"Sasha." Armin spoke much more clearly than he'd expected himself to, given the circumstances. The girl peered down at him through long bangs, which were new and gave her a much more mature look than she'd had so many years before. She opened her mouth to speak.
You'll never hear it from him, but Levi Ackerman has always gotten nervous on the days of reckoning before field missions. It only got worse after he fell in love with Petra, and now he was set to embark on his first field mission as a father. His fingers and toes were numb and his heart doubly so. He clasped to his chest the folded picture he'd shown Historia the night before. He slipped down the ladder of his bunk and made for the bathroom, whether to use it or to simply collect himself in solitude. He was an early riser – he always had been, and it was no different now. He was almost always the first awake of his roommates in the barracks – himself, Eren Yeager, Samuel Linke-Jackson, and Armin Arlelt – so it surprised him when he bumped into Samuel on the way in.
He looked horrendous. He had bags under her eyes that he hadn't the night before, and his eyes were puffy and his nose was red. He'd definitely been crying, and Levi couldn't blame him. From what Commander Erwin Smith had told him, Samuel was a convenience pick for his high scores in weapons training in the academy, and he'd never been in a high leverage tactical situation.
"Commander Levi, good morning." Samuel's greeting was shockingly collected when one considered how much he was shaking. His hands trembled but his voice was steady. Levi noted that his thigh muscles were twitching, indicating sleep deprivation; that wouldn't do him any good come mission time.
"Good morning, Samuel. How did you sleep?" Levi asked out of politeness - he already knew the answer.
"Honestly, not that well," Samuel replied. "I'm frankly terrified, scared out of my mind." He said it with a little chuckle, which caught Levi off guard; it was an uncharacteristically accepting gesture from a man who otherwise wasn't taking the situation well at all. "You see, I've never been on a field mission before, even though I graduated the academy at the top of my class. I always..." He trailed off at Levi's hand on her shoulder.
"The first time I went on a mission, I was 19." Levi sat Samuel down at the small table in the center of the room. "A few years earlier, my dad – a raging alcoholic – murdered my mom, and I killed him shortly afterwards. I was set to be imprisoned for life, but Commander Erwin saved my ass and convinced the judge to allow me to enlist and serve as an alternative to my sentence. On my first mission, I felt no connection to anybody and felt as if I was fighting alone on the battlefield." He gripped Samuel's shoulder more tightly.
"I'm not claiming that teamwork will save your life when you're staring down the barrel of a gun. Don't get me wrong. But on that mission, I met Petra Ral, who would become my wife and the mother of my daughter. Now, before every mission, I think about losing everything in the blink of an eye, and it scares me half to death. But then, I remember that I have someone to fight for, and I remember that, whether they're on the battlefield with me or back home, I have someone fighting for me too." Samuel seems a little lost, but he continued to listen intently.
"Don't be afraid. You're taking on a tough mission, but you have the support of the strongest soldiers in the world at your back. We'll keep you safe."
Jean frowned and rolled his eyes at Armin with furrowed brow; the latter glanced back helplessly. Sasha was notorious for her nervous habits, bang bang banging away on the table with her knuckles, but nobody could really fault her for the stress she felt this time around. The whole room had a bit of a gray aura. Nobody, that is, but Jean, who'd finally had enough. He picked up his tray, dumped its contents into the garbage, and sped out the swinging doors, which recoiled back after his exit. Mikasa barely avoided the backswing, nimbly dodging out of the way, spinning with tray in hand and taking a seat next to the jittery Sasha.
"Morning!" She chirped with almost appalling cheer.
"Yesterday must have been a great Eren day," quipped Ymir, uncharacteristically silent until that point. Mikasa grinned.
"Every day," she smiled, "is a good Eren day." Ymir mimed puking; Historia punched her softly in the arm.
"Jean…" Sasha mumbled with a sad frown.
"Don't worry, Sasha," Mikasa reassured the smaller girl. "He can be moody, and given the situation it's not surprising that he's a little on edge. It can't be helped." Sasha continued her antics and didn't reply; her hyperactive mind now focused on the next person to come through the door.
"Connie!" She wailed as her best friend shuffled over and rested his chin on the top of her head.
"Good morning, Braus." Connie had a visible smirk as he observed panicky Sasha. "What's all the fuss?" He asked with a mirthy smile.
Eren smacked the weapons sergeant's shoulder as he placed his laded tray onto the table beside Mikasa, who smiled a thousand watt smile up at him. Samuel Linke-Jackson sat down across from him.
"You know damn well what the fuss is," Eren chuckled. The smile dropped off his face as he turned to Sasha. "But what's wrong, though? You're always good with pressure."
"Um," she started. "I don't know about this whole mission... and I'd rather not die," she tried with a tentative smile.
"Well hey, if I die on this mission, at least I get to do it right next to my best - damn - friends -" Connie punctuated each word with a tap to the top of Sasha's head - "in saving Paradis; heck, saving the world!"
"Well I'm glad you're so optimistic about dying, Connie," Ymir chuckled. "You can be the bait." The spell was broken; the table emerged in uproarious laughter.
"Hey," Historia declared, "better you than me!"
Jean pressed his fingers hands to his temples and his back against the wall outside the cafeteria doors, letting himself slide down to the ground. He felt numb all over. He'd dreamed particularly unpleasant dreams of dying the night before, and he felt queasy. He found himself thinking about his mom and dad. He essentially hadn't spoken to his father in the three and a half months since his mother's death, and he'd been trying not to think too much about him either. So why now?
But then, somehow, he found himself thinking about his friends. He heard Connie's voice inside the cafeteria, although he couldn't quite make out the words; he heard Ymir's voice, and then he heard them all laugh. And he resolved that he'd go and reclaim his seat next to Sasha and laugh right along with them.
And so he did.
"Good morning, soldiers," Commander Erwin Smith offered magnanimously to the group of 23 people sitting before him. "I won't beat around the bush; your mission is an incredibly important one. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance."
That notion wasn't something Historia was terribly comfortable with. Sure, she was confident in her abilities in all facets of military operation, but the fate of the humanity? That made her decidedly worried. Why did Erwin feel the need to be so dramatic?
"Fort Maria is the primary port defensive stronghold on the Marley mainland. It is remarkably heavy in fortification by land, air, and sea all the same. We can't send in warships, because they've concentrated their submarine force on the coast around the Liberio District. They've constructed a veritable fortress around the base on the land side, a barrier that all the firepower in Paradis couldn't overcome. Their anti-aircraft guns are just as strong, but our best chance comes if we can send in a small recon force by sea to sabotage the AAGs. That's where you all come in."
"Our latest air-to-water-to-land technology is invested in the parachute boats that will get you to shore. Ideally, we can fly close to drop you into the water; you'll be close enough to shore that the subs can't get to you, but far enough out that the AAGs can't bring down the deployment planes. We don't know for sure if the planes will be out of range, but that's a risk we need to take."
"Be warned, this means that the Marleyans will most likely know that you are on the island; you will have not a moment to laze about. The second you set foot on the shore– even before you set foot on the shore, you are a target."
"The demolitions officers, Historia Reiss and Tomas Wagner, have been given a bag of charges. These are extremely powerful, so be careful; they are remote operated and can be stuck onto the AAGs. There are five detonators that will trigger the charges; one will be in possession of each of the demolitions officer, one in possession of the two main communications officers – Marco Bott and Jean Kirstein – and the last in possession of the squad leader, Levi Ackerman."
"Should the mission with the charges end in failure, the detonators themselves can be used as high-power explosives. These cannot be remotely detonated, however, and each is only good to take out one AAG. To our knowledge, there are 15 large AAGs dispersed throughout the base; there are enough charges to destroy 30. Is your mission clear?"
"Yes, sir!" Historia's heart was in her stomach. She had a really bad feeling about the whole deal.
"You leave at 2100 hours." His face, usually illuminated by his strong cheekbones and golden hair, was stone cold. He looked like Historia felt, tinted ash gray.
"Dedicate your hearts!" The general called out to his soldiers; the soldiers completed the salute.