Prologue

The men were quiet the entire trip, quiet as I had ever seen them. So much so that I could hear the creaking of the ship and the rolling waves outside. There was no need for conversation. Everyone knew what was about to happen. I could see it on the men's grim faces. More than two dozen of them stood around me in the small assault boat which lay in the dark belly of the ship that carried us. There were four more boats like this one positioned around us, though I could not see them, for the only opening in the boat was the elongated gap in the roof above us. The boats were made of the finest steel in the Fire Nation, much like the suits of armor we wore which, once we emerged into the sunlight, would glint with the most radiant crimson.

This was the day we had all spoken of in rumors but never imagined would come so soon. For over fifty years, the Fire Nation had been at insurmountable odds in the war against the Earth Kingdom, and many of us feared that a stalemate would soon be inevitable. Although our numbers were great, our skills honed, and our wealth and resources vast beyond measure, the great campaign of expansion had not gone as smoothly as those before us had expected. After Fire Lord Sozin eradicated the obscure nations of the Air Nomads, the morale and spirits of his warriors of the flame soared. It was not long after his death, however, and the ascension of his son, Azulon, that the Water Tribes soon joined the war, thus forcing the Fire Nation to further redistribute its resources. Unable to command his forces from the front, Fire Lord Azulon eventually returned home to coordinate the war efforts from his palace, leaving his son, the young crown prince Iroh, to lead the campaign against the Earth Kingdom mainland.

Yet the years went by and the Fire Nation armies had barely been able to scratch the surface of the mainland. The infamous earthbenders proved nearly invincible when engaged on their own turf, considering the very land itself was their most powerful weapon. Most of the recent action had been in the form of endless naval conflicts struggling for control of the western coasts. However, when it was feared that our supplies might soon run low, Commander Iroh led a desperate counteroffensive in the wake of an Earth Kingdom naval attack, which dealt a devastating blow to their fleet and resulted in the young prince's promotion to general after the death of General Kai in the battle.

Thus here we were now. Shortly after Prince Iroh's triumph, he ordered a full-scale invasion of the western coast. Not just anywhere; General Iroh was dedicating everything his fleet had left to the coastal fortress city of Ashara. Next to Omashu and even Ba Sing Se itself, it was one of the most fortified cities in the entire Earth Kingdom. Iroh knew it would be critical for advancing Fire Nation forces from the colonies in the southwest. Not only that, but control of Ashara would mean control of the western seas, and by extension, control of Earth Kingdom trade routes in the region. Nothing would stand in the way of a Fire Nation march straight to Ba Sing Se!

Even though there was little time to call for reinforcements before the Earth Kingdom could regroup their defenses, Iroh refused to launch a campaign such as this without the forces to make it the most historical front the war had ever seen; and so he sent a brief and concise message back to the motherland: "Give me the Knights of Sol."

I glanced down at the breastplate of my crimson armor. Though I could barely see it in the dark, I did not need to to recognize the insignia of the sun spewing a massive solar flare painted across my chest. The Knights of Sol had long been revered as the fiercest and most well-trained warriors in the nation. They were formally recognized by Fire Lord Sozin after they led the successful assault against the Air Nomads. Despite the failure to locate and capture the new Avatar, the Knights of Sol were presented with the highest prestige as the personal guard of the Fire Lord himself. They were reserved only for the most important tasks in the war, in which they always succeeded.

Even though I once held a shameful resentment for the officers of my nation for taking me from my family at a young age, no such amount could stifle the honor I felt when I was recognized for my potential and brought to the motherland to be trained among the Knights. I was not born a spitter (which was our derogatory term for those who could bend the element of fire), but I was more than aware of my natural prowess with the sword. The Knights of Sol consisted of both firebenders and swordsmen, trained together as a single deadly battalion. The spitters thought themselves superior thanks to their gift, while we swordsmen believed overcoming our own limitations was far more honorable.

By 20-years-old, I had followed the Knights through several missions entrusted to us, but never one so large-scale as this. It was a difficult call for General Iroh to summon the Knights of Sol for this invasion. Taking the time to marshal sufficient numbers would have only meant more time for the Earth Kingdom navy to reform, this he knew, and the invasion would surely result in casualties too grave to count. It was a great risk, but Iroh declared that only the Knights of Sol in their entirety could achieve success in this mission. Even still, Fire Lord Azulon would not stomach the idea of losing his most renowned warriors. As this could mean the turning point of the war in his favor, his majesty marshaled a legion of ten thousand firebenders to follow behind us in the invasion of Ashara. It took the Knights three days to rally with General Iroh's fleet, and no one knew how long it would take for the legion to arrive. All that mattered was that we did our job; to seize and hold the beach fortress of Ashara until reinforcements arrived. No matter how you looked at it, it was almost for certain a suicide mission.

As the warship began gaining speed, I reached up and grabbed hold of the handlebar just above my head. I glanced toward the Knight standing to my left. It was not a man like myself, but rather a young woman. Standing half a head shorter than me, she was one of the few female warriors to survive the Knights' lifelong training. Her name, as far as I know was given to her, was Zu-Li. She was 15-years-old when I met her in the training pits of our barracks. I was sixteen at the time. At the waist of her armor, unlike myself, she bore no sword or weapon of steel. She did not need one, for as long as I had known her she was one of the most formidable firebending prodigies in the battalion. At first, Zu-Li held nothing but contempt for all of her peers, as most believed it laughable that a woman could match the strength and prowess of a Knight of Sol. I, on the other hand, soon came to admire her skills in the art of firebending (I dare not use the word spitter to describe her), and during a massive brawl in the barracks, I inadvertently stood by her side as we staved off our peers for over an hour in an intense riot. We were both severely disciplined, simply because we stood out the most, but regardless, we were commended in secret for our fighting abilities, and from that day forth, we saw each other as friends and allies.

I was proud to fight beside her now, even if both of us believed this mission might be our last. The ship was gaining even more speed. This vessel was designed as a blockade runner, and its sheer mass made it capable of smashing through enemy ships and, in this case, walls, for a large, coastal wall surrounded the beaches of Ashara. My ears twitched as a voice suddenly echoed through the communications system that weaved throughout the ship.

"All units, brace for impact!"

Zu-Li shifted her glance to me. Her black hair was folded back to fall neatly against her neck. She looked at me and nodded once with an expression of comradery. We had been on so many tasks together that I could already sense what she was thinking: 'If we die today, we die as one.'

At that, the two of us reached down and secured the helmets from between our feet. I stared in the dark for a second at the charred-looking skull face design crowned with a blood-red dome and a pair of horns. I looked to Zu-Li, who had already donned her helmet. It truly matched the face of death the enemy would see when they stared into the two black eye holes. I quickly slipped my helmet over my head. My breathing was instantly stifled and hot like fire, and my vision was reduced to all that was straight ahead of me. I knew I would have to rely on my disciplined and heightened senses to engage the enemy as I always had. We held tight to the grab bars above. I tensed every muscle in my body. We could suddenly hear the thunderous echo of large, rocky projectiles slamming into the ship outside. That didn't alter our trajectory one bit. The ship was charging faster than ever before. I closed my eyes, gripping the bar so hard that I could feel it brushing up my palm beneath my glove. I waited anxiously for the anticipated collision. And then, out of nowhere, it happened.

The force of the impact nearly threw me off my feet and into the Knight standing in front of me. The sound of the crash was as loud as a volcano blowing its top. I rushed to recompose myself now that the ship had come to a complete halt. The atmosphere was becoming tenser the longer we waited. There was still no talking amongst the men; no speeches of valor or sacrifice, just the sound of Zu-Li's voice as she called to me in the darkness.

"Kozan," she said, placing a bare hand on the armor of my forearm. I looked into the abysses of her eye holes as if waiting to hear a few words of encouragement, but I could only sense a grin on her concealed face as she said, "Watch your head out there."

I gave what was supposed to be a short laugh, then suddenly, the massive door at the bow of the ship fell open. Sunlight immediately flooded into the ship's interior, so bright that it threatened to blind me even in my helmet. The door crashed down hard onto the surface of the sea, and I soon heard the voices of the men outside the boats calling to one another as they pushed us out and into the water. We slid down the metal door, and as soon as we were outside, two spitters in the rear thrust their hands into the mouths of a set of pipes that stretched into the water, blowing fire into them which gradually propelled us toward the beaches of Ashara. It took nearly a full minute for us to reach our top speed, but as I glanced up through the opening above me, I could see the great coastal wall vanishing rapidly with distance. The ship had smashed a massive hole right through the wall without effort but was now stuck within the rock. It mattered not. As soon as the legion arrived, they would tear the entire wall to pieces and force their way through.

A single Knight climbed up onto a small perch in the roof gap to observe our line of travel. "Two miles to the beach!" he called out, and urge the two propelling the boat to move us faster.

I shifted my position to catch a glimpse of the approaching each through a small opening in the bow gate. I could just barely make out the unscalable wall of the beach fortress straight ahead. The entire thing was layered with defensive trebuchets, which were capable of launching projectiles of rock beyond the reach of the earthbenders.

"One mile to the beach!" the sentinel shouted.

The wall behind us was no longer within our view, but along the beach, I now saw a series of lines all across the sand. "Trenches," I said aloud to myself.

"Figured as much," Zu-Li responded to me, "which means expect an ungodly amount of enemy firepower."

"Fortunately, we're the ones with the firepower," I joked and Zu-Li laughed.

"I sure hope the rest of the ships punched through the wall," she said in concern, "or this is going to be one short fight."

"Nothing we've never done before, Zu." I tried to sound as confident as possible. "Let's show these earthworms the power of the sun!"

"Less chatter, more focus!" the sentinel called down to us. "Half a mile!"

I peered through the bow of the assault boat, and my eyes widened as I saw the fortress trebuchets swing forward, hurling their rocky missiles through the air. "Incoming!" I shouted instinctively. Everyone braced themselves, most not knowing what was even coming at us. I held my breath as the ballistic boulder grew bigger and bigger until at last, it crashed like a meteor into the water mere meters in front of us. The boat jumped over the massive ripples it created, nearly causing the sentinel to fly from his perch.

"Whoa!" he cried in excitement. "Stand fast!" he then called back to us. "We're almost there!"

It could not have been more than a second later, but my ears caught a sudden whizzing noise followed by the sickening grunt of the sentinel as he collapsed from his perch and landed flat on his back among the men. An abnormally long arrow was standing up out of the chest plate of his armor. It was fired by a ballista sentry. That was the only way it could have pierced his armor so easily. We stared at his lifeless husk, trying not to appear the least bit intimidated. Any such thoughts were interrupted by the sound of countless more ballistas raining arrows down upon our boats.

"Mind the gaps!" one of the Knights shouted.

Zu-Li and I held close to the walls of the vessel. I tried to keep an eye on the quickly approaching land. Arrows and boulders were dropping out of the sky like spider-flies. I hoped none of the other boats had been hit.

"Don't slow down!" a Knight at the front cried as he planted his helmet against the bow opening. "Brace!"

I gritted my teeth. This was it. Within seconds I felt a tremendous force launch us upward as the underside of our boat scraped a solid surface. We skidded to a grinding halt. "Now!" the same Knight shouted at the top of his lungs. He unlocked the bow gate and shoved it open, allowing it to fall with a thud onto the sandy beach. "Move! For the Fire Lord!"

"AZULON!" we all declared in thunderous battle cries as we charged forth from the boat.

Time immediately seemed to slow as chaos rained down all around us. The first I did was look around the battlefield, against my better judgment. Seven ships were sent to smash holes through the coastal wall, each carrying five assault boats, which themselves transported over two dozen warriors. A thousand Knights of Sol rallied to invade the city of Ashara. I had no time to count how many boats made it to the beach. I could only hope that our immediate casualties remained at a minimum.

"Kozan!" Zu-Li cried.

My head shot forward toward the Knights charging their way across the sand. In an instant, Zu-Li planted her feet in the sand and thrust her hand into the air in front of me. A jet of fire instantly shot outward as if from the palm of her hand. I felt the intense heat even through my helmet. As the fire dissipated a second later, I saw the blackened shaft of an arrow spin awkwardly past my head and into the dirt.

I let out a sigh of relief and surprise. Zu-Li shook her head at me. "I told you to watch your head!"

My eyes examined the trenches that were dug about fifty meters before us. I could see the Earth warriors popping up just over the edges to fire endless volleys of arrows at us. Zu-Li and I ducked down and hurried to join the other Knights.

"Why aren't they lobbing rocks at us?" I questioned amidst the action.

"What? Are you disappointed?" Zu-Li jeered.

I ignored her. "They must be reserving their earthbenders where they'll need them most!"

I was not sure what to think of the enemy's tactics. I had never been in a full-scale battle before, but from my studies of Earth Kingdom war tactics, it seemed unlike them not to front their forces with a line of their most valuable assets, the earthbenders. Either their resources were running low, or they were preparing for something big.

"Shields!" the Knights in my landing unit echoed. Zu-Li and I hurried to reform with them as they stepped into a line facing the trenches. I fell into the middle of the line and then, as if acting symbiotically, each of us raised our left arms and pulled back on a notch embedded in the underarm of our armor. The outer side of our arm pieces suddenly expanded into the form of crimson shields at their maximum span of thirty-six inches. We crouched down to conceal ourselves as we formed a light phalanx formation and inched our way toward the archers' trenches. The enemy was bombarding our formation with arrows and spears, more and more the closer we pushed. The spitters laid low just behind us, emerging only to throw fire at the enemy whenever we split apart for them. As we managed to push our way within ten meters of the trenches, I clenched my teeth, anticipating the ground uprooting beneath my feet, but it never happened. The archers refused to retreat from their posts.

"We need to break them!" I cried out.

The lieutenant in the center of the formation turned his head, the bronze stripe that slashed diagonally across the forehead of his helmet glistening in the sunlight, and called out, "Sheng! Smoke! Now!"

The formation broke apart in the middle, and I stepped out of the way as a Knight of enormous stature shouted threateningly and charged through us toward the trench. He wound up his arm and hurled several small, metal orbs into the trench. The archers flinched when they saw the objects land among them. The large Knight dropped onto one knee and raised his shield over his head. At the same time, another of the Knights followed through and leaped onto his raised shield. The large Knight hoisted him up with great strength, while the other let loose a sudden burst of flame around his feet to propel himself. Their combined force launched him over the trench, and he threw a wave of fire from his hand on top of the orbs tossed by his comrade. As he landed on the other side of the trench, it suddenly ignited in a great burst of fire that consumed the enemy archers inside.

The spitter now on the other side turned to his feet and faced us. His name was Sheng. I met him shortly after my arrival at the Knights' training installation. Next to Zu-Li, he was one of the most skilled firebenders I had ever known, but he always seemed to lack proper appreciation for the martial art. But who am I to judge? I'm no spitter.

As for the larger Knight, well, I'm not sure of his name. For as long as I had been with the battalion, he had been known by his nickname, Smokescreen. His tactical specialty was deploying his seemingly endless supply of fire powder while Sheng would ignite it upon the enemy. I suppose it was his way of making up for his own lack of firebending.

"Well done, boys," our lieutenant said as we regrouped to secure our position.

"Boys?" Zu-Li remarked to herself.

Ignoring her comment, the lieutenant examined our surroundings. After taking the trench, the wall of the beach fortress stood directly ahead of us. "According to the brief," he began, "the target should be found within the heart of the fortress. He is a prominent dignitary from Ba Sing Se. We capture him alive, and the city will be forced to surrender."

"Easier said than done," I could not help but comment. "Our numbers are too few. Besides, I thought our mission was to hold the beachhead until reinforcements arrive."

"Too few?" Smokescreen reacted with a laugh. "We are a thousand Knights of Sol! We could take this city by ourselves!"

"Secure the rest of the beach. We can handle this," Sheng said, gesturing to Smokescreen, Zu-Li, and myself.

"I'm not sure that four of you would be enough," the lieutenant replied. "Especially with the fortress undoubtedly crawling with earthworms."

"I have to agree with that," I said, looking to Sheng.

"Oh come on," Sheng retorted. "You and Zu-Li have spent more time dancing with the earthbenders than anyone! And I fight best when I have my shield." Sheng nodded jokingly to Smokescreen.

"It's too risky," the lieutenant interjected.

"What options do we have, sir?" Sheng argued. "If we wait, then we're giving the target time to flee deeper into the city. But the four of us have the element of surprise if we can slip inside the fortress walls."

"The fort will be heavily guarded," I said, biting my lip.

"Nothing I can't handle!" Smokescreen grunted, cracking his knuckles.

"We can do it," Zu-Li said confidently. "We've made it this far."

Even our lieutenant had to agree that our options were limited. By the time the legion arrived, resistance would be so strong that the campaign would become more of a destruction than a conquest, especially with the Knights of Sol leading the way. It's what we did best, but we could not afford to cause irreparable harm to the target. Sheng was right. If the Knights could hold the beach for as long as possible, then perhaps a small number of us could slip inside the fortress unseen. The lieutenant looked back and forth between us and the battle before nodding his head.

"Make it happen."