He was, well, about how I had expected him to be. Who could blame him? He just saw his entire Corps get cut down in front of him. I mean, I expected worse from him, but still, the lack of energy and humor in him was hard to see especially compared to when I last saw him. This war needed to end. I could see, now more than ever, just what it was doing to Luke.
Hell. It started even before we got involved in this damned war. In Citadel, when I recruited him to the Hornets, that was the real beginning. Before then, he was, well, himself. It was the right choice though. Wasn't it? It was Hornets or death.
Was death really the worse option, though? If he had died there, he wouldn't be here, broken, plotting revenge because he just saw hundreds around him violently cut down.
And what when the war ends? Does he go back to Citadel? Is he conscripted into guard duty? Is he discarded? What happens to him? What happens to us? Me?
I pushed the thoughts out of my head as I entered the war tent. I wasn't the last which was always good, but I was damn near, pushing it. Lu Ten was the firs to greet me as always, clasping my hand and shaking it in a ritual of both mutual respect and friendship. Ever since I was promoted to Staff Sergeant, our meetings would become more frequent and we thought a lot alike. Sure, I was far younger, but we had a lot in common.
Despite being my superior by a long ways, he was rather open to the camaraderie of his men. No doubt a facet of his life that got him to the role of Lieutenant General. Second in Command now, damn. Quite the promotion.
Lu Ten returned to his father's side who acknowledged my presence with a firm nod. He's been more and more on edge since the first failed attack. He was praying for victory. Anticipating it. He had the perfect plan, but it was the lack of reliability of his men that got to him.
While I was in this tent, however, I noticed the battalion commanders, but saw no other staff sergeants. I was the lowest ranked person in that room. And the looks I received confirmed the weight that held. They were by no means satisfied with my presence. Did they see it as an insult? A jest?
I had my breath held, waiting for whatever they might say until the last commander entered the tent, and the discipline of the commanders pulled through, preventing them from speaking out in Iroh's presence. There was a very clear distinction between the loyalty and discipline displayed in the Crimson Army as opposed to the 5th. I considered myself lucky. I left the 5th before it was too late and I was among those 4,999 corpses.
And nobody from my old platoon had fallen yet. We faced combat on multiple occasions, but suffered no deaths or severe injuries. My squad too. They were young and inexperienced, but I was the enforcer of a violent gang in the most dangerous city in the Earth Kingdom, so I had experience beating men into shape.
"Let us begin" spoke Iroh, opening the map upon the closing of the tent flaps, now surrounded by two masked Firebender elites.
The map opened and I noticed the new red 'X' marking the loss of the 5th, as though it weren't obvious enough, but there were other markings too, the positions of other Fire Nation armies and fleets. 'So we were going to ask for reinforcements?' I asked myself in my head, not braving to speak out of turn.
"As you all know, our strength has been cut in half with the fall of the 5th" Iroh said, motioning to the red 'X'. "The 5th was previously credited with cutting off traded with the North Sea. We cut off the land traded, they cut off the sea trade. Now, my scout tell me Water Tribe Ships are once again entering the city, providing the city with fresh food and supplies. A year of attrition down the drain. I seek to send an envoy to Admiral Chan and request his assistance with the Siege. That envoy will be my son, somebody high enough up the chain of command. My heir and the Lieutenant General of the Crimson Army should be enough. Now is the issue of the next assault, assuming we can rely on Admiral Chan of course. In order of order, are there any suggestions for how to assault this city."
I held my breath, but the Lieutenant Colonel of the 29th Division wasn't smart enough. He spoke, out of line. "We must launch a full scale assault immediately while they are recovering."
Iroh then, stood, and looked to him and him only, excluding all of us from what transpired next. "Not only is your suggestion idiotic and pointless, but you speak out of line. Lu Ten is your Commanding Officer. Perhaps you forgot your place in the chain of command, Lieutenant Colonel. If you cannot keep up with the workings of this army and the one plan you've come up with in the last 2 weeks is to smash our heads against the wall and hope it falls, then I see no reason wasting this valuable brainstorming time of yours with actual military strategy. Leave."
The rest of us sat speechless as the Commander of the 29th did, but there was no arguing from him. He was an idiot, but he was no Commander of the 5th. He abandoned his argument, stood, bowed, and left. That was the last I saw of him that day. And rightly so.
"Lu Ten." Iroh spoke, sitting, once again having secured order in his court. "Your plan?"
At this point, I felt myself wondering if these last 2 weeks were given to me to come up with a plan. I began to feel a nervous sensation, lacking any form of plan, using this time to try and think of one, but that wasn't my strong suit: strategy. That was more Luke's forte.
Nonetheless, when Lu Ten spoke, I gave him my attention, mentally and spiritually readying myself for a worst case scenario. "It's obvious we lack the manpower for a full frontal assault. And the siege is now contained to one front, meaning we cannot launch a multi-pronged assault again as we did two weeks ago. Thus, I propose an infiltration of sorts. At least the likes of which we can achieve with our current numbers."
"Infiltration?!" Spoke out the commander of the 14th. "You plan to waste men on covert operations? How would this even be done?"
Iroh rose, speaking "Speak only when-"
Lu Ten, however, raised a hand to his father, saying "It's okay, father." Now, turning back to the commander, with Iroh seating himself once again, Lu Ten spoke, saying "Good question. I don't mean to secure the city with infiltrators. They have far too many men and the Dai Li in the inner city wouldn't tolerate any sort of actions along those lines. What I mean to do is create an opening in the walls for our force to enter."
"How do you mean to do this?" Asked the 17th's commander. "The wall can only be opened by Earth Benders and well, we have none."
"Correct. Being the Fire nation, we're rather low on Earth benders at the moment, but as you may have noticed if you believe the reports from the scouts that saw the ruins of the 5th Corps, our artillery was stolen. And we know from reports that new weaponry has been seen atop the walls. I beg to suggest that may be our artillery they have there, meaning it's highly explosive if those are our cannons. If we manage to get a team inside those walls to sabotage their artillery, a combined effort our their ruined artillery, our own functioning artillery, and the efforts of our firebenders, we should be just able to blow a hole in those walls. After which, of course, we send our troops in and take the outer ring."
The commander of the 17th spoke again, asking "Who would you mean to send on a mission along these lines? We have no trained Special Forces here. The nearest Special Forces team is operating outside of Gaoling, and we hear they've recently faced some losses and a missing operative."
"No. I suggest using our newest squad in the 31st platoon, Squad Echo, commanded by Staff Sergeant Danev here."
The words, at this point, had just been words, never holding any real significance until I saw everybody looking at me, and I wondered what the hell had just been said. Luckily, I didn't need to be the one to react first. The commander of the 14th took that honor.
"Him!? Are you being serous, child. He's a known criminal. He's spent his life harassing the Fire Nation, stealing from camps and from the Citadel's military district."
"You just answered your own question, commander. He's the perfect one for this job. He's been doing it his whole life."
"But just how do you expect to infiltrate the city?" Asked the 14th's commander again."
And in the words of that meeting that I came to dread most, finally regretting the trust Lu Ten had put in me, he said "Well. That's up for our expert to determine."
I didn't really hear much after that. I just remembered talk, the meeting ending, and being alone in that tent with Iroh as he cleared his throat and said "You can leave now, Staff Sergeant."