Annie Leonhart

A picture of 2nd Lieutenant Leonhart taken before the fateful Battle of San Francisco.

### Callsign(s)

Stingray (Main)
Black Manta
Sea Stinger
Devilfish

### Currently Serving With

59th Squadron

> I've seen the inexperienced try to join 59th Squadron. Trust me, it is no easy task when you're training alongside some of the best that the USAAF has to offer.
>
> USAAF 2nd Lieutenant Annie "Stingray" Leonhart

**Annie Leonhart**, known by her fellow USAAF pilots under the callsign of **Stingray**, is one of the twelve pilots that makes up the Elite 59th Squadron of the USAAF. A mighty and hard-hitting enforcer, she swoops in with a deadly cocktail of speed, explosiveness, unpredictability, aggressiveness, and inhuman accuracy that has made her known as one of the squadron's, and by extension, one of the USAAF's deadliest pilots. Like the stingray that became her callsign, Annie's sting is paralyzing and deadly, as she takes out enemy aircraft one-by-one with well-placed armor-piercing shots that disable and paralyze them, causing them to crash into the ground.

As a hard-hitting Enforcer pilot, Annie is both an Iron Fist and a blunt weapon aimed at the head of the enemy, exemplified in her role as the 4th Pilot of 59th Squadron's Signature and Deadly Arrow Formation, with her fellow pilot and close friend Mikasa Ackerman serving the same role as her, being the 10th Pilot of the squadron. With both of them being on the outside edges of the formation, they close on their targets like a Crab's pincer. Due to this, the two became known as the **Executioner's Axes** or **The Axe Maidens** or **The Double-Sided Blade** for their ability to take out enemy targets with precise, but brutal attacks.

## Joining The USAAF

> Annie's one of the best pilots I've fought alongside. She's like an Executioner's axe as she does scores of Damage on an enemy fighter formation. She tears through them like they're paper.
>
> Ash "Thunderbolt" Ketchum

Annie Leonhart first joined the USAAF as a volunteer pilot, joining the 8th Reserve Squadron as part of a USAAF Recruitment drive to help bolster the heavily-depleted numbers of Pilots. There, she met Corporal Mikasa Ackerman and the two girls became friends as they complemented each other perfectly in the practice battles. She first gained the Callsign and eventual nickname **Stingray** when she discovered that she had the ability to literally stop a plane in midair, effectively paralyzing it. With this ability, she rose through the ranks of the USAAF, eventually ascending to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force. That was when, in need of new pilots, 59th Squadron came calling.

### Joining 59th Squadron

59th Squadron, reeling from the tragic loss of ten of its pilots during Operation Sealion, was searching for ten new pilots to take the place of those killed during the failed German Invasion of Great Britain. The Squadron's commanding officers, Major Christopher Heathrow, and his second-in-command, Captain Ash Ketchum, were scouting various USAAF pilots when they first stumbled upon the rising star that was Annie Leonhart.

Seeing her potential as a hard-hitting enforcer, the two pilots finally realized that they had found a new piece to fix their broken squadron up and prevent it from being disbanded. Seeing that they needed pilots, Annie joined 59th Squadron as its 4th Pilot. Annie also realized that Mikasa, her closest friend, also joined 59th Squadron, and as such, their friendship grew stronger.

### First Practice Battle with 59th Squadron

> Mikasa and I complement each other extremely well, sir. We're like the two axe heads of a Double-Bladed Axe. I think that the Executioner's Axes would be a good moniker for us.
>
> Annie "Stingray" Leonhart to Major Christopher "Reaper" Heathrow

During the reborn 59th Squadron's first Practice Dogfight, the squadron was still getting to know each other, which led to them being incoherent and a bit unorganized. In the case of both Leonhart and Ackerman, however, their chemistry with each other proved to be a strong point for the reborn squadron as they were the most coherent and effective of the bunch. Their connection was deadly and potent due to their bond.

Seeing this, Heathrow modified and changed the Squadron's battleplan with input from all ten of the new pilots, so that when they would fly into battle, they would play to each other's strengths to cover up each other's weaknesses, making for an effective fighting force that would be able to turn the tide in favor of the USAAF and their allies. Due to a comment made by her and their position in the Squadron Formation, both Annie and Mikasa were known as the **Executioner's Axes** for their deadly efficiency and deadly hits.

## First Real Battle

On the eve of the Battle of San Francisco, 59th Squadron was one of the squadrons deployed to reinforce the defending forces of both the USAAF and the US Navy against a Japanese Invasion Fleet led by the IJN Ryujin. Deployed at the forefront, 59th Squadron