Operation Untersberg (open for all scouts)

Cora woke up from someone knocking on the door to her room. It was pitch black, probably around two in the morning.
"Come in", she said tired, it was just too early to stand up.
Paul opened the door.
"Good morning, Alpha!", he said happily. It was a wonder how he could stand up this early and already be awake. She recalled last night...no, he did not stand up now, he stood up a good four hours prior and probably had quite some fun until now.
Cora only grunted something and stood up.
"It's time, I suppose?"
"Well you have a good hour to get ready, we are meeting at three, and plan to leave at half past."
She just nodded and signaled him to leave her for now.

The sun was still not up, it would rise at five, maybe half past. She was not sure. The times differed heavily between north and south, east and west districts.
Most had gathered by now, she was not sure about the total amount of people taking part in this mission. She knew how many people would accompany her, but she had no idea about the numbers of the military, not even talking civilians.

She stood a bit away from the military and civilians. Paul and four more would be on her side. A very small group, but it's not like there was not enough military anyway.
The leading captain showed up and waited until everyone had gathered.
"Good morning.", he said, "our mission today is to reach a mine close to a mountain. It served as an old mine for the metal we are using to make our blades out of. It still has alot of already refined metal lying around, even huge amounts of already finished blades and also a different very rare metal that the military needs."
Cora was not sure if with the miitary it was actually meant 'shimura works'.
"In theory, simple, get the metal, leave. But remember: we also have a bunch of civilians with us, that know the mines very well. We technically do have plans, but practically we have to rely on them to guide us."
he took a deep breath.
"The mines reach also in some deep valleys very close to the mountain. Titans might have fallen into the valleys. Beware of those."
What a boring speech, Cora thought.

They prepared the wagons and horses and left the safety of the walls.

The night was entering the streets of the Survey Corps buildings, when René and some other scouts were summoned by the Commander. A mission was to take place the next morning. They had to leave rather early for this specific mission though, around the hour of four in the morning. René wasn’t quite sure what the specific mission was to do, but he was informed that it would take place outside the walls. Which meant there would be titans present. A kind of excited nervousness started to bubble within the pit of his stomach. He straightened before his section leader. Their whole squad was going. He’d have people who he could work together with. He’d be safe on this mission too. Other squads were also coming, as well as some unexpected civilians.

There would be no time for delay. As soon as he was dismissed, René ran to his room to start packing. He needed to make sure he had his notebook. A journey outside the walls would mean more of a chance to learn how titans were behaving and what their habits were. The more he documented, the more people after him could learn from what he wrote. His hands closed around the leather bound book filled with titan sketches. None were exactly accurate, and his handwriting was scribbled down speedily, the letters hardly legible. He’d have to go back and rewrite that part. Trying to write on a horse moving at around 40 mph was harder than it looked. He wasn’t in charge of flares this time, and so he made sure whoever was doing it was prepared and he went over the signals with them. Flares were a difficult situation to master, especially because of wind, or the sudden appearance of an abnormal.

In the morning, René and the rest of the military were assembled together in a field. He was not on his horse and was standing next to it, fiddling with the reins. The captain started to speak. “Good morning. Our mission today is to reach a mine close to a mountain. It served as an old mine for the metal we are using to make our blades out of. It still has alot of already refined metal lying around, even huge amounts of already finished blades and also a different very rare metal that the military needs." A rare metals this time huh, kind of an odd request when you think about it. But it did make sense, metal was harder to come by these days. And finished blades lying around too? They might not even have to bring extra ones.

"In theory, simple, get the metal, leave. But remember: we also have a bunch of civilians with us, that know the mines very well. We technically do have plans, but practically we have to rely on them to guide us." The captain closed his eyes, hand going up to the bridge of his nose, pinching it as to relieve stress. "The mines reach also in some deep valleys very close to the mountain. Titans might have fallen into the valleys. Beware of those." The information that the captain was giving was pretty obvious to René, and he was getting distracted by the sudden rays of light that were creeping over the edges of the houses. He turned to his right and noticed a women surrounded by five other people. She had blonde hair tied back into a ponytail and seemed uninterested. But it didn’t look like she was a civilian, nor was she part of the Survey Corps. He decided to go over and ask her who she was, even though the five people next to her were just as ominous. Perhaps even more so. “Hello,” he called out as cheerfully as he could muster. “Fine day for a mission, isn’t it?” He watched the six people in front of him swivel their head his way. People were preparing the wagons and supplies when he was walking over. They were leaving shortly. Oh well. He was just told to stay at the back with his squad. He didn’t really have an important role in this mission. René could afford to wait and talk with this person for a moment or two.

A mission for metal, mime in the valleys, chances of titans.
That's all Mitsuo cared to understand about this mission. He somewhat already knew the inspiration and outs as, in one way or another, the mission was for him... or at least, his dad's shop.

Mitsuo sighed, hanging around in his assigned position, adjusting his cloak and fiddling with his boots. The starts of missions were always the worse as nothing ever happened.
It's just talk.
Mitsuo was getting fed up and started looking around, not many recognisable faces in the crowd.

He spotted Cora and Rene but was too far away from them for it to really matter.
The mechanic sighed.

Fidgets and scuffing, the wagons started getting loaded and horses prepared, some even mounted.
Mitsuo straightened up and relief washed over him.
Finally there was movement.

He checked to make sure his horse was prepared and made sure he was fully stocked on gear.
He then mounted his steed.

The young Shimura was hoping that the valleys would make this mission safer than usual, for the sake of the civilians.
He looked at a few of them, noticing some shaking in fear.
Mitsuo shared a sorrowful smile, as the sun slowly showed its face.

Would've been a beautiful seen, if not for the dangers they were about to face. Ah, the perks of being a scout.
Mitsuo took a breath of fresh air and relaxed.
Time to get the show on the road.

As per usual, Mia would be having no part in the happy bullshit present with some of these people. She found all of the euphoric thoughts in her own head; all of the joy and ecstasy from friendship and talking and love and happiness, it was all available to her, especially when she had her "highs", so why bother with this unnecessary plague that was the general populus?

A short giggle, before she became lost.

So useless, oh yes, how useless this game of kings was. Why, what did it all boil down to she just had to wonder!? Why did humanity fight and struggle and fight so much? Those monsters destroyed the entire population in... She couldn't even remember how long it took, but here they were. There was a world outside, God knew what it looked like. Nobody in this crowd would ever see it. They would either die, or be outlived by the mystery.
Existence was pointless, was it not?

Oh dear oh dear oh dear, these thoughts racked her brain, her eyes were widening, a sick grin was forming, carved by a dull, rusty knife, sawing through her flesh by some madman so that she could never stop smiling, never stop, never stop, never stop... Her head fell to her hands, and she hiccuped with small, muffled giggles. A gentle scratch, echoing out through her abyssal mind. Another, another, another, trying to peel it away, to see the outside. Maybe this is what is was like to want to see beyond the walls?

Her own little castle in her head, but there was nothing to breach the walls and so she lay there, unwaking, unmoving, alive, but dead, a prisoner in her head.

She twitched, dropped her palms from her face, and pulled her scarf up to cover her mouth.

Why was she here? Apparently the Scouts needed her to beat the shit out of anything that tried to get at them during this outing? But.. Didn't they have other soldiers for that? Why would they call in a Spec Ops Garrison member to deal with a Scout mission? Gee, she bet Adalard would be envious of this.

She basically ignored the whole speech of the man because to be frank she didn't really care about intricacies. Somebody would command her to engage when they needed it, and she would keep killing until they pried her off of the nearest Titan.
Why didn't they scream?

She bet it would be fun if they screamed. Everything else screamed. How come the one thing she was allowed to kill never screamed?

Now, her body was shaking. It was shaking and it would not stop. Her hands clasped together, fingers interlocked, and she looked around with little black islands surrounded by a vast ocean of white. Under her scarf she could feel it, those teeth, grinding each other, sharpening. She could feel her face contorting into an uncontrolled, wild expression of pure madness, pure insanity, pure ecstasy. Oh dear, how she loved it, how she loved it all.
"Love!" her mind would scream - oh, but why not her heart? Why would it remain silent while she endured the throes of pleasure!? Her mind understood, it was vomiting out endorphin, oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine, screaming and crying, never stopping, always feeling better and better and better! Oh, oh, how terrible! She could hardly control herself now, she could hardly keep it in, she just wanted to laugh, and laugh, and laugh! She didn't care if they all thought she was crazy, she didn't care, she just wanted to scream!

So Mia hugged herself tight, squeezing her eyes shut, and taking careful, shallow breaths.
Everything would be okay once they were out in the field. She would be okay, then.
She would be okay.

Cora was quite surprised at someone actually talking to her. A huge amount of the military knew her story and either tried to avoid her or make fun of her. The ones that did not know of her...usually got intimitated too much too talk to her.
"I am not sure if you can call it a day yet, given it's still night and the sun will only rise in a good...two hours I suppose?", she said, looking down at him.
"Alpha?", one of her companions, Paul, said.
"Get ready. He did not give us any further instructions.", she said calmly, "You are dismissed until we leave."
Paul nodded happily and the others relaxed a bit.
She turned around again to her newest visitor.
"You see, I would love to talk to you, esspecially given your lovely hair colour...but I believe we are about to leave and I still have to prepare myself a bit...", she said, genuinly disappointed she was not able to talk to the everything but shy soldier.
"Good luck. Don't die. Hopefully talk to you later.", she smiled and prepared her horse.

A good fifteen minutes later everyone was ready to leave. The captain gave the signal and they went to their assigned positions. It was quite the huge mission, with seven squads, each made out of 5-8 people.
Paul had told her that some special garrison unit was going to be part and she was rather surprised at it. She had heard some rumours about it and was everything but happy. They kicked her out and shortly after they made a death squad out of madmen? Out of which some apparently could not control themselves at all? She was disappointed in the military. Once again. No surprise.

Cora took a look at the sheet of paper Paul had given her. He had been so nice to write down the positions of the squads plus whatever he knew about them, that Cora could think of as important.

....X.... Captain
..X...X.. we are to their right
X...O...X middle: civilians and Mits, Right squad is that odd rose squad
..X...X.. redhead on the right

She looked closer at it, trying to deciper another sentence after the rose squad one. Cora chuckled once she had read that it said something along the lines of 'why are they so close? One madman is enough!'



Paul came riding closer to Cora. She raised her eyebrows at him.
"Alpha, we have been riding for one hour, we should reach our destination soon. We are lucky it's still dark, no titan is going to be active now. But it's not like they anyway thought the way there would be a problem...more like the way back..."
Cora nodded, she knew what he was talking about. Getting back with all the metal was going to slow them down significantly.


Happily enough they managed to reach the caves without either casualities or titan encounters. Marvelous for them. After putting their horses into safety, they set up a camp in the caves themselves. Their camp itself was safe as well, the entrance and exits to it where to small for titans.
Cora's team made themselves a home in one of the corners.
Shortly after they got called by the captain again.

"First part done. Now. I will assign different teams now, as I don't trust certain squads."
Cora scoffed, she was not sure if he meant the pack or the garrison, given how he looked at both. Or maybe it was just her. She was not sure.
He started mixing in the few of the garrison to the scouts and gave each team a civilian.
"Mitsuo, you are very important, you know how the metal looks like we are searching for. And Knöchel knows the way.", he pulled a small, redhaired civlian from the group, "You shall go with him. I know your relations with Miss Wolf, she will accompany you."
He looked around at the members not yet put into teams.
"Let's make this a redhead group. Renn, and...you.", he pointed at a girl (Mia), "you will be team red.", he said, chuckling.
"Let's hope team red does not end up in blood puddles.", Cora said cold.

"I am not sure if you can call it a day yet, given it's still night and the sun will only rise in a good...two hours I suppose?" The woman visibly looked down on René. It had been a while since he had felt shorter than someone. He heard one of the men around her call out ‘Alpha.’ What was this, some sort of wolf pack? She turned to him, “Get ready. He did not give us any further instructions. You are dismissed until we leave.” He saw one of the men nod and the shoulders of the others drop significantly. ‘I guess everyone is a little scared for this mission,’ mused René. He was comforted by this thought, relieved that he wasn’t alone in thinking that what they were about to attempt was dangerous.

The yellow hair swung around in a blur,"You see, I would love to talk to you, especially given your lovely hair colour...but I believe we are about to leave and I still have to prepare myself a bit..." René reached up and touched his hair thoughtfully. He’d never really thought it looked all that great, more like a bent maple tree after a storm. The woman sounded a tad concerned. “Good luck. Don't die. Hopefully talk to you later." She smiled brightly at him once before turning around to attend to her horse and what he presumed was probably her squad.
René was towards the back of the pack. He’d spotted Mitsuo headed to the middle with the civilians. Lucky him. It was still rather dark out, and so there wasn’t any need for flares. The Titans weren’t active and posed no threat….. Yet. Miraculously, there wasn’t any trouble with the travel and the looming image of the caves seemed to be a relieving sight for everyone. The entrances were small, probably to deter Titans from entering. They were big and wide enough to fit the carts and horses through though. The captain permitted the teams to set up camp and rest for a while while he checked that everyone was still alive and well. He called everyone to a bigger cave lobby to go over what was next.

"First part done. Now. I will assign different teams now, as I don't trust certain squads."
So trust was required in as simple a task as this? If the captain didn’t trust the teams, he should have made them the way he liked at first. It would have saved so much time that could have been spent retrieving the metal they needed. He looked over to a jacket next to him, and instead of the usual wings of freedom, there were roses adorned on the tan fabric. How strange. What was the reason Garrison members were here? “Mitsuo, you are very important, you know what the metal we are searching for looks like. And Knöchel knows the way.” René saw the captain’s hand close around a red-haired civilian’s arm. “You shall go with him. I know your relations with Miss Wolf, she will accompany you.” René still hadn’t been put into a group yet and was shocked when the captain blurted, “Let’s make this a redhead group. René, and… you,” his hand outstretched pointing to a smaller girl wearing a Garrison jacket. Strange. He still didn’t understand why a Garrison member was with them for a mission that would most certainly be a run in with titans. Then again he didn’t understand why civilians were here either. He spotted the yellow haired woman who he presumed to be ‘Miss Wolf’ because she was standing next to Mitsuo in almost rapt attention. He heard her say coldly, “let’s hope team red does not end up in blood puddles.”

René did have to admit, the caves were spectacular. He should draw some of the stalactites and stalagmites later if he got a chance. There was so much the people inside the walls never got to see. The glimmering veins of various ores seemed to be laughing at the sudden appearance of so many people at once. Their taunting facets winked at the soldiers and civilians, inviting them to come inside and see more. To see the riches of the world. The constant dripping of water down the stalactites into still pools of murky water was sometimes the only sound amidst the crowd. The ground was smooth, worn down by the ebb and flow by higher waters that had receded into inlets and now lie in wait at their chance to leap against the heels of strangers that had infiltrated the soaring sides of the caves, looking like the insides of some spectacular hollowed out tree. It was shaded in various spectrum of greys, only broken here and there by the glint of silver and other precious metals. If only they could snag some of the unrefined metals from the bold walls. There was much more money’s worth than a year’s paycheck in here. The captain would probably punish those who took for themselves though. It was best to avoid punishment, especially when civilians were present and what looked like a rogue group? There probably wasn’t any other explanation for Miss Wolf and her group of people. They looked unified, but weren’t civilians or part of the military.

Mitsuo, Wolf, the civilian who muttered that his name was Knöchel, the mysterious Garrison member, and René made up the rag-tag group of Team Red. Apparently this Knöchel character knew the caves, and Mitsuo knew what the metal looked like. He didn’t know anything about this ‘Wolf’ person. While waiting for new orders from the captain, René decided that they should introduce themselves. “I think Mitsuo already knows who I am, but I have yet to introduce myself to the rest of you. I’m René Alfons. Part of the Survey Corps as you can see. And I really like drawing whatever I see outside the walls.” He smiled, hoping his example of saying his name, occupation, and hobby would motivate the others to do so. After everyone else managed to get through saying who they were, Knöchel mentioned that they might want to look further into the caves to maybe find a starting vein of the metal that they needed. That was true, they already had the two people they needed. To top it off, there wasn’t any need to fear getting loss in the vast expanses of the rocky walls around them. The group of five wandered down the nearest passage, Knöchel taking the lead, Mitsuo close behind him eyes sharply scanning the walls for metal, the girl who said her name was Mia behind them, and Cora in front of René. The unbearing silence of the caves was what made René on edge. It was the quietest he had ever heard anything. Except for the shuffling of feet against the hewn stone and an occasional breath, it was dead silent. René wished that the caves weren’t so big. Who knows what was lying inside of them?

Mitsuo was not at all pleased being position in the middle of the escort, the most boring place to be in his opinion.
He made idle chat with some of the civilians on the way to the caves as a sort of distraction, the reaction of some civilians recalling the name Shimura was no surprise to the mechanic.

To his relief, they got to the caves quickly and safely thanks to the cover of the dark morning.
Mitsuo stretched his legs a little after getting off his horse and waiting for the next set of orders, he didn't have to wait long, however, which he was thankful for.

"Mitsuo, you are very important, you know what the metal we are searching for looks like."

The young Shimura fully understood why the military was desperate to have in on this mission now.
"Useless," Mitsuo muttered under his breath in displeasure but did not hesitate to group up with the civilian and Cora.
The mechanic looked further into the cave as he waited for the rest of the groups to team up, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness and taking in a sight he wouldn't dare miss.

Finally, the groups were reorganized and Mitsuo learned that Rene and a garrison member was joining the squad he was in.
Mitsuo couldn't recall being told that the Garrison was joining this mission and questioned what the reason behind it was in his mind.

Cora broke the silence only to lead it into another one which Rene decided to break with an introduction.
Mitsuo smiled sadly, holding back from scoffing at the gesture.
"I think this isn't really a suitable place to get comfortable and get well acquainted with each other, however, I do see the need to know names. Mitsuo Shimura is mine."

Mitsuo patiently waited for the others to introduce themselves and, once that had been done, turned to Knöchel who had spoken up and decided it was time to move on.

"Well, wait for a second," Mitsuo stopped the civilian, "we should probably decide a formation first, just in case of any danger ahead."

Mitsuo looked at each person individually, quick in thought.
"How's this; the guide and I will take the lead, you three follow behind right on our heels. So if danger does show up, in the form of Titans or otherwise, you three can quickly overtake and start battle. Sound good?"

Mia wasn't very fond of horses, nor was she of riding them. It took the fun out movement. There was no heart thrumming adrenaline as your feet crashed against the floor because the mount did it for you. Sure, she got up to higher speed, but she felt distant from the action... Or maybe it was her history of disemboweling squirrels that made her just not like animals at all and she was trying to cover it up.
That seemed rather likely.

More orders barked, and she was paired with some girl, some guy, and some guy. Let's be real here: Mia didn't actually care who she was with, because it wouldn't matter, it didn't matter - and judging by the looks people were giving her, they didn't know who they were with either. Typical.

As they stepped off she had to wonder why she was part of this expedition once again - she was only here to kill, wasn't she? But then didn't the Scouts have soldiers for this? -A short giggle as she repeated the exact same thoughts as before they left. She didn't quite  understand this all, but yet she herself was not a tactician of any sort, so she probably couldn't fathom it if she tried. Adalard probably could... She missed him, she missed him a lot right now.
She pulled her scarf up over her mouth, letting a stolid expression overtake her face. More looks, more stares, more people realizing the black sheep, the ugly duckling, the odd one out. They stared at her Rose, her lack of a sharp green cloak, maybe they would notice that smile, even though it was hidden beneath layers of red fabric. Could they see who she was, what she thought in that prison that was her mind? Did they know, did they see it? Could they break down the walls, could they save her?

Mia shook her head hastily. It was getting pent up inside, the desires. So long waiting, but no action. She was used to being thrown into the fray by now, only there to kill. This retrieval mission was not that - and so far, there weren't even any titans. She couldn't hear them, see them, anything.
'Relax, girl... You haven't even gotten to the cave yet...'

Her ears caught something and she began to pay attention to her surroundings again. Introductions because apparently they didn't know who she was... Or who any of them were. An instinctive brushing of her short brown jacket, however she slowed when her finger tips brushed over that red rose on her shoulder... A strange feeling of warmth overtook her, one that previously only occurred when Ada was with her... Loyalty, it was something she wasn't very familiar with and yet she felt... Compelled to respect that insignia. She respected it.
A brief twitch before she lifted her head.

Her eyes turned cold as she seemed to analyze whoever spoke. René: He seemed a typical dreamer with that notebook, and it was enforced when he spoke of drawing things outside of the walls. A dreamer it is.
She could be called a nightmare-er, but that didn't really work well.
Mitsuo: What an exotic name - was that last part Japanese? No matter that she was rather unintelligent, at least by Adalard's standards, she knew that Japanese names like that were a rarity... She believed, anyway. Maybe she was thinking of something else.

Either wait, it seemed as though the blond was expecting Mia to go before her, and so she did.
"Mia Sauer. Garrison Regiment, Special Operations. Apparently, whoever threw this operation together doesn't think you guys are good enough at killing shit, so here I am." Her voice was obviously condescending, and yet a spark of liveliness in lit up in her eyes at last as the girl actually held herself in a semi-decent stance, her voice steady, not trembling, and devoid of giggles. How lovely.

So they trekked on into the cave, with the civilian leading with Mitsuo, and her refusing to be any farther back. She stayed hot on his heels, closer than the other two were. She was willing to take a bet she had the fastest reaction time out of the group - not because they were bad, but because she was good.
Step, step, step, and it became gradually more difficult to contain herself, gradually more difficult, gradually more difficult. She could feel her fingers flexing, bending and twisting, scratching at the air as they swung idly by her hips. She wanted to ask how soon they would find something but she couldn't be bothered to. She couldn't care enough about anything else other than the torrent of screams, of cries, of blood, all threatening to suffocate her. Her head hurt, it hurt, it hurt like hell. She could barely stop, she could barely go, it tore at her mind thinking, thinking, thinking a thought about when they would stop.

A while later and the civilian stopped them. Why, why were they stopping? Was it time?
No it wasn't, but it just so happened that there was a huge ravine in this cave and they were looking down into it now, teetering on the edge. They could survive that drop with their ODM gear, but the civvie certainly couldn't.

She decided to keep her mouth shut on questions now - not because she doubted them, but because she doubted she could actually get the words out anymore. Her scarf was muffling her erratic breaths well enough to be inaudible to all but herself.
She did wonder, however, if there were titans down there.

Mia Sauer. Garrison Regiment, Special Operations. " Her voice was obviously condescending, and yet a spark of liveliness in lit up in her eyes at last as the girl actually held herself in a semi-decent stance, her voice steady, not trembling, and devoid of giggles. How love

They started walking into the caves. The water on the walls slowly dripped down, building stone structures. Cora herself did not know what they were called, but Nec did. Stalagmites, Stalatites...Stalagnates. Where they called like that? Nec reassured her. He had read about it, even though he said it had been an old book, written in an old dialect, so he was not sure if these were still the used terms.
Cora did not even know where he had read about it. She remembered that the pack had a library, most soldiers did not use it, given they were mostly illiterate as well. Nec apparently did. Interesting, interesting. She got thrown out of her thoughts by the redhead suddenly introducing himself.
She could have gone without knowing their names. That to be said, she already knew alot of the names, so what did it matter? It was certainly more convenient shouting their actual names than just staying with 'redhead' and 'boring dwarf'.
Funnily enough he already knew Mitsuo. Not much of a surprise though. Mitsuo knew alot of people, and alot of people knew him. Esspecially given his outlandish names.
Drawing, eh? She did as well, but she did not draw since she had left the trainees. Which had been...quite some time now.
Mitsuo introduced himself and then dwarfy.

"Mia Sauer. Garrison Regument, Special operations. Apparently, whoever threw this operation together doesn't think you guys are good enough at killing shit, so here I am.", she said confidently.
Cora raised her eyebrows briefly.
"Aha.", she said, not showing any emotions what so ever.
"Cora Wolf. Leader of the Krolva division of the pack.", she stopped talking for a bit before deciding she should say a bit more, even if it was just for the sake of Rene, the girl after all did not seem like she was interested in anything apart from herself or maybe whatever she liked doing. So still herself.
"Apparently, whoever threw this operation together didn't think the people sent by the garrison are trustable enough to let them go alone anywhere."
Her face did not display and expression what so ever. She was good at that.
The moment they started walking again, she smiled at Mitsuo though, given that he probably was the only one knowing about her mental state. It made it all the funnier that they sent a madman to take care of madmen.

They continued walking until a ravine opened in front of them. Cora looked upwards, the sun would be rising soon. Well, it was already risen but it did not really shine into the ravine yet. They were good for now.
Knöchel looked down and gulped.
"Okay. Now, I can't really cross this and I am glad. Titans tend to fall down there, there is a bunch of them down.", he scratched his head and leaned over the ravine, he lifted his lamp above it. It was not strong enough.
Cora sighed and took it, she grappled into the stone right above the cave from where they had come from and slowly went downwards. The sides of the ravine were slippery, covered in moss and probably not stable either. It would be no surprise if her grappling hooks would just get loose.
She went down a good fifty meters before she heard a grunt and she was able to see some titan eyes, slowly opening. It was simply too dark right now for them to move properly. But not later.
Cora looked around. A bit further down was another entrance with coal in it.
She took a bit of coal and set it on fire.
Cora threw it down, the titans grunted and one of them got their hair set on fire which gave everyone a nice look at the sheer amount of them.
It was hundreds, caught down in the ravine, barely able to move. A mountain of flesh.
The fire stopped again and it turned dark. Cora went up to her group.

"Alright. I guess they do tend to fall down here."
The guide was paper white.
"The...the stones...it's not much. It's down, very down. At the bottom of the ravine is the entrance. I am not sure how you plan to get in there...but on the sides should be the entrance to a...there is alot of swords, and probably gas as well. We had to kill them while this mine was still active after all as well."
Cora nodded.
"Mits, you seem to be one of the brighter ones here, or...Rene. Come up with a plan."

The Pack. René mused this word over his tongue, and it had districts. How peculiar. While Cora introduction had been formal yet affirmative of her position in power, Mia Sauer’s introduction had been scarier. The fact that Garrison Spec Ops had been sent in was a major bash to the little pride that René had. The fact a Garrison member had seen more Titans than he had, or killed more, escaped him as to why it could be logical. Weren’t the Garrison supposed to be drunkies who feared for their life when confronted with a Titan?

Knöchel had led them to an uncrossable ravine. “Titans tend to fall down there.”Knöchel lifted his lamp, but it did little good against the impassable blackness of the pit below.He saw Cora let out a sigh and saw her start to grip the rough sides of the rock and descend into the ravine. René started to protest, but Mitsuo silenced him with a hand on his shoulder. There were some flashes of light in the ravine, but it was quiet. When Cora returned to red team, she proudly stated "Alright. I guess they do tend to fall down here." Knöchel began to look like René’s stomach felt. If the entrances were really that small and titans couldn’t get through them, how were titans in the caves then? Or were the caves formed around them?

The guide was faint looking, like he had just seen a ghost. He started to stutter, "The...the stones...it's not much. It's down, very down. At the bottom of the ravine is the entrance. I am not sure how you plan to get in there...but on the sides should be the entrance to a...there is alot of swords, and probably gas as well. We had to kill them while this mine was still active after all as well." René watched Cora nod before she spoke. "Mits, you seem to be one of the brighter ones here, or...René. Come up with a plan."

René pondered for a minute. If what the guide said was true about the entrance to the mine being between all those titans there was no avoiding them. “Well… it’s going to be impossible to try to avoid them, but trying to jump down there is going to be a deathwish.” He saw the guide start to protest and he silenced him with a stern glare. “Cora, when you went down there, were there any ledges that we could stand on? We could maybe have somebody stand there and lure the titans to them while the others tried to kill them? That might be too vulnerable of a plan though, too high in casualties…” René trailed off with a mumble at the end. Then he remembered Mia. If it was true that the Garrison sent her in because she was good at killing, maybe she’d be able to take some out? “Mia, do you think you’d be able to kill some in a relatively quick amount of time?” He waited for her to think while Mitsuo proposed his plan.

Mitsuo found it funny that Titan's had managed to get themselves stuck in such a small place. He held back his laughter but his face showed his thoughts with a plastered shit-eating grin.

"So... you want a plan huh? Well, René's wasn't too bad but I'd rather propose something else. If you, Cora, can go back to where ever you just went and manage to keep constant sources of light going down there then that would be helpful. That would give me and René here enough light to be able to see if we can find this entrance to equipment supplies; the blades and gas. Meanwhile, Mia, as I'm sure she can handle herself, can slowly descend into the mass of no-doubts sleepy Titans and try to cut a few of their numbers down for us."

Mitsuo nodded, "alternatively, if you don't want to or can't manage to give us a light source like you did a minute ago, Cora... well, then I suppose you could join Mia, as I know you can handle yourself too."

The mechanic turned to their guide, dragging his eyes away from the dark abyss below, "as for Knöchel... you can stay here... but back away from the ledge... just to make sure you're out of harm's way."

The young Shimura smiled and guide before looking back down into the nothingness that drops in front of the group.
"That's my thoughts on how we should do things, anyway... I'll leave it to debate on what you actually want to do."

"But if you do decide to go with René's plan, I will take it personally... I'll have you know," he finished, jokingly.