The day after I send Armin Squad out to Wall Rose, I receive word that my proposal for the 59th Exterior Scouting Mission has been approved, and the regiment is cleared to leave the walls within the next two days. Shipments of supplies for the mission are already en route to HQ.
I send word to Levi and Armin that their two squads should return to the headquarters as quickly as possible. Almost impatiently, I realize that sending Armin's squad out there has definitely delayed the start of the mission by at least a couple of days, but there's nothing to be done about it now. I never thought that the proposal would be accepted so quickly.
It takes two days for the supply wagons to reach the HQ, followed quickly by the two squads from Wall Rose. With the entire regiment ready and raring to go, I call a meeting between all of the squad leaders to prep them the night before we're set to leave.
"All right, Mikasa, your squad is going to cover the left flank of enemy detection. Jean, yours will be on the right." I point to the respective boxes on the diagram of the formation I've tacked to the wall. "Maxwell, you're behind Mikasa Squad on cart duty. You should also assign four of your guys to act as relays between the command column and the squads on the right flank. I'll leave the judgement of 'who' up to you."
The burly man nods, his jaw set. I remember how inept of a leader he'd been in the formation practice run I'd observed during training, and trust he's grown since then.
"Armin, same instructions as Max, but you're going to be on the right flank, behind Jean Squad. And that leaves Ferrence Squad," I say, turning to the second new officer. "You guys will be at the very back, in charge of the last two wagons. You're only job is to follow my signals - and to keep anything from happening to those supplies."
Ferrence frowns at the diagram and shifts on his feet.
I keep myself from sighing. "Celebrate, man! You're the least likely to come into any trouble back there. Odds are, your entire squad will make it back alive."
I hear Levi snort out a laugh at my optimistic claim, but I ignore him and clap Max and Ferrence on the shoulders.
"Everyone's going to be just fine. Just listen to my orders and don't lose your heads, and we'll make it through." I keep my voice level and confident, although I need the assurance just as badly as my men. I've never directed an entire formation before; and in reality, the decisions each of these squad leaders will make will ultimately matter less than an anthill. The success of the regiment weighs solely on my shoulders, and the calls I'll make tomorrow.
I tell the officers to get some rest for the night, and after saluting me, they trundle off to bed. I hope they sleep well. I know I, for one, won't be catching a wink.
The morning of the mission dawns with a sense of nervous anticipation. When I wake, the air seems to quiver in my lungs as if charged with electricity. I lie in my bed for a moment, steeling myself for the long day ahead, and stare up at the paint cracking on the ceiling.
As soon as I step outside my room, I'm accosted by a flurry of soldiers equally as anxious as I am. I've never seen this many men up and awake so promptly for morning muster, even though we're not even getting a proper meal this morning: just a packet of wafers to eat on the go. Thanks to the prep meeting last night, the squad leaders are able to direct their squads into their assigned position with confidence, and we manage to pull out from the headquarters before the sun has fully risen in the sky.
Instead of heading straight south for the gate at Trost, the regiment heads first west, then north, setting a course for the Krolva district on the western side of Wall Rose.
My reasoning for this is twofold. First, most of the new recruits are fairly familiar with the terrain outside of Krolva, since they underwent that training exercise during their stint in the Training Corps. That should give them a greater chance of surviving. Instead of being green cadets in unfamiliar terrain, they have the advantage of knowing the territory, even if they've never ridden in a fully functioning long range scouting formation before.
Secondly, I'm hoping that since the majority of Titans seem to come from the south, from the direction of Shiganshina district, we might be able to skirt around the outer edge of any Titan hordes by first traveling west and then south. The more roundabout way will take longer, of course, but in the end our destination will be the same, and we should definitely encounter less Titans. If my estimation of Titan behavior is correct, then most of them will be concentrated within Wall Maria itself anyway, but I figure it doesn't hurt to be extra careful.
And of course, I have an unspoken third reason that I can't voice to anyone. I don't want to go through Shiganshina because of the horrible memories it holds - the place where so many brave soldiers lost their lives. I couldn't do that to Levi, to Armin, to Mikasa, Connie, Eren, Sasha, Jean, any of them. And I couldn't do that to Sofia, either. There will be a time for her to visit the place where Erwin died. But none of us have healed enough for that time to be now.
Once we reach the countryside, far from any larger towns, I order the regiment to fan out into a more expansive formation. It's nowhere near the scale of the long range formation, but it mimics it in many ways: a central column with the special ops and command squad, flanked on the left by Squads Mikasa and Max, flanked on the right by Squads Armin and Jean, and backed up from behind by Squad Ferrence at the rear, who's also in charge of the majority of the supply carts. In total, it covers about 25 square kilometers, so I can just barely see the squads flanking us to the right and left.
We make relatively good time, but with the villages that crop up along the way, interrupting the formation, we get a little off track. At noon we have hardly reached the halfway point between Ermich and Yarkel districts, and I'm starting to get worried. At this rate, we might not even reach Klorva by dusk.
By three or so, our speed has dipped again, and I crane my neck in search of a marker that might indicate where we are. To the west, a river winds through a field of stumpy soybeans; to the east, nothing is visible except for a dense forest of thin pine trees, every so often dotted with a stand of thicker oak or maple. Every so often I can spot the squads on the right flank flitting through the gaps in the tree trunks.
I hold my horse back a bit so that Levi and his squad can pull up in line with me.
"What are you thinking?" I call to Levi.
He squints at the scenery around us. "I'm not sure. The last village we passed through was Arlien - that was what, a quarter of an hour ago?"
"Yeah." I reach in my saddlebag in search of a map. Maintaining my balance on my horse by squeezing my thighs together, I unfold the scrap of parchment and hold it as steady as I can. It's difficult, with all the jostling, to spot the tiny dot that represents Arlien Village, but once I locate it, my stomach falls in dismay.
"We're much too far east," I mutter to myself. "I bet because of all those damn trees, we couldn't see Yarkel just to the right."
"So we're altering course?" Eren questions.
In response, I remove a flare gun from its holster, snap a green canister into place, and fire in a northwesterly direction. Almost at once, the squads spread out around me echo the signal and fire their flares in the same direction.
"We're going to have to cross the river," Levi sighs as he turns his horse.
"Levi, you've had to deal with far worse on horseback than crossing a single river," I remind him. "Don't discourage your men."
The regiment manages to cross the river with little incident - although the squads in charge of the carts have to spend additional time finding a place that's shallow enough to roll through, instead of fording - and I have to restrain myself from bellowing with impatience.
My temper cools a bit as I realize I can see mountains in the distance, indicating that we must be on the right track. In between Klorva and Yarkel districts, there's a small range of mountains, exaggerated hills really, that run all the way up against Wall Rose. It's amazing, really, how the wall cuts straight through the range, severing the imposing heaps of earth clean in half.
Incidentally, I remember Dohna Village being close to here - on the very edge of the mountain range. I glance at Sofia almost unconsciously at the thought. We're probably just a dozen or so kilometers south of it right now.
"Hey, Commander Hanji," Sasha shouts over to me. "It's - uh - getting kind of late? Is it almost time to stop for dinner?"
I chuckle. "Not quite yet," I reply. "We've got to get to Klorva before we can rest for the night."
"We can't just stop for a couple minutes to eat something?" Sasha suggests in a hopeful tone of voice.
"Blaus, you heard your commander, now pipe down," Levi orders.
"Sorry, kiddo." I offer Sasha an apologetic grin.
"Are those ... what are those? They're huge!" Sofia calls out over the thump of hoofbeats.
Her sudden comment startles Levi and I both. I whip around, thinking she's referring to Titans or something, but there's no clear threat on the empty plain around us.
"What are you talking about?" Floch asks, snapping a little in annoyance.
"Those." She points to the purple and green mountains faint in the distance. "Mountains, right? I've never seen anything like them before."
"Sofia, I always forget you're from the Underground until you make some stupid comment like that," Connie notes brightly.
"Connie!" Levi's admonishing snarl makes the younger cadet flinch.
I follow Sofia's gaze and appreciate the view through her eyes. The mountains are rather majestic, awash in the pinkish-orange light of the sun which hangs low in the sky.
"They're so much ... bigger than I thought they'd be," she says, her voice small with awe, but I catch her words through the whistle of wind and hooves.
I smile to myself and pull up close to her side. Her shiny brown hair, gathered into a ponytail just below the crown of her head, tumbles behind her like a sluggish flag.
"You know, Sofia, we're awfully close to Leah Langel's farm." I nod my head northwards. "It's probably a ten minute ride from here."
"Leah Langel? You mean, where Asha is?" Her voice is breathless, excited.
"Yes. Just think, Asha probably wakes up and sees these mountains every - "
Before I can finish my sentence, the far-off pop of a flare gun interrupts me.
All of our heads snap in the direction of the sound: the right flank - off in the direction of Dohna Village. The smoke is purple. An emergency of some sort.
Shit, I think to myself crossly. We really can't afford any more delays.
Before I can think of how to handle the situation, though, another flare goes off, in the same direction.
This time, it's red. My brain screams into panic mode almost at once.
How can there be Titans? Within Wall Rose?