Disclaimer: I do not own Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.
And Thank you
"Hi!"=Yelling/Title
"Hi"= Speaking
'Hi'=Thinking
"Hi" = Flashback
'Hi'= Flashback thinking
Hi=Intro
"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling
Chapter 6
September 13th, 2018
It's now been 16 days since beginning of Operation Troy and 5 days since the official signing of the treaty between the Coalition's government representatives and the ruler of the now recognized Kingdom of Eldia King Fritz Gwerder agreeing upon the terms under which our forces would be expected to aid the Eldians. The terms call for the use of Coalition troops to work as intermediaries and aid in the spreading of necessary food & medical relief to the civilians who reside within the outer most zones of the settlement. It also allows for the creation of a militia unit that would be trained by a small group of Coalition instructors and briefly led by officers from the Coalition force before transferring them over to be controlled by the Eldian government. With the treaty signed Coalition forces were able to officially begin being transferred into the settlement and begin being stationed at within their pre-assigned districts of surveillance along with the beginning of supervised distribution of aid materials within each district that is currently occupied by Coalition units. Due to the recent introduction of military units into these areas and the overall lack of protection we were unable to send any reporters into the zones themselves, but as soon as we can get journalists in them we will begin feeding you whatever information that we're able to gather. In addition to this the first Red Cross & UN relief vehicles have begun to assemble on our side of the border under the protection of UN military units, they're set to enter the gate on September 18th and intend to begin distributing relief supplies in the designated outer districts as soon as they're designated as safe.
Meanwhile on our nation's home front things have unfortunately taken a turn for the worse as critics from the Front Nationale* have begun to call into question the way in which the president has been conducting the war with their chief spokesman, representative Henry Duvalier, having gone on record stating the following.
"Members of the National Assembly do my ears deceive me have we really just agreed to the terms dictated to us by some half wit king who sits in a glorified wooden shack in a third world mud whole? Our country is much greater than theirs, boasting one of the most advanced and successful economies in the world and an army to match. So tell me members of the National Assembly do my ears deceive me? If they are not, then our 'president' is truly mad along with any who agree with him! If these backward savages truly fear us then it is best that we make good upon that fear to reclaim the former glory of France, for now is as good a time as any to use the cards which have been left to us to steak a claim in this new world's soil! For the benefit of those who live their along with our own"
Since the making of these statements President Macron has made a public declaration of his intentions to possibly create a National Coalition between himself, the French Republican Party, the Democratic Movement, French Centrist Party, and the moderate wings of the Socialist Party to possibly garner more national support for the war; the results of which are yet to be seen. In addition to this recent censuses have shown an increase of military enlistment in the regular army by 39% and an increase of entrance in L'Ecole Militaire* by 29% and recent polls have so far shown that 76% of the French public support the current military & humanitarian operation as it stands, with many commenting that they desire a quick affair with low casualties. Now in other news...
- France 24 Evening Broadcast
September 13th, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13, Late Morning
The bright late summer sun shone down upon the long four row column of trainees as they stood at attention in the middle of one of the various military training grounds of the Eldian military, unceremoniously dubbed Camp 13. To the average Eldian civilian Camp 13 was just a rumor, a old tale from spun by military veterans who'd long since lost their sanity and now felt as though the only way to gain it was to speak publicly of their torture, and in fact the reality was even more inglorious. The Camp itself was truly nothing more than a glorified cog in the large machine that was the great archipelago of camps used to train, house, equip, and feed the Eldian military and this particularly miserable camp was run by one training instructor Keith Shadis. Unlike most of the training instructors who were given the luxury of being stationed at such a training post Shadis had actually seen action via leading one of the Survey Corps' many, and seldom successful, expeditions outside the small settlement controlled by the Eldian royal monarchy. It had been this exposure to the brutal realities of the combat which awaited those who elected to join the military in their people's struggle against the Titans and it was this knowledge that drove him to be so brutal in his initiation of members into the military family, but even he was surprised by the situation that he now found himself apart of.
Shadis had just finished his usual initiation of the civilians in their transition to becoming the status of trainees, and he could already tell that some of those who'd perceived the army as an easy route to a full stomach & a consistent pay-check from those who were legitimately interested serving the king, nothing a little shouting in one's personal space couldn't fix, but even he was on his toes. The reason for him being in his alert state lay almost entirely in the small group of individuals, all of whole were in different uniforms, standing to his immediate right and had been examining his every move like a bunch of hawks. From the moment that he'd heard of the arrival of the foreigners and of their incredibly well developed weapons Shadis had known that as long as they remained as allies they would be able to aid in the turning of the tide in the war against the Titians and it might finally lead to the end. However it was already easy to tell that this alliance would be fraught with difficulties simply based on the terms which these foreigners had requested this new batch of recruits that they'd be overseeing to be instructed was weird and it had begun with their uniforms. Instead they'd requested that rather than having them utilize the uniforms of old these foreigners desired to provide them unique uniforms of their own making to help distinguish them from the other military branches, which meant that his usual greeting of the new cadets had been done while they were still in their civilian clothing rather than the traditional Cadet Training Corps uniforms. Hopefully this new alliance would lead to the end, the end of the state's seemingly endless calls for civilians to be pressed into military service to deal with the Titan threat, the end to the seemingly endless loss of youths to the nation's ever failing war effort, which would mean the end to the ever growing list of memorial funerals for military casualties. The sound of military boots walking on the wooden stage broke Shadis from his thoughts allowing him to see the military officer, possibly a general, walking towards the lip of the stage so that he could better address the 15,000 volunteers in front of him.
"15,000 volunteers, 15,000 soldiers, and if I repeat my mistakes of the expedition 15,000 casualties" Shadis muttered to himself as he watched the man in uniform stop upon reaching what he presumed was the lip of the stage.
"Cadets, volunteers, citizens of Eldia my name is Corps General Jean-Claude Dreyfus and I am the commanding officer that has been assigned to oversee the training of every single one of you as part of this unit" the man began moving his hands behind his back and clutching them possibly as a sign of confidence or unsureness or perhaps a combination of both.
"I would first like to thank you all for having made the decision to join the military in order to protect your fellow human beings and I must add that for your decision you will be duly rewarded, as the traditional payment of 5 copper coins per soldier per week served will be doubled to 10 copper coins per soldier per week served" the moment that this was said the various cadets began turning to each other and speaking amongst themselves, no doubt gossiping as to what or who they intended to spend their money on the minute that they got their first paycheck. However, they weren't allowed to use such a luxury for more than a few seconds.
"Silence!" Shadis shouted, his voice echoing throughout he entirety of the camp the sheer authority laced within it causing all the cadets in front of him to immediately return to attention, especially those who had so recently been forced to personally experience the total focus of his wrath.
"However, I must tell you all that the doubling of the amount of money in your paychecks should by no means be mistaken as leisure pay for in reality it is hazard pay. Unlike other units you will not be given a choice as to what branch of the military you join because in order for this unit to be effective we must solely pledge to work alongside the Survey Corps to take ground and secure it for safety of your people" The minute the words left the general's mouth a sense of dread instantly swept over the large group of cadets and along that came a silence, a different sort of silence than before, the silence of a group of people who are of the mind that they've just been earmarked for death.
"As you know that branch of the military has a 70% casualty rate among those who join it and that it is for this reason that I advise the following; if you have young children and are their only guardian, old relatives for whom you are the only care taker, or a family to which you are the only breadwinner I highly recommend that you consider going to the head office of this camp in the next few days and resign from the military, for their sake if not your own. For the rest of you, I simply as that ever last one of you bear down and stick with the program we're going to put you through over the course of the next year, and I guarantee that you will be more than ready to defend the one's you love" With this silence once again returned over the large group of trainees, as though the general was allowing for each trainee to have a personal moment of thought before continuing on.
"Now before I dismiss you I would like to call upon you for volunteers to aid in the creation of a new military unit that will be critical in the ensuing military campaign that we intend to launch, those who elect to join this unit will become part of the Auxiliary Air Force until they can be properly integrated into the new Eldian military, will all those willing to become part of it please step forwards" with this conclusion there was once again an aura of silence which was only broken by one lone recruit stepping forwards. The girl was rather short and sported what looked to be white skin and black hair and a level of meekness that made anyone instantly question why she'd elected to join the military.
'If my memory serves me right that's the Carolina girl, never figured that she'd be willing to join an elite unit of any sort due to the fact she barely looks as though she could be a member of a regular unit; but life is full of surprises' Shadis thought to himself.
"What is you're name soldier?" the general asked causing the attention of the whole group of recruits to suddenly fall upon her resulting in the shaking which racked her body to get even worse.
"M-M-Mina C-Carolina " the soldier replied, her head looking down in what was possibly a hope to relieve some of the attention put on her. An attempt that failed miserably.
"Mrs. Carolina if for some reason you were called to give something up to protect your people what would you be willing to give up?" the general asked causing another wave of silence to follow the question, that was until another young individual stepped forwards.
"What is your name cadet?" the general asked, causing the blond haired individual to stiffen up and make a face which made Shadis think that the bow was either holding in his breath...or constipated.
"Thomas Wagner, sir" the boy replied, the tension on his body not easing up what so ever.
"All of you look, these two brave individuals have elected to step forwards and pledge their lives to the defense of not just their families but you as well, who else boasts the will to join them?" slowly, also so slowly, others came from forwards and proceeded to announce their name; in total 16 young individuals elected to take the plunge and join this secret unit and none of them knew the wild ride which lay ahead of them.
September 13th, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13, Mid-Afternoon
Armin had thought many things throughout the course of his short life. When he'd first head of it he'd thought that the idea of their being a world outside of the walls to be a sort of glorious realm forever out of his reach. When his parents had left him with his grandfather one dark early spring evening saying that they were going on a short trip & to be a good boy while they were gone he'd assumed that he'd see them in a few days, a week at most, but had never seen them again and could say now that he was extremely confident that he never would see them on earth again. When his grandfather been forced to suspend telling him the nightly epic that was his bed time story because he'd been "recruited' to join the military expedition that aimed to take back the Shinganshina district; he'd thought that even if the expedition failed his grandfather would come back to tell him the next installment in the story that night, after all his grandfather was too smart to die. Now nearly 9 years later he was still waiting to hear the next part of the story. And finally when he'd agreed to join the military along with Eren & Mikasa he'd done so because he honestly thought that it was better than starving to death in the fields, but never in a million years did he think that he would be forced to wear the ugly, brown, thing that he currently donned in the middle of this mysterious training camp.
"Armin!" a loud voice shouted, causing the said boy in question to be pulled from his thoughts and turn to see his two friends, Eren and Mikasa, walking towards him in their own uniforms with Eren looking about as thrilled at his new uniform as Armin was while Mikasa dawned her normal neutral expression.
"Can you believe this?" Eren asked upon reaching him, pulling at one of the sleeves from his uniform as if to emphasize his frustration.
"Well they certainly are unusual" Armin replied, his right arm raised behind his head as tried to create a sort a relaxed attitude that might possibly calm down Eren. Needless to say it didn't.
"Of course they're unusual, they look like those potato sacks we used to harvest vegetables back on the state farms" Eren began, his arm gestures slowly becoming wild as his pent up frustration slowly was released before continuing.
"How's anyone, let alone ourselves, supposed to take us seriously?"
"It's not like the uniform we wear matters, if we kill the highest amount of Titans they'll have to respect us" Mikasa said, throwing in her opinion on the matter in a nonchalant manner & tone that made I almost seem as though she didn't care about the matter.
"And what the hell is this?" Eren asked as he pulled the shoulder strap of the small bag that the foreigners had given him from over his shoulder and withdrew from it the large tin bowl that lie within it.
"Maybe it's how they cook their food?" Armin answered, causing Eren to roll his eyes.
"Maybe it's a hat?" Mikasa suggested causing Eren to place the thing on his head.
"Oh yes, because this will be so~ effective in protecting me from the mouth of a Titan" Eren replied while using the straps to jostle the helmet from side to side to emphasize his mocking of the idea. While the two continued their argument, with Eren harshly examining and questioning each and every single detail of the uniform mentioning its color, thickness, and general design several more times with Mikasa offering the occasional rebuttal or suggesting some sort of explanation in response to each one of his statements. Armin listened, though not too carefully, as these the conversation came to pass only for someone else to catch his attention not because of their physical look, nor because he knew them but instead because of the clothing that she looked to be wearing. If his memory served him right she was one of the first volunteers for the secret unit which was being put together and the uniform she dawned looked to be a representation of it. There were many differences with the first being that her uniform was of a dark bluish color rather than the mud brown that coated the uniform he, Eren, and Mikasa wore, the second being that the uniform boasted yellow epilates on each of her shoulders, and the final was that her had had a looked be a sort of top hat with a short black visor and a high top*.
'I wonder what they told he when they held her & the other volunteers back for those few minutes while the rest of went to get our training uniforms fitted' Armin curiously thought, subconsciously raising his hand to his chin. Unfortunately, Armin was not permitted too much time to think on the subject as his mind was pulled from its musings by a simple question.
"...right Armin?" a voice, from the tone of it probably Eren, asked causing him to turn around and look towards his two friends.
"Sorry, I wasn't listening" Armin replied causing Eren to roll his eyes.
"I was telling Mikasa that there's no way that those people can hope to kill, let alone successfully defeat the Titans" Eren declared, repeating his previous statement.
"Well these people obviously have a system in place, and it's obviously worked in the past, maybe we should give it a try" Armin replied trying to remain neutral, but he could already see by the look on his friend's face he had failed in his objective and that his punishment would be a long, fruitless conversation.
September 13th, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13, Mid-Afternoon
Cesar couldn't help but let off a fatigued yawn as he stood inspecting the large group of recruits that was organized in front of him, aimlessly conversing between themselves on various things that they probably found important and as much as he knew he should've been joining in and conversing with them he honestly didn't have the stamina or interest to do so. The reason for Cesar's weariness could be easily traced back to the transfer that he and his second in command had been issued that resulted in him being moved from his original posting at the air base just on this side of the gate, aptly named Fort Bonaparte after France's first Emperor. The transfer had been delivered at the twilight of the previous day and had been ordered to be honored immediately, meaning that the two of them had been given only 15 minutes to pack before being forced onto a Lockheed C-130 Hercules along with 62 other unfortunate souls, most of who were from the ground branch of the Foreign Legion, as part of a long convoy of troops & supplies aimed to begin the relief effort planned for the settlement. However, unlike the rest of the troops involved the two of them were bundled into a small Renault GBC 180 and driven down the settlement's bumpy dark age streets & off to this Godforsaken training ground in the middle of nowhere arriving far enough from the crack of dawn so that they could unload without being seen by any of the recruits they'd been tasked to train and possibly lead into battle but not far enough for them to get enough sleep. After grappling with this reality there was also the fact of the uniforms which his recruits were wearing.
'I knew that the Russians had kept a few of their uniforms from their old Soviet days, but good Lord they look as though they're part of the old Soviet military' Cesar thought while glancing at the large group of trainees. The whole group had been given the old Soviet uniforms in helmets, minus their iconic red & gold stars of course, and the sight of the ugly uniforms caused him to roll his eyes which, as a result of the lack of sleep, caused Cesar to experience a brief yet extreme head ache.
"Should we set them at ease for tomorrow sir,?" A voice asked causing Cesar to glance to his right and see Joseph standing next to him, a similar weary look in his eyes.
"Sure" Cesar began before grabbing Joseph by the arm and adding "but how about while I do that you go to the mess and see if you can obtain two cups of coffee or tea or chocolate, anything to wake us up". Joseph responded to this request with a firm nod before going off in search of proverbial mess and the any hot drink it may contain while Cesar himself turned back towards the recruits in preparation to address them as he looked to see what must've been the pre-assigned drill Sargent walking up from his left.
"Attention!" Cesar shouted causing all of the recruits in the yard to slowly turn towards him in response to a call that would've caused well trained soldiers to snap to attention, a sign of how far the group had to go.
'The drill Sargent is going to have fun eating all of you for breakfast' Cesar thought with his gaze going and falling upon two girls of varying height, one with blond hair & the other with brown hair, but both sporting looks of boredom on their faces 'especially you two, it's a pity that I won't be able to be apart of it'.
"My name is Cesar Khansari I have been tasked with the training & guiding of the volunteers of your nation's new air force, I have been informed that we are going to let the lot of you have the rest of the day off so that you can break your new uniforms in" he began causing the group to begin to return to its previous business before he could add the following.
"But, you are warned here today that starting tomorrow you will all rise at 6:30 am, be at breakfast by 7:15 am, and at 7:45 am you will be ready to begin your training you will receive the rest of your daily schedule tomorrow " Cesar stated, remembering the statement that he'd spent the hours that she should've been sleeping reading while also looking at the astonished looks on all the cadet's faces.
"Now with that, you're dismissed" he finished before watching the whole group once again disperse, no doubt to speak over the information that they'd just been delivered.
September 13th, AOT Universe, King Fritz's Private study, Eldian Royal Palace Evening
King Fritz sat in the high backed chair that lay in his study, his head facing towards the wall opposite to the door with a small goblet of the finest wine from the castle cellars in his hand and a map of the kingdom in front of him on his desk. To say that he wasn't in a good mood was to have the gall to make a bold understatement of the king's thoughts on the situation that he now found himself in, and he partially knew who to blame and punish as a result. Sipping from his goblet of wine the king cast his gaze down upon the large map in front of him and examined its geographic and political layout for what must've been the hundredth or possibly even thousandth time in the past hour. The tradition of map making had been passed down to him from his father who received the tradition from his own father, Fritz's grandfather, and ever since the royal family had made a habit of redrawing to the map at the same time of the year every year of each ruler's reign. The map was not a simple outline of the kingdom's borders but was infinitely more important than that as it contained notes on that year's harvests, the land on which the harvest's were being brought to effectively gage whether or not the yield was a freak event or average, and finally listed the political families who had been tasked with running the land. Now as Fritz looked at this year's newest rendition of the map, the first time he'd looked at it in a few weeks, he was mentally underlining the names of several families in red; a sign of their gradually increasing dissatisfaction.
'The fire always existed up until now, but some's intentionally stoked the fire making it so that the delicate food which was being cooked on top of it now is nothing more than a charred mess' Fritz thought as he put the goblet down on the table. He didn't have long to continue to ponder the situation as he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
'Ah, he's arrived' Fritz thought before responding.
"Come in" he answered, causing the door to slowly opening with a creak followed by the sound of several footsteps made by what sounded like several persons.
"You called for me your majesty?" a shaky, cowardly sounding voice asked causing the king to smile.
"Ah Father Nick yes I did, will you please shut the door" Fritz replied, causing the creaking sound of the door to follow along with the sound of a click.
"What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" Nick asked causing Fritz to take another sip of his wine before answering. God, or should he say Walls, he hated that man; he hated every single bit of him and his stupid cult. Ever since he was a child he'd found them and their teachings to be so blindly hopeful and idealistic that it was sickening, but his father was indeed right when it came to their effect on the populace.
'They are quiet effective at pacifying the populace' Fritz thought as he poured himself another drink from his goblet.
"Yes Nick I was just wondering about something, would you like a drink" Fritz began, pausing temporarily to perform the required lip-service of being a nice host.
"Oh, no thank you your majesty it's one of the many things that I swore off upon becoming a priest" Nick replied causing Fritz to set down the bottle of wine before continuing.
"If I remember correctly you and your followers conducted a prayer service a week before the outsiders arrived on our shores, correct?" Fritz asked, in a calm tone that to any normal politician would cause some sort of alarm upon hearing it's tone. Unfortunately for Father Nick he did not have such political savvy and as such elected to respond to the question as truthfully as he could.
"Yes I did, and the Walls granted us these saviors from a foreign land to free us from the tyranny of the Titans" Nick answered, causing Fritz to temporarily pause before swallowing his current mouthful of wine with a loud gulp.
"I thought so" Fritz began before pausing to take another sip of his wine.
"You thought what?" Nick asked as Fritz finished his sip before putting down his cup.
"Father Nick, do you remember my father's protection edict?" Fritz asked, taking a look inside his goblet to gage the amount of wine left in it.
"Yes, it prohibited the traveling of any individuals beyond the walls along with the letting in of any individuals from the outside, but I fail to see-" Nick began, only to be cut off by the sound of the king's goblet slamming down upon the table in front of him.
"So you admit that despite knowing of this law you called for deliverance from the outside?!" Fritz all but shouted causing Nick along with, for that matter, the guards on either side of him to flinch while subconsciously taking a step backwards.
"Well your majesty, when you put it like that-" Nick began, trying to reason the charges being made against him, but was never able to finish his statement.
"Guards, arrest the good father here on charges of violating the protection act and thus committing a treasonous act with the goals of overthrowing the monarchy!" Fritz shouted as he stood up and turned to face the trio at the entrance of his room. Poor Nick had no time to react as each guard on either side of him took hold of one of his arms, firmly grasping them before raising them into an extremely painful position behind his back that caused them to bear most of his body weight. As such Nick's reaction to going from a natural standing position to such an uncomfortable one was to let out first a gasp in shock and then a cry of pain as the ligaments were forced tp bear an unnaturally large amount of weight. However, Nick was never given the chance to let out all of his pain as the air was forced from his lungs by a strong kick to the gut as a hand firmly grabbed his face and lifted it upwards to bring him to look square in the face of the man who had up until a few seconds ago been a good friend but now seemed to be the architect of his current state of misery.
"You know the only punishment for such a crime is death by hanging, do you not Nick?" Fritz asked, the dropping of the title "Father" an indication of Nick's sudden and most unpredictable fall from grace.
"A sentence to be carried out immediately" Fritz added, causing Nick's look of surprise to become one of terror.
"Your Majesty" Nick cried out in an attempt to appeal to his king's good nature.
"Guards, take this traitor out of my sight!" Fritz ordered, causing the two guards in question to turn and drag the poor man out of the door.
"Wait...WAIT! Your majesty, I have done nothing wrong! What of the people? What of the people?!" Nick cried out as he was dragged away from the chamber, leaving Fritz alone top ponder what he had just done. Turning back to his desk he walked back to it and poured himself another glass of wine before beginning to move towards the next part of his plan. The various Wallist worship sites would have to be seized and guarded with new priests being appointed to take the place of the ones previously associated with Nick, and this plan would have to continue until further notice. All he'd need to do is connect such an event to the arrival of outsiders and then he could properly expel them and cut off all ties with that world, but not before sucking all of the information he could from them.
"Whatever it takes" Fritz spoke to himself before taking a sip of whine, remembering the last words of his father before he died.
"Fritz, my son, whatever it takes protect the throne...and do whatever it takes..."
Front Nationale* = French far-right political party
L'Ecole Militaire*= French Military Academy where the French Military trains its officers in the naval, army, and air force branches
Hey Everybody I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and gear up, boot camp starts tomorrow with various days & events taking place in each chapter.
Sincerely,
Jackie Robinson