Gordez

The third barrage had finally ended.

With nothing left to drown them out, the sadistic symphony of the wounded's agonized screams could finally be perceived.

Like ants rising from a crushed hill, Earth Kingdom soldiers slowly began unearthing themselves from beneath the fortifications, taking in the open world once again, scanning around, attempting discern just how much of a threat the world still held for them.

The shells had stopped falling, and the poison gas had cleared. As such, personnel began removing their masks, eager for the scent of clean, open air once again as opposed to the odor of sweat, piss, and shit that had likely permeated whatever foxholes they had been huddling in for the last few minutes of hellfire.

I was no different from them, mind you, if only somewhat more hesitant to remove my protection. But as Cholla did likewise to my side, unsealing his sack hood and proceeding to remove it, I figured it only fitting I do likewise.

Turning back around to admire our fortification, I was finally beginning to understand just why so many months of constantly bombarding Ba Sing Se during the Siege had seemed to have done so little in terms of devastating their manpower as opposed to their lands. We had been completely burrowed underground, I noticed, looking down on the hastily bent stairway that led at least a half dozen feet below ground.

"You alright?" came Cholla's voice, the angle of his head indicating that the query was directed towards me.

I nodded, the words caught in myself, just barely choking out, "Yeah."

"Drink some water."

I was parched, it was true, and quickly did as he bid, gulping down the contents of my canteen as I now found my eyes drawn to the beach ahead, and I found that I could drink no more.

Fires burned on the sea, water tribe carracks lit ablaze, half submerged, not a single steel Fire Nation skiff appearing to have been hindered in the slightest. Behind the skiffs, as they still inched forward, little by little, sat the same three Fire Nation battleships, black monoliths rising from the very depths of the bay, so very capable of raining deaths and destruction down upon us whenever they wished, us now only evading their wrath by the merit of them wishing to preserve the live of their own approaching men—a mercy that may very well thin should we resist longer than they would please.

It was a near hopeless situation no matter how you looked at it, but there was little else we could do short of surrendering or fleeing. We would be forced to stay and fight. It was all we could do.

Turning back around, I could see the town itself was in no better shape. Fires raged and militiamen and villagers alike, assuming they still lived, we just now leaving the remains of their hovels or the other underground bunkers that had been scattered across the town grounds. Many still lived, by the look of it, but I had no doubt that many had lost their lives to the bombardment as well.

We had lost much of our cover, infrastructure, exterior defenses. Benders already set about re-establishing the defensive and fallback lines, but it wouldn't be enough. There was little time. The first wave of Fire Nation soldiers was almost on the beach.

Hundreds of faces now turned towards the self-appointed commander of Jingping's forces. I was no exception. They needed orders, he had to understand. We needed inspiration, the mere implantation of hope that they could live through this.

That, Cholla would not provide, but he would provide something else, something far less glorious—the truth.

"Men!" The Fire Nation is approaching our shores! They are here for one purpose, and one purpose only! To slaughter you, your comrades, your families, every last one of us! There will be no mercy for any of us! Once their boots touch this shore, they will become less than human, savages, here only to slaughter every last one of us. You can run, you can surrender, it will make no difference. You will be found and killed either way. So if we are going to die, then we will die as an Earth Kingdom soldier dies, holding his ground, and protecting that which it is he loves! So raise your swords, your spears, your bows, and fight with every last breath within you! For The Earth Kingdom, for Jingping, for home!"

Such ended his speech. If it could be even called that. It would not inspire, it would not plant courage, it would not bring hope, but it would rally, it would bring those still alive following the barrage together to make their stand, and that had to count for something.

"For home!"

"For home!"

"For home!"

My cries were not among those around me. "Home" was something very different for me as it was for them. If I would fight here, it would not be for this land, but it would be to survive, and to protect those that mattered to me.

The Fire Nation transports were almost ashore, only a few dozen yards away.

Any minute now.

Infantry raised their spears, archers, their bows benders, their stones, their targets set straight ahead to the approaching transports, ready to open fire the moment the onboard soldiers made their departure.

And so the moment came.

The steel coal-powered transports, five of them, touched land, screeching ashore to a halt. They lay there motionless for but a moment until, from within, their crew compliments revealed themselves.

Vaulting over the sides, storming over the front boarding ramp, they were subjected to whatever defenses we could provide, be it our archers, benders, or artillery. Soldier after soldier was brought down be it by fire arrow, flying rock, or fiery boulder. The beach was lit ablaze by the initial stages of the conflict, each trenchline serving as a line of defense against the hordes of Fire Nation soldiers who were already digging in and taking cover behind the very barricades that we had established to prevent tanks from rolling ashore.

All bundled up.

"Archers! Target those barricades! Nock on my command! Nock!"

"Nock!" resounded the voice of the archers in unison with one another.

"Draw!" yelled Cholla.

"Draw" repeated the archers.

"Benders! Take those barricades down! Now!" came Cholla's voice from behind me. And sure enough, the benders responsible stepped forward, raising their arms in one single, stoic movement, tearing the selfsame barricades they had established days before apart, unsuspecting soldiers huddled behind cover now starkly aware of the situation they found themselves in.

"Loose!"

And the arrows flew.

It was a strange mix of accomplishment and regret I felt upon watching one soldier after another fall to the flurry of arrows that took them, each small flame burning ashore an indication of another countryman of mine who had lost his life at the hands of a defense plan I had helped concoct.

I have to do this, I made the effort to remind myself amidst watching dozens of soldiers I had been a part of the same army as just over a year ago fall to the ground in front of me, dead.

But still, they advanced. They were nearing the first trench line and series of foxholes

"Trench line 1!" Cholla called. "Pull back! Archers and benders! Provide covering fire!" Then the sounding of the whistle once around his knock, followed by the quick succession of two more whistles, the code for the first trench line to retreat before the Fire Nation was right on top of them.

Our forces proceeded to evacuate from their cover, many Fire Bender attackers taking the opportunity to strike some easy hits while they could, the majority however seeing fit to use the opportunity to close the last few yards of distance between them as safety.

Thinned as their ranks were, the fact that the Fire Nation had managed to make it to the first trench line was of some concern. Not that it mattered. Within a few seconds, we would possess the trench line once again. Now, just for them to settle inside, and we can play our hand once again.

Their soldiers dove into the trenches, desperately seeking cover. I turned to my side to see the Earth Benders and Water Benders waiting eagerly by my side, ready to spring the trap and have the occupying soldiers meet a muddy fate of being buried underground.

The majority of hostiles were within the trench line, yet, on the horizon, another wave of transports was approaching. We'll need to make this quick.

Cholla seemed to be of the same mind, nodding towards me and turning his attention forward. "First trench line trap on my mark!"

Any moment now.

"3!"

And from that trench line, something less anticipated, a stream of red fire barreling into the air, a shrill of a whistle accompanying it as it rose into the night sky. A signal flare. Signaling what?

"2!"

Oh no!

I turned to Cholla, and could already hear the roar of artillery out from the bay as I yelled as loud as I could muster, "Artillery!"

"Take cover now!" I saw Cholla's mouth twist into the yell, his words shrouded by the explosion that would ensue.

But the first shell had already struck the ground, hitting the beach as a matter of fact, making direct contact with the third trench line. And from there, the barrage only continued, regardless of any such concept as "danger close".

The benders in our immediate vicinity struggled to establish a defensive position, raising the earth from the ground to shield our heads from falling shells and debris, but as I could observe with the positions to either side of us, the effort would be in vain. The defenses would be too hastily manifested, the strength of the raining hellfire enough to overwhelm the anxious and struggling benders, a pocket to our right obliterated in the blink of an eye, over a dozen of our forces suddenly wiped form the map.

I knew this drill. There was nothing I could do now but pray. If we were hit, that was it, but if we weren't, well, then we'd be alive long enough to potentially die in some other horrific fashion.

The shells continued to fall, and I had no doubt that, by now, the next wave of soldiers had likely made landfall, reinforcing the first wave, quite possible having already pushed to the 3rd trench line, the 2nd already behind them.

They'll be right on top of us at any moment.

The minute would pass, and at the end of it, we would still be standing as the artillery died down, allowing our fortifications to drop and bear witness to what lay ahead.

The beach was riddled with craters, corpses scattered across the shore, and in stark opposition to the initial Fire Nation landing, more of the dead now belonging to us than to them.

Fire was being blasted across the beach, soldiers advancing on the third trench line as Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe troops mounted a desperate defense, the number of arrows, boulders, and waterspouts flying through the air decreasing by the second as more defenders lost their lives, and others retreated, having realized their defense was doomed.

The 2nd trench line was obliterated, no shortage of friendly corpses lining them, smoke still rising from the trench, myself already able to picture them huddled within for cover against the artillery as Firebenders exploited the situation to roast them alive while they were all bunched up like fish in a barrel.

The 3rd line was being torn apart, enemy benders already firing their loads into the trench, roasting one pocket alive after another.

"Collapse the third line now!" came Cholla's voice along with the sound of steel by his side, my turning head enabled to observe the sliding of his blade out of his sheath, readying for the inevitable, solely seeking to buy whatever time he could, even at the cost of his own men still within the trench line. "We stop them here! We do not let them take another inch of our land!"

"Cholla!" I called out to him just loud enough for him right at my side to hear. "We need to retreat into the town!"

"And bring the fight to our civilians?!" He asked, incredulous at my suggestion.

"We can't hold the line! If we try, they'll just bombard us again! We need to fight face to face with them within the town. Only then will their ships not fire on us!"

'Damnit', I could see his mouth twist in the word, muttering it to himself, turning his face back up to gaze upon the battlefield in front of him for himself only before raising the whistle to his lips. Three Whistles followed by two, ordering the final trench line to retreat.

And like ants fleeing a trampled-upon hill, they took their chance, our archers providing covering fire, just barely enough for a good few to make it out of their defensive positions without immediately being burned alive.

Still, many hadn't been so fortunate, the line of soldiers, now reinforced by the 2nd wave, approaching like a black wall of fire, engulfing all in its path.

Is this how they saw us? I was finding myself beginning to wonder. At Ba Sing Se?

Seeing them, now, the manner in which they approached, white skull masks hiding behind a wall of fire, I was horrified, having never seen the war from this side before.

Those who had survived the conflict at the beach now reunited with the troops at the boardwalk, me among them, and as soon as Cholla was certain the majority of troops had been gathered, he ordered the primary retreat.

We were taking this fight to the city.