Superkoola: Quite so, quite so.
Guest: All Hail Britannia!
Neu Lorien, June 30th
Dear Aunt Kayla
I have remained steadfast in my pursuit of becoming a journalist…
Caterina sighed as she wrote out a letter to her family in the North. Much like her friend Rose, they were against the whole becoming a journalist ideal, believing she was better suited to take over the plantations in the North.
She quickly finished up her last letter before sealing it and placing it with the rest.
She reclined in her seat, and stared up at the ceiling. Was she doing the right thing?
Well, there was no backing out now. Placing a stamp on the last letter, she stood up and headed out to drop them off.
Free Francia Indoxina, New Parigot
"(The Mid-East has refused our offer, your highness.)" A man clad in silvery armor bowed before an equally clad girl on a throne, "(They will not help us.)"
"(Our people have wronged each other many times in the past.)" The Princess stated, "(What of our allies - the Union and Britannia.)"
"(Practically choreographed answers. They will only continue aid to our country, they will not support a war against Marley.)"
Princess Rose Rearc slumped forward in her position on the throne. "(...and they call themselves our allies?! All they do is use us to fight their proxy wars!)"
The surrounding men looked at each other sadly, this was the current situation of Free Francia, once the affluent Francian Kingdom. However, in the Europan War nearly nineteen years ago, their Kingdom was only one of the many nations that had fallen to the Marleyan Empire.
During the war, the Royal Family was singled out one by one. The Crown Prince John Rearc was killed by the holder of the Armored Titan. The ship of the first princess Jane Rearc was sunk by Marleyan battleships. Finally, the King and Queen refused to abandon the Parigot as it fell to Marley, and were publicly executed by P.S.A officers. Leaving only the Second Princess - a baby at the time - Rose Rearc to be smuggled out of the country by the remnants of the Francian Army.
"(On top of that, the native Xinyin population is getting restless. We believe the PSA is inciting them to war.)" Another general explained,
"(Of course, they don't have the time to deal with us themselves…" Rose smiled mirthlessly, "Thank you, gentlemen. You are dismissed.)"
The generals and advisors nodded, before leaving the throne room.
Rose nodded, and watched them go before slamming her fist down on the throne.
"(...why?! Why won't anyone do anything?! Why can't I do anything?!)" Rose yelled at the painting behind her. It was one of Joane Rearc, the first queen of Francia revered as a Saint when she defeated the Warhammer Titan in single combat.
"(...Why can't I be more like you?)" Rose asked of the painting.
When she received no answer, she sat back down on the throne, her armor clinking.
'(It feels so heavy.)' She scoffed, she desperately wanted to take it off. She wasn't worthy of it. For years, it had been passed down to heroes, true royalty. Not a spoiled girl like her.
Ever since she was born, all she'd known was the life she was living now. The hope of Francia, destined to lead them in a glorious reconquest against the forces of the evil Marleyan Empire. But sometimes it felt like she was the one being led, either by the nobles around her, or the advisors constantly whispering in her ear.
Sometimes, she wondered if she was of any real use at all? Or maybe she was merely a puppet to men with delusions of grandeur.
A slave.
"(This is a ridiculous charade.)" One general scoffed, "(She's clearly struggling to understand whats going on!)"
"(What are you suggesting, Debois?)" A minister raised an eyebrow,
General Debois shrugged, "(Maybe it's time we took charge. Maybe.)"
"(That would be treasonous General!)" An admiral said scandalously,
"(But think about it!)" The general whirled to his comrades, addressing the group. "(What has Rose Rearc done for us? Our nation? Britannia and the Union treat us as a disposable extension of their armies. Those Mid-East camel jockeys had the gall to treat us as inferiors, and she's content to take it lying down! Face it - she's done nothing since she came to power. In fact, yes, I will say it, she has made things worse!)"
The group of nobles fell silent. What Debois was saying was blatant treason, but it was also fact.
"(Enough. Debois.)" The clinking of armor came from behind him.
"(Ah, Sir Leon.)" Debois bowed before the knight and Captain of the Francian Royal Guard.
"(Do not act as if you have not just committed treason.)" Sir Leon laid a hand on his sword,
"(But I'm right. Aren't I?)" Debois asked smugly.
Leon clicked his teeth, and seemed to be on the verge of drawing his sword and beheading the man.
"(Now…)" A minister stepped between them, "(There's no need for violence. And Sir Leon is quite right, your words were horribly out of line.)"
Debois instantly recomposed himself, "(Of course, Minister Shaune. I apologize, Sir Leon." Debois bowed deeply, and Leon nodded, although his anger was still visible on his face.
"(Do not let me catch you speaking like that again.)" Leon straightened before passing the group like nothing had happened.
July 1st, Neu Lorien
The next day, Caterina packed her things, and was sitting in front of Brocar Statfield's office to see him before she left.
"Ah, Caterina. At least you're punctual." Brocar nodded, motioning for her to come in.
"I've arranged transport, as you know. It's a two week journey, so I hope you don't have seasickness." Brocar said condescendingly, and Caterina felt her eye twitch with frustration.
"What about contacts sir?" Caterina asked, and Brocar looked at her as if she'd said something he'd never even heard of.
"...contacts?" Brocar said questioningly,
"Yes. Surely you have someone on the island to show me around?"
Brocar shrugged, "We don't have the resources. I've given you several thousand Union Dollars to spend, should last you a year."
"A year?!"
"Yes, you'll have access to telegrams to send me all your articles." Brocar said dismissively, as if that should be obvious.
"Now. The ship leaves in about two hours. I'd hurry." Brocar made a shoo-shoo motion, and Caterina shot him a glare before grabbing her stuff and running out the office, much to the confusion of nearby workers.
'Damn that man! He knows traffic is horrible this early in the morning!' Caterina thought bitterly, not having a car, she'd have to take a bus. Thankfully she had a ticket in her coat pocket.
Reaching for it, she realized she didn't have the ticket.
'Oh no!' Leaving her stuff to the side, she quickly ran back, where Brocar was waving the ticket at his door.
"Looking for something?" Brocar flipped it over,
"Yes!" She snatched it out of his hands and muttered a quick thank you before running off again.
All in all, the ordeal to get to Neu Lorien's port was exhausting. She barely caught the right buses, and she was pretty sure she'd offended virtually every resident she saw by indiscriminately ramming into them with her copious amounts of things and not stopping to apologize.
"Excuse me!" She approached a sailor, "I'm here for the…Lightstar?"
The sailor sighed, "Another one, eh?" He rolled his eyes, "Honestly, I dunno what you people see on that Island. But anyway, the less of you, the better."
"Oh…I'm not Eldian actually. I'm a reporter for the Global News."
"Hah? Ya' sure?" The sailor raised an eyebrow,
"Yes. And I have a badge to prove it." Cateria raised and shook the badge.
The sailor shrugged, "Alright lassie. Watch out though. You never know what might happen."
"Thanks, but I can take care of myself."
"Forward!" Hanji ordered, and the Panzer I rumbled before it took its first meters forward.
A primitive crew of Cadets were piloting the vehicle. Technically, this was a part of their training. However, for the Eldian military this was a vital weapons test that would determine the viability of tanks in warfare.
Hizurian engineers had commented on the uniqueness of its design. The trend for the few tanks in existence were large amounts of weapons and heavy armor to take hits. The Panzer was a comparatively simple design, equipped with two MG 50s as it's armament, it was fairly under armored, however, it had three key advantages. It was fast - much faster than the other tanks of the time, effective in its role, and easy to produce and maintain.
The design itself had existed for a while, refined and perfected for years in Rosemary's immense library of projects. Not to mention she'd brought a surprising cache of designs from her Britannian employers.
All in all, thanks to the Founding Titan constructing the facilities needed for the proper production of armored vehicles, they had the first pre-production prototype - the Panzer I - after a month of work.
"Everything…seems normal." The cadet said hesitantly over the radio.
"Relax. The controls are simple, and are made to emulate the cars driven by civilians." Rosemary replied.
"...right." The cadet replied, shifting the gear, the driver stepped down on the acceleration.
"Alright. Now, take out all the targets!" On command, several titan dummies were raised, and the Panzer deftly moved through them.
The cadets beelined for a first dummy, pouring bullets through it's mock tendons, technically causing them to fall before finishing them off with a spray of bullets at its 'nape', marking it as defeated.
The tank veered for a second titan, the cadet on the guns unleashed a fast spray of bullets at the nape, defeating it instantly.
"No way…how is it doing that?" A Hizurian engineer commented,
"A simple redesign in philosophy. The technology exists, but no one uses it the right way. Technically, the machine guns aren't of a high enough caliber to penetrate titan flesh, but imagine if that was a 75mm cannon?" Rosemary said smugly,
The tank turned it's turret towards the final titan, pulling off a sharp drift behind it, it lined up it's guns with the nape, and fired.
"That only took…two minutes!" Hanji cheered, and Rosemary sighed in relief.
"Congratulations." Thomas Shafter approached her,
"I suppose this means we'll be working together now." Rosemary approached him and Okida, and extended her hand.
They shook it.
"The Panzer has proved to be an effective weapon. However, it'll take some months to receive the first models. Not to mention Rosemary wants to add a more powerful weapon, and put some more powerful models into production so we won't receive the first ones until early next year." Alto stated to Historia.
"I see." Historia nodded,
"Will we be able to use these weapons?" Dina asked,
"Possibly. We can loan you some of the pre-production models, but we can't afford to spare the later ones." Historia assured her,
"Speaking of: how are Rosalie's preparations coming along?"
"Good." Dina stated, "She's been retraining the Restorationists in the use of your ODM gear. If only we had some of these technologies…"
"We can't be stuck in the past. We can only move forward." Eren stated in from corner
Historia nodded in agreement, 'Yes, because our fate is our own…'
'...And no one else's!'
Wiki Link:
the-official-flare-titan .fandom. com
