. Her hands were still trembling from the effort, though she kept them pressed against her knees until they steadied.
Around her, soldiers were tired but had smiles on their faces. The wounded were not complaining, and morale had been boosted by this last battle's outcome.
The attack had nearly broken through their section. The Earth Kingdom had come from the front first, with infantry rushing through the trenches behind moving walls of stone, but the real danger had come from a tunnel opening near the left side of their position.
For a few terrible minutes, Kaida had thought they were about to be overrun. Then General Lin entered the battle with her personal unit, and the entire direction of the fight changed. Kaida had seen Lin fight before plenty of times, but seeing it this close to a front so brutal and still see her so unconcerned was stunning.
The general was deadly and gave no mercy, giving orders while fighting that cut through the noise and forced the soldiers around her to move without hesitation. Her metal limbs were blackened already, her coat had been left behind somewhere before the charge.
Princess Azula had been with her as well, and Kaida still didn't know what unsettled her more, the fact that the young royal had come to the front at all or the fact that she seemed almost pleased to be there.
Her blue flames were impossible to ignore. Every time they brought an enemy down, the soldiers around Kaida pushed harder, shouting and firing as if the princess being there had made all the difference.
Kaida had found herself shouting until her throat hurt.
"Support the general! Push forward! Don't let them fold us!"
Her soldiers under her command had answered fired up. Tired men who had been close to breaking had climbed back into position, ready to keep fighting. The firebenders advanced in pairs, covering each other while the infantry and archers picked targets left behind.
When the Earth Kingdom tried to pull back into the tunnel, one of Lin's earthbenders sealed it, and the rest of the enemy force was cut apart before they could reorganize. Now the attack was over, and the trench was still theirs and their position had advanced.
Kaida turned her head and saw the men around her recovering where they could. Some were drinking water, some were checking weapons, and others were helping the wounded toward the rear.
Even though she knew they were exhausted, they looked victorious and motivated. Two soldiers nearby were speaking in low voices, though not low enough to keep her from hearing.
"Did you see her?" one asked. "Agni's Wrath herself."
"She cut right through them without fearing anything. At this point I'm beginning to think death should be the one afraid of her instead."
"My cousin is a pilot on one of those gliders, and he said Agni blessed her after she fought a spirit."
'Agni's Wrath…'
The name had started moving through the line after the rumors after the wall fell. General Lin did not encourage it, from what Kaida had heard, but soldiers needed something to hold onto in a place like this.
If they believed their commander was blessed to strike down her enemies, then she knew it would help and give them confidence in their ability to win. Kaida did not know whether Agni had truly blessed the general, but no one could deny she was fearless and powerful.
After a few minutes, Kaida forced herself back to her feet. Rest would have to wait. The enemy would attack again, and before that happened, she needed everything ready, wounded moved, defensive positions built, and let a few of them rest to begin rotating soldiers around.
"Get up." Kaida ordered, her voice rough from shouting. "We build defenses now. If they come again, they find us ready."
The soldiers groaned but moved all the same, following her orders.
----0000----
Major Lee was beginning to understand their enemy. The Fire Nation had not advanced recklessly after the first breach. That was what made them difficult to stop. They pushed forward only after repelling an attack, using the moments when Earth Kingdom units were withdrawing, reorganizing, counting survivors, replacing officers, and dragging wounded away from the front.
By the time their commanders realized the Fire Nation had moved, metal vehicles and infantry were already crossing the distance under the explosion's support that would weaken them first. It had happened enough times already that it was obvious to him.
Major Ban's latest attack had been reinforced by Colonel Osa's troops, giving them enough numbers to threaten the enemy line for a time. From the first reports, Lee had hoped they had finally forced a weakness.
Ban had hit the center while Osa pressured the right side, and for a few minutes, some messengers even claimed the Fire Nation was pulling back. Then the explosions began falling in on them again, and the vehicles moved through the dust clouds.
The attack had collapsed and their forces were shocked into retreating. Ban had managed to withdraw part of his force in order, but his casualties were heavy. Osa's unit had suffered worse. His men had been caught retreating when the Fire Nation counterattacked, and the colonel himself had been pulled back with a shattered leg, burns across his side, and enough blood loss that the healers were not certain he would survive the night.
Lee placed the latest report on the table. The situation was not quite dire yet, they still held a considerable force advantage. Even after being the bloodiest days the Earth Kingdom had ever seen, they still estimated that they outnumbered them eight to one. General Sung was not helping though.
The general had been walking back and forth inside the bunker for most of the last hour, shouting at messengers, demanding explanations from officers who had none, and snapping at anyone who tried to give him an answer he did not want to hear.
His face was red, his hair had come loose from its tie, and every new report seemed to push him closer to open panic.
"We are going to lose this war." Sung said, voice too loud for a command bunker already filled with runners and officers. "They are inside the wall, their guns are moving forward, and now Osa is nearly dead. If they bring more of those machines through the breach, we will not be able to stop them."
No one answered him, of course. There was nothing to say for he was being an incompetent loser at the moment. They still had advantages to play for and he was clearly giving up. He had sent a report to the Dai Li that hopefully would get rid of the General in time, but for now there was nothing to do about it but wait.
The officers continued moving papers, marking maps, sending runners, and pretending the general's fear had not infected everyone around him. Morale at headquarters was falling each time Sung spoke.
Men who had been determined in the morning now glanced at one another and hesitated. If this kept going, their command structure would fail horribly. Lee was done waiting for Sung to regain control.
He studied the map again, focusing on the timing of the Fire Nation counterattacks. There was a possibility to avoid their deadly advances by not committing the entirety of their forces to the assault, wearing them down slowly and still having defense positions ready.
They needed to stop giving the Fire Nation the exact opening they wanted, but assaulting their positions was still the best strategy, it just had to be done in smaller waves so that even if they did attack back, they would spend their forces even more.
He wrote down new orders while Sung kept pacing and muttering to himself. The next attack would withdraw earlier than expected, before the troops were too exhausted to move properly, and the next one would attack only at half strength and wait for the enemy to strike.
The retreat would leave gaps that seemed disorganized, but the reserve units hidden along the side trenches would be ready. Earthbenders could ambush them then and inflict casualties they were not expecting.
Once the Fire Nation realized their counterattacks were not working anymore they would probably switch to a different strategy, but he would gain time and their superior numbers would continue to grow.
Sung was still talking, his voice rising again as another officer tried to explain the state of the reserves. "...They will burn through every line we put before them. Do you understand that? We are feeding men into their wicked weapons."
Lee took the sealed orders from the table and stepped toward Major Ban, who had arrived only minutes earlier with dust on his armor and dried blood across one sleeve. Ban looked exhausted, but his eyes were still focused. Lee was sure he only needed better orders to be helpful.
"These are for you." Lee said, keeping his voice low enough that the rest of the bunker would not turn toward them at once.
Ban accepted the papers and opened them carefully. Lee did not look in General Sung's direction. If the general wanted to stop him, he could do it openly. If he only wanted to rant, Lee had no more time to spend on him.
Men were dying at the front while headquarters drowned itself in fear, and someone had to make a decision before the Fire Nation kept advancing.
Ban read the orders keeping a straight face. His brow tightened but that was the only reaction he gave. After a moment, he looked back to the map, compared the orders, and gave one firm nod.
"I understand." Ban said.
"Use the 49th reserve division, they are standing by."
"Good, what will you do?"
"I will head out with the 34th and what is left of the 17th soon and attack the northwest."
"Good luck."
Ban nodded, folded the orders and tucked them inside his armor before leaving the bunker quickly, ignoring the General completely. Sung kept speaking behind Lee, but the words no longer mattered as much.
Lee now had to coordinate his own offensive until the good general was relieved from duty. He hoped, for everyone's sake, that it would be soon.
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