"…When I said I wanted to know what made a Titan tick, this is not what I meant…I'm so glad I'm a stubborn ass"-Edith M. Brown Diary, 850
57th Scouting Regiment Expedition
Karanese District
"…In the year 850, humankind regained land from the Titans for the first time since their appearance a century earlier. The cost however was great. Only a select few of those who remained steadfast in their dreams soon joined the Scouts…One short month later, led by Erwin Smith, the Scout Regiment set out leaving behind the relative comfort and safety of Karanese District they sought to secure a path to Shiganshina. Here they believed the Titans secrets lay hidden"-Trials of a Rookie, Armin Arlert
It had been a couple of weeks since the addition of the 104th recruits to the Scout Regiment, meaning weeks of theory and memorisation. Diagrams, maps, plans and signals were shoved down their throats on top of the combat and specialised ODM training with each of their squads. Even with all this knowledge crammed into her head Edith was still nervous about going outside.
The bells tolled signalling the start of the 57th expedition outside the Walls and set Edith's nerves on edge. This would be her first time outside the Walls since Maria and now that she was here mere seconds away from seeing the open killing fields again, she wasn't sure if she was ready. She had expressed her feelings to Ryan earlier who had replied that that was how Edith knew she was ready. She hoped he was right.
"TITANS IN THE VICINITY HAVE BEEN LURED AWAY. GATE OPENS IN 30 SECONDS!" came the cry from up the front.
"THIS IS IT, THE DAY HAS COME FOR HUMANITY TO TAKE ANOTHER STEP FORWARD! LET'S SHOW THOSE TITANS EXACTLY WHAT WE'RE MADE OF! CHARGE!" cried Erwin as his horse reared before racing forward, leading the Scouts out the gate. "IT'S OFFICIALLY BEGUN! THE 57TH RECON MISSION! SCOUTS MOVE OUT!"
Edith clutched the reins in a white knuckled grip as they rode through the desolate ruins of the districts situated between Walls Rose and Maria. They had yet to see any Titans travelling down the main road, but she knew it was only a matter of time.
"10 METRE CLOSING IN ON THE LEFT!" cried Hanji following Mike's cue towards the incoming Titan. Mere moments after she had finished speaking, two members from the support squad reacted, flying towards the Titan, ready to draw its fire away from the ranks and eventually kill it. "Oh I so wanna know what's going on that big belly! Oh well, better let the support squad do their job"
Edith could only watch as the soldier's blades cut too shallow, forcing his to duck the incoming fist. "Fuck! Too shallow!" he cursed.
"Just focus on defending the ranks!" cried his partner distracting the Titan who swatted at them like flies.
"Eyes front, Brown!" called Gordon from her right, "Their job is to handle it, yours is to keep moving!"
"FORWARD! RIDE FOR ALL YOUR WORTH!" Erwin's carried back through the ranks. Edith did as she was told, her thoughts turning briefly to the other day when her squad had met up and discussed their positions within the formation.
"We'll only have their backs while we're inside the ruined cities" Rose explained unfurling a yellowed diagram of Erwin's famed scouting formation and pointing out their positions within the formation to the group gathered.
"Everything else beyond that, will be uninterrupted Titan territory. We'll be more or less on our own with the only thing to fall back on is the Commander's long range scouting formation. Myself, Gordon and Richard, we'll be stationed here where we'll run interference" she gestured to the outer most ring of the formation on the right wing.
"Klaud and Gillian, you'll be stationed here where you'll cover our asses and run messages to other squads if need be" Next she pointed to the inner row behind the vets in their squad, "And Edith, you'll be stationed here. The furthest from the fighting and close enough to drag our broken asses outta trouble" Finally she pointed to the inner most spot on the squad that was closest to the nearby squads.
"LONG RANGE FORMATION!" Erwin ordered once they reached the open fields beyond the Walls.
"See ya later. Good luck" said Reiner as he headed off towards his position.
"Do us a favour, if you see one of those fuckers don't piss yourself" added Jean as he left too.
"See ya guys later, don't die" farewelled Edith as she split off from the group, leaving behind her fellow recruits to follow after her squad headed for the right wing.
"Yeah, you too" replied Armin who continued moving forward.
"The long range scouting formation is a forward facing semi-circle. We'll be positioned relatively parallel to each other at equal intervals within signal fire on all sides. The idea is to extend our spotting and signal range as far as possible"-Scouting Formations, Erwin Smith
Edith's heart pounded in her ears as she rode along the edge of the formation, her eyes peeled for any sign of trouble. Trouble she knew, would soon be approaching on earth rattling footsteps. Edith's head snapped towards the sound of a flare going off behind her. Off to the far right and back, a red signal flare painted the sky with others soon following it.
Up ahead Rose cursed at the flare but continued moving forward. Shakily, Edith turned back around in her seat, her thoughts turned to her lectures about Erwin's scouting formation, something she gladly welcomed to ward off the ever growing fear.
"…You can bet the lucky bastards riding on the outer most edges will see a lot of Titans" explained Ness, using a ruler to point out a spotter's squad on the large diagram that hung over the blackboard.
"The second one comes into view, lock and load. Alert your nearest comrades with a red smoke signal, they in turn, will alert their nearest comrades in the same fashion and so on. Once the Commander feels he has a decent lead on the Titan's position, he'll be firing off a green smoke signal.
At the sight of one, the platoon is to reroute accordingly. The fewer Titans encountered en route to our goal, the better. We'll need all the able bodies we can spare, the aim of the game then is evasion. Now keep in mind, this isn't a full proof strategy. The terrain is wild with plenty of places for the enemy to lay in ambush.
Keep in mind too, this whole approach assumes we'll be dealing largely with Normals, a Titan whose behaviour is predictable. If it's an Abnormal, you fire off a black smoke flare immediately"
Edith was snapped out her reverie by thundering footsteps that shook the ground with each step they took. "TITANS COMING UP THE REAR!" called Gordon who was joined by Richard as they turned to confront the approaching beasts. Against her better judgement, Edith glanced over her shoulder to see what was going and cursed aloud at what she saw.
Instead of the typical four or five metre Titans that attacked either by themselves or in pairs, there was a whole horde of Titans ranging anywhere from four metres to 12 metres. But the thing that nearly made her piss her pants? It was the 15 metre blonde female Titan who was sprinting up the middle of the group, carving her way through the soldiers, completely ignorant (or just uncaring) of the harm she caused.
They barely had time to shout before the Titans were on them. Edith tried her hardest to outrun the Abnormal which had set its sights on her, going so far as to lean flush against Tui's back to reduce the amount of drag she made. It only got her so far before she had to disembark from the mare, leaping upwards and shooting her hooks into the forearm of the Titan and looping her wires around the arm as she let her swing taker her over the outstretched left arm.
A quick glance around her showed her that her teammates had killed a couple of Titans already, but were struggling against the numerous other Titans that swarmed them. It wasn't looking good, Edith knew that even as experienced as they were all it took was one slip up for it all to end. And one with one slip up it did. The Abnormal that Edith was attached to noticed her brief lapse in concentration and took advantage, swiping its free hand down and grabbing her tight around the middle.
She was lifted up to the Abnormal's face where it studied her for a moment. Why, she wasn't sure but it allowed for her ODM gear to disengage from her struggling body and tumble to the floor. Whatever it was the Titan seemed to be looking for, it seemed to find it as it gave her a wide toothy grin. Edith barely had time to gag at the smell of decay emanating from the beast's open gummy-smiling mouth before she was unceremoniously chucked down its throat.
It was wet and warm inside this dark place, her only source of light was from the small jagged gaps at the front of the cave. The floor was hot to the touch, she could already smell her boots burning and the texture of the floor was strange, it appeared bumpy & squishy beneath her feet. It took her several tries to lever herself up right without falling flat on her face once more. Edith gagged at the smell, the scent of death was worse in here where it enveloped her every sense. She knew where she was but that didn't mean she had to like it.
Without her blades, Edith knew she no way of successfully getting herself out unharmed. Taking a gamble, she felt her way around the Titan's mouth, her hands digging into the gums at the back of the jaw and on the verge of the throat. Once here, she waited until the Titan opened it mouth once again, this time letting out a loud belch that would have knocked her over had she not been holding on so tight.
Digging in her heels, she prepared to launch herself across the mouth aiming for the uvula that hung at the back of the throat like a giant boxing bag. There! There was just enough light for her to see the fleshy appendage. Launching herself forward like an olympic sprinter she grabbed onto the uvula and wrapped herself around it like a koala.
"This is not going to be big on dignity" she muttered to herself as she begun to tug and swing on the appendage. At the last moment when Titan bile rose up the throat, she regretted not pulling her goggles on as she was spat out on to the ground amongst the corpses of her comrades.