Chapter 1 Field Work
It is mid-morning and a cool breeze blows through the trees, rustling the changing leaves. The squad has a good position in a valley that will funnel the Titans towards their cannons. The six cannons are setup facing south. Their crews shifting their weight back and forth nervously, knowing they are the bait.
Eren comes galloping full speed past the cannon emplacements with 3 Titans following behind...
The Lieutenant in charge of the cannon squad sees the titans and turns to the squat...FIRE! The cannons explode all at once firing grape shot...The Titan stumble falling over dazed but keep advancing.
RELOAD!
There is no time. The titans close the range before the crews could complete the loading process.
...NOW! (Erin yelling from behind the cannons as a Titan slams its fist down on the advance guards cannon emplacement)
...soldiers of the 104th training regiment that were hidden in cover spring up and expose cannons that were hidden with camouflage.
Time to see if these new cannons work!
FIRE!
This was the first time cannon balls made from the Titans harden skin and cannons with rifling were used.
Each cannon had an advance sight allowing them to hit Titan weak spots at ranges over 1000m, but these Titans were less than 50m away...
The cannons were also mounted on a lightweight stabilized mount that allowed them to be fired from a wagon accurately while on the move.
There were six cannons and each target had already been assigned.
From the time they were uncovered, aimed and fired was less that six seconds
Each of the six cannon fired almost simultaneously
Each Titan has 2 cannons firing them. The titans only weak spot mean they had to be attack from behind. The 104th was taking a gamble based on Armin's hypothesis that these new cannon rounds made from the Titans hardened skin could eliminate a Titan with a shot through the neck, exiting the nape of the neck...