The first shell that hits the ground shakes it with such force one could feel it for hundreds of metres. The rocky, arid land was also fighting against the two assailants. After every hill there was a piece of broken land and wherever there was plain land there was bound to be a crater.
"How close should we get before we can start firing?"
"Close enough until you see the reflection of our cannon in their eyes." Leo answers changing target, pointing at the ammunition deposit. Second shells passes by and here comes the third.
"Where being pushed into a corner! I'll have to jump through that crevasse!" Pieck says telling Leo to brace for the jump. As soon as she jumped though she realised they fell into a trap! The rebels aided by the mid-eastern forces filled the battlefield with mines and explosives. Every single piece of cover they could have taken is possibly a trap. The Cart titan wasn't going to make it to the other side but in a moment of clarity Leo switches the cannon hard to the side and fires mid-air pushing both of them away from the explosives.
"That was close!"
"Keep your eyes on the objective. Switch course and move to the right!"
"Won't that impair your field of view?"
"I'll take missing all five shots left over being blown to pieces." The two had to change course and move to the right. As they got closer and closer to the enemy's position smaller cannons started firing on them. Leo fires a second shot but it heats the cannon's armour. The shell does little to no damage but now they had a cleaner shot at the pistons that made the cannon move. As they hit their target however the mid-eastern volunteers somehow managed to man more cannons and mortars and their onslaught is even stronger then before. As Pieck runs a shell hits right in front of her breaking her left hand.
"I can fix this! I can put down the cannon, transform again and start running with a new body." Pieck shouts putting down the cannon and getting out of her titan form. They didn't had the time though as another shell was heading their way. Pieck in human form for a second is shocked by the sight of the shell heading their way but Leo, is concentrated on the mission and aims his cannon at the sky before firing. The two shells meet mid-air exploding right above them. Only after the fire and smoke cleared out and Pieck transformed into a titan again she can hear Leo yelling in terror. He too was terrified by the explosive heading their way but he kept controlling the cannon even while screaming as hard as he could. It takes him a second to calm down and realise he was alive before aiming the cannon again towards the enemy.
"We'll never get a good shot from this position! See that cliff over there? How confident are you in climbing it with the cannon on your back?"
"I can make it. We can use the cliff to fire from above and destroy the cannon."
"The cannon cannot fire bellow 0 degrees in front of it." There was only one way they could take advantage of the elevation without needing Pieck to lift the cannon forward to aim at the enemy's base. As the Cart titan was climbing the cliff side Leo starts aiming the cannon.
"What are you doing? If you fire now I'll fall and..."
"You can turn into a titan again and get out of here."
"If the cannon falls you'll be trapped underneath! I won't be able to get you out of there."
"A soldier's glory isn't in living. I'll leave to others to find meaning in my death!" Leo shouts before firing the cannon right at the ammunition deposit. The fourth shell hits creating an explosion so strong it launches the enemy cannon's so far into the air it falls outside their fortress' walls. The shot however unbalanced Pieck who fell backwards on the ground. Pieck once more leaves her titan form and starts looking for Leo around the shooter's seat.
"Leo!"
"Get out of here!" Leo shouts from under the cannon. He wasn't dead and the worst wounds he had were from the fall and not the impact with the ground. Cannon fire starts pouring in their direction again.
"Hold on tight, I'll get you out of there immediately!"
"Pieck! Listen, you either leave and Marley loses one crippled madman or you stay and Marley loses it's last line of defense against chaos. There are only two warriors left on the continent, Zeke alone won't be able to keep the peace forever. What will happen if the Cart goes to Paradise? What will happen to the Eldians on the continent if there can be no more Warriors? Go and don't look back! My left hand is free under all this rubble and I still have six bullets left in my pistol, five for them and one for me if needed! I am the leash and you die when I tell you to die! Now go you Eldian dog!" Reluctantly she decides to leave him behind hopping she can make it back to base in time to get reinforcements. At the very least she can try to convince Marley to send someone to recover the cannon.
Once she was far away enough however, Leo starts laughing knowing how his plan worked perfectly.
"Do you really think you need to fire a cannon straight at a target to hit it? Shells aren't bullets, you can arch the firing trajectory without any problems. How did Marley managed to defeat Eldia so long ago with Warriors this gullible?" The second part of his plan could start. He manages to crawl out from under the cannon and starts sneaking towards towards the rebels' base. He had everything planned from the start. Heading for he cliff and toppling the mobile cannon, the number of shells fired, even the design of the seat for the cannon was such that he could crawl under pretty much everything. The right armrest of the chair can be pushed away in two different directions and it is wide enough for someone to crawl away through. The only situation in which he would have been trapped for real would have been if the cannon fell sideways then on it's back. Even then, he would have either had Pieck push the cannon until he would be able to crawl away or he would have waited for the enemy to capture him. From his seat he always hide direct line of fire towards the barrel of the gun and a single bullet would have been enough to ignite the remaining shells inside and after all, he could still risk it all and turn into a titan if he was in real life danger.
Luckily for Leo things went out better then expected. The cannon fire followed Pieck as she fled and Leo was free to sneak around the empty battlefield without anyone targetting him. On his way to the rebels' camp however he makes on stop and collects as much anti-titan explosive as he can. He fills his jacket and pants with the explosive as to be more persuasive when the enemy will find him standing right in front of them from out of nowhere.
Did the first shell he fired really did no damage? No, it bounce off the cannon's armour into a wall creating the perfect hole for him to sneak through.
"Reinforce the main line, keep constant watch, they'll be at our gates any moment now that the cannon is down."
"I'm already inside your walls!" Leo says out of hiding.
"An enemy is inside the base!"
"An ally you fools!" Leo says coming out of cover with his hands in the air but visibly covered in explosives. "I have enough explosives on me to blow up the whole front line if needed. I'm here to speak with you and hand you over the keys to the destruction of Marley."
"Why should we trust you?" The mid-eastern soldiers rightfully ask.
"You see..." Leo says cutting his left hand. "I'm a devil from the island of Paradise." He says revealing them the titan shifter lightning.
"No one dare to fire! If he turns into a titan here we're all dead!"
"Good, now let us speak about the defeat of Marley." Leo's plan was bold, insulting to the mid-eastern forces and so may say even too good to be true. It was bold since he was still aiming at the Warhammer titan. It was insulting since the mid-eastern forces would have to give up their position and relocate their whole operation in another place. As for being too good to be true, well. Leo's plan was for the mid-eastern forces to disband from that location and scatter all over Marley as spies posing as war refugees. They would head to the cities he circled out as potential targets where the Tybur family lives. Once one of the spies finds their location the mid-eastern soldiers and the revolutionaries would gather around that town and plan a sneak attack on the residence. They will capture all the Tybur family members and take them in a secret place where Leo would consume them until he gets the powers of the Warhammer titan. Once he gets those Marley will no longer be able to defeat its enemies since they will no longer be able to use titans against them. The Warhammer would be enough to face the remaining warriors in battle meaning Marley's technology outdated weapons would lose in a direct fight.
"As for what happens next, you'll keep pretending that you are interested in this position. You'll fight them off until either the Cart or the Beast titan appear. Once titans enter the battlefield you retreat and head out into Marley as I've told you. As for me... tie me to a chair..." The soldiers follow his instructions, tying him to a chair, removing and removing his uniform. They would then torture him, cuts, punches, cold water, everything they could think off. It has to look like they've been trying to extract informations for him. Once they are gone, the revolutionaries are to leave him in some random room for Marley to find him. Leo couldn't join the revolution since he both had to keep spying on Marley from within as well as being a troublesome individual to travel around with. The sight of a man unable to use his right hand would be too obvious and the army would discover he is alive way to easily leading to uncomfortable questions.
From his empty room, tied to the chair, Leo could finally hear gunfire and cannon shots outside. He hasn't taken into consideration being hit by a cannon ball but if that was to happen he can just turn into a titan and fight whatever Marley would throw at him in a suicidal attack.
"They are taking... quite some time to arrive. Ah, I think they broke my nose while beating me..." While waiting Leo loses consciousness. Vague sounds and voices can be heard as he drifts on the edge between states of consciousness. As the Marley soldiers go through different rooms looking for remaining stragglers they find Leo all bloodied up leaning forward in a chair. He was cut, burnt, splashed with freezing cold water and beaten worse than the wounds he inflicted on himself training.
"I can recognise the hospital ceiling by now. How many times have I been in here?"
"Four times, you've been in here four times already in less than half a year."
"General... I didn't knew you could read minds."
"I can't. I'm just counting the times I had to wait for you to wake up from the brink of death. You've been in a comma for two days."
"Again?"
"I should be asking you that. Are you that suicidal or something?"
"Yes general."
"Yes?"
"General... all my friends are dead! I've seen them die in front of my eyes. Every time I close my eyes I see my companions scream as they charge the enemy artillery. Every time there's silence I can hear their bones crunch and break as the enemy massacres them. The people that survived are no longer the same people and I'm the only one who remembers them." Leo is holding back tears, real tears this time, not just from his right eye. "If... if I go and meet one of them now they wouldn't know who I am. They might even see me as an enemy, a liar, they might even think I'm insane. Not only are they dying in my head every single day but they'll die tomorrow and the day after. What disservice I would do to them if I ever stop? How could I ever face them in death after I was the one sent to save them. I cannot fail, I have to carry them on my shoulders even if I could walk no more."
"Then you'll never be alone. This is the third generation of Warriors I've trained this far. I've seen children die, fight one another only for the right to eat and be eaten by titans. When I look at them, Zeke, Pieck, Rainer, Annie, Bertolt, Marcel I can see their predecessors and I know I won't die knowing they'll outlive me. Sometimes I hope one of the previous personalities take over just to lessen the guilt I feel leading these mortal children into battle. We're both survivors of unpleasant circumstances but this is the country we were born into and we have to be proud of it. Marley struggled against the titans, Marley won and Marley conquered. Tens of thousands of people died, lived and fought against the injustice of life itself for us to be here today. I, Theo Magath couldn't have been born in any other nation on earth, you Leo Zuege couldn't have been born under different circumstances either. This is what our ancestors force us to live with so you might as well make them proud and live a little longer."
"I'll make my country proud general!" "Eldia will flourish."