Daisy II | Levi Ackerman

Chapter 3 - Breach in The Premises

851

[Armin]

The sun was high up in the afternoon sky, almost about to set in the west end of the bright green horizon when the scouts were beginning to be lowered down the exterior of Trost. It was always such a nerve-wracking experience for me, being at the edge of the wall, awaiting deployment. Half of it because of permanent fear, and the rest of it being pure exhilaration for the things we were about to discover.

"Armin," Commander Hanji called from a short distance, a leather waist pack in her hands and a flare gun. I ran to her spot at command.

"Yes, Commander?" I responded.

"Will you hand these over to Naomi?" She requested, putting the small equipment in my hands. "We might not have any use of it, but you know, for emergency. I gave every Section Commander one set."

I nodded in affirmation, and turned towards Naomi's Squad as she was supervising their preparation before the big set-off. Her four new recruits- the cynical ones- as she had over and over again narrated to me about, were just being lowered down the elevator to the ground. She was going last, standing at the edge of the wall.

"Hey, Nao." I called, catching her attention. She turned around and gave me that ever-welcoming Naomi smile of hers.

"Armin, hi." She greeted. "What's up?"

"Commander Hanji asked me to give you these." I answered, handing the flare gun and the bag of smoke signal cannisters to her.

"What do I need these for?" She laughed softly, as she buckled the pack around her waist and sheathed the flare gun in its proper position. "There are no special isolate missions or titans lurking around anymore."

"The Commander might just be making sure." I shrugged. "Just in case."

Naomi smiled, nodding her head. "Alright, alright. I'll see you later, dweeb."

"See you. Take care." I bade back, watching her as she walked away, towards the edge where she let a fellow scout assist her down on the elevator.

Something about today was rather in the shade; though I knew for sure everything was flowing smoothly. I didn't know what to pinpoint it with, but every day when I wake up I get this notion whenever the universe seems to conspire into something ominous.

"Armin, come on!" Sasha's shrill voice shook me out of my shallow trance, and I shrugged the thought off. If my prediction was correct, then today would be nothing but a small predicament, nothing too majorly bad. I hoped.

Alerted again, I ran to my squad's position and joined them down the elevator, feeling the beating of the spring sun against our skin. The elevator lowered down on the ground and we were on our horses again, with the Spec Ops riding alongside Hanji and her two new assistants, the ones which replaced Moblit and Nifa.

In our expedition stations, with Captain Levi calmly heading our group, we watched as Commander Hanji raised her flare gun, and shot up the sky that remarkable green smoke that signalled the beginning of our mission.

And so, the heavy hooves of our horses hammered down on the grassy ground, quaking the earth as we set off and deployed into the designated distances between the squads. We still followed late Commander Erwin's expedition guidelines diligently, as it was the most effective deployment position any one has ever drafted for the past years.

There were guards at the sides and the rear, heads to keep the path open and the direction clear, that was us- and the most important people and resources were at the center. That was where Naomi's squad and our research equipments were. There were more than a hundred kilometers between us, so we were almost completely out of sight from one another. But that had always been safer.