"Trainees! After two months of training, you have already preliminarily mastered the basic skills required of a soldier. Starting today, you will gradually begin training with the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt! Proficiency with the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt is the most basic skill a soldier must have!"
At noon, all trainees received the order to assemble. More than two hundred trainees of the 104th class stood in the camp, all raising their heads to look at Instructor Keith on the high platform. Everyone was sowhat excited, because today was the long-awaited Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt training for the new recruits.
As early as a hundred years ago, humanity had already mastered artillery technology. Unfortunately, artillery had limited lethality against Titans. Even if a shell smashed a Titan's head, the Titan would recover completely within two minutes, unless it was a large-scale artillery barrage. Humanity lacked an effective single-soldier combat device to deal with Titans.
Thus, under these circumstances, the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt ca into being.
The Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt, as humanity's strongest weapon against Titans, declared from the day of its birth that the era in which humanity was slaughtered at will by Titans had co to an end.
The Survey Corps undoubtedly relied on fearless courage and exquisite mastery of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt to obtain much valuable experience for humanity.
Everyone's thoughts were different—so were nervous, so afraid, and so delighted.
Eren's eyes were filled with light. His hands clenched unconsciously behind his back.
"I can finally get my hands on the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt! I will definitely drive out all Titans and avenge my father! No longer be bound by the walls! Pursue freedom!"
"Now! Each squad will collect the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt in order. Trainees! Train hard, don't beco Titan fodder—dedicate your hearts!" Instructor Keith looked sternly at the trainees below, placing his right hand at the edge of his right chest in a standard military salute.
"Yes! Dedicate your hearts!" More than two hundred trainees simultaneously placed their right hands on their right chests. The uniforms swayed in unison, accompanied by a thunderous oath, full of montum.
Yago, relying on outstanding performance and formidable strength, naturally beca a Squad Leader. However, the distribution of new recruit squads was irregular; more or less, so recruits would drop out from ti to ti because they couldn't endure the training. Therefore, squad-based combat among recruits had little practical aning, and choosing Squad Leaders was mainly for ease of managent.
Yago led the recruits of his squad to the wagon to collect the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt. Yago's squad was Squad 34. The mbers were Eren, Armin, Thomas, Mina, and two other recruits from the Trost District, Ilse and Mady.
Yago was the Squad Leader, and Thomas was the deputy Squad Leader.
Soon everyone received their Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt. Even though Yago had already seen it in the Survey Corps and had even obtained a broken set from smugglers, now that he truly had his own Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt, his heart was inevitably filled with excitent.
The heavy scabbards, the sharp grappling hooks hidden inside the waist-mounted launchers, and the fan-driven device that looked a bit like a small loudspeaker were all there. However, the gas canisters that should have been above the scabbards were nowhere to be seen.
"Instructor, why doesn't our Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt have gas canisters?" Eren asked in confusion. Indeed, none of the new recruits' gear had gas canisters, which ant that the recruits' Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt could not be used for the ti being.
The instructor responsible for distributing the gear glanced at the puzzled recruits and spoke calmly: "To prevent accidental injury, before you understand the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt, do you new recruits really want to use it? Take the grappling hooks, for example. Accelerated by gas, they can easily pierce granite slabs. Do you think your bodies are harder than stone?"
Only then did the recruits understand. Of course—that made sense. Just like being a soldier in Yago's mories: before you had ever handled a gun, it was impossible to just hand you a fully loaded firearm for practice. That was simply unrealistic. Eh? But what exactly was that gun in his mories—was it a musket? Yago thought about it but couldn't rember. That segnt of mory was becoming increasingly blurry, so he stopped thinking about it.
...
That afternoon, the recruits did not begin training. Instead, under the instructors' organization, they first attended a course to familiarize themselves with the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt.
"The Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt is secured to your body through the belt system you're wearing. Look carefully—this handle is the control chanism of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt. It's connected to the scabbard section. Normally, you can use this hook to hang it under your arm." The bespectacled instructor raised the handle so the recruits could see clearly.
"At the handle interface is the blade-release catch. By connecting the handle to the blades inside the scabbard, you can draw the blades. Everyone knows that the Titan's only weak point is the nape of the neck, but a Titan's skin is also extrely tough. Our blades pursue sharpness, so they break easily. Therefore, there are six replacent blades inside the scabbard. If a blade breaks or becos dull, replace it in ti. Press this button to discard the damaged blade." With a swift motion, the instructor drew two sharp blades from the scabbards, flashing with light under the sun.
The instructor put the blades down and began introducing the detailed functions of the handles. The trigger controls the firing and retraction of the cables, while the fan at the back is driven by power supplied by gas, maintaining high-speed movent in the air.
By using this three-dinsional high-speed mobility to fight, soldiers can maneuver to the sa height as a Titan's nape, thereby finding opportunities to eliminate the Titan.
The belts of the device distribute the body's weight across various parts of the body, making movent more agile. By controlling the belts around the waist, legs, and feet, soldiers can adjust their posture in midair.
In addition, the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt can be used to move through forests and clusters of buildings via sliding, swinging, and other thods, successfully improving infantry mobility and attack capability in various environnts.
However, the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt still has weaknesses. The cables and the gas are its shortcomings. Because of the cable length, they can easily be grabbed by Titans. Once grabbed, a soldier is likely dood.
The amount of gas is also critical. Since the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt is a single-soldier combat device, the gas a soldier can carry is limited. Unless equipped with horses like the Survey Corps, a soldier can only rely on the gas canisters on the two scabbards to fight. Two canisters can probably sustain one to two hours of activity and combat, even under conservative use; if consumption isn't controlled, it will run out even faster.
Most importantly, the manufacturing of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt is classified technology, and only specialized personnel can repair damaged units.
But Yago was not worried about this point, because he had a broken set of Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt for research.
At the end of the lecture, the instructor said very seriously to everyone: "Training with the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt is extrely dangerous. I hope all of you pay attention—don't die on the training field before you even reach the battlefield. Understood?"
"Understood~" Many recruits still looked unconcerned. The instructor sighed helplessly. These kids truly didn't know fear. Hopefully they would still be able to smile when formal training began tomorrow.
Hanging the Vertical Maneuvering Equipnt on his body, a surge of heroic passion imdiately welled up in his heart. Yago drew the utility-knife-like blade, which even reflected his face.
...
This chapter has been posted for review. Thank you
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