The Birth of Freedom

Heartbeat

JEAN

"Good news!" I hollered as I slammed down the box of rifles for everyone to see "Courtesy of the military police and covered with a layer of dust". 

Wrenching open the lid I lifted out a long-barrelled gun that Armin had insisted we brought with us when we had searched the armoury, good lot of use they would be.

"Are you absolutely sure buckshot is the way to go. Seems like we might as well throw spit wads. I mean come one, guys. Are guns even effective?" I asked doubtfully as I lifted a rifle to gaze down its scope.

"I don't know but there bound to be better than nothing" Armin muttered as he contemplated a blueprint for lower HQ that he had swiped from the officer's quarters, watching him now I could actually see the wheels turning in his head. 

He had a plan.

"We're looking at seven titans in the supply room, of the 4 meters tall variety. If we time this perfectly, this much ammo ought to be enough to do the trick" Armin tapped the map to draw our attention to the lifts "Step one we lower a group into the area via lift to get the Titan's attention. Step two, when the titans come within range, the group fires in all four directions simultaneously blinding them. Then the hard part. The moment of truth as it were. Before the titans have time to recover, seven of us swoop down from the ceiling and strike their vital regions. That's it. That's the plan. It puts all our lives on the line. We screw up, were dead. That's a hell of a risk for one attack, but it's our only chance".

Armin's gaze passed over Reiner, Mikasa, Annie, Bertholt, Sasha and Connie before finally coming to land on me. Dropping his eyes back down to the map, sweat beaded on his forehead and ran down his temple. 

If he needed us to do something, he had to spit it out.

Taking a deep breath, he met our eyes again, but this time he was resolved. "Seven people have to slay seven titans in one blow, at the same time. We're going to need the best of you. The seven soldiers most physically gifted and adept with their pairing blades. You'll be the difference between life and death for the rest of us. I'm sorry, that's how it is"

Well thanks, Armin, no pressure.

"Seems like a sound plan" Reiner nodded as a creepy smile began to spread on his face, guess he liked this plan a lot.

"When you get right down to it, the risk is the same for everyone" Annie shrugged "Doesn't really matter who goes". 

It could work if we all struck the weak spot perfectly, but that was a big if.

"Look I ...I'm willing to be talked out of this" Armin sighed as he got to his feet "One half-baked strategy can't be our only option, right?".

When all is said and done, this is our best option.

"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself" Marco the enthusiast smiled as he placed his hand on Armin's shoulders,"Come one, with what we're looking at for our only option it's pretty well thought out. If we give it our all we might just pull this off!".

Yeah, Marco, I think we just might.

"It will be fine you just have to be confident, You're a better strategist than you give yourself credit for. I'm serious, that mind has saved our family more than once"Mikasa said as she came to stand in front of Armin and his body jerked in shock before staring at Mikasa incredulous.

"When did I ever saved any of you? That's not..." he trailed off, unsure. Was this really the time to be getting into this?

"All right the lifts ready to go! Guns are loaded to the stocks. Let's kill some titans!" a cadet shouted as he opened the lift barriers and I nudged Mikasa's arm as I passed to let her know we needed to move to take the stairs to the supply room.