A Mandate from Heaven -- Book One: Jo

Look at that man, cobbled together, shellacked, holes in his legs and sides and a few ounces lighter. He scrambles like a rat. He thrashes like an animal. He’s fighting for very life, yet is only in this position because he chose this path. He chose some worthless ideals to go and die for. But he does not scramble and thrash aimlessly. After wiping the blood and jet black hair from his eyes, he finds the electrical panel.  He yelps as he plunges his fingers into his wounds, then again as he cauterizes them with a jet of flame from his finger tips. The barricade thrown across the door won’t last forever. Every second he wastes, his chances of escape and survival grow slimmer.

Come on, you bastard! If you don’t make it, it will all be for nothing! But the weight of what he’s just has yet to sink in. It’s so repugnant it will take days to sink in. Even as he finds himself cornered he has no understanding of just how many sharks have begun to circle him.

He opens the electrical panel and grabs the hot-wire with bare flesh. The hair on his body stands on end as if afflicted with goose pimples. The man sighs in exhaustion as the door begins to cave inward. Its handle begins to crush inward like one would crush up a newspaper and then is hurled as ejecta across the room by invisible forces. The man closes his eyes. It is time. The thunderclap is as deafening as it is brief, and the flash just as bright, only to be followed by total and absolute darkness. Not just in this room, but for five city blocks every light bulb, every telescreen, every Satomobile, and all but the spring-wound pocket watch sputter and stop in their tracks.

The man uncoils. He explodes from where he stands. He has not merely channeled lightning but become it. He sweeps the rifle from the floor and holds it tight, his fingertips charring the walnut hand guard, as he crashes unseen through that very same door and it erupts into splinters. He can’t see them. He can feel them. And as their roles switch in an instant, he can feel their fear. The butt of his rifle slides into his shoulder as it has so many times before and once more he pulls the trigger.

The world is forever changed. The seeds were planted long, long ago and they have no one to blame but themselves. Those like me have no other choice – we simply have to punish them. If you really want to understand why you have to go back, to the very start of it all…

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ONE
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    I stood transfixed to the music that filled the crowded subway as we waited for our train. In the corner by the stairs was an old and disheveled looking man playing a violin (the 2nd movement of Cao Cao's 5th if my memory hasn't failed me). I remember my mother kneeling down beside me, putting her hand on my shoulder and looking me in the eyes

	"It sounds beautiful, doesn't it?" she asked. I nodded. My mother smiled, "Food and drink nourishes your body, but music is what feeds and nourishes your soul." My mother then held my hand as we boarded our train, but not before putting some money into the musician's violin case. Looking back, she was right. Music did nourish my soul; but I don't believe it was enough to save it.

	My name is Hiro. This is not a memoir, and this is not my earliest memory, but this is the earliest one that matters, so I have included it in the hopes that you might understand what made me what I am a little better. I am a mercenary by trade, but you already know me as a terrorist or a fugitive. That is why I have written this account, in the hopes that I may plead my case.
Maybe that was a little too far back. Let’s fast forward about twenty years

    It was the Summer of 290 ASC. Everyone knows how it started; I won't bore you with details. I was in my apartment watching the telescreen when it happened. I usually don't watch the news, I just keep the telescreen on as white noise (why bother hearing about the latest daily Water Tribe on Water Tribe murder?), but the urgency of the anchor's voice caught my ear, and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. District eleven, a predominantly Water Tribe autonomous region, had declared independence from the from the Fire nation.

	As a colony of the Fire Nation, it would have been insignificant had it not been turned into a breadbasket almost overnight under the stewardship the region's Chancellor Du Lin. There was no ultimatum, no declaration of secession, nor was there any warning. That fateful night, while half the Fire Nation’s soldiers lay asleep and the others were drinking to oblivion, a thousand Water Tribe locusts descended on the farm land and wrested their ownership gunpoint. The other’s were rounded up and arrested. They were packed onto blimps and sent back unfettered to the Fire Nation the next day as a show of good will. While bloodless, this was the theft of massive and valuable Fire Nation territory under threat of violence by direct order of Du Lin herself. “Nationalization,” she had called it.  And now the entire world held its breath and turned its gaze to a tiny little peninsula jutting from the underbelly of the Earth Kingdom.

The little nation that could. Ha! What rubbish.

   I got the phone call two weeks later. I can't recall the specifics (I was unaware at the time of how important it would become) but I do remember the gist of what happened

"Is this Hiro?" asked a woman's voice. It sounded older.

"Who wants to know?"

   "I'm offering you a job in Jia," she said, "I know it's getting harder and harder for someone with your skill set to find work these days."

    Immediately I began running a backtrace. I talked with her for several minutes partially as standard formality, and partially to stall for time. She talked with me long enough without really saying anything, and all I got out of her was that it was in Jia (that's what they were already calling this newfound state of theirs). Eventually we began to talk dragon-turkey.
“I’m gonna need details. You can't expect me to just take a job blind."

"We're looking to hire some extra muscle during our… transitioning stage. You'll be working as part of a special operations cell. You've done that before, haven't you?"

   Not since I'd left the Earth Kingdom Army, “I’m not a charity. Give me a real reason I should work for some raggedy water bender gang?"

"Five hundred Yuans per day, all expenses paid, one hundred thousand at completion of contract."

"When, where, and how?"

  "Go to the aerodrome at noon tomorrow. You'll find a man there holding tickets for you. The decision is yours." She hung up.

   I checked the back-trace – no dice. I had no idea what sort of line she was using, but it was very secure. I started to pack my bags, and left the radio on to fill the empty space.

	"What I meant to say is that the very existence of Jia is a rallying point for the Water Tribe people. By flexing their newfound political muscles, the idea of having Water Tribe reservations in the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation is a very real possibility. It would be good for everyone to bury the hatchet and make friends with the Water Tribe."

   "What you really mean to say is that you'd be happy to appease a rogue nation. There is no need to have reservations, nor should the nation of Jia exist."

   Big empty words coming from a citizen of the Fire Nation. They would do nothing against Jia save blow hot air. I personally doubt the Fire Nation would even go to war again for the next thousand years lest someone accuse them of genocide.

	"The Water Tribe finally has its own country to call home," another commentator spoke, "and I believe that this is a good thing. If Jia exists then we will not need the reservations. Were the air benders only a little bit less well off than the Water Tribe when they were given the Air Sovereignty?"

    The man was immediately cut off by a typhoon of booing as the audience cried 'murderer' and 'supremacist.' But he was right. The Fire Nation genocide killed millions, but the reach of the Fire Nation was only as far as its frontlines and the air benders were nomads free as the wind. By the end of the war there were about a thousand air benders in Ba Sing Sei alone. Of course, by then the damage had already been done and no air bender dared practice their ability lest the Earth Kingdom collaborators were to turn them over to the fire nation for money or safety – something the Earth Kingdom was quick to forget.

   "That's where you're wrong. The Air Nomads can go freely as they please. Many of the water benders in the Earth Kingdom cannot even afford to leave. How do you suppose they'll make it to Jia? Reservations will become necessary, like it or not"

	The fire bender spoke again, "What do you think Jia was up until the point when they seceded? Autonomous Region Eleven was a reservation for the Water Tribe, in everything but name. You give you give and give, and the Water Tribe just takes and takes and takes. Where does it end? Those reservations of yours would become nothing more than breeding grounds for crime. What happens when those reservations feel like succeeding and becoming rogue states? Reservations in the Earth Kingdom; reservations in the Fire Nation… Next you'll be telling me that you want reservations in the Air Sovereignty. Tell me where it ends, Shin!"

    You could hear the audience rise from their seats in applause, and I rose from mine to turn the radio off I had to focus on packing my belongings, anyway. Some long guns and battle rattle to be shipped in an unmarked crate. You could sneak just about anything through security onto a zeppelin if you knew who to bribe. And so, against my better judgment, I made my preparations to depart the Earth Kingdom’s People’s Democratic Republic.

The money was just too good.

    That morning I went to the aerodrome and found a water bender with my tickets just like the woman said there'd be, and boarded the Zeppelin. We were off with a boom! Arc elements fired bolts of manmade lightning into the bladders of dephlogisticated air. The room temperature helium and nitrogen heated and expanded, lifting us skyward. I smirked as I watched the first timers jump at the report.
But I had gotten used to the sound some time ago. The first thing you learn serving in the military is to sleep at all times in all places whenever possible. Never stand when you can sit. Never sit when you can lay down. It’s about the only way to get thru the lulls in an eight month deployment; it would be insufferable otherwise. So I did what all grunts did. I tipped my head back, closed my eyes, and slept.

    I woke with the Sun streaming directly into my eyes. Such is the price to pay for having a window seat. I tried to make sense of where we were and how much time had passed, and groaned from the stiffness in my neck. I looked down and saw an expanse of brown and tan and grey in the flat Jian bush; sparse vegetation and the occasional gnarled tree that stretched for miles. Ahead of us was a horizon of green. It grew closer until it we passed above. It looked like a marvelous patchwork quilt of more different hues of green than I even knew existed. The unnatural bismuth-like fractal of crops was hard to believe and made any attempt at judging distance impossible. An Oasis of green in the middle of desert and only made possible thru the efforts of Jian water bending. Yesterday owned by the Fire Nation’s corporate and state organs. Today owned by the Jian people. Only the farms of Ba Sing Sae could rival this place. We passed by several of these farms on the descent to Yakima

    As we landed and I departed the air ship, the aerodrome looked like any other. You might think you were in Ba Sing Sae if not for the suffocating heat. Sure enough a man was waiting for me, by name. His bright teeth and genuine unapologetic smile stood out against the darkness of his skin. He was a broad shouldered towering man, with arms like timber and skin interlaced with tribal tattoos.

“Greatings, Hiro!” his voice boomed. “I am Buno! Quanuippit!”

“um…”

   “this is the part where you say ‘Quanuinngittunga,’ my friend. Hahaha! We should get going if we want to beat the heat.”

    The two of us dragged my luggage from the air ship and loaded it onto his four by four satomobile. We began to drive past the city and all of its carbon copied concrete and into the brush. As we drove farther and farther west I could every so faintly make out mountains in the distance.

“How much farther are going, anyway?” I asked

   “About an hour more .We have a fob out there, and I’m taking you to meet our handler. He’s a good man. Swamp bender from the Earth Kingdom Army named Hei Bai.”

“What about you?”

   “I grew up here. In the bush, not in the cities or one of the ghettos. I’s a hunter. Learned to track and use the bow from my father, and my father from his father.  I guess you could say I’m one of the old breed”

“You some kind of noble savage then?” not my most tactful choice of words.

   He shook his head, “Water Tribe’s not savage. Not noble, either. We’re all just folk, same as anybody else.”

“But you have made pilgrimage to the legendary Northern Water Tribe, right?”

"I have."

"And the city ruins? What was it like? What did you see?"

"The city? …I don't know."

"What do you mean?"

"There's not enough ice anymore," He said. "It's all gone, Hiro; there is no city. It's all melted."

    Soon enough we come upon the mess of tents and sandbags the Buno promised. The air is abuzz with the sound of shovels and patter of running boots and foul words, gunpowder and motor oil and an even fouler smell of men that haven’t washed in three days. Buno slows to a stop and parks as we reach some particular tent indistinguishable from all the others. As I unpacked my equipment from the satomobile a man approached me from one of the tents.

    Like a contorted parody of Buno he approaches with a stupid ear-to-ear grin on his face. He was a wiry tooth pick of a man in contrast to Buno’s stature. Where Buno was dark he looked almost sickly pale and where Buno had tattoos on his arms, this man had hideous tan lines from where he had worn body armor without a uniform. I know this because he was shirtless and wearing nothing but a boonie cap and revealing pair of shorts that would probably not even been acceptable for a woman to wear in an Omashu strip club. With a pair of short socks he also wore a pair of clown like combat boots. It was somewhat difficult to make out the features of his face; his nose was covered in too much sunscreen and his eyes were hidden behind a pair of goofy aviators. His lanky stride was… comical at best but at the least seemed self-assured.

"Hello! Is your name Hiro?"

"Yes, it is"

"My name is Hei Bai," he said, "But you can call me 'Sir'."

"I'm sorry?"

"I'll be your handler for the duration of your contract"

"Yes, sir"

    I went to snap a salute but he stuck out his hand instead. It took me a second to understand his gesture, and awkwardly I lowered my salute and gave him a handshake.

"Come to my tent," He said, "There's something you need to see."

    Captain Hei Bai's tent could only be described as a rat-hole. All around were unopened cardboard packages, re-rationed MREs and ruck sacks littering the floor. He had replaced is bed with a hammock, in order to fit more stuff on the floor that wouldn't fit under a bed. He had made enough space in one of the corners for a desk, which was littered with papers. He dug around in one of cluttered drawers until he pulled out an elephant-rat trap.

"Do you trust me?" he said.

There was an awkward pause – I wasn't sure where he was going with this.

   After taking off his sunglasses, he set the trap on the desk, cocked the bar back and set it to spring, and said, "This is an elephant-rat trap."  He pulled a pencil form one of the drawers then locked his icy blue eyes with mine. "It'll snap your finger like twigs. Watch!"

   Hei Bai poked the trap with the end of the stylus and it was ripped from his fingers, splintering in two. He reset the trap.

"Do you trust me?" He asked again

"I don't understand, sir."

   He picked up the trap, delicately, setting it on top of his palm, "You're going to play your hand flat, palm down, and when I tell you, you're going to slam it on top of this trap." He held the trap in front of me and reluctantly my hand hovered over his.

"Do it," he said.

I started to pull my hand back

"If this trap goes off and breaks your trigger finger, I've just lost an invaluable asset. I trust myself enough to know that this will work; all I'm asking is for you to do the same."

    My hand levitated over the trap for what felt like eternity, and then I slammed my hand down on his. There was a *click* - my heart stopped, but Hei Bai's hand held firm, pressing the trap into mine. It held. I eased off the initial force once I knew that I had made solid contact. Dozens of pounds of spring-loaded force now held back with the weight of a feather. He started to giggle.

"So little faith…" Hei Bai chided, "I told you it would work."

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TWO
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	It had only been a few days since the unilateral declaration of independence, and already an insurgency had broken out on the western border of the country. The Jians we’re prepared for this; there had been ethnic tensions with the Yellow tribal natives living in the country for years and they knew as soon as they seceded that outsiders would begin to stir up trouble. It was no coincidence that the insurgency started out west either. It was in the foothills that made both farming and military mobilization difficult. One of the most important principals of guerrilla warfare is that no insurgency can survive without support – supplies, training, and intelligence – from another friendly nation. The Fire Nation. Naturally, being on the border made outside help that much easier. The border was porous like a sieve and the enemy could scurry back into the Earth Kingdom at a moment’s notice.

	There are two things that you can do in this situation. Mobilize the army and have them secure every town under martial law, sweeping house to house, acting as police when they've only been trained as soldiers to shoot whatever they consider a threat. Or, if the insurgency is still in its infancy, you can mobilize teams of special operators and light infantry, working in small groups moving light and fast, to smother your enemies before the violence spreads. The generals and political leaders of Jia wisely chose the latter option.

	While Jia did have a functioning military it was still lacking in manpower. They had plenty of grunts to do grunt work, and ex-military Water Tribesmen were flocking to the country by the blimp-load to act as private security for farmers. But for a spec-ops team you need spec-ops soldiers with spec-ops training and spec-ops experience. To that end, the Jian’s were forced to outsource on occasion to men and women who were not of Water Tribe ethnicity. Hei Bai tells me I was handpicked for this job.

	When I served as a special operator in the military I was part of a sniper team. There's a common misconception about snipers among the civilian populace. It's often thought that snipers are individual hiding out in apartment building or on the rooftops, but this isn't true – at least not of the professionals, anyway. Nor do they usually work in simple pairs. In fact most professionals work in teams of six. The commander is an experienced sniper working as the spotter. His protégé is the triggerman with a scoped rifle. You have a radioman next, to receive orders or report the enemy and call artillery strikes. Next is a demoman. And last are the two meathead gunfighters – that’s me.

Being part of the lucky twenty percent of the population that was gifted with bending, I was a prime candidate for special operations. Being a fire bender in the Earth Kingdom practically guaranteed it.

	I still remember my very first combat deployment as part of a sniper team. I was only nineteen at the time. I had seen combat before – it was one of the pre-requisites to make it into special forces, after. I had been a firing range instructor back then. I requested to be moved up to a front line forward outpost during the Taku insurrection to give the soldiers there some live-fire training with new equipment. I really just wanted to get my combat badge. Sure enough, some insurgents began taking potshots at the camp from almost half a kilometer away, I fired a few rounds in their general direction, and at the end of the day I went home with a medal.

This was different.

This was the real thing.

"It's alright if you're scared," Korah said to me. "You just don't want to show it."

I was young. I hadn't learned yet to bury everything inside like Captain Xian Li or Corporal Yui. I think everyone in the powered glider was scared, and they called me out for reminding them.

	There was a little jungle country south of Gao Ling. The territory was in anarchy, control was being vied for by several different warlords. Disease ran rampant. The people were mostly uneducated and illiterate. Healers Without Nations tried to send humanitarian aid, but many of the natives were superstitious and believed that they could cure their venereal diseases if they had their way with the water bending healers. After reports of gang rape reached the media, there was a huge outcry for the Avatar to do something about the situation.

	Avatar Sun Yu called upon the United Republic to mobilize its forces, and as the army restored order across towns and villages, special teams like mine were sent into the jungles to scout ahead, plant traps, or assassinate warlords. We flew to the coast of that country and were inserted by air. The light in the back of the cargo bay blinked red. A loud and terrible gust of wind flooded the compartment.

"Thirty seconds!" our pilot shouted over the wind.

	I did a double check of my parachute, my dive mask, and regulator – all systems good. The light switched from red to green.
Two by two we jumped. Naturally Korah the air bender jumped first with Yui the water bender right behind him. I ran after them just as I had so many other times in training. With a final leap my feet cleared the back of the glider, my stomach rising to my chest and my heart skipping a beat as the empty nothingness swallowed me up.

	Bumi's words to me before takeoff that day crept into my mind, "Listen up, new guy. I'm gonna be right behind you in the lineup. I absolutely hate night jumps, even more than you do. I'm depending on you not to screw this up, but I want you to know that if you lose track of Korah, I'll be right behind you. If you get lost, I'll find you."

	I looked down into the blackness and saw a single star of clean white light. It was the strobe on Yui’s back that would guide me to my destination. She, too, was guided by the strobe on Korah’s back. Just like the strobe on my back would guide Bumi above me. It helped put my mind at ease.

	The light below me appeared to split into four pieces as Yui opened her parachute with four little strobes in the corners. I pulled my parachute in turn and winced as I was yanked from one hundred ninety to sixteen kilometers an hour in only a handful of seconds. I’m finally slow enough to take in the reflection of the moon on the water, marking the silhouette of the distant coastline. I can hear the crashing of invisible waves beneath me. A second set of strobes rises up from beneath Yui’s till it passes her, as Korah – job complete – opens his chute and rises to my level. It was Yui’s turn now. About a minute later and her strobes turn from white to red, signaling that she has ejected from her harness.

	A leap of faith, I eject from mine as well. I can only trust her judgment of how close to the sea we are. My heart wells up into my throat again but only for an instant.

From toe to head, the sea reached up and engulfed me. I opened my eyes. More blackness. Darker this time, too. I could not see my hand in front of my face; whether my eyes were open or closed made no difference.

	I felt something brush up against my side and I startled. I drew my dive knife and raised it to stab whatever threat was near me. Something grabbed my wrist, stopping me from thrusting. I squirmed and flailed my free limbs for some good time before my wits returned to me and I had the common sense to turn on my head lamp with my free hand. It was Yui gripping my wrist. She slowly shook her head side to side, her eyes burning with contempt at my lapse in intelligence. I still can only imagine how she found me and the others in the darkness – some sort of water bending sixth sense. Well, it was her job after all. Though not only did she find us, but she guided us ten meters deep through five kilometers of Unagi infested waters to our destination.

	We emerged from the surf, rifles drawn and at the ready. Even in water up to our waists, we moved fast and quiet up the beach. We were ghosts. As we moved through the mango grove deeper into the jungle, we encountered our first enemy, a lone rebel sentry. We were only fifteen meters away, but he did not see us through the dark. We walked through ankle-deep water, but he did not hear us through the waves. Yui's turn again.

	The sentry did not notice her till the last second. He wheeled around just as a bolus of water enveloped his head. He tried to escape, but his feet were rooted to the ground with ice and his trigger hand uselessly frozen to his rifle. I'll never forget the man's face, wavy through the water engulfing it, his eyes wide in terror, drowned while standing in only ten centimeters of water. I'll never forget Yui's either. Her teeth gritted, her brows furled together. Yui's anger was cold. It was collected.

No. Anger isn't even a good word for it. What Yui felt was hate

	There are a lot of different ways to deal with death and killing. I was inexperience and the time, and let things like the sentry's downing get to me before I learned how to deal with it. Xian Li turned to hardiness and resolve. Korah was the exact opposite. He turned to black humor. More than that, he turned to his rifle's scope. It pulled him out of reality. Looking through his scope he never really had to look at death; it was like watching a film. The scope of Korah's rifle was his condom: it let him interact with the world without ever having to really feel a part of it or dirty himself with his own actions. Then there was Jet, our demoman. He just worked on his earth bending to distract himself. Bumi, the only nonbender, would drown his sorrows.

	Yui learned to hate. They say it's hard to take another man's life, but that's not true. You'd be scared of what you were capable of if someone put a gun your hands and someone else were shooting at you. Killing in cold blood, however, is another matter entirely. It takes a lot of passion and a lot of will. Most of all it takes a way to cope. Killing in cold blood is much easier your victim is less than human, and that's why Yui learned to hate and despise her enemy. She had a huge reserve to rely on, too. Many members of the Water Tribe join the military to escape the factories or the communal farms. Yui joined to get off the streets and whatever sort of life she led had left her angry and bitter.

	We abandoned our dive gear shortly after. Without his dive suit's hood, Korah's blue arrow tattoo glimmered quietly in the moonlight. I was glad to be able to ditch the live bomb of compressed air from my back. Glad to get rid of the weight, too -- we had a long way to go. Sweat dripped into my eyes like little stinging drops of fire. The air hung heavy with moisture and the taste of salt dripped into my mouth. I tried to wipe the sweat from my eyes and brow, but only succeeded in rubbing it into my eyes. Our target was the apex of a hill over-looking a dirt road. To get to the hill involved a twenty one kilo hike uphill through the jungle. We made it in three hours.

	Our mission was to kill a rival sniper known as the Painted Death. An amateur and a singleton. Unremarkable, if not for the name – and the namesake mask. That’s how it is, however; the legend always far exceeds the man. So for every peacekeeper he actually killed, there were two more psychological casualties. We needed to nip his legend in the bud. A fake intel leak here and there, and he’d believe our team had come here to assassinate one of the local warlords. Sniping an elite EKA spec-ops team was an opportunity to fuel his legend that we knew he couldn’t resist. He knew we were coming, and he'd have the drop on us. We’d just have to aim better than he could.

	Every war has legends and heroes. The Great War against the Fire Nation had myriads of heroes including no less than the legend of Aang himself. There was Kuvira and Korra in the next, and innumerable before. People forget that the people behind the legends were still human. We were here to ensure there would never be a Legend of the Painted Death.

	We reached the clearing at the top of the hill. If they had laid an ambush we would have smelled them on the approach. The hilltop was empty. This meant that either we were being stood up, or the Painted Death himself had accepted our invitation. Yui, Bumi, and I set up a defensive perimeter. Korah got into position and loaded his rifle.

"Anti-personnel, tracer, silicate core," Xian Li whispered to him

	I could hear Korah open the bolt of his rifle, insert the round into the chamber, and then lock the breech closed. Korah got into position and then spun ninety degrees to his left. This was the moment of truth. the Painted Death had the advantage, he could already see us. Korah had to better than him; being good doesn't cut it.

"Do you have eyes on target?" Korah asked.

"Five degrees to your left," Xian Li answered

"Negative.”

"Look for tree-cancer"

"Got him… "

"Range: eight hundred meters, elevation: seven degrees. Crosswind: four knots. Korah, hold the air."

"Holding"

I didn't notice how loud the breeze was until it was stopped. Suddenly the whole jungle seemed to go quiet

"Take the shot."

"Sir, I think he can see me, he's looking right at me"

“Take the shot!”

	The Bang! of the report rattles around inside my skull like a thunderclap. I jolted awake in my sleep as if I had been the one who was shot. I was still in one piece, only another of many dreams and nightmares to come.

“It’s the heat,” said a cigarette smirched voice.

	I looked to the cot beside mine. Kneeling at the foot of the bed was a man. A yellow man like me, not of the brown skinned Water Tribe. However from his features and rugged scars I could that he was not a northern Earth Kingdom member, and certainly not a member of the Fire Nation, but rather a native tribesman from the Jian peninsula.

"Everyone wakes up early from the heat around here," he continued, "It's only six hundred hours, but the sun's been up since O' five hundred"

"Wh—who are you?"

The man gave a smile unlike Buno’s or Hei Bai’s. It was a warm and gentle smile. The sort of smile a father was supposed to have.

"I am Chang,'' he said, tightening the laces of his combat boots.”I’m the squad machine gunner in Hei Bai’s lance.”

"Small world," I said. "I'm one his riflemen."

"I already know… Breakfast is at O'-seven hundred in his tent. You need to be there," and with that he left.

	I crawled out of bed half an hour after our exchange. I fought to keep the sweat out of my eyes as I tied my boots. Not from the lack of sleep but from the heat alone I was already exhausted, and it was only morning. I opened the flap to our tent and stepped into the blinding angry sun. I started to look for Hei Bai’s tent, and as I meandered through the encampment in a state of confusion I soon became lost. Eventually I ended up behind the burn pit and I saw what I wished I hadn’t. For all of Chancellor Du Lin’s talk of building a better nation state, she managed to drag along all the usual degeneracy into her paradise, especially the expected baser nature of the Water Tribe conscripts. Hiding behind the burn pit from their officers who were no doubt turning a blind eye, were a handful of noncombatant enlisted men, shooting up their heroin, or opium or whatever was the drug of choice around these parts.

I turned around and headed back to my tent, disgusted and disappointed. Not disappointed in them, but rather in myself for naively expecting any better. As in the ghettos, so in Jia. I returned to the tent with a scowl on my face, laid back on the bed, and tried in vain to go back to sleep.

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THREE
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	I laid on my cot for another half hour but was unable to find rest. Peeling myself from the sheets I left a sweat angel behind me. The long pants and long sleeves certainly didn’t help in the heat. Again I made my trek to Hei Bai’s tent and stepped thru the portal inside. Whatever conversation they were having stopped as they all turned to look at me.

	I saw Hei Bai, Buno, and Chang’s familiar faces, but was greeted by two more. A strong jawed woman with a smirk on her face, and a man next to her whose face immediately shot an arrow of contempt. They were both by the looks of them mercenaries like myself.

The man asked, "Who's the pretty boy?"

"Play nice, Peng," said Hei-Bai. "This is Hiro, the final member of our team."

Hei Bai reached into a satchel behind him, pulled out a package, and tossed at me. I caught it.

"What is this?" I asked

Hei Bai was bemused, "It's an MRE"

"That's not what I meant"

"It's breakfast. Take a seat and we can get started on our meeting."

	I opened my package to eat and as was tradition I threw away the little candies that came with the meal. The packaged food nowadays actually wasn’t too bad, though one’s palette and one’s guts were often in stark disagreement.

Hei Bai said “Anyway, Buno was saying…”

“Ah!” Buno spoke. “Hiro, this woman is Koko an Air Nomad of all people! The man here is Peng, an earth bender and veteran of Si Wong.”

“Hey there,” Koko smiled while Peng continued to say nothing.

	After introducing me to the rest of the group, Buno said, “I know you all come from different places and different motivations, but here we are all brothers and sisters. What Hei Bai and I have done is to assemble a lance. A bender of each kind and even a nonbender who is skilled with his hands. When Avatar Aang and Avatar Korra needed to put the world right they had a lance like this one as well. With a team like this there is nothing we can’t do.”

“What about you, Buno?” Koko asked.

“Ah. I may be but another nonbender,” said Buno, “But I am also a police man. Make no mistake that the troublemakers we are dealing with are criminals at the end of the day.”

	Indeed, Buno was a policeman, patrolling up and down flats inspecting crime homestead to homestead. While his Water Tribe heritage granted him obedience from the locals, it was his adoption of the local way of life that granted him respect. His devotion to the traditional arts of his fathers made him an excellent tracker of both man and beast while being no less urbane. Sunken into his kind face were a pair of eyes that could pierce straight into the very soul of any wrongdoer.

	As the meeting went on, Hei Bai and Buno both talked about their experiences and touched up on the trivialities of this blossoming war. All the superfluous and extraneous details, from the exact process of checking into camp to resupply and file paperwork, to where to find the best bowl of noodles in the closest town, to the top down order of battle and chain of command structure we would fit into. Following which, we were dismissed and sent to prep our gear so that we could be ready to go at a moment’s notice.

	As for myself, I of course had my ‘Accelerators. The cannon had existed for a long time, but it took many advances to shrink it down small enough for a man to carry. Not quite a cannon anymore, they were officially designated as accelerators. Of course, this was a clumsy word. But the loud staccato pops reminded people in the Fire Nation of Earth Kingdom New Year’s celebrations. “Gong he fat choi” had been misinterpreted as “happy new year’s” for centuries by Fire Nation people, and they took the first word, Gong, and derived the name we all know today – the gun.

	I picked up and loaded my rifle. Stamped on the side was “EKPDR PLAGF QBZ” or “Earth Kingdom’s People’s Democratic Republic’s People’s Liberation Army’s Ground Forces – Light Automatic Rifle.” The less the Earth Kingdom served the people, the longer its name became. But the battle rifle itself was a fine instrument, standard issue of the EKPDR hegemony. Semi automatic. Twenty five round capacity, 7.62x45 cartridge

There was also my scattergun, a hunter’s pump action weapon. A simple and practical tool, I could load anything from slugs to fire firepills to grappling hooks thru its bore.

And on top of that there was my Fire Bending. Even if it had gone out of fashion, bending still gave you an edge. That little edge could still mean the difference between life and death.

You see, it wasn’t the accelerator that changed the world, it was the machinegun. A man with a rifle could still fight honorably, but Sato industries changed all that when a single man could mow down an army from five hundred meters. The Equalists got the last laugh after all.

After changing into a cooler short sleeved shirt, I grabbed the rest of my gear and threw it on the bed. I was putting together my chest rig and sailor’s gloves when Hei Bai entered, “scratch that, I want you to come take a ride with me. You’ve got more people to meet” I left right behind him, still wearing my combat boots, combat trousers, t-shirt and even the gloves, leaving only the combat vest behind.

	Due east we traveled, straight to Capital City, sitting like the head of a pin on the needle thin fjord that penetrated deep into the peninsula; a view of the ocean to remind the water tribe of home. As we drove farther from the FOB, scrappy hills turned to brush flatlands, then to homesteads, then to the farms sown with The Five Cereals that seemed to stretch on forever. As you already know, the Earth Kingdom has been going through a record drought for the last five years. Crop production is at an all-time low. Where there was once fertile land, acre by acre it has dried up into desert. The Earth Kingdom is where most of the world gets most of its food, and there's over five billion mouths to feed.

	While Cabbage Corps products have been cutting edge and go everywhere from home appliances to military hardware, they have never forgotten their humble agricultural roots. Agricultural government contracts actually make up at least 40% of their revenue, and takes up a least 20% of their R&D budget. The desertification of the Earth Kingdom has been partly stalled in thanks to fertilizers developed and sold by Cabbage Corps. This was not without side-effects, however. During the days that it ever does rain, run-off from the fertilizers would get carried downstream and into the local water supply. The phosphates in the fertilizer would feed the algae in the water, causing red-tides that would kill all the fish and poison anyone who drank the water.

Not so in Jia. Here, where once was dessert, was now farmland. And without the use of nitrogen-phosphate fertilizer, either. With the skill of the water benders alone, a forgotten and arid peninsula had been turned into one of the largest breadbaskets on the continent.

	Eventually we passed thru a checkpoint with barb wire and tigers’ teeth that, too, stretched as far as the eye could see. In the distance were fortifications punctuating the landscape just as the kopjes in the brush do, each one covered in machinegun and flak cannon with complete and redundant overlap. The Wolf’s Teeth. Paid for with Fire Nation purse, it was no coincidence for Chancellor Du Lin to wait till construction was over to seize control of her country.

The next few kilometers were empty scorched. No farms here. Hei Bai stopped the Satomobile, got out and began to piss. After he finished writing his name in the dirt he said, “You see this empty land here, Hiro? This is what it’s all about. This is the future.”

“What are you talking about? It’s empty nothing as far as the eye can see.”

“we’re going to have a new kind of farm.” He cast his arms skyward, arched his face to the heavens and spun around, “Solar fields! It’s the future. This is what this war is all about.”

“I thought it was about farmers”

	“Indeed it is, but what do you think we emancipated the farms for, Hiro? The world bank won’t deal with a bunch of no-good unegalitarian water benders. But the money we make off the farms we invest in building the solar fields. Capital City’s growing and we don’t have the coal we need for power or industry. With solar power, we will be a truly independent and modernized Water Tribe nation. Electricity for the people even out in the farmstead, and also for arc welding and other industries. That’s our vision here, and that’s why they attack the farmers.”

	Maybe what he said was true. Maybe not. Dear reader, I’m sorry if this is a lot to take in right now, but it is all an important piece in the puzzle of war. They say the first casualty in war is truth, as they also say that war is based on deception. This story you read is another version of the truth, and I hope that you make up your own understanding of it in time.

	Finally the Capital City came into view on horizon, a grove of buildings defiantly jutting from the desert. A truly modern city, the sky cloudless blue sky reflected off the glass of the many skyscrapers and office building, making the whole city appear as an oasis. As we drove down the asphalt roads past the small concrete buildings, everywhere there were there were signs of order. At the city entrance were a pair of tanks, and inside the city full armed fire-teams of soldiers were patrolling up and down the streets. Don't worry people of Jia; everything was safe, everything was under control. If that was the intent, it only served to remind me that Jia was on the cusp of war.

	In the streets was the animated commotion of celebration and daily commerce. Vendors, customers, performers, and policemen all going about their innumerable paths that intersected at this particular moment in time. An air of celebration still gripped the people, and deep-seated societal cleavages and the uncertainty of country’s future was not enough to sully their revolutionary spirit. Naturally, traffic moved slower than a koala-turtle. Hei Bai threw money at a street vendor whilst leaning out the side of our Satomobile to grab a handful of gao dian from her as he feathered the break and idled passed them.

	Finally parking in front of the Capitol building Hei Bai and I disembarked. This building stood apart from the others for its traditional aesthetics of tiled angled roofs and stone facade. Chen Wi dragons adorned the gutters and workers labored to scrape away Fire Nation insignia and repaint the blue symbols of the Water Tribe. I could faintly smell the Water Tribes beloved sea from here in the here in the heart of the city, and I could even hear the call of seagulls. I followed Hei Bai up the steps and past the huge oak doors into the Capitol building. I was given a pat down and then Hei Bai and I were escorted by armed guards through the rotunda and down a rather large corridor.

	The first thing you'll notice if you were talk down this corridor is a very large portrait immediately to your right. The portrait is a painting of a dignified and majestic, though aging, woman. The woman's eyes burned with purpose; her face radiated a stern air of authority. This was the only portrait hanging from the wall, though there was room for dozens more. A bronze plaque beneath the portrait read "First High Chancellor of Jia, Du Lin."

As we reached the end of the hallway, the ornate doors opened up into an office with a large desk. Sitting behind it was an old water tribe woman.

The same as the one in the portrait

"Good morning, Hei Bai," she said
The same as the one I talked with on the phone.

'Ah, crap,' I thought. This was gonna hurt.

"Good morning, Hei Bai," Du Lin said as Hei Bai and I entered her office.

Hei Bai replied, "likewise, ma'am"

"Thank you. If you don't mind, I'd like to speak with Hiro alone."

"Yes, ma'am," Hei Bai said as he turned and departed from the executive office.

Du Lin turned to me, "Good morning, Hiro."

"Good morning, Chancellor."

"Do you know why I asked to see you?"

"no, ma'am."

"For one, I'm honestly surprised you took the contract," she paused for a second "I didn't think you would take it, and I actually didn't want to extend the contract to you after your… interview, but Hei Bai insisted. He hand-picked you, too. Did he tell you that?"

	I understood that lances were supposed to be in direct contact with their military's commander in chief, but I had no idea that it was Hei-Bai that had chosen me. I tried to hide my astonishment. Spec-ops or not, could a mere Army captain have that much influence over the High Chancellor of Jia?

"No," I said, "I never asked."

"And how do you feel about him? Can you work with a Water Tribe member as your commanding officer? Can you stomach the idea of fighting for a nation led by a member of the Water Tribe?"

"I don't care about ethnicity or leaders. I go where the money is."

"Well you certainly didn't care about things like that when you went on your last job. Getting paid to shoot starving water benders, hmm? I know how much you said you enjoyed it. Enough that you even kept memorabilia."

	My black sailors' gloves – I was wearing them right now. My first job after quitting the military had been to act as private security on the deck of a Fire Nation freighter. Nine long months I lived inside the inescapable prison-like confines of that ship. I grew quite close to the crew, the majority of which were Water tribe themselves, and they had given me a fine pair of gloves as a token of camaraderie. Of course, my job was to protect that crew from pirates, the most desperate of which were also Water Tribe members themselves.

It was good pay, I needed some time away from the rest of the world, and if I had to kill people, it wasn't exactly a load on my conscience if I was killing the scum of the earth.

She continued, "Don't deny it, Hiro; Jian intelligence is thorough."

I smirked.

"What are you going to say?"

"Nothing, ma'am."

"Don't be so vain to assume I'm singling you out. I've already given the same treatment to every member of the Hei Bai's lance. When you are in my office, you speak freely."

There was a deafening silence between us in few seconds before I spoke, "Perhaps Jian intelligence wasn't quite so thorough."

	Of course that's always how it is. Even though soldiers depended on their Intelligence agencies, intel spooks were never to be trusted. First off, even if they didn't give incorrect intel, they often never told you the whole truth. Whenever one was around, you knew that things were either not going to go as planned, or you were about to used – they always had an ulterior motive. It was bad enough that they were civilians sticking their noses into the world of the military, but how could we trust them when they refused to trust their own soldiers?

She asked, "What do you mean?"

	"Did you or intel know about the drug addict problem in your military? Just this morning I saw addicts shooting up behind the barracks. They weren't even trying to hide it! You're trying to secure order to your country with an Army filled with the same scum living in ghettos. It's completely unprofessional."

Her eyes suddenly grew cold with anger. I had only seen one other woman with that same kind of cold hate in their eyes before, back when I had served the Earth Kingdom

	"You think intel wouldn't catch something like that? You think I didn't know about it? Of course we did. And what would you have me do, Hiro? I am trying to build a nation-state. Was I supposed to just start with the reforms before being able to carry them out? I need an Army. These people come from everywhere. Yes, Hiro, it is unprofessional, but I don't have another choice. A good portion of them probably wouldn't even pass selection if they didn't have a little extra kick. What difference does it make anyway? They’re all noncombatant jobs, those people.

So my choice is either to have a military with two thousand drug addicts or have a military with two thousand twitchy withdrawal patients. Exactly what are my options, Hiro? You hypocrite! You can say anything you want about my people, but you will never be able to hide those scars."

I glanced down at my left arm – forgot I wasn't wearing long sleeves. Yes, recruits of the Earth Kingdom Army were rife with hazing, abuse, and narcotics use. And yes, when I joined the Earth Kingdom Army I was… low. I gave in. I used. But I quit! They had no excuse.

"…I've had enough of you for today," she said. "You're dismissed."

I gave a salute and walked out the door.

	The drive back was an awkward one. I was left in a foul mood but Hei Bai was as nonplussed as usual. I hadn’t spoke a word to him in over two hours, and I wish I could have just bit my tongue during the meeting instead. Finally punctuating the constant silence of the drive back I said, “Well, I think I’m fired now.”

	Hei Bai began to laugh. “No she loves you,” he giggled. “I can tell!” silently we headed onward, chasing the sun to the FOB, as far as such time that it was hanging right above the horizon not as an intangible source of light but a warm and corporeal pit of fire, such that you felt like you could slip off the surface of the Earth at any moment and fall headlong into it.

I went to the head late that night brush my teeth. I was about halfway through and then,

"Good evening!"

I startled, fell to the floor in a whirling dervish of expletives. It was Buno. walked right up to sink next to mine to brush his teeth without making a sound.

"Good evening," I said.

He grinned at my sheepish response as he began brushing. In spite of his hulking size, every one of Buno's movements was graceful like a dancer's – even in brushing his teeth.

"Where have you been today?" I said

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

I was about to open my mouth to ask a question when he said, "Down in Qin, spear-fishing Unagi." He flashed a foamy, toothpasted grin.
To this very day, I still don't know if he was joking.

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FOUR
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The next morning I gathered all the supplies I had and needed for a ten day expedition in-country. Our team was going by its new call sign now, Jian One. Jia's Jian. It was a very apt play on words, fitting for our current mission.

	Our first mission was planned to be a boring one. Hei Bai was to provide overwatch on a farming village where there was a high chance of a terrorist raid taking place. In other words, we were to baby sit Hei Bai for a few days while he was glued to his binoculars and directed the cavalry over the radio in the even that anything actually happened.

	Nevertheless, I made ready for our excursion. I packed light – not that I had much to pack anyway. None of us did. One of the few things that almost all experienced members of the military have in common is a strong sense of perfectionism and a type-A personality. Keep everything organized. Less is more. It was also one of the things that set Hei Bai apart from the rest of us. I have never seen a more type-B personality in my life. He went into the field with us carrying a fully loaded rucksack with enough useless equipment for just about any scenario possible. I didn't think someone so wiry could carry so much weight, but somehow he managed it. It seems obvious in retrospect, but maybe we should have all had our eyes opened when we saw this. It was the first red flag about Hei Bai. We all should have seen the others after it.

	We rolled out of the FOB at 0830. We took a modified truck designed to withstand buried mines; mines where becoming an increasingly popular weapon for the enemy in these parts. The top half of the satomobile had been removed – the Jians found that in the case of an ambush the trucks armored canopy turned it into a cramped death trap. Odds were better to just bail and retreat on foot. Still, riding in one feels incredibly exposed. I rode to the rear of the vehicle, keeping my rifle level and scanning for threats. Next to me sat Peng, who kept to himself. He wore a large yellow-black checkered bandanna, wrapped around his neck like a scarf. It was combat memorabilia, just like my gloves; a reminder that he had fought sand benders in the Si Wong desert. In the dessert it kept sun off your neck, but out here it kept the biting flies off.

	And how the flies bit! They were completely silent but would come round and round to pinch with their mouth-parts. These flies could do no real damage, but were relentless and impossible to deter. It felt like being stabbed with a redhot needle. It might have served a good allegory for the sort of war we now found ourselves in. I take immeasurable solace in that their bites did not itch afterwards as a mosquito's does.

"How do you bear it?" asked Buno of all people at long last. "I've tracked up and down the brush of this land my whole life and even I still cannot bear these flies"

Though he did not open his mouth, Chang's shoulders heaved in laughter, "you may have been born here, but to these flies you are still all foreigners. I suppose your blood is like a delicacy to them."

Peng lit a cigarette, took a puff, and then passed it to Chang. "The smoking does help, too," Chang said, "they hate the smell more than I do."

	Two klicks from our OP we disembarked and hiked our way through the dense tall grass to the top of the hill; it was important that not even the farmers we were protecting knew of our location. The first thing we did when we got to set our equipment down and begin clearing a space to camp with our machetes. Hei Bai and Chang worked together to set up a large thermal imager on top of a tripod. He got on the radio when we were done and said, "Jian actual, this is Jian one. We are grey on the rock."

	This was spec-ops jargon that is fairly irregular among even those who have served in the military. The 'grey' dealt with the level covertness of an operation. White-Ops were completely overt. Grey-Ops were ops that were not illegal or operation outside of one's jurisdiction, but a low profile was still required. Black-Ops were operations that were completely covert. There was also another color code that would be added in front of the white-grey-black color code if the situation called for it. That was Red, like the color of blood – guess what happens on Red-Ops. Lastly, there was the phrase 'on the rock.' The 'rock' simply referred to the ground, meaning that a unit had successfully infiltrated and was in position for the operation to begin.

"What do you mean, grey?" said Koko, looking genuinely disappointed.

"Grey," said Hei Bai, "like in between but neither black nor white. Like, grey."

Koko pouted, "Ah, man. I was hoping we'd get some action, sir. We're not gonna go on a whole deployment without getting' to dispatch some baddies, are we?"

"Not up to me. That's up to the baddies," Hei Bai said. "You're not bored already, are you?"

"No, sir!"

"good." He turned to the rest of us, "If you want to keep yourself busy, you can go freely anywhere on the hill. Stay within range of radio contact at all times. There must be at least two people on the OP at any given time. Maintain noise discipline at all times, and maintain light discipline after sundown."

	It wasn't just a nicety that he was extending to us. We weren't in enemy territory; the more we moved around the hill the less suspicious and more civilian we'd look. It'd also be a lot harder for the enemy to sneak up on us if we were constantly and randomly moving.

	Nothing much happened that night. Hei Bai maintained unwavering attention to the villages through the sights of his thermal imager. Koko zipped around the OP on her air-scooter, or used it to sled to the bottom of the hill. Chang field stripped and cleaned his rifle. Peng sat away from everyone else and smoked.

	Me, I watched Jia's sunset. It was strong and shimmering, a proud red sun surrounded by a heavenly gold halo as it crawled across the faded purple pastels of the Jian sky, setting behind the countryside's fertile green hills. I think maybe I understood why so many had come here, why so many had run away from their previous lives to start over.

	The next three days were uneventful. Buno and I had one thing in common: we slept at all times possible. On the fourth day I woke up to find that Buno had completely disappeared without anyone seeing him leave. Three hours later he returns with four freshly killed possum-chickens.

"Hiro, Koko: get to work on a fire. Make sure there's no smoke. It needs to be out before sundown," Hei Bai ordered.

	While we started the fire Chang and Buno got busy with skinning the possum-chickens. We roasted them on a spit over the open flame. Not exactly gourmet, but if you've spent the last four days eating freeze-dried hermetically sealed 'food' that was packaged before you were born and isn't set to expire until sometime after you're dead, then chicken-possum is delicious.

"So," Koko asked Chang, "don't you live in a village like this one?"

"Yes, my family does. The government has just answered our request to start a farm of our very own. It will be good for us to own our farm; there are even some Water Tribe member only a few klicks from us if we have trouble with irrigation."

"Aren't you worried," I asked, "with all this trouble going around?"

"It is troubling, but I have taught my wife to shoot and look after the home in my absence. she can take care of herself. Besides, I am of an important family in my tribe. Now that I can own a head of cattle, I can finally show off my status to the other villages. It's common in my culture to take a second wife to show this as well, but," he laughed, "a farm seems like much less trouble to be in."

"Don't be so sure," said Buno. "these criminals that claim to be fighting the Water Tribe have hurt or killed a lot more of their own people so far, all in the name of the greater good."

The greater good.

It's amazing how meaningless that could be, and how both sides at any given time could invoke its name to ward away evil spirits.

Contact came at 0700 the next day

The first things we heard were the distant sounds of gunshots. It wasn't an unfamiliar sound, and every one of us did a double take at the noise.

"Go time, people!" shouted Hei Bai. "Everyone on me."

Hei Bai jumped onto his thermal imager and began looking at the village below, then took a reading with his laser range-finder. Chang started looking through his set of binoculars

"They're… They're killing the farmers!" said Chang. "We need to do something! We need to get down there!"

"Hold your ground, Chang." Hei Bai said. He turned to his radio. "Jian actual this is Jian one. We have confirmed sighting of fifty plus hostile foot-mobiles in village to the South-East of our location. How copy?"

*Bzzzzt* "Solid copy, Jian one. Reinforcements are on their way – ETA five minutes. Wolf-bats are already in the air and are being redirected to your location. ETA one minute. You are to remain at OP and direct Wolf-Bat till reinforcements arrive. You will then direct the landing zones for reinforcements to provide stops and a sweep line. How copy?" *Bzzzzt*

"Solid copy, Jian actual. stand by for tracers in thirty seconds. Jian one out." He turned to us. "We're going to hold this hill and call down the pain on the insurgents."

	Chang laid down in the grass and sighted in his machine gun. an older design, old faithful some even called it. its shape was like a box with a broom stick at one end and a shark's tail at the other. Hei Bai produced a pan magazine to feed the gun, about the same size and shape of a snare drum. Hei Bai pressed it to the top of the gun and rotated it in with a click. Chang charged the weapon and then pulled the trigger. Drumroll!

The burst of green tracers streaks erupted from his muzzle and traced a path through the sky to village below.

"Close!" says Hei Bai. "twenty yards short."

Chang readjusts his point of aim and fires another salvo. "Bulls eye! fire off two more bursts; make sure our wolf-bat sees our target."

	I looked over my shoulder and saw it coming in low and fast. A small powered glider, armed with rockets and machine guns – the wolf-bat. From our OP I could see tactics the Jians used in action. Jian Actual had patched in Hei Bai to speak directly with the wolf-bat's pilot. Hei Bai guided it in with radio and tracer fire over the hilltop straight to the heart of the insurgent's current position. a wispy trail of smoke fwooshed from the wolf-bat as it fired a rocket at roughly the middle of the insurgents on the edge of the village. The wolf-bat fired another rocket at the same target and a dense purple smoke marked the area. The wolf-bat came around for several more passes at the stunned enemies with the staccato bursts of its machine guns.

	Two minutes passed. I looked up just in time to see a fleet of aircraft pass over head. These ones were called auto-gyros. They had a propeller in front, just like a regular powered glider. However, instead of two wings, they had three. These wings were on top of the fuselage instead of the side, arranged like spokes on a wheel. They were free to spin like a wheel as well. As the propeller pulled the auto-gyro forward, the wind passing through the wings caused them to spin, generating lift. They weren't very fast, but then again that was the point. They could go so slow without stalling that the squad they were carrying could jump out of them from low altitude and remain unharmed. A lot cheaper and safer than riding in a 'humming bird,' too.

	The doctrine followed by the Jians would make an air bender proud. The soldiers assigned to counter-insurgency were lean, light, fast, and highly mobile. The first auto-gyro to come in was a gunship. It carried a machine-cannon – a weapon similar to a machine gun but firing 20mm exploding shells. This weapon was operated by a door gunner and mounted on the left side, meaning that the pilot could only make left hand turns as it engaged the enemy. The gunship saw the smoke, pulled up to an altitude of three hundred meters, and began orbiting the battlefield. The gunner fired his cannon at fleeing troops in bursts of three. As he fired there was a noticeable delay between the report and the impact.

*DAKADAKADAKA*

*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*

*DAKADAKADAKA*

*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*

	After action assessments were studied meticulously and they showed a consistent behavior among the insurgents. Once reinforcements showed up, they would 'bombshell,' scattering in all directions and then escape to regroup later. The Wolf-bat's job was to scare them long enough for the reinforcements to get into position and use the smoke to mark the center of their bombshell. The pilot of the gunship used this to figure out the best center of orbit, but the pilot had to be very skilled to succeed: AAAs also found out that the insurgents moved at an average of 150 to 200 meters per minute. The pilot had to constantly widen the center of his holding pattern.

	Next came troop transports. They came in low and orbited the perimeter of the town at an altitude of only ten meters. One by one, Hei Bai radioed the first four and told them the best places to set down their troops. These troops were to form stop lines. A panicked fleeing enemy would, in most cases, try to follow the natural terrain such as ditches, riverbeds, or the valleys between the foothills. The next two transports carried the troops that would form the sweep line. This line would start at end of the village and slowly work its way across from one to the other, killing or capturing all insurgents that were trying to hide or were caught inside the village by the stop lines.

	Once they dropped off their troops, the transports would fly away to closest incoming convoy of reinforcements, scoop up some riflemen from their trucks, and fly back to the village to get them to the fight even faster. It was remarkable to me how quickly the Water Tribe came up with these tactics, and let no one doubt that in practice these tactics were devastating to the troublemakers. But nothing was ever perfect. And nothing ever went according to plan, either. Five minutes after the sweep line set down, we got the call.

*Bzzzt* "Jian-One, this is Jian-Actual. The sweep line has taken a casualty and is requesting aide to fill the line. Move rapidly to grid-square provided and continue the assault according to our time-table. the gunship and wolf-bat will take over as combat controllers and forward observer, respectively. How copy."

"Solid copy, Jian-Actual. Alright boys and girls, it's show time!"

Koko charged her rifle, "lock and load baby! Woo hoo!"

The five of us leapt to our feet and began vaulting down the hill, heed to the sound of gunfire coming from the village below us. Wait, did I say five? There should be si—

"Out of the way, pretty boy!"

I dodged to the side just in time to avoid Peng as he raced down the hill at break-neck speeds using his earth bending like a mountain board beneath his feet.

I looked at Hei Bai. Hei Bai looked at me.

He shouted, "Koko!"

"On it, sir," she responded. She summoned an air-scooter and flew down the hill to catch up to Peng. I guess two is one and one is none, after all.

Fifteen second later, the rest of Jian One reached the skirmish line. Koko and Peng were taking a knee and securing the area. With a wave of his arms Peng had erected an earthen berm to provide us cover.

Hei Bai spoke, "Form a line. Three meter spread. Guns up. Keep visual contact of the people on your left and right at all times. We'll move as fast as we can while staying together until we catch up with the line. Be ready for anything."

	The pace was slow. One step at a time we waded through chest high grass. The insurgents could be anywhere at any time. We could hear the sound of sound of gunfire all around us, but these were just ambient noises like the sound of cicadas in the summer. Then I heard a snap and everyone instinctively dropped to their knee. The bang of gunfire isn't what you need to watch out for; the snap, however, is the sound of a bullet flying past your head.

	We continued moving forward through the grass in a duck walk. Every so often, one of us would stand up and take pot shots at figures running through the grass. Then things go frantic. Point blank range, two insurgents lying in wait leapt at us from the grass. The first was cut down in a hail of bullets. Just as I was caught reloading my rifle, the second lunged straight for me with a knife in one hand and the other hand in an open grasp. I threw my rifle behind me to keep him from grabbing it and put my hands up in front of me to counter. He came straight for my face with the knife. I leaned my head to the right. He slashed again. Leaned to the left. He stepped back. I shot a blast of fire at him. The earth bender blocked it with a wall of dirt and then lunged straight through it.

This time I parried his knife attack. A large windmill motion with my left hand pushed the knife away from my body. I followed through with the sweep, wrapping my arm around his, securing his between my armpit and elbow. I twisted my torso upward and there was a sickening crack as his elbow hyperextended. His head shot back in pain as he gasped, and I gave a chop with my right hand to his exposed neck. I shoved him away from me and got back into a defensive fighting stance. Immediately the man was tackled by Buno, and in quick succession Chang plunged his kukri straight through the man's heart.

"That was a close one," I said.

"Alright everybody," said Hei Bai, "let's get back on the line."

*BZZZZT* "This is stopline three to Jian one. We just routed several insurgents. They look like they're headed you're way" *BZZZZT*

"Yeah," said Hei Bai, "We're already well acquainted"

I turned around to grab my rifle and… it was gone.

Peng said, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

I looked ups to see him holding my QBZ.

I walked over to grab it, "Thank you."

I held out my hand to accept it. He held the rifle out with one hand as if to hand it to me then dropped it at my feet and started to walk away.

"Peng! Hiro!" shouted Hei-Bai. "Do we have to start doing trust falls? Both of you get back on the line, now!"

The rest of the sweep remained unremarkable, though Buno made sure to put himself between the two of us from thereon out.

	The rest of the evening felt excruciating in the sun. We swept with the line thru the village. every house. every shed, every drain, and every stone were cataloged and inspected for any signs of hiding insurgents. I wiped the sweat from my eyes, cursing myself for not working on my tan before coming here. And then the commander made us do it again. after about seven hours he felt satisfied with the inspection.

	Police and gendarme had come from all over, intermingling with the military personnel, while ambulances awaited the engineers to fully clear roads to the hospital for mines. We had taken a few casualties, but the boys would pull through and be ready for action again in a few months time. A farmer and and his wife had been shot, both in critical condition. It didn't take the police long to figure out the ones responsible and drag them off to who knows where.

	Those terrorists that had surrendered and survived were bloodied and sitting in a patch of dirt on the outskirts of the farmstead, surrounded by armed guards. There were about twenty or so of them. Hei Bai and Buno handed their weapons over to us and made their way thru the guards to the terrorists. squatting down at their level, Hei Bai produced his canteen and gave a particularly delirious looking captive a sip. Buno scanned each of the prisoners with his piercing eyes, looking for some clue or sign related to his police work, though I knew not what.

With the remaining water, Hei Bai gently teased it from the opening of canteen and floated it onto his hands. He coached a prisoner to lay supine and Hei Bai then laid his hands on the man, the water glowing as he began healing his wounds. It was certainly unusual for a male water bender to possess healing hands, but I don't know why that would surprise me anymore.

"Hei Bai, this man is the enemy," I had protested to him.

"Those we can convict of crimes will be punished. That's how it is. But many of these troublemakers are only fighting because their families have been kidnapped or they've been tortured for refusal. You know those machine cannon rounds the gunships shoot?"

"What about them?" I asked.

"We don't just fire in bursts to prevent accidents, we fire in bursts because at the end of the day they're expensive. It cost twenty thousand yuan for every insurgent we killed today, counting the fuel, the bullets, the maintenance, medical bills, and everything else. Yet we haven't managed to hurt our real enemy in the slightest, only his proxy."

Putting it in that perspective, I realized that our flawless military victory today was still a strategic failure.

"So the reason I am here is this," said Hei Bai. "I have not come to kill our enemy, but to persuade him. Give me the budget of just one single Fire Nation battle tank, and I will give you a pacified province."

I went to bed uneasy and exhausted, thinking about what Hei Bai had said. I was thankful to be sleeping on a cot instead of solid granite and I was grateful to be alive another day. But in Jia, it was just another Wednesday like any other.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FIVE
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"...nothing I can do about it. It happened, and it's gone."

I had made my way through the morning haze across the FOB to Hei Bai's tent and stopped outside. As I was about to enter I had caught his voice and began eavesdropping as curiosity got the better of me.

Peng's voice answered, "It's not only his life on the line, It's your life, and my life. what kind of damn rookie would have forgotten to put a sling on his rifle."

	I cursed myself. It's true, the most important item behind a soldiers rifle and ammo, is his sling. For the normal soldier it is important because he may throw his rifle to his back and not tire his arms on the march or lose it in the field. But for a bender, a one-point sling is our best friend. We may drop our rifle to perform bending, and grab it back again immediately.

That day on the kopje I had taken it off my rifle to fix a broken clasp!

"Well for one, he's no rookie," said Hei Bai. "But if you don't trust him, that's fine. I simply need you to trust me. Worry about yourself. You're dismissed, corporal."

"yes, sir!"

	I ducked out of Peng's sight as he exited the tent. I was going to ask Hei Bai about how the war was going for us, but now I wasn't sure if someone as shamed as I was could do so. If you turned on the news you'd think the whole world was ending -- that this was an international crisis that threatened world stability, that things were falling apart.

	In Jia, it was a different story. Most people went about their day. Political rallies went on in the capital to protest the treatment of the tribals under Water Tribe leadership. There was also the ever provocative rhetoric of The Party.  While their speech and activities were legal, it was a no question that they supported the troublemakers.  Maybe they even represented them. Even the Air Nomads of all people's were protesting the rule of Water Tribe over the peninsula.

	In the bush it was different still. It was a war, but a slow war. A war without front lines or decisive victories. A war by ambush, not by combat. A war by fear, not by resource. A war by subterfuge, and not by action. The enemy was everywhere. The enemy was nowhere. I'm not exactly sure what winning a war like this would look like.

It didn't matter. A couple more months of this, and I can finally retire

	In the following weeks combat became a predictable routine. We'd go out, we'd stop an attack without difficulty, and we'd pack it up for the next day. Being part of the quick response force felt a lot better than having to do overwatch. All the tension disappeared as the calls came. At times, it felt less like a war and more like we were police chasing hooligans who had robbed a liquor store. That was assuming we got there in time, before the insurgents had slaughtered Water Tribe farms or executed alleged tribal traitors, or had raped the women if they were left alive. None of us had much of a stomach for showing up to the aftermath of such attacks.

	But the Jians had gotten more skilled at fighting these insurgents with every fight. instead of wasting time with autogyros, the sweep line was now dropped in a single pass of a four prop troop transport. They came in so low that the first paratrooper touched the ground by the time the last one was about to jump; far to low to open a second chute if anything went wrong. In the EKA, paratroopers were lucky to combat-jump once in a career. the average for a Jian was four times in a month. One unit completed seventeen drops in that time frame alone. Still, our true enemies eluded us.

After a month of combat Hei Bai pulled us into his tent one early morning and said, "I have a special assignment in the capital that I have to take care of, so for the next several days you'll be on liberty."

Koko began to smile.

"And I did say on *liberty,* not on leave."

Koko's smile vanished.

Hei Bai waved good-bye and walked out of the tent.

"well that sucks. What can we get away with now that Hei Bai's gone?" Koko asked the group

"You know I'm standing right here!" said Buno

"Oh come on, it's just a question."

Those air benders really had no regard for other people's rules. Whatever. I walked outside.

As I left the tent I ran into a pair of men that were walking past. On seeing his rank as an officer I immediately snapped a salute.

"At ease, soldier," he said. "Wait.. you're one of Hei Bai's mercenaries aren't you? I've heard about you. Hiro?"

	I recognized him from previous operations in the province as well. Major Pata Dag-Patta. Pata, like, Buno, was one of the old breed. And like many of the old breed, he was stubbornly proud. You could see it on every inch of his swarthy and angular face. He had grown up in the cold, and as a man had managed to survive the heat of the Jian sun. You can call it nepotism, but he made it to major rather quickly with his connections to the Water Tribe elders. And if you were a Water Tribe's man and didn't follow him because of his upbringing or his rank or his heritage, he was also a water bender.

"yes, sir."

"you can cut the 'sir' nonsense. you're not one of ours after all, mercenary. How long have you been in Hei Bai's lance?"

"About a few months at this rate."

	"What did he say that got you trust this madness? Oh don't tell me; he did that sad little rat-trap thing on you, too, didn't he? Jeez, I'd expect that from some sort of corporate team building exercise. I mean, for Yui's sake why are you following him? He's a Swamp bender. He's spent his whole life in the Earth Kingdom; never even been to the poles and he calls himself a member of the Water tribe? If I had my way –"

"Walk away," Buno said as he emerged from the tent, Staring Pata down like a canyon crawler. Biting his lip, Pata turned around and left. Even as a superior officer, he did not have the cultural social status to challenge Buno.

Again, I felt a little foolish. Buno and Pata had stormed off in opposite directions. I was making my trek back to my tent as well, when I heard a voice go "pssst!"

	I looked back and say Koko peaking her head around the corner of a tent, and she motioned me to come to her. I followed after her and saw Chang in the doorway of a tent, looking around timidly. Koko walked past him into the tent and he pulled me inside, shutting the flaps behind us. Peng was there, too, pouting in the corner.

"Hey, what is this all about?" I was bewildered.

Chang reached into the front of his chest right and produced a large flask.

He said, "we wanted you to drink with us."

"really? What if we get pulled into a mission?"

Chang began passing out wooden shot glasses, "If we get called the moment we finish, we'll be sober by the time our boots touch ground. Just put on you're liar's-face and have a drink."

He poured a clear strong smelling liquor into my cup.

"It's Baijiu," he said. "Drinking it is an important part of our culture, both socially and for communing with our spirits. It's made from the sacred fields of wild sorghum that grow between the villages. Drink it, it's not Xionghuangjiu after all."

I laughed, "I may breath fire but don't worry I'm not dragon."

I took a sip and coughed, it burned so strong. Peng smirked.

"Lets all take a shot together," Peng said. "To surviving another day."

I clanked my cup against the others and took my shot, clenching my fist at the burn to hide it from my face.

"So you guys still believe in spirits, huh?" Peng asked after our heads stopped spinning

"How can we not, they're real?"

"we know they're real," said Peng, "But we don't believe in them, they have no affect on reality anymore"

	"That's because you don't believe in them," Chang scolded, wagging his finger. "There are some things like the spirits that an outsider will not understand like arranged marriage or not having a pension. But I've been happily married for ten years to my only lover, and I have no worries about retiring. I was born in my house and I will gladly die in it one day."

"arranged marriage? No, thank you," Said Koko. "would you mind doing the honors, Hiro?" She had passed a cigarette to each of us and I lit them with a touch of my fingers

"You know, arranged marriage sounds like what you air benders do on the communal farms, only by a different name," I said.

"So, sad-boy!" Koko said looking at me, "you ever had a girlfriend?"

"um, yeah." I scoffed, "too many, actually"

Peng smiled and shook his head. Koko asked, "what, you never go steady?"

	For some reason I could never bring myself to. The thought of multiple wives or arranged marriages felt alien to me, but so did the thought of any of those relationships being loving. In the Earth Kingdom, women were equals in the work place, and objects in the bedroom. You got married and had kids so that someone could take care of you when you retired. But I could never bring myself to that point, and ended my relationships with women as abruptly as they had started. And just like that, I took another shot and walked out on them, too.

	After two uneventful days Hei Bai had returned and things returned to normal. We'd go out on quick response most days, other time's as 'polarbear-dogs' for patrolling in so-called cold zones where regular Jian forces were told to stay clear for risk of friendly fire either by or against our squads. This went on for another two weeks, until the day that Chang came running to Hei Bai with tears in his eyes.

"My boy, Hei Bai," cried Chang, "They've beaten my boy!"

"Who! Who's done this," Hei Bai shouted.

"It was a whole mob of those trouble makers. They did it to him for not helping them," He said, wiping tears from his eyes.

"is he OK? is your wife and daughter safe?"

"They're safe. He's alive. But they've beat him with switches and humiliated him and I don't know what do!"

Buno was shaking, "We will get these people. I swear on my life we'll get them. I need to get in touch with my police immediately."

Chang sat down on the ground and began to weep. Peng approached him to lay his hand atop his head and stroke his hair.

	These were not even terrorists we were fighting against anymore but Jia's own citizens. A compromised member of the community and one of these outsiders comes in, and they inflame passions of hostility against the Water Tribe until they've incited a mob who were to go from village to village and beat or bloody anyone not loyal to the Party. Anyone who refused -- or wasn't seen actively participating in the beatings -- was a 'collaborator.' The outsiders instructed he mob to beat or even kill these collaborators as well. No one's hands were to remain clean.

"He still refused and took his beating. And even then he managed to outrun them to my village and warn them," Chang cried. "I'm so proud of my boy... I'm so proud of my boy..."

	I had seen it before, and it was always terrifying. How fast normal people could succumb to Vaatu and be taken up in violent darkness like a state of intoxication. Hei Bai said to Chang "We'll have a double patrol around your village at all times now. This should never have happened. I'm sorry."

For getting away, Chang's son and family could be a target though his son was already very lucky to be alive. In the headlines of the newspapers, a mob burned a man alive for failing to take part in an anti-Water Tribe labor strike.

	Buno did everything in his power to identify who had been in the mob and arrest them without pity. It was tough work.  Many of the now sobered youths feared the reprisals more than they wanted to tell the truth. Buno could arrest only so many. It did little good without evidence, something the mob orchestrators knew and planned on. Still, more had been sentenced in that case than any of the previous mobs.

	Hei Bai had a different approach. He wanted payback. Today, Jian One had a special mission. We'd leave a hole in a sweep line for the terrorists to escape. Then, we would then hunt them down on foot all across the countryside till they either got to their regroup point or we had overtaken them. We waited with our stuff packed, sleeping in our combat gear, for three whole days before we got the call.

	As soon as it came, we rushed to the tarmac. We stood outside the hangar, waiting for the plane to get pulled out onto the runway. That's when I noticed there was something in the bushes next to the hangar. I crouched down to see… it was a small black cat. It mewed at me, reached into my ruck and grabbed a piece chow, and presented it to the cat. It was cautious for a second, and then began eating right out of my hand.

"What are you doing, Hiro?" Buno said. "Black cats are bad luck."

"Yeah, but it's good karma."

	And in my opinion it was good luck, too. Back when I was seventeen I lived in an apartment block in Ba Sing Sei. Random compulsory service began at age sixteen, but the Party offered a program to stimulate the economy. Citizens who had a steady job could hold off on service till they were twenty (assuming they passed the quarterly values exam). While I lived in the apartment, there was this random stray cat that lived in the area.

	He was a curious stray, like he grew up not knowing how to be a cat. And growing up, whatever that is supposed to mean for him, was difficult. He was missing his left eye – it had been completely covered over in fur. Veterinarians said that it must have been infected so badly that it had burst open from the pressure. One of his ears was permanently fused backwards giving him an odd, almost quizzical, expression. Vets said that one was from a bad case of frostbite. He was emaciated, and you could see his ribs on the parts of his stomach where fur had fallen off in clumps. And on top of that there were scars from previous fights, probably over food. The end of his tail was missing too. He had given up fighting for food and had instead started eating out of dumpsters. A lot of the tenants and neighbors didn't take kindly to this, and they would spray him with their backyard hose-pipes. Of course he didn't know how to be a cat and run away hissing from water. Instead he lowered his head and took it until that person had gotten bored and gave up rinsing him.

	I was walking home from work in the factory after my 'quarterly' on the day Rando found his way into my life. Many in the Fire Nation know of and begrudge that every corporation doing business in the Earth Kingdom has a Party member on the board of trustees with ultimate veto power over even the executive. But what most of them don't know is even the Earth Kingdom employees are subjected to the Party human relations representative. So every quarter, all the employees would shuffle into HR for their assessment. It was identical to what people in the Fire Nation or Air Sovereignty would do for a job interview, but with a couple questions about Party values tacked on at the end. It was easy, as we all knew what answers she was looking for. Even then, the worst that could happen if you 'failed' was you might find that random compulsory service had chosen you that year. Aside from the 'where do you see yourself in five years,' the values portion at the end went a little something like this:

Do you believe all people of all nations in the Earth Kingdom's People's Democratic Republic are equals?

"yes."

Do you believe that men and women are equal?

"yes."

Do you feel you are able to start a family at this time? (for female employees, are you pregnant or breed-ready?)

"not yet."

Do you honor thy father?

"...yes."

Who is the father of the People?

"the Party."

And who is the mother?

"Kuvira."

Do you think that the revolution was a rather bad time for our country's history?

"This is the birth-pains of our society."

But wasn't Kuvira a reprehensible person at times? Don't you think she did some pretty terrible things? (another trick question)

"At least fifty one percent of what Kuvira did was good."

Do you worship any spirits?

"no"

Do you believe in a God?

"no"

	This went on for a few minutes more. After it was over I inhaled and exhaled deeply before stepping outside, surgical mask covering my mouth and nose to keep out the smog. (ten more years they kept saying. Just ten more years and we'll have truly unlocked the power of the atom and then we'll all have energy so clean and cheap and abundant that we won't even have to meter houses anymore. Just give it ten more years.)

 I stopped for a second to check my watch and felt something rubbing against my leg. It was that random cat. He looked up at, not making a sound, and locked eyes with mine. I pouted. He won this one, but nothing more. I reached into lunch pail and gave him a piece of a dried meat. I then walked up the stoop do the front door of the complex. I looked behind me to see him sitting there, at the base of the steps, patiently waiting. He meowed. Aw, fine. You win again. I took him in that day and gave him a name. Rando! Rando, the random cat!

	I took him to the vet the next day; had him vaccinated and treated for a bad case of worms. Even got him a collar. From then on, I made sure that Rando was healthy and well taken care of. Soon, he regained his strength and nearly doubled his weight. I wanted to make sure that the rest of his life somehow made up for everything that had happened before. Still, he never forgot the days he lived on the street. He never turned down a meal. One time he even dragged off and entire cooked chicken-possum before I had managed to take a bite.

	In a way, he changed my life, too, even if it wasn't as much as I hoped I had changed his. I was planning on joining the military back then, just to get it out of the way. Rando gave me an excuse to stay a civilian, even if only for a couple more years. And he was always there for me, between each failed relationship and breakup. I imagined the two of us going on adventures, like all the heroes from stories. Aang had his Momo. Korra had her Pabu. I imagined the two of us, traveling the world, befriending the Avatar. Going on an epic quest, with Rando as our mascot.  We would restore balance to the world and correct injustices. The forces of good would defeat evil! Alluring as it was, it was just an adolescent fantasy. I realize now, that nothing's turned out the way I planned.

	Things did not go according to plan in Jia, either. After the jump, we tracked the insurgents across the countryside for three days, stopping to rest only after they had done the same. We even let them get the head start to make sure they didn't feel too threatened. Early morning of day four we ran into our first snag. The sound of a rifle bullet crackled in our ears, going high and wide off target. We all wheeled around.

"Hold your fire! Hold fire!" shouted Hei Bai. "put your guns on the ground and hold up your hands."

	A second later I saw why. A small boy ran up to us, holding a gun. He was wearing short-shorts, a tee-top, and a comically over-sized ammo vest. The rifle looked like a joke in his hands, too. I'm surprised it didn't knock him over when he fired at us. A boy, just like Chang's.

"Dad! Dad!"

"I'm coming, son! Keep the gun on him!"

	The father told his son to go back in the house. Hei Bai had the unfortunate responsibility of convincing him that our motley crew were members of the military and not the same insurgent group that we were after. Radio calls were made. K-cars were about to be scrambled in response to 'terrorist activity.' But they were thankfully aborted at the last minute. Dagger Seven, who were overlooking the farmer's village and saw everything happen, had to break their hiding on the hilltop to come down to talk with him. Things weren't settled until Du Lin had been called on the radio and berated every single party involved. Just another day on the job.

	As a soldier, you're used to getting shot at or threatened with violence. When it involves children, it's something that's much harder to shake off. Usually they're slaves, child soldiers. This was different. These were the good guys. This was a father and son desperate to hold on to their farm. It wasn't about a patch of dirt growing lettuce, it was about rights. It was about dignity. Something the Water Tribe hasn't received in a good fifty years.

	All in all, getting stopped by those farmers had helped us, more than anything. It lead the people we were chasing to believe that we were no longer on their tail. They couldn't have been more wrong. Buno didn't need weapons to hunt. Buno would simply follow his prey for kilometer upon kilometer – never sprinting, never walking, no matter how far ahead the quarry went– until it had collapsed and died from exhaustion. This time we were hunting humans.

	Thirty klicks we followed him before Buno told us to stop. There was a clearing where the vegetation gave way from waist high plants to shrubs and ground cover. There were several trees about four hundred meters from our location. That was where our prey had stopped. Hei Bai passed the binoculars to me.

"You see what I see, Hiro?"

"five insurgents we were tracking, twenty more at the rally point," I said.

"Look closer, tell me what else you see about the insurgents?"

Some of the men, about seven or so stood out from the rest. Better posture. In better shape. All around more composed. "Looks like we've got some of the insurgents' handlers. What should we do, sir?"

"For now, nothing. We observe. Any chance they know we're on their tail?"

"Not likely," said Buno. "we're downwind and I can smell them from here."

"Any chance we can get a better angle on them?" asked Koko.

"Wouldn't risk it. We can see them fine, but you haven't seen the terrain. The field in front of us – that's all poison ivy. And those guys are knee deep in it. They're either crazier than you, or they're just stupid."

Poison Ivy was no joke. Not only was it miserable, but it is a serious threat to combat effectiveness. The amount of wash-down and cleanliness procedures that they would have had to follow could be nothing less than religious in devotion. If they wanted to keep prying eyes away from their rally points and weapons caches, there couldn't be a more ideal place.

"Sir," Peng said while looking down the scope of his rifle, "you should see this; it looks like they're doing something."

Hei Bai pulled out another pair of binoculars, and I held onto the pair in my hands.

The suspected handlers began what looked like shouting at the insurgents we had been following. There was a sudden movement among them. We saw the flash first, and the reports came a few seconds later.

"Have we been compromised?" said Chang, "Have we been compromised!'

"They just killed all the troublemakers we've been trackin'," said Peng, "They're all dead."

Hei Bai didn't say a single thing. He kept focusing on them through his binoculars.

Buno, "They know we were following them. Insurgents must have told them so. They don't know we're still tracking them. No way"

Koko said, "Hey do you do smell that?"

"Smells… like smoke"

I could see it now; a fire had been started where the insurgents were.

Hei Bai barked, "Everyone. smokemasks. Now."

"What do you mean? I don't have a respirator," Peng protested.

"Masks for everyone are in my ruck. Get them on and call in casevac, or we're dead right now. Do you understand!"

"What's going on?" Asked Koko, "I don't underst-"

If any of us hadn't figured it out before, we all suddenly did in that instant.

The field before us was poison Ivy.

We were all down wind.

	That was the last time any of us made fun of Hei Bai for the amount of spare equipment he carried with him in his rucksack. As soon as I had put my gas mask on, the wind picked up. I was almost immediately enveloped in thick grey smoke. I stumbled around blindly for what felt like hours before Koko found me. She collected myself and the others in poison-free bubble of breathable air. if it wasn't for Hei Bai's and Koko's quick thinking, we'd all be dead.

	Five days. Five days I've spent strapped to a hospital bed in Capital city. Maybe I did jinx the operation after all. Some of us, of course, were luckier than others. Koko was able to keep almost all the smoke off of her body from the start. Buno was naturally immune to ivy.

"How are my soldiers favorite soldiers doing today?" there was a hearty laugh that followed that question. I think he was laughing at our misfortune.

"I'm itching, Buno," I said, "I'm itching really bad."

"That's good! Ha! Ha!" he said. "It means you aren't dead, my friend."

"B-Buno?" It was Hei Bai. He was strapped down to the hospital bed next to mine.

"Yes, Boss?"

"Buno! You lucky polar bear-dog, you!"

The two of them started giggling like school-girls.

"Can you do me a favor, Buno?"

"Of course, boss."

"Can you… scratch my belly?"

"aye, boss."

I heard the sound of someone smacking away Buno's hand. That had to be 'doc.'

"For Yue's sake, Buno," the old doctor said. "I've spent the last five days giving spongebaths to grown men.  I aint gonna give them a single spongebath more than I have to! My patients are strapped down for a reason, Buno."

Koko's voice now, "Must be horrible to be in that bed right now. All that itching, and itching, itching all over." She was grinning, too.

"Shut! Up!" Peng shouted, "please, shut up."

"You two, got really lucky, you know that?" said Hei-Bai

"You all got lucky," said Buno, "We should be dead."

"Takes more than that to kill a Jian; Jians never die"

Peng said, "Our luck could be worse – we could've been up against the Oni of Si Wong." Everyone laughed.

"Yeah," laughed Chang from two beds over. "Maybe even the Avatar himself's one of the troublemakers"

Good joke. Everyone laughed. If either the Avatar or the Oni of Si Wong were hiding out in the bushes, the Jians must have really made some enemies.

"Well," Koko said. "Buno and I have still got to fill out our after action assessments. The commissars won't stop breathing down our necks about it. Get well soon, boys"

Without warning she jumped onto Buno's back and shouted, ''Yip! Yip!" He rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath.  But he submitted to Koko's piggyback ride.

There was one good thing to come of this: I finally got my chance to speak to Hei Bai one on one.

"When I talked to Du-Lin she told me something very interesting about you, Hei-Bai."

"Oh, really?" He said, turning his head so that he could see me from his hospital bed. "What?"

"She said you hand-picked me. Said she didn't even want to pick me, but you persuaded her to. You're a captain. I dug up what I could about you on my off time, records say you served in the EKA, but don't provide rank."

He rolled his eyes, "did Dag-Patta put you up this?"

"No." Yes.

I swallowed and continued.

"I'm guessing by how old you look that there's no way you could have even made it past Major. so how did you cozy up to the High Chancellor so well, huh?"

"It's my pearly smile," he said winking.

"Then why did you recommend me."

	"Because I know you. We've met before, Hiro. Not in person, mind you, but I have met you. I know all about what you've done, before you left the service and after it, and before it. I know the things they put in black ink, too; You've got quite little resume, and quite a skill set, Hiro."

No! no! no! no! no! no! no!, "Special operator records are secret! How in the name of Raava did get your hands on that?"

	"Oh, Nuh-no. Can't tell you how, Hiro; only why. I'm not asking you to like me. I'm going to keep you in the dark. That you can count on. But I'm still going to ask you to trust me, Hiro. If I tell you to jump, will you take a leap of faith? The situation is a lot more… complicated than it would seem. And I need you on my side, to help me do the right thing. If you have any misgivings, I really do believe we can win the war, but I'll need your help. Do the right thing, Hiro."

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SIX
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	"I won't tell Peng about the rifle. It'll be our little secret," Hei Bai chuckled to me as we prepared our gear. It was our first operation since leaving the hospital, where we had stayed for two weeks. I can't imagine the pain I would have felt had the smoke of those fields entered my lung.

	I remember the Chun Go Ku gas accident about a decade ago. It never made it into the papers but everyone talked about it. Chun Go Ku was an Earth Kingdom shanty town where most of the workers in the Fire Nation's Union Heavy Industries Company pesticide production factory worked. About half of the laborers and their families at that plant were members of the Water Tribe. One night there was a deadly accidental release of gas, trapped at ground level by a temperature inversion. arsenical and cyanotic fumes descended upon the town, and by morning three thousand or so people were dead -- either drowning in their own lungs or trampled outside in a human stampede as men, women, and children tried to find a place to breath. It was only after I left the Earth Kingdom to work maritime security did I hear the full story from one of the Water Tribe sailors. The Earth Kingdom government was furious over destruction of their human labor resources, and the Party was given 51% ownership of the company, the 6th largest in the Fire Nation, as compensation for numerous counts of property damage. I can't imagine a worse way to die either than to be beset by chemicals. Panicking in the smoke for a respirator, I had discarded my rifle the moment it snagged on a branch. For what it's worth I was using a sling this time.

	Hei Bai had given me the Jian standard issue rifle as a replacement. The Fire Nation Firearm, Automatic, Lightweight -- FN FAL. Chambered in the in the powerful 7.62x51mm Sato cartridge and fed from a twenty round magazine. As the previous owners of Jia, the Fire Nation had left a trove of arms behind that picked up by Water Tribe security forces. The FAL's straight and elegant lines contrasted the knotty curves of my QBZ. The FN FAL was also more effective at range than the QBZ, while was less effective in close quarters. After all, most people hesitated to close the distance with an enemy that can melt your face off with the flick of their wrist. But the long sight lines and vegetation of the Jian landscape suited the rifle. The Jian's had made excellent use of it.

"It's a better rifle anyway," continued Hei Bai. He chuckled again. "Besides, children won't mistake you for terrorists this way."

	This first mission had started like any other. We were riding in the reinforcement convoy on response to another terrorist attack. Everything was routine, until a hummingbird landed beside our truck with great haste and Hei Bei urged us all on board. The Humming took off before I could pull both my feet inside and raced at top speed to a Kopje overlooking the village. I could not speak over the roaring of the rotors, but I knew in that instant we were heading for the overwatch. I knew it wasn't good either.

	After circling the hilltop and seeing no signs of motion, the hummingbird descended. We hopped out, rifles still at the ready. What we saw was a bloodbath. beneath the camo netting, the entire overwatch was stained in blood. By the looks of it, who ever had done this had caught them by complete surprise. The work of professionals; the handlers, the outsiders, the elusive true enemy of this war.

	In their dugout, against a stack of sandbags, a pair of Jian soldiers lay slain at their posts. One a member of the Water Tribe. The other a tribal Jian native. Their fates intertwined. Both shot through their hearts; their blood had flowed from their bodies and pooled together inseparably and indistinguishably into a single a single dark puddle.

	For a while the first plane to respond to an attack would make its approach to the village by flying directly over the heads of the overwatch team. The attack plane would see the battlefield from the overwatch team's perspective while they guided it in on final approach. Time was of the essence and this saved precious minutes. But our enemy had figured this out, and they had used it to backtrack to where our team had hidden. This was the first major casualty on our side. The Jians had killed or arrested troublemakers in droves but had yet best their masters. One-nothing, terrorists. Once again the Jian's would need to change strategies immediately.

This tragedy was great enough that it demanded we meet the chancellor once again.

	“I can’t do this, Hiro. I can’t freaking do this!” Koko protested, her voice cracking like a child. She tried her best to stand in high heels as she wobbled back and forth. An ill-fitted orange Cheongsam clung poorly to her body. I don’t think it was even hers. Without a hat, her blue arrow tattoos -- an air bender rite of passage -- shone brightly on her shaven head. She looked at me for sympathy.

I shrugged, “What do you think I can do about it?”

	If she could have done it without falling over,  I'm sure she would have slapped me. She paused for a brief moment to scrunch her eyebrows together in consideration. Instead she stuck out her tongue at me, giving me the akanbe with one hand and performing another rude hand gesture with the other.

“Stow the chatter!” Buno barked, “Front and center.”

We all snapped to attention (Koko tried, bless her heart, and almost fell over). A soldier opened the doors to Du Lin’s office. We stepped inside.

“Well, I’m glad to see everyone is dressed…. appropriately this time,” Du Lin said.

	Somehow I think that comment was addressed at me. But what caught my eye was seeing the infinity pool through the windows behind her desk. It seemed to connect the to Capitol grounds to Dragon Tail fjord -- a continuous path of water from the High Chancellor’s office to the ocean. I wondered, did the Fire Nation build that when they made the building or did Du Lin order it? I wondered how much something like that cost...

Then I noticed that in the corner near the honor guards was a plain-clothed man. He looked to be a native by his complexion and features.

“So it was indeed your squad that was first to respond?” Asked Du Lin.

“Yes. We secured the hilltop but found no trace of the attackers. No casings. No signs of bending. Not even any footprints. only bullet fragments recovered from the bodies.”

Du Lin continued to face Hei Bai but her eye’s glanced over to make contact with mine, “Could a human do such a thing? Not a demon?”

Hei Bai said, “it depends on how strongly you believe in demons. Thein Kyu?”

The plain clothed man stepped forward and in a heavy native accent said, “Ma’am. Some of these insurgents are indeed well trained from beyond the borders, but none are trained as well as these people. I have no doubts that your outsiders have done this.”

Hei Bai nodded.

	“Simply put, they have so far bested us, despite all those that we have killed. We cannot let their transgression go unpunished,” said Du Lin. “There is also the matter of the human heart, and whether or not we control its high ground. It is a front of the war the we must win.”

	“No,” Said Hei Bai. “It is the only front of this war that actually matters. We hold it for the moment. But our control is slipping. We’ll lose it by the next election at this rate. If we keep our efforts up we’ll exhaust these troublemakers, but not until after then.”

Du Lin scowled. “Chang! You are a native, yet you believe in this fight?”

“Of course, madame,” Said Chang. “This fight is my fight.”

“Lieutenant Nguyen!” Du Lin said, “where is your place in this war?”

	The lone female honor guard stepped forward, “Ma’am, those… trouble makers.. They have slain my husband and brought shame to me and my village. I have joined the military as the lone educated member of my village and refused to either throw myself on his funeral pyre or rest until our honor is restored.”

Upon her saying this, Thein Kyu diverted his eyes away from her and to the floor.

	“I have left the native peoples of Jia alone to practice their cultures, as they wish to be left alone to practice their culture. I have given them all vaccinations and access to medical care. Those that wish to come to city and share our wealth may come here. Those that wish to vote have access to schools. What more can I do?” Du Lin asked no one in particular.

	Kyu answered. “It is precisely because you have left them alone that the troublemakers are winning. The cities and their Water Tribe peoples and their fate are a very far away place. I am sure that many of them truly appreciate what you have done. But it is a question of getting an education years from now versus having your arm chopped off tomorrow. If your life is so disconnected from the Capital, then the choice should be obvious. If you want them to feel a part of this country, you should strive to bring true equality. Even give them the vote.”

“This war has nothing to actually do with the vote!” Du Lin protested.

	“Then you have failed to understand this war as a war truly is. A war is not only about killing or terrain. If the world believes that this war is about the vote and persecution then it is so. This is something my handlers understood very well, and it was why for every village we sacked we handed out copies of Quotations of Chairman Kuvira in another.”

The pause could fill a lifetime.

“All war is based on deception,” Hei Bai interrupted the silence. “No. All war is based on perception. It doesn’t matter if the treatment of natives and the war we are fighting are two separate issues. They have been made to be seen as one in the same.”

	After a moment to think about what Hei Bai had said, Du Lin’s brow furrowed, “Damn them all. All this trouble, because of voting? Peng! In the Earth Kingdom, do all citizens not have the right to vote, but for a candidate groomed and hand picked by the state’s only Party? Hiro! In the Fire Nation, do all citizens not have the right to vote, but only because they are a nation that has expunged all minorities and outsiders? Koko! In the Air Sovereignty, do all citizens not have the right to vote, but only because non air benders are not even recognized as citizens in the first place? I do not grant the innate right to vote. But all the people within Jia are fully Jia’s citizens and may earn the right to vote with an education. This is a requirement I put before the Jian citizen both native and Water Tribe alike.”

“...why don’t you,” me and my big stupid mouth, “Just give them all the right to vote.”

	“That’s absurd!” she spat at me. “I am not some petty tyrant trying to win a popularity contest. I am trying to build a lasting home for my people that will persist long after I am gone. We need long term planning. We need the people to make educated decisions. For example, agriculture has brought us immense wealth. But what happens if the Earth Kingdom finally figures out viable hydroponics? What happens if the climate continues to become even more arid? Problems that require much deliberation and planning. It’s why I’m trying to build the solar farms. Forward thinking, not some charlatan trading handouts for votes.”

Thein Kyu said, “say what you want to say, but the support of the tribals is waning. And so is the sympathy for your country abroad."

Du Lin said, “Then both you and Hei Bai know what we must do.”

“One must go for the throat when hunting boar-q-pine,” Buno said.

	After all, it was Buno who deserved credit for this mission we were now preparing for. It started with a police case of elephant-mandril poaching. As a ranger, he had meticulously tracked the changes in grazing patterns, the numbers per week, and the distinct lack of footprints or brass casings. Only a single spent case had been found in three months: EKA standard issue for the QBZ.

	Not much to go, it’s a rather ubiquitous cartridge. But what sort of a poacher would take the meat from an elephant-mandril and leave the tusks behind? That is how we found the source of our troublemakers. And with help from Thein Kyu or one of the many turncoats like him we also pinpointed the most likely exact location of their camp. It was on top of one of the many hills to the west, but this one had a basin on it's summit. In such a formation over one hundred men could hide completely unseen. Du Lin ordered the mission immediately, and Hei Bai orchestrated it. No wonder it was going to get us all killed.

"This is nuts," said Koko. "This is nuts for spooks, and spec-ops. This is even nuts for an airbender"

"I know it's crazy," Hei Bai said. "That's why it will work."

No amount of training in the world will ever you prepare you for Hei Bai's nuttery. Today, we were going to jump out of Hummingbird at over one hundred kilometers per hour. Without a parachute. Back at the FOB, Hei Bai explained his plan.

Peng said, "It's not just crazy, it's stupid"

Breaking his normal composure, Hei Bai said, “what’s the matter, is the great and powerful Peng not up to the task?”

Peng’s insult must have bruised Hei Bai’s ego. Could that really be possible? Could it be that Hei Bai himself planned this entire operation?

	"No it's not." Buno answered Peng. "I know those hills like the back of my hand. The vegetation's perfect. The angle of the slope is perfect. Nice and cushy but not too slippery. Math checks out, too. You can argue with Hei Bai all you want, but the math is math. Don't take my opinion on it either. This is something people a lot smarter than me figured out, and I trust them a lot more than I'd trust me"

	"Look, team – I know I'm asking a lot from you, but you know full-well what we're up against. These guys are seeing everything we do. The only thing we have left is the fact that they're so secure about their ability to see ten steps ahead of us, that they won't see the play that's directly in front of them. I don't know about you, but after that stunt they pulled with the poison ivy, I'm ready for some payback. Are you with me?"

"You know I am, boss," Buno said.

"I know you want payback, Peng," said Hei Bai. "You're always pissed, but you're definitely pissed at these guys more than usual. what d'ya say?"

"Convince me," he said.

"I'll tell you guys what… for whoever's alive when we get back from this operation, the next five rounds of sake are on me."

Peng smiled, "Yeah, I guess I'm in"

Koko spoke for both of us, "Then we're in too."

"Alright then," Hei Bai spoke. "Everybody better be here at twelve hundred. Dismissed."

Of course Buno and Hei Bai both walked away, while the rest stayed behind.

"How low does he think our standards are?" I said. "A crummy pep talk and some free sake? We can get free booze off of Chang whenever we want.”

"Did you catch that whole thing about whoever makes it out of the operation alive?" Koko said.

"I'll tell you guys what," Peng said mocking Hei Bai's voice. "If this operation goes bad I'll make sure Hei Bai's the first casualty myself."

	As we lined up to board the hummingbird, Thein Kyu approached us and climbed aboard. Kitted out like a proper Jian soldier, the look of shame on his face replaced with a cold and serious determination. He spoke no words, but his eyes spoke volumes. only an hour or so later we were at our dropzone. So here we all were, now huddled together in the back of a Hummingbird, linked at the elbows, about to jump out a moving aircraft without a parachute.

"Get ready!" our pilot shouted to us. "Coming up on the drop zone in ten seconds!"

He held out his hand, counting down the time with his fingers. Three… two… one…

He clenched his fist.

	The timing had to be perfect. The pilot had to be flying at an exact speed. At an exact altitude. Exactly level. At an exact approach over the exact right spot on the exact right hill. If done correctly, the reverse slope would almost match our parabolic trajectory, gently catching us as we slid down the mountain. Too slow, we splatter on the mountain. Too fast, fall in parallel to the curve of the hill, maybe only centimeters above it, and splatter on the valley below. If conditions weren’t right the first time, there would be no circling around for a second pass for fear of arousing suspicions.

Oh, well. Time to jump and hope for the best.

	I felt my stomach rise into my chest for what seemed like eternity. The ground whizzed past us, barely out of reach. I wondered if we missed, but a few moments later I felt the tips of dew covered grasses whipping the backs of my legs and buttocks. Next thing I knew we were crashing feet first through stalks of wet grass at a hundred kilometers per hour. I kept my legs spread, trying to keep stable. By now, most of us had lost grip with the person next to us. Koko got to the bottom of the hill first, sliding into a wall of tall-grass that stopped her like a pillow. Peng was next, then me and Hei Bai. I stood up and heard the someone laughing,

"watch out below, kingii!"

With the force of a freight train Buno crashed into me, knocking me into the tall grass. His weight pinned me to ground, heaving up and down on my torso with his big hearty laugh. I couldn’t tell if he was more amused at our kilometer long water slide or my poor luck.

“Please. Get. Off."

"Oh, sorry, Hiro," He said, rolling off of me.

Peng said, "Has anybody seen Chang?"

We all looked up the hill and saw him, walking down to us from about a quarter of the way up.

"What took you so long?" asked Koko.

"I hit the only patch of bare dirt about halfway down the hill."

We didn't see it till he reached us and turned around. The friction had destroyed his pants – at least part of them. For the most part they were intact but his butt was completely exposed

"No… Way!" Koko grinned, "Gees, Chang, you've gotta nice budonk."

Peng rolled his eyes.

"It looks a bit red, too. Spankings aren’t your kink are they?."

"Just don't tell my wife and kids about this, alright?"

Thein Kyu stood apart from us, rifle at the ready. His chin up like a hound smelling the air.

"Okay," said Hei Bai, "That's enough, Koko. Everybody get ready move. We've got a long night ahead of us."

	For the rest of dusk, we hike up and down the hillsides. At the rate we were moving, the enemy wouldn't have to kill us. The mountains would do it for them. The sky behind us grew dark. The sky ahead of us was set ablaze in orange and scarlet. The sound of cicadas gradually became replaced by the sound of crickets.

As we crested one of the hills, however, a trail of smoke could be seen on the horizon, rising from one of the valleys.

"Hei Bai…" I asked, "What is that?"

Hei Bai said, "Most likely, that's the wreckage of the Hummingbird that dropped us off, probably shot down shortly after making the dummy drop on Hill two two five four seven Bravo."

"You mean…."

Chang interjected, "Well what are we waiting for! We've got to and get that pilot out of there!"

"We can't. Not part of the plan."

"What about the radio?" asked Koko. "We could call a gunship in for an extraction. They'd never know we weren't in that drop."

"Not going to happen," said Hei Bai. "Breaking radio silence is too risky. The insurgents are going to be spending the next several hours combing that hill looking for a spec-ops team that was never inserted. I don't want them getting scattered in a gunship assault."

"How can you say that," asked Chang, "to leave one of our own behind like that, behind enemy lines and wounded, all alone, surrounded by enemies."

"You don't get it. Pilot Hama is dead." answered Thein Kyu

"Y-You don't know that! He could still be alive."

"He does know that," said Hei Bai "Hama getting shot down wasn't  an accident. We knew it was likely to happen when this mission was planned."

Peng shouted, "Why, you son of a--"

"You don't think Hama knew the risks? He knew this was a likely one-way ticket, and he volunteered for this mission. This was his choice."

Then, Buno spoke, "I don't like the math on this one either. I knew Warrant Officer Hama. He was a good man. But what's done is done. If we don't get moving now, Hama's sacrifice – his life – will have been for nothing."

"Then we're good," said Hei Bai, "Over that next hill we'll be within range of the enemy. I want absolute light and noise discipline on this one. Understood? Yes? Good."

Chang said, "But—"

"No 'buts.' Let's go."

Hei Bai's noise discipline was two-fold. Yes, we were getting close to the enemy, and noiselessness was important for vital, practical reasons. But secondly, I think he didn't want to give us the opportunity to openly discuss our dissenting opinions on this operation.

	We slinked out way across the hill tops. We made our first sighting of the enemy at about 2300 hours. We dodged patrols for the next several hours. It wasn't until 0200 hours that we crested a hill and saw their base camp on another hill seven hundred yards away through our night-vision goggles. Camouflage netting had been place to stop detection from air.

"Alright," said Buno, "this is where we dig in, halfway down the slope."

Peng flexed his muscle and carved out a trench across the side of the hill with his bending. We then put up camouflage netting of our own, along with a screen of material designed to make us invisible to any tripod mounted infra-red cameras they may have been using.

	we spent the next several days eating MRE's and relieving ourselves into their empty wrappers. Hei Bai spent almost all his time behind binoculars. At least in the afternoon, anyway. From 0500 to 1100 hours in the morning, the entire valley was covered in dew and filled with the densest fog I've ever seen. Those were the only time's Hei Bai would choose to sleep.

"Why don't we call in an air-strike? A fighter wing will get here way too fast for them to scatter. They'd never see it coming. Kaboom! Problem solved. forever."

"No good, Koko," Hei Bai said, "There are going to be pieces of intelligence in that camp of theirs. That’s the real mission. A golf-bomb from a jet would obliterate nearly everything. Nothing small enough to safely drop has any chance of being effective on its own."

"Well you can't just expect us to walk their, they'd see us the moment we'd start to head down that slope."

"That would very bad indeed – they'd torch their Intel documents immediately."

"well I was more concerned about how they'd be able pick us off with snipers and kill all of us, but yeah, the intel thing would be a real bummer too, I guess."

"Either way, time is an issue," Hei-Bai said. "we make an assault on that base tomorrow or call it all off."

"Whaaat? You don't even have a plan yet."

"No, but I will tomorrow. Get some sleep, We'll be up at O'five hundred hours."

	That was the thing about Hei Bai. He seemed to walk a razor's edge between genius and insanity. I could never truly tell if his plans were coldly calculated and manipulative -- seeing ten steps ahead of his enemy like some sort of Go master -- or if he merely made up everything he did on the fly.

"Are you ready for what's going to happen tomorrow morning?"

	It was Peng, sitting on a rock and loading his gun, a large-bore lever-action rifle. A blast from the past, bastardized with modern accessories. Not the weirdest choice I've seen. The slugs were potent and the range would be short. A lot lighter than the autoloaders too. He was a combat-engineer after all, more concerned with barricades and bombs than shooting.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"It's a dangerous game that Hei Bai is playing. If you were smart, you'd take you money now and go home."

"You looking for a larger cut, Peng? You're sudden concern is bit… unusual."

"Well, take it or leave it… my advice I mean. But don't say I didn't warn you."

"So why are you staying then, Peng?"

"You should know why," said Peng. “If you’re not careful, you'll become a ghost even if you live"

“Is that what happened to you, Peng?” Thein Kyu interrupted as he emerged from the shadows and squatted next to us. “If Hiro dies, the only money you’ll get is Hell Money.”

Peng smirked, “I was once K’un. But there is no water to swim in the Si Wong Desert, so I became Peng.”

“We will see,” Thein Kyu said.

One by one that morning, we lined up in a single file, Buno taking point. I can't speak for the others, but I know I was clutching my rifle with white knuckles.

"Okay everyone," Hei-Bai said, "Put your rifles on your backs. Out come your handguns and a grenade, each."

Everyone shuffled around for a second, looking at the nearest person to see if they weren't the only one confused. All I had for a side-arm was a tiny suppressed snub-nose. But I drew it, and grabbed a frag bomb with my left hand.

	Hei Bai said, "When it happens, it’s going to be fast and very close. As soon as you see the enemy, knuckleball those grenades right past them and start shooting. You won’t have time to grab your rifles; the violence of action will be high. Hiro, no fire bending on this one. We can’t risk any fires."

Great. Just great. There goes any edge I had on the field.

"All right, everyone. Single file. Let's March."

"That was not a suggestion people," shouted Buno. "Move out."

	So how does a single lance manage to make an assault on a well defended camp? The answer was simple to Hei Bai. Walk straight there. Grenades in one hand and pistols in the other (except for Hei Bai The Nutcase: he had a pistol in both hands). we slogged down the hill, hiked through the valley and groaned our way back up the hill. We were cloaked in morning fog so thick that you couldn't see more than five feet in front of you. That was his big secret. And I hope it obscured us more than it obscured the enemy, because if anything went wrong – and it always does – I was on the very point of the spear with my dinky gas-sealed wheelgun.

At the summit Hei Bai checked his watch then motioned us to stop and said, “You might want to all lay down on your backs right now.”

	I didn’t question it at this point, and I was glad not to. I don’t know what sound I heard first, the explosion or the sound of the sky being torn asunder. A blur of motion and hurricane of wind as the jet buzzed our heads. Not even twenty meters over the top of this mountain. It’s sight hidden by the fog. It’s sound hidden by own speed. I had only enough hearing left to hear the dozens of ricocheting metal fragments ka’pwing around inside the basin. And then few seconds later heard the explosions a dozen times more as they echoed off of the hills. Sailing ten meters over our heads, there goes an insurgent's charred and shattered helmet. off to land somewhere in the valley hundreds of yards below us.

The horror of it all!

I must give credit to all these terrorists to keep fighting when on the receiving end of such destructive forces. That was no real air strike, just a singular fifty kilo frag bomb. I could not keep control of my bladder but was lucky to not drop my live grenade.

“Now!” commanded Hei Bai. “up and over!”

The seven of us ran shoulder to shoulder up the last ten meters. We heard shouting and whistles and screaming. "Toss 'em now!"

	Faster than they could say 'open fire,' six grenades go over the top of the sandbags. We didn't stop running, but jumped into the smog and fog filled pits as we threw the grenades. I jumped onto the terrorist in front of me. Despite the bomb and sonic boom he brought his rifle to my face. I grabbed the barrel with my free hand while stuffing my pistol into his belly. Another reached up to grab at my shirt and I electrocuted him. We began point-shooting our pistols at anything that moved around us. Peng threw up a curtain of dirt to protect us from the the six sets of explosions that went off a moment later.

The air became deadly quiet.

	We hopped over the wall and formed up in a line, creeping forward while aiming down the sights of our rifles. An operation like this is all about throttle control: knowing when to give it fuel and move as fast as you can, and then knowing when to ease back on the throttle, fluidly slowing down to a crawl, not ever getting ahead of yourself. A single confused insurgent tried running to where he thought was safe, and was cut down with a wall of bullets. We kept inching forward one step at a time. And then came the breeze.

“Koko, we’re losing fog. Bend back our concealment,” said Hei Bai

“I’m trying!” Koko shouted as she gritted her teeth and waived. It wasn’t working.

Now we all stood naked in the middle of the pit, carcasses everywhere, with another dozen soldiers spitting distance away. I hit the deck as the bullets exploded their way past my body and wildly returned fire, aiming at nothing in particular. Peng erupted a berm of dirt in front of us, the only thing sparing us from their barrage

	Then I saw a massive boulder rise from the earth and float into the air. Peng vaulted over barricade. With a sweep of his arm, he commanded the boulder into motion. Hurtling the boulder toward our assailants, he rode a wave of earth behind it, like an Ember Island surfboard, the boulder soaking up deadly bullets.  Peng was smack dab into the middle of a dozen of the enemy. Catching them as they reloaded I watched him fire twice with his lever gun and two of them fell to the ground. A terrorist fired at him and missed, spilling the brains of one of his buddies.

	With an outstretched arm, Peng fired several shots with just one hand, spinning the gun around his wrist to cycle it as his other arm bent up another wall of dirt. On the third shot he let the recoil push back on his arm, quickly swinging his gun up in and arc and then back down, resting on his shoulders. Bang bang bang! He fired his gun upside down and behind his head, like a pop-musician showing off on one of those new 'electric' guitars that all the kids like. For a minute he almost seemed to be – no. That wasn't in the realm of possibilities. But the thought of it stuck there like a splinter in my mind. The dust settled and around Peng there lay a dozen corpses; Koko whispered aloud to herself what all of us were thinking, "The… The Oni of Si Wong.''

	By now the rest of us had jumped the berm to join Peng’s assault. Chang had run ahead of me and was wearing the same pair of trousers he jumped in with. As he ran, his naked butt cheeks jiggled back and forth. War is hate and anger and death and madness and absurdity, but every once in a while, it's funny.

Peng ejects an empty casing and it lands in one of the insurgents' unblinking eyes. He pulls out a cigarette, cups his hands to his face to light it, and takes a drag. And the entire time, he was smiling.

"What are you looking at ladies!" Buno screams "We have a hilltop to secure!"

No one moved

"…it's secure, sergeant,'' said Chang. "That's all of them"

Hei Bai glared at Peng with anger over how impressed he was with his stunt, but said nothing of it. "Get these bodies secured. Side by side in a line. I want photos. I want this nice and orderly for record books. We don't have a lot of time before more bad-guys show up"

“I’m sorry, Thein Kyu,” said Peng. “Was that your fun I was having?”

Thein Kyu did not dignify Peng with a response.

	I grabbed the bodies by the feet and Chang grabbed them by the arms, giving them a one-two swinging toss into a pile. These bodies were warm. They weren't some barely tangible 'other' thing, like a skeleton or a desiccated corpse, stiffened with rigor mortis. They were warm and soft and only minutes moments ago they were a living, breathing person just like you. It's something you never quite get over. Chang and I picked up the corpse of one of the insurgents that had been shot in the head, and his brains fell out. Chang almost slipped on them, and ended up kicking his thoughts and memories down the side of the mountain.

"Koko, what are you doing?" asked Buno, "We've got a job to do here."

She stood there, staring at one of the bodies. She drew her bowie knife and grabbed one of the corpses by the scalp

Hei Bai shouts. "Koko no!"

She took her knife and began slicing through the top of the man's head. I dropped the body and ran over to pull Koko off. I grabbed her and yanked her off with as much force as I could.

"Have you lost your freaking mind?" I screamed

She fell backwards on top of me. In her right hand was the bowie knife. And in her left hand… nothing but hair.

"What in Yue's name was that, Koko?" Hei Bai asked. "are you trying to commit a war crime?"

"No, you don't understand!" she pleaded

"Don't understand what?"

"Look!" she said pointed to the body. "Look at it"

"Oh no… It can't be."

And then I saw it. Visible now that his hair was gone, there was a bright blue arrow shaped tattoo on the man's head.

"Don't you get it," Koko said at long last. "The handlers… This whole time… They weren't fire benders. They Weren't Fire Nation. This whole time they were Air Nomads. We've been at war with the Air Sovereignty"

This war had become even less simple.