The engine of the Chimera APC revved, and the vehicle lurched forward, then began to roll out of the main bay of the lander. Mephisto watched out of the commander's cupola on the top of the vehicle as it moved steadily forward past the dissolving remnants of the slain battle had been fierce. Scores of guardsmen had died before the weak point of the titans had been revealed, and many more had died afterwards in a frenzy to strike down all of the enemy advancing into the bay. Now that the tide of titans seemed to have abated, Mephisto was leading an element of guardsmen out of the vehicle bay to recontour and secure if possible the outside of the lander.
There was a crunch and the Chimera jerked slightly as one tread of the vehicle ran over the skull of a fallen titan. Mephisto watched, doing his best to avoid looking at any of the disturbing... wreckages scattered on either side of his transport. They were far too close to human for his comfort, and many of them bore truly hideous wounds from the desperate battle.
In particular, he tried especially hard not to look at the twitching forms encased in a few of the titan carcases. It was terrible. Mephisto could hardly imagine what those men had gone through and survived, but the commanding officers were almost certain to order them purged due the possible taint they had potentially been exposed to.
Mephisto shook his head and looked straight ahead.
A squad of infantryman detached from the main body standing in formation in the hangar bay and began picking their way through the maze of fallen titans toward the Chimera. Moving slow as it was, they had no trouble catching up with it, and they quickly fell into formation for infantry escorting a moving armored vehicle.
"So," Patanella said, falling into place with her men, assuming a position that put her close enough to the cupola of the APC to shout to its occupant over rumble of the vehicle's engine. "That was something else, sir."
"Agreed." Mephisto shook his head. "I'd sure as hel like to know what exactly those thing were. They killed a lot of good men today."
"Don't be so sure its over." Patanella said, as the leading treads of the Chimera reached the ramp leading out of the hanger bay. "And on a completely different topic..." She looked around furtively, then continued. "Are you worried about the state of the training of the men, sir?"
"Yes." Mephisto said, without preamble. "I mean, look at what's happening right now. We just landed on what is seeming to be a hostile world, then came under attack by creatures no one has ever seen or heard of before. And what are the men doing? Digging in? Establishing fortifications? No, they're standing for inspection by the mission commander.
[x]
Melissa Highstorm had no idea what she was seeing.
She had been stationed on guard duty, a position which left her standing near one end of the strange object with her maneuver gear at the ready, doing a whole lot of nothing. It was boring, but at least it gave her time to think. At present, she had been thinking about the strange thing that the Scouting Legion had come so far to find.
The titans had rushed the area to the front of the thing, but it had produced a series of very loud bang and cracks, and none of the titans returned. On a few occasions, brilliant beams of light had shot out from the front of the object, but for the past few minutes, everything had been quiet.
Taken together, the strange events had greatly unnerved the commanders, and none of the Recon Corps leadership wanted to order troops forward to run reconnaissance on that part of the object just yet.
Looking at the strange object that had fallen from the sky, Melissa was reminded, for some reason she couldn't hope to explain, of a ship. It was something in the overall shape of the thing, of the lines and contours that formed the object. She knew it would seem irrational, but still...
Now a new sound was issuing out of the object. It was a strange, rumbling noise, one that called to mind something heavy vibrating very quickly. As the level of the sound rose, something unlike anything Melissa had ever seen rolled out from the front of the object.
The vehicle moving out from the object was larger than one of the Scouting Legion wagons, and painted a deep red color. It was all sharp lines and hard angles, and appered to be made of metal rather than the strong, light wood the Corps vehicles. The thing rested on a pair of slowly rotating strips of black material. Vaguely, Melissa remembered Hanji had once come up with a similar system and referred to the moving parts as 'threads'. The 'all-terrain wagon' she had mounted them on had fail, but this vehicle seemed to be having no trouble moving, even if at a slow, lumbering pace.
Numerous metal pieces of indescribable design and manufacture studded the entire surface of the object. In particular, a short, stubby barrel which seemed somehow reminiscent of the guns used by the rest of the Military protruded from the front of the vehicle. Much more obviously threatening was the strange, square-edged thing which protruded from the front of the top of the vehicle, which had what was obviously some form of weapon mounted on it.
Melissa took a step backwards, stumbled, and almost fell as the top piece of the vehicle rotated toward her. She readied her maneuver gear, but at this close range, she wasn't really sure what good it would do. Legion soldiers were equipped to fight titans, not other humans, and certainly not... whatever this was.
The bizarre vehicle stopped in place, its treads grinding to a halt. It did nothing for a moment, then something like a trap door on the top of the upper protrusion of the vehicle jerked in place then began to rise.
Melissa's hand went to the hilt of her sword.
Something began to rise out of the top of the vehicle.
It was human.
"Hello." The man said. He was wearing something that vaguely resembled a military uniform, and had black hair, dark eyes, and pale skin. "I don't suppose you could take me to your leaders?"
[x]
Mephisto carefully guided the driver of his Chimera as the man drove the vehicle at a walking pace after the girl who was allegedly leading him to commander of the expedition. At first, he had been concerned about walking into a trap, but as he looked around and saw the weapons the locals were using, he became less concerned.
He didn't see anything more advanced than sword on any of them. He spotted a few of what looked like pistol holsters on a couple of the soldiers, but he was yet to see any actual weapons. In any event, he was still wearing his flak vest and helmet, and trusted them to stop just about any basic black powder weapons.
As he drove through what was looking like a small but competently built military encampment, Mephisto looked around at the local flora. It appered to be what was similar to what was standard on any number of habitable worlds, with the exception of the local Megafauna.
He shuddered as he thought of them. It was strange, really. He knew, intellectually, as an officer of the guard, that there were much more hideous being out in the universe, but something about these was just... off. Maybe it was their seeming lack of intelligence. He knew that would make them easier to fight on the battlefield, but the way they had just kept coming, wave after wave of colossal bodies, was scary.
After a few more minutes of slow driving, the girl led Mephisto to what appered to be a command tent. For some reason, they always, across time and space, appered to have a certain look to them.
The girl approached one of the soldiers standing guard and began to talk to him in low, whispered tones. The other soldiers appered to be looking at the Chimera, fear evident on their features. It was funny, really. Mephisto had never heard of anyone being scared of a Chimera before. I suppose its all in the novelty. For all I know, these people would think we're pansies for being scared of these titans.
The girl walked back toward the Chimera. For some reason, it didn't seem to make her as scared as it did the other locals.
"Hey, Starman!" The girl said. "Commander Erwin and Captain Levi will be seeing you know."
Mephisto climbed out of the commander's cupola on his APC and down to the ground, not for the first time thanking the Emperor that these locals had retained the standard Gothic dialect. It made things exponentially easier, not having to wait for the Glory of His Wrath to send down some Cogboys to figure out a translation system.
"So, before we go in, is there anything I should know about these commanders?" Mephisto asked, deliberately dragging his feet as he walked toward the command tent.
"Commander Erwin is the leader of the whole Scouting Legion." Melissa said. "And Captain Levi is humanity's strongest soldier."
For some reason, I strongly doubt that. Mephisto thought. And if its a legion, that means we should have at least six thousand soldiers here, but I don't see nearly that many. "Is there anything I should avoid doing in front of them, or can I rely on standard Imperial customs?"
"Imperial?" Melissa said, cocking her head. "I don't know what you mean, but shake their hands, and try to be polite."
So, here I go. Mephisto thought, though I never would have imagined that I'd be one making first contact with a lost branch of humanity.
Mephisto walked into the command tent. It was sparsely outfitted, clearly made to be easily transported and assembled. There were two men standing over a map table in the center of the room surrounded by several aides; a tall, blond-hair man bearing an impressive-looking rank insignia, and a shot, dark-haired man with a less ornate insignia.
"So," the short one said without preamble. "Who the hell are you, and where did you come from?"
Mephisto wondered if this was one of the commanders that the girl had told him about. On one hand, Mephisto was fairly sure that he would have had a similar reaction had their roles been reversed. On the other hand, high commanders were rarely so tactless, particularly in diplomatic situations. In the Imperium of Man, the way an officer conducted himself could make or break his career, and on some worlds was even more important than leadership skill or military acumen.
"I am lieutenant Mephisto Argon of the 33rd Alkanian Grenadiers, of the Imperial Guard."
"A lieutenant?" The shorter man scoffed. "You're 'Imperial Guard' couldn't be bothered to send anyone important?"
The tall man who appered to be the commander gave his counterpart a stern look. "They could have sent a lieutenant for any number of perfectly valid reasons. Keep in mind, Levi, that we don't even know if one of their lieutenants is comparable to one of ours. For all we know, he is the lieutenant commander of this Imperial Guard."
Lieutenant Commander of the Guard? Mephisto thought, trying to keep the grin off his face. Come to think of it, I don't even know if anyone is in charge of the Guard.
"No, I was the highest ranked officer of the Regiment on the ground who could come safely." A technical lie, but I doubt that the Expedition Commander would be willing to risk his own skin on something like this.
The taller man opened his mouth to say something, but the shorter one, Levi, beat him too it. "So you people are responsible for this thing coming here?"
"What, you mean the ship?" Mephisto said. It was so hard communicating with people who didn't know the proper terms. "That was us."
Levi stepped out from behind the table and walked over the Mephisto.
Then he hit him in the face.
"I lost good people today chasing after your stupid 'ship'" Levi said. "Now, maybe we can talk.
Mephisto would have responded, but his face hurt too much.
[x]
After a few seconds, Mephisto recovered from the blow. "Alright," he muttered, "I suppose that I deserved that." He wasn't really sure that was the case, but it was probably best to avoid offending the locals. Who knew what strange customs they might have developed in they're millennia of isolation.
"So, who are you, and where did you come from?" Levi asked, still looking at Mephisto with an unpleasant expression on his face.
"What my associate is trying to ask," the other commander, Erwin, said, "is how you survived the titans outside the walls without the Recon Corps ever finding your people on one of our expeditions."
"Frankly, sir?" Mephisto said. "We come from beyond your world. You do know what a planet is, correct?"
"Yes, we know what a planet is." Erwin shook his head. "But you travel between them? How? How have our astronomers never spotted one of your ships before. They seem quite... noticeable."
"How? Plasma engines, gravity control, mass manipulation, Warp Drives, and the Astronomican." Mephisto said. "And you've never seen us because this is the first time servants of the Imperium have stood in the light of your sun. We come from other stars."
"Are you saying that each star is a sun of its own?" Erwin said. "I- we- I mean- we suspected such a thing might be the case, but..."
"Each light in the sky is a world." Mephisto said. "And the Imperium rules a countless number of them."
"Then why bother coming here?" Erwin said.
"Our Warp Drive malfunctioned." Mephisto said. "Now, I think we have more important matters to discuss. First of all, do you have the authority to appoint an ambassador to a foreign political entity."
"Foreign political entity? You mean like another Kingdom?" Erwin said.
Is pause implies that his people are politically unified, I suppose. Mephisto thought. They must have next to no experience with diplomatic relationships. They'll be steamrolled by the Administratum diplomats unless...
"The first thing you have to do is appoint me as your Ambassador to the Imperium Of Man." Mephisto said. "Say you'll do all of your negotiations with the Imperium through me, at least for now."
"And how do we know you're not just some con man looking to pull a scam?" Levi said, frowning.
"Because I let you punch me and didn't start a war?" Mephisto said. "Besides, I might be able to help you out."
"What do you mean?" Erwin said. "I have a campaign to run."
"That's it exactly." Mephisto responded. "The forces we have here are only a fraction of the 33rd Grenadiers. We have weapons you can barely imagine. And I may be able to get you some form of treaty agreeing to help you deal with your titan problem. I assume that your scouts told you what we did to the titans attacking our ship, correct?"
"Yes, they did, but..."
"What's in it for you?" Levi said. "You just clear out all the titans for free? Fat chance. What do you want in return?
"Soldiers." Mephisto said. "That is usually what a Feudal World is best at providing. We're on our way to a campaign, and we need men."
"But I thought you said that the Imperium ruled countless worlds?" Levi said skeptically. "What could you possibly need us for?"
"Facing a threat like the titans will have meant you've built a defense force, if nothing else." Mephisto said. "And There is no peace amongst the stars. Even now, humanity is pressed on all fronts, and we need everyone we can get.
"And what about us?" Erwin said. "Once you pure the titans, if you're really capable of doing that, what do we stand to gain from such a relationship with your people?"
"We have many things to offer a civilization such as yours." Mephisto said. "The Mechanicus can provide you with advanced machines to improve life inside your walls. Medicine that actually works. Fertilizers that can turn dust into a garden. That sort of thing."
"And you want our people to fight and die for you in return?" Levi said, putting his hands down on the table. "Why do you think we would agree to that?"
"Because its in your very best interests to support the Imperium of Man." Mephisto said. "You are human, aren't you? Do you have any idea how lucky you are that the first contact you've had with the Galaxy at large is with an Imperial Guard Regiment? Not Xenos slavers, or unscrupulous rogue traders, or a Chaos Warband?"
"You'll have to enlighten us," Erwin said. "As I have no idea what most of those things are, though I can guess from your tone that they are less than friendly toward you."
"The are, as you put, less than friendly toward all of mankind." Mephisto said, frowning. "The best among them consider us to be less than animals. The worst are implacable killing machines that silently glide between the stars on machines a thousand times the size of the ship I came here in, harvesting life for there dark masters, or locusts that prey on entire worlds. Trust me when I say that you can find no common ground with such abominations."
"If what you say is true, then this is no place to have such a monumental conversation." Erwin said. "Though for some reason, I think that I am starting to trust you. You seem earnest, if nothing else."
Erwin turned to Levi. "Alert the troops, we're returning to the walls. We've found what we came here for."
Then he turned towards Mephisto. "And you're coming with us, Ambassador."
[x]
"He did what?" Colonel Richardson said, clutching the vox caster in disbelief. "Tell me one more time what happened."
There was some lag in the communications, but the Glory of His Wrath was close enough to the planet to allow for live voice communications. Still, it was several seconds before he received a response.
"Lieutenant Mephisto drove out in his Chimera to recontour the battlefield after the conflict with the local megafauna. He did this for a time, then contacted an element of the local military, and engaged in dialogue with their leaders." The Expedition Commander said. "His report is a bit sketchy on what exactly happened, but somehow it led to them appointing him their ambassador to the Imperium of Man. He is not presently available for further questioning, as he left with local military to accompany them back to their walls."
"I see." Richardson said. This was great. If the locals were willing to appoint an ambassador, that meant they were willing to talk, meaning there might be some chance to induct them into the Imperium without a wasteful conflict. The Expedition Commander was saying something else, but Richardson had tuned him out as he considered the possibilities of a peaceful conquest of this planet.
"Sir, sir?" Richardson looked up, then remembered he was talking over the vox.
"What were you saying?" He asked.
"Sir, I was asking what disciplinary measures you intend to take against this officer." The Expedition Commander said, sounding smug.
"And why would I want to do that?" Richardson responded. "He won us a diplomatic victory, and it is not my policy to punish winners."
"But sir, he disobeyed orders and acted without regard for the intentions of his superior officers!" The Commander said, sounding surprised. "Aren't you going to have him executed?"
"This Mephisto character took a tactically reasonable action within his own authority, and when the situation evolved beyond the scope of what his orders covered, he acted as he saw fit, as contacting a superior may have introduced an unacceptable delay into the situation." Colonel Richardson said. "Furthermore, he won us a considerable victory, and as I said, I dislike executing winners."
Richardson cut the vox connection. The man he was talking to displayed all the signs of a bootlicker to his superior officers, albeit one with a considerable eye for detail. That, given the previous management of the Regiment, had likely gotten him promoted far beyond his abilities. It was a flaw in the institutional culture of the Regiment that such men could be promoted to officer rank at all at, and a weakness of the organization that so many of its officers were cut from that cloth.
Whoever this Lieutenant Mephisto was, he had to be some kind of diplomatic genius.
[x]
"Wow." Mephisto said, losing all sense of military decorum. "This maneuver gear is pretty cool. Can I poke it?"
It was probably for the best that Melissa couldn't hear him over the sound of the Chimera's engine. The two had been introduced after Mephisto's discussion with the commander of the Scouting Legion, and Melissa and her squad had been assigned to 'escort' Mephisto and his Chimera on the way back to Wall Rose, as she was less bothered by his machine than many of the other Recon Corps soldiers.
Mephisto had been in contact with higher command, and the Regimental Commander had told him to stay his course in negotiations with the locals, and to try to secure a mutual defense treaty. However, his first priority was on not causing an incident that would sour diplomatic relationships with the natives when the professional diplomats arrived.
"What did you say?" Melissa said, turning toward Mephisto, who was in the cupola of his Chimera, without taking her eyes off the road ahead of her. "I couldn't quite hear you."
"Nothing." Mephisto responded, looking away briefly. "I was just saying that your maneuver gear looks rather impressive. How good would you say you are with it?"
"Me?" Melissa said, jerking her head back, "I don't know. I'm just a trainee, after all. I did finish 57th in my class, though."
"Out of how many?" Mephisto said.
"A few over two hundred." Melissa answered. "I mean, I scored near the top of the class in shooting, but that's not weighted as highly as Maneuver Gear."
"Near the top in shooting?" Mephisto said, sounding impressed. "That's pretty useful."
"Not against titans it isn't." Melissa said, looking down. "You've seen how effective firearms are against them."
"Well sure, a lasgun won't do much, and I can't imagine that the guns you'd have on a wold like this would be much better. Still, I think a rocket launcher or heavy machine gun might work wonders against them. After all, ballistic skills apply to all weapons."
"Rocket launcher?" Melissa said, sounding confused. "Heavy machine gun? Those sound like weapons, but what are they?"
"A heavy machine gun is like a normal gun, but it fires a large bullet, and it fires much more frequently. A rocket launcher a... well, do you know what a rocket is?"
"Of course. But I don't see how it would be useful as a weapon." Melissa said, as if that should be obvious. "They tend to go everywhere but where they're pointed."
Mephisto chuckled. "The rockets we have are somewhat better. Anyway, how do you think you'd do as a sniper?"
"A sharpshooter?" Melissa said. "I don't know. That's more something the Military Police would be interested in. Not much good against titans."
Mephisto paused for a moment. "There are other enemies out there. Things that make these titans look positively tame in comparison."
Melissa paled. "Make the titans look tame..." She shook her head. "That's terrifying. What kind of monsters are they?"
"Don't worry." Mephisto said, waving a hand. "Most of the threat to the Imperium comes from traitors and separatists. There are other things, but most of them aren't all monsters like the titans are."
Abruptly, a red flare shot into the air in the distance. Melissa's head snapped toward it. Mephisto eyed it warily.
"What does that mean?" He asked, not taking his eyes off the flare falling in the distance.
"A titan has been spotted." Melissa said, reaching down to her belt and drawing a pistol. She withdrew a small cylinder from a pouch next to the holster and slotted it over the muzzle of the pistol, raised the weapon, and fired it into air.
The projectile rose rapidly, trailing a thick column of red smoke behind it. As it flew, another flare rose into the air in the opposite direction of the first.
"The formation is designed to maximize detection range." Melissa said, "When a titan is spotted, whoever sees it fires a red flare to signal the danger to the commander. Then he fires a green flare to signal the direction change for evasion."
"But what about-"
A black flare shot in the air from the same direction as the first red flare.
"Aberrant." Melissa muttered.
"What do you mean?" Mephisto demanded.
"A titan that isn't like the others." Melissa said. "Its-"
As Melissa was speaking, Mephisto had drawn his Magnoculars and raised them to his eyes. "Big." He announced. "At least twelve meters. And coming this way!"
One of the other squad members, who had been silent until this point, whirled around. "How the hel do you know that? All we know is that it-"
"Magnoculars." Mephisto said. "They track heat and amplify vision."
"How-" The man shook his head. "Nevermind. What do we do?"
"We have the three of you, and you're maneuver gear." Mephisto said. "And we have this Chimera. The multilaser did a good enough job against the titans the first time, and I've been wanting to see your maneuver gear in action."
"So then we fight?" The second man, the squadleader, said.
"What other choice is there?" Mephisto said. "All He asks is that we die standing."
The titan closed with the small squad of soldiers, its fifteen-meter bulk allowing it to ignore terrain features that would have stymied a smaller foe. Mephisto watched out of the Cuopla of his Chimera as the beast approached, laspistol in hand. He was fully aware that the weapon would be functionally useless against the massive creature, but it was a good prop for gesturing while giving orders.
Mephisto signaled the gunner of his Chimera to hold his fire as the titan drew nearer to the squad. There was a chance that the barrage of las bolt fire it could produce could cripple the beast, but given their impressive regenerative capabilities, the gun might overheat before he could burn through to hit the thing's weak point.
As Mephisto was considering the approaching titan, the leader of Melissa's squad signaled to the soldiers under his command. They did something with their belts, then unlatched themselves from their horses, and the strange boxes attached to each of the soldiers at the hip began to bounce from the gait of their steeds.
The titan came within a hundred meters, and all the soldiers stood up in their stirrups.
"FORWARD, FOR THE EMPEROR!" Mephisto shouted, raising his laspistol and firing a single ruby-red beam toward the eye of the titan. It struck with a crack of superheating fluid, vaporizing water and burning flesh. The titan screamed and reached up to cover its eye, disrupting the flow of steam coming off of it, but didn't stop running forward.
At the same moment, the leader of Melissa's squad jumped out of his stirrups and fired the wires on his maneuver gear. They snaked out and struck the titan in the upper torso, pulling the man forward into the air. A trail of vapor formed behind him as he vented gas pushing him off course. Instants later, the other two soldiers did the same thing, Meliss pushing herself toward the opposite side of the titan as her squadmates.
The moment the soldiers were clear, arching into the air, Mephisto struck.
"FIRE!" He shouted, waving his laspistol forward. The gunner on the Chimera followed his lead, firing a barrage of laser fire across the ground toward the titan.
The beams traveled at the speed of light, shooting underneath the soldiers and striking the titan in the calf. A fan of light formed as the turret swiveled rapidly, its beams sawing through the flesh on the front of the titan's legs.
The creature's lower legs collapsed with a sickeningly audible crunch, and in dropped downward, then fell to its knees. The soldiers reacted immediately, one of them firing a new line to use as an anchor.
They swung around the back of the titan, and the squad leader went in for the kill. He fired a wire to just next to the weak point of the beast and began to reel himself in, twin blades at the ready. The squad leader shot toward the titan.
At the last second, the beast shifted. The disruption shot up through the wire and knocked the squad leader off course. As he tumbled in the air, he vented gas, trying to correct his course, but as he closed with the titan, it became clear he was off course. He struck, twin blades scoring deep into the flesh of the titan, clouds of smoke trailing from behind the weapon as blood splashed out of the long cuts. The titan screamed again, but didn't go down, and as the squad leader shot off into the sky away from the titan, reached around and grabbed the man.
Melissa let out a short gasp as the fist of the titan closed around her commander. "What do we do?" She shouted, as the titan brought the squad leader painfully slowly towards its mouth.
"WE FIGHT!" Mephisto shouted, and kicked the driver of the Chimera in the shoulder. The vehicle spun around on its treads and began to drive forward towards the titan. The turret swiveled, and another fan of ruby light lanced forward, this one vertical, and struck the titan in the torso. The titan's head turned away from the soldiers flying around it, and its sole remaining eye focused on the Imperial vehicle fast approaching it
As the Chimera jumped forward, Melissa fired a wire toward the back of the titan's neck and activated her grapple. She shot forward, and, as she did so, vented gas, putting herself on an evasive course toward the creature.
Melissa landed on the nape of the titan's neck, grapples straining as the held her body upright. Her blades flashed, and the tips of the weapons stuck the edge of the cut the squad leader had made, which was already beginning to heal, then sank deeper into the flesh of the creature, sinking up to the hilts as she sliced.
A great chunk of flesh came free as Melissa finished her slice, and the titan began to fall. The third man in Melissa's squad swung downward, using the falling titan as an anchor, and grabbed the squad leader as he fell out of the titan's now-nerveless fingers. The pair of soldiers landed hard, but climbed to their feet and began to walk, supporting each other, toward their waiting horses.
Melissa rode the neck of the titan all the way to the ground, falling into a crouch as the thing struck the ground and jumping down gracefully as the body became enveloped in a cloud of steam.
Mephisto raised his hand and ordered the Chimera to a halt. Melissa ran up to the stopped vehicle and looked up at Mephisto.
"How... What was that weapon?" She stammered, eyes fixed on the turret-mounted multilaser. "That was incredible, what it did to that titan."
"This is a multilaser." Mephisto said, reaching down and patting the barrel of the weapon gently. It was still warm from the bursts of firing. "It fires a beam of coherent light at a high rate of cyclical fire. Remember those machine guns I was telling you about?"
Melissa nodded.
"This is the same idea, but with lasers." Mephisto explained.
As Mephisto began to explain the finer points of multilaser the other two soldiers stumbled over, still supporting each other and leading their horses.
Melissa rushed over to the pair and began to converse with them in quick, hushed tones. After a few moments, she turned back towards Mephisto with a grave look on her face.
"The squad leader is wounded." She said.
"How bad is it?" Mephisto asked, looking at the man.
"He was crushed a bit by the titan's first. We think he broke a few ribs. Plus he landed hard and damaged his leg. We don't know how badly."
"Can he make it back to the walls?" Mephisto asked.
"I don't think he can ride." Melissa said, shaking her head. "If he can't keep up with the formation, the regs are clear. We have to leave him.
Mephisto shook his head. "That won't be necessary." He said, reaching down into the turret of his Chimera.
He pressed a button, and the back ramp of the Chimera began to slowly slide downwards, revealing the cavernous interior of the vehicle.
"Need a lift?"
[x]
Mikasa dismounted and began to lead her horse past the gate and into the town square of the Karanese District. She looked at Eren, who was leading his horse next to her. She had been assigned to a different area of the formation, but as the Scouting Legion collapsed inward toward the gate, the formation disintegrated and she had found him.
She look distrustfully at the members of the Special Operations Squad who had escorted Eren on the mission. She couldn't shake the feeling that they should be dead, but that wasn't relevant. What was important was Eren. They had brought him back safely, without needing to resort to using his Titan Shifting abilities. For that, she was thankful.
Eren was all she had left. If they had failed to bring him back safely... Mikasa tried to banish the dark thoughts from her mind. That wasn't relevant. What mattered was that Eren was back safely.
Still, she couldn't quite shake the urge to activate her maneuver gear and attack the Special Operations Squad. It would be easy. There were plenty of anchors to use, and no one would be expecting it. She could strike them all down and move on to the Commander of the Scouting Legion before anyone would be ready to face her. She could bathe in their blood. Surely these dogs of the King deserved to die for what they had done to Eren.
As Eren walked over to her, Mikasa suppressed the temptations. That would do nothing to protect Eren, and would only lead to her being unable to protect him.
"Hello Mikasa." Eren said, sounding tired. He looked worn down from from the mission, as they all were, but she could see no visible wounds.
"Hello, brother." Mikasa said, voice even, almost emotionless. "The mission went well. Very few soldiers were lost."
"But what did we accomplish?" Eren said. "We rode out, camped around that thing, and came back."
"Maybe the commanders found what they were looking for." Mikasa said. "Maybe the mission was a failure. But we killed titans. Shouldn't you be happy with that?"
"I know we kill titans." Eren said, looking down. "But I was really hoping we'd learn something from this mission. It just seemed so different. For a moment, it seemed like everything changed."
"I know what you mean." Mikasa said. "I'm just glad you're safe."
"Thanks, Mikasa." Eren said. "I have to go back to Captain Levi. They'll be looking for me-"
"Stay." Mikasa said. "Walk with me. If anyone says otherwise, they can come to me."
Eren chuckled, then his face turned serious. "I've heard some things, though. Like that thing that came out whatever it was that we found."
"I've heard the rumors." Mikasa said. "They said that a fifteen meter deviant titan attack the formation, but that thing destroyed it."
"Really?" Eren said. "I heard it saved a squad of soldiers from a crawler."
"Humm." Mikasa raised her hand to her chin as she considered what she had heard. "Whatever is happening, that thing must have powerful weapons. Orders of magnitude more potent than ours."
"That's disconcerting." Eren said. "But if that's true, then maybe they can help us destroy the titans. Think about it. With weapons like those..."
[x]
Reiner Braun watched from the top Wall Rose. He had requested the assignment, despite the time off normally given to the men and women of the Scouting Legion after a mission, success or not.
He let out a sigh as he watched a vast black shape, made tiny by distance, came into sight flying high above the walls. It was an ugly, brick like shape, but it possessed a certain elegance as it flew, which was truly a wonder in itself.
For a man capable of transforming into a titan, that was quite a statement.
He knew more about this new force than most other soldiers. He had been trained in information gathering, and had been at the head of the formation when it encountered the mysterious object now flying toward the walls. He had been the first to maneuver in, and had seen what had happened when the newcomers turned their weapons on the titans.
This changed everything. The search for the Coordinate was important, but, if these newcomers allied with the Kingdom, as seemed likely, then a change was in order.
As the sun set in the distance, Reiner Braun turned away from the land he had doomed, then looked upward at the stars now becoming visible. The stars where, if what he had overheard in the commander's tent was correct, he would soon walk.
Could redemption lurk out there?