Avatar:Prison rig revolt

"Here's your chance, earthbenders! Take it! Your fate is in your own hands!"

— Katara, holding a piece of coal to inspire the prisoners to revolt.

Template:Battle infoboxIn late 99 AG, a revolt erupted on a Fire Nation prison rig in the Mo Ce Sea. Inspired and assisted by Team Avatar, the earthbenders imprisoned at the rig used the local coal supplies to overpower the Fire Nation guards, capture several ships, and escape back to the Earth Kingdom mainland. There, the former prisoners reorganized themselves as a militia led by Tyro to fight in the Hundred Year War.

Tyro's militia subsequently attacked the prison rig to shut it down for good. However, the local Fire Nation garrison was reinforced, transforming the conflict into a stalemate. Eventually, the rebels received aid from an Earth Kingdom Army unit under Captain Boqin, turning the battle in the insurgents' favor.

Background

By the late Hundred Year War, the Fire Nation firmly controlled most of the western Earth Kingdom. However, the situation of the native population differed from one occupied region to the next. Though some territories enjoyed relative freedom and stability, others were subjected to harsh repression, excessive tributes, and even slavery.

One Fire Army-held settlement placed under a draconian exploitation system was a mining village close to the Mo Ce Sea. Locals were forced to mine coal to supply the Fire Navy, and earthbending was outlawed. Any practising earthbenders and suspected dissidents were imprisoned at a rig out on the ocean, where they were isolated, largely unable to bend, and treated with brutality by a cruel warden. At the rig, the prisoners were forced to help build warships.

Katara and Haru bonded over their shared losses due to the Hundred Year War.

Part of the mining village population led by Tyro revolted against Fire Nation rule, but the rebels were unsuccessful and deported to the rig. After Tyro was taken away, his son Haru continued to practice earthbending in secret. In late 99 AG, Avatar Aang and his friends chanced upon him during one of his training sessions. The group subsequently stayed with Tyro's family, learning from Haru and his mother about their village's situation. When he and Katara later took a walk in the nearby woods and discovered an old villager trapped under a rock slide, Haru freed him using earthbending. However, the old man subsequently betrayed the young earthbender to the local Fire Nation garrison. Haru was promptly arrested and brought to the prison rig. Feeling responsible for his fate, Katara faked being an earthbender to be also imprisoned and shipped to the rig to save Haru.

Revolt

Preparations

The warden tyrannized the prisoners, thus gradually crushing their will to resist.

After finding Haru and Tyro among the prisoners, Katara inquired about their escape plans. In response, Tyro argued that escape was not an option, putting whatever faith he still had in the approaching end of the Hundred Year War. Katara was shocked by this hopelessness, but the older earthbender further outlined that trying to flee would only provoke the sadistic warden's wrath. Unfazed, Katara proceeded to deliver an inspirational speech to the local prisoners at the prison courtyard. The Fire Nation guards listened with some interest, whereas the earthbenders ignored her.

In the following night, Aang and Sokka quietly approached the rig on Appa. They covertly met Katara, whereupon the waterbender revealed that the prisoners had lost hope. At Katara's insistence, the three then devised a way for the prisoners to get a chance to fight back and rebel. Sokka and Aang figured out that the prison rig's factory section was burning coal which the earthbending prisoners could potentially bend. Sokka devised a plan to manipulate the rig's ventilation system to allow Aang to use airbending to channel coal from a silo into the prison courtyard.

Over the next hours, Aang sneaked around the rig to largely block the local ventilation system. Meanwhile, the Fire Nation guards had noticed suspicious activity, and were put on alert by the warden. Thus, when Aang chanced upon soldiers in the rig's factory section, they attempted to arrest him as an intruder. However, the young airbender successfully evaded or overcame his opponents. The main challenge was posed by two Fire Nation officers, Goro and Juro, who were also brothers. After defeating these two, Aang was able to put the plan into motion.

At this point, it had become dawn. Katara and Sokka were at the courtyard, awaiting Aang, just as the prisoners were arriving there as well. When the Fire Nation guards saw Sokka, they regarded him as the intruder on the rig. As the warden ordered his men to take the Water Tribe siblings into custody, Aang triggered the group's plan and sucked a large amount of coal onto the courtyard.

Prison outbreak

Tyro and Haru fought the firebenders using coal.

Aang and Katara quickly mounted the large coal pile, and the waterbender again attempted to rally the prisoners. At first, the earthbenders refused to participate, having seemingly lost all hope from years of being imprisoned. The warden already began gloating that the girl's plan had failed, only for Haru to throw a small piece of coal at the overseer. Furious, the warden sent a fire blast at the young earthbender, but his attack was blocked by the other prisoners. Seeing one of their own take action, they joined the revolt. The warden promptly ordered his soldiers to quell the uprising, urging "no mercy".

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The warden and his men were thrown off the prison rig and into the water.

A vicious battle broke out, and even as some prisoners held off the Fire Nation soldiers, others used the coal as a makeshift battering ram to break through the metal doors and get to nearby ships. The Fire Nation troops attempted to stop them, but Aang used an air funnel to rapidly shoot coal at the Fire Nation troops. Then, Tyro and two other earthbenders lifted the coal beneath the warden and some of his men, levitating the coal platform over the water. Even though the warden pleaded for his life, as he could not swim, the rebels dropped him into the water. The earthbenders then used the ships to return to the mainland, where they again thanked Team Avatar for their aid.

Rebel takeover

Prince Zuko came to the prison rig some time after Team Avatar's departure, restoring some order and assisting the warden in restarting the local production until departing. Meanwhile, the ex-prisoners subsequently organized a militia led by Tyro to free their homes from Fire Nation occupation. After getting ready, Tyro's militia (nicknamed "Team Tyro") returned to the rig to eliminate it for good and prevent Earth Kingdom citizens from being imprisoned there in the future. The insurgents shipped sand and gravel in boats to the rig, using it as weaponry for their earthbenders. At first, the rebels were fairly successful, but the warden's garrison was soon reinforced by other Fire Nation forces. The warden took the best and most ruthless firebenders among the new arrivals as his personal guards, leaving the frontline combat to his subordinates. A stalemate developed, with the rebels holding the rig's lower sections, while the warden's troops were fortified in the upper areas.

Tyro's militia and Boqin's soldiers battled the warden's remaining forces.

Eventually, the insurgents linked up with a regular Earth Kingdom Army unit under Captain Boqin. Feeling it was his duty to assist the volunteer militia's cause, Boqin directed his soldiers to help. They arrived with their warship, and together with Tyro, Haru, and various militants began to push into the rig's upper sections. After overcoming many Fire Nation soldiers, they discovered Juro tending to the wounded in the guards' barracks. Though he was generally cooperative, he refused to hand over one of the keys to access the warden's holdout. At the prison armory, they found the second key held by Goro and his men, overpowering them as well.

As combined forces of Boqin and Tyro broke through the seemingly last line of defenders and approached the warden, seemingly left alone, the latter taunted his opponents. The group was so enraged to finally deal with the cruel taskmaster that they charged, though Haru warned just time that it was a trap. The warden blew up a bridge leading to his position, injuring several Earth Kingdom soldiers including Boqin. Undaunted, the rebels brought more dirt supplies from their boats. Tyro and Haru then created a bridge to cross the gap and get into the prison headquarters. There, the warden awaited them with his elite guards and reinforcements including Juro and Goro. The Earth Kingdom forces bested them, though the warden was able to escape.

Aftermath

Zuko recovered Katara's necklace after the prison rig revolt.

Following their victory over the warden, Tyro's militia left the rig to return to the mainland. Meanwhile, Boqin's unit garrisoned the former prison, engaging the remnants of the warden's troops and holding back Fire Navy contingents as they attempted to retake the platform. Tyro's guerrilla group would go on to free many occupied settlements, including the mining village, and continue to operate until it joined the Invasion of the Fire Nation in summer 100 AG.

During the prison revolt, Katara also lost her mother's necklace. It was recovered by Zuko during his visit at the rig. Later, he unsuccessfully attempted to bribe Katara with the necklace.

Appearances

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Book Two: Earth (土)

Appearances: 1

Avatar books

• I Am Katara

Video games

• Avatar: Generations