Chapter 1 Part 2 - First Contact
The children sat on a large piece of debris outside of the wreckage, watching the large green man in front of them. After their encounter within the ship he instructed them to follow him. While still out of energy, they had no choice but to comply. He surveyed different rooms in the ship to find out what still worked. He eventually led them outside and sat them down on a sturdy piece of rumple and instructed them to wait as he surveyed the area. Several hours had passed by the time he'd finished and they had started to get impatient with the stranger.
"What are you picking up Cortana, anything useful?"
"Most of the debris is beyond repair. Some could be repaired after extensive maintenance, but only a small percent is usable
"And the rescue beacon?"
"Operational, but the range has been severely reduced. No one will be able to read it unless they're within orbit of the planet."
"It's better than nothing. For now let's get a better understanding of our situation. We know there's humans here, so we may be able to get some useful information. We'll return to the crash once we know more."
"Roger that. There's a functional warthog on the other side of the wreck. We can ask the children where to go." Chief gathered whatever supplies he could find in the immediate area; a shotgun, a couple grenades, some first aid kits; and returned to the children.
"Alright, since i'm in uncharted territory here, you three are my best source of information. Where's the population center?" The children looked puzzled by his wording, but the black haired boy was the first to speak up.
"Excuse me sir, I don't think you're aware since you… fell from the sky, but wall maria was breached by the titans not long ago. We need to make it to the inner wall before they make it out this far."
That was the second time Chief heard that word. "You said that when you first ran into me. What is a titan?"
"They're giant monsters that eat humans," the blonde boy chimed in, "the walls were built to protect humanity from them."
Chief pondered for a second. "Understood, tell me where to go and I'll take you to the wall. Follow me." Chief turned away from them and motioned for them to follow.
The party arrived at an overturned warthog. "What is this thing?" the blonde boy questioned.
"Our transportation." Chief placed one hand on the warthog's frame and flipped it onto its wheels, much to the amazement of the three kids. "You three get into the passenger seat and hold on tight." Chief takes a seat at the wheel while the three kids climb into the adjacent one. He hit the gas and took off in the direction of wall Rose.
The passengers marveled at the machine's power, it was faster and more maneuverable than anything they had seen back home. The 100km trek that would have taken them a couple hours could be done in less than an hour with this; they could make up for their lost time. While they traveled, Chief questioned more about these "Titans." They told about their range in sizes, their strength, how outside of their desire to eat people, they are mindless. Before long the gate to the wall was insight, but also off in the distance several titans approached. Most of them were too far away to intercept them in time, but one way out in front, a 10m one, would have to be dealt with to pass. As the warthog drew close Chief slammed on the brakes and swung around from the driver seat out onto the mounted gun. "Cover your ears." As Chief fired at the beasts center of mass, he armour piercing rounds tore through the titan's flesh stunning it briefly. The damage was however short lived as the titan began to regenerate and turned its attention to its assailant.
"Accelerated regeneration huh, what a fascinating creature," Cortana spoke to Chief.
"You can study it after we kill." Chief switches his target from center of mass to its legs. Meanwhile on top of the wall, garrison guards are surveying the situation.
"The first few titans are arriving, It's going to be hard getting refugees in now."
"Anyone from the south has either arrived by now or is dead, we just need to keep our guard up in case they attack wall Rose as well." The sound of the gunpowder detonation catches the attention of the garrison guard on top of the wall. They watch in confusion as the strange man tries to fight a titan without ODM gear. "What is that guy doing, is he suicidal?"
"Look, there's kids down there on… what is that thing he's on?"
"What are you two doing?! Get down there and help them!" Their commanding officer ordered them into action.
The titan collapses from the hail of bullets that eviscerated its legs."That should buy us a moment, now do any of you know how to kill it." A moment of silence goes by before the timid boy speaks up.
"It's the nape of the neck. If you don't destroy it, it will just keep regenerating."
"Is that so?" Chief dismounts from the turret and grabs one of the frag grenades he salvaged before and draws his combat knife. The titan slowly starts to struggle back to its feet, but is slammed back into the ground under the sudden pressure of the half metric ton man coming down on its back. Chief drives his knife into the titans neck, carving out a huge gash. He pulls the pin on his grenade and shoves it as deep into the beast's neck as possible. With the explosive primed, Chief backpedals back onto solid ground and sheaths his knife. The titan puts its hand out and reattempts to stand; in an instant the grenade detonates, flying viscera in all directions. The titan lay limp, missing its upper back and the lower half of its head.
"Quickly Chief, grab a sample before we head inside." He plunges his hand into the pile of gore and grabs a handful of matter. The chunk shrinks, emitting a large volume of steam and soon evaporates completely, blood and all. "Rapid decomposition as well, perplexing."
"We can try again later. Right now let's get inside." He returns to the hog and pulls it up to the wall's gate. The garrison guard hanging from their lines half way up the wall were speechless from what they'd just witnessed. "Can you let us through, before the rest catch up."
The one guard stumbled over their words in response, "Uh... yeah… alright." He pushed the trigger on his gear and retracted back up the wall, a minute later the gate opened. Chief drove the warthog on through and was greeted with a crowd of people who had heard the gunfire on the other side. Most of them appeared to be refugees and were in fear that this wall would be destroyed as well. Chief honked the horn a few times to disperse the crowd, they had clearly never seen a vehicle before as most ran in fear from the sudden noise. The garrison member present put up their guard against the assumed threat. It didn't faze Chief who stood up out of the hog, towering over the frightened guards, and began to speak.
"Those three children are refugees, make sure they're taken care of. As for me, I need to speak to whoever your authority figure is, military leader or government official. I have some questions." The guards didn't move and instead stretched their swords out further.
"Until we verify who you are… you're not going anywhere." One of the men sheepishly spoke, stepping close and putting his sword right up to Chief's visor. The gesture was unappreciated as chief grabbed the sword and with a split pivot of his arm, sheared the blade from its hilt.
"Relax, let's not do something you'll regret." The action only instilled more fear into the men who stepped back, struggling desperately to maintain their composure.
"At ease men. If this gentleman wanted to hurt you lot, he would have done so already." A man who appeared to be in his mid to late forties approach from behind the guards. He was bald with a well groomed mustache, a laid back expression and an aura of relaxed authority. "I apologize for the rude welcome; a lot has happened today so the men are a bit on edge. I take it you're not from around here." He stretched out his hand, "Im Dot Pixis, commander of the garrison's southern territory."
Chief took his hand, "You can get me to whoever I need to speak to?"
"I can. Men get those children to the refugee camp." He barked his order at the men who had just regained their composure. "You can follow me. We have a bit of a journey to make. You might just be the best news we've received all day."
