In the year 850
Humankind reclaimed lands from the Titans for the first time since their appearance some hundred odd years before
The cost however was great
You who stayed. you are now one of us allow me to welcome you to the Scout regiment
This is a genuine salute soldiers together we give our hearts
Sir
Those of you standing here have worked through your fear
You've proven yourselves courageous
Each one of you has my respect
One short month later
Led by Erwin Smith, the Scout regiment set out
Leaving the relative comfort and safety of Karanes district
They sought to carve a rout to Shiganshina
The place believed to hold the Titans secrets
[Erwin]: It's officially begun, the 57 recon mission
Scouts move out!
Female Titan
[Hange]: We've got a 10-meter closing in from the west
Oh! wanna know what's going around in that glorious belly
Never-mind let the support squad do their job.
Damn, too shallow
Just focus on defending the ranks
Eyes front
Their job's to handle it, yours is to keep moving
Forward
Ride for all you're worth
They'll only have our backs till we clear the city ruins
Everything beyond that will be uninterrupted Titan territory
We'll be more or less on our own
The only thing to fall back on out there is commander Erwin's long-range scouting formation
The special ops squad will be positioned here
Loaded question, be straight with me,
You think my friends have a shot at taking down a Titan?
Really? I should certainly hope so otherwise what the hell have they been training for?
Now listen and listen well, prepared or not you're all Scouts
Which means the time is nigh to choke back those fears and-
Long range formation, let's go
[Reiner]: See you around. Good luck.
[Jean]: Do us a favor, if you run into one of them don't piss yourself.
[Armin]: yeah same goes for you.
The long-range scouting formation is a forward facing semicircle
We'll be positioned relative to one another at equal intervals within view of signal fire on all sides
The idea is to extend our spotting at signal range as far as possible
Stay calm, you're alright
You can bet the lucky bastards riding in the front-row spotting-squads will see a lot of Titans
These second one comes into view Lock and Load
Alert your nearest comrade with a red smoke signal
They in turn will alert there nearest comrades by doing the same and so on
Once the commander feels he has a decent read on the Titans position he'll be fired off a green smoke signal
At the sight of one, the platoon is to reroute accordingly
The fewer Titans confronted head-on en route to our goal the better
We'll need all the able bodies we can spare the name of the game then is evasion
Now keep in mind this isn't a foolproof strategy
The terrain is wild plenty of places for the enemy to lie in ambush
[Sasha]: Red smoke, have to fire-
Blouse! over here!
Damn the spotters missed a live one!
I say we lure it in our direction
Blouse, cross back over to us
Break away I'll take care of it
Sir
Sorry
It's all right it's out return to your position
Something feels off it's been too long since the last red signal
And information still all over the map
Wait
Keep in mind too, this whole approach assumes will be dealing largely with normals
Titans whose behavior is predictable
Black smoke!
There is a Titan ignoring the outliers and making a b-line for the center
That can only mean
An abnormal
If one or more of those show up I'm afraid we'll have no choice but to engage
Son of a--
Well there's no help for it I guess,
Heads up, the nape is all yours okay
I'll go for the legs
You got it!
ODM gear's worth squat on level ground
I'm not exactly thrilled about our odds here
But hell, we can't let it break up the formation
Arlert's up ahead at my ten o'clock, isn't he
I'm not letting a rookie face this bastard alone
It's now or never
All yours, Cis!
Way to go, nicely done, Ness!
Not so bad
Hey ,hey! nothing scares you huh
That's my little darling Charrette!
Not again
What the hell are the right-wing spotters doing back there?
Looks like we've got another abnormal on our hands it's not their fault
I hate these things
Fine, one more for the road then, right
Damn it
Someone mind telling me what we did to deserve two in a row?
Bad enough it's an abnormal, it's gotta be 14-meters
This is gonna be a pain in the ass
It's moving so fast
Too fast!
We have to keep it clear of Arlert, Cis!
On it
Did that really just happened?
We're not dealing with an abnormal this thing showing intelligence
Like the Colossal, like Eren,
It's a human being wrapped in a Titan body
But who, Why?
What am I gonna do?
I'm dead!
I'm so dead!
Go! Make a break for it
Why is it--
No, Why are they...
Doing this?
Somebody...tell the others
The right-wing spotters are all wiped out
Tell Commander Erwin
That the female Titan brought a horde with her
Is anyone left?
It has to be someone
This doesn't making any sense why didn't it...
Why didn't it kill me?
It pulled back my hood
Looked at...my...
Why would it need to check my face
[Reiner]: Armin
[Armin]: Reiner
Hey...can you ride?
What the hell are you doing
This is full-blown Titan country you can't be without a horse, climb on
I came as fast as I could when I saw the black smoke nice ass for an abnormal you got to admit
It's not an abnormal, it's a person controlling a Titan body
Wait what
I'll explain in a second we need to fire up a signal to warn the others
C'mon, work you piece of garbage
It's an emergency
hey it's alright
Looks like Jean's got your covered
Oh man that's not good
The right-wing spotters have suffered too many casualties to carry on
Yeah apparently most of them were out by a Titan ambush
I don't know how it happened but it was bad sons of bitches were lightning-fast
The spotters didn't have time to react whoever's left is trying to hold them off
But that means now there's no one on Lookout duty
Talk about a setback right
If we don't watch ourselves we're all gonna get wiped out
Wait she came from that direction
Does that mean...could she have led the Titans here like a commander
Who her?
Why the hell's she running from us by the way?
Is she an abnormal?
No she isn't, we still don't know how it's possible but
She's another human who's taken Titan form
Someone who has the same power as Eren-
Please say you're not serious
Really? why do you think that?
Titans eat people but they're not murderers
Sure the kill us in the process but that's not their intent They just feed on instinct like any creature
This one was different
When the others went for her nape she struck them down in cold blood
Swatted them like flies
She didn't eat them she killed them and moved on
That's out of character even for an abnormal
The Titans that took out the right wing, I think she brought them here
Just like the Colossal and the Armored when they struck
I just know it
She's not simply satisfying blood-lust, She has it in for us
Or perhaps more specifically I think she's actually after someone in particular
At which point the question becomes who? and why?
Hey wait a second, could it be Eren?
Eren?
He's with Levi's squad
They're spearheading the right wing
Or...they were
Wait Levi's team
I'm pretty sure you're wrong there big guy
My copy of the plan had them in the left wing
That's odd because my copy of the plan had them at the front of the right wing to
Which now that I think about it doesn't make sense
Putting them at the vanguard like that wouldn't be smart strategically
Then, where exactly are they supposed to be?
Come on, where else, the safest position in the formation
Which I assume at least
Would be rear at the center rank
Armin, now it's not the time to be chasing our own tails about this
We got to get word out how dangerous this one is, smoke signals aren't gonna cut it
At this rate she'll cut down the command squad
We let that happen, the formation goes to hell and we all die
You have a plan?
More of a wing and a prayer look we've gotta try and distract her
So the platoon has a chance to retreat
If we're careful from this distance we should be able to manage it
And make it out alive
Maybe anyway
She's smarter than the ones we usually deal with
You can take my word for it
From her perspective we're little more than insects
One swipe at that arm and we're all flattened
Is that a fact?
What a terrifying thought
Seriously, what have you done with "the real Jean"
No offense, man, but the one I knew could only be counted on to look out for himself
Your people skills need work
Believe me friend, I'm still all about number one
I just don't want to end up a pile of bones and no one knows were mine
Thing is, I get it now
I get what needs to be done if we're going to survive this fight
And last I checked, nobody forced us to take on this position
Now are you with me or not?
Pull your hood all the way over so it covers you
She won't try to kill you if she can't see your face
If she's looking for someone specific she won't blow us down unless she knows for sure we're not them
Good idea,
As far as she knows any one of us can be Eren underneath this getup
That's actually kind of an encouraging thought
Hey you never know maybe we'll get lucky and she'll be near-sighted to boot
Not gonna lie
The way you clung to Eren like a security blanket all the time used to really creep me out
but I always knew you were a brilliant
Okay, thank you
Not exactly sure how I ought to take that, but Thanks
She slowed a bit since she first came to us
Tired maybe, let's hope. she speeds up we lose her
We have to do this now, before she gets her wind back
Okay guys, like we discussed,
Lure her away from the others so they have a chance to get out of here
Keep her on our trail for as long as possible
Give the rest of the platoon plenty of time
Slicing her Achilles tendon should do the trick I think
Nothing crazy
If she's what Armin says
We need her alive
She's aware of her soft spots are still defended
No run-of-the-mill nightmare this one
Killing her is out of the question
Well, it would be for normal people anyway, so let's just focus on keeping her distracted
When the time comes, maybe they could take her down
[Jean]: Armin
[Jean]: The moves on this one
She's like a damn athletics, we're so screwed
Didn't think this through
What, she's protecting her weak spot?
[Reiner]: Jean
Damn it, there is nothing I can do
I'm a dead man
She's gonna yank my wire and--
[Armin]: Jean, don't let that suicidal maniac die in vain
What the-
Why did she stop?
She did it she's the one who killed him
I told him the right wing was suicide but he went along anyway
And now he's dead thanks to her
What the hell's going on
Of all the times for Armin to get the sense knocked out of him, what's he talking about
Reiner?
She crushed my best friend I saw it with my own eyes
His entrails were stuck to the bottom of her foot
He's going straight for the nape
Of course!
Now's his chance, while she's focused on Armin!
Oh no!
NO
No...Reiner
Oh God
That beautiful bastard
Mikasa been hogging so much of the limelight these days,
I'd let myself forget how much of a badass he is
Odds are that bought the platoon more than enough time
I say we follow suit and get out of here
She doesn't have an appetite for people like you say I'm guessing she's not gonna follow us
Alright looks like she's in retreat
Poor thing's running home and her tail between her legs
What...wait...no
She's headed for the center rank
She's...she's going for Eren
Monster advances even the Scout regiment for all its training and skill cannot
bring its newest folk to heal until at last in a forest of giant trees she catches sight of her go