Akira arrived at the small town which was to be his first command, it was small, on a peninsula with a very wide view. There were about a dozen small wooden homes spread out, each with a large, fenced, garden. There were multiple long docks stretching out from a very rocky beach surrounding the town, it seemed the main income of the village was fishing, for there were signs that vessels were docked repeatedly, and many ships were visible out in the ocean. In the center of the town was a large watchtower surrounded with market stalls. Akira moved to a stall with fruit in it, he grabbed an apple and tossed a coin to the man behind the stall. The man smiled and said, "Thank you for your purchase good sir!"
Akira looked at him and said, "Where are the Earth Kingdom soldiers?"
The man's smile faded and his eyes slanted glaring at Akira, obviously not liking the military, "There's one in the tower and a few more at the beach and the inn..."
Akira nodded and moved to the watchtower, it was put together using logs put at right angles to each other, leading up to the top, about 5 meters up, there was a ladder leading to it. Akira climbed the ladder and when he got to the top, there was a soldier vigilantly watching all the oceans, glancing from one to the other every few seconds, when Akira arrived the man stopped looking and turned his gaze to Akira. He was wearing the full traditional Earth Kingdom uniform and had green eyes with a large black goatee.
Akira stood up and caught the man's glance with his own and said, "I'm Akira Hibiki, you're new commanding officer..."
The soldier quickly changed his demeanor to one of respect and said, "Ah! Yes we received the letter a little bit ago sir!"
"Where are the rest of the soldiers?" Akira said, looking around the village seeing no other uniforms.
"Yeah... Sir... about that..." The soldier said, looking down in shame.
"Look up at me and spit it out, now," Akira said forcefully yet still very calm and quiet.
The soldier quickly returned his gaze back up to Akira's face and said, "Sir they are currently playing in the ocean..."
"Playing in the ocean?" Akira said, in disbelief.
"Yes... yes sir..."
"Why!?" Akira said, finally raising his voice.
"There was no one in command, and no standing orders were given other than 'Watch for the Fire Nation.'"
"Point them out..." Akira said, calming himself down. The soldier pointed towards one of the oceans, there were two large men in the ocean with a few young girls. Akira growled a bit and said, "Who are the girls?"
"Umm, the fishermen's daughters, and one of them is a soldier..."
"Are they trying to get the whole town to hate us more than they already do!?"
Akira scowled and then jumped off the watchtower, ignoring the ladder. He landed safely and walked calmly over to the beach that his soldier's were at. He looked out at them and one of them yelled, "Hey man, want to join us?"
Akira glared at them and yelled, "Get out of the water now before I get you all thrown out of the military for good!"
One of the men walked out of the water and moved beside Akira, he was a good three inches taller than Akira and much more muscular, he had black eyes and jet black hair that was medium length, covering his ears and just slightly above his eyes.. He stood very close to Akira and said, "And who might you be?"
Akira drew his blade and placed it on the man's neck in a lightning fast motion then said, "Your commanding officer, now get in uniform before I remove you myself, permanently."
The man stood his ground, and they glared into each other's eyes for a long while, sizing each other up before making a move. The man took a set back and said to the people in the ocean, "Come on, commander's here."
The young girls moaned a bit in disappointment as the soldiers left the ocean. Akira looked at them and said, "Get all your equipment on and meet me in the center of town in five minutes, NOW!"
The soldier's ran off and began drying themselves and putting their clothes back on. Akira left the beach and moved to the center of town, he took a bite of the apple he bought earlier and began to eat it.
All the soldier's were lined up in their full uniform, except for the man in the watchtower, who was still on watch. Akira looked them over and said, "Never wear the hats while under my command, I don't like them..." the soldiers all removed their hats and tossed them on the ground, Akira continued, "Now, I want to know your name, and your skill set, starting with you," he said pointing at the muscular man that stood against him before.
He said, "My name is Wu Kang, I am skilled with a sword and hand to hand combat."
Akira looked at the next person, a man with black long hair that was in a pony tail leading all the way down to his lower back, he was less muscular than the first man, but he was still more built than Akira, he also had brown eyes and said, "My name is Tai Kang, we're brothers, my main skill is with a spear."
Akira's gaze turned to the one girl, she was well curved with a medium sized bust(which is the first thing Akira noticed, he couldn't help himself), she had light brown hair that was down to her neck and held back with a black and green bow, she was a bit shorter than Akira, but still surprisingly tall for a woman, she was also well built and had light azure eyes, she said, "My name is Su Ming, my specialty is with Iron Fans."
Akira looked at her for a bit too long before moving his glance away from her and saying, "None of you are benders?"
"No sir, not even Jun in the tower," Wu responded.
"Okay then," he made sure not to look at the girl while giving orders, "I want Wu to watch the south beach, Tai to watch the west beach, and Su to watch the north beach, we will have shift changes in two hours and have two people stationed while the others sleep..."
"Yes sir!" They all responded in unison as they moved around.
Akira climbed up the watchtower and stood next to the man there, he waited a moment before asking, "So what is your name and specialty?"
"Sir! My name is Jun Yong, my specialty is with a sword," he responded quickly.
"Good to know, keep an eye out..."
"Always sir!"
Akira was preparing to step off the watchtower when he saw something, far in the distance, he tapped Jun's shoulder, pointed at it and said, "What's that?"
Jun lifted up a telescope and said, "Oh no..." he dropped the telescope and said, "Sir, it's a fleet, an enormous fleet! I've never seen anything so large!"
"How many ships!?"
"Hundreds... HUNDREDS!" he yelled panicking.