Attack on Titan Fanfiction – A Night to Remember: Chapter 1

The Consultation

“I need it to be modified, be made suitable for our support unit use. The previous prototype doesn’t work well. The rechambered carbines have excessive recoil and muzzle flash problems,” Mikasa said. “I’d like it to be lighter and shorter, to make it better suited for use in trench assaults.”

They were in Hange’s weapons lab discussing the strengths and shortcomings of their current bolt action rifle, the 8-9M. It was the combat Marines’ main service rifle, with firing cartridges from a 5-round internal clip-loaded magazine. Major Mikasa Ackermann-Kirschtein of the Paradian Royal Marines was there with two of her subordinates, asking for several variants of the weapon, among a list of others.

“We could modify one with a longer barrel and a different stock. Also make the receiver ring smaller, and change the stepped barrel to a tapered contour,” Hange mused, handling the rifle in question, turning it over in their hands.

“What about the stocking rod?” Ingrid Klein, one of Hange’s lab technicians, asked.

“An L-shaped one attached to the stock near the muzzle would be good,” Hange proposed. 

“I liked the turned-down bolt handle and recess in the stock of the sniper variant,” Mikasa added. “But with a bayonet attachment point and stocking rod device.”

They go on like this with other weapons: flare guns, submachine guns, flamethrowers, grenades, mines, support guns and even sabres. 

It was half a year after the Aniastulia crisis and Paradis was mobilizing, preparing for war. But it wasn’t Noblain that was set to declare war on them. At least, not yet. The enemy they had to face first was Marley. 

General Theo Magat, who after Eren removed the power of titanization from Eldians, became the de facto ruler of Marley. After their titan weapons of war were taken away from them, the country that had fallen into complete and utter chaos. But Magat was able to contain the anarchy, consolidate the belligerent political factions and prevent a civil war. His interim military-led government held the country together under martial law. Magat created a military junta to administer the government. Because of his sympathy for the Eldian race and new-found goodwill he personally had toward Paradis, the general had the interim government operate in friendly and cooperative terms with the island. 

Magat was a fair, just, liberal and even-handed interim head of state, holding power until Marley was ready to transition–bloodlessly–back to civilian rule. But the three years of peace he managed to create came crashing down when he was betrayed by a member of the military junta. A coup d’etat occurred and Magat was assassinated in cold blood. When the car bomb exploded it also took the life of Pieck Finger, Minister of Defense and Magat’s most trusted adviser. 

Replacing them was a group of ultra-conservative generals who disagreed with Magat’s policies, among them his plan to grant Marleyan citizenship to all Eldians born in Marley, his approval of a modest reparation plan for the victims of Marleyan atrocities around the world, his willingness to normalise diplomatic ties with Paradis, among other former enemy nations, and his plan to form a regional security community to avoid conflict with neighboring countries. 

In direct contrast to Magat’s pacifist ideology, the right-wing new rulers of Marley went on to install a military dictatorship that went back to their old ways: baying for Eldian blood, using the Paradis as an excuse to make the Marleyan people turn their eyes away from the incompetence and rampant corruption and abuse of power by their own leaders. Once again they made the island the scapegoat for all their problems.

All of this was happening amidst a backdrop of huge shifts in the global balance of power. In what can only be described as the rise and fall of civilizations, the ageing powerhouse Marley no longer had hegemony, losing their share of the world pie. As Marley imploded, the newly ascended Noblainian and Cistiduan empires were dividing up the rest of the world between themselves. Cistidu sought to expand their territory in the continent; Noblain was bent on keeping theirs while colonizing weaker countries in other parts of the world. While the two empires battled it out tooth and nail, another country, Vespucci, far larger in terms of territory and richer in natural resources than both Cistidu and Noblain put together, was on the rise. Amidst this changing of the guard, the decrepit, outdated Marleyan empire was struggling to hold on to their place in the world minus their titan weapons of war. 

Empires rise and empires fall; the new rulers of Marley were determined to go out with a bang. And to do that they decided they needed to seize the vast natural gas reserves of their neighboring island, Paradis. The financial gain they will make should be enough to buy themselves an important place in the new world order. 

Paradians mourned the loss of General Magat, their island’s greatest champion. Pieck was gone, and she had been steadfast in her support for establishing bilateral ties with Paradis. When the new regime took over they started hunting down and executing leaders loyal to Magat. 

Army Captain Gabi Braun, Magat’s strongest and most loyal soldier, took her troops underground and formed a rebellion. Only a teenager, the precocious young officer was recruiting other members of the armed forces sympathetic to the causes Magat fought for. Jean and Levi put their heads together devising a plan to get her out of Marley, but it was fraught with danger. As of yet they were unsuccessful. It had a lot to do with the fact that Gabi was number one in the new regime’s Most Wanted list, along with the fact that she planned to reform Marley from the inside. She was hesitant to leave the country, fearing that once she was out the only way back in was to sacrifice the majority of her shadow army acting as agents and double agents, who looked to her for leadership. As the new regime’s Special Forces pursued her, she was forced to cut off all contact with the outside world for fear of being captured and having her top secret base of operations compromised. All Jean and Levi could do now was to wait for her to contact them.

Falco Grice, who joined the diplomatic corps under Magat’s government, was hiding in Resbanne, a Marleyan colony halfway around the world. He had been there negotiating terms for full autonomy and self-governance of the colony; it was one of Magat’s policies that caused controversy and made enemies: his wish to grant independence to the Marleyan colonies that demanded it. Now Falco was exiled, far away from home, and he was deemed by the new regime as a “traitor of the state” and listed in their Wanted book. Armin was trying to use his diplomatic connections to get Falco out of the country and offer refuge in Paradis, but after Magat was assassinated Resbanne quickly entered into a brutal civil war and its borders became too dangerous for foreigners to cross.

Lieutenant Colonel Annie Leonhart, of the Marleyan intelligence service under Magat, was gravely injured in the car bomb that killed the general. She was taken to a hospital as a hostage by the new regime, kept alive so that they could torture information out of her when she recovered. Somehow Annie managed to escape, but now she was also deemed a “traitor of the state” and had completely gone dark. Armin prayed that she would eventually find a way to contact them in Paradis, but nothing so far. All he could hope for now was that she was still alive somewhere. 

In this manner Paradis lost all their allies and insiders in Marley. They were back to being enemies with the country. Jean estimated that their old foe will make a declaration of war within the year. For three years, what the inner circle called “Armin’s Bluff”, an elaborate political and diplomatic bet devised by Armin to prevent other nations from attacking them, kept the enemies at bay. But now Marley was becoming desperate enough to call that bluff. When that day comes, Paradis would be left with no choice but to fight back.

Now that war was inevitable the whole island was mobilizing, putting the economy on a war footing. Leading them, with Queen Historia at the helm, were the heads of the military: Royal Navy Admiral Jean Kirschtein, Royal  Army General Connie Springer, Royal Air Force Marshall Hange Zoe, and Special Forces Brigadier Levi Ackermann. Mikasa led the main combat unit of the Royal Marines, which made up the infantry arm of the Navy. Their country was an island, thus the largest and most important branch of the military was the Navy, headed by her husband.

Hange, genius that they were, not only headed the Air Force but was also head of military engineering. In fact, they oversaw everything technology-related for the entire country, including development of weapons of mass destruction. “Never to be used,” Hange insisted, “and meant only to act as deterrent.”

Back at Hange’s lab, Mikasa’s consultation with their main gear head was coming to an end. Now they were talking about the final weapon on Mikasa’s list, a sidearm called the 70-19MD, a semi-automatic pistol, used for self-defense during close-quarter combat. 

“I like the surface design, magazine release, concentric recoil spring, grip angle, and positioning of the manual safety and breech blocks. But I’ve a problem with the firing mechanism,” Mikasa explains, before demonstrating the source of her dissatisfaction.

“We can modify it so that the striker spring won’t be compressed to a great extent when pulling the trigger,” Hange offered. Turning to Ingrid Klein they instructed, “The Marines don’t want the cocked striker to be held by the sear before being released by the trigger. Please make the necessary modifications.”

After some more of this Mikasa is done with her list. “That is all, thank you very much,” she tells Hange and the team. She then dismisses her subordinates, who return to the Marines headquarters.

Before Hange could propose a long-winded tour of their latest invention–whatever it might be, for they were always coming up with some strange gadget or contraption–Mikasa whispered, “Hange, please, I know you’re busy, but may I have a word with you in private?” Far from the confident voice she used earlier when discussing weapons modification for her combat Marines, her tone now was meek and pleading, soft and sheepish.

Hange grinned at her, knowing something interesting was about to be discussed. They led the major to their spacious but chaotic and disorganized office, clearing out a path with their boot. There was nowhere for Mikasa to sit so Hange had her perch on a pile of books. 

Mikasa marveled at Hange’s topsy-turvy lair, a stark contrast to her own neat, clean and tidy office. She looked around curiously at the room littered with all sorts of tools and knick-knacks and weird-looking whatnots and indistinguishable mechanical parts. But it wasn’t just inanimate objects–there were pots of strange-looking plants and jars of organic matter and flasks of all shapes and sizes containing heaven knows what. Amidst all these were hundreds of books, dozens upon dozens of scrolls, maps, globes of various sizes, telescopes large and small. There was also a complete human skeleton, and three others that looked like large four-legged animals. On one side of the wall were two aquariums, a freshwater one with plants and fish, and a tropical reef one with all sorts of corals and sea creatures Mikasa was unable to name. On another wall were taxidermy mounts of vertebrates from around the world. The large, cavernous room was like a library and antiques store and arboretum and natural history museum and chemist’s shop all rolled into one.

Despite all the new and advanced technology that Hange drank like a bottle of beer and digested like a piece of baked potato, they were still their old unkempt, slovenly, rumpled self. Somehow this made Mikasa comfortable, feeling right at home. It was a good feeling, she thought, because what she was about to ask embarrassed her so much that only a true scientist, researcher and humanist like Hange can hear her out without making fun of her.

“Jean’s been working so hard,” Mikasa began. It was true: like her, the admiral worked sixteen to eighteen hours a day, seven days a week, with only a two-and-a-half days leave per month. “His next leave happens to be his birthday, and I wanted to prepare a real surprise for him…something he’ll enjoy…something wild. We’ve been married for three years now and he’s been such a wonderful husband and amazing partner and my most trusted leader…he makes me really happy and I’m so in love with him. So I thought I’d ask what he wants this year, what he really, really wants…and he said…he said…,” the major was blushing so hard her entire face turned beet red. She shot Hange an apologetic look. 

“He said what? I can’t help you if you won’t tell me,” Hange says, grinning in anticipation behind their messy desk.

Looking around to make sure no one else was within hearing range, Mikasa whispers, “He said he wants…”

Hange leans forward, “Yes?”

Thank you so much for reading! Please take a moment to share a thought or two in the comment section below. Your comments give me life and are a real source of encouragement. xoxo, hana

Next – Chapter 2: The Preparation

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