Categories > Anime/Manga > Attack on Titan > Operation Shiplake
PROLOGUE
My name is Albert. Al for short. It’s been 3 years since the breach of Wall Maria. I was born in a small village southwest of Wall Rose. We’ve received news about the attack almost immediately, so there were practically no losses. Needless to say, that even though everyone from the village was fine, that day was horrifying to all of us. When we’ve reached the inner port there was already a huge crowd, even though we were the closest to it rather than those of Shiganshina, where the Wall has been destroyed. Everyone was struck with fear, but even more with desperation. Many has lost their relatives, some were left completely alone. Worst of all – there were so many children and I could’ve been amongst them if I weren’t lucky enough to be born further away from the Walls.
My uncle was my whole family. My father died before I was born, and my mother caught a terrible disease when I was 5. I was the only child, but it didn’t make it easier for her, so she asked her brother to look out for me. She herself died in a year. Even that doctor that came from Shiganshina couldn’t help her. As for our village, it was truly small, around 70 people in total. Sadly enough, I was practically the only child there. Everyone else were being sent to their relatives in larger cities. Can’t say I don’t get that, but Gods how lame it was around there. All I did for days was just helping my uncle in the field, so when the Wall has been breached, I considered it as an opportunity. I was 12 by the time and the life of a farmer in that god-forsaken village has been oppressing me quite a lot. Luckily, I’ve had no one to mourn for, so for me it was simply a beginning of a new life.
After the refugees’ allocation within Wall Rose, there was a choice before me of what should I do next. My uncle knew local merchants, who were ready to take me in as their assistant. I could’ve moved to any of the inner villages to work on a farm. However, that was no option for me; I did my share of farming, no more of that. There was a third option, however, which my uncle didn’t like at all. The army. He knew, that I never liked it in our village and as soon as I get a chance to explore the outside of the Walls – I’ll do it. He wasn’t wrong though. Had I gone to any of trading companies - one could’ve said that I have succeeded in life. But that was not what I wanted. So I chose the path of a soldier, despite my uncle’s wishes.
The Cadet Corps recruitment was somewhat of a mayhem. Many of the children had no other way but to go to the army. Obviously, there were a lot of those, who wanted to join the Military Police and live behind the inner Wall in comfort and serenity. I worked at a farm my whole life, so my physical condition got me an allowance to the Cadets. Now I was a member of 104th Cadet Corps.
The company there was, not to say the least, diverse. For someone like me, who never had any proper friends, that was a whole new world and knew that it would take quite a lot of time to get used to that. When we were being distributed for the barracks, I was assigned along with this guy, Eren Jaeger. I had a vague feeling of meeting someone with this name before, so I decided to talk to him. Turned out, that it was his father who came to help my mother when she fell sick. Eren didn’t know what happened of his him, since he had left the city on the day of the disaster. Other than that, I learned that his mother had been eaten right before his own eyes. I wanted to comfort him somehow, so I told him how grateful I was to his father and that I hoped he returns soon and well. Eren acquainted me with his best friends: a girl named Mikasa and a boy named Armin. New friends on the first day? A great start I’d say!
The next morning I realized, that start wasn’t so great after all. Our instructor was Keith Shadis, a man whose gaze sends chills down my spine. And then he yells at you and you just want to vanish on the spot. So, all the recruits were gathered in the middle of a training camp and so began our, let’s call it that, acquaintanceship. Shadis went through the straight line of cadets, asking each of his name, place of birth and stuff like that. Some of us he, however, passed by. Eren and Mikasa were among those. Armin weren’t so lucky though. The only thing I had to do was to hope that my face emitted enough seriousness so that Shadis didn’t pay any attention to me. Well, it appears he considered my serious face a frivolous one, so he went towards me.
«Your name, soldier» Shadis shouted in my face.
«Albert Dönitz, sir!» I answered, sweating like hell.
«And where you come from, Dönitz?» another shout has reached my ears.
«A village south-west of Rose, sir!»
«Another swain I see» I could clearly hear enmity in his voice. «And what makes you think you’re ready to serve for the best of humanity here instead of growing your corn in the fields?»
«I’ve already grown enough of the corn, sir», I replied with temper. «Now I want to provide even more for the people!»
«Oh, so our farmer boy wants something more? We’ll look at you after the training, cadet!»
That’s how I met Keith Shadis. Could you call him a good guy? I don’t know, he called me a swain. I wasn’t the only one of his victims at least. He passed some more people, yelling at all them when he suddenly stopped before one of them. I expected to hear his roaring voice once again, but there was no sign of it. Only silence. I curved to see what was the problem there. The problem was a potato in the hand of a girl. And she was pulling that hand toward her mouth, carelessly taking bites off of the potato, seemingly ignoring Shadis standing right in front of her. She couldn’t have missed him «meeting» other cadets, right? She couldn’t fail to understand who’s she dealing with? I can’t tell for the others, but I felt as if I were between a rock and a hard place, even though I wasn’t the one who’s gonna die now. Shadis was the first one to break the silence.
«Hey. What in the hells are you doing?» he said.
The girl began looking around trying to figure whom he’s talking to. I was all shriveled up. Gods, nobody deserves to die in his first day at the camp, right?
«You! I’m talking to you!» Shadis broke into yelling. «Who the fuck are you?!»
«Sasha Blouse of Dauper village, sir!» the girl blurted holding the potato in her hand.
So you could die in the first day. Don’t know how painful it’d be, but you could.
«Sasha Blouse, is that right?» Shadis spoke in grim voice. «Tell me, what’s that you’re holding in your right hand?»
«A baked potato, sir!» Sasha declared.
«Did you steal it?» came question from the instructor. «And why now? Why are you eating it right now?»
«Potato’s better when it’s warm, sir» she explained. «So I decided that eating it right now would be the best decision!»
«I still can’t get it,» there was sincere confusion in his voice. «Why are you eating a potato?»
«You mean why people eat potato in general?»
Frankly, I’ve never felt such heavy air around myself. It was heavy to breathe and, honestly, heavy to exist right there and right now. The skies are about to split in two, thunder would deafen us and ground would shatter. Looking around i figured that literally everyone felt the same way.
«Oh! I get it!» the girl exclaimed, pulling a piece off of a potato in her hand. «You can have a half of it!»
It was not a half.
«A half?» Shadis said taking the piece from Sasha.
How weird is that, but after that he just passed on to the next cadets. The air got even heavier though. That sure was an interesting beginning. And a bizarre one, I might add.
My name is Albert. Al for short. It’s been 3 years since the breach of Wall Maria. I was born in a small village southwest of Wall Rose. We’ve received news about the attack almost immediately, so there were practically no losses. Needless to say, that even though everyone from the village was fine, that day was horrifying to all of us. When we’ve reached the inner port there was already a huge crowd, even though we were the closest to it rather than those of Shiganshina, where the Wall has been destroyed. Everyone was struck with fear, but even more with desperation. Many has lost their relatives, some were left completely alone. Worst of all – there were so many children and I could’ve been amongst them if I weren’t lucky enough to be born further away from the Walls.
My uncle was my whole family. My father died before I was born, and my mother caught a terrible disease when I was 5. I was the only child, but it didn’t make it easier for her, so she asked her brother to look out for me. She herself died in a year. Even that doctor that came from Shiganshina couldn’t help her. As for our village, it was truly small, around 70 people in total. Sadly enough, I was practically the only child there. Everyone else were being sent to their relatives in larger cities. Can’t say I don’t get that, but Gods how lame it was around there. All I did for days was just helping my uncle in the field, so when the Wall has been breached, I considered it as an opportunity. I was 12 by the time and the life of a farmer in that god-forsaken village has been oppressing me quite a lot. Luckily, I’ve had no one to mourn for, so for me it was simply a beginning of a new life.
After the refugees’ allocation within Wall Rose, there was a choice before me of what should I do next. My uncle knew local merchants, who were ready to take me in as their assistant. I could’ve moved to any of the inner villages to work on a farm. However, that was no option for me; I did my share of farming, no more of that. There was a third option, however, which my uncle didn’t like at all. The army. He knew, that I never liked it in our village and as soon as I get a chance to explore the outside of the Walls – I’ll do it. He wasn’t wrong though. Had I gone to any of trading companies - one could’ve said that I have succeeded in life. But that was not what I wanted. So I chose the path of a soldier, despite my uncle’s wishes.
The Cadet Corps recruitment was somewhat of a mayhem. Many of the children had no other way but to go to the army. Obviously, there were a lot of those, who wanted to join the Military Police and live behind the inner Wall in comfort and serenity. I worked at a farm my whole life, so my physical condition got me an allowance to the Cadets. Now I was a member of 104th Cadet Corps.
The company there was, not to say the least, diverse. For someone like me, who never had any proper friends, that was a whole new world and knew that it would take quite a lot of time to get used to that. When we were being distributed for the barracks, I was assigned along with this guy, Eren Jaeger. I had a vague feeling of meeting someone with this name before, so I decided to talk to him. Turned out, that it was his father who came to help my mother when she fell sick. Eren didn’t know what happened of his him, since he had left the city on the day of the disaster. Other than that, I learned that his mother had been eaten right before his own eyes. I wanted to comfort him somehow, so I told him how grateful I was to his father and that I hoped he returns soon and well. Eren acquainted me with his best friends: a girl named Mikasa and a boy named Armin. New friends on the first day? A great start I’d say!
The next morning I realized, that start wasn’t so great after all. Our instructor was Keith Shadis, a man whose gaze sends chills down my spine. And then he yells at you and you just want to vanish on the spot. So, all the recruits were gathered in the middle of a training camp and so began our, let’s call it that, acquaintanceship. Shadis went through the straight line of cadets, asking each of his name, place of birth and stuff like that. Some of us he, however, passed by. Eren and Mikasa were among those. Armin weren’t so lucky though. The only thing I had to do was to hope that my face emitted enough seriousness so that Shadis didn’t pay any attention to me. Well, it appears he considered my serious face a frivolous one, so he went towards me.
«Your name, soldier» Shadis shouted in my face.
«Albert Dönitz, sir!» I answered, sweating like hell.
«And where you come from, Dönitz?» another shout has reached my ears.
«A village south-west of Rose, sir!»
«Another swain I see» I could clearly hear enmity in his voice. «And what makes you think you’re ready to serve for the best of humanity here instead of growing your corn in the fields?»
«I’ve already grown enough of the corn, sir», I replied with temper. «Now I want to provide even more for the people!»
«Oh, so our farmer boy wants something more? We’ll look at you after the training, cadet!»
That’s how I met Keith Shadis. Could you call him a good guy? I don’t know, he called me a swain. I wasn’t the only one of his victims at least. He passed some more people, yelling at all them when he suddenly stopped before one of them. I expected to hear his roaring voice once again, but there was no sign of it. Only silence. I curved to see what was the problem there. The problem was a potato in the hand of a girl. And she was pulling that hand toward her mouth, carelessly taking bites off of the potato, seemingly ignoring Shadis standing right in front of her. She couldn’t have missed him «meeting» other cadets, right? She couldn’t fail to understand who’s she dealing with? I can’t tell for the others, but I felt as if I were between a rock and a hard place, even though I wasn’t the one who’s gonna die now. Shadis was the first one to break the silence.
«Hey. What in the hells are you doing?» he said.
The girl began looking around trying to figure whom he’s talking to. I was all shriveled up. Gods, nobody deserves to die in his first day at the camp, right?
«You! I’m talking to you!» Shadis broke into yelling. «Who the fuck are you?!»
«Sasha Blouse of Dauper village, sir!» the girl blurted holding the potato in her hand.
So you could die in the first day. Don’t know how painful it’d be, but you could.
«Sasha Blouse, is that right?» Shadis spoke in grim voice. «Tell me, what’s that you’re holding in your right hand?»
«A baked potato, sir!» Sasha declared.
«Did you steal it?» came question from the instructor. «And why now? Why are you eating it right now?»
«Potato’s better when it’s warm, sir» she explained. «So I decided that eating it right now would be the best decision!»
«I still can’t get it,» there was sincere confusion in his voice. «Why are you eating a potato?»
«You mean why people eat potato in general?»
Frankly, I’ve never felt such heavy air around myself. It was heavy to breathe and, honestly, heavy to exist right there and right now. The skies are about to split in two, thunder would deafen us and ground would shatter. Looking around i figured that literally everyone felt the same way.
«Oh! I get it!» the girl exclaimed, pulling a piece off of a potato in her hand. «You can have a half of it!»
It was not a half.
«A half?» Shadis said taking the piece from Sasha.
How weird is that, but after that he just passed on to the next cadets. The air got even heavier though. That sure was an interesting beginning. And a bizarre one, I might add.
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