Book 2: Earth

Chapter 21- Goliath

The sun rose on a new day over what looked like a disaster on the plains. The sky burned black over the mountains, with huge twisting columns of smoke reaching into the clouds. The battered and burning husks of Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation tanks littered the landscape for miles around, as though the plain had been bombarded by a literal rain of steel and iron.

For Lee, it had been a terrifying experience, with almost a day of continuous battle between the Southern Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation Vanguard. For once though, the Earth Kingdom had gotten the better of it. The iron-plated tanks of the Mechanist easily stood up against the lighter Tundra Tanks of the Fire Nation, and for every tank they lost, they must have destroyed at least three or four of the Fire Nation's. But even at that rate of exchange, Lee thought bitterly, it wouldn't be enough, the Earth Kingdom no longer had the massive armies it had twenty years ago.

At the end of the day, this is all we have left to challenge Azula. We can't fail.

He gripped the handle of the sword bitterly at the last thought, even as he and his men watched the rising dust clouds in the distance. Even under the burning smoke and the raging fires that consumed the plain, he could make out the distant shapes of more Tundra Tanks, along with the red flags and crimson armor of the elite guards of the Crimson army.

The main Fire Nation army had arrived, at least several division-sized formations were streaming towards them, past the smoking carcasses of the Fire Tanks that had been eliminated in the Van guard. Lee lost count of the formations after a few hundred tanks. The very earth seemed to tremble at the approach of the Fire Nation army, who were eager to wipe away the last pitiful remnant of the Earth Kingdom off the face of the planet.

Dug in on the other side of the plain, arrayed in a line of iron and earth, were the fifty remaining tanks of the Earth Kingdom, along with the rest of the army of the Southern Earth Kingdom. They were exhausted, wounded, but still defiant and confident. They had taken the vanguard of an elite Fire Nation army and tore it to shreds, and many were eager to do it again, despite the odds.

General Giam stood at the head of the formation, ignoring the streams of fire and shrapnel that seemed to be raining around him as the Fire Nation tanks lobbed several bombs at his position, throwing up spouts of earth and flame in the process.

"General," Lee stepped up next to Giam with his men, each of them ready to throw their lives on the line if need be. "You should step back, it's not safe up here." He said out of concern.

Giam turned, eyes blazing as he spoke. "What other place is there for a general than at the front of his troops?"

Lee didn't reply, falling back with his men as the general recomposed himself and faced the oncoming storm.

"I just want to savor this moment Lee." Giam said wistfully. "You weren't there when the Earth Kingdom still had Ba Sing Se. When we commanded vast armies that could conquer a continent. We could have won the war if we were better led. But no, we only had an incompetent boy-king, with Long Feng and his Dai Li sycophants calling the shots. My men died for nothing. We lost it all, for nothing."

"This will be the first time the Earth Kingdom has ever taken land back from the Fire Nation." The old general said calmly. "I at least want to see this."

Giam gripped his fist tight at those memories.

"I'm tired Lee." The old fury in the general was replaced with a weariness that Lee never realized up until now, and for once, he looked at the general with a strange pity of sorts. The weight of the Earth Kingdom's hopes, all the sacrifices, hard choices, and defeats rested on the shoulders of this one man.