The Officer and the Princess: The Flames Of War

Chapter 1

General Yang had practically fallen off the Face of the Earth after wars end however, there were Rumors of his romantic involvement with Princess Azula and her the sudden break in her mental faculties had hit Yang hard enough for him to leave the Military, but that wasn't any of Yamamotos business. But now that he thought about it, since the last bit of bad business between Fire Lord Zuko and his sister, Azula had all but vanished as well. Maybe that was for the best, he had heard stories about how Azula acted towards those below her, that wasn't even counting how she had almost thrown the country into a Civil War. Some things were just left in the past Yamamoto supposed, left forgotten.

*

Walking into a small guard room with five desks dotted around the room Yamamoto stopped in front of the fifth where an man ten years his Junior, sat going over some papers that were stacked in front of him. "Lieutenant" he spoke up snapping his heels together in salute as he bowed his head "I have finished my patrol of the eastern wing, all is how it should be"

"Very good Sergeant" The Lieutenant responded not looking up from the papers, fixing Yamamoto a small smile. "you may take your break now if you wish, I think we can handle things without you for an hour."

Yamamoto gave a nod as he preformed a perfect About face maneuver and walked out of the room turning and moving down the narrowing hallway. It was then he caught something out the corner of his eye. Turning his head to look out one of the windows he saw figures moving along the top of the outer wall, but it wasn't as if they were guards on patrol. The group of at least six moved quickly in a crouched posture like they were trying not to be seen. This couldn't be right, it had to be a trick of the moon light playing with his mind. Or maybe the guards up there were slacking on duty and playing some stupid game, something that they would surely get chastised for. Yet as he stared out at the darkness the figures suddenly dropped down to the ground right next to the walls gates. Guards on the ground took noice of them by this point letting the Sergeant know that it wasn't just him seeing things.

From where he stood Yamamoto could see Several of his comrades move closer, one of them shouting something that he couldn't hear. Then suddenly the unknown group turned the night illuminated by bright flashes of orange fire shot in short bursts, three of his comrades dropping immediately, they didn't get back up. That couldn't be! This all had to be in his mind, he was just overworked. Another two of his comrades fell to fire and Yamamoto's heart began to beat rapidly at the action even as his comrades on the ground took of defensive stances to return fire.  The Group seemed to just brush off the attacks thrown at them as the prison gates began to open slowly. "ALARM!" Yamamoto shouted "WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"

In response to his shouts a loud bell began to chime a deep and intense ringing that echoed through the once quiet halls. The empty hall erupted with activity as Men and a few women dressed in the uniform of the Domestic Forces ran left and right the voices becoming too many to make out individually. In the time it took to raise the Alarm what was once a group of six intruders had grown into at least twenty, or even more then that, he didn't have time to count. They were beginning to make way to the main building. In the darkness The Sergeant could see bodies covering the ground as they passed. They may have been making progress such a small group had no chance of taking on so many at once, this minor attack would be over soon. Wouldn't it?

That thought seemed to do little to ease his mind and his beating heart though by a small margin. "Sergeant!" A gruff but female voice called out to him causing him to jump in surprise and turn to see the Captain of the guard, Captain Mien. Mien was one of the very few females on staff but she was tough, one of the toughest women in the entire military he would bet. When she spoke people listened. "Follow me, we are setting up a defensive perimeter in solitary."