The bells started to ring across Karanes District, the legion of Scouts on standby on the main road.
"The Titans have been lured away from the gate!" A Garrison officer yelled out to the soldiers lined up. "The gate opens in thirty seconds!"
"This is it!" One of the Section Commanders announced. "This is the day humanity takes a giant step forward! Now let's show those Titans exactly what we're made of!"
"Open the gate." Erwin ordered.
As soon as he spoke, the huge stone gates began to rise, giving many of them a first look outside into what was now Titan country.
"Once the gate was fully open, Erwin gave his first command of the day. "Forward!"
With a crack of the reigns, the Scouts took off, the horses racing forwards with a widespread neigh.
"It's officially begun!" Erwin continued on. "The 57th Recon Mission! Scouts move out!"
Lukas' horse raced through the gate, following the rest of the Scouts in the straight line through the town outside the wall. As they rode through the town, several Titans could be seen scattered throughout, but it wasn't their job to deal with them, there was the rearguard that would deal with them and follow after.
As soon as the Scouts broke clear of the town into the open fields, Erwin then gave his next command. "Long range formation, go!"
When Erwin gave the order, the Scouts all fanned out, all going in separate directions according to their placement within the formation for the mission.
As for the Long Range Scouting Formation, a lot of time in the past month had been dedicated to learning it, what they were supposed to do and what each individual flare colour meant and what to do when a flare was fired.
There had been a lot more work going on in a classroom than in the field, probably because their budget wasn't exactly the biggest, and they needed to save money every way possible for things like gas, weapons and food.
As for where Lukas was in the formation, he was in the right side, nearer the back than the front of the formation, and on the formation map he had been given, he knew Reiner, Armin and Jean were in front of him somewhere.
Directly to the right of him in formation was Krista, he remembered her because she was the one that had been kidnapped a couple years back, but having seen her around the headquarters a couple times, he could've sworn that she was familiar, but for the life of him, he couldn't place her.
Then there was his role in the formation, he wasn't supposed to kill any Titans, no, that would be too exciting anyway, instead, he was one of the unlucky souls who were riding with a spare horse, having two sets of reigns in his hand.
This was going to be incredibly boring, unless something happened, which he expected either Reiner or Annie to try and kidnap Eren, who was on the middle left of the formation, though Reiner was in front of him, so he'd have to run through columns of Scouts to get to him, so that left Annie attacking from the left flank.
He thought about ditching his post to move closer to where Eren was, but he'd be seen immediately in the vast open plains they were riding in, and he'd either be sent back to his position, or he'd be reported as soon as possible for insubordination, which wasn't a great way to hide in plain sight.
His thoughts were interrupted by a plume of red smoke coming from his right, some ways off mind you, but it was his job to continue relaying Titan sightings to the centre rank. So with a bit of a struggle, spare reigns in hand, he loaded a red flare cartridge into the gun and fired it into the air. His first contribution as a Scout... how incredibly boring that was.
That was the whole expedition for Lukas, ride forward at a reasonable speed, shoot red flares every so often, and on one occasion a black flare for an abnormal sighting, but not one single Titan had come into his view yet, which was rather surprising, but then again, most of the Titans were probably further south towards Trost.
Another thirty minutes passed, with a couple direction changes from the Commander out in front, and it looked like nothing was going to happen any time soon, that was until a number of yellow smoke plumes arose from the right.
"Yellow flares?" Lukas questioned out loud. "What the hell is going on over there?" Then it clicked for him. "But why the right flank, Eren's in the left flank? Whatever." He shook it off, they were idiots anyway, but he directed his horse slightly towards the right side, but after a few minutes another flare rose into the sky, and this time it was purple.
"These people, I swear." He cursed, turning his horse to ride directly towards the purple smoke, and after about a minute or so, he could see someone riding with two horses in tow, and a little further off was the start of the smoke flare.
After about another three minutes, Lukas finally arrived at the scene, where Reiner, Armin and Jean were all beginning to mount up, while Krista was the one who had arrived just before him.
"Hey, what happened here?" Lukas questioned as he stopped with the spare horse in hand. "Why'd you fire the purple smoke?"
"An abnormal Titan, that's what happened." Reiner answered him. "That said, I'm impressed that you two actually answered our distress signal."
"Well I wasn't far away, so that and I found the horse." Krista replied with.
"I saw the yellow smoke and shifted positions anyway." Lukas told them. "The purple smoke was on the way."
"A lot of people wouldn't have risked the trek over here, you're as noble as the steeds you tame." Reiner continued on with, but Lukas had a feeling he wasn't talking to him. "We're all in your debt."
"It was nothing." Krista moved to wipe a few tears from her eyes. "I'm just... I'm just glad you're all okay." She then beamed a smile at them. "What would we do without you?"
Reiner, Jean and Armin were now all staring at Krista, as if she was some sort of deity that had came to save them.
"Hey!" Lukas complained. "Where's my thanks for coming?"
"Okay, I suppose we better rejoin the formation." Krista continued on with, and just like that, everyone just ignored his complaints.
"Yeah, they'll order a retreat any minute now." Jean sounded convinced of it.
Once they had continued riding in the formation, all five of them were bunched up together, Lukas suggested they split up, but after learning the right flank was basically wiped out, grouping up seemed like a far better option.
"I'll just say it, I'm glad we survived, but heading back after only an hour, not really something to be proud of if you asked me." Jean spoke up. "And while we're on the subject, is anybody else curious why she's headed away from the command squad?"
"She?" Krista asked, both her and Lukas out of the loop.
From the front left of them, a number of green smoke flares were fired, signalling the continuation of the mission.
"Green smoke?" Jean questioned aloud.
"Looks like we're not heading back after all." Armin added in. "Just changing course."
"Yeah but, that doesn't make sense." Krista chipped in.
"What the hell? Is Commander Erwin out of his mind?" Jean asked.
"Every one of us has the authority to declare the mission failed." Reiner now spoke up. "Why isn't anyone speaking up? Is the Command squad too far ahead to see their signals?"
"Possibly, but either way our course is clear. Assume Command's got this." Armin looked to the left and fired a green smoke signal, relaying the message to the rest of the formation.
Before long, they had reached a forest filled with giant trees, larger than the Colossal Titan, and thicker than any tree he had ever seen in his life.
"All soldiers halt!" A Scouts voice called out, getting the attention of the small squad that had formed up. "Alright rookies, listen up. We're assuming intercept position within the trees, unsheathe and find a perch." He ordered them. "If any Titans attempt to enter the forest, stop them whatever it takes."
"Excuse me Sir." Jean tried to speak up. "What exactly is our-"
"I've given you an order." The Scout roared back, shooting off into the trees.
"Okay..." Jean was confused, just as confused as the rest of them were. "What the hells going on?"
Within the next ten minutes, all the Scouts in the area had ascended the trees, and down below the Titans had started to gather up, hungry for their next feed on human flesh, and while everyone else had a branch to stand on, Lukas had sat down, feet over the edge, looking down at the Titans, some had even started to climb the trees, most found little success, but some were actually making some progress.
After a while, explosions came from deep within the forest, a volley all in one go, followed by another one soon after. "So that's what this was all about." Lukas finally realised. "He knew this would happen, smart bastard you are Erwin. But Annie would have some tricks up her sleeve, I might have to go into the forest to make sure." His reasoning definitely wasn't clouded by the fact Petra was part of the Scout squad defending Eren, that had nothing to do with it at all.
That being said, there was no way he'd let Annie get close enough to Petra to do any damage, he would destroy her before she had the chance to even breathe near her.
"Lukas!" His thoughts were interrupted by Jean shouting at him. "Aren't you going to move!" He sounded worried.
Looking back down, Jean was right to sound worried, a Titan had climbed all the way up the tree, and was almost to the branch he was on. "Oh, maybe I should." He admitted, calmly standing up right before a hand swiped at where his legs used to be as he ascended up to a branch higher up the tree.
"Hey, what the hell were you doing down there?" Jean asked him. "Weren't you an MP, aren't you scared out of your mind right now?"
"Trost has shifted my perspective significantly in the past month." He told him. "I was trying to work out why the Commander had led us here, and what those explosions were in the forest." He continued on. "And yes, I was scared, but not nearly as much as I probably should've been." God he hoped Petra didn't find out about this, otherwise it would be a lot worse than what she did when he signed up.
Suddenly, an ear piercing scream rang out around the forest, and within moments, all the Titan's went from trying to climb the trees to sprinting towards the inside of the forest.
"Oh no." One of the older Scouts spoke up. "Everyone engage the Titans!" She commanded them.
"Haha, nows my chance!" Lukas proclaimed, shooting straight after the Titans, but he wasn't there to kill Titans now, so with the grace of a flying pig, he charged at the Titans and "accidentally" crashed into one of them, spiralling out of control and into the depths of the forest before anyone could spot where he went.
Deeper within the forest, the Levi squad had already suffered a casualty, with Gunther being sliced open by an assailant, and after a few moments, the Female Titan had reappeared right behind them as they raced to escape.
"I can fight her too!" Eren protested deep in the forest.
"Just go!" Eld was telling him to run. "This is our best course of action! We cannot afford to put you at risk!"
"Have you learned nothing?" Oluo chimed in from the side. "After all this you still doubt our skills?"
"Is that true Eren? I thought you had faith in us." She looked hurt by the statement that went unsaid. "I thought that you trusted us?"
However, just before Eren could make his split second decision, one tree they passed looked very different, in fact, it wasn't a tree at all, there was a Titan lying in wait behind one, just off the path they were taking.
It wasn't like any other Titan they'd seen before, it was almost a pure white colour, and when it's arm started to move, they all instinctively moved to protect Eren, but the Titan didn't reach for Eren, instead it's arm swung out into the path of the Female Titan, who was caught completely off guard and took the full force of the clothesline to the neck, lower body flying upwards into the air and landing on her front after a unintentional flip.
While the Female Titan regained her bearings, the White Titan moved to stand between her, Eren and the rest of the Levi Squad.
"What the hell?"
"What is that thing?"
"Is it on our side too?"
"Is it another Titan just like me?"
The four of them that was left all came to a stop a good hundred yards away, all of them staring on disbelief at what they were seeing.
"Oluo! Eren!" Eld yelled at them. "Retreat to the rest of the formation! Find Commander Erwin and tell him what happened!" He commanded him. "Petra and I will wait here for Captain Levi." He loaded a green flare into his gun and fired it into the sky just to be sure. "Go now!"
"Fuck me sideways." Lukas thought, he could hear everything they said, and now he had to fight Annie without fighting like he did, unless he wanted Petra to recognise him immediately. "Fuck it, I'll let Annie beat me up and then I'll destroy her with my hardening when she gets cocky."
Annie was now finally on her feet, she was confident in her own fighting abilities, but she had no idea how powerful the WarHammer Titan was at all. She didn't think Lukas would go through all this trouble for Eren, so why was he really turning into a Titan here and now?
Well, she'd be able to ask him when she kicks his ass, Eren was probably long gone now, so now she was angry, and she had a huge target right in front of her.