Hello again! Lone wolf legendary with another chapter coming your way!
Again, I will start the way I usually do. Thank you, everyone who has taken time out of their day to read this story, favorited it, Review it and or follow it. I would like to thank: SuperSaiyin4Vegeta, YourOfficalEditor, Hunter092, Blank-Slate, Imperial-Priest Engelbart, HailToTheMadKing, Guest 1 and 2, Krulla Chief, and BLacKxBUrN for your reviews. Thank you!
SuperSaiyin4Vegeta: Thank you. Hopefully, this chapter clarifies your one concern.
YourOfficalEditor: Hopefully I didn't keep you waiting too long.
Blank-Slate and Imperial-Priest Engelbart: Thank you both!
HailToTheMadKing: Thank you, and I am most definitely going to keep this story alive!
Krulla Chief: That's quite the compliment! Now you've put some pressure on me to keep this story up to that standard.
BLacKxBUrN: Thank you for the compliment!
Now that that's out of the way, here's the next Chapter!
Chapter 6: Proving Their Worth
Trost
Sometime earlier in the Battle...
She ran.
Her mind was now set on the task at hand. To protect Eren, to protect her family... A task she would have done regardless of orders.
As she ran, she heard Eren roar with intensity as he began lifting the bolder, the bolder he was tasked with, to plug Trost's gate.
Ever since Armin had brought back Eren to his senses, Mikasa had been focused on protecting him... leaping from rooftop to street way, taking down the Titans that threatened Eren, or happened to find themselves in his path.
Even now, upon seeing several Titans in the distance near Trost's gate, she prepared herself to fight on Eren's behalf, but...
She heard a distant noise, a noise unlike anything she'd ever heard before. With Armin close on her heels, she slowed to a stop as she attempted to locate the source.
"Any idea what that noise is, Armin?"
"No, none." he replied as he strained to identify the noise. " It doesn't sound like a Titan. In fact..." He interrupted himself as distant gunshots rumbled through the city. "Gunfire? Why would someone be using those now?.. They shouldn't have any effect on Titans..." An ominous sign for the both of them, as they exchanged a glance.
Now assuming that the new noise wasn't an immediate threat, Mikasa sped forward once again to meet the Titans that threatened Eren. She set her sights on the three Titans that now gathered near Trost's outer gate, and as Mikasa reached the edge of the building she was currently running on, she activated her maneuvering gear and took to the sky's.
As she flew forward, towards the Titans from the air with pairing blades at the ready, she could hear the noise growing steadily louder with every second that passed until...
Just as she was preparing to Strike the nearest Titan..
A hailstorm of bullets ripped through the Titan she was about to engage and embedded themselves deep into the stone buildings behind it.
Mikasa maneuvered quickly away from the now falling corpse of the Titan, as she watched in surprise as a second burst of bullets tore into the Titan closest to the hole in Trost. As she scanned the area this last burst of rounds had come from, she quickly realizing the attack had come from outside the wall breach. But why would the attack come from there and why where these bullets proving to be so effective against the titans..As she struggled with these questions and searched for the perpetrators of this destruction, two large green objects burst through the jagged hole in the city's outer wall.
The two... carriages, as best as she could describe them as, quickly spewed forth a third barrage of bullets, absolutely obliterating the head and neck of the last of the three Titans near the wall breach.
Realizing, just like the soldiers in the warthogs that their where no more Titans perilously close to them, one of the two carriage gunners leapt off of the vehicle before beginning to move, at an almost inhuman speed, towards the bell tower just opposite her.
Mikasa watched in near wonder as the stranger used, what she could only assume, to be an advanced experimental replacement to the 3D Maneuvering Gear that she was currently using, seemed to effortlessly fly to the upper level of the tower without using any form of tethers or wires. As it reached the top of the tower, a new flood of questions dawned on Mikasa, Who are these people... why show up now...are they allies? Or...or are they just scavengers here to pick off the flesh from the dying district of Trost.
She had to know, for Eren's sake, for her sake, and for the sake of everyone who was fighting and dying to save this district. She had to know whether they were allies or a new threat.
Mikasa activated her maneuvering gear once more and took aim for the upper reaches of the tower, where the newcomer was currently residing. As she was being pulled by her wires to the upper reaches of the tower, she watched on as the armored newcomer used an advanced looking rifle to... simply annihilate an approaching Titan. The weapon in its hands apparently being so strong as to disfigure even the air itself as the bullet passed from the barrel of the rifle through the neck of the Titan and into building behind it.
And as Mikasa entered the room that the outsider was using to kill Titans from, she noticed, with growing horror and rage, that the outsider was taking aim at Eren. The large, armored being, in her eyes, began to slowly squeeze its finger on the trigger. Adrenalin surged through Mikasa. She lunged forward at the metal being with paring blades in hands intent on killing whatever this.. thing was, to save Eren.
But her heart sank with each step, as the being seemed set on killing Eren, for it didn't even seem to notice her as she charged towards it. Then..
In a flash.
The moment she was in striking distance of the armored being and thought it would shoot Eren, the armored being brought its rifle to bear on Mikasa. Blocking both of her swords in one swift motion with its rifle before, as Mikasa blinked in shock; she couldn't understand how this being was able to react so quickly. It disarmed her, dropping its large weapon in the process, only to replaced it with a large pistol like weapon from its thigh that it quickly aimed at her head...
But it didn't pull the trigger.
Everything was still for a moment in the tower as the two beings took each other's presence into full account.
From everything Mikasa could gather from this small fight and minor lull in violence, this being was pure soldier. Its armor, weapons, and equipment fatigue suggested that it had been in countless battles, with at least one of which having to have been quite recently...
"Why did you attack me?" He, the voice was distinctly male, asked.
Mikasa, now with a gun to her head, facing a man who almost moments ago would have killed all that she cherished in the world, was far too obstinate to answer this man's question.
'Thump' 'Thump'. Mikasa could hear two more individual using 3D maneuvering gear land behind her as the armored man stated his question again, this time more demandingly.
Damnit, that was too close... If she had been carrying something heavier.. Something Covenant, then that would have been the end of it... Why didn't I notice her sooner? Noble Six thought to himself after disarming, what he assumed was a fresh recruit of this planets military. Noble Six knew he was getting sloppy... he wasn't seeing everything he should have been seeing. She shouldn't have gotten that close to him. Over a month of near continuous fighting on Reach was taking its toll on him, especially those last few weeks he had to fight alone, on the dying planet...
But, he would deal with that later. Right now he had to figure out why this soldier attacked him and get back to the fight as quickly as possible, for every second he was dealing with this soldier, it was costing others their lives. Not to mention, he, like the rest of the surviving UNSC members, needed to make a show of force here, for it they didn't, these people might go back on their word and throw the survivors back out into the wild, or worse... start a war with the UNSC.
Captain Schmitt's opening words for the groups' rules of engagement in the city, echoed in his mind; "Alright men, we have to be the Big Damn Hero's of this fight! These people have no reason to trust us and we have no reason to trust them, but today we have to make our presence paramount to the success of this battle. We have to make their citizen and military elements believe that it was US who saved their lives today and stemmed the tide of battle. That's the type of leverage we will need to get them to hold up their end of the bargain." Schmitt had paused there in thought before adding "Besides, we might happen to learn a thing or two we can use to leverage against them, if need be, in this battle..."
"Why did you attack me?" Noble Six questioned the young woman again, as two new individuals landed in the tower behind her. They were two more fresh recruits from the looks of it, one male, and one female. Both blonds with blue eyes, but the boy seemed timid in contrast to the two steely eyed woman in the tower.
Already knowing that he wasn't going to get an answer from the one who attacked him any time soon, he decided to take a different approach. Shifting his questioning to the timid looking boy soldier who just arrived. "You," Six shifted his head ever so slightly in the boy's direction to get him to realize he was the one being questioned, "Why did your comrade attack me?"
The young soldier shifted his attention to the women at gunpoint, "M-Mikasa..." So that's her name.
Six didn't have time to beat around the bush and slowly learn the truth, he needed answers now, -for god's sake it's a damn warzone and you don't just drag your feet in a warzone-. "Look soldier, I need an answer now. People are dying around here if you haven't noticed, and the quicker I get an answer, the sooner I can begin to save your peoples' lives."
That seemed to knock the blond and Mikasa into their senses. Both of their expressions changed slightly and Mikasa finally answered his question. "I attacked you because you were about to kill Eren."
"Who's Eren?" Six was growing ever more inpatient with these people only giving him piecework information to go off of in a warzone.
It was the blond boy who seeming to understand the Spartans growing frustration with their answers who responded, "He's the Titan carrying the large bolder over there... It would take too long to explain now, but.. that Titan's on our side, and that bolder he's carrying on his shoulders is the only chance we have at saving this district. Because that bolder is the only thing capable of blocking the hole in the wall and, Eren.. in his Titan form, is the only one who can move the bolder into position."
The other blond in the group decided to chime at that moment to add, "We need him alive."
Six was relived to get a straight answer from someone in their group, not to mention he now know something that he could use as leverage against these people. "Understood. Now what are your missions?"
"We are to do anything in our power, including sacrificing our own lives, so that Eren can plug that hole, and give humanity its first victory against the Titans."
Noble Six could understand their position. It was all too alike his last official mission on Reach. Sacrifice. "Acknowledged." He turned his attention to Mikasa as he lowered his gun and said, "You're free to go." She refused to move, not even to pick up her swords, following the Spartans comment. Six could see that she didn't trust him any more then he'd trust an elite, so he elaborated, "I'll pass what you have told me to my fellow soldiers. Eren... will not be harmed and we will assist in your mission to protect him as he attempts to close the breach."
After he finished, the blond female recruit left, seemingly satisfied with what the Spartan had said, but the other two remained, a mixture of confusion and distrust on their faces. The Spartan could tell it would be some time before they would finally gather their thoughts, so he took that moment to contact the Captain and update him on the current mission of the local military force. Meanwhile, he retrieved the last remaining stimulant cocktail from his tactical trauma kit...
"You're... You're going to help us?" Was all Armin could think to say as the initial shock of this situation's rapid development sank in.
"Affirmative." Was the armored foreigner's curt response, as he jabbed a needle he had retrieved from a pouch on his thigh into his arm. After the man finished injecting himself with whatever was in that needle, he continued "We made an agreement with your Survey Corps outside these city walls, nearly four hours ago. We agreed to offer our military services to help fight the Titans in exchange for resources to get off this planet and back to the war we're need in."
Armin watched as the armored being, without saying another word, picked up his rifle and returned to the edge of the tower to offer firing support for the service men and women below. He fired one shot, killing a Titan who was closing in on devouring Ian Dietrich, the appointed leader of the breach closing mission, and as that Titan began to fall, one of the horseless carriages weaved out of a side road and into plain view of the Spartan. On its tail was a single Abnormal Titan lunging on all fours at the green carriage.
'Crack!' The Titan's body slid forward several dozen meters before coming to a dead stop as its flesh began to smoke and erode. A visible hole pierced through its neck.
All the while Armin could only think of what the man had said: Outside these walls... off this planet...to the war we're needed in... And that was when he finally asked the question that was beginning to burn inside his mind "What are you?"
"I'm a Spartan."
And with that, the Spartan turn his rifle back in the direction of Eren and pulled the trigger.
Immediately both Armin and Mikasa assumed the worst, with Mikasa even going so far as to shout out Eren's name, but as they looked on to where Eren was standing, bolder still in hand, they could see a four meter class Titan at his feet beginning to smolder.
"I would suggest you rejoin the fight, soldiers." The Spartan started as he unceremoniously dropped the gun's spent magazine and began to reload the weapon with a spare. "If your mission is to keep him safe, you should be out there. Protecting him." And for all it was worth, the Spartans remark to Mikasa and Armin was right; they needed to be out there, protecting Eren, not here in this tower keeping an eye on the metal man, called Spartan...
"Come on, Armin." Mikasa said as she leapt out of the tower to rejoin the fray or more appropriately to protect Eren. Armin on the other hand faltered for a second. He had more than a dozen questions to ask the Spartan; about his origins and weaponry but after a moment he finally decided to follow Mikasa. Knowing that in time, he would have his opportunity to know more about these outsiders, the Spartan, and the outside world in which they came from...
Captain Schmitt pressed the peddle deeper into the floor of the warthog as he maneuvered the beast of a vehicle through the streets of Trost. All the while he could hear Benjamin laying down an almost continuous stream of bullets into any Titan that followed them. Or.. he would have, if he was a better shot. As Schmitt looked back, and saw the sheer quantity of wasted ammunition on the streets and buildings around them, he could only offer a condescending reminder to Galik about their situation, "You do realize we only have a limited supply of bullets, right? So why don't you put those bullets to better use and actually HIT something with them?"
The Insurrectionist paused from his chain of cursing as the Spartan ended the life of their late Titan chaser, a Titan crawler if he had to put a name to it, before responding to the ODST, "I- I would if I could!" He franticly looked around for any more Titans in the area before continuing, "You try shooting one of these fucking Cronenberg monster's while being jockeyed down these rubble filled streets!... Fuck! Here's another one!" And with that Benjamin went back to praying and cursing as he tried to kill the new Titan to pick up their trail.
Schmitt let out short grunt as he began to maneuver the warthog back down a main road, which would give the Spartan a clear shot at their new pet Titan. Cronenberg monster's... I guess that a fitting name for these horrors. "Six, we have an entourage of one Titan, mind taking care of it for us? Were bearing in to your position from the western wall street."
"Affirmative. Waiting your approach."
As Schmitt finally reached the corner of the block, he pulled the steering wheel hard to the left, causing the warthog to drift out and hard around the corner before getting strong traction on the street and speeding forward once again. Almost immediately, Schmitt could see the glint of the scope from Six's rifle waiting for the Titan's approach, and it didn't take long for the Spartan to spot his pray. Within moments of the warthogs turn, Six's rifle barked forth a single round that punctured the air over Schmitt's head.
A resounding 'thud' sounded seconds later signified that the Spartans aim was as true as ever.
And that was when Schmitt had his first true glance of the Titan Six had mentioned. "Well... that's something new." Was all Schmitt thought aloud, before yelling a reminder to Benjamin that this Titan was not to be shot.
"What..." Benjamin began to ask, but stopped, as he watched the Titan these locals referring to as Eren, begin to wind up his upper body and throw, with all its strength, the bolder it was carrying into the wall breach. Upon finishing the throw, the Titan seemed to... just… die. It just stopped moving and began to smoke away like any Titan corpse the UNSC survivors had come across so far on this planet.
But then... The Titans' neck, specifically the location of the neck critical to permanently killing a Titan, began to move and split open to reveal, what looked to be a cadet of the planets local military. Which caused Benjamin to almost whisper the question to Schmitt,"...Just where the hell are we Schmitt?"
Captain Schmitt, for all it was worth was just as lost and dumb struck as Benjamin, replied in just as quite a voice, "I have no idea..." But this crapshoot of a situation just became a whole heaping hell more convoluted... Just who the fuck is fighting who? And what side did we just chose?
And at that very moment, the Survey Corps' squad, that the UNSC survivors left in the dust in their rush to the city, finally made their grand appearance. Sweeping in and mopping up the few remaining Titans in the immediate area, that the Spartan was unable to get a clear shot on, saving the Titan shifting cadet and a few other soldiers lives in the process...
Dusk.
Trost District,
Tower overlooking the plugged hole of Trost, currently being tended to by Garrison engineers...
With the final large gathering of Titans within Trost District destroyed a little over an hour ago, the fighting within Trost, for the most part, was effectively over. All that was left was to mop up the few remaining small stragglers that had been missed in the initial cannon bombardments. And with no more Titans in this section of the District, Levi and Erwin being busy interrogating the Titan shifter; it was left to the rest of the Survey Corps members to evaluate, just how useful their new allies really were.
"So... The Spartan did all of this..." Petra asked as she looked at the floor, a small pool of spent 14.5 x 114mm shells littered the floor of the tower and made small clanking sounds as the Survey members moved around the tower to where the Spartan had set up shop. Only a small percentage of the Titans killed from that point were still visible, just smoking skeletons of the monsters that once bore down on the city.
Hanji was the next to speak in her mildly cheerful manor, "From what I could gather, from the small amount of time I saw the Spartan in action. Every shot from his rifle killed a Titan. Which means..." She bent over to count the shells on the ground, "He killed at least twenty eight Titans!"
"I highly doubt he killed a Titan with every shot. Maybe... maybe, if was lucky, he killed fifteen but I even doubt that..." Oruo was obviously still sore from the Spartan knocking him to the ground earlier that day.
Hanji, mesmerized by one of the spent shell casings, which she was examining closely under candle light didn't seem to register Oruo's distaste for the Spartan as she replied, "Even if that is true, from the damage we could see in this area, the other four UNSC soldiers killed their fair share of Titans as well.." Now finished with her examination Hanji pocketed a fist full of the spent casings, for further study before standing up. "Not to mention, from what the Garrisons' Elite squads' reported, the Spartan did kill at the very least seventeen Titans on his own..." Then she added only as an afterthought, "and from the sound of it, he saved at least five members of the garrisons' lives in the process."
Oruo, didn't have a response for that, he couldn't have a response for that, but instead he decided to turned his attention to where the UNSC soldiers had set up camp. They had chosen an open area besides one of the district's outer walls that offered them over a block radius buffer to the city itself with an open fields of fire in every direction. The makings of a military camp.. if they had more people, Oruo thought. Arguably, this was the best area in the district to set up camp, if you had to be surrounded by questionably reliable allies.
Even from this distance, Oruo could see that they had positioned their warthogs into a, sort of, shield between themselves and the city itself. Several... lights, yes, that's what they were called, lit the area between the UNSC's camp and the city that surrounded them. "How long until the military police try to arrest them? After all, it's not like we actually had jurisdiction to make an alliance with them..."
The question seemed to knock Hanji from her thoughts about getting inside the mind of the Spartan, "I don't know..." She said quietly before pausing in thought. "But, given the state of the District, plus the revelation of a Titan shifter... I think the military police will have their hands full for a while. Not to mention, public opinion about these outsiders within Trost district itself will be quite high. Between saving several elite Garrison soldiers, agreeing to help fight the Titans on the Survey Corps' behalf, and arguably being instrumental in saving the District itself... I doubt that they will make a move on them.. at least, not until Generalissimo Darius Zackly enters the district."
Both Petra and Orou were blindsided by that revolution. No one had even mentioned that possibility of the head of the military coming down from the capital until just now. The Supreme Commander of the military is coming here? They both seemed to ask as they exchanged a glance, before Orou asked the question to Hanji.
"With everything that has transpired here, there's no doubt in my mind, that he will be coming here personally to judge the situation..." Hanji turned her attention to the city itself, "After all, it's what I would do if I were in his position, with all these rumors circulating..."
"So where does that leave them?" Petra asked, bringing her attention back to the UNSC camp. From the distance she could just make out, two of the green soldiers huddled over one of the warthog they drove in on. Seemingly trying to repair it, from a collision it had suffered when it ran over a three meter class Titan. While the Spartan rested with his back against the other warthog, rifle in hand, with white paste oozing from the holes in his armor. Hanji had already proposed that the white paste was some form of medical salve used to heal cuts and burns. "I mean, they have held up their end of the bargain, so far..."
"We'll have to find a way to convince the central government to uphold our deal." Hanji said as she joined the other two in inspecting the UNSC camp. She could see that the UNSC Captain, Captain Schmitt, and the UNSC civilian, Benjamin, seemed to be on watch, as both of them where manning, the two warthogs' respective gun emplacements. "I'd say we have two days at most to come up with an air-tight argument to uphold the deal."
Then, a new thought struck Petra, "Has anyone told them that the Military Police might try to arrest them?"
The minute long silence that followed was the answer to her question...
-END CHAPTER-
Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
Again, I want to thank my friend DeadzManWalking for Beta reading my story. And Anon8792 for offering some suggestions.
To all of you who have read this chapter, I thank you for your time and hope you all have a good day/night depending on when your reading this.
Please if you are inclined, leave a constructive review or PM me if needed. In many ways they help fuel my writing.
