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. I would also like to thank ManwithaPlan113 for volunteering to serve as a proofreader for my story. 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 12
June 3rd 14:05 hrs., AOT Universe, Trost District
If one was to describe the scenes at the eastern and central security checkpoints as chaotic then the only way one could describe the scene at the main western checkpoint, and subsequent gate, was that it was on the brink of reaching complete pandemonium as a crowded mess and it was all due to a design flaw in Trost District's gate. Unlike the gates of the outcrops of Wall Maria, the outcrops of Wall Rose were not constructed out of defensive strategy, but instead out of a familiarity with the architecture of the outer most wall. Meaning that Trost was not as well designed for the event of a necessary mass evacuation of its populace to the bordering districts. Something best enshrined in the fact that rather than having a massive Gothic gate that could allow hundred of people to get through at once it had a much smaller Romanesque one that could, at best, allow dozens.
The result of this architectural gaff was that there was now a large crowd of Eldian civilians gathered in front of the district's tiny gate, panic etched onto their faces, some constantly turning to look behind them every few seconds in fear of a titan sneak attack, all begging to be let out. On the other side of the gate a small contingent of Coalition troops, some French but mostly Belgian, trying to communicate with the panicked crowd to calm down and that the situation would be resolved momentarily. Truly the whole thing looked akin to archived footage from the U.S withdrawal from Saigon in 1975 as the Eldians, like the abandoned South Vietnamese, mercilessly pushed against and climbed over one another. Fearing that a failure to do so effectively would cost them their lives.
The cause of all this pandemonium? Simple, one stupid merchant who was not willing to get out of the way.
"Monsieur please move your cart, we can't get through until you do" one of the Belgian officers shouted from the other side of the cart in as polite of a voice that he could muster.
"No, I must get my goods through my whole lively hood depends on it, I will not abandon this cart" the man responded.
"Monsieur, if you move the cart we can get the civilians through and then help you by emptying your cart and taking it through piece by piece" the same officer shouted, the man's trying of his patience gradually becoming more and more clear in his voice.
"Well then, why don't you help me now?" the merchant asked, causing one of the members of the crowd to wail with despair. No doubt realizing that the two parties were stuck at an impasse that no one at the gate had time for.
"Oh shut up!" the merchant shouted at the woman who, with teary eyes, clutched her baby to her chest in an attempt to find self reassurance that she and her infant would indeed survive.
"Listen here asshole!" one of the Belgians began.
"We're military soldiers, now I don't know if that fact means a damned thing for the slobs that you put in the Eldian military, but to us it actually does so get your stupid cart out of our way or so help me-" he continued only to be cut off by the merchant.
"How dare you! Officer, if you have any self respect you will discipline that fouled mouther and ill bred soldier of yours at once!". Before the officer in question could offer a proper response, or a response in general, as moments before he could anything he noticed several small brown clad figures making their way towards the small crowd. The figures, who appeared to be in a full sprint, were obviously human, due to their diminutive size, and all appeared to be looking to be shouldering various forms of small arms. While also being clad in aforementioned uniforms that were a sort of potato skin brown.
"Sir, who's that" a soldier behind him, who'd obviously seen the same thing that he had, asked. Prompting the officer to answer with.
"We'll find out soon enough" the officer replied as he was the figures slowly got closer.
June 3rd 14:07 hrs., AOT Universe, Eldian Air Space, Trost District
"Is everybody alright?" a voice cracked over Cesar's radio causing him to subconsciously reach up to his head set part of his air helmet and begin to shift it a bit so that the microphone on the helmet's right side was not so close to his ear. The motion caused him to also partially turn his head to the right and allow him to look out and see one of his fellow escadrille members flying next to him before focusing back on gaining altitude. As the events which had just gone through his mind as to what had just happened and what they needed to do next.
To say that the take off had been difficult and disorganized would been a rather extreme understatement, a better way to describe it would be nearly impossible and utterly chaotic. No more that two minutes prior they, that being him and now 7, members that made up his escadrille were forced to pull off something that none of the Eldians had been trained for. An old fashioned WW2 direct take off without any of the modern precautions attributed to modern aircraft. While the concept had been something that Cesar and Joseph had indeed been briefed on when it came to the propeller part of their training it was something that they were instructed not to do. With the instructors going so far as to stress that doing so would not only be a violation of air force protocol, but possibly even be flat our illegal on an international scale.
"I'm fine, but I think Antoni got hit" another voice crackled over the microwave, causing there to be a slight gasp to be heard over the radio.
"Who was next to him?" the first voice, which Cesar now recognized to be Joseph's, asked in a slightly frantic tone.
"I-I was, but I think I'm fine" a voice chipped in. The voice so quiet that he almost didn't manage to hear it over the radio.
'Without a doubt that's Cadet Carolina' he thought as he began to gradually turn to level out.
"How's your plane?" Joseph asked. A question which prompted a slight pause which, although he would never admit it, caused Cesar's heart to be catapulted into his throat.
"Fine, if there's a problem my instruments and gages aren't showing it, so everything should be good" Cadet Carolina answered causing Cesar to let go of the breath.
"Captain what should we do next?" someone else asked, to which Cesar could only look at his own instruments and gages to see how he was doing. It was obvious that they wouldn't by any means have the normal amount of fuel that was expected for each plane of an escadrille before they would be allowed to take off for mission. But, at least from what he was looking at, it seemed as though there was enough to possibly do one or two runs at a target as long as they didn't have to fly to positions that were on complete opposite sides of the district.
"Sir, can you hear me? Sir? Sir?" the voice repeatedly asked, causing Cesar's patience to snap.
"Oh for God's sake will you shut up!?" he practically shouted, causing the radio to become deathly silent.
"Now first we're going to do a roll call, then I will call ground control, and then we'll do fuel checks" Cesar stated, stating the agenda with the authority of a proper officer before adding.
"Now roll call in numeric order"
"Green-2, okay" Joseph declared, beginning the roll call.
"Green-3, okay"
"Green-4, okay"
"Green-5, okay"
"...…"
"Green-6, call in" Cesar ordered, only to be meet with silence.
"...…."
"Green-6, call in"
"...…"
'Antoni's gone" Cesar thought, before moving on.
"Green-7"
"Green-7, okay"
"Green-8, okay"
"Green-9, okay"
"Green leader, okay" he stated before turning his attention, and subsequent ire onto ground control.
"Green leader to ground control do you read me over?" he called, only to be subsequently meet with silence causing him to thunder back with.
"For God's sake ground control, wake up will you? I have an entire escadrille air born".
"Hello Green leader, sorry out that, this is ground control" a voice crackled over the radio, followed before there was a brief pause during which breathing could be heard before the man added.
"We have reports of titans assaulting Wall Rose from the South, with heavy concentrations appearing to be formulating on the eastern half of the district, we advise that you proceed with caution to aid the ground forces located as long as is practical"
'Could you be any more vague on the time over the target?' Cesar mentally huffed before switching on his mouth piece and answering.
"Green Leader to ground control, understood". Pausing briefly, Cesar proceeded to once again turn his gaze towards his fuel gage to begin the process of doing the math as to how much fuel he had on board. From what he could tell it seemed as though the engineers on the ground had done been able to refuel the planes fairly quickly, considering how little time they had to do it.
'Looks like I may have upwards of 40 minutes of fuel' he thought as he looked up from his instruments to check the spacing of the planes within his escadrille.
"Alright, everyone, check your fuel and call it in" he instructed, as he performed more calculations in his head as to the transit time between the aerodrome and the target. When all of the cadets had answered it looked like they had a mode of 35 minutes of fuel, and with the estimated total flight time to and from the target being 14 minutes that means that they would be able to stay about 15 minutes over the target. At least if they wanted to be able to land at the aerodrome with relative ease and not in a manner to the helter skelter way they'd taken off.
"Okay listen carefully, we're heading over to the target and I want you to follow me there, once we reach I will give the signal and we'll separate to begin launching air strikes" he began, before looking in the general direction of the target in question.
"Then we'll separate into two sections Green-2, you will take Green-8 and Green-9 to form section 2. I will take Green-3, Green-4, Green-5, and Green-7 to form section two and we'll execute the plan from there. Understood?"
"Yes, sir" the whole escadrille chimed in causing Cesar to physically nod before acting.
"Okay, now follow me" and will that he turned his plane in the direction that they were supposed to go. Not entirely sure as to what was awaiting them.
June 3rd 14:08 hrs., AOT Universe, Eldian District Headquarters, Trost District
No more than several dozen kilometers away from planes of the Cesar's escadrille stood a castle looking building in the center of the civilian district turned war zone known as Trost. The castle itself had a single large tower with four distinctive window adorned floors, with three addition wings that helped to seal it off from the rest of the neighborhoods around it. Each wing having three floors of its own with a multipurpose window for each of the many rooms which dotted them. From the outside the tower portion of the castle looked to go up several stories, but areas such as the building's bell towers were only accessible from the inside by two spiraling staircases making them difficult to traverse. With the whole thing sporting grey walls and surrounding an inner garden with a large fountain.
Compared with the many rural villas that could be found in the innermost areas of Sheena the castle looked large but stuck between the early Renaissance and Late Medieval Period of European history, but surrounded by the many other buildings of the Trost District it seemed to cast a much more impressive figure. However, if the outside of the building looked relatively secure in its relation with the world outside it, especially the titan invaders that surrounded it. The truth was far different, for like with its relationship to the oncoming escadrille the castle's interior might've been in a different world.
A different, dirty, dusty, chaotic, bloody world where one's survival was anything but guaranteed and every minute which passed felt like an hour. Or at least that's the way that one Madeline Fichte would've described the scene that laid before her as she covered her mouth with a small, wet handkerchief to keep from choking on the dust that was now thick in the air. Which, when combined with the smell of spent bullet casings and blood, created a horrifying experience and that was before one began to describe the noise.
'Oh God the noise' she thought as her hearing began to try and make something of the loud cacophony of noise around her, ears locking onto any intelligible noise around her.
"Somebody hold him down!" she heard a voice shout followed by another painted scream as well as gurgling noise, as sickening as it was distinct. No doubt coming from one of the many wounded Garrison members who'd been brought to the headquarters in the many minutes since she and the other reporters had been relocated to their current location.
When the reporters had been brought there a few minutes earlier it had been with other members of the Eldian Legion, under the promise that they'd be safer there than with the regular populace and that if they just sat tight help would arrive soon. But that was before, before the wounded Garrison soldiers started showing up at the headquarters. The lucky ones under their own power, most needing assistance from their fellow soldiers in order to make any progress, but all united in the fact that they were missing something. Arms, hands, legs, some boasting amputations that went all the way to their shoulders or thighs, while one or two had been completely bisected from the waist down.
All sporting pain riddled faces and in desperate need of medical attention, causing Madeline and many of her fellow reporters to drop their cameras and begin acting as volunteer medical personnel for the few medics that had been assigned to the Eldian units. Their assistance managing to make the whole situation a little more manageable, but not necessarily more effective.
"Mrs. Fichte, Mrs. Fichte!" one of the medics shouted, causing her to look up from where she was one the floor. Not realizing that she'd tripped, let alone fallen and hit the ground.
"Are you alright?" he added causing her to look down and, upon seeing no injuries, respond with.
"Y-yes, sorry, I didn't realize that I fell"
"It's alright, there's a lot going on right now, but I need you to get take one of the soldiers and get as many rolls of bandages as you can carry and get back here as soon as possible, can you do that" the man stated, causing her to nod.
"Thank you" the man responded before she turned and began looking to see if there were any people that she could get to help her in her current mission. Unfortunately in her attempt to find someone she happened to spend less than a second passing b y one of the building's windows, just as something was coming their way.
"Get down!" someone shouted seconds before something impacted the window, causing a loud sound to erupt from her right. Seconds before she felt something impact her ankle, causing her to fall almost flat on her face and let out a grunt in pain.
"Ma'am are you okay?" a familiar voice asked, causing her to look up and smile when she saw Brandon offering her a hand.
"Yeah, I just took a hard tumble that's all" she answered as she took the hand that he was offering her before getting up before addig.
"By the way, what was that?"
"It appears that those things can throw small bits of debris, wish they'd mentioned that in the reconnaissance reports" Brandon answered, as he wiped the dust and debris off of his jacket. To be honest most of the titans couldn't so much pick up or throw things, it would probably be best categorized as hitting things really hard causing them to lift off into the air. But the result was the same, as was the result of having massive projectiles flying through the air and hitting something while traveling at a high speed.
Rising to her feet once again, Madeline once again found her ears picking up the distinct sound of wounded soldiers, and possibly reporters, groaning in pain. Causing the one or two available medics to begin running to the soldiers and assess their wounds before moving those who were in more dire need of immediate attention towards the few tables which had been set aside for whatever first aid could be given out.
"Where were you heading Ma'am?" Brandon asked.
"I need to get bandages with the aid of as many available people as possible if-" she began only for one of the Eldian Legionnaires to walk up and ask.
"What're the two of you standing around here for?"
"Mrs. Fichte was enlisting my help to get medical supplies from one of the lower floors" Brandon asked, causing the Legionnaire to nod before adding.
"I see, there's not much I can do to assist you, but I can possibly offer you two of my legionnaires to assist you in your endeavor on one condition".
"What's that?" Madeline asked, causing the man to turn and face her.
"That you allow for no less than one of them to grab more ammunition for us, we sadly can't spare any men to do the job for us" he added, causing Madeline to nod emphatically. Desperate for the help and not seeing any problem in their agreement.
"Alright then" the man began before turning around and shouting.
"Ymir, Springer get your asses over here!" a statement which saw two soldiers suddenly rush over and stand at attention.
"What is it sir?" the shorter, and presumably male, one asked as he saluted.
"These two civilians have volunteered to descend to some of the lower levels of the castle to get some badly needed bandages and I have enlisted you two to aid them and retrieve some ammunition, understood?" the speaker, who was without a doubt an officer, thundered earning a "yes sir" from the two soldiers in question. Causing the two to begin making their way towards the supposed stairwell which led down to the lower levels in question. A relieving development as truthfully Madeline didn't think that either she or Brandon knew exactly where the specialized medical supply room was, let alone where the building's weapon cachet was. The many doorways that were connected to the winding staircase all looking identical in the poorly torch lite light, making the descent a silent and tense process.
"If you don't me asking, do either of you know who those soldiers they brought in were or why they were so badly chewed up?" Brandon asked as they descended down the stairs, his question providing a reason for the four to talk. Or at least that's what one might think, as instead of receiving an immediate response the two Legionnaires proceeded to keep making their way down the stairway in question. Silence being the answer to the question until the front one of them, Madeline was fairly sure that it was the girl named Ymir, paused allowing her companion who was the second person in their quartet to give an answer.
"I'm not entirely sure" the boy named Springer began, glancing over his shoulder as he did so.
"But I think that they're part of the Garrison, a vanguard or forward reserves of some sort, maybe something else". The answer caused Madeline to be slightly surprised, not because of who the soldiers were but more so where they were given who they fought for.
"But I thought all the regular Eldian military units were being withdrawn to section headquarters like this one" she responded almost instinctively, causing Springer to nod in agreement.
"So did I, or at least that's what we were told was supposed to happen, but obviously that wasn't the way things went for this unit" Springer added, not feeling the need to place anymore of his thoughts on the matter as they restarted their descent down the stairway. After all, what else was there that could be said? They'd seen first hand the result of this unit engaging the titans directly without any of the Coalition's support, a lesson they were fairly sure wouldn't happen again. The only thing that Madeline couldn't understand was why those Garrison soldiers had elected to do so? They, must've know how their comrades in other engagements had faired attempting to do the same thing. So what, had they seen?
'What in deed?' Madeline thought as they continued their descent.
"Hold up" the woman at the front of their quartet declared in an authoritative voice declared while simultaneously raising her hand in a clenched fist, causing all of them to stop upon hearing this declaration. Pointing the flashlight that she held in her right hand, the women proceeded to examine the door before fiddling with the door handle and pushing the door open, allowing the quartet to exit the stairway. In doing this they were able to finally enter one of the building's lower floors, somewhere near the basement, and began examining the various boxes that were scattered around the various rooms. picking up whatever they could based on what the boxes' claimed was inside of them as well as how heavy they appeared.
June 3rd 14:10 hrs., AOT Universe, Eldian Air Space, Trost District
"Can you see anything Green-2?" Cesar asked as he looked out of his cockpit canopy, his heads up display fully engaged.
"No, nothing Green-leader" Joseph responded in a tone that was somehow calm and strained at the same time.
"Wait, I think I see something" one of the other escadrille members declared before adding.
"I have a visual sighting of the hostiles Green-leader, down at roughly 4 O'clock low". The announcement caused Cesar to look in a diagnolly downward direction to the left to find that sure enough the titans were down in the distance, but not where they'd been expecting them. The previous reports had informed them that they were coming from the west and gathering by the headquarters, however the majority of the titans were instead on the opposite side of the headquarters. Not only that but they were gathering at all but rather widely spread out with several large carcasses strewn in the city streets.
"Okay listen up, I will lead section 1 to attack the titans and I want the members of section 2 to keep your eyes peeled for any abnormal titans until we rotate, understood?" Cesar stated earning a series of affirmative responses.
"Alright then, section 1 here we go, attacking now" he ordered before he and the other 3 planes of his sub-section broke off from the rest of the escadrille and began making their runs on titans below.
Sizing up one of the medium sized titans Cesar proceeded to rapidly descend from his position, locked his computer on the beast, aimed for its neck, and squeezed the button on the joystick causing a 68 mm rocket to fly forth from his aircraft. Exploding upon impacting the titan's neck and sending huge chunks of the beast's flesh, as well as steam from the gaping wound, into the air. Then, as suddenly as he'd begun his run, Cesar broke off to the left suddenly and rapidly gained altitude to avoid the snapping jaws of the other titan's whose attention he'd gained.
"Nice kill sir" one of the other pilots declared over the radio in a cheerful tone, causing Cesar to silently shake his head before responding with.
"Thank you, now go get one yourself".
There are no exact words within the English language that can be used to entirely describe the one-sided affair which took place following the engagement of the titans by Cesar and his section due to the relative ease with which they did it. Staying high, and well out of the large jaws and paws of their foes, the Super Étendards made repeated runs against the exposed titans. Firing one, only on a rare occasion two, SNEB rockets before breaking off their attack. Something which caused confidence to build amongst the unit, a development which soon came out in their conversations.
"This is easier than hitting a barn door" Cesar heard someone exclaim before for another one chimed in.
"More like catching fish in a barrel"
"You'll be the one in that barrel if you don't keep your eyes open for any abnormal titans" Cesar thundered back over the radio as he watched another one of his fighters make an attack on a titan, the beast swinging its head around helplessly in an attempt to protect itself from the speedy foe it faced. Its efforts ultimately proving utterly futile do to its large bulk and lack of speed.
"Green-leader this is Green 8, I have visual on a titan moving in rapidly from the east" a voice crackled over the headset causing Cesar to suddenly pull up from his most recent strafing run.
"Green-8, this is Green-leader, I hear you but may I ask why this one's so special?" Cesar could help but ask as he rapidly gained altitude so that he would have the necessary ceiling to have the current conversation without the fear of becoming a casualty. An idea that was only made possible due to the fact that the titans lacked any modern surface to air weapons that might've made the current air to ground engagement less onesided.
"It looks like this one might be an abnormal sir"
The answer caused Cesar to pause suddenly before glancing in the direction in question, trying to see what his subordinates saw, his attempt only being awarded with the sight of what looked to be a cloud of dust and rubble making its way towards them. More or less forcing his hand.
"All units break off the attack and prepare to engage the enemy coming from the east, I personally recommend that we use extreme caution when engaging the target" Cesar ordered, slightly surprised at the speed with which he his units responded to the order. Possibly more in response to the hostile approaching them, than to the fact that he'd given them the order. A sign as to how much fear these hostiles generated amongst the Eldian be told Cesar himself was slightly unsure as to what exactly he and his escadrille were expecting to face, after all the fact that so few of the Eldians who had encountered the abnormal titans had subsequently lived to tell that tale meant that the information had been as vague as it was uncertain.
From what the Eldians they'd interviewed had told them that these abnormal titans were supposedly smarter than their "regular" counterparts. Of course this information couldn't have been more vague, while also remaining on the same topic due to the fact there were so many unaccounted for variables. How smart was a "regular" titan? How was this intelligence determined? Was it connected to critical thinking? Did a titan's intelligence pertain to its size? Did it pertain to its age? If so how did titan's age? Naturally, this wasn't helped by the fact that in the many days that had passed since the Coalition's arrival not a single one of these abnormal titans had appeared. At least not until now.
'Better safe than sorry' Cesar thought as he and his whole until sped towards their soon to be opponent in their standard v-like formation, allowing for each member of the escadrille to cover the other visually while also allowing for a concise and overwhelming firepower on any targeted position. The resulting scene was something more or less straight out of a movie. Two sides speeding towards each other as fast as they could go, seemingly bent on each other's destruction, and prepared to unleash all of their destructive capabilities on one another.
"I'm in range" Cesar muttered to himself, for once not caring whether or not anyone else heard him say so.
"Sir! Hostile coming in from 3 o'clock" a voice declared, causing Cesar to look to the right and see another titan speeding towards them.
"Break!" he shouted, without any hesitation causing the whole escadrille to fly off in various directions and delaying their attack. But also allowing them to each have a distinct vantage point of the following act. That act being the abnormal titan attacking the titan that was lazily lumbering towards out location, striking it square in the jaw and causing blood & steam to erupt from the creature's face. Prompting it to be flung backwards while letting out a pained wail.
"Did you see that?" someone asked, as the abnormal proceeded to continue its assault on the unfortunate titan who had become the subject of its rage.
"I thought you locals said that the titans only attacked humans" Joseph stated, prompting an immediate response from someone else.
"That's what the Survey Corps and Garrison said" before they added.
"Maybe, it's because that titan crossed the abnormal? Challenged it in someone way?"
"What should we do Green-leader ?" someone else chimed in.
"If these things want to duke it out and kill themselves it's none of our business, we need to support the legionnaires in the command post" Cesar firmly stated before turning his plane back towards the building in question, the rest of the escadrille following him as he did so. None of them, in that moment, aware as to the massive development that they'd just bore witness to or its consequences.
Hello Everybody,
I know it's been a few...months since I last updated, as much as it pains me to admit it this sudden hiatus was not at all planned. Things got difficult with school and work, but I will try to get out another chapter before the end of winter break. I hope that this chapter is at least up to, if not surpasing, my usual standard and I am deeply sorry for having made you all wait so long.
Sincerely,
Jackie Robinson