Clipped Wings

8

It's been 3 years already. Levi's squad determined we wouldn't be able to reclaim wall Maria. It's too overrun by titans. We would need a miracle to happen.

Today is when the cadets graduate and get sorted into their branches. Our top ten isn't really surprising, but Eren Jaeger definitely has become the most improved cadet. As Keith explains what happens after the cadet corps, I'm getting things ready for Commander Erwin tonight. He will give a speech to the cadets to enlist more people into the Survey corps, we need them.

Keith is still stand off-ish when he's around me, but about every superior officer other than Erwin knows about the accusations he threw at me. He has toned down quite a bit knowing most of the officers take my side. Some don't but they also have fat bellies from living in Sheena for too long, so their judgment is clouded by booze and food.

I head to the dining hall as the cadets are dismissed. Hange is waiting for me. They are super excited about something new with their titan experiments and they've been dying to tell me all week. Levi is on a mission with Erwin and a few other squads in Maria.

"Hey Rena! I have more experiment news!" Hange says with a very excited tone.

"More titans i presume?" I shake my head with a small laugh and sit across from them.

"Yes they're so cute!" Hange tells me about their experiments and how they're going super well.

An MP bursts into the hall and turns several heads. He looks very flustered and apologizes. He sees me and Hange and quickly walks up to our table.

"Captains!" he salutes. "Trost has fallen. There's titans everywhere and the citizens are being evacuated as we speak. The wall looks reclaimable, but we have to make it possible, " he whispers.

"Thank you officer. We will take it from here," Hange says.

Not again. We can't allow Wall Rose to fall. Humanity can't survive if they're all compacted together in Sheena. Hange and I rush to the other captains and discuss what the plan will be. We sort the cadets into squads and call all of them to attention when we return to the dining hall. They all seem shocked as we tell them the news, but no one panics. 

My squad has most of the top 10 except Jean, Armin, Eren, and Mikasa. Our orders are to be the leaders in this charge. I explain to my makeshift squad how important it is to not only watch your back but watch the backs of your comrades as well.

When we make it to Trost, everything is chaotic. I tell my squad to get into their positions and remain calm and aware. I slice through three or four titans before an abnormal appears. It is crawling up buildings and launching itself off of them. It's far enough from my squad, however, not from the middle squads. It chomps down on one of the cadets and I hear his squad erupt in screams. Three members from my squad have gone missing.

As I'm about to yell my next order, I'm smacked down midflight. My wires of my ODM gear snap off the clock tower and I'm heading full speed to the ground. A big hand grabs my left leg and all of a sudden I'm dangling over a titan's mouth. Its breath fills the air around me, it's disgusting. I hear one of the members of my squad scream in my direction. I'm not dying now.

I quickly unsheathe my blades and slice through the titan's fingers, forcing it to release me. As I fall towards its mouth, I slice its jaw, making it impossible for it to chomp down on me. I deploy my wires and the connect to a building close to me and I zip away from the titan. Its jaw has healed by the time I make it to the building.

"Captain, look!" a girl from another squad says.

Several titans have surrounded the established HQ and are trying to reach inside.

"Shit, how is everyone on gas?" I yell.

"Empty!"

"Almost out!"

"I could make it to that clock tower probably!"

This isn't good. As I'm trying to figure out what my next plan will be, Mikasa whips by me, carelessly using up all of her gas.

"Mikasa! If you keep flying like that you're going to-" I start.

She runs out of gas and falls to the ground and out of my sight. I thought I saw her crying, one of her friends must have been one of the ones that got eaten. I tell my squad to get to the highest points they can find without wasting all their gas. I have to figure out what we're going to do and how we're going to get out of this.

I hear an ear piercing scream of a titan and whip my head around. A 15 meter titan has started fighting other titans. An abnormal? Why is it targeting the other titans? Wait, that's it!

I zip to the rest of my squad.

"You see that titan over there?" I point to the abnormal.

They all nod.

"That's going to be our distraction. It's occupying the surrounding titans so we have a very slim window to make it to HQ and refill our gas as well as get gas to the other soldiers. Okay?"

"But Captain, what about the ones that are out of gas?" Sasha asks.

"They can get to a safe point and we will return with more." I say.

Everyone is ready and I make the first move. I zip through the ruins of Trost, avoiding the titans in the streets. I successfully make it to HQ and once I'm inside, my squad follows. There are several people huddled under desks and behind book cases. A cadet had shot himself in the corner.

"Why is no one in the refueling center?" I ask sternly.

"Titans are down there!"

"You all have ODM gear," I start with an annoyed tone. I see how terrified they are.

Most of them just want to be MPs and not have to worry about the terror of the titans until it's at their doorstep. Not many people actually want to be in the Survey Corps. A group of soliders come crashing through the windows. It looks like it's Armin, Jean, Mikasa, Annie, and Reiner. Interesting, Annie and Reiner are supposed to be in my squad.

We catch them up on what's happening and Armin comes up with a plan to blind the titans and have soldiers stationed on the beams on the ceiling to go for the kill.

"Let's go."