AN :
if we hit 250 power stones, there will be an extra chapter guys ;)
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We leave the city through one of the tunnels that open up into the ocean about a mile in front of the gate. The tunnels are checked over regularly, and too long for even seals to make use of to invade our city from below. We're in a large, bullet-shaped bubble of air that two of us propel forward fitted perfectly to the diameter of the tunnel. It's large enough that the air might last us until we're back out of range of the Fire Nation ships.
If not, well, we're waterbenders, we can navigate dangerous waters. Usually, it's us that make them unsafe in the first place. It's not like we're pirates. But we do like to control who enters our territories.
We're too fast to see much, but the ship isn't hard to find.
It looks out of place in this bay of ours. We know it well, from above the waves, and beneath.
It's easy to sink by prying the metal hull apart at the seams. It's done so quickly, I'm almost concerned that it's a trap. No doubt, in the long run it sort of is, with all that oil spillage. But thankfully, these are warships. There are no large oil tanks aboard. Just enough to get here, muck about a bit, and go back. Besides, there are methods of cleaning it away. It will take weeks, but if we all work together, and isolate the oils, we might even have some to power the experimental machinery that we don't have. Those are thoughts for another time.
We gain some distance and watch as some of the crew rescue themselves into a small longboat. The others must still be trapped inside.
I make the decision to scout the numbers of the rest of the fleet. So we surface for air, and sink back down into the black depths of our element.
The first one wasn't a trap, but it was a ship they did not expect to see return, because taking out three of the larger ones takes a bit more work. The hull is double-layered, and we're forced to open up the hull in various places. The ships are so large, they've built separate compartments that they can completely close off and remain seaworthy.
We sample only those three, but we do wait to see how many soldiers drown, and how many are rescued. No sense in wasting a perfectly good opportunity for gauging their numbers.
There are Komono Rhinos attempting to tread the water, but their weight proves too much of a challenge. Each of the ships we sink have several trebuchets and must have at least a hundred soldiers each, and those are only the numbers we definitely see. About half of them drown before the other ships send out longboats to rescue them. I hope they all get pneumonia.
Carefully, I avoid thinking of them as people.
Upon our return there is a large crater in the wall, but the rest of the city seems to have survived unscathed, except for the towers of ice, each holding a cooling metal orb, spanning a man's length in diameter, and three in height.
Pakku and Arnook greet us in front of the gate to the streets of the city.
"Well?" Pakku demands, eyes flickering over each of us, satisfied not to see blood.
"There must be about a hundred and twenty Empire class battleships on their way. We took out three of the larger ones. They had Komodo Rhinos and Fire Nation Cruisers on board. Not to mention the trebuchets." I let my eyes wander to one icy popsicle tower they erected in our absence. "The larger ones have compartments they can seal off to remain afloat even as the hull is breached. It's double-layered, and I suspect that parts of it can be removed if the outer layer becomes too damaged. There are at least a hundred soldiers and at least ten rhinos to a ship."
"Very well," Arnook thinks for a moment as he takes us in, mostly smug and only slightly worse for wear. "How effective would multiple such expeditions be? Could we reasonably pick off those that are close enough to pose a danger to our walls without better spending those efforts in defending the city?"
Pakku and I trade a look, both calculating. This wasn't particularly tiring, but could we eight have been of better use here, had we not been needed to scout? No. The fiery projectiles were all caught before doing any damage, except the one buried in the city wall.
"If we chose strategically… The ships with the most trebuchets, then the ones with the most chances of breaching the wall," I suggest, and Pakku nods thoughtfully.
"Can you judge which ones they are from below the surface?"
I exchange glances with my fellow scouts. No, we can't.
"Then, we'll need the Avatar's help."
Aang, it seems, has already been helping out, destroying trebuchets, and admiring our work from above. We rest while we wait for him to return from his… rampage.
A determined airbending master can deal out a lot of damage.
With how he lost his entire people not a few months ago, he's fairly goal-orientated to keep the Fire Nation at bay. Or outside of our bay.
It's decided that it will be Sokka, as well as one of the more observationally adept warriors who will go up with him, to mark the positions of the ships we want sabotaged the most. They both have good eyesight, and that will be necessary for accurately gathering the information we need.
Before we prepare even more, we hold war council. This is where we determine objectives and missions. Some clear order with a clear purpose will do everyone good.
Currently, some of the citizens look like they're getting ready to play headless chicken. Tui and La save us all from that nightmare.
We don't really practise what to do in the case of an invasion. People know to pack their things, though, and supplies, and move towards the palace where they can be directed into the caverns carved from the ice walls surrounding the city. They are emergency shelters at worst, cool hideouts for children at best.
Now, their true purpose will fill them to the brim.
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Warriors and benders alike have all assembled in the great hall of the palace. It now serves as the war council's base of operations, and where ideas are carried to the table to be considered. So long as you are someone, you will be heard. Now it pays to have friends. Or be those friends.
"While I am hesitant to launch an attack, we may well be operating on a tight schedule. The numbers we face prove too steep," Arnook says, as he addresses the assembled troops, "With the moon so close to being full, we should be able to ambush the fleet."
Pakku steps up to outline what the rough plan is, so that then we can add our ideas. So long as you're one of those who get one of the cushions to sit on, you can speak. Very liberal. It's about the money, after all.
"We have decided to send out several strike teams to take out the ships from underwater, as we did this afternoon to find out their numbers. While the Fire Navy will be busy rescuing their fellow soldiers from drowning, the group of thirty who have been practising the new sequence from the Avatar will perform the wave two miles outside the city and freeze it, to add another layer of defence."
Not bad. Not bad at all. Provided we manage to raise it high enough to deter any burning projectiles. But we should be able to. Maybe, with the almost-full moon, we can add another one, directly behind it to stop any battleships that come through. The Fire Navy would be forced into their longboats.
We could also incorporate the metal projectiles we received into the outer wall, so that when the walls are inevitably breached, the wall can be unfrozen and sent to slam into the fleet.
If the double-layered hull is too time consuming to breach in multiple places, destroy the fuckers with their own creation.
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Don't forget to throw some power stones :)
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