“So hopefully, you can appreciate why we’ve requested your help,” General Sung finished explaining, and Sokka and his friends still couldn’t tear their gazes from the massive shape off in the distance.

General Fong nodded sternly. “We’ve lost too many men trying to stop or even slow the drill down, so it’s decided that we should conserve the rest of our forces to mount a final defense by the walls. We’ll do what we can to tie up the Fire Nation forces guarding the drill…”

“And I’ll have to find a way to stop it for good,” Aang finished grimly. “So the question is, how are we going to stop that thing?” he whispered to himself.

“Well, we have a couple more days of thinking before it reaches, so let’s do that,” Katara said with forced cheer.

“They’re guarding it so heavily,” Sokka reasoned, “So that must mean it has a weakness of some kind. Maybe somewhere up close, like its underside.” That earned him nods from all around, which was nice. Even Toph didn’t follow up with a witty jab, so it must’ve been a really good idea.

General Fong, the more general-looking of the two, sighed. “It’s a shame we weren’t able to secure any information about the workings of the drill. However, from what our survivors reported, its tracks are too large and heavy to be easily damaged. We’ll need too much time to make a pit wide and deep enough to trap it, and even then, it’ll still send the drill under the walls, which might be just as bad.”

Off in the distance, Sokka spied the dots that were supposed to be Fire Nation tanks moving in neat squadrons. According to the generals, the warmachines and a bunch of heavy infantry were what comprised the drill’s defense. For better or worse, the initial forays into the Fire Nation lines had severely depleted the manpower on both sides.

A seed of an idea wriggling in the back of Sokka’s head, but he didn’t have the right information yet to have it sprout. Deciding to not burst a vein over it, the Water Tribe warrior followed his friends into the simple barracks that the generals of Ba Sing Se hosted them in.

In the following afternoon, the gang followed General Sung down to the infirmary to gather more knowledge from the survivors of failed attacks. While Katara did her healing thing and Aang reassured people simply by showing up and reminding everyone that the avatar was around, Sokka went around harvesting information, with Toph to bounce ideas with.

Unfortunately, all they got was how fiercely the drill’s defenders fought, and barely anyone had the luxury to notice details about the lumbering thing while they were fighting for their lives.

Toph was particularly annoyed at all that. “They should have kept their army together instead of sending wave after useless wave at the thing,” she commented privately, and Sokka agreed with her.

By the sounds of it, it looked like Ba Sing Se just kept throwing men at the drill in the hopes that eventually something might happen. Looking at the rows of medical buildings filled with wounded men, he couldn’t imagine how many hundreds of lives were wasted in such half-hearted and piecemeal attacks. If they’d gathered up their forces, and stopped being so stupidly proactive, it felt more feasible for the armies of Ba Sing Se to overwhelm the drill’s defenders.

A sobering thought of how often such scenes might be replicated across the Earth Kingdom dragged Sokka’s mood down. He’d heard of loss after loss, and what victories they scored were often drenched in blood. It actually made the Scorpion’s tactics sound efficient in comparison…

Sokka shuddered and banished that thought. No way did he just consider the ruthless Scorpion to be a better option. The guy wasn’t- isn’t any better with his horrible practices.

It took the observation of a wounded captain for Sokka’s seed of an idea to finally sprout. “Boulders bounced off the drill’s shell, so we forced our way past the tanks. But then we had to pull back when they sent out their footsoldiers to intercept us. They were armored enough that our earthbending seemed to only inconvenience them…”

Heavily armored infantry…

“Huh.”

“‘Huh’ what?” Katara asked for the rest of the gang, who were looking at Sokka’s way.

“How’d they get their soldiers to keep up with the drill? I mean…they could run along with it, but that’d leave them exhausted to put up a fight, right?”

There was a second of heavy silence before Aang posed an answer. “They…didn’t run? They were carried?”

Sokka grinned and snapped his fingers. “In the drill! And if all the soldiers are outside defending it…”

“We can sneak in the same way they came out and maybe find a way to stop the drill from inside!” Katara finished with a hopeful smile.

It was about as good an idea that Sokka could muster, short of asking Aang to go Avatar mode. But even then, that’s a lot of metal to break with air, water and earth. Maybe have that as Plan B then.

The four of them quickly headed up to confer with Generals Fong and Sung - incidentally, it was nice to be conferring like adults for once - and the two commanders seemed just as hopeful at the idea as Katara was.

General Fong was nodding along as he stared down at the map of the region. “It shouldn’t be too hard to reorganize the defense towards a diversionary assault… We can draw the tanks and infantry onto this side of the drill, which would allow you to sneak in from the other side.”

“We need you to buy time,” Sokka emphasized, “so it’s better if your soldiers keep fighting and stay alive for as long as they can.” He’d rather not have too much blood on his hands…

“Leave the battlefield strategies to us,“ General Sung preened, drawing an annoyed side eye from his colleague. “We’ll buy you all the time you need.”

They hammered out more details throughout the day, and ended on a high note, all things considered. The generals seemed optimistic enough about their chances, and Aang’s determination replaced his dejectedness over missing Appa. Only Toph seemed unsure because she couldn’t bend while in the drill, but being given free reign after the trio infiltrated the drill cheered her back up.

On the next morning, Sokka and the gang were keeping low in a trench on the left side of the drill, while the defenders of Ba Sing Se formed up to the right. Being just a few stone’s throws away, the massive machine loomed ahead, casting a shadow that almost reached the lines. The tanks rolling along side it seemed so puny in comparison.

Sokka felt the jittering nerves getting to him and quickly stamped it out as he glanced at Toph. “Here goes… Hit it, Toph.”

The Blind Bandit was grinning as she leapt above the trench and stomped her foot literally into the ground. A huge tremor rose up and the ground blasted upwards, spitting out a massive dust cloud that rolled towards the drill’s flank. On the other end, the soldiers did the same, hurling their own obscuring smog down the other flank.

“For Ba Sing Se!” came the yells of the soldiers as they rushed into the dust cloud, kicking up a ruckus to draw attention.

At the same time, Toph led the gang and a squad of non-bending soldiers with her. The troops were assigned at the insistence of General Fong, and carried pouches of blasting jelly with them to hopefully make sabotaging easier.

“Stay close and listen to what I say,” the young earthbender ordered, and then took off in a light jog.

Their advance was quick and unimpeded, judging from the muted clamor coming from a distance the distraction was doing its job. Sokka almost froze and stumbled when an intrusive thought wondered how many men he’d sent to their deaths. This whole thing was his idea, after all.

“Hold up.” Thankfully, Toph suddenly halted and everyone did the same.

Katara immediately brought her hands towards her water flask. “What’s wrong?”

“Tanks up ahead. They’re going past us… Looks like they’re heading for the fight on the other side.” She paused for a few seconds before nodding. “They’re gone. Let’s go.” With another stomp to blast out another blinding cloud, Toph led them ever closer towards the drill.

Sokka saw the silhouette of massive tracks after a few minutes, and he heard the soldiers beside him mutter in awe at the sheer scale of the whole thing.

“Hurry up! I feel footsteps further up ahead.”

“Right, no time for sightseeing,” the sergeant said, and quietly urged his men along.

“There’s ramps or stairs or something… Whatever it is, I’m getting a lot of movement, but slowly petering out.”

They passed between two massive sets of tracks, but Sokka practically skidded to a halt when he looked up at the metal ceiling above him. “Hey, guys,” he called out, and ignored Toph’s annoyed, sightless glare as he pointed up at a small hatch. “I think the service entrance is safer.”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

That got the earthbender to hold her tongue, and the sergeant gave an approving nod. “Good idea. Less chance of running into armed trouble, and we’re likely to find the more fragile things to break.”

Toph raised them up, and Katara broke the hatch open by freezing its hinges off. “You sure you want to stay down here?” Aang asked just to be sure, and Toph nodded.

“No way am I getting in that metal monster. I can’t bend in there.”

“Alright. Stay safe.”

Sokka nodded along, and remembered that she couldn’t see so he didn’t give her a thumb’s up. “Have fun then.”

“I will.”

*****

The diversionary attack was going well, all things considered. Captain Baigu made sure to keep the dust cloud topped up as his men darted in and out of the heavy cover to engage the enemy. With limited vision, fighting became a chaotic and risky affair, especially with the chance of Fire Nation tanks suddenly appearing out of nowhere to run you over.

Still, the reduction in the enemy’s range more than made up for that risk, allowing the Ba Sing Se defenders to close in and disable isolated vehicles. The reduced vision also made the tank drivers slow down, though they also seemed to be seeking each other out to form a defensive line.

“Onwards, men! Let’s get these invaders off our lands!”

With a stomp of his foot, the captain channeled his chi into the earth, sending a column of rocks shooting up underneath a tank’s hull and lifting it a few inches the ground, just enough to immobilize it. Other earthbenders and spearmen quickly surrounded it and began to fill any openings they could find with speartips and earthen projectiles. The tank’s occupants were killed, but it came at the cost of four wounded and one dead as the firebenders put up a fight to the very end.

The same scene repeated throughout the dust cloud, about five soldiers of Ba Sing Se were killed by flames or tracks for every tank they took down. Facing off against the Fire Nation’s heavy infantry went much better at almost two for one, but it was still an unbearable rate of attrition. These firebenders wore bulky armor that bounced off the usual rocky spikes and rocks hurled at it. They looked like human turtle ducks, and Baigu would’ve laughed if not for how frustratingly effective the armor was.

Silhouetted to his side, the captain saw four of these heavy infantry square off against three times their number of earthbenders. They stumbled and rocked about from the earthbender’s barrage, but otherwise were still capable of literally returning fire. One eventually died to a lucky spike that shattered his face plate, another incinerated three earthbenders before a column of dirt tripped him and spearman slipped behind him to jam his spear into his neck, and the last two fought back to back, reaping a fearsome toll before they were crushed and buried.

They had engaged thirteen earthbenders. Six earthbenders walked out of that fight, but three had to be sent back due to their injuries.

Still, despite the poor exchange rate, the captain felt confident that his men could at least last for a while longer. He had to remind himself that every tank shattered, every firebender killed here was one less to slow the Avatar down from disabling the drill. Every life expended here was one less to threaten his home.

For some reason, the fighting eventually sputtered out mere minutes after it began. Baigu knew something was wrong, but his instincts couldn’t tell him what exactly he had to worry about. The captain yelled for his men to form up, and let the dust cloud settle down to get a clearer picture of things.

Both tanks and heavy infantry were retreating towards the drill’s tracks. Baigu grinned. The enemy had wrongly assumed that they were trying to immobilize their wonder weapon. A quick glance to the space beyond the enemy formations showed no signs of the Avatar, which bode well.

Still, they had the enemy’s attention for now, best to keep the act up and not raise suspicion. Baigu sighed as he prepared to order his men to their likely deaths.

Then the ground rumbled, and one formation of tanks and turtle-shaped men were sent flying as a massive column of earth shot out from beneath them. Another formation followed the same fate, and the captain heard the sound of a child’s laughter rising through the grinding tracks and hissing steam.

“Yes! Keep staying still for me!” He recognized the voice and the petite frame of the Avatar’s companion. The girl was supposedly blind, but here she was wreaking havoc amongst the Fire Nation forces. Baigu’s jaw almost went slack in awe and something close to optimism began to bloom in his heart. Not only was the Avatar aiding them, he had powerful talents with him that could give the Mad King a run for his money.

The blind earthbender cackled as she sent tanks flying up into the metal underbelly of the drill, denting it and cracking the smaller vehicles like dried nutshells. The heavily armored firebenders were swallowed by the ground down to their necks, or shot up by exploding columns into each other to literally knock each other out.

It was the most beautiful sowing of chaos the captain had ever witnessed.

Maybe this didn’t have to just be a diversionary attack after all.

Baigu collected himself. “Men, form up! The Avatar’s friend has put the enemy in disarray for us! Let’s help her finish them! Charge!”

The metal-clad Fire Nation forces began to pull back, or tried their best to as they ran about like headless chickens. The infantry tried to run towards some stairs, but the Avatar’s companion tore those out with precisely aimed boulders. Stranded, the Fire Nation’s heavy infantry fled towards the back end of the drill, where presumably another set of stairs awaited them.

It mattered not, the front section of the drill was secured by Ba Sing Se’s defenders. They now had the luxury of reinforcing the Avatar. Maybe even call for more blasting jelly to be delivered.

“Captain!” someone called out, and Baigu turned to a soldier pointing at something. Following the finger towards its target, the captain had to squint as he saw more tanks coming.

No, not tanks. They looked like them, but were…open topped? Why would they make a tank without a roof?

Then Baigu caught sight of the banners fluttering from each roofless tank. “Shit. We’ve got more incoming!” he yelled at the Avatar’s powerful friend, who quickly stopped playing with her fleeing prey and used a tide of earth to roll herself up to join him.

“What do you see?” she asked, her grim face utterly out of place with her young body.

Baigu turned towards a trooper who arguably had the best eyes in the force (that was still alive). “Rang! Can you pick out the details on those banners?”

Puffs of smoke rose from the strange tanks, and Baigu saw dots…no, people, shooting up into the sky. And then they angled down, blasts of fire behind them propelling them onwards.

Spirits, they were flying over here?

“Form up!” The captain hastily yelled. “Armadillo lion formation!” He turned to the girl, barely containing his panic. “They’re coming down from the skies.”

The blind girl frowned, but otherwise just calmly nodded. “I’ll have to wait for them to land, then.”

“Sir!” Rang called out, and the captain felt his guts drop when he saw the trooper trembling. “Th-the banners, sir.”

“What is it?”

Rang looked at his captain with nothing but dread in his eyes. “Scor…Scorpions, sir. The banners have scorpions on them.”

All the optimism and hope from before withered away, and the men who heard the news visibly slumped around him. “Spirits save us...” Baigu gulped, and then turned to the Avatar’s companion, who abandoned all her spiteful glee.

“We…might have to change our plans,” she suggested with commendable understatement.

The first fire bolts rained down moments later, blasting apart earthen walls and knocking men over.

And then the first of the Dreaded 11th landed amongst Baigu and his men, fighting right up close and personal with daggers and flames.

And then valiant defenders of Ba Sing Se were fighting for their lives, all notions of being distractions well abandoned as they began falling at a horrendous rate.

And then the rest of the 11th’s forces arrived, but by then Baigu was already sprawled on the ground coughing up blood, his arms broken and a dagger buried in his liver. He could only watch helplessly as the rest of his men were brought down, and the blind earthbender desperately fending off the monsters that slowly tightened the noose around her.