Avatar: Macai's Journey

Chapter 39: Showdown at Ren's Den

Three hot air balloons scout ahead and descend upon Ren's forces. Macai's balloon moves down the rear left formation and Asad's balloon is at the upper front position. The other balloons are captained by a Fire Nation marine corporal or lieutenant that commands each squad. In the center position a man with dark brown straight hair, a full beard, yellow-gold skin, caramel brown eyes, and a medium nose advances in the center balloon. His name is Lieutenant Boshan, and he was recently transferred into the 31st from the army.

Boshan is in his mid-thirties. He looks through his binoculars as his balloon soars forward. Samira looks at Macai, "What now?"

Macai: "First Boshan will open fire on our enemy's lower cannons. Asad will stay at middle elevation and bombard a mix of the enemies' lower and upper positions. Meanwhile, our left balloon will do the same to the enemy's left flank and Corporal Pectar will hit the enemies from above. Move into position." The balloon beside Macai's position soars over the others but also makes it even easier to detect them.

Meanwhile, General Ren waits in the chambers of his base. The base has light grey walls, a muddy brown rocky floor, and several work desks throughout the facility. Ren has two bodyguards behind him, both are earthbender sergeants. Ren's assistant Captain Cancar reports to him. Cancar has black curly hair, pale skin, a long nose, extended ears, forest green eyes, and a thin frame.

General Ren: "What is it, captain?"

Captain Cancar: "Several Fire Nation hot air balloons are moving towards our base."

General Ren: "The fools, ready the cannons and get a good aim on them. Wait on my word." Cancar bows in respect then carries out the order. The mountain has several openings within it, each opening has two to three cannons within it. The cannons are of a moderate size, but their range is exceptional. The gunners use earth bending to turn cannons into position to get a good sighting of the air balloons.

Macai looks at Samira, "We don't have much time, our window of opportunity is short. I will give our men the signal to attack." Boshan and the other officers use their binoculars to pin-point openings and tell their gunners where to open fire. Macai extends his right hand and fires a flame in the air as a flare to war his squad that it's time."

Boshan shouts, "Fire!" His troops do as they are instructed. Two cannons shoot into one mountain bunker opening and blow the room to bits. Another two gunners shoot in a different opening, obliterating three enemy cannons and the gunners around them.

The rest of the unit does the same, opening fire and taking out several mountain openings while dispersing from each other to take themselves difficult targets. Cosal: "I hope we got most of them."

Macai: "I think we hit about half of them, but it's kind of difficult to locate those hostiles from this position. Hopefully, there aren't any blind spots that we missed." The mountain shakes from the abuse it is taking.

Within the base, Captain Carcus glances at General Ren, "Sir, we took a bit of a beating."

General Ren smiles, "Don't worry, they won't last long. Even with their early success, our troopers have them locked on now. Return fire!" A volley of rocks is fired from various stationary angles and directions at the airborne Fire Nation forces. One rock flies through the top of Macai's balloon, messing with its elevation.

Macai: "Don't worry, it will take more than that to bring us down." A volley of cannons soars toward Macai's balloon. Macai steers the balloon left to avoid getting nailed. The commander shouts, "Return fire!" Two gunners open fire and destroy the cannon position below them. Several other volleys of projectiles are fired at the other balloons around Macai.

Asad's balloon steers right as a storm of shots swoop by it. A few shots fire just right of the Boshan's balloon and miss it. The balloon soaring above Macai's position is pelted by a volley of explosive rocks and it violently explodes into several fragments. Macai can hear Corporal Pectar's screams in agony as he is blown to dust, "Aaaaaaaahaaaaaaa!!"