The Officer and the Princess: The Flames Of War

Chapter 34

Three days had come and gone in the blink of an eye. Sung would have wanted more time, to give his troops more training for the horrors that would be waiting for them on Shozan. But time had been short. Exactly three hours had passed and he exhaled as he looked over the bow of the Fire Nation Cruiser I.F.S "White Mist" with a spy glass. It was one thing to see defenses on a map, but to see them in person was something different. As he looked left to right he could see the trenches, he could see the tops of peoples heads as they watched him just as he was watching them. He could see the Trebuchets and catapults spaced out, their crews standing close to them ready to strike at a moments notice. But worst of all...he could see the barrels of tank cannons pointed at him.  Five in total were spaced out on the grid of beach he would be hitting alone. "It's going to be a meat grinder." Sung said as he lowered the glass.

Around the white Claw were one hundred and seven ships, over head a squadron of seven Airship's flew, their mission to perform a bombing run to hopefully soften the defenses. Sung didn't have high hopes the bombs they dropped would do anything other than kick up a lot of dirt and make some loud noise, but maybe the explosions would demoralize the defenders somewhat, make them less likely to fight to the death. He hoped so. Over the years Sung had been in some hairy fights, but this right here and now may top anything he saw at Kretin and for years he believed that to have been the worst fight he had ever been in.

"So those are the new tanks." Duru said, looking through his own Spy glass. He was now dressed in black armor with red trim, and the black Uniform, a black conical helmet on his head, like Sung he wore a bandolier across his chest that held five throwable explosives. "It's odd, I was expecting...something different."

"Our armored vehicles are going to get chewed apart." Sung admitted. "Only thing they will be good for is getting knocked out, at least then the infantry would have some cover."

Duru lowered his own spy glass and looked at Sung. "What's your plan for this?" He asked.

"The only plan is to run as hard and as fast as possible and knock those tanks out quickly." Sung admitted. "Once we get to that first line of trenches we can at least form a beach head."

Duru grimaced. "That isn't much of a plan General, the first ones on the beach will be going into a forlorn hope situation." Forlorn hope was a rather old military term used to describe a military force that would attack a position when it was at its strongest, those who went had a high chance of dying for their troubles before even reaching their objective.

"That's why Sun Dao will be the first to hit the beach in this sector." Sung explained. "My warriors won't break under the pressure."

"That may be fine for Yang Warriors but what about the rest of us?" Duru asked, not in a accusatory tone, but out of curiosity it seemed. "Some of us don't think we're going up to that big Sun party in the sky when we die."

Sung gave a joking smile. "You're not questioning my decisions are you Captain?" He asked.

"The way I see it a wise General listens to his subordinate Officers." Duru said.

"To true." Sung agreed. "But the only way to take that beach is to storm it. I don't care if we are the first Army to complete the objective or the last, so long as it's taken. If we marched the men in parade formation down that beach they would get torn apart." He shook his head. "I take no pleasure in it, but that is why I am personally leading the first wave, I will not ask my soldiers to do something I am not willing to do myself."

"A true General of the people." Duru said sarcastically. "Those types usually end up dead though."

"Well if I die I won't have to hear you say I told you so." Sung joked. "Will you be landing with us or sitting this one out?" He asked.