The Officer And The Princess

Chapter 44

The day before the invasion, sixteen hours to be exact but in the grand scheme it mattered very little. Sung stood in a vast hall in the Palace, around him were fifteen men and women dressed in the uniform of the Domestic Forces the men outnumbering the women but that mattered little. They made up the Domestic Forces command structure, All low ranking Generals and few Colonel's but there was also one Civilian present, War Minister Qin. In here Sung could be spotted from a mile away his Armor making him stand out amongst the crowd. In front of him was a table that they all crowded around, atop it a map of Harbor City, the Royal Plaza, the Capital, and every battlement and defensive structure along that route. As he looked over those present in the room with him he was less than impressed.

Sungs dislike of the Domestic Forces was nothing new, both the Regular Army and the Navy shared his assessment. Ironically it was one of the few things the Army and Navy agreed on. While the Army was marching its way across the Earth Kingdom and the Navy was sailing the seas far away from home the Domestic Forces were allowed to stay in the Fire Nation and play gate guard and Police Officer. Now Sung was willing to admit that the Domestic Forces had some within its ranks that were veterans of the other branches who had seen combat and that many of the Army and Navy's drill instructors were from the Domestic Forces but trainings and experience were two different things. You could train a person to do almost anything, but without the experience to back it up that training was wasted.

Everything Sung had heard said the Domestic Forces could do any job the Regular Army could but in recent times their abilities were put into question. A few weeks prior an important Factory in Jang Hui that built body armor for the Army had been completely destroyed, nothing left but slag. Those tasked to protect the Factory had been from the Domestic Forces. General Mung, commander of Forces in that Factory had been called to the Capital to testify as to how an entire Factory that was extremely vital to the War Effort could have been destroyed under his watch. Mung was adamant that what happened wasn't his fault, that it was the work of a Jang Hui spirit called "The Painted Lady", A water Spirit local to the area. he was almost laughed out of the Capital at that explanation. Sung was one of the few not laughing. He had indeed heard of the "Painted Lady" his spiritual upbringing coming in to play but he was not privy to her lore. Though Sung was about the only one one the Fire Lord council to humor the idea that what Mung said could be possible. That alone had allowed Mung to resign his Commission and saved his life.

Then there was an incident not long after Sung had returned to the Fire Nation from Ba Sing Se. Apparently the headmaster of some school called in the Domestic Forces to break up a "dance party" that was secretly going on. Now if Sung had been in command he would have ignored something so insignificant, a waste of Military Resources in his opinion. Well Sung wasn't in command and so a Raid had been launched, their task to be the apprehension of a boy named Kuzon who had planned the event. Yet another botched Domestic Forces Operation. From reports he had read of some of the children present had donned a similar headband to the one the Kuzon boy had been wearing to confuse the headmaster and the Domestic Forces which allowed the boy to escape.

Though the so called "dance party" was an insignificant event compared to the destruction of an entire factory the two events showed that Forces in the Fire Nation homeland had it too easy for too long. They had gotten sloppy, careless. They definitely wouldn't have been Sung's first pick to defend the Capital. He would much prefer having Regular Army units with combat experience to be brought back from the Earth Kingdom. But just as he had said in a War Meeting recently, suddenly moving troops out of the Earth Kingdom back to the Homeland shortly after a Major Victory would be unwise. Sung had to work with what he had.

"I am strongly convinced that they will land here." Sung said as he pointed to the Royal Plaza. "It is the only spot for miles where an opposing force could arrive en masse."