The Elite: Wings of Freedom (Levi x OC)

Chapter 1: The Return

Present - Elena 

"El we had a message delivered a little while ago," Severin walked up to me and handed me a tied scroll.

"Thank you. It must be from HQ, they would only send a message while we are on a mission if it was important. Is the scout who came with it still here?" I asked, untying the scroll as my other squad members gathered.

"Yes, awaiting your response."

I nodded and brought my attention to the paper I had just unrolled. I scanned it quickly, and then reread it, and reread it again. "What? This doesn't make sense."

"What is it Captain?" Irina asked, confusion filling her soft voice.

I sighed, "They want us to scrap the mission and meet them at the old abandoned scout base that is in the middle of the forest inside wall Rose."

"What?" Severin asked loudly, making me cringe. I shot him a harsh look. "Can I see it?" he asked.

"Knock yourself out Sev," I muttered, handing him the message.

"I don't understand, when they sent us on this mission, they had marked it top priority, and now they want us to go back without even finishing it?" Veit questioned. I could hear the frustration in his voice. I felt the same way, but knowing Erwin, something must have happened for him to call us back so early. This was supposed to be a long assignment, we had estimated it to take at least four weeks, probably longer. It had almost been four already, and we weren't even half-way done.

"Well they must have a good reason, right Captain?" I heard Carine question behind me. Her voice was deeper than Irina, but still higher than Severin's and Veit's.

I grumbled to myself, Erwin knows how I feel about leaving things unfinished. What could have possibly happened that is important enough to scrub this mission? When he sent us out to collect this data, set up the perimeter and clear the area of titans as a part of his new expansion project, he had expressed his feelings about it, and he seemed like he really cared about it. And why the old castle? We had abandoned that place a long time ago because it was so far away from everything else.

"How close are we to setting the perimeter?" I asked no one in particular.

"Yesterday we estimated another couple of days to get it firmly established, and then we would have to spend at least another week clearing the titans out," Severin's voice boomed.

I sighed, "Is there any way we could get the perimeter loosely done by this afternoon before we head back?" I looked up at Severin, who looked to Veit.

Veit's wheels turned as he took a moment to think, "Possibly. That portion of the perimeter would not be very strong though."

"Alright. Hey you!" I called over the scout who was waiting nervously off to the side.

"Y-yes ma'am?" His voice quivered.

I sighed in annoyance, and the rest of my squad groaned for the poor kid.

"Don't call me ma'am, it makes me feel old."

Pretty much everyone knew this by now, so this kid must be relatively new. If I'm remembering correctly, we had a group of new recruits come in about a week before we left on the mission, and I was too busy preparing to formally meet all of them. By now the next group of recruits have probably joined.