…
"…this thing flies?" Eld asked as he stared at the odd metal beast in front of him.
The beastman in a green uniform stopped attaching a gun to the rear of the bird and turned to him.
"It's better. Unless you want to go on foot." The soldier replied, returning to his work.
Levi approached his subordinate.
"So far their weapons work well, doubt their helicopters won't perform excellently."
"Any word on the wounded, captain?" he asked.
The short man grimaced.
" I don't know."
"I see. Any word on when we head out?"
"One hour. That way when we get there the sun will have begun to set and the Titans will start to become inactive. The Imperials are already loading up our supplies as well as theirs."
Eld nodded, surprised.
He wanted to ask if this was really it, after all those years of trying and failing to even start the slow process of sealing the walls.
But he knew better.
The captain was a usually calm man, but he knew just as much as the rest of the team that this short man carried more stress than any of them, and they didn't need to annoy him with dumb questions about a mission.
Wait, where did he-?
He noticed the captain had moved towards the flying machine, slowly passing his index finger along the surface of the metal bird.
"…Filthy…" he heard him mutter.
The man working on the gun visibly shook before staring at the captain.
"Uh… filthy?" the soldier asked.
"You have dust and plenty of dirt all over the floor, which is understandable, but the seats and windows… are not."
The soldier stared in disbelief.
Eld wondered if the presence of humanity's strongest had the man at a loss for words.
"Well, this one will be carrying ammunition and the gun for support, so not too many troops will ride here… hopefully the ones your team will be riding in are… should be cleaner." The soldier said nervously.
Levi simply nodded with an unreadable look on his face before walking away.
Eld smiled slightly before overhearing the Emperian mutter something.
"Supreme… this world has neat freaks, too?"
"What?"
"Nothing," he stated, going back to working on the gun.
…
"Wind, two-fifty, fuel 5 magic stones…" Roy heard on the radio as the different pilots kept going over the lists before takeoff.
He is a Dark elf. He was one of the few Army officers tagging along, and all he was in charge of were a few Army engineers.
He glanced at one of the other DOVA 4s, the one being loaded with the last bit of cargo needed for the completion of this mission.
"All instruments are good, we are ready for takeoff."
"Understood, Hillclimber, Godspeed."
Here we go…
…
The beast- Machine shook and rumbled as a whinnying sound increased to the point that Petra was glad the ear protection the men had given her was doing its job.
It was so stupid in her mind, that she went up against the enemy without any armor to defend herself or long-range weapons. She was able to fly meters above the ground at high speeds with little issue.
Yet she was petrified of this weird machine from another world.
Her gear lay by her feet, secured to the floor, but that was little comfort.
Even more annoying, she didn't even have to look at the scientist to her immediate left to know she was enjoying every single second of the ordeal.
The rumbling then relaxed slightly, and she felt her stomach drop without moving somehow.
Are we-?
"Ha-ha! Moblit! Look out the window! We're airborne! Truly airborne!" the girl yelled, the radio picking it up and broadcasting it for the whole cabin to hear, much to the amusement of the imperials and irritation of all the scouts.
Hanji was probably the only one visibly enjoying herself.
What the hell is so exciting about being in the air?! We're constantly flying around and with much more control over where we go! Oh-
Moblit hid it well, but the feeling of being airborne without actually being able to control how high or fast or really anything else made the scout feel nauseous.
The rest of the Survey Corps veterans were either stone-faced, forcing a calm demeanor, or simply unmoving as the machine took off into the air.
High above the strange structure, then the tall trees, and then they were able to see for miles ahead.
"Alright, Hillclimber, proceed southwest until Wall Maria is visible."
Hanji wondered why the pilots kept repeating their mission objectives but decided it could wait, enjoying the view. She saw one of the smaller helicopters, the ones with big guns, fly next to them before pulling back, probably to form a formation of their own.
Like us, but different… fascinating.
Plenty of titans were visible under them and in the distance.
Some saw them and started to follow them.
Better to keep them off their base…
The late afternoon sun still shone as they made their way to the ruined district where the crisis had begun almost five years prior.
Just as it began to turn into the evening sun, glowing orange, the massive structure of the walls came into view.
Roy stared in amazement. All the recon ops the Sorcerous Empire had managed to send through before the main force entered had only managed to travel a few miles away before having to pull back, never seeing the walls.
They stretched from one end of the horizon to the next, making the Great Wall of the Former Holy Kingdom look like a sand castle. The imperial officer begin to realize just how little they know about this world.
How long did it take them to build something like that?
Surely it had taken them centuries to do so, but if the Titans had only appeared a little more than a hundred years prior, why build them? Did someone know about their threat and plan ahead?
Or was there some otherworldly technique they were unaware of? How do they made those huge walls?
He was forced to push those thoughts aside as the helicopters landed on the top of the outermost wall, just above the breach.
Erwin exited as the whirling blades began to slow and the whinnying engine began to die down, his soldiers following through.
The imperials hopped out of the smaller crafts and others did something he considered somewhat odd, they got on their knees, looking down their rifles as if there were hostiles nearby.
One yelled "Clear!" and they all got up like nothing had happened.
"What in the hell…?" he heard one of the scouts murmur before Hanji started with her theories.
"Ooh, very interesting, they're probably making sure no Titans managed to climb up here… caution always pays- wah!"
"We could see no titans were up here from the chopper assuming that was their concern… dumbass…" Levi groaned after jabbing the scientist on the elbow slightly.
Erwin ignored it, they were all on edge as this had been the end goal of the corps for a long time and to reach it so suddenly was not only unprecedented, it was still hard to believe it was actually happening.
…
"There are way less of them around than I would have expected…" Roy mumbled to himself as he observed the giants wondering around the empty town through binoculars, many moving towards their position high on the wall. It wasn't that there weren't a lot of them, but for some reason, he had expected an infestation, not unlike ants scrambling around the carcass of any dead animal, except gigantic.
He had been more than impressed with the sheer size and scope of the walls, landing the Enrys, G3s and DOVA 4s had been relatively easy while still giving them all a comfortable area to set up as a temporary base of operations, radios, and monitoring equipment quickly set up just above the area where the hole was, not too far from a large indentation in the cement; the only evidence of the existence of the Colossal Titan.
If found, we have to make it a priority to take it out… wonder how well it'll handle anti-tank missiles…
The sun was setting, and the team had a special idea to clear the area of hostiles without risking themselves too much.
Oluo, however, shuddered slightly as he observed the monsters below him converge into a mob several meters below him.
"That… is… I mean…God… there are still so many of them." One of the Soldiers muttered, walking up to him.
"Yeah, the worst part is when they charge you."
The Soldier mumbled something resembling an agreement, but Oluo wasn't sure. The earlier attack back at the base had given the Imperials plenty of data to imagine a horde of Titans charging down at them, ready to eat them alive.
"Explosive charges are all prepped up!" an engineer called from the area where they were amassing their explosives in neat groups, ready to be used.
Part one, distract the enemy, moving them to one side of the wall or the other.
Simple enough…
The Titans had already noticed the flying machines and had instinctively followed them; something many more were incentivized to do as several scouts stuck themselves to the walls and acted as bait, visible but always out of reach.
Part two was more complicated. They had to wait until the sun went down and the Titans stopped moving. Then the smaller helicopters would drop two teams of Imperials while the veteran Survey Corps members used their gear to climb down the walls and coordinate with units called explosives teams.
Apparently, the Imperials could see in the dark and would give them special goggles to do just that themselves, said ability was to plant explosives on the unmoving abominations and kill as many as them as possible in one swift move before another team scouted the destroyed district and the rest began working on sealing the wall.
Certainly more simple than slowly and methodically delivering supplies to fix the wall on a specific route in order to eventually make their way to Shiganshina and seal it after many years of moving the necessary supplies, but still, it would be a challenge.
"The amount of flesh that's going to go up in the air will be insane. You guys ever blow stuff up before?" a Rabbitman soldier asked, a wicked grin on his face.
Oluo looked at the Rabbitman. It was unnatural to him. Among the soldiers of this Sorcerous empire are many races besides humans. Although he felt uncomfortable with these people at first. But he is trying to adapt himself to them. Such a situation is not only in his case but many people in the survey corps
Oluo shook his head, but he was extremely curious as to how destructive this.
The sun slowly set behind them.
…
DOVA 4
G3
Enry 13