Having lost everything to the titans, you find yourself alienated when you wake up alone, in a city you didn't recognize. Deprived of a sense of purpose, you join the Military in hopes of reclaiming what's left of your home, Shiganshina. But is home...
It was finally time for the 57th extra wall expedition. It was a mission to secure a route to Shiganshina and establish a supply chain around the old town area. This was necessary as the gate at Trost was sealed, making the previous route obsolete and the scouts were forced to take a longer route from Karanese district.
Everyone stood by on horseback behind the outer gate of Karanese. You look around and you could see children whispering in excitement. "Look! The mark on their back! It's called the wings of freedom!" A little boy says.
It reminds you of the day after the finals when you watched the scouts set off. It hasn't even been two months since then, but this time around you were alongside the scouts setting out. As the commander says, "Forward!" you head out.
Just as you step outside, you see a ten meter class titan with a large stomach making its way towards you. Captain Hange says, "I'm interested in the contents of it's stomach, but leave it to the support squad!" and you watch as the scouts from the support squad go straight after it without hesitation.
As soon as you get past the town outside Karanese, the commander gives the signal, and you split up to commence the long distance tactical formation. You and the rest of the Hange squad were in the center-front of the formation.
You were between the front line where the Commander was and the center-mid where the supply wagons were. Behind them was the center-rear where the Levi squad was stationed. Strangely enough, Eren's position was marked on the left flank despite him usually being part of the Levi squad.
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As you kept pushing forward, you see a red flare on the left signaling a titan. The purpose of the tactical formation was to avoid combat as much as possible, so whenever a titan was sighted, the commander would change course to avoid it.
In this case, he signals the formation to take a right turn. You follow this pattern and march ahead while avoiding combat. After a while you spot a two more red flares from the left, however there's no change to the formation.
"Why aren't we turning right?" You ask Captain Hange.
"They must've sighted more titans on the right side. In that case, we'd have no choice but to go towards where there's less." She answers.
At that point it was a given that you'd come across the titans on the left. As you prepared for battle, you spot the two seven meter class titans approaching. Your squad goes straight after them, as you couldn't risk them going after the supply wagons.
"Shall I prepare the capture device captain?" asks Moblit.
"No! Go for the kill!" says Captain Hange without hesitation.
You and the rest of the squad were baffled at how quickly she gave the order to kill as she usually prioritized capture. You figure that there must be an underlying reason behind it, but you weren't sure what exactly it was yet.
It was an open area where it was difficult to use ODM gear and it gave titans the advantage. As one scout tries to attack the titan's limbs, it grabs him. Before it could eat him, you rush in from behind, but the titan reaches to grab you with its other hand.
You quickly latch onto its shoulder and make a tight maneuver around its arm to avoid being caught. With a quick burst of pressure, you go straight for its nape. You could pull this off as a result of your ODM training over the past month.
While you managed to take the titan out, you used a bit too much gas in the process. Unlike in Trost, supply was limited, and you had to conserve as much gas as possible. As you help the scout out of the titans fingers that had already begun disintegrating, Nifa and the Captain take out the other titan.
"Good work!" says Captain Hange. "Remember, as the research squad, we have to use every opportunity to learn more about titans. What we know is very little, so even the most trivial details are valuable, got it?"
"Yes Ma'am!" You respond. Having gotten rid of both titans, you get on your horses and move back into position.
❋❋❋
A while later,
You notice over a dozen red flares on the right. It made sense why the commander couldn't change course earlier. It looked as if they were ambushed by a large horde of titans. While it was unusual for titans to move in large groups like that, nothing seemed impossible, knowing that Reiner and Bertolt were stationed on the right side of the formation. It made you worry for Jean and Armin, as they were close to the right flank.
You soon start to see black flares popping up on the right. It was the signal for an abnormal. However, the way the flares kept appearing, it was like the abnormal was making its way inside the formation from the right flank.
While it was within expectation for Abnormals to ignore humans and incidentally run towards the center, the veterans would've taken them out due to their unpredictability. The fact that it kept moving inwards could only mean that it took out the senior scouts who were tasked with taking out Abnormals. A scout approaches your squad and relays information regarding the event.
"The right flank is all but annihilated! The scouting formation is no longer functional." As he says that, a second messenger arrives from the front line and speaks privately with Captain Hange.
As they spoke, you see the commander's signal to change course. You couldn't stop thinking as to why he'd continue the mission despite having the scouting ability crippled. However, it starts to make sense when the Captain orders your squad to break out of the formation.
"We're going to meet up with the Commander and the supply wagons in the forest of giant trees!" She explains.
"Huh? But Captan... isn't that in the opposite direction of the destination?" Says Moblit as the original destination was the old town area to the south.
"The expedition was only a guise to hide a secret mission that only the superiors knew about. I'll explain later, for now trust me and do as I say." She says without giving away any details regarding the true objective.
Inside the forest,
You meet up with Commander Erwin's unit and the supply wagons. Captain Hange orders you to Moblit and the others set up the Special Target Restraint Weapons and stand by for the signal to fire.
You had no idea what it was all about. "Perhaps they're planning to capture the abnormal." you think to yourself as you follow her orders and head over to help everyone set up the equipment.
One look at the supply wagons and it was clear that it was definitely a capture mission as they didn't have even half the amount of supplies for the number of scouts who were part of the Expedition. Instead, the inventory was all but taken up by the astronomical number of the recently invented capture devices.
They were really heavy and it took at least two people to lift the barrels. It was a lot of work as you had to move nearly a hundred of them and set them up to fire from every direction. Just as you finished linking them up, you hear a loud high-pitched sound.
"Get ready!" says Commander Erwin as soon as he heard that noise. It must've been some kind of signal only he was aware of.
Two or three minutes later, a scout yells, "The Female Titan is approaching!" and the Commander raises his hand to give the signal.
"Female Titan? What's that?" You didn't have time to contemplate as you see Captain Levi and his squad racing towards you on horseback.
Just as Eren and the Levi squad ran past you, Commander Erwin gives the signal to fire. Thick metal cables with arrowheads fire out of the barrels that were stationed in every direction and restrain the fourteen meter class titan.
