Rose Squadron: the Inkari Gambit

Victory

Hedasta, Connie and Eren watched the light leave Annie's eyes, her overjoyed smile at seeing Mina etched into eternity. They sobbed over her body, trying to process her death and her apparent death vision, Inkari's lightning storm raging over their heads as the sounds of the battle echoed in the distance.

"I've never seen her this happy!" Hedasta told them, her breathing ragged as she gently closed Annie's eyes.

Connie wiped away at his eyes and told them, "We need to get her to a safe location until this battle ends."

"Yes, you're right," Hedasta answered, lifting Annie's body as she stood. "Let's return to my Tower until things calm down."

The Senator proceeded back down the alleyway, towards the plaza where the three paths met. Connie and Eren walked behind her, weeping as they silently processed Annie's passing. While they knew that she had ultimately passed in peace, the two boys still couldn't help but mourn the loss of the most determined girl they had ever known.

"This is what she wanted? To die after ensuring that she had carried out justice here on Inkari? I had no idea...I had no idea that she lost the will to live after seeing that video..."

Eren clutched at the hologram recorder in his pocket, anxious to play it and hear what Inkari's mysterious Chief of Security had to offer him regarding his missing father. It made little sense to him, how this man had gained any information on Grisha Yeager, when Eren's father had been missing for 10 years.

"Whoever this 'Uttaka' person is, he must've been incredibly cunning, in order to know whatever he does about Dad. It amazes me, how far he went to undermine that bastard's authority, and remain undetected the entire time. That's insane."

At the plaza, the Loyalist reinforcements had all been blasted to death, lying in bloody heaps over the area. The survivors stood in groups, panting madly and flooded with a collective rush of adrenaline. One of the fighters, a young man with swept back brown hair in an Imperial Officer uniform, saw Hedasta coming with Annie's body in her arms, and let out a heartbroken scream at the sight.

"ANNIE, NO!"

He crumpled to the ground and sobbed in horror, and when the other fighters saw that Annie was dead, they wept likewise. Another young Officer with bleach-blonde hair, likely the brown-haired boy's brother, grit his teeth, shed a few angry tears and lifted the weeping boy to his feet, saying, "C'mon Marcel, Annie wouldn't want us to drown in our grief."

Hedasta told them somberly, "My comrades, Datenshi ambushed Annie when she tried to chase after him down that alleyway. But don't worry about that snake; I ensured with my own hands that he died a painful death. Please, gather our wounded and deceased. We need to get them to safety."

She turned to the other Officer and told him, "Officer Porco Galliard, please relegate this to the others."

"Yes, Senator."

He pressed the ComLink on his collar, and announced, "Officer Annie Leonhardt has fallen. She was ambushed by the traitor Datenshi, who was summarily killed by Senator Carolina. Do not let Officer Leonhardt's sacrifice be in vain!"

A minute later, a vicious warcry resounded over Inkari as the planet's people learned of Annie's untimely passing. The sounds of fighting intensified, as the Inkarin's rage was fueled even further by the loss of their beloved vindicator. Porco smiled coldly, knowing full well that he had helped seal the Loyalists' fates.

The fighters gathered the wounded and deceased into the arms and filed behind the trio, murmuring in alarm at the sight of two outsiders standing with their Senator. As they sorrowfully touched Annie's head, the two Galliard brothers stood behind Eren and Connie, looking at the two of them warily.