It began in the blink of an eye. One second, I was leaning back in my seat, watching the artillery shells flying against the gray sky, behind them streaking streams of fire and smoke, all disappearing behind the walls, clearing the grounds for us.
And then, we heard the explosion. Probably the loudest one I'd ever heard. One louder than the combined blast of our entire army's artillery. And when I, as well as our entire army looked up at the origin of the noise, we were greeted with the same old wall, but something different about it. From top to bottom, cracks, no, craters, were forming. Large enough for men to fit through.
Danev had done his part. And that meant one thing for us. It was time to do ours.
Then the horn sounded. Right on cue, and we shot into motion.
Thousands of tanks storming across the plains between where our camp once stood and where their city, for the moment, stood proudly. But that was about to come to a quick and decisive end. Our tanks sped along the plains, artillery still going off behind us as we raced to reach the wall before our shells in what I guess could be considered a friendly competition of sorts. Of course, even our tanks couldn't outrun the speed of artillery mortars and shells.
However, only 2 blasts reached the walls before our time came, we reached the base of the wall, and the artillery stopped.
There was then a moment I'd never thought I could have appreciated so much. Total silence. The entire armored division had come to a stop. The first line of tanks had their hooks aimed up towards the top of the walls, but there were 10 seconds of silence between the last blast of artillery and the sounds of the pressurized gas propelling the grappling hooks over 300 feet into the air to grapple onto the great walls of Ba Sing Se.
And like that, silence abandoned, the war had resumed, no longer on pause. It didn't concern me. I had done this before. Just had to scale this damn wall one last time, and we could bring it down. For good.
And soon enough, we joined those situated in front of us, and now found ourselves completely vertical.
I could already notice the improvements that had been made to the tanks. The treads had been laden with small climbing hooks that had a clear effect on stability. The hooks were the same as they had been, but the idea of a third one in reserve offered some small comfort.
The first 100 feet passed. Just like that, but we all knew it was a matter of time before the fighting began. We had the luxury of being right at the walls when the artillery stopped as well as a degree of surprise. The explosion would indeed have alerted the Earth Kingdom, but they had no way to believe the attack was coming today. It wouldn't have been nearly impossible to make it to the walls and up them before they were even ready to repel our attack.
At least, that's what we thought.
I saw the blast of fire ahead of me as it collided with a disk of solid earth, exploding it mid air creating a cloud of dust obscuring the vision of the tank units to our right. Just what the benders had wanted and were now doing to us. The disks came down and I wanted to yell "Don't fire." But found the words catching in my throat.
It was then I remembered that I wasn't in the 5th Corps anymore. I was in the 5th army. And Lu Ten was leading our charge.
I saw the tanks ahead of me close their hatches and I followed suit. The disks fell, unmolested this time around. Now this may be taken as an act of cowardice, but it was nothing along those lines. It was a simple matter of not playing into the game of the enemy. And when besieging a city as fortified as this one, the last thing you want to do is go where or do what the defenders want you to do.
And so, hatches closed and sealed tight, we became a moving wall of impenetrable steel. Except, this wall was fighting back.
I joined in contributing to the wave of bolts and the occasional blasts of fire coming out of the gunnery turrets of the tanks as we made our way up the walls, trying our damndest to scatter the defenders at the top as much as we could.
We hadn't expected the opposition, but I'd be damned if we hadn't been ready for it.
I didn't focus on hitting anyone in particular. I chose no targets. I chose a general area, where I could see where the hooks of my line of tanks had based themselves into the ground. I fired in that area, daring anyone to come near enough and make an attempt to dislodge our hooks.
And soon enough, devoid of incident save 1 or 2 tanks that were downed in the line to my right, we had reached 200 feet. The fighting intensified. The density of Earth kingdom defenders atop had increased as Earth Benders formed walls of earth in front of them, knocking them over onto our tanks, but we held steady, and never stopped firing.
It was then that I finally got the opportunity to see our newest weapons put to the test. Certain tanks in our armored division were armed with ballistae in place of standard turrets, armed with large scorpion bolts.
And now, at an altitude of 220 feet, I saw them put into action as every single line of tanks, in night perfect unison fired scorpion bolts near double the height of a human body. But there was something about these bolts, something near the bolt-heads that made me think of-oh. Of course.
The bolts hit the walls of earth that had been put up, and no later did they explode in brilliant blasts of fire and smoke, sending debris and limbs off of the walls, clanging atop our vehicles.
250 feet. And they were becoming desperate. And seeing an opportunity to take us all out in one go, the Benders on the wall seemed to have come to a unanimous agreement that would undoubtedly cost their lives, but ours as well.
And the wall began to shake, and crack near the top. They were taking out the very floor beneath their feet in a last-ditch effort to remove our grappling hooks, sending all our tanks down to a rocky mass grave below. And little by little, the hooks began to come loose as tanks plummeted below the steel walls, shooting reserves, but all the same taken out of the fight.
Then more fell. Then more. Then the tank next to us. And it seemed over until the wall shook, and they fell. I had to spin my turret towards the ground for a split second to see what the source had been. Of course.
Iroh and his battalion of firebenders were gathered at the weak spot in the wall, firing combined blasts of fire. The wall continued to shake, but we continued.
And soon enough, 300 feet were reached. The first line went over just as the Earth Benders recovered and attempted to complete their suicide mission to no avail.
The next line was over the wall, then the next, then us. We were atop the wall, and the fighting had just begun. There was enough room atop that wall for 6 tanks to sit next to each other, side to side. And so, we fought. And at that point, they stood no chance.
We were on top of the wall, and we weren't done. Not by a long shot. I unsealed and raised the hatch above me for a chance at greater visibility, knowing what I could do up top combined with Zek's driving as he went about his own course, and I fought. I fired blast after blast, making way for the demolition tanks to get up the wall from the rear of the formation. And so, I fought, but, at that point, it was no fight. It was man against machine. And I was the machine. I had killed 13 soldiers, 4 of them earth benders, non-discriminately as some fought, and some ran, refusing to differentiate by the time the demolition tanks had come up and were moving towards the weak spot in the wall, dropping payloads of explosive out of the rear of their tanks. I heard the horn telling us to make way as our tanks scrambled across the wall, as far from the weak spot as possible, with us at the practical back of the formation, the closest ones to the soon to be hole in the wall. Or at least, as we all hoped.
The demolition tanks depleted their payloads, picked up the pace in the opposite direction on the opposite side of the demolition zone where some more of our tanks were situated and had cleared the defenders.
And that was the second pause of the battle today. No explosions. No firebending. One moment of preparation for a combined assault. All that was needed was the signal from the command vessel, Lu Ten's tank.
And we heard it, and, without a doubt, saw it as the red flare made its way into the sky from Lu Ten's tank.
And then it happened. And in that moment, I knew it was over. Not just the battle. The war. It had to be. I smiled, and just sat still as I watched the show.