Skirmish [Beyond Outer Wall] <Ba Sing Se, EK>

[vu]

Pointing, "And that is why I never wanted to become a boot-stomper!" The noonday sun rising overhead, Captain Vu Ganesa pitied the expendable footsoldiers from the open hatch of his warcrawler. Far ahead of him, the Fire Nation's center wing composed of nonbending infantry stood its ground, jutted out far from the main force. Then again, that was because they were ordered.

"Poor, copper-a-dozen fools," unable to turn away from what would certainly become a messy crash. Madly charging towards them was a contingent of the Earth Kingdom's own cavalry and slowly following them was the slow march of the kingdom's infantry. To Vu, the sound of their ostrich-horses could be heard over his earplugs, the engines from his war crawler and two more warcralwers behind his own that occupied the battle formation's farthest wing.

"Oh, this is just gonna be good," Vu's forward driver interjected while watching from his seat.

"They will not stand a chance," Vu folded his arms.

"Who," questioned the other driver.

"Both," he leaned forward as the cavalry sped closer still. "The expendables will be mowed down. The cavalry will be burned down," noting the two wings of firebender infantry echeloned behind the unfortunate meatshields.

"Then we plow through them ourselves," he shrugged. "And hopefully move on with our lives toward the encampment by the bay."

[xiaofan]

Watching from the rear just past the encampment, Xiaofan held a spyglass up to her eye and sighed. Sometimes she really hated being in the engineer corps - they never let her actually take her babies to work, only patch them up when they came home abused afterwards. One of these days, she was going to submit a formal request (which to her meant somewhat less swearing than usually present in her letters) to command, insisting that the best tank pilots were the engineers. It made perfect sense to her; no one knew the limits and abilities of those rolling monsters better than herself and her crew. Until such time as command accepted her proposal, however, the engineers were left behind to watch as their work roared the Fire Nation to battlefield glory.

"Hey, Nuying! Do me a favor, would ya? Park your girly butt over here, take this spyglass, and watch the fight. If anything goes wrong, you let me know. The second, the INSTANT something goes wrong, you understand me? Not a minute later because you couldn't find your cute strappy sandals to match those adorable pants of yours," she harangued one of the lower stationed members of her squadron, tossing the spyglass to her hapless victim.

She was sick of waiting. Trudging off towards the battle, she was sure she could be more help down there. After all, she could bend, AND the tanks are her specialty - she could make them do things no ordinary driver could. It was just a matter of getting into one...

[zhi]

Zhi hadn't gotten a chance to gaze off into the distance at the towering wall on the horizon, but he knew it was there. Ba Sing Se, the place where his uncle had died serving his nation, the city that, once conquered, would spell the end for the Earth Kingdom, once and for all.

But Ba Sing Se would have to wait. The combined forces had left their previous encampment and were now en route to a newly captured deep-water bay that would allow supplies and troops to be landed very near to the city, fresh off of transports from the home islands. Rumors of a secret weapon being prepared at the location had circled through Zhi's unit as well.

The trip to the bay would only have been a few days marching, but advanced scouts had reported an Earth Kingdom interdiction force moving to block their path. The exact size of the force was unknown but several cavalry and infantry units had been identified.

The Fire Nation forces quickly assembled to punch through their oncoming enemy. Zhi, amongst his unit of nonbending soldiers, formed up with several other units and took the lead while the forces’ Firebenders took to the flanks. Additionally, Zhi knew, somewhere behind his fellow infantrymen rumbled several warcrawlers.

The Sergeant in charge of Zhi's unit had quickly assembled his platoon into a typical square formation to combat the cavalry upon their Ostrich Horses, which were now visible, charging steadily toward the Fire Nation lines. Zhi found himself in the second row of soldiers in the front center portion of his group's square. Beside him stood his friend Shen who gave the young soldier a nudge, "Hey, Zhi, you ever fight a cavalry charge before?"

Zhi turned his head slightly toward his friend, "No, but I've trained for it, everyone here has."

Shen responded with a nod.

"You know, they ought to send the warcrawlers ahead, they could probably just plow through those Mushroom Heads." Added Zhi, using a nickname for Earth Kingdom soldiers, referring to the shape of their helmets. He glanced back at the cavalry and tightened the chin strap on his helmet with one hand. His spear, gripped tightly in his other hand, stood with its point in the air.

"Yeah, they prolly ought to, but they don't want to get their toys all bashed up. Besides, us ground pounders have handled cavalry in the past, you read about the battle of the Gi Fong Steppe, right? Replied Shen.

Zhi nodded slowly, still watching the Earth Kingdom forces that seemed to grow larger and more numerous the closer they got, "That's true, that's true. But there's no reason not to use some new technology. The shock factor of seeing those mighty armored things coming at them would likely slow the enemy down some."

Shen rolled his eyes, "Aww, those warcrawlers aren't so great. I mean... you take a rock strike from a bender in the boiler or something and kablooey, the whole thing'll blow. Either that or you'll get cooked alive by a jet of steam or a fire or something..."

"Shen..." Zhi said sternly, raising his voice. "They're getting awfully close out there."

Shen turned at looked out at the onrushing riders and swallowed hard, they were quite close now. "Yeah, we'll talk later", he muttered.

The noise from the onrushing cavalry started as a low rumble and slowly built to a roar as they approached at full speed. Zhi could clearly see individual riders now and feelings of excitement and his nerves began to get to him. He'd fought, yes, but not on this scale, and not against a full-on charge!

At that moment, the Sergeant shouted to the square of men, commanding them to prepare their weapons. Like a wave, the spears of the assembled formation lowered into position, forming a wall of points to keep the charging cavalry at bay. The soldiers, Zhi included, knew that the Ostrich Horses would instinctively try to stay a good distance away from the spears but it was always possible that some might be coaxed to jump over a line of men into the squares’ center.

“I’ll watch your back, Shen. Try to stay safe though.” Said Zhi, quickly.

“I will, you keep your eyes open too. I’ll be watching out for you as well.” Said Shen, a tinge of nervousness in his voice.

Zhi gave his friend a nod. “Thanks.”

Whatever arose, the young soldier was certain the infantry forces could adapt and overcome. It was comforting to know, though, that the Firebenders to their flanks could quickly move up and incinerate the enemy if things started to go badly.

With this in mind and the cavalry only a few hundred yards away, Zhi gripped his spear, aimed its point at one of the charging Ostrich Horsemen and took a deep breath. Fierce combat was only seconds away.

[zilong]

Sometimes, Zilong genuinely loathed strategists. When they’d broken camp and marched towards Ba Sing Se, there wasn’t a soldier that didn’t know how important the campaign was, and what honor and glory would come from battle. So, in this highest moment of glory for the Fire Nation, the strategists had given the most honorable position in any army, the vanguard, to a division of green non-bending footsoldiers! All in the name of tactics. It was absurd, and Zilong had let the Captain know, but he knew better than to hurt morale than by voicing his complaints, but he couldn’t control how anxious he looked. He gritted his teeth, tapped and gripped his guan dao tightly. He wanted to be on the front, in the vanguard, meeting the enemy’s charge head on. Instead, he’d have to clean up the mess.

It could be worse, he decided as he glanced over his shoulder, he could be in the rear with the tanks, or worse, in support with the engineers. He couldn’t imagine the agony of just watching a battle and not fighting in it. He had little time to try, anyway, for as he turned his head back around, the infantry had begun to collide with the advancing Earth Kingdom army. He felt the adrenaline build up inside of him. It was time to let the Earth Kingdom know the true meaning of Fire.

[vu]

"Now that is quite a messy sight," Vu had pulled at a spyglass at the last instance to see the collision more closely, though still from a safe distance.

"Praise the ancestors I never enlisted for that type of life," whispering unto himself. Slowly he pulled the spyglass away while still watching the scene.

After a few further moments he took his sight away from the carnage and instead looked behind him. Past the other groups of soldiers that waited for their turn to fight. Situated between them and the rearmost forces composed of supplymen, engineers, siege crews and others, were the commanding officers that led and operated the lot him.

Still no signal from them. Not for his platoon to charge or for anyone else not part of the spearhead engaged in combat to move out. For moments Vu observed them, waiting until still no further came from them. And in consolation, Vu turned back around and brought the spyglass to his eye once more to watch the melee combat that was already in progress.

[zhi]

Impact.

"Hold your ground and give'em hell!" Shouted the Sergeant as the first Ostrich Horsemen reached Zhi's Square.

Several of the riders must have been new recruits, thought Zhi, as at least three or four riders sped forward as if they expected the Fire Nation infantry to scatter and scramble from their path. Unfortunately for them, the wall of spearheads did not give any indication of breaking apart.

With their mounts stirred into a frenzy, careening toward the Infantry Square, the inexperienced riders had precious little time to break or swerve around the mass of sharp points before them.

Two managed, just barely, to come to a halt just short of spearing themselves, but these two were still easily within range of the Fire Nation soldiers' reach. Both tried to swing their thick-bladed slashing spears at the infantry but the soldiers nearest to them, at the front of the Square, leapt forward and prodded them off of their mounts to the ground, where they were quickly finished off.

One poor rider pulled back on his reigns so hard that his mount jerked it's head up and back, it's three-toed feet clawing for traction as it tried to halt the crazed charge. The beast's legs buckled beneath it as one foot struck a rock, sending the rider tumbling off and over it's head. The Earth Kingdom cavalryman skidded across the ground toward the Infantry Square, his mount tumbling after him.

Mount and rider plowed into the Fire Nation troops, knocking some off their feet. But the second line moved up and skewered the soldier and his Ostrich Horse before either could regain their footing.

The final unfortunate of the first wave panicked at the sight of his comrades' deaths and attempted to leap from his saddle. He was nearly clear, but for his left foot, which became twisted in stirrup. The Cavalryman dropped his spear in mid air and screamed as his foot caught, leaving him dangling upside down, his arms brushing the ground.

Without a rider in control, the Ostrich Horse turned away from the Infantry Square and cantered off to the west, still dragging the shouting rider along the ground. He was luckier than his friends, thought Zhi, as he watched the Ostrich Horse move away and out of sight behind another Square.

The more experienced riders had quickly diverted the other new cavalrymen around the Squares to avoid the same fate as those who had charged foolishly ahead. The men in Zhi's Square pushed the bodies of the dead Earth Kingdom riders and their mounts aside as they tracked the survivors who now circled the Squares, searching for a flaw or break to take advantage of.

Some of the Fire Nation troops spoke amongst themselves, a few mocking the foolishness of the riders who had charged ahead. Zhi's Sergeant scowled and addressed the men, "Don't let your guard down for a second! That was nothing! They were just testing our strength."

Zhi could smell the coppery scent of blood now; he'd been near to where the cavalryman and his mount had tumbled into their lines. As he watched the riders circle, like predators eyeing their prey, he knew the battle was just beginning.

The riders of the first wave circled ever closer, some charging right up, clashing their slashing spears against those held by the Fire Nation troops, before galloping away, out of reach.

After several of these hit and runs a few of the anxious Fire Nation soldiers tried to leap after their attackers, only to be hacked up by the other riders as they charged in.

"Don't be fools!" cried the Sergeant, "Hold your ground and maintain the formation!"

The other soldiers in Zhi's group did as they were told, somewhat shocked at the sight of the first Fire Nation blood spilt during the battle.

After a few more attempts at luring more soldier away from the Square failed, the cavalry formation leader produced an ornate horn, blew upon it twice and then called for his riders to join up beside him. The group then galloped around the squares and then seemed to move back toward Earth Kingdom lines. When they were a ways out, they turned toward the east.

"What do you suppose they're doing, Sergeant?" Asked a familiar voice Zhi recognized immediately as belonging to his friend, Corporal Hue.

"I'm not certain." Muttered the Sergeant as he drew his spyglass. Zhi and Shen both turned momentarily to watch their Sergeant as he scanned the horizon.

The Sergeant stopped suddenly, focusing his attention upon a point off to the west. He slowly brought the spyglass down, away from his eye, still staring out into the distance.

"Mounted Archers... Agni help us.." he said quietly.

The majority of the troops in the square who had overheard turned in shock, looking to the Sergeant for orders.

"Mounted Archers, inbound from the West! Get low!" Barked the Sergeant in his usual gruff tone. He turned to another one of his Corporals, "Get back there and find us as many shields as you can, now!" he ordered, then turned to a few men at the rear of the square, "You five go with him, get moving!"

The Corporal and others nodded quickly and weaved through the rear of the Square, dropping their spears on their way out; they sprinted back toward Fire Nation lines.

The remaining troops, Zhi included, crouched down, as instructed, their armored helmets and shoulder-guard plates would provide some, albeit limited, protection from arrows fired up in an arch.

Zhi peered off into the distance at the incoming Archers upon their Ostrich Horses, hoping that his previous prediction; that "the infantry could adapt and overcome", would be accurate.

[zilong]

As the main cavalry pulled back, and the mounted archers revealed themselves, signals and shouts began to relay through the Fire Nation ranks. Now that the enemy had revealed their strategy, the firebenders and war crawlers could move in to counter. From what Zilong could hear, a division of crawlers was to counter the archers, as they would be nigh invulnerable to their attacks (benders would never bother with arrows, afterall), and his division’s orders could be heard from Captain Wenyuan soon afterwards.

“March forward to the western flank of the forward infantry!” he heard. “When we arrive, spread out around their flank and harass the cavalry with firebending!”

Zilong grinned and turned his head back to those under his command, “You heard the Captain! Forward march! Maintain formation, and keep your eyes peeled for arrows!”

With that, Zilong’s unit marched forward. Occasional spurts of flame shot into the sky, burning incoming arrows to a crisp before they could reach their target. Some of the infantry they were moving to support cheered as they neared and began to set up on their western flank and the tanks started to move. Setting up at the front, Zilong grinned as he surveyed the cavalry.

“Harassing fire!” Zilong called to his unit, sticking the spiked butt of his guan dao into the ground and getting into a firebending stance. “Ready…one!”

At the “one”, he stepped forward and sent a small fireball high into the air, arcing towards the cavalry. It missed all of them, but startled a few of the mounts it landed near. Next to him, a soldier under his command shouted “two” and fired his own arcing fireball. The rest of the unit followed suit, slowly launching fireballs at the enemy. This way, they could pester the enemy, but not use too much energy. They’d need that for the inevitable clash when the tanks reached their target…

[erlang]

As the fire benders bombardment continued to disrupt the cavalries advances a small section of the troops appeared to set themselves apart from the rest. At first glance they seemed no different from those around them (albeit with different armor) but an experienced eye would note, that their mounts were able to remain calm despite the opposing armies tactics. Their arrows as well seemed to find their marks more often.

At the front of them a relatively young cavalry member watched the combat with a strange gleam in his eyes and gritted his teeth. He knew that even with the best of tactics and no matter how hard his men fought, this battle would be little more than a delay. Perhaps if the other units were with them they could carve out an impressive amount but they hadn’t been able to locate them.

“Keep your shot‘s low! don’t give them time!” he called out sourly.

When the fire benders began to move forward Erlang reached behind the strap securing his war trident and pulled one of his javelins loose. Riding forward just enough to get within range Erlang used the momentum to send the projectile at the nearest fire bender.

The ensuing blast of fire charred the wood but the barbed tip still found its way through the lighter armor of the unfortunate soldier, by that time Erlang had retreated back to the main line.
“Keep to arrows while you can, and get a basket ready.”

[vu]

"Flag," the rear driver piped over the engines. "Captain, flag."

Vu's lips tightened in annoyance as he turned around, pressing the spyglass to an eye. His frown grew in disapproval--it was indeed the signal flag for him to move out. Spyglass still at his eye, Vu turned back and surveyed the fighting.

"We should not be moving out yet," pulling the spyglass from his eye and turning back towards the command position.

"Sir," one of the driver's questioned him.

"I do not care if the arrow-fodder is serving their purpose as such. They should," glaring at the flag still waving in the distance. "We were supposed to await confirmation of earthbenders then attack," almost folding his arms while the flag kept waving until he sighed in resentment.

Garnering attention from the other five, Vu began to sign to them with his hands as to their orders.

"We shall charge through the foremost cavalry as one," dropping down and closing the hatch above him and informing his drivers. "That will hopefully draw out any earthbenders they have in waiting. We then spilt into two teams of three, pull out then come back at them. Now roll out, full steam forward!"

[zhi]

The first volley of arrows launched by the mounted archers went wide, missing the bulk of the infantry formations. Though it did appear that the rear right-corner Square took a few casualties from the arrow fire.

Though none of the troops in Zhi's Square had been hit, the volley flying over their heads ensured everyone would follow the Sergeants orders. Crouched down, peering out from beneath their helmets, the men of the Spearhead Square watched as the archers prepared another shot.

"I sure hope those guys with the shields get back here soon," muttered Shen, a frown upon his face. "Yeah," replied Zhi, his eyes fixed upon the archers, watching them place their arrows and draw back the bow strings.

"Second volley incoming," barked the Sergeant, his announcement causing the troops to duck even lower.

"This could be pretty bad," Said Zhi, taking a last peek up at the archers before ducking his head down. He figured his helmet and shoulder guard plate could take an arcing hit but only due to the fact that those were the toughest pieces of his armor.

Expecting a rain of arrows onto their position, Zhi was surprised to hear cheering. He raised his head and looked around, somewhat confused.

"Agni bless those benders," someone shouted. Zhi wasn't exactly sure who'd said it but as he looked to the west he was pleased to see that the flanking Firebender units were rapidly moving forward to cover them.

"Keep your heads down!" Snapped the Sergeant.

Most complied, but many eyes were fixed upon the benders, their shots of flame searing the arrows from the sky. As the troops of the Spearhead Square realized they'd been saved by their Firebending counterparts a new series of cheers erupted.

As Zhi and Shen rose to their feet to shout their thanks to the benders, the sharp plink of metal striking metal caught Zhi's attention. He turned around to face Shen, the boy looked very pale but a crazed grin spread across his face as he held up a small object between his fingers.

"Do you know what this is!?" He shouted, holding the object right up in front of Zhi's face. The young soldier focused his eyes upon the item, "Is that.. an arrowhead?" asked Zhi, looking past the charred piece of metal at his friend.

"Yes it is! And it had my name on it too, if it weren't for those benders I'd prolly be dead!" replied Shen, with a nod. He placed the arrowhead in a pouch upon his belt and proceeded to shout over to the benders, thanking them.

"We'd better keep our eyes on the enemy, Shen," said Zhi, pointing off at the mounted archers, who by now were likely becoming frustrated with the skillful aim of the Firebenders.

"Yeah," replied Shen, "wouldn't be very good to dodge death once only to get nailed by not paying attention, eh?"

"Exactly," said the young soldier, kneeling back into position in the formation. He turned his attention back toward the enemy, the Firebenders had moved up to cover the forward western flank of the Infantry Squares now, and it seemed like their harassing fire was keeping the mounted archers in a state of disarray.

"We're going to hold here for a moment longer than advance with the benders once those archers have been broken up sufficiently," said the Sergeant, bringing everyone up to date.

The Corporal and the other men soon returned carrying several shields. "Sir, they're planning to move the crawlers up from the rear," reported the Corporal. The platoon's Sergeant turned to face him, "Are you certain?" he asked, a look of confusion upon his face, "Isn't it a bit soon to be moving them in?"

"I only know what they told me," replied the Corporal, his expression changing slightly, "Where do you want these shields anyhow?"

"Distribute them to the men at the front," came the Sergeant’s reply.

As the shields were passed around, Zhi kept his eyes on the enemy, their mounts seemed to scatter away from the fire, clearly disrupting their aim. He began to notice, however, that a smaller group had split away from the main bunch. These riders seemed to be in complete control of their animals and their shots seemed to be angled low, instead of the traditional massed arcing shots.

His attention was drawn away, though, when someone at the Square's corner called out. Zhi and Shen both turned in unison to see who had shouted. As they looked off, down the line of the square toward the east, they realized what the soldier had spotted.

The Sergeant turned to look as well, raising his spyglass. A distasteful look crossed his face, "The Cavalry unit from before is inbound from the east!" he shouted.

The two other forward Squares were quickly alerted and the three formations moved together to protect the Firebenders eastern flank.

Zhi prepared himself for close in fighting; he'd yet to actually get a shot at the enemy and wondered when he'd get his chance.

[zilong]

Some of the eastern cavalry had pulled out bows and begun to fire arrows at the firebenders, though they met with very inconsistent success. One unit, however, somehow managed to ride out alone from the ranks and hurl a javelin into a firebender before rejoining the main group. Zilong made sure to remember what that one looked like. That man would lose his head for being so bold. After a while, the tanks could be heard advancing towards the mounted archers to the west, and then things really were set in motion. Perhaps realizing that their mounted archers would stand no chance against the tanks, the eastern cavalry group put away their bows and began to advance, trying to sweep towards the flank of the firebenders, or so it seemed. The advance was mostly a red herring, though, feinting to go after the firebenders before moving towards the tanks.

“Block their path!” Zilong could hear his captain yell. “Full charge on an intercept course! Do not let them reach the tanks!”

The firebenders let out a roar as one, Zilong among them, and began to charge to their flank to block the cavalry’s path. However, the main infantry seemed to have fallen for the feint completely and had moved to protect the firebender’s flanks. As a result, some of them were in the way. Zilong cursed, and some of the firebenders began to pull up. This was why Zilong hated placing fodder in the front. They were just in position to get into everyone else’s way.

“Get out of the way!” he yelled, not slowing down.

Some of the infantry turned in panic, and some managed to get out of his way. As for the others, he tossed the first out of the way, sidestepped the second, pushed his way through two more before pivoting around the last one. By the time he came out the other side the cavalry had pulled out of their feint, seeing it was successful, and had turned their sights on the tanks. Cursing, he ran forward several meters before he realized that intercepting them completely would be futile at this point. He had one option left, and immediately took it. Spinning his guan dao around, he rotated a full three hundred and sixty degrees not once, but twice as flames began to come to life around his weapon. At the end of the second rotation, he slammed his blade into the ground with a roar, and a wall of flame almost twice as high as himself erupted from the ground and burned a path meant to cut off the advancing cavalry.

The move was only partially successful. A good chunk of cavalry passed before the flames reached them, and several more jumped through the flames. Still, at least two were caught by the flames head on, and the rest pulled up enough for other firebenders to make their way through the infantry and join him, combining their power to create a huge wall of flame the cavalry could not pass through and allowing the firebenders themselves to move into position and block the cavalry’s path. Seeing that they were cut off from the rest of their unit, the other cavalry units turned about and charged towards the firebenders.

One headed straight for Zilong, stabbing at him with a spear. Zilong counters by slapping the point aside with the blade of the guan dao and then jabbing the butt of his weapon towards the rider’s throat. The man’s mount continued forward as the weighted spike on the butt of the guan dao found hom, and Zilong lifted him into the air before slamming him down. Panting Zilong raised his weapon and got into a fighting stance. That wall of flame had not been easy to create. He’d used up more energy then he’d wanted to with it. Still, it had to be done. He’d fought tired before, and he could certainly do it again.

[erlang]

At a silent command several of his men had had taken what appeared to two poorly made wicker baskets tied together and spread themselves out among the ranks of the. The baskets were filled with certain grasses and materials that when lit did not fully ignite and instead smoldered producing a large volume of smoke. This of course was usually used for ambush tactics but in this situation they could only hope that it would help disassemble the front ranks.

Erlangs was holding one of these baskets as wisps of smoke started curling their way out of the gaps. He turned to the man at his left “Gen, try to have the men aim where the formation is changing and any points of congestion,” when the man left he nodded to the man at his right, “Baek take the best marksmen we have, if your see anybody with a command insignia put a bolt into him.”

As his men attended their respective orders Erlang pulled his glaive like spear from its binds and gripped it in his left hand along with the reigns. After removing another javelin and readjusting the remaining one in easy reach he spurred his ostrich horse ahead to do what he does best.

[vu]

"Drivers." Vu barked over the din outside and engine noise inside the war crawler. "Prepare forward and rear grapple hooks!"

"Grapples ready!" The forward and rear driver screamed in unison while their machine thundered forth. Besides them roared five more war crawlers, all speeding in forward wedge formation with Vu's land vessel and another at the head.

Under helmet and through goggles Vu tried not to lose himself to tunnel vision, seeing only through the open forward hatch from Vu's seat as they barreled ahead.

Fighting off tension he continually rolled his shoulders, one after the other. Teeth clinching, he glared at the cavalry unit that was charging at them as well. Behind the stampede of ostrich-horses, a wall of fire and further behind them a column of smoke was slowly rising.

One day, Vu thought. I can actually communicate with my platoon while in here.

Until then, inter-crawler communication was limited once a battle begin. But at least he could tell them when to fire.

Simultaneously he rolled both shoulders one more time, followed by two rolls of his wrist. His arm thrusted forward, wrist flipping back and the air before him ignited. The size of his chest, a fireball streaked across the field and slammed into the ground paces before the charging cavalrymen. Exploding on impact, another fireball soon followed. Followed by yet another and then even more than Vu could produce by himself.

[zhi]

The Sergeant had realized he'd been duped, a sickened look crossing his face. The Cavalry units that had charged in from the east had turned at the last moment, pouring in between two of the Squares straight back toward the Warcrawlers.

It seemed the benders had noticed the feint and moved to block the Ostrich Horsemen. Due to the positioning of the Infantry Squares the Firebenders were forced to weave their way back through the GIs. A good number of the benders squeezing their way between the men at the rear of Zhi's Square.

"Move out of their way, you fools!" shouted the Sergeant, finding a way to vent his frustration. As he shouted he moved his hands about, trying to direct his troops out of the path of the benders.

As the Firebenders managed to block off most of the Cavalry, Zhi's Sergeant realized that the Earth Kingdom riders had made a bit of a mistake and he intended to take advantage of it. He quickly ordered the first two rows of the Spearhead Square to shift to the east and block off the Cavalry units' escape.

Zhi and Shen, being in the second row of the Spearhead Square moved around with their comrades to occupy the gap between their Square and the next, meeting troops from the second Square halfway.

Now the Cavalry that had attempted to punch through, between the Squares, found themselves trapped. Firebenders before them, complete Squares to their sides and the troops off the front of the Spearhead Square behind them, boxing them in.

Zhi's Sergeant remained wary of the scattered mounted archers and the other Cavalry that remained at range, however, and moved men from the Square to his right flank over to watch the backs of the troops blocking in the trapped Ostrich Horsemen. Though they took some time to form a solid defensive line between the Squares.

Finally Zhi would get a chance to use his Warspear. He and Shen moved forward, or rather backwards, toward the Cavalry that hand made a dash for the rear lines, only to be blocked by the benders' massive wall of flame.

Zhi wondered if the Cavalrymen had realized the extent of their predicament yet, they were still down by the Firebenders, attempting to punch through, but appeared to be well contained at that end. The young soldier took a moment to check that his helmet was on tight; it was a size too big and had given him trouble in the past. If it slipped down at the wrong time, it could prove fatal.

His chinstrap was secure enough, it seemed and with a nudge from is pal, Zhi turned his attention back to the trapped Cavalry. "Looks like they just realized we're blocking the way back to their friends," said Shen, aiming his Warspear at the riders.

And here they came, a number of the boxed in Ostrich Horsemen turned around and charged the GIs blocking their way out of the veritable meat grinder.

They stopped right in front of the line of infantry, very close in. Zhi took a stab at the closest Ostrich Horseman, his spearhead glancing off the armored neck-collar of the mount. Though his first attack had failed, the men at either side of him managed to find flesh with their spears.

The Ostrich Horse shrieked as the spearheads dug into its unprotected flanks. Its rider tried to slash back at his attackers using his flat-bladed slashing spear but Zhi managed to bat the blade back and away with his spear. At that point, he realized a significant advantage. The riders were forced to use their spears one-handed, as the other hand was needed to grip the reigns. That meant anyone on the ground; using two hands would likely have better leverage against the riders' attacks.

Before the Cavalryman could bring his spear back around, Shen and another soldier thrust their spears forward punching through the Earth Kingdom soldier's light armor. With a scream of pain he tumbled back off his mount which leap and bucked away from the line of Fire Nation Soldiers.

After the Cavalryman and a few of his comrades had been finished off by Zhi and his fellow soldiers the group began to move back between the two Squares, forcing the trapped Cavalrymen farther back, towards the waiting line of Firebenders.

As they moved back, Zhi couldn't help but wonder what the Earth Kingdom mounted archers and remaining free Cavalry units were up to.

[zilong]

Zilong had little time to catch his breath. Soon after he felled the one cavalryman, another rode towards him, this one with a riding saber swinging towards Zilong’s head. The experienced Zilong saw it coming, ducking and advancing at the same time as he brought his guan dao back. The sword passed over his head, and he swung his weapon forward wth all his strength into the legs of the ostrich horse. The blade didn’t find its mark, but the metal pole of the weapon slammed into the creature’s knees, and with a sharp cry of surprise, it fell forward. Zilong spun around and raised his weapon as the creature fell, and before the rider could recover, Zilong’s guan dao fell, putting a end to relationship between the man’s head and his neck. Panting, he turned towards the rest of the battle, the infantry had wisened up and boxed the cavalry in. Zilong smiled. Their mobility was gone, and thus their advantage. However, it seemed that the Earth Kingdom forces realized this, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a few units of men advancing towards their position, carrying no weapons. Earthbenders. The true fight would soon be beginning. Hopefully the tanks would break the mounted archers soon.

“Earthbenders incoming!” Zilong called.

Calls went down the line as warnings were issued and slight changes to positioning were made. Back at the rear line of the Fire Nation forces, more benders and tanks began to slowly mobilize, though, clearly waiting for the earthbenders to make first contact.

“Finish the cavalry before the benders arrive!” Zilong heard his captain call. “Odd numbered units, covering fire! Even number units, full charge!”

Cries of acknowledgement went up throughout the lines of the 502nd, and half of their forces assumed firebending stances and unleashed barrages of fire, high and into the heart of the cavalry, so as not to hit their own forces. Zilong turned to his own unit, raising his guan dao in the air.

“Form up!” he called to his men, and out of the mess around him, a group of men appeared behind and around him, two rows deep. “Ready…charge!”

With a cry, Zilong’s unit rushed forward, Zilong yelling louder and fiercer than any of them. The cavalry, with little room to work with, struggled to form up, and by the time they started to form any sort of line with which they could effectively charge, the firebenders were already ten meters away, perhaps less. Zilong himself raised his guan dao above his head and jumped, which granted wasn’t much of a jump, but his feet were both off the ground at any rate, and upon landing slammed his weapon into the ground, unleashed a wave of flame that cut into the cavalry. Many other firebenders followed suit, and others moved into close range combat. With any luck, the infantry were following suit…