"C'mon move your fat asses!" The lieutenant shouted. The scouts scramble down the steps and ran out the door towards the stables, their ODM gear clattering as they went along. Eren looked to the sky to see the sunrise poking out just above the far mountains. The first horse emerged with a rider, followed by several others. Eren glimpsed Levi galloping by, his cloak flapping in the breeze.
"Shit," Eren said to himself, he had forgotten his cloak in the confusion.
"Anyone know why we're being ordered around inside wall rose?" Connie asked, as he mounted his horse.
"Inside wall rose?" Eren asked, mounting his horse beside Jean.
"Weren't you paying attention?" Jean responded, taking hold of the reins. "Their sending us four kilometers west, that's inside the walls!" Jean snapped the reins and his horse took off. Eren spotted Armin on his way out, he took hold of the reins and caught up to him.
"Armin! Whats going on? Is there a breach?" Memories of Shiganshina and Trost flooded his head.
"No," Armin answered, surprisingly calm, not like his breakdown at the battle of Trost. "Commander Erwin said they don't have any breaches anywhere, two titans just popped up in some farmland."
"So, shouldn't the garrison handle it?" Eren asked. Their horses were off the road now, sprinting across the open fields.
"That's the thing," Armin replied, the titans are far enough in that the cannons are out of range!" Eren pondered that for a second. Two titans this deep with no breach in the walls? The sound of horse hooves filled his ears, at least thirty people had been mobilized. A certain set of hooves began to sound louder and louder. Eren looked left to see Mikasa had arrived alongside them.
"Not sure how they expect us to take them down." She said "this area is all farmland, we won't be able to maneuver very well." Mikasa was right, they were as good as fodder without surfaces to latch on to.
The cold morning air stung Eren's face as they raced on. If he had just remembered his cloak, he could have used to shield his face like the others. "It better not fucking rain." He said under his breath.
"Everyone listen up!" A voice shouted. "We're playing bait! Draw those fuckers towards trees, buildings, anything that the combat team can maneuver on!" The voice was coming from a captain that Eren hadn't met before, he must have been appointed recently, or maybe he was from a different unit, and mobilized in the confusion. The titans appeared over the crest of the hill, a 7 meter and a 5 meter. Eren breathed a sigh of relief. They weren't that big, they could be dispatched quickly. Eren and ten others, Mikasa, Armin, and Jean included. Split off from the main group. There was a decent sized patch of trees and a tall windmill. That was where there titans needed to go. The titans drew closer, the 7 meter had a patch of blood dripping down its chin. It must have caught a farmer or a hunter.
They were close enough now. The 5 meter leaned forward, its hand outstretched. The horses scattered, the titan followed Eren and the few that went his direction. "Come and get me you big bastard!" he shouted defiantly. A sudden puff of smoke to the right spooked the horses, causing them to veer left towards the titans. Eren heard a scream, the man behind him had been plucked of his horse and was now dangling over the titan's mouth. "No!" he shouted, turning his horse around. He quickly spied his opportunity, he could latch onto the titans arm, swing around and strike the neck. He wasn't sure if he could save the man, but it was worth a shot. He fired a harpoon, the device stuck deep into the forearm near the elbow. He jumped and activated the thrust.
A puff of smoke suddenly engulfed him. He was no longer swinging, but falling. He fell a good few feet and hit solid brick. He shifted his body so he was on his hands and knees. Taking a breath in, he tried to gather his bearings. His train of thought was cut short when his lungs seemed to catch fire, his throat began to itch. He started to cough, he attempted to breathe through his nostrils with no better result. Tears began to sting his eyes when he noticed a figure sprinting towards him, too small to be a titan, but didn't look like any human he had seen. The character wore multicolored fabric consisting of black, dark green and brown. The shades seemed to be dotted all across the outfit in no particular order. The man was close, too close. He moved a strange black object towards Eren's face, two straps dangled from the opposite end. Eren caught the man's hand and forced it to the side.
"Dammit!" The man responded in a gravelly voice. "Cooperate!"
What the fuck is this? The hands came down again, this time more forcefully. Eren pushed away again with all his strength, adding a head-butt for good measure. He was met by a hard surface. He jerked back and brought a hand to his forehead, leaving one free to defend himself. The stranger moved forward quickly, slipping the object over Eren's face. The object seemed to be a mask of sorts, with two holes for eyes covered by glass. The mask was uncomfortable, he fumbled for the straps, trying to rip it off. The man shouted something and placed his large hand across the face of the mask. Eren took a breath and prepared to lash out, then he realized, he could breathe again.
"Breathe in, breathe out." The man said, moving his hand up and down mimicking breathing. Eren took a breath and then let it out. Three more individuals were gathered beside him now, two wore masks identical to his own.
"Who the hell are you?" Eren asked, with spring of malevolence towards the unknown men.
"We're Rangers," One replied in a feminine voice. "Who are you?"
He looked at each of them, they didn't show any sign of hostility. "I'm Eren Jaeger," He said proudly.
"You say that name like we should know it," One of the men said.
"You don't know who I am?" Eren asked, puzzled. "I thought you said you were scouts?"
"I said we were Rangers, Spartan Rangers," The woman corrected. "You know… from Polis?"
"Polis?" Eren said in a confused tone. He had never heard of a town called Polis. "What wall is that in?" The four Rangers looked at each other.
"Are you alright?" The metal masked man asked. "You seem a little… out of sorts."
Out of sorts? Where am I? Eren thought.
"Well look", the metal masked man stood up, extending his hand to help Eren to his feet. "My name is Artyom, this is Katerina, Pyotr, and Simon. Eren took Artyom's hand and stood up.
"Sir! Those mutants are coming this way!" Pyotr shouted, pointing down the street. Eren saw two titans walking down the street, a 7 meter and a 15 meter. Eren picked up his paring blades, ready to fight.
"Shit, let's get out of here!" Artyom ordered.
"Wait!" Eren said. The four stopped and turned towards him. "We're just going to run? There's five of us, we can take them!"
"Are you insane?" Artyom asked "I've killed some nasty shit, boy! But this is way over our heads! They can't touch us in the metro!"
Eren frowned at their lack of ODM gear, but Artyom seemed to have some sort of musket on his back, along with a strange club in his hands. "You guys can distract them then!" Eren fired his gear and shot up to the roof of the nearest building. The rangers were stunned buy this sudden action, Eren assumed they had never seen ODM gear. Eren sprinted across the roof top towards the titans, nearly losing his footing on the rotten shingle work. He got a good look at his surroundings, the city was different then he was used to, but it looked as though it had been abandoned for quite some time The structures were burnt and dilapidated, almost like skeletons of the structures they once were.. Tall buildings stood in the distance, taller than any of the walls he had lived behind. He looked down to see the the rangers had decided to help. Eren could here the unmistakable sound of gun fire, but it sounded as though hundreds of muskets were firing one after the other. Eren glimpsed the rangers again and noticed their club like weapons were in fact some type of musket-like weapon. The strange weapons fired rapidly, without the need for reloading after each shot.
The titans closed on the rangers, the 15 meter reached towards them. Simon knelt down, using his knee as a stand for his weapon. His weapon made a dull thudding sound as the buckshot tore into the titan's hand, ripping off fingers and chunks of flesh. Artyom fired his own weapon. The weapon made a loud, echoing crack, hitting the creatures opposite hand in the wrist, tearing a chunk out and leaving it dangling by soft tissue. Eren took the opportunity, hooking to the building on the opposite end of the street, he shot forward. His twin blades carving deep into the titan's neck. The Titan fell sideways, smashing the nearby building.
Pyotr lit a grenade and lobbed it at the 7 meter titan's feet. It exploded, tearing of several toes, causing the creature to lose its balance and fall forward. The rangers dove away frantically as it came tumbling down, cracking the pavement on impact. Eren fired a hook into the back of the titan's neck. He zipped forward and sliced through the neck.
Artyom and the others hopped to their feet and inspected the carnage. Both titans were dead, their bodies already decomposing.
"Were the hell did you get that?" Artyom asked, tapping Eren's ODM gear with his gun barrel. "And how did you kill those things?"
"It's easy, really," Eren said. "The weak spot is the back of the neck."