So I've changed my policy for this story, I don't have the time or the energy to complete this story so instead of writing a full fanfiction work, I'm just going to put out a short fiction piece distributed within one to five chapters.
Chapters will be short and the story will be short in general. I'm starting over with this story idea but it's still a Modern Military vs. Titan like fic. I would like to thank my friend AquilaTempestas for providing me with some criticism and editing for this chapter. I'm going to suggest some things for you guys to look into. The Anime: "GATE: Thus the JSDF Fought There" shares a similar idea to this story with a premise of the Japanese Military fighting an alternate dimension fantasy world ruled by a Roman-like Empire. It shares some ideas with that of Beyond the Walls. In fact, the tie in movie for Attack on Titan is supposed to take place in the future rather than the past according to the trailer.
There are certain cultural, historical, and scientific and military aspects I have chosen to ignore entirely for this fiction piece so please be advised if you notice anything out of the norm. Thank you and please Read and Review.
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Welcome to RiptideZ's "Beyond the Walls," a non-profit fan-produced fiction product under the ownership of set penname: RiptideZ.
DISCLAIMER:All copyrighted items mentioned or used in this work belongs to their rightful owners of Hajime Isayama, Kodansha Comics, and other brands mentioned below or later under terms of Fair Use. The author only owns their own creations. This author is an adamant supporter of Constructive Criticism, please read and review. If anything needs modification with the writing piece below, please contact RiptideZ through the Review section, or Instant Messaging."
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Chapter 1: Lost World
Words: 2103
Franchise: Attack on Titan
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["Lost World"]
[USAF Pentagon Mission Control – October 1993]
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"Sir, our satellite is 5 seconds out."
"Copy Major, play the countdown."
Several dozen people sat at various monitoring stations throughout an advance military command center. The room was darkened to an ash grey from the building's limited lighting.
At the back of the room, a gruff looking man gnawed at a blackened cigar as he watched his subordinates work through their assigned mission.
A large plasma screen television mounted on the front wall was projecting a world map with multiple trajectory lines of different orbital satellites and a digital timer. One highlighted satellite, a KH-11B DRAGON, started to pass over the European continent traveling from west to east.
"Sir, DRAGON-5 is on station; playing trajectory now." A woman dressed in Olive green fatigues reported to the cigar-smoking man.
"Major Richards, start the video roll. Begin tape." The cigar smoker, General Memphis-Collins ordered to his subordinate. He was short and sharp with his orders, like the good officer he was.
The female major, Richards, quickly tapped some keys on her desktop and the television screen changed to a fast moving video feed of the Earth from low orbit.
The Earth was so radiant and beautiful; how a species as violent as Humanity could thrive on this seemingly peaceful world was unthinkable. With its thick cerulean seas and rich brown and green landmasses, the lazy cloud formations over the planet's surface; this world was a real paradise.
The satellite, traveling hundreds of miles a second, had little time to catch a clear image of the Earth below. On the television screen, the world seemed to pass rather in bright streams of green, blue, and brown. In only a few seconds, DRAGON-5 passed out of the sunlight and was engulfed by the Earth's nightly shadow.
"Tape recorded; initiating playback." Richards stated as she continued to type.
The video went black and reset itself; the crowd of military servicemen in the room stood as one looking toward the screen. Like the first American moon landing, this would be a new first attempt by any people to capture a view of the Earth's lost hemisphere in vivid detail.
Many nations had access to low orbiting satellite. The majority of orbiters however, were archaic in design and incapable of conducting high definition reconnaissance with their outdated cameras and onboard equipment. The United States, even at the risk of starting an arms race or a naval conflict with the other Pacific nations, decided to take a great risk. In 1973, a meeting in Mexico City between the regional powers of the Western Hemisphere referred to as the Advanced Weapons and Technology Conference outright banned a broad spectrum of space endeavors on an international level.
Collins wasn't exactly happy with the 1973 AWT Treaty. No, he absolutely abhorred it! Just like all the young men and women that had grown up in the 60s, they had wanted to be astronauts and with the '73 resolution, any chance of that dream had been crushed. Hell, the entire American Aerospace Industry had collapsed overnight from the treaty. However, after he reminded himself of the hate he had felt for much of the Southern Hemisphere for denying him the chance to go to space, the US government brought him an alternative.
Only a few years after becoming a general in the USAF, Collins had been approached by the Secretary of Defense and simply told that he had been chosen to lead a joint Canadian-American black project codenamed: ROUND TABLE. The exact words of the American President always brought a cheeky grin to the General's face.
"I don't care what you have to do, what toes you have to step on. I don't give a shit of what muck you have to crawl through or what strings you have to pull; I want you to get my NASA back. I want my satellites and space ships back. I don't care what you have to do, I don't give a fuck. You have your orders and you have a blank check, go make some magic. If you have to pull it out of your ass, do it. General, you're dismissed."
ROUND TABLE's endgame included the detailed geographical mapping of the Eurasian supercontinent and the eventual naval expedition to the unknown hemisphere. Much of the black project had taken highly enigmatic maneuvering of manpower and equipment into the final launch project of DRAGON-5.
One whiff to the other nations through espionage or whistleblowing in the US would lead to assured political retaliation. Collins had made sure all his activities had stayed under wraps. The USAF kept the development and delivery of the advanced satellite equipment to a small circle of tightknit aeronautics corporations with close ties to the US government. The listings of additional technologies aboard the satellite construct had been kept off the books. The necessary people were paid off. Enemy spies were tracked down mercilessly and appropriately silenced by the Other Government Agency.
Right at this moment, Collin's OPERATION: ROUND TABLE was one of, if not, the most well-guarded secret in the world. To think that the 1973 AWT Treaty had forced the American Aerospace Industry underground was an understatement. The planned Global Positioning System developed by the US DARPA agency, had been put on indefinite hold but some of its tech had been incorporated to the modified DRAGON-5 module. Even some of the spiritual successive ideas from former President Reagan's SDI project had been included into OPERATION: ROUND TABLE. The operation had been paid no expense.
The United States would not be held back by its culturally backwards neighbors, they were to move forward with this operation. Even at the risk of an arms race, even at the risk of war.
Collins would see to it that the US would be first nation to make a claim in the Lost World, as referred to by many historical scholars. Of course the US would share its claim with its allies but they made sure to claim the best resources and real estate. The Dark Ages had left many unanswered questions in Human history, no longer, the US was going to bring the answers out of the shadows.
Two thousand years of waiting and finally it was over, the images and the time for rediscovery had begun. The fruitless labor of countless generations was about to pay off, the digital tape started to play at a significantly slower speed than it was recorded.
Stills were quickly captured and recorded as the tape rolled. The small crowd remained speechless and anticipating. What would be on the screen? What did Europe look like from space? Was it a snow capped landscape, or a large endless plain, or a mountainous region, or maybe a huge temperate forest?
The stills came in in a slow duration revealing beaches and coastlines almost identical to that of the North American east coast. Large grassy plains and pine forests dotted the expanse as it passed by. Large rivers and hills and mountains entered the picture the further they kept the Eastern bearing. They had passed the English Isles long ago, the European mainland was rocky and hilly but appeared highly fertile as a great landmass for grazing and civilization development.
A stone grey like structure suddenly entered one of the stills over European's Germanic regions. The structure, large in size and the size of the fabled Great Wall of China, was roundish in nature and as the images moved started to form a circle. It wasn't natural, this was deliberate.
The first manmade structure to appear on screen was quickly met by not one but two more circles that enclosed within one another. Walls. Giant walls visible from orbit, a human empire in the Lost World. What was this?
"What the actual fuck?" A noncommission officer questioned loudly. His voice was matched by the shocks of the multiple officers in the room. Richards froze the image in place.
The butt of Collin's cigar hit the floor with a small sizzle. What the hell was going on; Collin's face was in a long gap, his face shocked to the bone. What was going on?
Meanwhile, the General's secretary, Jonesy was already making phone calls to the necessary offices. Collins could already hear the words, "Get me a direct line to the Situation Room…"
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[White House Situation Room – October 1993]
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"I don't want to hear another excuse of the Mexican government claiming that the Cartels are under control and the death toll is a misinformation campaign!"
"Mr. President…"
"They keep saying that they got the issue handled. They have an official death count of a few thousand civilians and a few hundred paramilitary and Mexican military servicemen. You want to know the true numbers?"
"I know it already, Mr. President, but—"
"General, it's an estimated 46 thousand people. 46 thousand dead. Men. Women and children. Fucking forty-six thousand people killed by a bunch of self-interested rectum-rammed, far flung pot growing asshats."
"Mr. President!"
"What the fuck, Grymes? Do not bring me down from my high horse! I will smack you across the face if you tell me this doesn't take precedence."
A gathering of the US Joint Chiefs and the most important political and military advisors and officials in the country found themselves gathered in an obscured and darkened room of the Presidential Office. The United States President sat at the front of an old oak table with the lengths along the desk were filled by seated American military leaders.
A heated rant of the current president had effectively silenced the rest of the room. The Generals, Admirals, and several intelligence officers were left flabbergasted by the anger and personal vendetta of the executive of the Office of the President.
"I don't give a hog's ass what the Mexican government claims and what they do, we know they are in the hand of the Cartels. We got blood spilling profoundly on our borders. So we are going to make a stand. Their government will go to hell for their indecision and inability to control this problem."
"Mr. President, I'm going to have to stop you there sir." Mr. Andrew Grymes, a CIA Liaison to the Presidency, stated calmly to the nation's leader.
"What, why? Is the lives of civilians and the collapse of a border nation not important?"
"We got word from the Pentagon: General Collins has sent us a digital info packet. We have a status report on OPERATION: ROUND TABLE."
"Oh." The president answered in shock. He wasn't used to being cut off by his subordinates, much less a former Army Colonel on the CIA payroll. Grymes was simply an advisor, not a commander. Even during his military service, Grymes was good at taking orders, not giving them.
"Mr. President, we'll get back to Mexico later. We know with near perfect accuracy that Mexico as a sovereign nation will still exist tomorrow."
"Thank you, General." The President replies as he wipes down his face in emotional defeat. He could go on a rant later, now was the time to cool his heels and put a thinking mind to work.
The USAF General Thomas Grayson, a patriotic man with a cool head and an apparent issue with the chain of command started to brief the president of ROUND TABLE's findings.
The projector at the other side of the room lit up with stills of the European continent, specifically the image of the Germanic walls.
"Sir, only a few minutes ago, we had reports from our DRAGON-5 satellite that revealed signs of civilization still in play in Europe if not also in Africa and Asia. This is the first anyone in the government beyond this office or the members of Collins's team have seen these images. The CIA has placed this discovery above top secret until we can determine how it will affect our domestic and foreign atmosphere."
"Show me the rest of the package General. Let's get cracking, foreign policy can wait. I think this is the closest my administration is going to get to making first contact with little green men from Mars." The President stated as an Admiral made to start passing around data and debrief packets received from the Pentagon.
Nervous laughter escaped several mouths of the Joint Chiefs as the pressure in the room began to rise again. The first contact with a civilization from the Lost World; the President could feel the butterflies in his stomach. With only a few months before the end of his presidency as well.
It looked like the President's Big Mac was going to have to wait a little longer.
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