Tundra tank



Tundra Tanks are large armored vehicles manufactured by the Fire Nation. They were first seen used during the Battle for the Northern Air Temple. Tundra Tanks were widely used by the Fire Nation for various war ventures during The War.

History
It is unknown when these vehicles entered production, but their first known use was during the Battle for the Northern Air Temple. They were likely designed by War Minister Qin and his unwilling accomplice, the Mechanist, an Earth Kingdom inventer. This was evidenced by the fact that tank wheels were present in the Northern Air Temple Sanctuary, converted by the Mechanist into a workshop where he also kept an early prototype of the War Balloon. The Mechanist only agreed to help Qin design such vehicles in exchange for the safety of his people, who took refuge in the abandoned Northern Air Temple following the flooding of their native village. When Aang and his group arrived and forced the Mechanist to break his deal with Qin, the War Minister launched an assault on the temple, which resulted in a battle between the temple inhabitants and the Fire Nation forces under War Minister Qin's control.

During the battle, these tanks easily overwhelmed the temple defenses, and advanced to the temple virtually undaunted. However, before they could proceed to destroy the temple, Sokka and the Mechanist ignited a natural gas pocket in a nearby crevice, causing a huge explosion that destroyed the tanks and forced the Fire Nation to retreat.

These tanks were also used in the Siege of the North, where several of them employed ballistas to destroy the walls of the Northern Water Tribe. However, they were destroyed by Aang and the Ocean Spirit, who worked as one to annihilate the entire Fire Nation naval fleet.

The tanks appeared again when War Minister Qin launched an attack on the Earth Kingdom capital overseen by Princess Azula, where he used the Fire Nation Drill in an attempt to breach Ba Sing Se's Outer Wall. They either retreated or were demolished when Aang destroyed the drill.

Later, when Azula was succesful in her Coup of Ba Sing Se, these tanks were used to swarm the city and the courtyard of the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace to secure its occupation.



These tanks later appeared during the Day of Black Sun, trying to defend the Fire Nation Capital from the invasion force. The tanks seen in this battle traveled on treads. Dozens of these tanks attacked but were of little use against the Earthbending Powered Tanks, which crushed these tanks upon contact. The tanks could not stop the invaders from reaching the capital, but the invasion was later repulsed by the Fire Nation Airships.

Hundreds of these tanks were used to fight the Order of the White Lotus during the group's assault on Ba Sing Se. However, they proved no match for the masters of the order and dozens were destroyed as the city was finally liberated. King Bumi stacked many of these tanks, which were later used for games by the city's citizens.

Design


The Fire Nation sent the Tundra Tanks to fight in The War. These tanks have two types of wheels- treaded wheels and wheels equipped with spikes. The Fire Nation tank is operated by one Firebender and two or three engineers. The Firebender shoots fireballs out of four hatches on each side of the top of the cabin. At the bottom of the tank is an escape hatch in case the tank gets damaged or capsized. A unique feature of the tank is a rotating cabin, capable of righting the tank should it get flipped over. Two grappling hooks on the front end allow the tank to scale even sheer rock cliffs. The tanks are powered by steam engines.

Weaknesses


These tanks have very few weaknesses to speak of. However, the counterbalancing system of the tanks work on water, enabling a Waterbender to freeze the axles of the tank's wheels, causing them to fall off and rendering the tank immobile. The tanks are apparently inferior to Earth Kingdom tanks, seeing as how they were unable to take down even one during the Invasion of the Fire Nation.

Bumi, a powerful Earthbender, was able to both jam the fire portals and launch the tanks into the air, hinting that brute force might be the only way to deal with the tanks.