Chapter 3: But They Can Most Certainly Get Worse

Trost City-District, 850 A.D.

They'd reached the HQ without too much trouble. Their sole encounter with a group of 4 Titans had gone off seemingly without a hitch, and they had even managed to rescue two people from a rather horrific death by being boiled alive. The fortification of the HQ had begun again, this time with help from the UNSC. On top of the structure were now 4 automated sentry turrets, which could be adapted to use any ammunition on hand, though it would be difficult to do and such jury-rigging would be harder yet to undo and would likely damage the turrets if fire was continued for any amount of time longer than 20 seconds. Least, that's what the other squad's technician said. Around the walls, there were now slits through which a Marine or a Garrison soldier or soldier-to-be could fire a rifle to blind any Titans that were stupid enough to dare come by. The outside grounds were also patrolled by 2 Mantises, a Scorpion, and at least 6 Warthogs, as well as those already stationed at the HQ by Garrison orders. However, it looked like things were getting slightly worse. The skinless Titan that Eren had spotted before was on the move, and it was doing something that utterly horrified him; It was killing people, but not eating them. Not simply crushing them while chasing other humans. No, it was killing them and it was going about it quite intelligently. If Eren didn't know better, he'd call the monstrosity a sadist. Also curious was that it almost looked to be feminine in appearance. The Garrison couldn't seem to get a grip on it, and that really bothered Eren, but as long as it didn't come too close to the HQ, they should've been fine. For a time, they were. The occasional Titan would wander over, and the combination of the 104th's training and the 23rd and 45th UNSC squads firepower would slay them rather quickly. Then something rather frightening happened.

The feminine Titan stared right at the HQ as though analyzing the defenses around it. Eren could see its eyes subtly moving, following the movement of the sentries and the patrols before it stared right at him. Eren felt his eyes widen and himself freeze right there. He didn't know what it was thinking, but that it was at all was enough to frighten him into pseudo-paralysis. He started shaking and took a step backwards. "Jaeger, you seeing something?" He heard Sergeant Allen ask over the radio. All he could do was whimper. The monster's cold eyes seemed to be staring right into his soul. "I-I spotted a skinless Titan... examining the defenses around the HQ, I think," Eren finally managed to speak into the radio. "Repeat? Sounded like you said it was examining the HQ's defenses," Sergeant Allen demanded. "That's affirmative, sir. Its looking right at Eren. Seems to be rather distracted by him," he heard Thomas say over the radio. "Hold position, warn us if it starts moving towards HQ, got it?" Sergeant Allen ordered, a touch of what was curiosity, surprise, or fear poisoning his voice. "Yes sir. Thomas Wagner, over and out," Eren's squadmate said, looking at the Titan. It simply continued to stare at Eren, either with wonder or what Eren swore was bloodlust. Thomas blasted over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, but that did little to calm him. "Stop shaking, Eren. Clear your head. We've got work to do, and it won't be especially easy work besides, but if you keep shaking like this and letting this thing get under your skin, it'll be almost impossible," he said calmly. "Besides, there's no way it could get to you before something the UNSC has would get it. You've seen what their stuff has done to all the other Titans. What could possibly be so bad about this one?" He asked, trying his best to reassure Eren and get him to return to a state of relative stillness. Eren took a deep breath, looked at Thomas, and nodded. He'd got his head back together, for however long. Hopefully that'd be enough that if the thing charged, he wouldn't be killed.

Unknown Location, referred to by locals as "Trost", 2:34 PM, September 27th, 2556

It was nice for Lester to finally have a name for this place, this city. Things were still confusing, but having a name for the place they were currently in helped to make everything a bit easier to coordinate, and thus made things easier on himself and Jameson. However, that did little to comfort him when he found out that one of those Titans had been staring right at the HQ as though thinking about how to get by the defenses. He'd asked the techies up on On My Mark if they could spare any ordnance or something in the event that the thing charged. By Eren's account, he'd seen the thing stare at the HQ no more than 12 minutes ago, and before that he'd seen it slaughtering the Garrison forces that were sent at it. That they hadn't requested UNSC support for such a thing had confused Lester, but that wasn't really his decision. Weird that they'd simply opt to get slaughtered instead, though, He thought. He looked at Eren. He'd been staring at the Titan for almost 10 minutes now, waiting for the thing to make its next move. "Hey, Jackson," He heard somebody buzz over the radio. "Uh, yeah? Who is this?" He asked monotonously. He was still a little zoned out, but he was slowly getting his mind back onto what was going on around him. "Its Thomas Wagner. You see anything odd?" the kid inquired. "Odd? Odd how?" Lester asked back, shifting his gaze over to his screens. He'd turned on a couple of the other cameras on the outside of the Scorpion and linked 5th screen to a surveillance probe that the crew of On My Mark had sent out about 20 minutes ago. "Odd like a lack of Titans. I'm not seeing any heading towards the HQ, or any of the other areas we've been holding. Haven't gotten any reports of Titans slipping past our defenses due to laziness on the part of a squad or two, either," Thomas answered. Lester scanned the area with the probe and swapped the screen over to another one, and then a third before cycling back to the first. "I'm not seeing any either... Wait a minute," He said quietly, switching again to the second probe. The Titan, the skinless one that Eren was glaring at, was lying back against a house, and behind that, Lester could see a few Titans congregating. More were in the area, but they were closer to the gate. Nevertheless, they were motioning towards the skinless one as though it was calling upon them. "I'm seeing a few Titans gathering behind the skinless one, and there are more moving toward it. No idea why, though," Lester observed, curiosity squirming its way into his words. He took the controls back up and drove the Scorpion over towards a nearby intersection, so he could observe this skinless monstrosity better. When he worked his way over to the corner, he saw the Titan look at his Scorpion and stand. He braced himself. And the worst thing he could've imagined happened.

It took up a stance like it was getting ready to sprint. "Oh shit," he cursed, jerking the controls back and trying to get the thing into full reverse. "Sarge! We've got movement! That Titan that Jaeger spotted looks like it's getting ready to charge," he shouted into the radio, utter panic dominating every word that came out of his mouth. "Calm down, Corporal. Eren, Thomas, confirm Jackson's info," Allen ordered over the radio. "Uh, he's wrong," Eren said. "It's already charging!" Lester kept pulling the thing backwards and aimed the primary turret up. "23rd, get that Mantis over here! We've got problems!" He yelled into the radio. Just then, the Titan slid around the corner and leaped at the tank. Lester did the only thing he thought he could do at that point; He took a shot. The Titan exploded backwards and slammed into a nearby residential building, collapsing the structure in the process. Lester got ready to fire again, just in case. There is no way that thing could get back up from that, he thought. To his surprise, and to the surprise of everybody else that could see it, the behemoth stood from the rubble, its abdomen having obviously been injured, but not nearly what he thought would've- and what normally should've- happened. "23rd, where the hell is that Mantis?!" Lester demanded. "We're a bit tied up on the other side of the building, Corporal! Titans seem to be appearing from all sides. Autosentries are tied up covering the other flanks!" he heard a voice explain. Shitshitshitshitshitshit, Lester thought, terror controlling his every though, his every move. It was honestly the most coherent thing that passed through his mind at that moment as a result. He fired off another shot at the thing and, before the shot impacted, he could've sworn he saw the Titan's abdomen take on a silvery color. "What the hell is that?!" He shouted at nobody in particular. "I don't know. Want me to try and get a closer look... oh crap," He heard Thomas say. He watched as the thing returned to a standing position once more and proceeded to leap at the child and grab him off the roof. Thomas retaliated as best he could and stabbed it in the fingers, but that accomplished little. The monstrous creature merely tightened its gripped on him and put his head between the index finger and thumb on the other hand. He swore he saw a look of utter terror on the child's face. The behemoth squeezed, and his head popped like a grape. "THOMAS!" He heard Jaeger shout, and then he watched as the other child blasted at the creature. He swung at its shoulder, but the blades just shattered on impact against the metallic material that suddenly coated the sadistic thing's shoulder. He saw a similar look of terror to Thomas' when the Titan swung its now empty right hand at Eren. Lester took another shot at the thing, going for the arm or hand or something to get it to stop. He hit his mark and blew the thing's hand apart. "Get out of there, Jaeger!" he heard someone shout over the radio. He looked around and saw that a SPARTAN-II had joined the fray and leaped towards the Titan. "SPARTAN, identify now!" Sergeant Allen demand over the comm channel. "Jason-148. Heard some commotion was going on over here, got here as quick as I could. What's happening?" The SPARTAN demanded. "Uh, sorry sir. This thing seems to be far more intelligent than the average Titan. Seems to be able to harden its skin in places too prevent excessive damage, too. Recommendations?" Allen requested, his voice smaller than before but somehow still authoritative. "Distract it in any way you can so that the heavy weapons can do some real damage. There are more Titans on the way here, and they seem to be following it. If we can drive it back out of the gate, we should be able to limit the damage it causes. Understood?" "Yessir!" He heard the other blonde kid, Armin, say over the radio. "Everybody else get that?" He saw a few confirmation lights pop up on the screen and heard a few confirmations over the comms from the trainees. "Alright. Let's get rolling, then. Trainees, distract it, but don't throw your life away in the process," Jason-148 said.

Trost City-District, 850 AD

This was bad. Before, they'd been defending the HQ with no problems. Just the occasional Titan would come around and promptly get slaughtered. But now? Now this... this thing had showed up, and they were fighting for their very lives. On the other side of the building, their fellow soldiers were stuck fighting a seemingly endless wave of Titans, so they couldn't help, and all the sentries were tied up fighting other Titans while this monstrosity was doing a fantastic job of screwing everyone over while staying just outside of their range. But Eren couldn't focus on that. He needed to focus on driving this thing back. Sadly, he was much more focused on avenging Thomas, his anger and need for vengeance overwhelming anything he could think of that generally resembled reasonable thought. He screamed and blasted at the thing's neck with his Maneuver Gear's hooks, latching on and leaping forward to kill the monstrosity, utterly unaware that he was screaming curses and trying to damn the thing to an eternity of torture in the afterlife all the again, though, he swung and his blades broke, though this time he saw that it was against this monster's skin, which had somehow become much more like steel or a hard crystal substance. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!" He screamed, looking up in time to see a hand descending upon him. He yanked the hooks out of the thing's neck and jumped back in time to avoid being killed as Thomas had. A small explosion resounded and blasted the Titan's knee, bending it to a horribly painful looking angle. The monster yet stood, however, and Eren saw an opportunity in a moment of miraculous clarity. If I can just gash the back of this thing's knee, it should drop, he thought. Another explosion and the monster had been pushed back, having blocked the explosion with now armored forearms. This was Eren's opportunity, as if he blasted at the ground just right, he could cut open the thing's leg and force it onto its other knee. He proceeded to get the first bit right, but before he could continue, he glanced at the Titan's face and froze again, hitting the ground with all the force he had mustered at the point. It glared at him, with cold, blue eyes, staring almost into Eren's very soul. He shook fearfully and slowly backed away on all fours, fear suddenly overriding anger. He couldn't think what to do to get away and just stared back. He could feel himself slowly getting closer to a wall and what would most assuredly be his end.

As though on some sort of cue, the man in the green armor leaped onto the monstrosity's neck and punched, pulling out yet more of the steely material. The Titan reared back and swiped at the giant-amongst-men with it's left hand, and then again with its right, missing both times due to what Eren swore was an inhuman level of agility, especially for one in such heavy looking armor. The man jumped back before it could actually grab him, landing next to Eren and pulling him to his feet. "I see what you're trying to do. Go for the back of the leg, I'll try and keep it distracted. Go!" Jason shouted. Eren couldn't think of anything to say, instead just nodding and blasting back towards where he was and swiping at the back of the monster's leg as he went. With a rather sickening "shlick" sort of noise, the blades almost slid through the monster's flesh, eviscerating any tendons that were still allowing control over the knee. The monster looked around, its eyes looking to be filled with something resembling fear. Is it afraid? Eren thought, but before he could continue he saw a black dot descend from the sky and a hail of death descend once more from that. A Pelican! If that doesn't drive it back, nothing will, Eren observed. Fortunately, he was right. The Titan somehow stood, turned, and ran despite its injuries, glancing at Eren as it ran by. This time he was sure of it. It was afraid, and it had every right to be. "This is Claymore-164, Warrant Officer James Harley. Command saw that you were in need of a bit of cavalry, so they sent me," he heard the pilot of the great machine explain over the radio. "Did you have a nice rest, waiting for command to tell you to go at the most dramatic moment, James?" Sergeant Allen joked over the radio, the sight of the Pelican obviously having lightened his mood a bit. "Good to hear you're still alive, Smithy," Claymore replied. "We have the situation locked down, except for these other Titans that followed that thing," Allen informed the pilot. Eren looked over to see what he was talking about and saw he was right. There were 6 Titans that he saw, all around 14 meters in height, apparently having followed the other Titan here. At the moment, however, they were distracted by the monster's sudden retreat.

The Pelican fired on the Titans that were threatening to overwhelm the Mantis' position while Eren and his team kept the Titans on there side from getting any closer than they were. The first went down relatively easily, Armin cutting through the Titan's neck like a hot knife through butter. The next two went down to a volley of unending death, a combination of fire from the Scorpion's main turret, it's secondary, and two Warthogs firing without relent, only stopping when the guns overheated. The fourth was a bit more clever, dodging away from Eren's first swipe, but backing itself into a position where Armin sliced its Achilles Tendon on its right leg. Eren got it from there. The 5th went down to a second volley from the Warthogs and Scorpion, while the 6th seemed oddly distracted with the skinless monstrosity that had killed Thomas, running after it for whatever reason. Eren simply sat on a nearby building and watched them flee off towards the gate. "Everybody alright?" Allen inquired over the comms. "No, sir, we've got a casualty. One 'Thomas Wagner' from the 104th Trainees," Eren heard Corporal Jackson explain. Eren got up and looked down at the ground below, where Thomas' remains lay still. Fortunately, the monstrosity had left Thomas be after it had killed him, but that did little to slake Eren's newfound thirst for revenge. I know I already said I'd kill the Titans, He thought. But I'm gonna make sure that you die and especially painful death, one that will make you fear humanity, and one that leaves me as the last thing you ever see! He could feel his blood boil at the mere thought of the monster, an frightening, skinless parody of a human woman upon closer inspection. "The Female Titan," Eren muttered under his breath, dropping down next to Thomas' corpse. "I promise," he said out loud, laying a hand on the remains as though to comfort the soul that once resided within. "I promise, I'll make that thing pay for what it did to you. I'm going to make sure it doesn't do anything like that to anybody else. By God and by the three Walls, I swear I will end it before it can do this to anybody else!" He swore, his voice's volume climbing with every word.

Location Identified. Referred to as "Trost" from this point forward. 3:05 PM, September 27, 2556

"That kid is fucking bonkers," Lester muttered as he climbed out of the tank. One 'Mina Carolina' had relayed that the Titans seemed to be leaving the HQ be for the moment, so Lester decided to take the time between this attack and the next to get some fresh air. The Scorpion had heated up a good bit during that monstrosity's offensive, but how much of that was just himself panicking and how much of that was just the primary turret hurrying to reload, he honestly couldn't tell. What he did know was that a kid had died long before he should've, and that some thing that resembled a Titan had come in and just about wrecked everyone's shit. Were it not for the timely arrival of the SPARTAN-II, everybody might have panicked, and that thing might have taken out everybody defended the HQ. Lester knew he would've freaked the hell out, but that was about that. He sniffed the air around him and noted it smelled mostly of his sweat, but there was the faint odor of copper as well. Lester looked at the dead kid- Thomas was his name- and sighed. Whether that was relief or grief was yet another thing he couldn't determine. Lester shook his head and pressed his hands against his face. Calm down, man. At least it wasn't you, he thought. But how long before it was? Best to leave that up to luck. He turned and looked up at On My Mark, wondering if they knew what had just occurred.

He looked over at Eren and wondered if the kid wasn't wrong to do what he was doing. Might just be his way of dealing with grief. Be a little weird to swear revenge against a mouse for eating all your cheese, though. He shook his head. Now wasn't the time for jokes, now was the time to focus on what he was supposed to be doing. He hopped back into the driver's seat and got the Scorpion rolling again. Hope things start going as well as they did before. And when are the techies gonna send some people down to seal that damn hole? He wondered, a mildly confused expression appearing on his face where nobody could see it. He sighed again, this time most certainly a result of the waste of human life that he was sure this was going to turn into. "I hate this place already," he muttered.