Captain Zhao

The fires ravaging the Earth Kingdom ship had finally become extinguished as the last remaining piece of the devastated hull sunk beneath the surface of the water. Something about it, watching what had once been whole, an endeavor of hundreds of men combined to create such a monstrosity, suddenly reduced to nothing but scrap over the course of a few mere seconds, it was humbling to observe.

But I hadn't just observed it.

The shots that had torn about that Earth Kingdom vessel had been my own. My first kill.

"Target is destroyed, Captain," came the calm voice of lieutenant Zeera, now chief gunnery officer aboard the FNS Zodiac.

I'm back home.

It was the logical choice. I was one of their own, and while I had been away from the crew of my vessel for quite a few months now, it still was my crew. Now though, it was my crew no longer by mere camaraderie, but superiority. Now, the FNS Zodiac was my ship, and I, her captain.

"Excellent work, Lieutenant."

It was excellent work. Only two volleys were all it had taken to completely submerge the vessel. I counted only 3 shots having missed.

A shame it was only a decoy.

Was it as much a shame that I had counteracted orders to bring it down? Perhaps. Time would tell.

"Message from the FNS Protea, Captain!"

And it seemed that time was now.

"Read it out, ensign!" I ordered, not keen on lowering myself to read it myself.

In spite of some initial hesitation, the ensign obeyed my request, clearing his throat before reading out, "he requests that you report immediately to the Protea for immediate disciplinary action for disobeying orders."

His orders, I recalled. To not engage any enemy vessels.

What he had not accounted for, however, was the prospect that the enemy would launch an unmanned vessel as a decoy to cover their own escape, knowing we would encounter it.

Our orders went beyond simply not engaging enemy vessels. Our objective for this operation was to ensure the Earth Kingdom's abandonment of Xiahu and their retreat further down the coast to Jingping. Exactly that had been achieved.

And only because I had disobeyed orders.

It was by no means a decision I had made lightly. The last time I had disobeyed orders, I had been stripped of my rank and faced with near execution-a punishment that my Captain had been as unable to evade, however. Captain Sazuh of the FNS Protea was not my superior. He was more experienced, yes, but what was most important was that he had been designated to lead the assault of Xiahu, and thus, both me, Captain Zhao of the FNS Zodiac, and Captain Yukai of the FNS Stalwart. To have disobeyed orders and fired upon the fleeing Earth Kingdom vessel was a chance I had taken, and one Sazuh would likely be desperately to hold me accountable for. My only shot was to stick by it, and pray that General Shu saw the reason of what I did.

"Inform Captain Sazuh that as his stage of Operation Shepherd is concluded, I am no longer obligated to follow his orders, and if he wishes to speak to me, he is to do so at his own convenience aboard my vessel."

My words had clearly taken the command crew by surprise. A number of eyes followed me to where I stood at the helm, and I would be lying to say I didn't welcome it.

I knew what they likely saw me as: cocky, narcissistic, over-confident, but I knew my limits, and I had yet to reach them. Sazuh was a fool, and perhaps if he was lucky, I would give him the chance to realize the error of his ways before he attempted to involve General Shu. Knowing the old guard captain however, I had little doubt he would be quick to go 'crying to momma' regardless of what I had to say.

And I would welcome the encounter.

I noticed that my orders still had not been fulfilled, that my ensign had yet to write out my response.

And my crew? Where did they stand?

They had followed my orders to fire on the fleeing vessel unquestionably enough, mostly thanks to the diligent gunnery of lieutenant Zeera, her skills by no means wasted in sending the vessel to the bottom of the sea. She had not, however, been privy to the finer points of our operation's specifications, namely that of how I'd been ordered not to fire on a hostile vessel. I couldn't help but wonder if, had she known, she would have disobeyed my direct orders. A sour part of me already knew the answer, that she likely would have given her loyalty to the operation's commander rather that her direct superior.

That would need to change.

Even now, my command crew was afraid to encourage the wrath of the chain of command, seemingly forgetting who it was that was their most immediate threat-me.

"Write it!" I ordered once again, loud and authoritative enough to spur them to action thankfully.

By the end of the 2nd minute, the message had been written and delivered, the hawk flying through the fog towards the Protea.

The mission is over, I thought to myself.

We have no reason to stick around. If Sazuh truly does wish to speak to me, he can chase me down.

"Raise anchor!" I ordered. "We're returning to the blockade."

"But sir," came the voice of Semek, the helmsman. I already knew what his complaint was, and as expected, he began to 'inform' me of how we should likely await orders from Sazuh.

Multiple pairs of agreeing eyes followed him, seemingly gratified that he had been the one to speak, voicing their before-muted concerns.

It was difficult to discern between whether or not the complaints of my crew were aimed to serve me as assistance or detriment. It was just as likely that they were attempting to help me, remind me of protocol, help me save face, as it was that they were taking every opportunity available to question my commands. One way or another, it was direct insubordination and a blatant show of dissent within the ranks.

We'll have to fix this all.

"Sazuh is no longer in command. The operation is over, and we must resume our chief objective of blockading the Nip. Now do as I commanded and raise anchor."

"Aye, Captain!"

The anchor raised, and shortly enough, the FNS Zodiac was once again in fluid motion atop the rough morning waves of the Nip, directed towards Shu's blockade. Was I truly in any rush to return to the blockade? Did I truly believe that our vessel would be a key factor in ensuring the blockade's efficacy? Nor was it my intention to be the first to reach Shu and tell him my side of the story before Sazuh got the chance. Of course, however, the paranoid captain would be quick to assume such was exactly my intention, just as I'd hope.

And sure enough, I came to realize a few minutes later upon learning that a Fire Nation skiff had pulled up beside us and was requesting permission to board, he had down exactly as I'd expected and lowered himself down far enough to reveal his fear and paranoia.

Before long, I found myself face-to-face with him within my office. The tides had turned. He was on my turf now, aboard my ship, in my office, seated across from my desk. He, of course, was not aware of this newfound imbalance of power. The man was still clinging onto the authority that had been granted him in the name of an operation that had now since passed by nearly an hour.

He showed no indication of realizing the position he found himself him, further adding to the comedy of his words as he ordered me in the most authoritative voice he could muster, to "Explain your actions!"

"My actions?" I asked, certainly playing coy. I'd already been successful in forcing his hand, dragging him aboard my own vessel. Now all that was left was to aggravate the man, bring him to his limits, ensure that his future encounter with General Shu, when it did inevitably occur, would be as familiar for the captain as possible.

"Don't play around with me, Zhao!" he exclaimed, blatantly avoiding my rank, perhaps terrified to utter it knowing it was the selfsame as his own. "You blatantly disobeyed direct orders and opened fire on an enemy vessel!"

I considered then whether to give him an out, to explain my actions here and now and give him the option of realizing the error of his ways. Perhaps, had I thought he would actually listen to anything I'd have to say, I would have said nothing. However, I knew the man, especially in his present state of mind. I could present to him a 10-page thesis paper on why my decision to open fire on the Earth Kingdom vessel was in the best interest of the battle, operation, and subsequentially, the Fire Nation, and he still would have ignored it all.

And so I spoke, inconsequentially at that, now once again playing the game of pushing him to his limit. The means of doing so…being as perfectly polite and courteous as humanly possible.

"Captain Sazuh," I began, as though I were initiating a formal letter directed towards him. "My observation crew noticed that the fleeing Earth Kingdom vessel was manned only by a single helmsman. We were quick to assess that the vessel was likely intended as a decoy meant to draw our attention away from the primary evacuation vessel."

"That does not explain why you opened fire!"

"We figured that to ignore the vessel would alert Earth Kingdom forces that we were on to them. We decided that to open fire on the decoy was the best way possible of ensuring they still believed we hadn't just let them escape."

"Oh, you decided, did you? It was not your place to make such a decision. You should have consulted me first and I would have informed you how to proceed."

"There was little time to sit by and await your tactical assessment, Captain. I took the liberty of being closer to the situation to make a calculated tactical assessment-one I do, in fact, believe will prove to go further in ensuring a Fire Nation victory in this theater of operations."

He completely ignored what I had to say. The continuation of his barrage was already set and loaded, just waiting for me to finish talking before he could open fire. And so he did, exclaiming, "You directly breached the chain of command and have thus put into question the integrity of this operation's command."

"I believe that the trade-off was necessary, Captain, and I do expect that General Shu will agree."

"You really think so, do you, Zhao? And why would General Shu trust the opinion of some upstart over the knowledge of one such as myself?"

"Because General Shu is capable of seeing the big picture, as you clearly aren't."

"Is that so, eh? We'll just have to see about that." He was smirking. The poor fool actually was oblivious. A small reminder is in order.

"I'm sure we will. Now, if you would, kindly do get off my ship."

So, for the first time in our meeting, he'd seemed to come to understand just where he was. His authority had been left behind on the Protea. Aboard the Zodiac, he was little more than a simple ensign, and I was master, and my words had been made clear.

He was "kindly" escorted off of my vessel and I had no doubt that I would be seeing him in the near future. I had done my job; I had sown the seeds of his anger and irrationality. When he did go to Shu, things would go the only way they could. A part of me couldn't help but feel sorry for Captain Sazuh, but his breed was a dying one, and to rid of such an incompetent commander, well, I'd be doing my Nation a service.