"What are they thinking!" Erwin stood from his seat, slamming his hands on the desk in front of him. Zackly remained seated, removing his glasses and cleaning them with a cloth

"I'll tell you what those asshats in the capital are thinking. There's not enough food to go around and they can't be bothered to spend the money on building new farms. And please, sit back down." Erwin complied.

"I don't know how you can be so calm about what they're ordering you to do."

"I just don't see a reason to make the situation worse than it already is. You know as well as I do that the king's orders are absolute. As commander-in-chief of the military, I have a duty to obey those orders regardless of any personal opinions I may hold. Even if we were to call council, nothing would change. The scouts don't have the influence to challenge the military police."

"So you called me here just to warn me then?"

"That is part of it, yes. The order won't officially be given until next month; use that time to prepare whatever you need. However; there is another topic I wanted to discuss. That is our supposed "Space man"; The scouts have been rather quiet about him since he was recruited. What's he been doing this past year?"

Erwin wasn't surprised by the question, aside from some minor information, the scouts have been quiet as per Cortana's suggestion. "He likes to keep busy, doesn't waste a second." Erwin paused for a second to consider his next words. "A lot's happened this past year. We've made big discoveries, things that wouldn't have been possible without him, but we still don't know the full picture. Until we do, I can't say more."

"Well then commander, when the time does come," Zackly reaffixed his glasses, "I expect to be the first to know. You're free to leave" Erwin stood, gave a salute, and exited.

Erwin was deep in thought on his way back to base. In one months time, a quarter of a million people would be sent to their deaths. Whether he was given a month to prepare a plan or a year, it wouldn't make a difference; Little to none would be returning alive. Whatever support they'd managed to build this past year thanks to Chief's work behind the scenes would disappear and their already limited manpower would be stretched even thinner. As much as he could have hoped, one man was not enough to change the future nor could he expect him to; If nothing changed soon, it could spell the end of the survey corp.

Upon returning to base late into the night, Erwin went straight to his office, moving solely off memory as he remained lost in his mind. He only returned to focus when he impacted what felt like an iron door in his way.

"Is everything alright commander?" Erwin looked up to see the spartan unexpectedly, carrying some heavy equipment towards the armory

"Oh Chief, sorry, I wasn't paying attention. My head's a bit preoccupied at the moment. I just received some complicated orders from Zackly"

Chief set down his cargo and addressed Erwin. "What's happened?" Erwin thought for a moment about whether to inform the spartan or not. He planned to wait a few days before making a public announcement in order to plan. He actually contemplated withholding this information from the spartan entirely, in hopes of forming a solution on his own, but Erwin decided against it. Attempting to hide it would only create tensions between the two parties as Chief would likely learn about it sooner or later, and so informed him of his meeting with Zackly. "Understood. I'll begin making preparations for the operation." Chief retrieved his supplies and began to walk off

"I was actually considering having you sit this one out." Chief stopped and turned back to Erwin.

"Reasoning Sir?"

"To be blunt, we can't keep relying on you. We've done great things in the past year, things we couldn't have done without you, but there are things we still need to face on our own. All these people are going to die. Sending one man would do nothing to change that. Even if I send you, there's a good chance you die too and on the chance you do come back alive I can't have you at the head taking the fall as the sole survivor. The people will resent you far worse than they could us."

This kind of tactic wasn't new to Chief. It would have been naive to think ONI hadn't made its own fair share of strategic sacrifices when it came to prolonging the human-covenant war. A number of planets were purposely left open to attack in order to draw the covenant's attention away from more valuable colonies, but one thing differed. No planet was ever abandoned, they all fought tooth and nail for the slim hope of victory. Every last man, every last bullet, every last life saved, but these people, there was no hope, not even a false expectation of victory. This was a death sentence with nothing more than a fragile excuse to justify it. Chief wouldn't accept standing by and watching it happen.

"250 thousand refugees are about to be sent to their deaths and you're concerned about the life of a single soldier." Chief dropped the 200+ kg of equipment back down to the ground and approached Erwin once more. "I have seen millions die in service of humanity, billions more die in vain as an unrelenting enemy erased what little hope they had as nothing could be done to save them. Despite that, you ask that I be a bystander to it."

"Yes. Unfortunate as it may be, this is not your fight, it's ours. We need to be the ones paying the price for it, not you." Chief felt a hint of frustration at Erwin's word, something quite rare for the usually stoic spartan. Chief had spent his whole life willing to lay his life down for others, it was a terrible situation for someone to attempt the opposite. Nevertheless, he maintained his composure.

"Understood, if that is the case, I will be resigning from the survey corps.

"What?"

"As a human from outside of Wall Rose, if I'm no longer a member of the military, I would qualify as an able-bodied refugee. I would be required to participate."

"Chief, you can't do that."

"Our agreement was that of mutual benefit. In addition to sharing our resources, I would be given autonomy within the survey corps, and in return I would abide by your kingdom's laws within reason. If this cannot be upheld, then there is no need to be under your advisement" Erwin remained silent, he didn't have a retort. Despite being a mutual agreement, the deal heavily favored the kingdom. Losing that would be far more catastrophic. "I am one soldier; I know I can't save them all, but I can give them hope." Chief crouched down to be at eye level with Erwin. "People need hope, no matter how slim. It keeps us going."

The tension on Erwin's face finally subsided. "Alright Chief, I trust you, no matter what may happen. Be our hope."

"Thank you, Sir." Chief left Erwin alone once again and he returned to his office. A thought arose as he prepared to end the day; Was Chief meant to be here? Was his presence here fate, or miraculous accident. How would he change their futures and how had he already changed thoughts were brief as they did not matter. Chief was here, and he would likely be the one to pave humanity's path forward. Whether that would be a blessing or a curse would have to wait.

The month passed and the scouts readied the first wave of refugees. The kingdom provided the most basic of supplies for the people, whatever wouldn't be missed. A handful of scouts were to accompany the group of 20,000 ready to leave Trost. Chief prepared his own supplies separate from the kingdom's. 3 carts full of rations, medical supplies, and other equipment that may be needed pulled by his M12 warthog and 2 additional transport hogs rigged to be controlled from his. Aside from a few people when traveling to and from the Dawn, this was the first time most of these people witnessed the spartan and he would lead half of them to the breach in Wall Maria.

"Accounting for skirmishes along the way, it will take about 2 weeks to reach the Dawn, I'll radio HQ then, from there another week to the wall. We'll survey the damage and make a plan on how to close the breach. If all goes as planned, we'll return in roughly 2 months." Chief recapped his plan with Erwin.

"Just be sure to come back alive." The gates opened and 80,000 people across all 4 gates of Wall Rose poured out onto the open plains. Chief's sect began heading south east; The scout's encampment was their first goal. Erwin watched as the last refugee left and the gates closed behind them, whatever happened now was in Chief's hands. Over the next week the remaining 170,000 left the walls as well and Erwin returned to scout HQ to wait. He was restless to say the least, he worked tirelessly in his mind trying to figure out if there was any other way this could have gone and how to prevent this in the future. The time soon came and as promised Chief made contact across the point to point radio they established.

"Chief, glad to hear you guys made it safely."

"Not the case sir. We've lost an estimated 1500 lives, 500 more are injured. We had to abandon one of the warthogs a week ago. Despite that they're moral is high, most of them expected to die in the first few days, but we've managed to keep most of them safe.

"It's great to hear, honestly, you've done better than I could've hoped. Maybe we can actually turn this execution into an actual victory."

"Moving on to other news, Cortana's and Hange's DNA research is still at a standstill, but there is progress in the regeneration experiments. Cortana believes we can develop a trauma treatment from titan blood similar to the Bioform we showed you before. It will take time before a test sample is produced, she's confident initial trials will prove positive."

Erwin smiled, "You two continue to amaze me. I look forward to it. If that's all I await your update on the wall."

"There is one more thing, and it's interesting to say the least. A titan spoke."

"What?!"

"I happened shortly before we arrived, Hange confirmed hearing it as well. Cortana was able to record the audio. Playing it now."

Cortana's voice took over the comm, "Alright Hange, begin titan regeneration test 108, open a wound into the rib cage."

"Starting now" Hange returned. A few moments of silence went by before a pained, gravely screech came through. "That's new?"

"Keep going." Soon a staggered and disjointed voice began to resound.

"You…Do…No…t…Be…long." The noises suddenly stopped.

"The titan's dead?" The recording stopped.

"There is video of what happened here. The titan began to decay shortly after."

Erwin's face soured, he didn't know what to say for a minute. "That is unnerving, but it will have to wait. Focus on your current mission, we can all discuss it in greater detail once you return."

"Yes sir."

The communication ended and without rest another piece of the puzzle was thrown at Erwin to think over. He thought of his father for a moment, "We're so close," he whispered to himself and returned to his regular duties.

Two more weeks passed and Erwin returned to the comms expecting Chief to give his next update. Nothing came in. The next day he waited as well, but there was nothing. Day after day there was silence. Soon people started to return to Krolva, Utopia, and Karanese in increasing numbers, not just those sent out, but even those who had been trapped in the other districts of Wall Maria. The kingdom was confused by this and asked, the people told them there were no more titans. Erwin immediately sent scouts out to confirm and unexpectedly they were right. From the east, to the north, and down to the west, no titans were spotted. The south was different; however, titans were still present.

Having seemingly completed their mission, and cautious not to start a revolt among the people, the people were permitted to stay as a majority still died in the wasteland. In all 50,000 had returned, but no one ever came back to Trost. As such, they couldn't confirm that Wall Maria had been fixed and Wall Rose remained closed. The government discussed what to do next, many disappointed that the culling wasn't as effective as hoped. Erwin continued to visit the comms room daily. Erwin had hoped maybe the connection was offline, but Cortana soon made contact and confirmed Chief was nowhere to be seen.

Clinging to the hope that Chief had promised, Erwin prepared a regiment and headed to Trost; Dead or alive, he would find him. The scouts arrived in Trost and prepared to set out, but an alarm was suddenly raised. Erwin took a look from atop the wall, and what appeared to be a warthog quickly approached the gate. Erwin gave the order to open it and descended back down. The warthog drove through and came to a stop. In the back sat 8 heavily injured people, on the cart pulled behind, another two dozen. Chief exited the driver's seat and it was a terrifying sight. His armor was battered, covered in dirt and blood. The whole left side was scorched as fragments of his left thruster dangled. There were cuts in his undersuit with wounds that had just barely begun to scab over. There was a severe crack in his visor.

Chief began calling for medical personnel when an MP officer approached. He was among those that enthusiastically supported the fake mission. Annoyed by how many people managed to return and believing his rank protected him, he began to moronically antagonize the spartan.

"I must congratulate you on your safe return, I take it that means you were successful in repairing Wall Maria."

"We were not."

The MP faked surprise. "You dare come back a failure. After all the others came back triumphant, you returned with nothing to show for it. You all should be ashamed of yourselves." He began to circle the group. Chief held on to every word, his blood began to boil. "If you have any honor you should charge back out there and do what you were ordered to or die trying. If you're lucky we can even send the others back out to help you since they seem far more capable."

Chief snapped. He grabbed the officer by the throat and lifted him off the ground. "What are you doing?" he said as Chief's grip slowly tightened. "Men! Stop…him." It slowly became harder to breathe. The other soldiers were frozen in fear; Even the scouts watching from a distance, Erwin included, didn't know how to respond. Chief walked the officer up to the wall and slammed him against it, making it even harder to breathe. "You'll…be…executed…for this."

"Do you understand how many died out there? How many corpses we passed on the way back? None of them were soldiers. None of them deserved to die that way. Yet every one of them fought with everything they had. They didn't run, didn't hide, didn't give up and accept death. They gave everything they had hoping that they'd make it home. And you demand that they go back and do your job for you." The officer began to gasp for air. "Everyone of them was worth a hundred of you. Each of them had the heart and courage of a spartan. So either you go back to your capital, grovel at the feet of your king, and tell him never to pull another stunt like this again, or I will march up there myself and tear his castle down brick by brick."

Chief reeled back his fist as the MP struggled "Ok…ok!" He closed his eyes and Chief struck. The pressure around his neck released as he dropped to the ground gasping for air. He looked up to see the crater in the wall Chief left behind and watched as the spartan walked away.

As Chief separated from the group, Erwin approached him. "Chief," he said somberly, "What happened out there?"

"I'll give my report…once we return to base." Chief took five more steps and collapsed to the ground...


Hey guys, sorry im a bit late with this. I injured my hand at work before i could finish the chapter and typing is a bit difficult right right, so i split the chapter where it felt natural and uploaded the first half. Once i get a bit more movement back in my hand, ill get the second half out asap. Next i want to hear your guys feedback on the character interactions here, if my portrayals feel accurate or if ive written them a bit too far out of character, its an aspect of my writing im always trying to improve. Now like i said i'll be removing the update and sneek peeks, however they'll stay up on my wattpad if anyone still wants to look at them. Finnaly just to ask quickly, when part 2 is done, do you guys want me to just update the chapter or to make it a seperate chapter. they are supposed to be together but it may feel jarring coming back to this one and some of you may miss the update, either way just let me know. thank you all, until next time.