It worked. It had been 3 days and I still couldn't believe it worked. We lost 5 of our guys in the first month and we still managed to make it work. That in itself was a miracle.
But that was 3 days ago, and despite the fact that my ears were still ringing, and my vision still blurred, I couldn't let it distract me. I still had a hell of a lot of work left to do.
So now, me, Zonda, and Za'ik, were huddled in what once was an Earth Kingdom farmhouse, surrounding a rough map of the Earth Kingdom trenches I had drawn.
"Nice map."
"Thanks."
And that made the last 3 days' worth it.
"Now let's get to work." I said. "We're here." I said, pointing to the map where I had drawn a black house to represent where we were. "Our guys are here. These are their trenches, that's the wall, and that's the camp. Last I saw, they had set up towers and barbed wire, so they're well defended, but that defense won't mean shit if the Earth Kingdom uses their artillery on us."
"Right." Interceded Za'ik. "And that artillery they're using is Fire Nation made. Shit they stole from the 5th and the idiots running it. No offense, Danev."
"None taken. I'm just glad I jumped ship before they could get me, and 5,000 other dudes killed in one go."
"True that." Said Zonda.
"Anyway." Continued Za'ik. "That's they're trench line over here, which means their artillery is at least half a mile behind their trench lines, safely out of way of our artillery."
Zonda continued for Za'ik. "And that artillery is going to made any kind of charge for our boys nigh suicidal."
"So we take out the artillery." I finished.
"And now the question of how. Any ideas, boss?"
Boss. I liked that. Took them 2 months and one blown up wall to get them to call me that, but hey, better late than never. "Well. We used all our blasting jelly on the wall. Their artillery is low on ammo thanks to us, but they managed to get one last supply convoy through before the rioting got really bad."
"Shit." Said Za'ik. "Maybe we should just wait. If the rioting's as bad as I overheard some of the soldiers saying, this city is set to self-destruct any day now."
"I wouldn't count on that." Said Zonda. "The secret police, the Dai Li, they've been around since Kyoshi and since that time, the city has faced a single successful peasant uprising. Thousands have tried. Tens of thousands have died. The Dai Li doesn't like loose ends."
"Well shit. That's a whole 'nother thing to worry about when we get through the inner wall. And I thought we were out of the frying pan."
"And into the fire." I finished.
"What?"
"That's how the saying goes. 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire.'"
"No, it's not."
"Yes, it is."
"I swear it's not."
"It really is." Zonda said.
"Well you're from the colonies. Why would we say something so derogatory about Fire in the Fire Nation?"
"Fair point." I added.
"Anyway." Zonda said, bringing us back on track. "About this mission to destroy their artillery, what was your plan?"
"Yeah." I said. "Right. I was thinking about that and I may have an idea. The other day, I saw the Earth Kingdom set up a new line of artillery, here. Perpendicular to our trenches, just out of range of our own guns, but not out of range of Earth Kingdom guns."
"So you want to hijack the guns at that new camp and use them on the main artillery?"
"Better. I want to fake orders between the two of them. Get the gunnery general's seals from both camps, steal some messenger pigeons, and make it look like the Fire Nation is attacking the other position and say that there's no time and artillery has to be fired there immediately. We can set some fires, blow some barrels up, start a panic to make it seem real from a distance. Then low and behold, the Earth Kingdom kills themselves for us."
And they looked at each other, and back at me.
"You have a plan?" asked Zonda
"Well. No, but that's why we're here, isn't it? But first, we need to get somebody back to Crimson to give them the plan."