[b]Weeks Later...[/b]

Ava made sure the saddle on her horse was nice and secure.  In the last few weeks, they'd all been preparing to leave.  The Survey Corps was... well, a bit more rough already than she had expected.  Being the top in their class meant nothing.  Sure, teh Military POlice only took that, but she'd already been told by a few of the veterans that they saw people from their own class, from a number one slot, get killed before an average guy.  Her nerves showed on her face as she worked hard to concentrate on what was at hand but found it increasingly difficult.  Tinker wasn't going with them...  He'd enlisted Survey, but a special division recruited him and he accepted - something to do with mechanics and technology.  He'd found his niche.  Ava, on the other hand, wasn't so sure anymore...  She did everything perfectly, just right.  What if push came to shove and she couldn't stand up to the challenge?  What if, on their first day beyond the wall, she died.  Just like that.

"Hey, still having some jitters?"  A voice called from behind her.  Captain Jason Eldrich, an older man in his late twenties, approached.  He had a long green cloak with the symbol of the Survey Corps on the back.  However, over that symbol was the number '72' in white.  It was against the uniform code, but after the 72nd was founded, the group was hardly held to the same standard.  It would be pointless, considering how little time they actually returned to the city.  He had short, blond hair that only came slightly over the edge of his forehead.

Ava looked back and sighed, returning to her saddle to make sure she had all of the bags hooked up.  "Yeah...  I guess so..."

"Don't worry about it.  The others just...  they don't want you to get a big head from your placement in class.  Plenty of them didn't choose the 72nd, they were assigned to it.  Some of the cockier kids in training ask for this post, and they have a tendency to think they're better than they really are.  So, just don't forget...  You'll be going up against a new kind of enemy.  You've never actually faced a Titan before, as much as you've trained for it.  The real thing is completely different..."  He shook his head, "Levi's squad tracks their skills...  Don't know if you guys have heard of them...  Don't do that.  Don't count them.  You'll use that to identify yourself and it'll make you passive.  I've known people who tried to count, and it's all they cared about, we're not out here to exterminate like they are.  Our job is to expand and search, just remember that, okay?"

She nodded, "Aye, sir.  I will.  Thanks, Captain."

Jonah held out his palm with a small white cube to let the horse in front of him take it happily.  He gently ran a hand over the side of the horse's face.  Nearby, Sanja was doing much the same.  Neither seemed to be really worried about death...  Not that they weren't afraid of the Titans, anybody would be, but Jonah was already at peace with losing his life.  He'd come to terms with it a long time ago, he wouldn't beg for life.  The Captain had moved to the front of the battalion and his voice boomed over everything.

"Aaaalright, folks!"  He shouted with a grin.  It looked painful, living with everything that he'd seen and still putting on this brave face for his comrades.  Maybe he'd learned to deal wit hit...  That's what a leader did, wasn't it?  "We're gonna be heading out soon and we'll be gone for a few months, at least.  It's the same thing as last time, sure, but for the new people, I'll go over some ground rules.  There's going to be a lot of camping and you do [i]not[/i] go anywhere without one of your comrades.  Always stay with the group, report everything and anything you find.  For those of you who are new - you make it through a few weeks, excellent.  You're going to face some incredibly hard times, but you're also going to see some things that even the other units of the Survey Corps could never even [i]dream[/i] of.  Day one is going to be a long one - we don't stop riding until we're really clear of the city.  The Titans infest the world, but most of them are closer to us here, so we can't camp until we're quite a ways out.  Then we'll sleep in shifts for each site.  You pair up on your own.  [i]Nobody[/i] is to be left alone.  Now, I don't give two shits if you hate the person next to you - you will fight to the death to make sure that they stay alive.  This battalion is built on trust, even if you don't care for them, they're still your brother or your sister.  If I see any of you neglecting the others, so help me god I'll make sure you spend the rest of our deployment in hell.  Do I make myself clear?"

"AYE-AYE, SIR!!"  The entire crowd of veterans shouted.  The small number of new recruits looked around at each other, but didn't exactly respond.

"Alright, saddle up, we're leaving soon!"

Ava patted her horse before looking to Kiryuu, who would have been readying his equipment too.  "Hey, Kiryuu, you ready to roll out?  We can't turn around once we get past those walls..."  She observed, one hand on the reins of her horse as she approached.

Jonah, on the other hand, was already standing directly beside Alois, looking a bit more liberated than he ever had before.  He grinned at his buddy, "Alois, we're finally gettin' out there."  He was more confident, probably, than he should have been, but he was excited.  For the first time since he childhood, he was facing real danger.  That was the thrill.  "Ready?"

"Hell yes!"  Sanja chimed.  Jonah flinched slightly - he hadn't realized that she was exactly nearby.  Her squad while they were training had excluded her near the end of their time, so she joined theirs when she found out they were all interested in the 72nd.  She was strange, but Jonah still didn't know her so well that he could say anything about her beside that.  "Finally, we can [i]go somewhere![/i]  See these things for ourselves..."

Attention from a majority of the squad members turned back to their captain at the front.  Everybody was starting to climb onto their horses when a man in a Garrison Corps uniform came sprinting by and spoke briefly to the captain.  Nobody knew what they were saying, but it was clearly a messenger.  Ava, Sanja, and Jonah all mounted up while they spoke, only vaguely aware of what was happening at the front.