The Garrison captain grabs Erwin by the collar. "What the hell are you thinking, Erwin!? You won't evacuate the people from the city? That Titan will be on top of us by dawn!" He yells at him. Hanji slams her hand down on the table.
"That Titan is an Abnormal." She says calmly. The Garrison captain turns to look at her, a hideous expression on his face.
"Why the hell does that matter?" He shouts in frustration. I clear my throat.
"If you allow me to speak, sir, ma'am." I say looking from the Garrison Captain to Hanji. Hanji nods telling me it's alright. I step forward to the edge of the table. "The Titan in question is only attracted to large groups of people. We can these outliers Abnormals. It won't give a small village a second glance, but it's making a beeline for this fortified city." I point to Orvud district on the map in front of us. "Therefore, if we were to evacuate the citizens to within Wall Sheena," I then move my finger onto within Wall Sheena. "The Titan would change course to target them, bringing the wall down on its way. Finally, it would reach Mitras, the city with the highest population, and deliver a devastating blow to humanity." I finish.
Hanji grins softly. "Look who's done their research." She turns back to the table. "On our way here, we attemted to use Eren Jeager and Ezlyn Harper's power to control Titans, but Rob Reiss's Titan did not react." I snort at remembering Eren accidently insulting Levi by shouting, 'You tiny old man!'.
"The only place we will be able to stop that Titan is just outside the walls of Orvud Dirtrict." Erwin starts. "That is why we must have the citizens remain here as bait. However, this does not change the fact that our first duty as soldiers is to protect the citizens. In case we are unable to halt the target, we'll take the precautions to ensure that nobody will be harmed. We'll announce an emergency evacuation drill for Orvud District so they will all be ready to evacuate should the worst happen." He finishes.
The Garrison captain gulps and lets go of Commander Erwin's collar and looks down at the ground. He sighs and look up again to the Commander. "It seems there's no other choice..."
"The target has the lagest body we've ever seen in a Titan. As such, it presents an easy target. Wall mounted cannons should be effective, but if they prove insufficient, the Survey Corps will throw everything we have at it." Erwin looks over at Eren and I and everyone else does the same. He was refering to the plan from earlier about feeding one of us to Rod Reiss. I look down at the table.
Can we pull this off?
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Dawn broke and the predictment was correct. The massive Titan had crawled it's way over quickly but we were prepared for that. The northern Garrison soldiers were lined up along the wall with all of the cannons.
"Fire!" The Garrison Captain yells as he fires his own cannon. With that every single cannon went off towards Rod Reiss. Craters were formed on Rod Reiss's back and the ground around it.
The cannons were loud making me cover my ears. I never usually minded loud noises but this time my ears were sensitive. I jumped and huddled close to Jean, hiding behind his back. He didn't mind as he was my friend after all.
Rob Reiss stopped dead in his tracks. "Did that do it?" Commander Erwin ponders. I came out from behind Jean and peeked over Historia to look at the Titan properly.
The cloud of steam moves violently and a titanic hand swishes past it, continuing it's hunt to kill. The cannons fire again and I scramble back behind Jean for 'safety'.
The Commander sighs. "The ground cannons are even less effective." He says, sounding disappointed.
"Of course they are. Even the wall mounted cannons can barely hit the nape despite having a better angle. What's going on here?" Levi blurts.
"This team was cobbled together, the cannons were gathered last-minute, and they're disorganised. Moreover, this is a northern region. Unlike the troops on the front lines, they've never seen real combat." Erwin turns to look at us all over his shoulder. "On the other hand, this is the best we can do in the current situation."
"Yeah, that much is painfully obvious. I don't like that you've forced the Survey Corps into another risky gamble of a plan. It's starting to feel like that's all you've got." Levi simply says, a stoic expression on his face as he looks at the abombination of a Titan.
"Erwin!" A voice shouts from behind us. "I've brought the goods!" Hanji was standing with loads of supply's with Moblit and other scouts. "Here's all the gunpowder, ropes, and netting we could find!" A scout walks by with a strange contraption. "Oh, and we made these! The other one is on the opposite side. When the anchors are fired, the triggers will lock in place and pull the barrel forward." She turns round to face us. "So, is the artillery proving effective?"
Levi turns to face behind him. "Slightly more effective than insects pissing on it."
"So we're really going to use these, then?" Hanji asks. I hear footsteps and turn to face them.
"Levi, Jean, Sasha, Connie, Ezlyn, you take care of the other side." Erwin orders. We all stand up straight.
"Understood!" We all shout in unison and take off to the other side of the wall were the Titan is headed.
I jog along-side Sasha and Connie at a slow pace to match their speed. The cannons fire again and I jump out of my skin, letting out a high pitched shriek and I fall to the ground, hugging my knees.
"Ezlyn?" Connie stops and turns to look at me. So do the other three. I wince and press my hands to my ears as the firing continues.
Before any of them could help me a massive gust of boiling steam comes up the wall and the firing stopped. I look up to see what it was and a large shadow was cast over me. A giant hand seemed to be falling towards me, ready to crush me under it's long, slender fingers.
"Get away!" Levi yells. But I stay planted there in fright.
Something collided with my body and knocked me out of it. The shadow that was above me disappeared and I landed against the top of the wall with something clinging to me.
I rubbed my eyes and looked up. Jean's face was hovering over mine by a few inches. He had saved me?
"What has gotten into you?" He says almost breathlessly.
"I- I don't know..." I look him in the eyes. "Can you get off me now please, we gotta kill that bitch of a Titan over there." His face goes beet-red and he gets up quickly but soon offers a hand to help me up. I take it without hesitance and he pulls me to my feet.
"Quick, to the barrels of water." Levi says, running towards some barrels. We follow behind quickly and I grab a bucket. I dip it in the water letting it fill up and then tip it out over my head. The cold water drenched my clothes and hair but that didn't matter, not when a city is in danger.
I tip another few buckets over my head and let Sasha have the bucket.
There was a flash of lightning and a loud ear-piercing roar, meaning Eren has transformed like planned. I run over to the self-activating bomb and wheel it into position. Ready to fire it.
Rod Reiss's ugly face was hanging over the wall. The whole front of it had been scraped away after dragging itself all the way here. It's tongue hanged out of it's mouth like a dog panting.
(T/W: Gore)
(From the actual Anime itself cause I can't draw that well ;-;)
Sasha takes over the self-exploding-bomb and positions it so it's facing the Titans hand.
"Let the attack commence!" Commander Erwin shouts from the other side, firing a red flare.
Sasha pulls the trigger on the bomb and two hooks fly out and attach themselves to the Titan's hand. She then pulls another trigger and the bomb starts pulling itself towards the hand aswell. "Bombs away!" Sasha shouts, jumping in the air.
The bomb collides and breaks but the barrel full of gunpowder ignites and explodes.
The wall shakes beneath me and the Titan loses it's balance and falls face first onto the wall, making it shake again.
Eren's Titan starts running towards the Titan with a big 'present' full of gunpowder.
The plan was for him to stuff it down its throat and hope for it to blow up the nape. It was also supposed to ignite itself due to the heat Rod Reiss's Titan is producing.
Eren chucks the big present into it and it bursts. The barrels of gunpowder go flying and detonate. The Titan's body seems to bubble up and explode, producing sun-like light. Pieces of flesh go flying and start falling to the ground.
"Now use the 3D maneuver gear to finish it off!" Commander Erwin bellows. I flick and pull my triggers and draw blades. I aim for a piece of flesh, hooking onto it and slicing through it. But nothing happened.
"Shit thats not it." I hiss under my breath. I aim for another one and repeat the process. Yet no avail.
"Fuck! Which one is it!" Jean shouts out of frustration. Historia appears out of nowhere and slices one in half.
"Historia?!" I wail. She shouldn't be here. A massive chunk of flesh goes flying through the air, glowing a deep orange and steaming more that the rest. There's the weak point, the nape.
But a blonde girl is flying towards it at incredible speed. Historia. Her blade glints in the light as it slices through the piece of flesh. It was cut in half cleanly and the two pieces glowed brighter than before then exploding, sending Historia and people in the air flying.
I fell from the air and land on top of a roof, the tiles shattering beneath me. It was hard to breath. I must've been winded. I start coughing and sit up.
I wipe the sweat off my forehead and rub my eyes. We done it. We killed Rod Reiss!