Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender, it is owned by Nickelodeon.

The Battle of Chameleon Bay

Princess Azula stood on a small mound of earth, barely a hill really, and looked on as the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army's 23rd Infantry Division marched by, boots striking the ground with solid regularity. Arisaka rifles were held firmly against the Japanese soldiers' shoulders, the soldiers stoically ignoring her and their officers' eyes as they marched past to their assigned position in the on-going Japanese offensive against the Earth Kingdom.

The sound of engines – a sound the princess had only recently become familiar with considering the louder note of equivalent Fire Nation engines – drew Azula's attention. She turned her eyes to the division's organic tank brigade, and spotted a column of Type-95 Ha-Go light tanks drive past. The unit commander could be seen standing through his tank's cupola, and he threw a salute in their direction.

Azula returned the salute – such a simple gesture and so easy to understand and learn – as did the officers beside her. Though, technically-speaking she was also an IJA officer. Even since she'd been captured while hunting for the Avatar by IJA scouts two months ago, she'd impressed her hosts – once they confirmed she and her brother and their companions weren't just another bunch of peasants running around – and worked out an arrangement for her cooperation in booth the present and the foreseeable future.

It was the reason she was wearing an IJA colonel's uniform, and Ty Lee beside her wore an IJA captain's uniform. Out of courtesy on one hand, and to resolve the bureaucratic problems arising from foreign civilians observing military operations as Azula had requested on the other hand.

Bureaucracy is universal it seems, though it's not too surprising. Things have to get done, and bureaucracy is for all its faults the best way to keep things going indefinitely.

"Explain to me again how a rifle works?" Ty Lee asked.

The thin, frail-looking officer with spectacles beside them drew himself up before answering. "It's quite simple really, captain." Lieutenant-Colonel Sasaki Mitsuishi – their kempeitai handler – replied. "At the base of the barrel is what we call a firing chamber. It's small, but very strong, enough to contain the pressures of ignition in all directions except the front. The cartridge is placed in there. The cartridge carries the bullet and the propellant charge, and once the trigger is pulled the firing pin at the rear of the chamber strikes and ignites the propellant charge. The pressure, unable to escape except through the front drives the bullet forward while simultaneously ejecting the spent cartridge through the port, while the bullet shoots down the barrel towards the target."

"Right…" Ty Lee said, looking and sounding utterly-lost. "…so, if all you need to send this…bullet, flying is a propellant charge, why need a barrel at all? I mean, catapults don't need them, don't they?"

"An excellent analogy, captain." The kempeitai officer said. "Let me answer with a question of my own: when you aim and fire a catapult, does it hit the target squarely?"

"Well…" Ty Lee fumbled. "…not really, it usually lands close by and bounces about or explodes, which causes damage, not the landing itself…oh."

Sasaki nodded. "Precisely…" he said. "…the barrel is meant to keep the bullet going in the right direction. Oh it had certain problems at first, or rather a problem: the bullet bounced around the barrel as it was fired, causing it to spin off in a random direction."

"So how'd they fix that?" Ty Lee asked.

This time it was Azula's turn to answer, the Fire Nation princess recalling her brief lectures while being hosted at Tokyo on modern weapons and technology. "They tightened the barrel to get rid of the bouncing." She said. "And then they controlled the bullet's spin by changing it from a sphere to a cone, and making spiral grooves along the barrel's inside. The bullet still spins, but this time the spin is controlled, and actually helps it fly straight."

The kempeitai officer smiled and bowed encouragingly at her, and Azula continued. "Of course…" she said. "…as I recall the problem then became making tools precise enough to cut the grooves, metal strong enough to make barrels to handle the pressure despite the weakness of the grooves cut on the inside, and black powder fouling the grooves. What was it you called them?"

"It's rifling Your Highness."

"Thank you." Azula said with a nod. "The first was solved over time with steady improvement in metalworking tools, the second also over time with steady improvement in metallurgy, and the last with new propellants coming into use. Smokeless powder or guncotton, isn't it?"

"Yes…" Sasaki confirmed. "…though properly-speaking it's called nitrocellulose."

"Quite…" Azula said with another nod. A part of her wanted to remark that only chemists or experts would even call it that, but at the same time she prided herself on being at least well-informed on technical matters. She would need it too, when the time came to depose her father and if necessary her brother should he prove too weak for what needed to be done.

Ozai would never accept becoming a Japanese vassal, even if only for a time out of necessity. In the worst case, Japan would conquer and permanently subjugate the Fire Nation, like they had Korea.

It could not be allowed.

"My way…" Azula thought as she watched the 23rd Infantry Division march past. "…we stand a chance of learning their secrets, and in time stand as their equal. And after that…"

"…I'm impressed." Ty Lee was saying. "You remember all that from those lectures in the Japanese capital? Well, I suppose that's just like you."

Azula contented herself with a small smile at Ty Lee's praise, and then looked up as several planes flew by low and fast. "Now that…" she said. "…is truly an achievement. Before the gods moved their hands, flight was the domain of the spirits, of mystical animals like dragons and flying bison, and of airbenders. To think that men could fly, even without bending…magnificent…"

There was a note of genuine awe in Azula's voice, such that rarely could be heard. Sasaki nodded in agreement. "It is as you say, Your Highness." He said.

"Distance to enemy fleet: twenty-four thousand yards." A bridge officer reported. "Bearing…"

Prince Zuko and Mai, the former wearing an Imperial Japanese Navy captain's uniform, the latter an IJN lieutenant's uniform, looked on as one of the staff officers on the Yamato's bridge marked the Fire Nation Fleet's position on the map table. In less than an hour, the IJN would begin its role in Hachi-Go Sakusen, the Japanese plan to conquer the Earth Kingdom from the DRC (Democratic Republic of China), Manchu, and Mengjiang borders all the way to the threshold of the Earth Kingdom capital city of Ba Sing Se itself.

And as part of that operation, the IJN would seize naval superiority in Chameleon Bay from the Fire Nation Navy. Zuko still didn't know how he felt about that, or should.

Oh, Azula's logic why they – Zuko, Azula, and company – was sound…as usual. But still: he was betraying his country. And that didn't sit well with him.

He supposed he should feel…proud, that he couldn't betray his country without feeling anything about it, even if it was the logical thing to do. But still, he didn't like it.

"Enemy fleet: numbering approximately fifty-four vessels."

"That's a lot more than we expected." Commander Minoru Genda remarked.

"Hmm…" Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto mused. "…they've been reinforced it seems, perhaps during their recent operation. Our initial intelligence indicated we'd be facing only forty-eight ships. Can we identify equivalent classes?"

"Yes sir." The officer holding the radio phone linked to the floatplanes said. After a minute conferring with the scouts, he reported back. "Sir, according to Commander Satou, the enemy fleets vary in size from dreadnought-equivalents to destroyer-equivalents. However…"

Yamamoto nodded. "That's only in terms of size, and possibly some other design aspects." He said. "After all, their weapons technology is pre-gunpowder."

"Yes sir."

"Signal the fleet: manoeuvre into attack formation."

Zuko stared out from the bridge windows as the fleet did as ordered, the battleships Hyuga, Ise, Nagato, and Mutsu entered line formation two ahead and two behind Yamato and Musashi. The cruiser Atago did likewise in front of the battleships, with her sister ship Takao behind. The six escorting destroyers of Yamamoto's Force Z split into two squadrons of three ships each, manoeuvring themselves parallel to the main gun-line, one in front and another behind.

"How are you able to transmit sound through…well, metal wire?" Mai asked.

It was Commander Genda who answered. "Sound received by a telephone or a similar device is basically a pattern of pulses in the air." He said. "That pattern is replicated by electricity, which is then pulsed through a wire to the recipient. The pattern is then replicated back into sound, and considering the speed of electric current, the process is virtually-uninterrupted."

"I see." Mai said with a nod. "And through the air…?"

Genda smiled softly. "Another step is added in between." He said. "The pulses of electricity from the sender are replicated into radio waves, which are picked up by a radio receiver. The pattern is translated back into electricity, and then back into sound."

Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'll just take your word for it." He said. "Electricity…? Radio waves…? I'm still having a hard time getting my head around all that and everything else. I don't know why the spirits or your gods did as they did, but all I can say is you people are as good as insane to me…no offence intended, commander."

"I understand Your Highness." Genda said. "But, in the world we came from we had none of your mystical abilities. We had to make do with what we had."

Zuko nodded, and turned back to the sea. "Distance…" a bridge officer called. "…nineteen thousand, six hundred yards."

"Admiral…" a staff officer said.

"No." Yamamoto said firmly. "Maintain course, and standby to fire guns and torpedoes on my command."

The officers and their guests watched and waited as the fleet closed in, moving in a diagonal intercept course to the Fire Nation Fleet. The fourteen IJN ships were in three lines, the battleships and cruisers in the centre, and the destroyers to their flanks. In contrast, the Fire Nation ships were arranged in large, square formation.

"Distance: sixteen thousand, four hundred yards."

"Maintain course."

"Distance: thirteen thousand, one hundred yards."

"Maintain course."

"Distance: ten thousand yards, nine hundred yards."

"Maintain course, and prepare to fire at eight thousand yards."

At that order, gunnery and torpedo crews on the Japanese warships prepared their weapons for firing, turrets turning and gun-barrels rising as they factored in the range. "Distance…" the bridge officer said. "…eight thousand five hundred yards…four hundred and fifty, three hundred and eighty…three hundred and twenty…two hundred and fifty…two hundred…one hundred and seventy…one hundred and ten…sixty…fifty…twenty-five…ten…five…mark!"

"FIRE…!"

"FIRE…!"

"FIRE…!"

"FIRE…!"

"FIRE…!"

Yamamoto gave the order, and across the Japanese formation smoke and flame erupted into the air as massive fourteen-inch and eight-inch guns fired the first rounds of the war for the Imperial Japanese Navy against the Fire Nation. At the same time, splashes erupted from the ocean surface as the starboard destroyers and the two cruisers launched a volley of twenty Type-93 'Long Lance' torpedoes at the enemy fleet.

Water spouts exploded into the air as near-misses blew water up into the air around the Fire Nation ships. And then an explosion went up, high-explosive shells finding their mark.

"IT'S A HIT!" a watch officer shouted. "Atago's scored a hit!"

"OH…!" the officers cheered, and Yamamoto smiled. "First blood to Atago…correct our aim, and fire!"

As he gave the order, gunnery crews were already doing so, and Atago fired a second volley with her eight-inch guns. Again, the HE shells bracketed the Fire Nation cruiser, sending flame, smoke, and burning metal firing into the air. And then the rest of the fleet fired, fourteen-inch and eight-inch shells erupting into the air in plumes of fire and smoke.

And even as the shells slammed home, entire ships shuddered and literally flew apart as Long Lance torpedoes slammed into their targets. Meant for use against modern, super-dreadnoughts like the British King George V Class, against pre-dreadnought technology analogues they were simply too much. All torpedoes found their mark, but only one was needed to sink most of the Fire Nation ships. Most torpedoes hit their targets in two or three.

Only one Long Lance hit the Fire Nation flagship, but it was enough to blow her open. She remained afloat, but badly-wounded, slowing and ablaze. She began to list heavily to port, exposing herself to enemy fire. It caught the attention of Captain Kakuji Kakuta, Captain of the Japanese Battleship Nagato.

"Signal Mutsu…" he ordered. "…let's concentrate our fire on the enemy flagship. Let's show these barbarians the power of Japan's sixteen-inch battleships!"

Cheers erupted on Nagato's bridge, followed seconds later by the whining of hydraulics as the battleship's turrets moved her sixteen-inch guns into firing position. "FIRE…!" the captain ordered, Nagato's main guns firing at the same time as those of Mutsu's.

The sixteen-inch, armour-piercing shells ripped through the Fire Nation flagship like hot knives through butter. The resulting explosions gutted the dying battleship, ripping her open and sending debris and corpses flying even as Nagato and Mutsu continued to dole out high-velocity death, not stopping until the enemy flagship had been reduced to a burning pile of scrap adrift in the water.

Meanwhile Yamato and Musashi's main guns were also swivelling into firing position, each triple turret mounting eighteen-inch guns moving to aim at a different ship. "Main guns, firing preparations complete." The gunnery officer reported. "Targets are set. Brace for firing and ear protectors on…!"

As one, everyone on the bridge and across the giant battleships slid ear protectors on. "Brace for firing…" the officer said. "…FIRE!"

Yamato and Musashi fired their eighteen-inch guns, the force of their firing enough to shake the giant super-dreadnoughts and even the surrounding ships, the sound audible even through the ear protectors. As for their targets: they simply vanished.

Even the Long Lances weren't as deadly. Even they left some trace, usually a burning hulk adrift or sinking, but the eighteen-inch shells from the Yamato and her sister ship simply blew their targets apart. Granted, modern warships would probably fare better, but these weren't modern battleships.

Zuko held Mai tightly, the girl having fallen against him from the force of Yamato's guns firing. She squeezed his hand hard, encouraging him to hang on, as their 'allies' fought and killed their countrymen. "Torpedo planes inbound." A staff officer said, and Yamamoto smiled.

"Too much…" he remarked. "…but let them have their share."

The torpedo planes from the two Japanese light carriers in the theatre flew in, sunlight gleaming brightly over white-painted bodies. The Fire Nation Fleet was scattering, trying to avoid the shells falling around them while desperately trying to close the range or escape the slaughter.

That's what this was: not a battle but a slaughter.

Those few ships still capable of fighting aimed their catapults at the approaching planes, and fired. The projectiles were too slow, and too few, the planes contemptuously avoiding them as they banked and twisted into attack position.

Lieutenant-commander Haruki Mitsushima led his unit of three planes for one of the larger enemy ships, swooping down to skim over the ocean's surface on final approach. Rising to attack position, he pulled the release lever, dropping his plane's torpedo into the water below. His wingmen did the same, and then the three of them were scattering and rising, avoiding the pathetic anti-aircraft the barbarians were throwing up against them.

The three torpedoes seared through the water, and slammed into the Fire Nation battleship's hull. The resulting explosions killed hundreds of men in an instant, and blew the battleship's starboard hull open. Water flooded in, causing the ship to list fatally and reaching ninety-degrees to the ocean surface in barely thirty seconds.

Crewmen screamed as they fell from the superstructure into the water below as the dying ship capsized, others hanging on desperately. "I can't swim!" a sailor screamed as the ship finally tipped over. Moments later, eighteen-inch shells slammed into the exposed and unarmoured underbelly of the battleship.

A huge explosion erupted into the air, the last of the Fire Nation ships running in every direction only to be pounced on by the torpedo planes. Not a single ship would escape the carnage.

"Admiral…" Genda murmured as cheers of banzai filled Yamato's bridge after the battle's end, barely an hour long. Yamamoto nodded.

"All crew…" he ordered. "…stand down from General Quarters. Also, all officers and men will rise and salute the honoured dead as we pass the enemy fleet's last position."

"Yes sir!"

Ha-Go tanks advanced in a line abreast formation, thirty-seven millimetre guns firing as they smashed Earth Kingdom crawlers into scrap. Machine guns then roared as Earthbenders erupted from the earth, only for the bullets to bounce harmlessly off their earthen armour.

The Earthbenders fell into their stances and counterattacked, multi-ton projectiles flying out to slam into the Japanese tanks. The light tanks were crushed, and then the Earthbenders charged in, to overrun the opened Japanese flank.

They couldn't.

A squadron of Kawasaki Ki-48 twin-engine light bombers roared down from the sky, the Earthbenders gesturing as they encased themselves in pyramidal stone structures for protection. Whistling filled the air as bombs fell from the Kawasaki Ki-48s, only they didn't explode on impact. Instead, they whistled.

And inside their protective structures, Earthbenders choked and thrashed, unable to control their bodies to open their self-made coffins as the smell of almonds filled the air. Across the battlefield, Earth Kingdom soldiers were collapsing, falling writhing to the ground, clawing at their throats and chests as they tried to breathe, only to die painful deaths as their bodies seized up and they died in seconds.

"For the Earth Kingdom, attack!" a cavalry commander sounded the charge, Earth Kingdom cavalry charging in resplendent in their green and white uniforms, brass helmets, and long lances from storybooks of a bygone age. Volleys from Arisaka rifles answered them, reducing the charge into a bloody mess.

Shells screamed in, 105mm howitzers further back along with 88mm mortars along the Japanese lines opening fire and pummelling the Earth Kingdom infantry cowering behind their slaughtered cavalry. An IJA lieutenant broke cover, swinging his katana and shouting, "BANZAI!"

"BANZAI…!" the Japanese shouted as they charged, rifles firing and bayonets gleaming as they charged the Earth Kingdom lines. Mortar rounds preceded them, and the Earth Kingdom soldiers broke, turning to run only to die with Japanese bullets and bayonets to their backs. Some held, using swords, knives, and even their bare fists as they were overrun, including one who killed a Japanese standard bearer.

The IJA lieutenant who sounded the charge killed him with a shot from his sidearm, while another IJA soldier caught the hinomaru before it could fall on the ground, and rushing to the hilltop planted the flag of Japan over the captured position. "BANZAI!" he shouted, and the call was echoed by dozens of throats.

Princess Azula watched from a hilltop, her face flushed and sweaty, her eyes slack and her breathing heavy as in the distance Japanese Chi-Ha medium tanks in an echelon formation savaged and then cut off a retreating column of Earth Kingdom soldiers. 57mm guns fired in quick succession, sending dirt and bodies flying into the air again and again, machine guns sending corpses falling to the ground.

Ki-48s roared overhead, bombs falling to deal fiery death in their wake, Japanese motorized infantry pocketing the trapped the Earth Kingdom soldiers. Ty Lee in contrast looked on sadly as Japanese soldiers finished the battle, gunning down the Earth Kingdom soldiers who refused to surrender.

Reconnaissance had confirmed who they were: the Hong Len Regiment, an Earth Kingdom formation that dated its founding back nine hundred years, and included some of their fiercest warriors and most powerful Earthbenders. Against the might of the Imperial Japanese Army they were as nothing.

Ty Lee glanced sharply at Azula as she gasped, breathing deeply and her body seeming to go taut…and then slackened in a rather…unnatural way. At least, until she thought some more about it, that is. "Did…did Azula just…did she just orgasm at the sight of Earth Kingdom troops being massacred?" Ty Lee thought in shock.

Azula noticed Ty Lee's gaze, and smiled at her. Lifting her hand, she caressed Ty Lee's cheek very softly, and sending a surprisingly-pleasant shiver down the acrobat's back. "Magnificent, isn't it?" Azula purred.

"Yes…yes it is…" Ty Lee said, unable to disagree. Her smile growing, Azula turned back to the slaughter in the distance.

A/N

For my acquaintances Alphaking and The Congressman on Alternate History, here you go. Good luck.