Chapter 13

	I woke up that morning in my bedroom. No… It wasn’t my bedroom, it was some stranger’s. And it wasn’t morning either. Blocking the afternoon sunlight from my eyes I took in the air whose vinegar smell accosted my nose. Most likely I was only smelling myself. It was no soldier’s room I was in, the walls were painted and covered in a floral patterned wallpaper. The brown carpet was stained and there some little plastic dolls in the corner. Across from them, my combat vest and scattergun. But as I stepped my feet to the floor, my joints creaked louder than the old boards beneath my feet. Wincing with each step from the pain in my ribs, I clutched at the dressing wrapped across my torso. I shuffled through the door jam, whose sides were lovingly decorated in crayon, notched green lines with numbers in age and height just like my mother used to do for me.

“Koko!” I shouted. “Koko! Where are you?”

“Downstairs!” I heard Buno’s voice call out. “And keep it down, she’s resting.”

	I slumped my way down the hallway and down the stairs to be greeted by a thoroughly modern kitchen. Buno, Hei Bai, Thein Kyu, and Chang all stat around the kitchen table. They looked like they were having a late lunch but the bags under all their eyes said breakfast. Though no one looked more tired than Hei Bai. Buno and Hei Bai sat beside each other, papa and mama of Jian-One. While Buno sipped a cold tea, Hei Bai had a dark bitter Water Tribe drink from the southeast called coffee. It was like tea but stronger and has started to become popular with the kids and eccentric types or intelligentsia these days. Hei Bai drank straight from an entire pot he had brewed for himself. Thein Kyu produced a chair and beckoned me to sit with them.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“Capital City,” said Buno. “a civilian's house. They’ve evacuated for a shelter.”

“A lot of our forces have pulled into the city, preparing for invasion. Thanks to you, it might never come,” said Hei Bai. He handed my a cup of hot tea.

I went to grab it and flinched in pain.

	“You burned that hand last night,” he said. Hei Bai. He pulled some water out of the tap and wrapped a bolus around my hand, performing his ancient art of Water Tribe healing. The water was almost humming and glowing a neon blue color. “Take it easy. Did you know you had a flail chest? Whatever hit you, if you had inhaled when it did, your lungs would have popped. I’ll have to get Koko’s leg later,” he said. “Really twisted it up last night.”

“What do you mean… might never come?”

	“The Nomads have halted their advance and pulled back. They’re in complete disarray right now. They’ve never lost an airship before. Now they’ve lost three, and they have no idea what actually happened. There were a total of nine airships in that battle group and the remaining six completely withdrew from. The rumor going about now is that the Oni of Si Wong has destroyed all nine gunships. It’s hugely embarrassing for them. Now we have what we need to sue for peace.”

“You think Du Lin is gonna approve of what is technically a surrender?”

“Of course I do.” said Hei Bai. “This was her plan. In fact, she’s in Republic City right now to make a case to the Avatar and to the representatives of the Air Sovereignty.”

“What if they don’t stop though?”

“I guess it’s all hands on deck then. Call in the reservists, start drafting, maybe track down every electricity bender we can find and crack open the mothballed Fire Nation railguns. Oni of Si Wong might have to make an appearance too.”

“He didn’t last night?”

“No,” said Hei Bai. “Not yet.”

Hei Bai continued to recount the events of the last twenty four hours.

	One of the big problems with blimps is that… well, they're blimps. They're slow. They're big targets. A whole lot of money, time, and danger could be spared if they never had to land. So whatever province could afford them would build Tians. Massive towers, kilometers tall, suspended by balloon and high altitude kites. It wasn't as crazy as it sounds. These of course weren't meant for civilians; they also doubled as high altitude aircraft hangers, cutting precious minutes off of the time it would take interceptors to reach their intended altitude. The tower in Jia was such a tower, named Tian Two for its height of two kilometers.

Armed with flak towers and a squadron of interceptors, Tian Two could defend itself against no less than one seventy strike fighters. It had only a single flaw – the Air Sovereignty attacked the tower with no less than two hundred strike fighters

	Jia responded later that day. Du Lin wanted to shut down any communication that the Air Nation had in the region. One of the things that makes instant communication possible in this day and age is the Bison system, developed by the Sokka himself. It was a series of several hundred high altitude balloons floating around the jet-stream at the equator, each carrying radio repeater equipment. New ones had to be released every hundred days or so take place of the old ones, but it meant reliable world-wide radio communication. So Du Lin's response was to blast down every single one floating over Jian airspace. This left a huge hole in world-wide radio communications, making her quite unpopular. Getting the planes high enough to launch rockets at the balloons without help from Tian Two was also a very costly ordeal. I think to Du Lin it was about spiting the Air Sovereignty at any cost. It certainly didn't make any friends. The blind spot we were poking in the radio balloons would eventually circle the globe, cutting off radio for a solid month wherever it was.

"It's not a good thing we did… they might come after us harder now."

"And they're gonna have a doubly hard time doing it, if they do. Now we sue from a position of strength.”

I finished my tea and went upstairs to the master bedroom. I knocked on the door and Koko beckoned me to enter. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, still in her crusty uniform.

“How are you feeling, Koko?” I asked.

“My leg hurts,” she winced, “But it doesn’t hurt too bad.”

“No, I mean, how are you feeling.”

She scowled, “Are you asking if last night was good for me too?”

“Well, yes,” I said.

Koko’s sinewy shoulders drooped as if they were under great weight, and she looked down at the floor as if the words she couldn’t find would sprout out of the carpet. There were none there.

“I’d like to say that we made a difference. We accomplished our objectives, even when I thought we were goners. You know, I think we make a good team.”

“Yeah, I think we do make a good team. C’mon! We’re soldiers. Mercenaries even. We stopped their army from advancing and now there’s a real chance for peace before anyone else has to die.”

“No, Hiro.” She said. “The Party won’t stop. They won’t ever stop.”

Koko rose from her feet and limped over to another child’s doll, plucking it from the floor. She hugged it against her breast and said. “This is all so tiresome… sometimes I wish I could still just get to be a girl.”

	But we can’t go back. I, too, thought about what life must be like in this house. Was there laughter? Were there jokes told that no one would ever hear besides this family? How much love was there here? I thought about our lives. Papa Buno and momma Hei Bai and Hou Yi and little Peng and Koko. And uncle Thein Kyu could visit us from time to time and we’d have have our family pet Rando… gah, what a joke. It could never work. We were soldiers, killers. And right now we had a war to survive, let alone even win.

They won’t stop. They won’t ever stop.

	I remember as a child standing 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 the 2nd movement of Cao Cao's 5th. 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."

I remember my mother then held my hand as she put some money into the musician's violin case.

I remember my mother trying to cover my eyes and briskly walk away as the plain clothes police officer of the Party suddenly swarmed him and dragged him away for playing a traditional and ‘disloyal’ piece of music. The Party would never stop.

Hei Bai’s voice called down the hallway, “Koko, you awake yet? I need to take a look at your leg.”

Koko dropped the doll on the floor..

“Catch you later, Hiro.”

She limped her way out of the room and down the hall to Hei Bai. I left after picking the doll up and setting her face-up on the bed.

	I went to the stairs and took them up to the roof, the only place I hadn’t been yet. This was a house in the city. It was new, but built flat topped like one of the Old houses. I opened the door and was greeted to Peng sitting in a chair with a pair of binoculars and a mountain of cigarette butts.

“Welcome back, Hiro.”

	I pulled up a chair to the little table next to Peng and sat down. By now the sky had become and overcast grey. The city streets were devoid of the signs of life aside from the occasional patrolling satomobile or the mechatanks standing guard in the distance. Somewhere, over the horizon, was the temporarily halted air bender army.

“...good to see you, Peng. You saved my life back there.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Peng pulled out another cigarette and I lit it for him. He put it to his lips and took a drag.

It was odd to see him out of uniform, only wearing civilian clothes. The the khakis and short collared button shirt with breast pockets that had become so popular in the Earth Kingdom. Yet still he wore his checkered bandanna.

“Must feel good, being the hero? Getting to be like the Oni?”

“No.” I said. “In fact, I’m terrified. No one has ever done something like this, and now all the rules have been thrown out the window. We’re standing on the edge of cliff.”

“And no one will ever know who did it either,” Peng smirked. “We’ll make our own fate now. And whatever road that takes us down, we’ll walk it in lockstep.”

“I… didn’t take you for sentimental. You sound almost like Hei Bai. You know to be honest I was surprised you didn’t shoot me last night.”

“What? Shoot you? What are you, stupid?”

“Maybe?”

Peng unwrapped his bandana from his neck and unfurled it.

“My younger brother Tiao Jiu Yan served the in the Earth Kingdom Army. This scarf was his scarf, given to him by a local in the Si Wong Desert. He was shot through the neck and killed; I couldn’t save him. Oh, Hiro, you look so much like him.”

Peng began to weep.

	Every following day spent in that little house felt like an eternity. Couldn’t leave, for fear that we might need to leave in a hurry. Hei Bai healed Koko and my wounds, whilst staying glued  to radio and a secured phone line. The solar had been turned into a war room, as he poured over the information coming from the front, all saying that nothing had changed.

	Indeed, this following week was spent in an agonizing standstill. The war had abruptly dragged to a halt. The Air Sovereignty’s military had not pushed past the little North Eastern corner of the peninsula they controlled. After our raid they, they didn’t dare press forward for fear of taking casualties. Likewise, neither did we. More men and material were heading east, coiling up for the final strike. But nothing would happen until we were ready. Don’t blame them for taking their time, either. I shuddered thinking about having to fight against air bender grenadiers. They would pop up into the air with their wingsuits before lobbing a forty millimeter down on us with their bloopguns. The only comfort I had was that I had my scattergun and many hours practice shooting clays from the fantail of a cargo freighter…

	To make matters worse, the forces of the Air Sovereignty had more than just infantry and air support now and had managed to dig in with their tanks. The Air Sovereignty still used the older light, medium, and heavy tank classification system. Light tanks were fast and light as their name implied and were small enough to be dropped from gliders (they weren't really gliders with airbenders at the helm). They also had deployed versatile medium tanks. These too were relatively light enough to be transported by cargo blimp. Fortunately they could bring no heavy tanks with them. Those were too massive to transport and remained in service of defending the homeland. This was for the best, as their most recent model was a monster with a hull mounted 120 millimeter gun and had a turret mount 3 kilogramer (57mm) auto canon for anti infantry, ack ack, and fighting light vehicles or suppressing tanks. amusingly, the tanks driver had six pedals (left and right side forward, left and right side reverse, and left and right side brakes) freeing his hands to aim the main gun by twisting the whole fuselage on its suspension. The lack of firepower to the tanks of the expeditionary force was made up for with dedicated tank destroyers.

	The Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation, by contrast, had replaced light, medium, and heavy tanks with the universal battle tank. This was a class of tank that could do everything except be affordable -- nearly the speed of a light tank, the flexibility of the medium, and nearly the armor and firepower of the heavy. still, they were heavier than the medium, and again, they were expensive. The Fire Nation had nothing but UBTs with complimenting infantry fighting vehicles that had rockets or machine-cannons in addition to taxiing supporting infantry to battle. The Earth Kindom Army maintained UBTs in a smaller ratio. They also had nearly as many infantry support tanks and cavalry tanks. The ISTs were small, slow, heavily armored tanks with smaller guns meant to stick with infantry and support them during assaults. The cavalry tanks by contrast were fast like light tanks but still packed a punch with larger guns at the cost of weight and thinner armor. These were meant to blitz through the openings after assaults were made in order to flank and encircle.

	The average reader's eyes may glaze over reading this, and the militarily astute reader may find this incredibly basic. nevertheless, it is important to understand because it was something any soldier worth his salt spend a lot of time worrying about: Jia had none of these tanks at here disposal. There were a few last gen UBTs left behind by the fire nation, but most of the combat vehicles were left behind mecha tanks, some APCs, and wheeled armored scouts that had little chance of taking on tanks and winning. If we had to fight the Air Sovereignty now, it would be a bloodbath that neither side could afford.

But for now we kept waiting. Hoping. As Du Lin appealed once again to the members of the Republic City council. To the Avatar himself.

All of us huddled that fateful morning around a black and white telescreen.

	“—because we have worked this land with our blood, our lives, our sweat, and our bones. As one country of two nations. As two hearts beating as one,” Du Lin said. The grainy colorless imagery night quite capturing her features or the fire that I knew was in her eyes. “Under my watch, my people have seen freedom, but also unimaginable barbarism at the hands of our attackers. It has not been easy, but under my watch, the native peoples of Jia have also seen the right to vote for the first time in over one hundred years.”

Chang asked, “she hasn’t mentioned the airbenders.”

“It’s better that she doesn’t,” said Hei Bai

“-- and in the face of such senseless attacks, I come here to plead to the Avatar: do the Jian people not have the right to exist?”

It was the delegate of the Air Sovereigns to speak next.

The delegate was clad in traditional nomad garb. Head shaven. Arrow tattoos visible even in the grainy black and white imagery. He began to below such that he did not need the microphone for his choppy accented speech to reach his audience

	“Jia has been derelict in her national and international duties as a sovereign state and to the Air Sovereignty as her closest neighbor. Airbenders are only a small minority in Jia as they are in every other country. But to have military patrols during election was to ensure a suppression of their votes and their rights and their freedom. Every vote counts, and the right to vote for us airbenders more than anyone at all, lest we repeat our history. The adoption of any resolution against the Air Sovereign military would give them impression to the Water Tribe that they have been exonerated from all responsibility, That they continue to defy the Air Sovereignty with impunity. It would serve further to inflame the feelings of the Nomad and Jian peoples! I ask you not to condemn the action of our military, for the sake of peace. Thank you.”

	The Air Sovereignty delegate sat down. After a five minute intermission, it was then that the old man -- that frail and glassy eyed  Avatar -- rose from his dais to speak. The members of the Fire Nation kowtowed as did the those of the Earth Kingdom, Jia, and the Water Tribe. Except for Du Lin. Like the present members of the Party and the delegates of the Air Sovereignty, she remained at her station.

	Reading from the teleprompter, the Avatar spoke, “All my life I’ve been a man of peace. Working for peace. Striving for peace. Negotiating for peace. And I am utterly convinced that what we must do now is right. The Air Sovereignty’s actions can not be allowed to threaten Jia, not for peace in Jia but peace in the world. The Air Sovereignty must withdraw from the peninsula. For the sake of the world, Jia must also withdraw her military forces, lay down all her arms, and relinquish all farmland to peacekeeping forces.”

There were gasps and kerfuffles as everyone turned to look at Jia’s delegations. Du Lin fixed her hair before swallowing and pulling her microphone towards her.

“Jia can not accept,” She said, before she and the rest of her delegation rose from their chairs. And with an even greater sound of gasping from the other delegates, they stood up and walked out of the room.

Hei Bai shut off the television.

“That’s the signal. Were going now.”

“Going where?” Koko asked.

“To war,” said Hei Bai, “we drive east, to the Wolf’s Teeth. Immediately”

	We all rushed to grab our three day packs and our weapons and filed out the doorway. Buno was already waiting for in the driver’s seat the satomobile, official ‘government vehicle’ placard draped over the front of the radiator. Even as we dogpiled into the back seats of the vehicle, Buno urged us to hurry.

	I found myself crushed between Chang and Peng in middle seat of the vehicle. Crushed again to the rear as Buno floored it. We were racing through the lifeless city streets, with only a little slow down and safety honk at each intersection. Even at the checkpoints, Hei Bai waved his arms to move  the guards out of the way. I had to ask, “What's the big rush?”

	Hei Bai looked back from the passenger seat, “The air benders have wasted all our time bringing men and supplies to the west coast. But the invasion will be coming from the east. We can hold them, but first we have to get there. A lot of open ground between the capital and the Wolf’s Teeth. I’d rather not be bombing practice.”

	From behind, Koko and Thein Kyu tapped me on the shoulder. They were facing backwards, feet hanging out the trunk off the bumper, clutching their rifles and held in with makeshift paracord seatbelts. I sighed, and grabbed a canteen from Hei Bai and passed it back them. Already I felt the need to urinate. It was going to be a long ride…