The Officer And The Princess

Chapter 24

Azula Slid down the back of the drill landing on the muddy ground below throwing mud into the face of Ty Lee who sat not to far away. Hearing the one of the Drills hatches open She turned to see Mai standing in the Door way "We lost" She spoke no hint of emotion in her voice. Azula bared her teeth at the comment doing everything in her power not to burst into anger at the obvious statement. Of course they lost, the most infantile tactician could see that.After they got out of this rather large pickle they found themselves in now the Princess made a mental note to have a very long conversation with War Minister Qin. Maybe it wasn't entirely his fault but Azula would be damned if she was going to take the blame for this. Once her Father found out he would be furious, the thought of him angry sent a cold shiver down her spine. The last time Ozai had been angry was after the Defeat at the North Pole, he had shut himself away for days while he consulted his War council his angry shouts could be heard throughout the Palace. When he was like that the only thing Azula could do was hide herself under her bed like a child fearful of the dark covering her ears to drown out the anger. Her body began to involuntarily tremble, she couldn't go back home like this, she couldn't be like Zuko. What if Ozai blamed her for the loss at Ba Sing Se like he blamed Zuko for the loss of the Avatar...what if he hurt her like he had hurt Zuko?"

"Azula." A mud covered Ty Lee spoke in a soft tone "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine!" She shouted causing the girl to jump back in fright. A part of the Princess regretted the outburst but a larger part praised her for it, fear was an excellent motivator. It was a tool that Azula used well and it showed. "Just...tired yes, tired."

Boots on metal could be heard echoing through the Drills halls through the open hatch where Mai stood. Sung appeared next to Mai a large dent in the side of the Helmet he wore. "you three alright?" He asked a concerned look upon his face.

"We are fine." Azula spoke for all of them "What is the situation?"

"Drill is shot to hell your highness, its not going to be moving from this spot" Another wonderful person stating the obvious to her. "from what I could gather the water main busted flooding the Engineering Deck entirely, I can only hope those who were trapped in the flooding died quickly.No one deserves to go out that way." He paused for a moment looking off at something in the distance "We need to get out of the area as fast as we can, it wont be long before those fellas on the wall come down here to finish us off. I don't know about you all but I rather not be around here when they decide to counter attack, Goddess help us if the Avatar joins them."

"I am inclined to agree with you." Azula responded regaining her composer. "How do you propose we get out of this?"

The Officer ran a hand across his face "I have a feeling they will start throwing rocks at us the second we make any sort of move, once we start the retreat it will be a fighting retreat." He looked around at his surroundings as seven Tundra Tanks rolled up to the back of the Drill the lead tanks hatch opining a man dressed in standard Fire Bender Armor appeared from the hatch. Not long after their arrival the Rocks began to fall again pelting the ground around them breaking upon impact and creating smaller projectiles that pelted the metal of the now useless drill and the armor of the Tanks. Upon seeing this the hatches of the other Tanks opened as the Fire Bender commanders stood up and began to use their fire Bending to break the rocks before they hit the ground. Ty Lee let out a terrified scream as she took cover inside the drill holding her hand over her head as she ran. Mai to her credit remained outside but with each explosion she flinched ever so slightly, she looked as if she was trying to Will herself to stay standing.

"We have six Tanks knocked out Princess." The Tank commander Spoke tactfully and as calmly as he possibly could given the situation "The crews are dead."