The Officer and the Princess: The Flames Of War

Chapter 1

In the halls of the Fire Nation capital City Prison, Domestic Forces Sergeant, Yamato stood on guard in the most secure section, in the Prisons lowest Level. the rays of late night moon light shining in through the buildings metal bar covered windows casting the falls in shadow. The air was still as a chill just seemed to hang there. Particles of dust catching in the light of lanterns that hung on the stone walls and going around the corner on either side. Moving down the hall towards the left he looked out one of the Windows's as he passed.

In the Prison courtyard figures dressed in the same uniform as him could be seen. Some standing on guard around the inner wall while others moved about, somewhere an officer could be heard shouting orders. Besides the Boiling Rock prison and the Royal palace itself, the Capital City prison was one of the most secure complexes in the country. Over one hundred solider's, Bender and non Bender alike, patrolled these halls and grounds at a time. During the War Domestic Forces had gotten the short end of the stick compared to their counterparts in the Army and Navy but what they lacked in combat Experience they had made up for with a skill in law enforcement.

Yamamoto had himself started his career in the military at a prison not to dis similar to this one some Twelve years before. How young he had been back then. Back then the prisons that dotted the country were home to an actual population from muggers to killers , though mainly they were prisoners of war during the Fire Nations goal of global domination, but when the war ended and those captured during the war were allowed to leave the prison though the true criminals had thankfully stayed right were they were. But also many of the Prisons turned to holding members of a resistance group who disagreed with the change in Government Under Firelord Zuko. Though those had long since been move to other facilities. Now in the present day the Prison was home to only one, possibly the most dangerous man in the country.

Yamamoto had thought it strange that the prison would need so many guarding it to keep one man locked in but those thoughts quickly disappeared, he took comfort in knowing that he wasn't out of a job just yet, though he didn't know what the future held, he had heard whispers from others saying that the Domestic Forces were about to take a hit like the Army and Navy had, but those had to just be rumors from worried people. There was a lot of that going around these days.

While Zuko had cut back the number of  regular military in recent years to only a fraction of what it had once been during the War, the domestic forces had been left virtually untouched. While his friends in the Army and Navy had been discharged with a mediocre pension and no career to fall back on, Sargent Yamamoto was still getting a regular wage. That suited him just fine, especially when his wife was expecting a child in a few short weeks. Personally Yamamoto had never really believed in the war like many of his comrades, but when you were the son of a merchant with a young family of you own there was very little in the way of getting money...if you wanted to obey the law that was. For many in the peasants class the only way to get anywhere in life was to enlist.

Yamamoto had not wanted to slug it out in the Earth Kingdom while rocks fell on his head and he had not wanted to be trapped on a ship. This left only one option, to the Army Domestic  Forces were like  the little brother that would always remain in the shadow of the older brother. To the Navy they were nothing more than a militia. Since their founding The only true military action any of its numbers had seen was the failed invasion of the Fire Nation capital that seemed to have been a lifetime ago though it had only been six years. That had been one battle too many for him.

He had been pulled from the Prison to reinforce the Capital City Garrison. He had been manning one of the Battlements leading up the road to the capital when they came. He remembered the horror he had felt seeing the Invaders slowly make their way through the Plaza and to his position. The damn crossbow battery he had been operating only seeing to upset the Earthbenders. He remembered how thankful he had been when the Eclipse began that day and he had been allowed to retreat. Yamamoto figured that if it hadn't been for General Yangs leadership during the battle perhaps the war would have ended then and there. He wasn't an expert on tactics but Yangs strategy had been a stroke of mad genius. He had allowed the Invaders to take the Capital, practically cutting them off from their landing craft, and then he launched a massive counterattack, surrounding the Invaders in one swoop. An impressive feat for someone who had been so young.